Installation Confusion

Halfwise

Okay, so after returns on Steam (need my mods!), I purchased the following directly from Beamdog:
-BG1EE
-BG1EE: Siege of Dragonspear
-BG2EE

Got the confirmation email and decided to download the standalone installers, because I have to many handler clients already, IMO.

So I installed BG1EE... downloaded. Runs... no issues.
Then I installed SOD... downloaded. Runs... but I was expecting it to have me point to my BG1EE folder, being an expansion that requires the original to play. But it seems to have installed to its own folder.

Do I not need to run the BG1EE installer (I can uninstall it if I so chose), or does it still point to those original files? (If so, which folder do I install mods?!)

Did I not need to purchase BG1EE?

So confused....

[Deleted User]

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Halfwise

It weird, because the folder structure as well as the files inside the SOD directory looks identical to the BG1EE folder. As in duplicate files. For instance, why would the Nashkel area entrance movie, the Tutorial map, or any of the original AR0###.bik files (which corresponded to each 'zone' in the game, iirc) need to be in the SOD folder if it is just the expansion data? Additionally, I can run BGEE and SOD as separate exe files, and they look completely different when it loads up (BGEE looks like the original menu, SOD has the Red/Black theme), but I can actually select the original BG1 campaign and run it from the SOD exe, and it will save in the SOD save folders.

Maybe the downloader detects that I have both, and therefore redownloaded the extra files when I installed SOD?

To narrow on my question then.... if I start the BG1EE campaign from the SOD exe, will it use the BG1EE files in the SOD directory, or the BG1EE files from the BG1EE directory that was created when I installed BG1EE first?

I could experiment.... delete both directories, and attempt to just install SOD first, and see if I can run the original campaign... but I've already downloaded the full set of games twice (Once through steam, Once through BeamDog)... I hate to burn through data so early in the month. (Granted, I have 400 gb cap, but I don't know how much my streaming habit uses.)

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Halfwise

typo_tilly said:

Halfwise said:

I run GOG (1.3) and Steam (2.0 and SOD) versions of BG1 and they draw from the same save files. I don't know why you're seeing SOD save BG1 files in its own sod save directory.

Indeed, there is a distinct difference between the GOG/Steam version, and the Beamdog-Direct version.

GOG/Steam stores its SOD files in a zipped up folder structure, which makes mods not function correctly. I assume the files are unzipped and loaded as needed. This includes the dialog.tlk file, which is a major component in many mods. WeiDu can't alter the dialog.tlk in the zip, and that's the one that gets loaded.

Beamdog version of SOD is not zipped, so the dialog.tlk file is accessible and moddable by WeiDu. But I find myself having 2 versions of it currently:
\Games\BGEE\...\00766\...\lang\eng_us\dialog.tlk
\Games\BGEE-SOD\...\00806\...\lang\eng_us\dialog.tlk

(That was unintentional, but I'm going to leave 'em...)

Probably forgetting something in that path, but you get the idea. Hopefully, someone who knows a bit about the file structure can guide me to the correct solution.. Otherwise, I'll start marking up the mods I want and try to suss out load order, while I wait for an answer tomorrow.

(Okay, so it actually is saving to the same save folder, which is good. But it still doesn't solve which files are getting used, since there are clearly 2 very different interfaces getting loaded, depending on which exe I select.)

[Deleted User]

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Halfwise

I decided to say "To Hell with it", and did delete both.
Installed *just* Siege of Dragonspear.
I can roll a new character in Candlekeep and play BG1EE.

So, even though I may have had to purchase BG1EE as well (I don't mind, just $5 if I didn't)... I only need to run the installer for SOD to play both the base game and the expansion.

Which means my two main questions are now answered:
Do I need to install both? No.
Where do I install mods? In the SOD folder. (because that's the only one now!)

Thanks for talking it out with me.

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