Savegame or Character Editor Compatibility (ShadowKeeper instructions in 3rd post) (further updates)

Mordeen

What are the recommended savegame and character editors that work with BG:EE, and are there any tricks to getting them working? Been a few years since I've used Character Control and Shadowkeeper, and can't get either of them to work with BG:EE on my Windows 7 PC. Help is greatly appreciated.

-Mordeen

EDIT: SOLVED! Scroll down for Shadowkeeper instructions

Second Edit: Added more info in the how-to

Flauschig

For Shadowkeeper:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/152557/#Comment_152557

Mordeen

Thanks! Chasing a couple links got me to a post with the specific instructions for getting ShadowKeeper to work with BG:EE. I'm quoting it here for quick reference to save the next inquirer a couple clicks and some searching. Credit to Aosaw.

"Someone asked if Shadowkeeper was working. At base, it doesn't. But you can get it to work like a champ if you follow these ten steps:

EDIT: Make sure you run Shadowkeeper as an administrator if you're using Vista/7/8

1) Open "...Documents\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\"

2) Copy "baldur.ini", "characters" folder, and "saves" folder

3) Open "...Program Files\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\Data\00766[or whatever number it is]\"

EDIT: Several folks did not get a 00766 folder during the install, so just make sure you copy the files & folders to whatever folder Baldur.exe is located in for your installation of BG:EE

4) Paste the three copied files and folders into this directory

5) In this same directory, open "lang\en_us\" (or whatever language you're intending to use)

6) Copy "dialog.tlk"

7) Return to the folder where you pasted the previous files & folders

8) Paste the copied "dialog.tlk" file into this directory

9) Open Shadowkeeper, and set the installation directory to the "\00766\" folder, or whichever folder contains Baldur.exe for your installation. (The program will yell at you because it's not BG2, but that's fine).

10) Restart Shadowkeeper

11) Once you have edited a save or character, make sure you copy it over to the BG:EE folder in Documents in order to access the edited save/character from within the game


-Mordeen

Jemand84

Hm? Does not work.

Avenger_teambg

Jemand84 said:

Hm? Does not work.

Be more precise. From this note one could assume you just didn't download SK.

Grievance

Worked great, thanks. Is the original explanation stickied? If not it needs to be, I have hunted a bit and did not find it before this thread.

DrEast

This works particularly well if you hardlink the folders instead of copying them (then Shadowkeeper will automatically update the original directory). Remember to enter "cmd" at the start menu and hit ctrl-shift-enter to start it in admin mode if you want to hardlink directories (/D option of mklink).

Mordeen

I agree we need a how-to stickied for SK and some of the more common mods/apps. I'm too rusty to take the helm on that. We need a party leader.

-Mordeen

Dee

For clarification, you will need to move your saves and characters back to the Documents location in order to use the altered files. (Otherwise they'll just be sitting, edited but unusable, in your install folder.)

We might be doing some shuffling of threads. I'll make sure that there's a readily accessible Shadowkeeper thread available for quick reading.

Mordeen

Aosaw said:

For clarification, you will need to move your saves and characters back to the Documents location in order to use the altered files. (Otherwise they'll just be sitting, edited but unusable, in your install folder.)

We might be doing some shuffling of threads. I'll make sure that there's a readily accessible Shadowkeeper thread available for quick reading.

I added a "Step 11" in my post regarding moving the files back. DrEast even suggested hardlinking folders in Windows as an alternative. I like his suggestion better, but it requires a little "how-to" of it's own, which could be included in the overall SK guide.

I wonder if there's an update planned for SK that will reflect the changes to BG's new file structure under BG:EE. . .

Erliqh

@Mordeen Reg'd just to say thanks - you're a life saver mate.

Mordeen

Erliqh said:

@Mordeen Reg'd just to say thanks - you're a life saver mate.

You're welcome. I've added edits to the thread title and my posts to make it easier for folks to find this solution until we get a how-to guide stickied.

-Mordeen

Dino

Thinking of using SK to adress some bugs, but I never used any mods before.
So what does SK do exactly and how?
Also, if I apply changes via SK, what is going to happen once the official update is applied?

Thanks

BlackIvory

I do not have a Characters folder in my "Documents\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\" only saves and baldur.ini file. Is it saved someplace else in BG:EE? also can shadowkeep not edit quicksaves?

swnmcmlxi

BlackIvory said:

I do not have a Characters folder in my "Documents\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\" only saves and baldur.ini file. Is it saved someplace else in BG:EE? also can shadowkeep not edit quicksaves?

You can create an empty 'characters' directory in "Documents\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\" if you want, but SK will probably run without it. The directory is probably created automatically the first time you export a character. In SK's settings you can enable quicksave editing.

CorthalaFamily

1/ Isn't it Gatekeeper for the first Baldur's Gate ?

2/ << 3) Open "...Program Files\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\Data\00766[or whatever number it is]\" >>
-> I don't have such a folder. I'm creating "00766". It should be fine and should work, i'm optimistic, but still, it's weird that I don't have a folder number like you say.

Cuv

@CorthalaFamily No... BG:EE is based on the BG2 engine. You will need Shadowkeeper. Gatekeeper does work somewhat but can mess up your game.

CorthalaFamily

Cuv said:

@CorthalaFamily No... BG:EE is based on the BG2 engine. You will need Shadowkeeper. Gatekeeper does work somewhat but can mess up your game.

Ok ty very much. Have you got a folder like "00766[or whatever number it is]" in Data ?

swnmcmlxi

CorthalaFamily said:

Cuv said:

@CorthalaFamily No... BG:EE is based on the BG2 engine. You will need Shadowkeeper. Gatekeeper does work somewhat but can mess up your game.

Ok ty very much. Have you got a folder like "00766[or whatever number it is]" in Data ?

Yes, it's where 99.9 % of the game is located.

jalden

@CorthalaFamily

Are you using windows? I have a 00766 folder under data in both windows xp and windows 7. You shouldn't have to create the folder.

CorthalaFamily

swnmcmlxi said:

CorthalaFamily said:

Cuv said:

@CorthalaFamily No... BG:EE is based on the BG2 engine. You will need Shadowkeeper. Gatekeeper does work somewhat but can mess up your game.

Ok ty very much. Have you got a folder like "00766[or whatever number it is]" in Data ?

Yes, it's where 99.9 % of the game is located.

Files like "AREA000A.bif" are set in the Data folder. It seems like the 99% data you're talking about are in it.


@Jalden, Win7 x86.

Mordeen

BlackIvory said:

I do not have a Characters folder in my "Documents\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\" only saves and baldur.ini file. Is it saved someplace else in BG:EE? also can shadowkeep not edit quicksaves?

The "characters" folder won't appear until you've created a character, then it will contain a ".BIO" and a ".CHR" file for each character you've created. I'm not sure about the quicksaves thing; I never use quicksave.

CorthalaFamily said:

swnmcmlxi said:

CorthalaFamily said:

Cuv said:

@CorthalaFamily No... BG:EE is based on the BG2 engine. You will need Shadowkeeper. Gatekeeper does work somewhat but can mess up your game.

Ok ty very much. Have you got a folder like "00766[or whatever number it is]" in Data ?

Yes, it's where 99.9 % of the game is located.

Files like "AREA000A.bif" are set in the Data folder. It seems like the 99% data you're talking about are in it.


@Jalden, Win7 x86.

If you did a default install of BG:EE in Win7 x86, you'll have TWO data folders in the directory tree, and they will look like this:

C:\Program Files\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\Data

and this:

C:\Program Files\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\Data\00766\data

If you've navigated to the second data folder above, that's where you're seeing the bif files Shadowkeeper reads. HOWEVER, that means you've navigated too far forward into the directory structure. The first "Data" folder has the "00766" folder where the files and folders mentioned in the instructions must be copied.

If you truly do not have the 00766 folder, Shadowkeeper just needs the dialog.tlk & baldur.ini files along with the "characters" and "save" folders all located in the same folder as Baldur.exe in order for all of its features to work.

As the instructions say, once those files & folders are in the right place, you point Shadowkeeper to that directory and restart it. After being told BG2 isn't located there, it should still compile the game files and work for you.

If it still doesn't, you've either pointed it to the wrong location, put the files in the wrong place, or have a custom installation that jacked up the install directory. The third option is highly unlikely however, because BG:EE won't run properly if your install folders are wrong.

Good luck!

-Mordeen

remoremoit

Hello everyone, I have a problem with Shadow Keeper: I can edit the saved games just fine, but then I can't find them in any directory... They are still there in the Shadow Keeper list (with the edits I made still there, if I check them), but the actual folders are nowhere to be found. Note: I copied all the necessary files (.ini, .tlk and save folder) in the install directory because, just as CorthalaFamily, I didnt find any 00766 folder in the data folder (infact, there are no folders at all in there).
Any clues?

CorthalaFamily

Ty very much Mordeen ; I tried to copy and regroup in C:\Program Files\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition (where is the .exe file) and then in C:\Program Files\Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition\Data (copying the .exe to it)...

And now I have the same pb as Remoremoit. ^^ The edited files are seen by Shadowkeeper but only by it : BG2 (when I try to load) and myself can't see it in the save folder. I'm gonna retry with admin mode of Shadowkeeper.

remoremoit

It worked!! Opening SK with admin privileges finally made the edited folder appear, yay! ^^

CorthalaFamily

Yeeaaaah ! Glad to know it ! (It doesn't work for me, wut ?!)

Mordeen

CorthalaFamily said:

Yeeaaaah ! Glad to know it ! (It doesn't work for me, wut ?!)

Does this mean you right-clicked the Shadowkeeper icon, selected Properties, clicked the Compatibility tab, checked Run this program as Administrator, applied it, ran Shadowkeeper, and you still can't see the folder?

FYI, because of how Windows 7 protects the Program Files folder, I never allow games to install into that folder. I always change the install location to C so that I don't have to run any of my modding proggies in admin mode. Saves a few headaches here and there.

I'm also curious why there is a growing number of people whose install directories don't include a 00766 folder. Anybody know why this is happening for some people?

Michail

I just copied the saved game into the save dir of my original BGII installation, edited it (administrator mode, or it fails), and copied it back. It worked like a charm.

Irwin_J_Finster

I got it all working like a charm, but there is a problem, if I edit any characters stats with shadowkeeper, they wont get changed in the game. Items I copy in work fine, but the stats are not changed....

Michail

@Irwin_J_Finster
Keep in mind that shadowkeeper saves into a new file, something like "oldsavedgamename (0000001). Make sure you copied and opened the new save file, and that you run the shadowkeeper as administrator. Also see the new thread on running Shadowkeeper (if you don't have an old installation like me):
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/7205/getting-shadowkeep-to-work-with-bgee

PinkRose

Quick Questions.
Never used SK before.
Changed my character from a Swashbuckler to a Cleric of Lathander.
1. Will changing all the numbers (I created a level 1 cleric and copy/pasted all the info on top of my swashbuckler, leaving World triggers and such) work? Is there a better way to import a different main character into an ongoing story?
2. When I changed the strength from 7 to 11, it shows as 11 on the character sheet, but it still shows 70 as the carrying capacity. Where do you change the carrying capacity, or can you?
Thanks for the help and the clear directions so far.