The description of this forum said not sure or completely in the dark...

[elvenscout742]

My first, and, if things go ill, my last, post !

I was drawn to the "completely in the dark" part.

I've been quietly playing Infinity Engine games for some years, now, and yesterday I finally noticed this whole mess, here and on other sites like teambg.com, and I was wondering:

How far does it go? If I get the programs and read the tutorials, would I then be able to make my own Infinity Engine games like Neverwinter Nights allows one to do with a 3-D mockery of it? Or would I only be hacking into BGII to make something superficially different and making small patches that add little but humour and a cheap escape from Irenicus' Dungeon to the game (no offence - I loved Dungeon-Be-Gone)?

If it is the first one, then I am glad. But if it is the second, it is not much of a disappointment, as I never expected so...

[jcompton]

How far does it go? If I get the programs and read the tutorials, would I then be able to make my own Infinity Engine games like Neverwinter Nights allows one to do with a 3-D mockery of it? Or would I only be hacking into BGII to make something superficially different and making small patches that add little but humour and a cheap escape from Irenicus' Dungeon to the game (no offence - I loved Dungeon-Be-Gone)?

You can create an entirely new game, yes. See www.dragonlancetc.com for the best working example of such a project.

That said, it is relatively more work to completely swap out the gameworld in BG2 than it is in NWN. Area creation, largely due to the "detailed bitmap" instead of "tiled-rendered" nature, is considerably more challenging and likely more time consuming.

So can you? Yes, absolutely. Is it going to take more than a weekend? Yes, absolutely.