Solaufein's Rescue - jastey's Solaufein NPC for BGII is coded using WeiDU, and it does not overwrite any files, only patches them if necessary.
The mod is compatible with Imoen 4 Ever.
For BGII / BGT you need to install the main component ("Core Mod") of "Infinity Animations" to see the drider animations in the game. If IA is not installed before the main component of the Solaufein mod, the component "Enable Drider Animations in this Mod" of this mod can be installed later to enable the drider animations.
There is some crossmod content in this mod. The main component of Solaufein's Rescue - jastey's Solaufein NPC for BGII should be installed after:
-Lava's Eilistraee's Song to make the two mods fully compatible.
The component "Install Detection for Drow PC" should be installed after the following mods - if your PC is supposed to be drow and you are planning on installing one of the subrace mods:
-Corsymyr's BG:EE Subrace mod
-FinnJO's Subrace mod
-tipun's Subrace mod
-Welverin's Subrace mod
All other crossmod is inside the
Crossmod Banter Pack which should be installed after Solaufein (from v1.5).
If both Solaufein NPC mods are installed, this is how it is treated in the game. My idea was to enable players to play the rescue quest but let Weimer's Solaufein join later, if they prefer his characterization over mine, with as little immersion breaking as possible.
The content of Weimer's Solaufein mod is not changed in any way by this mod.
Weimer's Solaufein is the first to approach the PC after coming out of Ust Natha after opposing the matron mother in the temple ritual and saving the dragon eggs. If you have Weimer's Solaufein installed and want to play the rescue quest, you need to send Weimer's Solaufein to the surface to wait for you there. The quest "Solaufein's Rescue" (i.e. the whole mod) will only start if Weimer's Solaufein did not join the group in the Underdark and also was not left standing to wait in front of Ust Natha.
After Solaufein was rescued from the drider cocoon, you can make my Solaufein NPC disappear (i.e. only leaving Weimer's Solaufein for joining later) by clicking the appropriate reply choice. Weimer's Solaufein mod will be detected, and Solaufein will tell the player: "We already agreed on meeting at the surface. I will go there now, if you still want me to join you."
-If you tell him "Yes, Solaufein. I will expect you there, just as we agreed in front of the Ust Natha's city gates!", only Weimer's Solaufein will await you outside the Elven camp.
-If you reply "No, this experience changed you. I prefer you as you are now.", then my Solaufein will also be available as a joinable NPC. Note: The presence of Weimer's Solaufein will not be changed by this mod.
My Solaufein will be outside the elves's camp at [2477.2023] (south-east corner) - at opposed sides from Weimer's so you don't have to look at both at the same time, in case "both" mod Solaufeins were send to the surface.
For the component "Give Solaufein in Ust Natha the Mod's Portrait" to work, it has to be installed after Weimer's Solaufein.
With this modification the game character Solaufein, drow fighter from Ust Natha, is extended to a joinable NPC. Before he can join, Solaufein has to be freed from drider chambers. This starting quest can be played independently to whether he should then join the group or not.
Compatibility with Weimers Solaufein for this case is described above in detail.
Solaufein can also follow as a '7th party member' in case your group already consists of 6 persons. More details about this please see below.
The second, optional mod component offers the possibility to give the game Solaufein in Ust Natha the mod's portrait. If you want to see this in the game, this component has to be installed after Weimer's Solaufein.
The third, optional component is for BGII and BGT: If the main component of Infinity Animations (link see below section "LINKS") is installed, this component will install and use the drider animations for the mod.
Without this component, all driders in the mod will be displayed as drow. There is no loss in gameplay, other than it won't look as nice. :-)
For BGII:EE and EET the animations will be included and used automatically.
Install this component later if you want to install the main component of Solaufein before the Infinity Animations Mod.
The forth, optional component enables to install the alternative portrait for Solaufein, also from Holger Kirste!
The fifth, optional component is for detection in case you want to play with a drow PC. If it is installed, a variable in game will be set so that Solaufein will address the PC as drow. It works as follows:
If no subrace mod is detected, this component adds one additonal reply option for en elven PC to Adalon's dialogue, with which the player can tell that the PC is drow. It will show after Adalon revealed her plan about the drow illusion. This might be immersion breaking in case players do not plan on playing as drow PC. Click this reply option to make Solaufein recognize the PC as a drow when they meet later.
If one of the subrace mods is detected, no reply option to Adalon will be added. The detection of the PC being drow using the subrace mods will happen automatically in game (via script). The subrace mods that are considered are the following:
-Corsymyr's BG:EE Subrace mod
-FinnJO's Subrace mod
-tipun's Subrace mod
-Welverin's Subrace mod
Install this component after any subrace mods for the drow detection to kick in.
The mod needs to be installed before visiting the Underdark for the first time because of area modifications of the main Underdark area. For BGII/BGT and using the drider animations you probably need to start a new game.
Solaufein will not join an evil PC with a reputation lower than 10. This is because the friendshp path I wrote is best suited for a PC of good alignment. Also, in my opinion it does make sense since Solaufein tries to leave an evil society behind and would not trust an evil PC with low reputation enough with his life.
Starting point of the mod is once the group leaves Ust Natha after the demon ceremony. Solaufein's life had to be spared before (obviously). Please also note compatibility with Weimer's Solaufein, as the quest will not start if Weimer's Solaufein already joined the party or is left waiting in the Underdark (more details to compatibility below).
Solaufein will wait in front of the entrance to Adalon's Lair (again: only if Weimer's Solaufein is not nearby). He will talk to the PC but then be captured by other drow and brought to the drider chambers. It is then up to the PC to rescue Solaufein from being turned into a drider!
After being freed from the drider pits, Solaufein wants to collect some more things before joining. He will then rejoin shortly before the group exits the Underdark. At this point, he can also be told to exit alone and wait outside. Then he will wait outside the elves' camp at [2477.2023] (south-east corner).
If starting a new game in ToB the player can chose the status of the friendship by chosing the correct reply option. Note: If answering that Solaufein and the PC spent time together, only the normal ToB content will show. If answering that Solaufein left shortly after being freed from the drider cocoon, the whole friendship track will start from the beginning. The latter option was meant for players curious about this mod's characterization but not wanting to play the whole game to see it.
For ToB, assumption is always that the PC freed Solaufein from the drider chambers.
Quest "Solaufein's Rescue": Adds drider chambers to the main Underdark area (the entrance is at the west cave wall, north of the place where the group enters Underdark for the first time (behind the group of Illithids)).
Solaufein as a full-fledged party member: friendship path (with 26 base dialogues), NPC banter (at least 2 in SoA and 1 in ToB with every BioWare and BeamDog NPC), additional scenery dialogues and interjections, PID (player initiated dialogue) with several full-fledged dialogues. There is no romance.
There is a small encounter in Athkatla with two follow-ups, the last in Amkethran (to call this a quest would be highly exaggerated). The PC can lay down his arms for those, though.
Solaufein will acknowledge your PC being a drow (if you install the optional component) - but do not expect him to be available to teach drow lore, as he tries to leave all this behind. For activation, you have to install the fifth component. It either detects one of the subrace mods if they were installed before the 5th component of the Solaufein mod (so far, only English version is considered since these mods aren't traify_d yet): Welverin's Subrace mod, FinnJO's Subrace mod, Corsymyr's BG:EE Subrace mod, tipun's Subrace mod). Without any subrace mods for "hand-made" drow PCs, the fifth component adds one reply option to Adalon's dialogue for en elven PC to tell her that Player1 is a drow. It will show after Adalon revealed her plan about the drow illusion. Only click this if Solaufein should adddress your PC as a drow. This reply option will not be added if detection happens automatically in case of one of the subrace mods.
If you need the party slot for someone else, Solaufein can be kicked out of the party and told to "fall in behind the others", then he will follow as a "familiar" or, as I call it "7th party member". If in 7th party member mode he needs to join the group from time to time to level up. In 7th party member mode Solaufein can be selected and given commands, as well as told to use quick slot items and special abilities. All his dialogues, banters, and interjections will trigger as normal. Note: the frequency of banters will not be influenced by banter accellerator mods while following in 7th party member mode, as the banter have to be triggered by Solaufein's script instead of the engine. There are three different spaced timers available, though. Times between banters can be changed via PID. Just tell Solaufein that he should banter more or less often and the timer between banters will be changed accordingly.
To rejoin the group, talk to him and tell him you need "access to (his) inventory", and he will rejoin as a full party member. If you time this accordingly, the moment he is in group before any other kicked out NPC reaches the PC for his post-kickout dialogue is sufficient to let Solaufein level up and rearrange his items, without having to finally kick out any other party NPC to achieve this. (Unless if those just leave without a follow-up dialogue, of course.)
He cannot die while following as a 7th party member, but will remain at 1 HP. If Solaufein's HP fall to 1 HP during a fight, he will pass out. Healing him then will not change this. His alignment will change to "neutral" so enemies stop attacking him. Once the fight is over, he will regain consciousness, be healed fully, and rejoin the party as an ally/familiar. The full healing might be seen as a cheat, but it's one way to fix the engine behavior (not to call it bug) with Solaufein dying upon rejoining if his HPs are too low.
The 1 HP drop out can be prevented if Solaufein is healed in time during a fight. If told to he will give a warning before his HP drop too low, but this seems to be buggy in BGT.
Note: Following as a familiar means Solaufein will always be behind the last full group member, for walking as well as area transitions. This is unfortunate if you need him as a full fighter or even tank who is supposed to be in first line upon unexpected fights.
NOTE: Unfortunately, the "7th party member mode" in the game requires special handling to accommodate all restrictions:
(The hints are a mix of the existing engine restrictions and the workarounds I used).
-The NPC has no "Clear Fog of War" around him in the 7th GM. So he can "disappear" in the "black" area of the map. Unfortunately, this can lead to Solaufein no longer be included in the "gather all party" button although he is still green circled and will return properly with the group as soon as he is seen by a full party member again. This is especially annoying if he loses sight of full party members because the AI wanted him to walk to whatever destination on a different path, and he needs to be searched for by walking the map until he can be seen again. This seems to be especially a problem if several "7th party members" follow, and with the old game engine.
-Items in the NPC's inventory are *not* recognized as items owned by the group. This is an engine problem. It follows that quest items that are needed in the game should not be in the NPC's inventory if they are to be recognized by the quest giver. Examples: Elvenhair's book, Ankheg shell for Taerom, etc.
-Quest items tagged as "critical" will be moved to the PC's inventory when moving to the 7th PMM. This may cause items from the PC's inventory to end up on the floor. This is an engine problem. As a result, you should always check after switching the NPC to the 7th PMM to see if items have landed on the floor!
-When new items are given to one of my NPCs in 7th PMM in a quest specifically for this NPC, they always appear in the inventory of the group or PC, even if the NPC is supposed to receive them. This is an engine problem. Even if I scripted it so that the items would end up in the NPC's inventory after the encounter, they would still be handled via the PC's inventory. And thus, items from the inventory may have ended up on the floor.
-For my NPCs, I have tried to have their own quest items (even if they are original in-game items, as long as they are necessary for my NPC's quest) recognized in the NPC's inventory as well. This works with the following restrictions:
-- All items in question are handled through the PC's inventory before they are either given to or received from a quest giver. This means that other items may have ended up on the floor.
-- If the item was in a bottomless bag (this includes all kind of bags, gem bags, bags for bottles etcpp.), then the item will not be removed in a dialogue with the quest giver. It is still in the bottomless bag afterwards and can cause problems if the scripting of the quest does not consider this (and assumes that the item should be gone).
-- 2. Problem with items in bottomless bags: If the item was in a bottomless bag, then the game crashes for unknown reasons if the NPC is to be taken afterwards into the group as a full member. This "crash bug" can be worked around by saving the game and reloading it.
Short summary of things to keep in mind while playing:
-After each quest event and after moving to the 7th PMM, check whether the PC has lost items from the inventory that should be picked back up from the floor.
-Save before adding a 7th PM back to the group. If the game then crashes, reload the save game. This should prevent the crash from occurring.
-It is necessary and also recommended to have non-critical quest items not in the inventory of the 7th GM but in that of the normal party members.
-Take quest items out of bottomless bags in the 7th PM's inventory before approaching the appropriate quest givers, or at least save the game to prevent the "crash bug" before taking the NPC back as a full PM.
-In some game cutscenes, Solaufein might be visible at places where he shouldn't be as 7th party member. This can only be prevented by explicitely considering Solaufein in the relevant scripts. Some will be covered in later versions.
-Items in Solaufein's inventory will not be recognized by quest givers. Exception is some custom mod items for which I specifically scripted in that they are being noticed.
-Solaufein has no clear fog of war effect. (The reason is that the engines cannot handle more than 8 creatures with CFoW - and that includes the 6 party members and cutscene spies.) So when following as 7th party member, he might "vanish" behind the line of sight and stop walking. He will then no longer come to a meeting point but needs to be back in visual range of a party member to be activated again.
Solaufein's alignment is lawful neutral.
The mod gives him the kit "drow fighter" with the following specifications:
Advantages:
-Gains 2% magical resistance upon every level up to a max of 80% at level 16.
-Innate abilities Faerie Fire, Darkness, Dimension Door, and Dispel Magic, all 1/day
Disadvantages:
-during daylight, the drow has the following penalties due to the sunlight:
-Penalty of 4 to each THACO and AC
-Reduction of 2 to all saving throws
-Sets the visual range to 2
-Magic resistance reduction by 50% (counted from 100%)
Many thanks to Knight who allowed me to use his spells Faerie Fire and Darkness from his mod "Knights Kits" (all files are renamed and use my prefix). Thanks to Acifer for the spell graphics. Partly the spells also use ressources from the spells available in SoD / BGII:EE.
Solaufein's stats are the following:
- STR: 17
- DEX: 16
- CON: 15
- INT: 14
- WIS: 11
- CHA: 10
Upon first meeting, he is at level 12 and comes ill equipped with weapons and armor when he joins the group. His weapon pips when first meeting in the Underdark are:
- Long Sword: ++
- Scimitar: ++
- Sword and Shield Style: ++
- Two Weapon Style: ++
Solaufein uses a soundset created from his original BGII voiceovers.
Both portraits are taken from pictures of drow fighters by Holger Kirste. Thank you very much to Holger Kirste!
There is an alternate portrait that can be installed by the fourth, optional component:
------- Default Portrait ------- ------- Alternative -------
Solaufein is a centuries old drow (albeit not "old" yet) who dissociated himself - mentally - from the drow culture. Being stuck in what he sees as an impasse inside the cruel drow society, he arranged himself with the situation by aquiring some status himself as male commander and being backed by a powerful house (whichs name is never mentioned and is not important). Being somewhat protected this way he vents his bitterness with sarcasm and by opposing lesser females to a drow-untypical degree. His love for Phaere is long gone, he dispises her as much as all other drow seeking favor of the spider queen Lolth.
The main theme of the mod's dialogues is the change that leaving the Underdark brought upon him, especially the loss of most of his magic and being blinded by the sun with the resulting weakening of his fighting prowess. Also, he comments on the so much yearned for surfacers' way of living from his drow perspective.
He will befriend a PC who is ready to talk to him and deals with quests in a good or neutral way. Suspiciousness against him, the drow, is a wise sentiment in his opinion. He hardly feels offended by any PC remark.
Note: The friendship path also deals with Solaufein's problems of actually allowing the feeling of friendship and could be a bit stereotype at times. Not to say cliche. Yes, it's probably cliche.
Solaufein's magic resitance gets too high: I had values up to 127% for the EEs and 88% for BG2/BGT instead of the max of 80%. I don't know how to fix this. The value is also higher than what is set in the cre file, so there seems to be some ingame influences I'm not aware of.
Short summary of things to keep in mind while playing in 7th party member mode:
-After each quest event and after moving to the 7th PMM, check whether the PC has lost items from the inventory that should be picked back up from the floor.
-Save before adding a 7th PM back to the group. If the game then crashes, reload the save game. This should prevent the crash from occurring.
-It is necessary and also recommended to have non-critical quest items not in the inventory of the 7th GM but in that of the normal party members.
-Take quest items out of bottomless bags in the 7th PM's inventory before approaching the appropriate quest givers, or at least save the game to prevent the "crash bug" before taking the NPC back as a full PM.
In some game cutscenes, Solaufein might be visible at places where he shouldn't be as 7th party member. I'm not sure how to solve this.
-Items in Solaufein's inventory will not be recognized by quest givers. Exception is some custom mod items for which I specifically scripted in that they are being noticed.
-Solaufein has no clear fog of war effect, so when following as 7th party member, he might "vanish" behind the line of sight. Rearranging the whole group's position should bring him back at the PC's side. (The reason is that the engines cannot handle more than 8 creatures with CFoW - and that includes the 6 party members and cutscene spies.)
Solaufein is a BioWare charakter, but the mod is based on my view. I do not mind if you write crossmod banters for my Solaufein without consulting me, as long as you try to match the mod's characterization, do not ridicule him or write offensive content, and as long as it's banter that have no other impact on the content of this mod, i.e. don't make Solaufein leave the party due to a conflict with your NPC (feel free to make *your* NPC leave the goup), and also don't make him fall in love with your NPC even though I am sure he/she is the greatest, just to name some things.
You can add reactions of your NPC to any and all content of this mod without my consent, albeit I'd ask you not to add interjections inside my mod's dialogues.
If you think using code from this mod is a good idea then go ahead.
Holger Kirste allowed the portraits to be used for this mod, but do not make edits other than for your personal use. All uses of the portraits outside the mod are copyrighted.
I'll be happy to have a look at crossmod you designed, of course.
Technical updates and bugfixes for this mod will be very welcome in case I'll be no longer active in IE-modding.
This mod uses changed area graphics and animations from IWDII. I did this because I am not able to create such great area graphics myself. Of course there are great area artists in the modding community who could have created such for me, but I justified it for myself with the thought that it keeps the drider chambers in the same style as BioWare made them, which is how I like it.
Further, I created a soundset from Solaufein's original lines. For this, I extracted some phrases and words, which are now used in, for some, different context.
If there are any objections legally wise, please let me know and I will remove offensive content immediately.
This mod is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
This mod is also not developed, supported, or endorsed by BioWare, Black Isle Studios, Interplay Entertainment Corp., Overhaul Games or Beamdog. All other trademarks and copyrights are property of their respective owners.
Version 4.2:
- Corrected credits: Italian translation by Alessandro Rampinelli.
Version 4.1:
- Optimized the 7th party member fighting scripts: Solaufein can be given instructions via PID to "stay in sight" and how to engage with enemies.
Version 4.0:
- Italian version added, by Alessandro Rampini.
- Banter should not end abruptly when Solaufein is in 7th party member mode.
- Fixed item reference for Adamantine Dust (DWDUST).
- Elhan should not know Solaufein's name.
- There should be no empty weapon proficiency slots upon levelling up (fix by JohnBob).
- Magic resistance should be capped at 80% (fix by JohnBob).
- Removed empty song reference from script.
- Updated fl#add_kit_ee.tpa.
- Changed backslashes to slashes in the tp2.
Version 3.2:
- Russian version completed and improved, by Scheele.
Version 3.1:
- ToB banter with Aerie should not happen in SoA.
- Comments on sun and moon will only happen in OUTDOOR area (not CITY).
- Changed See() trigger to InMyArea() when meeting Elhan in the hopes that he acknoledges Solaufein if present.
- Lines in drow reworked with LingoJam Drowisch Translator (link above).
- Compatibility with the 5E casting mod and the TnB multiclass sorcerers and the FnP multiclass shamans: Increase of PC's FATIGUE for detection of scripted resting will happen after 15s timer and only if it wasn't increased by another mod already.
- Special abilities have descriptions if right clicked.
- Typo corrections and minor text corrections.
- Added note_to_translators.txt in folder translations for changes in v3.1.
Version 3:
- Russian version added, by Scheele & Arcanecoast Team.
- Added Solaufein's weapon pips and a note that he comes ill equipped with weapons into the readme.
- Added more notes about playing in 7th party member note to the readme.
- Added globally unique LABELs to support Project Infinity.
- Changed Solaufein's automated level-up scripts: He will only level up to the PC's level if: he joins the first time for SoA/ToB OR he joins after being a 7th party member. No more automatic level-up although he is in party or was separated for a while.
- Container added to Underdark has prefixed name.
- Corrected doubled tra numbers in GAME.tra.
- Typo corrections.
Version 2.2:
- fixed detection for tipun's subrace mod.
- moved crossmod for subrace mods into 5th component and deactivated drow reply option if subrace mods are detected.
- Updated readme with description of changed 5th component.
Version 2.1:
- tipun's subrace mod for EE considered for check whether PC is drow.
- fixed install error if subrace mod(s) were detected.
- Solaufein should not start a banter directly after changing into 7th party member mode.
- ToB encounter now considers items in Solaufein's inventory if he is in 7th party member mode.
- scripts of 7th party member mode should not make Solaufein stop his attacks.
- added notes to restrictions of the "7th party member mode" to the readme.
- added Dynamic Install Order Category to .ini
- corrected "fatigue" spell for detection of party rested.
- added check so mod cannot be installed after EET_End.
- added folder libiconv-1.9.2-1-src.7z with iconv licence info
Version 2.0:
-English version finished.
-NPC banters revised.
-Elhan's geas: Optimized scripting in case there will be other drow NPCs in the future, EE version considers Hexxat's presence as well.
-Drizzt interjection: added possibility to shorten the conversation via reply option.
-Smuggler encounter tweaked a little. Smuggler will recognize any drow items in group's possession.
-splitted component "Install additional Detection for Drow PC" from the main component.
-Scripting of 7th party member mode improved.
-Fixed small default portrait for classic engine.
-Download link in ini changed to GitHub.
-Changed readme to html.
-Crossmod content for Eilistraee's Song mod added.
Version 1.6:
-fatesp summoning: transition to correct state
-Spell Darkness: corrected BAM display (should be real sphere of darkness), by Acifer
-Change into 7th party member mode and back should not be interrupted.
-all lines from script traify-ed.
-not getting hostile if hit with friendly fire while in 7th party mode
-C#5MINHP.spl should not be applied to party
Version 1.5:
-if interacting with the drider cocoons, texts will also be shown on screen (changed to DisplayStringHead)
-added more variable parameters to EET EET_NPC_TRANSITION (tp2 optimization, no changes ingame)
-added summoning for new ToB game (EET)
-crossmod with Ajantis and Gavin moved into Crossmod Banter Pack
-corrected: infer_charset -> infer_charsets
-EE use pvrz-tis (no more black lines in areas)
-setup-c#solaufein.tp2 renamed to c#solaufein.tp2
-c#solaufein.ini with mod info metadata added.
Version 1.4:
-Solaufein should always change into the 7th party modus without problems (added SetInterrupt(FALSE/TRUE) to script actions).
-update to weidu 246
Version 1.3:
-integrated proof-readings from Isewein (all files except c#solatra.tra)
-some more lines translated to English
-update to weidu 245
Version 1.2:
-changed detection of installed Ajantis BGII mod to a dlg-file to reflect behavior of FILE_EXISTS_IN_GAME
-changed WEIGHT of crossmod banters in the hopes that they will mix better with the existent ones (instead of firing all first).
-edited Ajantis crossmod a little
-adjusted trigger for one of the Ajantis-Solaufein banters (dialogue about belt will not trigger if Ajantis got rid of it alone)
-some more lines translated to English
-added link to artstation to portrait artist's page (Holger Kirste)
-added check whether Player1 was rested (baldur.bcs, baldur25.bcs) using spell "C#FATIG1" that gives Player1 1 point to "FATIGUE" if it is "0" -> same principle as Zed Nocear's rest check for BG1. This is for rare cases that a mod uses a cutscene with Rest() instead of PartyRested(), so 7th party member will be rested, too.
Version 1.1:
-fixed Gavin crossmod install error
Version 1:
-official release with German and part-English version
