Author Topic: ...still unrestored content...  (Read 23467 times)

Forever Unfinished?

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...still unrestored content...
« on: May 11, 2009, 12:58:47 PM »
Looking through the workroom threads, I've found some interesting things that I wonder, will they ever be finished? I know UB already has a lot of restored content and I am very thankful for it, but can you blame me for wanting more?

Looking through the 'research' threads alone, I've found quite a few things that at least warrant considering re-implementation. (I wish I could code :()

Game Quests
A Hole in the Wall - Whatever involved all of the references to Squirrel's and turning into one.
Removing the Slayer - The Spirit in Small Teeth Pass? (What became of that)
The Final Slayer Dream - What was this about?
Rhynn Lanthorn Lenses - What happened to this?
The Rune's Web - "the Twisted Rune/Slavers/Roenall/Skin dancer interaction" as listed in a quest list... would show the full scale of the Twisted Rune's operation.

NPC Quests
Deril the Lych (Cernd) - He returns as a Lich?
Haer'Dalis the Murderer (The cut NPC Quest for Haer'Dalis, centered around an NPC named Quataris)
Viconia's Lycanthropy Problem - I can see why nothing was done with it... Viconia has quite a bit of content as it is already <.<
Viconia's Betrayal in the Underdark - This, however, fits perfectly into something I'd see her doing, with the right implementation.
Keldorn's Old Friend

Restored Encounters
The Privateers/Executioner
Becky and Diane
Very Minor Restorations - Mithrest Inn Lovebirds, Iron Golem Brain, Minsc and Dryads/Yoshi and Nymphs, etc
Mook the Vampire - Instead of dying, she was vampirised?
Kurtulmak's True Avatar - Instead of the usual Kobold Shaman, originally he was different? More than target practice?

Restored Dialogs
Imoen's Chateau Dialogs
Suldanessellar Civilians - Cut dialog's for civilians during the Siege of Suldanessellar.
Dace Sontan (The Builder) - Added WAY more depth to the Vampire underneath Spellhold.
Ust Natha dialogs - Drow Spelljammer's extra lines and the Drow Cooks?
Gaelyn Bayle/Bodhi - Gaelyn confronting the PC after meeting with Bodhi

Miscellaneous
Vampire Blood Item - Could you elaborate what that was about??
Wild Apprentices - The option to "cut loose" your Planar Sphere Apprenti and let them make their own decisions?
Losing Final Fighter Stronghold Battle - Losing to the Roenall's?
Unfinished Spells
Guarded Compound - Apparently Ketta's Thief ally was supposed to backstab the party (or a member of) and run up the stairs, instead of (as a UB dev stated).

That's a good portion, I neglected individually listing a lot of small things however... so if anyone can shed any light on to the status' of these "components", if they are still planned or canceled (and if so, why?), I'm all eyes!

Offline Leomar

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2009, 02:43:31 AM »
I've problems with your given links. Can you check them?

Greetings Leomar

ForeverUnfinished

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2009, 03:28:21 AM »
Can't edit, so here they are again:

Deril the Lich
Viconia's Betrayal
Keldorn's Old Friend
Haer'dalis the murderer
Unfinished Spells

To find more, just go into the UB Workroom and look through the threads...

Offline Leomar

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2009, 10:18:26 PM »
Thanks for the links and your list of the still unrestored content.  :)

Greetings Leomar

Offline Kulyok

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2009, 12:19:37 AM »
Deril's would be easy; too easy.

Viconia's quest would be dangerous, because there's precise timing in the Underdark - it's too easy to be late for another meeting with Phaere or Solaufein. But a good idea, I agree. (It would be nice just to add a dialogue or two for Viconia, though - am I right when I believe that Banter Pack and IEP/Viconia Friendship do that already?)

Keldorn's Old Friend and Haer'Dalis the muderer don't seem interestning enough to me - in a way, it's just a collection of fedex tasks, and they look suspiciously like "Nalia arrest" quest, which is still, by the way, unresolved in the original game(I think the quest in de'Arnise romance might work in non-romanced game, too).

Unfinished Spells is not really my cup of tea.

Restored dialogues are cool. Me wanna.

(I'd bet there were quests planned in those three new areas in Chapter 6, too - they're dreadfully boring).

Offline SixOfSpades

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #5 on: May 13, 2009, 05:09:26 PM »
Viconia's quest would be dangerous, because there's precise timing in the Underdark - it's too easy to be late for another meeting with Phaere or Solaufein.
I disagree--in every game of mine, I always find myself twiddling my thumbs, waiting for those two to get off their asses and give me my next task. Things like the challenge pits and the Imprisonment crystal are just diversions to help pass the time. (With that said, a spellcaster-heavy party would need a lot more rest, so the time limits might actually come into play for them.) So a Viconia quest, which can be accomplished in 2-4 steps that can be sandwiched between the Ust Natha jobs, sounds perfectly doable.

Mind, a lot of this "unrestored" content was abandoned not because BioWare didn't have the time, but because it would suck. The lenses of the Rynn Lanthorn? Implementing that would have the effect of making almost all of the major sidequests (things like the Windspear Hills & Mae'Var's Guildhall) inaccessible until Chapter 6. Hardly an appealing prospect, even if we made sure not to block the player's stronghold(s).

Offline Kulyok

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #6 on: May 14, 2009, 12:16:36 AM »
Yes, Tamoko-Yoshimo plotline, for one, would suck for certain. From player-centered "You betrayed me, Yoshimo-o!" it would be about some unknown girl(for most players, who never, like me, played BG1 before BG2 - and even if they did, Sarevok-Tamoko plot is not too well drawn there), and it would suck.

With Phaere, my time there is usually very intense: all quests before "gnome helmet" are immediate "do it, female!", then I have to rest in the lust chambers, and then it's all quick again. I usually complete "blood" quests before entering the city, so I get lich quest and slime followers quest _immediately_ after Phaere says "one hour, Veldrin, don't be late".

RoeverUnfinished

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #7 on: May 31, 2009, 04:20:20 PM »
Also, what the story behind the spirit head area's? I am referring to AR2700.

Offline Kulyok

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #8 on: June 01, 2009, 12:10:56 AM »
I think SHS guys restored it - Kaeloree did and included it into DavidW's Wheels of Prophecy at G3. I am not sure, mind you, haven't played it properly yet - but check it out.

Offline Daulmakan

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #9 on: June 01, 2009, 12:22:46 AM »
The Ritual component of Tactics uses it.

Offline berelinde

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #10 on: June 01, 2009, 11:26:15 AM »
If I ever got around to doing something with Keldorn, I might see what I could do with his old friend. But there's a lot ahead of him in the cue.

Offline Leomar

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #11 on: June 01, 2009, 09:30:45 PM »
I think SHS guys restored it - Kaeloree did and included it into DavidW's Wheels of Prophecy at G3. I am not sure, mind you, haven't played it properly yet - but check it out.
Yes, you're right. The "Restored ToB heads" are included in "Wheels of Prophecy", now.

Greetings Leomar

Offline devSin

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #12 on: June 02, 2009, 12:40:40 AM »
"Restored Heads" are separate than this dream area. The five heads in the grove of the ancients were all supposed to have their own dialogue, but BioWare wisely trimmed the nonsense down to a brief exposition. Wheels of Prophecy hooks up their extended drawl (I think he extends the logic, though, since they basically give a complete walkthrough of the entire boring plot, which is painfully obvious without needing omniscient heads to spew poetry about it).

AR2700 is where you were intended to fight the Slayer (you get taken there for an Ellesime dream, and then would have to travel there later). They compressed the endgame so much that it doesn't really make any sense; any restoration would have simply been for kicks (look, a new area!), as it has no real relevance to the release content. There are some bugs, but it mostly already works; there's just no point to it.
« Last Edit: June 02, 2009, 12:43:46 AM by devSin »

Offline Andrea C.

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #13 on: June 05, 2009, 02:59:52 PM »
The Rune's Web - "the Twisted Rune/Slavers/Roenall/Skin dancer interaction"

Deril the Lych (Cernd)
Haer'Dalis the Murderer (The cut NPC Quest for Haer'Dalis, centered around an NPC named Quataris)
Viconia's Betrayal in the Underdark

The Privateers/Executioner
Very Minor Restorations - Mithrest Inn Lovebirds, Iron Golem Brain, Minsc and Dryads/Yoshi and Nymphs, etc

Dace Sontan (The Builder) - Added WAY more depth to the Vampire underneath Spellhold.
Ust Natha dialogs - Drow Spelljammer's extra lines and the Drow Cooks?
Gaelyn Bayle/Bodhi - Gaelyn confronting the PC after meeting with Bodhi

Unfinished Spells
Guarded Compound - Apparently Ketta's Thief ally was supposed to backstab the party (or a member of) and run up the stairs, instead of


I personally think all of the above would rock big time. I've always been quite intrigued by Haer'Dalis sidequests (both the accusation of murder and the planars-get-summoned one) and also by the Deril/Cernd sidequest (localized spoken lines for Deril are there so I think this one hadn't been cut because it would have sucked). Besides, the guarded compund is pretty useless as it is (apart from slaying people and getting the fancy katana everyone is in love with): it has no relation to anything in the game. This should/could probably be worked out.
« Last Edit: June 05, 2009, 03:03:20 PM by Andrea C. »

Offline Waurdon

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #14 on: January 20, 2010, 05:33:03 AM »
Hello!

Even if I had used the search feature I missed that this topic was still on the starting page of the forum,
and here this matter is addressed much better by ForeverUnfinished. Probably all involved have already read my previous topic so
I have deleted it (so to not have too many topics on the same subject). My thanks to all involved in this project, however, I don't know how many that still has the time to work on this? Are more programmers/writers needed? There should be some people out there who are interested in making Shadows of Amn a more complete and interesting game...

The user JPS was the writer for the Haer'Dalis Quest in 2004 according to some posts that year. Has someone replaced him or is he still "working on this"?

The other unfinished quests I have also heard about, sound good to me at least most of them. But some of them should get some priority regarding which would be most interesting to have for players. Personally I think Haer'Dalis the Murderer would give the player more reason to test this character. (Possibly one could also give Haer'Dalis some better stats so he survives harder battles, give the player more reason to keep this character?)

Best Regards...

----------------------



(Edit: Changed the last sentence a bit, added a line and changed recruits to a more correct word).
 
« Last Edit: January 23, 2010, 03:22:36 PM by Waurdon »

Offline Andrea C.

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #15 on: July 22, 2011, 08:00:35 AM »
Hello everyone.

Still no plans to resume this great mod and restore some more unfinished business? Whereas it is true that some quests may have been scrapped because they would have sucked, those described in detail by David Gaider were most likely ditched due to lack of time (otherwise he wouldn't have described them in detail, complaining that the relative characters had been "hit hard" in the first place). It would rock to have them :)

Offline Echon

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #16 on: August 03, 2011, 10:46:43 AM »
None of the modders who worked on UB are active now. That goes for the majority of this site. It is the Lazy Afternoon of IE modding.

Offline Miloch

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #17 on: August 03, 2011, 07:59:06 PM »
None of the modders who worked on UB are active now. That goes for the majority of this site. It is the Lazy Afternoon of IE modding.
More like the Ragnarok of IE modding I think :(.  (Though if true, I suppose that means some few of the best will live on after the majority die off :)).

Offline SixOfSpades

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #18 on: August 03, 2011, 10:22:48 PM »
I think it's more likely that those of us who are still modding are "working" on projects more interesting (and rewarding) to the individual modders. Given the choice between writing yet another quest in which you save Haer'Dalis's sorry ass without him even being in the party to help you, and writing a whole brand-spankin' new NPC, I'd say that the new guy has far more potential, is unhampered by existing BioWare difficulties (like whether or not BG2 Quayle is the same person as BG1 Quayle), and is likely to be picked up by far more players, reflecting more feedback (and hopefully praise) back to the modder.

People don't really seem to care about Haer'Dalis right now. They seem to care more about things like Item & Spell Revisions, and related tweaks that change the whole game. So even though Haer'Dalis's dropped quest is rather well documented (for UB), I don't think it's likely . . . it echoes the previous 2 "rescue Haer'Dalis" jobs, and Haer doesn't really get used much anyway. I think it's more probable that someone will take Jan (who does get a lot of play) and totally rewrite his quest so that it makes at least a modicum of sense.

Offline Miloch

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #19 on: August 03, 2011, 11:39:52 PM »
Given the choice between writing yet another quest... and writing a whole brand-spankin' new NPC, I'd say that the new guy has far more potential
Oh I don't know. I'd say there are far too many NPC mods and not nearly enough quest mods. After all, you can only have a finite number of NPCs in one game and that can't be said for quests. Not just my opinion, but this survey confirms that. Having said that, if you are working on a new NPC, rock on (but having a quest that doesn't necessarily require that NPC would be a good thing).
Quote
People don't really seem to care about Haer'Dalis right now.
Obviously, some folks do (Andrea C. and Waurdon at least).
Quote
They seem to care more about things like Item & Spell Revisions, and related tweaks that change the whole game.
One could argue that they seem to care about those mods only because people are working on them. If people were working on UB on the other hand, I have no doubt you'd see a lot more action here (and see that same linked survey for how much they'd care about item and spell mods).
Quote
I think it's more probable that someone will take Jan (who does get a lot of play) and totally rewrite his quest so that it makes at least a modicum of sense.
Isn't there already a "Jan's Quest" mod (a French mod I think, though that doesn't mean we should ignore it necessarily :D).

Offline Almateria

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #20 on: September 26, 2014, 04:02:20 AM »
Hi, would anyone be mad if I latched onto this thread here? Because hopefully it could bring some results. I don't really know if our mods are supposed to be mortal enemies or whatever and I don't exactly have a research forum of my own


Game Quests
A Hole in the Wall - Whatever involved all of the references to Squirrel's and turning into one.
Removing the Slayer - The Spirit in Small Teeth Pass? (What became of that)
Rhynn Lanthorn Lenses - What happened to this?
The Rune's Web - "the Twisted Rune/Slavers/Roenall/Skin dancer interaction" as listed in a quest list... would show the full scale of the Twisted Rune's operation.
The hole in the wall was moving you to the place where the illithids sit in the base game. It's actually open, but that's just the matter of editing the color map. There's absolutely nothing to be gained from going there, so it could be a matter of squeezing in some unrestored item or whatever.
Removing the Slayer, whaat? Where did that come from?
Rhynn Lanthorn lenses were absolutely the worst idea ever and got rightly cut.
There was never a quest for the Rune's web. It's literally only hinted at, a relic of the times when games didn't spell everything out. There are some leftover variables pointing to the connections between Koshi and the TR, but that's it.

Quote
Restored Encounters
Very Minor Restorations - Mithrest Inn Lovebirds, Iron Golem Brain, Minsc and Dryads/Yoshi and Nymphs, etc
The Iron Golem Brain would be just another pointless fetch quest, the Inn Claylan/Alicia content is long since restored. I know that there are some lines about Yoshimo escaping from the nymphs in the tlk, but since there are no nymphs, that was understandably removed, mostly because there's absolutely no way to skip the dryads' Minsc charming scene and do it with Yoshimo in party. What is this about the dryads?

Quote
Restored Dialogs
Suldanessellar Civilians - Cut dialog's for civilians during the Siege of Suldanessellar.
Dace Sontan (The Builder) - Added WAY more depth to the Vampire underneath Spellhold.
Ust Natha dialogs - Drow Spelljammer's extra lines and the Drow Cooks?
Gaelyn Bayle/Bodhi - Gaelyn confronting the PC after meeting with Bodhi
Is there any evidence for the Spelljammer/Suldanesselar dialogs? I haven't found any. Dace's extension probably would be connected to the Vampire Blood item. And Gaelan's dialog is just, eh. I don't know if it would make any sense, considering that Charname's under close enough observation to warrant a messenger coming the second he earns a gp over 15 thousands, why would Gaelan ask whether he's working with Bodhi?

Quote
Miscellaneous
Wild Apprentices - The option to "cut loose" your Planar Sphere Apprenti and let them make their own decisions?
Losing Final Fighter Stronghold Battle - Losing to the Roenall's?
You absolutely can cut them loose in the base game. They'll produce a ring of wizardry, and die, all of them. At least there's no chance for failure though?
Is it certain that you can't lose that fight?

Offline The Imp

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #21 on: September 26, 2014, 05:56:33 AM »
Hi, would anyone be mad if I latched onto this thread here? Because hopefully it could bring some results. I don't really know if our mods are supposed to be mortal enemies or whatever and I don't exactly have a research forum of my own ...
I am pretty sure that they are not ... unless you go out of your way to insisting that your mod is better than anyone elses and then require a different fixpack to allow the mod be installed.

Latching, go ahead. Just make sure to not get mad if your stuff gets borrowed at one point.
And to answer your question Almateria, neither... but something close to them.
« Last Edit: September 26, 2014, 08:37:32 AM by The Imp »

Offline Almateria

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #22 on: September 26, 2014, 08:13:16 AM »
I don't know whether this was supposed to be a jab at Baronius or the NeJ guys

Offline jastey

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #23 on: September 26, 2014, 11:06:45 AM »
Am I completely ignorant if I admit I don't know which mod you are referring to, Almateria?  :-[

Offline CamDawg

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Re: ...still unrestored content...
« Reply #24 on: September 26, 2014, 11:32:06 AM »
There was never a quest for the Rune's web. It's literally only hinted at, a relic of the times when games didn't spell everything out. There are some leftover variables pointing to the connections between Koshi and the TR, but that's it.
No, it's not even that. They were built as stand-alone challenges for the party; the HL prefix is literally 'high level' and is not there to connect the events. This is one that we can finally, absolutely, bury.
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