Posts Tagged ‘Throne of Bhaal’

Revisiting the Sword Coast

2008/07/28 in gaming
Tags: , ,

No one can claim to be a serious (PC) RPG player, if he hasn’t played Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast, Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. This year Baldur’s Gate is 10 years old. But not forgotten. Lots of mods were released after. That’s why I intend to replay it. The mod that caught my eye integrates Baldur’s Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast into the Infinity II Engine of Part II and allows to play all games by just starting BG II.
To do this, all games along their add-ons have to be installed and then patched up. After this, the Baldur’s Gate Trilogy-WeiDU (1.05b) can go to work. It moves/integrates BG into the BG II folder, the first game can be uninstalled when it’s done. To enjoy more recent resolutions, a widescreen mod comes to help. Finally, the BG2 Fixpack looks like it will kill every bug left in the game.
Some other mods look promising as well, but I don’t want to overload it. I’m not even sure I want to see a blonde Imoen. :P
With this much action around the game, it would be a waste to skip a replay. Now to find my CDs. ;)

//Edit

Right now, this is to just collect the links:

Baldur’s Gate Trilogy Tweak Pack (7)

Restored Textscreen Music – English Language Pack

Bp-BGT-Worldmap v7.0.a

//Edit #002

After doing all this, I started a BG I game. Whenever I tried to travel, the BG _II_ map appeared and the only active place was Waukeen’s Promenade. Choosing it created a crash. Perfect. I resolved this by installing the Bp-BGT-Worldmap v7.0.a. On this map all places from all BG games are listed. It’s awesome. I’m almost glad this bug surfaced, because I never would have tried the map otherwise.

//Edit #003

The Widescreen Mod didn’t work for me at first, but it was my own fault. The trick is, to run the game or bgconfig.exe once. Only after that the Mod should be installed. If it was done wrong, the game will keep 800×600. In that case, which was my basis, the WSM has to be uninstalled, then the game can be run once and now the installation of WSM will have the right effect. Phewww! But now there’s nothing left to keep me from playing, finally!

//Edit #004

—————————
Baldur’s Gate II – Shadows of Amn – Throne of Bhaal
—————————
An Assertion failed in InfScreenWorldMap.cpp at line number 2120
—————————
OK
—————————

And I celebrated too soon. After the last edit everything worked. Now, after my resume (I was looking forward to so much), every time I try to traverse from the area where you can add Xzar and his buddy to the party, the game crashes back to desktop with the quoted dialog box. I’m really loosing patience right now…

//Edit #005

Okay, okay, okay. It seems I’m down now with the mods. My countless and perceptive readers probably suspected it all along. The clues were wide in the open all the time! When did it work? Correct: Before I applied the WSM! Therefore the solution is so easy (I need sleep). After applying the WSM, the Worldmap has to be reinstalled. Now everything is in working order… I’ll keep you posted… But now, into action!

//Edit #006

With 1.05b there is a problem when transitioning (after killing Sarevok return to the palace and talk to Belt) from BG to BGII (I know, that 1.06 is now available where this is fixed, but it doesn’t accept old savegames, so I have to continue my game with 1.05b anyway…), lucky for me (and everyone else) there is this separate patch to glue it together again. Phewww!

//Edit #007

Ahhh, you guessed it: Another problem surfaced, but was resolved as fast. :) The guilty component (Faster Chapter 1&2 Cut-Scenes and Dreams) should be removed from the pack. :P

//Edit #008

The BG2 Fixpack should be applied before BGT. I noted it the other way around.

//Edit #009

I’m now slowly closing in on ToB, therefore I’ve chosen the Mods I will install for this final part of the adventure:

Ascension/WeiDU, Turnabout and “The Longer Road“. This should also be the correct order of installation.