We have a winner!

After much deliberation - we have chosen a winning banner to represent the Night Howls in Nestlehaven campaign. See the bottom of the blog for the banner...

Scripting Tutorials

As a builder of NWN2 modules, you can't do too much unless you have a basic understanding of scripting. Now, I had zero knowledge when I started last Fall and I had to search high and low for little tidbits of how to use or find a particular script.

Luckily, I came across two useful sites... the first was by Jassper at:
http://www.noobscorner.jassper.com/ It is definitely helpful for us noobs to scripting.

Then another site popped up this year that really helped me out with scripts for custom waypoint AI as well as step by step beginner tutorials. http://www.nwn2scripting.com/

Back from holidays!

Well, we had a few restful days in Prince George... swimming, shopping and going to movies we missed. I was surprised at the devastation the pine beetle has had on the BC forests south of where I live. It hasn't reached where we live - hopefully it never will. There were literally thousands of trees dead from that beetle... quite a terrible sight to see those majestic trees all dead!

Going on Holidays

I wanted to let everyone know that I will be on holidays this coming week so I won't have any new posts until I return. Then I will be working on finalizing the banner for NHiN as well as other projects for the NHiN team!

System Reference Document 3.5

If you are like me, you might not have all the D&D books that you need at home. Luckily, the webmaster of http://www.geocities.com/sovelior/srd/home.html has a fantastic online reference for you to use at your leisure.

Need stats on races, classes, feats, magic item specs, spell lists - they've got it covered! Perfect for NWN2 mod builders. :)

Name Generators

Since we're on the subject of name generators this week - I've got another one to share with you. The Seventh Sanctum at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php has a huge list of individual generators for fantasy characters, worlds, cities, realms, taverns and more.

Definitely helpful to us mod builders out there... :)

Screenshots of A Time to Die Saga...

I moved the slideshow to the top right corner of my blog - that way it will stay on top and not get lost in the posts (when they get archived.)

Custom Banners

Today I was busy designing a custom banner for Night Howls in Nestlehaven - we wanted to display it for both the original game as well as the sequel.

I used a screenshot taken from the game for the background and used the Papyrus font for the text. Next I used a combination of cutout, shadow, and bevel effects on the text for the various banners. I used the cutout 3D effect, then a drop shadow, followed by inner bevel - finished off with another drop shadow effect for emphasis.

Amazing what a difference it makes with even slight changes to the effects and colours! See the bottom of the blog for the banners.

Fantasy Name Generator

Are you a mod builder that is stuck for names for your NWN2 companions or npcs? My secret weapon is a cool online tool known as the Fantasy Name Generator. It will give you first and last names of female and male characters. The site also has a drow language converter too!

http://www.fantasyrole.org/learn_namegen.asp

Tutorials on Custom Creature Stats

I have posted a question at the NWN2 forum regarding converting stats for D&D creatures and adding them into the properties panel of the new creature in the toolset. Once I learn how to do this, I can post a tutorial on the subject.

* Update* You can check out the post I made on tutorials here:
http://ladyelvenstar.blogspot.com/2008/01/best-list-for-nwn2-toolset-tutorials.html

VFX Editor

The VFX editor has always been very confusing for me and I decided yesterday that once and for all I would try tackling it again. Luckily for me, I found an easy to understand tutorial on the basics at the Vault: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2Tutorials.Detail&id=21

It still takes quite a bit of time to create a special effect, since you are forever tweaking one variable or another - but at least I know how to use the editor now which is important for any builder interested in customizing vfx.

New Blog!

Well, here it is. I decided to create a blog about my voyage with the toolset for Neverwinter Nights 2. I wanted to have a place to share what I have learned as well as a spot to show progress on my own campaign for NWN2 called "A Time to Die".

Currently, I am helping Jackyo with his sequel to Night Howls in Nestlehaven. Jackyo is a pleasure to work with as well as everyone else on his team. We've created a team and have named ourselves Gaming Parents Studios. Check out the blog for more details on the upcoming release of Night Howls in Nestlehaven 2.