I feel like I could with a little project to nitpick at.
Is there any interest for a step by step guide to using the toolset in relation to installing the HAK and viewing it's components, like new weapon, armour, heads, buildings, ect?

I used to write idiot guides as an intern at General Electronics, so I'm quite good at it.

What would you think of displaying every single custom hak item available?

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I'd use a foul word and not do it.

Well that is to say. If I do it it will be in spare minutes when I'm bored or when I'm building something for myself using the HAK and happen to bother to note it down. Don't hold your breath. The guide and a bit mental effort should get people a long way.

I recall it being a lot of stuff... A real lot...

Adding the HAK:
1: Open Module Properties under the Edit menu.

2: Click the Custom Content tab

3: In the dropdown list next to the "Add" button, select your HAKs you want to add one at a time, clicking "Add" after each one. They should start appearing in the listbox above. They should all be named like variants of amia_v3.

4: In the "Custom Tlk File" dropdown box, select the appropriate .tlk file. It should currently be amia_tlk_v3

5: Click OK, confirm if the confirmation box pops up, and wait for your HAKs to be loaded in.

6: You're done. You'll need to reconfirm that you want to load the HAKs every time you want to edit your module though.

Exploring Content

First thing you need to do is create or open an area on the lefthand side of the screen. You should have already created one using the area wizard when you first created the module file, but if there's nothing inside "Area", right-click Area and hit "New". That'll open the area wizard, and follow the on-screen instructions. You don't need to do anything fancy, just a general, basic area.

Exploring Items

Next, look on the left-hand side of the screen. With an area now open, you should see a box with a row of icons above it. The first should look like a red monster head. This is where you create and access the fun stuff.

Let's say you want to create a suit of armor.

1. Click on the single sword icon (Paint Items). This'll bring up a tabbed list, with one tab being "Standard", and the other tab being "Custom."

2. Click on the custom tab, and you'll see a list of various item subsets that's empty, such as "Armor", "Creature Items", etc.

3. Right click on any of them and choose "New".

4.Select "Armor" from the list that appears, click "Next", and give it a name. Do not bother clicking the "magical" box, as that simply assigns it random stat characteristics.

5. Select where you want it to go on the palette after clicking "Next" again, and click "Next".

6. Check the "Launch Item Properties" box, and click "Finish." A popup box will appear where you can play around with the armor. It's all fairly self-explanatory.

You do pretty much the same things for placeables, mobs, and other objects. Keep in mind that on player race NPCs, if you want armor to display, you need to keep them on the base appearances in the "Appearance" field (such as "Human" or "Elf", not "Human, Male 05" or "Elf, Female 13"). Otherwise the appearance's clothing will simply override anything you put on the NPC.

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Named Most Influential Character, Amia Awards 2011

I use The Builders Project's Guide to Building; The Aurora Toolset Manual as my general guide. It has holes, but overall it's an adequate general guide to the toolset. There are also lots of smaller tutorials that can be found on the web. If anyone can recommend anything better, I'd appreciate it.

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~Sharess on AmiaWiki~
Priestess, politician, prostitute
"[They] were moving in on me like Sharessans on a new broad in the bath house" - Tracer Bolt
AmiaWiki mod (mostly inactive)

I found that manual very lacking. It presumes far to much and half the time I think it's writen for a different version of the toolset.

Fixed.

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*Sighs* I'm not the one needing toolset helo. Just offering to write a guide. Seemingly there is no demand.

If you want to, go ahead. It's something that I'm sure would help some of the DM team, at the least. Some of us aren't that good with the toolset, or coding, or the rest of the behind-the-scenes tech stuff that makes Amia work.

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Named Most Influential Character, Amia Awards 2011

Awesome & concise guide Gers.

One question from the couple of times i've poked around with the Amia haks. Do we add them as they are numbered? From past experience I know it can cause problems if they are out of order.

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Iim'mur'ss - Grandmaster Shadowdancer / Aaralyn - Diplomat / Oleander - Toxic Desert Flower

I'd add them as ordered, yeah. Dunno about it causing issues if you don't though.

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Named Most Influential Character, Amia Awards 2011

It /can/ cause issues, add them in order.

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One thing you should never do though is make a modual with the HAK, then remove the old one either from the disk or modual before adding the new one to the modual. Just add it next to the old one, load it in, then remove the old one.

Made that mistake last time, no way to salvage that mess. It will simply refuse to do anything with it anymore. Cause the toolset to crash each time the modual was loaded.

It certainly is lacking in places.


If you write one that fills the holes, I shall read it.

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~Sharess on AmiaWiki~
Priestess, politician, prostitute
"[They] were moving in on me like Sharessans on a new broad in the bath house" - Tracer Bolt
AmiaWiki mod (mostly inactive)

I've started on it.
To start I'll just cover intergrating the HAK, intergrating a new version of the HAK, area creation, character creation in relation to viewing new body parts and having a template to put items on, and the creation of the armour and weapon.

If you like the way I write it, which will be in a way not even a monkey could misunderstand (no insult intended), I might just expand into listing the various items that are new with the HAK.

It should atleast answer a part of player questions that keep popping up.

After that I can keep expanding it till I run out of knowledge and then we'll see how to fill up the gaps.

Hurray, finally a guide to HAK content. Thank you!

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Can't people just go like, here: http://nwvault.ign.com/?dir=resources/tutorials

I mean... I dunno', seems like all the guides and tutorials have already been written.

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Zeskija Inalka - Catkin Meadowleaf - Xyme Thanas'ka