Looping Dialogue Problem in Watcher's Keep in ToB

Not sure if this is strictly a mega mod problem, but thought I'd post a request for help here since I'm playing BG2 with about 40 mods that were manually installed, and really need your help.

Am currently part way through ToB, and decided to go fight my way through Watcher's Keep.  Have just gotten to the level of the Machine of Lum the Mad, but am stuck after the opening cutscene and am unable to continue the game at all.  The problem is an endless dialogue looping when you first meet and talk to Carston.

I installed and ran a Sep 2013 version of lolfixer today, but that did not help, and I cannot think of what else to try.

Does anyone have a suggestion on what I could try next?  I'm awfully close to finishing the game, and would really like to complete my first ever run through the ToB expansion.

Who is in your party? The dialogue has a lot of interjections from various NPCs and some combination of party members may be the issue.

My party consists of the following:  Minsk, My player character (ranger/cleric), Jaheira, Edwin, Aerie, and Imoen.

Am also attaching a jpg screenprint showing where the dialogue loops endlessly.  No matter what the preceding dialogue choices are, it eventually narrows down to what is shown on the jpg screenprint - only one possible dialogue choice, which leads to only one possible dialogue choice - which loops back again and again.

Also, with the endlessly looping dialogue, it appears to be impossible to use the CLUA console.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

My party consists of the following:  Minsk, My player character (ranger/cleric), Jaheira, Edwin, Aerie, and Imoen.

 

Am also attaching a jpg screenprint showing where the dialogue loops endlessly.  No matter what the preceding dialogue choices are, it eventually narrows down to what is shown on the jpg screenprint - only one possible dialogue choice, which leads to only one possible dialogue choice - which loops back again and again.

 

Also, with the endlessly looping dialogue, it appears to be impossible to use the CLUA console.

 

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

You may try SetGlobal("HistoryTalk","GLOBAL",1) before you start the talk with Carston.

Ok Roxanne's suggestion would fix the dialogue loop but I'm interested in what broke GORCAR.DLG in the first place

If you could help out, please make sure you have a weidu.exe in your BGII folder and extract and run gorcar.bat from the archive (in your BGII folder) - it should create a GORCAR.D file that you can upload (it's a readable form of GORCAR.DLG )

PS: If you don't have a weidu.exe in your BGII folder, rename any setup-XXX.exe to weidu.exe

Roxanne,

Thank you for the SetGlobal suggestion.  Will try that tomorrow, when I have a bit more time.

Lollorian,

I downloaded, extracted and ran gorcar.bat as requested, and am now attaching the resulting gorcar.d file.

Heh.

This at first glance looks like the vanilla .dlg - I will go recheck. But for some reason  

IF ~Global("HistoryTalk","GLOBAL",0)~ THEN REPLY #62788 /* ~Fair enough.  But how did you get here in the first place?~ */ DO ~SetGlobal("HistoryTalk","GLOBAL",1)
~ GOTO 5

is either not setting the global, or not registering the global in the next pass through the state. Modders put several blocks between a global set inside a dialog and referencing that global in the same dialog for that reason - and usually avoid the problem by either using EXTERN to another file or just not referencing the global inside the same dialog.

I... don't know offhand what would cause a global like this not to eventually set and register...

...unless the .bat is picking up the original file and not the interjected-into file in override.

Edited by cmorgan, 30 July 2015 - 05:33 AM.

Heh.

 

This at first glance looks like the vanilla .dlg - I will go recheck. But for some reason  

 

IF ~Global("HistoryTalk","GLOBAL",0)~ THEN REPLY #62788 /* ~Fair enough.  But how did you get here in the first place?~ */ DO ~SetGlobal("HistoryTalk","GLOBAL",1)
~ GOTO 5

 

is either not setting the global, or not registering the global in the next pass through the state. Modders put several blocks between a global set inside a dialog and referencing that global in the same dialog for that reason - and usually avoid the problem by either using EXTERN to another file or just not referencing the global inside the same dialog.

 

I... don't know offhand what would cause a global like this not to eventually set and register...

It is the same result I came up with, the Global is either not set or not read in the next pass.

...unless the .bat is picking up the original file and not the interjected-into file in override.

The dialogue is the unmodded original.

I was looking at my installation which has addons by Tashia, Xan, Longer Road Irenicus, Kivan, Deheriana Kido, Tiax, Faren, Dace, Kiyone and Coran - still the result is the same. None of those mod interjections is suspicious and the only remaining reason for the loop is that the Global above does not work.

Roxanne,

Tonight I tried your suggested solution of typing CLUAConsole:SetGlobal("HistoryTalk","Global",1) just before I moved my Party to the area with Carston, and it worked.  Received lots of new dialogue choices, and no more endless looping.  Hooray!!!!!

Thank you very much for your most excellent advice..

Freaky! That is exactly the vanilla GORCAR.D (with some differences in strings - maybe because you have the BG2Fixpack GTU textpatch or something installed?)

Glad you sorted it out though