Banter Accelerator

GawainBS

I've seen several mentions that you can replicate this effect by adjusting a text file, but I can't find any other details. Could anyone point me in the right direction, please?

Thanks in advance!

Queegon

download NearInfinity, put in your PST folder where lies the chitin.key, open it, navigate to .2DA tab, find BANTIMG.2DA, open it, edit the first line from 600 to 300, edit the second line from I think 25 to 100. Save the file.

GawainBS

Alright, thanks. I'll give that a whirl. Any chance of this getting stickied?

JuliusBorisov

HowTo: Banter Accelerator (from Steam)

bob_veng

why wasn't it included? it's an absolutely vital fix

argent77

I'd say it's a tweak rather than a 'fix'. The default values should be fine as long as you don't rush through the game. I can probably whip up such a mod if there is a need.

AstroBryGuy

The original banter accelerator's code is unneeded, since PST:EE has BANTTIMG.2DA. Similarly, BG1NPC doesn't use Compton's Banter Accelerator on BGEE. I coded up a replacement for BGEE that modifies BANTTIMG.2DA. It could be extracted and turned into an independent mod.

EDIT: Ninja'ed by @argent77

Doubledimas

I think a simple mod which let's you set some of the banter timers would be welcomed by many.

GawainBS

Yeah, a simple mod would be nice. Granted, it's not hard to do yourself, but it would get more attention that way.

argent77

Okay, I have put together a simple Banter Accelerator.

You can find there: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/64551/mod-banter-accelerator-for-enhanced-edition-games

Doubledimas

Added it to the list.

fkirenicus

bob_veng said:

why wasn't it included? it's an absolutely vital fix

No, it's not a "vital fix". It's your ("unsubstantiated") preference. The game works just fine without this. Like Argent77 says, this is a tweak.

bob_veng

it doesn't work fine because the majority of banters don't trigger, because the timers were miscalculated or something (that's how it was in the original, and i suppose it's the same now in the EE if they didn't do anything about it). so that's something you can reliably call "broken"

btw. i'm sorry i irked you with that remark you cite, but what that was referring to was you talking about something that was not already there, and all these banters are, so my preference is substantiated by the substance which is the game's actual content, and that's basically what you, me and everybody else paid for and just want to enjoy

fkirenicus

bob_veng said:

it doesn't work fine because the majority of banters don't trigger, because the timers were miscalculated or something (that's how it was in the original, and i suppose it's the same now in the EE if they didn't do anything about it). so that's something you can reliably call "broken"

I agree, but banters aren't vital for the plot to progress. So no, this is not a "vital fix".
Though I welcome a fix for this myself.

bob_veng

ok, by that logic, imagine if everything you don't see in this video was positively broken or inaccessible - would you not call a corresponding fix "vital"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7WpJobExuo

fkirenicus

Let me get this straight: you think banters is a vital fix, because you want to be able to speed run the game?
(I cannot watch the full 21 minutes right now, but what I've seen I still would say isn't CRITICAL for the game plot, no).

Jidokwon

Setting the bar pretty low if having a working plot is the only thing that matters for your gaming experience. When I play a game, I want to experience as much as I possibly can in a play through. Not rushing through anything, but more of a complete experience. It's pretty flawed design imo if I only experience a handful of the *many* banters available in a thorough run. I guess that it wouldn't bother you, too, if only a handful of the side quests in PS:T were working.

fkirenicus

Jidokwon said:

Setting the bar pretty low if having a working plot is the only thing that matters for your gaming experience. When I play a game, I want to experience as much as I possibly can in a play through. Not rushing through anything, but more of a complete experience. It's pretty flawed design imo if I only experience a handful of the *many* banters available in a thorough run. I guess that it wouldn't bother you, too, if only a handful of the side quests in PS:T were working.

Oooh, temper temper.
First off, I don't compare neither the main plot nor side quests to interparty banter, which is absolutely non-important storywise and playability-wise (if there is such a word ) Would I like it fixed? Definately. Is it "vital"? Definately not.

Second, you're wrong - I'd like to see much of the game that we can't see as of now, meaning some of the fixes made by Qwinn that didn't make it to the EE, and none of the UB and tweaks. I really hope Qwinn returns to us and delivers an UB that is compatible with EE (or that somebody else who is capable of doing it does).
I'd like to see as much polish and TLC for the game as is possible, and yes, as I've said; also the banter fixed. And much more. This happens to be my favorite game of all times bar none. I'm extremely grateful that Beamdog has created the EE, though I wish they included more of Qwinn's material, at least as optional features.

But however you look at it: interparty banter is *still not vital* for the game.

argent77

You will see a lot of (if not all) banters if you take your time playing the game. However, the probability that a banter is triggered is rather low. If you're lucky you will see everything within the first half of the game, but it is also possible to play the whole game and only see half of the banters or less.

The default banter timing uses an interval of 10 minutes 600 ticks (1 tick = 1/15th second) and a probability of 10 percent. Personally I can live with the default interval (a higher frequency would quickly become annoying), but would have liked a higher probability (maybe 20 to 30 percent).

SoulReaver

Without understanding the intricacies of how the banters are coded I can't say this for sure, but if they're coded in such a way that it's likely you'll miss a lot of them even doing a completionist walkthrough, I'd say it's a coding flaw and really does deserve a fix.

Incidentally, I suspect Qwinn is not working on any mods for EE. There's been no indication in the slightest that he is. I wonder if anyone can reverse-engineer his previous work and make it EE compatible? I'm (still) holding off playing as I don't feel like it's a complete experience without Unfinished Business and the Save Nordom! tweak.

GawainBS

SoulReaver said:

Without understanding the intricacies of how the banters are coded I can't say this for sure, but if they're coded in such a way that it's likely you'll miss a lot of them even doing a completionist walkthrough, I'd say it's a coding flaw and really does deserve a fix.

Incidentally, I suspect Qwinn is not working on any mods for EE. There's been no indication in the slightest that he is. I wonder if anyone can reverse-engineer his previous work and make it EE compatible? I'm (still) holding off playing as I don't feel like it's a complete experience without Unfinished Business and the Save Nordom! tweak.

Hehe, likewise here.

I played the game several times "out of the box" and several times with Tweaks, UB, BA, etc. The second set definitely showed me more banter than the "out of the box" playthrough and I always strife to be thorough.

SoulReaver

Ah, found Qwinn's blurb about his banter accellerator fix to the original. He wrote:

"This almost made it into the Ultimate WeiDU Fixpack, because without this, the vast majority of banters simply will -not- appear in your game. They come very rarely... for a while I thought you -couldn't- get banters by Morte or Annah. By the end of a slow and thorough game, you might see, if you're quite fortunate, perhaps 12 out of the 78 fully voiced banters that shipped with the game - and if you play multiple games, it'll likely be the -same- 12 each game. With this component added, you can see them all.

When considering installing this tweak, note that PS:T had some serious all-star voice acting. For those who were unaware, here's some highlights: Annah is voiced by Sheenah Easton (Scottish pop singer and actress). Nordom is voiced by Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson). Dak'kon is voiced by Mitch Pileggi (X-Files Assistant Director Skinner). Trias is voiced by John de Lancie ("Q" from Star Trek: The Next Generation). Morte is voiced by Rob Paulsen (Arthur from "The Tick", Pinky of "and the Brain" fame, Kivan in Baldur's Gate, Anomen in BG2). Fall from Grace and Deionarra are voiced by Jennifer Hale (Dynaheir in Baldur's Gate, Mazzy in BG2).

Important notes:

This tweak makes banters appear based on game time, not real time. This means that travelling the world map or resting could trigger a banter, depending on the interval you've selected.
As of Tweak Pack version 3.5, the game's normal method of making banters appear -is- completely deactivated via an engine fix provided by scient. This has actually seemed to cure several persistent problems such as occasionally being unable to talk to party members until you save/reload or enter a new area. In that sense, the Banter Accelerator can now be considered even more of a Fix, but for consistency's sake it will remain in the Tweak Pack.
You can turn off accelerated banters by deactivating Party AI. If you want to see banters but do not want party combat AI, leave the Party AI on and use the "T" key to toggle Combat AI on and off."

So yes, there are plenty of reasons why banters could be considered poorly handled in the original game, and why, if they haven't been changed in EE, they deserve a Banter Accelerator here too.

wandererhaha

After installing the MOD "Reveal hidden gameplay options", your mod cannot be installed. (Tested)

I guess it is the problem of the version of UI Menu or Weidu?

It said "it is a unstable version"

argent77

It sounds like the setup executable didn't request elevated privileges. Try installing it by right-clicking on the executable and selecting "Run as administrator".

To prevent this from happening again you should replace all your setup-xyz.exe files by the weidu.exe from the latest official beta version found here.

wandererhaha

It works ! Thank you !!!