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A Simple XP cap remover. Now compatible with Siege of Dragonspear!

mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
edited April 2016 in General Modding

Updated post with information about the new file added by Siege of Dragonspear. Thanks to @Avenger_teambg for pointing out the new file :)


Just download the file attached to this post.

And now that I've given the download links, let's have some instructions and a word of warning.

XP Cap in BG:EE is controlled by three files:

XPCAP.2DA
STARTARE.2DA
STARTBP.2DA

Siege of Dragonspear added a new file to the mix:
SODSTRTA.2DA

Actually this had me scratching my head when I tried to make a simple XPCap remover as modifying XPCAP.2DA has always been enough. In BG:EE's case changing just the XPCAP.2DA did not remove the cap, so I went on looking for the cause.

STARTARE.2DA and STARTBP.2DA control the starting conditions of the main quest and Black Pits, respectively, controlling among other things your starting position, starting XP and XP Cap for that campaign, proving that the new EE engine is able to deal with multiple campaigns with their own individual limits.

The release of SoD made it clear there was something new as modifying the original 3 files from the EE didn't remove the cap in the expansion. Thanks to a post by @Avenger_teambg pointing out wich file it was, it was quite seimply to remove the cap there as well.

The game has all the tables up to level 40 BUT there are no HLAs (High Level Abilities) present. That means that if somehow you reach a level where you'd normally get an HLA you have to hit ENTER on the character screen to skip that.

If you want to change the XP Cap to any other fixed value all you have to do is edit the 2DA files and change the -1 into whatever value you want. Actually you can also change the starting XP in the main quest and Black Pits as well. Just change START_XP from 0 to the value you want in both STARTARE.2DA and STARBP.2DA.

To remove or change the cap in SoD you need to edit SODSTRTA.2DA.

Notice you'll need a text editor to change the file such as Editpad Lite. The game will not recognize the 2DA files if they're converted to Rich Text Files or Word Documents.

So you must be asking yourself how to make it work. It's very simple. Just copy the four files into your override folder. If you don't have one, create one in the same place the movies and scripts folders are located (usually bgee installation path/data/00766), In my computer, for instance, it would be placed in C:\Games\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\Data\00766

If you are a Steam user, the default override folder path would look something like this:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\override
Post edited by mlnevese on
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Comments

  • HeasHeas Member Posts: 54
    THANK YOU SO MUCH! I LOVE YOU!
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    @Heas You´re welcome :)
  • WikeszWikesz Member Posts: 11
    What is the level cap in BGEE? Different from the good old BG1?

    Anyway thanks for the guide it helps me a lot!
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    edited December 2012
    @Wikesz 161k xp. Same as BG1+ToSC. You're welcome :)
    Post edited by mlnevese on
  • AnhoraAnhora Member Posts: 22
    I WANT YOUR BABY! :D Thank you much for this cap remover. :)
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    edited January 2013
    @Anhora My wife would probably want to have a word with you about that ;) You're welcome :)
    Post edited by mlnevese on
  • thedemoninsidethedemoninside Member Posts: 188
    Hopefully the new file structure remains the same for bg2ee. That way we can bring in our bg1 characters where they left off. Its pretty exciting to me, as i never bothered modding with the original games.
  • Awong124Awong124 Member Posts: 2,642
    I actually just raised the cap to 250k. Not sure if I'm even going to reach it though.
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    @Awong124 that's why I explained how it works now... many people just want a cap a little higher, or maybe add 250-300 xp to the starting xp and just ignore the first quests in Candlekeep...
  • foolstonefoolstone Member Posts: 37
    Even without XP cap, u can't get much XP to level up.
  • gromegrome Member Posts: 2
    Nice work! Has anyone had the time to test this in multiplayer? Does it work at all and if such are the case, do only the host need to apply the mod or does everyone in the party?

    Thanks!
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    edited December 2012
    @grome no reason it shouldn't work. In multiplayer all players must be uncapped as it's the local game client that deals with level ups and other game mechanics. The same applies to any mod you may want to install in the future.
    Post edited by mlnevese on
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    Just out of curiosity, the files have been downloaded 764 times since I made them available :)
  • pejot88pejot88 Member Posts: 4
    edited December 2012
    i just want to ask about 1 thing. all of you ppl keep saying that everything works fine. i tried this solution and i was schocked becouse of NO SINGLE FILE with .2da extension. There are only .bif files in "data" folder, unable to modify w/ notepad. Even more, no OVERRIDE nor 0766 folders. i badly need to remove my xp cap, my fighter/mage/thief solo "party" stopped at 6/6/7 lvl with 53666xp in each class (160'998xp at all)

    P.S. of course im talking about Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition
    P.S.2. sorry for my bad english btw
  • LaughingManLaughingMan Member Posts: 65
    @pejot88 You skipped ahead there a bit. All 2da files are packed into bifs, but unless you're planning on modding the files yourself, you just need to drop the files from the mod into your override directory (which you'll need to create in the 00766 directory if it isn't there already).

    For the 00766 folder, in a default windows installation it would be somewhere similar to:
    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\Data\00766"

    If you're looking in your documents folder you're in the wrong section of the install.
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    edited December 2012
    @pejot88

    1) Download the zip file from any of the links in the first post.

    2) Unzip the file, it should create an override folder.

    3) Drag the override folder to your "installation path\data\00766 folder". It's the same folder where the scripts folder is located, for instance. In my computer it would be "C:\Games\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\data\00766"
  • pejot88pejot88 Member Posts: 4
    it dosn't work. previously i created 0766 folder now i created 00766 IN data folder, then i unpacked zip into that folder. like you said. my game path shouldn't make any difference? it's not default c:/
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    edited December 2012
    @pejot88 Where is your game installed and what are the folders you see in the installation folder?

    If you're seeing the biff files, you've gone one data folder too far. Go back a folder and create the override there. If you're in the correct folder, you'll see a data folder, lang folder, music folder, etc. It's also the same folder your Baldur.exe is located.

    The 2da files are in the zip file in the first post and can be easily edited with a text editor, btw.

    Do no create a 00766 folder if you don't have one. That's the default folder name for the release game data. Last beta before release was 00764, press release version had a different number, 00755 if memory serves.. Anyway the override folder must inside the numbered folder not de data folder that exist inside the data folder.
    Post edited by mlnevese on
  • pejot88pejot88 Member Posts: 4
    edited December 2012
    path: D:/Gry/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition
    this folder contains following folders: data, lang, Manuals, movies, music, scripts
    and files: baldur.exe, chitin.key, decrypt.dll, shadowkeeper.exe (lol :D ), unins000.dat, unins000.exe
    that's all

    btw thanks for very fast responce!
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    edited December 2012
    @pejot88 strange your installer didn't create the 00766 folder.

    The ful path for the override folder will be D:/Gry/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/override.

    Read my post above, I added some more instructions.
  • pejot88pejot88 Member Posts: 4
    ok that did a trick. override folder placed in main game folder. thank you very much. damn i thought that ill get those xp i gathered after reaching cap but no such thing like this happend. but still im gonna play solo through whole saga ;)
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    @pejot88 You're welcome. Have fun :)
  • LuigirulesLuigirules Member Posts: 419
    Looks like fun! Thanks!
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    @Luigirules You're welcome. :)
  • WilburWilbur Member Posts: 1,173
    Thank you for helping remove the xp cap! I just noticed a strange thing when testing creating characters with different amounts of starting experience. It seems that at least a clean fighter gets an extra hp roll if he starts with enough exp to level up at least once during character creation. I tested this several times with a fighter that started at level 9 and he always had 100 hp (no CON bonus) at easy difficulty. A level 2 fighter always started with 30 hp (no CON bonus).
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    edited December 2012
    @Wilbur You're welcome. That is strange and may be connected to the Con exploit bug even if you have no Con bonus. You shou report it in the bugs section.
  • WilburWilbur Member Posts: 1,173
    @mlnevese I just did the bug report. I haven't read about the con exploit bug, but look into what that is about.
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    edited December 2012
    @Wilbur basically there's a bug that adds your constitution bonus every time you assign skills then return to the previous screen in character creation. The bug you found may be related as it seems to happen in character creation as well.
    Post edited by mlnevese on
  • WilburWilbur Member Posts: 1,173
    @mlnevese Thanks for clearing that out. I haven't run into that bug myself.
  • D3V11_D3V11_ Member Posts: 69
    I was just playing around with the cap remover and the shadowkeeper mod for BG:EE and leveld up a wizard to level 20 and gave him some high level spells. The spells I gave him (and some of the abilities) had some odd behavior, like the limited wishes spell (that summons a jinni but the jinni will not talk to you for you to get wishes).

    I assume this is because I am not supposed to be that level in BG:EE and I am not supposed to have those spells and abilities yet thus the spells and abilities functions are not implemented yet but are for future (like BG2:EE)? I guess this is more of a developer question... but am I safe to assume so?
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