cannot open an edited saved game to play

Calgacus · April 2020

Hi,
I am using the latest dev build 8193.10. I am playing the EE mod Eye of the Beholder and want tweak a script.

I copied the saved game file from .sav to .mod and opened in the toolset and made my change, recompiled the mod and saved and copied the .mod back to .sav and returned it to the saved game folder. When I try to load that saves game the game crashes.

If I make the same change to the .mod file (not a saved game) I can play the mod without the crash. But of course then I lose my game progress.

Why does the edited saved game crash but not the mod file with the same edit? I tried both the beamdog toolset and the steam version, same result.

Is it just some wierdness on my PC or will other people get the same result?

I want to add this code to the end of the eo_on_activate script:

if (sTag=="bigbagofholding")  
    {
        
        OpenStore( GetObjectByTag("Nebins_Store"), oClicker, -100, 100); //this is the important line
        AssignCommand(oClicker, SpeakString("activate bboh")); //this line is just for debugging, delete it once the script works
}

Of course I can copy the compiled script into the development folder and it works that way but why is the game crashing? If I wan to make a bunch of edits to the saved game it would be a problem.

Varenx · April 2020

Hi, you shouldn't use the toolset to edit the save file, it will overwrite your module.ifo. If you're command line savvy you an easy way to make edits is with the nim tools here: https://github.com/niv/neverwinter.nim/releases or you can use something that can edit ERF files, such as TlkEdit.

Calgacus · April 2020

I've played a bit with the nim tools before but never for editing a saved game. How would I find my way around around in a saved game without a GUI unless I started out knowing exactly what file to edit? If for example I wanted to change the location of an object or or change a tile in an area?

Proleric · April 2020

The saved game .sav is an erf format archive containing multiple files. These can be exported and imported using nwhak or whatever. Most of the files are in .gff format which can be amended using gffeditor or similar. The field names are mostly self-evident.

The filenames are mostly in the form resref.xxx, so if you know the resref (from the toolset), you can find the file. I don't have a full list to hand, but each area has three files. Static stuff like tiles are in the .are, whereas object instances are in the .git.

That may be all you need to know. There are .utc .utp .uti files for the palette templates, .dlg for dialogues, .ncs .nss for compiled / source scripts.

Caveat - searching lists in .gff (e.g. creatures within area) is tedious. There is a scripting tool for that on the Vault called moneo, which is invaluable to the serious builder, but probably not worth the learning curve if you're just tweaking.

cannot open an edited saved game to play

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