Weird issue with BG1 & BG2 involving formations/spellcasts

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(Hello, this is a repost from http://www.gog.com/en/forum/baldur_s_gate/weird_issue_with_bg1_and_bg2_involving_formations/page1 because I have no idea which Baldur's Gate related forum might yield the best results. Thanks for your time.)

Hey all, I've run into a strange problem after recently purchasing these games from GoG. I'll explain the problem first, before talking about what I've done to attempt to solve it.

The problem: When I right click a party formation to change it, and then select the formation I want, it works at first. Then if I right click a formation ever again, it immediately locks in to the straight line formation, where all 6 party members are lined up horizontally. Also, I cannot cast spells. Or rather, apparently I can, but I can't see them. Normally it's fine, but once the formation thing freaks out, I can no longer cast spells.... until I open a menu (inventory, journal, save game, etc), close the menu, and then click the spell icon again... then it works. Briefly. Selecting another character will make spellcasting glitch out again, and formations are totally screwed.

So, I figured this was a www.gog.com problem, thought maybe something was wrong with it. So I got my discs back from my brother, installed BG2 + ToB from the discs, patched it, loaded it up... and ran into the same errors. So I tried to solve the problem myself.


Failed Solutions:

Installing from GoG.com's version. (Formation/Spellcast problems)
Installing from the original discs as opposed to GoG.com's version.(same problems)
Running in Windows XP Service Pack 3 compatibility mode. (same problems)
Running in Windows XP Service Pack 2 compatibility mode. (same problems)
Running in Windows 2000 compatibility mode. (same problems)
Running in Windows 98 compatibility mode. (didn't even launch the game successfully)
Running as an Administrator in any sort of compatibility mode. (same problems)
Disabling visual themes and desktop composition. (same problems)
Running the game unpatched as opposed to patched. (same problems)
Running the game with 3d acceleration turned on in BGConfig. (same problems)
Running the game with the Widescreen mod as opposed to without it. (same problems)
Running the game with any and all fanmade Bugfix mods. (same problems)
Running the game in windowed mode. (same problems)
Initially was installing the game to my huge hard drive. (same problems)
Tried installing the game to my smaller, faster hard drive. (same problems)

Then I turned to google and yahoo. I searched the gog boards, the Boards o' Magick (Sorcerer's Place boards), gamefaqs, the Bioware boards, and a ton of other forums I didn't know existed that google found for Infinity Engine games. I searched for Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale problems. I spent hours reading the problems people are having, and came to one conclusion.


No one in the history of the internet has had these problems.



Please help. Baldur's Gate II is my favorite computer game ever, no questions asked. I played it almost once a year for the past decade. Last month, I got a new computer, and finally upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7. I have no idea what could be causing this problem, but being unable to select a formation other than a straight line, and being unable to cast spells unless I first perform some kind of menu voodoo every time I want to cast something, renders this game unplayable for me.

I'd give a TL;DR, but this was as brief as I could be while still giving all the pertinent information. I'm posting here with lack of any real hope, but... I don't understand why this is happening. It can't hurt to reach out into the internet and see if anyone can shed some light on this.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this.

 

I want to say Direct Draw, though that's usually for a problem with cursor trails and transparency.

I have seen this error mentioned before, even experienced it in a particular system myself (on a Windows 98 computer) and trying to remember where and what I read about it.

If I remember anything else I'll probably pop back.

 

Direct Draw? I'm not sure I even know what that is, or how to turn it off/on...

But the fact that you may have actually heard of this before, or experienced it yourself, fills me with a kind of vindication that I find hard to explain. I'm not being persecuted by some higher power, after all! This is actually a thing, a real bug. It's almost uplifting until I realize that other people having experienced it doesn't actually make it go away.

 

I don't think I've ever repped someone with only 2 posts before.

 

Hmm.. just a wild idea. You sure your mouse driver isn't acting up? I had one fail on me, causing some of my mouse clicks secretly turn into a double-click-and-drag. That's bound to cause at least similar behaviour as you're experiencing.

Should be easy to check by doing some quick inventory shuffles with your mouse.

 

Well, there are no problems in any of the other games I play, nor when browsing websites, or ... or any other form of me using my mouse, heh. Also once the formation locks into place, I cannot change it again until I load the game. Trying to select one of the other formation options results in it being autolocked into straight line as well.

So I'm fairly certain it's not my mouse or my keyboard acting up, unless they're capable of deciding a course of action for themselves and sticking to it regardless of the commands I attempt to input. If this is the case, I may be way out of my depth and should probably give up immediately.

I'm hoping there's a different explanation behind my problems, other than sentient electronic devices. Though, honestly, with my luck... I wouldn't be terribly surprised.

EDIT: Well, I did go ahead and check this, just in case. Was able to move stuff around in my inventory just fine, even tried to do it very quickly to see if I could make my mouse spaz out. Does not appear to be double clicking or dragging when I single click, or anything like that.

 

I have a vague memory (that or I'm imagining things in my old age ) of reading somewhere on the old bioware forums something to do with Keyboard device software and a similar kind of problem.

Do you have anything like Logitech keyboard software running? If so, try removing it and running the game...

 

Oh! The wireless keyboard issue?

 

Well... I have a Logitech keyboard, but it's not wireless. It says Logitech G15? I don't know... it has G1-18 keys on the left side, but I never programmed them to do anything.

But I mean, it's the same keyboard I used with my old computer. I've had it for like 4+ years. I have no idea how to check keyboard software (?) on my PC, or how to disable it... or... anything like that. I'm not exactly computer savvy.

Not really knowing what to make of the problem, I can only regard Windows 7 with a great deal of suspicion, since that was the only real change. I would consider my keyboard and mouse drivers suspect (those have drivers, right?), but considering I'm not having any problems at all in any other games, but only in Baldur's Gate 1 & 2... I gotta think there's some kind of compatibility issue.

Then again, 8people said she remembers the problem from Windows 98, so now I'm just at a complete loss.

 

Seems like the action bar's gone berserk, especially since you apparently need to reset it to fix it. I have no idea what could be causing it though - have you tried changing game window sizes?

Edit: The most probable culprit does seem to be any keyboard/mouse software you may be running. This post by Bioware forums moderator Kevin Lynch offers a solution:

It might be that BG2 simply does not like your mouse/keyboard, since I've read of other people not using wireless keyboards/mice having the same problem.

 

Well, I was typing out a reply to you guys, but then it dawned on me to try my old mouse. I used to have this old wireless mouse for a laptop, that I used on my old desktop for years. It was meant for laptops, which meant the signal strength from it was very low, so every now and then if I sat in my chair a certain way, my body itself would disrupt the signal and the mouse would stop working. Alternatively, it would screw up if a cloud passed overhead, or I parked in the wrong spot outside, etc etc.

So when I got a new computer, I got a new mouse, this Razer Deathadder thing. It's a great mouse, I really like it, and it's given me no problems whatsoever, so I didn't really think it'd be the culprit. However, with no other options, I figured what the hell, I'll give it a shot.

Game works perfectly, now. Cannot replicate the problems with my old mouse. It really just hates this new Razer mouse. I'm not sure why, or how to fix that issue. I don't know how to disable my mouse's software, or... anything like that.

Thanks for all your help guys, I really appreciate it. I posted on a few other boards and received maybe one response on each of them, nobody really tried to help. You guys rock. I'll leave you with this.

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This whole scenario with my mouse really just reminded me of this time waaay back on my Grandfather's dairy farm, in the long summer of that one year. Granted, he wasn't really my Grandfather, that's just what we called him. We being the neighborhood children from the orphanage, though of course, it wasn't really an orphanage, and this wasn't that long ago so I'm certain we couldn't have been classified as children. Grandfather always hated it when we called him Grandfather, as I recall. He used to stomp his hooves and shout "MOOOoooo!!", to which we, the neighborhood orphan children, would of course stomp our own little hooves and gleefully shout "MooooOoOOOOO!" at one another for the rest of the day. It was the best of times, truly.

That is, until the great bovine war broke out, and Grandfather was called off to battle. He returned, but not for years and years, and he was quite unhappy to find that we had sold his dairy farm for massive profits. He began shouting about how we were the stupidest employees he's ever had, and that working at a bookstore was apparently far too much our simple minds to handle. He pointed out that Grandfather is a ridiculous nickname to hang on a young woman, and that he should be able to go on vacation for two weeks without returning to find that we had turned the store into a flea market. Though we didn't truly sell fleas, of course, Grandfather was simply using a figure of speech, as he so loved to do.

So yes, that's all very similar to mouse drivers.


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My ode to Jan Jansen. Terrible, and made up on the spot. /bow. Thanks again everybody. Off to play through the BG saga once again!

 

Beautiful.

Glad our diagnostic tourettes was helpful, hopefully you'll stick around some more

 

That's so repped, so repped. Keep up the good work.