Getting Started -- Using the Area Editor

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After owning this game from within days of its initial release, I finally decided to take a crack at the Aurora Toolset this weekend. The first snag I have run into is placing tiles. Whether an outdoor forest or an inn's interior, I'm confused at the randomness of the selections. Every time I click to rotate through the possible tiles, it not only takes forever to get one that is close to what I want, but then it gets even harder when trying to get the tile I want next to it. It almost seems like it's just a matter of chance -- if you happen to get two tiles next to each other that look right, you just have to take what you can get and give up. I thought the interior of the inn would be easier -- smaller area -- but whether I use Features, Groups, or Terrain, I just end up with random crap that doesn't look right.

Two caveats that might have something do with why I am having all this trouble:

1. I have the CEP installed. I think I may need a patch to get the latest version, but I don't think this has anything to do with it, as I am so far using basic stuff I've seen in the OC.

2. I've been trying to follow the Versusbooks NWN World Builder's Guide, which is probably as full of errors and just plain bad advice as the NWN Adventure Guide.

I looked at the tutorials posted here on site, but they're all either about advanced things like scripting that I haven't even gotten to yet, or they're just general FAQs from the game's pre-release. If someone could point me to somewhere else where I might find a little more information that could help me design areas with some amount of logic and control, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

EDIT: Okay, now a new problem. I decided to try my hand at the Creature Editor in the mean time, and started creating a henchman. But when I tried to edit him (after first creating a basic template), I kept kept getting "a WIN32 API function failed" messages. I've also noticed that when the Creature Editor loads, or when I click on the henchman in the creature list for the are, nothing happens (not even a "busy" light or sounds from my hard drive) for almost twenty seconds before another window opens up. Once I start clicking on the tabs under the editor for the henchman, I start getting those "function failed" messages.

I must confess a new respect for those brave few who have managed to use this piece of crap to create good new modules. Don't worry, I still have contempt for the 85% of the builders who make crap.

[ July 31, 2005, 10:37: Message edited by: Buck Naked ]

 

If there's just one random tile you want changed, try using the Eraser. Use lots of placeables to make it seem as it should. CEP has loads of new placeables; there's certainly something to make what you want. There's a tutorial about area design on NWVault somewhere, but that site's down for maintenance at the moment.

The last time the function thing happened to me, it was because of hak conflicts. Do you have any others installed other than CEP? It may be that another hak uses a custom appearance.2da, meaning that CEP creature models won't show up.

Just stick at module making. I'm almost entirely self-taught, and it took years to get to where I am now. I can actually make a module (although I haven't actually finished one for about two years, due to too many ideas)!

EDIT: Site's back up. Try this.

[ July 31, 2005, 13:41: Message edited by: Alavin ]

 

Thanks for the 411. Yes, I do have a few other hakpaks installed, but I wouldn't think that would affect anything unless I was trying to get at something inside of one of them in the editor. How can I delete all of the unofficial hakpaks (already played most of those modules anyway) so I can see if this will fix things?

 

The only haks that will affect it are those assigned to the module you're working on. If you haven't added them to that, they'll do nothing. At any rate, all the haks are in the folder named (conveniently) "hak" in your NWN directory. But if those haks aren't assigned to your module, they'll not affect it at all.

 

Okay, now this is getting really retarded. I deleted all of my hakpaks (even though I am not using any in this mod yet), except the CEP stuff, and things load more quickly, but I still get the API errors when clicking on some of the tabs in the creature editor. In addition, some of the windows display gobbledygook characters instead of actual alphanumerics. WTF?! Is this possibly a Windows problem? This is the first time I've ever seen this sort of thing, and everything else on my machine is working just fine. It was frustrating enough trying to get the area editor to work like I want it to, but now I can't even USU the creature editor. It's a mystery to me how ANYONE gets anything done with this thing....

 

Are you patched to v1.66? Is CEP patched to v1.52? I think CEP works with all combinations of expansions and patches, but being fully upgraded wouldn't hurt. Have you tried creating a new module with no haks assigned and seen if that works? I'm not sure what's wrong, to be honest.

 

Yes, latest patches on both NWN and CEP. I can load up an area to walk around in, but I can't use the Creature Editor without getting the aforementioned errors. Not using any haks in the toolset whatsoever.

 

Do you have anything in your override directory?

That's the only thing I can think of, other than a reinstall.

 

Well, there were a couple of files in there from some hakpak for a certain module, but I've deleted them now. (Not sure where the heck all those dozens of other files in the override_bak came from, though.)

 

Well, if with a clean override, and without any haks, it still doesn't work, I'd recommend a full reinstall.

I really hope this doesn't put you off making modules.

 

Well, actually, YES, it is putting me off making modules. The hardest part about this should be coming up with a well-written plot, and instead it's just getting the editor to function as designed. 85% of what's out there is poorly-written, but at least someone managed to make it function.

Before I waste all of the time involved in a full reinstall, I'm going to try deleting everything from CEP and see if that helps. Thanks for trying!

EDIT: Well, deleting the CEP has helped, but I'm still getting the errors in the Dreature Editor, just not as often. Guess I'm spending the night on a full reinstall. If that doesn't work, then I guess I'm going to have to go FR on somebody's arse....

[ August 01, 2005, 01:23: Message edited by: Buck Naked ]

 

Yeah, to put it simply, the Toolset isn't the most user friendly tool ever made...NWN2 should hopefully be a lot more userfriendly. Hope the full install works well!

 

Nope. Fully uninstalled, fully reinstalled, still fully f***ed.

 

I did a wee search on the Bioware forums and uncovered this: http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=388107&forum=46

I'm not sure how helpful it will be. But beyond that post, I'm all out of ideas. Other than a full PC format, but that seems a little extreme.

 

Thanks for the tip! I was just about to do just such a search on Bioware's boards myself, but thought I'd check here first to see if anything else came up.

I'm not running Norton, but I do have Stop Sign and Zone Alarm, and I'm on DSL. I also have 512MB of RAM, etc. like the guy in the thread, and can't understand why I would be having memory problems in this situation. Well, I guess I'll have to try fiddling with my settings and see if it helps. I'm surprised this sort of problem hasn't been spoken of more often, or that a simple suitable solution hasn't been found. Thanks again!

 

Well I don't know if this will help but just shift+right click the tile in the tile edit mode. It should randomly cycle through the tile appearance. Other than that you won't squeeze much else out unless you put in placeables manually. Hope that helps.