A new area, a sideproject, a huge drop back

There are a lot of news, however, most of them are not good. The worst is the one I ran into two days ago, and it appears to put me back to zero. Let me start at the beginning.
Like a good builder should, I listened to the advise of the elders and always saved my module as a directory, not as a mod file, and also disabled autosave. A good student I am.
Like every true revolutionary should (see Shirt-post below), I didn't always listen to the elders and ignored some of their advise, like e.g. using just soandso many seeds of trees. I didn't run into problems, and that's why I kept walking on that revolutionary path with my fist raised high.
The one problem I ran into though - and there was no advise of the elders regarding that - was a crash occuring when I tried to erase grass. This seemed to happen from a certain amount either of grass on, or from a certain amount of grass types (there are a lot and I used a lot). But since my stuff always ran fine in game, I didn't care much about it and went on.
Recently though, my toolset kept crashing whenever I switched between areas. Loading a new one required to close the toolset, open it up again and load the area I wanted to work on. It was always an out of memory error, so I checked the size of my Middleforest directory which contains just 4 areas: 841MB. Shock. So I thought I'd better save as a mod and check if the huge size remains. And there it all started: I couldn't save as a mod anymore. Great. I tried to export the areas into an erf... crash. I tried to export them one by one - crash. I thought I used too many tree seeds, so I started deleting trees. Ended up with a module with no single tree or bush in it... still crashes, still the same size.
After much trial and error I was then able to export some erfs, but couldn't reimport them without the new mod giving out of memory errors. At least I figured that the crash occurs on importing the trx (Walkmesh) part of the erf, so I tried reducing the walkable areas to a minimum. But again, no change, a treeless and barely walkable module still crashing.
In the end I came to the conclusion that the grass is the root of the problem. I don't think I have to say anything more *points at Grasslands post*. I can't delete the grass in any area anymore, and it seems as if the grass crashes the module and bloats up area size. There is not even a way to tell the toolset to get rid of the grass at all in one step. Conclusion: My whole stuff is unuseable. Yay. That's months of work, and you can imagine how down I am at the moment, starting from zero is the worst case scenario, and I'm not even sure if I can avoid the bug in the future, unless I never use grass again. So that's what put my moral to zero this week, no idea what to do next... maybe new areas in a new module, putting the old stuff on hold, making alternatives.... rebuilding Rungholt is out of question, it took months to get it the way it is now, only an alternative attempt, basically a whole new city, would be possible.
Just to put a little more salt into the wound, here are some screens from the latest version (before I started to delete trees)...





I haven't taken any screens of the new stuff I'm working on, because it didn't pass my self-censorship yet. Basically it was the Rungholt road and the River crossroads from my old NWN1 module, after which the forest areas begin.

Anyway, there's some progress too, even though it doesn't affect the module directly, and that's my little sideproject of making stuff look nicer. I always hated how custom clothes that show a little more skin were only useable for chars that use the default human piggypink skintype - cursed you be if you use any other race or head variation with a different skin type, there you stood with a green head and a perfectly pink human body. Sorry, I'm getting eye cancer from such things, so I made... *drumroll*... a nude patch. Stop rolling your eyes, Michael... let me explain this embarrassing fact. So there's Jester who made a new nude patch, so to speak. It's a new nude model that looks a little nicer than the old one by Zylch001 which already served as a base for huge clothing compilations - basically everything that shows a little more skin (that already means no gloves or boots in NWN2!) is based on Zylch's model. Now, as for Jester's base, you probably notice it's name is New Nude (with Clothes), and what that means is that he made a dress base that isn't equipped in the armor, but in the belt slot, thereby not replacing the "Nude armor" the PC wears. And since the original skin is shining through, you can paint that skin to fit the PC head you use, and that's exactly what I did - after Jester even immediately listened to my request for a model with a little less breast (more realistic IMHO).
Anyway, I'll let pictures speak (cover your eyes kids!):



As you can see the dress the little drow wears is very basic, but what's more important, the original skin remains (and it's not just tinted, there won't be that ugly gap at the neck anymore, or at least the effect is reduced a lot. There are more pics at my vault submission, where you can as well give me a vote or drop a comment ;)
Next sideproject will be, you guess it, making dresses with Jester's base.
That's all for now, cross fingers I'm either finding an unexpected solution for my Middleforest problem, or the will to start over.

A quick armor rant

I'm usually not the type who'd rant about the poor work of others openly, but sometimes I can't resist.
I sometimes browse the Vault looking for ideas, and now and then I come across a module or world that uses the same stuff I'm building with.

What I just came across is another thing I just don't get... as you've read before, I'm using Valine's ACAG hak which includes a lot of armor parts of the sexier sort. I enjoy making armors with it, combined with the CEP there are great possibilities for sexy, but tasteful stuff. Let me show you a quick example of some armors I threw together in a matter of minutes (I included some plain underwear of the not-so-naughty sort on the right of the screenshot, just to show that those armor parts are in too):


As I said, thrown together in no time. They are not great, one can still argue if they are too open or sexy for NWN, but anyway, they still look like outfits.
What I don't get is, why do people use this hak when they don't even bother to change the standard armors? When you just throw in the armors from the standard palette, the result is at least as bad as this:


And I swear, this looks still much better than what I saw on some screenshots that were meant to advertise a module. I tried to find the armors that look so bad on those screenies, but what you see above is all I could find in the hurry.

I resist to grab screens from the vault or name the mods I'm talking about....

I think the ACAG hak, tasteful or not, nudity or not, still contains some high quality clothing parts, and within a few minutes you can make some really nice outfits with it. I just fail to understand that people don't even try. If you throw a hak like this into your module without changing anything at all, it's no wonder people think it looks ridiculous or silly....

Well, rant is over, just had to let that out.

Finally something interesting: About adult content

"So... how did you create a nekkid dryad?"

"Well... there are some bodyparts in the mod that allow me to do that."

"Eeek, will players be able to run around naked?"

"Theoretically, yes. Your basic character wears no loincloth."

"Eek, pervert!"

Well, I don't think I'm a pervert, no. And I don't care much for pixelporn, teenage fantasies and so-called "social roleplay", which basically means roleplaying in a world where the focus is on dating and reproductive activities.

But I'm old enough to admit that I like some erotic content and some innuendo in literature, movies, arts...and games. It can add to the immersion, it's is "realistic" (yes, there IS adult content and a nude patch included in real life), and it's a component in a game that can be enjoyed.

BUT it's not easy to do it right. As much as I want some minor erotic content I want to avoid it to become a major component.

This server will of course be a social server in the sense of meeting up, hanging out together, and there's also nothing to say against some flirting and romances, but hell, I really don't want to watch players roleplaying the act of reproduction 24/7. Or... *cringes*..get the obligatory crowd of goths who only want to roleplay kinky adventures. Sorry, I might piss off a whole lot of potential players now, but there is a certain stereotype that will probably never change, and somehow those all find the way into fantasy worlds that use nude patches, make a char that looks like a vampire/dark fey/whatever looks dark and cool, and play the seductive impersonification (eh, sp?) of sin.

I'm allowed to say that, used to think I'm a goth too in my.. hehe.... younger years. No, I don't hate goths or any other group of people, I actually like most of them, but in RP worlds, it's become a clichée I take the right to make some jokes about. I think a lot of the best roleplayers and friendliest people I met in NWN are kinda... well, black outfit and dark metal... anyway, I still don't want that kinky silly roleplay in my world, it ruins the immersion for me.

So, I'm trying to balance on the edge between erotic content and silly wannabe-adult roleplay,which certainly isn't easy, but I already wrote down a rules draft for it.

To give you an idea where the border is:

There will be prostitutes in the mod, and you'll actually be able to see them in their.. um... working outfit. There will be some dirty words and innuendo in NPC dialogues.

There will be NO animations or emotes to illustrate anything. There will be no detailed dialogue either. Let's say, a PC hires a prostitute... the prostitute will take him into a room... undress, fade to black. Cut. Dialogue continues with something like "you think that gold was well spent" or, maybe the maximum of dirt, "Certain regions of your body start itching", along with a little desease infection ( ;-) ).

Well, that's not in he mod, but I made that up now to give you an idea. If you're european, think maybe age 16+ content (of course, the US would rate it 18, but that's a different topic). There might be a naked dryad or demon showing up here and there, there'll be some dirty words, but not more. See again: The Witcher. I expect roleplay by players to be on the same level.

As for he hak itself, it's of course Valine's ACAG in a stripped down version (haha...). It's the only one I know that doesn't look plain silly, probably because it was made by an adult girl and not by a male teenager. Actually, the naked body parts are much less silly than the barely clothed ones in the CEP (think spiders). Also, the hak contains some wonderful clothing parts, I couldn't live without those for my custom armors.

Just to mention it, the usual hak many social servers seem to use is JenX. It's almost a CEP replacement wen it comes to clothing (or the lack of it), a huge beast, but in there you really have the silly stuff I don't want to use on my server. Well, maybe by not using it I can keep the clientel of players out as well.

Since we're at adult content, I should mention Valine's "A dance with rogues" too. I know, either you love or you hate that one with a passion. I loved it. No no, don't get excited, there'll be nothing like that story in my mod. :)

However, Valine deserves a lot of credit for making an 18+ mod that actually has a really great storyline, a great atmosphere and fantastic ideas. I got a lot of ideas from it that have nothing to do with adult content. Hell, I could rip off every 2nd script in that module. If you don't mind (highly) explicit content, go play it if you haven't already, and if it's just to get some ideas for building.

Phew, now that this topic has been talked about, what's the next thing I can shock you with?

Ah, maybe I should make new screenies, this time at daylight, of the areas I'm least satisfied with.

The Horror

Now the horror begins: CEP 2.1 is out. I expect it to break pretty much everything I made, and I'll probably have to redo my top hak from scratch. I'm really NOT looking forward to it.... hell, 2da conflicts, a new tlk.... it took me months to get the current ones working.

Oh well, but I have to, better now than later. I'm also looking forward to the actual fixes... finally being able to use all the new 1.69 placables... crossing fingers now.

Aim, expectations and some other ramblings

SM asked me to update my blog, and so I do, even though I'm still waiting for the darn patches and haven't gotten a single thing done since my last update.
However, I'm currently in the state of a "Roleplay server depression" again which gave me some ideas about what to do and what to avoid in my own module.
So here's some stuff I definately want to do different, it's about the main rules and game mechanics.

First of all, I want a roleplay world and an immersive world with a lot of realism. Yes, powergamers, that means totally uncool stuff like resting restrictions, being expected to stash your sword while talking to friendly NPCs, not running around in town without a reason and all that. I know some people already call that kind of behaviour crazy, but it's the least you should expect from a roleplay world.

However, there are a lot of things common in average roleplay worlds I can't agree with, and with those mechanics or philosophies I'll start.

First: Gaining xp is bad, action is bad, levelling is bad.
I totally disagree with this. Roleplay does NOT mean sitting in a tavern all day, and the greatest roleplay situations I've been in have often been in a battle. Adventuring is fun, exploring is fun, making some xp from baddies is fun and it's a thrill to get that big boss down. This is how games like NWN work and I'm not gonna cut that part out. Exploring and adventuring is of course allowed and encouraged.
However, staying in character all the time should be obligatory.

This brings me to game mechanics, usually aimed at keeping the level of roleplay high, the level of immersion higher and the level of levelling low. Death penalty is one of the very good examples, and one thing I'm still not sure how to implement. Let's say, the usual action mod uses Bioware's standard and has raise dead scrolls, resurrection scrolls and all that all over the place. The average xp rewards are high, powerbuilding common, okay, that's what I don't want. Death should mean something, the penalty should be harsh enough to make a player think twice about going into a fierce battle.
What I absolutely dislike: Penalties that cut your xp in half and strip off half of your levels. Permadeath. That's where the fun ends. You want realism? Go out and ejoy real life, here you got it, it can be fun but it's for sure permadeath. Okay, fine, the general answer in RP worlds is: Party up, never go witout a cleric. A cleric will be able to raise you for only xxx xp or xxxxx gold, so where's the problem?
The problem is, your server might not be as well populated as you wish. And if you make it impossible to level up, there will be for sure no midlevel cleric who can actually cast a raise dead.
In a perfect world you might log into your favourite persistant world and your whole party will be waiting for you. The dwarf in front, the rogue in the shadow, the mage and the archer in the back, the cleric nearby with a number of resurrection spells ready.
Oh, but what if nobody's heard of your world yet? What if there are only 4 people playing at peak times, all at low level? What if the player is in a different timezone than the base? Yup, he's screwed. He might log in at 4 am next week to get a raise from a cleric, or cry on IRC or whatever. But that's for sure no fun and the result is players who are scared to make a weak character and go for powerbuilds. It's simple like that, if I'm scared to die I try to avoid it, and that means I'd rather go out with a tough tank than a weak bard.
So here's my aim for death penalties: Enough that it really hurts, but not so much that it can't be regained in, say, one day or two. Furthermore, players should get a little kickstart at the very low levels to create the plateau I mentioned in an earlier post. Kickstart does not mean, instant level 4 from one quest, but it should be straightforward and not too painful to overcome he state of "too weak to kill a rat".

Now to the resting limitations. A lot of action players hate those with a passion, but in my opinion resting limitations are essential for balance, furthermore, they encourage roleplay and add to the immersion. However, it can be overdone, and it's overdone a lot. Carrying a whole backpack full of items just to be able to rest is just ridiculous. I also don't think rations should really be required, noone needs to eat to be able to sleep (although it might help). Not every rest must be considered a nap either. But however it's implemented, the real proble is the time. How many RL minutes are required between rests to keep mages from the usual cast-rest-cast rampage, but to not annoy any players who just accidently essed up their spellbook during preparations?
I guess it should not exceed ten minutes, even 5 might be enough. Furthermore, there should be areas like Inns without any resting restrictions. As for the required items, I think a blanket and a nearby campfire is not too much to ask from a player, once you get used to it it won't be too much trouble. Water canteen, rations, a tent, bedroll, campfire kit, flint and all that... um... let's keep it simple, a game should be fun.

To make a long story short: My aim is building a world with a lot of roleplay and opportunities to socialise, but I'm realistic enough to know that there might be people playing alone, and for those I want to make it fun too.

Enough rambling, I think I'll go back to haks and building in my next post...

Waiting... (haks part 2)

I hate waiting. I love letting others wait for me though, but I demand immediate attention and satisfaction as soon as I want something. I think I've never waited for something as long as for that stupid 1.69 patch. Yes, I know I could use the Beta, but... yes, the whole community is waiting for that darn patch, there's no update to the CEP, no update for the seasonal forest and no update for all the other haks I plan to use until that darn final 1.69 patch is out!

Seasonal forest is no biggie, I'm sure it'll be backwards compatible so I just started playing around with it. CEP is one thing I'm not sure about yet... it will be backwards compatible with itself, yes, but it might screw up all the stuff I tried to squeeze into the tight gaps between the 2da lines of CEP 2.0... I'd hate to do all that stuff again. But now I'm facing the problem of building the main city... or better, the center of merchandise, the place every player needs and will visit regulary, the place where you get your gear and so on. Yes, every module should have a place like this, noone wants to travel the world for hours just to get his first armor, shortsword and shortbow. Fine, so I started building that city long ago with the 169 beta. I tried various tilesets for giving it a more medieval feeling than the standard city.

The only one that really satisfied me was the CC City Exterior tileset by s030363l & sixesthrice. Ah, of course it has a nasty bug that crashes the game and toolset, also it's all blown up by TNO textures that will become obsolete with the 1.69 patch. I kept watching the site but there was no update, so I finally decided to try other tilesets and, well... ended up with the standard one. Now I'm halfway done and totally not satisfied - the city looks just too modern, whatever dirt I throw at it, and see... there's life on the CC City exterior vault entry again... update will come, but when? No idea. I decided I need it, so the city development won't continue any further. Um.. but that's the base, so what should I be working on now? All my ideas are focused on the basics at the moment, and being forced to concentrate on something else now makes me kinda stuck... I want to work on the stuff I already have ideas for first, not being forced to come up with new ones. Oh well. Well, that's one example.

The other one is my plan for a huge polar region. Think vikings, iceland, scandinavia. I love this longship hak and always wanted to make use of it. And I did. All of sudden when I was building the docks for Rungholt, it occured to me that there were too few standard bioware ships in the palette.... meh, the longships replaced all of them. I could've gone through that painful hak editing process again (which means, learning by doing) and blowing up my custom hak even further, or... throw them out, which I did. The last update for the longships has been somewhere in 2003, so I don't hold my breath anything will happen to them anymore.

Then there's the Barbaric North. Don't let the rather plain looking screens at the vault fool you, there's a lot of potential in this tileset, and it has longships! So even though I won't be able to add them to my Rungholt docks, I can at least use them up there in the north.
Here's a quick example... I have no idea why weather effects only fire when I start up the mod with NWNX, so... just imagine snowflakes.





But, of course... incompatibilities again. Gah! Why does everyone have to use the same 2da lines or whatever it is? Figured it must be the doortypes conflicting with either seasonal forest or Sigil or whatever... oh damn, I don't have the energy to fix (learn how to fix) that right now... no further working on the north until I decided if I want to fix it or just throw that tileset out too.

You see where this is leading.. everything I have ideas for either needs updates or fixes or I'm scared to work on it because I fear 1.69 (and it's tail) will screw up everything I do. I don't even dare to make any more armors because I see incompatibilities between the CEP and the other custom stuff coming. GAH! Where's that stupid Witcher toolset, I need something to do.

Oh, because screenshots always lighten posts up, here's one of a dock construction I played around with... those siege placeables make great construction equipment. I hope I can rebuild something like this with the CC City Exterior tileset.

Aim

A little more on the aim for this world. Who should enjoy this server, who should better go elsewhere, what should be known before making a character.
Basically, the NWN crowd is usually devided into categories like Roleplayer, Powergamer, Munchkin, Roleplay Purists, Action Gamer and so on. Basically, I don't like any extremes. Munchkins are utterly annoying, as are Roleplayers who have to throw a dice for every single fart they do and consider reaching level 2 powergaming.
I do not like powerbuilds that are only good for making a character as strong as possible, but I do understand the wish to make a character who does good in battle and knows how to survive.
I do understand the fun in making a roleplay character who does nothing else in his life than sitting in a tavern telling stories, but I do not like an elitist roleplayer attitude towards the rest and forcing an hour-long dicerolling orgy on someone who just wants a little fun after a hard working day.

Experience (and the making of it) should not be a forbidden word or thought, but it shouldn't be the main goal either. Everyone likes levelling up, granted, so it shouldn't be too hard to get somewhere into the low-mid levels. Playing should be fun after all, shouldn't it?
On the other hand, this world should be all about atmosphere and immersion, so levelling up is and should be considered a bonus, not more. The main goal in a multiplayer world should always be the interaction of characters, and on a roleplay server, this should be in character and by thinking up nice stories and backrounds for a PC. Roleplay is the focus, but action is by no means forbidden.

Now, as for building a PC: I don't like too many rules, I don't like spoiling a player's fun, but I also don't like obvious munchkin and powergame characters only built for strenght without any "clue" for a class choice in the player's roleplay. That's why I'll go with the Vives rule regarding character builds: At least 3 levels per chosen class have to be taken. That means, no Rogue 19/SD 1, no Fighter 9/wiz 1/AA 10 and so on. I'm really sorry for that, but my personal opinion is that a class should have at least a little meaning and not just be treated as a brick in the building.
On the other hand though, I won't ever ask a player to play along the clichées and stereotypes of a class. Let's say, a player wants to make a character that resembles Connor MacLeod, Emma Peel or James Bond and for achieving that goal, has to choose a class mix that would be considered "illegal" by the classic DnD player. I say, go ahead - mix your CoT with an Assassin or whatever as long as it makes sense and is not just a cheap excuse to build up a ridiculous "über" powerbuild. Usually, I'd consider a Paladin/Blackguard at least "some sort of weird" because obviously, there are a lot of things that stack in such a build and make this a very powerful PC after all. BUT there have been cases of astonishing roleplay of a class mix like that, not to forget that the "fallen Paladin" is even somewhat "legal". This would be an example for a case-by-case decission. If there's a rotten "powerbuild" stench around the PC, I'd call it munchkin, if there's a chance for an interesting character, I'd call it a great addition.

In my opinion, common sense should be the judge, not any rulebooks. The fallen Paladin, fallen Angels and so on make perfect sense to me, so that option will be open, although maybe a case-by-case DM decission.
Assassins have never been truely evil in my opinion, if I'd make a James Bond or any kind of spy character, there'd surely be assassin in the class mix.
Blackguards on the other hand should be evil, Paladins should be good, but there's always the chance for a fallen Paladin or a Blackguard who uses evil means to aid the good (may it be pressed, may it be for an egoistic reason, it all depends on the character's motivation and roleplay). A good Blackguard doesn't make sense, a cooperative evil one does.

I could go on with monks, bards and so on, but these are the most common ad extreme examples. As you can see, alignments are the DnD rules I respect the least, they've always been too black and white for me, support stereotypes and hinder creativity. They will still function as basic guidelines, but will never be treated as main rules.

Ideas for the setting (influences part 2)

Finding a good setting is much harder than I thought. As mentioned before, existing settings like the Forgotten Realms or anything based on someone else's work are no real options. I have way too many wild ideas and don't want to rule anything out because it might not fit. However, of course there are a lot of ideas based on other people's work, and I hope to find a way to stir them all up in a huge cooking pot and make a good soup of it.

There's the basic atmosphere of the game world, which could be anything from "completely out of there" fantasy (FR, different planes, high magic) to a more realistic, simple setting. At one point I thought about just making an uncivilized forest and nothing else, and players would slowly develop their civilization and build the whole world up on their own. But that'd require players, and I'd have to hold back all the other ideas in the back of my mind.
Anyway, I never liked high magic. I don't like it when only items make a good character, I don't like senseless use of magic, everyone running around buffed up as if there was some sort of neverending archmage congress going on, so the decission to go with a low magic setting was quickly made.

Low does not mean no though and I'm not the type of player who wants to run around with a basic shortsword at level 20. It's not even the item properties that I have the most problems with, it's more the usage of magic, the overdone effects and that the base of a character can be anything as long as there are cool items to make up for all the weaknesses.
So the goal is to have magic at a level where it's still the character that counts and not the items he has. No surprise for anyone who has played on the servers I have played on - there won't be many differences. Expect magical effects to be toned down though.

As for the world's atmosphere I want to go with a setting that resembles medieval Europe without having to be too accurate, but evolves into a more fantastic world the deeper you explore. The setting should be dirty, no rainbow-colored kitsch with knights on white stallions and cities that smell like roses.

I don't need to describe it any further, because while I was planning the setting, another game was released that pretty much did exactly what I want - The Witcher
No need to say that I enjoyed that game very much, it gave me a lot of ideas for what I want to do in my own little world. By the way, it's one of my favourite games of all times already.

There's a quest in Act IV of the game that resembles the basic idea of what I'd like to do, that's the "In the heat of the day" quest based on a novel or folk tale. And we have a lot of old medieval folk tales in Europe, the Grimm Brothers alone could fill quite a few game worlds with quests and ideas. So there's a great source.

European folk tales and legends are also a great source for settings and creatures. Away with the stereotypes, why use a dragon for the thousandth time if you can easily make it a Lindworm instead? Why not think about creating a Wolpertinger?

Ah, the Wolpertinger... of course it's almost impossible to create the "historical accurate" one, but here's another idea giver who played a lot with all kinds of folk tales to create his own, unique wild mix - Walter Moers. His vision of a Wolpertinger has not much to do with the bavarian folk tales anymore, as you can read in the wonderful book Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures.
As great as the ideas in Moers books might be, his world is not a good base for a serious module - his stories are so full of fantasy, wild ideas and ridiculous creatures that it's impossible to merge it with a dark, medieval setting. Imagine The Witcher with a fluffy, cute dog as a protagonist. But as a basic idea or even just a source for names the book works great, and for my module, even more another book of his, Ensel and Krete (not translated yet). Even though as a novel, it's not as good as Rumo or The City of Dreaming Books, it gave me the idea of making a huge dark forest the center of the world, as well as a lot of ideas for creatures that roam it.

Another inspiration for settings are legendary places and sunken cities. In Germany there's Rungholdt, the French have their Ys, just two examples for perfect cities you can create with a lot of creative freedom.

Well, these are examples for lighthearted content, but after all, this shouldn't become a Disney-like, childsafe module, so let's hunt for crime stories, murder, prostitution, blood, deseases, drug abuse, racism and all the adult stuff next...

Haks part 1 (or the shortcomings of the CEP)

When it comes to customization, I think the CEP is inavoidable these days. Actually, I couldn't live without it anymore, and worlds that don't make use of it or at least an equally good solution for character customization are of no interest for me anymore.
Of course there's no need for a whole CEP if you just want a nice looking head on your character or NPC, but if there's ever the need for a special placeable, armor, item that doesn't come with the standard Bioware game, there's a good chance the CEP has it, and it's of course much easier just to grab this package than to hunt down each and every little placeable you need at the vault and stuff it into your own hak.
But that said, there are a few things definitely missing in the CEP. Like some of the best heads from the vault. The CEP comes with a huge load of custom heads for your characters and NPCs, but why, oh why did they include the most ugly heads ever made - tattoed faces in open helmets and such, but left out some of the prettiest "normal" heads available (and well known)?

Well, that's where the work on a custom hak starts. Hunt down the best head haks and add them to the mod. Of course, it's not that easy. Hunt down the head haks, export the model and texture files, add them to your new custom hak, place that one at the top of the hak list.
Still not that easy. Of course you only want to replace the ugly CEP heads, not the good ones... renaming model and texture files alone won't do, the models won't find their texture anymore... *sigh* It's a lot of stupid work, and strangely enough there was no mentioning of it anywhere on the vault, I had to find out all this basic stuff myself... open the model file of each head in a text editor, find and replace the names of the texture files inside the file with the name of the renamed texture... the basics of hak editing I guess, every builder will yawn now, but it's really a pain, especially until you find out how it's done. Every corner of my desk was full of sheets with notes about what files to rename, replace, leave out, etc. pp. It took me days to get something that simple finally done.
However, my module has it's first custom hak and a wonderful selection of heads for each race and gender now...


Of course the heads were only the first step, much more had and still has to be done with that stupid top-hak. Just when I thought I knew how things work I had to learn about 2da editing....

The Base (influences part 1)

That much I have learned already: The hardest thing in the whole module making process is creating a base. The basic module that contains the main systems, haks and so on. Of course I developed an idea of what I want, but I had no idea what a pain it is to get it done. Although I'm already creating some areas, the base is still far from finished, it's just in an alpha stage where it's possible to play around a little.

What I definitely wanted is a system that doesn't force the player into stupid mob killing sprees for making xp, and therefore, making powerful characters in order to get xp. I'd like people to experiment with chars, trying out weaker classes and class combinations without having a huge xp penalty for it.
Well, one server I played on has done that part right, and that's Vives. Of course their system has it's flaws too, but it's still the fairest solution I've seen so far.
XP rewards are devided into:

1. Combat XP
2. Questing XP
3. Crafting XP
   
4. Discovery XP: xp granted everytime the player discovers something new or enters a new area.
   
5. Ability Usage XP: For picking locks, untrapping, successful skill checks and so on.
   
6. Magic-Harnessing XP
   
7. Roleplaying XP

Each class has it's own xp modifiers. A fighter will always get 100% xp for killing something, because that's his job. But fighters don't seem to be interested in sightseeing, that's why their exploring modifier is fairly low.
A bard on the other hand doesn't get as much xp for killing as the fighter, but a bard has her eyes wide open and soaks in everything new, that's why her discovery modifier is at 100%.
Bards are jacks of all trades, so even though they can cast a few spells, spellcasting is not their main job, that's why their modifier for magic harnessing is medium. A pure wizard or sorcerer would get 100%.
Furthermore, The XP rewards are not static, the more you do the same thing again, the less you learn. The first time you kil a rat you get a huge load of xp, while the tenth rat is rather boring for your now "seasoned warrior" and will give you just a basic reward.

Well, that's the basic system, for more insight I'd suggest reading the Essential information on the Vives forum.

The problem: That system is an in-house development, and there's nothing at the vault that comes close to it. Solution: Copy, steal, rip off. Well, that'd be a solution for someone who knows what he's doing, and that's definitely not me. Also, this system requires a database. Setting up a database is definitely not a hobby of mine, and reading the NWNX forums is enough to scare me away from the most basic idea of building.

So what are the alternatives? Base mods from the Vault. I tried a lot of them and the most interesting I found was Vuldrick's Base Module. A lot of interesting goodies in there, all very well polished and easy to configure. But sadly, there was not one of the things that I really wanted in any mod.

Well, to make a long story short, while playing in Nexus (requires login) I talked about my plans and frustration to Squatting Monk, and this selfless being of a player made it all happen. Learned MySQL, built an xp system, reputation system, hunger/thirst/fatigue system, spiced it up with DMFI, CNR and HCR, listened to all my ideas and found solutions, and sent me a base module I could adjust to my needs. Phew. But hey, at least I've set up MySQL all on my own!

Well, that leaves almost no more excuses for not starting to build right away, it might seeem. But oh no, there are the haks. The 2nd pain in the a**.

The first screenshots.
As you can see, one of the things I definately want in my mod is haks. A lot of haks. I know those scare the average player away, but the Vault is full of so many great things that absolutely have to be used. And one of the very best is the one I could build the whole module with - WoRm's Seasonal Forest. Actually, I do plan to make this tileset the base of my whole world. It's too good to be true, and with it I can create exactly the atmosphere I want. The Dark Forest will be the center of the world, so to say.


This first area I created (besides some very basic test areas using the micro set) is an Inn at the border of the Dark Forest. There will be a city to the north and some small rural villages, but this should be the last outpost of civilization before the adventure begins. Well, that's the plan. More to come.