CEP: Prefab Makers Wanted (creatures, placeables, items, doors)

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               

As some people know, I (and a few other people) are working on a new version of the CEP (Community Expansion Pack), that venerable and diverse collection of community-made content.  Version 2.60 will be released sometime between today and Sept. 8th (as self-imposed deadline, when I turn 39).


Even if you do not have any experience making, fixing, or organizing hak file content, you could still be a big help! As long as you have the NWN toolset, you have something we need. '>


I am looking for people to create pre-made blueprints for module builders, so that they can simply import already-made creatures, placeables, doors, merchants, items, etc. for their own modules. I'm going to set them up in a way that builders can then modify and/or delete them if they want.


A lot of module builders do not know about most of the great models included in the CEP because they don't know how to get the alternate appearances in the toolset.  Having pre-made blueprints means more builders will more easily find out about and use that content.


Details can be found on this CEP wiki page: http://nwncep.wikia....lueprint_Basics


Thanks in advance for any work you might put into this.


( Posted this to the facebook NWN group, too.  Also going to crosspost to the gog.com NWN forum. )

Blueprints and scripts will be included in the download as ERFs for version 2.60+ so that they can be imported by type (creature, placeable, etc.) and later easily edited and/or deleted by the module builder (or transferred to that builder's "build" hak so the extra blueprints can easily be removed when a module is finished).  The cep2_add_sbv1 hak will become a legacy file kept only for backwards compatibility for modules that already use it.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_lovellin]

               

This was exactly the problem I had since CEP 2.0. I'm currently creating a tool that generates placeable blueprints from a CSV table. It's designed to make editing a large number of blueprints as simple as possible. I'm almost finished, but need some time for testing so that the tools is reliable. Maybe such an application could help you.

Higher Ground had such a tool, because the HG builder's module contains an obviously generated list of placeables, but it wasn't released to the public. Maybe it was a script too limited for general use.

Placeables are quite simple to define, and the tool can easily to be enhanced to support door blueprints as well. Creatures are the most difficult. Due to the sheer number of creature abilities, one cannot maintain them efficiently in a list. Maybe the tool could offer the builder to define the class levels and the level-up package to use. However, one has to implement an interpreter of level-up packages.

Concerning items, I don't know which item blueprints should be offered and how to organize them systematically.

What is more, one could re-organize the placeable palette to fit the new models offered. I've already created a tool that can generate a palette, too, in an easier way than GFF editor.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Wall3T]

               

is it possible we could use existing tools created by the old cep? (cep 2.3 and 2.4) as i understand they were aware of this too. So they were developing a system that was able to implement creatures and objects on the fly (or in game). I never used it but it would help with alot of the load

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               

A tool that can generate static placeable blueprints would be immensely useful, as there are thousands of placeable appearances.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Wall3T]

               

i just checked on it. http://neverwinterva...d/cep-23-cep-24

 

Based on what i read about 2.3 is they made the DM tools to be utilized as a in game developer for Dungeon Masters. I remember how neat idea it was at the time. If anyone knows more about it, it would be a good start. I never understood how it worked, so i never used it.

 

Edit:

It seems The Grey Wall3t struck again! finding this video on what the DM Tool actualy did, you can find the rest on the above link

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=uG0K-ogLrVc

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_lovellin]

               

Then I'm trying to finish my tool asap. Currently, I'm in doubt with localized strings, whether to export them in a custom TLK or embed them in the .UTP. Depending on your dialog.TLK, toolset UI language and custom TLK language, TLK strings seem to appear or not. CEP 1.50 build hak used embedded strings (English only) and strrefs in parallel; in consequence, I had to change the toolset UI language to English, because in German, names were drawn from dialog.TLK and didn't match the appearance.

Concerning DM tools, they seem to serve a different purpose. The video shows how to spawn in  some pre-fab arrangements - very useful, but you still need the blueprints to define the prefabs.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_lovellin]

               

I tried different combinations of custom and dialog.tlk StrRefs and different language IDs. So far, I've observed the following:

- Concerning name and description of placeables, the game seems to ignore StrRefs completely and show only embedded content. In one case, I used different, in another case same language IDs in custom TLK and dialog.tlk. Function GetName() is even more restricted, because it delivers only the embedded English string, regardless of game language.

- The toolset palette considers only embedded strings of the "preferred language" selected in the option pane. Same with the "Name" and "Description" field in the placeable dialog.

- Only if you open the multi-language editor on a field, texts from TLK might show up. This is the case when you select the "preferred language" and the field doesn't contain embedded text for this language.

I'm wondering why StrRefs are not evaluated where it would make sense. This behavior is at odds with the specification of localized strings in the Bioware documentation. Did I miss something? Are other object types less restricted?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Sachie]

               

I don't know if you'll see this since my posts have to be approved by moderators, which begs the question as to if moderators are even looking at these forums anymore.

 

Anyway, I am working on some prefab stuff for NWN1.  If it gets done in time for CEP 2.6 and you think it would be useful, you're welcome to include it.