Stormbringer

I have a request for all modders to include an additional statement in the ReadMe file and/or installation instructions. I recently installed BGT along about 10 other mods/tweaks/fix packs. I had quite a bit of trouble with mod installation and wasted 3-4 hours due to one minor problem.

What happened was that shortly after installing the BG2 fixpack, BGT and maybe another mod or two, I'd try to install the next mod and would get a DOS window showing a huge file verification scan rather than the usual chose language screen. This is the first time I tried adding mods (only second plaing the game) so I thought it might be a normal install procedure. After quite a while, (the scan looks at every single modification entry!) I'd get a install failure notice. Tried it again and same result. If I tried to install another mod, some worked and some had the same issue. Since doing another clean install is often suggested when problems arrise, I tried that. Same problem so searched onine and finally found one forum post with the solution.

As I'm sure all modders know, I learned that the modname.exe (ex. gminion.exe) is just a renamed weidu.exe file. If the mod I was trying to install used a version of weidu.exe older than one used by any already installed mod, it would go into that very lengthy scan and fail to install. All you need to do if you get that scan is close the window, download the latest version of weidu.exe, rename it the same as the modname.exe, copy/overwrite the modname.exe file with that one, and then install. I did that and had zero problems from that point on.

I'm making a request that modders simply put a sentence or two about this into their ReadMe/Installation Instructions so that others who experience the same issue won't needlessly waste a lot of time trying to solve something that's very easy to fix.

Thanks.

New to the forum.  First I'd like to thank all the modders for their hard work.   I'm playing the BG series for the first time in years using BGT along with some other mods and enjoying it quite a bit.  I've finally gotten to BGII-SoA (BGI is a great game, but BGII SoA is just epic IMO), and discovered potentially fatal flaw in my final party plan.  

I planned to included Imoen in my party the entire game, but wanted her to have better overall thieving skills since it is 99% likely she would be my party's only thief for the bulk of the game.  So I planned to dual her to mage at 9th level thief rather than 7th level (as she is normally in SoA).  That way I still get 4x back-stab plus another 50 points in theiving skills.  Also, since I'm playing through BG, I used the Tome of Clear Thought (or whatever it is called) to raise her INT to 18. Solves 9th level spell issue.  

I'm sure most if not all of you already see the problem. In all honesty, towards the end of ToSC, I just wanted to finish and get to SoA so I figured it would be easier & faster to just wait until SoA and dual to mage at the earliest opportunity.  Yeah...I know.    Like I said, it's been several years since I played (and only one time through).  I totally forgot about her being taken away after you escape Irenicus' dungeon until, well...you get the idea.  

While I could use ShadowKeeper, I'd rather try to find a "within the rules" type solution and I think I have one. I know BGT imports Imoen and other NPC in your party when you go to SoA "as is."  Fortunately, I saved A LOT in BGI so it's not a big issue to go back and dual her to mage right after she reaches level 9 thief.  I probably could get to mage level 5 or 6 by quickly replaying some of the remaining high XP quests.  Even if her thieving skills are disabled, I think I can get to Yoshimo with a few memorized knock spells (if I don't die from all the traps  ).   However, the two things I need to know in order to determine whether this will work at all is the following:

(1) If Imoen is "imported" to SoA via BGT already dual classed to mage, does she level up to 11th-13th level mage as she would in the standard, un-modded version of the game, or are her levels unchanged (i.e. same level when rescued as when she was captured)?

(2) If she does level up, does the game do this by setting her XP to some amount (thus she could be a level 1 mage when captured and still be 11th-13th when rescued), or does it add XP to her total when captured (thus if she's was level 4 or 5 when captured, she might be level 10 when rescued)?  

I'm also curious as to what would happen if she was never dualed to mage, but left as a thief.  Would she gain levels while at Spellhold or still be the same level as when you last saw her?  

FWIW I tried to do an advanced forum search using search terms Imoen & Spellhold but got zero hits.  Even just searching for Imoen nets zero hits for some reason. O.o

Any guidance/help is greatly appreciated.