First of all, excuse me for not scouring the forums in search of a perhaps already existing topic dedicated to the CEP. Smite me if You wish, but rest assured - a lvl 25-15 Cleric/Blackguard can take care of himself. ;)

My question is:

1). Does the GOG edition of NWN contain the CEP (I read a rumor somewhere that it was included in the US/UK version)?

2). What goodness exactly does the CEP contain; more specifically, are those mostly resources, or is there any content noticable when playing non CEP-tailored modules as well?

I played through NWN and both official expansions a number of times, so feel free to unleash all Your l33t & pr0 awesomness upon me. I can take it.

Cheers,

1) The GOG version does not contain the CEP. You'll need to download it from places such as here.

2) The CEP contains a vast amount of resources that modders can incorporate into their modules (new creatures, models, tilesets, etc). You will only see any of this content if a module you are playing specifically makes use of it.

So, as I take it, there is no immediate benefit to installing the CEP other than not having to download any separate haks required to play some community-made modules.

I was hoping it incorporated some patch-like features as well. Thanks for the info.

Many online PWs (Persistent Worlds) use the CEP, as do most DM/builders. If you plan to play nwn multiplayer you should go ahead and install CEP now.

I might as well do that, yes. It's just that I was hoping for some easily accesible features that are immediately visible throught the game no matter the mod being currently played.

Check these out.

Bioware Rural Trees Override.
Bioware Winter Rural Trees Override.

They only affect the corresponding tilesets (i.e Rural and Winter Rural), but from the looks of it, they vastly improve how the tilesets look and their an easy override that'll affect all modules (including the Original Campaign).

If these work for you, there might be others, but these 2 are the only ones i'm aware of right now.

Please keep in mind that i have NOT tested and/or tried these overrides myself, so i can't guarantee how they work.

You may be looking for overrides. There are tons that will make your animations look better, your models look better, your UI look better and so forth.

The Neverwinter Vault is what you're looking for. I'm sure lots of folks could give you a huge list of overrides that they love. I personally play with an override that makes the AI a lot smarter (they use better spells, drink their potions and wander). That's about the only one I use (found here: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Hakpaks.Detail&id=4510 )

Oh, and I use another override that adds color to my UI feats and spells. I'm not sure where I got that one (the vault, surely, but which one I use I'm not sure).

Then there is NWNCQ which is an override.

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=hakpaks.detail&id=7848

I don't use overrides at all...but I've heard about this one...

It's probably the work of The Amethyst Dragon which is included in the Complete GUI Alterations Package.

Just FYI, LordAvatar, CEP is a hak. Go ahead and install it first, then if you want to add some overrides go for it.

The difference between a hack and an override is that a hack adds new content to the game (although sometimes that content does override existing content, most builders are careful not to do this), whereas an override changes existing content. For example, the CEP adds a bunch of new heads to the game in addition to the ones that come standard. An override might change the existing heads in some way, perhaps with new models and textures, but it wouldn't add any new ones.

Another difference is that overrides are universal. Any module you play will be affected by your installed overrides. Haks are tied only to the modules that have the haks installed.

Finally overrides are only effective on the client that has them installed. For example if you have an override that turns all the standard heads pink and you join a multiplayer game, to you all the standard heads will look pink but to the other players everything will look normal.

Thank You all, much appreciated! I'm good as far as D&D lore is concerned, but I'm not much of a NWN modder (Morrowind is another thing though). Thanks again.

That is the one!

2.4

Something to keep in mind, you can play any and all modules that use CEP 2.0 and later with CEP 2.4, but any modules that use a version prior to 2.0, you'll have to download the CEP 1.52/1.53 to be able to play them :)

Thanks for the tip, Shiek. I already did my homework, but additional feedback is always welcome. :)