NWN Neverwinter Nights (NWN & NWN2) Modules Thread

[Popiel]

rogueknight333 Would you consider any available Aurora tutorials to be good ones? God damn it, I wanted to make a module for years now, why do I wait...

 

[Poseidon00]

rogueknight333 Would you consider any available Aurora tutorials to be good ones? God damn it, I wanted to make a module for years now, why do I wait...

Honestly, you should just get in there and start learning as much as you can. The NWN1 toolset is one of the most convenient ever made and you can easily learn a vast portion of it by simply doing. I did. The only thing that is any sort of a pain in the ass at all is BG-style companion dialogue, imho.

 

[rogueknight333]

rogueknight333 Would you consider any available Aurora tutorials to be good ones? God damn it, I wanted to make a module for years now, why do I wait...

I read a few tutorials when I was first learning to use the toolset, but that was so long ago now that I hardly remember what they were, or how good they were. I do remember that some of the tutorials on the NWN Lexicon were helpful in getting me up to speed with NWScript. The Lexicon is generally a very useful resource for anyone doing scripting in the toolset.

Aside from that, I am not sure I can recommend anything that would be better than what you could find yourself with a little google fu.

 

[KainenMorden]

https://youtu.be/CW-rUDdRrIU

First encounter with Xerxkatun

 

[Gargaune]

rogueknight333 Would you consider any available Aurora tutorials to be good ones? God damn it, I wanted to make a module for years now, why do I wait...

To add on to what RK said, before you go looking at anything else, start with the official tutorial BioWare put out back in the day. It's a quick half hour job that will prime you on the very basics, and then you can look at scripting proper as you come to it. Cracking open other modules, official or community, is also a good way to get your bearings, Swordflight's own first chapter is an illuminating example of how much you can do with just a dozen areas.

 

[Popiel]

rogueknight333 Would you consider any available Aurora tutorials to be good ones? God damn it, I wanted to make a module for years now, why do I wait...

I read a few tutorials when I was first learning to use the toolset, but that was so long ago now that I hardly remember what they were, or how good they were. I do remember that some of the tutorials on the NWN Lexicon were helpful in getting me up to speed with NWScript. The Lexicon is generally a very useful resource for anyone doing scripting in the toolset.

Aside from that, I am not sure I can recommend anything that would be better than what you could find yourself with a little google fu.

rogueknight333 Would you consider any available Aurora tutorials to be good ones? God damn it, I wanted to make a module for years now, why do I wait...

To add on to what RK said, before you go looking at anything else, start with the official tutorial BioWare put out back in the day. It's a quick half hour job that will prime you on the very basics, and then you can look at scripting proper as you come to it. Cracking open other modules, official or community, is also a good way to get your bearings, Swordflight's own first chapter is an illuminating example of how much you can do with just a dozen areas.

Thank gents, I'll proceed as you suggest. Though I must say, I already want to do quite specific things in the toolset, I wonder how much it'll take me to learn...

I also wonder how galaxybrained some PW module makers must be, I saw some wildest shit there (whole custom skill systems replacing vanilla one, custom classes...).

 

[Gargaune]

Thank gents, I'll proceed as you suggest. Though I must say, I already want to do quite specific things in the toolset, I wonder how much it'll take me to learn...

I also wonder how galaxybrained some PW module makers must be, I saw some wildest shit there (whole custom skill systems replacing vanilla one, custom classes...).

If you've ever dealt with programming in C and the like, the syntax will be familiar, you just gotta learn your way around the API and pick up good practices from other module builders. There's no native OO and I believe a lot of the core ruleset is hardcoded, Beamdog were talking about externalising it to a .2da in the EE but I think that pie will stay in the sky. Still, the Toolset is incredibly poweful and flexible, Adam Miller's modules are quite telling if you've played them - starts with the most basic module imaginable in Shadowlords and, by the end of Dreamcatcher, the man's got Space Invaders minigames and stuff kicking around in there.

One word of early advice, something that's come back to bite me - be mindful of your naming format for scripts. You wanna have some informative prefixes to figure out what goes where at a glance, but be very succinct 'cause the character limit's tight and the Toolset doesn't have a refactoring capability. Don't get confused by the charlimit on dialogue names, that's longer.

Oh, and another thing, the native script editor's trading blows with Notepad for the Stone Age Tech Awards. You'll be fine for short scripts, but if you're dealing with larger, more complex code where you want highlighting and navigation etc., you may want to write your stuff in a modern program and paste it in. I use a .cpp scrap file in Notepad++ with ANSI encoding so it matches NWN's tabulation.

 

[KainenMorden]

https://youtu.be/U8goscl212Q

https://youtu.be/Fb3bw37MRQ4

Pit fiend and final encounter with Xerxkatun

Can someone tell me if my AB could have been improved even more if I had Schnella cast greater magic weapon on me? I'm not clear on if its capped or not here

 

[Sabotin]

I think you're already hitting caps if you didn't increase them in the options.
Divine power would be like what, +9? Tenser's at CL24 is +12, so you're there already, even excluding weapon enchantment, bard song and such.
Same with AC: Divine power +12, Haste +4, Boots +3/4, Song +5ish,...

 

[KainenMorden]

I think you're already hitting caps if you didn't increase them in the options.
Divine power would be like what, +9? Tenser's at CL24 is +12, so you're there already, even excluding weapon enchantment, bard song and such.
Same with AC: Divine power +12, Haste +4, Boots +3/4, Song +5ish,...

I don't have divine power, only divine might

 

[Sabotin]

What, but that's bread&butter for a cleric, specially when you mentioned you got the cleric level for scrolls and items. Divine power, the lv4 buff that gives you fighter BAB?

 

[KainenMorden]

What, but that's bread&butter for a cleric, specially when you mentioned you got the cleric level for scrolls and items. Divine power, the lv4 buff that gives you fighter BAB?

I dont think the scroll works that way but perhaps I'm mistaken.

 

[KainenMorden]

What, but that's bread&butter for a cleric, specially when you mentioned you got the cleric level for scrolls and items. Divine power, the lv4 buff that gives you fighter BAB?

To clarify, I don't believe the scroll would give me bab equivalent to a fighter of equal character lvl. I'm almost certain of this

 

[Nerevar]

Yeah divine power is very very good. It just doesn't show the extra attacks on the character sheet.

As for the bab just take a look.

Divine power test

 

[KainenMorden]

I think it's great but also the boost it gives to ab wouldn't help me as I've already reached the ab cap when I use bulls strength and tenser's or when I use true strike.

Still, it might be good just to have more hp which it boosts as well.

 

[KainenMorden]

Interesting criticism of SF from a user who has never played it but only viewed my combat uploads.....

They said that SF doesn't interest them because winning fights is predicated on having enough pots to heal yourself. I explained that's an oversimplification of the module and you would need to build a PC that would be in a position to do damage and survive long enough to be able to heal themselves in the first place.

I take this more of a criticism of all single player modules than a legitimate criticism of SF.

 

[Sabotin]

That only works with elem shields and such otherwise what's the point if your pots are decreasing but the enemies aren't? Also it's usually the player that's relying on time limited effects, so being fast is being thrifty!

 

[Gargaune]

rogueknight333, I was skimming the comments on Ch.5 at the Vault (I'm currently hoping to start it over Christmas) and I saw you mentioned something about a DB incompatibility between the DE and EE? We talked about the new DB formats some time ago, but have you since had the opportunity to confirm that the DBs won't port?

And, if so, what about that proposed solution to load a Ch.4 save before moving on to Ch.5? Does the game perform a DB dump when you make a new save or should I take it to the character export in the finale, and would that Ch.4 save have all relevant data or would there still be variables missing? I've actually got a save in the final Ch.4 cave ready, just thinking how to proceed when I get to it.

 

[rogueknight333]

That only works with elem shields and such otherwise what's the point if your pots are decreasing but the enemies aren't? Also it's usually the player that's relying on time limited effects, so being fast is being thrifty!

Possibly he does not realize there is any need to be thrifty, since in many modules the supply of healing potions is effectively unlimited?

rogueknight333, I was skimming the comments on Ch.5 at the Vault (I'm currently hoping to start it over Christmas) and I saw you mentioned something about a DB incompatibility between the DE and EE? We talked about the new DB formats some time ago, but have you since had the opportunity to confirm that the DBs won't port?

And, if so, what about that proposed solution to load a Ch.4 save before moving on to Ch.5? Does the game perform a DB dump when you make a new save or should I take it to the character export in the finale, and would that Ch.4 save have all relevant data or would there still be variables missing? I've actually got a save in the final Ch.4 cave ready, just thinking how to proceed when I get to it.

I have confirmed that DE and EE databases are incompatible. Still thinking about what an ideal solution to that might be, but for now ending a Ch. 4 save that was transferred to EE should set some of the most important information the database contains: specifically it will save Zarala's current alignment (if you have been altering it), as well as other current Zarala character information, including whatever items you might be having her carry in her inventory. However, I do not think that would set database information set in previous chapters, some of which might become relevant in the final chapters. I think the only other information of any particular importance in Ch. 5 (aside from the Zarala stuff) is which Rogue henchman you adventured with in Ch. 2. Since you have some familiarity with the toolset, you should be able to add that information to the database by running a script in any EE module with the following in it:

SetCampaignInt("SwordflightDB","HENCHROGUE",1,GetFirstPC());

If you adventured with Kelem. If instead you went the evil route and adventured with Chelys, you would use the following instead:

SetCampaignInt("SwordflightDB","HENCHROGUE",2,GetFirstPC());

I.e., identical except the variable is set to 2 rather than 1. Also the PC referenced by GetFirstPC () here needs to be the same one you are playing Swordflight with (or at least have the same name), or the information will not be set for that character.

 

[KainenMorden]

That only works with elem shields and such otherwise what's the point if your pots are decreasing but the enemies aren't? Also it's usually the player that's relying on time limited effects, so being fast is being thrifty!

Possibly he does not realize there is any need to be thrifty, since in many modules the supply of healing potions is effectively unlimited?

No, he knows, he said SF is about long term resource management and doesn't consider that a challenge while never having actually played SF.

He's a PW player and I get the impression he just wants to criticize single player modules for existing.

Whatever, it's to be expected on Reddit but I can say that my posts that link my fight uploads continue to get literally thousands of views despite not many upvotes and responses. A handful of users have expressed interest in trying SF on those posts, that makes it worth my time to post there.

Quick side note which is more a general dnd/nwn question for anyone that may know but why does Tenser's change your race to elf and make your character into a doom knight?

I googled and didn't read any spell descriptions that match NWNs implementation in that regard.

 

[Nerevar]

I think it's great but also the boost it gives to ab wouldn't help me as I've already reached the ab cap when I use bulls strength and tenser's or when I use true strike.

Still, it might be good just to have more hp which it boosts as well.

It changes your base attack bonus not your +20 cap. Even if the sheet says it wrong just swing at something and look at the dice rolls.

 

[KainenMorden]

I think it's great but also the boost it gives to ab wouldn't help me as I've already reached the ab cap when I use bulls strength and tenser's or when I use true strike.

Still, it might be good just to have more hp which it boosts as well.

It changes your base attack bonus not your +20 cap. Even if the sheet says it wrong just swing at something and look at the dice rolls.

I'm going off the wiki that it doesn't actually change your bab it's a simulation and subject to thee ab cap buy I'll try it sometime

 

[KainenMorden]

Did the mariliths in the grey warden's quest attempt knockdown on you?

 

[Gargaune]

I have confirmed that DE and EE databases are incompatible.

This is a pretty bad showing for Beamdog. I can understand a lot of stuff will get past a QA skeleton crew, they're still a small studio after all, but this is an entirely different matter. How do you "forget" to build legacy redundancy when you swap the engine's DB format, especially when backwards compatibility was a publicly assumed feature for the EE?

Still thinking about what an ideal solution to that might be, but for now ending a Ch. 4 save that was transferred to EE should set some of the most important information the database contains: specifically it will save Zarala's current alignment (if you have been altering it), as well as other current Zarala character information, including whatever items you might be having her carry in her inventory. However, I do not think that would set database information set in previous chapters, some of which might become relevant in the final chapters. I think the only other information of any particular importance in Ch. 5 (aside from the Zarala stuff) is which Rogue henchman you adventured with in Ch. 2. Since you have some familiarity with the toolset, you should be able to add that information to the database by running a script in any EE module with the following in it:

SetCampaignInt("SwordflightDB","HENCHROGUE",1,GetFirstPC());

If you adventured with Kelem. If instead you went the evil route and adventured with Chelys, you would use the following instead:

SetCampaignInt("SwordflightDB","HENCHROGUE",2,GetFirstPC());

I.e., identical except the variable is set to 2 rather than 1. Also the PC referenced by GetFirstPC () here needs to be the same one you are playing Swordflight with (or at least have the same name), or the information will not be set for that character.

Thanks for the instructions! But this got me thinking - I have finale saves for all four prior chapters (loot ain't the only thing I hoard), if I just load each and make new EE saves, that should rebuild a complete DB, shouldn't it? The DB dump gets done on a save, is there a separate one upon ending the module proper?

 

[rogueknight333]

This is a pretty bad showing for Beamdog. I can understand a lot of stuff will get past a QA skeleton crew, they're still a small studio after all, but this is an entirely different matter. How do you "forget" to build legacy redundancy when you swap the engine's DB format, especially when backwards compatibility was a publicly assumed feature for the EE?

Beamdog's QA has always been terrible. Though to be fair, I expect this particular issue would only be a problem in rare cases, as almost every module series that might be using a database would either have been completed long before EE or only begun after it came out. Swordflight is quite unusual in having continuing development across both the EE and pre-EE era.

Thanks for the instructions! But this got me thinking - I have finale saves for all four prior chapters (loot ain't the only thing I hoard), if I just load each and make new EE saves, that should rebuild a complete DB, shouldn't it? The DB dump gets done on a save, is there a separate one upon ending the module proper?

The DB dump is done in the course of the final conversation in each module: that with Hamad Galhadr in Ch. 1, that with Norab Tefaram in Ch. 2, the conversation triggered by the transition going down to the Underdark at the end of Ch. 3, and the conversation triggered by the transition leading up from the Underdark in Ch. 4. So if you have saves allowing you to go through all four final conversations again in sequence that should in theory remake the database in EE (though note I have not actually tested this and relying on theory is one of the ways you get terrible QA). Make sure you do Ch. 4 last or your database will have the wrong version of Zarala.