Sorta stuck with Neera, Rassad, and Wilson

Veristek

I looked up the character list, and seems like there's a hidden character, Wilson. To get him, I need to do Rassad quest and Neera quest. I already have Rassad, and have the Amphitheater and forest revealed on my World Map. I read that I need to start the Wilson quest during Neera's quest, and Wilson is found during Rasaad's quest.

What I'm stuck at is this:

I still have Edwin, and waiting for his Edwina female quest to finish. Neera and Edwin can't be in the same party, same as in BG 1. So, how can I get to the Wild Mage Refuge to start the quest to get Wilson, *WITHOUT* recruiting Neera and having her romance auto-start the instant she joins? I want to postpone her romance because I don't want to add a romance interest until I'm done with ALL the other characters.

I'm not sure if Rassad's quest is timed or not. Can I wait on his quest until Edwin's quest finishes, AND I get Neera (or avoid her romance somehow)?

I am saving Aerie, Jahiera, Neera, and Viconia to become my last join-able NPC's so I can decide who I want to romance. I find that aspect more and more irritating, because in real life, romances don't start the instant you meet someone. Plus your romance doesn't break in real life with no way of recovering it when your date goes home, goes to work, visits her family or friends, or other stuff away from you. Seems like the BG romances can't handle being away from their love interest for 1 second, even right after meeting for the first time.

If there's no way to avoid Neera starting romance when I need to get to Wild Mage Refuge to start the quest to get Wilson and recruit him during Rassad's quest... Is there a mod, cheat, hack, whatever to reset Neera's romance to "not started yet" and then start her romance whenever I want it?

ilduderino

I’m not sure if the Neera romance ends if you drop her - I note you are thinking about adding back Jaheira as a romance option later, if she has left the party unless at the point where she is required to by her quest then that one’s been lost I’m afraid

Veristek

Not quite. I've tested Jahiera. I dismissed her on the Promenade map after the Irencius vs Thieves / Wizards fight, and before leaving the map. This was in Chapter 1. She left without "I thought we were closer than companions" comment, and she can be picked up again at the Harper's Hold. I then took her with me and started Chapter 2, and then she gave that "closer than companions" comment.

Jahiera's romance can be paused when you drop her in Chapter 1, and can be picked up and start romance with her anytime after that when we're ready to have her come back into party anytime later.

I wish we have this option for Aerie, Neera, and Viconia.

I cleared the Wild Forest, revealed the Wild Mage Refuge, but I can't get in without Neera. If I pick her up to get inside the gates by the guard, then Edwin leaves my party (I need him around until his female Edwina quest finishes), and Neera's romance starts up because she joins my party. I need to get in the stockade to talk to the guy who starts the Wilson quest. I've read that if I want to get Wilson, I have to talk to this Zevran guy, otherwise I can't get Wilson when I go to the Temple with Rasaad (who I already have in party).

Balrog99

Can Neera and Edwin be in the same party if one of them is Control Q'd?

Humanoid_Taifun

If I were you I would probably just cheat to speed up Edwin's quest, or otherwise plainly wait out the timers.

But you should be careful with Rasaad's quest. There is a very challenging battle at the end that you may not be ready for, what with you not even having your final party yet. I do not know if you want to head in this direction yet.

ThacoBell

You don't have to finish Neera's quest. Just talk to the hippie at her camp and WIlson will be recruitable when you find him in Rasaad's quest.

OrlonKronsteen

IIRC you don’t need Neera at all to get Wilson - just Rasaad. I think the hippie quest is just a small sidequest. Can anyone else confirm this?

Edit: I second @Humanoid_Taifun’s comment about that end battle being extremely difficult at low level.

gorgonzola

OrlonKronsteen wrote: »

Edit: I second @Humanoid_Taifun’s comment about that end battle being extremely difficult at low level.

yep, but not for a player playing the game the first time...

Maurvir

Yeah, I know my party wasn't prepared for that last fight in Rasaad's quest. However, I was both mildly annoyed, and potentially in trouble, when my conjurer MC got to do all of his challenges. Not only was she scary close to the limit on one of the challenges, but the "last" one (assuming you go left to right as seems to be intended) was damn near impossible without very careful micromanagment. I had to reload a few times before I finally found a solution to that one.

jsaving

Just keep in mind that BG2 wasn't in any way designed for the kind of run-through you are attempting (seeing all content at once). So it is not surprising at all that an intricate juggling act is required to do it.

Veristek

I've been away from BG and gaming for a few days cuz of real life stuff. My basic question boils down to this:

1) "Is it necessary to visit the hippie guy inside the WIld Mage Refuge (requiring Neera to open up the stockade) to make Wilson appear and be recruitable in Rassad's temple quest area?"

2) "Does Wilson appear and recruitable without needing that hippie guy and Wild Mage Refuge, as long as I interact with him during the first time I enter that temple area during Rassad's quest?"

I need clarification on this. Which is true, #1 or #2? Skip Neera entering the Wild Mage Refuge entirely and get Wilson during Rassad's quest? Or do I *HAVE* to get Neera, open up the door to the Refuge with her, go talk to the hippie in there, and only then will Wilson appear / spawn in Rassad's quest temple area? Which one is it?

ThacoBell

@Veristek I'm 80% certain its #1. You can take Neera and open the camp, talk to the hippie guy, then dump Neera. Then go pick up Wilson.

gorgonzola

but he is not sure if he is going to romance her later and don't want to dump her cause it can break the romance...

ThacoBell

Welp.

Veristek

Nobody knows for sure?

ThacoBell

Well, if you want to romance Neera, you cannot drop her. Ever. You will only need Rasaad long enough to talk to Wilson. But if you ever want to finish his quest, you'll need to keep him at least that long. So you'll have to drop two other party members for awhile.

Veristek

My problem is, how do I get Wilson without picking up Neera, if that skipping is even possible? So I can get Wilson, finish Rasaad's quest, then go start Neera's stuff whenever I want to romance her?

ThacoBell

@Veristek You can't. You can only pick up Wilson after talking to Zaviak. If you try to go to the wild mage camp without Neera in the party, no one will be there.

Veristek

In that case, is there any cheat or mod or anything that can reset Neera's romance the second, third, forth, etc. time I recruit / dismiss her? So I could recruit / dismiss her once to open up Wilson, then recruit Neera back in the party if / when I want to start romance with her at a time of my choosing?

ThacoBell

Not that I know of.

Humanoid_Taifun

Every romanceable character has a variable associated with them that is named "[character-name]RomanceActive" or something similar. This variable determines the status of the romance. "1" is the Flirting Stage. "2" is the committed stage (and what you need to reach before finishing Shadows of Amn, if you want to import the romance to Throne of Bhaal). "3" means that you broke the romance, one way or another. (this is mostly true even for mod NPCs)
Using a save-game editor like EE-Keeper you can search for the variable in the long list of "Globals" and edit it back to 1.
Alternatively, if you feel comfortable using the console, you can also try the code "CLUAConsole:SetGlobal("neeraromanceactive",global,1)". (I think I spelled that right)
While I am confident that editing the variable would be the key to reactivating the romance, I suspect that another variable keeping track of the precise love-talk you were at might get wiped clean when you dismiss the character. In that case you would probably restart the romance from the beginning. But as I have never done this exact operation before, I cannot say fore sure.

As for mods, CD Tweaks has a component that promises that it stops the vanilla romances from breaking. However, I do not know whether Neera and the other EE companions are included in that. Some of the other components of the mod are very notably not adapted to the Enhanced Edition (for example the Edwin portrait). Prodding @CamDawg might provide you with a better answer.

CamDawg

Humanoid_Taifun wrote: »

As for mods, CD Tweaks has a component that promises that it stops the vanilla romances from breaking. However, I do not know whether Neera and the other EE companions are included in that. Some of the other components of the mod are very notably not adapted to the Enhanced Edition (for example the Edwin portrait). Prodding @CamDawg might provide you with a better answer.

Yes, the EE NPC romances are covered.

Humanoid_Taifun

Thanks for the heads-up.

gorgonzola

to integrate what @Humanoid_Taifun tell there are 2 other variables, in the case of neera their name is

NEERALOVETALKS it thack the precise point of the love talk sequence you have reach.

NEERALOVETALKSTIMER it tracks the time passed so the next love talk can happen at the right moment. i am not sure if the real game time or the in game time is used (so ie if sleeping many times works to have the counter increase or it does not ), but also other parameters are used by the engine, so certain dialogues can happen only if certain situations happen, like that you have reached a certain chapter, or after you sleep and in jaheira's case, but maybe in other ones, if you sleep in the wildness, to do it in a tavern don't count.

if you have a savegame from before you drop a character you want to romance you can copy from it, using eekeeper, setting the 3 variables to the same values when you recruit again your "love affair".
you can even try to speed up the romances increasing NEERALOVETALKSTIMER, even if with great caution, always keep backup saves.
to do it properly you have to really know how the particular romance works, which conditions, timer and other ones, really affect the next banter and so on. it means to completely spoil your first run on that side...

anyway as your purpose is only to take neera with yourself for a short time just reset the 3 variable values should do the trick.

gorgonzola's rant below, not a real spoiler...

as i have already told you to just get a grasp on how to play this marvelous but very complex game some runs are needed, the magic system is really complex and also the physical attack is much more complex of the simple point and click.
and the npcs have a growth in power and in what they can do, a high level neera, imoen, aerie or anomen is completely different in what can do and in how has to be played effectively from how they are at the beginning of the game.

to try what you are trying to do can be a fun way to add yourself a challenge, but will not give you in any way the "feeling" of the whole game in a single run, all it would do is to steal some surprise and new things to discover to the runs that will come after it, and to know too much the game in all his sides and aspects is the worst curse of the experienced players.
you are only causing it happen sooner then usual for yourself.

but if it is your way to have fun for me is fine, i am a true believer in the freedom of a player to have his fun in the way he likes. if this is your one go on your road and i wish you luck in your bg2 experience

Veristek

I appreciate your info as always, Gorgonzola.

I also understand your feelings and points about the difference between "doing everything in one run" and "do multiple runs for more immersion". I do plan on doing multiple runs of BG 2 in the future, all without the urge to "Must Collect Them All".

gorgonzola

Clubboth

Hi, Veristek!

This might be to late for Your struggle with the Neera romance, but I can confirm, what OrlonKronsteen wrote on April 12. You don't have to visit Neera's camp to get Wilson into Your party. When Rasaad's quest is finished, You might get him depending on Your actions beforehand or not. If You are not sure, what to do, then download the Wilson mod from LavaDelVortel and read the readme carefully. It explains, how to get Wilson in the modded or unmodded game. Talking with Zaviak is optional but not necessary.

To get the best Wilson in the game, make sure, Your mainchar has more than 1.5 million xp, because Wilson is a "squishy" one, and in some encounters he has to wait in a save place or join the party later on. My Wilson let some dragons bite the dust, but other characters were in the dragon-lines beforehand. He gave Gromnir the last touch in my current game. But he was the only character that I allowed to break the old xp-cap from Shadows of Amn until Irenicus was history to make him more durable.

ThacoBell

Well, Wilson IS basically a kensai. You don't put kensai on the front lines. You keep them on a secondary line, and then have them engage when enemies are targeting other party members.

Veristek

That's good to know, Clubboth. In fact, I haven't done Neera's quest yet. I've been putting her off as long as possible. I still have Rasaad in my party, but haven't done his quests yet. I'm about to start doing the Windspear Hills quest.

Where is the mod so I can look at the Readme?

Clubboth

Thank You, ThacoBell, for these facts. I don't know kensais & co. I believe, that it would be easier in his young adventure career, when he can throw beehives at his enemies.

Hello, Veristek!

You can find the spoiling information on this website: shsforums.net/files/file/1168-wilson-chronicles

The readme I was referring to, is right there.