BG1 Fixpack ?

[chuft]

Just ran into the notorious Durlag's dungeon level 2 bug. I finished the level, but left the level and came back later due to a killed party member I had to get Raised. When I returned, I could not open the doors from the throne room and thus could not proceed to the exit to level 3. The doors from the throne room were locked; they should be pickable, but they were not. Attempts to pick them resulted in no action - no failure message, no lockpicking sound, no message about them being special, nothing, just the cursor changing back to normal. If I tried to do it from a distance the character would not even approach the door, they would just stand there and the cursor would change back to normal.

 

Dudleyville says it fixes the level 2 problem on the site's main page, but the level is not mentioned in any of the specific pages for the fixes, for example the Area fixes do not mention it at all. Does anyone know if Dudleyfixes actually fixed this problem?

 

Ultimately I had to use the Ctrl-J cheat to teleport to where Kagain died so I could get his stuff and proceed down to level 3.

[chuft]

I think I'm going to have to give up on BG1. Now my mages can't cast spells. I am on Durlag level 3, and when they cast a spell, nothing happens. It says they cast it in the text box, but there is no effect at all. Even in an empty corridor, no enemies etc they try to cast Fireballs and Stinking Clouds and nothing happens. No casting animation either. They move their hands but there is no swirl of colors, and no effect from the spell.

 

I don't recall ever encountering this kind of severe buggy behavior before this game. I am wondering if one of the mods I am using is causing it. This install is

 

5 disc BG

TotSC

TotSC official patch

infinitycracker

Baldurdash

Unfinished Business

G3 Tweaks pack

 

Unlockable doors, shopkeepers I can't talk to, spells that won't cast, it goes on and on. Some of these things fix themselves if I quit and restart, others don't, or do the second or third time I restart but not the first.

 

I've also noticed saving a game, especially Autosaves when moving to a new area, started taking a VERY long time starting in Chapter 5. I don't recall this behavior in the previous game either. I tried deleting the autosave but that didn't speed up future autosaves any. My saves are about 660 KB.

[plainab]

i've never actually played the ToTSC content so I have no clue if any of what you are describing has ever happened to anyone before. I'm gonna have to play the ToTSC content at some point tho... got a completely unmodded game going right now so I'll get there eventually. I'm at the friendly arm inn and encountered the bug where the explored area resets itself when switching between sub maps and the main map. Once I figure out what is going on with that, I'll work my way onwards.

 

if you leave the tower, does your spell casting ability get restored?

or is it that your whole game seems to have gotten broken somehow?

[chuft]

Yes I quit and reloaded and proceeded from the same save as where it happened last time, and this time my spellcasting has so far stayed intact. Definitely random behavior going on.

[chuft]

More randomness, as I tried to rest, was interrupted, killed the monsters and wouldn't let me rest again ("You may not rest at this time" despite the fact there were no monsters, spell effects etc going on).

 

I move down the hall and "You may not save at this time." It would let me rest however.

 

Then after some hard battles I decided to leave the level. The fireball room was turned off (no fireballs), which should never happen (although I did see that happen in a previous game, but it came back on next time I quit and loaded). When I went up the stairs it gave me the autosave screen, the bar zoomed across uncharacteristically fast, the skull's eyes lit up - and then freeze. Eventually went to Task Manager "This program is not responding."

 

So yeah, I think my game is dead.

[plainab]

try running a disk check and defrag, could be something as simple as a bog down in accessing the necessary data and/or game data residing on a portion of the disk that may have gone bad....

[chuft]

Possible, but unlikely. I did a full partition deletion, creation and format and system install a couple months ago. There isn't a whole lot installed on this system and nothing substantial has been uninstalled from it. I used GateKeeper early on in the game to raise the CON of some of the NPCs I wanted to use since they are almost universally wimpier than the standard NPCs, which is annoying (compare Viconia, Montaron, Shar-Teel, Kivan to Minsc, Atjantis, Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira....Dynaheir and Edwin are a wash). Can GateKeeper corrupt saved games? If so this game may have been doomed from the start.

[chuft]

Anyway I am going to try some Icewind Dale for a change. Been playing BG1 to death and getting frustrated by all these bugs.

[plainab]

Possible, but unlikely. I did a full partition deletion, creation and format and system install a couple months ago. There isn't a whole lot installed on this system and nothing substantial has been uninstalled from it. I used GateKeeper early on in the game to raise the CON of some of the NPCs I wanted to use since they are almost universally wimpier than the standard NPCs, which is annoying (compare Viconia, Montaron, Shar-Teel, Kivan to Minsc, Atjantis, Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira....Dynaheir and Edwin are a wash). Can GateKeeper corrupt saved games? If so this game may have been doomed from the start.

you used GateKeeper?

 

Anything that edits the save game can cause corruption.

 

I recommend you use the descendant if you will of GateKeeper. It's called Sword Coast Keeper. The guy who made GateKeeper went on to make similar programs for BG2 and IWD. However, he made them differently, made them to read game resources rather than pre-built lists and therefore incorporate mod added stuff. Sword Coast Keeper was designed by another to follow this newer method. Also SCK has a nifty feature that defaults to adding a number to the end of your save game name and thus preventing irreversible destruction of the original save game.

[chuft]

Thanks, I snagged Sword Coast Keeper.

 

I edited the game very early on to give Kivan and Montaron 16 CONs (from 14 and 15) just to give them a little more survivability. Once you do Durlag's Tower you will understand why. (I had Kagain die recently in melee despite 115 hit points and a -7 AC.) The weird behavior didn't start till much later so I don't think editing their stats caused the corruption.

[chuft]

I tried BG1 again to kill some time and loaded up the autosave that it crashed on last time, which loaded fine, so the crash came after the save. Strangely, it no longer takes a long time to do saves. However, it crashed again while autosaving as I left one dungeon level to go to another - completely froze the computer and I had to power it off. (I thought these modern operating systems weren't supposed to be brought down by an application failure? Bah.)

 

Maybe I will just load up my character with the juiciest items possible and export them, so next time I feel like fooling around with a new game of BG1 they can go on a solo rampage across the countryside.

[chuft]

Started a new game and it crashed to desktop during Gorion's battle scene. I guess it's time to uninstall BG1.

 

By the way I noticed something earlier: the Helm of Balduran, which gives you +5 hit points, doesn't seem to do it between saves. Every time I loaded a game while wearing the Helm, I ended up injured for 5 hit points, even though I had saved while at full hit points.

[lynx]

yeah, it only increases the maximum hitpoints (by design).

Edited November 27, 2011 by lynx

[plainab]

updated nuff said

[Salk]

Congratulations on this new release! I am still hoping for my own sake that one day this will be compatible with BGT...

Edited December 17, 2011 by Salk