Mod for BG1, BGEE, BG1Tutu and BGT
Version 3
Created by: Flysoup
WeiDU code & updates by: pro5, Badgert, Erebusant
Support
Forum: http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?showforum=103
Homepage: http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/Mods/drizztsaga.php
TABLE OF CONTENTS
a)
Default
version: areas connected by travel triggers
b)
BP-BGT Worldmap
version: all areas added to worldmap
2.
Optional
component: Raise the XP cap
3.
Optional
component: Delayed Start
II.
Installation
/ Uninstallation
III.
Known issues
V.
FAQ
VI.
Credits
VII.
Version History
The Drizzt Saga is a WeiDU-based modification for Baldur's Gate 1:
Tales of the Sword Coast (BG1:TotSC), Baldur's Gate 1: Tutu conversion (Tutu),
Baldur's Gate Trilogy conversion (BGT), and Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
(BGEE). There are two separate install packages of the mod - for
BG1:TotSC and for BGEE/BGT/Tutu. Both packages can be downloaded from the mod's
homepage. Note that most of this readme's contents
applies to the BGEE/BGT/Tutu package, BG1 version has not been updated since original v1 release.
Tales of the Sword Coast expansion (in case of BG1 and Tutu) is required to
install this mod. Drizzt Saga is available in the following languages: English,
French, Italian, Polish, Russian and Spanish.
This mod brings Drizzt and his companions into the game
as joinable characters with their own major quest and side quests, numerous new
areas, items (some to be forged) and creatures. Also two secret joinable npcs
to discover for those of evil alignment a bit further into the story.
Drizzt is on his way back to Icewind Dale from an errand
in the Sword Coast. What he doesn't know is that dark times are upon the Dale
and his companions will lead him and the protagonist to an adventure of epic
proportions.
In the normal version of the mod, you meet Drizzt at the
original area fighting some gnolls. In the same area you will encounter Regis
muttering something about a dark ranger. After joining Drizzt head back to
Regis and the Drizzt Saga begins.
With the Delayed Start component, the story begins
after finishing Durlag's Tower and gaining enough experience to be more of an
equal to Drizzt and his friends (who are all high level characters). Provided
you aided Drizzt in the initial gnoll encounter, he will meet you outside
Durlag's Tower after finishing its main quest.
Listed below is an explanation of the mod's
components:
1. The Drizzt Saga (Main component)
This is the core component and must be installed for the
mod to work. You will be prompted to install one of two possible versions,
which differ in how many of the new areas are added to the game's worldmap
(this changes how player will be able to reach them):
a) Default version: areas connected by travel triggers
This subcomponent works the same as the
original BG1 version of the mod: only 4 new areas are added to worldmap, and
most areas are connected with travel regions, meaning that travelling between
them happens automatically when the player clicks at the appropriate edge of
the map. Choose this if you're not planning to install the BP-BGT
Worldmap mod later, or if you are not sure what option to pick.
b) BP-BGT Worldmap version: all areas added to worldmap
This subcomponent makes use of the larger
worldmap offered by the BP-BGT
Worldmap mod by adding all 8 possible areas to game worldmap.
Method of travel between some of the added areas is changed from travel regions
to the usual method of manually picking the destination area on worldmap. Choose
this only if you're planning to
install the BP-BGT
Worldmap mod later.
2. Optional component: Raise the XP cap
Installing this component will lift the default XP limit
present in vanilla BGEE and Tutu games, setting it at 3750000 experience points
for all classes. Drizzt and all his companions are high level characters, and
without this component their actual level will not match their current
experience shown on the character record screen - the game will
"truncate" their experience to the highest value allowed by the
current XP cap. This will not affect their in-game performance (level-dependant
stats like THAC0, attacks per round, etc. all depend on the actual level of the
character, not current experience), but will just look weird when opening their
record sheets.
This component is only available for BGEE and Tutu, and
is automatically skipped for BGT.
3. Optional component: Delayed Start - Drizzt
joins after Durlag's Tower
This optional component aims to improve compatibility
(see below) and balance - by delaying the mod's start until the protagonist
character has enough experience to be more effective against the high-level
enemies and threats introduced by Drizzt Saga. Instead of joining the party
right in the middle of the initial encounter with the gnolls, Drizzt will now
meet the party after completing Durlag's Tower and can be later recruited in
Ulgoth's Beard inn.
This component resolves potential compatibility issues
with several mods (see the compatibility notes
section for more details) by leaving the original Drizzt vs gnolls encounter
completely untouched.
II. INSTALLATION and UNINSTALLATION
Important note:
You will need to start a new game after installation for all changes to take
effect.
The downloaded install package is a .zip archive. You can extract files
from the archive using 7-Zip, WinRAR, ZipGenius
or another file compression utility that handles .zip files.
If you already have a previous version of the mod installed, remove it fully
before extracting the new version. To do this, run setup-drizztsaga.exe (or .command for Mac OS X),
uninstall all previously installed components, and delete the DRIZZTSAGA
folder. When installing or uninstalling, do not close the DOS
window by clicking on the X
button! Instead, press the Enter
key when instructed to do so.
1. The files from the archive should be extracted into your main game data
folder (it's the one containing the CHITIN.KEY file, regardless of platform). See the first question in FAQ section for possible examples of the main folder locations for different platforms.
Optional: run 'tolower' and answer 'Y' to both queries. You can avoid running the second option (linux.ini) if you've already ran it once in the same directory. To save time, the archive is already tolowered, so there's no need to run the first option (lowercasing file names) either, if you've extracted only this mod since the last time you lowercased file names. If unsure, running tolower and choosing both options is the safe bet.
Run weinstall setup-drizztsaga in your game folder to install the mod. Then run wine bgmain.exe (for Tutu/BGT) or wine baldur.exe (for BGEE) to start playing.3. To uninstall the mod, run
the same .exe (or .command for Mac OS X) file again later.
After uninstalling, you may
delete the following from your game folder:
If you encounter any problems installing the mod, please
report the problem and post the contents of the WEIDU.LOG and
SETUP-DRIZZTSAGA.DEBUG files on the Drizzt Saga
support forum.
Drizzt animation
problems
Drizzt uses a unique animation with his scimitars
"hardcoded" into the animation sequences. While this animation
subjectively looks much cooler than generic elf warrior sprites, there are a few
known problems with it:
- It crashes the game on BGT/Tutu if a weapon with 'scimitar' or 'flaming sword'
equipped appearence is equipped into Drizzt's main hand slot
- It crashes the game on BGT/Tutu if any
animated equippable items (like most weapons) are equipped into Drizzt's
off-hand shield slot
- Any normal animated weapon equipped into
Drizzt's mainhand weapon slot is going to be drawn overlayed over his usual
scimitars. I.e. he'll appear to be carrying both weapons (scimitar and whatever
you equipped on him) in one hand.
- Drizzt won't have a proper character paperdoll displayed
on the inventory screen
(in original unmodded game, Drizzt is not actually
wielding the scimitars he has in his inventory, but a special undroppable
single-handed weapon with no animation.)
v3 of Drizzt Saga fixes the first problem - it should now be possible to equip
animated scimitars, as well as the Flame Tongue sword, into Drizzt's main hand without causing a crash.
To work around the second and third problems, v3 of Drizzt Saga makes Drizzt
dual-wield special versions of the original scimitars he carries -
they're changed into non-animated weapons, which solves the third problem, and
the off-hand scimitar is made undroppable, to take care of the second problem. The main
hand scimitar can be unequipped, so you are free to give a different main hand
weapon to Drizzt if you so desire, just keep in mind he'll still be drawn
wielding a scimitar in that hand along with whatever you give him.
Note: Since BGEE is less crash-prone than the original BG2 engine, it is possible
there to equip items in Drizzt's offhand slot without crashing the game.
Therefore, the offhand item is not undroppable in BGEE installation of the mod.
Some other recommendations:
- Fot plot consistency, it is probably best to postpone playing this mod
until certain facts about the protagonist's past are revealed in Chapter 6 in Candlekeep.
- It is advised that you remove any current NPC companions
from your party before recruiting Drizzt, since very soon you'll have to kick them out anyway
to make room for Drizzt's friends. You can't refuse to let them join without Drizzt leaving.
- A few travel transition locations in new areas may be hard to spot. Make sure
to scan edges of the map for any hidden caves and entrances you might not have realized were there. ;)
Install order notes:
¬
As is normally the case with quest mods,
Drizzt Saga should be installed early on in the installation process (before
various tweak packs and mods that explicitly state in readme that they should
be installed after other mods).
¬
Remember that BP-BGT Worldmap mod must be
installed after all mods that use it, including Drizzt Saga's "all
areas added to worldmap" version of core component.
Notes on compatibility
with individual mods:
BG1NPC Project (as of
v20)
¬
Should be compatible with Drizzt Saga v3,
provided the Delayed Start component is installed
¬
Without Delayed Start, Dynaheir's journal
quest from BG1NPC will fail to start since it depends on original Drizzt's
dialog states which are skipped if he joins.
The One Drizzt (as of
v1.41)
¬
Not compatible with v3, will fail to install. A few notes on this mod in case it soon gets updated to work:
·
it allows unequipping Drizzt's offhand item
which could cause crashes in BGT/Tutu if anything else is equipped into
Drizzt's shield slot
·
it changes Drizzt into a level 1 character,
while not making any adjustments to levels of his companions or levels and
abilities of the enemies introduced in Drizzt Saga mod. This shifts Drizzt from strongest to weakest
among his friends, and makes beating Drizzt Saga considerably
harder than intended
Drizzt Is Not Stupid
(as of BGT v1.1, Tutu v2.0)
¬
Should be compatible with Drizzt Saga v3,
provided the Delayed Start component is installed
¬
Without Delayed Start, it's pointless to
install Drizzt Is Not Stupid (regardless of install order) since all its changes will not
have any effect on the game (because DRIZZT.CRE and DRIZZT.BCS will not be used
in the game)
Drizzt Do'Urden
Randomization (aka DrizztRandomEncounter), non-weidu version
¬
Should be compatible with Drizzt Saga v3, provided
the Delayed Start component is installed
¬
Without Delayed Start, this mod will prevent
Drizzt Saga from ever starting (regardless of install order) since it
overwrites the area where Drizzt is originally found
Worgas NPC (as of
v1.1)
¬
Drizzt component of the Worgas NPC should be
compatible with BGT version of Drizzt Saga v3, with or without Delayed Start.
Worldmap altering mods in BGT setup:
¬
If Drizzt Saga detects a BGT installation, the default version of core component patches the current worldmap using WeiDU, to add the new areas
and link them to existing BGT areas. This process will fail if the current
worldmap no longer features BGT areas for some reason, such as if some BG2
mod rather rudely overwrote WORLDMAP.WMP previously. With v3, such install failure should no longer occur in BP-BGT Worldmap version of the core component,
as it now skips .WMP patching entirely, relying on the future installation of the Worldmap mod (for BWP installs this means that the extra step of restoring
BGT worldmap in some mod configurations by copying a .wmp file into override before installing Drizzt Saga should no longer be necessary).
Q: I'm trying to install this mod on BGEE, and I can't find
the main game folder. Where should I unpack the files? If this doesn't help you, try looking for the
CHITIN.KEY file, and unpack the archive into the same folder.
A: The destination folder differs between platforms and between Beamdog and Steam versions of the
game. For Windows Beamdog version it usually is: *BGEE
install folder*\Data\00766\. For Windows Steam version, on the other hand, it is going
to be this one: *Steam library folder*\SteamApps\common\Baldur's Gate Enhanced
Edition\. For Mac OS X Beamdog version, path for default installation would be something like this: Applications/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/Game Data/00766/BaldursGateEnhancedEdition/Contents/Resources. To get past 'BaldursGateEnhancedEdition' you may have to alt-click and choose 'show package contents'.
Q: None of the new areas appear on worldmap, I can't progress
through the mod because of this.
A: This could happen if you did not start a new game after installing the mod.
You have to start a new game for the worldmap changes to take effect.
Q: Drizzt's companions are nowhere to be found. Without
them, it's too difficult to beat the encounters.
A: This could happen if you did not start a new game after installing the mod.
You have to start a new game for new joinable characters to appear, because
they are patched into BALDUR.GAM.
Q: I have a problem / I think I've found a bug. Where
should I report them to?
A: Post bug and problem reports on the official
support forums or, failing that, on the BWP mega-mod help
forums. Make sure to include the contents of your WEIDU.LOG and
SETUP-DRIZZTSAGA.DEBUG files.
All modded content was created by Flysoup.
Weidu coding for BGT/Tutu/BGEE install package: pro5,
Badgert, Erebusant
Thanks goes to BioWare for supplying us with such an
enjoyable game. As well as to the Infinity Engine community as a whole for
their ongoing dedication and support of the Baldur's Gate series. Thanks to
Baronius and the Black
Wyrm Lair modding community for support and hosting of the mod.
Thanks
to:
- developers of IE
modding tools and utilities such as WeiDU,
Near Infinity
and DLTCEP
- all IESDP contributors and
maintainers
- The Gibberlings Three
modding community for their snippets of code and
cross-platform variable libs
- The Spellhold Studios modding
community for support and fixes of this mod's earlier versions
Translation credits:
*Someone contributed italian translations of new lines in
v2, but I can't find any record of who it was. If you are that person and would
like to be properly added to this list, please notify either me (pro5)
or Baronius at BWL forums via PM.
v3.0 (Feb 2014) -
BGEE update
v2.0 (May 25, 2009) - SHS version
v1.0 (May 1, 2007) - first WeiDU release of the mod
May 17, 2006 - release of the original non-WeiDU version
of Drizzt Saga