A Few Words on Your Excellent Mod

[Bill Bisco]

Just played your mod some, and I must say that I liked it very much.  I just wanted to get that off first.  Nothing I say further changes this at all.  I say things only as my own humble idea as to improve something. 

I'm having some trouble with the endings.  I admit that I have other mods installed.  An Epilogue belonging to Bardez at the end is quite annoying (Which mod does that come from by the way?).  But I'm not getting all the endings.  I had Khalid and Alliana Saved and yet got Dynaheir's ending    I've tried a bunch but can't get either of their endings.  Similarly, I noticed that Jaheira's ending didn't change when Khalid was saved.  Maybe that's in Khalid's but I didn't get to see it.

Hmm, Ascension's Epilogues are right there to be seen.  Heh, but Turnabout's are hidden somewhere.  I liked what I saw of the epilogues by the way.  I really would have liked to ressurect Gorion.  The Reasons for him staying dead were always kind of dumb.  I could have so easily taken his body to a Temple and brought him back.  Screw what you want Gorion!  I'm going to Ressurect You!

I noticed you made it so that if you're Lawful Good, Tiax won't join you.  I understand why you did this, but I must say that I'm a bit opposed because Tiax joined you earlier regardless of Alignment on two occassions.  Secondly, your reputation is a better Regarder of what kind of person you are.  If I have a low reputation, he should know me by that rather than the simple words Lawful Good.  Secondly, even if that was important to him, he was my friend before and I don't see why he would be utterly opposed to helping me.  (Xzar and Mommy certainly weren't), also considering that I brought him back to life, most evil people don't get that chance and even a madman would have to like that. 

I know that there's been some talk with Compatibility with The Longer Road.  I know that there's some personal problems between the two groups, but I hope that you guys won't let that stop the world from having some wonderful cross-mod content.  The two mods really work well together, and I'd love to hear how the NPCs and Irenicus act toward each other (Especially when he steals the main Character's Soul).  I know that that's easy to say as someone who is a non-modder.  But something to think about nevertheless. 

Anywho Great Mod.  Loved it.  A shame that some people have a low opinion of ToB.  That's my favorite part of the Story and you guys have made it better    .  Perhaps you guys will consider allowing the Player to choose the NPCs from all the sets.  I would have liked to have Alliana, Gorion, and Khalid as mine, but only a minor point.  Great Mod. 

[jcompton]

I'm having some trouble with the endings.  I admit that I have other mods installed.  An Epilogue belonging to Bardez at the end is quite annoying (Which mod does that come from by the way?).

Based on the name, I would have to guess something to do with Big Picture.

But I'm not getting all the endings.  I had Khalid and Alliana Saved and yet got Dynaheir's ending    I've tried a bunch but can't get either of their endings.  Similarly, I noticed that Jaheira's ending didn't change when Khalid was saved.  Maybe that's in Khalid's but I didn't get to see it.

I can't offhand explain why you would be getting the wrong character's epilogues. The way the game handles epilogues is something of a hack as it is, and I can't speak to what Big Picture or whatever else you have installed attempts to insert new epilogues. It may be that another mod has thrown material into the epilogue script that is interfering with ours.

I noticed you made it so that if you're Lawful Good, Tiax won't join you.  I understand why you did this, but I must say that I'm a bit opposed because Tiax joined you earlier regardless of Alignment on two occassions.  Secondly, your reputation is a better Regarder of what kind of person you are.  If I have a low reputation, he should know me by that rather than the simple words Lawful Good.  Secondly, even if that was important to him, he was my friend before and I don't see why he would be utterly opposed to helping me.  (Xzar and Mommy certainly weren't), also considering that I brought him back to life, most evil people don't get that chance and even a madman would have to like that. 

You could make an argument for all kinds of permutations here. I don't consider reputation a terribly good gauge of anything by the end of the game, though, since short of killing random peasants it becomes difficult to finish the game below 15 or so. Some people have remarked that Tiax seems to be more of an unhinged zealot here than he was in life, but when you consider what he's been through since BG1, it's not implausible. By that token, it makes him a little picky.

I know that there's been some talk with Compatibility with The Longer Road.  I know that there's some personal problems between the two groups, but I hope that you guys won't let that stop the world from having some wonderful cross-mod content.  The two mods really work well together, and I'd love to hear how the NPCs and Irenicus act toward each other (Especially when he steals the main Character's Soul).  I know that that's easy to say as someone who is a non-modder.  But something to think about nevertheless. 

If it's any consolation, the reason I don't develop material to play off of the Redemption mods has nothing to do with personalities and everything to do with content.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Andyr]

When writing the Tiax dialogue, I assumed that a LG PC would vastly prefer any NPC who isn't Tiax to be one of their allies. While Tiax does join you regardless of alignment previously I wasn't convinced that that was a brilliant thing. I am not entirely convinced by the reputation argument either--what true LG character is going to have a poor reputation?

While it would be perfectly possible to be LG with a low reputation, and have had Tiax in the party in BG1, from a roleplaying sense I consider it unlikely. Since Turnabout was designed primarily for roleplaying reasons I went with those when considering what to do with him.

(And with regard to Tiax being an more of an unhinged zealot, that's how I tried to write him for the parts of the BG1 NPC project I was involved with.)

Glad you enjoyed the mod.

[NiGHTMARE]

Bardez would be associated with BGT, rather than BP.

As for the alignment/reputation thing, perhaps Turnabout could be made to use Virtue if that mod is also installed?

[SimDing0™]

I'm not sure if the current version of Virtue affects Turnabout or if the next version will. I've added it, either way.

[Bill Bisco]

Thanks for your replies.  There were a couple of things that I forgot to mention as well.  I was able to get Khalid's ending finally, but when I said that I'd bring him to life, I instead gave life to Dynaheir.  However, when I tried to back out of my promise and the Solar said No, then Khalid got it as he should have.  Weird.  By the way, the Ending with Khalid without Jaheira, Wow!  Why are the sad endings always the best? 

Also, this may be due to cross mod stuff, but I noticed some problems with Gorion and the final talk with Melissan.  Sometimes he's dead and stays that way (doesn't ressurect with everyone else) and sometimes he stays alive. 

Gorion, Khalid, Alliana, and Dynheir have decent scripts.  Xzar, well just confuses me.  Why is he attacking in melee range with a dagger?  Wouldn't he want to cast Stoneskin first or something?  I also noticed that he lacked some epic spells.  Not necessarily saying that he should be super awesome (he usually just sucked).

Also, do Alliana, Gorion, or Tiax have endings? 

Regarding Tiax.  Well, the way I look at it also, is the fact that the NPCs don't judge you by your alignment but by your reputation throughout the game.  If you're Evil and have high Rep. then your Evil members may leave you and vice versa.  And, all of a sudden Tiax cares, but I understand what you mean about roleplaying too.  I play Lawful Good because it starts with a higher rep and is closer to my playing style.  When I want to be evil, I tend to just import the same character and then just give myself a lower rep with evil party members rather than just make a whole new identical person. That is just purely my opinion, however.  Doesn't mean I'm right. 

[Andyr]

Yeah, I concur that Tiax's behaviour is not entirely consistent with that of other NPCs in the series.

Tiax does have a series of epilogues, yes, if that's what you mean by endings--I'd assume that Alliana and Gorion have some sort of closure, too.

[Bons]

Alianna has several different epilogues if she's the one you promise to bring back to life. They vary based on whether CHARNAME ascends and CHARNAME's alignment. There is also one specific to the Aerie Romance.