How to convert Saradas Magic I to native EET compatibility?

[Endarire]

Greetings, all!

Saradas Magic I intrigued me for about 2 years now and I thought converting it to EET compatibility would be as simple as running the EET converter, but that didn't work.  A year ago today, Saradas Magic II 2.0 was released with full EET compatibility.  (It's also the better of the 2 Saradas Magic mods for EET for those who must pick 1 at most.)

I ask for your collective assistance since I've barely done any Infinity Engine-related mod making.  In the 1990s, I made a custom voice set and I've done a little bit of .tp2 file editing when updating More Style for Mages to EET compatibility.  In short, I felt so new that even re-re-re-reading the EET mod conversion guide by k4thos, I wasn't sure how to handle this.

My goals for handling this mod are entirely technical:  How do we have Saradas in BG1EE totally independent of Saradas in BG2EE so that, for example, BG1 Saradas isn't talking about Athkatla - a location where he isn't?  Further plans also include removing Saradas from the BGI area (the shrine in the Friendly Arm Inn) at the start of BG2EE (chapter 14) so that there's only one copy of Saradas in the game.  (It's simpler that way.)  Since he's a vendor, I'm also interested in how to preserve his shop inventory which likely requires him to be a continuous NPC, though maybe he liquidated when he joined the exodus in going south to Amn meaning it simply goes away.  (He's a Wizard.  He could have dumped it in the Abyss for all we know!)

Adding Project Infinity metadata, using the Infinity Engine Mod Packager, updating the documentation, and uploading the revised version to the GitHub for G3 or SHS seemed simple in comparison and stuff to do after adding EET compatibility.

Thankee for your aid!

Edited July 24, 2022 by Endarire

[jmerry]

Shops are their own thing, separate from the CRE file. You can have two different NPCs with dialogue that opens up the same STO.

In this case, I take it you want the flavor that the creature moved. Well, I see two ways to do it.

1. Use one CRE, with one DLG. Put them in two places. When the game progresses appropriately, deactivate or destroy the old one. This involves script actions Deactivate(object) or DestroySelf(). Have the dialogue split between two top-level options based on the same progression variables that you're basing the deactivation/destruction on, so that the dialogue you get references things from the appropriate part of the game. All instances of the StartStore(store) action in the dialogue should reference the same STO file, though depending on how things work in the dialogue you might be able to merge branches and only need one.

2. Use two different CREs, with two DLGs. Put them in two places. When the game progresses appropriately, deactivate or destroy the old one. Both DLGs reference the same STO with their StartStore actions.

Oh, and if one of them dies, set a global variable that you can check to deactivate or destroy the other. Because some players are jerks that way, and we should ruin their day in the most immersive way possible.

[Graion Dilach]

In this case though, the CRE filenames are also shared. Atleast, the last time I looked at it, they were and most of the problems stem from resource filename overlap.

Both mods need to be extended to handle scenarios where some of the files already exist.

[Endarire]

To clarify, Saradas seemingly uses a bunch of shared filenames between his BG1 and BG2 mods.  He's already a vendor with dialog and likely also separate inventories for each game.  My plan was to keep them separate per game and remove/kill the BG1 off-screen once BG2 starts because that's the simplest method at present:  If he keeps his store inventory between games, that's a pleasant bonus for now.

However, more pressingly, how to convert the existing Saradas Magic files for BG1EE to EET compatibility?  This seemed simple in theory, but because I'm so new, I wasn't sure what tools to use, what files to edit, nor how.  (Remember, merely re-re-reading k4thos's EET conversion guide wasn't enough for me.)

Thankee for your aid!