OK folks...to expand on the related thread a little, I'd like to get some more specific ideas from you all.

What items do you remember from your game that never seemed to serve a purpose?

One of the most obvious is the empty potion bottles you find in the Guarded Compound.

What about the Winter Wolf pelt?

Festule the Alchemist's potion? (item description reads POTN53: This potion will supposedly incapacitate an ogre. The small handwritten label warns against feeding it to anything other than an ogre, as the taste has been perfectly designed to appeal to said race. In other words the potion is disgusting and will induce vomiting in anyone other than an ogre.)

Mallet handle? (misc95: Mallet Handle:
This gilded rod was once a handle.)

Odd looking key? (misc93: Key:
A bejeweled key of odd design.)

(BTW, these all show up in a non-ToB game, with only the offical SoA patch and Baldurdash installed)

Well, the winter wolf pelt is just something you can sell, I think, cos in IWD and IWD2 you can find yeti pelts, which either make armour or cloaks IIRC, but also sell for a decent amount of money. The problem is, the more you sell 'em to someone, the less you get...and the same happens with the winter wolf pelt.

What about the Symbol of Amaunator? I thought it was for opening the final door of the dungeon, but that's what the sun gem does, because that disappears from my inventory, but the symbol doesn't...

You're probably right about the wolf pelt. They probably just exported over the save .cre files for the winter wolf as what existed in BG1, but neglected to remove that aspect. I think I'll suggest it to either Weimer or Moonfruit for inclusion in either the Item Upgrade or Ruad mod.

I think you're right about the symbol...it doesn't seem to serve much purpose later on. However...Weimer (and/or Moonfruit) DO use the symbol in their mods, and I don't think I want to interfere with that. I think, in fact, that the symbol is used to upgrade the Delryn Family Shield...

Mallet handle (and mallet head) are things from Durlag's Tower in BG1 - TotSC. Odd key is very probably from the tower as well.

All items from BG1 are in BG2 bif files, and can be created in BG2 with console. I don't know why, perhaps they were just lazy to start from scratch, or it didn't matter.

Those files were probably left in because no matter how stupid it may seem, if you remove one someone *will* carry that item to the end of the game, import it, and crash the game.

Items arent removed until the script at the start of the intro runs, so a invalid item would be fatal.

Dosent matter anyway, the filesizes are tiny compared to the rest of the game.

The chapel key. The wyvern heads (used in BG1 with Coran's quest, but that doesn't mean they can't have some other use...). Worn out boots.

True...I can understand them leaving the .itm file behind, but why make them something you can get during the game? That's the only reason I knew about them. They were crammed into my bag of holding forever, thinking I'd need them, but I never did.

Oh, sweet mystery of life...

Where in BG2 did you find the Mallet handle and Odd looking key?

Chapel key has its function, just try to open the door before Samia without it.

Does Wyvern head appear in BG2? Where?

Worn out boots are just a flavor. As are those belts and gauntlets that do "nothing" as well.

No clue whatsoever. I just remember carrying them around all the way through ToB, and never finding their purpose. It could have been a mod, I guess, that messed up the item references and awarded me these items instead of, say, a gem...who knows...

But, as long as I know they don't serve a purpose in the game, I'll probably ignore them. I might search through the .are files to see if they are referenced anywhere, and if they are, maybe replace them with a gem or something.

<span style="color: lightblue">Except that the door can be bashed or picked aswell, so most people miss this...

Wyvern heads can be got from the dead wyverns found in the North Forest.

But are they actually used for anything?

In BG1, if you added Coran to the party, you needed to kill a wyvern and take its head to turn in for a reward. Wyverns still drop their heads in BG2 (just like winter wolves still drop their pelts), but they have no function in BG2 that I have ever seen (same with winger wolf pelts).

Or if you summon one and it gets killed...

But you can sell them for 150 gp, which is nice [img]smile.gif[/img] .

Actually, none of the Wyverns in my game (Summoned or pre-existing) have ever dropped a Head, which makes me think I'm playing a different version. They did in BG1, but not in BG2.

The Symbol of Amaunator is indeed required in the Temple Ruins. It opens the door to the Shadow Dragon's Lair--the second Sun Gem dispels the wall of shadows in front of the door. In Weimer's Item Upgrade MOD, it is a component in upgrading a Buckler+1.

The Empty Potion Bottles were (and therefore, still are) indeed a mistake. It would make more sense to find them in a potion-makers shop....although now that I think about it, the Improved Guarded Compound is pre-buffed, so the Empty Potion Bottles would fit nicely with the roleplay idea of Koshi and Maferan having chugged their Potions of Heroism just before you came upstairs.

Festule the Alchemist's Potion comes into play in Mazzy's (bugged) Ogre quest. As soon as I remember what the Half-Ogre's name was, I'll make a note of it in the "Unfinished Business" thread.

The Winter Wolf Pelt has always been useless in my game, but some people report that you can store things in it. Whatever.

My official stance on the "useless" items: Just because they don't have an apparent purpose doesn't mean they should be deleted from the game. Some actually serve a contructive purpose: The Winter Wolf Pelt, for example, gave me part of an idea for what looks like a good Druid kit. If the item isn't actually causing any problems or confusion, I'd just as soon leave it in.

odd looking key was in north forest in the grave stone the efreet and djinn were guading along with soem other stuff, but i do have a few mods installed and i never saw anythign there until i installed them. so i guess no one knows what to do with it?

HOLY THREAD NECROMANCY!!! You bumped a 1 year old thread!? Did you read the rules and regulations before posting anything???

yeah i did, but it was a few months ago... did i do somethign against the rules? i just found this key and was trying to figure out what to di wth it so i searched the forum and this is the only one that popped up with odd looking key. sorry if its against the law just hoping to find a answer.

Given that it's his very first post, I'm willing to grant BlackPeter a little leeway on this issue. Still, resurrecting a year-old thread is still a dumb thing to do.

BlackPeter: If nobody has touched the thread for a week or more, it's safe to assume that the issue is dead. The person who asked for help has been aided, the person who wanted to announce something cool is satisfied, the person who wanted to ramble about life has forgotten about the whole thing. Therefore, not to sound demeaning, but nobody needs your input any more. Which, indeed, is the case in this specific issue: Almost everyone on the forum knows that the Odd Looking Key is a ToSC item that is not found in regular BG2 at all--but is re-incorporated into the game in the "Improved North Forest" component of the Tactics mod. Before you announce what you know, make sure that there's at least one person who doesn't, know it, and indeed wants to.

End of supercilious rant. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 10-08-2004, 02:35 AM: Message edited by: SixOfSpades ]

well i actually had a question about it, thats why i posted... i was trying to figure out what to do with the key. i remember in the guidelines it said not to post a new post if there is already a thread dealing with what i was after , so i searched for ' odd looking key ' and this is the only thread that came up. there was info, but not quite an answer , so i posted a reply instead of a duplicate post. really just wanted to know what to do with the key, you say it was incorporated with tactics... i can assume that means it still doesnt unlock anything, but thats really just an assumption... so there is still someone who wants to know... and its me, thats the only reason for my post.

It's alright, BlackPeter. If the subject of your question hasn't been dealt with for a long time, you can safely post a new thread.

You won't be able to find what the Odd Looking Key unlocks because you've already used it. You mentioned the treasure the the Vampires and Efreeti were guarding? That container cannot be opened (with Improved North Forest installed) without the key carried by the followers of Cyric on the same map.

Question: once a thread has been "necromanced" so to speak, is it wrong to continue posting in it? The only reason is, Ive always wondered what on earth the purpose of the "broken sword" or whatever it is that one of Illyich's chronies is carrying is. Can anyone answer these two Q's?

Thanks in advance [img]smile.gif[/img]

The broken sword is a relic of the iron shortage in the Baldur's Gate region... your first major mission in BG1 is to solve the iron crisis. Basically, the iron was tainted, so swords, armor, whatever was always breaking... hence the broken sword. Really annoying to have your only sword break in the middle of a fight with Kobolds (once upon a time, they were a formidible enemy[sort of]).

Thanks lancer.....

Does anyone know about the thread necromancy question I posted earlier?

well if i understand it right, it's not ok to continue posting. if its a old thread , i guess i was supposed to just make a new one.
this act of ressurecting someones year old question is unholy and i'll make sure not to do it again. thanks though folks for understanding and answering.