House Builder Guide 101

The following is a guide to the basics and useful, nice-to-know things when using the toolset to make yourself. While the guide does cover the basics, it still assumes a basic understanding of how the toolset works.

First, bear in mind that people will do certain things differently in the toolset, and there are some things I might suggest that you disagree with. My suggestions work for me, and I highly encourage anyone reading it to find what works for them.

Toolset and Terminology

In Neverwinter Nights, basically anything you work with is an object. Placeables, creatures, and items are all different kinds of objects. They have some things in common - they're all their own individual file - while they all have their obvious differences. When building a house, the most common object you'll use are placeables. After you've painted your house, those are how you will decorate it, and they have a variety of functions. Aside from placeables, you'll likely be using at least a few Waypoints. Player Supporters (Patreon Supporters) additionally get access to custom scripts and may be using items and creatures as well, but they will not be covered to any extent here.

Aside from what you look at directly in the toolset, there are two important file types:

• Modules
• ERFs

A module contains everything you've made. This includes objects that are both going to be in game but also stuff in your palette, scripts, creatures, even all the base NWN stuff that you will most likely never need, use or in some cases, even see.

ERF stands for encapsulated resource file and is like an archive of a selection of things. It can contain all the same things as a module, but here you pick and choose exactly what you want to include. While you build a module, you upload and use ERFs on Sinfar. To get an ERF, you can either export the object directly by right clicking it in the left-hand menu (for areas) or the palette (for every other object type (supporters only)) or you can go to the File Menu, select Export, then pick any and all resources you wish to include. In either case, once you have your resource, either pick an existing ERF or make a new one. If picking an existing one, you will get a choice whether to modify/append or override it. If you override it, ALL things it currently contain will be deleted and your new selection added. If you modify/append, your selection will be added to whatever is already there. In case of a clash, it will ask if you wish to override.

You'll find that you can simply keep one ERF for the house you're working on and export the individual area you're modifying, append the ERF and override all available.

Note: You can also upload a module directly. This is a bad habit you should get away from!

Your Palette

Objects have two palettes - Standard and Custom. We have a lot of custom content and the Standard Palette isn't always reliable. You may think you're painting a chair but you get an armorie instead - not to worry, the standard one will only ever have a tiny selection of the available placeables anyway, so acquaint yourself with the Custom one! To add something to your palette, right click a category and select add. It will automatically choose your selected category and, after clicking Next, you can give it a name. This is the same name as will be visible in game if you make it useable, so make it something memorable so you know what you're working with - you can easily change it later!

Note: You cannot add every single placeable to your palette. With almost 24,000 different placeables, your toolset will crash.

After you've added a few items to your custom palette, you paint them into the area you're working on. Once painted, you can right click and modify them further. Personally, I like having a test area where I add a large selection of placeables from different types and categories. That gives me something to copy from when working on different areas, and instead of having to set everything each time, I can just modify the name and appearance for the individual thing, and the test area gives you an easy overlook of different kinds of things.

Note: Your custom palette is tied to your module. If you start a new module, it will be blank. You can easily keep all your areas in module, since you'll only be exporting whatever you need anyway, ensuring you always have at least a somewhat populated palette for new places.

Placeable Specifics

As noted, placeables are the primary object type you use in a house - and in any other area, for that matter. They have a number of fields of interest that don't all behave entirely as expected if you're familiar with working on other servers.

• Name: This is a custom name which is visible to players if the object is marked as Useable, or is what is used for identification objects both in the Custom Palette and the object menu on the left-hand side.
• Tag: For player houses, this is irrelevant. It's a good custom to give your persistent storage a numerical value to avoid any having identical tags, but it is still technically irrelevant. Persistent storage has other issues I will not cover here.
• Appearance Type: This is a category or name set by us, the owners. You cannot (for all intents and purposes) change this. Our usual naming scheme is: Category Type Name Number, when applicable. For example, you might have Container Barrel 01 or Seat Chair Loveseat 01.
• Check boxes:
  • Plot: Object cannot be destroyed.
  • Useable: Can be clicked on by players in game.
  • Has Inventory: If clicked on in game, will open an inventory (if also plot, it will be persistent storage.)
  • Static: If NOT useable, always select this. Static means it will be come a static part of the environment, for all intents and purposes. It makes the area load and operate faster.
  • Note: Some placeables have in-built animation. These animations may not work if it's static, so double check in those cases.

• Locked and Trap should be self-explanatory.
• Scripts: You can only ever have 1 script per object. A supporter can have more if using their own custom scripts.
• Advanced Tab: Here you can set initial state (opened, closed, activated, deactivated) as well as Variables. Variables are only useful if the object is used for scripting or XDATA.
• Description Tab: Only relevant if the object is Useable, this is the in-game description on examine.