Building Areas

[Legacy_Tonden_Ockay]

               

Well Shadooow what is a list of tile haks or addon haks that you would recommend? It sounds like you have a lot of experiences using them.

I do plan on using what I make to run PnP like campaigns for my friends. But I would like to upload what I do to the new vault for others to use for what ever they like.

 

I would like what I do to look as nice as possible and as bug free as it can be. If it looks nice more people might want to use it and it may help draw people back to NWN1 through friends who might use the prefabs in their modules or PWs. Bug free as possible so builders would want to use what I make. I do understand its a balance. Its just that I need help from you all who have played and used the tileset haks to help me pick what would give the looks and the performance. Other people will want.

 

Thanks for the insight so far. 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shadooow]

               

Hmm, not sure I have that much experiences but I can surely recommend some:

 

all CTP tilesets, very professional, bugless (well at least those that are marked as complete) with all features and they are are loading fast

_six tilesets, Dwarven Chasm, etc.

Facelifted vanilla tilesets from Zwerkules or NWNCQ (though lots of peoples dispice textures in NWNCQ)

Abyss tileset (aby01)

New Snow Tileset (ct1)

BTH Swamp / Tom Banjo Swamp (BTH is TB upgrade)

Tree City Tilesets

Vanilla-tilesets additions, and reskins. (Ended up making my own actually.. but amongs those I use are bits from TB forest, and other forest - actually there are like 20 different vanilla-forest based tilesets... and Diagonal Crypts)

 

The list is no way exhaustive, I dont pretend I do know and tried every tileset in the world. These are those I have very good experiences with.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tonden_Ockay]

               

I was digging around in my old NWN hak download folder and found sc_bb_ultimate.hak which is a Rural tileset that has some city tiles added to it as well as hills and non walkable water that you can make water falls with. It loads far faster then Worms SF or DOA City Rural tilesets. I remember toying around with it years a go and liked what all I could do with it. The only problem is that when I add the Zwerkules Neverwinter Nights facelift haks the grass doesn't change. It still has the tall green standard grass. I would love for it to have Zwerkules Facelift grass. Is there a way I can change this so it will use his hak?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Proleric]

               

actually there is a problem...
 
using haks itself is not, majority of builders do use haks, but there is a big diversity between haks, especially since CEP2 failed to become a standard platform and many builder decided to create their owns haks... Also some builders still use CEP1 and some uses Project Q. Doesn't have to mention that they are all incompatible with each other right?
 
So, if you want to make a "prefab" areas (which sound awesome), maybe going hakless would be better for your goal as that way everyone can use them...

I'd put this another way. If a prefab uses a custom tileset, it will only work for sure in modules and PWs that have exactly that version of tileset (same .itp and .set files). However, there's no reason why the prefab shouldn't use a hak in its demo module to deliver that tileset.

As a builder, as soon as you have more than one hak, you will very likely have integration issues. Nothing new there. For example, my module is based on CEP 2.4. I also have a top hak containing other custom content, and 2DA files to make it all play nice. So, if someone makes a prefab with a tileset hak, I have to decide whether it's the same tileset version I already have, a subset that will work anyway, a superset that I need to add to my top hak, or an incompatible version I could tweak. All that is "business as usual" and sounds much worse than it is in practice.

So I wouldn't want to deter prefab builders from using haks.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Proleric]

               Regarding tileset preferences, there are almost as many opinions as there are builders. It doesn't take long to download a few good looking tilesets and build enough of a test area to get a feeling for how well it works in game (though I always pay attention when people say something's buggy, as that takes longer to find).
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_werelynx]

               

You would need to crack open hak and insert the texture from those facelifts there. Maybe rename.

 

Regarding Sword Coast: ftp://neverwintervault.org/rolovault/projects/nwn1/modules/6039/' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>ftp://neverwintervault.org/rolovault/projects/nwn1/modules/6039/

This might interest you '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tonden_Ockay]

               

Thanks a lot for the Sword Coast Module Werelynx and for the insight on fixing the grass texture.

 

I'm still not sold 100% sold on using tileset haks. I do really like Medieval City tileset and Mountains and more tilesets so far. They look great and seem to load fairly quick. Plus I don't know of any bugs/glitches with them yet.

 

 

On the other hand I have been thinking a lot about what Shadooow and Proleric has said. I have been looking for some nice addons for the forest, rural, and city tilesets. I don't care about the reskins at the moment because I or the people who will use the prefabs could add them later or players could even use overrides as far as that goes.

 

I want addon's that would allow me to raise and lower, have smooth hills, and if possible have have non walkable water that can be used for water falls. I want addons and not complete tilesets. This would allow for me to make prefabs using the old standard tilesets and upload them to the new vault. Then later I could add the addons in and dress the prefabs up a bit and upload again for people who would like to use them.

 

I'm not 100% sold either way, however I'm have problems finding good addon's for the standard tileset that do what I want them too.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tonden_Ockay]

               

I have been toying around with prefabs I have found on the vault that use old tileset with CEP to add to the area and I have to say they load far far far slower then then new tilesets that don't need CEP. Just something that I have been experiencing so far is all.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               

There are only three reason for not using new tilesets. The first is if you absolutely need tilefade and they don't have tilefade because it sucks. '>

The second is if you want shadows and the new tileset doesn't have them because shadows suck, too. '>

The third is if your computer or those of the people who will play your module is too old.

 

The tileset combos of old tilesets have many, many tiles you'll never need and load slower than newer tilesets. The quality of tileset addons is usually rather bad. They have tiny gaps, texture smears and wrong pathnodes, especially the addons in CEP forest.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_werelynx]

               

I think they meant that reskins of official tilesets should not be as buggy as new tilesets.

and some of them are not just to make the tileset prettier (overriding, example nwnchico tilesets)

there are others like Egyptian style catacombs and they are not overriding the normal catacombs.

 

You might want to use the later ones.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tonden_Ockay]

               

    So it sounds like your saying that some of the newer tilesets like Medieval City tileset and Mountains and more tilesets would be better to use then the standard ones when it comes to loading and gaps. While Shadooow was saying some of the larger newer tilesets load slower then the standard NWN tilesets.

 

    I have downloaded a lot of tilesets and was checking load times. The larger ones like DOA City Rural and Worms SF did look nice but they also loaded a whole lot slower. However the newer tilesets that wasn't as bulky like Medieval City tileset and Mountains and more tilesets loaded just as quick as the standard NWN tilesets. Plus I did see some of the gaping Zwerkules was talking about in the older and standard NWN tilesets. However I didn't see any (not saying there isn't any) in Medieval City tileset and Mountains and more tilesets.

 

    I have also found that some haks do not play well together. So it seems that I will need to keep playing around with all the different tilesets to see which one load slower, looks poorer, and works well with each other to find the ones that would be best to use.

 

    I all so can see Shadooow and Proleric's point when it comes to not wanting to add more haks to their current modules/PW's and the fact that a lot of the newer tilesets have a total different look then the old ones so they don't look right when in the same module.

 

You have all given me a lot to think about and pointed some things to look for.

 

I'm still open to any information, pointers, or nice tilesets to use if anyone has any for me.

 

Thanks for all of your time and insight

Tonden Ockay

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tonden_Ockay]

               

Oh and I have noticed that a lot of the modules that use the older tilesets also use a lot of placeables to have more variety with out using haks. However I can say loading an area that has a lot of places (which does look really nice to the eye) takes far far longer to load then using a new tileset that already look nice with out using all the placeables. Just something I have been noticing while checking out tilesets and hakless modules that look nice buy using placeables.

 

Thanks

Tonden Ockay 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Draygoth28]

               I would definitely use this series of mods if you used the newer tilesets. I'm not keen on the idea of being pigeon holed into using secondary haks just for placables. Just my 2 cents take it with a grain of salt.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tonden_Ockay]

               

What about have CEP in the Prefabs ?

 

I was checking out some other modules who made some really nice looking shopps, Inns, Taverns, and other interiors that I thought about using. However that would mean I would need to have CEP as part of the prefabs.

 

So would it be better to upload prefabs without CEP and be just the outdoor areas or should I put CEP in the prefabs and have the interiors I was going to use?

 

Thanks for all the help and insight so far.

Tonden Ockay