Hi everyone, I've been working hard to revise the old series and I'm getting close to completing the revision. I fixed a lot of bugs and made a lot of improvements, then started playing through to get a sense of what else could be revised ("Oh a broken script, better fix that. This convo could use a few more alignment options." etc). I'm playing through with an evil halfling bard, and looking for places to subtly apply more evil
Here's some screenshots of my progress. These are in EE but I haven't used any 3rd party filters, I've been too busy to get into all that (advice welcome!) Never underestimate the improvement that can be had with a high-res skybox! You might recognise the moon picture from a skybox mod in nwvault, but the day, sunrise and sunset were made by me. More to come as I progress
@myshaq Yes I'm definitely considering making mods based on the Ballard Chronicles, which itself was based on the story I was planning to make the mods from initially We'll see how things go for me early next year, and the sorts of updates that get rolled out for nwn:ee.
The sorts of updates I'm looking for are: * High-res skybox capability (my new ones are good, but still a bit chunky up close) * New and/or improved head models. * Overland map function (maps are cool) * Size-adjustable player models. * Sub-race support (I'd like to put in my Aielund-specific custom races if possible).
I'll want to be putting in black-powder firearms too, but there's a mod for that on nwvault that could serve as a template.
I just finished act 2 I'm keeping a list of all the changes I'm making and it's getting pretty extensive. The first two mods needed a bit of an overhaul in places, but I think it'll smooth out in the later mods. On to act 3!
Still working on act 3, adding lots of dialogue options here and there as I go and improving the overall experience. I just discovered however, that because I've been using the EE toolset, the mods are marked as being part of the new version (despite not using anything specific to EE), so they won't work with the older versions of nwn anymore. I think this means I'll have to upload them as separate mods (or rather, one large separate mod) when the time comes so that anyone using the old nwn version can still play the old mod. My apologies to anyone who wasn't looking to update, but wanted to try the enhanced edition of the Aielund Saga
On the plus side, I now believe it is well worth getting NWN:EE as it runs a lot better on modern hardware and there's more improvements to come down the pipeline
For testing purposes, export something you've updated into .erf and copy that .erf over to the 1.69 /erf folder, then import it into a test 1.69 Aielund Act module. Save the module in the toolset and try to play that module with 1.69 NWN and see if your change gets added without producing an error.
I had my hopes up for a moment there, but the 1.69 toolset won't even let a conversation file from EE be imported. Looks like all exports are marked with the version they were made with.
You can edit/extract files from erf with tlkedit and nwn2 packer. I sure there others programs too. There a workaround too with copy and pasting from temp folder to temp folder it was a pain in the butt but it worked. Make sure you backup stuff.
Yeah I didn't even realise this was going to be an issue, and I do have backups, but I started working in the EE toolset pretty early on. It's too late now, I've made so many changes it'll take a lot of effort to make it backwards compatible and I just don't have the time right now.
There are a couple of ways to change the version number flagged on a module. The quickest is to open the mod file with a text editor like notepad, search for "1.74" and change it to "1.69" (minus the quotes of course). Back it up first just in case, of course, but it should work without any issues, as long as you haven't used any 1.74 specific features.
Okay I gave the notepad trick a try, found 1.74 and changed it to 1.69 then saved it. The toolset has been loading it for the past five minutes now (with no progress bar). I don't think it's going to work. Yep, it just choked and died.
That's odd. I just tested it myself, and didn't have any problems opening an EE-flagged module in Diamond after doing the text-editor trick... Myabe you have some EE exclusive content in the module?
Well, the file is pretty massive for poor old notepad, is that what you used? I was thinking I should get a better text editor and try that out. And no, I've really only expanded upon current conversations and fixed errors in scripts, areas etc. I haven't used anything EE exclusive.
Success! I grabbed notepad++ from sourceforge and it opened up the mod file in half a second instead of 2 minutes, and the altered file loaded into the 1.69 toolset. Phew, problem solved. After I've finished the update, I'll convert them all to 1.69 so they won't be EE exclusive Thanks for the help everyone!
Making good progress on act 3, I really just have to play it through to the end to test out that final battle as it's apparently a little easy. I've experimented with using Zwerkules' tileset replacement haks and currently have them attached to each mod, though I'm finding there's quite a performance hit in built-up areas such as Fairloch. I thought the NWN:EE graphics engine was hardware accelerated now? Thought it would have had more grunt than this I'll definitely use the mines, forest, snow and interior haks, just not sure about the city or rural exteriors at this point.
just want to throw in a little more support saying it's super awesome that you're doing this because Aielund is one of the best of the best as far as I'm concerned so thanks!!!
Thanks for the support guys, I had intended just to fix a few bugs here and there originally, but it's blossomed into a full overhaul of the old mod. Final batch of screenshots before I break for a week On the final playthrough of act 3 now, fixing a few little bits here and there but it seems to be basically done. Act 4 pts 1, 2 & 3 have pretty much been updated already, smaller modules are much easier to work with! I hope to get this update released in early January, 2nd week at the latest. Enjoy the festive season everyone! Extra bonus image!
I 've never played the aielund saga even when I've read so much about it, but those picks alone made me reinstall the game to try it out, everything very good
After a relaxing week(ish) away, I'm back in to modding. I had initially planned to let Beamdog make some new skyboxes, but that item is tracking pretty low on the Trello board so I decided to go ahead and redo all the standard skyboxes myself today. Blender + Neverblender makes it easy and the results are amazing. It really makes the game pop! Nearly finished playing through act 4 part 1, with just a few items to tweak here and there before moving on.
Savant1974
Member Posts: 228
Comments
I've got one question though, did you consider making NWN modules based on your second saga?
The sorts of updates I'm looking for are:
* High-res skybox capability (my new ones are good, but still a bit chunky up close)
* New and/or improved head models.
* Overland map function (maps are cool)
* Size-adjustable player models.
* Sub-race support (I'd like to put in my Aielund-specific custom races if possible).
I'll want to be putting in black-powder firearms too, but there's a mod for that on nwvault that could serve as a template.
On the plus side, I now believe it is well worth getting NWN:EE as it runs a lot better on modern hardware and there's more improvements to come down the pipeline
Extra bonus image!
This will probably the adventure I run next once I start a new toon...
Its things like this that make this game-