Over the past few months, Cuv has been working on a mod which he - and many others - hopes will help to fix the problem with filled animation slots! What it does is adds 9 creature animations to a single IWD style slot thus freeing up 3 previously occupied slots. It also incorporates 3 new animations that Cuv has recently converted from PST, and 2 animations converted by Worm from NWN all into one neat package.

All of the animations in this package use the same death animation, which is why so many animations can be placed in the same slot.

This mod is intended to give modders more flexibility in their modding endeavors. This is the first installment, hopefully there will be plenty more!

You can download this first part of the mod here. For any modder interested in using animations from games other than BGII, this is a great resource to take a look at and use!

Greetings, readers!
Starting here is a fortnightly update on the new vogue in Infinity Engine modding at Spellhold Studios. Expect to find news on mod releases, fixes and updates not announced in a separate news flash, interesting discussions, and if you are lucky, stimuli for new discussions. Oh, and if you don’t know what a ‘mod’ is, check the SHS Wiki article on Mod.

Remember, you can keep up to date with the news on this site by tuning in to the Spellhold Studios RSS Feed, which you can subscribe to here. In addition, keep tracking of major releases throughout the entire Infinity Engine modding community at the Infinity Engine Modding News mirror here.

Without further ado, I have several announcements this fortnight:

Mod Updates by Ascension64
I have made updates to the Baldur’s Gate Trilogy-WeiDU versions of BG1 Unfinished Business (now at version 4 beta 4), The Lure of the Sirine’s Call (now at version 7.1), and the BGT-WeiDU/Tutu modification Restored Textscreen Music (now at version 7). Grab them by following this link.

Planescape: Torment Animations in BG2
This might be old but nevertheless exciting news for some: Cuv has been busy porting animations from PS:T into BG2. The results are looking spectacular! Check out his progress here.

Shyhinworuwhat?
MajorTomSawyer has released a new NPC mod, now at version beta 2, that adds a rather interesting NPC to BG2. She goes by the rather abstract name of Shyhinworunto Chende, who we can all refer to simply as Shy. Check out the release here and the progress report here.

Iron Modder 10
Iron Modder is an enactment of the fabled Japanese TV series Iron Chef, but here, the creativity and adroitness of modders are tested in a battle of mod design. The tenth instalment of Iron Modder has been announced. If thoughts of the Iron Modder crown make you salivate with greed, be sure to roll up your sleeves and warm up those fingers on December 9.

Refinements has been updated to 3.11. You don’t need to update unless you’re running on a Mac and/or are using the Chloe NPC mod.

Related links:

Refinements v3.11:

• Mod Forum
• Main Download Location
• Mod Readme

Baldur’s Gate Trilogy-WeiDU v1.05a has been released! You can get it from the usual places (list of download mirrors) when it is uploaded to the servers. Check the SHS mirror for first availability.

Among bugfixes and a few gameplay changes, this version introduces a Simplified Chinese translation and the option of auto-installation, which simplifies large mega-modification installs.
You might also notice a few changes to the installation process, in that the final DOS portion of the installation runs straight after the WeiDU portion without having to press a key, a complete installation of BG:TotSC is verified in the BG:TotSC installation directory specified, and installation of music for BGT-WeiDU has been separated from the installation of a custom GUI for BGT-WeiDU, both of which are optional.

Finally, due to these and other changes in this release, you must start a new game. Continuation of saved games from older versions of BGT-WeiDU may result in crashes-to-desktop or game-breaking bugs.

Related links:

• Download link
• Download mirrors
• Changes from v1.04
• BGT-WeiDU forum
• BGT page on SHS website

Version 0.43 of Classic Adventures has been released. This is a patch for your current game (yeah, 100MB is a patch these days). You can find it in the download section just like the 0.42 version. If you don’t have 0.42, you need that installed first.

This covers the original A3 mod, the third in the slavers series. There are no worldmap changes, so you should be able to continue from a saved game. However, I do have many fixes to some older areas. Also, we have a new building in Saltmarsh (though you can’t enter yet), so the doorway won’t be in your current game if you have already been there.

Related links:

• Download link
• Classic Adventures website
• Classic Adventures forum
• Classic Adventures page on SHS website