# Dace

A Spellhold Studios mod for Baldur's Gate 2: SoA & ToB

Author: Tess Grey

Mod Forum • GitHub • Version: 5.1

## Introduction

"I can see pretty easily what other people consider "good" an' "evil," and tell the difference, but I just don't understand why people get so concerned about doin' one or the other. Strikes me that the wisest thing to do is whatever the wisest thing is for whatever situation you're in, not whatever you've decided is some overarchin' truth. So I do "good" if I can profit and "evil" if I can profit and I won't get caught, and the hells can take the hindermost for all that I care which is which."

Dace Linton is a Chaotic Neutral human female bounty hunter, about 33 years old. She will come over and speak to your PC if you leave or enter through the lower archway of Waukeen's Promenade, where you can find her standing on the steps.

Dace is a slight, wiry woman with short brown hair and clothing of a decidedly nondescript colour and practical cut. She speaks in an unremarkable contralto voice, clipping some words strangely and finishing others with a slight lilt. She has a somewhat crooked grin, as though some emotion other than amusement always manages to twist her smile slightly at the last minute. Dace seems very fond of the notion of practicality but doesn't always practice what she preaches, and occasionally shows a streak of whimsicality that borders on ridiculousness. Ninety percent of the time she is operating on Full-Sarcastic, Half-Obnoxious mode, but she is also capable of brief moments of unique insight and kindness.

## Installation

##### PC

Dace NPC is a WeiDU mod packaged in an extractable ZIP archive. Extract the contents of the archive into your Baldur's Gate II directory and run "setup-dace.exe" (Windows), "setup-dace.command" (macOS), or "setup-dace.sh" (Linux), and follow the on-screen instructions.

To uninstall or change the components, simply run the setup file again and follow the prompts.

##### Compatibility and Installation Order

Dace should be compatible with all WeiDU mods, however, we cannot test every single one. If you do encounter an error, please report it on GitHub or post on the forums.

Although it is not required for the Dace NPC to function properly, it is always a good idea install the latest version of the BG2 Fixpack.

Throne of Bhaal must be installed to play Dace.

## Details

##### Friendship and Romance

Dace can join up with, befriend, and romance any PC of any race, any gender, any alignment. In theory. There are variables that will help to determine whether she actually chooses to do these things or not. Some evil characters might be able to keep her around, while others won't be able to. It depends upon how the PC acts, not upon the PC's alignment. However, if you're roleplaying a Lawful Good PC with any sort of integrity or reasonability, Dace just isn't going to dig your character much.

Dace talks a lot. If you like your NPC's quiet, if you play fast and don't have a banter accelerator installed, or if you get frustrated when an NPC seems to have something to say at nearly every turn, you might not be overly fond of Dace. She has a lot of banters with all the Bioware NPC's (at least five with each character and a rather longer "friendship" track with Viconia), a lot of interjections, and a very long set of tracks with the PC.

Dace's "tracks" with the PC are a little different from some of the standards out there, so be careful if and when you're using variable-forcing to speed up her talks. She begins on one set of dialogue and will switch to another if the conditions are right, i.e. if she likes your PC. After a while, she'll branch into one of two dialog "tracks," which could be considered the "romance" and "friendship" tracks.

Dace's "romance" portion sets in rather late in the game if you're playing normally. Your PC might very well be in or through a romance with another NPC at the point when Dace would conceivably switch to a romance track. If you are in a burgeoning romance (i.e. the romance variable with that NPC is set to "1" and the character is expressing interest in the PC) or in a committed romance (i.e. the romance variable with that NPC is set to " 2"), then Dace will not present the option of switching to her romance track. She'll see that you're either involved with or interested in someone else in the party and just won't even try--for various reasons, that's just the way she is. How you deal with this is up to you. You can play a different romance in the first part of your game and end it later if you want to romance Dace, but if you don't end it in time then you're out both romances. Yes, this means that Dace doesn't have "traditional" romance conflicts, and yes, this unfortunately means you might have to be a little bit of a jerk to Aerie/Kelsey/Sola/Viconia, etc. So if you're trying to romance Dace, keep that in mind. Otherwise, she'll always default to the friendship track if you're reasonably nice to her and can put up with her.

Dace's mood can swing pretty wildly, as can her responses to PC initiated flirts. These have a good number of various random outcomes, though, and they change several times during the game, so don't be afraid to keep bugging her. Her occasionally odd or crabby reactions do not mean doom for your possible romance.

## Credits

Writer: Tess Grey
WeiDU coding: K'aeloree
Contributors: jastey – coding and maintenance (versions 3.0–5.0)
skellytz – maintenance (version 5.1)
Lady Lesatho – original portrait
Ilmatar – alternative portrait
-AkumA+ – audio mastering
Testers: Arconian03
Oracle
Translators: Prostln – Russian
Music: "Lone Pine" by Gayle Ellett & Todd Montgomery
"Fall to Earth" by Jeremy Sherman
(Both of these are royalty-free and available for purchase online in their entirety.)
With thanks to: Celissa, who was a brilliant editor and advisor.
K'aeloree, who did all of the hard work and really made Dace happen.
Also, heartfelt thanks and/or sincere apologies to Trajan, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, and Ikkyu, all of whom were either quoted or totally ripped off in this mod.

##### Programs/tools used in creation:

- WeiDU, by Westley Weimer/Valerio Bigiani (the bigg)
- Near Infinity, by Jon Olav Hauglid
- Infinity Explorer, by Dmitry Jemerov/bigmoshi
- WinRAR, by Eugene Roshal/Alexander Roshal
- IESDP, maintained by igi
- WeiDU Mod Packager, by Argent77

##### Copyright Notice:

The Dace NPC was developed by Tess Grey, based on material from the game Baldur's Gate II and its expansion.

All mod content is © Tess Grey.

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal © TSR, Inc. The BioWare Infinity Engine is © BioWare Corp.

Please note that any and all redistribution and/or hosting of this mod is prohibited without permission from the author(s).

## Version history

###### 14th November 2024 - Version 5.1:

- Added support for translations with UTF-8 character encoding
- Added Russian translation by Prostln (thanks to paladin84)
- Added unique component labels for Project Infinity
- Repackaged with Windows, macOS, and Linux installers in a single ZIP archive (thanks to Argent77)

###### 10th March 2019 - Version 5 (by jastey):

- More cre file fixes by Creepin: XP values according to Dace's level, sex (female), and amount of thieving points. Also, distribution of thieving points was adjusted with regards to Dace's kit (Bounty Hunter).

###### 8th March 2019 - Version 4 (by jastey):

- Included Creepin's cre files fixes: Proficiency pips fixed for t#dace8, t#dace12 and t#dace14; Saving throws fixed for t#dace8 and t#dace14; THAC0 fixed for t#dace14; HP fixed for t#dace8, t#dace12 and t#dace14.cre.

###### 27th February 2019 - Version 3 (by jastey):

- last line in "clean your face" flirt restored (wrong tra reference)
- Edwin's Nether Scroll quest: Edwin will no longer turn hostile after Dace's interjection (added passback line to original character)
- fixed Dace-Sarevok interaction in ToB
- moved interjection from end-Melissan to earlier dialogue state so it doesn't screw the cutscene
- kickout and rejoin dialogue should work
- optimized dialogue trigger scripts (no timers in the dialogue triggers, !See([ENEMY]) etc in the activation script block, etc)
- optimimized order of actions in dialogues (EscapeArea() at the end of actions etc.)
- switched mixed-up DAMAGE and HURT lines
- removed Yoshimo's sound references from Dace's cre files
- Dace's higher level cres now use THIEF_FEMALE_HUMAN avatar, too
- first lines of banters weren't traified
- last Viconia's banter didn't use the correct dlg
- removed Undroppable flag from cre files Hellcat item reference (Dace should be able to equip the weapon after she died).
- Watcher's Keep interjections should trigger correctly and not end abruptly
- added STATE_NOTVALID trigger to dream script so hopefully CTD upon resting with Dace dead in Party doesn't occur again
- added "See("xxx")" to all interjections
- added "Global("T#Dace_WasInParty","GLOBAL",1)" if Dace was in party and changed her reappearances to MoveGlobal in case she was in party before.
- interjection into Illasera if in party will no longer end abruptly
- the whole "Dace and Illasera" scenarios should work as intended
- if not in party and not friendly: cutscene will spawn Dace near Illasera to prevent her from walking while Illasera is already attacking the PC
- fixed wrong DV call "Dace" for check whether Dace can talk (banter and rest talks)
- epilogues fixed (EXTEND_TOP + Continue())
- fixed references to t#dace25.cre and corrected tob dlg and script patching
- added missing copy of t#dace14.cre
- EET compatibility added
- updated ids patching
- added REQUIRE_COMPONENT ~dace.tp2~ to optional portrait component
- added dace.ini with mod info metadata
- update to WeiDU v246

###### 14th November 2013 - Version 1.3 (package name)/ 2 (tp2 version):

- BGII:EE compatibility

###### 3rd February 2013 - Version 1.2:

- Fixed bug where if Dace was dead, she would still try to trigger talks, crashing the game
- Re-fixed mage bug which was somehow not fixed at all
- Fixed ToB Watcher's Keep interjections
- Fixed Melissan interjection in ToB
- Fixed spiders-in-Sendai's-Lair interjection
- Fixed leaving party error
- Fixed Hellcat & Hellcat Sinclair so they actually do what they say they do

###### 22nd January 2013 - Version 1.1:

- Fixed bug with Spellcasters getting romance dialogue stutter in romance talk #6
- Included the bigg's IDS fix fixes

###### 3rd January 2013 - Version 1.0:

- Initial release