spontaneous death..????

pipinho

I am playing a multiplayer game alone so i can lvl up several characters at once and in ch 5 i started having these spontaneous deaths where my whole party just explodes and dies for no apparent reason. WTF is this?

Tresset

That would be because an assassin poisoned you. You know, Merek? Lothander? Anyway if you don't deal with the poison in 10 days your party dies. You may also have noticed console messages telling you about this. Kinda funny how so many people can't figure this out...

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pipinho

i didn't get a console msg after i died.

ryuken87

Been fighting green slimes?

atcDave

ryuken87 said:

Been fighting green slimes?

That was my first thought.

Hope you have an older save!

KidCarnival

You get a message BEFORE you die. Plus Lothander tells you this will happen.

Allbrother

Was there any combustion involved?

Paheej

I have played this game a lot (like since 2002-ish). And this is completely new to me.

Illustair

@Paheej
I have only played through BG-1 once...but I don't remember this at all too. @Tresset that's not a joke that I just don't get, right?;p there's really something like that?

EDIT: I think I'm having some bits of recollection..."Merek" and "poison" seem to go well together in head.:D

Mikkel

hmm, so that's what happens if you don't solve it in time.. in all my playthroughs, I've never not solved the poison quest.

Tresset said:

Kinda funny how so many people can't figure this out...

I suppose it may be happening because in most games (especially modern ones that's come out between BGs first release and now), there's no consequence whatsoever to wasting time / ignoring quests, even if the NPCs often try to give a sense of urgency to them. BG is a less forgiving about that, though there's not that many timers as far as I remember.

edit: switched "a problem" with "happening" because I don't actually think it's a problem. It's not like you're not told about it in the game. Assuming it is the poison quest, that is.

the_spyder

Fascinating. I had never not solved the poison mission myself either. So I hadn't a clue how it resolved.

I agree that this is the type of thing that most games today would never do. And more is the shame about that. Part of an RPG (to me) is the passage of time. People and events don't wait around for the protagonist to get to in their own time. Things happen all around and either you are involved in them or you miss them.

Well Done Bioware.

Tresset

@fredamora It is certainly no joke. When you meet Lothander in central BG he tells you you have 10 days to live unless you help him. That is when the timer starts. Every once in a while the console will give you a message saying you felt violently ill recently and vomited and stuff to let you know that he wasn't lying about the poison. This is basically a timed life or death fetch quest that takes you to most areas in the city before its resolution. If time runs out the poison makes you splode. The thing is that 10 days is a lot of time in BG terms so most people never screw this one up.

Necroblivion

I found out that if you uncheck the AI button the poison doesn't kill you. I found it out when I played with the AI scripts and when I checked the AI button BAM! my group died lol.

EDIT: Fixed *blushes*

SirK8

I'm not sure I understand this, can you explain further what you mean?

Necroblivion said:

I found out that if you uncheck the UI button the poison doesn't kill you. I found it out when I played with the UI scripts and when I checked the UI button BAM! my group died lol.

mlnevese

I believe he's talking about the AI toggle button.

Drugar

Necroblivion said:

I found out that if you uncheck the UI button the poison doesn't kill you. I found it out when I played with the UI scripts and when I checked the UI button BAM! my group died lol.

This is a very funny 'feature' of the game, I lol'd at the mental image.

@SirK8
At the right-bottom is a button to disable party AI, it stops all scripts on the characters from running. Usually this means they won't attack enemies, cast spells, etc. Apparently the poison quest is run with a script, which is held back if you disable AI. Enable it again, script goes off, everyone dies.
Ohhh the temptation to hold my finger over the button while cackling maniacly is great!

SirK8

Ok, yeah, I know what the AI button is, I was confused cause he said UI. But I didn't know that would stop the poison death Though I've never had the timer run out before.

Illustair

@Tresset
I think I remember now. Tomorrow I just might start a new campaign...I'm sure everything will all come back. @Drugar @Necroblivion that's very insightful...although shouldn't that count as a bug?

Necroblivion

Oh.. oops.. sorry.. ment AI. Not sure why I wrote UI :S

abbadaba

Haha! no way, that poison thing is real? I just completed the quest because I like to wrap up outstanding quests - never thought my entire party would actually insta-splat down the line if I had ignored it.

Necroblivion

Yeah. I was like 13 days after I got poisoned in the middle of Durlag's and then I realized I don't really know what this "AI scripts" are doing. So I give each character a script I think will be good enough, turn the AI on and BAM, everyone is dead. (I think I was half a sleep when I wrote my first comment :P).

swnmcmlxi

Necroblivion said:

Yeah. I was like 13 days after I got poisoned in the middle of Durlag's and then I realized I don't really know what this "AI scripts" are doing. So I give each character a script I think will be good enough, turn the AI on and BAM, everyone is dead. (I think I was half a sleep when I wrote my first comment :P).

God, that was funny! I just had to write a comment here so that I can go back to your post again some time for another good laugh.

Ignatius

Quick question on this topic: what does actually trigger the poisoning which starts the 10 days counter ticking? is it talking to Marek? sleeping in an inn in BG? would a party that arrives in BG, does not sleep, and then leave to other parts of the map have contracted the disease?

lDanielHolm

Ignatius said:

Quick question on this topic: what does actually trigger the poisoning which starts the 10 days counter ticking? is it talking to Marek? sleeping in an inn in BG? would a party that arrives in BG, does not sleep, and then leave to other parts of the map have contracted the disease?

No, you must have encountered Marek the first time to be poisoned.

Ignatius

lDanielHolm said:

No, you must have encountered Marek the first time to be poisoned.

Right, so if I never engaged conversation with Marek I should not be poisoned right?

Erg

Ignatius said:

lDanielHolm said:

No, you must have encountered Marek the first time to be poisoned.

Right, so if I never engaged conversation with Marek I should not be poisoned right?

Yep, you can also talk to him a first time in the North East section without being poisoned. It starts when you talk to him in the Central section.

ajwz

You didn't accidently set up a "Make this character explode" script did you?

Ignatius

Erg said:

Yep, you can also talk to him a first time in the North East section without being poisoned. It starts when you talk to him in the Central section.

That's the precise trigger information I was hoping to find out. Thanks a lot!

Ignatius

ajwz said:

You didn't accidently set up a "Make this character explode" script did you?

No. I just arrived in BG and wanted to recruit a specific NPC there, who will help me achieve a quest outside the city. I need to do this quest quickly because it will give me an item which I want to use before I level-up, and I am already very close to levelling-up. Therefore I want to leave BG asap, travel and come back several days later. I needed to know whether I would explode on the way back ;-)

Erg

Ignatius said:

ajwz said:

You didn't accidently set up a "Make this character explode" script did you?

No. I just arrived in BG and wanted to recruit a specific NPC there, who will help me achieve a quest outside the city. I need to do this quest quickly because it will give me an item which I want to use before I level-up, and I am already very close to levelling-up. Therefore I want to leave BG asap, travel and come back several days later. I needed to know whether I would explode on the way back ;-)

Just be careful when you're in the Central section as Lothander (Marek accomplice) will initiate the dialogue that starts the poison timer if you go anywhere near him.