From post over at Spellhold:

"Over at the http://forums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?t...32&forum=17, someone posted a link for what appears to be a stripped down version of Improved Anvil, which may be more compatible with other mods. If you are willing to risk it, it might be worth a try".

Did not know this existed and thought I would share it here to see if this was an approved version accepted by Sikret or just a personally hacked version.

Regards, Nazar

Thanks for the link. I'm sure Sikret has never approved such a thing (but he will certainly confirm it as soon as he returns, I'm sure). The author apparently doesn't realize/understand it's not public property, or that copyright exists (or even as common courtesy, at least), but it's his/her call. The title is misleading too, it implies as if it was an "official" release, instead of something like "My own IA" or "IA v5 changed by me", "IA v5 hacked by me". Also, I wouldn't be surprised if WyrmLord123 was one of those users who demanded optional components on IA's and/or other forums in the past. The join date is 28 March 2008, so he/she probably joined Bioware just to get publicity for his/her "new" mod. Perhaps one of the known IE modding forum members under a different username. But it doesn't matter, so it's needless to make guesses. It was just a bit surprising (disappointing) what people do sometimes with other's work.

That was my thought too, but was not going to say much till Sikret saw it! I do not understand
why someone would want to hack it to make it easier. If that was what they wanted why even play the mod, just use all the others out there. I play for the challenge! Ahhh just one mans thoughts though.

Yeah, it's strange, especially because if someone makes changes for his or her own enjoyment, he/she may share it with friends but why would he/she put it on a public download site, especially with a misleading title? I think that those who couldn't accept IA's success (after their big efforts and tons of forum posts to prevent players from playing IA) could bear the feeling of failure no longer. This is the result. "I'll show it to Sikret!!" But it's just a guess. And I shouldn't waste my time with it, but it's so "funny" what things people do sometimes, as I've written.

Not me. I respect the copyright laws. Just in case you care and/or believe me.

I was aware of this and sent Sikret at PM several days ago. He has not been online since then so has not seen it.


This was exactly my reaction as well.

It sounded to me like a guy that delved into the waters of IA5 and found it too deep! It did not seem like this guy was claiming authorship of anything. Please don't mistake these words for defending the guy either. As far as I'm concerned, this issue is between him and Sikret.

What I do want to point out is this guy is probably an example of perhaps a substantial player base. I think that there are relatively few players who can handle IA5. IA5 is very challenging and as Sikret continues to make IA harder, he also cuts his potential audience down. I am not being critical of Sikret's decision, but am just stating what seems a reasonable conclusion to me.

One of the problems for players who contemplate using the component version this guy hacked is that the vagrant and some of IA items are balanced for IA5, but are not balanced otherwise. It's like having another Item Upgrade mod or some such. Then again, some of those mods are popular.

I have about progressed to the 1 hour and more real time battles in my own IA5 game. I'm actually thinking about starting an IA4/4+ (I hope I have IA4.2) with some other mods. That will allow me to hone my skills more, enjoy some mods that aren't compatible with IA5, and have a more relaxed play than I do in IA5.

IA5 is sometimes like work for me, but it's a great celebration when I finally triumph in some of those major battles where I hardly believed that I could ever do it.

I'll be downloading IA6 to go into my BG2 library of downloads too. But I definitely won't install it until I am satisfied that my skills have increased for the task. (My library has a lot of stuff I have yet to play. I wish I had more time.)

I also allowed this as a possibility, but isn't the whole thing weird:

1) The title of the thread in Bioware forum -- OK it might not be intentional
2) Renamed readme, and a few other renamed things, yet nowhere mentioned it's a split, so it implies it's Sikret's release -- OK can also be negligence
3) The registration date on Bioware -- OK it proves nothing
4) The username: WyrmLord123 -- might also be nothing special, but aren't these too many accidents? WyrmLord, and then a random ending such as 123. And the registration date.

It's too suspicious. Too many coincidences. But it doesn't make any difference anyway. Everyone is free to hack any mod in the way he or she prefers it.

It's not an approved version of the mod, Nazar.

I'm also pretty sure that it is bugged. If anyone (without a deep knowledge of how IA works) tampers with the mod by (for example) dividing it into separate components will create bugs in the game for sure. The nature and extent of bugs will naturally depend on the nature and extent of changes.

I don't think that this topic deserves any further attention and discussion as I'm pretty sure that no reasonable player will ever install such a hacked and bugged version of IA. Improved Anvil is well-known for its stability and bugfreeness. Who will put at risk his game's stability by installing an unsupported version?

The fact that doing such things is tactless and discourteous is undeniable, but this is not the first time we see such attitudes.

In an (overly) optimistic interpretation of the incident, (s)he may be a teenager and/or a beginner who wanted to practice some coding and then having been excited by the result of her/his work, (s)he has decided to share it with others. No need to take the whole incident too seriously.

I hope he or she is satisfied with the result and I will never download their "baby" version on my computer or anyone else's computer for that matter.

The most critical "incompatibility" issue seems to be with the spell.ids. There's nothing much you can do about that except break IA or the mod you are trying to install with IA.

I assume every IA script was made with certain spell.ids references and what not as a standard. It's not game breaking, but it does make it so that certain spells won't be cast if you try to install certain mods with IA. The script just won't be able to call it up, one way or another.

Items overwriting each other, patches to the AREs, various numerous 2da changes, all those can be made compatible if you work at it for a bit, but the changes will only ever be minor. If you make it major, there's too much complexity going on.

Making components of IA 5.0 be installable "separately" may be a service in convenience, but it will lack the spirit of Sikret's work and it will produce bugs, like Sikret said, since many of the components rely upon each other and aren't really "components". Since they were never intended to be installed separately, certain scripts will have to be changed in every part of the game and IA. That would be just as much work as making a new version of iA, in my view.

Which is why I doubt that it was done.