Betrayal at Krondor - Beginner's game MOD

The purpose of this is to help new players get into B.A.K with providing them with better starting Weapons, Armour and some useful accessories. It's not about giving them the best of everything, just enough to carry them further while hopefully not taking the fun out of it by just rushing them though the game.

But Why?

I can sense BAK veteran's eyes burning through me...As I stated, it's just to get peeps who are not familiar with these types of games a jump start, so they don't get wasted at the first encounter/trap. I first played BAK when it first arrived in 1993 and I was 12. It was a little frustrating having to try and figure it all out, while getting into fights almost constantly because I ventured into the wrong area and for good measure, zapped to death by a rotten trap or blown to bits by a booby trapped chest. Incidentally I got bored of it -sad I know because I did regret it, until a few years ago I went back and completed it, yay me!

What I wanted back then was, well an easier mode. Krondor doesn't have that, just straight in and no handholding of any kind and I totally respect that. I know alot of modern games handhold the player to death..and this hopefully is more of a kick out the door rather than holding the player's hand.

What I've provided can be changed if people think it's too much or need something else. Please tell me and I can change it. Last thing I want is peeps speed running with best gear and missing what we love about Krondor.

So, what have I got then?

Well let's start by what you haven't got:
Stats are kept the same (I did enhance most stats to +5 but decided against)
No extra keys (previously you did, but I removed them for balance)
No extra spells for Owyn/Pug/Patrus (pretty sure both have default)
No seals or special loot which you need to get out/in/kill/create with.

The Weapons, Armour and Staff you have can be compared in the Weapons | Armour | Staff section
In game cash: You have 15s instead of 14s, so +1 for you.

Fun stuff you could have

Your own name in game (max 9 characters)


It only works with the UI, when characters converse to each other, their original names appear. It may be possible to edit it so your name appears throughout the dialog, but it could crash the game, whereas this doesn't affect gameplay at all.

Note: To have your own name would require me or someone to manually edit the save game

Original Starting Equipment

Locklear

Owyn

Gorath

New Starting Equipment

Locklear

Owyn

Gorath

Weapons | Armour | Staff

For comparison:

Weapons




Armour


Staff

source : http://mikesrpgcenter.com/krondor/index.html

Setup | Download

All you need to do really is load the save game, which puts you right at the beginning exactly where a normal game would.

The file is called SAVE05.GAM. You can rename it to another number for e.g SAVE11.GAM if you so wish, just check beforehand your save file names, because obviously it will overwrite any saves with the same name, you've been warned!

For Steam users extract to: Betrayal Collection/Betrayal at Krondor/Games/
For DosBox: Whatever you've called it/Games/

If it works, you will see 'BaK NG+' in your Restore Game section



Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rcnfbfxw58pqb0e/BaK_NG.zip?dl=0

Guides & Tutorials

The BaK Help Web - The most comprehensive guide to BaK on the web.
RiP to the original creator: Eysteinn Björnsson
Now hosted by vga256 - Many thanks.
https://dimwood.net/krondor.html

Another very good guide: http://mikesrpgcenter.com/krondor/index.html
Helped me no end

For newbies and returning players, I recommend the guide by Xander https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1085028649

A very good Youtube walkthrough

Finally..

Everything is subject to change, none of it is perfect, I must of changed this about a dozen times..If you have anything to add (constructive criticism), let me know in the comments.

Thank you for trying this mod.

[Trollish8012]

I just restarted and am about 3-4 hours in. I already maxed out Barding on Locklear. I also am rocking 3 Dragon Plate Armors and am using a Keshian Tapir (Locky) as well as a Greatsword (Gorath) in the first Chapter.

Once you get enough done, you could even hit up the temple of Dala on that Northern Path and get the Armor Blessed. It's crazy how buff these guys are compared to 14 yr old me back in the day.

[GreyGeist]

Perfect. Thanks for the follow-up!

[ҥӵриӧѕ]

@GreyGeist I used "Universal Game Editor" - UGE, ran through DOSbox. You can find it here: https://archive.org/details/UGE10

[GreyGeist]

Thanks for the save file! It's made my nostalgic playthrough less tedious. Is there a tool besides Bak-Hack to edit those files? I can't make it run on Win10 and I'd rather not spin up a win98 vm.

[Xander77]

Thanks for the endorsement.