To any plaguezone participants who might see this:
Horred the Plague posted warning on plaguezone in July 2004 that the subscription for the plaguezone site may expire in September 2004 due to circumstances beyond his control. Its absence would suggest that yes, the subscription has lapsed.
A BIG thank-you to Horred for creating BP, BP-BGT and BP-BGT-NEJ, and for so kindly supporting the hosting of boards about these excellent mods for the previous 12 months.
Folowing the closure of plaguezone.com on 07 September 2004, forums for BP and associated mods are now hosted at forums.forgottenwars.net - thanks to Hlidskialf and Neil for kindly organising the replacement hosting, and to those others - VladP and Baronius - who generously offered their forums and bandwidth for hosting BP, BGT, BoneHill and BP-BGT-NEJ.
BP forum here:
http://forums.spellholdstudios.net/index.php?showforum=192.
BP-BGT and BP-BGT-NEJ has a forum here:
http://forums.spellholdstudios.net/index.php?showforum=193,
and BoneHill has a forum here:
http://forums.spellholdstudios.net/index.php?showforum=194.
Please update your links accordingly.
Sean
Collected here are a number of the Big Picture mods, tweaks and fixes that I have been making and/or collecting whilst playing BP. Most of these were previously hosted at TeamBG; however as TeamBG has been offline since July 2004 and may not return, I have taken to hosting them myself. If you have any comments, or have other Big Picture mods, fixes or tweaks you want hosted here, I can be reached at seanasagain@yahoo.com.au
Looking for lists of compatible mods for BP? click [here] for my rules of thumb, and for Paktu's updated list of compatible mods.
Looking for an FAQ for BP and associated mods? [Not yet available].
Sean (aka seanas) 24 August 2004
update 01 July 2005
back in the uk now, working on version 8 of the patch - god knows what happened to v7, i *swear* i uploaded it from singapore airport last january. no wonder there are so many error msgs about v6 - v6 *was* a bug-ridden shitbox.
Sean
The BPSeries are a Big Picture-compatible version of Cirerrek's excellent eSeries character scripts. There are some changes from the eSeries in the BPSeries - check the readme for more information - the most significant of which is support for TDD spells and items, and an auto-buffing routine based upon Wes Weimer's Sola script and Vorgen's TDD-compatible autobuff script. It installs as any other WeiDU mod.
And now, with the arrival of BP-Weidu, BP-BGT-Weidu and BGT-Weidu (at least those versions of BGT-Weidu that use KD's Detectable Stats; I can make no promises regarding compatibility if, by some chance, you've got BGT-Weidu without KD's Detectable Stats installed) comes the BP Series v3. Click on the download and Read Me links above for more info, altho the highlights include:
Please note, however: if yr using the non-Weidu BP (what we might call 'BP-classic), incluiding, but not limited to:
For those people who wish to have access to a good auto-buffing script but otherwise wish to retain full control over their character's actions, I'm posting Vorgen's TDD autobuff script. See the linked readme for installation instructions.
Follow the link supplied for my rules of thumb for judging compatibility of other mods with BP. also in that link is a version of Paktu's list of BP-compatible mods. As always when installing other mods on top of BP, common sense is advised.
This is the auto-installation guide included as part of the BPv161G-FULL.exe package. However, as opening the package to extract the readme to tell you how to use the package can be counter-intuitive, I have uploaded it here. Can I encourage - strongly - everyone who is installing BP to use the auto-installer? Please? It really will make your installation so much more straightforward.
If you persist in the need to be masochistic, then at least follow the guide, yeah? This is the manual installation guide that comes with the full BP package. Make sure to follow all of the instructions closely, in particular any relating to the installation of Tortured Souls.
I have included Yazzuie's excellent manual BP installation guide here. As well as repeating all of the information in BPv161G_Manual_Install.doc, this handy pdf file includes readme information on the major mods included as part of BP (ie, TDD, SoS and TS) as well as detailed information on installing other WeiDU mods with BP. The version available here was updated by Yazzuie in Jan 2005, and includes both crucial corrections and a Neverending Journey for BP install guide. Please note, as there has been some obvious confusion, that Yazzuie's guide is only for those people installing BP or BP-NEJ, those people installing BP-BGT-NEJ should use Shadowtech's BP-BGT-NEJ install guide, available on the BP-BGT-NEJ Forums.
Please note, too, that a new, idiot-proof WeiDU version of BP is under construction by the inimitable horred the plague, at which point these install instructions will be replaced with new versions. Apart from being Weidu installs, they will make TDD kits optional, thus removing the major whinge non-BP users seem to have with BP. Note that the new Weidu BP will also shrink the download size by about 75%, and cut several GB from the total install size - my god, what will there be left for BP-haters to whinge about afterwards?
The new WeiDU BP won't remove the problem with musiclist.2da (ie, musiclist.2da has a hard-coded limit, which BGT reaches and a number of NPC mods unnecessarily add to as well) - this won't be resolved until someone either re-writes the BGT installer or the offending NPC mods. I understand Betfair are running a market on which will occur first, if you think you're hard enough.
Introducing the one, the only, Big Picture_s_and_h_patch. Now available in version 7! This patch is for use with any installation of BP: ie, standalone BP, BP-BGT, BP-NEJ, BP-BGT-NEJ. It will evaluate which package you have installed and patch the necessary files dynamically, so if you have BP installed in any way, shape or form, download this thing and install it.
It is advised that you install this as part of a fresh BP (or BP-BGT, BP-NEJ or BP-BGT-NEJ) installation: after the install has been completed and the game functions, but before you install any other mods WeiDU or otherwise.
Failing that, it is advised that you install this patch prior to starting a new game - this is particularly true if you are playing BP-NEJ, BP-BGT or BP-BGT-NEJ, as the patch corrects bugs at the very start of both NEJ and BGT. If you are playing BP, you could get away with installing this if you are still in Chapter One without any problems.
If, on the other hand, you wish to install this patch on top of a current installation and continue your game in progress, you can do that. However, any fix that applies to an area you have already entered will not show up in your game. Because of the way BGII stores areas already visited in your saved game, changes made after you enter an area will not be seen in-game as the game engine will not refer back to the original area files, but will refer to the saved (and unpatched) areas in your saved game. This is not a huge issue, and I strongly recommend everyone playing any flavour of BP install this patch as soon as they can, but be aware that you might not see some changes in game; and other changes - notably the Riatavin fix - might behave extremely oddly.
For those of you who have installed previous versions of my BP Fixpack (which I have now taken offline), you will still need to install the BP_s_and_h_patch. Although you will have a number of the components already installed, there are others that you won't have installed an which - trust me on this - you'll want installed. The patch will detect if you have earlier versions of the fixes in installed, and either skip components or harmlessly overwrite them. The component description from the ReadMe follows; you can also download the ReadMe as a standalone document by clicking on the above link, or you can find it in the full download version of the BP_s_and_h_Patch, also available above.
New for Version 7:
a whole lot of undocumented typo fixes from v6.
New for Version 6:
New for Version 5:
These fixes are for all flavours of BP (ie BP, BP-BGT, BP-NEJ and BP-BGT-NEJ) and will be installed automatically.
This component corrects the dialogue references for Yeslick, Shar-teel and Kagain which otherwise prevented these three NPCs form being used in the Big Picture. It also includes the updated Shar-teel fix, which corrects her death variable and allows her quest to be completed. This component also patches the Docks area script AR0300.bcs without which the Jaheira romance will stall and includes a version of Lyros.cre (which will fix Xzar for BP-BGT and BP-BGT-NEJ installs). This component also includes the Robillard fix, which corrects a script reference that caused Robillard's dialogues to get stuck in a loop after the first assassination attempt on him. Both the Robillard and the Xzar fix has been updated in version 3 to work with all installed flavours of BP.
This component removes the combat routines from Charlotte's character scripts. Installing this component, Charlotte will obey instructions she is given, whether issued by the player or by an assigned character script. Without it, she will both charge into every combat, even if without weapons, and will turn hostile if she or her familiar takes damage (from an area effect spell, for example).
The Riatavin fix, created by Horred the Plague, corrects a crash to desktop which can occur during the Orgroth's Tower quest when the party returns to Riatavin. The Riatavin fix has been updated for version 3: it is no longer necessary to set variables manually, only one version of Avrakbar will appear on your return from Orgroth's Tower, and there are no more mysterious invisible battles between demons and Amnish soldiers. The TOB pocketplane fix, provided by Revan, fixes a noted bug in the TOB portion of BP which caused a crash to desktop during the second pocketplane challenge.
This component fixes a bug in BP that stopped Sarevok from having any interjections, which prevented him from attaining redemption and changing alignment.
This fix corrects an occasional bug which caused the invisible creature which actually executes the Demon 'telekinesis' power to be visible for the duration of the spell.
This component corrects a bug which causes a fatal crash when attempting to enter AR5014 during the Kiser Jhaeri quest in TOB. In version 5, it really works, as i ported the fix from BP-BGT-NEJ patch 3.13.
This component alters the way Baneliches can be killed in the dungeon under the graveyard. It still requires that the party has a phylactery in their possession for the Banelich to be destroyed, but it now checks each party member, rather than simply the last enemy (party member *or* allied summons) seen by the Banelich. In version 3, this component has actually been implemented correctly - the nerf in v1 in fact made the Baneliches unkillable.
This component fixes the bug where these items get stuck in the party's inventory when Nalia or Edwin leave. This component now also fixes Shar-teel's armour, so that it no longer gets stuck in inventory when she leaves or is kicked out of the party.
An error in the script file AR6200 meant that Redemption would not install. It had the additional side-effect of rendering the final battle somewhat easier than it should have been.
This small fix shifts to the override folder two files that Longer ROad looks for before it will install; if these files are already present in the overide folder (rather than in a .bif in the data folder) then the installer will skip this component. This component should be sufficient for BP and BP-NEJ users to install Longer Road; BP-BGT and BP-BGT-NEJ users will have to manually edit the Longer Road .tp2 file by making the following changes:
//add music
//MKDIR ~music/MxTrem1~
//COPY ~redemption/music/MxTrem1.mus~ ~music/MxTrem1.mus~
//COPY~redemption/music/MxTrem1/MxTrem1A.acm~
//~music/MxTrem1/MxTrem1A.acm~
//ADD_MUSIC ~MxTrem1~ ~redemption/music/MxTrem1.mus~
//REPLACE_TEXTUALLY 999996 ~%MxTrem1%~
(thanks to Dorotea for these fixes).
It transpires that a number of dragons have been unintentionally nerfed by BP. This fix returns the immunity to backstab and immunity to their own wing buffet attacks which it might be anticipated that your average dragon might possess...
This component corrects the bad dialog references in Kachiko's leaving dialogue and Yoshimo's joining dialogue which made both non-recruitable if you happen to eject Kachiko from the party first. Included in this fix, although in practice unrelated, is a fix for Kachiko's Hojo War Ring, giving it the abilities to match its description.
Corrects a script error which prevented Simyaz' allies from turning hostile when he did after you encountered them in the Underdark after having freed them from the the IllYithid lair. This fix now actually works, as v5 uses the version of the fix included in BP-BGT-NEJ patch 3.13.
Corrects a strange bug which prevented Laaonar from fighting back in his duel with the four drow, causing the cutscene to hang and the Ust Natha duels to be unfinishable.
Corrects the infinite spawning of undead in the Purskal mine - including multiple copies of the end-of-level lich - that would occur if the party exited and re-entered the level without killing all of the undead. Also adds a level-check for the paranoid salesmand who offers the Purskal quest, so that low-level parties are spared from the consequences of their own idiocy.
Prevents the infinite looping cutscene whic would occur when Dynaheir appeared for a second time.
Adds a simple InParty("Sime") check on the three instances where the party meets Sime as an NPC, so that a: you don't have the daftness of meeting the person who is already in your party; and b: you can no longer recruit multiple Simes to join your party.
Due to an error in mage and sorcerer HLAs, they were unable to ever choose Planetar or Fallen Planetar as a high-level spell.
This fix corrects the typo-strewn scripts of Asgareth's helpers in Watcher's Keep. (Asareth is the dude with the deck of many things: previously, if you attacked him for his excellent deck, the rest of his crew would stand there and watch, rather than defend him).
Fixes the bugged druid spell 'Air Pocket', which caused a crash to desktop if used.
Corrects the misallocated string references which caused the dishwasher in one of the inns in Soubar to speak the kit descriptions for Saurial Paladins, rather than his correct lines.
This component - added due to popular demand, as distinct from fixing a bug - displays a string above CHARNAME's head when you first enter the Soubar Barracks and the Spellhold Asylum to warn first-time players that they are about to have their items confiscated and might want to take preventative action before this occurs. This solution - the displayed string - rather than the ostensibly more logical fix if making the item theft error free, has been chosen because of the Sisyphean task that the more logical fix actually entails. Because item taking and returning requires *every possible* item be listed in order to work, there will *always* be items not included, and which will therefore go missing when the items are returned. So: better to provide players with the necessary information and leave them to make their own informed mistakes.
The current implementation of Dakkon's Streaming Blade will, if given to an NPC, will completely screw up that NPC, deleting their specific character scripts (goodbye sub-quests! goodby romances!). Now, the weapon will still upgrade normally, but will be safe to be given to NPCs. For this fix to work entirely, a new game may be needed to be started, because screwed NPCs will remain screwed after patch installation. This fix now works in version 5 - it only half-worked in version 4.
Please note that, as King Diamond points out on the BP forums, there was a typo with the wolf item (yet another bloody game breaker from the bloody wolf - although it was my fault this time) in Setup-BP_s_and_h_Patchv5.tp2: TSWOLF.CRE was misnamed WOLF.CRE, which caused all sorts of wackiness with random wolf encounters. The version of the patch that is available from this site has fixed this typo; if yr not going to download the patch again, you might want to do a find/replace on WOLF.CRE to TSWOLF.CRE.
In what is quite the irony, the version of the .IDS files i've included in the patch are in fact incorrect - cheers to horred for pointing this out, brickbats to me for making the mistake inthe first place. you'll need to comment out the offending line in Setup-BP_s_and_h_Patch.tp2 like such:
//COPY ~BP_s_and_h_Patch/IDS~ ~override~
or download this zipped version of the corrected Setup-BP_s_and_h_Patch.tp2 and extract to yr main BGII directory. [Download] whichever option you choose - commenting or downloading - your should uninstall the v5 patch and then install it again.
when i get corrected versions of the .IDS files, i'll release them as part of a v6 patch. my apologies!
This component fixes a large number of current problems in a BP-BGT (or BGT, or BP-BGT-NEJ) game. This component will only install if BGT is installed. Included in this fix are:
Ascension64 has done some sterling work, fixing many of the remaining BGT problems, including the dialogue problems revealed by the BG1NPC Project, many area bugs, missing dialogues and displayed text, and scripting errors.
Component1: BP Fixes
Component 2: BP-BGT Fixes