6 replies to this topic

[Stabwound]

I have a long-running game of Baldur's Gate via BGT going. Checking my Weidu log, I'm running BGT 1.08 (01 Feb 10) so it's quite old.

One thing I've noticed after picking up my old save is that I have a few quests from the BG1 areas that didn't get removed when I transferred to BG2. I imagine this is an old, squashed bug, but it's very annoying to have these unfinishable quests. I know I can use the console to warp to the areas, but it would be nice to be able to use the map to do so. I know it doesn't make sense in context of the game, but I enjoy being able to go anywhere on the huge map.

Is there a way to disable the lockout that doesn't let you jump across the mountains to the BG1 areas?

On another note, is there anything about doing this that might cause severe issues in an ongoing BG2 game, such as duplicate NPCS, breaking the game, etc? Will BG1 quests be fully functional after the change over to BG2? I know there are a handful I never did, and since this is a long ongoing game it might be fun to do them.

Thanks!

Edited by Stabwound, 17 March 2012 - 06:40 PM.

[William Imm]

It has to do with ENDOFBG1 variable - which I wouldn't recommend setting to 0 in BG2, as it can cause weirdness with dialog & such... You could also use CLUA to warp to the area, but still, just ignore those quests.

[-Hurricane-]

In case you are annoyed by the remaining journal entries for unsolved quests, remember you can always get rid of those by yourself if you like. No need to be upset that they didn't get removed automatically. Simply edit your journal. You can click on an unsolved quest entry and remove the text manually - the entry will be gone.

[Stabwound]

For some reason I had no idea that you could edit journal entries. Weird.

Does anyone know about my other questions: will travelling between BG1 and BG2 screw up the game in any way?

[William Imm]

It's never been tried, and probably never will be - and it will probably screw up the game if you do so.

[Azazello]

In fact, it has been tried--but not extensively reported or tested.

There are two mods that explicitly test for end-of-BG1: BG1NPC and BGT

From their development histories, you can read & learn that the developers both discovered and theorized some quirks, anomalies, etc. if allowing the BG1 content to extending to BG2.

Because of this, they put in ENDOFBG1 and other checks to avoid such issues.

The trouble is, no one--not even the mod creators--has fully documented what these oddities are or would be.

So instead, what we get is groupthink comments saying 'don't try, it'll screw up your game.'
This isn't necessarily wrong, but we're just mouthing what others have written--not what we know is correct.

So, here's what I do know to answer the ORIGINAL questions...

-- To get back to the BG1 area...
- I only know CLUA as the clearcut way of getting there.

- The mod NeJ2 does have a portion of the story that transports your party to an actual BG1 area (sorry, I don't remember the specific area). In fact (at least in a previous version of NeJ2), when you enter that area while playing the BG1 portion, you'll see a character there who doesn't have anything to say if you talk to him--he won't, until you reach the NeJ2 mod content in BG2.

What I do not remember is, once you reach that area thru the NeJ2 content, can you forestall continuing the NeJ2 portion and go back into BG1 and play to your heart's content.

I think it does--for example, when your party is transported by NeJ2 to that area, either don't talk to that guy yet, or after talking with him, go off into BG1 instead-- but it's been too long since I played that section, I don't have the true details.


-- Will going back to BG1 areas screw up your BG2 game?
- Probably not.
Because at least the two mods above put in checks to disable BG1 content, (almost) nothing you do when going back to BG1 should forward-affect BG2.


Now, My disclosure...

My last megainstall run, I did a 'Dr Jonas Salk' and went into BG1NPC and BGT and disabled ENDOFBG1 variable when installing the mods.

From what I remember, BG1NPC has just one place in the install scripts to assign the variable, making it sooo easy to disable it. I don't remember where BGT assigns it, but it's probably also in one place.

Now, my experience is not a good example because:
-- I had already played some (maybe even ALL) of the BG1 portion, and then did a re-install before transitioning to the BG2 portion, this is where I disabled ENDOFBG1.

In others words, a better test would be to disable the variable at the very beginning of a megainstall, then play thru to and into BG2, and document which if any BG1 content affects BG2.


Even so, the only phenomenon that I could clearly point to directly related to this change, was that BG1 Npcs that I had in my party in the BG2 portion would still continue their dialogue about BG1 scenarios. (Sorry, I don't have specifics examples.)
_________________________________________________________________________________


So what's really needed is for some players to agree to testing a megainstall with end-of-BG1 checks removed, and then fully document any oddities, if any, of BG1 content in BG2.

I plan to do this in my very next megainstall, but that could be many months from now, and a megainstall by it's nature can take years to finish (yes--years). So to any players reading this, please consider running the test in your install.

[Sasha Al'Therin]

I don't know mega installs and I've never played BGT... have it installed but have not played it LOL

Anywho from what I understand, even if you were to remove the "end of bg1" checks there is a good chance that many BG1 elements will not be accessible because the chapter global has already moved forward. Many NPCs are removed or have dialog changes even within BG1 itself. While one could wander any of the BG1 areas during any chapter, not all quests can be made available due to whatever the current chapter may be.

At the very least, removing the end of bg1 checks should allow the player to return to BG1 areas and kill off any of the spawns that arise. Tho the player may not be able to perform certain quests that may not have been main story but were dependent upon the player being in a certain chapter.

As far as joinable NPCs, if the NPCs are not checking against chapter variables but only for the area # they are in then going back to the BG1 portion will cause them to banter with their old stuff rather than continuing with their new.

The question then becomes: Do mod authors want to support going back into BG1 areas or maintain the current status of blocking it off? It would be more work to allow a smooth transition back as many NPCs both joinable and non-joinable in the BG portion would need to be updated to even have dialog should the player decide to go back.

However for main story reasons, the player really should not be able to return to the BG portion of the game.