Recently, I went looking for this post while helping a player figure out some problems he was having. This tip is very helpful to easily ensure the documents folder for each mod is clean when installing multiple mods.
I found it in the older forums and I’m making it more readily available:
Mon, 2016-08-08 14:18
Axe_Edge
A great friend of the community (Ark) re-posted this on the old Bioware forums. Thought I’d better move it here while there is still time.
Installing modules separately (“-home” shortcut)
Started by Arkalezth , Jun 19 2013 01:46 PM
I’m copying a post from Axe_Edge on the BGR thread. I though it should have its own thread for reference:
Axe_Edge wrote…
“-home” added to a copy of your NWN2 shortcut is the answer.
The new shortcut tells the game to create, and to use, a separate and CLEAN NWN2 directory within “Documents” or “My Documents”. This new NWN2 directory can be named what ever you want. Each directory created this way (using different shortcuts) is its own entity. No need to worry about overrides conflicting between modules/PWs. It is crazy simple and fast.
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Make a copy of your NWN2 shortcut
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In the properties of the new shortcut, change the shortcut’s “Target” to where ever you want, including different drives. My BGR install is:
“E:\GAMES\Neverwinter Nights 2\NWLauncher.exe” -home “F:\NWN2Mods\NWN2BGR”
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My game is installed within my E drive, this first part will not be changed (before -home). I want the game to use the directory “NWN2BGR” within my F drive for haks, modules, overrides, saves, etc… when I use this new shortcut (this is the part you add, starting with -home)
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What is NWLauncher.exe? I use Skywing’s Client Extension, as you should
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Quotation marks are correct
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There is a space before and after -home
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I like to rename the shortcut as it appears on my desktop. The new shortcut is called “BGR”
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Start NWN2 using the new shortcut. The game will create the new directory and will put all the default folders/files it needs within, including the setting files with default settings. The size of this clean directory is only about 5 mb.
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Shutdown NWN2.
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Install the Baldur’s Gate Remake files into the new folder.
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If you don’t want to reset all of your favorite settings manually, copy/paste “nwn2.ini” and “nwn2player.ini” from your favorite install and into the new directory
Now, start NWN2 with the new shortcut “BGR” and it will use the new directory “NWN2BGR” for play. The original install is not touched. If you want to play the original game from the original NWN2 shortcut, go ahead, the game will not access the new directory.
I do this for every different mod and PW I have. I have about 20 different NWN2 shortcuts. Each mod/PW has its own shortcut/directory. Keeps things very clean and without conflicts.
A note about PWs. This works for them as well. Just create the new directory using the new shortcut, start the game with the new shortcut, log on the PW, and the ADL will download to the new directory.
Using Kaldor Silverwand’s “NWN2 OC Makeover SoZ Edition” requires a little extra care. This excellent mod makes a change in the Program files\NWN2\CAMPAIGN folder, which is at a higher level than Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2
Pain has a better explanation, but I can’t find it readily, at this moment.
Another example is a shortcut I used for a MOTB runthrough where I used Kaedrin’s PRC , I used the following shortcut target:
“E:\Games\Neverwinter Nights 2\nwn2main.exe” -home “F:\NWN2Mods\MOTBKaedrin”