An odd issue with Near Infinity and assigning kits...

[Rana]

For some reason that I can't explain, Kivan and Tiax - mind you this just the BG1 version of Tiax, not the Spellhold Tiax or BG2 Tiax - have their kit resource list completely jacked up. We're talking kit values ranging in the thousands, certain kits not appearing, etc.

 

I've figured out a workaround using Shadow Keeper, an old save file and converting the Kivan and Tiax characters with the information I want into CRE files and then putting them into the override file, so that's all well and good. I just want to know what causes something like that, and why it'd only affect two characters out of the entire ensemble. Has anyone ran into anything like this before?this before?

[Jarno Mikkola]

The Near Infinity is extreamly bad at modifying character files, especially damaged/unusual character files... that's just a reality.

[Rana]

The Near Infinity is extreamly bad at modifying character files, especially damaged/unusual character files... that's just a reality.

 

Actually it's been pretty reliable for the most part. Sometimes I'll run into a wall, but I usually find a cause or at least a workaround. Ah well, figures I would get comfortable with the most unreliable tool.

 

It's entirely possible that their .CRE files are damaged in some way, but I'm not finding anything terribly out of the ordinary. I've also come across a few other .CRE files that are experiencing the same oddity, though they're few and far between and were minor characters that didn't have kits assigned in the first place.

[Miloch]

You can use the Level 1 NPCs mod to change NPC kits (provided they haven't joined your party yet, though it could actually be hacked to do that too).

[devSin]

You'd have to show a screenshot of the issue. It's possible that there's an issue, but you may just be talking about kits that were assigned with bit values (kit.ids), which is what BioWare's toolset seems to have done, at least initially. If we encounter those values, then all the kit choices are listed in that manner.

 

We shouldn't have any issue modifying character files. Note that if a bitmap field (like the kit field) doesn't provide the choices you want, you can right-click it to change the entry view to hex and then modify the value directly.

[Rana]

You'd have to show a screenshot of the issue. It's possible that there's an issue, but you may just be talking about kits that were assigned with bit values (kit.ids), which is what BioWare's toolset seems to have done, at least initially. If we encounter those values, then all the kit choices are listed in that manner.

 

We shouldn't have any issue modifying character files. Note that if a bitmap field (like the kit field) doesn't provide the choices you want, you can right-click it to change the entry view to hex and then modify the value directly.

 

Here's a screenshot I hope will help explain things more in depth. Sorry if the screenshot is a little small, but the issue should make itself immediately clear:

 

 

Note that while they're both for Tiax, they are different .CREs - the one on the right is the default Tiax that joins you in BG1, the one on the left is Kuylok's SoA/ToB Tiax. They have the same base class, it's just that one is reading an odd set of values from the Kitlist while another isn't. This is also affecting BG1 Kivan, but other than those two they are the only joinable NPCs that are being affected. There's a few other non-joinable NPCs that seem to be affected as well such as 2 non-joinable Corans, though the joinable version of Coran is fine.

 

Not really sure what would cause such a thing, and why it would only affect a select few .CREs instead of all of them.

 

I'd also like to just say that Near Infinity is one of my favorite modding tools and I've learned a lot through it's use, though I have stumbled through most of my discoveries. For example, I recently learned how to add and assign title changes, create new items and assign them to character files. Let me tell you, that last one had "The Dawn of Man" playing in my head when I figured it out.

[devSin]

First, update your copy of NI. It requires Java 6, but we should have some good changes in there; you can find a precompiled binary here (you should be able to keep also the old version to run if you encounter problems with a particular task).

 

Anyway, this behavior is intentional. As noted, there are two possible representations for the kit stat. One is by bit (the defaults are listed in the IDS), which BioWare's internal editor at one time apparently assigned. The game engine instead uses 0x4000 + the row number from the 2DA to identify the active kit (this is what is saved when you create your own kitted characters).

 

We have to guess which is the correct value, and we present the list that makes sense for the existing value; probably, Tiax is 0x0 instead of 0x4000, so we end up defaulting to the IDS values.

[Rana]

First, update your copy of NI. It requires Java 6, but we should have some good changes in there; you can find a precompiled binary here (you should be able to keep also the old version to run if you encounter problems with a particular task).

 

Anyway, this behavior is intentional. As noted, there are two possible representations for the kit stat. One is by bit (the defaults are listed in the IDS), which BioWare's internal editor at one time apparently assigned. The game engine instead uses 0x4000 + the row number from the 2DA to identify the active kit (this is what is saved when you create your own kitted characters).

 

We have to guess which is the correct value, and we present the list that makes sense for the existing value; probably, Tiax is 0x0 instead of 0x4000, so we end up defaulting to the IDS values.

 

So after reading your post, somehow I got it in me that if I copied the kit value of someone else' .CRE file and copied it to one of the "infected" .CREs, I could solve the problem. At first this seemed to be the case, as I immediately got a normal kit list that included all the kits and didn't associate a wacky series of numbers with their values. Being satisfied with my work, I saved their .CREs and went on, but eventually checked in with one of the .CREs that previously had been "normal" - uh oh! Now they were "infected!" And so were a ton of others - in fact only Tiax and Kivan's appear to be the ones that are working normally. Also the custom titles I included into the character's BCS files weren't reading anymore... graaah!

 

I think I'd better just learn how to use WeiDU, heh.

 

Anyway devSin I don't know if you noticed it, or if I failed to mention it, but the "infected" .CREs weren't showing all of the kits on the drop down list, as opposed to the "normal" .CREs that were. I know you say that this behavior is intentional, but I think I'd have to call that into question.

 

Edit: Pretty sure I solved it, but almost lost my friggin mind in the process. -.-

[devSin]

Anyway devSin I don't know if you noticed it, or if I failed to mention it, but the "infected" .CREs weren't showing all of the kits on the drop down list, as opposed to the "normal" .CREs that were. I know you say that this behavior is intentional, but I think I'd have to call that into question.

The lists are culled from your local kitlist.2da and kit.ids files, so what options you see depends entirely on the contents of those files in your installation.

[Rana]

At the time, I only had one kitlist.2da and kit.ids files, so it doesn't really make sense that I'd have one CRE file displaying some information and another CRE file displaying completely different information, since they should technically draw information from the same files.

 

In any event I repatched the game and it assigned new, standardized values to the kitlist, which solved the kitlist problem. Everyone is now drawing from the same list with the same values.