One of my goals in creating this mod was to use the Project Q custom content (.haks) for NWN. I really prefer “Q” over the much more prevalent CEP (Custom Expansion Package) as it is much less “buggy” and does not contain nearly as much “filler” material or “fluff” (some folks like this – I don’t). The Project Q Team has spent A LOT of time making sure that everything included in their package looks as good as they can make it and more importantly works as it should. They are very receptive to feedback and any “bugs” that get uncovered are removed very quickly – customer support that rivals the best in the industry and they are volunteers. What a great group of folks; sharing their knowledge and time with the NWN community.
Building a “simple” module such as this is nice in that you can see progress from the very start. A lot of the scripting that is required to make the objects behave in the intended manner can be added as one gets to the area that contains the object. This also makes testing easier as things can be done one at a time and any bugs worked out before moving on to the next area.
One may wish to consider “naming conventions” for scripts and areas and items before getting too far along to save rework at a later time. Establishing and using naming conventions just makes things easier for the modder; and will pay off big dividends as your module grows in size. One of the first things I decided was to use the original area numbering system of the text version of the game to make it easier to locate areas and script movement between them (transitions). I decided to include a three digit number at the beginning of the name; thus the first area known as “road end” in the text game became “001 Road End” in my mod. Area transitions were set up using triggers and waypoints (see the tutorial or lexicon if you want to know more about these) which were tagged using the following convention:
Triggers: “att_A###@” where “att_” indicates it is an Area Transition Trigger; “A###” indicates the Area Number for the area (### being the three digit number of the area); and @ (optional) is used to differentiate among several transition triggers in the same area – usually the compass direction of its location within the area. So “att_A001N” would be the area transition trigger located in the north of area 1.
Similarly, waypoints (indicating destinations for the transition triggers) were named “wpt_A###@”. Note that the A###@ for the waypoint will be in reference to it’s location in the mod and will generally not match the transition trigger that uses it. Thus, the destination for “att_A001N” is “wpt_A002S” as moving north from Area 1 leads to the southern part of Area 2.
OK – with that out of the way, I was ready to start building. The first map contained the eight areas located outside the caverns (nine in my case as I split the Forest (area 5) into eastern and western sections to prevent the player from heading east from the road and later approaching the same road from the west without ever crossing it …).
For the forest areas, I decided to use the Castle Exterior, Rural tileset. It is one of the newer ones and very nicely done; allowing for elevation changes without “cliffs” and using very nice models for the trees. These areas went together pretty fast as other than the transitions between them, they don’t contain much. Actually the toughest part was getting the elevations correct for the road and stream; I wanted “everything” to slope upwards in the direction of the hill, just for continuity. I changed the building from a “Well House” to a “Bath House” for the simple reason that the models used in NWN are more “medieval” in nature rather than modern and there are some neat animated fountains that could serve as a spring and bath area.
I wanted the Player to be stripped of everything and given some “adventurer” looking clothing. I originally used the OnClientEnter slot of the mod to do this; however, the Player’s gold was not being removed …. After a bit of head scratching I checked the Lexicon for the TakeGold function and sure enough the game is bugged so that it doesn’t work if called from an Area or Module Event. The Lexicon recommended using a trigger around the Player Start position to get around this, and that solved the problem. I then gave the Player 42 gold coins … because it is the answer to life, the universe, and everything ….
One of the reasons I enjoy working with the toolset is the exercise in creativity. The text version of the game has the small stream issuing FROM the well house. NWN does not have a model of a stream coming from a building; however it does include a model for a stream and several buildings as well as a very large selection of “placeables” that can be used to dress up and customize an area. I chose the small round stone house as my bath house and started the stream in the next tile to the south. I then took some stone wall blocks and placed them along the 3 banks at the start of the stream; hiding the dirt banks and leaving the south side open as the stream flowed south. By lowering the height of the blocks until they were at ground level, I was able to make it look like an improved spring. Placing a large pipe between the stream and the building gives the impression that perhaps the source of the stream is inside the building. I was quite pleased with the result.
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