There are still mods out there that add content to BG2 and/or ToB which I haven't tried. I'm wondering if any content-adding mod is known to be compatible with IA 5. Does Tower of Deception remain compatible? If you know of any compatible content mods, I'd appreciate their full names and/or links to them. Also, I wouldn't want these mods to be outlandish in XP awards - I can always leave the loot on the ground. Thanks.

I think Dungeon Crawler should be compatible, still I find the gear a bit too much, but can always leave it. I think you can find it on pocketplane.net

I think so.

Both were tested negative for milicious *.IDS so I think they are good to go. Most NPC mods adds new quests to the story, like Xan, Auren or I guess many others.

Thanks for your responses. I don't think IA agrees with ToD any longer - something about a chiten key? Has anyone else got it these mods to work together?

I also got errors in my IA debug file when I tried to install Kelsey (NPC) and Dungeon Crawl.

The Solaufein mod installed OK. I know it is in the not recommended list. I don't intend to use the NPC, but I really love the autobuff scripts. I would be bored out of my mind if I had to manually buff the party before each improved battle.

Unfortunately, that means no new NPCs nor any new mod for me other than the latest edition of IA and The 4.

Try to install each of these three mods without the other two (and preferably without any other mod) and then install IA on top of it. Then send me what error message you exactly receive during installation of IA in each of the three cases.

I've had those mods working really fine with IA 4,2. I just tried installing ToD & DC on top on of IA 5 for testing and everything worked splendid.

No mod should be installed on top of IA. If any of those mods makes any changes to the game which prevents IA's installation, it will make the same change even if you install it after IA and will break something in IA without the player noticing it. Installing them after IA is just hiding the problem, not solving it.

As said only for testing purposes. This first game with IA is almost without any mods.

Well folks, Tower Of Deception is modifying chitin.key in order to make the movie accessable for the engine. It is a well known fact that engine recognizes movie files only if they are biffed and written into chitin.key. And of course, during uninstalation process newly created .biff is deleted and chitin.key is restored to the state as it was before the TOD instalation.

Personally I do not know of any other incompatilities that may arise.

One thing, a note: new version, namely V3 will also append STATE.IDS.

wich means it will be incompatible I guess

I did not see any errors during install IA after Dungeon Crawl. I'm 90% sure they are compatible, but my party have too low levels now, will test it a bit later.

I haven't played ToD before so in my current game I installed ToD and IAv5 together. During my installation I didn't receive any errors. I'm curious as to whether I will be able to continue the current game without problems, but I'll find out soon enough I guess.

EDIT - Unfortunately, as of v3.9 and above, due to the use of Detectable Spells Rogue Rebalancing is no longer compatible with Improved Anvil.

Well, rbeverjr kindly sent a list of errors he had gotten during installing IA with those three mods.

1- Kelsey:

Based on the error messages, Kelsey tampers with Stats.IDS and consequently is incompatible with IA. Will add it to the list of incompatible mods.

If anyone has successfully installed Kelsey before IA, please send me a note. The case may (or may not) be sensitive to Kelsey's different versions (though it's not very probable; so, I will add Kelsey to the list of incompatible mods for now).

2- Dungeon Crawl:

The error message doesn't seem to have anything to do with IA. It seems to be a problem with Dungeon Crawl's AudioInstall.bat (which installs the voiced lines for that mod). Perhaps it's a local problem in rbeverjr's game if others have successfully installed it before IA. I don't know.


3- Tower of Deception:

The error states that the item helm01.itm doesn't exist in chitin key for copying/patching. It's very strange. Has anyone else received this error?

If it was Stats.IDS, I would say that the two mods would become incompatible for sure; but since it is State.IDS, I'm still optimistic that the two mods will remain compatible. It needs to be tested though. I have asked Valiant to test it by Installing IA v5 on top of ToD v3 and confirm that the installation takes place with no error messages.

I've also asked Valiant to test the new component I have made for ToD with IA v5 installed. Technically speaking, the new component doesn't require IA to work, but from a practical point of view, the component will be far more impressive and interesting if ToD v3 is played with IA v5. (Note: ToD should still be installed *before* IA).

I wanted to keep ToD compatible with other mods and for this purpose, I didn't write new scripts for ToD's new component. I used the game's generic scripts instead, but those generic scripts will be improved by IA if IA is also installed. This is one of the reasons for which I said that the new component of ToD will be more impressive if IA is also active in the player's game. (The unmodded game's generic scripts are not really impressive; so, playing ToD v3 without IA v5 will make the new component an ordinary plot; while playing it with IA installed will change it to an epic and impressive plot).

The second reason is that the creatures you will meet in the new component also vary depending on whether IA v5 is active in your game or not.

For all these reasons, it will be a pity if ToD v3 turns to be incompatible with IA v5 and all that for a few (probably unnecessary) changes to State.IDS. Appending State.IDS are usually for short-handing purposes; different states x1, x2 and x3 are combined with each other with a new name such as y. It's usually not necessary because it's only for short-handing purposes to check y instead of checking x1, x2 and x3 in the scripts.

As I said though, I am still very optimistic that even with the appended state.IDS the two mods will still be compatible, but it needs to be tested for certainty. If despite my guess, Valiant's test prove that the two mods are incompatible, he will need to either remove that part which has made the two mods incompatible or alternatively he will need to remove the new component I have made for ToD.

We should wait for the result of Valiant's test to see if IA v5 will (or will not) be successfully installed after ToD v3.

Received a report from another player which confirms the incompatibility between Kelsey and IA. It's definitely incompatible and is now added to the list of incompatible mods in IA's readme file.

Tested with no errors.

Glad to hear.

I'm interested to know what mods people are using (if any) in the game with IA5, because many mods are not compatible.

For instance, I know from previous posts that some people use the Tower of Deception and Dungeon Crawler mods - even though these mods did not seem to install correctly for me.

I'm interested in what the IA5 players are using because I would expect IA5 players to be very choosy and not bring in mods that offer Monte Hall XP, GP, and items. (Of course, the GP and items are easily dealt with by leaving the reward on the ground. I suppose you could deal with the XP by using XP limiters/caps, but I don't want that in IA for myself!)

Additionally, I like teams in BG2 because the banter can be funny sometimes. Do banter packs, flirt packs, etc. work?

When I started my game, I pretty much stuck to Sikret's recommended stuff only because I did not want any bugs. However, I love diversity and new experiences. If there are other good mods that don't cause problems, I will consider installing them (and reinstalling IA5 and then the Four in the last positions, of course).

Any way, I'm hoping people will provide some responses on this topic!

PS As an aside, Level 13-14 is the recommend level for heading to the sailor's city after Imoen, correct?

For a single class protagonist, yes.

I think it would be good, if you report any problem with ToD's installation at appropriate forum, so Valiant can look at it and fix it.

TOD and Dungeon Crawl both work well with IA, most NPC mods also work, personally Xan, Kelsey and Keto have all worked fine and been valid IA party members though I would not recomend Keto for future versions as she will be too weak to really hack it. Have been told that TS works as long as you do not want to use the Valygar romance component and will be using the mod myself shortly. RR is also compatible to some extent as long as you stick to instructions in IA readme and works well. In addition I did a run through with Beyond the Law in version 4.2 which worked well though it can be tough with two essential NPC neither of whom are optimal IA characters, it is however not a massive disadvantage and certainly a very interesting mod. Edwin Romance also worked well on 4.2 and is another very good mod, with this mod edwin can be a little more tolerant of reputation and even reformed so it does not even neccesarily close of the good quests as long as you have a good PC though it is probably best enjoyed if you decide to play evil.

Kelsey no longer works in 5.0.

What is RR? Ah... Rogue Rebalancing.

Yes, the incompatibility is known and added to the updated readme file in the forum.

Yes, its current version is compatible with IA (except some components); but its next version won't be compatible (as aVENGER has informed me that he is going to edit the game's IDs files for the mod's next version).

EDIT: The two topics rbeverjr had created for the same purpose are merged.

EDIT2:


No, unfortunately, TS and IA are fully incompatible with each other. There are more problems in addition to the Valygar romance. Of course, those problems could have been easily solved if the player had the option not to use a few items TS adds to the game (on its joinable NPCs), but Vlad clearly stated that those items are required for TS's plots to trigger and work.

Sikret is correct. Rogue Rebalancing will use Detectable Spells as of v3.9 which will unfortunately make it incompatible with Improved Anvil. Furthermore, since IA 5.1 will replace several spells which are used in Rogue Rebalancing (either by items or opponents in the RR tactical components) using an older version of RR won't work in that case either. So, in summary:

Well, it appears that many people must be like I was and are hesitant to install other mods with Improved Anvil 5... Well, I added some stuff to my game (making sure that IA5 and The Four are added last, of course).

Here are some errors that I encountered during my installation:

* Dungeon Crawler 3 error

[DC/SETUP-DC.TP2] PARSE ERROR at line 168 column 7-37
Near Text: ~DC/Commands/AudioInstall.bat~
syntax error

[DC/SETUP-DC.TP2] ERROR at line 168 column 7-37
Near Text: ~DC/Commands/AudioInstall.bat~
Parsing.Parse_error
ERROR: parsing [DC/SETUP-DC.TP2]: Parsing.Parse_error

> Despite the errors, this mod seems to work. Someone has warned that the items may be a bit rich, but fortunately those items can be left on the ground.

* Tower of Deception 3

> I still get the error message that item helm01.itm doesn't exist in chitin key for copying/patching. This prevents IA5 from installing! Therefore, ToD will not be a part of my play this time. At least I got to play ToD with IA4.2.

* Xan v7

[XAN/SETUP-XAN.TP2] PARSE ERROR at line 24 column 1-35
Near Text: ~0 BLANK BLANK.MUS~
syntax error

[XAN/SETUP-XAN.TP2] ERROR at line 24 column 1-35
Near Text: ~0 BLANK BLANK.MUS~
Parsing.Parse_error
ERROR: parsing [XAN/SETUP-XAN.TP2]: Parsing.Parse_error

[XAN/SETUP-XAN.TP2] PARSE ERROR at line 24 column 1-35
Near Text: ~0 BLANK BLANK.MUS~
syntax error

[XAN/SETUP-XAN.TP2] ERROR at line 24 column 1-35
Near Text: ~0 BLANK BLANK.MUS~
Parsing.Parse_error
ERROR: parsing [XAN/SETUP-XAN.TP2]: Parsing.Parse_error

> Despite the errors, Xan seems to be working. I played an earlier version of Xan for a little while. I’ve heard he is less a whiner in the latest version. We’ll see.

*PhaerePorts version 4

> This is a portrait collection. I didn’t notice any error messages; however, not all of the portraits were installed.


The following mods seemed to install without a hitch:
Shs_soundsets
Tashia Remix v1.0
Solaufein
NPC Flirt v10.2
Banter Pack v7
Ease of Use: true grandmastery; un-nerfed THAC0 table, saving throws, and spell progression; XP cap remover; bonus merchants; bottomless bag of holding; wear magical armor and rings; infinite weapon and potion stacking; romance bug fixes; PC can romance one NPC regardless of race; happy; Imoen ToB dialogue fix; female Edwina
Dungeon-Be-Gone
Rogue Rebalancing v3.82: proper dual-wield; proper spell progression; additional equipment; revised thievery; chosen of Cyric
Improved Anvil v5
The Four v3

Comments:

I don’t intend to use Solaufein, just his autobuff scripts. I wish someone would elect to make some autobuff scripts for IA. I hope these scripts would not use Improved Alacrity and would consider the revised spell durations for the fast and slow buffs. SCS 2 includes some autobuff scripts with it, if I recall, but that is not compatible with IA.

As it is, I use the autobuffs to prepare before a fight when that is possible (not when ambushed) and then wait for the Improved Alacrity to wear off before engaging the enemy. I use both the slow and fast buffs only before battle now because the spells that used to last a long time don’t necessarily do so now. These buff scripts are far from perfect (not using some good buffs, and use some buffs that I would prefer it didn't use every time), but if I had to manually buff extensively before every battle, then the game would lose my interest.

I’m hoping that the NPCs don’t use detectable spells are something else that will cause IA to object later on, but I did confirm that I could find Tashia and Xan. They also speak. So, things are OK so far. I’ll have no compunction about dropping them later if they cause trouble. In fact, I often try different team combinations throughout a game. I love to experiment.

I also installed some ease of use components that Sikret does not recommend, such as the bottomless bag of holding. I don’t want my game to be a task of inventory management – although that can’t be avoided to some degree. I used these components in IA4.2 without a problem on my computer system. So, I am hopeful that they will not cause problems in IA5. I was careful not to use the components that Sikret listed as incompatible.

I’m sad to hear that Rogue Rebalancing will no longer be compatible with IA after the present versions. It seems like it is a program that can make play with swashbucklers and bards be more like PnP. I’m also looking forward to trying the chosen of Cyric encounter for the first time.

It seems that many times the hard work and creativity of other people can not be experienced alongside IA. Still, IA is good enough to be my favorite.

I installed The Four, but was disappointed to see that I would only face one additional battle with my planned team or 2 if I brought Cernd to the underdark. Bummer.

I can install IA v5 over ToD v3 without any error message, so there is nothing to fix in ToD. But I think that small change in the IA's tp2 might help you (unless you tried it already), ask Sikret what you need to do. Or ask someone to send you the file helm01.itm, put it in the override folder and try the installation.

Actually, offhand I can't think why the SCS2 "Ease-of-use AI" component wouldn't be compatible with IA. (Obviously, most of the mod has a huge conceptual incompatibility with IA, quite apart from the technical problems, but that component is probably an exception.)

Hopefully, Sikret will let us know if it is all of SCS2 or selected components that are incompatible. However, I'm not sure that I prefer the SCS2 autobuff scripts to the sola ones. One thing SCS2 had that I really liked was a component that stopped your NPC from being chunked (not resurrectable) even when playing at the higher difficulty levels. Personally, I'd love it if Sikret would include that component and autobuffing scripts of his own design (for players) in the next Improved Anvil!

Upon further consideration, I would like the autobuff scripts to not use Improved Alacrity ONLY if monsters don't use Improved Alacrity (or something similar) when they buff. It seems to me that many buffs go up very quickly on the enemy, but sometimes they are using sequencers for that - a good idea for everyone.

If someone can help me get ToD installed, that would be nice. I know other people have installed it, but I don't know why I am having these very reproducible problems!

Rbeverjr, have you checked if your chitin.key actually doesn't contain helm01.itm when ToD's WeiDU installer returns the error? I really don't want to make baseless guesses, but it's possible that due to some WeiDU bug, chitin.key gets modified in an undesired way. If it doesn't contain it, the obvious first step of the solution is to find when it disappeared (as it's definitely a part of a fresh unmodded installation). More generally, if chitin.key gets modified by a mod compared to its unmodded version, it's crucial to find out what mod or tool modifies it and how.

Notepad shows a helm01 in the chiten.key. There is no .itm when using notepad.

I believe it's IA's installation what gives him this error, not ToD.

rbeverjr> Are you familiar with Shadow Keeper editor? If yes, install ToD, run SK, open Item Browser and check if the helm01 is there. If the helm01 is present extract (it extracts files into the override folder) it and try to install IA. If not, find the helm08 and extract it, go to the override folder, find helm08 there and rename it to helm01 - try to install IA.

I did what you suggested and now IA does not install because shld04.itm is not found in the chitin.key. Hmmm, as I have already played ToD, maybe I should just forget about it.

I think it's AT_NOW command, which has been introduced in Weidu 199, so that audio install in NPC mods happens within the install, not after the user presses enter(since it has been an issue for many users). I think you are getting this mistake, because you've probably been installing Dungeon Crawl/Xan with Weidu 185.

I recommend the following: install Dungeon Crawl with its "native" Weidu 203, and then, if you feel that other mods need Weidu 185, or if they specifically require Weidu 185, delete Setup-DungeonCrawl.exe, or replace it with a lower version.

But it's up to you: the mod will work anyway, you just won't get audio.

I just wanted to post a follow-up. Despite posting installation errors, dungeon crawler seemed to work fine for me. I don't think the mod is too unbalancing in loot or XP, but it did give one item that I'm sure Sikret would disapprove of (he's made that stock item exotically expensive now). Still, you don't have to loot the item.

The Xan mod worked fine for the short while that I used him. Xan managed to kill Tanova while he was with me.

The portrait pack worked fine too, despite my concern that it had not. As it turns out, these portraits aren't available for the protagonist but are substitutes for the current NPC portraits. I think these portraits are more life-like, and it is a pleasant change to me to see new faces on my old friends. It gives more of an impression of a new game, as does IA5 in other ways.

I was hoping for better from the soundsets I installed - which did install without a problem.

Since RR v3.9 has been released, I just wanted to update the compatibility information. Unfortunately, as of v3.9 and above, due to the use of Detectable Spells Rogue Rebalancing is no longer compatible with Improved Anvil.

Sikret, you can add this info to your readme, I've already updated my Compatibility Guide.