13 replies to this topic

[Baka]

Hi folks,

First post, ooo!

Quick question. I'm about halfway through BG1 in a BGT-linked game. Can I still install mods that affect BG2/ToB? (Specifically I was considering Longer Road, as I only just found out about it). If not, no worries, I just run with a different mage

Cheers!

[Baka]

Hmm, can no-one help me?

I'm getting perilously close to finishing BG1 and I'm hoping that I can still install BG2 mods.. I guess if no-one replies I can go on fine with what I'm planning already, but it'd be nice to get a yea or nay..

[ScuD]

No, by installing mods mid-game you will mess up your dialog.tlk. That will result in messing up all your dialogs and worldmap.

[Baka]

That's what I feared - I was hoping that it might still be ok cause I've not started BG2 yet, but no worries. Thanks for the reply

[Jarno Mikkola]

That's what I feared - I was hoping that it might still be ok cause I've not started BG2 yet, but no worries. Thanks for the reply

Well, it kinda depends on what you want, do you really wish to play the mod, or play the previous game, as you can start a new game from BGII - SoA part with the character you have from the BG12 portion of the game and have an intact dialog.tlk file, or do you wish to have the game continue from the first portion of the game with the same BG1-NPCs that have their 'your defined' characteristics like their set of classes, kits, proficiencies etc benefits that the BGT-WeiDU offers...

That will result in messing up all your dialogs and worldmap.

By the way, most of those go only wrong, when you uninstall a mod, and as the dialog.tlk's strings get renumbered in the reinstalls, the text index the items refer to wrong strings and you get this mess where everything is the changed things stored in the saves are off, the creature names, item names and descriptions, worldmap names etc... the game has text in.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 11 February 2011 - 01:35 PM.

[the bigg]

No, by installing mods mid-game you will mess up your dialog.tlk. That will result in messing up all your dialogs and worldmap.

It won't mess up your dialog.tlk (outside of extraordinary circumstances) - please check your facts before posting.

However, it's still a bad idea if you don't know what you're doing: some mods need to have been installed from long before you 'start' them for technical reasons (not many mods actually need this, but this isn't usually documented in the mod's readme, so the safe bet is not to install mods mid-game), and mods will most usually end up being installed out of order if you pile them up as you play (it's hard to figure out what issues an out-of-order install will cause, and there's no easy to use tool to assist in mod reordering).

Edited by the bigg, 11 February 2011 - 11:20 AM.

[ScuD]

please check your facts before posting

dialog.tlk will be changed, that's what I meant.
Still I wouldn't risk it. Especially if a person does not have much experience with mods.

Edited by ScuD, 11 February 2011 - 11:54 AM.

[the bigg]

By the way, most of those go only wrong, when you uninstall a mod, and as the dialog.tlk's strings get renumbered in the reinstalls, the text index the items refer to wrong strings and you get this mess where everything is off, the creature names, item names and descriptions, worldmap names etc... the game has text in.

I'd say that you should check your facts too, but you're a lost soul, forever drifting in the Sea of Unconscious Incompetence.

Dialog.tlk is never renumbered (certainly not on 'clean' uninstalls), so that isn't an issue either. Dialog.tlk bombs are always the result of improper mod maintenance.

[Baka]

Thanks for the responses guys - I think I'll leave it as is. (For the record I'm running BGT, the fix packs, both unfinished businesses, DSoTSC and the Kivan + Deheriana mod. (I like Kivan )

Random question (While I have you here) - based on what was said before, so I'm going to go into SoA with my party members as they are? To clarify, I presume that just means the normal people who go into the game, Imoen, Minsc etc. And they'll be at the levels I was at already?

(Yeah, I'm a newbie to the modding malarky, outside of the tutu anyway!)

[Jarno Mikkola]

By the way, most of those go only wrong, when you uninstall a mod, and as the dialog.tlk's strings get renumbered in the reinstalls, the text index the items refer to wrong strings and you get this mess where everything is off, the creature names, item names and descriptions, worldmap names etc... the game has text in.

Dialog.tlk is never renumbered (certainly not on 'clean' uninstalls), so that isn't an issue either. Dialog.tlk bombs are always the result of improper mod maintenance.

Uh, do they, let's take a case made just for this, let's install first a mod that renames Imoen to Nomei on all the character file references(but not the DV), start a new BGII - SoA game and save it as such.
Then uninstall that mod, and then install a mod that adds an item with long descriptions, it just so happens that the modder used a normal item as the base item, and the only strings that the WeiDU.exe needed to add, was the name and the long... and then we load the already made save, and then we wonder how in the hell is Imoen's name now Hackmaster +12, and when she talks to us, the dialog window only contains the Hackmaster +12's description...
It's because the dialog strings were reordered in the uninstall while the saves items(.cre's .itm's etc.) use the old ones. Hmm, I wonder if the WeiDU.exe could have an uninstall option(not the regular one of course) that would keep the dialog.tlk intact even though all the other modified content is removed... yes, this might make the dialog.tlk file extra large, but would be up to the installer to mess around if they really needed.

Thanks for the responses guys - I think I'll leave it as is. (For the record I'm running BGT, the fix packs, both unfinished businesses, DSoTSC and the Kivan + Deheriana mod. (I like Kivan )

Random question (While I have you here) - based on what was said before, so I'm going to go into SoA with my party members as they are? To clarify, I presume that just means the normal people who go into the game, Imoen, Minsc etc. And they'll be at the levels I was at already?

Well, if you have installed the BGT-WeiDU, not the aged old BGT, then you should have installed it in this order:

BGII Fixpack (this has to be installed before the BGT-WeiDU)
BGT-WeiDU (any of the recent versions, starting from)
DSotSC
Unfinished Business for BG1
Kivan + Deheriana
Unfinished Business

Then yes, the characters should remain the same, as long as they are alive and in the party in the transition(when you speak to Belt the last time).

[the bigg]

Uh, do they, let's take a case made just for this, let's install first a mod that renames Imoen to Nomei on all the character file references(but not the DV), start a new BGII - SoA game and save it as such.
<lots of completely false assertions>

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[the bigg]

Not really. Jarno Miccola is so utterly stupid that writing a point-per-point rebuttal of his post would be a waste of time (since he will continue posting the same irrelevant/outdated/misleading/info no matter how many times you point out to him that his info is wrong) - it's far more productive to use form letters to inform him of his wrongness.

[melkor_morgoth75]

<< Just a little off-topic >> as Baka is a new user and can misunderstand something from this very topic.

I don't want to enter in any cases here, just to say that Jarno is of help for lot of new users who are really not familiar at all with modding and installations.

<< closing the off-topic >>

mm75