Author: Lava Del'Vortel, Kaeloree & AionZ (aka Artemius_I)
Mod Website: Spellhold Studios
Mod Forum: Minsc Friendship
📥 Download the mod at Spellhold Studios
One of the things many find sorely lacking in the Bioware NPCs are the more complex relationships presented by modern NPC mods--especially in regards to "friendships", the relationships NPCs have with the PC when not romancing them.
This mod adds a series of dialogues with Minsc.
Visit the website or forum for all the latest updates.
This mod is designed to work on the following Infinity Engine games: the original Baldur's Gate II (BG2 or just SoA) with the Throne of Bhaal (ToB) expansion, Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition (BG2EE), the conversion projects Baldur's Gate Trilogy (BGT) and Enhanced Edition Trilogy (EET).
The Minsc Friendship mod should be compatible with all WeiDU mods, and therefore should be compatible with all WeiDU mods. It has been tested on several different installations, and has so far worked perfectly. If you encounter any bugs, please report them on the forum!
Although it is not required for the Minsc Friendship to function properly, it is always a good idea to install the latest version of the BG2 Fixpack before proceeding with the installation of this mod.
Here is the recommended installation order:
- Please install Minsc Friendship after TobEx, BG2 Fixpack, and EET.
- Please install Minsc Friendship before EET_End, and any final "biffing" routines.
If you've previously installed the mod, remove it before extracting the new version. To do this, run setup-minscfriendship.exe, un-install the previously installed main component and delete the 📁 minscfriendship folder.
When installing or un-installing, do not close the DOS window by clicking on the X button! Instead, press the Enter key whenever instructed to do so.
Disable any antivirus or other memory-resident software before installing this or any other mod. Some (particularly avast and Norton!) have a tendency to report false positives with mod activity, resulting in failed installs.
The Enhanced Editions are actively supported games. Please note that every patch update will wipe your current mod setup! If in the middle of a modded game you might want to delay the patch update (if possible) as even after reinstalling the mods, you might not be able to continue with your old savegames. Alternatively, copy the whole game's folder into a new one that can be modded and will stay untouched by game patches. It is important that you install the mod to the language version you are playing the game in. Otherwise, the dialogues of the mod will not show but give error messages.
Minsc Friendship for Windows is distributed as an extractable compressed archive and includes a WeiDU installer.
Extract the contents of the mod archive into the folder of the game you wish to modify (the folder which contains the "CHITIN.KEY" file), using 7zip, WinRAR, or another file compression utility that handles .zip files. On successful extraction, there should be a 📁 minscfriendship folder and a setup-minscfriendship.exe file in your game folder. To install, simply double-click setup-minscfriendship.exe and follow the instructions on screen.
Run setup-minscfriendship.exe in your game folder to reinstall, un-install or otherwise change the component settings.
Minsc Friendship for Mac OS is distributed in the same compressed archive and includes a WeiDU installer.
First, extract the files from the archive into your game directory. On successful extraction, there should be a 📁 minscfriendship folder, setup-minscfriendship and setup-minscfriendship.command files in your game folder. To install, simply double-click setup-minscfriendship.command and follow the instructions on screen.
Run setup-minscfriendship.command in your game folder to reinstall, un-install or otherwise change the components settings.
Minsc Friendship for Linux is distributed in the same compressed archive and does not include a WeiDU installer.
Extract the contents of the mod to the folder of the game you wish to modify.
Download the latest version of WeiDU for Linux from WeiDU.org and copy weidu and weinstall to /usr/bin. Following that, open a terminal, cd to your game installation directory, run tolower and answer 'Y' to both queries. You can avoid running the second option (linux.ini) if you've already ran it once in the same directory. To save time, the archive is already tolowered, so there's no need to run the first option (lowercasing file names) either if you've extracted only this mod since the last time you lowercased file names. If you're unsure, running tolower and choosing both options is the safe bet.
To install, run weinstall setup-minscfriendship in your game folder. Then run wine bgmain.exe (or wine baldur.exe for EE games) and start playing.
In addition to the methods above for removing individual components, you can completely un-install the mod using setup-minscfriendship --uninstall at the command line to remove all components without wading through prompts.
Q: Is the Minsc Friendship compatible with XYZ mod?
A: It most certainly should be, but we have not tested it with every single mod available. It may logical incompatibilities with The Kidnapping of Boo UB quest.
Q: When will the friendship start?
A: After you join Minsc. First timered dialogue should happen some time after you visit Slums for the first time. Talks with specific PC character should start after 5 friendship talks. There are also some event-related talks which can be fired independently.
Q: This mod isn't in character at all.
A: I'm always looking for ways to improve the characterisation in this mod, so please send any suggestions or constructive criticism on the forums.
Q: Have you got any plans to expand the mod by adding more dialogues in future?
A: There are no current plans to add to the mod, no, but feel free to make suggestions!
Q: How many dialogues are there added in total?
A: With this mod installed, you should be able to experience up to 16 dialogues in SoA - 5 timered ones, another 5 if your character match special conditions and up to 6 situational talks. You can experience up to 4 dialogues in ToB. You can have some easter-egg Boo dialogues. Just click "converse" while browsing Boo's item description.
Q: Does this mod change the game in any way besides adding more dialogue to Minsc?
A: No, it shouldn't.
Q: Is there any chance that player initiated dialogue will be added in future?
A: There are currently no plans for it.
Q: I would like to translate the Minsc friendship into another language. Any chance you could TRAify the mod?
A: Sure, we'd be happy to. If you are interested in translating, just send us a line and I'll see what I can do for the next version.
Writing and coding: Lava Del'Vortel, based on some talks and notes left by Kaeloree
Editing and additional writing: AionZ / Artemius_I
Consultation: Kaeloree
- Thank you to everyone on the Interaction Expansion project team, and everyone who has contributed to the mod!
- AL|EN for his Infinity Auto Packager tool.
- Spanish translation: Magis365.
- Russian translation: Arkie and Arcanecoast.ru.
- WeiDU by Wes Weimer, Valerio Bigiani (the bigg) and Wisp.
- Near Infinity, by Jon Olav Hauglid, FredSRichardson, and Argent77.
- IESDP maintained by igi and lynx.
- WinRAR, by Eugene Roshal/Alexander Roshal.
The Minsc Friendship was developed by Del'Vortel, Kaeloree and AionZ / Artemius_I, based on material from the game Baldur's Gate II and its expansion. All mod content is © Lava Del'Vortel, Kaeloree and AionZ / Artemius_I.
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal © TSR, Inc. The BioWare Infinity Engine is © BioWare Corp.
APlease note that any and all redistribution and/or hosting of this mod is expressly unwanted without permission from the author(s).
- Added dynamic install order syntax and global
LABELSto support AL|EN's "Project Infinity". - Added Spanish translation (thanks Magis365).
- Reformatted readme file and moved it into new 📁 "readme" folder.
- Added archive libiconv-1.9.2-1-src.7z with iconv licence info.
- Updated WeiDU installer to v247.
- Fixed an issue with Auto-Package Generator tool: new version of MacOS (Catalina) prevented the mod to be installed.
- Added minscfriendship.ini metadata file to support AL|EN's "Project Infinity".
- Rewrote itemdial.2da appending in a more "cosmetic" way.
- Added
REQUIRE_PREDICATEprocess to avoid installing the mod in inaccurate games. - Component: added
DESIGNATEDnumber and "minsc_friendship"LABEL. - Updated deprecated modding tools links.
- Lower cased files.
- Updated and renamed readme file to minscfriendship-readme-english.html.
- Added Russian translation: Arkie and Arcanecoast.ru.
- Included Linux and Mac OS versions in the same package (thanks AL|EN!).
- Updated WeiDU installer to v246.
- Transfered mod to Spellhold Studios GitHub account.
- Initial release.