2 replies to this topic

[tomkaz]

Hi All:

 

I just finished killed Sarevok in my BGT game.  Well I would rate my experience as C+.  Some parts were excellent and a few were very bad.  I do not expect many would agree with my rating, but that is my opinion.  In the future, I will continue to use BWS and I expect it will get improvements from the comments of players.

 

BWS:

 

For the most part it works well.  I have two issues with how it modifies "problems".

 

1)  Some time ago when using BWP to make a mega-mod game, I asked if it was better to use the versions of mods that were listed in BWP or to use the latest versions of those mods.  The replies I got said to use the latest versions.  BWS does not always follow this advice as there were later versions of some mods that were not used by BWS.  My recommendation is to have BWS check for later versions and if found ask if it should use that version instead of the earlier version in the mod list.

 

2)  BWS does not tell you how it "fixes" conflicts.  BWS fixed a few conflicts for me by adding mods I do not like and did not select.  I did not find this out until a few things in my game did not work the way I wanted.  Then I checked the WeiDU.log file and found the mods that were added.  I assume I could have checked the WeiDU.log before I started playing the game, but that still would mean a lot of time was wasted.  My recommendation is for BWS to tell you how it will fix the conflict before it does the fix and get permission to do it.  This option may already be in BWS and I just did not find it.

 

3)  I did do a lot of reading about "master versions" of mods.  Although the idea is good, it only works when the master file is updated with the newer version immediately to the "master version".  I still prefer to have the master version contain the date or version number in the title.  This makes it easy to find the latest update.  Also, many mods have the version number only in the ReadMe file and some do not have any version number at all.  Some mods do not update the ReadMe file with the latest version number so it can be difficult to select the latest version.  This can cause problems in finding the best version for your game.

 

BG1:

 

This also worked well, but there were some old issues that were not in my last BWP mega-mod game.

 

1)  Drizzt Saga.  I believe this was fixed in version 3.0 which was used by BWS.  Perhaps it was just a fix in BWP 15.5.  But the issue with Drizzt's second scimitar (the +5 one in his shield slot) causing the game to crash and not restart was still there.  I just used ShadowKeeper to give him 2 other scimitars and the game worked.  Also the ending was messed up.  As soon as I entered the final battle, spells engulfed my party, I was swamped by monsters before I could see anything, and my party was dead before I could do anything.  Used <CTRL>-Y to get out of that mess.

 

2)  The Secret of Bone Hill.  When you go to Restenford the second time, Fabio is missing at Candlekeep and Restenford.  His voice and comments were at Candlekeep, but not him.  Again used ShadowKeeper to create him in Restenford.  Some of the talk is out of place, but you can play the mod.

 

3)  Final battle with Sarevok.  A real mess as I could not kill Sarevok.  Even <CTRL>-Y would not kill him.  This was similar to an older problem.  However, this time all the monsters were there except for the ones triggered by traps along the walls.  None of the traps in the center were there either.  I used ShadowKeeper and CLUAConsole to add the Globals SarevokBoutToDie = 0 and EndOfBG1 = 0 which worked in the past.  Still could not kill Sarevok.  Played with the values of SarevokBoutToDie and found out that if it was set to 2, Sarevok died instantly.  So I started the fight.  Killed Diarmid, Semai, Angelo, and Tazok.  Then paused and set  SarevokBoutToDie = 2.  Started the game and Sarevok died.

 

4)  I was and am a bit confused by EE (Enhanced Edition) mods.  Do these all work with WeiDU?  Will using them cause problems with other WeiDU mods?

 

Well now I go back to Belt.  I hope that works and I can get on to BG2.

 

Tom

Edited by tomkaz, 20 January 2016 - 07:55 PM.

[agb1]

Tom, thanks for sharing your experience.  Can you upload your weidu.log again so I can try to make an install with the same selection to investigate the problems you reported?

 

1)  Some time ago when using BWP to make a mega-mod game, I asked if it was better to use the versions of mods that were listed in BWP or to use the latest versions of those mods.  The replies I got said to use the latest versions.  BWS does not always follow this advice as there were later versions of some mods that were not used by BWS.  My recommendation is to have BWS check for later versions and if found ask if it should use that version instead of the earlier version in the mod list.

This depends on where the mod is hosted.  If the mod is hosted on GitHub, BWS can automatically always get the latest version.  Otherwise, we have to update the download link manually.  If you know of any mods that have newer versions than what BWS is using, please tell us.

 

2)  BWS does not tell you how it "fixes" conflicts.  BWS fixed a few conflicts for me by adding mods I do not like and did not select.  I did not find this out until a few things in my game did not work the way I wanted.  Then I checked the WeiDU.log file and found the mods that were added.  I assume I could have checked the WeiDU.log before I started playing the game, but that still would mean a lot of time was wasted.  My recommendation is for BWS to tell you how it will fix the conflict before it does the fix and get permission to do it.  This option may already be in BWS and I just did not find it.

I think BWS now does this (lots of changes in the last few weeks); please report if it doesn't ask for confirmation next time you use it.

 

3)  I did do a lot of reading about "master versions" of mods.  Although the idea is good, it only works when the master file is updated with the newer version immediately to the "master version".  I still prefer to have the master version contain the date or version number in the title.  This makes it easy to find the latest update.  Also, many mods have the version number only in the ReadMe file and some do not have any version number at all.  Some mods do not update the ReadMe file with the latest version number so it can be difficult to select the latest version.  This can cause problems in finding the best version for your game.

The version displayed in BWS is just text that we enter manually.  For mods that are hosted on GitHub we have lately adopted the convention of writing "GitHub Latest Release" or "GitHub Master Branch" to indicate where BWS will go to download the mod.  It isn't more specific because BWS doesn't know what the version number will be.

 

BG1:

 

This also worked well, but there were some old issues that were not in my last BWP mega-mod game.

 

1)  Drizzt Saga.  I believe this was fixed in version 3.0 which was used by BWS.  Perhaps it was just a fix in BWP 15.5.  But the issue with Drizzt's second scimitar (the +5 one in his shield slot) causing the game to crash and not restart was still there.  I just used ShadowKeeper to give him 2 other scimitars and the game worked.  Also the ending was messed up.  As soon as I entered the final battle, spells engulfed my party, I was swamped by monsters before I could see anything, and my party was dead before I could do anything.  Used <CTRL>-Y to get out of that mess.

I think some other mod is patching Drizzt and giving him a different weapon, but I don't know which one.  Will investigate.

 

2)  The Secret of Bone Hill.  When you go to Restenford the second time, Fabio is missing at Candlekeep and Restenford.  His voice and comments were at Candlekeep, but not him.  Again used ShadowKeeper to create him in Restenford.  Some of the talk is out of place, but you can play the mod.

Will investigate.

 

3)  Final battle with Sarevok.  A real mess as I could not kill Sarevok.  Even <CTRL>-Y would not kill him.  This was similar to an older problem.  However, this time all the monsters were there except for the ones triggered by traps along the walls.  None of the traps in the center were there either.  I used ShadowKeeper and CLUAConsole to add the Globals SarevokBoutToDie = 0 and EndOfBG1 = 0 which worked in the past.  Still could not kill Sarevok.  Played with the values of SarevokBoutToDie and found out that if it was set to 2, Sarevok died instantly.  So I started the fight.  Killed Diarmid, Semai, Angelo, and Tazok.  Then paused and set  SarevokBoutToDie = 2.  Started the game and Sarevok died.

Will investigate.

 

4)  I was and am a bit confused by EE (Enhanced Edition) mods.  Do these all work with WeiDU?  Will using them cause problems with other WeiDU mods?

Which EE mods?  EET Tweaks for example is a WeiDU mod and shouldn't cause problems with other mods.

 

Well now I go back to Belt.  I hope that works and I can get on to BG2.

Good luck!

[tomkaz]

Hi agb1:

 

Thanks for the very encouraging comments.  I will list the mods later today after I see my endocrinologist.  At my age, your social life comprises in seeing doctors.

 

However, I forgot another problem.

 

5)  Northern Tales of the Sword Coast.  I cannot get Haebal to give me the quest to get him a bow from the elves.  I have walkthroughs for NTotSC and checked that I did the steps in the correct order.  If I visit Haebal early in the game, he will sell me items.  Later in the game, Haebal just attacks me.  Years ago, I could get Haebal to give me this quest.

 

Playing about six hours each day, it took 35 days to finish BG1 in my mega-mod game.

 

Thanks again,

 

Tom

Edited by tomkaz, 21 January 2016 - 06:06 AM.