Posted by: Cal Jones
« on: September 14, 2008, 10:57:26 AM »
Quite a few games now, I've had the same problem after recruiting Balthazar to my side. The Solar talks to him and Imoen about giving up their taint, and then it's the PC's turn. At the point where the various NPCs give you their opinions on what you should do, Balthazar's dialogue loops. There is no way to get out of it other than to hit the Window key to get to desktop and close the BG2 client from the task bar. The only way I can finish the game is to revert to an earlier save and kill Balthazar instead of getting him to join forces (which is a shame as I prefer to recruit him).
There seems to be no rhyme or reason to when it happens. I am usually quite sparing with the amount of mods I'll install for a particular runthrough: typically it's an NPC romance, one or two elements of UB and perhaps some additional quest stuff for SoA.
This is the log of the current game I failed to finish with Balthazar:
// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod
// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]
~SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #0 // Ascension v1.41 (requires ToB)
~SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #3 // Tougher Gromnir (optional, requires ToB)
~SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #4 // Tougher Illasera (optional, requires ToB)
~SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #1 // The Suna Seni/Valygar Relationship
~SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #2 // Kalah and What He Was Promised
~SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #7 // Restored Encounters
~SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #9 // Corrected "Xzar's Creations"
~SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #15 // NPC Portrait Restorations
~SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #17 // Corrected Character Names and Biographies
~SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #22 // Justifier Kit
~XAN/SETUP-XAN.TP2~ #0 #0 // Xan NPC MOD for Baldur's Gate II, v7
~XAN/SETUP-XAN.TP2~ #0 #3 // Install alternate class for Xan? -> Change Xan's class to Sorcerer
~XAN/SETUP-XAN.TP2~ #0 #5 // BG1-style flaming swords
~DC/SETUP-DC.TP2~ #0 #0 // Dungeon Crawl, v4
~RE/SETUP-RE.TP2~ #0 #48 // Bravery or Folly? by Aeryn (Sarevok, adult content)
~RE/SETUP-RE.TP2~ #0 #50 // Cernick's Confession, by Cal Jones
I've had it fail with other installs as well which didn't include any of the mods above (save Ascenion, obviously) so I'm a bit mystified. I am wondering if it Balthazar has "issues" with mod NPC romances since your partner gets to speak their line before Balthazar. I've had the problem occur whilst romancing Edwin (twice) and Kelsey (I don't remember if it happened with Angelo - I don't think it did, but it's a while ago now. I did not get the bug when I had Turnabout installed).
For the record, I do a clean install each runthrough (using the backup method) and always install Ascension first.