@Doc5thMech simply put, the creatures are loaded from their CRE files into the game as soon as you enter the area where that creature exists. After that, both the area and its contents are added to the game's subsequent saves.
I am unsure how this works with non-unique entities though, like generic Flaming Fist soldiers, as they are encountered in multiple areas but often come from a single CRE file. Do you have any insight on this, @Troodon80?
Copies of the CRE file (one for each creature encountered) are added to the saved game, attached to the particular ARE file they are encountered in. If you enter an area with 6 kobolds waiting to ambush your party, 6 copies of the KOBOLD.CRE will be attached to your saved game.
Hi, I'm using EEkeeper 1.035. Its been working marvelously, but suddenly its corrupting my save games. At first I though it was the changes I'd made that kept the save from loading, but even if I open up a save and just close it out again, it wont open ingame.
Spent almost a week trying different angles and I found something. I have a save...maybe 3 days earlier that works like normal...in fact all previous saves before a certain point work in EEkeeper.
Sooooo.... I'm thinking something actually happened IN the GAME that EEKeeper doesn't like, and EEkeeper corrupts the save. Without going through in depth, I kicked Ajantis off the team...leveled a while and recruited Yeslick. Basically since kicking Ajantis out, I can't mod with EEkeeper. Haven't added him back yet...thats my next test.
Any ideas what kind of things might have happened to cause something odd like this?
Ok Awesome, thanks for the help. Let me clarify what you are asking for. You want
The last savegame that WORKED with EEKeeper and The First savegame that won't work with EEKeeper
or
The last savegame that worked with EEkeeper and One of the savegames EEKeeper seems to have "corrupted"(the first save that won't load, after saving in EEKeeper)
I think you want the later, but not sure.
By the way I'm running a version from GOG games with BGII Tweaks as my only mod.
Spent almost a week trying different angles and I found something. I have a save...maybe 3 days earlier that works like normal...in fact all previous saves before a certain point work in EEkeeper.
This, or any one of those that still work in Keeper or in-game.
At first I though it was the changes I'd made that kept the save from loading, but even if I open up a save and just close it out again, it wont open ingame.
And this, or any other example save game that won't open in-game.
If there are examples of Keeper saving and not being able to re-open those save games, as well as examples of Keeper saving and not being able to load in-game (but still load in Keeper), then I could do with examples of both situations for comparison. :-)
the save "leveling post reinstall" works in all ways. The later save "go boom" plays fine but wil corrupt if I try to use EEkeeper on it..its the next immediate save. I had some issues with dialogue files and reinstalled at some point earlier, hence the name of the first file....but that was long ago, I over wrote it without changing the name.
Maybe this is the place to post this question (I put it in another stand-alone post): what does the "Turn Undead Level" entry in the "miscellaneous" tab of EEKeeper do? Is it a Turn Undead Level modifier? I tried testing it out by putting lots of different numbers on my level 7 cleric -- the default 0, 7, 15, 25 -- and I noticed no difference in his turning abilities. I tried putting a negative number, -7, in there, but when I saved it changed automatically to 249. Anybody know what that entry does?
@seraglio, I have to assume it's mod related. The known spells count is 11, but there are only 9 unique spells in the list (as it is, there are still duplicates for Lay On Hands and some of the others, differing between SPCL and SPIN). 2 are removed when Keeper saves the game but the engine still expects 11. I'll add in some additional checks to ensure that it outputs the correct number of spells.
@TheMetaphysician, actually, after looking at the code properly, I was mistaken. The Turn Undead Level under the Miscellenaous tab is used. The effect state isn't used—it's not updated in-game.
The -2 is hardcoded for paladins.
How this works for a cleric is: Character level + turn undead level = total turn undead level
How it works for a paladin is: (Character level - 2) + turn undead level = total turn undead level
In both cases, if the level is below 0 before the bonus is applied, it will use 0 instead.
Now, in the case of the undead you're trying to turn, what happens here is this:
A random roll of 1d4 is used. If any of the following are true at this point, then nothing happens:
the roll is exactly 4;
the character is immune to being turned;
or the character is an ally.
It takes the total turn undead level (obtained from above), and checks to see if it's higher than the undead character's level + random 1d4 roll + 5. If that fails, then;
It takes the total turn undead level and checks to see if it's higher than the undead character's level + random 1d4 roll.
A skeleton at level 1 is nearby. You're a paladin at level 1, so you get -2 straight away. Your turn undead level is equal to (your level) 1 - (paladin penalty) 2 = -1. This converts to 0 since it's already below 0. Finally, the Turn Undead Level variable is added—let's say you set that at 10. Your total is now (0 + 10).
The 1d4 roll is made, since it's random let's take 3 as an example. The undead's level is now 1 + 3 + 5. Your total of 10 is more than that and will either destroy the undead, or charm it (depending on whether your character is evil).
If that wasn't successful, it attempts the second check.
Let's say your Turn Undead Level is a total of 5 instead. That's 1 + 3 from the skeleton versus your 0 + 5, which causes the skeleton to run away from your paladin.
Wow, that is incredibly helpful! I've never seen that explanation of the mechanics of turn undead; it explains some of the randomness involved.
Now I'm wondering about my experiments that I did. I ran the experiments in the dwarven mines area early on in Siege of Dragonspear; I turned a group of undead with a level 7 cleric, with 0, 7, 15, and 25 in that Turn Undead Level entry. The turning always only destroyed the ghouls. It only caused fear in the Cold Wights, the Greater Ghast, and the Imbued Wights. It never destroyed them. I would have thought that if I added 25 to my Turn Undead level that I would have destroyed those undead instead of fearing them, right?
Now, that test had a lot of variables I didn't control for. One is that I changed the entry in EEKeeper, but didn't rest or anything before testing; maybe it needs resting to take effect (some things in EEKeeper do, I think). Another is that perhaps the trouble is that I ran the test in SoD. I wonder if they just don't allow destruction of some of their undead, just because you can't naturally reach a high enough level to do that in SoD. Maybe the test would go differently in BG2. Unfortunately I don't have any saves near undead in BG2 to run the test there.
For info I succeeded to use it on a linux installation of bgee, using wine. I installed it directly inside bgee folder using the zip archive, then it didn't recognize anything, not even the game folder, so I had to enter everything in the profile, then it didn't find the saves because it had to be the folder containing the save folder, then it didn't work. I exited, relaunched, and this time it worked. Oh well... ! Anyway just to say it works fine with wine.
In my current game (BG EE, Steam version) I dual-classed Imoen from Thief to Mage, saved and then wanted to use EEKeeper to add a kit to her.
My main character is a gnomish Fighter/Illusionist and Dynaheir an Invoker, so I thought to make Imoen a Thief/Necromancer or Thief/Enchanter.
However in EEKeeper in Imoens "Characteristics" tab the "kit" field is greyed out for her?
Edit: When I took a look at Jaheira to see what kit I could add to her it seems that every kit is listed in the menu when I klick the dropdownmenu including thief and monk kits despite her being a fighter/druid.
In my current game (BG EE, Steam version) I dual-classed Imoen from Thief to Mage, saved and then wanted to use EEKeeper to add a kit to her.
My main character is a gnomish Fighter/Illusionist and Dynaheir an Invoker, so I thought to make Imoen a Thief/Necromancer or Thief/Enchanter.
However in EEKeeper in Imoens "Characteristics" tab the "kit" field is greyed out for her?
Edit: When I took a look at Jaheira to see what kit I could add to her it seems that every kit is listed in the menu when I klick the dropdownmenu including thief and monk kits despite her being a fighter/druid.
You could probably "set value" manually, looking at another character (Jaheira for instance) what that value actually is. Unless that button is greyed out as well.
Note: If it has not changed since v2.3, adding a kit to the class you dual'd *to* will have some complications. It was hardcoded that you would not be able to dual *into* a kit. Probably as a consequence, if you add a kit using EEKeeper, every time you level you need to manually add the level's kit abilities, also using EEKeeper.
Ok so how do I set it up for BGT? I made a profile, chose root dir, and save folder with checked use custom save location. It read saves, but when I try to load them, EEKepper crashes.
Has anyone been able to change class to Shaman with EEKeeper (for NPCs or PCs)? When I change the class and zero everything out, I cannot level up as the next XP value is set at -1.
Yes, I can create PC shamans normally. The -1 value for next level only happens when I use eekeeper to change class. It happens on npcs and on the player character.
Yes, I can create PC shamans normally. The -1 value for next level only happens when I use eekeeper to change class. It happens on npcs and on the player character.
Hmm it happens to me to. I hadn't played a shaman yet (except for M'khin) but I switched Minsc to shaman in my current game and he gets the -1 value as well.
Maybe @Troodon80 has an idea, but in the meantime, what was your goal with the edits? Did you specifically want to change an existing NPC, or did you want a Charname-shaman of a race that normally can't choose shaman?
That is, unfortunately, not something I can help with at this time.
My own test got weirder though. Rolled a shaman, Irenicus actually killed me in the opening scene of SoA. Tried again, pressed escape to skip it, and my shaman had 0/1 HP, and the -1 at XP.
At this point I don't think our problems have actually anything to do with EEKeeper...
It's probably nothing to do with EEKeeper. I have found a thread where someone had a similar problem, and the cause of that instance was a conflict of the latest update with an incompatible xp cap remover. It only affected the shaman class however, likely because it was introduced with the update.
I am using the BG Tweakpack XP cap remover, if that makes a difference. I've attached a zip with the before/after class change. Viconia is the shaman in this case.
Unlike the barbarian and the wild mage, the shaman is listed as a completely new class. XP caps are listed in the .2da files per class.
The xp cap remover you (and me too) are using likely predates the new class, so the line for shaman is completely missing. Which confuses the game.
I solved it by manually editing the xpcap.2da and xplevel.2da files. If you don't have any other mods (or components) that change class-specific properties (think also spell progression and such) you can most likely safely edit the files I mentioned, and copy the info for the Sorcerer.
Ok, that works for me too! Also, thanks to you, I found that THACO isn't calculated correctly either in my install, so if you have the un-nerfed tables from BG2 Tweaks, you will need to edit thac0.2da as well.
I just found out the hard way that if you use this with Hexxat she loses her vampire abilities. On top of that a lot of the OH stuff is missing as well.
Comments
Spent almost a week trying different angles and I found something. I have a save...maybe 3 days earlier that works like normal...in fact all previous saves before a certain point work in EEkeeper.
Sooooo.... I'm thinking something actually happened IN the GAME that EEKeeper doesn't like, and EEkeeper corrupts the save. Without going through in depth, I kicked Ajantis off the team...leveled a while and recruited Yeslick. Basically since kicking Ajantis out, I can't mod with EEkeeper. Haven't added him back yet...thats my next test.
Any ideas what kind of things might have happened to cause something odd like this?
The last savegame that WORKED with EEKeeper and
The First savegame that won't work with EEKeeper
or
The last savegame that worked with EEkeeper and
One of the savegames EEKeeper seems to have "corrupted"(the first save that won't load, after saving in EEKeeper)
I think you want the later, but not sure.
By the way I'm running a version from GOG games with BGII Tweaks as my only mod.
Thanks again!
If there are examples of Keeper saving and not being able to re-open those save games, as well as examples of Keeper saving and not being able to load in-game (but still load in Keeper), then I could do with examples of both situations for comparison. :-)
Thanks again!
@TheMetaphysician, actually, after looking at the code properly, I was mistaken. The Turn Undead Level under the Miscellenaous tab is used. The effect state isn't used—it's not updated in-game.
The -2 is hardcoded for paladins.
How this works for a cleric is:
Character level + turn undead level = total turn undead level
How it works for a paladin is:
(Character level - 2) + turn undead level = total turn undead level
In both cases, if the level is below 0 before the bonus is applied, it will use 0 instead.
Now, in the case of the undead you're trying to turn, what happens here is this:
- A random roll of 1d4 is used. If any of the following are true at this point, then nothing happens:
- the roll is exactly 4;
- the character is immune to being turned;
- or the character is an ally.
- It takes the total turn undead level (obtained from above), and checks to see if it's higher than the undead character's level + random 1d4 roll + 5. If that fails, then;
- It takes the total turn undead level and checks to see if it's higher than the undead character's level + random 1d4 roll.
A skeleton at level 1 is nearby. You're a paladin at level 1, so you get -2 straight away. Your turn undead level is equal to (your level) 1 - (paladin penalty) 2 = -1. This converts to 0 since it's already below 0. Finally, the Turn Undead Level variable is added—let's say you set that at 10. Your total is now (0 + 10).The 1d4 roll is made, since it's random let's take 3 as an example. The undead's level is now 1 + 3 + 5. Your total of 10 is more than that and will either destroy the undead, or charm it (depending on whether your character is evil).
If that wasn't successful, it attempts the second check.
Let's say your Turn Undead Level is a total of 5 instead. That's 1 + 3 from the skeleton versus your 0 + 5, which causes the skeleton to run away from your paladin.
Now I'm wondering about my experiments that I did. I ran the experiments in the dwarven mines area early on in Siege of Dragonspear; I turned a group of undead with a level 7 cleric, with 0, 7, 15, and 25 in that Turn Undead Level entry. The turning always only destroyed the ghouls. It only caused fear in the Cold Wights, the Greater Ghast, and the Imbued Wights. It never destroyed them. I would have thought that if I added 25 to my Turn Undead level that I would have destroyed those undead instead of fearing them, right?
Now, that test had a lot of variables I didn't control for. One is that I changed the entry in EEKeeper, but didn't rest or anything before testing; maybe it needs resting to take effect (some things in EEKeeper do, I think). Another is that perhaps the trouble is that I ran the test in SoD. I wonder if they just don't allow destruction of some of their undead, just because you can't naturally reach a high enough level to do that in SoD. Maybe the test would go differently in BG2. Unfortunately I don't have any saves near undead in BG2 to run the test there.
If I run a 2 char party, and I want to add a 3rd char from a .chr or .cre file (That is not an Out Of Party Character) , would I be able to do that?
And if that 3rd was an Out Of Party Character, would I be able to do that?
My main character is a gnomish Fighter/Illusionist and Dynaheir an Invoker, so I thought to make Imoen a Thief/Necromancer or Thief/Enchanter.
However in EEKeeper in Imoens "Characteristics" tab the "kit" field is greyed out for her?
Edit: When I took a look at Jaheira to see what kit I could add to her it seems that every kit is listed in the menu when I klick the dropdownmenu including thief and monk kits despite her being a fighter/druid.
Note: If it has not changed since v2.3, adding a kit to the class you dual'd *to* will have some complications. It was hardcoded that you would not be able to dual *into* a kit. Probably as a consequence, if you add a kit using EEKeeper, every time you level you need to manually add the level's kit abilities, also using EEKeeper.
Does EEKeeper work with non-EE versions of the game?
It should work with Baldur's Gate II (Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal), but not with Icewind Dale or the first Baldur's Gate game.
Ok so how do I set it up for BGT? I made a profile, chose root dir, and save folder with checked use custom save location. It read saves, but when I try to load them, EEKepper crashes.
EDIT:
Seems like spell browser causes the crash.
Maybe @Troodon80 has an idea, but in the meantime, what was your goal with the edits? Did you specifically want to change an existing NPC, or did you want a Charname-shaman of a race that normally can't choose shaman?
My own test got weirder though. Rolled a shaman, Irenicus actually killed me in the opening scene of SoA. Tried again, pressed escape to skip it, and my shaman had 0/1 HP, and the -1 at XP.
At this point I don't think our problems have actually anything to do with EEKeeper...
Can one of you, @Sjerrie or @stewelement, upload save games before the edit and after the edit—so I can compare them?
Unlike the barbarian and the wild mage, the shaman is listed as a completely new class. XP caps are listed in the .2da files per class.
The xp cap remover you (and me too) are using likely predates the new class, so the line for shaman is completely missing. Which confuses the game.
I solved it by manually editing the xpcap.2da and xplevel.2da files. If you don't have any other mods (or components) that change class-specific properties (think also spell progression and such) you can most likely safely edit the files I mentioned, and copy the info for the Sorcerer.