                        de'Arnise Romance
                           VERSION 2
              A Pocket Plane Group Project for Baldur's Gate 2
                    http://www.pocketplane.net



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INTRODUCING DE'ARNISE ROMANCE

De'Arnise Romance is an add-on for Baldur's Gate 2. The mod adds a romantic
relationship between the player character and Nalia de'Arnise, one of the 
game's original NPCs. At present, the mod only adds content to the Shadows of
Amn portion of the game.

Mirror sites and updates will always be available at
http://www.pocketplane.net/nalia .



INSTALLING DE'ARNISE ROMANCE

(If you have already clicked the dearniseV1.exe file, of course, you are
almost done!)

You should obtain and install the latest SOA or TOB patch BEFORE installing
this (or any) mod. Really bad things happen if you don't have the Bioware patch
installed before mods, even worse things happen if you try installing the patch
AFTER mods.

1. Extract the dearniseV1.exe file from dearniseV1.zip, and place it
anywhere on your drive.

2. Double-click dearniseV1.exe. The installer will launch, and will
automatically suggest installing in the directory where Windows believes
you have BG2 installed. Unless you have a VERY unusual configuration,
accept this default.

3. Click to accept the install directory. The installer creates a new
"deArnise" directory in your main BG2 folder, copies a number of files,
then exits. A new file, called Setup-deArnise.exe, has been created in
your main BG2 directory, and will _automatically_ be run.

4. A console window (DOS window) opens up and asks whether or not you wish
to install de'Arnise Romance. Confirm that you do (typically I for Install).

5. Files will be copied, dialogue will be compiled, and the game will
generally be made ready for de'Arnise Romance. This process may take a minute
or two on a slower system.

6. Enjoy!

If anything goes wrong with the process, or you later wish to uninstall
this mod, run the Setup-deArnise.exe program once more and select the U
option.


DE'ARNISE GAMEPLAY NOTES

You do not need to start a new game in order to take advantage of de'Arnise
Romance if you do not wish to do so, but you will need to start the game before
the final resolution of the de'Arnise Keep plot in order to enjoy the romance
content--specifically, before you leave the keep and Nalia wonders about its
future. To be on the safe side, just so you don't forget, don't start playing
with a game which occurs after you have defeated Tor'Gal.

The Keep is an important part of Nalia's life, so her romantic partner needs to
be a part of that. We have changed the post-Tor'Gal sequence so that Nalia can
now be persuaded to allow a PC of any class to run the Keep, rather than cede
control to the Roenalls. Those who are not of the original "approved" classes (
fighters/barbarians/monks) will need to push a bit, but it is deliberately not
made too difficult in order to advance the plot. Losing control of the Keep
means losing the romance--and, conversely, accepting the care of the Keep is a
prerequisite to carrying out the romance.

Nalia will begin her romance with a male PC who is human, elven, half-elven, or
dwarven, of any character class and alignment. This mod does not add new, non-
romance material--we recommend the Banter Packs for that.

Nalia frowns upon lower-than-average reputation. She also frowns upon treating
her poorly--although Nalia is perhaps more durable than some other Bioware-style
romances to the occasional insult, they add up over time and Nalia may break
off the relationship with someone who is a consistent boor. You have far more
opportunities to lose points than to gain.



FLIRTING

A PC involved in a romance with Nalia can initiate a brief romantic interlude (
a flirting session, really) by clicking the Talk icon and clicking on Nalia's
avatar or portrait. You will see a list of options, to which Nalia will have a
random response. Nalia will also initiate her own flirts from time to time.
Note that flirting does not begin until after the sixth LOVETALK.



FAQ (contains spoilers)

Q: Help! The romance appears to be stuck! What did I do wrong?

A: Some of the lovetalks do depend on certain game events happening. A quick
summary follows, using standard Bioware-style talk numbering (LT8 is the fourth
lovetalk.)

* LT4: Only occurs after Lord de'Arnise's funeral (which the PC must agree to
attend!)
* LT10: Only occurs on rest after a "long day."
* LT12: Occurs on waking, but not after the LT10 rest
* LT14: Occurs after rescuing Nalia from Isaea
* LT22: Occurs in a city zone
* LT26: Occurs in a city zone
* LT34: Occurs after completing the entire Burwood-related quest
* LT52: Occurs on rest
* LT54: Occurs on wake after LT52
* LT56: Occurs after reaching the Keep, inside(first floor), after LT54.


It's also possible that your reputation has fallen below 8, which suspends
the romance. Having your reputation below 6 for very long will terminate
the romance.


Q: What are the variables governing the progress of the romance?

A: The romance status is PGNaliaRomanceActive GLOBAL, coded Bioware standard.
The lovetalk counter is PGNaliaLovetalk GLOBAL.


Q: Is there a Bodhi sequence?

A: Yes.


Q: What does this mod have in common with the Nalia romance by Arnel, and/or
the Auren Aseph romance?

A: Well, all three involve Nalia, I suppose.


Q: That's not very helpful. Is this compatible with them? Are you going to
break my game? Hurt my computer? Will Nalia get it on with absolutely everybody
in my party?

A: We don't know. We use different variables than either of those mods would,
and we do not account for or "code against" them, but common sense suggests
that at the very least, installing two dedicated PC/Nalia romances would be a
poor idea.


Q: I have the Concurrent Romance/Multiromance patch installed, and--

A: Stop. We don't care, whatever it is.


Q: Why didn't you include X feature? You said you would on March 3, 2003! I
saved the post!

A: Sorry. I tried. Some things I just didn't have the inspiration to do well
when I was first writing the material (2002-2003), others I didn't have the
inspiration or time to do when revisiting and finalizing the material (2007)
and still others just didn't seem like as good an idea given years to mellow.


Q: Well, what about a new voice? You always said you felt very strongly 
about that!

A: I did, and do, but the reality is that arranging the ~300 recorded lines
that would be necessary to make this happen (both revoicing the original
material and performing our new lines) would be a significant task, and one
likely to cause the development time to stretch out even longer than it already
has. It would be lovely at some point in the future to introduce a new voice
for Nalia which accounts for the romance. We will try, and that is all I can
promise.


Q: Are you going to add TOB content?

A: I'd love to, but I really couldn't tell you when that might happen.


Q: I don't like the way you addressed the identity of Tor'Gal's boss, aka
"The Stronger." I think it was really X. Why did you write it that way?

A: Telling a story that delved as deeply into Nalia's life as this one does
seemed to demand providing some closure for the issue of the Keep invasion.
That said, I agree that it is certainly possible to make a compelling case
for a different master antagonist. But, as we had to make *some* decision,
this one seemed to provide the greatest amount of bang for our narrative
buck, and allowed us to provide some other desired closure as well.



Version History:

V1: Initial Release
V2: Added journal entries for Nalia quest
    LT10 now happens at rest, no additional conditions
    Nalia's post-vampire dialogue now triggers correctly
    Nalia no longer comments about "helping the unfortunate" inside her own Keep
    Minor corrections


CREDITS


Jason Compton                      Designer

Olga Silaeva (Kulyok)              WeiDU Ninja

Bonnie Rutledge (Bons)             Area artist 


Music credits: "Big Red Moon" by Michele Vanni. Licensed through
musicloops.com.

Thanks to our beta testers: Lord Ernie, gertjanvh, purplecloud, shiroryu,
Darius, Niaroanc, Adahn, magrat, Kanain


Special thanks go to the countless people who patiently reminded me that I
should have finished this mod years ago, but still eagerly awaited the final
result. Sorry about that, everyone.

Double special thanks to Kulyok, for rescuing the mod from development hell.

Technical elements, including scripts, are Copyright © 2002-2007 Olga
Silaeva and Jason Compton. Audiovisual elements are Copyright © 2002-2007 Jason
Compton.

de'Arnise Romance is not developed, supported, or endorsed by BioWare or
Interplay/Black Isle.


REDISTRIBUTION NOTE: de'Arnise Romance was created to be freely enjoyed by
all Baldur's Gate 2 players. However, this program may not be sold,
published, compiled or redistributed in any form without the consent of
its authors.


LINKS

http://www.weidu.org:                 Home of WeiDU

http://www.pocketplane.net:           Home of this mod, and other fine
                                      projects!

http://www.idi.ntnu.no/~joh/ni:       Home of Near Infinity

http://infexp.sourceforge.net:        Home of Infinity Explorer

