@Mystre, the only problem I had with installation was DUKP (previous version) where I couldn't install about 3 kits due to errors. Haven't yet tried the updated version I posted. Other than that (of the ones I have used), they installed and seemed to play well.
Gus
Edit: If you are not aware, Will of the Wisp has just had a Dropbox download added (and has been updated).
@Mystre, no probs. I don't think that it is normal but I haven't taken that much notice of it in the past. From memory, it had been only a couple of days.
Just for your information, and if needed, SHS is now back.. so i was able to download my missing mods... I already did my installation for BG2EE. First try, seems to be working.. but I don't get to confident since Will of the Whisp got me some trouble to install.. I will check it while playing.... so far, kits appears well on the creation.. then, I'll play tonight and we will see if everythings working well.. or not^^
Well.. first bug.. it freeze when i try to search in the painting (with the magical dagger at the really beginning..).. Since you've got the gold pants inside... i'm not gonna continue further i think.. :-( I will test again when I'll be back home..
Edit : I try to create a shaman with a new kit, it freeze when i reach the level 7 of the spells. When i need to choose during the creation.. seems like the new content crash... :-( I also start a new game in ToB with a new character so. No team with me.. i'm alone.. and when I try to change into the Ravager(?), it freeze again... I try to continue a little bit, when I reach the Duergar zone, freeze once again..
Really seems to be freezing everytime a new content is "activated"
Do you know if there is any order for the installation of the mods? If yes, would you be able to tell me?... :$ Also, do you know if there is some knowns issues or incompatibility with some of my mods?
Here is my list :
Afaaq, the djinni companion Foundling : between the shades Varshoon Npc flirt packs The longer road Wilson chronicles Almateria's restoration project Ascension Assassinations Back to Brynnlaw Au service d'oghma Questpack The big picture The sellswords Unfinished business Will of the wisps Animal companions Anomaly tweak pack Tweak anthology Golem construction for spellcasters Item revisions Npc kitbpack Npc stronghold And of course the translation mod that need to be instal first.
@Mystre, haven't tried half of those mods but in general I install using the following order:
Non-WeiDU mods Story Mods NPC Mods Item Mods Kit Mods Tweaks UI Mods Non-WeiDU Mods (ones that I have updated myself or specifically need to go last for some reason)
There was something about Animal Companions, but I moved that up to the first NPC mod and it worked there; not sure what it was conflicting with. I also did install Will of the Wisp at one stage and it conflcted with something badly but once I took it out, the game played behaved itself.
Gus
Edit: I read in another thread that you need to grab what you can from G3 as the site is heading for some more downtime on Wednesday.
Thanks for your reply. So I may removed Will of the wisps from my list you suggest? Indeed, it makes my installation buggy.. maybe it was the problem.. i will try your order as well...
Do you think I should finish my installation with generalized biffing ? Due to the amount of Mods?.. or it's not necessary with the EE?
And last question, does anyone already tried EETrilogy on android? Is it good? I'm thinking of it for my next party...
@Mystre, I have never had to used Generalised Biffing when adding mods in EE. I haven't had many games where I have installed above 20 mods, but those that were played well.
I also haven't use EET but I am guessing that it wouldn't work on Android due to folder pathing and probably permissions. Worth a try but don't hold your breath.
@Mystre, not sure. Going to give this a go myself using your build (just to see where the prob could be. I do recall reading something with Ascention (WeiDU version not compatible with BG2EE) but I don't know whether it has been updated or not.
Gus
Edit: I have managed to gather most except for Th0ghma and Anomaly Tweak pack (I think it is French only). For the Longer Road, did you get the EE version, and in Tweaks Anthology, did you install the Multiple Strongholds module (It doesn;t work with NPC Strongholds)?
Haven't installed yet as I amm heading out, but will try later.
Anomaly bring some changes, but not necessarly in french. Longer Road, I installed the BGEE version Yes. And I install the Beta EE version of Ascension. Due to that, i didn't install Ascension in the Big Picture. And yes I install multiple stronghold. I shouldn't?
@Mystre, re NPC Strongohlds and Multiple Strongholds, no. It says in the readme: 'It will not work with the Multiple Strongholds component of the Ease-of-Use or BG2 Tweak Pack mods, or with any mod that directly changes the same parts of the game'. Not sure if the Tweaks Anthology has mpdded the component but I suspect thta due to it coming from BG2 Tweaks, it hasn't. It probably isn't the reason for the crash though.
Got back a bit late yesterday so didn't get the install done. Shall play today.
I try once again.. same problem.. what i don't understand is that some content seems to be working.. for exemple, if i start a TOB game, Ellesime did show up for longer road without bug.. but some other aspect freeze the game. The druid spell "tree animation" freeze my game as soon as it appears on the selection spell during creation of the main. Same freeze also at the beginning of Irenicus donjon.. I install my mods in this exact order :
1 Translation FR 2 Ascension 3 The big picture 4 Assassinations 5 ThOghma 6 Questpack 7 Back to Brynnlaw 8 The sellswords 9 I shall never forget 10 The white queen 11 Innershade 12 Tales of the deep gardens 13 Eilistraee's song 14 Unfinished business 15 Afaaq, the djinni companion 16 Varshoon 17 The longer road 18 Wilson chronicles 19 Npc flirt packs 20 Saverok romance 21 Npc kitpack 22 Almateria's restoration project 23 Golem construction for spellcasters 24 Item revisions 25 DUKP 26 Tweak anthology
should I change the order, or anything else? I remove some mods but it seems that they are not the buggy ones... (southern edge, npc stronghold, ooze corner, animal companion, anomaly tweak pack, foundling, mersetek). I have the feeling that maybe the problem is with my device (Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge), but why previous game are working and not this one.. also it's working on the vanilla version...
@Mystre, have installed the mods on PC and tested. Able to create druid and cast Animate Tree. It appears the .BAM for the spell is corrupt. On your system, would you be able to delete the file 'SPPR716C.BAM' from your override folder and give it another go? You will have a different picture to represent the spell rather than the tree. If that works for you, I can look at the .bam to repair it (if I can, it looks like the transparent background is not playing properly).
About to create modfile and test on my device, but that .bam would crash/freeze the game on Android.
I deleted 'SPPR716C.BAM' from my override folder... doesn't change a thing... the game freeze anyway at the same points... And the picture of the spell doesn't seem to be changed as well..
Hi @Mystre, OK... On my device, I am able to cast 'Animate Tree' in TOB. I have upload my saved game to see if it makes any difference to you. I used the DUPK Druid Master of the Swarm for the test character. Not sure which PC you used. If you would like to upload a saved game, I can test on my device.
For the mods install, I had some errors and slight differences.
Difference: Ascension - your version = 1.5beta, mine = 1.51beta
Errors: The Big Picture: - Trolls error - Skipped - Generic Creature & Script Processing error - Skipped - Copper Coronet and Slavers error - Skipped - Druidic Improvments on option 1 - error - installed 2 instead
NPC Strongholds: - Restored Random Encounters installed but wiht errors
Item Revisions - Your install is actually Item Upgrades (which is what I also installed) just in case you were not aware.
DUPK: - I wasn't able to install a couple of kits due to not have translations for english (??, ??, ??) or errors on install (Mage Kit: Warlord). I don't think this would be a problem though (unless you used one of those kits and I wouldn't be able to test it).
Tweaks Anthology: - I also installed the Multiple Strongholds to see if this could be a problem at the start. Looks like it wasn't. I would be reinstalling without this component if I was to play through.
I also installed Willow of the Wisp and Animal Companions just to see if any problems would arise during installation and play. Appears to be none at this stage but only a short way in.
@Gusinda, I'm gonna try your save game.. not sure it's working dur to the installation. What mod exactly did you install and in which order? The errors on Big Picture were the same for me.
@Gusinda, I try... it freeze when I tried to load your save... ??????
I really don't understand what's not working.... :-( why the game freeze... and it takes me like 2 hours to install all the mods each time... don't know if i can install them one by one to see which one is the buggy one..
@Mystre, same install order as yours except I put Will of th Wisp prior to Unfinished Business and Animal Companions directly following UB. I am currenlty going through another install and trying to clean up some errors. I will post my WeiDU.log when that is done. You would be able to install one by one but what a pain...
Shame it didn't work. I wonder (out loud) whether the translation mod has something to do with the prob. Have you tried installing in English to see what happens?
Gus
Edit: Attached is my WeiDU.log. I changed where the Items Upgrade install is to before all the NPC mods. Still get some errors on install (Ascention [Tougher Yaga-Shura ], BP [Same errors as before], and DUPK [Wizard Kit : Sorcerer]) but the rest seemed to successfully install. I removed the component to allow Multiple Strongholds from Tweaks.
Again, only tested start of game, character creation, and casting of Animate Tree (TOB).
Edit 2: Forgot to mention. Had to use my patch.obb that doesn't contain dialog.tlk to get this running properly. Had a series of INVALID statements (even with a copy as dialogf.tlk) using the unmoddified patch.obb.
I think I found a part of the problem... Big Picture... So I thought installing my mods, 1 by 1 and try the game after each one.. (trying each time the creation of a druid in TOB until i reach the selection of spell level 7, see if ellesime show up for longer road (once install), creating a SoA party and try to search on the paint..) this was basically to see if new content show up and if freeze still occured.
So the translation, works fine, so do Ascension. Then Big Picture... freeze again.. and since this mod change Irenicus dungeons, talk about the spell Animate Tree, i thought that it might be it. So i restart a FULL installation with all the mods (except NPC Strongholds since you tell me it wasn't compatible with Tweak Anthology) in this exact order :
1 Translation FR 2 Ascension (3 The big picture WITHOUT THIS ONE) 4 The southern edge 5 Ooze lounge 6 Assassinations 7 ThOghma 8 Questpack 9 Back to Brynnlaw 10 The sellswords 11 I shall never forget 12 The white queen 13 Innershade 14 Tales of the deep gardens 15 Eilistraee's song 16 Will of the wisps 17 Unfinished business 18 Mersetek 19 Item upgrade 20 Animal companion 21 Afaaq, the djinni companion 22 Foundling 23 Varshoon 24 The longer road 25 Wilson chronicles 26 Npc flirt packs 27 Saverok romance 28 Npc kitpack 29 Almateria's restoration project 30 Golem construction for spellcasters 31 DUKP 32 Anomaly tweak pack 33 Tweak anthology
So far, the bugs I can see are : -my preacher of flames (that I import from SoD) is still written as a Cleric and, new things, i gain access to healing spell which are supposed not be available... If i create a new one, everything's ok. -I try to create a druid in TOB, the game freeze during the creation of a druid when i confirmed my spell selection (animate tree doesn't exist..).
BUT : -I was able to create a new party in TOB importing a party, the character was create properly and Ellesime show up.. -I m able to search inside the painting...
Don't know if there are other bug.. i may find them with time, but I will keep you in touch.. anyway, so far, the buggy mods seems to be Big Picture for the most part.. weird because you were able to cast Animate Tree which is a spell brought in the game by BP....
@Mystre, very odd indeed. I wonder whether it was specific components within BP; those that had errors so I didn't install (about 5 I think). Will have to have a relook at those particular parts. Animate Tree certainly works except for a small prob with the .BAM.
Just had a quick look at the ones that failed and there was the component 'Druidic Improvements' failing when selecting option 1. I used option 2 during my install... Might be a good place to start.
Hopefully your game will not have too many more errors!
Hello @Gusinda, @Isaya First of all, i wish you a happy new year!!
Just another comment about my party.. i reach the level 7 of the priest spell with my preacher of flames.. and the preacher spells are not available... :-( Other issue, Anomen quest doesn't pop up... Another one, romance with Jaheira doesn't continue. But I haven't return the poisoned guy to the menestrel office yet . So i guess it's due to that... It also seems, as previously said, that i cannot create a DUKP druid kit. A regular one works but not the kit added from the mod...
A little bit upset for my preacher. Which now sound useless.. as a simple priest.. i think SOD may have disturbed that... since i'm able to create a brand new one.. but not to continue with mine properly.. :-( Finally, i create a new preacher (female this time not to have to choose between the 3 romances^^). Then i edit my save with shadow keepers on my computer (to get the same stats as I started my other one, to get the same XP amount and the baldurian helm & gold pants). Then i started another new game with this brand preacher..
@Gusinda, Ahah actually.. what a dilemma!! I thought the sex restriction was the only thing left for the romances since anomen didn't try to "seduce" my male character as well as Hexxat (which is gay if I remember well). But here, Aerie ans jaheira are starting their romance with me too ???? what can I do to manage it ahah... don't know how to make my party and do want to "fail" any romance... since I choose the "no way to fail a romance" on tweak anthology, does it include the time kick out of the party? Because normally, 3 game days out of the party and the romance should failed if I remenber right.. could be nice to finish the romance, kick the PNC and conti ue the romance on ToB...
@Mystre, sorry can't tell you... I don't normally do the romances so don't have much XP in that area . I can only guess that it would be the case. I have read somewhere about continuing the romance after being kick out. I will see if I can find it.
Hi, I'm brand new to both these forums, and BG itself, I've completed the game once, and I'd now like to install SCS, Unfinished business, Romantic encounters, and NPC project. It was all going smoothly until SCS, but it always runs into an error. I know there is a Big world Fixpack for the mod that lets it be used on v2.5, but I've no clue how to use it since I'm a total novice when it comes to computers. I'd really appreciate some help, thanks.
Comments
And, based on this list, do you know any mods which are known buggy or that I should be careful ?
Gus
Edit: If you are not aware, Will of the Wisp has just had a Dropbox download added (and has been updated).
Do you know if it is normal that the website is that long to reopen?
Gus
Just for your information, and if needed, SHS is now back.. so i was able to download my missing mods... I already did my installation for BG2EE. First try, seems to be working.. but I don't get to confident since Will of the Whisp got me some trouble to install.. I will check it while playing.... so far, kits appears well on the creation.. then, I'll play tonight and we will see if everythings working well.. or not^^
Since you've got the gold pants inside... i'm not gonna continue further i think.. :-(
I will test again when I'll be back home..
Edit : I try to create a shaman with a new kit, it freeze when i reach the level 7 of the spells. When i need to choose during the creation.. seems like the new content crash... :-(
I also start a new game in ToB with a new character so. No team with me.. i'm alone.. and when I try to change into the Ravager(?), it freeze again...
I try to continue a little bit, when I reach the Duergar zone, freeze once again..
Really seems to be freezing everytime a new content is "activated"
Also, do you know if there is some knowns issues or incompatibility with some of my mods?
Here is my list :
Afaaq, the djinni companion
Foundling : between the shades
Varshoon
Npc flirt packs
The longer road
Wilson chronicles
Almateria's restoration project
Ascension
Assassinations
Back to Brynnlaw
Au service d'oghma
Questpack
The big picture
The sellswords
Unfinished business
Will of the wisps
Animal companions
Anomaly tweak pack
Tweak anthology
Golem construction for spellcasters
Item revisions
Npc kitbpack
Npc stronghold
And of course the translation mod that need to be instal first.
Non-WeiDU mods
Story Mods
NPC Mods
Item Mods
Kit Mods
Tweaks
UI Mods
Non-WeiDU Mods (ones that I have updated myself or specifically need to go last for some reason)
There was something about Animal Companions, but I moved that up to the first NPC mod and it worked there; not sure what it was conflicting with. I also did install Will of the Wisp at one stage and it conflcted with something badly but once I took it out, the game played behaved itself.
Gus
Edit: I read in another thread that you need to grab what you can from G3 as the site is heading for some more downtime on Wednesday.
Thanks for your reply. So I may removed Will of the wisps from my list you suggest? Indeed, it makes my installation buggy.. maybe it was the problem.. i will try your order as well...
Do you think I should finish my installation with generalized biffing ? Due to the amount of Mods?.. or it's not necessary with the EE?
And last question, does anyone already tried EETrilogy on android? Is it good? I'm thinking of it for my next party...
I also haven't use EET but I am guessing that it wouldn't work on Android due to folder pathing and probably permissions. Worth a try but don't hold your breath.
Gus
1 Translation FR
2 Ascension
3 The big picture
4 Assassinations
5 ThOghma
6 Questpack
7 Back to Brynnlaw
8 The sellswords
9 I shall never forget
10 The white queen
11 Innershade
12 Tales of the deep gardens
13 Eilistraee's song
14 Unfinished business
15 Animal companions
16 Afaaq, the djinni companion
17 Varshoon
18 The longer road
19 Wilson chronicles
20 Npc flirt packs
21 Saverok romance
22 Npc kitpack
23 Npc stronghold
24 Almateria's restoration project
25 Golem construction for spellcasters
26 Item revisions
27 DUKP
28 Anomaly tweak pack
29 Tweak anthology.
Same problem.. the game freeze... :-( any idea of the cause of the problem?
Gus
Edit: I have managed to gather most except for Th0ghma and Anomaly Tweak pack (I think it is French only). For the Longer Road, did you get the EE version, and in Tweaks Anthology, did you install the Multiple Strongholds module (It doesn;t work with NPC Strongholds)?
Haven't installed yet as I amm heading out, but will try later.
Longer Road, I installed the BGEE version Yes. And I install the Beta EE version of Ascension. Due to that, i didn't install Ascension in the Big Picture.
And yes I install multiple stronghold. I shouldn't?
Got back a bit late yesterday so didn't get the install done. Shall play today.
Gus
I install my mods in this exact order :
1 Translation FR
2 Ascension
3 The big picture
4 Assassinations
5 ThOghma
6 Questpack
7 Back to Brynnlaw
8 The sellswords
9 I shall never forget
10 The white queen
11 Innershade
12 Tales of the deep gardens
13 Eilistraee's song
14 Unfinished business
15 Afaaq, the djinni companion
16 Varshoon
17 The longer road
18 Wilson chronicles
19 Npc flirt packs
20 Saverok romance
21 Npc kitpack
22 Almateria's restoration project
23 Golem construction for spellcasters
24 Item revisions
25 DUKP
26 Tweak anthology
should I change the order, or anything else? I remove some mods but it seems that they are not the buggy ones... (southern edge, npc stronghold, ooze corner, animal companion, anomaly tweak pack, foundling, mersetek).
I have the feeling that maybe the problem is with my device (Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge), but why previous game are working and not this one.. also it's working on the vanilla version...
I really don't understand anything
here is my Weidu... just in case it can helps... i don't know .. but I'm kinda desperate right now..
About to create modfile and test on my device, but that .bam would crash/freeze the game on Android.
Gus
I deleted 'SPPR716C.BAM' from my override folder... doesn't change a thing... the game freeze anyway at the same points... And the picture of the spell doesn't seem to be changed as well..
For the mods install, I had some errors and slight differences.
Difference: Ascension - your version = 1.5beta, mine = 1.51beta
Errors:
The Big Picture:
- Trolls error - Skipped
- Generic Creature & Script Processing error - Skipped
- Copper Coronet and Slavers error - Skipped
- Druidic Improvments on option 1 - error - installed 2 instead
NPC Strongholds:
- Restored Random Encounters installed but wiht errors
Item Revisions - Your install is actually Item Upgrades (which is what I also installed) just in case you were not aware.
DUPK:
- I wasn't able to install a couple of kits due to not have translations for english (??, ??, ??) or errors on install (Mage Kit: Warlord). I don't think this would be a problem though (unless you used one of those kits and I wouldn't be able to test it).
Tweaks Anthology:
- I also installed the Multiple Strongholds to see if this could be a problem at the start. Looks like it wasn't. I would be reinstalling without this component if I was to play through.
I also installed Willow of the Wisp and Animal Companions just to see if any problems would arise during installation and play. Appears to be none at this stage but only a short way in.
Hope this helps
Gus
I'm gonna try your save game.. not sure it's working dur to the installation. What mod exactly did you install and in which order?
The errors on Big Picture were the same for me.
I really don't understand what's not working.... :-( why the game freeze... and it takes me like 2 hours to install all the mods each time... don't know if i can install them one by one to see which one is the buggy one..
Shame it didn't work. I wonder (out loud) whether the translation mod has something to do with the prob. Have you tried installing in English to see what happens?
Gus
Edit: Attached is my WeiDU.log. I changed where the Items Upgrade install is to before all the NPC mods. Still get some errors on install (Ascention [Tougher Yaga-Shura ], BP [Same errors as before], and DUPK [Wizard Kit : Sorcerer]) but the rest seemed to successfully install. I removed the component to allow Multiple Strongholds from Tweaks.
Again, only tested start of game, character creation, and casting of Animate Tree (TOB).
Edit 2: Forgot to mention. Had to use my patch.obb that doesn't contain dialog.tlk to get this running properly. Had a series of INVALID statements (even with a copy as dialogf.tlk) using the unmoddified patch.obb.
I think I found a part of the problem... Big Picture...
So I thought installing my mods, 1 by 1 and try the game after each one.. (trying each time the creation of a druid in TOB until i reach the selection of spell level 7, see if ellesime show up for longer road (once install), creating a SoA party and try to search on the paint..) this was basically to see if new content show up and if freeze still occured.
So the translation, works fine, so do Ascension. Then Big Picture... freeze again.. and since this mod change Irenicus dungeons, talk about the spell Animate Tree, i thought that it might be it.
So i restart a FULL installation with all the mods (except NPC Strongholds since you tell me it wasn't compatible with Tweak Anthology) in this exact order :
1 Translation FR
2 Ascension
(3 The big picture WITHOUT THIS ONE)
4 The southern edge
5 Ooze lounge
6 Assassinations
7 ThOghma
8 Questpack
9 Back to Brynnlaw
10 The sellswords
11 I shall never forget
12 The white queen
13 Innershade
14 Tales of the deep gardens
15 Eilistraee's song
16 Will of the wisps
17 Unfinished business
18 Mersetek
19 Item upgrade
20 Animal companion
21 Afaaq, the djinni companion
22 Foundling
23 Varshoon
24 The longer road
25 Wilson chronicles
26 Npc flirt packs
27 Saverok romance
28 Npc kitpack
29 Almateria's restoration project
30 Golem construction for spellcasters
31 DUKP
32 Anomaly tweak pack
33 Tweak anthology
So far, the bugs I can see are :
-my preacher of flames (that I import from SoD) is still written as a Cleric and, new things, i gain access to healing spell which are supposed not be available...
If i create a new one, everything's ok.
-I try to create a druid in TOB, the game freeze during the creation of a druid when i confirmed my spell selection (animate tree doesn't exist..).
BUT :
-I was able to create a new party in TOB importing a party, the character was create properly and Ellesime show up..
-I m able to search inside the painting...
Don't know if there are other bug.. i may find them with time, but I will keep you in touch.. anyway, so far, the buggy mods seems to be Big Picture for the most part.. weird because you were able to cast Animate Tree which is a spell brought in the game by BP....
Just had a quick look at the ones that failed and there was the component 'Druidic Improvements' failing when selecting option 1. I used option 2 during my install... Might be a good place to start.
Hopefully your game will not have too many more errors!
Good hunting
Gus
I had the same issue that you for the exacts sames components.. so don't think is due to that...
Also it seems that i cannot create a druid.. buggy.. maybe animal companion..
EDIT : I try a new install without animal companion.. the problem still here.. cant create a druid without a crash at the end of the spell selection..
First of all, i wish you a happy new year!!
Just another comment about my party.. i reach the level 7 of the priest spell with my preacher of flames.. and the preacher spells are not available... :-(
Other issue, Anomen quest doesn't pop up...
Another one, romance with Jaheira doesn't continue. But I haven't return the poisoned guy to the menestrel office yet . So i guess it's due to that...
It also seems, as previously said, that i cannot create a DUKP druid kit. A regular one works but not the kit added from the mod...
A little bit upset for my preacher. Which now sound useless.. as a simple priest.. i think SOD may have disturbed that... since i'm able to create a brand new one.. but not to continue with mine properly.. :-(
Finally, i create a new preacher (female this time not to have to choose between the 3 romances^^). Then i edit my save with shadow keepers on my computer (to get the same stats as I started my other one, to get the same XP amount and the baldurian helm & gold pants). Then i started another new game with this brand preacher..
Gus
Ahah actually.. what a dilemma!! I thought the sex restriction was the only thing left for the romances since anomen didn't try to "seduce" my male character as well as Hexxat (which is gay if I remember well). But here, Aerie ans jaheira are starting their romance with me too ???? what can I do to manage it ahah... don't know how to make my party and do want to "fail" any romance... since I choose the "no way to fail a romance" on tweak anthology, does it include the time kick out of the party? Because normally, 3 game days out of the party and the romance should failed if I remenber right.. could be nice to finish the romance, kick the PNC and conti ue the romance on ToB...
Gus
Hi, I'm brand new to both these forums, and BG itself, I've completed the game once, and I'd now like to install SCS, Unfinished business, Romantic encounters, and NPC project. It was all going smoothly until SCS, but it always runs into an error. I know there is a Big world Fixpack for the mod that lets it be used on v2.5, but I've no clue how to use it since I'm a total novice when it comes to computers. I'd really appreciate some help, thanks.