Options to Make ToEE Revisited Playable

August 3, 2014

If you read the comments on/from the old vault and saw the low ratings this module got you may have been put off playing it.  The author really did do a huge amount of work in recreating the original plot using NWN2, he just made a few questionable decisions regarding game play. Fortunately we can rectify those.  Following are two different ways to turn this module from a hard slog into a fun adventure.

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Option 1: Play at level 8 using the built in game debug mode.

You can play this adventure as-is at 8th level using the game's command console and a couple of scripts. The advantage of this option is it avoids having to edit the module which makes permanent changes.  This is the easiest workaround for those players with old machines or who are just not comfortable mucking around in computer scripts.  Also, the author balanced these fights to be tough at 8th level so you get the intended hack-n-slash.

For the newbies, all commands are used in debug mode as follows:

~ [The tilde character ~ opens the console for command input.  The console is just an are along the upper 1/3 of the game's screen that changes to allow user input and show responsed from the game engine, refered to as the server.]

debugmode 1 [this tells the game you are inputting a command. The game will display a response to each input when you hit enter.  If it says "unsuccessful" you either typed it wrong or got the wrong script.  See Option 2.]

[the command you want to run goes here OR the "runscript" command "rs" followed by a space and a script name. See below for an example.]

debugmode 0 [this tells the game you are done inputting commands]

~ [a second tilde closes the console]

  a. te_rest

You can rest under any conditions by running the modified resting script "te_rest".  You may have to get a little distance from the nearest monsters but that isn't hard.

It looks like this:

~ 

debugmode 1

<response from server>

 rs te_rest

<response from server>

debugmode 0 

<response from server>

~ 

You are now back in game play mode and that's all there is too it!

Once you've run this script, you can rerun it during the same game session by opening the console and using the up and down cursor keys to bring up any command you've previously typed in.

Depending on how hard/easy you want this experience to be, there are two other commands you may want to consider trying.

   b. giveitem (item name, item quantity) 

 The author recommends crafting as a means to equip your party and frankly I can't see this module being playable if you don't. You need a lot more gear than you have the money to buy and some important items are not readily available. No matter what, you are going to have to do some crafting to survive so plan accordingly as you level up your team. 

 An 8th level character can have an effective crafting level of 12 - 16 or more.  That means they can make items from nearly any crafting materials except creature parts like dragon hide.  So without spending all of your limited cash you can make darksteel weapons and armor, mithral shields, and duskwood bows and crossbows for the whole crew. You will get enough creature parts to enchant all of this gear to +1 and put one or two buffs on it for good measure.  Not great but more than good enough to chop your way through the temple.  You'll still be playing at level 8 but you'll be doing it in style!

 You can buy some crafting materials from Jaroo the Druid but depending on how you complete certain quests, you may lose access to his store. The creature drops you get later on are severly limited so you will need to stock up on Bat Teeth to distill into essences.

 The other type of crafting item you will need is gems. There are a few jems in the loot drops but most are not the correct types for crafting.  The jeweler in Homelet has some and if you pass an Appraise/Diplomacy check you can get a few more items from him as well.

 In Hommlet you will find one of each type of crafting bench And Smyth the Smith has all of the common molds for arms and armor.  There are alchemy and blacksmith benches in Nulb and several of each type in the temple itself.

 Below are the item references for the most commonly needed components.

===============CRAFTING COMPONENTS==============

------------------BASIC-------------------------

 n2_crft_ingadamant           Adamantine Ingot

n2_crft_ingsilver                  Alchemical SIlver Ingot

n2_crft_ingcldiron                               Cold Iron Ingot

 n2_crft_ingdrksteel             Darksteel Ingot

n2_crft_plkdskwood           Duskwood Plank

n2_crft_ingiron                    Iron Ingot

 n2_crft_hideleather            Leather Hide

n2_crft_ingmithral               Mithral Ingot

mortar                                    Mortar and Pestle

 2_crft_hidedragon            Red Dragon Hide

n2_crft_hidesalam              Salamander Hide

n2_crft_plkshed                   Shederran Plank

smithhammer                      Smith Hammer

n2_crft_hideumber             Umber Hulk Hide

n2_crft_plkwood                  Wooden plank

n2_crft_hidewyvern            Wyvern Hide

n2_crft_plkzalantar             Zalantar Plank

------------------------------------------------

I will attach a more complete list of crafting items as a separate file.  There is also a more detailed pdf on crafting elsewhere on the vault for those who don't like using the in-game books.

  c. givegold (number)  

This does just what it says.  The loot is nearly all weapons, armor, creature parts, and random scrolls.  The stores are set up with only 500 gp in cash each making trade extremely challenging at times.  So if all else fails, give yourself some $$$ and buy bandages.  Lots and lots of bandages.  You can also stock up on alchemist's fire and buy ingredients for acid flasks and a few other user crafted goodies.

Using te_rest and giveitem I was able to play this mod through and have a reasonably good time.  The downside is that constantly opening the server to give the rest command does take away from the game experience somewhat.    

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Option 2: Edit the module file to allow leveling up.  

You can play this with limited resting as designed and the existing selection of crafting materials by going to a normal level up game mode.  At a minimum you'll have to make changes a and b below.  Changes c and d will make the mod a little more like the default NWN2 experience.  Not resting will still be a challenge but with more spells and hit points, its much more doable.

Warnings: No way around it, you are going to have to open this sucker in the toolset.  MAKE A BACKUP COPY FIRST!  I am not a modder myself and certainly not an expert but I wanted to play this mod so I took the plunge.  You can too.

So - - Start up the toolset and open the module "ToEEBugbearWars.mod" (it's in My Documents/Neverwinter Nights2/modules)

  a. Remove the level cap (it took me forever to find this sucker.)

- Under Plugins, select Campaign Editor

- Select "the Temple of Elemental Evil Revisited"

- Look in the Properties window under Modifiers

- Change Level Cap from 8 to at least 12 or higher

- Change the XP limit from 28000 to at least 66000 (Level 12)

- SAVE

- Close the Campaign Editor tab

  b. Fix the Creature XP awards

- Under View, select Module Properties 

- Change XP scale to either 10 or 12 depending on whether or not you want to edit the Journal as well (see below).

- SAVE

- [Note: You can also change the default rest script here from te_rest to the OC default.  I have not tried that but hey, it's your game so it might work. You made back up copy,right?]

- Close the Module Properties tab

  c. Fix the Quest XP awards

- Under View, select Journal then Campaign.  It will open in the main window with all of the conversations and events that update your Journal listed with various stages for each.  You only have to modify the first entry for each Journal item, the one that has both the tag entry in it and the endpoint block already checked.

- For minor quests that involve "rescue", delivering messages, the Hag's Eye and the like, change the XP award to 100 - 300 depending pretty much on how you feel about conversation/investigation based quests.

- For the rest of the quests, the big ones, change the xp value to between 400 and 1000.  

Note: Most of the plot essential quests involve a lot of slashing/piercing/bludgeoning so it is your option to simply set the xp awards for creatures to around 12 and leave the journal alone.  As a practical matter, you don't know how hard each quest will be until you've played through the module once.

- SAVE

- Close the Journal viewer tab

  d. Fix the stores (If you don't want to just give yourself a heap of gp to start.)

 - Open each of the Areas and look for any "store" in it on the Area Contents menu.  Most areas only have one store.

- For each store, look in the properties menu

- Change the entries for store gold (gold on hand at start) from 500 to at least 1000.  I'd say set it to 1500 - 15000 depending on how far along in the adventure that store is, more in Nulb, much more in the temple.  You will be collecting far more loot than you can actually carry so once the shops have a little gold, you can sell them enough 'slightly dented' shields and creature parts to keep yourself in bandages for the duration of the game.  Did I mention you are going to need a lot of bandages? You can also adjust the price scale for buying and selling from this menu and the max price this merchant will pay. You have to do this for each store in each area so get comfortable and SAVE AFTER YOU COMPLETE EACH AREA.

- SAVE 

Save the module one more time, just to be sure and close the tool set.

There are all sorts of other things you can learn by playing around in the toolset but as far as I know, these changes are enough to make this a much more enjoyable adventure.

 Now go kick some evil butt.

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 Hope this helps. Remember, I am not the orignal author so I'm sure there are all sorts of interesting things in this module I've missed.  If you find other ways to spruce up this old classic adventure post them on the Vault for the rest of us to try.

Known bug in the Fire Node area

The response below is from the original author as posted on the old vault.

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Posted by crichton  at 2008-09-17 19:13:35    

“Hmm, I'll look into it. In the meantime, if the bridge really isn't crossable, you can use the console to give yourself the gem (shame to miss the balor though)”

DebugMode 1

GiveItem te_it_fire_gem

DebugMode 0

or 

 “I've checked it out, that first bridge really was impassable (it took four bakes to fix it, I hate bridges). I'll have a fixed version up shortly.  However in lieu of starting over, I'd suggest using "

DebugMode 1

rs te_worldmap_a("te_waypoint_fire_node_4")

DebugMode 0

to get across the bridge and 

DebugMode 1

rs te_worldmap_a("te_waypoint_fire_node_start")

DebugMode 0

to get back

sorry about the inconvenience, I should have checked the baking more carefully after the last graphics upgrade.”

Apparently the fix never got created as I downloaded my copy at least two years after this post was made.