35 replies to this topic

[Blitz]

Too technical?!

Limited to 2,500,000. That is level 20-something.

Luckily, CBisson is a sporadicly brilliant modding genius, so he'll have this fixed in no time. Right? Ceeb?

[NiGHTMARE]

Normally, whichever level cap altering mod you install last will be the one which is used (since the relevant files will overwrite the previous ones).

[seanas]

I understood the limited to 2,500,000 part, just all the other related stuff people were talking about was meaningless to me.  However, Long Road sets the level limit at 40, so what I was wondering is does this override the limit from Check the Bodies?  If not, could I just uninstall Check the Bodies once I finish it so I can progress further?  Would I lose any items CtB by doing this?

for some reason that no-one has yet been able to work out, installing CtB sometimes (but not always, judging from complaints/ user ratio for this problem) re-installs the SOA XP cap - ie, 2.95 million - and when this happens, it seems to be not easily fixable. it appears to set this limit in a way such that other mods - be they Ease-of-Use, Longer Road, or whatever - don't override.

however, as i said, not every CtB install seems to have this problem, and it can be solved by uninstalling CtB (as far as i am aware), although doing so will, of course, cause you to lose any CtB items you were carrying. given that the problem seems relatively rare, however, you may as well install CtB and play away. should you get to 2.95 million XP and find there's an XP cap there, you can think about uninstalling CtB or learning the skills necessary for the workarounds to function then.

[Yacomo]

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum - just installed bp-bgt-nej-ctb-dsotc-sobh. Works great so far and looks very promising. Congrats and thanks to all the modders involved :thumb:

After scanning through the forums I read about the experience bug and tried it with my install. It also appears for me (after using CLUAConsole:SetCurrentXP(), save and reload) - doesn't seem too rare if it appears on a fresh install

Any news about this problem? Could it be caused by the wrong weidu version being used? Do you think it would be worth trying different weidu versions?

Also an idea for a workaround: Is it possible to create a 'box of saving' and a 'box of loading' as items that act like the auto-save does, but in addition it would also need to store the current XP in a separate file and reapply them when the 'box of loading' is used. The transition from BG to BGII does something like this, doesn't it? Thinking about it, it would be sufficient to just store and reapply the current XP alone...

Regards,

Yacomo

Edited by Yacomo, 10 January 2005 - 06:29 AM.

[seanas]

the problem appears to be a coding problem in CtB: it accidentally patched (incorrectly) the experience cap in BGMAIN.EXE (ie, not in any file you can override). it isnt supposed to happen, and i'm not certain whether it happens to all CtB games, or just CtB games addede on top of a BP-BGT-NEJ-etc install.

so it's not a function of an outdated weidu, either, unfortunately; rather one of the many WRITE_BYTE/ WRITE_LONG/ etc commands in the CtB .tp2 file has an incorrect location specified, and ends up screwing with the XP limit and hence (as far as i can tell) leaving you with the default SOA XP limit.

the only effective work-around is leaving yr CtB install until yr nearly at the BGII start point of yr BP-BGT-NEJ-etc game, and then uninstalling it afterwards (or when you get near the 2.95 mill XP limit)

[Yacomo]

Hi Seanas,

Thanks for the reply - there was another thread that made me consider trying different weidu versions:

http://www.shsforums...34

Sounds like the chitin.key file was corrupted after install of ctb. As I understand it, weidu is involved in this. Maybe even a bug in weidu or in the .tp2 file. Now I wonder if there is any chance of fixing it (weidu or the .tp2)?

If bgmain.exe was indeed modified, shouldn't it be sufficient to replace it with the original one? Nobody tried this so far?

Since I do know nothing about IE modding so far, do you think the proposed 'box of saving' and 'box of loading' would be possible?

Regards,

Yacomo

[seanas]

Sounds like the chitin.key file was corrupted after install of ctb. As I understand it, weidu is involved in this. Maybe even a bug in weidu or in the .tp2 file. Now I wonder if there is any chance of fixing it (weidu or the .tp2)?

well. yes and no. if someone identified the error in the .tp2, it would be a trivial task to correct it; identifying it however involves lots of tedious spadework that no-one has yet undertaken.

If bgmain.exe was indeed modified, shouldn't it be sufficient to replace it with the original one? Nobody tried this so far?

no, because CtB makes more than one change to BGMAIN.EXE, and replacing it with a backed-up version (weidu doesn't make a backup automatically when it installs a mod; or at least not of BGMAIN.EXE) will simply cause everything to stop working.

Since I do know nothing about IE modding so far, do you think the proposed 'box of saving' and 'box of loading' would be possible?

it might be possible, but trying to create a funky solution for what is in fact a bug is a bit of a waste of time: faster and more efficient to fix the bug in the first place.

[Yacomo]

Hi Seanas,

Thanks again for the info. I did not know that ctb actually modifies bgmain.exe, always thought that all data was stored in .are, .itm files etc. - you see I'm a noob when it comes to BGII mods

I would be happy to volunteer to check the .tp2 file if I had any clue what I was looking for. I just scanned throroughly through it and I can make out lots of changes to .are files, but where are the modifications to bgmain.exe? Guess they are done indirectly?

Of course fixing the bug is better than a workaround - just thought I would bring up the idea since this problem seems to be known since november but nobody found a solution so far.

Anyway any hint concerning what I have to look for in the .tp2 would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Yacomo

[CamDawg]

If bgmain.exe was indeed modified, shouldn't it be sufficient to replace it with the original one? Nobody tried this so far?

no, because CtB makes more than one change to BGMAIN.EXE, and replacing it with a backed-up version (weidu doesn't make a backup automatically when it installs a mod; or at least not of BGMAIN.EXE) will simply cause everything to stop working.

If altered via tp2, WeiDU keeps a backup of everything that it overwrites--you'd need to look in the backup folder, likely inside 0 since I'm guessing CtB alters the exe in the main component. If it's something outside of the tp2 (i.e. a call to a batch file or external exe) it will not.

Edited by CamDawg, 10 January 2005 - 08:42 AM.

[Sir BillyBob]

I agree that it should back it up but it doesn't. My checkbod\backup\2 folder has a chiten.key and dialog.tlk file but no bgmain.exe backup. Is it possible that Weidu can't make a backup of an EXE file?

No, I have a weidu.exe file in there also. I assume it was backed up. So perhaps it can't backup the BGMAIN file because it is using it at the time?

[Yacomo]

Hi Sir BillyBob!

First: Congrats on your work - I really appreciate it :thumb:

Concerning the XP bug - same happened for me: No bgmain.exe backup, but I can confirm that bgmain.exe is touched during the ctb install (only checked the time stamp, did not make a hex-compare yet). Also ctb seems to be the only mod with a chitin.key in its backup folder.

Couldn't this be a clue? Does anybody know which parts in the .tp2 file cause direct modifications to either bgmain.exe or chitin.key? I mean most of it seems to deal with .are files, so it might be a rather small part of the .tp2 file that needs to be checked.

Another thing: I know that before installation you have to start nejfix.exe (don't remember its name correctly) in order to update the weidu version used to install for all other mods. I think it was 164 or 165. I did not have ctb in my BGII folder at that time, but when I installed it later, it upgraded the installers again, this time to 167. Could the fact that an older weidu version was used for the base install be related to the problem?

Also: What we see is that the XP cap has been modified, but isn't it rather likely that other parts of chitin.key and / or bgmain.exe were corrupted as well?

Greetings,

Yacomo

[CBisson]

There was another post like this some time ago.  I've never been able to find out the cause- and thus haven't devised a solution- as to why CtB limits the xp cap.  

I do know that:

a) CtB does not directly alter the XPCAP.2DA or any file that would inherently limit experience.
B) CtB does not directly alter BGMAIN.EXE or any game engine file- (other than gui game files).
c) weidu biff's the CtB game files at the end of the install.  I believe but cannot prove that it is somewhere in here that the problem is created: not by CtB or weidu directly, but in the way that the new CHITIN.KEY file is created and overwritten by weidu.


So, to briefly summarize and close the topic, I don't know why a game with a CtB install limits xp.   Because of that, I don't know how to fix it and I don't know how to actually investigate it further.  I haven't even been able to come up with a viable workaround.

[Suluku]

I've just checked my own BP-BGT-NEJ-CtB-etc install with CLUAConsole and there is no problem with the XP cap in my game (thankfully!). So the ideal workaround would be to treat this as like any other intermittent install bug and check every fresh build for it - rejecting builds where it shows up. It helps in this respect that CtB is the first Weidu mod to be installed after BP-BGT etc.

Edited by Suluku, 15 January 2005 - 03:16 AM.

[Suluku]

Have you tried saving and then reloading? CLUAConsole works fine, but the problem pops up after reloading.

Yes, you are right unfortunately. It doesn't seem to reset the character level, so it might be possible to progress by resetting the XP manually after every re-load

[NiGHTMARE]

Has anyone tried looking in BALDUR.BCS? That's another possible suspect for the cause of this problem.

[horred the plague]

Has anyone tried looking in BALDUR.BCS? That's another possible suspect for the cause of this problem.

Actually, I did; since I discovered this little treat last night. No dice there. 2DA files are fine. I even did an install with weidu 168 inside of the checkbod folder--no dice either. It's a bewildering thing, this funky bug.

Funny you mention baldur.bcs--while it isn't the source of the problem, it would be the best source for a workaround. And yes, I have one devised. It's not pretty; it might cause a little lag, and it wouldn't give you your exact amount back. It would set you to the minimum of your current level (since level isn't screwed by this, nor the ability to acquire more XP).

For now, I skipped it. I'm going to write down my amount(s) before quitting (when I get that far again--all the reinstalls have screwed my savegame) and CLUA the right amounts back in.

It's either that, or rewriting the installer and seeing if that helps. I doubt it will, but none of my Nullsoft installers do anything of this nature--of that I'm certain.

The only strange thing I see in the .tp2 file was the following line:

COPY ~dialog.tlk~ ~dialog.tlk~

in at least two different spots. Not sure what this is supposed to accomplish... though I do not suspect it as the culprit of this elusive bug.