Dear Reader,

One way that you can satisfy your Christmas cheer is to boot up an Infinity Engine game with one or more of these modifications in action. You certainly won’t be disappointed by these presents.

En garde with Azengaard
erebusant has updated the WeiDU version of Josh Clue’s Azengaard Tactical Encounter modification for Baldur’s Gate II. It now sits at version 4 with included French, German, and Italian translations. Get it here. It’s a great Christmas for Europe, that’s for sure.

A vault of mixed candy and other goods
Another erebusant update, with the Baldur’s Gate Trilogy (BGT)-WeiDU version of Josh Clue’s Vault modification being updated to version 6.4 with fixes. If you want it to get fixed, get it here.

Erephine’s works work
Erephine has compiled all of her avatar fixes for Baldur’s Gate II into one satisfying package. If you haven’t laid your eyes on these beautifuls then you are sorely missing out. Check out the descriptions here and download the package here.

Thinking of toast for Christmas Day?
Then you can happily spread all the butter you want with the Butter Knife of Balduran by Konalan. The modification “adds a new version of the Butter Knife of Balduran to Deidre in the Adventurer’s Mart”. Get the toaster churning and the butter knife spreading right here. Also, Konalan has compiled three of his mini-modifications into Konalan’s Tweaks, which includes the above, Wizard Slayer Enhancements, and the Rod of Refuge. If you missed out on the announcements of these other modifications in previous digests, then never fear, you can catch them in the tweak pack here.

And these are the IE Modding Digest’s Christmas presents for you this glorious 2008, brought to you by the modding community at SHS. I wish you all a safe, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! :-)

Over the past few months Qwinn has been working hard to get the next releases of his brilliant PS:T mods released, and with the help of scient and a load of opinions from all sectors, the PS:T Fixpack v3, PS:T Unfinished Business v3 and Qwinn’s PS:T Tweaks v3.5 have all been completed.

The Planescape: Torment Fixpack is a comprehensive WeiDU Fixpack for Black Isle’s classic Planescape: Torment CRPG. Fixing literally hundreds of bugs and thousands of typos, thereby restoring a lot of lost and inactive content, the PS:T Fixpack (along with PS:T Unfinished Business and Qwinn’s PS:T Tweak Pack) provides a completely new Planescape: Torment experience! Click here for a list of the most important fixes, as well as further information on the mod itself.

Planescape: Torment Unfinished Business takes the almost-but-not-quite-finished content that shipped with Black Isle’s classic Planescape: Torment CRPG and polishes, bugfixes and finishes it so you can see and enjoy the new content in your game! With 18 components it is a must-have for anyone interested in seeing what the developers didn’t get time to do--or even if you’re just looking for some new content! Click here for information on each of the compenents and further information on the mod itself.

Qwinn’s Planescape: Torment Tweaks adds a few ease-of-use tweaks to your Planescape: Torment install, as well as one or two must-have components! Including a banter accelerator, ease-of-use tweaks and several content changes, this is an extremely useful mod for any player. Click here for information on each of the components and further information on the mod itself.

Related Links:

• Download Links: PS:T Fixpack - PS:T Unfinished Business - Qwinn’s PS:T Tweaks
• Website: PS:T Fixpack - PS:T Unfinished Business - Qwinn’s PS:T Tweaks
• Forums: PS:T Fixpack forum - PS:T Unfinished Business forum - Qwinn’s PS:T Tweaks forum
• Readme Links: PS:T Fixpack Readme - PS:T Unfinished Business Readme - Qwinn’s PS:T Tweaks

...and like I said, there’ll be more. Time to roll these out before the next avalanche.

You’ve got to pick an avatar or two
Now there are just so many new animations made by Erephine that you could drown in them. This fortnight she introduces the human female cleric with plate mail, human female fighter with plate mail, and the elven female with chain mail. Take these instead of the alcohol, they’re healthier.

Want to become apprentice animators?
Then have a look at the dev tools updated by Erephine. They contain a palette generator, various palette templates, and guides on animation editing. Check them out here if you fancy a moving picture.

MIIIINNNDDDDDDSSSSSS
Need an ally to suck out the intelligence of your foes? Then the Esiriak NPC modification fits the cliche. At version 0.092, Ithilian Delorio’s creation will give you a new breed of fun. Just don’t come seeing me when 40 years later you suddenly contract variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Check out the details and download the modification here.

Pst! A mod update!
The Planescape: Torment 1024x768 UI pack has been updated to version 0.6, boasting minor changes. Now call that an oxymoron and I’ll oxy your moron. Check out the changes here and download it here.

Say your prayers in 13 minutes...
And if you don’t, Brage will do it for you. Icendoan has put together a shorty short shorts joinable NPC modification called Brage’s Penance for Baldur’s Gate I (read this sentence once more before you install it on the wrong game). It also comes with the conspicuous grand yellow starry label of ‘completely untested’. What a best buy! To get, or not to get? That is the question.

Just in time to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Baldur’s Gate series, King Diamond has just released new versions of Check the Bodies and Shadows over Soubar! Check the Bodies feature new Russian and French translations as well as a number of bug fixes, and SoS has been updated with an Italian translation--so if you enjoy these mods, go download them today!

Relevant Links:

• Check the Bodies website
• Check the Bodies forum
• Download CtB v1.11
• Shadows over Soubar website
• Shadows over Soubar forum
• Download SoS v1.13

With this 1st anniversary edition of the IE Modding Digest, we are nearing the festive season, but small things amusing small minds continue to present themselves. Might as well have convivialities every fortnight with these little gems…

Solve: 0.5 v = 1024 x 768
Don’t let trite mathematics stop you from playing Planescape: Torment on higher resolutions. the vanished one allows you to enjoy the Nameless One in 1024 x 768 resolution with several fixes to the Planescape: Torment 1024x768 UI pack, bringing it to version 0.5. But no, the answer to the problem is not 0.5, check your calculations before grabbing the pack here.

Alter-nym
If modifications change their names a lot, then stick with the most recent name of the modification. Sounds simple until you find out that the the ‘PST 1280x800 UI’ modification that became the ‘PST Widescreen UI’ modification has become ’Ghostdog’s Planescape: Torment User Interface‘. Sounds like a mouthful? Then you’ll love how it supports the 1280x800, 1280x768, and now 1280x1024 resolutions of Planescape: Torment. Lots of numbers to make your left cerebral hemisphere happy, and more pictures to make your right cerebral hemisphere happy. See, there’s something right here for every brain. Changes can be found here.

We’re rolling down the female animations...
She’s rolling out the female animations for Baldur’s Gate II with the Human female unarmoured sorceress and the Human female with light robe replacement animations for the One Pixel Productions project. Erephine invites you to give your spellcasters the shine they deserve, without having to cast too many Chromatic Orbs, and definitely not Stone Skin. Grab them here before their mint condition is tarnished by the slobbering of greasy hands.

RoaR, RoaR!
I’m tempted to call it The Rod of a Refuge just so that it can emulate the ferocity of a lion’s growl, but it’s just the Rod of Refuge modification for Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. Konalan describes this as a handy little item that ‘[transports you] to a furnished, one-room house with two containers to store equipment.’ Unfortunately, you are going to have to count to 100 while he hides it in a little corner that you will never find. Happy hunting!

Plenty of trinkets to celebrate one year of gastric secretions and to keep you rapt this coming December, and there’ll be more. Tune in next fortnight...and you’ll see if I just made a fool of myself.