PRC Building questions

[Atalsen]

As lead up to me attempting to craft the Illithid Slayer class, I'm reading up on the PRC building guide so that I can do things the correct way.

I have successfully downloaded the Tortoise CVS and performed the checked out of the PRC files. I just wanted to verify that this was still the latest and best way of getting the files for working with?

In the guide it seems to indicate that the 'checking in' process is bundling up the changed files and sending them to PRCDev@GMail.com. Is this still the e-mail to send things to, or is there another one, or another preferred method?

Right now I plan to assign the class to slot #254 for creation and testing. Is there is another slot that would be better or be its final slot once completed?


At the risk of getting ahead of myself, having the files to look through means that in theory I could also submit other changes or bug fixes. What is the approval process (or management process) for this kind of thing? Specifically the two situations I was thinking of were changes to the 2DA files if something wasn't working right (ToB Shadow Jump not allowing targeting the ground for teleport for example), or a 'missing' graphic (ToB Shadow Noose doesn't seems to have a 'miss' graphic, and Psionic Power Swarm of Crystals doesn't seem to have an activation FX).

For those type of things, should I write up a brief statement of what I intend to change to get approval first, or is it better to make the change and provide the write up with the changed files?


Thanks!

[ThE LoSt BoY]

IS = badass. Full BAB + Full psionic progression.

Thanks for taking a shot at it.

[xwarren]

There are still some free slots in classes.2da. I would suggest one of them istead of using Brawler's slot. I suggest slot 137 - it will be near my Psychic Rogue class.

You won't be able to submit anything to SVN without required permissions. So don't worry - you won't break anything. If you have any file you wish to add to PRC Pack just send them to me (you'll find my e-mail in my profile). I merge them with SVN.

[Atalsen]

There are still some free slots in classes.2da. I would suggest one of them instead of using Brawler's slot. I suggest slot 137 - it will be near my Psychic Rogue class.

Ok, perfect, I'll use that one.
I actually misspoke above and was going to use slot 255 (empty) not 254 (Brawler), but I didn't think that would be its permanent slot in any case!

If you have any file you wish to add to PRC Pack just send them to me (you'll find my e-mail in my profile). I merge them with SVN.

Groovy; I'll pass you the updated files when I have something working.


In my checkout process I did learn that the old info on the checkout process is not quite up to date.

The latest location for the PRC files looks to be: Source Forge [http://sourceforge.net/projects/daprc/?source=directory]
And it requires SVN and not CVS to check those files out.

But I have all the latest now!

IS = badass. Full BAB + Full psionic progression.

It's good to know other people are also interested in the class!
It seems like it will dovetail in well with the other Psionic class offerings, and it makes a good class for the Psi Warrior (who in my opinion should have always had full BAB...).

[Atalsen]

Looks like I need some compiler advice.

When I run the make.bat file, it is unsuccessful.
I get to this stage and then it fails:

F:\PRC - Checked Out Files\NWN PRC - SVN Checkout>REM run nmake to do the build.

F:\PRC - Checked Out Files\NWN PRC - SVN Checkout>tools\nmake -NOLOGO -f makefile.temp         
acp_auto.nss
Unable to locate or open Neverwinter Night

This is my config.make:
NWN_DIR = E:\NWN\NeverwinterNights
PRC_VERSION = 35PsySly
PRC_INSTALLVERSION = 3.5PsySly


Now, I do have to say that, while I have a copy of NWN at the specified location, I have not actually *installed* NWN on the PC I'm compiling it; I just copied my working folder over to it in hopes that I could compile on a separate machine than I actually use to play NWN.

Maybe that has nothing do do with the failure, but it was worth mentioning.
I also have not dropped my changed files into the build folders, so what I'm trying to compile is just the base downloaded files - figured I'd start with that since it should compile already, that way I could get compiling down first, without worrying if its my changes that are messing with things.

I've attached the make log file jut in case.

Thanks!

[xwarren]

Have you moved any files from your NWN directory? The compiler expects all required files and folders (erf, hak, tlk, override, database, modules) to be in NWNs root directory. Can you run NWN on that computer?

Also you need to copy dialog.tlk file from NWN root to F:\PRC - Checked Out Files\NWN PRC - SVN Checkout\tlk

[Atalsen]

I can launch NWN (and get to the intro selection screen just fine), but I can't run a game because I didn't copy over any modules (I assumed they would be unneeded). So, its not a 100% copy of my folder because I didn't have the space for everything.

I do have PRC 3.5 files in the right place, and with the move of the tlk file over as you suggested maybe it gets a tick farther, I'm not sure, but it looks like I'm getting this as the error now:

NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '"tools\nwnnsscomp"' : return code '0x1'
Stop.


The builders page (that I just re-read) actually says that the make only compiles changed files, so maybe that is my issue? I'm trying to compile and there have been no changes?

I'll try dropping in a 2da change and see if that gets me further

[xwarren]

The errors you are experiencing are related to nwnnsscomp.exe. Could you run command prompt and try to compile some scripts using nwnnsscomp?

[Atalsen]

Running command line compiles looks to have failed the same way - cannot find neverwinter.

When I get home tonight, I'll try running a basic command line compile on my working NWN machine, and see if it works. I'm thinking the compiler must look for a registry setting or something that I don't have on this PC because I never went through the actual install process, just copied files. If it works at home, I'll try copying the registry settings over to this PC and see if that fixes things.

But if it works at home, then I should be able to compile at home at any rate.

Thanks!

[Atalsen]

Ah!
Searching the internet provided a clue.
While there still may be a registry value I don't have, the compiler looks for neverwinter by default in: C:\NeverwinterNights\NWN
And that is NOT where I had my files to begin with.

I copied them over there and now the compiler is actually running a build.

Looks like I can move ahead with trying to compile my changes and see how far I get!

Thanks!

[Atalsen]

I'm making progress on Slayer; I got the class to show up, and the text for the class to be present. So the 2DA & TLK changes appear to be working fine.

Increased Power Points and power selection doesn't seem to be working yet, even though I added to the psi_inc_core a 9/10 progression (copied Sanctified mind code since it does exactly what I needed). I'll do more testing to determine why - could be my code didn’t compile right or I didn't have the files in the folders when I built my first compile.


One question I did have was how the PRC/CEP tlk was created. I want to do testing with both a core PRC module and with a PRC+CEP module and I want to create a merged TLK file for the PRC/CEP so the text shows right.

Should I just take the current tlk file, convert it to XML and add in my Slayer-related entries and then convert it back to TLK, or is there another way that is done?

[xwarren]

there is a tool that can create PRC/CEP merge tlk in less than a minute (tlktools or prc.jar - I can't check right now). If you send me the tlk file I will make merge tlk for you.

[Atalsen]

Sent you an e-mail; I didn't see a way to attach a file to it, though.

If you can, let me know how to run the conversion tool; I think I've got all the text I need right now, but as I work I might find I need some other messages added.

Thanks!

[Atalsen]

Got your email, xwarren, and replied to it!

I rebuilt after confirming all the files were in the right places and I am now successfully getting power points and powers for levels beyond 1st (since Psy Slayer doesn't give progression at 1st level), so this is now working right.

Current Summary:
Class feats are being granted. Cerebral Immunity is working. Epic progression appears to be working: cannot take Slayer levels beyond 10 till after 20th character level. Individual icons for each ability have been created (though I might want a better artist to take a look at some of them!). TLK entries added and showing in game. Cerebral Blind is coded and should work but is untested. Breach Power Resistance is coded, but I do not have an On Hit added to the PCs weapon yet. Lucid Buffer is coded, but does not appear to be working; will perform testing on it.

Favored Enemy, Enemy Sense & Blast Feedback are not yet coded.

[Atalsen]

In designing Favored Enemy, there doesn't seem to be a good way to limit it to just Psionic opponents.

I could handle the extra damage separately from the skill bonuses, using an OnHit effect, and check to see if the target is both Psionic and of the favored type before applying the extra damage, but that seems like it might cause more processing overhead than might be desirable due to having to check on each and every hit.

I can’t think of a good way to just employ the skill checks against Psionic opponents. Maybe a heartbeat script of some type that checks for any Psionic opponents of the favored type in the area and only grant the bonuses when that’s true, but that too seems like a lot of overhead.

Right now I’m just coding this as a ‘normal’ favored enemy and applying the bonuses Vs racial type without accouning for Psionic or not.

Is there anything I’m missing that could handle this better? Should go ahead and design the damage as an OnHit check?

Thanks for any advice on this!