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Heroes Of Profound Enlightenment :: Manual :: Module Building :: Modifying Scripts
Many builders will find it necissary to change some of the scripts in
the PRC to their liking. This is especially true for the spell
scripts,
including epic spells. Moreover, to make changes to certain parts of
the epic spell system (for example, to disable certain spells or make
them harder to cast,) the script "inc_epicspells" must be changed.
The Aurora toolset has problems with the sheer enormity of our scripts, but there is an easy and ideal way to make changes outside of the toolset.
First, you need to go to your NWN directory. There should be a subfolder called utils. There are two programs which are useful here: nwhak.exe and clcompile.exe.
First, create some folders anywhere on your computer, depending on what you intend to change: one for epicspellscripts if you intend to change epic spells, one for racescripts if you intend to change races, and one for everything else. I'll refer to these as "epicspellscripts", "racescripts", and "scripts" respectively. You'll want to copy clcompile.exe from the utils directory into each working directory you make.
Open nwhak.exe. Go to File, then Open... browse to the hak subfolder under your NWN directory. Open up "prc_scripts", "prc_epicspells", or "prc_race", depending on what you want to change.
When it opens, go to the Resource menu, and select Export All. Select the appropriate folder you created, and click "OK". Wait awhile, there's no progress bar, so you'll only know it's done if you wait for awhile.
Go to that folder, and open up the script you want to edit with your text editor. Make the changes you want. TextPad is good for this, especially if you download the TextPad NWScript viewer from Bioware. That way you'll have syntax highlighted properly.
Now, you'll need to compile the script. This can be tricky because it requires the use of the command line. Go to the Start menu, and click on "Run..." Windows 98/Me users, type "command" and hit OK. Windows 2000/XP users, type "cmd" and hit ok. You'll be at the DOS prompt. Make sure you're on the drive your working folders reside on. If not, type the letter of the drive followed by a colon (example: C: )
You need to navigate to your directory using the "cd" command. If your folder was in c:\nwn\scripts, then you'd type "cd \nwn\scripts".
Once you're in the directory, type "clcompile.exe [name of the script you edited]". If everything is right, your code will compile with no errors (and it will tell you such.) If you have errors, you need to debug them much like you would in the Aurora toolset.
Once you have the file compiled, open up nwhak.exe again, but this time make sure you go to File/New. Go to "Resource", then "Add", and find your working directory. Select the [name of script].ncs file then click OK. Click File/Save As, and save it into your NWN hak directory as whatever you choose. Don't overwrite anything!
Finally, in the Aurora toolset, you'll need to go to Edit/Module Properties. Under the "Custom Content" tab, you can add your hak. Use the "Move Up" button to make sure it's on top.
Click OK, and presto, your changes are in! You can safely abort the rebuild process.
Keep in mind that future changes and additions can be made to your new hak. Just "add" the resources to it instead of a fresh new hak. You won't have to open the toolset again if you continue to use that hak.
The Aurora toolset has problems with the sheer enormity of our scripts, but there is an easy and ideal way to make changes outside of the toolset.
First, you need to go to your NWN directory. There should be a subfolder called utils. There are two programs which are useful here: nwhak.exe and clcompile.exe.
First, create some folders anywhere on your computer, depending on what you intend to change: one for epicspellscripts if you intend to change epic spells, one for racescripts if you intend to change races, and one for everything else. I'll refer to these as "epicspellscripts", "racescripts", and "scripts" respectively. You'll want to copy clcompile.exe from the utils directory into each working directory you make.
Open nwhak.exe. Go to File, then Open... browse to the hak subfolder under your NWN directory. Open up "prc_scripts", "prc_epicspells", or "prc_race", depending on what you want to change.
When it opens, go to the Resource menu, and select Export All. Select the appropriate folder you created, and click "OK". Wait awhile, there's no progress bar, so you'll only know it's done if you wait for awhile.
Go to that folder, and open up the script you want to edit with your text editor. Make the changes you want. TextPad is good for this, especially if you download the TextPad NWScript viewer from Bioware. That way you'll have syntax highlighted properly.
Now, you'll need to compile the script. This can be tricky because it requires the use of the command line. Go to the Start menu, and click on "Run..." Windows 98/Me users, type "command" and hit OK. Windows 2000/XP users, type "cmd" and hit ok. You'll be at the DOS prompt. Make sure you're on the drive your working folders reside on. If not, type the letter of the drive followed by a colon (example: C: )
You need to navigate to your directory using the "cd" command. If your folder was in c:\nwn\scripts, then you'd type "cd \nwn\scripts".
Once you're in the directory, type "clcompile.exe [name of the script you edited]". If everything is right, your code will compile with no errors (and it will tell you such.) If you have errors, you need to debug them much like you would in the Aurora toolset.
Once you have the file compiled, open up nwhak.exe again, but this time make sure you go to File/New. Go to "Resource", then "Add", and find your working directory. Select the [name of script].ncs file then click OK. Click File/Save As, and save it into your NWN hak directory as whatever you choose. Don't overwrite anything!
Finally, in the Aurora toolset, you'll need to go to Edit/Module Properties. Under the "Custom Content" tab, you can add your hak. Use the "Move Up" button to make sure it's on top.
Click OK, and presto, your changes are in! You can safely abort the rebuild process.
Keep in mind that future changes and additions can be made to your new hak. Just "add" the resources to it instead of a fresh new hak. You won't have to open the toolset again if you continue to use that hak.