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Quickly to break down some key words. NWN of course means Neverwinter Nights and EE is Enhanced Edition.
Main file types:
- module - .mod files that are playable levels of the game, sometimes multiple of which make up an entire campaign
- hakpack - .hak files similar to a zip that contain a set of custom models, game information or whatever else
- tlk - a file that contains text strings that is usually necessary for custom content involving races, classes and spells
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- Documents folder - the game creates a "Neverwinter Nights" folder. If you break your game somehow, renaming this will allow the game to create it again.
- userpatch - The easiest way to install custom content that layers over all modules you play. Generally safest if used for art modifications only.
- Portraits - You can create your own character portraits (tutorial to follow...), just needing some loose files in /portraits directory
Game Crashing
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Firstly make sure your game is up to date with the latest patch. The game is 99.9% backwards compatible with earlier pre-EE content and patches contain vital fixes.
If you are stuck with crashes after installing custom content, you can also rename your Neverwinter Nights document folder to reset the folder uses and perhaps move back a few at a time to recover. Settings are stored in the settings.tml and renaming the file can reset your Game Options.
There are also known issues with Antivirus and OneDrive when starting the game and it crashing. There are two main ways to solve this:
- Whitelist the game executable in in the Antivirus (or disable it), and Disable OneDrive entirely on the Documents folder. The latter is sometimes hard to do.
- Run the game executable with the -userdirectory game parameter that creates the folder somewhere outside of OneDrive's reach, eg: -userdirectory "X:\path\to\Neverwinter Nights" that creates the folder somewhere outside of OneDrive's reach
Required Hakpacks/TLK files versus
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Game Wide Override Modifications
Modding in Neverwinter Nights isn't as clear-cut as it might be for Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Baldurs Gate or similar RPGs where there is a single game world or campaign you modify.
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You might find that there are projects (some mentioned on this FAQ further down) that are what you'd think of as more typical modifications like Skyrim has that apply game wide overrides (PRC, CPP, HD pack) but also may break a lot of things if they conflict with a modules custom content.
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The game will inform you on loading if there is a missing file that is required.
Additional game wide override modifications would include projects like the PRC or Beamdog or Beamdog HD Pack projects which will usually run as userpatch files or after being added to a modules hakpack list, and if they conflict with the module files should be disabled.
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There are a few main ways to obtain custom content:
- nwsync NWSync - This is content loadable in through the game directly. Most multiplayer servers use this method of content distribution. There are some additional repositories for this such as https://nwsync.click/ - when . When downloaded you are set to go no other downloads needed!
- Neverwinter Vault - This has most of the games custom content. It either comprises of a module and any attached custom content, or separate custom content files that can potentially apply game-wide (although see notes below!)
- Moddb and Nexus - Has some other NWN projects
- Steam Workshop - this is not recommended to use since it can be difficult to figure out what content installed through Steam conflicts with other modifications. If you close steam before running the game it will stop loading this content to help figure this out.
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