Any good "unofficial patch" type of mods?

[Novice]

I was looking around at some mods for BG2:EE, but it's kinda difficult to find what I want exactly. All of the mods are scattered around across dozens of different websites, and it's difficult for me to know which aren't out-of-date or do things outside of their main purpose.

What I mean is, I've seen several mods that fix bugs in questlines or event triggers and such, BUT then also add the modders own flavour of game "rebalances" like changing ability or spell classification/categorization or also change cast time for something, and then also change XP progression for some classes.

I want to avoid that second part. I don't feel that there's a need to make the game easier. I just want fixes, not tweaks.

So basically, I want to find a bug/glitch fix mod that is working behind the screen that I won't notice. I don't even have to know all of its corrections. I want the feeling that things are working more to their original design and intent, and that nothing has been made easier in the game secretly.

Hopefully, you guys can suggest something. I'll read all of your suggestions, or also arguments that I shouldn't be picky, or whatever.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

I'm not into modding games, unless it's a widely advertized highly praised mod that affects gameplay.

A primary issue with mods for BG2EE is that the first release of the enhanced edition is more than 8 years old. Most mods are for the original game only or have received minor updates to support the enhanced edition version 1 series. However, over the past years the EE has seen major updates with hundreds to thousands of fixes/changes, particularly the version 2 series (currently at v2.6.6). And that invalidates old mods.

So, if you search for mods, ensure that a mod is really for a recent v2 release of the EE - perhaps community effort at fixing some known issues Beamdog haven't touched yet. But there is no holy grail, and mod authors possibly have changed things because they have developed strong feelings about them, like disagreeing with how Beamdog handles spells/abilities/items, and it may be that you won't like such changes applied by a mod.

More generally, I would play the official v2.6.6 and only search for fixes, if you absolutely run into issues. Beamdog still accept bug reports, btw.

[Hopper]

I don't think unofficial patches are necessary at all. I've played these games a silly amount of time and have never ran into any game-breaking bugs. Crashes are also extremely rare and are usually caused by me messing around with mods.

Also if something does go wrong, you can use debug mode or a save editor to fix most problems.

[Amberbaum]

The big fixpacks are reduntant for the EE versions.

https://gibberlings3.github.io/Documentation/readmes/readme-bg2fixpack.html

EE versions are being actively developed on, thus there is no reason to create an EE fixpack - at least for now.

[Novice]

I guess the short answer to my question is no, then.

Thank you for all your lengthy sincere responses, even though some of them weren't very helpful.

I've tried, but you can't debug your way out of everything. When I tried to bring back a companion that had disappeared, they didn't interact in their quest anymore, so I had to leave their quest incomplete for that playthrough.

There's also no need to need to make excuses for developers not including a fail quest stage when an essential NPC goes Thanos snap out of the universe.

It's also a poor deflecting to say that development is still happening since I can clearly see that the last update was almost a year ago! What if my issue doesn't get resolved this year or the next?

---

Okay, that's enough of my venting. My original comment would have been a lot longer, but I cut it since it was just going to be my specific issues with different quests bugs.

For now, I think this Baldur's Gate II Fixpack is the best I'm gonna find. Thank you for the suggestion, Amberbaum.

[Amberbaum]

Publicado originalmente por Novice:

It's also a poor deflecting to say that development is still happening since I can clearly see that the last update was almost a year ago! What if my issue doesn't get resolved this year or the next?

Excuse you? We provided you with the information you were asking for to the best of our abilities. What do expect us to do? So what if it was 1 year ago? I play their NWN EE games and it also took a while for them to get tot the next patch. Talk to the modders(who aren't here) if they are kind enough to help you out or go to the official Beamdog forum(modders and devs are there). There is a reason why modders didn't bring out a fixpack for EE yet.

And please don't install the BG2 Fixpack. It wasn't made for the EE versions and will basically skip all the main components automatically. Did you even read the documentation I've linked here? I linked it to show you that there are no fixpacks for the EE versions. Small fixes I am aware off are outdated.

"Baldur's Gate II Enhanced Edition - The Fixpack developers work with the Enhanced Editions to include the bugfixes deirectly into the Enhanced Editions. As such, the main components (Core Fixes, Game Text Update, BETA Core Fixes) are unavailable for install and will be skipped automatically. Some of the Optional But Cool components are available. "

Optional But Cool content are basically tweaks, which is what you didn't wanted.

Seriously if you want to get your voice heard go to the Beamdog forum. I really mean it. Modders and developers aren't on the Steam forum. Or go there:

https://www.gibberlings3.net/
http://www.shsforums.net/

[Novice]

Don't worry, I didn't miss that part yesterday when I read the mod page and then coming here to make my previous comment. When I said 'no' at the beginning and 'yes' at the end, those were responses to different realizations.

No, at the beginning meant that I understood that there wasn't a perfect solution for me.

And then, when I said Fixpack was the best I'm gonna find, I meant it was closest to my original demand about being purely just patches or fixes. But then I noticed it isn't compatible with me, so I said thanks for trying, at least. You were the only one to link me something.

Maybe it's my problem that I expected this game to be similar to TES, or other rpg games under Bethesda for example, where the most downloaded mods are big unofficial patch mods with millions of downloads. Haha

It was worth a shot to ask, at least.

[Amberbaum]

Publicado originalmente por Novice:

-snip-

The modding scene for the BG series games(infinity engine in general) were always pretty dedicated and "surprisingly" active for such an old game. It's just that the EE versions still counts as being "actively being developed on" hence why modders focus currently on adding more content, strategy and tweak mods. Another thing that is important to know is that the EE versions split a small amount of modders in the original series camp. Think of Skyrim legendary vs the SSE version. Big updates like the 2.6 update also brought more dissaray into the modding scene. Players were freaking out that the new update broke their modded games.

It took a while to get their mods up to 2.6. Bug reports for mods are sparse.

[Novice]

Wow, secret community lore here. I guess that all sounds legit, and I'm nobody to argue against it. I wanted to ask about mods because I had felt something similar. I assumed such a classic PC RPG would have some kind of modding community still, and this explains its current state.

Just now today I encountered a companion NPC bug. Anomen got stuck underground after a fight where he got knocked down or something. Basically, he only had the top of his head slightly visible. Even if I teleported him(ctrl+f), he'd still be stuck in the ground at the same depth, if that makes any sense(only top of the head only slightly visible). Even teleporting him to an area transition edge and fast-travelling would keep him submerged underground in the next map/area.

After I got done with his quest all I could do was to dismiss him or keep him a ranged character, a ranged character who'd shoot through the ground, or keep manually teleporting him to enemies I wanted him to fight with his weapon, which would have been too cheap for me.

[Gank Hill]

Publicado originalmente por Amberbaum:

The big fixpacks are reduntant for the EE versions.

https://gibberlings3.github.io/Documentation/readmes/readme-bg2fixpack.html

EE versions are being actively developed on, thus there is no reason to create an EE fixpack - at least for now.

thanks! this is exactly what i needed to hear :)

[Dante]

I'm not a friend of mods that change mechanics or add additional / cut content BUT such a UI mod is mandatory!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3011600787

Dragonspear UI++

Also available for BG1.

[pluto9]

I only installed UI improvement mods.

1. Dragonspear UI++ (I like its integrated inventory management)
2. Hidden Gamplay Options (only installed "Show Area of Effect Range" and "Enhanced Path Search")