Coming soon to all Avlis servers: a Hakpak

Post by **Orleron** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 4:28 pm

Sometime within the next couple of weeks, we will be attaching a hakpak to all Avlis servers. You will need to download the hakpak in order to log in, when it goes live.

I have made the hakpak available right now on our ftp site, so you can download it ahead of time in preparation. The ftp site is avlis.blackdagger.net and the directory is Public Downloads.

You will need a program called WinRAR to unzip it. You can download WinRAR at http://www.win-rar.com/index.php?lang=e ... 80c0dc7ceb

The file AvlisHak.rar contains two files: AvlisHak.hak and UniversalHak.hak. Put BOTH of these files into your c:\neverwinternights\nwn\hak directory.

When compressed, the AvlisHak.rar file is about 7.5 MB, which is not too bad of a download. It blows up to about 45 MB when you unzip the files into your hak directory.

Now for the cool stuff... What's in the hak?

1) New head models - This allows you to choose a few more different heads for your characters

2) Dress/Robe hak - This allows for actual dresses and robes to be worn. It expands the way clothing will look. Your wizard can finally have flowy robes. There are some known drawbacks, like the fact that sitting looks horrible. But we decided to go with it.

3) New Orc models - About 4 or 5 different orc models have been added to account for number 4:

4) Custom Races** - Some Avlis players will be allowed to make custom race characters to play. They are not subject to the kludgy subrace script. They are actual custom races that appear in the race list of the special character generator from CODI. They are:

Drangonari Elf
Half-Nymph
Half-Dryad
Orc
Half-Ogre
Goblin
Kobold
Lizardman

Also imortant with this hakpak..... The Custom Race part of the hak requires an OPTIONAL dialog.tlk modification. Dialog.tlk is an important file needed in running your NWN game. It is located in your nwn directory. If you download the hakpak as is, you will be able to see the custom races just fine, however you may occasionally notice that whenever the person playing the custom race is examined or does something, you will get an error "Bad Strref". This is a harmless error, and you can ignore it. However, if you wish to have the full functionality of seeing people with custom races and being able to examine them, you will have to download the modified dialog.tlk file. Here are the instructions:

1) Connect to our ftp site at avlis.blackdagger.net and download the file AvlisTlk.rar. (about 1.5 MB file)

2) Go into your c:\neverwinternights\nwn directory and find your original dialog.tlk file and change its name to dialog_backup.tlk.

3) Use WinRAR to unzip the file AvlisTlk.rar. (unzips to about 7.6 MB)

4) Take the unzipped file (also called dialog.tlk) and place it into your c:\neverwinternights\nwn directory.

You are now ready to go.

There is ONE main drawback to replacing the dialog.tlk file like this. Whenever Bioware goes to patch, you will have to put your ORIGINAL dialog.tlk file back into your nwn directory. Follow the directions above in reverse to do that. If you do not have the original dialog.tlk file in your directory when a patch is released, it won't patch.

Custom Race Info

The main thing I have been working on lately is creating these custom races with the character generator software released recently by the City of Doors Initiative (CODI). It's taken me a while, but I've got them finished. It is my goal that all 9 major races of Avlis can be played by PC's, and we are most of the way there. Only dracon and changeling remain, and I could make dracon in about 5 minutes if someone made me a model for it.

How do the custom races work?

You will have to download the "Character Generator" from CODI. It is available at NWVault: http://nwvault.ign.com/Files/other/data ... 6353.shtml

You will also need to have the Avlis hakpak. In the character generator, you will have to attach the AvlisHak.hak first and then the UniversalHak.hak second. You will know what I am talking about if you click the "Settings" option on the character generator.

Once you do this, and you go to create a character with the generator, you will see the normal races in a list, just like you do when you create a character normally in NWN. But you will also see all of the custom races as well. You can pick and select them as desired and make your character normally. The character generator is designed to look as much like the in-game NWN generator as possible. So it's self-explanatory. You will also notice that there are more skin colors and tatoo customization, as well as the ability to use any appearance you want. This is why I added more orc models, so people who play full orcs will be able to have more models to pick from.

When you complete the character generation and click "Finalize", it will write a character file to your LOCAL character vault. You then have to take that character and upload it to our ftp site, and we have to manually add the character to your folder in our servervault after we check it. This is a hassle and somewhat low team priority, but it will work and it will be cool.

Who gets to play a custom race?

Only upstanding members of the Avlis community can play a custom race. You must meet the following requirements:
1) You must not be a first time newbie.
2) You must have at least one other well-developed character on Avlis.
3) You must be recognized in general as a good-roleplayer.
4) Your name must not appear on our "watch" list for cheaters, exploiters, and bad roleplayers.

Roleplayers of the month will automatically qualify, no matter what the restrictions are above. So will runner-up winners.

If you do not meet ALL of the requirements above, you WILL NOT I repeat WILL NOT be allowed to play a custom race, so please don't send us PM's asking us about it if you think you don't meet the requirements. Custom race playing is a privledge in the Avlis community, and will only be given to deserving community members.

Second, the hakpak is not live yet, so please DO NOT send me PM's asking to play a custom race and please DO NOT send me .bic files with your characters just yet. All such requests will be ignored until the hakpak goes live.

Okie dokie... I assume there will be questions, so feel free to ask here. An email with this same text will be released in a couple days.

DeltA_Ironhawk · Post by **DeltA_Ironhawk** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 4:34 pm

full Orcs and Half-Ogres...

half-giants soon to come?

this is very cool..
good job

LordJulian · Post by **LordJulian** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 4:46 pm

if we want to know if we qualify to play a custom race, who do we pm?

Silk · Post by **Silk** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 4:52 pm

requires an OPTIONAL dialog.tlk modification

*confused*

Is it required or is it optional?

Post by **Orleron** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 4:58 pm

It is optional. If you decide NOT to download the dialog.tlk, everything will work fine if you are a normal player and have the hakpak. Only thing is sometimes, you will get bad string ref errors when dealing with a player character who has a custom race, but it's harmless. That's all.

You will also not be able to play a custom race yourself if you don't have the dialog.tlk. So whoever gets to play a custom race will have to download it.

Half-giants do not exist on Avlis, but future additions include changelings, dracon, and wemics... and possibly centaurs.

CuRoi · Post by **CuRoi** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 4:58 pm

Just attempted to grab the files and received an 'path not found' error when attempting to cd to the 'public downloads' directory.

Should another login besides 'anonymous' (I tried CuRoi on a lark... of course it didn't work) be used?

Themicles · Post by **Themicles** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 4:59 pm

Alright, since I'm the one that tested whether
or not the dialogue.tlk is option, along with
Sili...

Players that are playing a custom race MUST
have the modified dialogue.tlk

Players that are NOT playing a custom race
DO NOT HAVE TO have the modified
dialogue.tlk

Players that do not have the modified
dialogue.tlk will work fine, with the exception
of missing names, and BadStrref errors. All
minor, and ignorable. Sometimes ya don't
even notice them.

So, to be clear, if you're not playing a custom
race, you DO NOT NEED the modified
dialogue.tlk.

-Themicles
"the lab rat"
(I know Silk, you were being a smart ass

)

Post by **Orleron** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:00 pm

Sorry about that... the directory is /Public Downloads/Hakpaks

CuRoi · Post by **CuRoi** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:05 pm

Could be that I am fat-fingering something, but I still can't negotiate into the 'public downloads' directory as anonymous.

Post by **Orleron** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:09 pm

It works. I just tried it. Get a decent ftp program like WSFTP Pro.

Sindol · Post by **Sindol** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:10 pm

I just downloaded the haks from the ftp site. Anonymous worked fine for me (I wasn't prompted for a password or login) in my browser. Are you sure you are not behind a firewall of soime kind that is blocking ftp traffic?

CuRoi · Post by **CuRoi** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:12 pm

Must be me.

Using command line...

You mean there's a GUI interface for FTP?!

w_wolf · Post by **w_wolf** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:13 pm

I've set up an http mirror of the files mentioned in this post. It's on a fast link so feel free to download from it. I also added a self-extracting version of the files if you don't want to install winrar.

Hak files: .rar .exe
Tlk file: .rar .exe
Character Generator: .zip .exe
(You'll need the Sun Java VM for the Character Generator)

cheers,
W_Wolf

Post by **Nighthawk4** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:19 pm

35 minutes on a 56k dialup, for both rar files.

Only unRARed the HAKfile so far. This seems OK.

Does this mean we can now have a round tower please, or is this not in the HAK?

Post by **Nighthawk4** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:23 pm

You mean there's a GUI interface for FTP?!

I just typed ftp://avlis.blackdagger.net in the search field in IE5

and then changed directory to the required folder. This is using XP Pro.

CuRoi · Post by **CuRoi** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:29 pm

Nighthawk4 wrote:
You mean there's a GUI interface for FTP?!
I just typed ftp://avlis.blackdagger.net in the search field in IE5

and then changed directory to the required folder. This is using XP Pro.

Thanks, but I was being a smart-ass.

I was attempting it from a remote Nix host via SSH and command-line.

Probably just missing something stupid.

Sindol · Post by **Sindol** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:30 pm

Yes there is a GUI for ftp.

You can just click your way to the downloads.

I use IE 6.0 under win98.

It took me about five to ten minutes to download the haks in rar form.

dzilla · Post by **dzilla** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:35 pm

how long must you play to no longer be a newbie? is there a required level? or are we going off the boards title? i think im a Lord of Blithering Idiots does that mean im no longer a newbie?

oh wait thats a newbie question! damn, oh well

good work guys, very good work!! this will be fun!

Vanor · Post by **Vanor** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:36 pm

Nighthawk4 wrote:Does this mean we can now have a round tower please, or is this not in the HAK?

There's no tilesets or placeables in those haks.

choraldances · Post by **choraldances** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:40 pm

dzilla wrote:how long must you play to no longer be a newbie? is there a required level? or are we going off the boards title? i think im a Lord of Blithering Idiots does that mean im no longer a newbie? oh wait thats a newbie question! damn, oh well

good work guys, very good work!! this will be fun!

Number 2 and number 3 will answer your question.

Well-developed doesn't mean high level, it means well-developed, through roleplaying. And I don't want to discuss what it means to have a well-developed character through roleplaying, I think Orl intended to make it vague so it is up to the team to decide whether or not to allow certain Player to have the "privilege" to play custom characters.

WrathOG777 · Post by **WrathOG777** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:46 pm

I always wanted to play a goblin! I love goblins. There is no way to change a current character to one of these new races is there? Because I know a few folks that are custom races, like full orc, Drangonari Elf, and half-dryads. Are these folks going to get a chance to change to the new race instead of the kludgy subrace script?

As for me, goblin was never available before, or I would of made one, guess I will just have to prove my worth then start a new character. Or perhaps, one of these times my character dies he will be reborn as a goblin!

dzilla · Post by **dzilla** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:59 pm

Number 2 and number 3 will answer your question.

i get the feeling they are the same sort of, being well developed means you roleplayed well. i get it

Sunscream · Post by **Sunscream** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 6:54 pm

Robes!!!! I never thought this day would come

dzilla · Post by **dzilla** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 6:56 pm

the robes i have not seen, is there a lot of cliping?

i hope not!

Post by **Orleron** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 7:05 pm

Character redo's will be on a case by case basis.

The World of Avlis

Coming soon to all Avlis servers: a Hakpak

Coming soon to all Avlis servers: a Hakpak

very cool...