To make your NPCs look and sound realistic when working at crafting weapons, there are a number of animations that can be used. After long testing and tweaking we have come up with a sequence of animations and sounds that work well. Feel free to experiment with this your self, but better set aside a good block of time when you do.

NPCs should walk a constant circle of heating the weapon at the forge, hammering on the hot weapon at the anvil, and next quenching it in the cauldron. Then the sequence starts over.

The last waypoint (_04) is used to make sure the NPC ends back up at the Forge, so place this waypoint close to waypoint _01. If this waypoint is missing the NPC will sometimes revers direction after quenching and head back to the anvil.

I will add an .ERF of ready-made forge hammer, red-hot sword and ax, and quenched sword and ax. These are the weapons referenced in the animations.

The easiest way to create a number of waypoints is to start with the NPC you want to animate. Right-click the NPC and choose “Create Waypoint”. Now click the waypoint and copy it, then paste as many waypoints as you will need all in a bunch. Place the waypoints in the proper places and be sure the arrow points in the direction you want the NPC to face. You can now Import a variable set from the “Import” button at the top of the properties pane while you have a waypoint high-lighted.

Once you have all the waypoints placed and the animation variables loaded, click on the NPC and in its property pane copy the NPC Tag into your buffer (highlight the tag and press Control C). Now hold down the Shift key and click each of the waypoints in the order you want to NPC to move until all the waypoints are highlighted in green. Now right-click one of the waypoints and choose “Create Waypoint Set”. In the box that will pop up, paste the NPC tag after the WP_ and click OK. You should now have a set of waypoints ending in _01, _02 etc with arrows that show the path the NPC will walk.

See Screen Shot showing waypoint_01 in a set highlighted in a typical smithing area. Note the placement of the waypoints embedded into the placeables to get the animations to look right for each location.

To make things simpler, you can use these tested variables on your own waypoints. To make placing the NPCs in just the right location possible, set your placeables as “walkable” or change the placeables to “environmental”. There are three work stations in this weapons crafting sequence:

The forge. Localized Name: Forge {1} Tag: PLC_ML_FORGE01

Following is the animation for a Sword at the forge:

facing,1.0;unequip,5;equip,i_red_forgeswordq,4;sound,as_cv_smithbelo1;animation,0.0,forge02,1.0,1;pause,1.7;sound,as_cv_smithbelo1;pause,1.7;sound,as_cv_smithbelo1;pause,1.7;sound,as_n2_metalscrape1;equip,i_red_forgesword,4;pause,4.9;sound,as_cv_smithbelo1;pause,1.7;sound,as_cv_smithbelo1;pause,1.7;animation,,idle,1.0,1;

Following is the animation for an Ax at the forge:

facing,1.0;unequip,5;equip,i_red_forgeaxeq,4;sound,as_cv_smithbelo1;animation,0.0,forge02,1,1.0,1;pause,1.7;sound,as_cv_smithbelo1;pause,1.7;sound,as_cv_smithbelo1;pause,1.7;sound,as_n2_metalscrape1;equip,i_red_forgeaxe,4;pause,4.9;sound,as_cv_smithbelo1;pause,1.7;sound,as_cv_smithbelo1;pause,1.7;animation,,idle,1.0,1;

The Anvil. Localized Name: Anvil Tag: PLC_ML_ANVIL01

Following is the animation for a Sword at the anvil:

facing,1.0;equip,i_red_forgehammer,4;equip,i_red_forgesword,5;sound,as_cv_smithhamr1;animation,0.0,craft01,1.0,1;pause,3.4;sound,as_cv_smithhamr2;pause,5.2;sound,as_cv_smithhamr3;pause,5.4;animation,,idle,1.0,1;

Following is the animation for an Ax at the anvil:

facing,1.0;equip,i_red_forgehammer,4;equip,i_red_forgeaxe,5;sound,as_cv_smithhamr1;animation,0.0,craft01,1.0,1;pause,3.4;sound,as_cv_smithhamr2;pause,5.2;sound,as_cv_smithhamr3;pause,5.4;animation,,idle,1.0,1;

The Quenching Cauldron. Loc. Name: Cauldron Tag: PLC_ML_SMICAULD .

Following is the animation for a Sword at the quenching cauldron:

facing,1.0;unequip,5;equip,i_red_forgesword,4;sound,as_na_steamlong1;animation,0.0,opendoor,1.0,0;pause,6.5;equip,i_red_forgeswordq,4;sound,it_blademed_draw01;pause,1.1;animation,,idle,1.0,1;

Following is the animation for an Ax at the quenching cauldron:

facing,1.0;unequip,5;equip,i_red_forgeaxe,4;sound,as_na_steamlong1;animation,0.0,opendoor,1.0,0;pause,6.5;equip,i_red_forgeaxeq,4;sound,it_blademed_draw01;pause,1.1;animation,,idle,1.0,1;

To add sounds to your animations you will need to know the name of the sound file and the exact length of the sound snippet. Each sound should be called by its name minus the .WAV extention. (Example: as_pl_whistle1)

Navigate to: C:\Program Files\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2\Data and extract the “Sounds.zip” file to a temporary folder on your PC. You can now brows all of the included sound files and pick what you would like to use.

Next you will need to know the running length of the sound. It is best to get the time down to the tenth of a second so you can sync the sounds to the animations. Since Windows Media player is not this accurate, use an audio editor. For example, Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.