No response to strategems.ini edits on original BG2 installs.

[JDSilvergun]

In the past I've experimented with trying to revert changes to specific spells and not seen any response from editing the ini. Just today though I was curious so I changed "bypass dragon immunity changes" to 1 and I changed "dragon staying power" a few different times and got no response from either of them. One of the tests was with a stack of finger of death scrolls on firkraag. I had one time where he took damage with no save reported (and he did not die), and one time where he took damage with a saving throw mentioned in the log. For the HP check I just used ctrl + q and he had 582 max HP on insane regardless of what the number for staying power was set to. These tests were done on  v35.18 and the tests I've done with past installs were done on 35.15.
EDIT: On further examination, Firkraag has the same amount of HP on both Hardcore and Insane. I did change the difficulty before loading the area with Firkraag each time I tested this.

I hesitated to bring this up before, and I'd consider it a fairly minor issue since there are so many optional components anyway, but I figured you would want someone to let you know.

Edited August 10 by JDSilvergun

[rigidjelly]

Just to be clear, you were editing the ini file and then reinstalling the component?

Some of the things you mentioned (like dragon hp) might be caused by the monsters being present in the save file. Did you use a new game to test?

[JDSilvergun]

I did use a new game. Well sorry, if this is a bad complaint on my part, but quoting the readme:

The file "stratagems.ini", found in the stratagems directory, allows fine-tuning of install options not available via the main installer. To do this, just edit the file in Notepad or another text editor. Each line consists of a configuration option, then '=', then a number (or in one case a string). The only thing you should edit is the number (or string).

The current player-usable options are listed below, by section. (Don't change anything not listed; these are work-in-progress and/or part of the testing framework.) I list the default value in parentheses after the setting.

It does say install options, but this doesn't make it explicitly clear (to me) that you have to do this before installing. There are instances of other ini files that you can edit that make changes in the game without requiring a reinstall.

Edited August 14 by JDSilvergun

[rigidjelly]

I was not aware of any ini tweaks being read by the game at all, but I'm also not a modder. My understanding was all ini stuff was used be weidu on install.

From 35.18 readme.

"Customisation options (contains spoilers)

A significant amount of "fine tuning" of SCS is available over and above your install options and the difficulty settings. There are three ways to do this: the console, the ini file, and override files. The first is done during play after installing; the other two must be done before installing.

Note that just because I make the option available, that doesn't mean I recommend using it! All this section is "at own risk" to a greater or lesser degree."

[JDSilvergun]

Maybe not for SCS, but there are other cases where that is true. That was my mistake for missing that part. Thanks a lot for the help. Much appreciated. I'm in the middle of a playthrough right now, but next time I will definitely not make that same mistake.