Ajantis Romance Question

[Laelia]

Can't get to my question prior to saying thanks to all the people who were involved making this mod. If it wasn't for the NWN2 Romantic Pack I'd still have no clue that there were such lovely mods for the old IE games. The BG1 NPC Project makes picking up previously neglected NPC's so much more fun! ^_^

I had never bothered with Ajantis or Coran before... now they managed to reserve themselves a spot in my party.

 

However, ever since I picked up Coran on my way to investigate the Cloakwood Mines, instead of Ajantis hourly LT's the banters between Ajantis and Coran occured - and nothing else happened. Ajantis has been with the party from the beginning, Coran joined rather late. After the "Dragon Challenge" (happened while exploring the CW Mines) I chose Ajantis, and decided to shut down Coran's romance (he started grating on my nerves anyway).

 

We're exploring Baldur's Gate now, and it's been about 8 real-time hours since Ajantis' last LT (#15 or #16 I believe). I'm playing a LG paladin with a rep of 20, and haven't commited a single evil act, or insulted Ajantis in any way.

 

The thing is, I don't want Ajantis to run away scared at the wrong moment, because some of the LT's did not occur...

 

Am I just being impatient or is something amiss? I want to get him to talk to my Character again!

[jastey]

Thank you for the kind words!

Did you check on the romance guide? (It's is a tiny little bit outdated, but overall it should work.) Prior to LT 17, there is a meeting with a messenger in a city area. What was the content of the last LT you had, was it flowers (#15) or past/present lovers (#16)? After that one, there should appear a messenger in a city area.

 

In case you have been to cities: what would be the values of the variables "X#AjantisHasRing" and "X#AjantisLoveTalk"?

And, to make sure, "X#AjantisRomanceActive"?

[Laelia]

Did you check on the romance guide? (It's is a tiny little bit outdated, but overall it should work.) Prior to LT 17, there is a meeting with a messenger in a city area.

 

I did use the guide to check if I missed something. Now that you mention it... there was a talk about past/present lovers right after entering the to the Friendly Arms Inn zone. (That's the one past the flowers-talk). Since we went only there for a brief resupply, our return from Cloakwood to FAI was not before an in-game week had passed. Did this prevent the messenger somehow? I haven't spotted him, nor has the party been approached by one.

 

 

In case you have been to cities: what would be the values of the variables "X#AjantisHasRing" and "X#AjantisLoveTalk"?

And, to make sure, "X#AjantisRomanceActive"?

 

I would give these variables a try, but I'm afraid I might require some assistance about their usage.

 

These are to be entered in the console..?

 

Would be a different matter entirely. Referred to the console-guide for help, added DebugMode=1 to both the BG1 basegame .ini, as well as BGTutu's, but without no key combination with ctrl, alt, space or TAB seems to work.

 

There's a faint memory of a similar incident that happened a decade ago. I should have taken notes back then how I got the console to show up.

 

EDIT: By moradins Hammer. FAI broke it. Luckily I still had a very old savegame prior to that LT, went straight to Beregost this time and the messenger showed up. Any attempt to go FAI->Beregost, and the Messenger will not appear.

I hope there's a way to make him appear in my most recent save, because this one is about 30 in-game days old.

[jastey]

I didn't get this: How does Friendly Arm Inn (that's FAI, right?) prevent the messenger from triggering?

He should be spawned in FAI, too. Could it be he got spawned but stuck somewhere behind a door or somewhere he cannot approach the PC?

 

Hm, without the CLUAConsole this will be tough. Changing the Tutu's baldur.ini and pressing Ctr.+space usually should do it. Do you have Near Infinity, maybe, or Shadowkeeper? With any of those, the variables can be looked up, too (and also changed, I think).

[Laelia]

I didn't get this: How does Friendly Arm Inn (that's FAI, right?) prevent the messenger from triggering?

He should be spawned in FAI, too. Could it be he got spawned but stuck somewhere behind a door or somewhere he cannot approach the PC?

 

Well, I have no idea. Here's what I did [Refering to the Romance guide]:

 

Loaded up an older savegame, to see why the messenger wasn't triggering.

Starting Point Cloakwood before the Wyrm Cave. The LT 16 / private question had already transpired at an earlier point, also at the Friendly Arm Inn.

 

Map Travel to Friendly Arm inn. Nothing happens.

 

*Reload*

Direct map travel to Beregost

The messenger appears!

 

Baffled by this, I *reloaded* the same savegame again.

Went to FAI. Nothing.

Proceeded to Beregost without reloading. Nothing. No messenger present.

 

So naturally, without the knowledge that a messenger will appear, zoning to FAI at this critical event "broke" future LT's, because the conditions (Ajantis recieving the ring) were not met.

 

Hm, without the CLUAConsole this will be tough. Changing the Tutu's baldur.ini and pressing Ctr.+space usually should do it. Do you have Near Infinity, maybe, or Shadowkeeper? With any of those, the variables can be looked up, too (and also changed, I think).

 

I'm not sure what you mean, but I'll google for it. Otherwise I'll simply play from the older savegame and avoid FAI like the plague.

[jastey]

You'd help me tremendously if you could do these loads again, and have a look at FAI at the corners, and behind doors.

If it is reproducible, I'd be glad if you would send me a save game to my username at web.de, probably the one at the FAI, so I'll have a look around. My suspicion is that the messenger was attempted to trigger at FAI, but maybe at some weird place. It happens sometimes, because he is spawned "Off screen", i.e. where the party cannot see at that moment. So, maybe he is hanging at a cliff or something.

I guess we'll find a way to trigger the LT. If you can set a variable, it's fairly easy.

[Laelia]

A "Cliff-Hanger", eh? Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

It could be possible, I entered the map from the SW-Corner of the map, always. I'll give it another try.

 

 

EDIT:

This is blasphemy. The older savegame (the one I tested with) works flawlessly now, even Friendly Arm Inn.

 

The most recent however, with the people already being in Baldur's Gate, is still affected. Travelling to another district or even Beregost does not trigger the messenger.

 

Does this belong to common Infinity Engine stubbornness?

[jastey]

Could be.. As I said, I suspect he was spawned, the poor guy. You could send me the save game, I could check the variables. This would still leave us with the problem how to set variables in your game to start the dialogue, though.

[Laelia]

Could be.. As I said, I suspect he was spawned, the poor guy. You could send me the save game, I could check the variables. This would still leave us with the problem how to set variables in your game to start the dialogue, though.

 

Found the lazy guy. He's been well-hidden under a tree, and if you don't expect him or know where to look, he's tough to spot. What's odd though, that he did this a number of times in a row, without talking to the group.

 

Pheeew. So the engagement does not end in drama. Thank you for the pointers, that helped just as well. I'm also glad it's not an error within the mod, I'd blame the engine. NWN2 hat its script-quirks, now I'm getting to know the IE ones.

 

Here's a screenshot of him. So if anyone else happens to run into this problem, check your surroundings carefully. I swear that messenger is wearing a camo suit.

 

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/8185/lazymessenger.jpg

[jastey]

There's a messenger in that screen shot?..

 

I am glad that's solved! Although it's strange that he didn't approach the group. He is supposed to walk to Ajantis, and follow him around, until he sees him and the PC together, and initiate dialogue. Well, as long as it worked for you, I would also suspect the engine, as it seems to work fine in most cases.

Anyway, have fun!

[Laelia]

There's a messenger in that screen shot?..

 

Precisely. He's right at the heart of the screenshot, in the center, blending into the cobblestone like a chameleon. And he expects some paladin to find him here.

 

Thank you for your help.

[Guest maipai]

Where can I get a copy of the romance guide? I can't find mine.

There's a messenger in that screen shot?..

 

Precisely. He's right at the heart of the screenshot, in the center, blending into the cobblestone like a chameleon. And he expects some paladin to find him here.

 

Thank you for your help.

[jastey]

maipai: In the BG1NPC mod package, it should be in the folder "bg1npc_docs".

 

Laelia: I did see him - but only after a careful investigaion. Camouflage all right. Maybe I should dress him in the Ilvastarr's family colours yellow and green.

btw: I think you encountered the very rare occasion of "messenger spawned and initiated dialogue, but unfortunately couldn't talk because party left the area". At least I think so, since he could be talked to, so the variable was set.

[cmorgan]

We have had this trouble with Dynaheir's ribbon lovetalk, and some other "spawn offscreen and move to party" code, too. I think we might want to do more cutscene-scripting stuff with these, if we get around to it - I think the new mantra for helping modders will have to be "if you want things to work consistently in the modern age of experienced players, use/abuse cutscene scripting to make sure the user is locked out of the action until your code is completed", a-la Garrick and Silke interactions outside of the Red Sheaf Inn.

 

(maipai, the Romance Guide is also linked in the readme, or if you are away fom your installation you can catch it off of the site pages through the readme posted here at G3. The direct online link is http://www.gibberlings3.net/readmes/bg1npc...mance_guide.pdf. It is close, but not identical to content in v16.)

[jastey]

Yes, either cutscenes, or what I also thought is to spawn the messenger out of a "look who is there"-dialogue of the NPC, so at least the player knows that something is going on. But sometimes the action is too quick performed even for the player to react, so blocking actions via cutscenes might be the safest way to go, yes.