NWN Neverwinter Nights (NWN & NWN2) Modules Thread

[eXalted]

After playing all these great modules, Swordflight and The Prophet especially, I've found in myself enough inspiration to try my luck in modding. A long road before me, but I'm quite determined. I will probably use Project Q as a basis, I find it quite a shame that this excellent package is so neglected.

I dipped a little in the toolset. If you have some basic to fairly advanced questions, ask.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Remember making a very elementary mod that had a monk pester you with riddles and then fight you.

Took only about 40 minutes to create and run, really slick tool. Especially the dialog tool.

 

[grotsnik]

After playing all these great modules, Swordflight and The Prophet especially, I've found in myself enough inspiration to try my luck in modding. A long road before me, but I'm quite determined. I will probably use Project Q as a basis, I find it quite a shame that this excellent package is so neglected.

With something like Q, I'd just remember that it's another big package that players will have to download and install separately, which is likely to put some people off. Not the end of the world, sure, especially if you just want to have fun creating something, but with NWN's community being pretty old and partly diminished after the old Vault shut down, it's good to be as accessible as you can - I think that's why Swordflight mostly just stuck to the stock tiles and assets, to keep it straightforward for players.

 

[Jason Liang]

I've made some NWN modules too. I recommend downloading and playing around with all of the community tilesets first to get an idea of what's available out there. CEP is a pretty standard package of extras beyond that, but beyond tilesets and critters you'll probably want to customize everything else yourself.

And if you are going to write mods, then I definitely recommend playing both A Dance with Rogues and Almraiven first. Both are extremely inspirational. And then it makes more sense to deep dive the HoF, especially the older modules, so you get a feel for more basic and shorter NWN modules.

But as you know from The Prophet, what makes a module great doesn't really have much to do with the Aurora engine. The Prophet could have been written on any engine; Baldecaran used the Aurora toolset because it is the easiest to write in.

That's still true. I've tried many times to make adventures using the Shadowrun editor, and it takes twice as much time and effort to make the same effect as in Aurora. The Shadowrun editor isn't (that) bad, but it does nothing for you, whereas Aurora toolset already does much of the work for you.

 

[eXalted]

Absolutely agree with Jason Liang

Yes, ADwR is a really good module to take a look at. I used it as an inspiration for module and scripts organization too.

And yes, I also dabbled in the Shadowrun Editor and it's really a shame that creating in it is very slow compared to Aurora. And I'm not talking about the level design, but the scripting side of it. If there was a scripting language like Aurora it would have been great, but creating Trigger conditionals is very tiresome.

CEP has some really good resources in it. I recommend it but have in mind that it's more than 1 GB in size.

 

[Proleric]

For new developers, I'd recommend cherrypicking the NWN University as the need arises:

https://neverwintervault.org/projec...p-pdf-reference-guide-tutorial-xls-collection

The vault forums are still a good place to ask questions:

https://neverwintervault.org/forum

 

[Popiel]

Hey Proleric, are you gonna do something on Dark Energy still? I liked that module pretty much, would like to see some improvements or a sequel.

 

[Proleric]

Too much RL to do more for the foreseeable future. Still hanging out at the new Vault, though.

 

[Lilura]

I think that's why Swordflight mostly just stuck to the stock tiles and assets, to keep it straightforward for players.

Interested in what you think of Swordflight.

 

[grotsnik]

Interested in what you think of Swordflight.

Nothing massively controversial - I'm only two chapters in but it's been a really positive, eye-opening experience so far.

I'm a sloppy enough player, especially with resource management, that I was expecting a frustrating 'git gud' slog. But Swordflight is actually very good at guiding you into more careful habits - after the first few fights, I got a grip on what it expected of me, started stocking up on a proper variety of potions for quickbar slots, and began paying closer attention to every item I picked up, since it was usually significant for the road ahead. I've reloaded a lot, and fucked up a lot, but it's never felt unfair or tiresome.

Rogueknight has a real feel for a measured and careful pace, and I mean that in terms of narrative pacing, encounter variety, area design, how items are placed, the pacing of combat and dialogue in quests, merchant availability...and ultimately, how they all feed into each other and make for a more memorable experience.

It's a remarkable balancing act, and a rare talent to be able to do all of it at once, with so little interest in distracting flashy modder junk.

By comparison, I picked up Hex Coda again afterwards, and I was kind of shocked by how over-stuffed it felt, and how much that hurts the pacing - in many of its mechanics, but especially the 'gift' system, where every dungeon is littered with companion-influencing items. (Which means the player is encouraged to halt every few feet and hurl an assortment of rare books, food items, etc, at their party members to try and bump up their influence score.)

 

[rogueknight333]

... I think that's why Swordflight mostly just stuck to the stock tiles and assets, to keep it straightforward for players.

To be honest, the main reasons why the early Swordflight chapters make very limited use of custom content was not some well-thought out plan on my part to ease players into it, but simply because a lot of the best content either did not exist when I started the series, or I did not know it existed, or I just did not want to bother with the complications of combining it. That said, it is true that requiring a mass of complicated downloads can be a nuisance, so I try to avoid requiring large downloads unless it is something I can really use quite extensively. E.g., if there are just one or two areas that might benefit from a custom tileset, I probably would not bother with it. On the other hand, if there are a dozen areas that could use a certain tileset, it would be a different story.

 

[Immortal]

rogueknight333 Thoughts on NWN:EE?

 

[rogueknight333]

rogueknight333 Thoughts on NWN:EE?

I already gave a few thoughts in this thread, but perhaps that one has so many posts that my modest contribution is easily overlooked. To summarize in this quieter corner, since backwards compatibility with existing modules ought to be the primary concern when making an enhanced NWN, I think Beamdog is taking the right approach in not being overly ambitious and not actually changing all that much. The more improvements they try to add, the greater the probability of introducing bugs and compatibility issues. Since NWN is often quite finicky about working on modern systems, there is furthermore an actual need for an update addressing that. Only the most committed players are going to go through the trouble of setting compatibility modes, rolling back drivers, etc., which is often necessary to get NWN working these days. Providing a version of NWN that "just works" (plus, of course, the increased publicity) could in a best case scenario go a long way to revitaliving the NWN community. This assumes of course that NWN: EE actually will work well on modern systems, actually will be backwards compatible (at least for the most part) and will not otherwise mess something up. Beamdog's previous history is not entirely reassuring in this regard, but one can hope.

For me personally, as an active module builder, it is actually a bit of a nuisance. In the future I may well need to maintain separate installations of both versions of NWN so I can test and debug for players of both, and will have to worry that every update Beamdog makes might break something I have done or am working on. I may still need to jump through hoops myself to get the old toolset working on any new computer I get since I do not want to make the later chapters of Swordflight unavailable to players who started playing the series with the original NWN but who think the EE is a lousy deal or for whatever other reason decline to purchase it. However, I am in an unusual situation, having stuck with NWN so long and as a result being caught in the middle of making a ridiculously long ongoing series (apparently I do not practice what I preach about not being overly ambitious).

If the EE can bring in new players (and perhaps some new builders too, who may be drawn by the prospect of a larger audience) without altering too much else about the NWN modding community, that would be a very positive development. The key is to avoid wrecking all that community has already done on its own.

 

[Lilura]

Fave class poll at 500 votes:

Poll extended to around 2030.

 

[Nerevar]

Who voted for "Rogue" I don't even know what they do besides die and have a medium BAB. It's like the famous Sarevok quote goes "Smelly dumb Rogue scum". At least RDD is a close second, RDD being the thinking mans class of choice.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Any choice other than Barbarian is inferior.

 

[Lilura]

Rogue deserves the top spot. Sneak attack anyone who disagrees.

Barb is only beating Harper Scout and Purple Dragon Knight, which are very specific classes. IOW, barb is coming in last

Sorc should not beat wiz. Stupid BG2 fans.

 

[felipepepe]

Red Dragon Disciple in second...

YOU MADE THIS!

 

[Jason Liang]

If we use Fighter's 1 bonus feat/ 2 levels as the standard for character progression in NWN/ 3E rules, the Barb feels underpowered but only because most players overlook the d12 hit die. That d12 hit die (or 4 hp/ 2 levels) is the Barbarian's "bonus feat" base progression just like the Rogue's +1d6 sneak attack /2 levels, cleric/ druid spell progression /2 levels, and Wizard/ Sorcerer spell progression, the Ranger free feats, etc...

And yeah, Wizard is much better than Sorc in NWN/ 3E pound for pound. Still, I like the Sorc class to simulate roleplaying a character that has special innate abilities, for example a Vampire or a mutant. So I don't necessarily see it as directly inferior to Wizards. For me Wizard is like Merlin, Dalben, Raistlin and Ged, while Sorcerer is like Cable, Colossus and Tourette/ Beckett (to reference Troika instead of simply WoD). Wizard is a much better class if you are a) taking to level 17+ (and you get 3+ bonus feats above Sorcerer) or b) splashing 2 levels for Ring of Wizardry and Scroll casting. But if you are splashing between exactly 4-8 levels for flavor reasons and don't need to dump CHA, Sorcerer is useful.

 

[Lilura]

Accompanying write-up for poll is here, btw. It's really just for beginners. If anyone would like to post a 1-10 build or something for newbies (there are gonna be a lot when EE picks up speed), I'll include it in the post and credit you.

 

[Lhynn]

I remember the bard/RDD/blackguard combo was insanely strong.

I always played monk or monk/SD and it was enough to bring down powerhouses with a bit of creative gameplay.

 

[Lacrymas]

You can't be a Barb/RDD/Blackguard :p

 

[rogueknight333]

Only dedicated powergamers would automatically pick the strongest class as their favorite. Weak classes can sometimes be fun to play. In any case in NWN there is not really any one strongest class anyway, since the best builds are multi-classes. From a powerbuilding perspective, there is almost never a good reason to play a character with less than three classes.

In defense of rogues (my own favorite) they are quite effective if you know how to play them. Sneak attack can do massive damage against anything not immune. Use Magic Device can practically turn them into casters on top of their other talents, among other advantages. Setting a huge pile of traps can easily defeat lots of enemies who would be a nightmare for almost any other class (which is very cheesy of course, but if we are talking about powerbuilds cheese is the point). If DEX based they can attain an extremely high AC by epic levels, and on top of feats like evasion will be better tanks than the classes designed to tank. Being DEX-based also means they will be decent with ranged weapons even if that is not a primary focus, and can readily switch to them if needed for some special purpose. Rogues are the most natural fit with Shadowdancers, and Hide in Plain Sight is one of the games most OP feats, especially if combined with Sneak Attack. They also have more non-combat skills than any other class, in the rare modules in which non-combat skills are important.

Pure Barbarian is not ideal, but then pure anything is not ideal (see above about multi-classing). Rogue/Barbarian or Barbarian/Bard/RDD is not so bad. The former even somewhat fits the "Conan" archetype that inspired the Barbarian class, since Conan spent part of his career as a thief. Warrior classes in general in NWN tend to compare poorly to Clerics as melee combatants (which is stupid, but that was how the rules were written), and thus are generally most useful as "mix-ins" for builds centered around something else.

Whether Wizard or Sorcerer makes the better mage is highly dependent on environment. Sorcerers are generally thought to be a bit stronger in PvP, for whatever that is worth.

 

[Lhynn]

You can't be a Barb/RDD/Blackguard :p

Yer right. i was thinking of two different multiclasses.

Bard/RDD/Blackguard and Barbarian/rogue/blackguard.

 

[Lacrymas]

Yer right. i was thinking of two different multiclasses.

Bard/RDD/Blackguard and Barbarian/rogue/blackguard.

Barb/Rogue/Blackguard sounds cool. Wouldn't Barb/Assassin/Blackguard be better, though? The only thing you don't get is Evasion, but you get the other goodies the Assassin gives.