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From Neverwinter Pedia

This is the online tutorial site for: CI401: Making Video Games for Learning and Assessment course offered by Dr. Christian Sebastian Loh, at the Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The resources should be useful to anyone who is interested in learning to mod Neverwinter Nights 2.

NEVERWINTER PEDIA

As the name and banner image suggest, this is a Pedia (from Wikipedia, of course) about Neverwinter Nights 2. More accurately, the NWPEDIA is an online guide for people who are interested in learning how to mod (from modify) Neverwinter Nights 2 using the NWN2 "Electron" Toolset. (Latest version: 1.0.1765.0)

The world is awaiting. Enter at your own risk.

What you will need...

Obviously you will need to have a copy of the game. Neverwinter Nights 2 first went on sale on Nov 2006, and the first expansion, Mask of Betrayer, on Oct 2007. As a rule of thumb, you should get ALL the games when they are released. By ALL the games, I means the Original Campaign (OC) and any Expansion Packs that come after. The reason being, the new expansions will contain new models and scripts that are not previously available. Hence, if you serious about modding NWN2, you will be diligent to purchase every expansion pack out there.

If tradition (read: marketing strategy) follows, you can expect one expansion pack to be released yearly around the 2nd / 3rd quarter (to keep the fans happy). While official expansion pack (like Mask of the Betrayer) is by the official developers (i.e., Obsidian Entertainment), Adventure Packs are Atari-"sanctioned" expansions by 3rd party developers.

Original Campaign (OC) & Expansion Packs (XP)

Sep 2009: Will there be anymore update/adventure pack for NWN2? Who knows? With the imminent release of Dragon's Age – Bioware's latest fantasy RPG, may be everyone will switch over. The fate of NWN2 modding is determined largely by the NWN2 modders community.

March 2009: The first adventure pack by Ossian Studio » Mysteries of Westgate (MoW) [Official Site] is finally available for sale and download!
– Even though Ossian completed the game in May 2008, the release of the game has been delayed due to CDROM security issue.

Nov 2008: Official Expansion Pack (XP) #2 by Obsidian Entertainment » Storm of Zehir (SoZ) [Official Site]
– This XP introduced a new "Overland Map" mode (like Tales of Symphonia), and "Quest Team" mode in which you can recruit up to 5 members of NPCs/henchmen to go on your quest from the get go (like the original Bard's Tales series).

May 2008: Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold Pack » NWN2 OC + MotB

Feb 2008: NWN2 for MAC

Oct 2007: Official Expansion Pack (XP) #1 » Mask of the Betrayer (MotB) [Official Site]

Nov 2006: Neverwinter Nights 2 » Original Campaign (OC) [Official Site]

Tweaking the Game

Neverwinter Nights 2 is a demanding game (in terms of the CPU and graphic card requirements). It also has other issues, such as using only one CPU for processing, even if you have a dual-core/quad-core CPU (more surprisingly, game performance may suffer if you use more than 1 CPU)!

The decision to "move" from NWN to NWN2 is not an easy one, but since Bioware has permanently retired NWN (i.e., no more update), any more game development with that platform will only become more and more out-mode and out-dated. Hence, we are more or less "forced" to accept NWN2. However, NWN2 did introduce a number of innovation with each new expansion – such as the Overland Play (reminiscent of "Tales of Symphonia") debuted in XP2: Storm of Zehir. So you lose some, you gain some.

Note: After you have installed the game, be sure to read through the NWN2 Tweak Guide carefully in order to set up your game for optimum play before moving forward.

Term of Use Agreement

Several small conditions if you are planning to use this resource (for your class, or for your personal learning): This tutorial is provided with the hope that it is found "useful."

If you are using it for a class, please let me know, I would like to keep track of who is using this for "official" purposes.
If you find typos, or mistakes in the tutorials, please let me know, so I can correct them.
If you would like to contribute in making the a better tutorial, just drop me a note at: csloh (at) siu (dot) edu.

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