The Complete Builders Guide For The Neverwinter Nights 2 Toolset

Transcription

The Complete Builders
Guide
For
The Neverwinter Nights 2 Toolset
BY
NWNmaster
Version 1.1
http://www.nwn2toolset.com
1
INTRODUCTION
Thank you for taking the time to download this manual and I
sincerely hope that it will aid you in whatever you are trying to
achieve with Obsidian's masterpiece Neverwinter Nights 2 and the
Electron toolset Engine.
Neverwinter Nights 2 gives you all the tools you need to build your
own modules, campaigns, and adventures - create buildings,
terrain, script encounters, write dialogues, create quests and items
- everything you need to create an epic adventure of your own is
included in the toolset for you to use.
I started collecting information on every aspect of module building
and kept track of the questions frequently asked on the Bioware
Toolset forums and the answers provided to these questions every
since the Toolset was released (pre sale).
I hope that this manual will aid the absolute beginner and also give
some helpful tips to the experts of the toolset.
Within the manual I have given kudos to those that have provided
tutorials and answers to all of our most requested questions.
If you have any queries or questions then please visit us at
http://www.nwn2toolset.com .
2
CREDITS
OBSIDIAN – For making a great game and including a toolset that
enables us to make great games, custom content, etc… Plus I have
used some of their help file content here as there was no point in
reinventing the wheel.
GILTHONYM – For allowing me to use some of his content on my
toolset site and also in this manual. Download his great beginners
guide called “Don’t Panic”, which can be found here:
HTTP://NWVAULT.IGN.COM/VIEW.PHP?VIEW=NWN2TUTORIALS.DETAIL&ID=14
FRECKLER SMOKER – Writing up a great guide on light placeables.
Bioware Forum Users – Especially those that help other users
out, with all their questions.
Mcmillanjj – writing up a great how tos on plugins.
Brother Amos – for his water tutorial.
Kal_Agrim – for his instructions on how to add a key to your
module.
Montgomery Markland from Rogue Dao Studios – Inspiration
behind the World Map plugin tutorial.
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1 The Interface
1.1 Toolset Controls
Chapter 2 Modules
2.1 What is a Module
2.2 Loading a Module
Chapter 3 Areas
3.1 Making your first area
3.2 Placing a Starting Location
3.3 Terrain
3.4 Texturing
3.5 Water
3.6 Day & Night Settings
3.7 Area Properties
3.8 Walkmesh
3.9 Interior Area
3.10 Baking
3.11 Exploring Your Module
Chapter 4 Creatures
4.1 Create an NPC
4.2 Encounters
4.3 Create your own custom encounters
Chapter 5 Placeables
5.1 How to add a Placeable
5.2 Equip a Placeable
5.3 Light Placeable
5.4 How to add a Sign
5.5 Bridges
Chapter 6 Items
6.1 What is an Item?
6.2 Creating an Item Blueprint
6.3 Creating an unequippable Item
6.4 Creating Equippable Items – Weapons
6.5 Creating Equippable Items – Armour
6.6 How to make a key
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Chapter 7 Sounds
Coming soon
Chapter 8 Triggers & Waypoints
8.1 New Area Transition
8.2 Walkmesh Trigger
8.3 Waypoints
Chapter 9 Merchants
9.1 Create a Store
Chapter 10 Conversation
10.1 Conversation basics
10.2 Anatomy of a conversation
10.3 Conversation scripting basics
10.4 Writing a conversation
Chapter 11 Scripts
Coming Soon
Chapter 12 Plugins
12.1 Install a Plugin
12.2 Why Author a Plugin
12.3 Create your first plugin
12.4 Visual Effects Editor
12.5 World Map
Appendix A – Classification Codes
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Chapter 1: The Interface
The whole toolset layout:
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The Menu Bar
The menu bar is in the top right hand corner and comprises of File, Edit, View,
Plugins and Help.
File
From the File menu we can create a new module, area, conversation or script,
save our module, bake the module, import/export, etc.
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Edit
The Edit menu allows you to Undo/Redo your last action plus Cut, Copy and
Paste. Please note that at the time of writing the Undo/Redo function will not
work on a lot of what you do within the toolset.
View
View menu allows you to look at the module properties, factions, 2da files, the
current mode you are in and options (more about these later in the manual).
Plugins
The Plugins menu as you can see above includes Process, Campaign Editor,
Universal Blueprint Changer, Visual Effects Editor and World Map Editor. Please
see the section about Plugins to find out more.
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The Toolbars
1. Grid. This will toggle to grid which is handy for seeing the region grid
and border grid.
2. Occlusion Grid. This toggle shows the border area marked in red. Good
for seeing where the border area starts without the grid visible.
Remember characters can not enter the border area so this will help
indicate the end of the walkable area.
3. Surface Mesh. Shows the surface of the map that can be modified by
the Terrain tools. Each line intersection can be adjusted in height. This
will be covered in more detail in the terrain tools section.
4. Baked. This is for level baking which will be covered in the Baking
section.
5. Shadows, Water, Bloom, Fog, Sky. These toggle the various map
features and are mostly for help during map creation. The water toggle
for example is handy when you want to paint terrain under a lake and
need to temporarily see what you are doing! These toggles do not
affect the terrain in any way in the game engine.
6. Use Area Far Plane. This is used in conjunction with the Fog settings
(Farclip, FogEnd, FogStart) in area lighting. It will clip the view to
where the game will stop drawing objects (Farclip). Useful for
determining what players will see at different locations on a map.
7. Normal Mapped Terrain. This toggle shows the terrain using either the
basic ground textures or the normal mapped ground textures. Normal
mapped textures are similar to bump mapping in that they show
shadow detail based on how the light hits them. For lower end systems
normal mapped textures can be turned off so this toggle allows you to
see what the terrain will look like on those systems.
8. Day/Night. Allows you to select which of the 7 day/night settings to
display your map in. Default is used for maps that have no day/night
cycle. Lighting will be covered in more depth in the lighting sections.
1. Filters: Show/Hide. The Show/Hide dropdown toggles the various map
objects on and off. This is handy for map making to remove various
elements for ease of editing. As an example you might want to remove
trees from the map so terrain painting would be easier. This is strictly
for display and the objects never actually are deleted.
2. Filters: Selection. A very important dropdown that filters what objects
you can interact with. When there are many objects on a map but you
are only adjusting lights for example you can turn off selection for all
other types. That way you won’t accidentally move or delete something
else. The editor has no undo function as of this writing so use the
selection dropdown as a precaution.
3. Snap. Used for doors so they will snap into position at the doorframe
correctly.
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4. Select Objects. The main mode for selecting the various objects on a
map.
5. Paint Objects. When you are painting objects this mode will be
automatically selected. When you are done painting objects hit ESC
and you will return to Select Objects mode.
6. Select Terrain. Allows a tile to be selected. This is handy when working
with water or checking texture usage.
7. Paint Terrain. Mode for painting terrain, textures, water, or grass. This
mode will be automatically selected when using those tools. The color
of the brush will match the tool button color. If you wish to return to
object selection, select “Select Objects”
8. Tiles. Used for Interior maps, see that section for more details.
9. Drag Selection. Marquee selection toggle. If you wish to click-drag a
bunch of objects you can use this toggle option. It’s recommended to
have this option off during normal use so you don’t accidentally select
more then one object.
Area List/Conversation List/Script List
Tabs at the bottom select which list you are viewing. Double-click on any area,
conversation, or script name in the list to open it.
Area Contents
Lists all of the components of the currently selected area, if any. Components
include items, creatures, triggers, placeables, and more.
Area Viewer
Shows what the area looks like. You can modify terrain and textures, place
objects, etc. through the Area Viewer.
Property Panel
Shows properties for the selected object. The Property Panel contains many tabs
(Basics tab, Skills tab, etc.). If you select an object in the Area Viewer (5), Area
Contents (4), or Specific Blueprints (8) section, its properties are shown here.
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Blueprint categories
Blueprints are templates for any object that can be placed in an area. Note that
the Area Contents section (4) has the same options. Blueprints include all global
content as well as local templates you might create.
Note: If you click on a blueprint, its properties automatically appear in the
Property Panel. You can right-click on a blueprint to see its properties in a new
window, but this process can be slow and no more than 3 property windows can
be open at any time.
Specific Blueprints
This section is similar to the Area Contents, but lists all available objects, not just
those placed in the current area. For example, this section would let you select a
goblin, while the Area Contents section lets you select a specific goblin that you
have placed.
Tabs
To switch from Blueprints to the Terrain (exteriors) and Tile (interiors) tabs.
Note: If you play around with your interface, and you want to revert it to the
default appearance, follow these instructions from the Obsidian documentation:
“Preferences for the toolset are stored in C:\Documents and
Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\NWN2 Toolset
If you renamed or delete that folder, your settings will return to their defaults.”
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1.1 Toolset Controls
General
· Right-click toggles between Select/Paint for objects and terrains.
Object Manipulation (Creatures, Placeables, Effects and Trees)
· To move an object on the X/Y: Directional arrows (or Alt+Arrows)
· To rotate objects: (Can’t rotate trees)
· Mouse: Select the object(s) then hold down shift + right click drag
· Keyboard: Ctrl+Left/Right Arrow
· Raising and lowering objects:
· Mouse: holding down alt while moving the mouse forward and backward
quickly raises/lowers an object
· Mouse (precision): Shift + Mousewheel
· Keyboard (precision): PageUp/PageDown
· To make an object stack atop another placeable, hold down “S” while placing it.
· To drop an object to the ground, press Space
· To hold a placeable in place without actually placing it, hold down CTRL
· To lock a placeable into an x-y position: “L”
· To lock a placeable into a z position (height): “Z”
Camera Controls
· Panning – movement of the camera on the x/y plane: Hold (Control + Left
mouse) and drag
· Rotate the camera: hold Control + right mouse and drag
· Rotate the camera: press middle mouse button or wheel and drag
· Adjusting the camera height: Ctrl + Shift + Vertical Mouse Movement
· Zoom in/out: roll mouse wheel
Interior Tile Placement
· Rotate tiles: Left & Right arrow keys
· Switch between tile variants: Up and Down
· Copy a tile: with a tile selected, Right-mouse will copy it
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CHAPTER 2: MODULES
2.1 WHAT IS A MODULE?
Modules (.mod files) contain all the elements of a complete Neverwinter Nights 2
adventure. A module with one area is the most basic playable adventure, with a
typical short adventure being a module of several areas and events. A truly epic
adventure (such as the official NWN2 campaign) links several modules together.
To create a new module, simply open the toolset. When it first loads it should
look like the screen below. A new, empty module is now ready to be made.
2.2 LOADING A MODULE
Should you wish to continue working on an existing module, you can open your
saved module through the Dropdown Menu: File Æ Open.
This Open function brings up a window where you can browse your computer for
the module. The default directory is the Modules directory in your Neverwinter
Nights 2 game folder. Files with a .mod extension are valid module files.
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Chapter 3: Areas
3.1 MAKING YOUR FIRST AREA
When you first open the toolset you will already be in a blank module, which you
can start to work on immediately.
To create an area click on File Æ New Æ Area
On the next screen you will be able to give the area a tag (Make it unique) and
also you will be able to choose between Exterior (terrain) or an Interior (tiles)
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The next screen allows you to choose the size of the new area by either choosing
the size on the right hand side or by moving the sliders on the left hand side
and/or bottom.
Sizes:
Tiny = 4 x 4
Small = 8 x 8
Medium = 16 x 16
Large = 24 x 24
Giant = 32 x 32
Exterior tiles are 10m square. Interior tiles are 9m square.
Now click finish and your area is ready to build on.
TIP
You can also get to the Area Wizard by clicking on right clicking on the screen
under the Area List on the left side and then left click on Add.
When we click on finish lets have a look at the white lines in the grid. This is the
boundary of your area. Anything you make outside of these white lines will just
be background, and the player won't actually be able to go there.
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3.2 PLACING A START LOCATION
Before we start make sure that you have your module open and an area available
in your Preview area. Next click on the Set Start Location button, which is located
in your Filters toolbar:
If you move your mouse cursor over the preview area, you will see that it will
change to a cross. All you need to do is to left click in the area that you want the
player to start in and you will see a symbol in your area, which will be displayed
like:
As you can see there is a point in circle and this is the direction the player will
face when they enter the module. To change the direction you can either click on
the Rotate 45 degree left or right:
or you can use the left and right arrows to move the location or Ctrl + Left/Right
arrows to rotate or if using the mouse then hold down shift + right click drag.
3.3 TERRAIN
The first thing you probably need to do is to get a piece of paper and a pencil.
Start by drawing a sketch of the area as there is nothing worst that sitting at the
toolset and wondering what to construct.
Once you have an idea of the area you want to make, start thinking about the
textures that are going to be used.
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In particular the global texture, to change the global texture, click on the Terrain
tab in the Blueprint pane and then click on Texture:
After clicking on the Texturing, you will see in the middle of the Terrain pane a
section called Terrain Texturing:
Left click on the terrain you want to be the "global terrain" and then click on the
Fill button. You will then be presented with a warning "Are you sure you want to
fill the entire area?". Click OK and the textures will be swapped.
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Shaping the terrain
Lets talk about the different tools that we have at our disposal before we actually
do anything to our area:
The Environment Tools have 4 buttons as you can see above.
When you click on the Terrain button you will see the following tool pane:
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At the top of the pane we have a section called Brush which has the following
options:
1. Size. This is the area of the brush that paints at the full pressure
setting. Indicated by the inner circle of the brush. (from the Bioware
forums I believe the sizes are in meters)
2. Outer. The “drop-off” of the brush. Indicated by the outer circle of the
brush. A large outer setting will make more subtle hills when painting
terrain and more blended textures during texture painting.
3. Pressure. In terrain building this will affect how extreme the sculpting of
the terrain will be. For subtle changes use a low setting under 20%. For
texturing it controls how much the selected texture mixes with the already
painted textures. As an example if you have pressure set at 50% it will
mix the selected texture 50% with any other textures in the currently
affected area.
Underneath these tools are predefined sized brushes from small (Inner = 1, Outer
= 2), medium (Inner = 6, Outer = 6), large (Inner = 10, Outer = 10) and lastly
gigantic (Inner = 15, Outer = 15).
Next are the Terrain Tools:
The terrain tools allow sculpting terrain. You can paint hills, chasms, mountains,
roads, etc. It’s the basic tool section for laying out your map.
Brushes
1. Raise/Lower. As the name suggests the brush will raise or lower the
terrain in the selected brush area. Use the pressure setting to control the
level of adjustment. Lower settings are suggested for fine control.
2. Noise. Adds a noise to painted area to break up flat sections of the
map. Please note the tool does not work across tile regions and can break
sections. If this happens use the Smooth tool to clear out disjointed tile
regions.
3. Smooth. Smoothes out a section. Great for flattening out peaks or
building terraced hills.
4. Walk/No Walk. Used in conjunction with level baking to control
character movement on a map. See Level Baking for more details.
5. Flatten. This control has “Height” instead of “Pressure” and will force
the surface mesh to flatten at the set height. Used with the Eyedropper
tool allows good control on maps you have much elevation changes.
6. Color. Used to tint the ground textures a certain color. Very useful in
adding detail and modeling to existing textures. Using a medium brown to
darken ground around water or in crevasses along hills helps break up
uniform patterns. Don’t underestimate this tool! Great to use after
texturing is completed to “weather” a map.
Other Options
1. Flatten Under. By selecting a placeable object and pressing this button,
the ground will flatten to the base of that object. Good for use with
buildings to match the ground to the floor.
2. Eyedropper. Used with Flatten to define a height level to flatten too.
Very useful for making terraced hills or raising sections of the map quickly.
3. Color. Used with the Color Brush to tint ground textures.
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Now we know what the tools should do we can start to make changes to our flat
surface that you can see in the area preview pane.
The first thing we will talk about is how to raise the terrain in our area. I would
suggest that you start by going to the very top left or right hand corner of the
area to test these tools and be sure you have the right height.
Before you start, why not place a human NPC (Blueprints, Creatures, NPC and
then choose say the Commoner) in the area just so that you can get an idea of
scale, etc..
Now to change the terrain make sure that you are on the Terrain tab within the
Blueprints pane and the Paint Terrain option is highlighted in the Filters toolbar
(left click on it if it is not). Then move you cursor over to the area preview and
you should see your cursor change to a pen symbol and two circles will appear
(unless Outer brush is set to zero) like so:
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Now left click on the area and keep the left click down until you get the desired
height that you are after:
The next thing you might want to try is using the Flatten and the Eyedropper tool,
so select the flatten button and then the eyedropper button and you will see
the cursor change to a cross hair. Now click near the top of the raised terrain you
have just created and this tool allows you to select the exact height you are going
to use as a default height for whatever you paint now. When you paint, you will
get a sort of flat-topped hill/plateau (see below for an example). Use this to lay
out all of the raised terrain on your map. You do not need to stay at this height
you can raise the terrain on top of the hill/plateau and apply the flatten and
eyedropper method to build a second tier. You may also want to use flatten for
sunken/worn looking terrain, so that you can make a path of a road.
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Now that you’re armed with how to raise terrain, you can also use the lower
button to drop the terrain so you should be able to carve out the general
appearance of your area. Do not worry about making mistakes as you should go
back over your areas to "fine tune" your environment.
If you want gentler hills then increase the outer brush size and if there are too
many "flat" areas then use the noise tool as that will add bumps in the terrain.
Use the ‘smooth’ tool to reduce the harshness of your terrain. If you have jagged
edges or a lot of cliffs from the ‘flatten’ tool you used earlier, smoothing is a good
way to remove such harsh features that you don’t desire. You should also use the
smooth tool to check the tile edges – noise will sometimes cause these not to
match heights properly, and you can smooth these oddities out.
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Size (From Gilthonym and Vance McFadyen)
Let's do an experiment: Set 'Size' to 6 and 'Outer' to 6. Then left click on the map
and create a hill. Now, change 'Size' down to 2. Create a second hill on the map
next to the first one. They should look something like this:
See how the first one has a flat top, while the second one is sharp. The smaller
the size, the sharper the hill.
Outer
Experiment number two. Change 'Size' back to '6' and set 'Outer' to 6. Paint a
small hill. Then change 'Outer' down to '1' and paint a second hill next to it. It
should look like this:
See how the hill on the left, the one with an 'Outer' of 6, is wider than the hill on
the right, which has an 'Outer' of 1?
Vance has recommended setting the 'Outer' to double what 'Size' is – so if 'Size'
is 3, set 'Outer' to 6. This looks nice. But play around with 'Size' and 'Outer' to
get the terrain looking how you like.
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Pressure
The third property, 'Pressure', is the strength of the effect on the terrain. The
higher the pressure, the greater the effect. Take a look at another of Vance's
screenshots:
All three hills were made with 'Size' of 6 and 'Outer' set at 6. However, for the
first hill, on the left, pressure was set to 100%. For the middle hill, 50%, and for
the third hill, 10%.
'Pressure' is very important – it will heavily control the final effect! Also, the
longer you hold down the left mouse button, the more effect the brush will have.
So hold down the button for strong effects, and just click the button for fine
tuning terrain.
Mountains
Vance McFadyen suggests for nice looking mountains, you create a plateau at
about 1 metre, then another one overlapping that a bit higher, and another one
overlapping that a bit higher, until you reach the desired height. Then use the
'Smooth' brush with a pressure of about 10% to smooth it all over. An example
final effect is shown here:
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3.4 TEXTURING
In particular the global texture, to change the global texture, click on the Terrain
tab in the Blueprint pane and then click on Texturing:
After clicking on the Texturing, you will see in the middle of the Terrain pane a
section called Terrain Texturing:
Left click on the terrain you want to be the "global terrain" and then click on the
Fill button. You will then be presented with a warning "Are you sure you want to
fill the entire area?". Click OK and the textures will be swapped.
The Swapper tool is a nice feature in that you can swap one texture for another,
but please be aware that it works on a whole area basis.
To use the swapper tool click on the swapper tool button and you will see the
following screen:
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As you can see we have two sections: On the left hand side we have the find
texture palette and this is where we tell the toolset what texture we want to
replace. On the right we have the Replace palette where we inform the toolset,
which texture we want instead. Again, this is an area wide change.
Before you start using texture it is best to have an idea of what textures you are
going to use before hand. The reason being is that each megatile (4 x 4 tiles) can
only have 6 different textures. So before you start go to an unwanted part of your
area and test the different textures to see what you like. Do not forget that the
swapper will be an invaluable tool here.
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That is fine but how do I "paint" a texture. Okay, say I want to make a well used
trade route. Start by lowering the terrain and get it to look something like this:
I used the lower terrain tool (Inner size 6, Outer size 2, with 25% pressure). Now
I want to add a well worn track look so whilst in the terrain pane I choose the
colour button in the Terrain Tools pane:
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I chose the light brown warm colour on the right hand side of the colour swatch:
I then paint the colour in the terrain that I previously lowered:
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Then I hit the texture button and choose the TT_GD_Dirt_05 texture (to do this
just scroll down the list in the Terrain Texturing pane and left click on the texture
you want):
Now paint the dirt over the light brown colour that we previously painted:
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Now I want to add an edge to my road so I set the inner brush size to 2 and the
outer to 1 and choose the TT_GD_Dirt_07 texture and paint along the two edges
of the road to get the following effect:
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Another tool that is available that we have not mentioned yet is the Selection
(Advanced) tab:
When you select a tile (In the Filters toolbar, click on select terrain) you will see
all the textures that have been applied to the tile. You can left click on any of
these texture and it will then become your current texture that you can then
apply to the terrain. The order of the textures in the list has no relevance.
One thing to keep an eye one is stretched textures, which normally happens
when you have steep raised areas.
Do not underestimate the importance of the colour black as this can be used to
create shadows within cliff faces or nooks and crannies. Also if you say set the
inner brush to 6 and outer to 2 for example and the pressure to about 10% you
get a more worn look to the texture instead of it being bright and not subject to
weather.
Tip from Renzatic of the Bioware forums
What I do is go for a terraced effect. I'll set the flatten tool to the max height I
want the cliff to be (say 25), knock out the shape I want it to follow, then start
adjusting my height and brush radius for the ledges on the way down (for
example, start at 25, then go down to 21, then 18, and so on and so on).
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You'll want to leave gaps at certain heights, too. That way it doesn't look like a
giant set of steps. After I'm done with that, I'll go ahead and start texturing. It's
easier to do at this point since your edges are still well defined and you can see
what you're painting. Finally I'll use the raise/lower and smooth tool to blend it all
together. After that all that's left is tweaking to taste.
I use Grass09 as the base, and Cliff04 at 65% for the rock face. Then I dabbed
Rocky02 at 15-20% around to brighten up some of the rocks and keep everything
from looking totally uniform.
Tip from Bloodsong of the Bioware forums
You know the Swapper button in the Terrain Texturing mode will search for a
texture in your area and replace it with another one, you can also do this on a
local scale, tile by tile.
1: Select a Tile --go into select terrain mode, and click on a square.
2: Select a Texture Within It --look down at the Selection(Advanced)
palette, where you see the six slots per tile and the textures you have
painted into that tile so far. click on one so it is 'pressed' and highlighted.
3: Select a Texture to Swap In --back up in the normal texture-selection
list, click on a texture. the original texture in that tile is replaced with
whatever you just clicked on. (remember, there's no undo, so be careful
what you test it with!)
BUG NOTE:
If you painted on the tile first, and then swapped a texture with a texture you
have already used... you may end up with a blank slot in the advanced texture
selection buttons. When you try to paint a new texture on your tile, you'll get
black.
To fix it, you need to select the blank texture slot, and fill it with something.
anything. Apparently, the toolset can't shuffle the texture slots to collapse them
when you use the same texture twice on one tile.
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3.5 WATER
To be able to add water to our module, it is best if you dig a hole in the terrain or
in other words lower a portion of the land (go to the terrain button and click on
lower), like so:
It may be best to use the smooth tool around the edges of the hole to get rid of
the jagged edges. Now click on the water button:
We have the same properties as far as the brush sizes are concerned:
a. Paint - Paint water down with the brush. The water will paint out to the
Outer setting as there is no falloff with water. While a tile is selected any
changes to settings will affect all water on that tile only. If you wish to
update the water on another tile just paint there and that water will
conform to your new settings.
b. Erase - Erase water with the brush.
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c. Eyedropper - Use the button to set the height you would like the water
to be painted at. Useful for filling in a lake and finding the height just by
selecting the wanted waterline.
d. Import - Import previously saved water.
e. Export - Export your favorite water settings for use on other maps.
Underneath that we have some different options:
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As you can see above we can click on the button beside color and we get a color
palette and from here we can choose any color we want our water to be.
Ripple- Adjust the level of ripple. X & Y can be independently controlled.
Smoothness - Adjust the choppiness of the water. From a violent sea to a frozen
lake.
Refraction settings - Adjust the reflection level of the water.
Layers: Water has 3 composite layers, for better variation. Varying the
parameters in each different layer gives your water more complexity, hence
better realism. Stagnating the parameters across all 3 layers makes the water
more uniform | peaceful | solid.
Under each layer you have Scroll Direction X: My guess: waves | noise |
competition | sine waves on the X-axis across Scroll Angle. Even water flowing at
Angle 90 should have a little bit of Direction X, since no channel is perfect.
Scroll Direction Y: As above. A large number with Angle 90 makes for a great
wave effect for a wide river, I found.
Scroll Rate: How fast the water is moving along Scroll Angle.
Scroll Angle: The angle at which water is traveling. 0 is no travel (a standing
body). 90 travels east.
Texture: There are two textures for water. Texture 1 is a bit more active | noisy.
Using 1 for all three layers hence gives you noisier water. Using 2 for all three
layers gives you more placid | broad | deep water.
Example by Brother Amos from Bioware Boards:
First, using a very large brush, I lower the terrain:
Second, I apply the cliff-texture to both the cliff faces as well as the bottom sea
floor as shown (Editors Note Maybe fill the cliff texture and add the grass
texture).
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Third, I laid down the default water as shown below:
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Then I added my placeables as shown:
....stay with me, it still looks pretty ugly at this point....
Lastly, I selected a blue tint and started painting the sea floor, getting a darker
and darker tint the farther I go away from shore as shown
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and
Please understand that this is a 10-minute rush job just to show the potential and
overall BASIC look.
Further details like algae greens like the (rock-face placables) to match their own
mossy colors. And/or beach sand textures can also be added as well as underwater details.
OH! And if while you are painting an area and you go "too heavy" - simply take a
lighter tint (almost white) and it will act like an eraser, then simply try again.
Try this....
Create your lower terrain with a wide brush ( no need to add detailed terrain
heights)
Paint down the "TT_GR_Cliff_04" texture wherever water will be...
Add any rocks or other "grass/weed" details as needed...
Go to terrain -> color; and select a medium blue, light brush pressure (around
15% ) and paint the bottom...
Adjust tint darker (or apply more brush pressure) and make bottom detail that
way. Finishing with small brushed, heavy pressure, midnight blue areas being the
deepest...
Add the water layer.
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From above, it looks like shallow and deeper water without having to create it
manually with the terrain height. Also with the very light ( almost white) base tint
of the texture itself, its easy to control the tint and makes a great looking
"seafloor" for areas where docks are located ( say a busy port area of a city for
example ).
To be able to lay Grass within your area you need to click on the Terrain Tab and
then you will need to click on the Grass button as shown below:
The Brush pane you should be familiar with as this is virtually the same as the
texture brush tools. The only difference is the Density setting, which means how
much grass will be laid within your brush size.
The next pane is the Options pane, which you can see below:
As you can see above you have the Blade Size, which adjusts the size of the
grass. There is also an option for the Blade Size Variation, which adjusts the size
variation so the grass does not have an even height. The higher the number the
more extreme the variation will be.
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Next we have the Grass pane:
Here we have the Paint button, which you need to click on and then move to the
preview pane and then click on your area to start to paint the grass. Next is the
Erase button, which removes any grass that you left click on within the preview
pane. Then we have our selection of grasses that we can choose from.
To select a grass you can just left click on it and it will be highlighted in Blue (see
above), plus there is a scroll bar you can use to select the grass listed lower in
the list. You can select up to 3 types of grasses to be laid at once (just left click
another 2 types of grass to select them).
If you try and select 4 then 1 will be automatically deselected. There does not
appear to be a limit on the amount of different grasses that can be painted within
a tile.
3.6 DAY & NIGHT SETTINGS
Maps can have a full day/night lighting cycle. This runs automatically. Some races
like Drow get negatives during daytime hours and there are ways to force “always
day” or “always night” on a map. Or through scripts, you can start the clock at
certain hours.
The day/night cycle is broken into 7 phases. If you look at the “Area Properties”
for a map you’ll see a section at the top labeled “Day/Night Cycle Stages” which
allows full control of the lighting for each stage. The details of this will not be
covered in this document so it’s best to use one of the standard light settings for
your first maps.
Default is a special setting used on maps that have no Day/Night cycle. Mostly
used for interior maps or those that has a fixed time of day. Also generally used
on maps made exclusively for cut scenes.
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editor.
1. Run. This allows you to see the full day/night cycle running in the
2. Normal Speed/Fast. Adjusts the speed of day/night cycle when “Run” is
active. Useful to get a quick feel of how the area looks at all times of the
day.
3.7 Area Properties
The Area Properties for a map are accessed by clicking your area in the “Areas”
tab. The “Properties” window will display the area properties. This is where you
can find the Day/Night Cycle Stages adjustments plus other settings useful for
map making.
1. Appearance.
a. Day/Night Cycle Stages - Opening this section allows control of the
lighting for each cycle stage and the default stage if no day/night cycle is
turned off. There are many options here which allow almost infinite control
of your level lighting. When starting out it’s best to look at one of the
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standard lighting settings on some of the sample maps to get a feel for
what each control does.
b. Sky Ring - Select a sky ring for each direction on a map. Examples such
as mountains, hills, trees, & cities. These will appear the same color as fog
color over the skybox on the horizon.
2. Environment.
a. Day/Night Cycle True/False - If set to True the game will cycle through
the 7 day/night phases. If set to False the game will light the map only on
the Default lighting setting.
b. Has Directional Light? True/False - The “SunMoon” setting (also known
as the Directional Light) in the Lighting stages will be turned on/off here.
This should normally be True for exterior maps. For interior maps it can be
used for additional light to enhance the normal mapped textures but is
optional. It does count as a light when determining performance issues
with number of lights. See Point Lights for more details.
c. Directional Light Casts Shadows True/False - The “SunMoon” directional
light can have shadows on/off. Normally exterior maps would be set to
True. For interior maps that use directional light this would normally be set
to False. If Directional Lights are turned off then this setting has no
function.
d. Is Always Night? True/False - Normally used for exterior maps that have
a fixed “Default” lighting. If set to True then the map will always be night
with Moon instead of Sun in the sky and stars displayed. If this is set to
True then the Day/Night Cycle should be set to False.
3. Fog. Not currently functional. Leave at False.
4. General.
a. Interior True/False - For interior maps this should be set to true.
Exterior maps should be set to false. Surprise!
b. Natural - Natural environments like caves or forests should be set to
true. Towns or villages would be set to false.
c. Underground - Caves or underground lairs should be set to True.
d. Size – The map can be resized by selecting the button to the right of
the “Size” listing. A popup will appear that allows the map to be increased
or decreased in size from any of the compass directions. There are a few
issues to be aware of when doing this. Any object that is Position Locked
will not move when the map shifts size. When the map changes size it
sometimes needs to move objects to add the tiles and those locked items
will stay behind. Height locked items are not affected though. If you are
unsure which direction is North there’s a button (Show North) above the
Area Viewer that places a North arrow in the center of the map. It’s a very
good idea to save before doing a resize since there is no undo command.
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3.8 Walkmesh
Walkmeshes are a very important part of your module building as this will dictate
exactly where the player can walk and where they cannot.
To see exactly where the player can walk in your area you need to click on the
Surface Mesh Filter button:
And the image below is a sample of what you will see in your area
As you can see from the picture above we have green lines (these mark the
walkable areas), black lines (these mark the non walkable areas) and finally we
have yellow, which mark the boundaries between the walkable and the non
walkable areas.
The toolset automatically makes areas that have steep heights or falls as non
walkable. In the picture above there are at least two parts that are non walkable,
the pond and also my rock face.
From the picture you can probably make out my pond (left of the picture), which
has some yellow lines around it. Some of it is walkable and the rest is
nonwalkable, however I want to make the pond totally non walkable. The first
thing we need to do is to select the Non Walk button (do not forget to select the
brush size) and then paint as if we were painting a texture.
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The pictures below show the Surface before and after I started painting using the
Non Walkable tool. Do not worry if you make a mistake as you can always correct
them by using the Walk button and painting in the same way.
The Surface Mesh is also helpful for when you are using your other Terrain tools
as it will show you straight away what effect the tools you are using are going to
have on the player (i.e. whether they can walk on that area or not). For example
if you are creating say a slope and you are using the smooth tool you can see
whether the player can walk up that slope.
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It is advisable to paint “Non Walk” over large areas of non accessible areas since
it will make the baking process much faster and generate a smaller area file.
3.9 Interior Areas
Interior maps are created using tilesets similar to the original NWN1. There is no
surface mesh painting or texturing needed since you can build everything from
the included tilesets. It generally takes less time to make a good interior than it
does to make a good exterior.
Before we even create a new interior area, I should point out the you should
create the area size at least one tile bigger than you need. For example, if your
area is going to be 3 x 3 then create a new area that is at least 4 x 4. The reason
being is that the walls will be against the edge of the area and you will be able to
see the back them, which will not look too good.
When you first create an interior area you will probably notice that the preview
pane is completely black, click on the Occlusion Grid button in the toolbar and
zoom out a bit. You should get something resembling the picture below (picture is
taken from above):
If you preview pane does not look like the above picture, i.e. it is covered in a
light blue colour then make sure that FOG is deselected from your toolbar.
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Now that we have our canvas to work with the next thing we need to do is to pick
our tile set that we are going to work with. These are located in the Blueprints
pane under the "Tiles" tab and will look like this:
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To gain access to the tiles themselves you will need to click on the plus sign:
From the picture above (Column 2), you can see that some of the tiles have a
dark blue line and these are solid walls, the red indicates doors and the light blue
squares indicate pillars. Column 3 tells you what Tile Set you are using (from the
above picture you can see SI = Standard Interior) and the 4th column lets you
know how many variations there are for that particular tile.
To see the variations see under the Standard Interior, look at the Hallway tile and
you will see 4 variations, click on it and then move the cursor to the area
preview, now use the up and down arrows.
The first tile we will lay down in this tutorial is a door tile:
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After all how else are our players going to gain entry into the area? Left click on
the tile and then move the cursor over to the preview area and you will see that
the tile is "attached" to the cursor. When you are happy with the tiles position
then left click in the area and the tile is "painted down". If you need to rotate the
tile, use the left and arrow BEFORE the tile is "painted down".
If you do not like the look of the tile you can always make sure the Tiles button is
selected in the Filters bar and then click on the tile in question so that it is
highlighted by a green outline. You can now hit the delete key.
Now we need to select our next tile. You can see from the above picture that
there are two pillars on the southern edge; we need to make sure that we choose
a tile that has pillars in the north of its tile. As you can see from the following tile
it has two light blue squares in the corner indicating pillars:
There are other tiles with pillars, but for this example I am going to use the 4
pillar tile. Select this tile and then place it to the south of the door tile. As you can
see laying tiles is more like a jigsaw puzzle so carefully choose tiles to match
walls/pillars.
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The above picture is a very simple layout, but you can see that my pillars have
four corners in place.
3.10 Baking
Whenever you finish working on an area, you will need to 'bake' it before you can
test it, or allow players into the area. Any time you make changes to an area, you
will have to bake it again before you can test the changes you made will work.
To bake an area, go to 'File', and then 'Bake':
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You will then get the following prompt:
Click on the "Yes" button if you are ready to proceed. The baking process is split
into 7 parts and you will see a pop up dialog box, which looks similar to this:
Once the process is finished, your area is now ready to be played on. Please note
that you will have to go through this process for each area. Any changes that you
make to the walkable area you will need to rebake.
If you try and play with an unbaked area the player will be stuck where they
spawn. You will also notice that the PLAYABLE area is covered by the Surface
Mesh and does not extend to the surrounding NON PLAYABLE areas. You cannot
paint WALK into these areas.
Placeables will cut out the walkmesh automatically during the bake process. This
is especially useful for buildings and walls which you can use to strategically block
areas of the map. Many objects like bridges and raised platforms will cut the
walkmesh so the character can walk on the bridge or platform instead of the
terrain below it. Note that if the bridge is the walkable, the area underneath the
bridge is set to non walkable.
There is also a Baked button in the toolbar and when selected will show you white
outlines that are cut out for placeables and walkmesh triggers.
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Too many objects
Sometimes with densely packed placeables a tile region can get overloaded and
will fail the bake process. You will see that by a tile that is completely unwalkable.
There are two ways to fix this. Delete and/or move some placeables and try
baking again. Or try converting some placeables to “Environmental Objects” (see
placeables section) and surrounding by a Walkmesh Cutter. Walkmesh Cutters
tend to be simpler for the engine to process a walkmesh from.
As you maybe able to work out from the picture above the whole tile is Non
Walkable as there are too many placeables (6 graves and 3 fences).
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3.11 EXPLORING YOUR MODULE
While it may not look like much, an area with a start location is all you need to
have a playable adventure. If you’d like to explore the area you’ve made, you’ll
need to save your module and then load the game and play your module as if it
were any other adventure.
To save your module, simply save from the Dropdown Menu: File Æ Save As.
Alternately, Ctrl+S also saves. Give your module a name and click “Save” and
you’re ready to go!
Start by launching your Neverwinter Nights 2 client. Select a “New Game”
followed by “New Module.” Look at the list of modules and you should see yours.
Select it from the list and press “Start Module.” Select a character (or make one if
you wish) and you’re ready to walk around your level!
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Chapter 4: Creatures
4.1 Create an NPC
To add a new NPC, under your Blueprints click on Creatures and then click on the
NPC group as shown below:
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Now right click in the Blueprint toolbar and then left click on Create Blueprint and
then Module from the popout menu:
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You will now see a blueprint called creature1 and if you drag it into your area
preview then it will look something like below:
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When your new creature is selected you should see the properties of the NPC:
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Appearance
Scale: You can increase each of these numbers and they relate to the x, y
and z axis.
UV Scroll: the UV scroll, which is used to determine how fast the texture
of the item scrolls in the U and V directions (typically used to add the
proper “flowing” look to things like water elementals and lava flows).
Never Draw Helmet: This can be set to True or False
Appearance: Allows you to choose the general appearance of your NPC
(i.e. Dwarf, Dragons, etc)
Tinting: There are a number of tinting options here that allow you to
change the colour of the NPC's hair, face, armour, etc.
Appearance: Another appearance option but this time it is for the head
and facial hair.
Body Bag: Used if the NPC dies, there are 7 different options on how the
body of the NPC will appear to the player.
Sound Set: This is to give the NPC a predetemined sound set when the
PC clicks on the NPC (so if your NPC is a human, best not to chose the
Badger sound).
Wing/Tail: Er, gives your NPC wings and or tail - you can then choose
what type of wings/tail you wish to give your NPC.
Appearance (visual effects): This option if enabled gives you a load of
visual effects that you can add to your NPC.
Attributes
Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and
Charisma: Set these as you would when creating a PC.
Behaviour
Conversation: This is where you add any conversations that you have
previously written to the NPC.
Decay Time: Set this for how long you want the body of the NPC to
appear for when it is killed.
Disarmable: Will players be able to disarm the NPC.
Equipped Items: You choose what part of the NPC can be equippable
(i.e. wearing a helemt, make sure you select Head).
Faction ID: Click on this and you get the option of 4 default factions:
Hostile, Commoner, Defender and Merchant. If you want the NPC to attack
the PC on sight then choose the hostile faction. More on faction in future
tutorials
Lootable Corpse: Pick True/False. This enables you to choose whether
you want the players to be able to loot the dead NPC.
No Permanent Death: Will the dead NPC be able to respawn (not sure
until the game is released)
Perception Range: 4 options here on how far away the NPC can see
things.
Starting Package: What skills the NPC will have in game.
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General
Localized Description: base descriptive text for the NPC.
Tag: name by which an object can be referred to in script.
Classification: Use this to organise where your NPC should be classified
as within the Creatures Blueprint list (i.e. for this example just type NPC).
First Name/Surname: Er..just like in real life.
Misc
Template Normally keep this the same as the NPC Tag.
Comment Add your own Builders notes to the NPC.
Height Lock If set to true means that you cannot raise or lower the NPC.
Position Lock If set to true means that you cannot move the NPC from its
current spot.
Stackable To place one NPC on top of another?
Position No Snap Giving you the exact cordinates of the NPC on the x, y
and z axis.
Miscellaneous
Here you can choose what Diety, whether the NPC is immortal, its Walk
Rate, Familar type, etc to give your NPC more depth
Saving Throws
Here you can give your NPC Fortitude, Reflex and Will saving bonuses.
Scripts
You can attach your scripts to your NPC here so that based upon an event
it will trigger your script so that your NPC will react as per the script.
Shadows
This section allows you to define how the NPC will cast/receives shadows
from lighting within its immediate surroundings.
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Statistics
Classes: This is were you can determine the class(es) of your NPC. To do
so click with the Classes field so that it is highlighted and then click on the
three dots ... to be able to amend the class as shown below:
First click on the Add button and you will see that the Barbarian class has been
shown as above. Click on the Downward arrow under Misc/Class and here you will
see a long list of classes to choose from. You can then choose the level of the
class and if it is a multiclass NPC then just click on Add button again and go
through the same steps above.
Gender: Can you choose from 5 different Gender types.
Subrace: Can you choose from a whole list of Subrace types.
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Feats: Choose from a list of feats so that if your NPC is required to fight then
choose the feats wisely to make the battle a little bit more interesting and of
harder for the players. Click on the Feats field and then click on the three dots ...
to be able to see the list as shown below:
Click on the feat that you want your NPC to have and then click on the Add
button. Rinse and return to add more feats.
Natural AC: Increase this if you want your NPC to have a higher AC than the
equipment it is wearing provides.
Current Hit Points: How many Hit Points your NPC currently has.
Base Hit Points: These are the number of Hit Points your NPC has derived from
its base statistics.
Challenge Rating: This shows the average level of a party of adventurers for
which one creature would make an encounter of moderate difficulty.
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Damage Reduction: You can add different types of damage reduction from a
list. To add a damage reduction type to our NPC, click in the Damage Reduction
field and then click on the three dots ... to get a dialog box as shown below:
Click on the add button and then on the right hand pane you will see four
options:Damage Amount, Piercings, Stacks, Uses or Logic
Damage Amount: How much damage do you want the reduction to be.
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Piercings: Click on this field and you will have to click on the three dots ... and
then click on the add button to get the follow screen:
Click on Piercing Type and you will be given 6 different types to choose from. The
Sub Type will change depending on the type of Piercing you have chosen. Once
done, click OK.
Stacks: You can set this to True or False. For example if you have a ring that has
DR for say Fire and you have given the NPC a natural DR for Fire then the two will
stack together. If set to False then these do not stack and the NPCs DR will act as
if it did not have the ring.
Uses Or Logic: This is set to True or False, which to me does not make sense???
Thats the NPC properties pane finshed, but we have two more panes to go:
Preview and Inventory.
The preview pane will give you the overall look of your NPC.
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If you click on the Inventory tab in a creatures properties you will see at the
bottom the following screen:
The list comprises of what the creature can be equipped or rather where. Click on
the Edit button and the following screen will appear:
Now lets give our creature some armour. To do this click on the plus sign beside
Armour (under the Items tab - bottom left hand pane) and then click on the plus
sign next to the types of armour that will enable you to drill down to some actual
armour. Left click on an armour of your choice and then drag in to the chest field
of the Equipment tab.
If you want the item to only appear in their inventory then drag it to the Item tab
in the upper left area.
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Now rinse and repeat for each field in the Equipment tab, if necessary and your
creatures’ equipment may look something like this:
You can click each item field to make it droppable or possible to pickpocket the
item from the NPC (would try and go against having the chest, boots, etc from
being pickpocketable). If you are unhappy with a piece of equipment then just left
click on it and hit your delete key.
Beside the Equipment tab is the Armour Set and the Properties tab:
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4.2 Encounters
To lay an encounter you will need to go to your blueprints and then click on the
Encounters button:
You will see 5 different categories from Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard and Very
Hard. Click on the plus sign to expand each one as shown in the picture above. In
our example we are going to create a Very Easy encounter by using the Goblin
Gang Blueprint, so left click on the Goblin Gang Blueprint and then move the
cursor over to the area preview pane. You will notice that the cursor changes to a
cross hair and all we have to do is to paint an area where the player will have to
walk into to trigger the encounter.
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Like so:
Once we have painted the encounter, select it (Click on the Select Object in the
Filters toolbar and then left click on the encounter). Now look in the Properties
pane:
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Change the Active field from False to True and now you are ready to test. You will
notice that when you trigger the encounter the creatures spawn right next to the
player, which is not that convincing (after all how did those creatures creep up on
you?). To change where the creatures spawn, select the encounter trigger and
then left click on the Paint spawn point in the filters toolbar and then move the
cursor into the area preview area:
Once your cursor is in the area preview window left click in the area you want
your creatures to spawn. You should now see a flag like:
You will notice that the above picture has a red flag, which means that the
encounter that you drew earlier is selected. If you select another encounter
trigger then if it has a spawn point then it's corresponding flag will be highlighted
in red. The spawn point will be completely yellow if it's corresponding trigger is
not selected, which means that you will be unable to delete it or move it until it is
selected.
4.3 Create your own custom encounters
Under blueprints - Encounters, right click in the blank area and then left click on
Create Blueprint and then Module:
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By default you will see a new Blueprint called encounter1, which we can change
the name of later. Select the encounter and now look at the properties of it:
Under Behavior:
Active: True/False - True means that the encounter is active in the area and False
means that it not active (i.e. the encounter will not happen).
Creatures: This allows us to select what creature will spawn when the encounter
has been triggered.
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Click on the three dots and you will get the following:
Click on the Add button that is located in the bottom left hand side and you will
notice that the pane on the right hand side will include this:
Complete each field so MaximumNumber is the maximum number of creatures
from this encounter that you would like to spawn. MinimumNumber acts in the
opposite way in that this figure is used to spawn the minimum amount of
creatures to spawn. So the game engine will spawn a random amount of
creatures between these two figures. Single spawn will determine whether the
encounter will continuously spawn creatures or group of creatures only once. If
this is set to TRUE then the encounter will only happen once. If set to FALSE then
as the creatures die others will spawn to take their place.
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The final field here is Creatures, so click in its field and then click on the
downward arrow to see a list of creatures:
Select your creature and then click on the add button and you will now see that
creature selection move to the left hand pane. You will also notice that the right
hand pane has gone back to default, which means that you can now add other
creatures to your list in this encounter by repeating the above steps.
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It should look something similar to this:
If you want to remove a creature listed in this encounter the just left click on the
creature to select it and then click on the remove button. When you are done
click on the OK button and you will now see the creature field complete with the
creatures you choose for this encounter.
The Difficulty field is for your reference and makes no odds to the players
Faction ID is important as it is triggered if the player triggering the
encounter is hostile to the trigger.
Maximum number of creatures is the number of maximum creatures in the
encounter. But I have already completed this when selecting the creatures
I hear you say. I have done some testing and my findings are as follows:
If you enter the maximum and minimum amount of creatures when you
select your creatures for the encounter then this field is redundant. If you
select say 0 is the maximum amount of creatures when selecting your
creatures and then select 4 in this field then the maximum amount of
creatures that will spawn is 4.
Player Only? If this is set to False, then it is possible that NPCs or
creatures may trigger the encounter. If set to TRUE then only the player
can trigger the encounter.
Minimum number of creatures is the opposite to the maximum number,
but the same rules apply - see above.
Auto-Reset? If set to TRUE then the trigger will automatically reset itself, if
set to FALSE then the trigger will only only be used once and will not
reset.
Creature Spawn Style: There are 4 different spawn styles.
Auto-reset Delay: Can specify in seconds how long to delay the reset of
the trigger.
Auto-reset Count: Can specify how many times the encounter can be
triggered - stop those pesky campers.
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Spawn Once? Self explanatory (TRUE or FALSE option).
Resource Name gives us the ResRef name
Localized Name is the field we use for our benefit so use a name that
describes the encounter (i.e. Dire animals, Goblin Elite).
Tag: Can be used as a reference for scripting.
Classification: If you open the properties of the encounters within the 5
groups (Very Easy, Easy, Hard, etc) you will notice that each encounter
within each group share the same classification. So if your encounter is
classed as Easy then use {184343} as the classification and it will move
the encounter to the Easy grouping. Do not forget the curly brackets.
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Chapter 5: Placeables
5.1 How to add a placeable
To add a placeable in your area you need to click on the Blueprints tab and then
click on the Placeable button:
Click on the '+' sign by the first category – buildings. A list of the different
buildings you can place will appear, now click on an item. For this example I am
going to select 'Church' from this list:
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When you select 'Church', you can then left click anywhere in the preview area to
place down the church.
Now click on 'Select Objects' once you've placed it to get it off your cursor (can
also click on the Esc key):
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Rotate Objects
If you do not like the way an object is facing say a church in our example, you
can rotate it. Select the church and a green box should appear around it like so:
Notice there is now a toolbar with rotate options just above the window. You can
click on these buttons to rotate the church through 45 degree increments.
To have greater control on the rotation: (Please note that you cannot rotate
trees), Mouse: Select the object(s) then hold down shift + right click drag,
Keyboard: Ctrl+Left/Right Arrow
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Object properties
Whilst the church is select you can look at the properties of it in the properties
pane:
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One of the exciting things about the Neverwinter Nights 2 Toolset is our ability to
paint objects with different colours (called 'Tinting'). Click on the '+' next to Tint
and you'll see there are three colours you can customise.
To change a colour, select it and click the drop down arrow that appears:
A window will appear letting you choose whatever colour you like. Have a play
around and then look at how your church looks.
We then have “Scale”, click on the text field to the right that currently has “1, 1,
1” in it. When you click on this field, you’ll see a flashing cursor prompting you to
input new values for the placeable's scale. This scale of this placeable is currently
1 x width, 1 x length, and 1 x height. Try typing in “1.5, 1.5, 1.5” Press Enter
when done and watch the church increases 50% in every dimension.
Ignore the 'Body Bag' and other options for now, they're not applicable. Three
True/False options under the 'Behavior' tab are important to get to grips with,
though. These are 'Static', 'Usable' and 'Plot':
'Static' means the object won't do anything whatsoever – it's just decoration. Our
church is static, so this is set to 'True'
'Usable' means that the player can interact with it some way – like have a
conversation, bash it or open it. This is set to 'False' for the church (as I
mentioned before, the door to the church is usable, and we'll cover that in a
moment).
'Plot' guarantees that the object will never be destroyed – so set this to true, just
to be 100% sure the players do not try and destroy it. All the other options do
not really apply to the building placeable, but there are other placeables under
blueprints that do use these options.
TIP
Environmental Objects: These objects are decorative props that do not interact
with creatures in any way. While these objects are non-interactive and are not
even solid with respect to other creatures, they take very little CPU power
compared to other, dynamic objects. If you wish to fill an area with lots of props
and would like to make those props completely cosmetic, you can convert them
to environmental objects to streamline the performance of your level.
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To do this select your placeable and then right click and then left click on Convert
and then again on Placeables to Environment Objects:
You can also see from the above picture that you can reverse this by clicking on
the Environment Objects to Placeables option.
Containers
To add a container, click on the plus sign of Manmade Props and then containers:
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Left Click on say Chest {01 Medium} (Note: The player(s) will not see whatever
is written in between the two curly brackets, these are only seen within the
toolset. You can add your own to your own items/placeables and use them as a
note (i.e. Strong Goblin)) and add it to your area (just like the church in the
above example). Again select the Chest and you will then be able to see it's
properties.
Containers are placeables that have inventory and can be used by a player to
access the items and use as storage space. In the Properties tab, make sure that
the following fields are set as follows:
Has Inventory? = True
Inventory Size > 1, though 136 is average for a chest
Static = False
Usable? = True
Like so:
To change any of these properties, just click on the field next to the name. These
fields set the placeable as being capable of holding items and usable by
creatures. A player can now use this object in the game and take items from this
placeable (as well as store them). If this placeable is destroyed, it will drop any
items it held.
5.2 Equip a Placeable
Placing items into either is roughly the same process. Start by selecting the
creature or placeable in the area and clicking on the “Inventory” tab of its
Properties Panel.
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There will be an “Edit” button in the corner of this window, click it to access the
creature’s or placeables inventory.
As you can see from the picture above, we have the Items tab in the bottom left
hand corner and this is where we select which item the creature or placeable will
have.
Equip a placeable
All you need to do is to pick the item you want the placeable to have so in our
example click on the plus sign beside weapons and then the plus sign beside Axes
and again on One-Handed. Now left click on Woodcutter's Axe so that it is select
and we can either drag the item up to the Inventory tab (top left) or we can click
on the Add item button (lower right of the Items tab).
Rinse and Repeat and when you have all your items that you want in the
container then click on OK. If you look at the properties of the container and then
the Inventory tab you will see all your items that you added.
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5.3 Light Placeables
As you can see in the picture below, we have a candelabra on a desk:
Go to placed objects under the blueprints tab and select it
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Select the candle flame blueprint. Clicking on it will bring up a yellow blocky item
that is the blueprint for the candle flame.
Raise the yellow block to where you want it, (holding down the Alt + left clicking
while moving the mouse up or down will raise or lower it to the desired height). It
is important to place the bottom of the block near the top of the candle, also try
to center the uppermost middle of the block with the top center of the candle
(that is where the flame will show up).
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Once you have the yellow block placed correctly go to the show/hide tab and turn
off placed effects helper. Now you should see something like the picture below in
your toolset.
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Now for adding a light blueprint to illuminate the room better. Select lights in the
blueprints tab.
Select the desired light, there is only one in the pre-sale toolset to choose from.
This will bring up a white block of light blueprint, raise it just like you did the
candle flame (Alt + left click) to where you rested your flame blueprint on top of
the candle.
Change flicker from false to true and select a smaller range for the candle, I
chose 2 as my range. You can also change the color of the flame and other stuff
on the properties menu. Editor note: Personal choice but try changing the flicker
rate to 0.1.
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Now go to the show/hide tab near the top left and select light and light spheres
to turn them off (This is the closest way to a preview function I know of in the
toolset).
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That is how to place a flame and light blueprint on top of a candle placeable.
5.4 How to add a Sign
I am going to assume you know how to create an area and also how to paint a
building (in this case a Blacksmith's):
Now we need to paint the sign itself so go to your Blueprint - Placeables Manmade props and then choose the Blacksmith Sign:
Once we have selected the sign by left clicking on it then we can move our cursor
to the Area preview pane and you will see the sign attached to the cursor. Left
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click in the area where you want your sign to go (Click here to know how to move
the object sign) and it should look similar to this:
Now that we have our sign in position, we need to change some of its properties
so that the player can get the name of the shop/sign. To do this we need to select
the placeable sign so that it is highlighted in green (click on the Select Object
filter and then left click the sign).
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Look at the properties and they will need to be the same as this:
As you can see I have changed the Plot to True, Static to False and Usable to
True. To change these just left click on each one and then click on the downward
arrow and choose True/False from the dropdown menu. Now if we save this and
test it by running the module you will find that the sign is called "Sign, Blacksmith
Shop", not very imaginative is it. To change this look for a field in the properties
called Localized Name under General:
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Delete the name Sign, Blacksmith Shop and then add your own (in this example I
will use Thunderhammer Smithy Shop). Run the module and you should see
something like this:
There is one problem with this and you will have to test this yourself is that you
can run straight through the sign. To stop this change the Dynamic Collisions to
True and the player will be forced to move around the sign.
5.5 Bridges
After seeing a few people having problems with placing bridges I thought I would
give it a go and see what the fuss was about. First thing I did was to create two
raised areas like so:
The red lines show where our bridge placeable will be placed. All you have to do
at this stage is to make sure that the two raised areas are level with each other
(good use of the Flatten, Eyedropper tools here).
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Now we can add our bridge placeable, so go to your Blueprints, then Placeables,
click on the plus sign of Building Props and then select bridge. You may need to
rotate the bridge so that the two lower edges are lined up with the two edges of
the raised areas (the two red lines):
You will see in the picture above that the terrain does not meet the whole edge of
the bridge (circled in red) and players will not be able to use the bridge. The next
step is to raise the terrain in that area so that the whole edge has terrain
touching it, like so:
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Notice I now have the whole edge "touched" by the terrain. Make sure that you
do this for the other side as well. Also you can see how much "lip" I have
showing:
The only properties that I would change on the bridge is the Height and Position
Lock to "True" and then bake the area. You should now find that your player/NPC
can walk on the bridge.
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Chapter 6 Items
6.1 What is an item?
Anything in the game (or your module, for example) that can be picked up and
used in some fashion – that is an item. All armors, all weapons, all potions, all
quest items – all the useful things that populate a world, from the magic sword in
the troll’s lair to the gold coins you sell it to the merchant for.
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Items fall into two categories: equippable and unequippable. Equippable items
include jewelry, weapons, armor – things that a character can conceivably place
upon their body or wield in their hands. Unequippable objects are items that are
never actually placed on a character’s body - they never take up an armor or
weapon slot - and may or may not have an effect. Unequippable items can
provide a passive effect when held in one’s inventory, can be disposable (such as
potions or scrolls), can be used in crafting (such as raw materials), or simply take
up space (such as a quest item). Since equippable and unequippable items can
have very different effects, this tutorial will walk you through making both types,
creating a sample of each for use in the Lannon Farm module.
6.2 Creating an item blueprint
To create a new item, click on the “Items” tab in the Blueprint Menu to bring up
all of the items in the game. Right-click anywhere in the New Item field to bring
up a small pop-up menu: within that menu, go to “Create Blueprint,” and select
“Module” (this is unless you wish to create an item usable in any module: if you
want to do that, select “Global” instead). This process creates a new item
template for you to work with within that particular module group. [Note: another
method for item creation involves copying an existing blueprint by clicking on the
particular item, right-clicking to bring up the Dropdown Menu, and selecting
“Copy Blueprint.” This creates an identical version of that blueprint to modify –
which can be beneficial for creating items that only need to be slightly modified
from an original version.]
Within the item template are multiple fields that determine the properties of an
item: [Note: Some tabs are closed in this screenshot because they do not directly
deal with items being created. The Armor tab is closed here because it deals
exclusively with armor items, which are addressed after this section. The Misc
and Scripts fields are not used in the creation of standard game items and are
thus not touched-on here beyond a brief explanation.]
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1. Appearance. This section briefly determines the general look of your item,
particularly weapons.
a. Appearance (special effect) – a list of special effects that can be
attached to an item. Typically these are not necessary, as weapon effects
are actually hard-coded: any weapon with an elemental enhancement
bonus that averages to 3 or higher (i.e., 1d6 and up, not 1d4)
automatically gains an appropriate visual effect. Visual effects can also be
set in the “Behavior” section.
b. Container UI Screen – sets what background graphic is used when a
placeable container is opened. Should be left at the default for itemcreation purposes.
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c. Icon – what icon the item uses (pulls from the list in nwn2_icons.2da).
d. Model Part – what model the item uses (only important for certain
equippable items, such as weapons and bard instruments. Wearable items
use the armor set tool and are discussed later).
e. Tint – the colors that the item model is tinted (shown in RGB values).
2. Behavior. How the item works within the game world.
a. Additional Cost – how much the item will cost in addition to the preset
values (seen three lines below in the unmodifiable “Base Cost” area).
Every item is given a base cost in the baseitems.2da: any enchantments
on the item are given values via code and added on to the cost. If the user
desires any modifications in addition to this code-based value, it can be
added here (or set as a negative value to decrease the price).
b. Armor Type (for game rules) – sets the armor type (via the preset
armor rules in the 2das). Only important for base armor sets.
c. Armor Rules Info – CANNOT MODIFY. Gives a list of all of the rules
attributes for the selected armor type.
d. Base Cost – CANNOT MODIFY. Lists the base cost of the selected item
type.
e. Base Item – determines the actual item type. This is likely the most
important field in the entire blueprint (aside from the resref, which is
discussed below) because it determines item elements such as model
used, item weight, weapon stats, and base cost (all of these individual
settings are controlled by the baseitems.2da file, and cannot be modified
within the toolset itself).
f. Charges – how many total charges a magical item has (only useful for
items that cast a spell, and that the user only wants to have a particular
number of charges – different spells can have different charge costs, and
even be recharged if desired)
g. Container Preference – which type of container the item defaults into
when picked up: default is the standard player inventory. This setting can
be used, for example, to have a potion box that, by default, will store the
player’s potions.
h. Cursed – sets the item to be cursed (non-droppable, non-disarmable
until a Remove Curse or similar spell is cast on it).
i. Droppable – whether or not NPCs will drop that item (default set to false
– usually handled on a case-by-case basis when an item is placed on an
NPC - for example, you may want an ogre to drop the club he wields, but
a troll wouldn’t drop his claws).
j. Force Into Preferred Container – whether the item can be dropped into a
container other than their preferred one (like preventing arrows from
going anywhere but in a quiver, or gems in a gem bag)
k. Identified – whether or not the item is identified, or needs a Lore
check/Identify spell cast on it before it is able to be equipped (for magic
items in NWN2, this is usually set to False).
l. Item Properties – any special abilities that an item has (things like Cast
Spell, Enhancement Bonus [+2], Damage Vulnerability: Acid) – these are
all set in a pop-up menu that accompanies this field.
m. Item Property Activation Preference – controls when an item is able to
use its special properties. Items such as weapons are only active when
equipped, while items such as charms can have abilities when they are in
repository (i.e., inventory). Items can also be set to give effects in both
situations (equipped and unequipped).
n. Pickpocketable – whether or not an item can be pickpocketed (default
set to false – usually handled on a case-by-case basis when an item is
placed on an NPC).
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o. Plot – whether or not an item is vital to the Plot of the game (such as a
quest item). Prevents item from being destroyed or moved from the
character’s inventory.
p. Stack Size – how many items of that type appear at once when the item
is placed in game (a stack size of 1 for an item means only one of that
item will appear at once, while a stack size of 50 means that 50 of that
item will appear at once)
q. Stolen – whether or not the item is stolen, and thus cannot be sold to
merchants who are not tagged as Black Market vendors (default set to
false – usually handled on a case-by-case basis when an item is placed on
an NPC)
3. Blueprint. How the toolset is able to track the item.
a. Comment – basic field to jot down comments. This information is never
visible to the player within the game.
b. Template Resref – resref of the blueprint that an instance came from
(key for placed instances within modules). Each item must have a unique
resref.
4. General. How the item is categorized and described.
a. Classification – how the item is ordered within the toolset
b. Localized Description – base descriptive text for the item: this appears
on normal items, or unidentified items before they have been identified.
c. Localized Description (when identified) – descriptive text for the item
after it has been identified.
d. Localized Name – the name of the item.
e. Resource Name – the name of the actual file on disk (the official
filename of the item)
f. Tag – name by which an object can be referred to in script [Note: the
tag, Resource Name, and Template Resref are all usually the same name,
to keep things simple]. It is generally best to use unique tags, but unlike
resrefs, two items can have the same tag.
5. Misc. Deals with the UV scroll, which is used to determine how fast the texture
of the item scrolls in the U and V directions (typically used to add the proper
“flowing” look to things like water elementals and lava flows).
6. Scripts. Additional scripts attached to an item (beyond the standard ones). For
example, taking gem bag could trigger a script that causes its owner to attack
you.
7. Statistics. Sets the item’s material properties.
a. Damage Reductions – sets the item’s damage reduction (not a damage
reduction property granted to the wielder, but the properties of the item
itself).
b. Material – what the item is made of, which is used for weapons and
armor in order to determine its effect on certain monsters, and vice-versa.
For example, lycanthropes are resistant to weapons that aren’t made with
alchemical silver.
Now that the terms have all been defined, you have the foundation you need to
create items.
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6.3 Creating an unequippable item
The first item to be created for the example is a non-equippable item – Pitney
Lannon’s prized bottle of 1363 Harvest Mead. Follow the steps listed above to
create a new module-specific item, and you can start filling in the particulars of
that item.
When setting up a new item, set the item’s Localized Name and its Resource
Name/Tag/Template Resref at the same time. As soon as you set these, the item
will appear in the Items directory.
Advanced Topic: 2da Files
The term 2da stands for “2 dimensional array.” 2da Files are used by NWN2 to
contain data for many aspects of the game, including spells, character classes,
and feats. The 2da files are located in the Data folder. baseitems.2da specifies
the basic parameters for many different types of items. Each row in a 2da is one
entry and each column is a field. For example, all greatswords share the same
row in the baseitems.2da. They all do the same amount of base damage, are
equipped with two hands, choose their models from the same set of options, etc.
Potions, rings, scimitars, etc. each have their own row in baseitems.2da.
Once these main parts of the item are set, the only things that remain are setting
the icon for the item (selecting the icon field will create a drop-down, scrolling
menu just like the Base Item field: change the icon from temp0 to it_spirits),
setting the desired value in the Plot field (it is not necessary to prevent the Mead
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from being dropped or destroyed, so the field will remain set to False in this
case), and writing a proper description for the item in the Localized Description
field.
To give the item a little more variety (and to provide an example of how an
unequippable item can provide passive bonuses by sitting in one’s inventory),
open up the “Item Properties” tab to add a special property to the item.
Scroll through the Available Properties to the Skill Bonus section, and open it up
to find the Concentration skill. Click on the “Add Property” button to add the
property to the item, then select the bonus and look beneath the Available
Properties field to the tabbed “Selected Property” field. Set the Cost Value (in this
case, the bonus to Concentration) to +2, and click OK to confirm the selection.
Finally, in order to get the Concentration bonus to actually show up for the player
(since the item can not be equipped), change the Item Property Activation
Preference to ITEMPROP_ACTIVE_REPOSITORY_ONLY, which will make the item
properties only apply when the object is in the character’s inventory.
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The item should be ready to place within the module.
6.4 Creating an equippable item - Weapons
Now that an unequippable item has been created for the module, it is time to
create a pair of suitable equippable items: a weapon and an armor. In terms of
weapons, it just so happens that Pitney Lannon is in possession of a quality club
perfect for harassing pesky lizardfolk: he may lack the courage to use it himself,
but this hardly prevents him from passing it on to an enterprising young soul who
might make better use of it… To craft a weapon (Lannon’s Reptile Bane Cudgel in
this example), follow the usual instructions to create a new module-specific item
(right-click on “Items,” Create Blueprint -> Module). As with creating an
unequippable item, set the item name and resref first.
Once the name and resref have been set, go to the Base Item field and select an
equippable item type from the list (“Club” in this case). Since the Club base item
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is a weapon, now there will be an actual model available to select [Note: this is
the case with most equippable items, but not all – bracers, rods, wands, and
jewelry do not have visible models set for them]. Move up to the Appearance
area and set the desired model number in the Model Part fields: different base
items have a different number of available models and model types, and some
have interchangeable model types (swapping out different hilts, blades, and
pommels on swords, for example). To find out what model (or combination of
models) looks ideal, it is a good idea to change the Model Part values one at a
time and swap between the “Properties” and “Preview” tabs to see how the item
changes [Note: if a black question-marked cube appears in the Preview window,
that is because there is no model set for the given model number].
For the Reptile Bane Cudgel example, type in “2” in the first Model Part field –
this will select the second available club model (the metal one). You will be able
to check the model by clicking the “Preview” tab at the top of the window, and
navigating through the window by using the mouse scroll button to zoom,
Ctrl+right-click to move the model around, and Ctrl+middle-button-click to tilt
the camera [Note: the “Preview” option on the top bar must be selected, or no
model will appear in the Preview window]
Once the club appears correctly, open up the Tint mini-menu in the Appearance
area. Three set tints will appear – click on one to bring up the Color Edit Form
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The Color Edit Form sets the individual tints on a model, either by selecting a
color by hand from the palette on the left, or by selecting a named swatch on the
right (the names of each swatch appear when the mouse cursor is hovered over
each swatch). It’s often helpful to set the tint values initially to very bright colors
(like pure red, green, or blue) so that it is very obvious between switching from
the “Properties” tab to the “Preview” tab which tint is connected to what part of
the model. In the case of the club model 2, the Model Tint 1 controls the main
body of the club, the second tint controls the color of the handle, and the third
tint governs the color of the wrapping. For this example, swatches will be used to
select the colors of the Reptile Bane Cudgel: Darker Cool Brown for Tint 1,
Medium Cool Brown for Tint 2, and Darker Pea Green for Tint 3. Once the tints
are set, check the Preview window to see how it looks.
Once the appearance of the club is set, follow the same sequence of events to
finish up the item as on an unequippable item – setting the icon
(it_wu_clubpoison), writing up a description, and setting a proper set of Item
Properties.
For the Reptile Bane Cudgel, it is important for the weapon to have a proper
bonus against Reptiles to suit its name. Click on the Item Properties field and
select the “Attack Bonus vs. Racial Group” ability, scroll down and select
“Reptilian” from the list, and change the Cost Value of the ability to +3. To
strengthen the weapon a bit more, scroll down to “Enhancement Bonus” and add
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that property as well, setting the Cost Value to +1. [Note: you can add numerous
additional properties to items in this same fashion].
Once the Item Properties are set, scroll down to the Statistics section and set the
Material field to “Metal (Iron)”: while not terribly critical for this particular
weapon, it’s good practice to set the value for every weapon, in case one wishes
to make an item out of a different material. Certain materials are set to give
specialized effects, such as Cold Iron (effective against demons) or Darksteel
(deals an additional +1 electricity damage), and can be a valuable addition to
many types of items.
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Once this field is set, the weapon should be ready for use.
6.5 Creating an equippable item - Armour
After creating a properly equippable weapon, there are only a few additional steps
to be learned to create an armor set. Pitney’s Militia Armor should provide a good
introduction on how to spruce up a base armor model with a few appropriate
attachments, and an additional feat and spell bonus.
To create a set of armor, follow the same steps as creating a standard equippable
item: create the blueprint, set the item name and resrefs, and set the Base Item
to “Armor.” Once the Base Item has been set to “Armor,” set the Armor Type field
to the desired style of armor (in this case, Pitney is a simple village militiaman, so
Padded armor should work nicely). When the Armor Type is set, you will see the
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ArmorRulesInfo field below (in gray) update to reflect the rules for that particular
armor type.
Once the Armor Type has been set, select the “Armor Set” tab on the far right of
the blueprint menu – this will help you to set the actual appearance of the armor
itself [Note: the model for the Armor Set tool is a human male: while the majority
of the base armor models are identical in appearance across race and gender,
some armors may appear different on some race/gender combinations]
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As with the Preview window, navigation within the Armor Set window is controlled
with a combination of the middle mouse button and the Ctrl key: the mouse scroll
controls zoom, Ctrl-middle -click rotates the model, and middle -click-drag moves
the model. It is important to note that when using the Armor Set tool that one
should turn OFF the Preview option along the top bar of the window: the Armor
Set tool will be useable either way, but turning off the Preview option prevents
armor flickering within the Armor Set tool when the Preview window loads an
updated model.
The first thing to do when creating an armor within the Armor Set window is to
set the base appearance of the model, which is listed under the Main Type (which
controls the armor appearance type) and Main Variation (selects model variation
within the main type) menus. The two armors below are both scale mail, for
example, but use different variations.
Advanced Topic: Untraditional Armors
It is possible for the armor appearance and the Armor Type (from the “Properties”
tab) to be set differently, so one could have armor that looked like cloth but had
the properties of Full Plate mail, and vice versa. This is an option for armor
creation, but moreover something to be aware of when creating armor.
For the purposes of the example, select the “Padded” armor from the Main Type
menu in the “Armor Set” tab, and select variation 0 for the set.
The second step of creating armor is to decide on the armor attachments. On the
bottom right of the Armor Set tab is a scrolling menu listing each armor
attachment slot, which allows the user to pick what armor attachment they would
like to put in what location [Note: as per the note above, armor appearance and
Armor Type are not inherently linked, so it is possible to use any attachment on
any base armor without influencing its stats.] To place an attachment, scroll to
the desired attachment location (such as “Left leg”), open up the Dropdown Menu
(which lists the models available for that attachment slot), and select the desired
attachment.
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For Pitney’s armor, since it’s a bit fancier than the armor of the other militiamen,
he’s been given burly leather shoulderpads (Left shoulder: 7, Right shoulder: 3),
mismatched arm and knee attachments from wear-and-tear (Right bracer: 21,
Left arm: 18, Left Knee: 3, Right Knee: 4), and matched legwear to protect his
thighs (Left & Right Leg: 17).
After the basic armor attachments have been set, you can apply gear
attachments as well. Gear attachments are items that are not directly attached to
the armor itself: helms, belts, gloves, cloaks, and boots. Gear attachments are
located directly beneath the Main type armor setting, and are handled in an
identical fashion. In the example, to equip the given armor set with leather
gloves, scroll down in the menu to the Gloves Type menu, click the check-box
next to the menu to turn on the gear attachment, select “Leather,” and set the
desired variation (model #3). Using this same method for the other attachments,
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you can easily set the armor set to have a very unique and distinctive look with
no hassle.
After all of the attachments have been set, you can begin tinting the armor. Next
to each armor piece – main, attachment, and base – there are three squares that
control the tint color for each piece of armor, in order of importance (first color
covers the bulk of the item, with the second and third colors as the secondary
and tertiary details). When setting a tint, click on a tint button and select a color
within the Color Edit Form (which is identical to the one used to set weapon
tints).
Although the base armor is only able to take the latter two tints listed, it is
possible to set three tints on it temporarily: this is done in order to take
advantage of the “Apply To All” button that sits immediately below the main
armor tint buttons. The “Apply To All” button automatically migrates the color
settings of the base armor to all of the armor attachments so that they do not
need to be set individually (but they can be if desired).
For Pitney’s armor, if the main colors are set to be (in order of appearance) Pale
Warm Brown, Darker Yellow Orange, and Dark Yellow Orange, only the second
two tints will actually appear on the base armor, but pressing the “Apply to All”
button will set all of the armor attachments to those same settings. [Note: gear
attachments are not included in this change; they are tinted individually.] The
below examples show a screenshot previous to pressing the “Apply to All” button
(left picture), and after (right picture): you can see that the base armor tints
featured at the top have been migrated to the attachments, and are showing up
on the model.
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Once all of the attachments and gear are set and properly tinted, return to the
“Properties” tab to finish up the item: setting the icon used (it_al_padded04 for
the example), the material type (since the example armor is padded, it should be
kept as “Non-Specific”), other desired property tweaks, and setting the Item
Properties. In terms of the example: Pitney once won a bet with Tarmas, so the
local wizard grudgingly enchanted the item with a pair of smaller spells – the
Item Properties should be set up to reflect this. Open up the Item Properties
menu, open up the “Bonus Feat” selection in the Available Properties menu, and
select the “Toughness” feat – this is one of many available feats that can be
included on an item for a character to take advantage of. In addition to this, scroll
down to the “Cast Spell” selection in the menu, select the “Light” spell, and set
the Cost Value to 1 Use/Day. If the player wants to use this spell, they can equip
the armor, and right-click on the armor in their inventory to bring up the menu to
cast the spell – or use the Item Property Activation Preference to set the item’s
magical properties to be usable even when the item is unequipped.
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Once the properties of the armor have been set, save the changes made – and
the armor should be ready to be placed into a module and used.
6.6 How to create a key
This tutorial is going to example how to add a key to your blueprints as they are
not included by default. Credited given to Kal_Agrim from the Bioware Boards as
he posted the instructions there.
The first thing we need to do is to go to the Items tab, which is located in your
Blueprints.
Next we need to create a new item, click on the “Items” tab in the Blueprint Menu
to bring up all of the items in the game. Right-click anywhere in the New Item
field to bring up a small pop-up menu: within that menu, go to “Create
Blueprint,” and select “Module” (this is unless you wish to create an item usable
in any module: if you want to do that, select “Global” instead). This process
creates a new item template for you to work with within that particular module
group.
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You will now see "item1" added to your blueprints:
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Now left click on item1 so that it is selected and we need to amend the
properties:
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The fields that you need to change are highlighted in red.
Icon: This is the icon that is displayed in the players inventory, you can
choose from the following: "it_key_fancy", "it_key_complex",
"it_key_black", "it_key_brass", "it_key_wood", "it_key_iron",
"it_key_stone".
Base Item need to be changed to key
Resource Name – the name of the actual file on disk (the official
filename of the item)
Localized Name – the name of the item.
Localized Description – base descriptive text for the item: this appears
on normal items, or unidentified items before they have been identified.
Tag – name by which an object can be referred to in script [Note: the tag,
Resource Name, and Template Resref are all usually the same name, to
keep things simple]. It is generally best to use unique tags, but unlike
resrefs, two items can have the same tag.
Classification – how the item is ordered within the toolset. Look at the
Classification of other items and if you want your item to be included in
the same Category then use the same classification number and do not
forget to include the curly brackets.
Localized Description (when identified) – descriptive text for the item
after it has been identified.
Now we can place the key in a chest and test it in game. When a player opens the
chest they will see the following:
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Chapter 8: Triggers & Waypoints
8.1 New Area Transition
New area transitions allow the player to move from one area to another by
clicking on the Area Transition trigger as shown below:
To place a New Area Transition Trigger go to your Blueprints - Triggers and then
New Area Transition:
Now move your cursor to the area preview window and you will see the cursor is
now a cross. Click for example the four corners of a square and you will see
something similar to this:
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Please note that the bigger the trigger then the bigger the Transition placeable
will be to the player. The next thing to do is to paint a waypoint where our player
will end up when they go through the New Area Transition. So go to the
destination area, click on Waypoints in your Blueprints and then click the plus
sign of Empty and then Waypoint:
Now click on the preview area where you want the player to appear and also you
can move the waypoint so that the player will face in the direction that the
waypoint is pointing to:
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The next thing we are going to do is to give this waypoint a unique tag so that
when the player hits the New Area Transition, they will appear at the right
waypoint.
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For our example I am going to call the tag area2 as you can see here, waypoint1
may be a better name, but the naming convention is up to you:
Now we need to go back to our New Area Transition trigger and point it to this
waypoint. To do this use the Select Object in the Filters Toolbar and then click on
the trigger (it should be highlighted with a green outline). Now look at the
properties of the trigger and it will look like this:
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Locate the “Behavior” section, and set the following fields:
1. Link object type. Determines whether your area transition will send
the player to a door or a waypoint. From the dropdown menu, select
“Transition to a door” if you want the player to be sent directly to a door
object. Select “Transition to a waypoint” if you want the player to be sent
to a particular placed waypoint. (If you select “No Transition,” then your
area transition will do nothing.)
2. Linked to. Sets the tag of the door or waypoint destination. [Note: You
must be certain that this tag matches the tag of your door or waypoint
exactly, and that this door or waypoint is actually placed somewhere in
your module.] In our example this must be set to area2
3. Party Transition. Determines whether the entire party is sent to the
destination door or waypoint. If this field is set to true, the entire party will
be transitioned to the new area when any one member of that party
enters the area transition trigger. If this field is set to false, and a member
of the party enters the area transition trigger, that member will be sent to
the new area, but the other party members will be left behind. In general,
it is a good idea to set this field to True.
4. Localized Name. This is the name that is displayed to the player.
Maybe use it as a description of where the player might be going (i.e. to
the harbour).
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Now you should test to see if it works and if it does not then double check the
tags and there spelling etc...:
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8.2 Walkmesh Trigger
In the “Triggers” tab of the Blueprints window there is a special trigger called a
Walkmesh Cutter.
This special trigger displays in blue and is used to more finely control where a
character can walk. It’s usually best to place these with the camera directly
overhead. In this example we are going to create a small mound and then make
it so that a player cannot walk on it.
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As you can see in the above picture the mound is walkable, so instead of using
the Non Walk button we can use the Walkmesh Trigger instead. To use the
walkmesh cutter to make the mound non-walkable, click on the 'Blueprints' tab
and then the 'Triggers' button and then click on the '+' next to Empty and you
will see the Walkmesh Trigger in the list. Click on it and then move your cursor
over to the area preview pane (Make sure your filters toolbar has Paint Objects
button highlighted).
Do not forget it is best to view the mound from above and then left click your first
point and then move your cursor to the second point and click and continue this
process till you have the trigger covering the whole of the mound. As you are
clicking you will notice that the toolset will automatically close the trigger with the
first and last point you click.
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Once you are finished you can select the object by clicking on the Select Object
button and then left click on your trigger and it will be highlighted in green. You
can then move your trigger or delete it.
You will then need to "bake" the area and when that process is finished and you
click on the Baked button in the toolbar you will see a white line surrounding the
mound like a placeable when it is baked.
8.3 Waypoints
In this tutorial we are going to make an NPC walk through a number of
waypoints. I am going to assume that you know how to create an NPC.
The first thing we need to do is to place our NPC in an area, so go to the
Blueprints - Creatures and then select the NPC.
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Move the cursor over to the area preview and click where you want your NPC:
Now with the NPC selected, right click on it and then select Create Waypoint:
and you will then see a yellow flag in front of your NPC:
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If you click on the flag and look at the properties have a look at the tag of the
waypointing. My NPC tag is blacksmith and the first waypoints tag is
WP_blacksmith_01, so a waypoint will always start with WP_Tag of
NPC_waypoint number. Move the first waypoint away from the NPC (you will
see why in a moment) and with the NPC selected, create another waypoint. Take
a look at the properties of the waypoint and in particular the tag, you will see that
it is now 02. Move this tag to its location and then repeat the process till you
have enough waypoints for your NPC to travel where you want it to travel.
As you can see above I have create a simple path for the NPC to follow, you can
now test it.
If you change the tag of the NPC then the NPC will not walk those waypoints. For
example if I change my NPC tag from blacksmith to baker then I will need to
change all the waypoints so that the NPC still walks around the house. To do this
select all the waypoints (hold down the shift key and click on each waypoint) and
then right click and then left click on Create Waypoint Set. You will see a Create
Waypoint Set dialog box and you just need to add baker after the WP_:
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You can see near the bottom that the waypoints will change to WP_baker_01,
WP_baker_02 and so on. This will allow our newly tagged NPC (baker) to walk the
4 waypoints again.
You may find that the waypoints are too predictable and you may want your NPC
to travel to the different waypoint in a more random fashion (i.e. instead of
walking to waypoint 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 you may want the NPC to walk total random
waypoints 1,4,3,2,3,4,5,2, etc). To do this you are going to have to add the
following script (thanks to Charles Mead from Obsidian):
#include "ginc_wp"
void main()
{
int iCurrentWP = GetCurrentWaypoint();// the waypoint we just arrived at
int iNextWP = iCurrentWP+1;
if (iCurrentWP>4)
iNextWP = 1;
SetNextWaypoint(iNextWP);
}
Add this to the NPC heartbeat script and it will walk to random waypoints.
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Chapter 9: Merchants
9.1 Create a Store
In this tutorial we are going to create a store for your area so that players can
buy and sell things to the merchant.
First thing to do is to build the shop itself, which I will leave you to do. Once you
have the shop how you want it (in this tutorial I am going to use the scenario of a
Blacksmith - so my area is full of armour/weapon racks, forges and an anvil, etc).
Next thing we need to do is to place our merchant in the shop - after all need to
buy and sell to someone.
Once our character is placed we need to select it (Make sure the Select Objects is
selected in the Filters toolbar and then left click on the creature) and then look at
the properties of the creature. You need to change the Faction ID of the
creature from whatever it is currently to Merchant (The Faction ID is found under
Behavior):
Next thing we need to do is to give our Merchant a conversation so that it can
talk to the players. To do this we need to select the Conversation tab, which you
should notice is the next tab along from where your areas are listed. Once you
have clicked on the Conversation tab, right click in the area within the tab and
then left click on Add. You should now see in your conversation list an item called
Conversation1 and also in the main pane an item called Root.
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Click on Root so that it is selected and then right click on it and then left click on
Add and you should see the following popup:
Where it states "Enter text here", replace it with what the shopkeeper will initially
say to the player, something like "Welcome to Thunderhammer's shop" and then
click on OK. You will see what you just typed appear just below the Root and now
our next step is to type in what the player will say to the shopkeeper.
To do this just right click again in the white area underneath our Welcome
message and then left click on Add. You will notice that this popup is very similar
to our last one, except that in the top left hand corner it mentions "Enter what
the players says next:". Enter something along the lines of "Hail and well met. I
would like to see what you have for sale" and then click on OK.
Next thing we need to do is to give the player the option to pull out of the
conversation just in case they accidentally click on the NPC or have had a change
of heart. Left click on the "Welcome to" line (You should see that the text is in red
- NPC lines are in red and Player conversations are in Blue) and then in the white
area beneath the conversation right click and then left click on Add.
Again the top left hand side will state "Enter what the players says next:" and
replace the "Enter text here" with "Sorry to have troubled you, but I am not
interested" and then click on OK. The conversation should look something similar
to this:
Now left click on the "I like to see what you have" and then right click on the
white space below again and then click on Add and then click on OK. You will now
see a line in between the two END DIALOG lines which starts with CONTINUE,
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with this line selected look below and you will see Add, Remove, Move Up, Move
Down, Preview:
Click on the Add button and you will see the following:
Under script, click on the drop down menu and then from the list choose the
"ga_open_store" (Double click on it). Now click on the Refresh button next to the
script and you will see "sTag (String)" appear, but leave this for now. Next click
on the Blueprints and then the Stores button:
There are a number of predefined stores to choose from, so for our Blacksmith
example I am going to choose the Weapon Store - Medium. You can see the tag
for this store which is g_it_weapmed and you will need to type this tag into the
sTag (String) box, like so:
With that done we can close the conversation and we will be prompted to save
the conversation so click YES. Now the name of our conversation is
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Conversation1, which is not very descriptive so lets change this by renaming it.
Right click on Conversation1 and then left click Rename, for this tutorial I am
going to name it ThunderStore.
Now we need to add the store itself to the area so choose the store (in this
tutorial it is the Weapon Store - Medium) and paint the store underneath the
storekeeper like so:
The last thing we need to do is to attach the conversation to our storekeeper so
left click on the storekeeper so that it is selected and then change the
conversation field under Behavior by left clicking in the field and then left click the
downward arrow. You will see your conversation in the list so double left click on
it and the field should look like this:
Now save the area and run the module.
TIP: You will notice that the conversation acts through a cut scene, which may
not be everyone’s cup of tea and maybe tedious after visiting the storekeeper on
the 15th occasion. If you want to change it then open the conversation and look
at its properties. Under Behavior change the Neverwinter Nights 1-style Dialogue
to True as shown below:
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Chapter 10: Conversations
10.1 Conversation Basics
Conversations are an important aspect of NWN2 gameplay. They are used to talk
with companions, trade with a merchant, and get quest information from NPCs.
At its heart, a conversation is really just a branching menu, so a conversation
doesn’t necessarily have to be two people talking – if you want a player to
encounter an inanimate control panel with three switches, a conversation with
three responses would be an effective way of representing the situation.
10.2 Anatomy of a conversation
Conversations can appear complicated at first, but you will soon be able to write
them quickly.
This screenshot shows a portion of Pitney’s conversation in the Sample Module,
0100_UninvitedGuests. Conversations (sometimes referred to as dialogues) are
arranged in a branching tree, not unlike a folder directory in Windows. Each row
or line in the conversation is referred to as a node. The leftmost section is the
text, which is what is displayed to the player.
Red nodes are lines that are spoken by the NPC. Blue nodes are the player’s
responses. A blue “[CONTINUE]” means that the player has no choice to make at
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that node. In these cases, the conversation will proceed to the next red line,
allowing an NPC to make multiple statements before the player responds.
1. The text for the currently selected node. All of the information in the
Node Properties section (D) refers to this node.
2. A series of options from which the player can choose. After the
preceding red node fires, the player will see these options and can click on
(or press the number of) the one he wishes to select. Note the + sign to
the left of these nodes, which shows that they can each be expanded.
3. Other node information. By right-clicking on this region (choose
“Columns”) you can set which columns of information will be displayed. In
this screenshot, you can see Actions, Conditions, and Quest information
for each node.
4. Node Properties. This section contains more details on the selected
node.
5. Text. The text for the selected node is shown here. Just click on the text
box and type to change what the NPC says (red node) or what player
option is presented (blue node).
The grey nodes are links to other nodes within the conversation. Using links
prevents you from having to type the same line for the same situation.
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To add a node to a conversation tree, just right click on the preceding node and
choose Add. A “New Line” window will appear. Just type in the text you’d like the
player to see. (The language selection Dropdown Menu and the “Edit String Ref”
button will not apply to your modules, but are used for the official campaign.)
10.3 Conversation scripting basics
Scripting in NWN2 is very powerful and can be complicated. In creating the
official campaign, we had many scripter’s who are a specialized type of designer
(or a specialized type of programmer, depending upon your perspective) who
spent their time mastering the scripting tools and possibilities, creating new
global scripts to be used in area creation. The details of scripting are beyond the
scope of these HowTos, but we’ll discuss some of the very basics in the context of
how scripts can be used in conversations. The best way to learn more about
scripting is to experiment with the Sample Module and see how we were able to
create it. Then play around with conversations and scripts in your own modules.
Conditions
Conditions are test scripts that are attached to a conversation node and are either
TRUE or FALSE. When a condition is TRUE, then that conversation node fires (is
executed). For example, you might have an NPC who has two possible greetings:
the first is warm and friendly while the other is cold and standoffish. If you placed
a condition script on the first node to check if the player is an elf, then elves
would get the warm greeting and other races the cold one. In this case, the
condition script is being used to help establish the personality of an NPC.
In the Sample Module, conditions are used to determine which of Pitney’s dialog
nodes will be displayed, based upon the player’s quest state. If the player
declined to help Pitney, then the poor fellow pleads again with the player. If the
player has killed the lizardfolk, then Pitney expresses his gratitude.
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If a condition is not met, then the player will never see that conversation node.
For a series of player responses (blue nodes), this might mean that the player
only sees 3 of the 4 possible choices. For an NPC statement (red nodes), the first
node whose conditions are met is shown. If you experiment with the Sample
Module, you will notice that there are 5 initial nodes for Pitney. Which one the
player sees depends upon what has happened so far.
1. Node Properties Tabs. These tabs let you view different properties of
the conversation node. (In this screenshot, the Conditions tab is shown.)
2. Condition Operators. If a node has multiple conditions, you can specify
“And” or “Or” to indicate whether they must all be true or if only some of
them need to be true for the node to fire.
3. Script Name. This text box contains the name of the condition script. In
this case, the global script gc_journal_entry, which checks a journal
(quest) entry, is being used.
4. Script Parameters. The remainder of the row for each condition shows
what parameters are passed to the condition script. In this case, the
parameter sQuestTag is given the value “01_lizardfolk” and the parameter
sCheck is given the value “10.” The use of script parameters is very
powerful and allows a single script to be used in dozens of conversations.
For example, gc_journal_entry can be used to check any state for any
quest in the entire game! The use of parameters for scripts is a new
function of the NWN2 toolset. [Note: If you add a global script to
Conditions or Actions, or swap one script for another, click the “Refresh”
button to set the appropriate parameters for the new script.]
5. Script Code. The documentation and code for the condition script is
shown in this window.
Actions
An action is a script that is used to accomplish a wide variety of tasks. An action
script is executed when a conversation node fires. For example, an action could
cause an NPC to become hostile to the player, move the player to another map,
or place gold in a treasure chest. In the Sample Module, an action script is used
to reward the player with experience points for completing his quest for Pitney.
Action scripts are set for nodes similar to how condition scripts are set.
10.4 Writing a conversation
Let’s try writing a conversation for victim of the lizardfolk holed up in Pitney
Lannon’s house. The player can talk to this person after dispatching the lizardfolk.
To create a new conversation, use the Dropdown Menu at the top of the Toolset
and select File - New - Conversation.
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Your new dialogue will be entirely empty, save for the Root node. As mentioned
in the earlier overview of a conversation, you can add your first line by rightclicking on the Root node and selecting “Add.” This will bring up the New Line
window where you can input the first line of the dialogue. Note that the first line
after the root is always an NPC line.
Once you hit “OK” the New Line is added and you have the introductory line for
the victim.
If you were to add a line to this red NPC line, you’d be adding a player response
node. If you wanted the NPC to say two lines before the player responded, you’d
have to make an empty player node between the red NPC nodes. Try adding a
blank line to the introduction.
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End Dialog? If a Player node has NO responses attached to it, it is a conversationending node. Let’s see what happens if we add another NPC line after the
highlighted, empty PC line.
The blue player node switched to [Continue] now that an NPC line follows it. Now
that the NPC has said two lines, let’s add some player response nodes. To give a
player multiple possible responses at one time, add multiple times to the same
node. If you want three possible responses to the “I can’t feel my leg…” line,
right-click then “Add” on that line three times.
Now you have three possible PC responses to that line. Fill in text for each line by
clicking on the line, and then typing in the text box (lower-right of the dialogue
editor with the “Insert” button).
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Since these lines don’t yet have any text following them, they are dialogueenders. If you’d like, you could continue to add NPC nodes, and subsequent
player nodes, to your heart’s content. The basics of adding lines are quite simple.
Stores
Stores are only accessed through script in a conversation – they are not objects
that the player can detect. Stores have blueprints just like other types of objects.
After you create your store’s blueprint, place it on the map normally. It is
generally best to place your store next to the NPC.
1. Store Dialogue Node.
2. Script ga_open_store. This action opens your store. It is given the
store’s tag as a parameter.
3. Store Properties Panel. To edit the contents of your store (and to
initially assign its tag), open its Property Panel. Click on the “Store” tab,
then click the “Edit” button to change its contents. You can them place
instances of any blueprint item into your store.
4. Area Contents. All stores in an area can be seen here under the “Store”
tab.
Fall-through
Fall-through is a term for creating multiple NPC nodes and assigning conditions
so that, if the first node can’t be displayed, the process ‘falls through’ to the next
red NPC node down the line. As mentioned earlier in our discussion of conditions
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and actions, a node can be given a condition and if that condition is FALSE, the
line will not be displayed. Observe Pitney Lannon’s conversation:
Notice how there are 5 red NPC nodes off of the root (indicated by the vertical
line dropping down from the word Root). The first red NPC node that is TRUE is
displayed, and the conversation follows the nodes under it – the other nodes are
effectively ignored. Here, the author has used comments in pipes to indicate
when and why each red NPC node is used. When first speaking with Pitney, the
first red line fires. Next time in the dialogue, the game checks to see if the player
refused to help and if so, it plays the second red line, otherwise, it checks to see
if he’s agreed to help… and so on.
As you experiment more with conditions, you can use fall-through to create
very powerful, reactive conversations. The player may feel like it’s five completely
different dialogues, all custom-tailored to what events took place already when
really, it’s just one conversation using fall-through to create a smart dialogue.
One-time-only Nodes
You may occasionally want an NPC to speak a line once and never repeat it again.
For example, in the Sample Module, Pitney’s initial conversation (in which he tells
the player about his problem and begs for help) occurs only once. After this,
Pitney will respond based upon the player’s quest state. This is to create the
illusion that Pitney knows and remembers the PC.
To set a dialog node as one-time-only, click the node in the Dialog Editor, and
select the “Node” tab in the Node Properties window (at the bottom of the
screen). Click the “Show Once” field, and you will be able to select from a dropdown menu. The “Show Once” field defaults to “Always,” which means that the
node will always appear, unless Conditions dictate otherwise.
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Set the “Show Once” tab to “Once per game” to ensure that the node will only be
called once, and will never appear again. Be certain that a fall-through node
follows the once-only node, however, or the conversation will simply close. For
Persistent Worlds, it may be wiser to set the “Show Once” field to “Once per
creature that uses this conversation.” Otherwise, the node will be displayed for
the first player who views the dialog, but will never appear again!
Conversations are placed on any creature or object that will talk to the player.
Select the creature or placeable and, in that object’s property window, look for
the “Conversation” field. Click on the field next to Conversation and click the
dropdown button. A list of conversations available in this module will appear and
you may select the one to apply to the creature. Now, when the player tries to
talk to this creature, the conversation event will take place.
Links are an incredible time saver when writing large dialogues. If you want the
conversation to return to a previous set of options, links let you do so without
typing re-typing everything over again.
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Continuing with the previous conversation, let’s say that the survivor is clinging
to life, and if the player asks questions, the victim shortly collapses in exhaustion.
In effect, the dialogue would look like this:
Notice that the “Why should I help you?” and “Who are you?” nodes lead to
exactly the same text. Writing this out is more work than is necessary, and it
clutters your conversation. There’s an easier way using links to streamline this
conversation.
First step is to remove everything after the “Who are you?” line – it’s no longer
needed. By Right-clicking on the “Please… help me…” line and selecting
“Remove,” that red NPC node and all nodes connected to it are purged.
Next step is to set the link. We want “Who are you?” to link to the line under
“Why should I help you?” Right-click on that line and select “Set Link
Destination.”
This flags the NPC node as being the new destination for any other player node in
the dialogue. Adding this to the “Who are you node?” is as simple as right-clicking
on the node and selecting “Insert Link.”
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Once in, you’ll see a grey node attached to “Who are you?” This indicates that if
the player were to select “Who are you?” they would get bounced to the same
node as if they selected “Why should I help you?”
If you ever forget where a particular gray node leads, just double-click it. The
editor will take you to the destination node.
Links make the difference between writing a large conversation in a few minutes
versus a few hours.
Pipes and Braces can be used to write text that shows up in the Toolset but
NOT in game. Thus, if you are writing a long conversation and need to leave
notes to yourself that you don’t want players seeing in game, you can place your
text in pipes, |like this| or in braces {like this}.
The line above may look messy but the player will only see the text “Thank you
stranger, I won’t forget your kindness!” The conversation’s author can keep tabs
on what kind of response this is and leave a note to return later and add a bump
to the player’s Good alignment – neither of these notes will ever show up in the
actual gameplay.
Barkstrings are conversations with only NPC nodes and no player responses.
When speaking to an object with a barkstring conversation, the game does not
stop for a full branching conversation. Instead, the one red node of dialogue
floats over the speaker’s head without any halt in gameplay.
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Chapter 12: Plugins
A plugin is a file that is loaded by the Neverwinter Nights 2 toolset in order to add
now functionality to the toolset. The plugin does not add any capabilities to the
client or to the resulting modules. It is used to assist the module creator in
speeding up the development process. The plugin file is a dll that is normally
written in Visual Studio and can be written in any managed language. For this
document we will assume the plugin is being written in C#.
12.1 How to install a plugin
A plugin must be installed before it can be used. If the plugin does not come with
an installation program that you must copy the plugin file (this will normally end
with the .dll file extension) to the directory “Neverwinter Nights 2
Toolset\NWN2Toolset\Plugins”. There should already a be a few plugins installed
there (see picture below):
You may have other plugins in this directory. Once the new plugin is copied you
must change the settings in the toolset to allow the plugin to be loaded. Run the
toolset and change the options by selecting View - Options. The following dialog
will appear.
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Change the AllowPlugins dropdown until it reads “Load all plugins” and click OK.
This only needs to be done the first time that a plugin is installed. You will need
to exit the toolset and rerun it for the changes to take effect. When you click on
the Plugin in the menu bar you should see your extra plugin:
If you no longer want to use a plugin you can delete the plugin file from the
Plugins directory.
12.2 Why Author a Plugin
Once the plugin is loaded by the toolset it has access to the public classes and
interfaces of the toolset itself. The ability to reuse the same classes and data that
the toolset uses is very powerful. In addition to the classes the UI elements of the
toolset are also available. There are very few limits to the types of features that
can be added to the toolset with plugins. A plugin coulde be used to add a new
wizard for area or module creation, global search and replace options, and even
adding a scripting language like LUA are possible.
Keep in mind that the plugin will have no effect on client or server itself. It can
only assist in the creation of modules or campaigns. If you wish to add database
support for persistent worlds then nwscript in the client would be required. You
could use a plugin though to add database support for placeables, creatures, etc.
to the toolset.
12.3 Creating your first plugin
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The Neverwinter Nights 2 toolset was written using managed code in Visual
Studio. When the toolset is run it looks in the Plugin directory for any .dll files and
loads them (as long as the Allow Plugins option is set to Allow all plugins). Once
the .dll is loaded by the toolset it calls specific methods in the .dll. This howto will
assume that you are experienced with the Visual Studio development
environment as well as the C# language. The first step in creating a plugin is to
start a new project in Visual Studio to create a C# class library. You can
download Visual Studio Express for free from Microsoft at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express
Once the project has been created open up the project .cs file and look for the
pregenerated code.
namespace TestPlugin
{
public class TestPlugin : INWN2Plugin
{
// Methods
public TestPlugin()
{
}
First you need to add the following to the beginning of the file:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
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using System.Text;
/*
* NWN2Toolset.dll exposes all the functions we need to manupulate
the toolkit.
*/
using NWN2Toolset.Plugins;
/*
* Sandbar is the library thats used for the toolbar.
*
* Windows also has a Toolbar object in System.Windows.Forms so make
sure
* you create the correct object when adding a toolbar to the
toolkit.
*/
using TD.SandBar;
You may need to browse into the NWN2 directory to locate the NWN2Toolset.dll
file. You will need to add a few new methods into the class that will be called by
the toolset during initialization:
private MenuButtonItem m_cMenuItem;
private void HandlePluginLaunch(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// This code is executed when the menu is selected
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("Hello World!");
}
public void Load(INWN2PluginHost cHost)
{
}
public void Shutdown(INWN2PluginHost cHost)
{
}
public void Startup(INWN2PluginHost cHost)
{
m_cMenuItem = cHost.GetMenuForPlugin(this);
m_cMenuItem.Activate += new
EventHandler(this.HandlePluginLaunch);
}
public void Unload(INWN2PluginHost cHost)
{
}
public MenuButtonItem PluginMenuItem
{
get
{
return m_cMenuItem;
}
}
The Load and Unload methods are called when the toolset is initially started and
exited. The Startup and Shutdown methods will be called when the Plugins menu
item for your plugin is selected.
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You will also need to add a few properties to your close to identify the plugin to
the toolset:
// Properties
public string DisplayName
{
get
{
return "Demo Plugin";
}
}
public string MenuName
{
get
{
return "Demo Plugin";
}
}
public string Name
{
get
{
return "DemoPlugin";
}
}
public object Preferences
{
get
{
return null;
}
set
{
}
}
Once you add these lines to your class, you need to add references to the NWN2
assemblies to your project. This only needs to be done once. To do this use the
Project -> Add Reference menu item and select the Browse tab. Then navigate to
your folder where NWN2 is located and enter NWN2Toolset.dll. Repeat this
process for the SandBar.dll and OEIShared.dll files in the NWN2 folder. You
should also use the .NET tab to add the System.Windows.Forms assembly. Once
this is completed you can compile your new DLL and place it into the Plugins
directory. You will now have a new menu item “Demo Plugin” (from the
DisplayName property) in the Plugins menu after you restart the toolset. When
the user selects the menu item the message “Hello World!” will be displayed.
Congratulations! You’ve just created your first plugin!
ADDING A TOOLBAR FOR YOU PLUGIN
If you would like to add a toolbar to the toolset UI you will need to add a variable
to hold the toolbar to your class:
// Fields
private PluginTests myTests;
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You can then update the Startup method to call the code to create a menu
public void Startup(INWN2PluginHost cHost)
{
m_cMenuItem = cHost.GetMenuForPlugin(this);
m_cMenuItem.Activate += new
EventHandler(this.HandlePluginLaunch);
// Add the following line of code to the end of the
function
myTests = new PluginTests();
}
private void HandlePluginLaunch(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
/*Add the toolbars*/
List<PluginTests.ToolBarDef> toolBars =
myTests.GetAllToolBars();
for (int j = 0; j < toolBars.Count; ++j)
{
for (int i = 0; i <
NWN2Toolset.NWN2ToolsetMainForm.App.Controls.Count; ++i)
{
if
(NWN2Toolset.NWN2ToolsetMainForm.App.Controls[i].GetType() ==
typeof(ToolBarContainer))
{
ToolBarContainer tbc =
(ToolBarContainer)NWN2Toolset.NWN2ToolsetMainForm.App.Controls[i];
if (tbc.Name ==
toolBars[j].NWNToolsetDockName)
{
tbc.Controls.Add(toolBars[j].toolBar);
break;
}
}
}
}
}
/*
* This dictionary will hold all of our toolbars.
* This way multiple toolbars can be created.
*/
private Dictionary<string,ToolBarDef> AllToolbars;
private enum ToolBarInitialPos
{
Top,
Bottom,
Left,
Right
};
public struct ToolBarDef
{
public ToolBar toolBar;
public string NWNToolsetDockName;
};
public PluginTests()
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{
AllToolbars = new Dictionary<string, ToolBarDef>();
CreateToolBar("Demo Plugin Toolbar",
ToolBarInitialPos.Top);
ButtonItem TestButt = new ButtonItem();
TestButt.ToolTipText = "Create a forest";
TestButt.Text = "Create Forest";
TestButt.Activate += new
EventHandler(CreateForestButtClicked);
AddButtonToToolbar("Demo Plugin Toolbar", TestButt);
}
private string GetDockNameFromPosEnum(ToolBarInitialPos pos)
{
switch (pos)
{
case ToolBarInitialPos.Top:
default:
return "topSandBarDock";
case ToolBarInitialPos.Bottom:
return "bottomSandBarDock";
case ToolBarInitialPos.Left:
return "leftSandBarDock";
case ToolBarInitialPos.Right:
return "rightSandBarDock";
}
}
private bool AddButtonToToolbar(string toolbarName,
ButtonItem buttonToAdd)
{
if (AllToolbars.ContainsKey(toolbarName))
{
AllToolbars[toolbarName].toolBar.Items.Add(buttonToAdd);
return true;
}
return false;
}
public void CreateForestButtClicked(object senter, EventArgs
e)
{
}
private void CreateToolBar(string name, ToolBarInitialPos
initialPos)
{
ToolBar temp = new ToolBar();
temp.Name = name;
temp.Overflow = ToolBarOverflow.Hide;
temp.AllowHorizontalDock = true;
temp.AllowRightToLeft = true;
temp.AllowVerticalDock = true;
temp.Closable = false;
temp.Movable = true;
temp.Tearable = true;
temp.DockLine = 2;
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ToolBarDef tbd = new ToolBarDef();
tbd.NWNToolsetDockName =
GetDockNameFromPosEnum(initialPos);
tbd.toolBar = temp;
AllToolbars.Add(name, tbd);
}
There is quite a bit of code in the previous section. The code in the Startup
method is called when you select the menu item. It calls HandlePluginLaunch that
calls PluginTests. Finally, the CreateForestButtClicked method will be called
whenever the “Create Forest” button in pressed in the UI.
TOOLSET PUBLIC CLASSES
Your plugin will interact with the toolset via the public classes that are exposed by
the NWN2Toolset.dll file. There are many classes that are available; this section
will describe the major classes that will commonly be accessed by a plugin. How
you will access these classes will be determined by the programming language
(C#, VB.net, LUA) that you are using.
There are many classes that are available in the NWN2 toolset, this guide will
only describe a few of the most important. It is recommended that you use a
.NET examination tool (like Lutz Roeder’s .NET Reflector) to examine all of the
classes that are available in all of the toolset files. You can download the .NET
Reflector from http://www.aisto.com/roeder/dotnet.
Each of these classes will be described in more detail in the sections below.
NWN2Toolset Class
This class is used to set global preferences, compile and bake modules, and
access information about the currently open module or view. A few of the
important members are:
•
•
NWN2ToolsetMainForm: This is class for the main form of the toolset
application. This form will contain all of the windows, toolbars, menus for
the toolset.
o
App: This is the current instance of NWN2ToolsetMainForm. This
should be referenced to access the members of
NWN2ToolsetMainForm.
o
Module: This returns the NWNGameModule instance for the
currently loaded module. This should be used to modify the
contents of a module.
o
AreaContents: Returns a NWN2AreaContentsView instance for the
currently displayed area. This can be used to modify terrain,
texture, or tiles of an area.
o
Controls: A collection of the controls owned by the main form such
as toolbars.
o
Bake: This method will make the currently open module.
NWN2ToolsetGeneralPreferences: One of many the classes
(NWN2ToolsetConversationPreferences, NWN2ToolsetGraphicsPreferences,
etc) that handle the View Æ Options information.
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NWN2Toolset.NWN2.Data Class
This class contains methods to manipulate the information for the currently
opened module. It contains classes to handle areas, scripts, and conversations.
•
•
NWN2GameModule: This is normally accessed via
NWN2Toolset.App.Module. Holds all of the information about the currently
load module.
o
Areas: A list of all of the areas in the module (stored as a
Dictionary).
o
Conversations: A dictionary list of all of the conversations in the
module.
o
Creatures: This (along with Doors, Trees, etc.) hold the Module
(not Global) blueprints for each of the types of instances.
o
Scripts: A list of all of the scripts in the module.
o
Name: The name of the module.
o
FileName: The full pathname of the module (if it has been
saved/opened).
NWN2GameArea: The currently display area can be found via
NWN2Toolset.NWN2ToolsetMainForm.App.AreaContents.Area or any area
can be accessed by enumerating
NWN2Toolset.NWN2ToolsetMainForm.App.Module.Areas. This class holds
information for one area (either interior or exterior).
o
Creatures, Placeables, Trees, Lights, Sounds, etc.: These
classes hold a list of all of the instances of these types in the area.

•
Add: This method will add a new instance to the area. This
new instance can be obtained by calling
CreateFromBlueprint in one of the instances classes such as
NWN2Toolset.NWN2.Data.Instances.NWN2TreeInstance.
o
GetBoundsofArea: Returns a BoundingBox3 type that holds the
size of the area with the Height and Length set. Each large tile in
the area (including the non-usable outer tiles) are 80 units. So a
8x10 outdoor area would return Height=640 and Length=800.
o
Name: The name of the area.
o
HasTerrain, Interior, Underground: These indicate the type of
area.
o
Tiles:?????
NWN2GameAreaTileData: ????
NWN2Toolset.NWN2.Instances
This class holds information the the individual instances of items that are placed
into an area. Each of the types of instances has it’s own class. The classes are:
NWN2CreatureInstance, NWN2DoorInstance, NWN2EncounterInstance,
NWN2EnvironmentInstance, NWN2ItemInstance, NWN2LightInstance,
NWN2PlaceableInstance, NWN2TreeInstance, NWN2SoundInstance,
NWN2StaticCameraInstance, NWN2StoreInstance, NWN2TriggerInstance, and
NWN2WaypointInstance. Each of these instances allow direct access to the
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information for that instances (such as Tint for creatures, or Seed for trees). The
following methods are common to the Instance classes.
•
CreateFromBluePrint: When this method is passed a blueprint as the
parameter a new instance will be created using the blueprints information.
•
GetDifferencesFromBluePrint: Returns an array with the list of
differences between the instance and the passed in blueprint.
•
Area: The area (via NWN2GameArea) this instance is in.
•
ObjectID: The GUID (globally unique identifier) for this instance. This can
be useful for searching for a specific instance.
•
Position: The location of the instance in the area (as a DirectX Vector3
type). This uses the same units as the GetBoundsofArea where 80 units
represents on large tile in the outdoor area.
NWN2Toolset.NWN2.Data.TypedCollections
•
NWN2BlueprintCollection
•
NWN2ConditionalFunctorCollection
•
NWN2GameAreaDictionary
•
NWN2GameAreaTileDataCollection
•
NWN2GameConversationDictionary
•
NWN2GameScriptDictionary
•
NWN2InstanceCollection
NWN2Toolset.NWN2.NetDisplay
This class handles the display of information to the windows in the toolset. This
includes methods to modify information in those windows. This class can be used
to modify terrain and texture information in outdoor areas.
•
NWN2NetDisplayManager.Instance: The current instance of the
toolset’s NWN2NetDisplayManager class. You should reference the display
members through this.
o
BeginSynchronizedOperation: This should be called before a
group of changes are made to one of the displayes
o
EndSynchronizedOperation: This is the corresponding call that
should be called after a group of changes have been made to a
display window.
o
TerrainModify: This method can be used to modify the height of
terrain in an outside area.
NWN2Toolset.NWN2.Blueprints
The blueprint collections are very similar to the Instance collection with the same
list of classes with the Blueprint suffix replacing the Instance suffix. The module
blueprints are located in the Module To get a list of Module blueprints for trees
150
you can reference NWN2Toolset.NWN2ToolsetMainForm.App.Module.Trees. The
common method of these classes is:
•
BlueprintLocation: Returns a NWN2BlueprintLocationType that indicates
if the blueprint is global, module, or campaign.
Changing Item Data From a Plugin
The following code demonstrates how you can access information that is in
currently displayed area and make changes to items. In this example, we will be
changing the random seed value of all of the trees that are in the currently
displayed area.
// This will retrieve random numbers for us
Random ran = new Random();
// This loops through each of the trees in the currently active area being
displayed
foreach (NWN2Toolset.NWN2.Data.Instances.NWN2TreeInstance ti in
NWN2Toolset.NWN2ToolsetMainForm.App.AreaContents.Area.Trees)
{
// ti is the current tree instance being editing and Seed is it's seed value
// This will set it do a random number from 1 to 5000
ti.Seed = (uint)ran.Next(5000);
}
// This is required to redisplay the contents of the active area window
NWN2Toolset.NWN2ToolsetMainForm.App.AreaContents.Refresh();
// Display a simple message with the number of trees in the area
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(NWN2Toolset.NWN2ToolsetMainForm.
App.AreaContents.Area.Trees.Count.ToString() + " Trees Updated.");
As you can see from this example, getting access to information in the currently
active area (in this case an outdoor area) is quite easy. Keep in mind that this
code does not have any of the normal error checking (is any area being
displayed, is a module loaded, etc.).
12.4 Visual Effects Editor
Credit is given to BenWH (DLA) for inspiraton and to SorceressAshura as I used
their Snow Effect visual data for this tutorial (the VFX can be found here).
The Visual effect editor is a plugin so to open it, click on Plugins in the top menu
and then Visual Effects Editor:
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You now have a blank canvas and BenWH mentions that it is easier to work with
an existing effect than to start from scratch, which I wholeheartly agree with. To
see existing effects you will need to extract the files from NWN2_VFX.zip in the
C:\Program Files\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2\Data directory (this is if you
accepted the default install). The effects are also based on textures which can be
found in the same directory called NWN2 Materials zip
For this example I am going to start from scratch (only because I am cheating a
little by using SorceressAshura snow effect).
Click on File - New - Particle System:
You will now see a fire effect in the editor that looks similar to this:
To the right hand side you will see the properties of this effect:
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Lets start to explain what some of these fields mean and also what changes we
need to make for our snow effect:
FlowType: Fairly straight forward as we have two choices: First is Continuous,
which snow generally is or Explosion. Leave it as Continuous for our example.
Texture: What texture are we going to us for our effect? If you open the NWN2
Materials.zip there are loads in there. For our example we are going to use
fx_hail.dss.
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TextureType: With have 4 choices here (2D, 3D, Cubic and Null Texture). Lets
choose 3D for our snow effect.
TextureAnimationSpeed: This controls the amount of frames per second that
are displayed
BeginSize: This is the size of your particles at the beginning of the animation.
EndSize: This is the size of the particles at the end of the animation. For this
example change the end size to 0.1, 0.3.
ParticleLifeTime: Is how long the life time of the particle is. Mess around with
this figure, but for our example change it to 5 and you will see that the particle
has increased in height.
SpawnRate: For our example set this to 150. For testing set this to 1 and see
the effect and then 10 and you will get the idea what SpawnRate is.
Acceleration: These are set up 0,0,0 ie. the first number refers to x-axis, next is
the z-axis and the last is the acceleration itself. A positive number will make the
particle go up and a negative will make it go down, which snow falls down so set
these values to 2, 7, -10.
Velocity: works in the same way as Acceleration. For our example set this to 0, 0,
2.
EmissionRadius and EmissionRadiusVariance: Set your EmmisionRadius, in
this case how far from the central point your particles are spawned (use the
variance property to vary it). For our example set both to 50.
ConeHalfAngle: For our example this is set to 20, if you want your effect wider
at one end, give ConeHalfAngle a number up to 180 (I think, might be 90)
StartAngleVariance: This determines if your particles fire at right angles to the
ground (0), or at varying angles (as you set it). You cannot actually see the
effects of these settings without Velocity, which you have to set first.
ControlType: This sets up the general 'look': pick cartesian if you want the
effects to sort of fly away from the point of production, select polar if you want an
effect that is centered on an invisible point (like a tornado), select spherical if you
want a sphere. Use Cartesia for our snow example.
StartTheta to -1. This stops each particle being created in the same place
Disk: TRUE seems to determine if the particles are spawned in a flat plane or not.
Start and End Colour: Should be self explanatory and in our example they are
both going to be white. Leave yellow snow alone.
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The effects property should look something like this:
Now save the effect in your campaign directory and do not forget to make a
backup.
155
We cannot use our effect yet until we create a SEF file (Special Effects) and to do
this click on File - New - Special Effect (SEF):
Now click on Add Event and then on Particle System:
156
Under name you will see an empty line so click on that and then you will get a
properties tab underneath it:
For our snow effect there are two fields that we are interested in. The first is the
DefinitionFile so click in this field and then find the effect that you saved above.
The second is the Position field change this to 0, 0, 50 and then press the Play
button to see your new effect in action.
Now save your SEF file in the campaign folder and of course back it up.
Last thing we need to do is to add the effect to our toolset.
Close the effects editor (File - Exit). Click on Blueprints and then Placed Effects.
Select any placed effect blueprint in the main toolset and then right click and then
left click copy blueprint - Module. Now select the copied Blueprint and then look
at the properties:
As you can see I chose to copy the Window Beam 4 effect. Now click on the
Special effect field and then change this from fx_windowbeam4 to the saved
name you used earlier. Whilst we are here also change localised name, tag and
resref.
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Place the snow effect in your area and it should now be snowing.
CONCLUSION
The Neverwinter Nights 2 toolset has extremely powerful capabilities for building
and creating beautiful worlds and environments. It can be extended by writing
and using plugins to the toolset. The plugins can access much of the internal
information about the modules and toolset UI. It may take considerable
programming experience and time to create your own plugin, but the
improvements to the toolset can save time for all module developers.
12.4 World Map
May I thank Montgomery Markland from Rogue Dao Studios for his tutorial which
was the main inspiration of the tutorial.
Before we start this tutorial, you will need 2 things (1) A World Map (2) Hot spot
icons.
The World map needs to be 647 x 647 in size and a tga file format to work
correctly. The hot spot icons are located in your Atari/Neverwinter Nights
2/Campaigns/Official Campaign folder. You can of course use your own which
have to be in the tga format and 32 x 32 pixels in size.
First thing we need to do is to create a new campaign (this will be saved as a new
folder in your My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/Campaigns folder). You will
need to put your world map image and you hot spot icons in the same folder.
Now open your module and then click on Plugins and then World Map Editor:
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And the following box will pop up:
Now click on the File - New and you will notice that the middle section will go
black and you now have the following in the properties section:
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Click in the WorldMapImage and then click on the button that appears and then
select your map. Your Editor will look similar to:
You will notice that I have added the WorldMapName "Moonshae", which is the
parameter that will be passed to the function ShowWorldMap(). Now click on the
Add button at the top:
and then select the "hotspot" on your map:
On the right hand side you will see the properties of this "hot spot":
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ActionScript: This script is started when you have selected the hotspot and you
press travel.
ConditionalScript: This script is checking if you can see the hotspot for tests we
use only gc_true().
Image:Specifies the icon that will be displayed as the hotspot.
ImageMouseOver: Is the image that is displayed when the user hovers their
mouse over that point.
ImageSelected: This is the image of the hotspot when the user selects it.
Description: This is optional like a comment.
DisplayName: This is the Name you see on the right side of your map.
Height: If you use the NWN2 Campaign tga you always have to enter 32.
Location: The Location is entered by the Click with the Mouse.
Name: This is the tag name of your Hotspot, you can see it on the left side of
your World Map Editor.
Sound: Sound that is played when the hotspot is selected.
Width: Same as Height.
Our action script is going to be a custom script called ptp_hotspot_click (Full
kudos goes to Montgomery Markland from Rogue Dao Studios for the following
script):
// ptp_hotspot_click
//RDS Worldmap System
//Montgomery Markland -- Nov 1, 2006
//A simple worldmap system designed for use in situations when the
world map hotspots are all available (Beta Testing Purgatorio)
//on first-look
//Adapted code from OEI kinc_worldmap
#include "ginc_transition"
#include "ginc_debug"
// ** world map locout functions **
// multiple PCs simultaneously clicking travel on the world map causes
problems. We use a cooldown time to prevent this.
void SetWorldMapLocked();
int GetWorldMapLocked();
/////////////////////////
// CONSTANT DECLARATIONS
/////////////////////////
// GENERAL //
// these are for locking the world map so only one user can use it at a
time
const string WORLD_MAP_LOCKED = "00_bWorldMapLocked";
const string WORLD_MAP_LOCKER = "oWorldMapLocker";
const int STRING_REF_MAP_LOCKED = 183512;
const string WORLD_MAP_LOCKED_DAY = "00_nWorldMapLockDay";
const string WORLD_MAP_LOCKED_HOUR = "00_nWorldMapLockHour";
const string WORLD_MAP_LOCKED_MINUTE =
"00_nWorldMapLockMinute";
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const string WORLD_MAP_LOCKED_SECOND =
"00_nWorldMapLockSecond";
const int WORLD_MAP_LOCK_COOLDOWN = 18; //seconds until we
allow another click
const string WORLD_MAP_LOCK_INITIALIZED =
"00_bWorldMapLockInit";
void SetWorldMapLocked()
{
SetGlobalInt(WORLD_MAP_LOCKED_DAY, GetCalendarDay());
SetGlobalInt(WORLD_MAP_LOCKED_HOUR, GetTimeHour());
SetGlobalInt(WORLD_MAP_LOCKED_MINUTE, GetTimeMinute());
SetGlobalInt(WORLD_MAP_LOCKED_SECOND, GetTimeSecond());
SetGlobalInt(WORLD_MAP_LOCK_INITIALIZED, TRUE); //so we know
the timer is initialized
PrettyMessage("World map locked at time " +
IntToString(GetTimeHour()) + ":" + IntToString(GetTimeMinute()) + ":"
+ IntToString(GetTimeSecond()));
}
int TimeToSeconds(int nHour, int nMinute, int nSecond)
{
//for ease, we just convert the time into seconds -- 60 for 60 seconds in
a minute, 3600 for number of seconds in an hour.
return nSecond + nMinute * 60 + nHour * 3600;
}
int GetWorldMapLocked()
{
if(GetIsSinglePlayer())
{
return FALSE;
}
if(!GetGlobalInt(WORLD_MAP_LOCK_INITIALIZED))
{
return FALSE;
}
int nLockedHour = GetGlobalInt(WORLD_MAP_LOCKED_HOUR);
int nLockedMinute = GetGlobalInt(WORLD_MAP_LOCKED_MINUTE);
int nLockedSecond = GetGlobalInt(WORLD_MAP_LOCKED_SECOND);
int nCurrentHour = GetTimeHour();
int nCurrentMinute = GetTimeMinute();
int nCurrentSecond = GetTimeSecond();
int nTotalLockedSeconds =
TimeToSeconds(nLockedHour,nLockedMinute,nLockedSecond);
int nTargetTime = nTotalLockedSeconds +
WORLD_MAP_LOCK_COOLDOWN; //10 sec cooldown
int nCurrentSeconds =
TimeToSeconds(nCurrentHour,nCurrentMinute,nCurrentSecond);
162
// PrettyDebug("Target time for unlock = " +
IntToString(nTargetTime));
// PrettyDebug("Current time in seconds = " +
IntToString(nCurrentSeconds));
//same day
if(nTargetTime < nCurrentSeconds)
{
// PrettyDebug(IntToString(nCurrentSeconds - nTotalLockedSeconds) +
" seconds passed since the last transition.");
return FALSE;
}
//we've rolled to the next calendar day
int nLockedDay = GetGlobalInt(WORLD_MAP_LOCKED_DAY);
int nCurrentDay = GetCalendarDay();
//!= is the check here because the day change could roll the month
//so going from month 1 day 28 to month 2 day 0 should still register as
a day having passed.
if(nCurrentDay != nLockedDay && nCurrentSeconds >
WORLD_MAP_LOCK_COOLDOWN)
{
return FALSE;
}
return TRUE;
}
void main(string sHotspot)
{
//Get the player's compass heading from the previous area
string sCompass = GetLocalString(OBJECT_SELF,
"temp_wm_compass");
DeleteLocalString(OBJECT_SELF, "temp_wm_compass");
//Combine the player's compass heading with the hotspot string (targets
proper waypoint in target area)
string sDestination = sHotspot + sCompass;
//Rather than increasing code complexity, we simple assume the
existence of all
//Four compass-heading waypoints in the target area.
//This just means that the builder should paint all four compass heading
waypoints
//(sHotspot+_n, sHotspot+_s, sHotspot+_e, sHotspot_+w) in the target
area for a particular hotspot
//If there aren't four compass headings into the area, paint multiple
waypoints for a specific compass heading
//IE, if you only have 3 compass heading entrances, _n, _s, _e - then
paint "_w" in the same place as
//_n or _s. This system gives the builder flexibility to choose defaults
and multiple defaults
object oDestination = GetObjectByTag(sDestination);
object oPC = OBJECT_SELF;
//critPathEncounter, nonCritPathEncounter and randomEncounter code
163
to be added later
if(!GetIsSinglePlayer())
{
if(GetWorldMapLocked())
{
SendMessageToPC(oPC,
GetStringByStrRef(STRING_REF_MAP_LOCKED));
return;
}
else
{
SetWorldMapLocked();
}
}
SinglePartyTransition(oPC, oDestination);
}
164
Next we need to paint a World Map Transition, which can be access via the
Triggers Blueprint:
Move your cursor over to your area preview and draw a rectangle. Select the
trigger and then look at the properties of the trigger. Change the variable sMap to
the name of your .wmp (not your image name, but the name of the world map, ie
what it is saved as) and leave sOrigin blank.
165
To do this click in the Variables field and then click on the three dots button and
select sMap in the list in the top left hand corner. For the ValueString change it to
the name of your map like so:
Tag the trigger anything you want so long as the last two characters correspond
to a compass heading: _n, _s, _w, _e
// gtr_world_map_cl
// ptp_world_map_cl (modified from OEI's gtr_world_map_cl
// Transition to the world map
// EPF
// EPF 2/2/06 -- modifying to have a default map for each act if no other
map is specified.
// EPF 3/24/06 -- this is now an OnClicked event
// BMA-OEI 6/24/06 -- Added gather party check
// BMA-OEI 8/11/06 -- Autosave before transition
// ChazM 8/21/06 -- updated constant
CAMPAIGN_SWITCH_REMOVE_DOMINATED_ON_TRANSITION
// BMA-OEI 8/22/06 -- Replaced auto save w/
AttemptSinglePlayerAutoSave()
// *MLM-RDS 10/31/06 -- Modified for use in Planscape Trilogy: Purgatorio
#include "ginc_debug"
#include "ginc_autosave"
#include "ginc_transition"
166
void main()
{
object oPC = GetClickingObject();
if ( GetIsPC( oPC ) == FALSE )
{
return;
}
string sMap = GetLocalString(OBJECT_SELF, "sMap");
string sOrigin = GetLocalString(OBJECT_SELF, "sOrigin");
/*if(sMap == "")
{
int nAct = GetGlobalInt("00_nAct");
switch(nAct)
{
case 1:
sMap = "hiveward";
break;
case 2:
sMap = "hiveward";
break;
case 3:
sMap = "hiveward";
break;
default:
sMap = "hiveward";
break;
}
}*/
// BMA-OEI 7/04/06 - Check if using remove dominated campaign flag
if (
GetGlobalInt(CAMPAIGN_SWITCH_REMOVE_DOMINATED_ON_TRANSITION)
== TRUE )
{
int nRemoved = 0;
object oFM = GetFirstFactionMember( oPC, FALSE );
while ( GetIsObjectValid(oFM) == TRUE )
{
nRemoved = nRemoved + RemoveEffectsByType( oFM,
EFFECT_TYPE_DOMINATED );
oFM = GetNextFactionMember( oPC, FALSE );
}
if ( nRemoved > 0 )
{
// Abort transition if dominated effect was found and removed
return;
}
}
// BMA-OEI 6/24/06
if ( GetGlobalInt( VAR_GLOBAL_GATHER_PARTY ) == 1 )
167
{
if ( IsPartyGathered( oPC ) == FALSE )
{
ReportPartyGather( oPC );
return;
}
}
//Establish our party's compass heading so they end up in the correct
//Or correct-default entrance to the next area by grabbing the compass
heading
//of the clicked world map trigger and setting it as a local string on the
clicker
//To utilize this...
//Append the tags of your world map triggers based on their compass
heading (*_n, *_s, *_e, *_w)
//Unlike the target waypoints, you don't need all four compass headings
matched to a trigger
string sCompass = GetTag(OBJECT_SELF);
SetLocalString(oPC, "temp_wm_compass", GetStringRight(sCompass, 2));
// BMA-OEI 8/22/06 -- Autosave before transition
AttemptSinglePlayerAutoSave();
ShowWorldMap( sMap, oPC, sOrigin );
}
Paint four generic waypoints in each area targeted by a hotspot:
XXXX_n, XXXX_s, XXXX_w, XXXX_e
Position these waypoints at the entrances and exits of your area, use -all four-.
The XXXX corresponds to the variable string you input in the field for the hotspot
action click script for the hotspot pointing to the area.
Open the campaign editor and add the module with the world map triggers to the
new campaign where you saved your world map.
168
Appendix A – Classification Codes
Aberrations{184332}
Animal Companions{184303}
Animals - Dire{184305}|{184307}
- Domestic{184305}|{184317}
- Wild{184305}|{184306}
Companions{184301}
Constructs{184313}
Debug{184326}
Dragons{184312}
Elementals - Air{184321}|{184322}
- Earth{184321}|{184323}
- Fire{184321}|{184324}
- Water{184321}|{184325}
Familiars{184327}
Fey{184320}
Giants{184330}
Humanoid{184314}
Magical Beasts{184318}
Monstrous Humanoids{184328}
NPC{184335}
Outsiders{184308}Outsiders – Demons{184308}|{184309}
Outsiders – Devils{184308}|{184319}
Placeables – CargoShip{184315}|{184316}
Shapechanger{184336}
Special{184304}
Undead{184329}
Vermin - Beetles{184310}|{184311}
Vermin - Spiders{184310}|{184334}
169
170