Weird Equipment in BGEE

Candlekeep_Watcher

So I have noticed these weapons with entire sentences or paragraphs for names and only a phrase or two for a description. Bentley Mirrorshade has them, as does Taeromm Thunderhammer.

I've beaten the classic campaign and started Siege of Dragonspear, but I haven't finished it or touched the Underdark gladiator story.

The game I made these screenshots in is a new character, who hasn't beaten anything. I just barely got to Beregost.

I cannot find them mentioned anywhere, not in any forum or walkthrough or wiki or blogpost. Where'd they come from? They are easy enough to ignore but they follow me.

Humanoid_Taifun

Looks like you've broken your game (at least partially) with some mods.

The game does not store text within the dialogue files or within the game files or really anywhere outside of a single massive text document, divided into small chunks, each with its unique identification number.
Every time you see text in the game - whether that's a weapon's name, its description or whatever, or even the menu at the side, the game is looking up an identification number within the massive text file and returning the associated bit of text.

Mods, if they want their items, spells or characters to have unique texts (rather than just reusing texts from the existing game), have to extend the text file with extra entries, with new identification numbers.
And sometimes, when they are uninstalled incorrectly, the identification numbers are not updated properly.

And this sort of thing is what you get.

Candlekeep_Watcher

I don't remember installing any mods. Guess I better check.

atcDave

Yeah that usually comes from botched mod install. I’m not sure what else might cause it. But I did just have ALL my BG2 Document files (Saves, Portraits, settings) disappear after doing some system updates. Weird things happen.

Candlekeep_Watcher

Looks like I installed Rogue Rebalancer at some point. That would make sense, the weird items include a cosh and a couple of bows, which would suit rogues.

I tried re-installing it to patch it but it said it installed the new equipment with warnings. That'll be where I'm going wrong, then.

sarevok57

its the dialog.tlk file is somehow messed up, could be using the wrong one perhaps? by the looks of it, if you are playing the english (US) version i can give you mine ( which should have no errors ) unzip and replace this one in your language directory;
Baldurs Gate Enhanced Edition/ lang / en_US

and see if this helps

Candlekeep_Watcher

Thanks!

... What am I doing installing a BG2EE mod in BG1EE???? No wonder it doesn't work!

sarevok57

Candlekeep_Watcher wrote: »

Thanks!

... What am I doing installing a BG2EE mod in BG1EE???? No wonder it doesn't work!

nicely done

Kensei_xXx

Remember to use modmerger first before installing any mods on BG1:SoD. Not doing it mostly causes such issues.

RR isn‘t BG2 only afair. It‘s likely that you didn‘t use dlcmerger or other programms.

jmerry

Actually, we can extract quite a bit of information from those strings.

"Yeesh, why do I even bother trying to talk to you?" – string #34104 in SoD.

"Begging your pardon, <PRO_SIRMAAM>– I heard noise–" – string #34118 in SoD.

"It's a little funny. To me, at least." – string #34102 in SoD.

"As a child, your sightings of invisible creatures..." – string #32343 in BGEE.

"It's not funny, <CHARNAME>." – string #34100 in SoD.

All of these are SoD strings, aside from the Shaman biography which is also in non-SoD BGEE. But it wasn't always there; it was added in a patch when the Shaman was, probably concurrent with SoD coming out. In the earliest versions of BGEE, these were all clear slots with no associated string.

So, what the situation looks like to me:
- At some point in the past, you installed one or more mods which included new items/descriptions. Those new description strings were added to the game's big list. Their numbers went at the end.
- Then, you got SoD. And patched the overall game to a newer version. But you didn't clear out the override; those new and/or modified items are still there.
- The game's big list of strings did get fully replaced. So, the string numbers in those leftover items are now being interpreted based on the unmodified BGEE/SoD string list. Which generates the nonsense you see.
(The wrong strings in the 34K range may be the result of installing a mod with unmerged SoD. The other one doesn't fit that hypothesis and requires a more complex explanation.)

If you haven't installed any mods since updating the game, clearing out the contents of the override folder should get you back to a clean slate. But if you're not sure, clearing out everything for a full reinstall is safer. Don't try to install any new mods until you're back down to that clean slate.