King of Shadows Fight: Portal Bug (Spoilers)

McLarenJAB · Post by **McLarenJAB** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 3:39 am

Hi. I've been grappling with a bug in the King of Shadows fight. I almost completed the original campaign once before, but crashed out just before getting to Merdelain, and my previous save was hours before so I abandoned it in frustration; having played through the whole campaign again it's a bit annoying to encounter a gamebreaker immediately before the final fight.

So the problem is this: I've killed Garius and the traitors, but when I did so there was no cutscene (from what I can tell, having looked at the scripts, there was meant to be), and now when I click on the portal - either the big glowy bit or the separate object underneath it (they have different scripts associated with them) - to use it, nothing happens.

All companions were present, I lost Neeshka and Qara. Upon asking the game for the value of the STATE_KOS_BATTLE variable, it returned 0. I'm a bit of a layman, so I'm not totally sure what I'm doing, but I've tried a few things that seemed like they might help - I executed a few scripts associated with the portal and Garius's death using the console, forced STATE_KOS_BATTLE to 15 (which seems to be required for one of the scripts), but none of this seems to help. Since my last autosave is at Shandra's Farm (from going to fetch Ammon Jerro before the battle at Crossroad Keep), I'm rather keen to solve the problem rather than go back to that.

Does anyone have any idea what might have failed to trigger? Any clues about what might be wrong? I'm sure this can be solved by setting a few variables and executing a few scripts using the console, I just can't work out, with my limited knowledge, which ones.

I really wish the "Save early and save often" tip had included the warning, "No, seriously, this game is riddled with bugs. Save every time you're about to leave a room."

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 4:56 pm

McLarenJAB wrote:
I really wish the "Save early and save often" tip had included the warning, "No, seriously, this game is riddled with bugs. Save every time you're about to leave a room."

:laugh:

Actually I've not found it to be that buggy. The worst part seems to come from an earlier bug corrupting the rest of the game (..and your not always sure what the corruption will be), and or a modification doing the same (..and this includes using certain console commands).

The walkthough says you have to click on #3 (center portal) to activate the start of the battle. It sounds like you have already done that..

Obviously it's got spoilers:

Neverwinter Nights 2 @ GameBanshee

Have you tried left clicking and right clicking on the portal?

Have you tried resting before clicking? (..in that if you can't rest then usually there is something that needs to be killed.) THAT would be my guess, that something (either companion or monster) got behind the gate that you entered to get into the inner sanctum. Because of that I'd recommend going to that gate an opening it back up and seeing if something is there that needs to be dealt with.

McLarenJAB · Post by **McLarenJAB** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:06 am

Yeah, I've clicked the portal, I rested after the fight, and I've been all over the place looking for anything that might be preventing something from triggering. I've done just about everything conceivable to the portal, and the 'portal' (stone circle underneath the portal that also has scripts associated with it) underneath it, but alas, to no avail. I just tried again to double check, same problem.

When I was trying to fix it using the console, I quit without saving when it didn't work in case I'd only done more damage. I did try to use the console to fix a previous bug (in Neeshka's quest, the Leldon fight was broken), but I did the same thing then.

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 2:44 pm

McLarenJAB wrote:Yeah, I've clicked the portal, I rested after the fight, and I've been all over the place looking for anything that might be preventing something from triggering. I've done just about everything conceivable to the portal, and the 'portal' (stone circle underneath the portal that also has scripts associated with it) underneath it, but alas, to no avail. I just tried again to double check, same problem.

When I was trying to fix it using the console, I quit without saving when it didn't work in case I'd only done more damage. I did try to use the console to fix a previous bug (in Neeshka's quest, the Leldon fight was broken), but I did the same thing then.

Bummer.

The one time I had problems with King of Shadows portal activation - it was because a wraith (or something) was in the room (behind the door) that you entered into the inner sanctum room.

If you had problems with the Leldon fight then you probably had an earlier corruption. (..the most common of which stems from walking off of any map with a familiar or animal companion.)

Of course IF you had an earlier corruption then pretty much anything goes as far as strange bug's "cropping-up" along the way.

If I were in your position I'd give-up on that game, and don't come back to NWN2 (OC) for about 3 or more months. When (or if) you do come back to it I'd specifically recommend:

1. A class or class combination very different from what you have played currently, and
2. A different alignment for role-playing, and
3. Using different companions than you have (generally).

It tends to make the game at least a bit different.

Of course obviously making sure that with each companion you pick-up for that new game that you turn off their ability to auto summon familiars and companions, and making sure that if any are on a "map" that you have them all un-summoned before leaving the map. Also, make a lot of saves and keep them. In particular I recommend saving before each "level-up" 1-20 saves *minimum* (in addition to auto saves or saves before leaving any map). Finally, NEVER using the console. This is what I've done through most of my NWN2 games - and as a result I've generally not had problems (except poor AI and path-finding).

If you have MOTB and have not played a sorcerer then I'd suggest this build:
Sorcerer - OC Build (with MOTB conventions). | NWN2 Character Builder

In fact if you do have MOTB - consider starting your OC game at the end (as far as you have progressed), and *export* your character so you can play that character with it's better items in MOTB (..assuming you have some items with specialized enchantments). (..though note that weapons won't export to MOTB, nor will any item in you inventory slots that aren't equipped.)

McLarenJAB · Post by **McLarenJAB** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 2:53 pm

Augh, this is actually the second time I've tried to play through the OC, like I said. I got a crash the first time that set me back hours and gave up in frustration, just before Merdelain. Maybe one day I'll be able to play it through to the end... -__-

First time I played a fighter, this time a rogue/shadow thief. May try a sorceror next time, I always end up using Qara all the time anyway.

I played MotB and SoZ the whole way through more recently, unfortunately. It's just so annoying to get that far again and have to restart again. I suppose I could always take a break from it and try playing from fetching Ammon Jerro from Shandra's farm to see if it works second time round.

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 4:30 pm

McLarenJAB wrote:Augh, this is actually the second time I've tried to play through the OC, like I said. I got a crash the first time that set me back hours and gave up in frustration, just before Merdelain. Maybe one day I'll be able to play it through to the end... -__-

First time I played a fighter, this time a rogue/shadow thief. May try a sorceror next time, I always end up using Qara all the time anyway.

I played MotB and SoZ the whole way through more recently, unfortunately. It's just so annoying to get that far again and have to restart again. I suppose I could always take a break from it and try playing from fetching Ammon Jerro from Shandra's farm to see if it works second time round.

I remember that this is your second time. And I can definitely understand the annoyance and anger from not being able to truly finish the game. But, depending on how you play it, it's worth at least 3 full games!

(..I've played it more than 10 times all the way through, but never "back-to-back" - I couldn't take that.)

You could go back to an earlier game, but you have 2 problems:

1. You really have played the game - 99.9% of it.
2. Your much earlier save may still be corrupted at that point, with no real guarantee that it won't crap-out on you anywhere along the game.

Anyway, if you do decide to play it again (starting fresh) - consider the Sorcerer/Wizard classes, or a Warlock, or a Cleric/Druid, etc.. Don't use Qara again. Consider Sand if you are playing a Warlock. If you play a Sorcerer/Wizard then drop Sand as well. In fact you can pretty much "Solo" the game if you want (excepting certain sequences, and even then you can tell companions to "hold their ground" at the beginning of each map) - that's different.

McLarenJAB · Post by **McLarenJAB** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 4:53 pm

If I played a sorceror I'd probably continue to use Qara and Sand, anyway. Three maxismised Isaac's Greater Missile Storms per round? Yes please! I like to play in such a way that you do so much damage so quickly that you don't really need to worry about your defenses.

Ah, well. I may try to fix that game again, or I may just start a new one in a few months and say that in that game, Garius didn't actually know how to summon the King of Shadows and everything just went back to normal. Who'd know? They could return to Crossroad Keep in triumph and say they'd killed him.

Besides, Neverwinter just ends up getting destroyed about 75 years later, so it's all a bit pointless anyway. :laugh:

I know what happens, anyway, because it's revealed in MotB (and some of it in SoZ). But when that 0.1% has been the point of the last 99.9% and you can't actually get at it, it's a bit of a bummer.

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 5:26 pm

McLarenJAB wrote:
But when that 0.1% has been the point of the last 99.9% and you can't actually get at it, it's a bit of a bummer.

Yeah, a major bummer.

Happened to me in Icewind Dale II. ..and I didn't think that was worth playing again (ever).

It basically happens to everyone that has played Risen (almost all the way through). Crappiest, most illogical end-battle I've ever seen.

puiwaihin · Post by **puiwaihin** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:28 am

Good news

The good news is that there is an AUTOSAVE right before the battle with Garius. You will have to fight that one all over again, but that's not too bad. It's actually faster than the alternative.

You could find and run the final conversation that is supposed to trigger. You'll need to open up the toolset and open the module in question. If you've never done that before you'll probably need to copy them into your My Documents folder from the Program Files folder first. Then find the module it's located in (certainly the last one numerically) and look for a conversation that looks like it should be it. You can then run the conversation via the console using:

[HTML]rs ga_conversation_self('filename')[/HTML]

This is a bit annoying to do, but when the occasional gamestopping bug does pop up and ruin your adventure, it can save you.