The Demon Artifact
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The Demon Artifact is a Combat RPG game built with the NWN2 Game Toolset. It requires the NWN2 Game Engine to run as well as the Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir expansions.

What we mean by Combat RPG is that the Player chooses their race and class; they ascribe skill and feat bonuses as they see fit; and the Player equips their character as they are able. It is also a story-driven game in which the player makes significant choices, and lastly, that there is a *lot* of combat.

The recommended entry level for the game is Level 14, and, generally, characters reach around level 20 at the end. It should be noted that some character builds will find the game harder than others, and although the balancing is not meant to be onerous, character death should be expected. Of course, equipping your character appropriately can have a significant impact on combat outcome. This is true from the very beginning right through to the end.

The story drives where the player goes and what they are expected to do when they get there, but there are also some optional side quests that may give alternate ways of achieving objectives, may give significant bonuses, or may just be fun diversions. The player can acquire an opulent apartment, for example, but other than the joy of owning it, it is of no material benefit in itself. However, while exploration is rewarded, be aware that some situations are designed to be very difficult and a few are impossible.

The game was designed and developed in 2021 by:

MadHatter101
CheshireKat7
SparklyUnicorn
DarkRichard7238
Seryn

Note that the Demon Artifact uses elements of the NWN2 game, The Red Prison, that was designed and developed by Seryn in 2014. He is reported as being a developer of the Demon Artifact for that reason, not because he did work on it specifically. Indeed, our game was developed without his knowledge or involvement.

Factions and Race
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Generally, NPCs respond to player choices and can make things easier or more difficult in any given situation depending on their attitude. However, faction NPCs, like the player's companion, are *only* interested in the demands of their faction. You can help faction NPCs howsoever you care to or ignore them completely, and they don't care because the only thing that they care about is their faction and your relation to it. Their discourse reflects that focus.

There are eight main factions within in the game: Celestial, Demon, Dragon, Drow, Duergar, Githyanki, Hill Giant and Tiefling. All are antagonistic to each other, although the Celestial faction often shows are fair bit of tolerance.

Of those eight, the player can join the Drow, Tiefling, Dragon or Celestial factions, and which faction the player chooses has significant and unique bonuses and costs for the player. The player can also choose to *not* join any faction and remain a mercenary, and there are benefits and costs to that too. This choice of faction is the most important choice within the game, and it is irreversible, yet once made, the path through the game is largely the same for all factions.

It should be noted that race and alignment affect the options that the player has for a faction. The player won't even be approached by the Drow faction, for example, unless they are of Elven lineage (Elf, Half-Elf, Drow and their derivatives), and while the player can be a mercenary for the Tiefling faction regardless of race, they can't fully join that faction unless they are a Human or Tiefling. On the other hand, the Celestials are indifferent to race, but they only make their offer to those who have demonstrated exemplary righteousness (Good alignment of 85+ and a 'death before dishonor' attitude). The Dragon faction, by contrast, couldn't care less about race or righteousness; what they care about is martial prowess, and that is tested on the spot.

In terms of companions, the player can have at most *one*, and the companion that the Player has is determined by their faction. And to reiterate, the only thing that the companion cares about is their faction and the player's relation to it. In other words, you want to give good weapons and armor to your companion so that they will be effective in combat, not to induce them to become your friend.

Game Switches and Leveling the Character
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The Demon Artifact allows you to set Game Switches and to set your initial character level to between level 12 and 16. You can also get some equipment and gold to get started.

You do these things through the Celestial Agent, Eislyn, who is standing under the big tree on the docks in Scornubel as you enter the game. Just start a converstion with her and choose what you will. You must do this *before* you talk to Striel Blackmoon.

You can also access Eislyn through the game console:

~
debugMode 1
runscript console_eislyn
debugMode 0
~

Once entered, Eislyn will appear before you and begin a conversation. However, when accessed through the console you can only modify game switches. Note that when the convesation starts the console will be still active and you must terminate the console session before the conversation can continue. You terminate the session with:

debugMode 0
~

There are four Game Switches that you can enable and disable through Eislyn:

1. Long Stun
2. Champion Transformations
2. Inventory Management
4. Debug Mode

1. Long Stun
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By default, Stun, Confuse, Fear and the like last for over 30 seconds. As such, when the player becomes subject to such effects, the game is pretty much over because you cannot defend or attack. This is most often negated by an Immunity to Mind-Affecting Spells, but when you don't have that, the game can become pretty frustating because enemies use mind-effecting attacks a lot.

To offset that, disabling the Game Switch, Long Stun, will terminate such effects on the player and on their companion within 6 to 12 seconds (2 heartbeats). So when disabled, you are *disabling* the default behavior and choosing a shorter mind-effect duration for the player. Long Stun is *disabled* by default.

2. Champion Transformations
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When the player joins one of the four main factions (Drow, Tiefling, Dragon or Celestial) they gain bonuses specific to that faction. They are also transformed physically ... or at least that is the intent. Unfortunately, transformations in NWN2 (SetAppearanceType()) are *broken* and only work under very specific conditions if they work at all.

First, transformations do *not* work for characters of Elven lineage. That is Elf, Half-Elf, Drow, and their derivatives. Nor do they work for Halflings.

Second, transformation *do* work for the other races but they only work if the character has the default head (HeadType = 1), and are not affected by any other manipulation (e.g. nudity mods).

Lastly, if you attempt to transform a character that *doesn't* support transformations, the character will becomes invisible, which breaks the game. For this reason, Champion Transformations is *disabled* by default.

However, we have a pre-set transformation for the Tiefling factions to Erinyes and we strongly recommend that you use it. While not ideal, Erinyes is one of the Demon character types within the game, and thus the transformation emphasizes that the character has, in effect, become demonic through their choice. Also, because becoming a Servant of Laestrael inhibits wearing armor that is not fire resistant, and fire-resistant armor is rare, not choosing the Erinyes transformation leaves the player walking around in their underwear, which is pretty sad.

To use the Erinyes transformation for the Tiefling faction make sure you create a Human or Tiefling character and take the default head type. You then enable the 'Champion Transformations' game switch through Eislyn.

3. Inventory Management
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The Demon Artifact has a unique Inventory Management system in which much of the loot collected is automatically placed into bags. This not only organizes the loot but it keeps the player's inventory free of a lot of clutter. Arrows, bolts, bullets, gems, scrolls and trinkets (rings and amulets) are collected and organized in this manner. The Inventory Management system is *enabled* by default.

When Inventory Management is turned off, all of the items within the IMS bags are returned to the player's inventory and the bags deleted. Any overflow is placed at the player's feet.

4. Debug Mode
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When enabled, Debug Mode displays various debugging information, and is only useful if something seriously goes wrong within the game and you wish to report the bug and give some helpful information. Only things that should never happen are reported, like choosing an option that doesn't exit, although occasionally some debug statements remain for informational purposes. Debug Mode is *disabled* by default.

Note to Game Modders
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As noted, our intent was that Faction Champions are physically transformed when they join their faction, but the NWN2 transformations are broken. Even when we can get them to work, the game doesn't have anything like we envision for our Champions. As we don't know anything about creating new character types, we are stuck with what the NWN2 Toolset provides, but if anyone wants to create something for us, this is what we're looking for. In application, we like these to work under SetAppearanceType() by applying a suitable number.

Note that all these models should be based on the Human model type with adjustments as indicated.

Also note that most NWN2 transformations do not show worn armor, but as we'd like these models to be minimally clothed, we need them to respond to worn armor. The Servant of Laeastrael is the exception as it is supposed to remain minimally clothed, but the other factions either need to respond to armor or have a suitable set of armor by default (Heavy Mithral armor for the Celestial, Heavy Adamantine armor for the Dragon, and Dark Leather Armor for the Drow).

Lastly, we use eye effects for all transformations, and so all head types must remain compatible with these effects.

Servant: fx_spell_hellfire_blast
Shadow: fx_helmedhorror_eyes
Torm: fx_erinyes_eyes
Knight: fx_helmedhorror_eyes

1. Servant of Laestral (Tiefling Faction)
- lithe, high-definition muscularity but not heavily muscular
- male and female are similar
- small curving-forward or upright horns
- no tail
- wings similar to the Erinyes (for both male and female)
- scale 1.2
- minimal clothing; like erinyes for both male and female
- perhaps armlets, bracers and anklets, like succubi
- must work for Human and Tiefling character models

We currently use an Erinyes
Note that female and male wings must be different so that they respond to gender animations appropriately

references:
APPEARANCE_TYPE_ERINYES = 514 (no actual global)
APPEARANCE_TYPE_BALOR = 522 (No wings. The global has 38, but that produces BATIRI)
APPEARANCE_TYPE_SUCCUBUS = 163

2. Shadow of Lolth (Drow Faction)
- dark elf motif, male and female are similar
- lithe, muscular but modest strength
- scale 1.1
- minimal clothing model for both male and female
- must work for character models of Elven lineage (Elf, Half-Elf, Drow, etc)

Note that the Toolset already has a couple of Drow transformations but they don't work, even for Elves.

references:
APPEARANCE_TYPE_DROW_CLERIC = 215;
APPEARANCE_TYPE_DROW_FIGHTER = 216;

3. Champion of Torm (Celestial Faction)
- Aasimar w/ wings and refined features w/o tattoos => similar to Kaelyn
- scale 1.1
- male and female are similar
- minimal clothing model for both male and female
- must work for all character models

no transformation references but Kaelyn is a good base.
Note that female and male wings must be different so that they respond to gender animations appropriately

4. Dragon Knight (Dragon Faction)
- very high muscularity with high definition muscles
- male larger and more muscular than female
- long curving back horns similar to dragons
- minimal clothing model for both male and female
- dragon scales over the shoulders and thighs that thin out down the limbs
- scale 1.2
- must work for all character models

no transformation references.