Looking For "The Amethyst Dragon" Please?

Excuse me?

I'm looking for "The Amethyst Dragon" - the DM/Creator of "The World Of Aenea"

1 or 2 of you will remember me posting here before, not long ago, asking about portals in the CEP and the one he made for this server.
I'm back to ask something else.

2 or 3 days ago, I posted at the new Bioware social network site, asking how to remove the watery vortex from the center of one of the stargate portals made by Lord Nikon, and "The Amethyst Dragon" made a helpful reply to my post there. But I am still stuck, and am looking for his further help.

Here is my post at the Bioware social network site.
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/191/index/3326600

For some reason, every time I make a post at that site, I only get 1 reply from people, and they don't seem to go back and check for further replies. Or I don't get other replies from other people. *sigh!* It's a very busy world out there I guess.

Anhyow.... Amethyst Dragon, if you're able to spare some time, please can you help me further with those portals? I am still completely at a loss as to how to remove that watery vortex. I downloaded Gmax yesterday to see if I could use it to find the stargate model I'm looking for. But it doesn't seem to support .mdl files.

Also, the particular stargate portal I am looking for, is only in the CEP, (most recent 2.3) as far as I know.
Lord Nikon has made a version of his portals for CEP 1.50 here.
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Hakpaks.Detail&id=5383
But that hak has the portals on bases, as you can see in the screenshot in that link, and it's not the ones I'm looking for.

Someone out there has made the stargate portals without bases, (which is what I'm trying to work on) and I have no clue who made them. As far as I can see, these are only in the CEP 2.3.

So... one of the files in the CEP 2.3 has that portal I'm looking for, in order to open the model file using notepad/wordpad.
And I'm not sure which one it is.

Since "The Amethyst Dragon" took one of those stargate portals, (the ones without bases I presume) and edited it for "The World Of Aenea" may I ask where he was able to find it, so that I can find the the one I'm looking for, and edit to remove that watery vortex please?

Regards,
"TheLilOne"

I haven't been online much the last couple of days...spending time with the wife before she goes back to work after maternity leave. I'll do some digging tonight to take a look.

I actually did use one of Lord Nikon's models for my portals...I just removed the base myself.

Here, this might help:

http://www.amethyst-dragon.com/nwn/downloads/dca04_c01_01.rar

Yup, it's the extracted stargate model with the watery surface removed. I didn't rename the model, so if you use it in your own hak, be sure to put your hak "above" the CEP in the module properties so that it'll override the CEP's model.

Good luck!

Hi again Amethyst.

Right after you posted that link, I was quite excited for a while. I hate to say this, but unfortunately I'm still very confused.
At first, I thought it was a hak. So unknowingly, (without checking what file type it was) I placed it in my nwn hak folder, expecting to find it in the drop down list in module properties, in my toolset. It was only when I went back to my hak folder that I realised that it's an .mdl file. In my moments of haste, out of excitement, I guess I just completely forgot to check the file properly.

But NOW.... I still have a problem.
Because it is an .mdl file, I have absolutely no idea where to put it.
I tried making a simple hak with it, using the hak editor in my nwn utils folder, and placing just that 1 file in it.
But I cannot find the portal after adding the hak flle to a module.

That .mdl file ( as far as I know) came from one of the CEP Haks, and I have absolutely no idea which one?????
Unless.... it's a file you saved on your server. In which case..... I am still completely clueless in both cases!

Please can you tell me how to make my own hak file with it, (I'm thinking there should be other files included somewhere) or place it in whatever hak file it came from?

Regards,
"TheLilOne."

To add it to a hak file of your own:

1. Open nwhak.exe (found in your NWN/utils folder).
2. Drag your decompressed .mdl file into the open panel of the utility.
3. Save the new hak file with a short, easy to remember file name.
4. Close nwhak.exe.

To add the new hak to your (CEP-enabled) module.

1. Open your module in the toolset, go to Edit > Module Properties > Custom Content.
2. Find your new hak in the drop-down list and click the Add button.
3. Click on your hak file in the list and use the Move Up button to move it up to the top of the list above the CEP files.
4. Click OK. The toolset will then do a build on your module to incorporate any new material in the added hak file.
5. You should now be able to use the new portal model. It replaces one of the CEP ones (named "Portal: Stargate 1: No Base: On" or something similar).

Hi Amethyst.

I managed to work it out in the end.

Dragging the .mdl file to the open panel of the hak editor would be the
same as going to the menu and clicking "add resources" from the top.

But that didn't seem to work. I did everything else you listed step by step too. But still that didn't work.

Eventually I worked it out that I needed to grab a .2da file, open it
in notepad/wordpad, create a new line, and add the name of the .mdl
file to the new line in the model section.... then save it. So now the
hak includes the .mdl file and the .2da with the new named file in it.

So it works fine now. Everything is cool!

The only minor issue, is that when I look at the new, edited stargate
in the toolset, its description would say something like - "Portal :
Stargate, No Base, On." But instead, it's now "Off." As I said.... it's
just a minor thing really, so it doesn't interfere with anything.
And as you mentioned..... I placed the hak file at the top of everything in my hak list, in module properties.

So, once again.... everything is now fine and dandy!

I'm sorry to have troubled you further.
All I can finish by saying, is thank you very much for helping me solve this!
I appreciate your help greatly.

Good luck with your ongoing World Of Aenea Server too. It looks really nice from the few screenshots I've seen.
I have a couple of other games on the go, at the moment, which I realise, won't give me much time to play a NwN online server.
But when I finish one of them, I think I would like to come to Aenea.

Take care, and thanks again.
Regards,
"ThelilOne"