Unique Artifacts, mod for Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (BGT compatible)

version 1.11
by Gort
mailto:forn@ngs.ru

I. About
Many items in Baldur's Gate, so-called "artifacts", have their own history, and therefore should exist in a single copy. But, there are many cases when player gets the same item twice, or thrice, or even more. I never liked it. It ruins the atmosphere. So, this mod was created to remove excessive copies of supposedly unique items (like Boots of Speed, Ring of Wizardry, Ring of Protection +2: 'Guard's Ring', Heartseeker +3 etc).
Popular megamodifications usually make the situation with artifacts even worse. UA takes care not just about the original game, but also removes duplicates from mods.

UA has 2 components:
	a) strict - removes only copies of items that are stated clearly to be unique. It is for those players who just want to keep consistency.
	b) expanded - removes copies of unique and rare items. Rare items are the items that are not stated to be really unique, but according to their descriptions, it is unlikely that one band of adventurers would possess several of such items at the same time. It is for those who don't like magical items scattered here and there, and there, and oh, even there.

My personal preference and recommendation to all players is the expanded option. If you want good equipment - look for it. When choosing between items on enemies and items selling in the stores, copies from the stores were removed.

Currently supported removing all redundant items from original games (BG1, BG2SoA, BG2ToB), and also all duplicated rings, cloaks, boots, amulets, bracers, belts from mods.

II. Installation
Throne of Bhaal is required.
Unpack the archive into main game folder and run Setup-UniqueArtifacts.exe. UA should be installed in the very end to affect all game content. A new game should be started in order to make UA work properly.
I strongly recommend you (but not require) having installed the BG2 Fixpack previously (at least its Core Fixes component), which can be found here: http://www.gibberlings3.net/downloads/index.php.

III. Compatibility
It should be compatible with any other weidu mod. Howewer, due to very nature of this mod, compatibility cannot be guaranteed. It means that possibilities of missing an artifact or having more than 1 copy are present. But they are very low.

UA is compatible with BGT-weidu. In this case, you have an opportunity to get every artifact you could get earlier. Once in BG1, once in BG2:SoA and once in BG2:ToB. Remember, once only!

If some mod introduces some unique item (not presented in original game) more than once - I can do nothing with it until somebody informed me.

IV. Known issues
Removing all copies is not guaranteed (it simply cannot be guaranteed), however the majority definitely will be removed. Artifacts might be moved slightly from their original locations, but they still will be in the same area/store/etc.
Those who start a NEW ToB game - sorry, you may be lacking several items. But, does anybody start from ToB?

V. Technical stuff.
Most of copies are not actually removed, but made unstealable and undroppable. This is to keep game balance at the same level. Howewer, where it was possible, artifacts were replaced with their non-unique equivalents.

VI. Thanks to:
Ardanis aka GeN1e, who helped me A LOT in creating Unique Artifacts
CamDawg and other bg2fixpackers - I took examples from your code
Wesley Weimer for creating WeiDU and the Bigg for supporting it
Avenger, for DTLCEP
andrewas and Orion's Stardom for Multi-Install Tool
Aaron O'Neil, for ShadowKeeper
And of course, Bioware for Baldur's Gate

Please give me some feedback at forn@ngs.ru, I'm really willing to hear it.

Version history:
1.11. A crucial bug from 1.1 fixed.
1.1. 2 options to install now. Code optimization, several bugfixes. Weidu 199.
1.0. Added BGT compatibility, fixed some typos, added few items
1.0beta. beta release