Feedback on WIP weapon project?

Neverwinter Nights 1 Enhanced Edition
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Plans
I plan to make my own “reforged” style mod for CEP 3 that covers all weapons and armor from the base game, including NPC weapons and armor with remade UTI blueprints. This is using my selection of parts which will mainly be from CEP 3.03 or other authors that might not be included in CEP if I find something I like. In a separate HAK file, I plan to make new blueprints for every kind of item and add them to a remake of the standard toolset palette with items from other DnD games like Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2, Icewind Dale, NWN 2, and other DnD lore-friendly weapons from the DM guides that wouldn’t be out of place in the base game campaigns.

Content Used and Modified
CEP 3.03 and NWN: EE are the basis. Other people’s work from CEP 3.03 has been used so far to make the longswords. The majority is Shadowhawk’s stuff, a bit from BB’s Celtic Weapons, Faenor’s Medieval Armory, and a few modified parts from Deph’s Armory 2.

The Concept
I aim to find suitable models and icons (or create and modify them myself) with a more authentic and practical look to replace all existing models and remake all blueprints using the newly available options. I think NWN does an amazing job with the atmosphere, tilesets, and music, but the design for a lot of the armor and weapons look too chaotic and strays far from the concepts that inspired DnD fantasy, like history, Tolkien, mythology, and more traditional fantasy themes that I’ve come to appreciate. Most NWN item models disregard practical design and seem to lean into making things look more impractical in a way I find distasteful. I can handle a bit of artistic freedom from authenticity to suit the theme, but NWN takes weapons and armor to a place that feels unintentionally awkward and ridiculous.
I’m not satisfied with the reforged mod because I want an authentic redesign than the original NWN weapons. Although, I appreciate the work it took to remake all the base game weapons. I also want to take the reforged idea further, recreate all armor and garb, and add more item blueprints from DnD lore and other DnD games.

What’s Done So Far
Done with remaking all the basic longsword parts and adding a few new ones to include TGA files. I have also remade all the UTI blueprints to use the models and TGA icons to suit each sword. This includes all longswords available from the toolset palette under ‘Weapons’ and the Tenser’s Transformation sword. I haven’t yet changed NPC longswords such as henchmen weapons or ones used by monsters.

For the longsword models, I’ve replaced them and modified other authors’ models to create new ones, such as jeweled pommels and just a few models that didn’t look too impractical from Deph’s Armory 2. Additionally, I’ve added new color options for all blades 1-8 and most of the jeweled pommels. The new color options 1-9 are: silver/steel, gold, bronze, darksteel/adamantine, iron, blue, red, green, and purple.

For the TGA icon files, I tried to keep the icons’ style close to that of the original game while keeping them true to the models I use. Most of the icons I created myself in GIMP, but some are modified versions of other authors’ and base game icons. I’m fairly new to using GIMP, and I’m no artist, so it took me quite some time. They are not pixel-perfect, but I think the results are great compared to what I expected I’d be able to make.

The new UTI blueprint files for longswords from other DnD games and DM guides are not included in the file below, partly because I’m unsure if that’s a copyright violation. I’m still tweaking them and might add some new ones. So far I have over 70 new longswords to add to the base game.

This file will require CEP 3 or all of the texture files from the mod authors’ content I’ve used, which are included in CEP 3. The ‘ensrick_weapons.hak’ should be loaded just under ‘cep_2das.hak’.
ensrick_weapons.zip (671.2 KB)

Questions
I want all the new blueprints for items that are not NPC-only items to be available as loot in all the default loot scripts and all the base game DnD campaign modules. I’m not sure if simply importing a HAK containing new UTI blueprints into a campaign module means that those items will be included in the loot tables. If not, how?

Can I make DnD content that includes weapons, armor, and items not already featured in NWN from other DnD games and lore using the OGL, or is that a violation of copyright?

Any useful feedback or advice for my project so far?

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Bump,

I could really use some feedback or advice; I’m completely new to anything that doesn’t involve the basic use of the toolset and scripts. All you gotta do if you want to preview the longsword models and icons is download the zip, extract the hak, and install it second from the top with CEP 3.03. Then take a peek at the longsword templates in the standard palette in the toolkit and flip through the options for longsword parts and colors.

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You would need to edit a copy of nw_o2_coninclude, compile all scripts that reference it, then drop those scripts into the user’s /override folder. In the OC, they would be available.

In SoU, they would be available only if included in the module-specific treasure containers (you’d have to add them to the container’s inventory) or as a backup item if not appropriate module-specific container was found. See x0_i0_treasure for more info on SoU.

I’m not sure about HotU. I think you’d have to add them to some module-specific 2DA files and include those changed 2DA files in your hak.

No, it’s not a violation of copyright, you’re using the game how its intended. Besides, NWN was never published under the OGL. It has its own license.

2 Likes
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I don’t understand why all scripts that reference nw_o2_coninclude must be compiled. Couldn’t I drop a modified nw_o2_coninclude into the override? Looks like it has all the loot tables in it.

For SoU, I’m unsure if the container or creature’s inventory in the module itself functions as a loot table, if so, then it sounds like I have to modify the module itself if I want to use the same loot method that SoU uses to get my items into the loot table.

For HotU, modifying 2da loot tables sounds simple enough.

Assuming OnOpen and OnDeath scripts for containers are the main triggers for loot, I suppose I could use modified versions of HotU’s loot scripts and create new 2da loot tables for each campaign’s loot to include my own blueprints and then modify all the OnOpen and OnDeath scripts for generic containers used in any campaign to place loot in the container from the appropriate 2da loot table. I’m not sure how this works for NPCs and creatures.

Would that work?

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nw_o2_coninclude isn’t an executable script. It’s just a chunk of common code which is inserted in multiple scripts’ source code via #include directives. Only when those scripts are all compiled do you get executable code that reflects those changes in game.

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You dont need to compile every script one by one.

Just make a build module (checking script are selected) after modifiying that includes.

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Just having an edited copy of nw_o2_coninclude in a module by itself will do nothing to the scripts that call #include “nw_o2_coninclude” when the module is built unless those scripts are also included in the module.

You would then extract these scripts from the module to the /override.

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Didn"t know that. Thanks