Restore Bag limits to old BG system

kamuizin

In Baldur's Gate 2 of old, the scroll case limits were set to 20 scrolls per case, same with gems. Part of the challenge that time, was to manage your inventory and to know and get all the cases you could get to make this.

Nowdays just 1 case/bag solve all the space problems (and the game now have even MORE cases/bags to sell).

I would like to see the old limits again on the game, be it by mod or vanilla change.

dashteacup

I routinely fill multiple scroll cases/gem bags while playing the EE. (I'm kind of a pack rat.) I find inventory management one of the most tedious parts of the game, and this would make it even worse. Yes, it's not realistic, but I find that in this case convenience is more fun than realism. I would want this to be a mod rather than a part of the game.

kamuizin

Each kind of bag (scroll case and gem bag) have 4 items of them in the old game (5 scroll case if you buy the one with bernard in copper coronet before do lenthian quest). So just buy them all and you inventory management problem is solved.

Shin

I kind of agree with @dashteacup that the game really doesn't show its best side when inventory management starts to feel like a big part of it. Still, it wouldn't be that much of an inconvenient change since the BG2 Tweaks mod has the option to make containers bottomless anyway, I suppose.

If you just prefer your own game to be that way though, it's an easy manual edit to set the storage capacity of containers to whatever you want them to be.

kamuizin

Shin said:

I kind of agree with @dashteacup that the game really doesn't show its best side when inventory management starts to feel like a big part of it. Still, it wouldn't be that much of an inconvenient change since the BG2 Tweaks mod has the option to make containers bottomless anyway, I suppose.

If you just prefer your own game to be that way though, it's an easy manual edit to set the storage capacity of containers to whatever you want them to be.

Can you give instructions to how i can do this change? Can i use EE keeper for this or i need near infinity (or another program)?

Shin

You need another program (as far as I know anyway, never did much item editing with the Keeper programs) - NI (easier) or DLTCEP. The storage capacity is determined for each container by a .STO file (containers are essentially portable stores that buy and sell items for free) with the same name as the container item (e.g. bag01.ITM and bag01.STO). So simply open up the .STO file for the container you want to change, and edit the value of the storage capacity entry.

kamuizin

near infinity is presenting error when attempt to read the chitin.key.

I took the program from this source that was meant for the old BG2 game, if there's an updated version of Near Infinity compatible with BG2:EE i would appreciate being pointed to it.

Erg

kamuizin said:

if there's an updated version of Near Infinity compatible with BG2:EE i would appreciate being pointed to it.

http://www.shsforums.net/topic/45358-nearinfinity/
https://github.com/NearInfinityBrowser/NearInfinity/releases

CrevsDaak

Well, if you want to cheat, you can make the bag to give you money and buy the items again for free :P, I did that in my BG:EE, but I lost all the files .

kamuizin

I don't want to cheat with this request @CrevsDaak, in fact i want to make things more difficult in my games, limiting the capacity of the scroll cases and gem bags.

But since you asked, i'm thinking in find a way to give level 7, 8 and 9 spells slots to my Haer'Dalis (and make him keep the slots, cos if i do that by EE keeper, at each level up the character lose the spell slots, probally in reason of system structure).

CrevsDaak

I don't know how to do that, Haer'Dalis is pretty capable with his spell casting, but you'll need another mage.

kamuizin

Yes, but i made a main char sorcerer and he's the only one who will use spell scrolls, a bit out of sense to make him learn level 7+ spells and not be able to use them.

CrevsDaak

Ah, OK then!

Erg

kamuizin said:

i'm thinking in find a way to give level 7, 8 and 9 spells slots to my Haer'Dalis (and make him keep the slots, cos if i do that by EE keeper, at each level up the character lose the spell slots, probally in reason of system structure).

This is easy to do. You just have to edit (for instance with NI) the file MXSPLBRD.2DA and add three columns (for spell levels 7, 8, 9 respectively) with the number of spells to gain for each character level. See here for a more detailed explanation.

However, the modified 2da will affect all bards (not just Haer'Dalis). It will also work for ongoing games, but only after the next level up.

kamuizin

Nice to know @Erg, thx brother!

kamuizin

@Erg, a doubt:

Above the MXSPLBRD.2DA file, there is the MXSPLDD.2DA file that i presume belong to the Dragon Disciple kit.

In the pattern of the table there it is:

2DA V1.0
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6 4 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
7 4 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
8 4 4 3 1 0 0 0 0 0
9 4 4 4 2 0 0 0 0 0
10 4 4 4 3 1 0 0 0 0
11 4 4 4 4 2 0 0 0 0
12 4 4 4 4 3 1 0 0 0
13 4 4 4 4 4 2 0 0 0
14 4 4 4 4 4 3 1 0 0
15 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 0 0
16 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 1 0
17 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 0
18 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 1
19 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 2
20 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
21 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
22 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
23 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
24 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
25 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
26 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
27 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
28 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
29 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
30 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
31 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
32 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
33 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
34 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
35 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
36 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
37 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
38 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
39 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
40 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

However, my DD at level 9 has already 5 casts of level 1 spell. In this sorcerer (kit) case, are these numbers then the spell slot (casting ability for sorcerer) list or they're the know spells a DD can get? Exist any other variation to define how much spells are going to be cast by a character? Cos something is wrong if my DD has 5 casts (in the vanilla and not changed game) and the list allows only 4 spells.

Another thing, there is some way to change the files to make charisma give proper extra spell bonus? Wisdom i believe is ruled by the file MXSPLWIS.2DA with the following table:

2DA V1.0
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
13 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
14 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
15 2 1 0 0 0 0 0
16 2 2 0 0 0 0 0
17 2 2 1 0 0 0 0
18 2 2 1 1 0 0 0
19 3 2 1 2 0 0 0
20 3 3 1 3 0 0 0
21 3 3 2 3 1 0 0
22 3 3 2 4 2 0 0
23 3 3 2 4 4 0 0
24 3 3 2 4 4 2 0
25 3 3 2 4 4 3 1

Can i create for example an... MXSPLCHA.2DA and link it to sorcerers and dragon disciples (and bards also maybe, but not too important for me at least). Is that possible?

kamuizin

Apparently i can't make these changes, got a crash every time i try to start BG2:EE now in reason of that.


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I retreat the changes and the game is opening normally now. I'm starting to believe that to give bards spells in levels they doesn't have normally (thus creation 3 new columns) i need to change more than MXSPLBRD.2DA file.

kamuizin

attached is the MXSPLBRD.2DA with the changes i made.

Should i throw it on the override folder?

Erg

@kamuizin

The 2da file you attached in the post above is malformed. If you open it in a text editor (anything but Microsoft Notepad will do; I normally just use Microsoft WordPad; most people here prefer the more advanced Notepad++), you'll see that there are several problems

1) there are some additional empty lines
2) there are too many (or not enough) carriage returns (you must have a new line for each character level, and all the spells for a given character level are supposed to be on the same line)

If you fix these issues it will work.

About your remaining questions:

1) MXSPLDD.2DA contains the number of spells per level that a Dragon Disciple can cast (the known spells are the same of Sorcerer and stored in SPLSRCKN.2DA)

2) it looks like you are right and there is something wrong however. The number of spells your DD can cast in game is correct as per Kit description (i.e. one less than sorcerer), but it doesn't match the content of MXSPLDD.2DA. This maybe is an oversight of the developers. I don't know if the game uses or not MXSPLDD.2DA for the DD. It may just use the table for sorcerers and subtract one, or use MXSPLDD.2DA and for some reasons have to add one. Maybe one of the developers could clarify how this works and even better if they could update the IESDP site with information on the new (EE only) 2DAs.

3) I don't think it will work to create a MXSPLCHA.2DA for bonus spells based on Charisma, unless the game engine is changed by the developers to account for that. AFAIK this has not been done yet, so maybe you can make a feature request.

kamuizin

@Erg, you were right, there was an extra 3 space lines on level 19 or 20 (don't remember which one now). But about the point 2, i don't know what i did wrong there, i just wrote on the line of the levels, i didn't added any more levels, just complete the existent levels with the columns 7, 8 and 9 of spells.

CrevsDaak

Be careful while editing 2DAs and IDS, you can break your game that way.
I just have created a custom race, works hell awesome.

Erg

kamuizin said:

about the point 2, i don't know what i did wrong there, i just wrote on the line of the levels, i didn't added any more levels, just complete the existent levels with the columns 7, 8 and 9 of spells.

Taking one random line (as example), you have

 19      4   4   4   4   3   2
   1   0   0

as in "19 4 4 4 4 3 2", press ENTER, then "1 0 0" on the next line, instead of

 19      4   4   4   4   3   2   1   0   0

kamuizin

I gave a try on your orientations but to no avail, still the game crash at the start when i use my changed 2DA file.

Erg said:

kamuizin said:

about the point 2, i don't know what i did wrong there, i just wrote on the line of the levels, i didn't added any more levels, just complete the existent levels with the columns 7, 8 and 9 of spells.

Taking one random line (as example), you have

 19      4   4   4   4   3   2
   1   0   0

as in "19 4 4 4 4 3 2", press ENTER, then "1 0 0" on the next line, instead of

 19      4   4   4   4   3   2   1   0   0

I gave a try on your orientations but to no avail, still the game crash at the start when i use my changed 2DA file.

So it's not to be in order when i made the final save on the file, it's to be this way?

 19      4   4   4   4   3   2
   1   0   0

Shoudn't the spell levels be under their respective levels columns?

Erg

@kamuizin

I fixed the 2DA table for you. Try using the one I'm attaching, it should work. I kept the values as in yours and just fixed the formatting.

Which program are you using to edit the 2DA files? If you are using the wrong program (e.g. Microsoft Notepad, Microsoft Word, etc.), it will look fine even when it isn't.

Try using Microsoft WordPad or Notepad++, there is also a portable version that doesn't require installation.

Just to show you, this is how your original file looks in Microsoft WordPad:

and this is how it should look like:

kamuizin

I made the changes directly through the Near Infinity, i just opened the 2DA file and restructured it using the panel opened by the near infinity itself.

By the way, thx @Erg for your help and your patience with my issues.

iavasechui

There is a mod that can add spell slots to bards, I don't know if it works with EE but it certainly does with the original trilogy. I can't remember the name but it allows you to get either unnerfed or pen and paper spell slots for every class able to cast spells arcane or divine.

kamuizin

iavasechui said:

There is a mod that can add spell slots to bards, I don't know if it works with EE but it certainly does with the original trilogy. I can't remember the name but it allows you to get either unnerfed or pen and paper spell slots for every class able to cast spells arcane or divine.

I already learned how to add spell slots per level, but ty anyway @iavasechui for the information !, i made some minor adds of level 7, 8 and 9 spells to bards in my 2DA files (only reacheable at VERY later levels).