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Discussion on 'Converting existing mods to the EE engine'


jastey

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I've got a question about converting mods with multiple components(UB, RE): can I write

 

ALWAYS

ACTION_IF GAME_IS ~BG2EE~ BEGIN

LOAD_TRA ~Mod/%LANGUAGE%/Setup-Mod-EE.tra~ // item descriptions

END ELSE BEGIN

APPEND ~STATE.IDS~ ~0x80101FEF CD_STATE_NOTVALID~

UNLESS ~CD_STATE_NOTVALID~

END

END

 

Is this okay? (newbie, yes, never tried LOAD_TRA before, want to play it safe)

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Okay, more questions/problems:

 

1) please, specify more about GAME_IS, since I understood from another topic that REQUIRE_FILE may not work with either .bif or .mve. Does ~tob~ include bg2ee with tob? What should I place when I want to compile my ToB files? Require ToB games only?

 

2) Existing journal entries. I have no problems with new journal entries, like ~Assassinations.

Blahblahblah.~ But what if the mod(UB, NPC mod) adds a journal entry that is called "The final battle with Bodhi.

Blahblahblah.~? Like the existing "The final battle with Bodhi" entries in the game?

 

I understand that a "The final battle with Bodhi" group already exists. Does it mean that it will be automatically added to it, or do I need an ADD_JOURNAL? (Is it possible for Weidu to extract it automatically without a manual ADD_JOURNAL?) If I need an ADD_JOURNAL, how should I write it? I can't write an

ADD_JOURNAL TITLE EXISTING #9999, because my dialog.tlk has no line which is called "The final battle with Bodhi". So I'm a bit stumped here(and I fear that BG2EE-only-strrefs are somewhat scary, since BG2EE developers can well toss it around in the next patches).

 

3) Also, am I correct when I write three or four ADD_JOURNAL commands in a row, like

 

ACTION_IF GAME_IS ~BG2EE~ BEGIN

ADD_JOURNAL @69 @84 @102 @465 @671 @687 @697 @727 @729 @751 @754 USING ~ub/tra/%LANGUAGE%/wwminscub.tra~

ADD_JOURNAL @469 @480 USING ~ub/tra/%LANGUAGE%/wwminscub.tra~

ADD_JOURNAL @477 @788 USING ~ub/tra/%LANGUAGE%/wwminscub.tra~

ADD_JOURNAL @638 @644 USING ~ub/tra/%LANGUAGE%/wwminscub.tra~

END

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We will never alter the numbers of existing BGII strrefs. :)

 

Edit: As for the romance/Bodhi journal entries, they don't really need to be grouped together across mods, since there will never be a situation where there is more than one mod's version up -- the Bodhinapping can only occur to one NPC.

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But what if the mod(UB, NPC mod) adds a journal entry that is called "The final battle with Bodhi.

Blahblahblah.~? Like the existing "The final battle with Bodhi" entries in the game?

Safest thing to do (as Cam suggested) is to use the according StrRef Number. For BGII:EE the titels alone have StrRef numbers, if I understood correctly. I don't think it will violate the NDA if someone with access tells it to you so you can prepare the mod for the BGII:EE release.

 

EDIT: In case I didn't understand your question: For original BGII-install, the ADD_JOURNAL shouldn't do anything at all, so putting StrRef numbers that doesn't exist in your (BGII) game shouldn't lead to compile errors.

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Yep I'll be glad and happy to get tne strrefs from BG2:EE a new English dialog.tlk in tra format, IF it doesn't put anyone in trouble. But - Kaeloree said that original BG2 strrefs will never ever change(makes total sense), but what about new BG2EE ones? Can they change? If they can change, it's going to be a bit chaotic. And maybe there's a way without these strrefs?

 

And, sure, you understood me perfectly. :)

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Edit: As for the romance/Bodhi journal entries, they don't really need to be grouped together across mods, since there will never be a situation where there is more than one mod's version up -- the Bodhinapping can only occur to one NPC.

 

So, if I have a

@1000 = ~The Final Battle with Bodhi.

 

Help, Bodhi kidnapped Bryce Larkin! Because everybody sleeps with Bryce Larkin.~

, I need to add an

 

ADD_JOURNAL @1000

, no exceptions? Okay, got that, thank you!

 

But what about new journal entries for Suna Seni(Spellhold quest, Valygar Corthala quest, other vanilla quests)?

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Wait, what: "grouped together across mods" - how would I group together journal entries across mods? I thought by including the ADD_JOURNAL (and correct spelling of the according journal entry title) the entries would be grouped accordingly? Kulyok. What do you mean with "no exceptions"?

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A figure of speech, just that. It just seems not very convenient that I can't convert journal entries from the original game quests without either asking for BG2EE dialogue strings(don't have them) or duplicating the entries(and I need to traify some of these entries, first!). I'll probably go with duplicating the entries for now.

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I am having a bit of a brainfart. Where can I get a copy of the Mac versions of tisunpack/oggdec?

The WeiDU Mac package includes tisunpack (for "Intel" Macs). SoX is conventionally used over oggdec on OS X (no idea why) . You can download SoX here.

 

1) please, specify more about GAME_IS, since I understood from another topic that REQUIRE_FILE may not work with either .bif or .mve. Does ~tob~ include bg2ee with tob? What should I place when I want to compile my ToB files? Require ToB games only?

GAME_IS ~tob~ is only BG2: ToB. GAME_IS ~tob bgt bg2ee~ covers all possible games where you travel around Tethyr and fight the Five. You can also use ENGINE_IS ~tob bg2ee~ if you are merely interested in some technical aspect of the engine (like one of the ToB-only opcodes) but don't care about the gameplay content (ENGINE_IS ~tob~ covers plain ToB, EasyTutu with ToB, BGT, CA, IWDINBG2 etc.)

 

2) Existing journal entries. I have no problems with new journal entries, like ~Assassinations.

Blahblahblah.~ But what if the mod(UB, NPC mod) adds a journal entry that is called "The final battle with Bodhi.

Blahblahblah.~? Like the existing "The final battle with Bodhi" entries in the game?

 

I understand that a "The final battle with Bodhi" group already exists. Does it mean that it will be automatically added to it, or do I need an ADD_JOURNAL? (Is it possible for Weidu to extract it automatically without a manual ADD_JOURNAL?) If I need an ADD_JOURNAL, how should I write it? I can't write an

ADD_JOURNAL TITLE EXISTING #9999, because my dialog.tlk has no line which is called "The final battle with Bodhi". So I'm a bit stumped here(and I fear that BG2EE-only-strrefs are somewhat scary, since BG2EE developers can well toss it around in the next patches).

Using TITLE and EXISTING would be correct if you want your journal entry to become part of an existing group. It's recommended to use an existing strref for TITLE, since that guarantees that your title will be indentical to the existing title (if they are not, ADD_JOURNAL will add it as a new group. since it'll think there is no existing group that matches). I can't imagine the BG2EE people would change strrefs this late in the development process, or break backwards compatibility by doing it in a patch.

 

3) Also, am I correct when I write three or four ADD_JOURNAL commands in a row, like

 

ACTION_IF GAME_IS ~BG2EE~ BEGIN

ADD_JOURNAL @69 @84 @102 @465 @671 @687 @697 @727 @729 @751 @754 USING ~ub/tra/%LANGUAGE%/wwminscub.tra~

ADD_JOURNAL @469 @480 USING ~ub/tra/%LANGUAGE%/wwminscub.tra~

ADD_JOURNAL @477 @788 USING ~ub/tra/%LANGUAGE%/wwminscub.tra~

ADD_JOURNAL @638 @644 USING ~ub/tra/%LANGUAGE%/wwminscub.tra~

END

It's not wrong. It looks like it might be redundant to have four. Since they come from the same TRA file and you are not using TITLE or the other options, you can probably get by with a singe ADD_JOURNAL that covers them all. E.g., if @469 and @480 are one group, and @477 and @788 are another, that's how they will be added, regardless of whether you do it in one or two ADD_JOURNALs. You could argue that four ADD_JOURNALs improves clarity, however.

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Please don't request NDA materials. If anybody does send NDA materials, there will be consequences. I'm really sorry, but any sharing of BGII:EE files and resources is at this point illegal.

 

Once they're in, we don't change string numbers at all. We'd rather add new ones than change existing ones for compatibility reasons, obviously.

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