Party NPCs consistency BGEE -> BG2EE

Blash

Hi all.
What I'm writing about has already been discussed (http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/1002/request-npc-transition-from-tosc-to-soa), but nothing happened then.
I'm playing with the canon party and without XP cap in BG1, what I would like is to find the characters I left exactly the way they were, I'm referring to stats, class, levels, xp points. This should add a great deal of realism and immersion, aside from giving a value to the "work" you did in BG1 (I had a hard time farming XPs to regain Imoen's thief abilities after dual classing at level 7 :-P).
I know a big patch is going to be released soon(TM), @Dee, I think this would be a great occasion! And I think that it's not technically difficult at all, since all the information about the characters are already stored and need only to be exported like the main character is.

DartsiniZ

What about stat increases for the NPCs that get a bump in SoA and Imoen potentially not being a dual classed in all instances?

Blash

Maybe a choice could be given to the player, allowing him to chose whether or not to give up the bump and preserve the "history" of the NPC. About Imoen, as far as I know she's already dual classed in BG2 (levels 7/8 while now I have her at 7/10).

meagloth

I think the word on this is that it's very hard to do and probably not going to happen. But I do think the characters scale level with you, so if you have a lvl 12 fighter at the end of bg1 everybody gets a boost in bg2. Not sure though.

Blash

Very hard? The two games share the same engine, I don't think it's hard at all.. If a program like EEKeeper extracts the datas of all the party NPCs from the save game files, surely the game itself can do the same.

Dee

Not only is it not trivial, but it would take a fairly comprehensive rework of the import framework, which in turn would likely break a dozen other systems.

So no, this isn't going to happen.

Blash

Damn, ok :-(

P.S.: Trying other ways to achieve that result -> http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/16497/ee-keeper-updated-to-v1-0-2/p28

Skie

Hmm...
I also always wondered about NPCs which died in BG1, but come back to life at BG2.

lunar

Skie said:

Hmm...
I also always wondered about NPCs which died in BG1, but come back to life at BG2.

You can ask some npcs you meet about that. 'Edwin (or was it Xzar?) aren't you supposed to be dead?' And they will brush it off with some remark. Exception: If you tell Drizzt you have killed him in bg1 he won't brush it off. :-)

Skie

lunar said:

Skie said:

Hmm...
I also always wondered about NPCs which died in BG1, but come back to life at BG2.

You can ask some npcs you meet about that. 'Edwin (or was it Xzar?) aren't you supposed to be dead?' And they will brush it off with some remark. Exception: If you tell Drizzt you have killed him in bg1 he won't brush it off. :-)

Sure, but it's mostly unsettling with Minsc and Jahira, who start BG2 with you :P

lunar

Skie said:

lunar said:

Skie said:

Hmm...
I also always wondered about NPCs which died in BG1, but come back to life at BG2.

You can ask some npcs you meet about that. 'Edwin (or was it Xzar?) aren't you supposed to be dead?' And they will brush it off with some remark. Exception: If you tell Drizzt you have killed him in bg1 he won't brush it off. :-)

Sure, but it's mostly unsettling with Minsc and Jahira, who start BG2 with you :P

If their deaths in bg1 were passed on to bg2, their cages will be empty at the start of bg2 and this will make the first dungeon of the game a lot more difficult for new players. Sure, experienced players can solo the first dungeon with their eyes closed and can even go to lengths to make it fun/challenging via mods (Improved Ilych, enemy cleric summons up a frickin Fallen Deva! And you have the mighty quarterstaff+1!) but for new players, Jaheira and Minsc at the start of bg2 are essential.

Think of a new player had Jaheira killed in bg1, and chose the wrong dialogue with Minsc and had him attack the party as well. At the start of bg2 he will have only Imoen and will likely have a hard time in the starting dungeon. Ofcourse, the best solution is having the exact same npcs with you at the end of bg1 to appear in Irenicus cells but that is impossible to code for so many different reasons.

In ToB, the calling spirit that summons up NPCs say that the strong pull of the bhaalspawn's powerful fate alters and changes the fates of all other npcs related to him in his quest. It even changes their memories, and experiences and such. If you summon up Aerie she will be confused and say 'we left the circus together, or wait, I never left the circus at all?' And Nalia seems changed a lot too. You can assume the same at the start of bg2, the powerful fate of the bhaalspawn alter the reality in some ways to ensure your safety. So even if you have killed Minsc and Jaheira in bg1, they will be there at the start of bg2 and their memories of the events will be changed in your favour:they will think you were allies. This happens because the powers of the fate decide you will need them to survive in the dungeon. You can challenge the fate itself by killing them again or not enlisting their aid.

Misfit_KotLD

On a similar vein, is it possible to set the starting NPCs based on the PC's alignment?

[Deleted User]

A mod to replace Minsc and Jaheira with Kagain and Shar-Teel might be interesting. It's too bad all the evil (and evilish) divine NPCs are otherwise engaged, though, as that potentially leaves the player without any healing support until they escape from the dungeon.

Misfit_KotLD

Branwen is a Tempite, she should be good as long as there's a good fight to be found.