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Copper Coronet/Slavers quest resetting a whole lot of my game

solidus0079solidus0079 Member Posts: 60
edited July 2014 in BGII:EE Bugs (v1.2.2030)
Ok, where to start. First, I hope this hasn't been submitted yet, I didn't see it in the master list of bugs thread.

Where I'm at in my game (PC from Steam):

I have recruited Nalia and done (some of?) her quest. It looks "complete", but who knows, I've never used her or done her quests before. I sprung her from jail and got her forced fiance arrested for jackbaggery.

I've recruited Neera, but done very little with her quests/story other than just having her blow stuff up (including me sometimes).

Main Story:

I have "joined" the Shadow Thieves through Gaelen, by paying the discounted rate of $15,000. I did the dock supervision quest for the thieves, in addition to interrupting (and killing) the recruiter who's stealing his members.

On the way to the current leg of the quest, namely investigating the graveyard, I decided to do the ghost with a missing teddy bear subquest. That of course required me to poke around the back of the Copper Coronet looking for her murderer, and while I was there I decided to free the slaves, too.

Hendak (the gladiator guy who takes over the Coronet) asked me to clear the Slaver Stockade, so I did that too, via the entrance in the sewers.

Now, every time I leave the slaver area (by either the main door, or back through the sewers), Act 3 and/or the city and/or my whole game gets rolled back.

Obviously I'm not missing any loot or XP or anything, just everything is undone.

Walking outside triggers the initial Gaelen offer for $20,000 and I get dragged back to his house and see the chapter begins cutscene for "The Deal is Made!". The guards in the Copper Coronet are still alive (and hostile, despite welcoming me to the Coronet during sword swings), and people who flag me down for conversations/quests are all back and doing all that over again. Hendak isn't the proprietor of the Copper Coronet, the sleazeball guy is, and Hendak's back in the cell. Freeing Hendak a second time appears to result in nobody owning the Coronet (unless he's hiding/lurking somewhere).

Thankfully, I also have the game on my iPad, and the last time I saved was right before all this happened (Hendak was saved but I hadn't gone to the slaver base). I just iFunbox'ed it all back, and will set the slave base quest aside until patched.

Comments

  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
    That is very odd. I have never heard of chapters rolling back like that. Could you upload your save file here and also tell us if you have any mods installed?
  • CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155
    Which is your version number? Sounds like an issue that was fixed in the last patch. You should have version 1.2.2030 IIRC.
  • solidus0079solidus0079 Member Posts: 60
    edited July 2014
    I'm not running any mods.

    Here's the best save game I currently have. I had just returned after clearing the main slave base, and re-killed the re-spawned guards in the Coronet. Basically right before the phrase "Walking outside triggers" in my previous post.

    I had not yet stepped outside and re-triggered the Gaelen event or the new chapter cutscene. If you look at my quest log right after loading and before you do anything, you'll see that I've already met Gaelen and are where I said I was in the Shadow Thieves quest line (headed to the cemetery).

    Going outside will cause the chapter to rollback (if it hasn't already) and Gaelen will (re) introduce himself and trigger the sequence in his house where he makes the offer of $20,000. You can see in my quest log I've already accepted, not sure if it specifies it was for $15,000 but that's how it was.

    Edit: Also, you'll notice my map is largely unexplored. I had explored a bit, as I mentioned I had done Nalia's troll attack quest, chased Neera down, and other things. If you try and leave town entirely, those destinations aren't even visible. Even the Docks and other areas of town are highlighted as "new", despite me having been there.

    I had also fully explored the Coronet, and you'll see there's dark areas again (re-clearing the guards and such is why much is re-explored).
  • solidus0079solidus0079 Member Posts: 60
    CrevsDaak said:

    Which is your version number? Sounds like an issue that was fixed in the last patch. You should have version 1.2.2030 IIRC.

    Looks like that's what I'm running. The version number is a bit obscured by the game logo, though.
  • Gate70Gate70 Member, Developer Posts: 3,883
    The version number is easier to see elsewhere (starting a new ToB game takes a minute or 2 and is much clearer) but yes it looks like the current one. Not sure how Steam patches, is it possible you started the game on an unpatched section.

    Your save has very few areas in it so I would say it is not going to be possible to tidy it up.

    I'm wondering if transferring to iPad and back has set files to read only or similar. & is the iPad at the same game version (presumably it is not from Steam and I have no idea whether the game is at a state where saves can be transferred between devices without causing issues).
  • MathsorcererMathsorcerer Member Posts: 3,044
    AR0400.bcs has a check for Global("Reveal0400","AR0400",0) and this might be the problem--that variable isn't a true global so it isn't stored in your game file. Every time you go outside into the main Slums area its script will think that you have never been there before and will start Gaelan's dialog and cut scene.

    As I look a little farther down it appears that many variables checked in this area's script are AR0400 variable rather than GLOBAL ones. This entire script needs to be updated to change all that to avoid various quests starting over again. *sigh* That means that other area scripts probably have the same pitfall...but I haven't started correcting BG2EE yet as I haven't taken the time to finish BGEE and correcting little things here and there.

    Strangely, your save game doesn't have the area files for Irenicus's dungeon or Waukeen's Promenade, either--the saved game doesn't think you have been in those areas at all.
  • solidus0079solidus0079 Member Posts: 60
    edited July 2014

    AR0400.bcs has a check for Global("Reveal0400","AR0400",0) and this might be the problem--that variable isn't a true global so it isn't stored in your game file. Every time you go outside into the main Slums area its script will think that you have never been there before and will start Gaelan's dialog and cut scene.

    As I look a little farther down it appears that many variables checked in this area's script are AR0400 variable rather than GLOBAL ones. This entire script needs to be updated to change all that to avoid various quests starting over again. *sigh* That means that other area scripts probably have the same pitfall...but I haven't started correcting BG2EE yet as I haven't taken the time to finish BGEE and correcting little things here and there.

    Strangely, your save game doesn't have the area files for Irenicus's dungeon or Waukeen's Promenade, either--the saved game doesn't think you have been in those areas at all.

    Sheesh. I hope that's corrected somehow, that seems like a fairly big hurdle for future improvements. Think this would be a big rewrite for the fixers-that-be?
    Gate70 said:

    I'm wondering if transferring to iPad and back has set files to read only or similar. & is the iPad at the same game version (presumably it is not from Steam and I have no idea whether the game is at a state where saves can be transferred between devices without causing issues).

    In all honesty, I haven't migrated back and forth that often. Just a couple times, such as visiting the grandmother-in-law (who's 94 or 95 and just sleeps most of the time). It's certainly more rewarding to play on a desktop.

    But I get you, perhaps this is part of the problem. I'd hate for this issue to get written off, though, as cloud saving (which was on Beamdog's roadmap) would probably require it. Not to mention backing saves up for different playthroughs or messing with mods (which should be on the roadmap if it isn't).

    Oh, and the iPad has version number 1.2.2031, thanks for the tip of checking in ToB (the logo is smaller, lol). That's strange, being a smidge higher than the PC version, what with iOS update submission process being a bit of a bear, as I understand.

  • argent77argent77 Member Posts: 3,478
    It sounds like that at one point the game created a corrupted BALDUR.SAV file during the save process. For some reason the game loads an incomplete savegame without complains and creates a new empty BALDUR.SAV. The BALDUR.SAV stores any non-party specific changes of the game world (worldmap, maps, stores, user-defined journal entries and map markers). Depending on the location of the party you'd notice the corruption only much later in the game.
    I was able to reproduce the same effect by renaming the BALDUR.SAV. The game loaded fine, but it behaved as described by the OP. In my case I was in Aran Linvail's room, about to travel to Spellhold. After loading the corrupted save the quest started from the beginning with Aran introducing himself to my party.

    @solidus0079 Unfortunately I don't see a (feasible) way to restore the lost content, but it seems you were able to use a previous save instead. Have you also lost anything that had been stored in your gem bag before the incident?
  • solidus0079solidus0079 Member Posts: 60
    edited July 2014
    argent77 said:

    It sounds like that at one point the game created a corrupted BALDUR.SAV file during the save process. For some reason the game loads an incomplete savegame without complains and creates a new empty BALDUR.SAV. The BALDUR.SAV stores any non-party specific changes of the game world (worldmap, maps, stores, user-defined journal entries and map markers). Depending on the location of the party you'd notice the corruption only much later in the game.
    I was able to reproduce the same effect by renaming the BALDUR.SAV. The game loaded fine, but it behaved as described by the OP. In my case I was in Aran Linvail's room, about to travel to Spellhold. After loading the corrupted save the quest started from the beginning with Aran introducing himself to my party.

    @solidus0079 Unfortunately I don't see a (feasible) way to restore the lost content, but it seems you were able to use a previous save instead. Have you also lost anything that had been stored in your gem bag before the incident?

    Hmmm. I'm not entirely sure about the gem bag. Nothing important's ever been in there, just Iol gems and other vendor loot. I wouldn't notice if anything poofed since it's all just junk.

    And yeah, I did restore my game. I avoided that Slaver Base quest entirely, and just moved on with the main story. I cleared the vampire crypts and reached the "are you ready to go to Spellhold?" conversation with Linvail without anything going awry.

    I am concerned that later in the game something will be broken due to that previous issue. Do you think that if everything I can go/do now seems ok, other things will work normally too since I hadn't started them yet? I'm not sure how to interpret what you meant by "Depending on the location of the party you'd notice the corruption only much later in the game".
  • argent77argent77 Member Posts: 3,478

    I am concerned that later in the game something will be broken due to that previous issue. Do you think that if everything I can go/do now seems ok, other things will work normally too since I hadn't started them yet? I'm not sure how to interpret what you meant by "Depending on the location of the party you'd notice the corruption only much later in the game".

    I was only referring to your first post where you've noticed that something was odd after leaving the Slaver Compound, even though the actual corruption could have happened much earlier.

    If you're continuing from an earlier uncorrupted saved game, then everything should be fine. I wouldn't advise to continue from the corrupted save however. Even though it might be possible to redo some or most of the quests, you'll probably run into trouble sooner or later.

    If you want to be on the safe side that your game is fine, you can open the file BALDUR.SAV from your current savegame in NearInfinity and look for the entry AR602.ARE (the starting dungeon) in the list. The save should be fine if it exists.
  • solidus0079solidus0079 Member Posts: 60
    argent77 said:

    I am concerned that later in the game something will be broken due to that previous issue. Do you think that if everything I can go/do now seems ok, other things will work normally too since I hadn't started them yet? I'm not sure how to interpret what you meant by "Depending on the location of the party you'd notice the corruption only much later in the game".

    I was only referring to your first post where you've noticed that something was odd after leaving the Slaver Compound, even though the actual corruption could have happened much earlier.

    If you're continuing from an earlier uncorrupted saved game, then everything should be fine. I wouldn't advise to continue from the corrupted save however. Even though it might be possible to redo some or most of the quests, you'll probably run into trouble sooner or later.

    If you want to be on the safe side that your game is fine, you can open the file BALDUR.SAV from your current savegame in NearInfinity and look for the entry AR602.ARE (the starting dungeon) in the list. The save should be fine if it exists.
    Ok, I'm assuming I've used this tool right (thanks for the link btw). I opened chitin.key from the BG2EE folder, then dragged the Baldur.sav from my saves folder onto the space it said to drag it too. There's a whole lot of AR____.ARE files, 602 being among them. I really appreciate the time all you guys have spent on this. Hopefully this leads to helping others too.
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  • Gate70Gate70 Member, Developer Posts: 3,883
    Should be covered in the current patch, we're not sure of the source (started game pre-patch, moves between pc & iPad or something else).
  • solidus0079solidus0079 Member Posts: 60
    Sergio said:

    So, how would one avoid this bug? Just wait for the next patch ?

    This may be just my situation, but it appeared to happen during the quest to liberate the slaves from the slaver compound at the Athlatka docks (after I liberated the back room tavern gladiators) It could have just been a fluke, but that's when it happened to me.
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