5286 replies to this topic

[Roxanne]

I suggest to open Setup-SandrahNPC.tp2 in the SandrahNPC folder with a text editor and at line 7062
delete this block

OUTER_SET actual_185 = (STATE_WHICH_SAYS ~Well I haven't killed anyone yet.~ FROM ~B2#TenyJ~)
COPY ~SandrahNPC/mods/TenyaNPC.d~ ~SandrahNPC/mods/TenyaNPC.d~
REPLACE_TEXTUALLY ~185~ ~¬tual_185%~

I assume that whatever system/setup/configuration you use writes some erroneous symbol into the TenyaNPC.d file that afterwards fails to compile. It is supposed to overwrite a dummy state reference with the actual dialogue state in your game but the overwriting by your system produces the error. This explains why other people do not have this error.

After it extracts everything, I'll try that. The odd thing is that I'm not seeing any weird characters in the SandrahNPC/mods/TenyaNPC.d file. I'll upload that as well. But here is the line 1 it can't parse and notepad++ shows it is in UTF-8 format
 

 

EXTEND_TOP B2#TenyJ 185 #6

https://drive.google...iew?usp=sharing

The issue is that the file is fine BEFORE installing the mod. The code I suggested to delete will change the 185 into a number found in your game. Writing this new number into the file before it is compiled seems to inject something.

[enderandrew]

Ah, that makes sense. I'm not even installing the Tenya mod. But now I'm worried that I'm just covering up something else being broken in my install if this works. The "actual 185" value in my install may be hosed by something else. Is there a way to go through my logs and see what might be causing that?

[Roxanne]

Ah, that makes sense. I'm not even installing the Tenya mod. But now I'm worried that I'm just covering up something else being broken in my install if this works. The "actual 185" value in my install may be hosed by something else. Is there a way to go through my logs and see what might be causing that?

Look into your BG2EE/override for a file b2#tenyj.dlg. Checkj for the same file in BGEE/override.

The mod for Tenya installs on BGEE and is included into BG2EE during the EET install. Only the presence of that file would trigger Sandrah mod to install the crossmod contents

ACTION_IF FILE_EXISTS_IN_GAME ~b2#tenyj.dlg~ THEN BEGIN .....

 

This is (one of) the dialogue file the joinable Tenya would use, not the original Tenya that is always in the game.

Edited by Roxanne, 02 April 2018 - 01:42 PM.

[enderandrew]

This is (one of) the dialogue file the joinable Tenya would use, not the original Tenya that is always in the game.

It is in my override folder. It looks like SETUP-EEE copied the file there and I can't see any other reference to the tenyj.dlg file in any mod I'm installing.

I have a complete install now that I removed that one snippet. I ran into one more small failure.
 

 

Copying and patching 1 file ...
[override/QD_MCP01.spl] loaded, 154 bytes
ERROR: cannot convert kit_code or %kit_code% to an integer
ERROR: [override/QD_MCP01.spl] -> [override] Patching Failed (COPY) (Not_found)
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
ERROR: [CVMystra.2da] -> [override] Patching Failed (COPY) (Not_found)
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.

ERROR Installing [Sandrah EET additions], rolling back to previous state

 

Before when I was getting this error, I thought it might be related to Might & Guile failures I was also getting, but I stopped including Might & Guile in my install.

[Roxanne]

This is (one of) the dialogue file the joinable Tenya would use, not the original Tenya that is always in the game.

It is in my override folder. It looks like SETUP-EEE copied the file there and I can't see any other reference to the tenyj.dlg file in any mod I'm installing.

I have a complete install now that I removed that one snippet. I ran into one more small failure.
 

 

Copying and patching 1 file ...
[override/QD_MCP01.spl] loaded, 154 bytes
ERROR: cannot convert kit_code or %kit_code% to an integer
ERROR: [override/QD_MCP01.spl] -> [override] Patching Failed (COPY) (Not_found)
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
ERROR: [CVMystra.2da] -> [override] Patching Failed (COPY) (Not_found)
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.

ERROR Installing [Sandrah EET additions], rolling back to previous state

 

Before when I was getting this error, I thought it might be related to Might & Guile failures I was also getting, but I stopped including Might & Guile in my install.

Subtledoctor (for M%G) and myself already pointed out several times that the issue is in deed related but not in the way that our mods have a compatibility problem but because both mods choke on something done by an earlier mod to files we need later on. Leaving M&G out therefore does not help since it is not the source of the problem.

[enderandrew]

Subtledoctor (for M%G) and myself already pointed out several times that the issue is in deed related but not in the way that our mods have a compatibility problem but because both mods choke on something done by an earlier mod to files we need later on. Leaving M&G out therefore does not help since it is not the source of the problem.

I suspect this is the case, but I'm not sure how to identify the culprit that left the file in a bad state.

[Roxanne]

Subtledoctor (for M%G) and myself already pointed out several times that the issue is in deed related but not in the way that our mods have a compatibility problem but because both mods choke on something done by an earlier mod to files we need later on. Leaving M&G out therefore does not help since it is not the source of the problem.
 

I suspect this is the case, but I'm not sure how to identify the culprit that left the file in a bad state.

Do this

open Setup-SandrahNPC.tp2 in the SandrahNPC folder with a text editor

Go to the very end of the file and delete this stuff

 

INCLUDE ~SandrahNPC/lib/qd_multiclass.tpa~

LAF qd_multiclass
STR_VAR
kit_name = CVMystra
kit_clab = CVMystra
base_class = ~P~
mc_dir = ~SandrahNPC/lib~
END

 

 

[Roxanne]

Experience based feed back required

 

I am currently attempting a clean up in BWS with respect to the *Expert* flag that makes some mods appear in red during selection.

Nearly all of them are now removed. All choices are given to the users

 

Here are some remaining candidates that I am unsure about, so any player's feedback on experience with those mods would be welcome (please comment only if you have used these mods yourself). Comments are those that I found in the BWS documentation

 

38 Subraces for BG:EE

Warning! This mod needs to be downloaded manually. This mod is Expert because it prevents romances with NPCs.

 

Packmule

Only [marked expert] in BGEE due to animation issue and CtDs

 

BP Series Party AI

[marked expert] in EE games This mod is temporarily marked Expert because of installation errors due to missing WIZARD_REMOVE_MAGIC in Spell.IDS and missing STATE_DISEASED_FIX in Stats.IDS. General usability in EE games is not assured.

 

Saradas Magic

Overwrites area scripts. Makes chapter1 Candlekeep not playable without console intervention.

 

(PS - I can confirm the Packmule and Saradas issues from own experience some time ago. However I have not used those mods in my recent installs anymore due to these bugs. So maybe they are fixed meanwhile or gone with game version updates.)

Edited by Roxanne, 03 April 2018 - 12:05 AM.

[Ulb]

I can't comment on the mods in question.

 

I just want to say that I hope this isn't "inspired" by all the recent talk about how terribly biased the BWS is.

Just because some people raise concerns doesn't mean they are right or that what they suggest is the best for the BWS. This is especially true if some of those people have made it abundantly clear in the past that they do not like the BWS in general and would rather have people not use it at all..

 

Whether the creators intended for it to be or not, the BWS has always been opinionated and it needs to be. If I am presented with multiple conflicting mods I want an experienced opinion as to which one provides the most stable experience, closest to vanilla content quality. The BWS doesn't prevent people from making a different choice, it instead provides them with easy access to the mods' hompages for a deeper inspection.

 

If an unexperienced user gets presented with 17 mod conflicts in their mega mod install and the BWS is like "Yeah, have fun figuring that out" then why would anyone even want to use the tool at all?

 

Nearly all of them are now removed. All choices are given to the users

 

I mean, if the mods removed from the expert list are indeed not causing any more issues then it is of course the right move to unflag them but somehow I can't believe that "nearly all of them" suddenly got updates overnight?

Edited by Ulb, 03 April 2018 - 12:33 AM.

[Roxanne]

I can't comment on the mods in question.

 

I just want to say that I hope this isn't "inspired" by all the recent talk about how terribly biased the BWS is.

Just because some people raise concerns doesn't mean they are right or that what they suggest is the best for the BWS. This is especially true if some of those people have made it abundantly clear in the past that they do not like the BWS in general and would rather have people not use it at all..

 

Whether the creators intended for it to be or not, the BWS has always been opinionated and it needs to be. If I am presented with multiple conflicting mods I want an experienced opinion as to which one provides the most stable experience, closest to vanilla content quality. The BWS doesn't prevent people from making a different choice, it instead provides them with easy access to the mods' hompages for a deeper inspection.

 

If an unexperienced user gets presented with 17 mod conflicts in their mega mod install and the BWS is like "Yeah, have fun figuring that out" then why would anyone even want to use the tool at all?

 

Nearly all of them are now removed. All choices are given to the users

 

I mean, if the mods removed from the expert list are indeed not causing any more issues then it is of course the right move to unflag them but somehow I can't believe that "nearly all of them" suddenly got updates overnight?

Maybe I should have provided more background but I did not want to write a whole novel about it.

This is mostly related to the EE part of the BG support of BWS.

 

I have already commented that the *recommended* and *tactical* etc selections in BG2EE and EET do no longer make sense. Most mods inherited their status from BGT - but quite a lot of them appear in new versions, especially the Big Mods are often quite different from their classic counterparts. And then we have a large number of new and dedicated EE mods that have not gained any status yet. The mistake made was to carry the old concept over from BGT to EET but it is not valid.

 

It gets even more complex with the tweak/rules/kit/item mods. Those often have been tuned/upgraded for the EE games and even new ones are created. BWS has suggested that they know about some *recommended* settings but it is simply not the case.

 

It is very much that we have opened a new chapter in the game's history and should look at it all anew. We have currently some basic ideas about the SCS and EET_Tweaks settings for EET if you are not looking at tactical or all-you-can-get installs. This is about all. Currently the BWS gives the impression as if there is some consolidated knowledge (like you expressed in your post) that should be shared. But honestly there is not.

 

Even if some people may have gone a bit overboard with their wording and mixing personal accusations and dislikes into the argument, there is some truth in the kernel statement that BWS for EE is better off with more freedom of choice than the false impression of giving you a nice game on a one-click.

 

I think it is also fair to all the new and inventive mods that are now available to be given the same chance as old established ones and not give them those the extra credit of *recommended*. Users know this by now anyway.

 

If we had still the possibility to remove all those pre-settings and pre-selections from EE-BWS, I am all for it.

[Ulb]

What you say makes sense.

 

If such a one-click system isn't sustainable or wanted anymore, it might be a good idea to promote user generated installation lists. I assume most "veterans" already work off their own evolving lists, so promoting them a bit might offer inexperienced users a good starting point to get a relatively conflict free installation running.

 

As for the expert flag, I think this is a separate issue.

 

The expert flag should in my opinion set aside mods that either have technical issues or provide content that is not up to a minimum standard.

Of course "minimum standard" is, again, a matter of opinion. (If it was up to me, mods that are not fully translated would definitely be flagged expert )

 

The minimum standard aside, mods that no longer have technical issues should of course be unflagged. Your post above just made it sound a bit like you're feeling compelled to just unflag everything regardless whether those issues are fully resolved or not..

[Roxanne]

What you say makes sense.

 

If such a one-click system isn't sustainable or wanted anymore, it might be a good idea to promote user generated installation lists. I assume most "veterans" already work off their own evolving lists, so promoting them a bit might offer inexperienced users a good starting point to get a relatively conflict free installation running.

 

As for the expert flag, I think this is a separate issue.

 

The expert flag should in my opinion set aside mods that either have technical issues or provide content that is not up to a minimum standard.

Of course "minimum standard" is, again, a matter of opinion. (If it was up to me, mods that are not fully translated would definitely be flagged expert )

 

The minimum standard aside, mods that no longer have technical issues should of course be unflagged. Your post above just made it sound a bit like you're feeling compelled to just unflag everything regardless whether those issues are fully resolved or not..

To quote myself

 

The list of things that could be done is getting longer every day.

The list of those able or willing to do them is getting shorter.

Like with the red flags, they were there on some mods without information why when which version etc. Maintenance is the big issue. You have the flag, nobody tests it anymore because it is red and then it just stays on. This is why I made that list in the post above to find information where there is doubt.

[Amberbaum]

Experience based feed back required

 

I am currently attempting a clean up in BWS with respect to the *Expert* flag that makes some mods appear in red during selection.

Nearly all of them are now removed. All choices are given to the users

 

Here are some remaining candidates that I am unsure about, so any player's feedback on experience with those mods would be welcome (please comment only if you have used these mods yourself). Comments are those that I found in the BWS documentation

.......

BP Series Party AI

[marked expert] in EE games This mod is temporarily marked Expert because of installation errors due to missing WIZARD_REMOVE_MAGIC in Spell.IDS and missing STATE_DISEASED_FIX in Stats.IDS. General usability in EE games is not assured.

........

I had the BP Series installed (all modules), after aTweaks simple AI scripts may have screwed up my ingame script button(game freezes after trying to open the AI script menu). Then I replaced the aTweaks simply scripts with the BPseries scripts and I was finally able to open up the AI script menu.

 

Some scripts seem to be faulty and become therefor useless, meaning the NPC either stands around or does their basic attack*. I had trouble with certain mage scripts, but it is better then nothing. It doesn't override the existing ones, it just adds new ones. So I just used the AI scripts that work. What was also very interesting is the ingame lag when picking up items that can be worn/used by your characters from your inventory menu. Someone else at the Beamdog forum seem to have a similar issue. So...the mod can be installed. It won't really break anything, but It might cause some issues. I really cannot say that the BPseries causes the inventory lag 100%. I just think that it may be responsible for it. Right now I don't have any AI scripts installed and there is no inventory lag.

 

*I used some of them on custom NPCs, but I can't really think that it matters much if the NPC is a mod or not.

[Roxanne]

Experience based feed back required

 

I am currently attempting a clean up in BWS with respect to the *Expert* flag that makes some mods appear in red during selection.

Nearly all of them are now removed. All choices are given to the users

 

Here are some remaining candidates that I am unsure about, so any player's feedback on experience with those mods would be welcome (please comment only if you have used these mods yourself). Comments are those that I found in the BWS documentation

.......

BP Series Party AI

[marked expert] in EE games This mod is temporarily marked Expert because of installation errors due to missing WIZARD_REMOVE_MAGIC in Spell.IDS and missing STATE_DISEASED_FIX in Stats.IDS. General usability in EE games is not assured.

........

I had the BP Series installed (all modules), after aTweaks simple AI scripts may have screwed up my ingame script button(game freezes after trying to open the AI script menu). Then I replaced the aTweaks simply scripts with the BPseries scripts and I was finally able to open up the AI script menu.

 

Some scripts seem to be faulty and become therefor useless, meaning the NPC either stands around or does their basic attack*. I had trouble with certain mage scripts, but it is better then nothing. It doesn't override the existing ones, it just adds new ones. So I just used the AI scripts that work. What was also very interesting is the ingame lag when picking up items that can be worn/used by your characters from your inventory menu. Someone else at the Beamdog forum seem to have a similar issue. So...the mod can be installed. It won't really break anything, but It might cause some issues. I really cannot say that the BPseries causes the inventory lag 100%. I just think that it may be responsible for it. Right now I don't have any AI scripts installed and there is no inventory lag.

 

*I used some of them on custom NPCs, but I can't really think that it matters much if the NPC is a mod or not.

I am not sure that the inventory lag reported by different people over time and falsely allotted to various mods (my own NPCs included)  in the past can be assigned to BP.

Anyhow, thank you for your insight.

 

I did a bit of my own digging as well and found that horred (the BP creator) last provided a patch for the mod in 2014 for *rough* EE compatibility before he retired from modding. This is still used today, however, the EE game has been updated since that patch and that may have impact on compatibility.

 

meaning the NPC either stands around or does their basic attack*

In deed, the patch is *rough* as it replaces most actions in the scripts with NoAction()...

Edited by Roxanne, 03 April 2018 - 07:17 AM.

[Amberbaum]

It's just that when I had BPseries installed, I suddenly was confronted with the inventory lag. I never even knew that that was a thing up until this point. Like I said I am not 100% sure about this. I still had the lag without custom NPCs in my party when BPseries was still installed. So it's all a bit wishy-washy on my side, since I wasn't testing it or anything. The mod can be installed. It may cause some issues with users. Maybe keeping the red flag may be the best for this mod. Or add custom warnings and notes. Tho, I don't if you can do that with the BWS.

 

I did a bit of my own digging as well and found that horred (the BP creator) last provided a patch for the mod in 2014 for *rough* EE compatibility before he retired from modding. This is still used today, however, the EE game has been updated since that patch and that may have impact on compatibility.

 

meaning the NPC either stands around or does their basic attack*

In deed, the patch is *rough* as it replaces most actions in the scripts with NoAction()...

 

Ah, that explains a lot.

[Lithesis]

Hey @Roxanne

 

I got an error installing Expanded Mage Stronghold.

 

 

Looks like the error are typos parenthesis on line 3

 

 

BWS is from yesterday before your changes to expert selection.

[Roxanne]

Hey @Roxanne

 

I got an error installing Expanded Mage Stronghold.

 

1.JPG

 

Looks like the error are typos parenthesis on line 3

 

2.JPG

 

BWS is from yesterday before your changes to expert selection.

Replace the

(( by //

in line 3

Edited by Roxanne, 03 April 2018 - 08:15 AM.

[Lithesis]

@Roxanne

 

now I got an error with SandrahNPC

 

Attached Files

•  SETUP-SANDRAHNPC.DEBUG   40.14K   199 downloads
•  WeiDU.log   21.01K   197 downloads

[Roxanne]

@Roxanne

 

now I got an error with SandrahNPC

 

1.JPG

1. Using the game in the steam/steamapps folder nearly always leads into trouble - just read a couple of entries in this thread from the last week. It is best to make a copy of the clean unmodded game to a neutral unprotected folder and install the mods there.

2. Pause the BWS - uninstall the already installed Sandrah components manually (directly with setup-SandrahNPC.exe in the BG2EE directory). Install one component after the other manually. This works in most cases unless 1. above prevents it. Then continue BWS.

Edited by Roxanne, 03 April 2018 - 11:19 AM.

[Lithesis]

Folders on system partition are protected. My steam folder is not among them. I'll try the second option and let you know.

 

Edit: Ok it went through

 

Also before I forget, IsraNPC got an update and BWS has an issue with archive extraction.

Edited by Lithesis, 03 April 2018 - 11:33 AM.