10 replies to this topic

[Ba'alzamon]

Greetings. First time here. Played BG ages ago. Got BG2 from a friend when he was getting rid of stuff. Newb to BG2 and all this patching for it. Not newb to modding.in general.

I installed SoA and ToB. Patched. Applied BG2 Fixes. Applied bonus merchants. Applied David Gaider's Improved_so_and_so_ mods (except Ascension and Abazigal). Applied BG2 Tweaks.

Among possibly applicable BG2 Tweaks components I used are un-nerfed spell progression tables. I think I did apply Easy Spell Learning. Did not apply (95% sure of this) the Cast Spell from Scrolls at Char Level, Save Penalties for Spells at Higher Levels, or Remove Fatigue from Restoration components. If there's a log of installed components I can find i'd be happy to post it.

I loaded up my saved SoA game where I just came out of the starting dungeon and saved in the "poor" inn in the Promenade . My main character is a fighter(7)/illusionist(7), and I have Minsc, Jaheira at (7)/(8), and Yoshimo in party.

When I go to the spellbooks for either my main character or Jaheira, the spellbook shuffles through to the last page (Level 7 for Jeheira, Level 9 for my main). Once triggered, It does this almost instantly, and with a lot of page-turning swishing sounds. This seems to be triggered by nothing more than moving the mouse around (quickly?) over nothing in particular and/or waiting a few seconds. I have not pinpointed the exact trigger yet if there's one to find, but it does happen very consistently. Once it happens, I cannot view any previous pages, even though trying to go to them does play the page-turning sound. It's like whatever is happening goes into a repeating cycle to keep going to the last page. Exiting the spellbook to another scroll screen or back to the game, then going back to the spellbook seems to always reset this behaviour, until it starts happening again a few seconds later.

I can barely use my spellbook. It's completely broken. I could not find anything like this using search on forums, but I'm hoping I'm a blind wombat and the answer is known and out there. Please help. Thanks.



EDIT: I've found the trigger. It is simply: having the spellbook open for 5 seconds. hah.

Edited by Ba'alzamon, 18 February 2012 - 10:23 PM.

[Miloch]

When you say "Applied BG2 Fixes... Applied David Gaider's Improved_so_and_so_ mods" - which versions are you talking about? The latest are the mods installed via WeiDU, the BG2 Fixpack here (as opposed to Baldurdash) and the Gaider components on WeiDU.org (subcomponents of Ascension). Also, you want to install the latter before the former, due to some technical issues. If you installed the WeiDU mods, post the contents of your WeiDU.log. If you have non-WeiDU mods, it will be very difficult to troubleshoot anything.

[Ba'alzamon]

I downloaded BG2 Fixes from here, bonus merchants and David Gaider's mods from http://www.gamebansh...i/downloads.php , and BG2 Tweaks from here, installed in that order.

I do not see the merchant or Gaider's mods on WeiDU.org except for Ascension with optional Gaider components. Keep in mind I do NOT want the Ascension mod yet as I haven't tasted the vanilla ending yet. If the gamebanshee versions are not up to date, where can I get them? And can I just install those over and be confident the files will overwrite properly and completely without remnants from the gamebanshee versions? Do I need to uninstall Tweaks first and if so is there a simple option to do so in the installer? Or can I just reinstall Tweaks over everything once I've got the new versions of the others?

I kind of doubt the bonus merchants or Gaider Improved NPC mods have anything to do with this issue. I will follow any advice required, but of course (at your discretion, not mine. i know nothing) please don't suggest something like reinstalling the game to get rid of a mod that is very unlikely to have anything to do with it.

[Miloch]

You can install the "Harder Abazigal" etc. in Ascension-WeiDU without installing the main component (which is Ascension itself). And I thought the bonus merchants were either unnecessary (because most games already have them) or in BG2 Tweaks. In any case, you should install any non-WeiDU mods you want (if you really need them at all) before WeiDU mods. And you still need to post your WeiDU.log if you want troubleshooting help.

I doubt *any* mods would intentionally (or even unintentionally) cause an issue like this, but I don't know what would. Conceivably, it could be a keyboard/mouse issue, similar to getting a button stuck and thus paging your spellbook to the last page after a few seconds. But I really don't know, and there really isn't a lot else to go on here. Try switching out to a different mouse I guess, for starters. I have two different machines with different crappy mice and they both do things like this (wish my old Logitech laser mouse still worked).

[Ba'alzamon]

I asked for advice on getting my files to where you want them starting with what I had already, but didn't quite get it I think, so I went ahead with my own judgement. I simply installed the WeiDU Ascension components I wanted over top what I had (which the instructions say I can since I didn't have Ascension itself), then reapplied BG2 Tweaks, including the bonus merchants component to overwrite the GB version.

I have attached the WeiDU.log file (changed to .txt for upload) from my BGII-SoA folder. The line in the log that says "The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod" is untrue, as the re-installation of the BG2 Tweaks should come after the WeiDU Ascension stuff.

I tested the problem after doing this and it is still happening.

As for it having something to do with the mouse - no. My mouse has never presented problems. The game was working fine before applying the fixes/mods/tweaks. I have not changed my drivers or anything else to do with hardware (or anything at all) since before I installed the game. I will not be playing the game with any other mouse. If a mod broke my mouse functionality, then the mod is broken. Thus, not the problem and not a troubleshooting avenue I intend to indulge.

Thanks for taking the time to looking into it.

Attached Files

•  WeiDU.txt   10.32K   23 downloads

Edited by Ba'alzamon, 20 February 2012 - 11:51 PM.

[Kaeloree]

I don't usually comment on these sorts of things, but for someone who's looking for help, you're awfully quick to dismiss suggestions and advice from a community troubleshooting heavyweight.

[Dakk]

Ba'alzamon, on 20 February 2012 - 11:14 PM, said:

As for it having something to do with the mouse - no. My mouse has never presented problems. The game was working fine before applying the fixes/mods/tweaks. I have not changed my drivers or anything else to do with hardware (or anything at all) since before I installed the game. I will not be playing the game with any other mouse. If a mod broke my mouse functionality, then the mod is broken. Thus, not the problem and not a troubleshooting avenue I intend to indulge.

It's called troubleshooting. And it's used to rule out different causes of a given error. But you're not willing to try it, because if that's the problem then.. uh.. count zero interrupt.

[Adanedhel]

Ba'alzamon, on 20 February 2012 - 11:14 PM, said:

I have attached the WeiDU.log file (changed to .txt for upload) from my BGII-SoA folder. The line in the log that says "The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod" is untrue, as the re-installation of the BG2 Tweaks should come after the WeiDU Ascension stuff.

It's actually right, if you chose to re-install bg2 tweaks components it reinstalled everything that was installed after it, in the same order, to avoid breaking stuff, that's how WeiDu does it. To change the install order if needed, you have to uninstall the mod entirely, close the setup window and launch it again (might even have to delete the setup-modname.debug file before, I'm not sure.)

As for your spellbook issue I have never experienced that even in heavily modded games, though I have never used Ascension-WeiDu but I doubt that would be the cause.

Quote

you're awfully quick to dismiss suggestions and advice from a community troubleshooting heavyweight.

[Ba'alzamon]

Dakk, on 21 February 2012 - 05:12 AM, said:

It's called troubleshooting. And it's used to rule out different causes of a given error. But you're not willing to try it, because if that's the problem then.. uh.. count zero interrupt.

You are right, of course. Troubleshooting is a process of elimination. I was not rejecting it as a process, only as a solution. I will simply not be changing the mouse I use on my computer. But if it helps find another solution, such as fixing some code, I'm for it. If I had a spare mouse it wouldn't be a problem whatsoever. But I didn't, and that makes it complicated.

Spending $30 on it and bus fare, I went out and got a new mouse. Tried it out. Uninstalled my old drivers and installed the ones for the new mouse. No change. Problem still persists. As I mentioned before, it happens automatically after a time delay, with no mouse involvement (that was only an initial reaction without careful observation, and I wish I hadn't mentioned it!).

I have more than just basic understanding of computers, scripts, etc, and am observant, logical and discerning. And without making a video of what I'm seeing on screen, giving you full details about my computer and setup, and so on, I have a better understanding of "what" is going on and what is not going on than I can describe to you in a simple post. Even if I don't fully understand "why" it's happening I can make observations and tests. The process of elimination can also be indirect. I felt confident in dismissing the suggestion based on my judgement and knowledge, the expense it would mean to me, and since changing my mouse each time I played the game would never be a solution. I didn't simply blow off advice. I made a calculated judgement call.

I don't mean to be rude or uncooperative. You are not my adversaries and you have no obligation to help, yet do so. But I now spent money on something I don't really need. Returning it will cost me even more time and money. I feel justified in being upset about jumping through that tedious hoop, and so yes I'm having a mini-rant to get over it. It's done, over. If $30 and wasted time is the price of continued support, then so be it. It's not inconsequential to me, but it doesn't even twinkle in the same universe as what you guys put into creating this stuff. So what's next?

If there's nothing else to try before drastic measures, I will uninstall whatever mods I can via the installers and see if I can narrow things down before reverting back to vanilla. If it still doesn't work then I will reinstall everything fresh this weekend. My interest is in getting my game working, but if you want to positively identify why this happened in interest of others I'll be a lab rat for a bit. I'm of the curious sort.

Adanedhel, on 21 February 2012 - 06:56 AM, said:

It's actually right, if you chose to re-install bg2 tweaks components it reinstalled everything that was installed after it, in the same order, to avoid breaking stuff, that's how WeiDu does it. To change the install order if needed, you have to uninstall the mod entirely, close the setup window and launch it again (might even have to delete the setup-modname.debug file before, I'm not sure.)

That makes sense. Then WeiDU must be a full mod-manager integrated into the cmd line installer, and included in the BG2 Tweaks too. I thought it was a separate application found on the WeiDU site like some mod-managers are for other games, and that these mods were just "compatible" with it. But when the logfile was updated after reinstalling the Tweaks I started wondering. Thanks for the info. I'll fix it up.

[Ba'alzamon]

This is resolved, it seems. I tried uninstalling mods one by one, checking by creating a new game and seeing how the spellbook reacted. No change even with all WeiDU mods removed. After making sure my home windows were all shut and it wasn't the wind blowing the pages around (I've read in parks enough to have experience with this!), I reinstalled the game. It still happened even without reinstalling mods.

So I nuked everything: Uninstalled the game, manually deleted everything in the game folder, then reinstalled, and while I was at it I reinstalled all my drivers for video, sound, mouse, keyboard (not updates as I have old hardware and already had the latest versions for all and had to manually uninstall/reinstall each), defragged and did a disk check, practiced some shadowboxing, vaccummed my case, re-inserted my RAM and cables, and made a delicious toasted tomato sandwich which I had with a glass of milk. Reinstalled the game, ToB, and the patch. It works! I've installed Fixes and Ascension so far but haven't tested with a new game yet. Carefully selecting some other mods I want to have and making sure they are WeiDU, compatible, and installed in order before I start playing.

I don't know if it was remnants of broken mods/bad installs left over, or if anything is stored elsewhere than BG2-SoA folder like some games do for custom content and settings, or if it was hardware/driver related afterall. Not the mouse, but maybe the keyboard? Didn't change the equipment, and retained the same version drivers... but maybe some wonky bad install of a driver that never affected anything else I ever did on my computer? Can that even happen without other noticeable effects? Anything is possible I suppose, but the behaviour seemed like a broken script to me. Too many posibilities and impossible to pinpoint now unless it happens again.

Sorry if I sounded like a prick before. I wanted to delete half of it a short while later but couldn't edit anymore. I know there's smart people to help here. But I'm a smart person trying to help myself too. Discounting my observations when they nullify someone else's observations simply because I'm the one asking for help and they're a "known" expert, even though I'm the one with his hands in the clay, is aggrevating especially when I'm left with the bill. On the otherhand, you might see it the other way around from where you sit. And maybe I was having a bad day.

G'day everyone!

[Miloch]

Frankly, I don't know how a mod could even script something like paging a spellbook. It could add all sorts of spells, possibly even disable the GUI. But it does sound like what I suggested - a mouse or keyboard glitch of some sort. I didn't tell you to go out and buy new hardware either, but sometimes unplugging and plugging stuff in does help, or reinstalling drivers, particularly for something like this when it's practically the only conceivable culprit. Anyway, glad it works for you now.