The Conan Chronicles 1 Readme

Introduction

"Know, O Prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars." - The Nemedian Chronicles.

Such half-legendary fragments are all that remain to tell of the Hyborian Age and its greatest hero, Conan. You can relive these tales as Conan, or as a hero of your own design, following your career from its beginning as a youth among the Aesir, to your eventual rise to claim the throne of Aquilonia, the most powerful Hyborian kingdom.

"Legions of the Dead" describes the first recorded exploits of the young Conan, when as a youth of sixteen summers he fled his home in Cimmeria to join with a band of Northern barbarians in the frigid land of Asgard. The original short story was written by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, based of course on the collection of Conan stories by Robert E Howard. It pre-dates the more well-known "Tower of the Elephant" which is, taking the chronology of Conan's career, the first Howard story. The fact that "Legions" deals with a very inexperienced Conan, and the fact that the story is less well known, makes it a good start for a chronology.


Installation

This new version doesn't need any override files. Keep your override folder empty to play this game.

DON'T put anything into the Program Files NWN2 folders where the core game information is kept!!

Each zip contains files or folders that go in particular folders in you My documents/Neverwinter Nights 2 subfolders:


Unzip the four module files and put them into your My documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/modules folder.

Unzip the Conan Music folder and put all the bmu files into the My documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/music folder. If you already did so for the old versions of the Conan Modules, you do not need to download these as they are identical.

Unzip the Conan Chronicles Campaign folder and put the folder into the My documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/campaigns folder.

Unzip the Conan Tlk folder and put the conan.tlk file into the My documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/tlk folder.

Unzip the Conan Chronicles Haks folder and put the four hak files (conan_chronicles.hak, ds.hak, dc.hak and barbarian_chronicles_loaadscreens.hak into the My documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/hak folder.

Unzip the Conan Chronicles 2das Hak folder (chhose Kaedrin or non-Kaedrin versions) and put the hak file into the My documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/hak folder.

If there already existing versions, best to use the latest (the tlk, music, conan_chronicles.hak and conan_chronicles_2da.hak files are the same for the Conan Chronnicles 1 & 2 adventures).

Play the Game by starting a new Campaign (not a new module).


Important Note: Having Conan-created Characters in your local vault folder may prevent other modules from running. They crash when you try to select a preexisting character. This is because of the new subraces. Therefore if you are clearing out the conan modules, you may wish to move the character files out of the localvault folder.



Notes for Players

The game is designed for a single starting level PC. Playing a human is more suitable for this adventure, but not required. If you really want to play a Cimmerian Gnome, feel free.

At character creation, you have the option to select a Hyborian Subrace. These subraces and their bonuses and penalties are described in game and in the walkthrough document. You will also choose a special Hyborian Deity that has roleplay implications.


There are a number of features specific to the game ( more information in the walkthrough):

Time. Time travels as in real life i.e. 60 minutes in an hour, not 2 which is the NWN standard! Instead, journeys between certain outdoor areas take time, perhaps 4 hours. Also resting takes time; 5-6 hours for a full rest.

Companions. There is a companion for part of this game. You can leave and rejoin this companion as desired, and she retains the equipment you left her with. Talk to the companion as usual by long right clicking, and you can similarly issue commands. You can modify her behaviour by controlling the companion and going to the behaviour tab on the character window.

Cutscenes. There are a number of cutscenes. In version 1.24 they have been changed to make it easiler to click through them more quickly.

Resting. You cannot initiate resting while controlling a companion. Rest and your companion will rest with you. You may rest in most areas, provided it is consistent with the story. You can abort a rest by clicking out of the blue screen, and the time that you rested is reduced in proportion (about one second of time per hour rest). In many areas, wandering monsters may run into you, appearing at a random location nearby. Depending on your survival skill, you may be surprised and unable to act for several seconds. You may reduce the chance of an encounter by aborting halfway through a rest, but only some hit-points and spells or abilities will be regained. There may be special safe-rest areas in game, perhaps after you have defeated certain encounters. Sometimes resting in a corner or in a small room with the door closed may allow you to avoid an encounter.

Death. You will not be able to defeat all encounters. There are also some story choices that inevitably lead to death. Sometimes you may be able to respawn back to a point before this choice, but not always. If you die, you usually respawn in the same place with full abilities back, but a hefty xp penalty. However, your mission is rescue based and if you allow your companion to die, its game over, so look after the companion well!

Thievery. Sneaking around and using your wits to avoid encounters is encouraged. Looting every single item from containers in front of their owners� noses is not! If you get spotted, expect non-hostiles to get hostile. But you can steal if you want to, just try and do it without being seen, and if you run away when you are spotted, those that see you often calm down after a while. If you get spotted too often, however, the whole faction turns against you.

Treasure. There are custom treasure scripts used which give a wide variety of random treasures or basic items. Feel free to loot all you like, but it is not the main focus of the story, and although merchants are present in one area, there are only rather basic supplies to be purchased by and large. Please don�t get too attached to all your stuff. Otherwise you might get upset at the end of the game�

Custom Items. There are many custom potions, items and consumables which should be self-explanatory. Some may not work in other modules, but will work in future Conan modules.

Secret Doors. There are secret walls that move aside once you discover them, and then you can actually interact with them to close them or open them as desired. There are also secret catches or levers opening secret doors in walls. Your mouse pointer will automatically change to a locked icon over the wall where the secret door is located. (So no more just pressing the Z- button!!) You cannot just unlock this door. Finding the means of opening depends on search skill (not spot). Being in search mode is much better. When you or a companion find the door mechanism, you turn to face the door and make a comment. Mouse over the wall again to see a closed door mouse pointer icon, then click to open the secret door within the wall (you cannot see it) and then click again when the mouse pointer is an open doorway icon. When you click where there is an open doorway pointer you will jump through to the other side, along with the rest of the party. The door closes behind you, but you will always be able to identify it using the mouse and click to open it again, just like any visible door. You will not have to search to find the opening mechanism again.

Looking around. There are a few areas (should be obvious) where you need to look upward - use driving (character) camera mode for this!


Acknowledgements

Dummy lip synch sound files from Rogue Dao studios.
Gratefully-received tips on resting scripts and on companion scripts (eg Silverwand) from the NWN2 fora.
Tanita's water textures plug in for water running downhill and waterfalls.
Aleanne�s female clothing packs
Shirtless Saga clothes models
MWMDragon�s weapon and shield models
Tarim�s weapon models
Robinson Workshop Deep Sewer and Deep caverns Tilesets

If I have missed someone out, please let me know.

I would also like to acknowledge the late and great Basil Poledouris for creating the original music from the Conan films. If interested, you can purchase a CD of the music score from online outlets.


Grateful thanks to all of the above!

Updates:


All file versions currently upgrade to v1.3. This version, updated in October 2012, includes several bug fixes and enhancements, including compatibility with Kaedrin Expansions, custom feats, extra items as in Conan Chronicles 2, fix for the Nvidia graphics bug where certain terrain textures become like "static" and various gameplay changes and fixes.

Requires NWN2 v1.23 + hotfix, MOTB and SoZ



John McA