Emp problem?

[Werdna]

I just found this program and i think it's great, i'm using it to run BG on a windows XP machine.
I don't know if this is a bug or just something i missed, but the emps don't want to give me the wisp whistle. I went and talked to the woodcutter and he signed the contract and i gave it to Salamon (or something) and then talked to Saralek to get her permission. As expected, she told me that she wouldn't give her permission, but i didn't get the option to tell her i wanted Trellek se he could talk to the Wisps. And i couldn't get the whistle from Trellek either. And when i go back to Salamon he says he wants the signed contract back, even though i just gave it to him...?
Is there someone else besides the gypsy you're supposed to talk to about the Time Lord and the Wisps?
Is there a character editor that works with Exult, because the Create Item cheat doesn't. I need that whistle...

[drcode]

I played through this about a week ago, but don't remember all the details. Seemed like I had to go back and forth between the females once or twice.

If you hit ctrl-B to get into the item browser, then go to shape 693 (the whistle), then Esc to exit, then hit Insert, it should get created in your packpack.

[Werdna]

I restarted and found out i forgot to talk to the monk at the abbey. That was probably it.
So you have to go through the item browser first... i didn't get that from the documentation. Thanks!

[DemonKnight]

I dont see why it would be a problem if you didnt talk to the monk first. All he does is say the emps like honey, and gives you a smoke bomb.

[Andrea B Previtera]

A smoke bomb is a smoke bomb is a smoke bomb

[Dominus]

demon: for some flags to be set you need to do things in a certain order. or else how would you know that the emps like honey?

[artaxerxes]

and you can't initiate conversation with him about Emp until you talked to the gypsies from to Minoc (IIRC).
THAT drove my CRAZY when I first played the game since I did not talk to the gypsies and I _knew_ I had to talk to the monk but I couldn't do it.

artaxerxes

[SB-X]

How did you know you had to talk to the monk? How did you know you had to see the Emps? A walkthrough?

[DemonKnight]

Dominus: well, if you do not have the honey in the first place, the emps will ignore you, and from what werdna said, werdna was clearly talking to the emps

[Werdna]

I've played the game lots of times so i knew what to do. I just didn't know it was necessary to talk to the monk. I did know about the gypsy though, and i talked to her. But i couldnt actually find the monk so i just went and picked up the honey...

[Dominus]

Demon: sure but the question still stands, how do you know about the honey if you had not talked to the monk...
This is strictly talking about how the game works, not about what you know from previous runs or walkthroughs.

[artaxerxes]

I saw my brother playing and I saw him talking about Emps with the monk (but I did not see him talking to the gypsies)!.

Artaxerxes

[drcode]

I guess this shows the danger of relying on walkthroughs:-) I remember having a similar problem in Bucaneer's Den, where I couldn't get the right conversation until I'd gone back to Minoc to talk to someone.

[DemonKnight]

Dominus: I already completed the game without a walkthrough, and i also tried it again on one of my savegames, and i did not need to talk to the monk to get the wisp whistle

[Werdna]

Ok, so it isn't necessary to talk to the monk. The bug must have been due to something else. I never talked to anyone about the honey, i just picked some up in the cave and took it to the emps. So you don't have to know that you have to do that.
I started a new game and reproduced this bug. I turned on the cheats and teleported to bee cave as soon as the game started, picked up some honey and talked to the emps. I never got the option to ask Trellek to join. So i borrowed some money from the Mint and talked to the gypsy. Now i could ask Trellek to join. I got the permissions from Salamon by doing the logger-quest, and then the bug occured with Saralek. I did not get the option to say i wanted Trellek so i could talk to the wisps, and i can't ask her permission again. If i go back to Salamon he says something like "The signed contract must be seen by me" even though i gave it to him. So now it's impossible to get the whistle. I also went and talked to the monks before the emps and that didn't work either. I also tried talking to Penumbra, Alagner and Nicodemus but it didn't work and noone said anything about the Time Lord or wisps, the gypsy is the only one i can think of that mentions them. When i played the game a second time i didn't have the problem, but i don't know who it was i talked to that i didn't talk to before. If someone wants to hunt down this error i could send a savegame or two.

[drcode]

It's okay, as it sounds like the error would be in the scripting (usecode) which is part of the data that comes with the game.

[wjp]

I could disassemble the code in question and check which flags exactly are responsible. I might take a look this weekend. Could you mail your savegames to me?

[Werdna]

Done. Good luck!

[wjp]

Ok, here are the results of my research:

Talking to the gypsy fortune teller will set flag 0x100.

If you have flag 0x100 set while talking to Taylor about the fauna, he will give the 'wisps' option. Asking about 'wisps' will set flag 0x138.

After you obtained Salamon's permission and talk to Saralek about this, flag 0x158 is set. If flag 0x138 is set at that point, you can tell her that you wanted Trellek to join to talk to the wisps. At that point flag 0x155 is set.

Finally, if flags 0x138, 0x155 and 0x158 are set and 0x156 is unset you can talk to Trellek about "Saralek's idea", which will produce the whistle and set flag 0x156.



I think the critical point where this can 'break' is if you talk to Saralek about Salamon's permission without having flag 0x138 set, since you can select this conversation path once. (The option is only given is flag 0x158 is unset, and flag 0x158 is set as soon as you select the option.)

[Werdna]

Ah. So it is necessary to speak to Taylor the Monk. Wont make that mistake again....