Ieldra

I have an incomplete Expert installation (it's nominally an Expert installation but I unpacked only 3 Expert mods), if that's enough for you. But first I'd like to know if this mod is likely to interfere with other components of the same mod? I wouldn't like to install it and then notice that I've fubared my installation in a way that needs a complete re-install.

LOL. I did read the list, I just overlooked the item. I'll tell you you're good if the phenomenon happens again and the culprit turns out to be the cache folder. But pardon me if I'd rather not have it happen again.

Just so, it's gone. The game runs at its usual pace again. And now that it is gone, it is gone for most of my saved games. No idea why. Here's what I checked and proved not to have an influence:

(1) It doesn't't depend on my system configuration, CPU speed, RAM, virtual memory, GPU, hard disk space or fragmentation etc. I optimized my system and had the system monitor running, and every part of my system still has reserves when running a BWP-modded BG2 with everything than can possibly affect performance like SCS, Infinity Animations etc. Defrag didn't change anything.

(2) It doesn't depend on concurrently running other software, virus checkers, firewalls etc.. There was no change when I turned them off and ended all unnecessary tasks.

(3) It doesn't depend on script actions. I checked that with LSTest. It may depend on script condition checking, I have no way to test that.

(4) It doesn't depend on BGConfig settings, enabled/disabled ambient sound, cache size, pathfinding nodes, hardware and graphic settings etc.. I used different settings when the phenomenon was still present and there was no change at all.

(5) It doesn't depend on the number of creatures present on the current map, the number or kind of creatures/NPCs in combat, whether they have SCS scripts or not. If the phenomenon is present, these things make it a lot worse, but not unless it's noticeable even without these elements.

One suspect I forgot to check while the game was slowed is the cache folder. I didn't think of it because some saved games showed the slowdown, others didn't. Or so it felt at the time. Now that it's completely gone I know all saved games showed it in different degrees, and now it's gone for all of them. I also changed my saving behavior: now, if I make a regular save, I always create a new one and delete the old one instead of overwriting the old one. It probably doesn't mean anything, but stranger things have happened...

This is just FYI for anyone who has similar problems. I hope if the phenomenon occurs again, it will turn out to be the cache folder that's responsible. If not, I'll be stumped.

I have already established that this script is not the cause of the slowdown.

FWIW, it's a script introduced by Full Plate and Packing Steel to cap certain kinds of damage resistance at 90% or 100%, and it's used by no other mod.

But since it's present in both of my saved games, and does exactly the same in both, and only one of them shows the slowdown, it can't be the reason. There isn't any other script running actions in the slowed game, and both run on the same config. So what is left?

So, nobody has an idea what could cause this?

To repeat, the situation is that I have two saved games:

(1) Location: Tombs area E of Nashkel, after ending chapter 3. One quest script named DW#-something running, and EKRESRES.BCS running a block containing only NoAction() repeatedly. No perceptible slowdown.
(2) Location: Tombs area E of Nashkel, some time later, finished some quests but added no others. Only EKRESRES.BCS running a block containing only NoAction() repeatedly. Noticable stutter.

This is in the same game with exactly the same configuration options set, the same set of mods. For all practical purposes, the savegames should be identical except for a few finished quests and two areas more visited. Counting only scripts, game (1) should be slightly slower than (2) instead of noticeably faster. And to make things even stranger, when I loaded game (1) earlier it did show noticeable stutter as well, but that vanished for some completely mysterious reason.