Some spoilers, please

[Ana Christina]

Hi!

 

I've decided to play a new game with BG1NPC, and have a few questions which mainly relate to possible differences between v15 and the one I’ve played with almost a year ago (i.e., BG1 NPC v12beta3). I've checked the readme, but I've yet to be sure I've found the answers I seek, so I thought to ask here:

 

1. I've installed the "Open all Cloakwood areas except for the mines in Chapter 1" component, because I like to have my entire party as soon as possible. However, I am wary about Coran's Wyvern quest. IIRC, in the version I've played, it had a timer and Coran left the party when his quest wasn't completed in a certain number of days. My question is: if I get Coran as early as "just out of Candlekeep", will the timer activate? If yes, just how long do I have before he leaves the party?

 

2. Kivan's quest (Tazok) timer: how long is it and does he leave the party if his quest is not done in "x" days after picking him up?

 

Note: The Readme says:

 

-Hijacking of Coran's Wyvern Timer and related dialogue via ~GlobalTimerExpired("Coran","GLOBAL")~ ~GlobalTimerExpired("Coran","GLOBAL") Global("X#CoranWyvernDisable","GLOBAL",1)~ and extension of his bcs.

-Falsing of Kivan's and Minsc's standard timers in bcs, effectively removing any quest-time-related attempt to leave the party

 

I am not sure if I interpret this correctly, because to me it reads as if the quest timers in question have been disabled completely. Can anyone please confirm/deny?

 

3. Xan's reaction to heroic reputation: I've seen around (not necessarily here) some posts which mention that Xan leaves the party if the reputation is too high. Is this true, and if yes, are there any ways to prevent it other than maintaining reputation at desirable levels for him?

 

4. Xan's Friendship: the readme says that friendship with Xan will not trigger for PCs who broke up with him during the committed state of the relationship. Just to make sure, for PCs who break up with him as soon as he confesses his feelings, does the friendship start?

 

5. Coran romance random ending: just how random is it? Is it possible that, in spite of following all indications for a successful romance with him from the readme, one still gets a random negative ending? I ask because I thought to play his romance the entire way this time (if possible, on the "good" path), but I don't want any nasty surprises, 'cause I play this game for fun, not for the annoyance/drama factor.

 

Thank you for your attention.

[Domi]

Coran romance random ending: just how random is it? Is it possible that, in spite of following all indications for a successful romance with him from the readme, one still gets a random negative ending? I ask because I thought to play his romance the entire way this time (if possible, on the "good" path), but I don't want any nasty surprises, 'cause I play this game for fun, not for the annoyance/drama factor.

 

It is truly random when it branches out into the random endings. IIRC, and it was a long time, you can ensure that the ending is good and no random factor is applied, if you don't try to dictate to Coran what to do when he talks about returning child to Briel, and instead you go for the "I trust you" options.

[Kulyok]

1) I strongly recommend going straight for the Wyvern area with Coran and then returning right to the Beregost temple. Otherwise, yes, you may get in trouble with Coran's timer running out.

 

2) Kivan: it's ten days(and an advance warning), but the reaction and the advance warning are stuck in his PID, so you are perfectly safe, I believe.

 

3) Xan will not leave the party if your rep hits 20; no worries. However, if you dismiss him from the party when your rep is 20, he may leave forever.

 

4) Yes, you'll have your first friendship talk an hour after you break with him.

 

5) It is quite random, but there is logic. If you do the good thing, never sleep with him until he offers to bring you the moon from the sky, and then agree to take his baby with you(and seek atonement after what he's done to Briel, the baby's mother), you are going to get the "happily ever after" ending, more or less. But you'll have to put up with the baby and the baby talk(myahahahaha!).

 

Good luck.

[Ana Christina]

It is truly random when it branches out into the random endings. IIRC, and it was a long time, you can ensure that the ending is good and no random factor is applied, if you don't try to dictate to Coran what to do when he talks about returning child to Briel, and instead you go for the "I trust you" options.

 

Understood. I'll follow your advice, thank you. Just in case, though, does it help if I keep saves from right before every LT (which is what I've always done when playing BG/BGII)? And then reload if I don't like what I get in the end? Or is the random outcome somehow set in the beginning of the game (like in Improved Anvil and how it wants to handle the Planar Sphere Mage Apprentices' success)?

 

1) I strongly recommend going straight for the Wyvern area with Coran and then returning right to the Beregost temple. Otherwise, yes, you may get in trouble with Coran's timer running out.

 

*sigh* So I guess the only thing to do is to pick Coran up as late as usual...

 

2) Kivan: it's ten days(and an advance warning), but the reaction and the advance warning are stuck in his PID, so you are perfectly safe, I believe.

 

*sigh again* There really aren't enough words to describe how frustrated I am with the developers' decision to implement timers on quest and HUGE travel time between areas...

 

3) Xan will not leave the party if your rep hits 20; no worries. However, if you dismiss him from the party when your rep is 20, he may leave forever.

 

I see. I wasn't planning on dismissing him ever, just wanted to know whether he'd leave if my reputation was too high, 'cause that's what I heard at BioWare forums somewhere.

 

4) Yes, you'll have your first friendship talk an hour after you break with him.

 

Great!

 

5) It is quite random, but there is logic. If you do the good thing, never sleep with him until he offers to bring you the moon from the sky, and then agree to take his baby with you(and seek atonement after what he's done to Briel, the baby's mother),

 

Seek atonement? If I recall correctly, there was a reply in one of the dialogues with Briel in which the PC could offer her 10000 gold pieces for her problems. Is that what you mean?

 

you are going to get the "happily ever after" ending, more or less. But you'll have to put up with the baby and the baby talk(myahahahaha!).

 

Oh, the sound of evil laughter, how much it scares me (in a good way!)...

 

Good luck.

 

Thanks. And thank you very much for your prompt and helpful reply!

[Kulyok]

Seek atonement? If I recall correctly, there was a reply in one of the dialogues with Briel in which the PC could offer her 10000 gold pieces for her problems. Is that what you mean?

 

Heh, if only it were that easy. No, you'll have to take the baby with you for a while, instead, otherwise you won't have the "best" conclusion(or, bluntly, you won't get extra dialogues and the final dialogue, too).

[Ana Christina]

I see. I've taken the baby before, and as far as I recall it was unremovable from its specific location in Coran's inventory. Oh, well, back to playing. Thank you for the clarification, Kulyok.

[Ana Christina]

Hi again.

 

I apologise for the double post, but I figured my new question was too insignificant to start a new topic just for it.

 

I have started a new game with BG1NPC v15, have so far finished Kivan and Coran's quests and am in Chapter 4, and I am at a point where my party really needs a rest. On the other hand, Coran and Ajantis have gone through all their five bickering banters, a fact which, according to my recollections from the other BG1NPC version I've played with, means that the challenge should happen at the next rest. I have no idea how things go in this version; when the party rests, I get a Gavin-Ajantis banter related to CHARNAME, and then nothing. Even if I did not save, I did try to rest again just in case the challenge was only postponed, but it did not happen.

 

My question, before I go on with normal playing, refers to the challenge: when exactly is it supposed to happen, and in what conditions (for instance, I've noticed that in this version Xan and Ajantis have banters I have not noticed before, so does the same goes for the Coran-Ajantis exchange which eventually leads to the challenge, i.e., does said exchange involve more than five sets of banters?).

[Kulyok]

Yes, you'll get the challenge at rest, but only after a certain lovetalk(Coran's and Ajantis's), and only if both Coran's and Ajantis's romances are active.

[Ana Christina]

Thank you for your very prompt and helpful reply, Kulyok.

 

Could you please specify, if you have the time and if it's not too much trouble, which LTs numbers I have to wait for (or advise me where to look for them myself)? Not exact numbers, of course, only if the challenge takes longer than LT10, for example. For the record, at the moment, I have both Ajantis at Coran at their fourth LT.

[Kulyok]

Then you needn't worry. It's about twelfth for Ajantis and/or about eighth for Coran.

[Ana Christina]

Understood, thank you for your kind assistance!