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Question:
What is Infinity Engine?
Answer: The Infinity Engine is a game engine
used by Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, Icewind Dale I &
II and Planescape Torment. Objects of these games interact
with each other in pre-made backgrounds and the player follows
the game from an isometric view. The interactions between
the game objects are controlled via scripts using the LUA
scripting language.
Question: When was the first
Infinity Engine game released and what was it about?
Answer: Baldur's Gate was the first game
to be based on the Infinity Engine and it was released in
1998. Baldur's Gate was to become a popular CRPG. It has a
fascinating story and offers dozens of hours of action-filled
fun. The Baldur's Gate's rule system and the Baldur's Gate
world are based on AD&D.
Question: Did Baldur's Gate
have further episodes?
Answer: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
was released in 2000 and it was also a bestseller. Many Baldur's
Gate fans do not consider this game to be as good as the first
installment in the series. Baldur's Gate II is preferred by
those above all who do not mind "if the game finds them"
and are led by the story from scene to scene. Lovers of the
original saga find this rather annoying when playing the game
more times, they prefer the freedom and mystery of random
travels and encounters on the lands of the Sword Coast, in
Baldur's Gate 1.
(Note: Beside the Baldur's Gate series, there are other Infinity
Engine games as well – Planescape: Torment, Icewind
Dale, and Icewind Dale 2.)
Question: What is 'IE modding'?
Answer: In computer lingo the word modding
means modifying. Many fans modify Infinity Engine games by
creating new content (quests, dialogs, creatures, items, magical
spells, areas, romances, ...) that can be installed by players
to enhance their gaming experience.
Question: Who was the first
person who published software to modify an Infinity Engine
game?
Answer: Ken Baker, a tester of Microsoft,
made a program called BG Character Control in 1998. Players
could change the abilities of their game characters with this
program.
(Note: Making modifications is much faster if you use an editor
program. Most game files are in binary format which can be
edited much easier with the help of an editor program.)
Question: Does the word
'mod' mean 'modification?
Answer: Yes. However, Ken Baker (also known
as the Modder of Modders or as the Father of IE Modding) preferred
the term "modules". "Modification" seems
to be more wide-spread, but there are arguments made by those
who prefer the term 'module'. I recommend that you use "mod"
to avoid any potential confusion.
Question: The aforementioned
editor can be used to only change your own game but you said
that mods can be distributed. How is this possible?
Answer: More programs were created including
applications that are used to make packages from your modified
game data so that you can send them to your friends who can
install and try them out on their own games.
Question: You said that
there are more editors. Did Ken make all of them or did others
join him?
Answer: Ken made several editors and tools
but eventually more programmers visited his site and helped
him in his efforts. Corak was the first. A site called TeamBG
was founded. Meanwhile, another group of programmers (Jemerov,
Zahradnik, Aaron O'Neil and others) also started to work on
the description of Infinity Engine file formats. Their project
was called IEFFHP (Infinity Engine File Format Hacking Project).
So the first known editor programs were made by Ken, Corak
and the IEFFHP creators. While IEFFHP creators were focusing
on format description, TeamBG members were making programs.
Question: ...I heard about
TeamBG, and that there were many guys there with nicknames
ending in 'TeamBG'. It is interesting that they used it all
the time...
Answer: They had a reason to use that suffix.
When Character Control and their other tools became widespread,
many players used them to make their game characters very
powerful; then they joined Multiplayer games on the Internet
and spoiled the fun by killing the characters of other players
who had no chance against their terminator characters. In
time, players started to identify the unfair players with
TeamBG members, often confusing them with the programmers.
They began blaming the TeamBG programmers for spoiling their
fun. Supposedly it was at this time that the members of TeamBG
decided to attach the 'TeamBG' text to their nicknames, which
proved their identity in multi-player games.
Question: Have a lot of
mods been created? Are they good?
Answer: Yes, lots of mods are available and
many more are under development. There are some very good
mods but you can also find a few that are not so good. Because
mods modify your game, there is always some risk when installing
unknown mods that your game will crash, freeze, or get damaged
in some way. In any of these scenarios you might have to re-install
the game. To attempt to prevent such problems, you can always
search for information on the mod (Google) or ask experienced
players on gaming or modding forums before installing the
modification.
Question: Is Infinity modding
flourishing nowadays?
Answer: Yes, IE modding is still a popular
pastime; a relatively big community of people continues the
traditions of Infinity Engine game modification, in the shadow
of 3D wonders and new game engines.
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