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Backporting SoD XP cap to BG:EE

pwaringpwaring Member Posts: 81
in Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
I've got a party closing in on the BG:EE XP cap (161,000) and I still haven't finished all the quests. As SoD is billed as an expansion pack, rather than a separate game, will the SoD XP cap be backported to BG:EE? In other words, if I have BG:EE + SoD, will the BG:EE cap be 161,000 or whatever the SoD cap is?

Comments

  • bleusteelbleusteel Member Posts: 523
    There is precedent with the TOB cap replacing the SOA cap, so maybe.

    It's trivial to remove the cap though. No big deal either way.
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    well a new sod might take the original starting level of 2.
  • CruCru Member Posts: 12
    edited March 2016
    I'd very much like an answer to this as well. I too have been going through BG:EE again in preparation for SoD's release and face the same situation. The issue in question is whether to postpone the end content of BG:EE (presumably most ToSC quests) until after SoD releases.

    If the new cap is backported as such, a good number of players would likely want to do this, so as to go into SoD with the optimal party legitimately allowed.

    On the other hand, if there's no backport, they'll be forced to either forego what they've postponed from the original (which is not an option for completionists) or spend the first few days after SoD drops doing old content to no substantial advantage. Not a terrible turn of events, but something of an annoyance for those who are eager to try SoD.

    Acknowledging that the release is only couple of days away, now would be the ideal time to know. Should we spend the next couple of days finishing out our preparation runs of BG:EE or save them until SoD drops?

    As bleusteel pointed out, there is the precedent set by both ToSC and ToB to backport the XP cap. Yet, the XP cap in SoD has some strange circumstances surrounding it due to the expansion's status as an interquel. It's been stated by the developers that the XP cap was the subject of lengthy discussion as to how it would affect the existing games and that steps have been taken to ensure smooth implementation.

    That said, it's highly plausible that they would keep XP cap where it is for existing content, lest characters in that game become too powerful for it. Shadows of Amn always had scaling encounters, and characters grew substantially powerful even before Throne of Bhaal was released. This was not the case with BG1. The new levels attainable in ToSC gave far less power to characters by comparison, and yet still pushed the limits of the barebones original. SoD would be pushing it even further by allowing levels up to 11-12 (death spell?). I'm actually more inclined to think this will be the case - that the cap will remain the same for BG:EE for this reason.

    Nevertheless, unless we hear something I'll probably still be saving the end of my run for this weekend, just in case.
    Post edited by Cru on
  • SedSed Member Posts: 790
    Or just add a mod that removes the XP cap.. problem solved :)
  • GarmGarm Member Posts: 67
    edited March 2016
    That's good to know in advance. Thanks!

    I was hoping SoD was going to change BG1's XP cap so that I could complete my dual-class build during BG1.
  • Avenger_teambgAvenger_teambg Member, Developer Posts: 5,862
    The xp cap is easily moddable, so you can still do that.
  • DaevelonDaevelon Member Posts: 610
    edited March 2016
    Avenger_teambg wrote: »
    The xp cap is easily moddable, so you can still do that.

    I have a question about this; if i will use a xp cap remover (i have one that will put 3 files in the override folder, STARTARE.2DA, STARTBP.2DA and XPCAP.2DA) the xp cap will be removed from both bgee and SoD? or just bgee?
    In the file XPCAP.2DA i think it would be needed to add the new class Shaman, otherwise this class will have the cap...
    Thanks in advance:)
    EDIT: i think i got it reading the instructions... these files work just for the main campaign and black pits, then Sod will keep the xp cap.
  • helmo1977helmo1977 Member Posts: 366
    Well, I assume some kind modder will present us with a cap remover almost since day one
  • AbelAbel Member Posts: 785
    @Daevelon SoD should use the same XPCAP.2DA file. So if you just set a value of -1 for all classes, you can later put it in the game override folder and enjoy a cap free run.
  • prairiechickenprairiechicken Member Posts: 149
    Hm I wonder why devs decided to keep the cap. Hitting 8,000,000 in SoA is really fun
  • illathidillathid Member Posts: 320
    prairiechicken wrote: »
    Hm I wonder why devs decided to keep the cap. Hitting 8,000,000 in SoA is really fun

    Probably makes it easier to gauge party level for content.
  • DaevelonDaevelon Member Posts: 610
    illathid wrote: »
    prairiechicken wrote: »
    Hm I wonder why devs decided to keep the cap. Hitting 8,000,000 in SoA is really fun

    Probably makes it easier to gauge party level for content.

    I don't think it's because of this, in bgee a character still keeps to gain xp even after the cap is reached... so when SoD starts it will gain levels anyway. I suppose it's just because they can't touch the original content, even if it's weird a system like this.
  • chilvencechilvence Member Posts: 50
    I started the game for the same reason recently and forgot about the XP cap, but when I realised, I installed the XP cap remover from these forums, and found that the game had still been counting the XP, just not allowing use of or displaying the xp past 161,000 .

    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/10212/a-simple-xp-cap-remover/p1

    I'm not entirely certain what the level up rules tables are like in BG1EE. Common sense tells me that they would have been backported from BG2 when they imported the features from that game, but I have never looked at them myself.
  • DaevelonDaevelon Member Posts: 610
    chilvence wrote: »
    I started the game for the same reason recently and forgot about the XP cap, but when I realised, I installed the XP cap remover from these forums, and found that the game had still been counting the XP, just not allowing use of or displaying the xp past 161,000 .

    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/10212/a-simple-xp-cap-remover/p1

    I'm not entirely certain what the level up rules tables are like in BG1EE. Common sense tells me that they would have been backported from BG2 when they imported the features from that game, but I have never looked at them myself.

    Going past 161000 xp with the remover is totally the same in bg1 and bg2, there are no problems on level up, the only exception is that there are not HLA in bgee.
  • ThelsThels Member Posts: 1,422
    Daevelon wrote: »
    the only exception is that there are not HLA in bgee.

    Didn't you need 3 million xp for that? How are you getting 3 million XP in BG1? I could understand with SoD, as the cap is 500k, so if you can reach that with a party of 6, then a single character could reach 3m, but just BG1 itself?
  • helmo1977helmo1977 Member Posts: 366
    Thels wrote: »
    Daevelon wrote: »
    the only exception is that there are not HLA in bgee.

    Didn't you need 3 million xp for that? How are you getting 3 million XP in BG1? I could understand with SoD, as the cap is 500k, so if you can reach that with a party of 6, then a single character could reach 3m, but just BG1 itself?

    I am not sure if there are high level spells, 7th, 8th... In the bg ee data. Same goes for class advancement and its high level abilities, for example, high level monk abilities
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