Experience cap component doesn’t work in BG2:EE SoA

[Guest andrey]

I’m playing BG2:EE as a solo F/M/T and hitting the 2.95M exp cap in SoA chapter 2.

I am trying to remove the cap using tweaks anthology v13, but it doesn’t seem to take effect: exp still not received. 

In case it’s relevant, I’m applying the mods on macOS and then transferring the override files to an iPad as a .bg2override file. In principle this setup works: for instance the tweaks anthology component that allows wearing multiple magic armor pieces functions well. I don’t use any other mods.

Any advice on what to look into?

 

[CamDawg]

The main files are xplevel.2da and xpcap.2da, though there are a lot of other files that need modification.

[Guest andrey]

They're both patched and send as part of the .bg2override archive I send to the iPad. If I set the exp cap to no limit, there's also a few dozens other files that get patched, but if I limit it to lvl 30 the number of files in override directory is much smaller. Neither seems to work to actually remove the cap though.

[CamDawg]

Most level-dependent tables (like kit abilities, or ranger stealth) only extend to level 40. With the unlimited cap, all of these tables get extended to level 50 (the hardcoded limit). This isn't needed with a level 20 or level 30 cap, hence the discrepancy between the number of files patched. Also I forgot that startare.2da is also a needed file for removing the cap on the EEs, but it seems like that's not the issue anyway.

As for the core issue--why this isn't working--I really don't know. I believe @subtledoctor may have experience with modding on an iPad, so hopefully he can comment on whether this is a platform-specific issue or not.

 

[subtledoctor]

There are several platform-specific pitfalls into which you can fall.

First: any changes made will not show up until you close out the app and restart it. On an iPad this is a bit more complex than with a computer, since iOS keeps apps running in the background when you "close" them. You need to 1) move files over, such that the iPad switches to the BG2 app; 2) leave the app; 3) go to the app switcher and swipe the app up to completely close it and remove it from memory; 4) wait a few seconds (maybe just me being cautious); and finally 5) restart the app. Now it will load any new override files.

Second: iOS is case-sensitive, while macOS is not. This means you have to be very careful about how you move files over. Two instances of the same file with different case might result in the game not registering the change, or might lead to a hard crash.

Personally I always make sure everything I move to the iPad is in all-caps. With big override folders of 40,000+ files, the quickest way to do this is 1) run Generalized Biffing; 2) use an app like NameChanger to capitalize the files in /override that didn't get biffed; 3) uninstall Generalized Biffing. Now everything in the override folder is all-caps. I .zip the folder itself (not the files inside, but the actual override folder) and rename the .zip archive "override.bg2data" and then copy that over. Later, if I want to change any files, I want to make sure they completely overwrite the existing versions, so I make sure they are completely capitalized, then I make a .zip archive of the loose files. Because I zipped the loose files, I name this a archive "update1.bg2override" and  send it over to the iPad. Then, as before, completely remove the app from memory and restart it so that it loads these new files. (Again so it is clear: the zipped override folder becomes override.bg2data; zipped loose files become update_files.bg2override.)

You can't delete anything from the iPad, so making a mistake here - like uploading a version of XPLEVEL.2da and then uploading another version of xpLeVeL.2dA that is capitalized differently - can be a problem and can kill the install.

My first guess was that the OP just didn't fully restart the app and this might actually be working fine. But this comment

1 hour ago, Guest andrey said:

They're both patched and send as part of the .bg2override archive I send to the iPad. If I set the exp cap to no limit, there's also a few dozens other files that get patched, but if I limit it to lvl 30 the number of files in override directory is much smaller. Neither seems to work to actually remove the cap though.

...makes me think they sent files over multiple times, some of them for one version of the mod  and some of them for another version. Since files cannot be deleted, extraneous files can be interfering with things.

But, on the bright side, it sounds like no other mods were installed...? In which case this may be salvageable. IF that is the case, then you could:

1. Move a recent save file off the iPad (hold the quicksave button until the export/share menu pops up, and send the file somewhere)
2. Remove the BG2 app from the iPad
3. Go to the APP Store and re-download the BG2 app
4. Send the savegame back to the iPad.
5. Install the mod on a computer, make sure everything is capitalized (or lower-case, whatever, just make the case uniform and easy to reproduce)
6. Send the mod files over to the computer, which will automatically run the app
7. Completely kill the app
8. Start the app again and load the savegame

In this case, that will probably work.

Edited May 4, 2022 by subtledoctor

[CamDawg]

Cheers, thanks for helping troubleshoot this @subtledoctor!

[Guest andrey]

Thanks @subtledoctorand @CamDawg - I’ve been quite careful restarting the app each time after modding it (except maybe for the “wait a few seconds” step, hehe). 
 

but I had no idea about case sensitivity! I can’t wrap my head around how exactly it would ruin my first modding attempt but it’s definitely something to look at. I’ll try a few things and get back to you. Thanks for such a detailed write up, it’s much more detailed info than I was able to Google for.

 

I don’t do any sort of biffing, is that important if I only apply one small mod?

[subtledoctor]

26 minutes ago, Guest andrey said:

but I had no idea about case sensitivity! I can’t wrap my head around how exactly it would ruin my first modding attempt

Case sensitivity + the fact that you can't delete things can be problematic. It sounds from the post above that you installed one version of the mod and sent files over; and then uninstalled it and installed a different version, and then sent those files over. This means that there are extra files, which your game will try to incorporate. And depending on how careful the mod is (trust no one!) it may have created the same file with different capitalization, which means your iPad could (could) have two different files with the same name. This could screw up the game. The chances are small, but it's a possibility.

29 minutes ago, Guest andrey said:

I don’t do any sort of biffing, is that important if I only apply one small mod?

No - definitely don't biff things, the iPad game cannot handle that. I only use Biffing because when there are lots of files in /override - my BG1 game has 32,000 at the moment - the easily available utility apps can take hours to capitalize that many files. I tried to use a shell script but that took forever as well. For whatever reason, if you install Biffing, then immediately uninstall it, it will capitalize everything in about 30 seconds. Why can it do that orders of magnitude faster than apps custom-built for such a thing? I have no idea.   But for complex modded installs where you have to be very careful about case sensitivity, when your OS and Weidu don't care about case sensitivity, it can be handy.

But yeah, for small sets of files you can use simpler methods.