Lurker

@jmerry (also now feeling a tiny bit proud of myself) @subtledoctor Nah, the quote and my first conclusion is incorrect. I've found matching text patterns in BG1NPC's TRA files, and also more hints in the setup log. There's an off-by-one discrepancy between the numbering of the output of weidu --change-log (counting from zero) and the generated files (counting from one). New idea: If I'd created a topic for my current installation and collect bugs etc there, so that the basic information like game version, WeiDU.log etc is all available in the first entry, would that be considered helpful? That could avoid asking for redundant information, and repeating the more or less same questions over and over. I'd then just reference individual entries in my topic in the affected mod's forum/topic, or if modders are so quick to respond like @jmerry, sometimes not even need to do that. This could help keeping the individual mod sections a bit more tidy, I'd say. If this idea receives approval, a dedicated board section to aggregate such reports would also perhaps considered helpful? Otherwise, "General Mod Discussion" seems to be the fitting usual dumping ground for all kinds of stuff...

I totally get that. But sometimes a new perspective might help to see the woods around all the trees again - that's why I used "brainstorming" in the title. Unfortunately, I don't own a working time machine, because the idea for an orderly best practice where mods install their readme, ideally in the right language, in a default place should have come up years ago. And I'm also fully aware that's not even the case with backup files, which currently are also here and there or in rare cases nowhere at all. (Also, I'm on Linux and like the way FHS compliant file systems are, well, organized. )

Am I interpreting this right? (in response to Graion@Work) 1. Bug: wrong StringRef for item BARING.ITM (need to add 200.000) $ weidu --log /tmp/dontcare --change-log baring.itm [weidu] WeiDU version 24900 Mods affecting BARING.ITM: 00000: /* created or unbiffed */ ~EET/EET.TP2~ 0 0 // EET core (resource importation)V13.4 00001: ~JTWEAKS/SETUP-JTWEAKS.TP2~ 0 270 // Barrityl's Bigger and Better Burden3.1 00002: ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ 0 8130 // Rebalanced troll regeneration34.3 00003: /* acted upon in an undefined manner */ ~GENERALIZED_BIFFING/GENERALIZED_BIFFING.TP2~ 0 1 // Generalized BiffingBiff all files (recommended by the Big World Dudes)v2.6 So either JTWEAKS (main culprit considering the components name) or SCS are responsible? I looked for backups of the original, which in this case is "weidu_external/backup/jtweaks/270/" (270 being the component). I open the original file, and see the correct StringRefs - so JTWEAKS deserves a bug report? 2. Bug: non-sensical title of a journal entry: "So be it! At least this mess is over with now." StringRef lookup in Near Infinity matches 31350 weidu --log /tmp/dontcare --change-log bgee.lua grep " 31350 " bgee*lua | head -n1 bgee.00024.lua: createQuest ( 31350 ) Looking at bgee.00024.lua: createQuest ( 31350 )^M createEntry ( 31350, -1, 291768, {}, nil )^M createEntry ( 31350, -1, 291780, {}, nil )^M createEntry ( 31350, -1, 227193, {}, nil )^M Out of curiosity, once again adding 200.000 and comparing StringRef: Kagain's Quest Why would THEMED_TWEAKS mess up a quest in BG1? EDIT: That conclusion makes no sense; I added the previous result to the spoiler above, because it's a much better fit context-wise. The output from the --change-log starts counting at zero, but the generated LUAs start counting at 1. Off-by-one issue? So it's really BG1NPC?

(Thread also intended to be used by other users.) Quest: Monster in Nashkel / related journal entry: The Unknown Egg Does the egg actually hatch? From the item description generated by the very recommendable AutoDescription I know that the unhatched egg is a very powerfull protective item, while the "disarmed" egg is garbage in comparison (from my PoV, because in my game the egg is worn by a Skald who's dedicated for high CHA). It'd be a pity if just keeping the clearly better item has no consequences. Well, apart from me complaining about another unresolved entry in my journal. Quest: Babysitting in Nashkel / related journal entry: (same name, thank you!) I bullied them away in chapter 2, now playing chapter 5. Since @jastey mentioned here and also in Kerzenburgforum that she's proud of providing evil quest paths which the original mod was lacking, I've to ask if I need to be more patient or if I hit another issue in my current game? EDIT: The babysitting quest resolved itself very smoothly sometime back in chapter 5, actually.

(EDIT: note to myself - don't rename this topic, because it's been linked to) Since I'm a pessimist at heart and what I propose will initially introduce more work for modders in general, I don't expect much from this, but at least I can say I've tried. So, before derailing another thread with random rants caused by actual issues and the on and off experience of frustration and creeping burnout because escapism in a modded Baldur's Gate game is doomed to fail in more ways than even Xan might comprehend in his darkest hours, how about collecting ideas that in the long run could benefit all the people involved? Regarding journal entries: I'd find it *very* helpful if mod-added journal entries had a distinct marker to identify the responsible mod. "But that breaks immersion!" Fuck this, unresolvable quests, never closing journal entries and so on are worse. Also, if a mod matured long enough, those markers could again be removed. Currently, I need to more or less wildly guess which readme could be the one I'm looking for (and to this day, not every mod even has one) when trying to identify the mod, and I think the willingness to provide a bug report goes downhill the more effort it takes to get even started, and this might also apply to other people. Doing a recursive grep for random keywords on a whole installation takes too much time and generates too much noise (figuratively); so I'd have to collect all readmes from every mod in a distinct directory to make parsing them more practicable. Hmm, alternatively, couldn't his be done as part of the installation process? Likewise to or even using the weidu_external directory, as a single place where a user can expect every readme from every mod installed? Seriously, I cannot be the the first or only person that thinks about this stuff...?

That's because you already *are* at the FAI(**). If you already had been to other supported inns(*), the option to send an NPC there after dismissing her/him should be offered in the dialog when talking to that NPC again. E.g., if you're at the Nashkel in, you can redirect your NPC to the FAI. (*) I don't know the technical details, like if the mod tracks where you've been or just expects a certain order in providing more options - perhaps based on current chapter - but I just quickly tested this in my current game for confirmation, so my answer in the first paragraph should be correct from a practical point of view.. EDIT: (**) assuming this actually meaning "inside" - when I dismiss an NPC on the outdoor map "FAI", I can ask her/him to wait at the FAI, actually meaning "FAI:L1" (inside map, first level).

I really like the how Transitions (optionally) changes when the ending movies play, and ties this with (re-)gaining (new) Bhaalspawn powers, for example. For me, this adds flavor and improves immersion at just the right time, around a climax point. It would really be a pity if that's the mod which perchance killed one or even both of my latest attempts to enjoy ToB; something that I cannot prove in any way, because I've to rely on the knowledge of people better educated in BG modding compared to myself. (rant exported to new topic)

Thank you. Although, I've to admit that I've stopped to apply your mod for my active games for the time being. As an example for a kind of a worst case scenario, look at what you get for "The Purifier" when you use AutoDescription together with Forgotten Armament But I've a dedicated browser tab with a copy of your super helpful generated html diffs (feature request: please provide this also for MISC items and consumables ), that I use for reference (...for cheating...) when running the game and as a base to manually fix descriptions (or items) with Near Infinity for items that I care for in a particular game. And out of curiosity: What's that effect - and what does it do - which translates to "Smurfette"...? ("Schlumpfine" in German)

(EDIT: Issue reported.)

How's the upgrade to "multi scale dragonscale armor" (e.g. DTKLEA1A) supposed to work in game? (Disclaimer: I've started to report the mess that's my current setup here, so it could be that something's broken on my side...) If it wasn't for AutoDescription's rather very useful html report feature, I wouldn't even know that those items exist. Cespenar gave me no dialog options to upgrade any previously created dragonscale armor(s). Consoling them in works fine, and I like these more or less OP items at the end of ToB very much (arms race vs. Ascension ). I also find some options rather confusing/inconsistent. For example, there's a "ToB"-style option with Cespenar to create a Green Dragonscale Armor, while other's are created via the consolidated "chose your color and item type" dialog. I think there also where two green dragon scales with different item codes, which where treated by the different dialogs. EDIT: Could this be a mix-up because of SCS (hint: Yellow dragon scales... )? Then I'm really sorry for having this criticized out of ignorance on my part. Also, the mod's name could need an update, since it clearly broadened its initial scope by large. Not wanting to sound rude, but I was rather surprised by the content of your mod (cool and from what I've experienced so far also *working as intended* items and spells that I didn't knew I had installed, and perhaps wouldn't have installed if there was an explicit option - too many negative experiences with "drive-by-installed-spells" from some other quest mods), because the style the components are organized and meshed together regarding the intended scope strike me as a bit messy. Also also, the version string for v2.0.6 is still v2.0.5.

Since this bug report seems to be invalid and I just hit a game breaking bug that I once again can't contextualize, I decided to rename the topic. If a mod could move this somewhere better fitting, please do so. @jastey? So far, thanks for the feedback. I'm currently stuck after the first combat at the Throne of Bhaal. This is a game that I started directly in ToB, to take a break from my current game, and also because I was curious if it's even worthwhile to continue with this setup. So far, the most annoying thing was that Viconia skipped some lovetalks, so that I had to change her variable to experience the alignment change, which worked out so far; so this was more of only a minor annoyance, perhaps caused by my habit of spamming wish rest. (Personal quota - number of successfully completed romances at the end of ToB - without them bugging out somewhere in between - since the original game came out: 0) This game has LongerRoad Irenicus in the party. From his dialog, it seems I managed to commit him to accept a soul offered by Ilmater after Sendai's Lair. During Amelyssan's initial villain speech, Irenicus stayed loyal to charname. I also have Sarevok in the party - class changed to Blackguard via NPC_EE - and think that I've chosen every option to encourage him to chang his alignment (SAREVOKCHANGE is "4"), but he's still chaotic evil, and also just gave an evil dialog when idling at the Throne. Why didn't he change his alignment? Shouldn't this happen right after his "I... I see." remark after his third conversation? I've completed the first fight, against Bodhi and 4 Fallen Solars, then waited for Imoen to become "normal" again, and accepted her back into the party. And that's it, the game doesn't progress anymore. The platforms aren't accessible via walking, and also cannot be activated after "CTRL-J"-ing there. The only thing that happens are banter dialogs from time to time. I'd appreciate any hint for how to hot-fix this via console commands in game, if someone here (@AL|EN?) is familiar enough with LR? I've no clue what's wrong with this setup in general, and what breaks what. Some spells and journal entries have unfitting strings; I also needed to fix some item descriptions by adding 200.000 to the dialog/string reference, which from what I've learned so far points to some mod having an issue with EET-style dialog references? (Hint: Had this with Baeloth's ring, for example.) Since I usually try to give useful feedback to identify/report/improve bugs, for now I'm completely at a loss, and once again somewhat frustrated. Btw, LongerRoad so far is also the first mod, where I repeatedly experienced text encoding errors in game, I guess when a line of text contains backticks. The "file" command (I'm on Linux, and run the game via Wine) says that 32 of the mod's TRA files are in "UTF-8 Unicode text", while 94 are "ASCII text" - I recently read somewhere that text should be in ANSI? So is there an "invalid" conversion from UTF-8 when weidu processes those files via iconv or some such? I get comparable malformed text in game and when viewing the corresponding TRA either on the CLI or in vim; viewing the file via Github's web interface just shows the backticks. (Example: LRIRENIC.TRA; @64, @65, @75)

You're welcome. In this case, better no feature than broken feature.

From past experience, MIH_EQ is my goto suspect for breaking creature scripts or dialog, as long as there are no other pointers. So the Poison Mist seems to fit that negative bias. I just entered Amkethran, and was "approached" by a halfling named "Tony". This one has nothing to say at all when being clicked on, and also failed to initialize dialog in the first place. From what I got when looking at his DLG, which mentions Shadow Thieves and "Aran", he seems to not really belong here at all. So I neither know from which mod he originates, nor what caused him to be in the wrong game. *sigh* This game makes me go double OT in my own topic.

(EDIT: follow-up) I'm not sure if this is actually caused by stratagems, but since this mod has a component that is dedicated to Black Talons, stratagems is currently my first suspect. Game version is EE 2.6.6.0 + EET. I discovered larger groups of Black Talon bandits on several maps, that were completely passive, sometimes only spawning from out-of-sight and walking to a "rally point", where they happily waited to be cloud-killed, for example. There were also some passive "Bandit Guards" (don't remember exactly how they were called) on some maps. Curiously enough, some very few Black Talons weren't passive. Don't know if related at all, but I also discovered a "Poison Mist" at least twice (the second one on the first level of Watcher's Keep, the first one on some overland map in the earlier BG chapters - though those are on separate games on the same game installation), which does nothing at all, and has no dialog ("Poison Mist: has nothing to say to you."). Installed mods that also (might) fiddle with creature scripts are D0QUESTPACK, MIH_EQ and FIX_CRE_SCRIPT_NAMES (needed to fix MIH_EQ), from what I can tell. I also explicitly don't use the advanced AI from stratagems. WeiDU.log

Yes, the visual effects accumulate. I fixed my saved games just right now, and had multiple instances under effects. At least this one was quite easy to track down. I already hit several more or less severe bugs in my current installation and playthrough, which often leads to more or less educated guess work where to report it. The worst offender was repeated engine crashes in Watcher's Keep elemental level; that one I've no clue at all how to track down. EDIT: If it helps, the spells also add the default "triple-swirly" animation (which is also used when the Cloak or Mirroring is equipped, or Spell Immunity is active) while they're active. That one actually ends with the spell duration. Seems hard-coded(?), because I couldn't find any other visual effect referenced in either SPWI902.SPL or STAF11.SPL.

#3010 // Use pre-EE Spell Deflection Globe (EE only) -> Only for Spell Trap: 1.0.1 The visual effect doesn't end with the spell trap's duration. This applies to SPWI902.SPL and STAF11.SPL. Can be semi-fixed in an existing installation by removing "Play visual effect (215)" (hint: resource: DX#STRAP.VVC) from the above SPLs and affected characters in saved games with Near Infinity. This restores the default behavior without the need to uninstall the mod component. For mod component 3020, this applies to spwi902.spl, spwi318.spl, spwi618.spl, staf11.spl, and spin710.spl (taken directly from the TP2). EDIT: Although I'd prefer a properly working solution, because I don't like the default behavior, where multiple spells with different gameplay effects share the same visual effect. This of course also applies to other spells and items, in general.

Yeah, sorry for pinging you about this, I misread your answer to the OP's question. I didn't get the 2nd "don't", somehow.

Nevermind, it seems like I was able to fix this myself. set ASKEDDRYAD to 0 in Near Infinity went back to Dryad Falls respawned the Dryad

@jastey Is there a way to start Xzar's quest if I've already messed up the starting condition, perhaps via variable manipulation? I didn't expect that I'd to be nice guy to the Dryad to start a quest for an evil companion... I think that I've killed her and also the brothers; it has been a while, so I don't remember the details. I tried to respawn DRYAD, CALDO and KRUMM; the Dryad gives her usual quest talk, but Caldo just says Then the brothers go hostile, but after killing them (again) the Dryad doesn't acknowledge that they're dead (again). I've several Mithral Rings, and Xzar also has the jar from "the Madwoman of Firewine Bridge"; Monty is dead. Also, "The Madwoman of Firewine Bridge" left a journal entry that doesn't acknowledge that the Madwoman is also already a Deadwoman... Kahrk is also dead (you might have guessed that already ). I don't know if BG1NPC uses any variable prefix, so don't have a clue what to look for. Alternatively, if it's possible to reset the Dryad quest somehow...? Thanks in advance. EDIT: I've discovered the "bg1npcvarindex" in the mod's docs; ASKEDDRYAD is set to "1" in my game, for example. X#XzarDryad is unset, X#XZARCARSA[1|2|3] are set to "1", X#XZARKAHRK and X#XZARMITHRILRING are set to "2". Don't know what else to look for.

The "normal" Dread Wolves are fine (well, they're still annoying... - so far, fighting them with fire or acid doesn't matter, they always go down, regenerate, and have to be killed once more), but that one encounter spawns some that aren't; it also spawns some ghouls. I think that's from MiH-EQ. I've also "Rebalanced troll regeneration" from SCS installed, if that matters. But as I said, the spawned Dread Wolves are also immune to Imprisonment. I don't see how regeneration should protect from that... (attached WeiDU.log removed due to space constraints) EDIT: The spawned Dread Wolves also cannot be lured away; they always return to the room with the pile of junk, where the "Wolf of Ulcaster" was. There's also a new exit to an area that leads to a quest called "Eight-Legged Misery", which I think is from Lava's SotSC. EDIT: The issue has been adressed here.

Ulcaster dungeon / Wolf of Ulcaster battle: spawns completely unkillable Dread Wolves. CTRL+Y doesn't work; not even Imprisonment(!!!) (cheated from scrolls, to get rid of the annoying wolves) works. Have to say, I don't like the regenerating Dread Wolves at all, they aren't challenging, just annoying, and take to long to get rid of. But that's still better than completely undefeatable... At least they cannot see through invisibility. Is there a "remove creature cheat" in the game that I'm ignorant of? CTRL+Y now just seems stupid... EDIT: The issue has been adressed here.

I can confirm that this bug still applies to/with version 5.9.9.

Of course you're right. I was just in nitpicking mode, a side effect of bug hunting, I guess.

And while I'm at it, the dialog with the ghost could also get some attention. When talking with the ghost the first time, but already knowing the backstory, there's an additional option (4 or 5; depends if ring is in inventory, which adds an option on top): "Marina? Is it you?" that vanishes after it was selected once, but comes back when returning with the ring after having rescued Aaron, which doesn't make sense. Also, most options don't make much sense after having talked with the ghost at least once. The quest immediately resolves when choosing "I've got something for you." and having the ring in the inventory. So no need to talk with Aaron afterwards; who also immediately recognizes that "You set her spirit to rest. [...]" when approached next. So he seems to have become a diviner between visits? I'll stop now. To be honest, I didn't care much for the quest, but became a bit obsessed when playing around with the options, and have a general dislike for unresolved quests in the journal. So, if this helps to improve the mod for others players and later playthroughs, all for the better. (*dreading to continue, since huge modded game, and this being an early quest*)

From an older save, altered steps: kill the ghost rescue Aaron get the ring keep the ring as payment travel back to Nashkel, tell Aaron "I'm afraid it's even worse, Aaron. Marina was a ghost. We had to destroy her." and "Bah, What a meagre trumpery." Same outcome as above, with only one less journal entry.