Author available - Jarno, dabus, ALIEN, or anyone who knows the architecture of the tool used to guide the installation, please contact me

 

The two weidu.logs I have seen on this seem to show the installer forcing several components successfully, then trying to install everything a second time. It also seems to be choking on REQUIRE_COMPONENT ~setup-aranw.tp2~ ~0~ @30017

 

Straight installation (manual) shows no errors, but it is done through setup-mymod.exe rather than command line calls; if this requires a trivial change in the order or a setup of a component to deal with BWP, I'm game. There is already a "default" installation that lets players skip all the choices. Not sure why someone would want to skip the choices, but hey, it is their game.

@The Imp, glad to see you, man!

 

re:

@cmorgan: Can you extend the English version of the setup.tra file from this:

- sure thing. I can do that after each round of changes, if it helps - or do you need the version number to be static for the tool?

 

 

Regardless, I will make the change now to update.

 

re: beta status, well that is a tough one!

 

On the one hand, as a modder, I can always use the bug reports to fix the mod up - and big installs cast a wider net looking for "unintended consequences".  I am the culprit for the darned mod being in "unreleased but fully working beta", when what I should have done about a year ago was realize it was ready for a v1 release.

 

But if the mega-install tool  were my own project, I would say something like "test your own damned mod, cmorgan; we have a hard enough time dealing with the garbage the NON-beta mods throw at us randomly, let alone ones that are regularly adding content! I need to eat/play/sleep SOMETIME!!"

 

@Bill Bisco - oh, I understand - so an uninterrupted flow needs the answers to the questions to be provided and inserted. No worries. Sequence for components:

 

(not sure about language choice options, but there is only english - currently, it should just install without asking a language option)

ASKED | RESPONSE

Display Readme | N   // no point in displaying a readme if you are doing an unattended install

Install | i                     // put the mod in place; it will find SoA, ToB, Bg2EE, and run HANDLE_CHARSET for bg2ee utf8 conversion

Set talk timer | 1        // regular talk times, skips all sorts of customization questions

Install audio | 2         // only soundset and music available at this time

Music choices | 1      // guitar soundset

Aran config | 1          // default soldier, skips all sorts of customization questions

Install portrait | N       // default .cre has portrait in place already, so this component is optional

 

GitHub has the latest changes, and the order of components is static. As a BG2:EE install, there are no known dependencies; as a BG2:SoA or BG2:ToB install, it assumes the G3 BG2 Fixpack is installed (but looks for the things the mod directly accesses and sets them up if it needs them).

 

The only thing that may be trouble on huge installs is the creation of the inn where you can pick up Aran. That is set up with code that dynamically searches for AR0700's "Abandon06" info point and changes it into a travel region. It has been tested against Dorn (bg2:ee new entrance at the top ) and Kivan (spawned as if he were entering from the same basic point) with both working fine. If a mod that comes after Aran completely removes or renames "Abandon06" or old-skool overwrites/replaces AR0700, then folks will have no access to recruit him and they just wasted a bunch of time installing a relatively huge dialog-centered mod. It won't cause problems for the install, but it will add thousands of unused, unaccessible dialog states and transitions to the game.

 

Note: for full troubleshooting, I have tucked a ton of information into the .DEBUG file for the mod, including what the user answered, and what it means for the install. This includes architecture, weidu vars, the chosen timings, etc., etc. if that is useful to anyone looking for identification of trouble spots.

 

Aaaand someone please let me know what "EET" is? I have been away from modding for a year, which translates to about 3 full tech cycles these days...

Cooool - I'd better go see if there is more to be done to be compatible with this.

Sure thing - an easy fix, on the surface of it. I can do a quick INCLUDE and throw those out to a .tpa. It will be done in about 12 hours from this post and integrated on GitHub.

 

Except... I don't understand why anyone would install the main component, then stop the installation, then install a second component - won't the REQUIRE_PREDICATE calls, and weidu's "temporary uninstall rollback" come into play, thus messing heavily with things? I know we specifically set up marker files in BG1NPC to *stop* cherry-picking individual components, or worse, placing them out of order (a pid component put before a dialog component).

 

Does someone have a cut-down script or a way I can test the behavior of AranW installed this way?

 

Or in this case I could skip the whole component thing and use READLN with only one master component. But I want to understand what the tool is doing separating components, and why, please.

AH!!!

 

I understand -

 

No worries. I have farmed the entire project's set of macros to /lib/ and set it up in the ALWAYS section, test installed (and rechecked by going through and changing the subcomponents).

 

ALWAYS
    INCLUDE ~aranw/lib/regexp.tph~ /* extra regexp vars */
    INCLUDE ~aranw/lib/aranw_macros.tph~ /* define all macros */
    /* .ids patching to make sure everything is in place */
    INCLUDE ~aranw/lib/ids_patching.tph~ /* checks for expected .ids resources */
    ACTION_IF GAME_IS ~bg2ee~ BEGIN    
    /* HANDLE_CHARSETS */
    /* BG2:EE tra conversion courtesy of weidu and iconv */
        ACTION_DEFINE_ARRAY c-aranreload BEGIN setup c-aranw END
        LAF HANDLE_CHARSETS
            INT_VAR
            infer_charset = 1
            STR_VAR
                tra_path = EVAL ~%MOD_FOLDER%/tra~
                reload_array = c-aranreload
        END
    END
    OUTER_SPRINT tra_version ~c-aranw~
END
LANGUAGE    ~English~
            ~english~
            ~aranw\tra\english\c-aranw.tra~
            ~aranw\tra\english\setup.tra~ /* Contains text strings displayed during the installation: TP2, Components, etc., encoded for _win32 (cp1252), _osx (utf-8 no BOM), or _unix (utf-8 no BOM) */

 

 

How are you dealing with all the

 

/* Setting up timered interactions with player choice before compiling .d and .baf */
OUTER_FOR( aran_timer_choice = 0 ; ~%aran_timer_choice%~ STRING_COMPARE_REGEXP ~^[12]$~ ; )BEGIN
    PRINT @30042
    ACTION_READLN aran_timer_choice
END // of O_F
ACTION_IF ("aran_timer_choice" = 1) THEN BEGIN
    /*  patching files with player choice: set talk timers */
        OUTER_SET ARAN_FTT = 3600
        OUTER_SET ARAN_LTT = 3600
        OUTER_SET ARAN_FLIRT = 3600
        PRINT @30043
        OUTER_SET choseninitialrom = 2400
        PRINT @30044
        OUTER_SET choseninitialflirt = 1200
        PRINT @30045
        PRINT @30046
END
ACTION_IF ("aran_timer_choice" = 2) THEN BEGIN
    PRINT @30047
    PRINT @30048
    OUTER_SPRINT ~friendshiptimer~ ~placeholder_value~
    OUTER_WHILE (!(IS_AN_INT ~friendshiptimer~) OR (~friendshiptimer~ > 0x6) OR (~friendshiptimer~ < 0x1)) BEGIN
etc. etc.

 

?  The list of responses needs to be fed by component?

 

I will go take a look and modify that list by component.

 

EDIT:

 

I suspect we can then detect a mod installed this way buy what is (and isn't) in the DEBUG. If individual components are installed this way, the MYMOD.DEBUG will only show the last installed materials for that component. So I need to add these checks and PRINT to the debug in the ALWAYS as well:

 

 

WeiDU says that this game has BGII:EE content.

The version of Aran Whitehand being installed is:
Beta_4 29.6.2015

Weidu variables on this install:

Language = english
Architecture = x86
Operating System = win32
User Directory = C:\Users\NAMEREDACTED\Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition
Save Game Single Player Directory = C:\Users\NAMEREDACTED\Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/save
Save Game Multi Player Directory = C:\Users\NAMEREDACTED\Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/mpsave
Running .exe = D:\BeamDog\00783\setup-aranw.exe
Mod name (as seen by WeiDU) = ARANW/SETUP-ARANW.TP2
Installation type is: 1 ( 1 = install is being done interactively (IE you launched setup-mymod.exe and you’re installing mymod), or 0 = the install is being done non-interactively (IE you launched setup-mymod.exe and now weidu is reinstalling othermod due to the domino uninstall and reinstall).
 

 

And now I also need to see if any mod out there has found a way of reading READLN and ACTION_READLN responses into a custom .DEBUG, as the user-input responses and explination of timer settings, etc. are overwritten on the .DEBUG when the second command line call is made. Hmmm.... got to think about that one.

HAH! FOUND IT!

 

Thank the gods for CamDawg and the G3_Debugging_Suite...

I can leverage APPEND, PATCH_PRINT, and INNER_ACTION to create a custom .log file that is untouched by changes to other components, but is still removed when the mod is uninstalled. Tested a structure for BG2EE and it works swimmingly. (that means very well).

 

Now all I have to do is remember why/how to get constructs like this to use .tra references...

 

or not. The debugging can be in English and not .tra'd. Probably better for me that way anyways.

 

Someone HAS to have done this before... I will need to go look at SCS, igi's iiItem, and the like - and probably Miloch's stuff again.

OK, step one is done - see the beta release notes here:

 

http://gibberlings3....=27387&p=236489

 

Custom debugging logs integrated and tested against everything I could do to it minus the command line installs, updating to allow EET to use the files (untested on EET) and everything set up.

 

I will try for some of that "divided by component number user input" sorting for you tomorrow. Right now, I can help out by saying that the mod should just need three lines if running without varied choice; the debug-by-components breakdown is

 

aranw_0_debugger.log // main component

aranw_1234_debugger.log // 1 of 4 FORCED_SUBCOMPONENTs for sounds

aranw_56789_debugger.log // 1 of 5 FORCED_SUBCOMPONENTs for .cre, hidden from the user/installer by ACTION_READLN and ACTION_MATCH to player choice

aranw_opt10_debugger.log // optional portraits component, only needs to be installed if players want to choose instead of sticking with the default set.

Testing branch of Crossmod was integrated a few days ago - the new "most updated" link is currently

 

https://github.com/c...leases/tag/v14a

Errr... much though we want to help deal with "lost mods", and way cool, Lollorian, that you keep a good vault of past versions, and everyone is trying to help,

 

 

THIS IS NOT A LOST MOD. THIS IS A PURPOSEFULLY "LOST" MOD

 

IT HAS AN ACTIVE AUTHOR AND MAINTAINER WHO DOES NOT WANT OLDER VERSIONS THIS MOD PUSHED OUT TO USERS.

 

PLEASE remove Thank you, Lollorian, for removing the posted file and respecting the modder's wishes to have folks upgrade not post this mod publically here at SHS!

 

 

I know that sometimes folks do "private distribution" of requested mods for individuals via email - some of the way older mods who have a decade of non-use, early Iron Modder entries and other mods that have no actual site presence, etc... so there is absolutely no reason to publicly post an older version of a mod that has an active author or maintainer without contacting them first.

 

 

A much kinder/better solution would be to attach a modified BiG World file for the user that allows the mod to be upgraded, rather than pushing depreciated versions.

My suggestion is to change the installer to versioned releases rather than GitHub "newest, then - because the info is still up there, and the mod has not changed that much - ESPECIALLY the TESTING BRANCH!!!!!

 

That branch exist because it is not a release.

 

Sorry for your troubles, Chevalier (and hey there, by the way ) - in this case, I can't really help much, because when a testing branch is integrated, S.O.P. is to prune it and establish a new testing branch.

 

Side note - I'd be interested in finding out what part of the installer calls for the link and sets it up. If there is a checksum, it should be possible to remove it and integrate the mod by renaming it.

I guess the attachment has srrved its purpose... Download while you can

I'll take down the attachmentwhen i get home

 

 

Thanks, Lol!

 

@Bill - private trading is something folks can do. Mod authors don't necessarily like it, but it happens (and folks like LoneRouge, Lolorrian, and I tend to collect what we can find) but the person you need to talk to about having it posted up it is the author, Almateria. She can put it up here in misc mods any time she wants

 

Most folks don't seem to mind. She does. So until she says yes, well...

 

...the ruckus does some publicity for the older mod.

 

 

P.S. - I want crossmod with Bannana. Or perhaps my ironmodder 10 entry.

[staff answer]

OK, cool, Lollorian - I have edited my post. My apologies for any confusion about updating. Thanks for understanding

 

Almateria, message rec'd loud and clear - your mod, your choice, your call. Official Translation = ALMATERIA SAYS NO.

 

Logging everything fixed up and moving on back to modding.

[/staff answer]

 

[personal answer]

For the record, Almateria, I think you should go ahead and load it up in the Misc Mods section without a bit of shame or remorse; Caveat emptor, et alii. It is very, very hard to erase a mod from circulation once it is posted *anywhere* online.

If you really want to try to make it disappear, you may need to contact Leonardo Watson and Lollorian and other Mega folks and ask them to remove any reference to it in the installers and any documentation they have.

[/personal answer]

tl,dr - banters you enjoy writing are ok but mostly you should use the J file. Numbers mean squat. Write for yourself not for others.

 

[long version]

In my opinion, there is no correct numerical answer to this question - but there *is* a content-related answer. And a technical reason to keep banters limited to general fun scenery non-essential NPC/NPC dialog.

 

The "two banters for each of the joinable canonical (BioWare™) NPCs in SoA" guideline was set up by modders looking around at what others were doing, but it really doesn't serve a modder well. I use it because it is fun figuring out how to have one banter initiated by my NPC and one initiated by the canonical NPC - a creative writing and characterization exercise that I find enjoyable. I use that "standard" in crossmod content as well - it serves my sense of balance to think that two "scenery" banters to enhance the sense that the NPCs involved are independent beings with their own views.

 

BUT - writing a banter for an NPC just because that is "what is done" is a waste of your time and the player's time.

AND - writing multiple *good* banters that extend and clarify the relationships can not only be fun, well - no hard limit on that one! Go for it. 2? 3? More? Some mods do a MyNPC+Imoen = luv in as few as 2 or 3 side interactions in ToB. Others do lots more.

 

As Jastey mentioned, though, using banters this way (lots more) runs into some technical troubles.

 

Between IEP Banters and all the mods out there on a Mega and the original canonical NPCs using the banter file for some actual needed (and WEIGHT#) content, using the Banter files the way BioWare did is a very dangerous proposition these days. One messed up weight or an odd install order, and suddenly you will get bug reports that original content isn't playing correctly, or at all.

 

In addition, more banters, even with a shortened cycle tweak, means that there is much more content - and poses the risk that a player's time in-game will not match your expected outcome. Especially the one time, specially conditioned ones - they can end up hanging open and playing in a way you never intended.

 

So my "rule of thumb" is - If the content is side commentary and you don't mind if players never see it, B file. If it is triggered by a specific circumstance, area, or PC/NPC discussion, or if you need players to see it for plot/relationship development, J file with conditions and timers, triggered by the .baf, and with a rollback block put in place so that the following doesn't occur:

 

[JAHEIRA] Aran... get your hand off of my back. I know you are scared of the big bad Underdark, but  man up, dude.

[ARAN] Well, that blighted well figures.

[JAHEIRA] What?

[ARAN] We are in th' Elven Court, all in front o' this royalty, an' th' banter triggered.

[JAHERIA] I'm calling my agent. AGAIN. These independent film projects ALWAYS damage an actor's reputation. Have they never heard of the joined dialog file?

[ARAN] Put in a word for me, please. The accent on my dialog is atrocious. I want a rewrite.

 

As far as the "how many to make players happy", well... I'd say you can answer that one by google-ing what people think of mods.Better yet - don't. It might be demoralizing, if you are expecting your hard work to be appreciated

 

I like 'em. But the interwebz are filled with folks posting stuff like "ewww.... bad fanfic stuff and bad writing in my game! Besides, I wanted slash fic content with goth emo overtones!!" and "too much talk. I just wanted an overpoewered kensai. how do I get this npc to just shut up and fill a party slot?". Writing for fame? in an i.e. mod? Errr... Writing for fortune? In any mod? errr... Writing for a sense of belonging to a community? Ok, but you could do other things.... Writing because you want to tell a story? GO FOR IT.

 

So, just like the real world, I'd say write what you want, preferably as you play the game and think "so, in my head, I just had a conversation with my npc. Cool. I can write that out." or "Hey! If Jaheira just said that to Yoshimo, what would my npc's reaction have been? Would he/she even talk about that with Yoshimo?

Also, let me know if you both want this moved to Crossmod. I am probably moving most of my stuff into that work, as it is getting tougher to deal with multiple mods. (Any way of coding it so we don't have multiples of the same banter would be cool - if the globals set are the same, it means only one of them will play, so from a user standpoint there is no problem with one being installed by a legacy version and a second identical one being installed by Crossmod.. But from an "add a bunch of extra blocks to search through" load-the-engine point of view, less is more.)

Fiann speaks for a whole ton of folks out there, I bet... lots of mods with all that stuff. Not so many for folks who just want to play the game and have a simple companion Glad to see you are back; hope you have some fun writing!

TU is Turambar's prefix, according to the Community Modder Prefix list al BWL. So most likely it is from his/her tweaks and fixes mod, possibly for NTotSC. I think that is an SHS mod, but I am not sure. It might be in the misc mods section.

My (useless) two cp is write what feels right for your character, and if your concept has changed, mercilessly slash anything you want and leave it cold and dead on the cutting room floor. All the film folks do tons of footage that never sees the light of day, novelists write, scrap, and rewrite chapters and scenes - even fanfic writers revise and edit (sometimes).

 

You don't lose anything by writing something and not putting it out for other folks. You gain something by having fun writing. Whenever you think your NPC is experienced enough or is smart enough to realize hanging out with the potential Next God Of Murder is a bad idea, shut that puppy down hard and *walk* *away*.

 

You can always add content back in or repurpose/rewrite it for v2, if you really like the story.

Not for this user. I appreciate having a full-featured, actively maintained and extended tool. But then again I run an i7 with 12GB ram.

Nice work on the Ninde/TDD dialogue stuff - rebuilding the TDD within her file and then looping back to s21 is a workable solution. I would never have tried to reconcile two very different approaches this way, but things look good - just may need to drop a line to the Ninde forum to make sure no one adds this as a fix for Ninde's files, as without TDD you are right - things will not  go so well if TDD is not istalled

Cool!

Check those puppies carefully, Lollorian, before going on - I remember there being some serious overwriting of resources. Pretty much TCs. The newest versions may have solved some of that. I suggest dropping the NeJ biffing mod completely - that was designed for a time when Generalized Biffing did not exist, and you don't want a mod trying to compress into .bif in the middle of a mega install...

EDIT:\ 

 

I am having memory problems - I just made Vlad into the wrong dude - my apologies - between this and swapping Safana with Shar-Teel this morning, i am having a red letter day - going to stop pontificating and go back to my own stuff and mess that up instead

 

*  "conceptual" incompatibility is a real thing, so a good use of even tools like this is to pick and choose smaller groups of mods that work to form a cohesive game rather than trying for everything all at once.

 

and

 

* on both "technical" and "conceptual" compatibility, the modder is the one who should be making the choice. It is their content that they are letting other folks use.

 

We have different approaches on that last one - I say "if it was created solely by me take it and use it how you want because the fun was in creating it", and he is specifically asking that in order for someone to use his mod, he would like "payment" in the form of direct feedback.

 

I say that is modder choice. So for whatever reasons he cites, I say don't include it as a "standard" mod. People who get the mod from him can add it as an expert mod if they have gotten a copy from him. For the same reason, I really hope you folks don't include Improved Anvil Lite - that is an unauthorized use of someone else's work.

 

I think there is a solution, though it is bound to make Lollorian's life hell - have an incompatability check that warns a user that they can't install both the "Currently Available" NeJ2 (the most stable and technically compatible old version) and the "private reserve" one. Then just support the one that you choose, Lollorian.

 

Hey - I am very supportive of what you folks are doing, because I think you are having fun and opening up content to new folks. You are certainly providing feedback and bug reports to modders, which is awesome - you are adding language support - the list of things that are positive with this are HUGE.

 

But just so you know - modders in general incredibly wary about efforts like this. Lol had to basically rebuild Ninde's ending to tie in with TDD. In the old days, doing that to someone else's work without permission of the respective authors would result in a serious flame war - and get you perma-kicked off of SHS, G3, and PPG to boot. "You don't mess with someone else's work - only with BioWare™ stuff" is the Big Iron Curtain in the i.e. community - and the new BeamDog forums codified that into this next generation of modding here : https://forums.beamd...opyright#latest . The person who decides what is and isn't "messing with their work" is... the modder who created it. Not the folks using it - the person who wrote it.

 

So when folks are working and a modder asks for specific handling of their material, it really is good form to stick to what they want. All a user has to do is ask, and provide feedback. Sounds like a very cheap return for over a decade of someone else's sweat, frustration, and hard work. 

 

Edit: another good thing that has come out of all of this BWP/Mega./Multi/BWS/MonsterMash stuff is a much larger set of known mods that do dthe same thing. So if Vlad does that "Keldorn Third Path" thing, we will have Saerileth, Berelinde's Paladin third path, the standard ones, and another Keldorn pathway. Sounds like fun to me, but I think Lollorian may have just lost half of his hair!

This is what happens when you are an old man - You are Tower of Deception, right? Good mod!

Ok, I am trying to run down what mods deal with Solaufein as a joinable NPC.

Standard Weimer Solaufein and jolyth's Solaufein Flirt Pack use "SOLA" as the DV. But I am seeing both Solafein and Solaufein used in existing mods as death vars as well; usually with an OR(2) to catch both sola and the alternate.

Does anyone know what other Sola mods there are out there that might use dv's other than SOLA?

Ah, got it.. thank you - so the Solafein is probably a typo; check against the UDSOLA[01-02]. I will poke Jasty and see what she says/has dealing with Solaufein as well, thanks!
 
I can help on the banter file; Crossmod Banter Pack builds and adds the banter file if it doesn't exist
 
As Solaufein was the first (or one of the first) mods it has approaches that were based on existing knowledge and workarounds, things for him are decidedly "non-standard". I will look at the code, but I bet it will be fine to add the banter to either file; the conditions to trigger probably do need to be for either SOLA or SOLAUFEIN (hence the OR(2))

// Giving Solaufein a banter file
ACTION_IF FILE_EXISTS_IN_GAME ~sola.dlg~
THEN BEGIN
	APPEND ~interdia.2da~ ~SOLA BSOLA SOLAUFEIN BSOLA~
		UNLESS ~SOLAUFEIN~
		UNLESS ~25FILE~
	APPEND ~interdia.2da~ ~SOLA BSOLA BSOLA25 SOLAUFEIN BSOLA BSOLA25~
		UNLESS ~SOLAUFEIN~
		IF ~25FILE~
END

ACTION_IF FILE_EXISTS_IN_GAME ~sola.dlg~ AND NOT FILE_EXISTS_IN_GAME ~bsola.dlg~
THEN BEGIN
PRINT @8 /* Adding Solaufein's SoA banter file... */
APPEND_OUTER ~crossmodbg2/crossmod_0_debug.log~ ~Adding Solaufein's SoA banter file...~
<<<<<<<< CrossmodBG2/Inlined/BSOLA.d
BEGIN BSOLA
>>>>>>>>
COMPILE ~CrossmodBG2/Inlined/BSOLA.d~
END

As yours is a "last in install order" mod too, Roxanne, you could modify that code and use the banter file; it only builds the banter file if it doesn't already exist.

It also confirms that we only know of two dvs for this NPC: may need to split that APPEND into two lines...