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    Quest mod for testing BGEE/SoD or EET

    RoxanneRoxanne
    edited August 2019 in - Balduran's Sea Tower
    Mod for BGEE/SoD and EET by Roxanne and Within Amnesia.

    V0.5 is Alpha release for testing
    It can be manually installed on BGEE with SoD or EET provided that you have not yet entered BG City in the BG1 part yet. In EET it must be installed prior SCS, Sandrah mod (if you use them), and prior EET_End.
    (Note: the mod does not support BGEE prior v2.5 or without SoD.)

    History: The massive Sea Tower of Balduran rested on a rocky island in the bay of Baldur's Gate. Named after Balduran, the tower could be reached by a bridge from the western shore linking it to the mainland. It was used as a barracks, naval base, dungeon, and fortress. It had a full armory and catapults to battle hostile ships.

    In the game: The legendary tower of Baldur's Gate's founder is located in the harbour of the city and can be found when passing west of the Water Queen temple along the city wall. You need a special pass to access the enclosed area.

    You find temples of Helm and Selune as well as a smithy in the area. The library museum contains a small exposition of Balduran's deeds that includes the sea charts describing his last journey. Below the tower are dungeons that may hold some surprises for the adventurer.

    There are two quests that can open the area for you.
    - One is Mendas' quest to obtain the sea charts for Balduran's Isle.
    - The other is given by Scar if you solved some of his other missions and he tasks you to look deeper into the source for all the doppelgangers who appeared in the city recently.

    Optional quests
    - help or defeat a black dragon
    - learn more about Balduran from a headless ghost
    - mind flayers below Baldur's Gate?

    Background information:

    Mod link:

    The mod adds 17 new areas to the city of Baldur's Gate, 7 new quests that involve/expand the main plot or existing side plots. There is also a connection to later events in SoD.
    There is still an unfinished component that may add the Armour and Weapon Emporium where some of the items from the various quests may be enhanced. Further quests around the Tower and the surrounding area may be added over time.

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    Comments

    • d2freakd2freak
      Awesome!
    • RoxanneRoxanne
      Maravenore said:
      really nice work.  
      What is the status of the mod exactly?   Is (Balduran Sea Tower) still alpha or is it fully playable?   And in any case, should I download and install it right now, would it suffice to replace the files of an earlier version with the most recent one's to keep playing through? Thanks
      It is fully playable in BGEE with SoD or EET. Consider it open beta by now (v 0.8).

      If you have some earlier version installed you need to uninstall it first. Otherwise there is no problem to add it to an existing game.

      In EET you must install it prior EET_end (or uninstall EET_end, install the mod, re-install EET_end) because of dialogues from Dynaheir, Imoen and others on the events.

      It should work in a running game if you have not yet crossed Wyrm's Crossing into the city of Baldur's Gate.

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    • BlashBlash
      Is version 0.9 to be considered stable and safe for a mega-mod install? I noticed it changed from red to blue in EET Install Tool.
    • RoxanneRoxanne
      Blash said:
      Is version 0.9 to be considered stable and safe for a mega-mod install? I noticed it changed from red to blue in EET Install Tool.
      Stable no
      Safe yes
      The emporium component is designed to be open for more items that can be forged there. They may be added from time to time. However, this is more of a store/item detail - the parts related to the mod's plots are implemented.

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    • eimerianeimerian
      In my playthrough, I have finally reached this area and tested it.

      Generally, I liked how this mod was introduced into the main story progression. It is another task you do for Scar before you are sent back to Candlekeep.
      My party was level 8 to 9 and had an easy time in the first part of the dungeon, and a hard time beating the second beholder/mindflayer dungeon (It was a welcome challenge, because even with XP reduction settings, I am much too overpowered at this time for most BG1 content).
      I was able to find some crossmod content with Sandrah and Jen'lig.

      Now to some of the bugs that I encountered:
      • In the Seatower map there are a lot of seams that appear as green or blue lines on the screen, it mostly happens around doors. For most of them the open door looks flawless while the closed door has seams or vice versa.
      • There are weird blocky artifacts in the water.

      • The dark moon monk is doubled after you talk to him and leave the area
      • You can sleep in the seatower map
      • In the Seatower map, south of the cave there is a door that leads back to the north west corner of the map.

      • A lot of NPCs and animals will bundle up in the north-west corner. Not sure if these are intentional, showing townspeople standing in line to go through the closed door or if this is a bug
      • In the first dungeon area, there is a weird smeared room in the north east.

      • In general a lot of walls you can walk through or walk up on.
      • In the cave there are some blocks on the ground

      • Wrong wall on this map

      • Mapmarkers have names of random text lines

      • All gauths drop rings of fire resistance, bug?
      • Illithid thrals give no exp, bug?

    • RoxanneRoxanne
      edited September 2019
      First of all - thank you for the detailed feedback.
      • the issue about water/doors on new maps in BG2EE is one of the still unresolved issues, not just of this mod but any mod adding water. It is a very complicated analysis that has appeared with the way the BG2EE handles PVRZ. It does not appear in the mod if you use BGEE/SoD. One of the more recent discussions about it is here https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/75760/problems-with-water-overlays-in-pvrz-files.  Hopefully there will be a solution in the long run.
      • The issue about resting outside is already solved (wrong flag in area file), the issue of NPCs bunching in a corner of the map should be resolved by this as well.
      • Not sure what you mean with the dark monks? There are two of them near the entrance to the Selune temple.
      • Door to NW of map - do you really have a door there? It should be stairs leading down to the water to simulate that you can swim back to the bridge. This is an intended emergency exit for the case that you "bought" the passage from the smuggler and ended in the Sea Cave trap in this case.
      • Map notes are corrected
      • Thralls give no xp is intended, the optional component is for tactical players but not intended to shift your overall progress (similar to Black Pits in EET).
      • Gauths drop rings is using standard SoD behaviour which I think comes closest to what you should expect (end of BG1 vs beginning of SoD should not make a hell of a difference in my opinion).
      • Map quality for dungeons is still worked on and will improve in a further release.
      Just my personal curiosity - did you find the headless ghost quest and the dragon quest?

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    • eimerianeimerian
      Roxanne said:
      • Not sure what you mean with the dark monks? There are two of them near the entrance to the Selune temple.
      There are supposed to be two? First time I entered the map, there was one. Then there were two standing next to each other with identical dialog. It just looked like the common NPC duplication bug that I have seen many times in modded BG games over the years.
      • Door to NW of map - do you really have a door there? It should be stairs leading down to the water to simulate that you can swim back to the bridge. This is an intended emergency exit for the case that you "bought" the passage from the smuggler and ended in the Sea Cave trap in this case.
      I did not play this route and had no idea about this. It looked to me like the entrance to another cave that was "linked wrong" to the Seatower map. And yes it had the stairs symbol, but you don't see the mouse cursor on the screenshots.
      • Just my personal curiosity - did you find the headless ghost quest and the dragon quest?
      Yes, I found the ghost, but haven't figured out how to solve this quest. I thought I might find his head somewhere in the dungeon but haven't found it so far.
      I found the dragon too, but I would never have found the entrance to her cave if not for the map marker. I bought the teleportation scroll in the temple of Sune which turned out to be not powerful enough. Still looking for a way to finish this quest.
    • RoxanneRoxanne
      Ask around the temples...

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    • WithinAmnesiaWithinAmnesia
      edited September 2019
      @eimerian Hello, I have been working on a new area for the Sea Tower of Balduran and it is getting closer and closer to release (after a lot of polish). Here is the 3D asset for the area (so far, needs more work, add merlons, shorten the outer gate house fix textures etc.) The Castle Map is a maximum size Baldur's Gate area in scale; 5120x3840 (right click image -> view image -> + zoom in for actual scale of detail).


      Once the 3D model is finalized I can bring it in line with paint.net and make it a proper photo-realistic area like my other works:


      The idea right now is to dog pile the Sea Tower of Balduran area and get that finished (art, .ARE and .WED files, polygons, containers, doors WATER X-D). Then I can make the interiors as well :-D!) I want to add at least a barracks and a temple to the Sea Tower of Balduran's Bailey :-). The idea is to make a high quality area akin to the Black Isle Bioware quality of work 1998-1999.

      SO right now everything area wise is not polish and just a placeholder (the sea cave has the wrong entrances and doesn't use the actual big cave entrance XD) but this will be fix later:-).

      So everything else, dungeon maps, fix area bugs, add new item recipes for Arms and Armour Emporium, fix encounters, polish, polish, polish! All of these (easier to work on) content areas being held up by the Sea Tower Castle right now; for I am pressing to get that done. It will be my first 3D asset creation of a huge area using tons of new assets:-D!.

      Lots of work! Everything is basically alpha right now, lots of upgrades should come quickly. Do you have any questions?
    • eimerianeimerian
      I was able to finish both quests, headless pirate and dragon,without any issues.

      Minor incompatibility I found:
      For the poison-geas-quest, I went with Sandra's alternative. The vanilla quest Marek and lothandrrer remained active in the quest log though. 
      When I approached the priestess of umberlee to ask for the pirate's grave, I had a tome of wisdom in my inventory and she would only give me the vanilla dialog to exchange a tome for the geas-removal scroll. I had to drop the tome on the floor to get the correct dialog 
    • RoxanneRoxanne
      eimerian said:
      I was able to finish both quests, headless pirate and dragon,without any issues.

      Minor incompatibility I found:
      For the poison-geas-quest, I went with Sandra's alternative. The vanilla quest Marek and lothandrrer remained active in the quest log though. 
      When I approached the priestess of umberlee to ask for the pirate's grave, I had a tome of wisdom in my inventory and she would only give me the vanilla dialog to exchange a tome for the geas-removal scroll. I had to drop the tome on the floor to get the correct dialog 
      Thanks again for the feedback.
      I added an option for the Umberlee priestess to ask for the grave or the scrolls even when you have the tome.

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    • markrrmarkrr
      I freed the pirate ghost and dragon but can't find the mind flayers
    • RoxanneRoxanne
      markrr said:
      I freed the pirate ghost and dragon but can't find the mind flayers
      Did you find Duke Liia and Winski?

      In the area where Bill checks your invitations there are steps up and steps down. Down leads to ghost and dragon. Up leads to the doppelganger experiments...
      In the final area where you found Winski you find a key and some papers of evidence, also Winski's journal. The key unlocks the door on the northern wall of the Sea Tower's yard.

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    • markrrmarkrr
      Thanks, I was trying to use the key to get into the building in front of the keep.
    • WithinAmnesiaWithinAmnesia
      edited December 2019
      I am kind of up in the air about what to do with this project. I have the Castle 3D model, a lot of dungeon content complete and another project does not want my help working on their version of the Balduran's Sea Castle. I am kind of wondering if I should just focus on making a separate version and release it here properly (interiors, proper dungeons that are polished and high quality etc.).

      I am gearing up for a Christmas release of the Baldur's Gate Arms and Armour Emporium but after that I am seriously wondering what I should do after that. I am effectively barred from the other Sea Castle Project although I might be able to still make my own version (because I really like the project) and there would be two versions of the same place XD. I hope they can make their version and it can be properly released; it looks like there is new life over on their project although It only took like a decade XD. I wonder if I sparked some fire in their project after doing my own version? Either way more content :-D!

      I have learned that I can make high quality areas and that there are very talented people who can also contribute if good will is in the air XD. I am wondering what I should work on after the Emporium content? I have my own RPG being made on RPG Maker MV and all that too and a house although for the 2020's I am really curious as to what I will be up to with Galdur's Gate. Any suggestions eh?
    • psychlopespsychlopes
      I think you should definitely continue with your Balduran's Sea Castle mod. it is not their intellectual property and knowing their work progress, if we wait for their version we can expect a 2025 release, if they don't abandon the mod development all together like 90% of their projects .
      also, the modders there focus heavily on dialogue and story, and I am ( and many others I suppose ) are more interested in tactical content.
      I really like your work, thank you for all your contributions.
    • davidedavide
      I think that Roxanne's method is the most effective: precise and well-defined objective and fast realization times. As for the mod, now you have already given the players.
      You can update it for your personal satisfaction with all the graphics redone to counter those allegations of "theft", not very hidden theft since you posted the development progress on 4 sites, but they can still say that you have taken advantage of the idea. Idea that in any case was very likely already subject to a true copyright ...
    • davidedavide
      ..
      also, the modders there focus heavily on dialogue and story, and I am ( and many others I suppose ) are more interested in tactical content.
      in my opinion, I think Baldurs Gate is a masterpiece precisely because it has found a perfect balance between story, dialogues, setting and tactical content :)
    • davidedavide
      ...for the 2020's I am really curious as to what I will be up to with Galdur's Gate. Any suggestions eh?
      I wish new content for the Gnoll Stronghold: it could be transform into a multilevel scenario. Who does kidnap Dynaheir ? Why ? 
    • RoxanneRoxanne
      davide said:
      I wish new content for the Gnoll Stronghold: it could be transform into a multilevel scenario. Who does kidnap Dynaheir ? Why ? 
      There is some hint in the BG1NPC mod if you play her romance and retrieve her journal. I will not spoil this just in case you never played it. The Sea Tower mod picks the topic up as well in case Dynaheir is with you when you face the guy who runs the doppelganger operations for Sarevok. If you put the pieces together you get a background story.

      Having said this, if anyone would pick up the task they would need to take those existing elements into account for compatibility.

      Other note - In the Sandrah sequels after ToB the Gnoll Stronghold plays an important role. It was a significant point in the history of the Realms before it was destroyed and the gnolls occupied it.

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    • GorionGorion
      edited January 2020
      Hi, why don't you make part Balduran Sea Tower of the mod Sandrah Saga?
      Adventures in time, always interesting with their answers to questions. Even if they are vanilla NPS.
    • RoxanneRoxanne
      Gorion said:
      Hi, why don't you make part Balduran Sea Tower of the mod Sandrah Saga?
      Adventures in time, always interesting with their answers to questions. Even if they are vanilla NPS.
      I am not sure I understand correctly. The two mods are independent. However, if Sandrah is in your party during the Sea Tower events she has additional content regarding the events. The same is true for Imoen, Dynaheir and Jen'lig.

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    • GorionGorion
      I wanted to say that the quest can be done in the past. Try all the workings will remain, only the quests are edited. And the story of the mod will change a bit.
      And you won’t have to prove anything to anyone.

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