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Dark Energy
Trained as an elite courtesan, Ravenna Lightfoot seeks Queen Titania's legendary patronage at the faerie palace.
Across the planet known as Enigma Mundi, from the winter wasteland of the Brass Monkey to the arid desert Steamworks, from Utter Desolation to World's End, she finds humanity locked in conflict, oblivious to the venomous gaze that Lilith the Destroyer has now turned in their direction.
Can Ravenna dance the courtly masque of death with sufficient finesse to unravel the secrets of dragons, angels and demons, and thereby provide a glimmer of hope?
Status | Final |
Game Type | Single Player role play with moderate combat. |
Character Level | 1st level recommended. 9th level achievable. |
Playing Time | 5-15 hours |
Race / Gender | Human female (or male, if you prefer) |
Class | Any except Barbarian. Courtier custom class recommended. |
Content | MATURE CONTENT WARNING : if easily offended by explicit language, nudity, sacrilege, cartoon violence, fantasy magic, item strips, monster scaling or other D&D rule variations, this is not for you. If you choose to ignore this warning, please don't troll. |
Dedication | This work is dedicated to the talented folk who have given so much fan-made artwork to the NWN community for unrestricted use in custom modules like mine. The author accepts sole responsibility for the story, which is in no way endorsed by any contributing artist. |
Features | Some of the best new artwork from the NWN Custom Content Challenge and elsewhere (hence the large download). New Courtier class (more deadly than a rogue, more devious than a fighter). Ravenna Lightfoot pre-made character (optional). New tools (Travel, Help, Swordstick, Zapper, Gunnery and Oracle). In civilized areas, weapons larger than a dagger or a pistol may be confiscated, even if not drawn, unless explicitly hidden. Experience points are awarded for achievements, not for killing. Some treasure is only found in detect mode, unless you have the Spot skill. Monsters and other features may be quite different from normal D&D standards. This is a unique game world, with a new rationale for whole classes of creatures, such as protocryptids and phoboplasms. |
IMPORTANT : Players are advised to remove custom overrides and patches before playing. Some popular script mods and camera hacks will break the module for sure, because it's designed for vanilla NWN 1.69. Compatible with NWN Extended Edition.
PERMISSION DETAIL:
Your license to use this work is Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
Exception : elf portraits by Līga Kļaviņa appear by kind permission.
Exception : moons logo by Lauri Keränen (Tohtori) all rights reserved.
See ReadMe file for detailed provenance.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Dark Energy v1.12 (1,544 downloads prior to this version) (626) | 118.6 MB |
| Toggles normal / large phenotype in the event of an obscure bug (169) | 813 bytes |
Are there restrictions to the looks of the female player character in your module? I mean does she have to be dark skinned with brown or black hair or can we customise the player character?
Any human female, any colour, is fine. You don't have to use the pre-generated character at all. EDIT - human male is also an option now.
The headband (shown in the first image) is a visual effect that shows whether you've equipped an important plot item. It's visible on all the heads I've tested. It's possible you might choose a head that obscures it, but it will still work.
Thank you for the quick answer!
Looks sooo interesting! Really looking forward to full version!
Nice to see that some of this mod got finally done as I enjoyed Proleric's previous mods quite a bit.
A bit of shame that there is no male PC option to play but with a fairly big game like this it might take too much time and effort to make. Besides since the PC is a female courtesan then it would require to chance the background for a male PC too...unless it would be to make him into a male prostitute which might not be too weird perhaps.
In any case looking forward to see future development of this game. Cheers. ^^
EDIT - human male is an option now.
You're right. The main obstacle to having a male PC (or other races) is making all the clothing models. The conversations are mainly gender-agnostic, so it might happen one day, if I have a lot of time on my hands.Incidentally, for "courtesan" read "female courtier" (the original meaning). The player controls what sort of courtesan Ravenna turns out to be!
EDIT : please ignore this post. The advice option
has been removed.now works correctly.Players should avoid asking companions for advice at present, as the feature isn't implemented yet, and causes bugs. If you have already done so, please apply this fix:http://proleric.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=165Thanks to Tarot Redhand for providing the data to track this down.The 0.02 patch, now available above, fixes the advice bug without the need for console commands.
If you have a saved game, it is safe, and beneficial, to install this patch, which will correct the problem going forward.
This patch is rated Important (Non-Critical).
Looks really interesting! Can't wait for the finished version!
****Possible Spoiler!!!!!****
So, I'm in Sandeni, and somehow Rosalind rescued me from the Inquisition while mounted, and now her horse Shaggy is stuck in Inquisition, and I can't get to it. Is there any way I can fix it?
Edit: Rosalind's horse returned before getting on the Windhope.
So I defeated the Sea Hag before sailing to Bandi, but I am unable to dispose of her. I clicked every special ability I have, but it does not seem to be working.
Edit#2: Reloading solved the problem.
****End Possible Spoiler****
When you get interrogated by the Inquisition and accidentally talk to the Witchhunter again he repeats his opening-speech and sends you to the cell again, this time on your knees not able to move or do anything :D
I'm in love with Rosalind!
@ dacar - The trapped horse bug is corrected in patch 0.03, which also contains a horse recovery tool:
http://proleric.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=168
Glad to hear you don't need it!
Regarding the sea hag, the way to dispose of her is to loot her corpse. Not sure why reload was necessary, but pleased to hear it's fixed.
EDIT : the Witchfinder issue is fixed.
@ nathan - thanks for reporting the problem. Recorded here:
http://proleric.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=170
Assuming you've recovered from that, I'll look at fixing it later.
I'm eagerly awaiting completion of this :)
@Proleric : Thank you for the fix!
The new problem I'm encountering is that the Elephant Palace doesn't load. I cleared my override folder (per your suggestions to someone else on the forum), now I'm reinstalling the CEP 2.61 and the critical rebuild-hopefully that will fix it?
Edit: It didn't. :(
@dacar - Are you able share your saved game, on Dropbox or whatever?
As you know, so far, this seems to be a configuration issue at your end, but maybe there's something more.
Here you are:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7r7rhxnff3wzehc/000000%20-%20quicksave.rar#
@ dacar - "the file is in unknown format or damaged" - after several attempts.
Can you download it yourself?
I was able to. Maybe I'll try another DL site:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=90126406339816854213
Does this one work?
@ dacar - that file was fine. I can enter the Elephant Palace. I'll dig a little deeper, but it seems like a problem with your NWN configuration.
Alright then, I'll look up from the Read Me file to check if I missed anything.
Well, I'd forgotten the Anti-Aliasing adjustment. Now I can load the Elephant Palace, but partly- the characters appear, but the environment does not, and the scene stays paused without me being able to un-pause it. :/
I'm going to try reloading and see if it helps.
Edit: It didn't. :(
@ dacar - I can reproduce the problem exactly (including the log "Unknown Update Sub Message" reported by Tarot Redhand) if I install CEP 2.4 then patch it to 2.61. The fix is to install 2.60, then patch to 2.61.
I'll give it a try, thank you!
I couldn't leave the castle when Sharon rescued me from the Inquisition because she kept saying "We need to press on and find Kaarx," before she even gave me the Kaarx quest. I teleported out in Debug Mode and kept playing, but she kept refusing to leave other areas too and saying the same thing. Help!
@ The Smiling Knight - discussed here:
http://proleric.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=176
EDIT : that page now has an effective workaround.
EDIT : fixed.
Version 0.04 is a full release, which should be used for new games in preference to any earlier versions or patches.
It's a comprehensive fix for all bugs reported to date.
If you have a saved game from version 0.03 or earlier, it's better to patch to 0.03 and finish playing first, because version 0.04 might break it.
I removed version 0.01 because people were wasting time downloading it, despite the warning that it's obsolete.
It's a shame that this site doesn't allow new versions to inherit the download count (which was the case on the old vault).
I received one comment that puzzled me:
"The Vault of Murder battles are unavoidable and unwinnable without cheating."
I'd welcome more feedback on that - see discussion here:
http://proleric.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=185
Version 1.00 is now released.
Many thanks to everyone who provided feedback during beta test.
The "final" version is very similar to the final beta release 0.04, with only very minor cosmetic improvements.
It remains work in progress, with some sparse areas, and little romance, banter or incidental conversation. However, owing to other commitments, it may be some considerable time before I get around to doing more. Enjoy!
EDIT Oct 2017 : please regard this as the finished version. The story is complete and play-tested. It's unlikely that I will ever find time to flesh it out any further.
Many thanks for all your hard work.
Btw, a minor item - the Title of the ReadMe is Enigma rather than Dark Energy ;)
Hehe. I already love this module just from one of the screen captures above with the chick standing in front of the portraits of history's worst serial killers & mass murderers
Really good mod^^
Nice plot and use of mature themes.
Still looking forward for more romance and perhaps including some stuff for a male PC like some differences(of the romances at least^^) in the dialogues.
Cheers.
Will be playing this module next. Is this compatible with Project Q or should I just use the required CEP 2.6 package? Will be enjoying the refreshing change from hearing the same music over and over again, great as Jeremy Soule's score was.
The module requires CEP and CMP only. Modules ignore haks they don't require, so it doesn't matter if you have Project Q or any other haks installed.
As with any other module, it's advisable to remove custom overrides and patches before playing, because they can break things.
Okay, thanks, Bob. I only have Amethyst Dragon's colored GUI/icons/scolls in my Override folder, and after firing up the first few minutes of your module (nice, btw!), there doesn't seemn to be any issues so far, aside from the problem of cut-scenes, which sometimes aren't centered properly in 1920X1080 or end up zoomed in to empty areas, but I have this problem with the official BioWare expansions and other modules too. Annoying, but not a deal breaker.
The recommended setting for Dark Energy is 1280 x 720, but your call, obviously. Enjoy.
Hmm, for some reason NWN doesn't scale properly for me at 1280X720, and I get huge bars both vertically & horizontilly at that resolution. I'm using an Nvidia 660Ti video card with drivers 340.52.
NWN Configure offers three different 1280 x 720 settings. Maybe one of those works better for you? If not, maybe try Technical Support on the Bioware forum?
Yeah, I tried all 3 different refresh rates for 1280 X 720 and still no joy. This is odd because I've never had this issue with any other PC game with widescreen support. I did end up posting in Technical Support on the Bioware NWN forum about it though. Let's see if they have a fix.
This might be issue with camera hack, do you have it installed? (or NWNCX?)
Ahhh, as we like to say here in Amerika: BINGO! That was the problem causing the cut-scenes issue! I was using the camera hacked exe, and just tried replacing it with the original exe, and now cut-scenes play fine in 1920 x 1080, and now I can continue my odyssey of NWN modules...in glorious 1080p HD. Thank you, good sir. May your dragons have plenty of food for fire, and slavemaster fleets to destroy
Proleric is it possible to make the cutscenes work with camera hack/NWNCX from your builder side?
Well, Dark Energy only uses the same cutscene functions as countless other modules, so perhaps it's the camera hack that needs fixing?
It would take many months of end-to-end testing to certify that Dark Energy works with the considerable variety of popular mods that players may have installed. So, I recommend uninstalling those mods. Simple.
[EDIT 24-Jun-2016] Please ignore the P.S. below, I was mistaken.
P.S. NWNCX? My limited understanding is that it's a server-side package, that SP modules can't use?
Maybe it was NWNX? Anyway the player-side version - it also unlocks the camera.
And you are right I have encountered cutscene errors in many mods, but camera hack makes the game.. well, more suited to larger monitors and easier to play the way you want it.
Apologies, you are right, NWNCX can be used in SP, and does have an optional camera hack which breaks this module (I tested it).
My preferred solution is that NWNCX camera hack users revert to the original nwnmain.exe before playing (this will still be available if the NWNCX installation procedure was followed).
A very good module. As the author states it still lacks some depth (charcter chats etc), but it has many very well made quests, and a decent story to go with it. Sometimes it feels a bit rushed and a more developed ending would be great.
Also as the character does not seem to be ment primarily as a 'fighter', more other stuff to do than fighting would be appropriate (more 'talky' quests).
I was in doubt regarding the grade. It is between 7: a very good module, and 8 and excellent module. It got an 8 for the many varied custom ways of doing quests.
A very good mod, it will be probably 8 or better
Well, the new character class and the exhaustive training is somewhat misleading. There is no courtial live (with scadals, intrigues, dark secrets, daggers in the night and stuff like this :-) ). It's just a journey around the whole continent with many areas, dungeons etc, which are nicely made.
The mod is still under development, so here my suggestions:
- I feel no motivation to give the courtier more than 4 levels, after that, rogue seams to be the better choice.
- There's far too little loot (or the prices at Omega forge are too high :-) )
- A private storage box at Omega would be nice
Then ther's a bug with the horses. I decided to leave them in the city to the W. While buying new mounts in the southern city, one of the horses gets tranferred into the local party. Very strange ...
Thanks for the feedback.
I'll look into the horse bug. It won't be a showstopper.
I'm not a big fan of multi-class, but I can see that Courtier-Rogue would work well.
You can forge magic items at normal merchant prices. The available loot gp value is fairly standard, so you should be well-equipped. Of course, adding more than one magical property to the same item is VERY expensive...
I had intended to include a lot more court life, but had to curtail development about a year ago, owing to other commitments. Maybe one day...
The horse bug is entirely harmless - fixed in patch 1.01.
It's safe and beneficial to apply the patch to games saved under release 1.00.
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