Bulian's 6.4 branch update:

New items and NPC modernization - complete

• Cromwell/Cespenar dialogues,
• 9 new items, including ones for Sarevok, Minsc, Dorn, and Aerie
• Seven additional randomized items
• Sarevok is now viable as a joinable party member in TOB
• Aerie has more reasonable IA stats

Updated encounters

• Limak
• Spellhold Book
• The Four (with more relevant IA rewards, removal of unbalanced items)
• Supreme Golem in Watcher's Keep (party can now fight it and green wyrm),
• Dracolich is accessible n Ch 6/7 with significantly reduced rewards,
• Demon fight in Underdark (new Chapter 5 encounter)

Quality of life

• Early containers in Irenicus dungeon (bag of holding, ammo belt, etc.)
• Store depreciation removal - sell items for same cost regardless if the merchant has them in stock
• Stronghold quests continue in Chapter 7

All protagonists can access almost everything in the mod (less balanced)

• Remove class restrictions on forging items
• Enable Memory of the Apprenti robe to be forged 100% for all protagonists
• Enable early Ranger and Mage stronghold quests for all PCs
• Ancient Secret of Sulda will remain Vagrant only
• The Old Ones/Time Machine will remain Necromancer only
• Enable Justice Day quest for all PCs

This post has been edited by bulian: May 16 2020, 01:18 PM

Should be doable with your experience

Doing my quarantine run also

Thinking about a run

critto,
The IA6.4 zip on Github under Releases seems to be 6.3.

Edit:
Got it. Will take the Master.

This post has been edited by Azoth: Apr 5 2020, 09:10 PM

Release there is ok, I've just forgot to update the version and did a bit later. Grabbing the master is better anyway, there are a few extra fixes as well, judging by the changelog.

EDIT: moved to top of post

This post has been edited by bulian: Apr 12 2020, 05:48 PM

If you need help and advice with those updates, I can try and help out. Certain things like item randomisation or new encounters require meddling with the scripts. As for dialogue editing, I think Near Infinity has some capacity in that regard, but doing it manually with weidu is safer, of course.

Anyhow, if you have a specific plan of action (what to change and where), I can probably make it. Encounters are harder to achieve, but doable too.

That's awesome bulian! After this run I would definitely be interested in what you've done!

Nice! you're all still going strong then.

I am doing a pentilogy run currently with a Necromancer protagonist. I got past bg1, TotSC, now at the early part of SoD and after that I will migrate into IA. Still noreload too. I have practiced IA for a couple of encounters so I roughly know the order to survive until spellhold. I hope to get through it as noreload somehow.

I was hoping to play with a swashbuckler, cernd, mazzy, valygar, and an extra melee somehow. Still considering options.

Bulian, sounds marvellous!

Hi Iroumen! I have some suggestions for your party composition based on my IA experience.

1, pure thief is literally useless in AI. As for swashbucklers, even if his proficiency/thac0 seems okay, his APR is a total disaster. I recommend dual class thief instead, for example lv9 swashbuckler dual fighter, lv9(or lv13) kensai dual thief, they are way stronger than a pure swashbuckler.

2, lack of arcane caster in early game. Indeed a nec protagonist can handle all arcane casting himself once he reaches 3.4m exp. However, many encounters in early game such as warden/shadow dragon requires two arcane casters who can at least read breach/RRR scrolls, otherwise these battles will be much harder than it should be. Cernd is a good supplement, but not in time unfortunately, he gets lv7 divine spells at 2.5m exp.

In a word, a balanced and strong party is of great importance if this is your first run in IA. I would recommend replacing swashbuckler with a dual class as above, and filling the last slot with a custom F/M. Btw Mazzy might not be a first choice for a warrior since she is not good at dealing crush damage.

Thanks for all the tips.

I am aware of the problems. Early game I will carry a few other npcs such as minsc and jaheira, likely nalia as well until I get some quests done, slowly transfer into valygar and cernd, and finally free Mazzy from her prison.
But yes, your observation is correct, I still need a crushing specialist. Maybe anomen, a riskbreaker or Rasaad? Hmmm...
In my tests I used an Undeadhunter but his usefulness wore off a bit due to being turned in a couple of nasty fights. F/M using staves and halberds?

Anomen's melee damage vanishes fast as you process into mid game, also you wouldn't need two divine casters. Rasaad is definitely the best choice among npcs, he might even outperform riskbreaker in late game. In general two-handed is more suitable for F/M, if you need your F/M to deal with golems in early game, go with flail/morning star and enjoy smashing some golems with Phosphorus +4 under protection of PFMW

Updated progress at top of post. Installing Weidu on window's PC is much more complicated than I was anticipating and is current holdup. Any tips (particularly for some type of precompiled easy mode GUI editor welcome).

One thing I should mention is that when you import a character some issues could occur. The way IA was made is that when you create a character from scratch a special variable is assigned to the char which is later used to fire off class-specific checks which may or may not involve finding special loot, triggering new content, etc. It's pretty clunky but I guess it was the best solution at the time and is the reason why Sikret has always warned of potential problems with imported characters. It is probably avoidable with some kind of workaround but I'd have to remember what is done exactly to the necromancer kit. I definitely remember that a special scripting state is assigned (basically, it's a variable stored in the creature file and containing a specific value which is later referenced by the scripts during the game).

As for Weidu, isn't it just a "drop the executable in and play" kind of a thing? The goto editor these days is Near Infinity which is what I recommend to use. It's maintained by the community to this day, so functions perfectly well with the latest versions of the game, fairly stable. Just remember that when you save any changes they are saved to the "override" folder by default. If you were to reinstall the mod after that, these changes will be lost. So if you want to persist these changes across mod re-installs, make sure you re-save the file manually to the appropriate place in the mod folder (or just wherever on your hard drive).

Hi, bulian. I'm quite interested in your updated IA. Is it possible to share it? If weidu doesn't work for you at the moment, maybe you can just zip the changed game files to download directly.

Thanks for your work!

im interested too

Awesome! Just send me a PM with your email address. Too large to post here.

Figured out how to use the weidu framework so hoping to roll out the new items and other changes using github/executable framework instead of just Near Infinity single file edits. Timing is at least several days for that.

Hi bulian,
How is it going? Any news?
No pressure intended, just asking.

This post has been edited by Azoth: May 12 2020, 08:36 PM

I updated the current planned list at the top of the thread. Most of the changes (except the new Chapter 5 encounter) are ready to go using override files if you are willing to take a chance. Just send me a PM with your email.

In terms of a patchable form, progress has been made at a somewhat unsteady rate. While making changes in Near Infinity is easy, incorporating it into the IA mod in a patchable form using Github has required a bit of a learning curve. Critto has been helping me and we've been discussing whether to include some of the following components as a baseline addition or as optional components. Input would be welcome

Quality of life

• Early containers in Irenicus dungeon (bag of holding, ammo belt, etc.)
• Store depreciation removal - sell items for same cost
• Stronghold quests in ch 7

All protagonists

• Remove class restrictions on forging items
• Enable Memory of the Apprenti robe to be forged 100% for all protagonists
• Enable early Ranger and Mage stronghold quests for all PCs
• Ancient Secret of Sulda will remain Vagrant only
• The Old Ones/Time Machine will remain Necromancer only
• Enable Justice Day quest for all PCs

Unrestricted forging and drops would be most welcome and making quests available to all allows replayability much more. Very nice!