How to Make Universal Henchmen for Original Campaigns?

Jidokwon

For my own personal use (and, possibly, later adding it to the Vault), I'm hoping to make all of the Henchmen in the Original Campaigns Universal in design and ability. I'm familiar with Tony K's Henchmen and Battle UI mod, but my idea is (hopefully) is a bit different. I'm simply (hopefully) trying to update all of the henchmen in the OC and SoU to how they work in HotU. I realize that this won't be as easy as I'm hoping, or Beamdog would have actually Enhanced their Enhanced version. So I'm asking for help here.

To start, I'm just hoping to add Inventory Control for Henchmen in the entire game. I'm guessing that I'll have to use the documents override folder for this and I'm quite new to using that one. Can anyone, please, point me in the direction of the files that I'd need to use to accomplish this goal? Am I even close to being correct in how to go about this part?

As I get more accustomed to using the toolset and override folder, I'm hoping to rework the OC and SoU Henchmen to have them operate as they do in HotU. Again, I'm familiar with Tony K's mod here, but this one does quite a bit more than I'm hoping to accomplish. I realize that more work will be needed here, but, again, I'm rather lost in where to start. It'd be greatly helpful if anyone could, perhaps, tell me what files I'll need from HotU to get started with this project. No doubt, I'll eventually have to rebuild all of the OC Henchmen from scratch, but for this secondary goal, I'm just hoping to make them all operate as they do in HotU. Much of this will likely be found in dialogue, but I'm wondering what else I'm surely overlooking. Again, any help here is appreciated.

Finally, I'm hoping to expand the party size throughout the game to make this universal, too. Would this be a simple fix to add in the override folder? Or would I have to, also, change the dialogue and scripts for every henchmen in the game?

I'm *very* green when it comes to coding, scripting, and anything of that nature, so my knowledge of the toolset (and modding in general) is very limited. Are any of these goals feasible and reasonable?

Proleric

The inventory question was answered on Neverwinter Vault.

Upgrading all henchmen to XP2 standards would be a much more challenging project. Making a henchman for new modules is described in the NWN Lexicon tutorials - temporarily unavailable but accessible here:

https://lexicon.nwn.wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

In essence, you would have to merge the old henchman creature scripts with the XP2 versions, retaining the old henchman-specific logic, but adding the generic XP2 code where different. SetMaxHenchmen() can be included in the module load event.

There will be issues. For example, even the very simple tweak to open inventory via radial menu (as described on the Vault) is an exploit which breaks design assumptions. So, when the PC gives something to the henchman, any event that creates a new copy of the henchman will destroy the item. You can spend time finding and fixing all those events, or, more likely, work around them in game by removing henchman items before they're destroyed. This used to happen on level up, not sure if it still does.

Jidokwon

Thank you! It'd certainly be a much longer term goal for myself. I'm *very* green with the toolset in general and have absolutely no knowledge of coding, scripting, or anything of these levels. I'm beginning to wonder if this task is even within my abilities or a reasonable goal for myself. It's sounding like, even for a knowledgeable developer, this would be a complex task that could take hours. For me, this is something that could take years.

TarotRedhand

I think you are severely underestimating the enormity of the task when you say

for a knowledgeable developer, this would be a complex task that could take hours

It would probably be on the order on man/months maybe even a man/year or 2.

TR

Jidokwon

Fair enough. I suppose that's why Beamdog never enhanced the original campaigns at all for their enhanced version. If it's beyond the abilities of their entire team, it's certainly going to be beyond mine lol

Proleric

If you want to go with the flow, in NWN it's very much easier to make your own module than tweak the OC.

You can make a working henchman (using the tutorial), populate a simple dungeon with monsters, and play, in a few days.

A great way to learn, at least.