AC'S MISCELLANEOUS TWEAKS

OVERVIEW:

AC's Miscellaneous Tweaks is a motley collection of stuff I made for personal use that grew overtime, in no small part thanks to the help I received from the modding community. As everything in this mod is tailored to my preferences, I'm not sure how much demand there's going to be for it—but if you're among the few whose interest is piqued, I hope you'll enjoy it!


CONTENT:


MISCELLANEOUS TWEAKS

The component that started it all. Here's what it does:

- Replace the Potion of Extra Healing's and Potion of Superior Healing's original icons with recolored potion icons from BG1 to better fit the look of the other potions in the game.
- Updated the icon for Marek's Potion of Antidote and Vial of Strange Liquid to the unique icons intended for them (and left unused in the game's files.) BGT only.
- Replace the icons for the Wand of Cursing, Wand of Spell Striking, Rod of Reversal, and Rod of Absorption with recolored icons from BG1 because I felt these items are too cool to live with the poor-looking icons they had.
- Change the icon and color of the SoA Battle Axe +2 to those of BG1's Battle Axe +2.
- Replace the Axe of the Unyielding's original icon with a recolored icon from BG1.
- Replace the Chill Axe's original icon with recolored icon from BG1 and change its color to better match the new icon. Siege of Dragonspear only.
- Swap the generic icon for the Silver Dragon Plate with a recolored icon from the Red Dragon Scale that IMO looks a lot better. Recolored the armor to look less metal and more silver dragon, including a glow effect. Enhanced Editions only.
- Replace Rancor's original icon (clearly a recolored long sword) with a recolored 2H sword icon from BG1. Enhanced Editions only.
- Replace the Abyssal Blade's original icon (also clearly a recolored long sword) with a recolored 2H sword icon from BG1. Enhanced Editions only.
- Increased the size of Barrytil's Burden to match the size of other rings. (The original icon is actually a recolored Ring of Energy, so I simply recolored it again to get the bigger size without loss of quality.) Enhanced Editions only.
- Change the original icon for the Dragonscale Armor in Siege of Dragonspear with a recolored icon from BG2 and changed its color to better match the new icon. Siege of Dragonspear only.
- Change the original icon for the Martyr's Morning star with a recolored icon from BG1. Siege of Dragonspear only.
- Change the original icon for Severance with a recolored icon from BG1. Siege of Dragonspear only.
- Change the original icon for the Ward of Water Elemental Summoning with a recolored icon from BG1. Siege of Dragonspear only.
- Reduced the size of the Ring Of The Tiny Fiend, Bracers of the Shuddered Lid, Seal of Caelar, Stone Dowser, Wardstone, Wineskin, and a few others to better fit the size of other icons in the game. Siege of Dragonspear only.
- Restore the Cloak of Mirroring to its original behavior from Shadows of Amn, before the nerf hammer came along with Throne of Bhaal. The cloak now once again reflects direct-damage spells back at the caster.
- Restore the original icons for all bonus merchants' items in SoA if 1PP is installed. I like to play with 1PP but the icons it gives these items just don't do it for me. BGT only.
- Restore the infinite number of charges on the Cloak of Algernon. Enhanced Editions only.


USE BG/SOD PORTRAITS IN SOA/TOB

This component is pretty much the same thing as CamDawg's Continuos NPC Portraits, except it also restores the original BG1 colors to all returning characters. Though really, had I known about CamDawg's mod ahead of making this component, I probably wouldn't have.

Classics only.


USE ORIGINAL PORTRAITS FOR EE NPCs

Not everyone will know that ahead of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition's release, Beamdog's characters (Dorn, Neera, and Rasaad) had slightly different portraits. 

Rasaad was wearing red, which looked spiffy but was probably changed to make it easier to see when he's injured.

Dorn was given an inexplicable bluish tint right before release, which always baffled me because it looked so much better without. 

Neera was given a pink tint, which made her portrait less ... loud. But the loud version fits BG1 portraits (and her personality) better in my opinion. 

As it turns out, good old Glint Gardnersonson also had a different pre-release portrait from what shipped with Siege of Dragonspear. This component now restores that as well, and recolors his hair to match the new (or, technically, old) portrait.

So here are the original portraits in all of their glory, as I saved them before Beamdog changed them. Enjoy!

Enhanced Editions only.


USE EE COLORS FOR JOINABLE NPCs

The Enhanced Editions recolored all joinable NPCs, in most cases availing themselves of the extended palette to better match the colors in each character's portrait. I find they did a good job and generally like the color combinations they went for, so I ported them to the classics. This component requires 1PP's extended palette entries.


EE-STYLE DESCRIPTIONS

You know how the Enhanced Editions adopted a standardized template for item descriptions that is nice and clean and easy to read? Yeah, I love that. I was never a fan of the messy, inconsistent item descriptions from the classics. If you too feel this way, look no further: with this component, you can have the same template in the classics too. I included items from Unfinished Business because I always have that installed so I figured, why not?

Classics only.


BG-STYLE ARCHERY FOR SOA/TOB

Another nerf hammer reversal, this component restores bows and arrows to their full BG1 glory across the saga. Fun for all versions of the game!


RESTORE BG/BGII INVENTORY ICONS AND COLORS

This one was born as a component for the Enhanced Editions (and still exists in that form in another mod that's still unreleased), then slightly altered to fit the classics. 

Why? 

Two reasons: 1PP, which I always use, does not have a "purist" component that goes full-on BG1 on BG1 items and full-on BG2 on BG2 items; rather, it offers its own recolors which you may or may not like. Second, I did not know how BGT handled item icons and colors and adapting this component was quicker and easier than to go through a BGT installation just to check.

If you install this, all items that existed in BG1 will get their original icons, illustrations, and colors as they had in the unmodded BG1 game; likewise all BG2 items as in the unmodded BG2 game. Note that items that exist in both games get the BG1 treatment because I like it better.

Classics only.


RESTORE BG FLAMING FIST & AMNIAN SOLDIER APPEARANCE

If you've played with Infinity Animations, you'll know that it changes all Flaming Fist fighters to use the fighter sprite, even though their cleric appearance in BG1 was, in my opinion, very much intentional. It gave Flaming Fist officers a unique look that set them apart and made them easily recognizable as the law enforcers in the game. This component restores their original look.

Similarly, Infinity Animations gives the Amnian Guard sprite from BG2 to the Amnian soldiers in Nashkel. I've never liked this change, as the BG2 animation really sticks out like a sore thumb in the context of BG1. Thus, this component reverses the change.

The component requires Infinity Animations as it's coded to work specifically with BG1 sprites.


DRAGON BREATH FIX

The implementation of dragons' breath weapons in BG2 is highly incosistent, as some are set as magical attacks and others aren't, and most qualify as spells of the "generalist" school, which means generalist mages and sorcerers (and wild mages if you're using ToBEx AfterLife) get an unduly +2 bonus to saving throws against them. Blue dragons are a whole different chapter, as their breath weapon is a repurposed Chain Lightning spell so pretty much everything about it is wrong.

This component addresses all of these problems by assigning school: NONE and removing the "magical attack" flag from all breath weapons. It also fixes the casting sound and animation on the blue dragon's breath weapon.

The component will be pulled if/when this fix makes it into the BG2 Fixpack.


RANDOM STUFF THAT NO ONE WANTS

As the name implies, this is another random collection of changes I've made for my personal use. If you like them too, I hope you'll enjoy playing with them. Note that most changes to helms were done with BG1 sprites in mind; it also requires 1PP extended palette entries.

- Recolor the Plate of Balduran so that it's actually black like its icon.
- Recolor the Blue Dragon Plate armor to something closer to the color of the blue dragon sprite.
- Recolor the Red Dragon Scale armor to something closer to the color of the red dragon sprite.
- Recolor the Dragon Helm so it's more in line with the recolored Red Dragon Scale armor.
- Recolor the Dragon Scale Shield so it's more in line with the recolored Red Dragon Scale armor.
- Recolor the Crimson Chain Mail so that it's actually crimson; also allow spellcasting while wearing it.
- Allow spellcasting in Drizzt's Mithral Chain Mail.
- Recolor the Robe of Vecna to a more lore-friendly black and change its appearance to a hooded robe.
- Tweak the appearance of the Helm of Brilliance and both versions of the Helm of the Rock.
- Recolor Roranach Helm.
- Recolor and tweak the appearance of Vahilor's Helm.
- Change Corthala's Family Armor's appearance to that a leather armor and recolor to make it closer to its icon.
- Recolor Corthala's Family Blade to look coloser to its icon.
- Change the icon of the Sword of Flame and Flaming Long Sword; give the latter the flaming sword model.
- Recolor the Shield of Harmony so it looks closer to its 1PP icon when using the Legacy Shields component.
- Remove the minor and major colors from Semaj's Cloak.
- If using BG1 sprites, change Anomen's sprite to that of a cleric because looks.
- If Infinity Animations is installed, assign the death tyrant sprite to death tyrant CRE files (v6 of Infinity Animations should do this already.) In BGII:EE, assign the death tyrant sprite to death tyrant CRE files and fix the personal space and ellipse parameters in the relative INI file.
- Replace the SoA long sword of Balduran with the actual bastard sword of Balduran from TotSC.
- Strip colors from Knave's Robe, Adventurer's Robe, and Traveller's Robe so that they keep the wearer's colors instead. They have also been assigned different armor levels to make it easier to distinguish them.
- Set colors for the robes of the archmagi as per Mr. Pennyway's Cosmetic Changes, with but a few minor modifications.

EE SOUNDSETS

A very simple (conceptually; less so to code but thankfully skellytz saved the day) component that ports all new soundsets added by the Enhanced Editions to the classics. Some of them are really good.


EE PORTRAITS

An even simpler component that ports all new portraits added by the Enhnaced Editions to the classics.


EE SLINGS

In BG1, all slings automatically added strength bonuses to damage rolls. In BG2, none of them did except the Sling of Seeking, which added strength bonuses to damage rolls as its special ability.

The Enhanced Editions harmonized sling behavior across games by adding strength bonuses to damage rolls for all slings, and changing the Sling of Seeking's ability to being able to fire magical bullets when none are equipped.

In BGT, slings are treated inconsistently: BG1's slings add strength to damage rolls and BG2's don't. This mod component rectifies that by adopting the Enhanced Editions' solution for classic BGT.


REVENANT ANIMATION FIX

In the Enhanced Editions, the revenant creature makes use of the zombie animation and soundset even though a dedicated revenant animation exists with its accompanying dedicated soundset. This component assigns the latter to revenant CRE files to correct for this oversight.


SOD SOUNDSETS FOR BG:EE

Siege of Dragonspear has some badass soundsets for joinable characters. This component allows you to use them in BG:EE as well with all characters that exist in both games. The "mixed" version covers SoD CRE files as well and provides the SoD soundset integrated with a few selected lines from the BG:EE soundsets that will randomly play in alternative to the SoD ones.



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'm new to modding and, let's face it, not very good at it.

This mod would not exist without the generous, friendly help of people like skellytz (who single-handedly coded the soundset component), kjeron, Gamemacik, Jarno Mikkola, Insomniator, Graion Dilach (who was instrumental in making the SoD soundset component work) and ALIEN.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to Cuv, Miloch, CamDawg, Troodon80, and Argent77 for helping me with advice and coaching when I moved my first steps into modding and several times thereafter.

Finally, thanks to Beamdog for reviving interest in these games, birthing a new generation of modders while drawing veterans back, and still patching the Enhanced Editions almost ten years after their initial release.
