Avallach

Just wanted to post an update that I managed to finish all the stronghold quests and the game too, about a week ago.

I basically had to look up and abuse the console variables like crazy just to get through the Bard and Ranger questline which were just straight up borked. And these were the only two that gave me the most trouble.

Phew

On 4/29/2023 at 7:04 PM, Christian said:

Don´t know about EET but I played it together with Ascension on BGIIEE and it nearly cost my my game. Don´t know, if it works standalone but it certainly had unresolvable issues together with Ascension. I luckily could salvage my savegame by uninstalling it before confronting Balthazar. So my recommendation is to stay away from this mod for now.

oh man, I wish I had read this earlier because I got the same exact issue after me and Balthazar kill Melissan. 

I wish I can still somehow salvage this..

I have the same issue as Christian with latest Wheels of Prophecy installed. We teamed up with Balthazar, killed Melissan and then game broke. My journal shows an empty entry, cannot enter Forest of Tethir etc.

I even tried to teleport myself there via cheats but all the heads are silent.

What's worse, I can't really delete Wheels of Prophecy since it's pretty deep in my Weidu load order and any attempts at reinstalls just bricks my game.

Any idea what to do here?

EDIT: Managed to solve it by poking around the forum a bit and then finding the corresponding console commands which helped me advance the quest.

Yep, unfortunately, I am having quest-stopping issues with the Ranged stronghold yet again.

Picked Valygar and got to the second part of the questline where Ogrons attack. Delon spawned and alerted me, then we went to the mayor who sent us to the Umar Cave where Madulf and Atta is supposed to be.

However, Madulf and Atta are both still standing outside in ther vanilla spots by the river with the default dialogue, the Umar Cave itself is completely empty and the mayor just keeps looping the same dialogue about sending us to the cave. ("It is a relief to see you, my Lord ranger").  I noticed that the journal doesn't ever update either after his talk?

Here I am actually completely at a loss, since looking through the scripts, I can't quite find any Kish variables matching the vanilla game ranger stronghold entries, so that I could maybe force advance it?

Spawning Atta and Madulf also doesnt help either, and Madulf's dialogue just reverts back to as if we never met before.

Any suggestions on how to progress here? 

All of this is on version 8, btw.

EDIT: Managed to find some connected variables such as "KishValygarRangerStronghold", which is right now set to 2. Setting to 3 or 4 doesn't seem to do anything tho. Feel like I've hit a brick wall here.

Ok, managed to somehow work around it by setting KishBardQuests to 16, which seems to completely skip over the Barbarian event and go straight to waiting for the rehearsal one.

Setting them to 14 or 15 just failed the quest. 

On my way  to do the Ranger Stronghold with Valygar now. I read how buggy it is so I hope I'll luck out and manage to finish it without too much hassle. And then that's gonna be it for NPC Strongholds, since it's the last one on my list for NPCs 

Hello, it's me again

So upon sucesfully finishing the Cleric, Paladin and Thief Strongholds with respective NPCs (Anomen, Keldorn, Jan), I have decided it was now Haer'Dalis' turn.

I finished his quest, freed him from Mekrath, then freed him again from the Planar Prison and he received the Stronghold without a hitch. He even paid like 10k from my own pocket like its nothing lol.

I am now supposed to be at Event number 7 where the theatre gets invaded by Barbarians.  Haer says he wants to go check up on the theatre, so we go there, but nothing has changed at all. There are no barbarians or anything.

Higgin is still stuck downstairs repeating his previous dialogue: "There's no end of complications, are there." (I know he's supposed to be upstairs for that part where he tells me about the barbarians) and I cannot progress whatsoever.

I checked some variables and the current plot of KishBardQuests seems to be set to 13. However, I don't know any other variables connected to it, or where to look for them.

Also wanted to mention that Meck the messenger boy never ever showed up. It's always Haer'Dalis who initiates the dialogue with me and tells me he wants to go there.

Any idea what might be wrong here? And how to unstuck myself from here? 

Thanks in advance!

Indeed, haha. Thank you so much for all your help and patience!

Hopefully, no more (quest breaking) bugs from now on 

Okay, I reloaded a few hours back and got back to the point where I was.... and now it seems to work properly. Quest gets updated and deleted and it no longer loops.

I am confused, so confused. But not complaining.

8 minutes ago, jastey said:

But Anomen does say the line ~It was a beholder cult, but I have destroyed the beast and dispersed the cult!~, right?

If you set ("BeholderPlot","GLOBAL") to 2 that should fix the loop at least, but the unfinished quest entry will stay. Cheatcode is

CLUAConsole:SetGlobal("BeholderPlot","GLOBAL",2)

 

I really don't know why the transactions do not get performed in your game, though.

Yes, Anomen does say the line about destroying the cult. But for some reason I don't seem to get any journal entries updates or anything.

Oh and I did actually try to set the BeholderPlot to 2 as well, haha.

But the priest then started talking to me as if I rejected the offer of joining the stronghold.

I also forgot to mention that after Gaal's speech, both Oisig and Arvaal actually spawned, but only Oisig initiated the dialogue with me?

Not sure if this info may help, since I thought Arvaal spawns only when you are a good aligned cleric?

I am honestly kinda at a loss too. I am thinking about reloading an earlier save to experiment with different approaches and checking the variables everytime or something..

EDIT: Another way would be probably just uninstalling NPC Strongholds altogether but I fear I might probably break something since it's mid game? 

@jastey

Sure thing, I am currently using version v8 of the mod from the main site. Enclosing my weidu log as well.

I also checked the variable ("BeholderPlot","GLOBAL") after both dialogue options and it shows number 1 everytime.

And no, that journal entry does not show in my journal at all. The last one there for me, is the one that starts with "I have encountered the so-called guardians of the dungeon bellow.", and that's it.

WeiDU.log

Here are also results of both options, in case it helps.

34 minutes ago, jastey said:

Can you quote the looping dialogue line?

Sure, it starts with "Your return was foreseen, though what you would say is unknown. Is this cult to be believed? Speak what you know."

Anomen then takes over the conversation and it leads to the dialogue branch that's on the picture below.

Choosing the first one proceeds with Anomen accepting the Stronghold, and me getting 8k gold, but quest does not get marked as finished.

Choosing the second one makes Anomen reject the Stronghold and I get 7k gold along with Ardulia's Fall +1 mace, but the quest again does not get marked as finished.

In both cases when I speak to the priest again, the dialogue will again start from "Your return was foreseen..."leading to the same results and loop as above

2 hours ago, Lurker said:

Can't answer from first hand experience because of having none yet, but having read way too much about related stuff lately, this indeed seems to be how it works. Might even be mentioned in the mod's readme?

You might also be interested in this mod if you don't want to wait until Chapter 6. Just look at the readme for information regarding compatibility. From actual experience, @jastey is very good with documentation.

1 hour ago, jastey said:

@Lurker Thanks for the appreciation!

I think Imoen4Ever and NPC Stronghold were made compatible as in, the actual events from the Stronghold mod are delayed until after chapter 6. (But you can gain it in chapter 2/3.)

To the OP's question:

Yes. From the mod's readme (bold by me):

 

Gotcha. Thank you so much for answer you two! After thinking about it for a bit, I decided to actually opt for Jan as a guild leader.  I assume yet again, the same applies to him - have him in the party for the last part of quest, when reporting Mae'Var's death to Renal.

Speaking of the Cleric stronghold, I had Anomen in my party during  Gaal's speech and throughout the Unseeing Eye quest, but I am unable to actually turn the quest in.

Anomen accepts the stronghold and I get 8000 gold as a reward (but no xp), but my journal doesn't update and upon speaking to the priest again, it just keeps looping the same  previous dialogue with the same 8k gold reward. Any idea what might be causing it?

The whole cleric stronghold questline still proceeds just fine, I am just unable to finish the "Unseeing Eye" questline itself.

Any idea how to fix that or if there are even any console commands that help me actually finish it?

EDIT: I poked around in NearInfinity and the only variable that I managed to found was "UNSEEINGEYE" which was set to 2, which I assume should already mean it has been finished? I am so confused at this moment 

EDIT: Please delete

Forgot to log in the first time and accidentally posted this thread as a guest, my apologies.

Hey there,

I am a little confused about a certain part: 

So from what I've basically understood: The NPC that you want to give the stronghold to, HAS to be in your party the first time it's being offered, after you finish the pre-requisite quest.

I want Imoen to take control of the Thief Stronghold, but since she is in Spellhold in Chapter 2, and won't be seeing Atkhaktla until Chapter 6... does that mean I basically have to postpone the last part of the Mae'Var's questline (where we go kill him), all the way until after Chapter 6, correct?

Apologies if this is a dumb question. I haven't played modded BG2 for quite a few years now and decided to go back just now, so just wanted to clarify some things for myself.

So I actually went ahead and reinstalled the whole game with mods because why not, right.

Apart from changing up the load order a bit, it seems the crashing has stopped. I can access the second floor without any shenanigans and everything just.... works. Even with the IA content, Moinesse Ninjas, Duergars etc... a faulty install in the past maybe?

In any case, thank you to everyone involved. I guess this is solved for now.

1 hour ago, Gwendolyne said:

Can you check with NI if your game has the XDMFxxx.bam and XDMWxxx.bam files series ?

And what are those components?

~1PP.TP2~ #0 #2 // ?????? -> : ???
~1PP.TP2~ #0 #3 // ?????? -> : ???
~1PP.TP2~ #0 #4 // ?????? -> : ???
~1PP.TP2~ #0 #5 // ?????? -> : ???
~1PP.TP2~ #0 #7 // ?????? -> : ???
~1PP.TP2~ #0 #10 // ?????? -> : ???
~1PP.TP2~ #0 #11 // ?????? -> : ???
~1PP.TP2~ #0 #12 // ?????? -> : ???

 

 

Alright, when I get home I am gonna take a peek and report back.

Also like I said earlier in the thread, those are me trying to combine some 1PP stuff. Basically, the newest 1ppv4 requires the Core Paperdoll module (which I don't want) for almost everything and I just want the flaming short/swords and colourable staffs.

So I basically first installed the older 2.70 version that allowed me to install just those, and then the rest of 1ppv4 (which did not require the said paperdolls, like magic effects etc.). The reason it shows question marks is because I guess the tp2 files are named the same?

It's actually all on the very first page in the WeiDu I enclosed.

I've been doing this for a lot of playthroughs and years now, and it always worked.

4 hours ago, Gwendolyne said:

Silly question: which IA content did you install along with IA core?

From my Weidu:

~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #0 // Infinity Animations: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #25 // Humanoid Animation Fixes: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #50 // Distinctive Genies: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #100 // Distinctive Fiends: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #175 // Pit Fiends -> Some get the NWN animation: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #230 // Cambion/Isair Animation -> Some cambions: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #280 // Alu-Fiend/Madae Animation -> Some alu-fiends: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #400 // Distinctive Undead: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #410 // Skeleton Warriors -> Barrow Wight animation: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #450 // Seer Animation -> Some beggars and slaves: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #490 // Svirfneblin Animations -> Animations and sounds: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #500 // More Base Animations: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #550 // More Icewind Dale Animations: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #600 // More Icewind Dale II Animations: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #650 // More Neverwinter Nights Animations: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #7010 // Moinesse's Avatars for IA -> 50% of relevant non-joinables: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #9000 // Fix Areas -> Creature References: v5
~INFINITYANIMATIONS/SETUP-INFINITYANIMATIONS.TP2~ #0 #9910 // Saved Game Animation Fixer -> Correct all animations IA has changed: v5

Interesting.

I did install Infinity Animation last after all the big mods (as seen in WeiDu), and don't use BGT or Bigger World stuff. I even let it install the "Fix Creature References in all Areas part".

Only thing I can think of that could affect it is biffing since it was after that, but that doesn't sound right.

Doesn't usually the last mod in the load order take priority over anything else that was before it?

Just now, ABlake said:

That's right. Have you used NearInfinity before, btw? It's very user-friendly, and just for this purpose, it is easy too. Just launch it, expand the ARE section in the left panel, then locate the problematic area. From there, in the the Actors list, find your way to the .CRE files, and you'll be able to inspect/modify its animation. You just need to know the area code of that area. For example, the Copper Coronet is AR0406.ARE, and the initial Underdark area is AR2100.ARE.

Yeah I did use it a few times, although mostly just for extracting/checking various soundset variables, since I modded Mark Meer's soundbytes (Mass Effect, Dragon Age etc.) into the game and needed some point of reference xD

It's a very useful tool, which I'll probably start using a bit more now.

Alright, I just tried to teleport to the Copper coronet and the game immediately gave out the same symptons of crashing upon loading. Which leads me to believe the whole "Ninja" or "Duergar" thing might be spread all over the game.

I think I'll just reinstall the game and either avoid IA or do some adjustments this time around. Ah well.

Thanks again, folks.

Just now, ABlake said:

The Moinesse Ninja actually does show up in my installation, apparently because I also have it installed. Only the two faulty duergars' animations show up as "unknown".

I never tried the ninja anim before, so I didn't know. Just now I tried it, and it crashed my game too. But then, I never installed Infinity Anim fully properly. Only bits and pieces, and mostly manually.

Glad that this works out for you. However, as Vlan pointed out, you might run into this same problem in the future. This happened to me too, a long time ago, and I figured it out the hard way. Most likely there are other creatures in your game that use faulty animations, and the game will crash without being able to finish loading the area they are in.

My advice is, if you would spend some time figuring out how to use NearInfinity to open and edit .CRE files, this would help you fix similar issues if you run into them again. The idea is, if an area fails to load, you can use NearInfinity to open that area (.ARE file), then go through all the .CRE's in that area, see if any of them has "unknown" or suspicious animation, and make necessary changes.

 

Ah, damn you are right. Now I am wondering if my game might go haywire while I go to the Underdark where bunch of Duergars reside. Or the Copper Coronet.

If that's the case, I assume I just need to find out what file is the culprit again and edit the animation section to the non-LOW one in NearInfinity?

In any case, thank you so much guys for solving this little headache, guys! You've been incredibly helpful and saved me from another reinstallation spree.

Now just to figure out what is wrong with Moinesse...

8 minutes ago, ABlake said:

Is it crashing without finishing loading now? If yes, it means we're still at the "faulty animation" part.

I'm a bit skeptical about the "Ninja" one, you know. Try the file I'm attaching here; I changed his animation from "moinesse ninja" to normal thief human.

If no, then it's a different problem...

ishadmt1.cre

Wow, talk about a perfect timing here. I was actually deleting/replacing the files one by one and narrowed it exactly to this one. Was about to send it too!

Turns out that was the mysterious cause of the second crash. I do not understand tho, I remember playing with Moinesse's Ninja avatar many times before (even had Mae'Var and other NPCs utilize it)... what could possibly cause the game to suddenly dislike it?

8 minutes ago, Vlan said:

I checked the batch you uploaded, and only two of the Duergars were using the _LOW animation.

I am at loss here though.

No problem! You've been very helpful and actually helped solve through your combined powers the Duergar problem. It was something completely different as seen above.

Ooof, just tried it and it still crashes (with the modded batch).

It also crashes when I just use the 3 files alone.

However, using them with the vanilla files by ABlake, seems to work.

.... which probably means one of those 21 files is at fault or a completely different issue altogether.