I forgot that for bizarre reasons Infinity Engine modders never upload their own mods at Nexus. xD Thanks for at least mirroring them, this has better sorting and navigation than half a dozen forums and two-three sites that are down you usually go through to get everything.
I agree. That's why I decided to change it two years ago ;-) Before I joined, all BG1 mods on Nexus were pretty niche, and all of those uploaded before me still have less than 1k downloads. Now it looks much better. Most BG1 mods I've uploaded here have had a few thousand downloads by now. And it seems to have catalyzed the emergence of new mods, too. I like to think of it as a small success in popularizing Nexus, BG1 modding, and BG1 in general - one of my favorite games.
It's the same problem with other game I mod (Gothic), where it's even worse: all mods are spread across different regional (Polish/German/Russian) sites and message boards, or Steam Workshop (Steam requires owning the game on Steam to download mods).
I believe that many people are discouraged from using Nexus primarily because it requires creating an account to download mods (even if it takes only a minute). I'm not a big fan of Beamdog site myself (white font on a pitch-black background makes it hard on the eyes).
Yeah, I am absolutely using the TWM beta Polish mod for BG1 that is probably the best tweak pack for original. English readme isn't even complete for features that ARE translated) http://athkatla.cob-bg.pl/viewtopic.php?t=4191
Last time I tried to mod original BG1 with this, SpellHold Studios was down. As in, completely gone from internet and owner didn't have backups... Someone mirrored them on a personal FTP that was linked to at ONE forum thread, and not all of them either. I used internet Archive for others, but THIS TIME, it was the site that was down. Sure, they're restored it now, but many older sites are not.
Nexus has outages too, sure, and modders remove their stuff, we lost many Dragon Age and classic Mass Effect mods because of that. I now backup everything I need... but it's still more lasting than people's personal pages, or worse, warring modding groups fighting each other. Periodically someone removes their mods from G3 or Beamdog site, for example for Icewind Dale, you have to basically:
1) scourge forums for drop-in mods while making notes on install order and compatibility for step 2 2) Github grab the Weidu mods, except those that are on G3, Spellhold etc. I have like 50 tabs open! 3) go to Weasel website for Lava mods, and that's most of the story, quest and NPC stuff are now 4) collect tweak packs and compatibility fixes from 4 more different sites
That's not counting the portraits. Those at least stay in folder on reinstalls. xD
Also the relevant modding thread has links to old domain so I have to manually replace half of url from forum.baldursgate.com with forums.beamdog.com to even view some of the "author and all relevant posts were deleted". Like this URL needs to be edited to THAT and then find the attachment to one of messages by [Deleted User] with text "The user and all related content has been deleted." This is a typical example of a working mod actually lmao.
And those are posts for Enhanced Edition, it's WAY worse for original games stuff! Toxicity doesn't help, when me and other person brought our installation issues about mods that were listed as compatible for Original Saga BG1 to G3 forums, WeiDU logs and all, saying we are not rushing them only trying to help with bug reports, a power tripping mod said only 5 people played the game in last decade so they'll remove compatibility in next version at all to punish us. Never posting at that place again.)))
P.S. For Beamdog forums being to contrast, many browsers have some form of a night mode, which makes sites look closer to Nexus, you can try it? I definitely use it on mobile because for some bizarre reason, Beamdog site is white with black text and blue headlines on mobile.
Yes... modding Infinity Engine games has always been painful. I do mod backups as well. Still have some from 2006.
I remember TWM :-) but I completely forgot it adds tweaks besides new content. Will need to brush it up. These days, Tweaks Anthology is my go-to for QoL changes, but it may not include all of its components, if any.
The "Children of Bhaal" websites: baldur.cob-bg.pl and their message board athkatla.cob-bg.pl are rather dated and not so active anymore, but they have been online for a very long time and community there has always been helpful. They still have oG BG mods section and some people there still play it. Hit me up if you need any help with translations. Maybe I can even ask Zed to upload TWM here, if I can still get a hold of him.
It's fine, I use Stylus to adjust visually jarring websites. With some CSS magic I can make websites look how I want them to - if I'm not too lazy to do it, that is.
Having this installed seems to remove the ability to pre-generate characters. I can still import previously generated characters, but I can't Pregenerate new characters.
I would be happy to temporarily uninstall in order to Pregenerate more characters, and then reinstall when finished, but there don't seem to be any uninstall instructions in the description or in the Readme. There also seems to be no uninstall option in the executable. This is unfortunate and surprising, as many mods installed by executable have an uninstall feature built in to the executable.
Update: The mod actually does have an uninstall feature in the executable, it's just not presented immediately. I jumped the gun there.
Didn't SoD expansion remove that feature? I don't have the game currently installed so I can't confirm, but I think what happened is: the DLC came out without this feature, afterwards Dragonspear UI mod and its forks were made, in the meantime SoD restored the missing feature, but no one updated the Dragonspear UI. In any case, starting a new game and immediately exporting your character should produce the same result. No need to uninstall the mod. Admittedly, all mods should provide a seamless way for uninstallation.
As it happens, I've tried it again, and it turns out there is an uninstall feature. I assumed it would be presented first, but first comes 'what to do with components NOT YET installed', followed by 'what to do with components CURRENTLY installed'. This was the first WeiDU mod I had used at the time of my last comment, so I wasn't aware of this procedure.
2.6.6.0 version, the one currently on Steam, has Pregenerate Character button after you click Single Player, it's in menu below Load Game and right above Options.
Works when changing between SOD, Black Pits, or original campaign, using default UI. Don't know if it still shows up if you uninstall SoD, not trying it since I have DLC merged.
So if they missed the button on release it's been patched back in since.
Hi, so this mod is great, it looks amazing! I really hated how "full" the screen looked before. but I'm having an issue with it removing EE NPC's, So far Dorn and Neera (I Haven't reached Rasaad to check)
It's definitely this mod as I've been through and checked them all but they only disappear after this mod, is there a fix for it? or a different version? I tried the 2.6 Version from the Beamdog forums but that just gives me a black screen.
With a modern resolution monitor, this mod solved the biggest hurdle I had with delving into BG1 and BG2 — being able to play fullscreen without the UI being blurred to shit. Finally able to take on these CRPG classics I've heard so much good about. UI looks fantastic and the mod was so easy to install too.
wonderful mod! especially spellbook/scroll. the only inconvenient thing is switching characters in items menu. maybe there is option for it? I think it would be better if switching was manual (by pressing 1, 2, etc, or clicking on portraits) rather than instant switch when cursor accidentally touches one wrong pixel.
32 comments
It's the same problem with other game I mod (Gothic), where it's even worse: all mods are spread across different regional (Polish/German/Russian) sites and message boards, or Steam Workshop (Steam requires owning the game on Steam to download mods).
I believe that many people are discouraged from using Nexus primarily because it requires creating an account to download mods (even if it takes only a minute). I'm not a big fan of Beamdog site myself (white font on a pitch-black background makes it hard on the eyes).
Last time I tried to mod original BG1 with this, SpellHold Studios was down. As in, completely gone from internet and owner didn't have backups... Someone mirrored them on a personal FTP that was linked to at ONE forum thread, and not all of them either. I used internet Archive for others, but THIS TIME, it was the site that was down. Sure, they're restored it now, but many older sites are not.
Nexus has outages too, sure, and modders remove their stuff, we lost many Dragon Age and classic Mass Effect mods because of that. I now backup everything I need... but it's still more lasting than people's personal pages, or worse, warring modding groups fighting each other. Periodically someone removes their mods from G3 or Beamdog site, for example for Icewind Dale, you have to basically:
1) scourge forums for drop-in mods while making notes on install order and compatibility for step 2
2) Github grab the Weidu mods, except those that are on G3, Spellhold etc. I have like 50 tabs open!
3) go to Weasel website for Lava mods, and that's most of the story, quest and NPC stuff are now
4) collect tweak packs and compatibility fixes from 4 more different sites
That's not counting the portraits. Those at least stay in folder on reinstalls. xD
Also the relevant modding thread has links to old domain so I have to manually replace half of url from forum.baldursgate.com with forums.beamdog.com to even view some of the "author and all relevant posts were deleted". Like this URL needs to be edited to THAT and then find the attachment to one of messages by [Deleted User] with text "The user and all related content has been deleted." This is a typical example of a working mod actually lmao.
And those are posts for Enhanced Edition, it's WAY worse for original games stuff! Toxicity doesn't help, when me and other person brought our installation issues about mods that were listed as compatible for Original Saga BG1 to G3 forums, WeiDU logs and all, saying we are not rushing them only trying to help with bug reports, a power tripping mod said only 5 people played the game in last decade so they'll remove compatibility in next version at all to punish us. Never posting at that place again.)))
P.S. For Beamdog forums being to contrast, many browsers have some form of a night mode, which makes sites look closer to Nexus, you can try it? I definitely use it on mobile because for some bizarre reason, Beamdog site is white with black text and blue headlines on mobile.
I remember TWM :-) but I completely forgot it adds tweaks besides new content. Will need to brush it up. These days, Tweaks Anthology is my go-to for QoL changes, but it may not include all of its components, if any.
The "Children of Bhaal" websites: baldur.cob-bg.pl and their message board athkatla.cob-bg.pl are rather dated and not so active anymore, but they have been online for a very long time and community there has always been helpful. They still have oG BG mods section and some people there still play it. Hit me up if you need any help with translations. Maybe I can even ask Zed to upload TWM here, if I can still get a hold of him.
It's fine, I use Stylus to adjust visually jarring websites. With some CSS magic I can make websites look how I want them to - if I'm not too lazy to do it, that is.
I would be happy to temporarily uninstall in order to Pregenerate more characters, and then reinstall when finished, but there don't seem to be any uninstall instructions in the description or in the Readme. There also seems to be no uninstall option in the executable. This is unfortunate and surprising, as many mods installed by executable have an uninstall feature built in to the executable.
Update: The mod actually does have an uninstall feature in the executable, it's just not presented immediately. I jumped the gun there.
Works when changing between SOD, Black Pits, or original campaign, using default UI. Don't know if it still shows up if you uninstall SoD, not trying it since I have DLC merged.
So if they missed the button on release it's been patched back in since.
It's definitely this mod as I've been through and checked them all but they only disappear after this mod, is there a fix for it? or a different version? I tried the 2.6 Version from the Beamdog forums but that just gives me a black screen.
Thank you so much for this excellent mod!