Creating a NWN2 mod

[Walsingham]

I've been thinking for a long time about writing a high level mod for NWN. NWN2 being as cool as it is I tought it would rock to use it.

 

My plan is to have the PCs drop into campaign as the grandchildren of bhaalspawn, called to the Planes in the new home of the Lady of Murder. We have a small world with stuff to do, and a modular series of extension campaigns/missions based around serving the needs of the Lady, or her many Deified/mundane enemies. I'd like to have both dark and humour in the missions, and also some serious BG2 NPCs available for missions, especially

 

Minsc (and Boo)

Xzar

Jan Jansen

 

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who could tell me hwo many man hours this is likely to require, and anyone who can use the toolset.

[Atreides]

Wouldn't Minsc be really old if the PCs were grandchildren of the Bhaalspawn he traveled with?

[Pidesco]

Geriatric buttkicking for goodness!

[Atreides]

Maybe he'd be better as a geriatric quest giver.

[Walsingham]

Can you imagine anything cooler than a geriatric Minsc, and Boo ... with a tiny mustache.

[Pidesco]

Maybe he could give you a quest to find Boo, who's dead of course. So the quest turns into finding the hamster that looks the most like Boo.

[CoM_Solaufein]

You should try your hand at Baldur's Gate modding.

[Walsingham]

You should try your hand at Baldur's Gate modding.

 

But BG fans are getting so old we're in danger of being Minsc. Why not take the shiny new and make it cool.

[CoM_Solaufein]

An old dog can't learn new tricks.

 

Did you read the links, tutorials and other helpful topics at Bioware's NWN2 boards? Soak in all of that knowledge before you start.

[SteveThaiBinh]

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who could tell me hwo many man hours this is likely to require, and anyone who can use the toolset.

Think of a number and quadruple it. Then quadruple it again.

 

Seriously, I've found it a serious, but fun and worthwhile, investment of time. If you're coming into it as much of a newb as I was, I'd recommend fiddling around with the toolset, especially making conversations with multiple paths and actions/scripts (like moving NPCs, which I found a real killer). Once you're familiar with the kind of information the toolset needs and the kind of things it will and won't let you do, stop. Sit down with a piece of paper and plan your entire module, with conversation outlines, character descriptions, quest outcomes and multiple pathways. Do this all on paper before you start putting it into the toolset.

[Walsingham]

Er... 1!

 

Good advice, Steve. I'll try storyboarding it first.

[Gorth]

Minsc and Boo... and Minsc and Boo... and Minsc and Boo... And M... Hmm... how odd, a hamster in pocket, what is your name little fella?

 

Interesting choice of NPC's. Based on ideas for the plot, or personal preference (i.e. "favourites")?

 

Being no gnome friend, I would swap Jansen for Lilarcor any day, but hey, it's your world, literally

[Tale]

Isn't Xzar dead?

[SteveThaiBinh]

Isn't Xzar dead?

If the campaign hops around the planes, I don't think that matters.

[Tale]

Something about that nutter says he'd be mortar.

[Walsingham]

It's based on personal preferences. And it's

Montaron

that's dead. And I was thinking of having him as an entirely non-Jeeves butler spirit. The basic plan is to have the Lady of Murder as bhaalspawn, obviously, and a bit less into fanboy clerics who go around murdering for no reason. Murder for no reason is like low fat yoghurt. And she likes accessorising. It's a nightmare trying to find shoes that match platemail.

[Tale]

Is she hot?

 

Also, if you need any help, I'm here for ya'!

Edited November 29, 2007 by Tale

[Pidesco]

Will Xan be in?

[Walsingham]

Is she hot?

 

Also, if you need any help, I'm here for ya'!

 

She's hot in a kind of physically highly toned, but spent last ten years wading through slaughter kind of way. I think I'm going to be able to handle the central theming, but some subsidiary adventures would be cool. You know, things she can send people on, other things to be happening. I mean just being a gopher will get tired fast.

 

At least one thing I was thinking of was to tie in the soul-eater thing from MotB. I'll try to not to get spoilertastic, but there's obvious room for someone like that with another mortal turned superbeing. Although I'd like to leave room for new characters.

 

Xan would be an interesting guy to have around, I did think his philosophy would provide some good extra commentary. But I see him more in a kind of 'I couldn't be bothered to leave the mine' thing. After that it would be amusing to see how you gain influence with him.

[Tale]

It's based on personal preferences. And it's

Montaron

that's dead. And I was thinking of having him as an entirely non-Jeeves butler spirit. The basic plan is to have the Lady of Murder as bhaalspawn, obviously, and a bit less into fanboy clerics who go around murdering for no reason. Murder for no reason is like low fat yoghurt. And she likes accessorising. It's a nightmare trying to find shoes that match platemail.

 

Xzar died after you retrieve the bird that is supposedly Montaron, the Harper kills him.

But, that's pointless if he's a ghost butler!

 

Is she hot?

 

Also, if you need any help, I'm here for ya'!

 

She's hot in a kind of physically highly toned, but spent last ten years wading through slaughter kind of way. I think I'm going to be able to handle the central theming, but some subsidiary adventures would be cool. You know, things she can send people on, other things to be happening. I mean just being a gopher will get tired fast.

 

You could always use a dialogue writer for a character or two. <.>

 

>.>

Edited November 29, 2007 by Tale

[Walsingham]

I think dialogue will be tricky. But if you're up for it...

[Tale]

Dialogue is tricky. I was actually going to get a bunch of people from a private forum to write different characters for a module I was working on. With as many characters I had in it, I was afraid that with me writing them all, they'd end up all coming out feeling the same in their dialogue, despite supposedly different personalities.

 

 

Of course, I've moved on to my less epic idea since then and put the epic one on the backburner. This one has fewer characters.

 

How many recurring NPCs (including party members) do you plan on having?

Edited November 29, 2007 by Tale

[Guard Dog]

First some shameless self promotion... I've created two NWN1 mods, collaborated on a third (that is in the HOF) plus did all the building for the Red Tower PW in NWN1. In NWN2 I've been working on one for a long time now. So here is my advice;

 

Keep the scope of your story narrow. Big epic wanderfests (ala BG) do not work in NWN2 mods. Have a clear consise main plot with a half dozen or so side quests or sub plots. The more convoluted the story is, the more variables you need to script and write for and it becomes VERY difficult to keep up with as a builder. Most mods never get completed because the builder wants to create something the size of Oblivion and it is too much work for one person.

 

Plan for no more than 5 hours of gameplay. there is a practical reason for this. NWN2 mods are huge downloads. The longer it is, the more it contains, the larger the download. If your mod weighs in at 180M zipped you can forget anyone with dial up or BW limitations (college accounts) ever playing it. Plus this ties neatly into my first bit of advice.

 

Keep your areas small. It is much easier to design a smaller playing area than a larger one. A small area with high attention to detail is more visually pleasing than a large empty one. Plus smaller areas load quicker. Waiting for a larger area to load up kills game continiuty and spoils immersion for your player. And lower end computers will run easier with smaller areas. Better to create four 4X4 areas than one 16X16. Plus NWN2 has a lot of neat features that make small areas look big.

 

Outline, outline outline. I cannot stress how important that is. Some builders (like Beerfish and Stephan) can just go off the cuff. Most can't. So make an outline because it will tell you how many areas you need to create, what NPCs you need, etc.

 

The way i write the story is using the players journal. I'll write all of the journal entries first and then build the mod around that story. I recommend creating a few playable areas with a few sidequests that work right away. It is really motivating to be able to load you work up right away and see it working.

 

Name your scripts something unique so you can recognize them if you need to edit them. Most mods end up with hundreds of scripts. If you use the default numbering system, good luck finding them later.

 

Dont' be afraid to use and edit premade areas from the NWN Vault. Building in NWN2 is a hell of a lot more work than NWN1. If you find a shortcut, take it. Just credit the one who built it in you readme/credits. There are also a ton of good tools and script writers out there. Use them, they are life savers.

 

 

As far as man hours go, who can say. My NWN mods were about 4 hours of playing time for the first, 2 hours for the second. The first took a month of steady work, the second took six weeks. I've been working on the NWN2 mod for almost a year. Off and on.

 

Anyway, let me know if I can help.

[Tale]

The way i write the story is using the players journal. I'll write all of the journal entries first and then build the mod around that story. I recommend creating a few playable areas with a few sidequests that work right away. It is really motivating to be able to load you work up right away and see it working.

 

 

This is kind of brilliant. I had not thought of this. I'm only just now getting around to outlining the project I've moved on to and I think I'll move over to doing it this way!

[Guard Dog]

This is kind of brilliant. I had not thought of this. I'm only just now getting around to outlining the project I've moved on to and I think I'll move over to doing it this way!

 

Glad I could help.

 

It just makes sense to me. If the story does not work it does not matter if the mod is techincly sound. The reverse is not true. If the story is good the player can forgive a few techincal shortcomings in the mod. So it seems to make sense to get the story and all of it's branches laid out before you start building.