Jastey's SoD Tweakpack

[subtledoctor]

Would be great to see a tweak that has you start at 160,000 XP.  Starting a new game with only 89,000 XP makes me cringe.  (I guess it's better here than in BG2, but still... options are nice.)

[jastey]

@subtledoctor You mean at the beginning of SoD? For every NPC or just the PC? It would be an easy enough tweak I think if realized by a script addition to the PC's script. I won't do any tweak of that sort anytime soon and can't promise I will at all, but if someone wants to provide it it could be included into the tweak pack.

[Jarno Mikkola]

@jastey, std is talking about the startare.2da file for BGII - SoA, startbp.2da for Black Pits 2 etc -like file, that sets the xp among other settings... no scripting.

[subtledoctor]

Actually now I’m actually starting a game, it looks like it starts me at 64,000 XP...?? That’s insane. I don’t think I even made it to Baldur’s Gate City by this point in BG1. 

Jarno does startare.2da control this? If it’s easy to code I’ll write up  a couple options and submit them to Jastey. 

[jastey]

I have no idea how startare.2da or any 2da works so I'm no help here.

[Jarno Mikkola]

4 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

Actually now I’m actually starting a game, it looks like it starts me at 64,000 XP...?? That’s insane. ...

Jarno does startare.2da control this?

It's SODSTRTA.2da -file and yes, it's 64000 ... at least in my BG1EE+..

Jastey, the .2da files are standard tables some functions use, like thac0 etc. Just have a look next time you visit Near Infinity.

[subtledoctor]

Heh, 2da tables are kind of my specialty... I've even taken to mass-producing them.  If I'm understanding Jarno correctly, it should be SUPER easy to code up a few subcomponents, like:

Choose starting XP for SoD
[N]o, [Q]uit, or choose one:
	1] 64,000
	2] 89,000
	3] 125,000
	4] 161,0000

I'll write it up and test it, and get back to you.

Edited December 18, 2019 by subtledoctor

[jastey]

58 minutes ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

next time you visit Near Infinity.

What is Near Inifnity?

16 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

I'll write it up and test it, and get back to you.

Great!

[subtledoctor]

Welp, that was even easier than I thought.  Mostly thanks to Beamdog's having externalized it.  Here's a mod that does it - should be easy to integrate, if you want to.

SoD_starting_XP.zip

[jastey]

Cool. I'll love to, but I won't be able to upload a new version before next year. What do I do with the __MACOSX folder in there? The tp2 addition is all I need, correct?

[subtledoctor]

32 minutes ago, jastey said:

Cool. I'll love to, but I won't be able to upload a new version before next year. What do I do with the __MACOSX folder in there? The tp2 addition is all I need, correct?

Oh yeah, sorry, that's a hidden file on my system.  It's junk, you can delete it.  Just need to copy stuff from the .tp2 file:  first, define the function somewhere (I think easiest is in the mod's ALWAYS block, as I did here, but you can also put it in a separate .tpa file, and INCLUDE that .tpa file in each subcomponent).  Then, you can copy the entirety of the normal part (from BEGIN) and drop it directly into the SOD Tweaks' .tp2.  Again - if you like it.  No pressure! 

No worries about timing, I'm actually just now starting an SoD game, and I already updated this in my personal install.

[jastey]

Thank you!

[Jarno Mikkola]

std, yet again you fail to realize that the non-moded content includes the

1] 64,000

-option, so having it there makes NO FREAKING SENSE. If I were to place it, I would just write the original value in the grouping text.

And by the by, the "," can have multiple meanings, so getting rid of it might be looked kindly. You can leave an empty space on it's place if that makes it more to your liking ... but as one that would regularly uses it as the dot or decimal divider, it's not so nice to see it as the thousand divider. Yeah, in Finnish language, the number is officially written with 64.000,00 if one want/needs to be that precise.

And what comes to times, I have waited for ... 12+ years to really play my megamod, so any time scale you have is far too soon to make a difference to my play plan.

10 hours ago, jastey said:

What is Near Inifnity?

It's this Graphical User Interface based game editor made by Argent77 at SHSforums and github. Yeah, you knew all that, but others might not.

Edited December 19, 2019 by Jarno Mikkola

[jastey]

@subtledoctor Would the title "Adjust PC's Starting XP at Beginning of SoD" be ok?

The changes only apply for a new SoD game (this is probably a silly question), correct?

[subtledoctor]

Sure. Yes, it is specific to the SoD campaign, regardless what game/platform you are on.