[ANSWERED] Remove hardcoded limit for 10 chapters (journal)

swit

edit: I've received a reply regarding this feature request, so it can be skipped when it comes to new round of updating "Master Thread of Externalization Requests". Not sure if this information should be kept private, but just in case it shouldn't be mentioned I won’t share it here. You will have to wait to find out.

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Currently journal correctly reacts to changing chapter variable which automatically updates journal too. But this is true only up to chapter 10. Than GUI journal screen will stay at chapter 10 regardless if you increase chapter variable further.

Siege of Dragonspear will add 7 new chapters to BG:EE, but it's currently unknown if they start from chapter 1 or if they are added on top of BG:EE, like in ToB. If it's the latter than this 10 chapters limitation is probably already removed. If the former than maybe the new GUI system will allow us to mod this feature? Could devs please share if this will be possible? If it's not possible yet than I'd like to request this to become unhardcoded (or at least the chapter journal limit increased from 10 to 24).

Not sure who may know the answear... Maybe @ScottBrooks , @Avenger_teambg , or @PhillipDaigle ?

billbisco

Extremely important. In order for the Enhanced Edition Trilogy mod to work, we would want to tack on BG2EE chapters onto SoD. The max # of chapters really needs to increase.

swit

thanks for support. As billbisco said it's for unreleased Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition Trilogy (EET) mod similar to BGT but for EE games.

And yes, without this feature adding compatibility for SoD while still allowing travelling to old BG1 areas during SoD will be difficult (in worse case I will need to keep the expansion separate from BG1 areas like vanilla SoD probably does, which would be against EET goals). I've re-watched the stream and it looks like the chapters in SoD are not appended like in ToB - chapter counter starts over from 1, so there will be "world state" conflict between BG1 and SoD. Can't append SoD chapters on top of BG1 ones during installation due to explained 10 chapters journal limit. Still possible to implement but would create mod incompatibilities.

Benefits of lifting this limitation for BGT like mods:
- whole journey (BG1, SoD, BG2, ToB) would be documented in the journal (currently it needs to be cleaned at the beginning of SoD and BG2 as both resets chapters),
- player would (probably) end up more immersed in the game world feeling that he/she is indeed playing a single continues game (24 chapters), not stand alone campaigns (with EET feature that allows player to visit old areas in BG2 and ToB, I think we are really close to this concept)
- going back to BG1 areas in BG2 wouldn't need to be delayed to Chapter 7. All BG1 areas could be opened from the start, as there wouldn't be "world state" conflicts caused by chapter number. Other "content" conflicts are already handled by EET.
- you could leave some quests unfinished in BG1 and still read about them when you come back later from BG2 areas, instead of guessing what task you were meant to do, due to cleaned up journal.
- easier implementation of mods that affects whole game.

Cons:
- BG2 mods that uses Chapter variable would need to be edited to use variables depending on which platform the mod is installed on (similar situation to BGT which has different chapter numbers in BG1 than vanilla BG1, Tutu, EET and BG:EE) - this is not really a problem as I've already written a code that automatically patches BG2 mods. I will send updated files to all modders who released BG2:EE mods before EET release (if this chapter journal restrictions will be lifted, that is).
- walkthroughs may be confusing for new players due to different chapter numbers.
- SoD would need to be required for EET as the chapter numbers would need to be predictable for both modders and players (hmm, sounds more like benefit to me ).

Yep, I know that it's confusing for the reader and my poor English doesn't help either :P But resolving this problem is worth it, imo.

Cahir

Yeah, this is a solid request. Just as BGT is one the most important mods for vanilla players, EET surely will become one of the crucial mods fo EE players. @swit (K4thos) is already doing tremendous job with this mod, just imagine what he'll do if all his feature requests will come to life.

Kaiketsu

EET is extremely important to me (BG games just don't feel "complete" without the Trilogy mod) so I'd love this answered too!