Welcome to our new forum boards at The Black Wyrm! Thanks to Baronius for setting them. Larrienne, my friend and co-author will moderate the general discussion forum, and the technical discussion I'll moderate myself. We are still beta-testing NeJ2. The upcoming v4.2b will be available in a week or so. You are invited to participate in beta-testing of this wonderfull mod.

Cheers,
Vlad.

Welcome aboard!

Pleased to be here guys.
This Neverending Journey of ours is certainly taking a journey across the forums.
I am with Vlad when he says Thanks Baronius for setting them, it's good to find yet another home from home.
I am sure NeJ will be very happy here...along with all its fans and those who have contributed so far to this great idea of Vlad's.

O, a house-warming party! Congrats on a new forum!

Hi, Vlad! Hi, Larrienne! Privet, Domi

Why you changed forum board?

I don't need to support vladp.net.

Hi Vlad and Jan! Nice new home and looking forward to beta testing the latest version when it comes out.

But what about your site? http://www.vladp.net/

It is here:

http://vlad.blackwyrmlair.net/

I haven't played BG2 since 2003. Thus now, because of free time, I want to go back to this master peace of RPG. I found out about NEJ through variety of discussion boards (mainly polish, such as Riklaunima's. My preparation to play the game already took me about 2 months (well, I really want to have the hack of a game this time). Many people that I spoke with advised me to play NEJ part 1. However when I was going into the topic , it appears that second part (still beta) is on its way. However, I wasn't really intrested programming throughout my "career", I think that I can give lots of contribution about the D&D 2nd edition and the Worlds, which exist on this basis. Thus I can ofer only my advise in the fantasy/rpg preparation/plot/queast areas (lots of "paper rpg sessions" behind me). Nontheless I also ask you for advice. I really think to install BP or/and NEJ part 1, though I'm sure to play at least two major mods DDT and NEJ 1. But because NEJ 1&2 is on its way, I want to find out the sens of waiting or playing already mentioned mods (compatibility). Anyway, I'm always glad to help if need sb, so please send me e - mail.

Mysterium, thank you a lot for your kind offer to help. It would be nice if you could join our beta-testing team. I am definitely against installing and playing NeJ earlier than v3.0. To clarify things NeJ1 means *1st edition* which is actually v1.0-1.4 and which is compatible with BP. I do not support that version anymore because it's very old in comparison with NeJ2 which means *2nd edition* (and not *the second part*). NeJ2 is the BG2 style game with a lot of banters, interjections, dialogues, and excellent quests written by larrienne. It cannot be compared to NeJ1 which is just pure IWD conversion. NeJ2 currently includes two parts or two episodes. Whereas the first part takes place in IWD, the second part is absolutely new and has no connection to either IWD or BG2. All in all if you want my advise, please discard NeJ1 and start beta-testing NeJ2. The next beta-version will be available for download next week so you'll have a few days more to prepare yourself for travelling in time . Eventually, as for me, and it's really my own opinion, I wouldn't recommend to mix NeJ2 with BP. They are absolutely different from all points of view, scenarios, NPCs, places to visit, items, animations etc. Moreover it's needless to say that beside you risk to ruin your enjoyment from playing the game with too many big mods installed, you also may ruin your installation. By the way, you won't have much room for NeJ2's NPCs to adapt all of them, even at the beginning of NeJ2 you'll have to chose between new Jaheira and Accalia, then you'll get 2 more NPCs, and 3 NPCs when you start the second part of NeJ2, and I cannot imagine how is it possible to bring more NPCs from BP into the group from other mods without concluding NeJ2. All our NPCs are very valuable, have interesting stories, banters, interjections and quests, and Leina is a romantic NPC. But again beside incompatibility issues, this is really up to you, and I won't provide any technical support for those who play BP + NeJ2.

Well the part in Nej2 that really takes me, is the introduced event in my favorite country - Halruaa (I don't know if you have red "Counselors & Kings", by Elaine Cunningham (as the FR book it's quite good, compering to some others), but this magical dreamland just took over my mind, and I shell give a lot to feel, help and play once more in this fantastic place (lol). Therefore, if you have any tasks associated with it, I'll gladly share my knowledge. Although, some parts of BP don't interest me, for ex. SOS, I would like certainly play TS, or at least TDD (besides small mods - but list of them i should probably write in "technical discussion"). However as NEJ2 is beta, I understand that there can be some "issues" with other big mods, simply because it is huge project and compatibility (for the previous mods) took anyway almost 2 years.... Though, because you are much deeper in that topic (heh, you created this great mod afterall) I think that you can predict more or less interaction or disruption between NEJ2 + TDD, or NEJ2 + TS (to this i will provide you with list of small mods - like tactics (huh BG2 needs a boost in difficulty area)).

small mod's list should be in technical discussion somewhere today('), afterall i think 'll place them here (sorry if I'll do this topic a little bit messy - but lol not much posts are here - yet

*first issue (probably already fixed - but important i guess for magic users) that i spotted (through in BG2+TOB+NEJ1 (TOB with patches + TDD 1.0.3, Nej1 1.3 - playing a little), if you have sorcerer, when you choose new spells while going on next level you don't have full list of them, because they don't simply fit on page, so you are forced to choose some others (really annyoing, when you want to play with new tactics) - (there should be some form of "rolling bar" (the one on far right of the screan of IE that allows you to move up and down - my english kills me sometimes )), but afterall it is also possible that I just missed sth. anyway I just mention this, as long as i think it is preety essential yo play not to fix

TS + NeJ2 - sure are compatible (just install first TS v5.01 + three patches 5.03, 5.04, and 5.05)

TDD + NeJ2 - are not compatible for sure

NeJ2 + small WeiDU mods are probably compatible but testing and solving compatibility problems are up to you.

Heh as i promised here is the list of small mods - sure i take responsibiliy that game can crash for me (hopefully not), but I think that you can exclude those that you are certain will not worrk with NEJ2. Anyway all the mods (or they specific parts - named y each one) are those that I WANT to include in the instalation, thus even if some of them contain other parts, like for ex. Easy of Use, I'll not install parts that are not mentioned under here. (heh I have alredy printed and red 300 pages of printed info about BG2, please then if you have time look at this stuff below - i can serv with further description if you will need anything:)

WEIDU – all under here (all of them are compatible with SOA & TOB – description in each one indicates where they occur or where their effects work):

Shops & items:

1. grimuar – adds grimuars in random spots (SOA)

2. Tzshop – stores in SOA and TOB

3. The improved Volcano – store in TOB (adds new spells)

4. Underrepresented – store in (SOA)

5. Stuff of the Magi

6. “Pamiatki z polnocy”: (SOA)
a. Edit 33 items form (SOA)
b. 35 items form NTotSC
c. New powers in pocket plane

7. Enhanced SOA – (SOA)
a. Additional merchant in Waukeen’s Promenade

8. AbyStorev18


Spells:
1. Teleport – spells that transport team form are to area (even
form TOB back to SOA)

2. SPitems – 4 new spells

3. Spell50


Add NPC:
1. Sulafein Mod (SOA)


Race:
1. Subrace


Kits:
1. Run (ruinic bladesinger)

2. Druidic Sorcerer


Quest mods:
1. Ajoc’s Minimod (SOA) – previously created for TDD

2. PlanarSphere mod + 40 new spells (SOA)

3. Ascension (all of it) TOB

4. Deeper Shadows of Amn (form this mod following elements):
a. Red Dragon – Grothgar (2nd element) – in Firkraag’s cave (after
killing him) (SOA)
b. Spirit of Shadow Dragon (Dracolich) (under Cooper Cornet in
Mynacoid area – 24h after killing them) (SOA)
c. The curse of Shadow Master (Grave Yard District, lower
graves – Korgan’s Kaza book quest area – 24h after dealing
with opponents there) (SOA)

5. Desecration of souls (SOA):
a. 4 new shops
b. New Tavern in Slums district + quests associated with it
c. Modification of some other SOA areas
d. New itmes


Improvements:
1. DoTweak:
a. Improved “goodberries” (2nd level druid spell)
b. Dimension door spell
c. Improvement in enchantment of weapons (also form
summoned creature like Devas)

2. Imroved Asylum (SOA):
a. Improved Asylum
b. New lich from Spellhold (empty library on 1st level of Spellhold)

3. Oversight (TOB)
a. Improved Sendai
b. Improved spells

4. Revised HellTrials (without class modifications) (SOA)

5. Unfinished Businessem (SOA)
a. The Kidnapping of Boo
b. Kalah and What he was promised
c. Cat and mouse: Bodhi hunts you in Spellhold
d. Gorje Hilldark and the Extended Illithium Quest
e. The Pai’Na/Spider’s Bane Quest
f. Restored Crooked Crane
g. Artemis Enteri in Bodhi’s Lair
h. Corrected “Xzar’s Creations”
i. Gorf the Squisher Fix
j. Item Restoration
k. Restored Bhaalspawn powers

6. Item Upgrade

7. Easy of Use:
a. Multi-Class Grand Mastery
b. True Grand Mastery
c. Wear Magical Armor and Magic Rings
d. Un-Nerfed THAC0 Table , Saving Throws, Grand-Mastery, and
Arcane, Divine Spell Progression
e. XP Cap Remover
f. Bottomless Bag of Holding
g. Multiple Strongholds
h. Shapeshifter Rebalancing
i. Female Edwina
j. Rest Anywhere

8. Tactics (all of it except new classes) (SOA&TOB)


Override mods:

Spells:
1. DragonSummon


Improvements:
1. tzbg2hla – add mage’s HLA


Race:
1. templates – new races (chose during the game)



Ok, well that's all of them, heh I would not be suprised if sb would get pissed off at me... however if things are clearly not compatibile with NEJ2 it will makes things for me easier

Hmm and my last question. Will you also fully update whole web page about NEJ2 with descriptions of kits, npc, races, spells, some other critical issues - or you will include them in readme file??

just a quick reply about yr installation, mysterium..

re: no scrolling bar in spell selection for sorcerer. this is caused by TDD, and is a known design flaw. it;s not a bug as such, but ther is not fix or workaround, as the spell choosing screed is hard-coded into the BGII engine - ie, if you add too many spells, you simply can't see them all on the spell selection screen. the only solution is to add the spells you want via the cluaconsole or a game editor. TDD will also be incompatible with the two kit mods you installed, as TDD maxes out the number of kits the game engine can handle.

however, as vlad advises that TDD is not compatible with NEJ2, you may well have uninstalled it already.

re: smaller mods. DOS, whilst a good mod, makes destructive and non-campatible changes to the slums area. if NEJ2 (or any other mods you've got installed) *also* make changes to the slums area, yr likely to get - at best - bugs, and more likely a crash to desktop when you try and enter the slums. if you *really* want the items added by DOS (and i wouldnt be surprised if you did: many of them are well suited to NEJ, as they offer cold-resistance), try installing Dark Ritual instead - it adds all of the items, but not the quests.

Wow, fast replay seanas... Thanks. Hmmm thanks for the point about slums, I was also concened about reinstalling over and over thesame area by different mods - good point with ritual I'll look for it. The outcome of this situation porbably will involve uninstalation of TDD and my resignation from it. Thus according to kit mods, druidic sorcerer however as additional kit for druid DOES work with TDD (both programist from this one and TDD made it compatibilie, and probably it is an only mod that can do it with the bg team mod. But this is the backup that I count on, lol thanks man (I assume you're guy....) Then if I'll instal SOA+TOB+TS+NEJ2, which small mods from the list before will work with it, and which willl crash the game instantly (other then you mentioned)?? Huh waiting for more feedback, thanks again:)

I have no idea about all these mods, I've never played them, it's wothwhile to check other forum boards for these compatibility questions. I know for sure:

1. Solaufein is not compatible with TS.
2. Kits should be added carefully (!).
3. Spells should be checked for their names because NeJ2 adds many spells (including innate abilities).
4. The only area modified in NeJ2 is AR0700 (Waukeen's Promenade). Although I have modified some area scripts, I have extended them using WeiDU functions so there should be no compatibility problems.
5. Multi-Class Grand Mastery, True Grand Mastery, Multiple Strongholds, Restored Twisted Rune are already in TS and can be installed separately if you wish.
6. Improved Dimension Door is a spell from NeJ2.

Good luck!