FORWORD & THANK YOU:
By JediMindTrix on 15.12.2015
Merry Christmas!

This work began behind-the-scenes in mid-August, but due to a persona' tragedy, was shelved for several months. Part of coping is returning to the things you love doing, and consequently I decided to dive back in once I found some free time. Cuv's idea to make this release a christmas present to the community was an attractive one and I've been hammering this release out for the last fourteen hours to make it a reality. Unfortunately, it's only christmas in a few timezone's still, but I hope the present is appreciated nonetheless!

My initial motivation came when I started a playthrough of the EE trilogy and found to my disappointment that Ascension was still incompatible (except for a clanky workaround) with what I felt were superior editions of my favorite game. I realized that if I wanted to play a solid implementation of one of my Bread & Butter mods, I'd have to make it happen myself. I had absolutely NO clue what I was doing, but yet, four 1/2 months later, here we are. 

I'd like to take a moment to thank WhiteAgnus especially (who I asked many an obnoxious question too) and the community at Gibberlings3 for answering numerous questions for me (Jarno Mikolla, Mike1072, subtledoctor,  especially!) and anyone else who helped along the way (lynx, argent77, gwendolyne, Demivrgs, jalily come to mind).

All of JediMindTrix's work is dedicated to Charles Hein, beloved cousin and best friend.

ABOUT THIS BETA
At present, this build is a combination of two different builds: The mythical Cuv build (which itself is heavily based on work by Turumbar and Miloch), and a build by WhiteAgnus and myself (JediMindTrix). Most of the The Ascension component comes from the Cuv/Turumbar/Miloch build. Everything else (save Cuv's Portrait!) comes from the WhiteAgnus/JediMindTrix build.

I want to stress that this is a BETA, not a final release. Just because everything installs without an error does not mean everything is working as intended. This is where the community comes in: I do not have time for a lot of beta-testing (long workweeks!) myself, so I am counting on everyone to report everything they find from simple typo's or grammatical errors in dialogue to enormous Fallout-Sized termite infestations (hopefully I sprayed all of these!)

I also want to stress that all of the work done was geared towards producing a release that was EE-focused/friendly. While not strictly incompatible with Biogate, this would probably need some tweaking/know-how to keep backwards compatible. Perhaps in the future this may become a priority, but for now I am focused on the Enhanced Editions and the inevitable Siege of Dragonspear updates.

CHANGELOG/CREDITS
I felt it easiest to describe who did what and also display what's changed by using this method:

16.01.2019 (CamDawg, whiteagnus)
- Updated portrait handling
- Latest DS from SCS now updated and working
- Fix loading of wrong tra files
- Fix @3010 reference in german setup.tra

14.11.2018 (github collaborators)
- russian, spanish, polish translations provided through BGforge weblate project
- DS update and code clean up for EE game v2.5
- Extended epilogues installable for all languages
- externalized fixes where still needed
- cosmetic and other minor enhancements contributed during last year by various supporters

19.06.2017 (badungu)
- Fixed some Dead Triggers
- Cosmetic changes
- Updated to WeiDU v241

18.06.2017 (badungu)
- Included Slayerfix for Enhanced Edition

05.12.2016 (agb1)
- Resolved installation issues when installing on non-Enhanced Edition BG2:ToB or BGT-WeiDU (BG2 Fixpack is now a prerequisite for non-EE installations; BG2 Fixpack should NOT be installed for EE)

04.20.2016 (agb1)
- Updated WeiDU version to 24000
- Removed component 999 (workaround until new WeiDU version)

04.11.2016 (agb1)
- EET fix - Replaced KAISHAS_CHANGE in finiren.baf and finmel.baf with WIZARD_COMET (KAISHAS_CHANGE is a duplicate IDS entry for WIZARD_COMET that EET removes)
- BG2EE fix - Replaced 30/60 with FIVE_ROUNDS/TEN_ROUNDS in ABAZDRAG_o6.baf and ABAZDRAG_n6.baf

26.09.2016 (Quitch)
- Add new Bodhi dialogue to other languages
- Give Bodhi dialogue after Irenicus dies

06.08.2016 (AL|EN)
- include files from fixpack
- include fixes from fixpack
- update WeiDU 239.01
- normalize all the line endings
- updated changelog
- fix file system case sensitive
- rename tags to something meaningful
- removed 'backup' branch because it's the same code
- removed ascensionBETA5232016.7z binary from repository
- cleanups

08.06.2016 (Edvin/Aedan)
- Italian translation for Shawne's EE Epilogue's by Aedan
- Czech translation (Ascension rewritten, also Shawne's components translated) by Edvin
 
23.05.2016 (WhiteAgnus/JediMindTrix)
- Installer woes should now be fixed.
- Installer should also now properly apply the correct version of the description for Sarevok's Sword of Chaos to EE/BioGate (English and Italian ONLY).
- EDIT: Forgot to note that Restored Bhaalspawn Powers should now check to see if the version included in PPG's Unfinished Business is installed already (I believe they are functionally identical, even if written separately.)

20.05.2016 (All @Aedan)
- Italian translation updated!
- American translation typo and grammar fixes!
- Sarevok's sword description updated to EE standards. CURRENTLY EE version only, backwards compatibility to BioGate incoming.

08.04.2016 (All @WhiteAgnus)
- Killing Balthazar will no longer prevent you from being able to access the Throne of Bhaal.
- The final fight will now progress correctly after the Five are dead.
- Alternate portraits fix.

20.01.2016
- Yaga-Shura will no longer be immobile. At any point in the battle (it is a Tougher component, afterall).

15.01.2016
- Balthazar's Adherants (unique Monks) should now properly spawn when entering his monestary for the final time.

14.01.2016
PACKAGE
- Fixed patching errors on spell abilities -JediMindTrix
- Reorganized several files, corrected typo's -WhiteAgnus, JediMindTrix
- Fixed Translation Encoding                           -WhiteAgnus
- Detectable Spells and HANDLE_CHARSETS moved into components that utilize them -WhiteAgnus

ASCENSION - MAIN COMPONENT
- Fixed gamebreaking bug where bridges to the pools were not spawning in endgame. This was accomplished through a restructuring and rewriting of code. UNTESTED with BODHI. -JediMindTrix
- Pool fix implemented                -WhiteAgnus
- melis02.spl updated to DS v3  -WhiteAgnus
- Fixed minor script errors         -WhiteAgnus

TOUGHER DEMOGORGON
- Fixed Demogorgon's A.I. script, mismatched variables were causing him to stand still after timestop -JediMindTrix
- Changed Summon the Infernal Host to Summon the Abyssal Host to be lore accurate -JediMindTrix

RESTORED BHAALSPAWN POWERS
- Dark Taint converted to patching, big credit to Gwendolyne for generously allowing use of their code :) -JediMindTrix, mainly Gwendolyne

NEW COMPONENTS
- Shawne's Revised Epilogue's       -shawne
- Shawne's Revised Epilogue's - EE NPC's -shawne
- Original Ascension Epilogue's -WhiteAgnus
- ANYONE EA.IDS hotfix for mod compatibility -WhiteAgnus

15.12.2015
Cuv/Turumbar/Miloch (Some WhiteAgnus as well!)
- Ascension: A vertex bugfix for patching AR6200.
- Ascension: Balthazar's Solar Stance should no longer freeze the game.
- Ascension: Improved item descriptions (slightly more flair).
- Ascension: Rewritten dialogues should now be compatible with Enhanced Edition.
- Ascension: Slayer change should no longer cause death after reverting to humanoid form.
- Ascension: Various undocumented script fixes/changes I assume Cuv/Turumbar/Miloch made but have yet to discover. Also script fixes by WhiteAgnus.
- Ascension Portraits: Bodhi's Endgame Ascension portrait has been made to be optional, and a completely ORIGINAL by Balthazar portrait by Cuv is now optional as well (I love it!)

WhiteAgnus/JediMindTrix
- AutoTRA and HANDLE_CHARSETS: special thanks to WhiteAgnus(he thanks jastey!), making this all possible!
- Detectable Spells v3 Implementation: special thanks to WhiteAgnus for making this one a reality! (The other time had it done as well by time resources were pooled :) )
- Ascension: Four unique monks should now spawn in place of four standard monk's in the final confrontation with Balthazar! Thanks to DavidW for reporting this... years, and years.
- Ascension: Included erik's fix for the obnoxious Grease icon appearing in spell selection screens.
- Ascension: Corrected various spelling/grammar errors (Americanized English), as well as a few misspelled location names in the epilogues.
- Ascension: NUMEROUS spell overwrites that were everything from ancient Detectable Spells implementations to bugfixes to accidents have been removed.
- Restored Bhaalspawn Powers: Now in it's own component!
- Restored Bhaalspawn Powers: Bugfixes - Evil resistances should hopefully now stack with other resistances, several fixes to Dark Taint including Slow Saving Throw and Level Progressions. Note that this component, until WeidU239 is released, overwrites BHAAL2B.SPL. It also uses the Ascension method of implementing Hand of Murder, which when comparing with Unfinished Business' version, appears to be the better version.
- Tougher Gromnir: Dorn should now correctly interject at the appropriate time.
- Tougher Yaga-Shura: Fixed random crashes caused by darts being placed in quiver. (Kind of reinvented the wheel here)

BETA-TESTER REQUESTS
- I am very interested to know if Dark Taint's bonus damage is applying properly!
- I am very interested in knowing if Evil Bhaalspawn DR really is stacking properly with all other sources, especially Hardiness and Barbarians!)
- Thorough testing on the main Ascension component.

Feel free to post bugs to this thread or send by private message! A buglist will be kept elsewhere for now as I would like to be able to indefinitely maintain it.

IMPORTANT:
If ANYONE knows, or possesses a copy of PRE-WEIDU Ascension, please send it to me! I am after it's .bcs files to update and fix script errors (a compiler error left some creatures without the code to use their new abilities! This bug has persisted for over a decade =D).

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?
I fully intend to keep working on this project until I'm satisfied it's the best it can be.
Goals for the next version:
1) Integrating both builds more fully to take advantage of bugfixes and streamlining from the Cuv/Turumbar/Miloch build
2) As close to a bugfree release as possible
3) An optional extreme Demogorgon component from before the current Tougher Demogorgon's beta-testing.

Future Updates:
1) Custom BAMs for Unique Bhaalspawn Powers
2) New epilogue's for EE-NPC's if their writers feel like contributing (not sure I qualify to make those decisions quite like Gaider did for the original NPCs)
3) Original Ascension .bcs script fixes
4) Siege of Dragonspear compatibility
5) Improved mod compatibility
6) Dark Taint converted to patching

Happy holidays and have fun everyone!

Cheers,

-JediMindTrix
