File manipulation, EXP caps, and from BG1 into BG2

Chapter 12: File manipulation, EXP caps, and from BG1 into BG2

The first type of file manipulation I got interested in was adding custom portraits to my game. There are several sources for these online: I've listed all the good ones that I could find in Appendix 2: Links. Each site will let you either A) Download or copy their bitmap files, B) Download their zipped bitmap files (you'll have to use PKUNZIP or something once you've downloaded the file), or C) Download or copy their *.jpg files, which you'll have to convert into *.bmp files with any decent graphics editor. You can also create your own portraits if you want: Just take a good piece of fantasy art, crop a "head-&-shoulders area" out of it, and make sure it's exactly 170 pixels tall by 110 pixels wide. Save it in bitmap format, as xxxxxxxL.bmp, and then resize it to make a smaller version, 38 x 60 pixels, and save that as xxxxxxxS.bmp (the first 7 letters

must match the large version). Put both bitmaps into the Portraits directory (you'll have to create it�make sure you capitalize the P) of your Baldur's Gate directory (BG1 and BG2 will each need their own Portraits folder). Now, when you're in the game and choosing a picture for a new character, just hit the "Custom" button to access the files in the Portraits folder. I discovered an interesting side effect of this when I decided a picture I found really reminded me of Imoen�so I named the files ImoenL.bmp and ImoenS.bmp. Then, when I started the game again, Imoen was using the new picture! Naming your portaits after recruitable NPCs will override the ones the NPCs normally use. Cool, especially in Coran's case, because the portrait he's usually stuck with is hideous (right). Coran has 16 Charisma, meaing he's supposed to be a rather handsome fella, and THIS is what he gets for a picture? Yechh.

The counterparts to custom portraits are custom voices. Again, I've listed what I could find in Appendix 2. There are some good ones out there, including a *.zip file containing the full sound files for all of the BG1 NPCs, and also Kris Johnstone's site, which has some very nice custom soundsets: I particularly liked the ones for the Dwarf, Gnome, Mage, and Alcoholic Bard (The originality put into these is phenomenal�the Mage has a gap between his teeth, and usually whistles when he says the letter S). Once you have the files, unzip anything that needs unzipping, and put all the *.wav files into the Sounds directory. You can now choose your new voice when creating a new character.

There are also custom items that you can download; a site called Arundor's Abode has tons of these. They're of varying cheesiness; some are perfectly ok (A helmet that's only usable by true-class Thieves, which grants +1 DEX to the wearer), and some are incredibly munchkin (a ring that messes with the enemies' AI, so that none of them will attack you�ever).

There's some fun stuff in there: Lightsabers (available in red, blue and green), a Bow that fires Magic Missiles instead of arrows, and a pair of Orc Poo Boots were some of the memorable ones. If you do decide to use these custom items, try to choose ones that are about as good as the items your party already has.

And then there are MODs. MODs are additions and modifications to the existing game, and take a variety of forms: I've seen brand-new NPCs, new Storekeepers in unexpected places (selling all-custom items), new types of monsters, even entirely new map areas. The three most popular mods are probably Dark Side of the Sword Coast (an add-on to BG1/ToSC), The Darkest Day (for BG2:SoA) and

Ascension (for ToB). I can't give my opinions on them because I've never downloaded them, but they must be at least pretty good or I wouldn't have heard people talking about them so much. There seem to be a lot of MODs for new NPCs in BG2, because the selection in BG2 is very skimpy, compared to BG1, and also, BG2 suddenly opened up a huge array of character choices (what with all the new classes and kits), and hardly any of them were taken by the BG2 NPCs. A rather popular MOD is the Grandmastery Patch I mentioned in Chapter 7. Putting 5 stars into a weapon is one of the rare instances where the BG series does not conform to AD&D rules: According to the handbook, a Fighter is supposed to get more benefits than one more point of damage and a slightly faster strike when he's put the maximum amount of proficiency into a weapon. Several AD&D players didn't like the way BG 'watered down' the rule, and created the Grandmastery Patch to restore the factor that makes Single- and Dual-classed Fighters unique.

One very valuable MOD is the Bonus Merchants MOD, which adds 2 new merchants to BG2: Deidre in the Adventurer's Mart, and Joluv in the Copper Coronet, both of whom stock some pretty nice gear. Now, most MODs are somewhat dubious in origin, having been made by anybody who knows how to use the Infinity Explorer Editor or WeiDU, or a few other tools to write stuff for the Infinity Engine (the base upon which the BG series was designed). But the Bonus Merchants are perfectly legitimate, having been made by BioWare themselves. It is intended, and recommended, for download and use on your PC. There are also some other very dependable groups out there: TeamBG, Dave Gaider, BaldurDash (Kevin Dorner), and Westley Weimer are all names to trust. Download the Bonus Merchants. Do it. Do it now.

There's another official download for that we wish there was no need for: Patches. There are a bunch of minor bugs, and a few major ones, in BG2, and some others scattered around the rest of the BG series. As with most games, the designers didn't have time to fix the bugs until after the product was already out the door. Hence, patches. I never found them absolutely necessary, but I probably would have downloaded the BG2/ToB patches

One example of BG2's
all-too-frequent bugs. (More common in foreign versions of the game? I wouldn't know.)

if I'd had the time. BG1 never gave me any trouble, so I never bothered to download a thing for that game. But for BG2 onward, you should probably do these steps:
1) Install the game itself (Whether it's BG1, ToSC, BG2, or ToB).
2) Download & install the official patch for that game.
3) Download & install the BaldurDash patch(es).
There is also a good MOD out there that does some serious "patchwork" as well: The Nalia MOD makes your character interactions with an NPC named Nalia more interesting and varied, adds some new subquests to the game, and spruces up some others. For example: In the original conception of BG2, there was supposed to be a connecting thread between the Twisted Rune, the Guarded Compound, the Slaver Ship, and the Skinner murders. But the development of BG2 was so rushed that several quests were never implemented (you never hear about Haer'Dalis being framed for murder, for instance), and several others were left unfinished. The "connecting thread" I mentioned was one of the things put off until the last minute, and it never got done. All you see in the official release of the game is a bunch of quests that, for some reason, refer to each

other: Investigate the Skinner murders, and you'll be jumped by some folks called Rune Assassins. One of the things that the Nalia MOD does is sew part of that lost thread back in: There is now a tangible link that can lead you from the Slave Lords to the Twisted Rune. (As for MODs that take up the rest of BioWare's slack, we can only hope.) Another important reason for patching: In BG2, all of the NPCs have much more defined personalities, and some will carry on complex relationships with you, remembering if you speak politely to them, and getting their feelings hurt if you're rude or boot them from the party. One of the NPCs, a Druid, has a complex, lengthy interaction that you will not be able to finish�the scripting is so incredibly buggy you won't even get halfway through it, unless you download the official patch. Why the hell they let the product get out the door with this many bugs is beyond me.

And now we come to the most popular form of file manipulation: The Multiplayer trick. If you've been playing any game in the BG series for a while, you've wished you didn't have to deal with the NPCs the game gives you, with their Alignment problems, emotional baggage, and stats that are lower than yours. You want to form a party of 6 people, all entirely created by you. Well, you can. Open up Multiplayer, start a new game, and assign control of all 6 characters to yourself. Roll 'em up and start that game. Now, Multiplayer games load somewhat slower than Single Player, and they also have an irritating text bar at the bottom (for chatting) that eats up some screen space. Well, save your game, and then Alt-Tab back out to Windows. Move the file you just saved from the 'mpsave' [Multiplayer] folder into the 'save' [Single Player] folder. Go back into the game, exit Multiplayer, start up Single player, and load that game. Shazam! You now have complete control over a party of 6 characters you rolled yourself, in a Single Player game that is otherwise completely normal. I firmly believe that far more people use Multiplayer to roll more than 1 character in the same game than they do to actually play over the Net. Now, the drawback to this is that you don't get the fun party interaction and conversations that arise in true Single Player games, but that's the tradeoff: Powergaming vs. Roleplaying.
Now, in BG1, your Multiplayer NPCs will not care about Reputation and will never leave the party. If you kick them out, they will always stay right there to wait for you. In BG2, however, a Multiplayer NPC who gets booted from the party will always wander off and never come back. So don't expect a big Mix & Match party between you and the existing NPCs.

One more type of file manipulation is downloading and running Experience Cap removers. The one I used was a popular program called Capkill. I installed it to my Baldur's Gate directory, ran it, and from then on I was able to have my characters keep gaining EXP (and levels) after they'd passed BG1's EXP cap. The cap got put back on after I intalled ToSC, though, and running Capkill again didn't seem to work. There may be EXP cap removers for BG2 as well, but frankly BG2 and ToB have EXP caps so high that I don't even care about removing them.

EXP caps are limits set by the designers, to keep characters from gaining too many levels and becoming so powerful that by the end of the game, the final battle is ridiculously easy. I don't mind this; what I do

mind is that the cap for BG1 is so dang low. A methodical player who likes to go everywhere, talk to everyone, and collect every item can easily have all of his party members at the EXP cap with about 40% of the game left to be played. What's he supposed to do then, play the 2nd half of the game with characters that can never get any better? No thanks. Installing ToSC improves matters tremendously, though: It adds about 10% more playable areas and 15% more experience to earn, but almost doubles the EXP cap. So if you like to go do everything, your full party of 6 will still hit the cap, but you'll be a lot closer to the end of the game when it happens. BG2 is proportioned approximately the same way�you'll probably hit the SoA cap with about 10-15% of SoA left to go. And ToB? I've only beaten ToB once, but even by the time we got to the Final Battle, none of my party had hit ToB's EXP cap yet, and I don't think we left any stones unturned. (Well, except for the very final battle of Watcher's Keep, which I didn't attempt because of roleplaying reasons.) The caps for each game are:

BG1:		89,000 EXP
BG1 with ToSC:		161,000 EXP
BG2:SoA:		2,950,000 EXP
BG2 with ToB:		8,000,000 EXP
ToB:		8,000,000 EXP

Single-class characters will gain experience normally throughout the game, but will come to a screeching halt when they hit the cap, and will be unable to progress to higher experience levels. Multi-class characters will, as usual, split all gained experience equally between their classes: A Multiclass with 2 classes (such as Fighter/Cleric) will have 80,500 points in each class at the end of BG1/ToSC, and a Multiclass with 3 classes (such as Fighter/Thief/Mage) will have 53,667 points in each class. Many people think that they can take a Human Fighter, get him all the way up to the EXP

cap, then Dual him to Thief, and get him all the way up to the EXP cap again. This is not the case. The EXP cap applies to a Dual-classed character's total experience, not to each half. So, if you took your Cleric to Level 6, with 34,812 EXP points, and then Dualed to Mage, the game would round down your EXP to the bare minimum required for a Level 6 Cleric�27,500. You now have 0 EXP as a Mage, and you will hit your limit when your Cleric half (27,500), plus your Mage half, equals the EXP cap for your game.

Which brings us to the final point of this chapter: The transition from BG1 to BG2. Before you play BG2, you should watch the movie Time Bandits, directed by Terry Gilliam (yes, the guy from Monty Python). Try to get the uncut version, if possible; the edited-for-TV copy has a huge gap in the second half of the film: First we're all in a ship in the middle of the ocean, then when we get back from a commercial break we're in the middle of a desert. Kinda disconcerting, really.

When you beat BG1, the game will automatically go through your party, and Export a Character file (*.CHR file) for each party member that you created. Your PC and any Multiplayer NPCs will be Exported, existing NPCs cannot. (If you choose to progress to BG2 without beating BG1, you'll just have to Export your character(s) yourself�which is really easy, just go to your Record screen.)

Once you have your Exported *.CHR file(s) in your metaphysical little hand, just copy them from the Characters folder of your BG1 directory to the matching folder in your BG2 directory. Now, open up BG2, and start a New Game. In Character Creation, you can either roll a brand-new character, or Import an existing one.

If your Character:	You will start with:
1-Was rolled in BG2	89,000 EXP
2-Is from BG1 without ToSC	89,000 EXP
3-Is from BG1/ToSC, with 89,000-161,000 EXP	Exactly that amount of EXP (never less than 89,000)
4-Is from BG1/ToSC, with more than 161,000 EXP	161,000 EXP

Your gender, race, class, stats, and alignment will all transfer automatically, but you get to make some changes if you want: You have the option of choosing a kit for your character (unless you're Multiclassed), and you get to rearrange your weapon proficiencies and Thieving skills any way you want. Even if you never used any weapon but a Bastard Sword in BG1, you can go up to Grandmastery in Sling if you really want to. If you're a Mage or Bard, your spellbook will (sob!) be erased, but not completely: You will be allowed to choose up to 6 spells of each spell level to put in your new Spellbook. Don't worry, you find lots of scrolls to copy, and you'll earn EXP for the party when you transcribe them. You'll find that some of the spells are a bit different in BG2, and one spell�Dimension Door�is gone entirely. (Well, you'll never find a scroll of it, but you'll see enemies casting it all the time. Damn them.) You can also play with your hair & skin color again if you want, and give your character a new name (In case you decided "Lord Scrotum" wasn't such a good name after all).

Now, the bad news, and I mean really bad�when you start out in BG1, you will be stripped of all your items. Read it and weep; No matter how well armed, fully armored, and bedecked with jewels you were at the last battle of BG1, you start out BG2 buck naked and a pauper. ("Alms! Alms for the poor!") Look at it this way: A newly-rolled character has to face exactly the same challenges and dangers you do, and it would be horrifically unfair if you got to keep all your weapons, gold, and armor, and he got diddly-squat. So, you both get diddly-squat. Don't worry�there's plenty of excellent gear out there, whether you steal it, buy it, or loot it, and a lot of it's pretty damn cool. Just pay a visit to Ribald Barterman, who runs the Adventurer's Mart in Waukeen's Promenade. He's got some goodies that'll make your mouth water. Also, almost all of the BG1 items you know and love are back in BG2�a

couple of Cloaks were deemed unfit to stay in the game, but I can't think of anything else of importance that got left behind.

More bad news: The 'paper dolls' in the Inventory screen were changed�for the worse. Here, picture in your mind the way your paper doll looked when you were a Human Fighter in BG1. Now, take that image and put it in the washing machine. Take it out when it's halfway through the Spin cycle, and wring it out as hard as you can. Now drop it into a wet heap on the concrete floor of the laundry room to dry. Three days later, come back and put it on. That's what the Inventory screen looks like in BG2. Not only that, but Elves look ridiculous: In BG1, you were a truly bad-ass Half-Elven Ranger, with 19 Strength and a pure powerhouse of brawling Tankitude. Now in BG2, you look like you're made of toothpicks and rubber bands, and about as physically intimidating as oh, say, Ally McBeal. Gnomes have to put up with stupid-looking little goatee beards.

A few spells and items are different in BG2, most notably a pair of Wands. The Wand of Frost now casts Cone of Cold, a fan-shaped discharge that spreads outward from the caster in a broad wedge, dealing cold damage to all creatures in its path. And the Wand of Lightning now fires six bolts, each with less range and power than the Lightning Bolt spell, but you get to choose a separate target for each mini-Bolt, or concentrate them all on 1 target if you prefer.

One of the more important differences, combat-wise, of BG2 is that you're no longer allowed to have more than 5 Summoned creatures at a time. *Sigh* Goodbye to those carefree days of BG1, when you could have half the screen filled with Gnolls and Skeletons, now you're limited to 5. On the flip side, though, you can get some really nice Summons�like Wyverns and Nishruu. Also, be sure you don't leave any Summoned creatures behind�If you summon 5 Skeleton Warriors for a big fight, and 1 of them survives, you'd better kill that last one yourself before you leave. Otherwise, it'll still count against your Summon limit, long after its spell should have expired. You could be in another fight on the other side of the map, and you'd only be able to Summon four creatures. So, you have to remember where that Skeleton Warrior is and go back, and as soon as you enter the area where you spawned him, you'll see the message: "Skeleton Warrior- Unsummoned" and you're back to being able to spawn 5 at once

again. The same problem happens with Summoned creatures that get hit with the spell Imprisonment: They're in suspended animation, sealed into a small bubble deep within the earth's mantle, but they're not actually dead, so they still count against your summon limit. You can either A) Reload, and don't let anybody get Imprisoned (which would be my first choice), or B) Cast the 9th-Level spell Freedom, and release everyone who's been Imprisoned in the vicinity.

Everybody's walking speed is about 50% faster in BG2�kinda odd at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly. Then I opened BG1 back up and was surprised (and annoyed) that my guys were walking so slowly.

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