Big Metal Unit Underdark bug - Game crashing

RealDeal

Win 10 - GOG BG2:EE w/ ToB also installed:


In the underdark using the Big Metal unit with the Drow Illusion causes 2 bugs. One is that if equipped, the unit works but the image does not change...I.E. the character stays looking like a Drow. Perhaps that is intended.

Second, I "was" using the unit OK in the mind flayer section of the underdark but it was causing a second of lag when equipping the BMU. Also, even though I still looked like the Drow due to illusion, I could not walk through doors and it appeared that pathing was clunky. I summed that up to the game was pathing me as though I was a giant golem even though my character looked like a drow.

Once I left the Flayer section equipping the BMU caused the game to crash, and pretty hard. It would hang forever until I ctrl+alt+delete, and the alt+tab to bring up the opened program tiles so I could click the "X" on the BG2 box to close it. The "Hang on while we send this to Microsoft" would open and sit forever, forcing me to click cancel to get back to desktop.

Also of note: Reloading back to the Mind flayer earlier save still caused the crash, it was sorta like the game said, OH now that I am aware of this illusion Frow thingy, I will no longer allow it and puke even though it DID work originally.

Then I reloaded to a much earlier save, back in Amn graveyard (random loc but I wanted something outside) and the earlier save allowed the BMU to work find and with even the lag when equipping it.

I am using EE Keeper and the Tweaks pack. So ya some mods. However i do not have the mod/tweak that removes the drow paperdoll change...so my characters do in fact look like the Drow.

That's all I got for now.

Save attached.

TY for any insights and perhaps you can find out what's up and get corrected.

Thanks,

Reel

jmerry

I've encountered this in another context, using a mod item (druid shapeshift tokens) rather than the BMU. Any item that has a transformation effect when equipped will hang the game when combined with the transformation effect of Adalon's drow illusion. While it doesn't break right away (aside from the drow illusion overriding the item's transformation), equipping or unequipping the item on a character under the illusion hangs the game, as does loading a save with such an item equipped on a character with the illusion in effect.

Items that cast temporary polymorph effects, such as Relair's Mistake or the Cloak of the Sewers, work fine. In normal play without mods, this won't come up; the only items with transformation effects when equipped are the Iron Thorn ring from BGEE and the Big Metal Unit from ToB, neither of which are available to a character in BG2EE chapter 5.

It is possible to fix this in the save for the affected character(s). Go into the save in EEKeeper, choose the character wearing the BMU, and go to the "Effects" tab. One of the lines there will say "Use EFF File..." applied by SPIN825. Remove it, and your character won't have the drow paperdoll/sprite anymore. That makes them safe to use the transformation item.
Alternately, you could edit the save to take the Unit off, and not use it again until you're done with Ust Natha. You'll just have to be satisfied with all that overpowered drow armor instead.

jmerry

And... update. My werewolf run has gotten far enough to forge the Unit, and the shapeshift token/Unit combination also causes the same crash. Even so much as left-clicking on the Unit in inventory while any character is a werewolf is enough to hang the game. Apparently, it tries to calculate what effect equipping this item with a transformation effect to each character would have, and gets into an infinite loop if any of those characters is already under a transformation effect.
Any two permanent/ongoing transformation effects that can be active at the same time combine to cause this crash. In the case I've just outlined, the tokens are implemented as weapons and the Unit is armor, so both can be worn at the same time - or could, if it didn't crash the game.
Now, it's possible to have multiple different shapeshift tokens - but, since they're implemented as two-handed weapons, only one can be used at a time.