11 replies to this topic

[Jude-The-Obscure]

I have found a few mods that allow you to play BG2 with characters from BG1, which are also compatible with BGT. These mods all give extra material - interaction with the main character (maybe a romance), extra dialogue and maybe a quest or two.

I would like to know what happens if you use one of these mods, then play these characters in the BG1 portion of BGT, and take them with you to BG2. Do you need to do anything special to make the transferred character work as part of the NPC mod? I'd also like advice about when to install these mods.

[Lollorian]

All the mods do their stuff whether you had the NPC in BGI or not (they act like you met them once, took them around for a while and left them ... doesn't matter if you had them for the entire BGI+TotSC saga )

... though I guess some of them do check whether you took them in BGI but still, you mostly get to have them in BGII as well

[berelinde]

If you mean Kivan, he was written with the assumption that he was present the entire time you were in BG1. He will react as if you were.

Xan and Ajantis give you the option of saying that you were romancing him, that you knew him casually, or that you didn't know him at all. If you say that you knew him casually or not at all, neither mod assumes that he was there the whole time, or at all. If you say you knew him well, they all assume that you did every quest together.

For the modder, continuing a BG1 NPC into BG2 is a bit of a pain. What was the relationship between them? How did it end? Was the NPC even there that time when you broke out of prison with Neb? You can check for BG1 interjection variables on the off chance that the player is using BGT or you can just set one variable that determines whether you knew them or not and leave it go at that. OK, the first option might be more realistic, since the NPC will remember what he was there for and what he wasn't, but it's a lot more of a hassle to write. If you're checking BGT variables, you're also preventing a player who started the game in BG2 from experiencing all pathways through the mod. Maybe the player doesn't want to replay BG1, but wants to start the game assuming that the NPC was there the whole time. Or maybe the player did have the NPC there the whole time but wants the joy of discovering the NPC all over again, because let's face it, romances are really more fun when the guy is still trying to win you. I say guy because I'm not aware of any female BG1 NPCs that had romances in BG1 and are present in BG2.

[Jude-The-Obscure]

Many thanks for the fast replies
I'm still a bit puzzled about things though. Does the character keep the stats you built up for them, or do they drop back to the standard stats for the mod? Also, do they come with you into Chateau Irenicus, or do you have to go find them in the usual place? Most importantly - can you end up with two characters - a Xan who came with you and the Xan that the mod makes?

[berelinde]

... Does the character keep the stats you built up for them, or do they drop back to the standard stats for the mod?

Standard stats for the mod, I'm afraid. I wish it were possible to be able to detect the character build the player created, but it isn't. The best a modder can do is try to allow some flexibility by starting the character at a low level and using a leveling script or allowing multiple options on installation.

Also, do they come with you into Chateau Irenicus, or do you have to go find them in the usual place?

That depends on the mod and the modder. Some mods, like Kivan and Xan, don't detect for BGT, so you're going to start out in CI with your (silent) BG1 Kivan or Xan. The BG1 NPC Project material will be disabled because the transition to BG2 has occurred. So your NPCs won't say anything. I don't know what Ajantis does, whether Jastey has included a check for the BG1 version of Ajantis in CI or not. She's pretty thorough, though, so I'm guessing that she has. But no promises.

In my opinion, the ideal solution would be for the modder to add a script block to ar0602.bcs that checks for the BG1 incarnation of their NPC and destroy the BG1 version, if found, but I'm not sure if anybody (but me) is doing that.

Most importantly - can you end up with two characters - a Xan who came with you and the Xan that the mod makes?

Yes, you can, and you will unless you boot one of them. If your installation includes Talon's Xan mod, you could have three Xan's in the party at once.

Edited by berelinde, 15 February 2010 - 02:05 PM.

[Jude-The-Obscure]

Most importantly - can you end up with two characters ....
Yes, you can, and you will unless you boot one of them. If your installation includes url=http://shadowtalon.250x.com/xan.htm]Talon's Xan mod[/url], you could have three Xan's in the party at once.

[size="7"]Three Xans in the party !! [/size] Oh what joy!!! What bliss!!!! [size="7"][/size]

On a more serious note many thanks for the information. I suppose you could work it out like this - assuming you can use CLUA in BGT...
1/. Kick out your Xan/Alora/Kivan/whoever before moving between games, but take a note of all their details (or check them out in ShadowKeeper)
2/. Play through the shift to BG2 and meet Xan/Other NPC where you would usually find them
3/. Use the CLUAConsole to increase their XP to the required level. Then use CLA to import the tomes to increase their ability stats, and import any items you think would be fairly allowed.
It feels a bit like cheating but it would end up with pretty much the character you had at the end of the first section. With Kivan, and I also think with Xan the friendship/romance interactions would also be appropriate to what has already happened.

Edited by Jude-The-Obscure, 15 February 2010 - 12:46 PM.

[berelinde]

With Kivan, that is exactly the case.

And sorry, but if you want exactly the same character you had in BG1, you're either going to have to ShadowKeeper it, assuming you can figure out which file to change, or use tomes/cheat in XP, whatever.

[Stabwound]

Is it at all possible to import/export NPCs in Shadowkeeper, or just the main character?

[Jarno Mikkola]

Is it at all possible to import/export NPCs in Shadowkeeper, or just the main character?

Well, you could export the character in game, if you wished, by first opening the .cre file with Near Infinity and removing the creature flag that makes them not exportable. Hmm, I forgot what it is...

I would like to know what happens if you use one of these mods, then play these characters in the BG1 portion of BGT, and take them with you to BG2. Do you need to do anything special to make the transferred character work as part of the NPC mod? I'd also like advice about when to install these mods.

Now, that totally depends on the NPC, and the mod it was summoned to the BG1 part of BGT, for example the BGT Tweaks has component that makes the creatures consistent through the game, so if you gave the NPC an intelligence boost with Shadowkeeper, the same boost will be on the BG2 NPC is you had the NPC when you transferred to the BG2 portion of the game(via the Belt dialog). Yes, the NPC will most likely be temporarily put to a location where you'll have to find them, but their stats etc will be like they were in the BG1 portion of the game, once you'll find them...

Standard stats for the mod, I'm afraid.

Then we can assume the modder wasn't interested on the fact that the NPC wouldn't be continuable in BGT, as there are ways to make the NPC continuable...
Do make the Gavin continuable.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 17 February 2010 - 02:28 AM.

[berelinde]

Standard stats for the mod, I'm afraid.

Then we can assume the modder wasn't interested on the fact that the NPC wouldn't be continuable in BGT, as there are ways to make the NPC continuable...
Do make the Gavin continuable.

Sorry, Jarno,but no. First of all, his scripts and dialogue files will be so long that lag would be inevitable. Second, it would force the BGT player to *always* play through BG1 if they wanted some of the romance variations. I'm not cruel enough to do that to players. Handle it through dialogue and it allows the most flexibility. Stats can be adjusted through tomes, SK, or NI, and he never had any unique gear to begin with.

So yes, the mod continues in the way the modder finds most meaningful, and in a way that isn't dependent on BGT to function.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Sorry, Jarno, but no. First of all, his scripts and dialogue files will be so long that lag would be inevitable. Second, it would force the BGT player to *always* play through BG1 if they wanted some of the romance variations. I'm not cruel enough to do that to players. Handle it through dialogue and it allows the most flexibility. Stats can be adjusted through tomes, SK, or NI,

Yeah, but if you store the character as the one that was thrown from the party and perhaps make a experience allocation script, you don't have to have 1000 different .cre files the npc is referred as, so you can always keep the one in all the place you wish it to be. And should you know, we can also change Gavins race, kit, class, profs etc. with NI, SK, and L1NPCs if we want to, but it doesn't mean we have to.

and he never had any unique gear to begin with.

Well, I seem to have noticed a ring or two, and they were Gavin only items at least as far as attaining them goes. Pedantry, yey.

[berelinde]

This topic isn't about one specific NPC. I'll answer quick questions anywhere, but I don't want to derail this topic any further. If you want to continue this discussion, please take it to the mod's dedicated forum. In this case, it's here.