Player Reward Items - Step by Step by RustyDios

Place the Aenea player build module ((from here)) into the "modules folder" of your NWN directory....

Open and start the toolset.. select the Aenea Player Build Module (()) (your doing this as it will come pre-loaded with ALL the custom item icons of Aenea and the CEP...

Open the area by clicking here ((()).. this allows you access to the palette (on the right)....

Select the Items Palette to bring up a list of items generally found in NWN, you can use the + & - to expand and contract the list... your basically looking for something that is the same "base item type" as the item you want to create...(())

For the purpose of this tutorial I'll be creating a new cloak for my PC.. so I'll want to go into Miscallaneous > Clothing > Cloaks .... And pick ANY cloak (it doesn't matter which one as we're about to change EVERYTHING about it)...

Right click your item and select "Edit Copy".. this will bring up a window like the one below... (())

We want to chnge the following things...
1) The in-game name
*Note items 2 and 3 should be the same if possible
*I try to use the structure of "Player_PCInitials_token"
2) The "out of game name" or TAG
3) The item "blueprint reference" or ResRef
4) The Plot & Stolen check boxes, so you can't drop/accedently sell your item (I believe will tick these if you forget anyway, so save him some time and hassle and do it for him)

5) The Palette Category (change to "Special > Custom1" by clicking the "..." box and selecting it from the drop down menus.. )

Finally click the appearance tab (6) and we'll move on....

The apperance window will lok like the one below .. (())..

1) In the centre here will be all your model options.. for cloaks it's type of cloak... for weapons its a top/middle/bottom/colour (the same numbers here also relate to 's craft system), for icon only items its the icons availiable, for armours is a long list of all the seperate parts... change this to whatever you want it to be....

2) this is your Icon preview, it shows what your icon will look like in your inventory window...

3) this box only appears for cloaks and armours.. it will bring a list of selectable colours, there are 5 pieces of "material" that can be coloured different
*Note: for Aenea "transparency" you want the metallic silver (3rd from the right 4th down) this is good for the centre of "winged cloaks" or "empty" armour slots...

4) this is the in-game rendered 3d model of your item (if it has one)... this is what others actually see.... I've noticed a few shields/weapons have "moving" visuals that don't always show in this preview and note the silver transparency effect noted above... ..

And once your happy with how your item looks we're off to give it some juice... (5)...



This next screen we want to put all the powers into our custom item... (())...

1) first of all we want to select any properties in the right hand box (3) and use these arrows here to remove them... this will give us a "blank canvas"...

2) this is the list of properties that are availiable for that item type... just simply select and use the arrows keys(1) to send your desired property onto your item (3)...

3) your list of current properties .. from here you can select a property to change its active "sub-properties".. highlight your property and select (4)...

4) used for editing sub-properties...

5) The sub properties of the parent effect (such as colours and brightness of light, ac bonus, other numerical values)... note you need to highlight the sub and click select.. the selected sub is displayed on the left ....

6) this is the maximum number of "Cast Spell :" item properties you can have for this type of item...

7) the all important cost of the item... providing your not adding any "Aenea" properties this total should match or be just below your token voucher price.. try mixing and matching properties until you have something you want, as close to the voucher price as you can... I'll also point out that some properties are cheaper on other item types (eg cloaks vs boots... or my favorite, Gloves vs Gauntlets!), sometimes a sub property is hugely cheaper for no real loss (such as Normal Light vs Bright Light)...

8 ) then we want to tick off these boxes so we don't accedently drag/drop our item from inventory to the ground, or the barter screen, and also so we don't have to ID our own item! (I'm sure checks both these boxes, but if we save him time, we get our item faster and he has less of a headache!!)....

Finally before leaving this page we want to check the FAQ ((here)) to see we don't have any "forbidden" properties, our values are not too high (eg +7 AC on a pair of boots).. when we have checked this, added in the cost of any "Aenea upgrades" we can move on to the description tab....


?)I'm not going to teach basics here... it does not matter really what you put in the description.. only you, (and possibly the DM's) are ever likely to read it (unless you manage to screenshot it later for MJ's Artifact thread!).. I always think a good story goes along way to amuse oneself at a later date, maybe about where you just been, what you're doing in Aenea when you got to the token hour.. etc..
The bottom box will list all your item properties so you don't need to keep switching back and forth if you want to write about the powers the item has and why, or how they were discovered...

?)Lastly we have the Comments tab...

This tab is pretty much a statement to ... I believe it will be just yourself and that see this, so you can really write but whatever you want here.... but will require the following information (and this is how I normally present it to him)::

PlayerName:: YourPlayerNameInFull
PCName:: YourPCNameInFull

ItemName:: ItemNameAgain

TokenValue: ??k
(including previous tokens if upgrading)


SpecialAeneanRequests::
Boots of Striding & Springing ... +12k

Added/Removed/Changed::
(if upgrading or redesigning & reasons why)

OtherInfo::

My first Item...

Ok so when we're finished here we can finally click "Ok"... The toolset should automatically jump to the place where your new item is, and "semi-highlight" it... right click your item and select "export".. (()) this will export the item to the .erf folder in your NWN directory... I try to name the export the same as the item tag/resref from earlier... following the same format : PlayerName_PCInits_TokenValue.... this should help find and import it into his end... Now save your module with your item... and then just for good measure save it again....

Then simply attach the file to an email and send to ... ((nwn@amethyst-dragon.com)).. For politeness I find it nice to actually write something in the email, the minimum being a copy of the comments tab.. but then I've also been told I tend to waffle forever sometimes.... how long is this tutorial anyway?.. you all must be bored by now... .. Hope this helps at least one person ..

This was really helpful for a toolset noob like me. (I'd totally done things wrong when I had a go last night.) Thanks for writing this up!

Nice. Your "properties" screenshot needs your handy numbers added (like in an earlier pic in the post).

Oh, and I added a link to this at the end of the stickied FAQ post.

Thank ye ... Picture changed, and thank ye for the link ... and this was specifically for "toolset newbies".. I realised that there alot of people with little to no experience with the toolset, and on both the vault and bioware there are not that many tutorials on the "simpler" things.... ((not that anything is simple with the toolset))....

Nice, nice, nice! Great resource, RustyDios!

Neat!

Well Done Rusty!

Bump for new players

When i try to load aenea_player_build_module
The Toolset tells me it cant find aeneahak_temp

I knew there were some other threads about that issue, so I searched the forums for "build module" and here are some of the ones I think will help:

https://aenea.aforumfree.com/t6005-aenea-build-module#44115

https://aenea.aforumfree.com/t3677-manually-updating-the-build-module-older-versions#26253

https://aenea.aforumfree.com/t5792-player-build-module-custom-content-cep-etc#42500

https://aenea.aforumfree.com/t5994-build-module#43973

https://aenea.aforumfree.com/t5389-newly-missing-placeables-in-the-player-build-module#40215

Solved

I created my own aeneahak_temp. I copied aeneahak_u and renamed it. (should work with others too)
Tryed this before i made my post but mine was empty and that didnt work.

Guess i have to use the search more. Seems every problem was solved by someone allready over the years.

I'm glad you got it resolved

Regarding search, in your defense, over the years, I have had terrible luck with forum search engines on various sites... so I am usually reluctant to invest time and effort into them as well. I usually overcome that reluctance, because I know it can save time for other forum members, so when I have a question or issue I can't find any threads related to it, it is more likely it will get attention.

These forums are usually the only place i will search, just based on familiarity with the subject.  I give it several tries, then ask the question.

Glad you're resolved, Feledain!