Cahir's EET Epic Run Mod Order help request

[Cahir]

On 5/7/2020 at 9:37 PM, jastey said:

That's why I pointed out the components in the list for bg1re. There are really nice quests in there (which deserve a bit more attention ): No Regrets, The Messenger, The Honest Lies of Two Riversides,  Necromancer's Trouble, The Messenger 2: Rain or Snow or Gloom of Night, and also Bonus Quest: Scar - The Return (for which you need the components "Eltan's Spare Minute - no sex" and "Scar's Spare Time" - only sex if female PC wants to) are not only without intimacies but also really nice quests in bgqe quest-style (if I may say so).

@jasteyare there any specific install order recommendations for those BG1RE components?

[jastey]

@Cahir Not that I am aware of. Compatibility for Duke Eltan with EBG1 and bg1ub should be independent on installl order, as is the Sil additions of bg1re and Sirine's Call.

Just the normal recommendation to install quest mods before NPC mods (in case there is crossmod contents.)

[Cahir]

2 minutes ago, jastey said:

@Cahir Not that I am aware of. Compatibility for Duke Eltan with EBG1 and bg1ub should be independent on installl order, as is the Sil additions of bg1re and Sirine's Call.

Just the normal recommendation to install quest mods before NPC mods (in case there is crossmod contents.)

Awesome, thanks! I'll put it after BG1UB, Sirine's Call and BGQE just in case. Will also update my install order with shiny new Endess BG1. I see you've added some new components, cool!

[Cahir]

OK, will be probably running another test install tomorrow. Changes and additions:

- Added BG1 Romantic Encounters (selected components, without kinky stuff).

- Added Awesome Soundsets vol. 2 (will be installed on BG2EE before running the whole EET installation)

- Added @subtledoctor's custom-made Proficiency names tweak. Tested on current EET installation and it works perfectly!

- Added custom-made portrait by @Wise Grimwald. Thanks, bro! I think this is an edited version of Isandir's portrait, so if I ever decide to document my playthrough I'll credit them both.

- Updated Endless BG1, Sirene BG1 and BG2, Shadow Magic, Pai'na

- Updated item descriptions in all mods to better suits vanilla EE style. Most changes are very minor, but some may not suite authors taste, so I'm a bit hesitate to send it to them. If someone is interested to use it, just PM me and I'll share it with you. I need to test IR first after those changes before running the whole installation to check if I didn't screw anything up, because this one is more tricky because of all this regexp stuff. Especially need to check if EE engine would correctly show Usability block, since I deleted those blocks from item descriptions as redundant in EE.

- Moved some IR components before FnP as per @subtledoctors suggestion.

- Moved ARP before UB to (hopefully) fix ARP installed with warning issue with Restored Random Encounters component

Will keep you posted, guys. If you have some new mod versions incoming, just give me a heads up.

[subtledoctor]

OMG...!! Okay I am definitely going to implement that. Prepare for a barrage of questions. 

EDIT - didn’t see more responses. That was in response to lefreut’s post. 

Edited May 8, 2020 by subtledoctor

[Cahir]

1 hour ago, subtledoctor said:

OMG...!! Okay I am definitely going to implement that. Prepare for a barrage of questions. 

Hehe, that's hillarious, I thought for a moment you're reacting for me saying that your little mod you've made for me works flawlessly  

Damn, sometimes I feel like I'm the spark that makes you guys do fun stuff  

[Lauriel]

I was just wondering what the heck he was talking about, too.  Thought maybe he posted in the wrong topic, or perhaps lost his mind on the way to the forums.

[subtledoctor]

1 hour ago, Lauriel said:

...or perhaps lost his mind on the way to the forums.

That possibility is not to be discounted.

[subtledoctor]

5 hours ago, Cahir said:

I figured it might be complicated to patch kit descriptions, but I just hoped you WeiDU wizards will figure something out

IR and/or SR does a very good job of it.  I think the code was by Ardanis.  With proper attention and replacement of .tra strings by variables, you can get REPLACE_TEXTUALLY to work in multiple languages.  (Of course, you must know precisely how to write the string in that other language, and hope that all mods use the same translation and phrasing that you use...)  Faiths & Powers does it a bit too (only in English), but it cheats: every kit has various characteristics listed under "Advantages:" and "Disadvantages:".  FnP changes these to "Abilities:" and "Restrictions:"; then, it looks for a line that says either "Advantages:" or "Abilities:" and doe something like

REPLACE_TEXTUALLY
~^Abilities:~
~Abilities:
Sphere Access: %sphere1%, %sphere2%, [etc.]~

REPLACE_TEXTUALLY
~^Advantages:~
~Abilities:
Sphere Access: %sphere1%, %sphere2%, [etc.]~

That catches basically every kit that can be altered by the sphere system, and allows us to insert a line describing the kit's sphere access.  But that would not work for weapon proficiencies, because I don't know how this or that kit might already describe their proficiencies.  So if I inserted a line, the description might have two different contradictory mentions of proficiency limits. 

There might be a way to do it decently, or maybe not.  I should clean up the text in SoB at some point though.  Probably just do a basic description of each class' limits, and then in kit descriptions for classes like Swashbucklers or Archers, just include a general phrase like " - can reach a higher level of mastery than usual with bows and crossbows."

[subtledoctor]

Also, @Cahir and @4udr4n - I've moved on to BG2, I want to try to play through TOB before changing gears, so it is too late for me to go back to BG1.  But it would make my heart squee with joy if someone kept Alora as a single-class thief and gave her the new Halfling Whistler kit from Might & Guile, and then tell me what you think. 

Edited May 9, 2020 by subtledoctor

[subtledoctor]

I just updated Faiths & Powers.  You should probably grab the latest version for your next test install.

[Cahir]

1 hour ago, subtledoctor said:

I just updated Faiths & Powers.  You should probably grab the latest version for your next test install.

Boy, that is what I call a PERFECT TIMING I'm testing updated IR item descriptions right now (I actually did screw up one thing, unintentionally deleting one line resulting in installation error), and after that I was about to run another EET test install. This is great, swapping versions.

[4udr4n]

5 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

Halfling Whistler

Will MnG do this automatically, or do I need to use NPCEE?

@Cahir Could you send me the proficiency tweak and your item descriptions?

[Cahir]

10 hours ago, 4udr4n said:

@Cahir Could you send me the proficiency tweak and your item descriptions?

Yeah, I was too fast with celebrating the success. Those nasty regexp lines from IR are giving me a headache. I tried to modify them a bit, but the result is what I pasted in IR topic. Don't want to screw your game too. @Bartimaeus, @Mike1072, @subtledoctor if you know how to modify those lines without screwing description like below, would be grateful.

 

[subtledoctor]

On 5/9/2020 at 2:04 PM, Cahir said:

Yeah, I was too fast with celebrating the success. Those nasty regexp lines from IR are giving me a headache. I tried to modify them a bit, but the result is what I pasted in IR topic. Don't want to screw your game too. @Bartimaeus, @Mike1072, @subtledoctor if you know how to modify those lines without screwing description like below, would be grateful.

Modify them by Weidu?  Hmm

First I would open the description in Near Infinity and see what that symbol actually is.  It might be a carriage return, or it might be an n-dash.  Whatever it is, ctrl-C it in Near infinity and paste it into a text document.  Personally I replace all n-dashes with simple hyphens, because the result doesn't choke on any of the games, and who really cares if the dash is two pixels longer??? 

Then you could make a little hotfix mod with something like

BEGIN ~fix text~

OUTER_SPRINT bad_text_a ~aaa~	//	replace "aaa" with what you pasted from NI, like an n-dash

OUTER_SPRINT good_text_b ~bbb~	//	replace "bbb" with what you would like the text to be, like "-"

OUTER_SPRINT bad_text_c ~ccc~	//	replace "ccc" with something else you pasted from NI

OUTER_SPRINT good_text_d ~ddd~	//	replace "ddd" with what you would like that text to be

COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP GLOB ~^.+\.itm$~ ~override~
  PATCH_IF (SOURCE_SIZE > 0x71) BEGIN
    PATCH_FOR_EACH offset IN
      ~0x50~
      ~0x54~
    BEGIN
      READ_LONG ~%offset%~ desc_strref
      PATCH_IF (desc_strref >= 0 && desc_strref < 2147483646) BEGIN
        READ_STRREF ~%offset%~ desc
        INNER_PATCH_SAVE desc ~%desc%~ BEGIN
          REPLACE_TEXTUALLY ~%bad_text_a%~ ~%good_text_b%~
          REPLACE_TEXTUALLY ~%bad_text_c%~ ~%good_text_d%~
        END
      END
    END
  END
BUT_ONLY

Something like that.  I haven't tested it, but it is largely cut-and-pasted from working code, so it should be fairly close to working.

Edited May 11, 2020 by subtledoctor