Changing a tweak after EET_End installed and game started

[Holden]

It's me again with another question about modding an EET install mid-game...

I completed a full install of EET and have attached my Weidu log here.  I installed a tweak from JTweaks which randomizes the battle music.  I thought this was a great idea until I realized that even boss battles had randomized music.  This is a huge no for me, since some of my favorite tracks in the game are for boss battles, particularly in ToB.

I just finished BG1 and am into the SoD portion of the game, and I'm wondering if I could undo EET_End and run JTweaks again to turn that setting off.  I have two trains of thought on this:

1.  Simply run JTweaks and choose all the same options except the random battle music, then simply run EET_End again.

2.  Uninstall all the tweak packs up to JTweaks, change the random battle music, and then reinstall the tweak packs in the same order with the same options before running EET_End.

Last time I tried to adjust mods after I started a game, it screwed up my save game (journal no longer displayed any active or completed quests).  That time, I had attempted to install a brand new mod in the install order, but this time I am just adjusting a tweak.  Any ideas on whether to take the risk and which of the above options would be better?  Any help would be really appreciated...thanks!!

WeiDU.log

[Frenzgyn]

Do not take the risk, there are a few non trivial component to adjust. I don't think it's the battle music per se that could cause the issue, but the changed order. You could backup all your current install and try, but I am not very optimistic about it regarding preserving your savegame without issue. 

[Holden]

How do I backup my install?  Is it simply a matter of copying the entire game folder, or are there specific things I need to address?

[Jarno Mikkola]

18 minutes ago, Holden said:

How do I backup my install?  Is it simply a matter of copying the entire game folder, or are there specific things I need to address?

Just copying the game folder to elsewhere will back it up. Just understand that that backuped folder, will not generally work without returning it to the original folder. And in the case you will want to use the backup rather than the then remoded version, you should just throw the original to the trashbin and copy(or cut and paste) the backup to the originals place. And just copy paste without the first deleting the original, will not work.

[Graion Dilach]

The EEs are mostly portable, so you can copy them over and they will work from an external folder. Jarno's being wrong, as usual.

[Holden]

I just remembered I had multiple installs of BG1 and BG2 at one point.  Both of the copied games could be played from my saves regardless of where they were located or how they were named, so I'm guessing this will work.  Thanks everyone, and I will post to let everyone know how the experiment goes.

[Graion Dilach]

TBH, for thsi scenario, I'd moreso just leave the game as-is wrt mods, and just fix the individual boss ARE files to revert to their original music. You should be able to compare the AREs via weidu --change-log. 

[Holden]

Could you point me towards a resource where I could learn how to do this?  Sorry, I'm new to this stuff and don't have a lot of know-how when it comes to adjusting the game files.  But I'm definitely willing to learn, and I agree that this would be a much safer solution.

[Graion Dilach]

Grab NearInfinity.

https://gibberlings3.github.io/iesdp/appendices/area_lists/bg2aref.htm has the area list. Open the area file you want to restore the music of (filename.are). Also, drag it's counterpart from weidu_external/backup/jtweaks/330 into the tool. so you get it in a separate window. Scroll down to Songs on both entries and double-click on them. You'll see that the 4th entry from the top is called Battle Music. Select it on the active one and change it back on the bottom list to what the backup variant has. When you're done, close the popups and use the Save button at the bottom of the main ARE file window.

[Holden]

Huge thank you!  Looks like my BG modding journey continues. I feel like I'm going to have a lot of fun working with this tool.

[jmerry]

Ah, my mod. That tweak is pretty simple, in that it just randomizes each area's battle music. No change to dialogue, or anything but that one field in area files. So if it was the last thing you installed, you could just uninstall it mid-run and have all new areas going forward back to their original music. (Areas already visited are in the save file, so they would stay randomized)

But it's not. And that means that if you uninstall that tweak, you'll also uninstall and reinstall everything that came after. Will that all come out the same? Maybe, maybe not. Definitely risky.

The method recommended by @Graion Dilach is much safer. Do that if you want to go back to the original - well, EET original - battle music. There are significant differences between BGEE and BG2EE music, including cases of completely different "songs" with the same names. And I don't think EET does a "keep them both" merge.

(Incidentally, there's one place the randomization won't happen. In Dorn's ToB quest, the Lunia map has script actions change the battle music after certain events happen. I don't touch the scripts, so the battle music after that, including the area's biggest fight, will be as originally scripted.)

[Jarno Mikkola]

3 hours ago, Graion Dilach said:

The EEs are mostly portable, so you can copy them over and they will work from an external folder. Jarno's being wrong, as usual.

Right, until you just copy the safe backup onto the modified game and you get garbage as a result. Because the modified files are still there.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Jarno Mikkola

[Holden]

1 hour ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

Right, until you just copy the safe backup onto the modified game and you get garbage as a result. Because the modified files are still there.

I just created identical copies of both my BG1 and BG2 folders (modded with EET) in a new folder.  Seems like both the original and copy run fine from my save.  I feel like I could run the experiment and see what happens in the copied folders without compromising the original.  But I like the Near Infinity option better anyways--seems like something I could really play with beyond my immediate problem.

[Holden]

2 hours ago, jmerry said:

Ah, my mod. That tweak is pretty simple, in that it just randomizes each area's battle music. No change to dialogue, or anything but that one field in area files. So if it was the last thing you installed, you could just uninstall it mid-run and have all new areas going forward back to their original music. (Areas already visited are in the save file, so they would stay randomized)

I didn't mean to undermine your mod in any way.  I would've definitely kept the randomized music if it didn't affect the big boss encounters.  And thanks for the suggestion--I will follow it.

[Jarno Mikkola]

8 minutes ago, Holden said:

I just created identical copies of both my BG1 and BG2 folders (modded with EET) in a new folder.  Seems like both the original and copy run fine from my save.  I feel like I could run the experiment and see what happens in the copied folders without compromising the original.  But I like the Near Infinity option better anyways--seems like something I could really play with beyond my immediate problem.

Thing is, you ought to use causion when assuming things work right out of the box. Yes, the game might work simultaniously... but they both utilize the same savegame folder, and so loading the wrong save, playing a bit and saving again, and ups, some, then more of your items begin to lack certain features like description texts and vola, it will have that in BOTH games, bacause the save came form one and then it was saved in the other, so the items are from both games dialog.tlk file references that will not match, if they are differently modified games. And there's nothing in the world that will allow you to check from which game the save came from unless you type it into the savegame file name itself. That's just one problem. There's others...