Repeating Aloth/Iselmyr-Eder Conversation (spoilers)

[Arely]

I'm experiencing a repeat conversation between Aloth/Iselmyr and Eder every time we rest..the one where she talks to Eder and tries to get him to kiss Aloth as a prank. Every time we rest, no matter where it is, this conversation gets triggered. I don't know what is making it repeat upon every rest. I believe when it first happened was at the Engwithian ruins with the giant construct and the missing Vailian expedition party. (I forget the name) This has been going on, even after a reload.

 

Is anyone else having this problem? Thanks!

[jlee]

Hi Arely,

 

Could you please provide us with your save file with this issue occurring so that we may investigate further? Also, if you could, it'd help us out greatly if you could provide us with a screenshot or quotes of the start of that conversation.

 

Save File: %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Pillars of Eternity II

 

Thanks!

[Arely]

Here’s a “screenshot” of the beginning of the Conversation that triggers when I rest

 

Working on the save file

[Arely]

Ok, save file attached. Hope it works

[Arely]

Here’s a “screenshot” of the beginning of the Conversation that triggers when I rest

 

Working on the save file

Conversation begin:

 

Aloth: "I conne yer look, Eder. Something's champing at ye." Iselmyer watches through Aloth's eyes, looking at Eder in concern."

 

Rather late, but saw that my files didn't attached. Sorry about that...so here is the beginning of that conversation.

[The Spiteful Clam]

I fixed this issue today, by navigating to:

\Steam\steamapps\common\Pillars of Eternity II\PillarsOfEternityII_Data\exported\design\conversations\companions

 

Locating the file ‘companion_relationship_aloth_eder.conversationbundle’

and deleting it. Posting this twice on the forums, in the hopes it helps anyone with the same bug.  

[Kvellen]

From what I can tell, basically this conversation triggering on every rest is due to a scripting mistake. The conditions for the script are the real problem, but also there is a quirk with how the script  starts the conversation on a specific node that is further contributing to it repeating when it shouldn't be.
I've gone into more of the details for anyone interested under the spoiler tag, but the Tldr; is:
The script is packed in a file making it inaccessible to modding. There are some very lax conditionals (a succession of true/false statements) that won't stopping it playing after each rest. When the script plays it starts the conversation on a specific node (a "node" is basically, the base of a branch on the conversation tree), which ignores a potential fallback that could have been used to cancel the conversation before it starts.

 

Spoiler

As far a I can tell the offending script is inside one of the .asset files ( "sharedassets150.assets" ), which makes it practically impossible to edit unfortunately.
Here is what it looks like (approximated into Apotheosis' script format) :

if
{
	IsCompanionActiveInParty(Eder)
	and HasConversationNodeBeenPlayed(companion_relationship_aloth_eder_banters, 71)
	and not IsGlobalValue(n_Iselmyr_choice, EqualTo, 1)
	and IsGlobalValue(b_Xoti_Nightmare, EqualTo, 0)
}
then
{
	StartConversation(Aloth, companion_relationship_aloth_eder, 50)
}

In simple terms, after resting are all the following statements "True" :

• Is Edér in the party?
• Has a very specific banter conversation between the two characters played at somepoint?
• Did Aloth suppressed Iselmyr in PoE1?
• Has Xoti just had a nightmare during the rest? (I think?)

If all of the above are true: Start the conversation "companion_relationship_aloth_eder" on "node 50".

Right so what's going wrong here?  As I understand it half of these Conditionals once set to true will ever stop being true. The exceptions being Xoti's nightmares and if Edér being out of the party.

The conversation node (basically the first line of the conversation branch) it's pointing has similar conditionals on it. These can be changed, which would make this an easy fix. The variable "b_aloth_p2_eder_kiss" gets set to "1" during the conversation so adding a conditional of that being "0" to the node would be a great indicator for the game to not replay it. Unfortunately as the script is telling the game to play a specific node it just straight up ignores any conditionals on that node and plays it!

So what can be done? The game does evaluate the conditionals on the next node in the chain. So if node (50) were changed into a type of node that doesn't play dialogue. It won't bring up the conversation window. Then a new node (217) added after it in the chain to serve as conditional gate and new start for dialogue. Then the following will happen instead when the script plays:

• If the conversation has been played before: "b_aloth_p2_eder_kiss" will be "1" and the conversation will close instead of moving onto "217".
• If this is the first time the conversation has played: "b_aloth_p2_eder_kiss" will be "0" and conversation will move to "217" and Iselmyr's hijinks will play out as normal.

The script is will still fire every rest that Aloth and Edér are in the party, but this at least solves the issue of the player having to skip through 34 lines of dialogue each rest!

I've attached a mod that should fix the issue for those who are experiencing it.

To install the mod:

Download the attached zip file and unzip it. Place the "Eder x Iselmyr Fix" folder into the "override" folder.
The "override" folder can be found in the "PillarsOfEternityII_Data" directory located somewhere like:

• Steam: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Pillars of Eternity II Deadfire\PillarsOfEternityII_Data\"
• GoG: "C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Games\Pillars of Eternity II Deadfire\PillarsOfEternityII_Data\"

 

On 12/30/2023 at 8:48 PM, The Spiteful Clam said:

I fixed this issue today, by navigating to:

\Steam\steamapps\common\Pillars of Eternity II\PillarsOfEternityII_Data\exported\design\conversations\companions

Locating the file ‘companion_relationship_aloth_eder.conversationbundle’

and deleting it.

I looked into this issue after your post. It sounded bad, but I had no idea how bad until I actually tested and tried to fix it!
Not an easy one to fix and having to skip through 34 lines of fully voiced text after every rest is pretty terrible fate. So I can understand your taking such drastic action to make it stop!

EderAlothRestLoop_Fix.zip