Hi there,

I am a super newbie to modding BG2 but I'm very excited about creating an excellent install done to maximize the Bg2 experience.

I've looked around a few major Bg2 sites (including Black Wyrm) and I notice that IA and NeJ seem like the most popular full mods.

I've also read the installation instructions for both these mods. And this is where my question comes from:

Nej requires Baldurdash 1.66 while IA seems very strictly to say that the baldurdash 1.1.2 TOB fix is what should be installed. Are these two files the same? I'm guessing they aren't...and if they aren't it seems these two great sounding mods are incompatible with one another?

Thanks for the help

Their are technical differences between Bdash 1.1.2 and the WEIDU based Bdash 1.6.6 but the 1.6.6 adds some extra features like the Dakkon's Katana or Dual wielding fix by aVENGER. There were a few flaws with the Weidu baldurdash and our tests with IA6 so I am not sure how IA5 reacts in the same regards. It made a very tough fight even harder because of a bug.

I am wondering if the two could be combined in an installation.

Both IA and NeJ change Imoen and IA's version is not an optional component so don't install the Custom kit for Imoen via NeJ2 other wise your BG2 will be destroyed from Irenicus' Dungeon with a hanging cut scene waiting for an Imoen to show up. So if you are new to modding a game, I would try one and play through it to the point of making an opinio towards whether you like it.

While you are doing that, you might keep asking questions here about more compatibility options.

Also IA5 will work with Tower of Deception (at BWL) and The Four (just look at Sikret's signature in one of his posts). So there you have a good modded game (highly tactical but with a lot of content)

I am sure others will add to this with combinations they have tried as well.

Have fun!

Thanks a lot for a detailed reply. A few follow up questions I have:

1)What is WEIDU? I've seen this word used a lot...and I still haven't figured it out

2)Has anyone actually tried playing with these two mods together and gotten a nice, bug-free game if the Imoen kit (Nej2) is not installed (i did get the hanging cut scene before, which made me have to do a reinstall)?

3) How does The Four (or other mods) stack up in new quests/content compared to Nej2? The only reason I would like to try out Nej2 is the d/l size was nearly 600 meg and I'm assuming that translates into TONS of new content (whereas IA only is something like 5-10 megs)

Thanks -- I know some of these longwinded questions must be so painful to respond to you if you've been modding bg2 for a long time..but I'd reaaally like to improve my bg2 experience =)

1) WeiDU is a software platform for manipulating Infinity Engine games (such as BG2) and for building/distributing mods. It allows you to create compatible mods (but this often requires much attention from the developer). It isn't too user-friendly for beginners, and has a few other limitations as well. WeiDU is considered to be the best way for creating BG2 mods nowadays.

2) As far as I remember, Ymarsakar was playing it a few months ago, and he didn't encounter any serious bugs. However, it was long ago, so hopefully someone else will be able to tell more up-to-date information.

3) NEJ2 indeed offers a lot of content, and so does Improved Anvil. Depending on interpretation, the content provided by IA might actually be much more, but it is because it affects many dimensions of the game (unlike NEJ2).

Looking at the download size is not a good indication of the amount of content in a mod. IA changes most of the existing battles in the games, improves most of the enemies and also adds a large number of new enemies, quests and encounters. However, the new areas and creatures use existing graphics in the game, which cuts down the download size considerably.

Have you played any BG2 mods before? You should be aware (and this is stressed in the IA documentation) that most players find IA very difficult compared to the vanilla game (and even other difficulty-enhancing mods). If you have only played the vanilla game you will probably find yourself having to spend large amounts of time getting to grips with the improved battles of IA. I'm not trying to put you off (after all everyone who now plays and enjoys the mod was once at the stage you're at) but it's something you should bear in mind.

Sorry for the delayed answer, tobiasdouglas!

1- The short answer is: No, you can't play IA and nej2 together.

If you want the long answer, send me a PM.

2- As Raven has correctly mentioned, looking at the download size is not a good way to estimate how much new content you can find in a mod. The best way is to read the mod's readme file.

3- As for whether IA adds more content to game compared to nej2 or vice versa, the answer depends on the type of new content *you* are looking for. If you are looking for romance and/or new NPCs, then nej2 adds more content to the game (in general, I don't care for romance/lovetalks/flirts and such things in the game and I don't add that kind of content to the game in IA).

If you are looking for new quests, tactical challenges, new kits, expanded strongholds, item randomizer program, fixing the bugs of vanilla game, applying cool tweaks to the vanilla game, and any other feature, then IA adds more to the game than Nej2.

Of course, I'm not saying that nej2 merely adds romance and NPc to the game; it adds lots of other things as well; but its other features are fewer than what IA adds to the game.