Hey Guys, my first NWN2 mod is about ready to go final

[Trash]

For what it's worth, I agree that a lot of the areas aren't up to say the standard of the NWN2 OC. The biggest problem (I think) is that there isn't enough variation in the tiles. Clever use of wall hangings and whatnot can help, but there's just not enough good placables that fit any given theme. Since the temple proper consists of a bunch of big indoor areas, it's more of a problem than it would be for more traditional outdoor, BG/IWD type adventures.

However I'm more than happy to take any suggestions for ways to improve the look as long as they won't take forever to implement.

Add clutter? The enviroments look incredibly sterile and clean. Just adding some objects that fit the surrounding area should liven it up quite a bit. Some patches of grass, streaks of dirt, a pile of clutter. It can all be easily done. Be creative and have a look at other mods. There are plenty of very good looking mods out there. Good luck!

 

[Helton]

I've already forgotten: Does NWN2 have floating descriptions when you click on a non-usable object? You could make some feces jokes about Volly and the lack of toilet.

 

[Volourn]

Yes, it does.

 

[Murk]

i played through a bit and cleared out the deklo grove, ran into one actual issue and some minor blah blah

Kay, here's a few screenshots you might be interested in crichton in order from "actual issue" to "i'm a stupid faggot that likes to complain"

mario-kart style color bumpers!

map with better view

my camera can pass through walls

not sure if the two random smoking nothings in jaroo's shop should be there or if i'm missing something underneath it like a bonfire/candle, and the flower pots are not aligned (feng shui)

some actual thoughts:

is it possible to actually use the nwn2 character generator to make your party members? what about prestige or multi-classes for them?

people already bit your ass about the sterility but i guess it is a big point - the deklo grove was kinda... blah, i could clearly see the mobs of enemies which were just chillin' like villain's, the demon-spider had no attempt to give me a villain speech or anything like that

basically that little mini-dungeon crawl needs some character, some flavor

try putting random trees in the middle of obvious paths, enemies that spawn around others

like instead of a mob of ettercaps and spiders have a spider chillin, in fact, have it me kinda-hurt (badly wounded) then when you get in range have other monsters spawn around it as an ambush - these are predatory evil creatures, they would plan something like this

basically the bare bones are there, add some meat and sinew now

 

[Murk]

my post sounds very negative... uhh well it is very negative, but i also want to congratulate you on what you have done as its actually well put together and so far dialog in game has been pretty good.

i do like that its not a piece-for-piece recreation (or attempt at) from ToEE.

 

[Volourn]

Aye, that would be lame. I'll actually try this.

 

[Crichton]

@Mikayel

Something really odd is going on with that missing texture bug, are you patched? If so, do you have MOTB installed? I probably should have made it clear that MOTB is a requirement but I figured everyone already had it.

Re: Smoke at Jaroo's. Yeah, he's supposed to be burning incense. Maybe I should name the little things, "Incense Pot" or something.

Re: Buildings, I think that's because some of them are "environmental objects" (supposedly less resource intensive than placeables). I only use the overhead "strategy mode" camera, so I never noticed it. I'll see if there's some sort of "camera block" feature in the TS.

 

[Murk]

oh snap - in that case nay sir. I am patched but do not have MotB - and that is most likely why it went poop on me.

strangely, nothing else in game has gone wrong at all - just that missing texture (which was added in the xpac i guess)

heh, wonder how far i can get it before i get the long middle finger that is a game-crash.

 

[SpaceKungFuMan]

is it possible to actually use the nwn2 character generator to make your party members? what about prestige or multi-classes for them?

Seconded. If the combat is as hard as people are saying from the beta, it seems like this module might justify the wealth of character building options the game offers, so its a shame to close them off.

 

[Crichton]

is it possible to actually use the nwn2 character generator to make your party members? what about prestige or multi-classes for them?

Seconded. If the combat is as hard as people are saying from the beta, it seems like this module might justify the wealth of character building options the game offers, so its a shame to close them off.

It is possible to add characters from the game's "roster" using this weird work-around/hack people were talking about on the official forums a while back. So long as the added characters had the correct tags, it wouldn't break anything (I think). But using it is kind of complicated and I couldn't find a 'clean' way to add it. However you can still download it from the vault and use it. I just didn't include it as standard.

Multi/prestige classing for companions is a lot easier; all it requires is a custom 2da in the campaign/override folder. You can also download this from the vault and stick it in in either your override or the ToEE campaign folder just the way you would with the OC (look up "companion multiclassing 2da" or somesuch). The mod didn't ship with this either because if I put it in the campaign folder, it breaks compatibility with class mods such as Kaedrin's (or anything else that modifies that 2da). But there's no reason you can't use it.

Link to companion-multiclassing 2da:
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2UI.Detail&id=61

 

[Murk]

^ touche sir

So did obsidian not include a means of allowing you to use the in-game character generator to make party members?

How about a means of having pre-maid level 1 characters which you can make and simply save, then exporting them in?

It seems silly to have such a great character generator as the one NWN2 has and not put it to use.

I guess storm of Zehir will fix that oversight?

 

[SpaceKungFuMan]

is it possible to actually use the nwn2 character generator to make your party members? what about prestige or multi-classes for them?

Seconded. If the combat is as hard as people are saying from the beta, it seems like this module might justify the wealth of character building options the game offers, so its a shame to close them off.

It is possible to add characters from the game's "roster" using this weird work-around/hack people were talking about on the official forums a while back. So long as the added characters had the correct tags, it wouldn't break anything (I think). But using it is kind of complicated and I couldn't find a 'clean' way to add it. However you can still download it from the vault and use it. I just didn't include it as standard.

Multi/prestige classing for companions is a lot easier; all it requires is a custom 2da in the campaign/override folder. You can also download this from the vault and stick it in in either your override or the ToEE campaign folder just the way you would with the OC (look up "companion multiclassing 2da" or somesuch). The mod didn't ship with this either because if I put it in the campaign folder, it breaks compatibility with class mods such as Kaedrin's (or anything else that modifies that 2da). But there's no reason you can't use it.

Link to companion-multiclassing 2da:
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2UI.Detail&id=61

How about just making the characters start at level 1 with enough experience to be level 8?

 

[Murk]

^ That's kind of what happens now. You auto-gain 5 characters to your party, one of whom was my brother, and as its happening your asked what each one is - your answer defines their class.

Their skill points, starting feats and spells are auto-selected, but you control the rest

for the most part that was okay... 'sept my cleric got power-attack for some reason (and i'd really like to choose the domains, as a limited rest adventure is BEGGING for the healing domain for a cleric)

 

[SpaceKungFuMan]

^ That's kind of what happens now. You auto-gain 5 characters to your party, one of whom was my brother, and as its happening your asked what each one is - your answer defines their class.

Their skill points, starting feats and spells are auto-selected, but you control the rest

for the most part that was okay... 'sept my cleric got power-attack for some reason (and i'd really like to choose the domains, as a limited rest adventure is BEGGING for the healing domain for a cleric)

Man. I was really hoping to make a min/maxed party like in icewind dale to take on the challenging fights. I'm totally cool with not gaining experience, because its neat to have your char fight at the full power of the planned build, but I want the ability to choose the build.

 

[Volourn]

"I was really hoping to make a min/maxed party like in icewind dale"

u r FAKE ROLEPLAYER choo r roll playa

 

[Amasius]

Looks promising, download at 43%.

 

[Murk]

Man. I was really hoping to make a min/maxed party like in icewind dale to take on the challenging fights. I'm totally cool with not gaining experience, because its neat to have your char fight at the full power of the planned build, but I want the ability to choose the build.

Same here yo, the stats for your allies are pre-defined but they're definitely not min-maxed, my mage did have what seemed like higher stats for a human than i thought possible though

 

[Crichton]

Man. I was really hoping to make a min/maxed party like in icewind dale to take on the challenging fights. I'm totally cool with not gaining experience, because its neat to have your char fight at the full power of the planned build, but I want the ability to choose the build.

If you install the file I linked to above, you can get close, but not quite.

For your main character you can do whatever you want, of course.

The NPC's have a race decided by your main character's race and alignment. Basically, they have the same race as your character save that half-breeds were raised by one society or the other depending on their alignment. So an evil half-orc will travel with his half-orc brother and four orcs; a good half-orc will travel with his half-orc brother and four humans. Same thing with elves/humans and humans/drow elves for half-elves / half-drow respectively.

Classes are available based on each character's personality and alignment. So if you're lawful good, merloc the sneaky guy can be a rogue, ranger or monk. If you're neutral good, he can't be a monk.

But if you install the file above, that's only for the first level, after that, you'd be able to multi-class them to whatever. But you can't change their stats and you'd still be somewhat limited in terms of initial classes (i.e. the first level for the village priest is going to be in cleric, druid or spirit shaman because he has to be some kind of priest).

 

[Crichton]

Same here yo, the stats for your allies are pre-defined but they're definitely not min-maxed, my mage did have what seemed like higher stats for a human than i thought possible though

Yeah, Syvara has a lot more options than most of the others. She can be a wizard, a sorceress, a bard, a favored soul, a warlock or even a paladin. So she gets some breaks on her stats in terms of having high CHA and INT, and if she's a paladin, she gets weapon finesse and TWF instead of power attack, giving her a free feat (she's got a str of 8-10, she needs it).

 

[Murk]

I don't think the pre-made party in this module is too big of a hindrance, but i do have a thought or three on the no xp thing

that's cool and i like the idea, a static level of power can be fun if encounters are tailored to it

i do think there should be no mooks though and battles should be focused on encounters that require real tactics and strategy

all out horde on group bashings i don't think serve a good purpose

for instance, in the deklo grove my two warriors and my priest alone could clear most of the enemies out but there was no need to

i just avoided them, and went up to the demon spider and finished it off with a liberal dose of isaac's missile storm

then trailed off, now if the grove was set up so i HAD to go through a few encounters of say... dire bloated or fiendish spiders or something of that effect, then that'd be VERY interesting..., and try to set it up so i walk into a web trap and have them descend on us to take us out while most of the melee characters are in the webs...

i'm guessing better encounters will happen in the temple so those are only some early thoughts, i'll play more later and have some real thoughts on it

 

[Nedrah]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but neither do I want to create a new one - if anyone could pm me some decent NWN2 singleplayer mods that offer an experience closer to motb than the OC, I'd be moste grateful.

 

[Jaesun]

The only thing I can think of is that babysitting SIX NPC's might be... annoying?

That said, as long as this is 100% compatible with Tonk K's AI, then the babysitting is not really a problem, as the NPC's wont be fucking idiots.

Looks interesting so far, If I get some time I'll give it a try.

And Nedra, start a new topic. Stop hijacking this thread.

 

[SpaceKungFuMan]

Man. I was really hoping to make a min/maxed party like in icewind dale to take on the challenging fights. I'm totally cool with not gaining experience, because its neat to have your char fight at the full power of the planned build, but I want the ability to choose the build.

If you install the file I linked to above, you can get close, but not quite.

For your main character you can do whatever you want, of course.

The NPC's have a race decided by your main character's race and alignment. Basically, they have the same race as your character save that half-breeds were raised by one society or the other depending on their alignment. So an evil half-orc will travel with his half-orc brother and four orcs; a good half-orc will travel with his half-orc brother and four humans. Same thing with elves/humans and humans/drow elves for half-elves / half-drow respectively.

Classes are available based on each character's personality and alignment. So if you're lawful good, merloc the sneaky guy can be a rogue, ranger or monk. If you're neutral good, he can't be a monk.

But if you install the file above, that's only for the first level, after that, you'd be able to multi-class them to whatever. But you can't change their stats and you'd still be somewhat limited in terms of initial classes (i.e. the first level for the village priest is going to be in cleric, druid or spirit shaman because he has to be some kind of priest).

Are the classes neccesary for the module? Would anything break if the character's stats and base classes were edited using the out of game character editor?

 

[Crichton]

Are the classes neccesary for the module? Would anything break if the character's stats and base classes were edited using the out of game character editor?

No, so long as the tag's aren't changed, nothing will break. Some of the convos might give wacky responses if you change the classes (i.e. you ask Syvara what she wants at the store and she says she wants a crossbow even though she's now a druid and can't use one), but it shouldn't effect anything else.

 

[Sitra Achara]

I don't have NWN2 and it'll be a while before I do, but I'm curious, what was your approach to balancing and handling level/loot escalation?