I’m making a campaign and it is coming along nicely so far. Story is taking shape slowly and I’ve got about 2 1/2 hours of content so far. Titled: Shackles of the Hive Mind (a bit on the nose huh).
If you don’t mind, I’ll use this post to ask questions etc as I go, because from what I can tell, there aren’t many places left for a nwn2 community like this that can assist module builders.
My first question/issue, is that I have finished the first module and story aspects (10 areas) and now I am testing transitioning to a new module to continue. All is good, PC and party transition over, but when I click on the world map from “module 2”, the map hotspots that are set to true on the world map show up, but nothing happens when clicking on them and the hotspots that were showing up in the previous module have disappeared. I use global_int’s to reveal the map hotspots, if that helps?
Thanks for reading and any assistance you may be able to provide.
@tfunke - @Akhacha has got a great point. When I make my modules nowadays I always make all my conversations and scripts campaign. It makes things so much easier. I also make sure the journal is a campaign journal, and I also try, for ease of use, to make most creatures campaign creatures.
When it comes to the world map, I’ve never used one, so I can’t answer that specifically.
Great to see a new builder for NWN2 out there. Making modules is pretty addictive, but it’s a nice hobby.
Any links to areas from a world map must link to areas in the same module that the player is in.
You can jump back to another module and its areas, but I’m not sure if that’s what you are after. If it is, then you need to employ the correct function to do that. The function you are likely using will be looking for areas in the new module that the player is now in.
It’s four now and no you’re not nuts… Turn on the tv and watch the politicians babbling crap if you want to see what nuts looks like… This is sanity.
No idea about the world map but I’d go along with what Lance_Botelle says and that you’re not linked to areas in a different module… But didn’t the OC enable you to jump between mods on the world map ? I can’t remember it’s been a while since I played it.
The OC world map does make you jump between different modules. A quick look at the script shows it clearly has support for it, so not really sure what that comment was about.
Thanks for the suggestions and I’d totally try them out. Sadly I have hit a snag and it is a pretty big one.
I used to build for BGTSCC and recently (with their permission) got their builder module and was using that to make the campaign. Even though I wasn’t really using any of their scripts etc, I was using their custom armors, weapons, creatures etc. I have spoken with BGTSCC and they have recommended I don’t use their haks for a single player, so I have gone onto the vault and got 3 compilation hakpaks that seem to all work nicely. PJ placeables, a large tileset hak and a large creature hak.
Problem is, now all the areas I made previously with the previous module (with different hak files associated with it and I assume different .2da files), all the areas I have made so far don’t open at all anymore, no matter what I try and do.
Love some suggestions… the only things I really have after about 100 hours of creating, is conversations, journal entries and some custom scripts I made with the help of chatGPT.
Thanks again for replies.
EDIT: error message I get when trying to open areas is pretty long. Up top it says
“System.argument OutOfRangeException: Index was out of range. Must be non=negative and less than they size of the collection.” -if that helps.
The error message is due to missing placable info due to changing its info, likely due to a hak change.
I would recommend working on a single module for now, but do so using campaign mode, so you can get used to things and how stuff works together.
Building does take a long time. I have been working on my second module for just under five years. That is based upon code from my first module, which took around ten years. My current return rate is probably around 10 hours play time for every one year work. (Say around 30-60 minutes gameplay for every month put into it.) But, it all depends upon how much detail you like to include and how well you know the toolset and how well a day goes.
It was in the context of talking about the OC, the script it uses is ka_hotspot_click. There’s nothing special about the world map itself that should prohibit a module change (and if it did, the OC wouldn’t even function) - it just displays a .tga with clickable spots, and clicking on them activates a script (ka_hotspot_click in the OC’s case, which does have support for loading different modules).
As the script had not worked for the OP, I had hoped it was just a personal scripting error. However, if the OP is using the OC script, then I cannot say why their hotspots do not load.
As you say, this script supports the module load, and so unless the parameters being passed to it are incorrect, then it should work fine, I guess. I do not use these scripts for my own world map transitions, and so am working on the assumption that OC scripts should work fine. (That is, I do not use the SaveRosterLoadModule function at all, as I have different MP handling. I just use the LoadNewModule function directly for my own map transitions when a point is clicked, and the area is not in the same module.)
The only other thing I can think of is that “clicking on them” does not initiate the travel because that is “selection” only. One then has to click on the “travel” button to initiate the travelling. At least, that is how it works in my own world maps, but I have changed them and its been a while since I last looked at the OC version(s).
Yeah the return on investment is a real thing Lance hehe.
As for my original question, you guys answered it I am pretty sure, although I can’t test it anymore. That is to say, I forgot to include the world map scripts on the second module… seems obvious now. I’m not using the OC world map scripts, using the ones off the vault, with the tutorial.
Thanks for helping everyone. I’ll be back with another question, if I do continue the module. Must make a big decision now hehe
Which world map version are you using? (The original or the updated version with a later DLC?)
If you are using either of these two (links below), then you are using the original OC world map. There was an updated version in the first DLC. Just something to be aware of.
Ah ok, that makes sense now that they use the OC world map. I used the first link you posted. Seemed to work a treat, although a fair learning curve on getting it going.
tfunke… You could put the old haks back in, go into your areas, delete all the custom content and swap it with the new stuff. That will save the areas you made as anything that’s not custom will live on and they should load. Use the area contents tab and you can find it all easily without searching about on the screen.
I wiped a whole module from a campaign once when I deleted the wrong version, thought I had a copy and deleted the old version too but that was the new version and I had nothing to go back to ! On a plus side I remade it pretty quickly because I knew what I had done and it came out better.
Lance_Botelle… Ten hours for one year, that’s scary ! I like keeping it simple.
Mine is an extreme labour of love… probably a lifetime’s work, so I try to make sure I cover as many of those points I want people to consider as possible. Besides, I only have one more module to go after this one.
Also, my health can play a large part on how much I can do at any given time.
Definitely a labor of love, I’ve seen your posts about it, it’s impressive and pretty much a whole different game. So lots and lots of kudos for that and don’t worry I will nominate you for the lifetime achievement award.
I would go back to the last working version of the module even if it used those other scripts and playtest it in single player to see if any problems pop up, it may work ok in single player mode even with those hakpaks. Also I always save multiple times every building session using numbers and letters, example- Newmod 1a; Newmod 1b; Newmod 2a etc. Then if something goes wrong I can go back to a working version.
Thanks Mystic, yeah I do that, just the one though.
Phew, after spending 9 hours yesterday, I’ve managed to jigsaw piece together the closest things I can, to what my module was. I’m missing most of the areas, but I can make them pretty quick. Thankfully the conversations are still around and since I’m doing animated cutscenes and most of my scripting via them, they take ages.
Anyway, just updating to say I am plowing on. The show must go on!
