Peek-a-BIC is a standalone program for viewing and documenting the stats and level progression of your player characters. This software reads your character BIC files and displays the data in any of the following formats:
Meet the Power Builds Style -- This format is similar to the one used in "Meet the Power Builds," the document that accompanies the Battle of the Builds module.
Epic Character Builders Style -- This format is the same as the one used by the members of the Epic Character Builders Part Deux (ECBII) guild. The text contains embedded tags for bold and italic fonts. This format is suitable for posting player character data not only at the ECBII guild but also at any of the Neverwinter Nights 2 official forums.
NWN2Wiki Code -- This output is in Wiki code. It is suited for copying and pasting to a Wiki entry regarding your player character. You will still need to fill in the gaps that the Peek-a-BIC software cannot automatically infer, particularly the description of your character build as well as the nature of this build. Nevertheless, the software takes care of the tedious work of formatting the stats and level progression of your character so that you won't have to do it yourself.
The last two views are meant to be copied and pasted at the appropriate web sites. The Epic Character Builders Style is well suited for pasting into the NWN2 forums, and the NWN2Wiki code is intended for pasting to an entry at the NWN2Wiki site. Several character builds may be found here.
What's new in version 1.1.0
Added the capability to read 2DA and TLK files from the override folder. This version of Peek-a-BIC does not yet read custom SKILLS.2DA or CLS_SAVTHR_*.2DA files, so the stats of some characters with custom classes may not display correctly.
Improved the program's file parsing routines to properly read 2DA files that are not tab-delimited.
Included the Half Elves' skill affinities in computing their modified skill ranks.
Included the Eldritch Lore feat in computing modified Lore and Spellcraft ranks.
Included the Bardic and Harper Knowledge feats in computing modified Lore ranks.
Posted by Carlo at 2009-03-01 10:42:36 Voted 8.00 on 03/01/09
Thanks for coming up with this, just the thing for a quick reminder about the character sheet while out-of-game.
Posted by TopAceOfEarth at 2008-12-13 05:01:26 Voted 10.00 on 12/13/08
Any chance to get an update for SoZ? The Feats from Doomguide are not showing up, as well as other things :) _________________________ EPIC CAMPAIGN 3.00
Posted by jimgrim at 2008-08-17 10:44:26 Voted 8.75 on 08/17/08
Nice program! When reviewing my characters I noticed that it leaves out feats added outside leveling: 1) feats added by the module during play, 2) feats added using givefeat. This includes standard NWN2 feats (I tested givefeat with standard feats, exported the character and the feat doesn't show up) and custom feats (documentation already explains custom feats not being supported). I'd love to see support for custom feats and feats added outside leveling (ex: Harper feat added during Harp & Chrysanthemum).
Just to let everyone know, I'll probably start revising the software in a week or so. I'm swamped with a lot of other stuff at the moment. Nevertheless, I'll definitely fix the issues that have been reported here. _________________________ Yay, I have a blog. Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module
Posted by ladydesire at 2008-07-22 16:52:13 Voted 8.50 on 06/17/08
I'll check the program to find out what might be going wrong. I have a feeling it may have something to do with how it searches for the override folder. _________________________ Yay, I have a blog. Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module
Posted by ladydesire at 2008-07-21 17:19:23 Voted 8.50 on 06/17/08
@Elysius: The first release of this works fine on Vista; I'm encountering errors with 1.1.0 though.
The program checks your registry for the location of your NWN2 installation. Do you use Vista? I've never tested Peek-a-BIC with Vista, so it's possible that it might not work with an O.S. other than Windows XP. _________________________ Yay, I have a blog. Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module
Sorry for the late reply. I've been busy with a lot of stuff lately. Regarding your requests, I can include some options for making a separate level progression table for skills. I know that making long Wiki tables isn't easy to do by hand, so I'll include that option in the program.
It's also possible for me to put in another option for outputting a list of possible alignments, but this is something that users may edit easily. On the other hand, there are other stats that aren't so easy for a computer program to list, such as the range of possible deities. I'll have to mull this request over. _________________________ Yay, I have a blog. Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module
Posted by TopAceOfEarth at 2008-06-29 04:02:55 Voted 10.00 on 12/13/08
I worked a bit with this tool on my NWN2Wikia builds, and I would like to ask, if it is possible to give the user an alternate listing of the NW2WikiCode where the Skills are listed seperate from the rest.
I am asking for this, because my new Rogued Red Sock Build has 9 maxed skills and 3 with a few in it, so I am looking at 12 Skills that are displayed, along with the Save tab (13).
It is not that bad with my desktop resolution of 1920x1200, but anyone with a resolution of 1024 or 1280 will probably get some problems viewing it.
I know how to edit the output, so it works for me, but I just thought I might throw my thoughts in for you.
Most builds don't have more then 4-6 Skills, so there might not another person needing this.
I also noticed that the alignment only lists Neutral instead of True Neutral, and doesn't say if you could go good or evil with this build e.g. any non good. Otherwise a listing of all possible Alignments could work or a simple "any" if appropriate. Or simply just add a note behind it, like you did with buildnature.
Anyway, it is a great tool to speed things up. Thanks for your work. _________________________ EPIC CAMPAIGN 3.00
Thanks for the vote, ladydesire. The current version of Peek-a-BIC can't read custom classes yet, but seeing that you intend to use this software for that, I can create a new version that takes into account custom classes. It may take me a couple of weeks to do it, so stay tuned. :) _________________________ Yay, I have a blog. Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module
Posted by ladydesire at 2008-06-17 18:44:41 Voted 8.50 on 06/17/08
Looks like a good thing to have; I've been wanting to document my builds for some time, but didn't know how to go about doing it. I will probably end up modifying it to support the various classes that I use personally, though. The vote is split, so to speak; it really deserves a 9 or 10, but it's really not something that a lot of ordinary players would see any obvious benefit from, so I have voted from both perspectives in one vote; I would recommend it to anyone, and if the person was a power builder it falls into the "must have" category.
You must be Logged In to post comments in this section.
10 - A Masterpiece, Genuinely Groundbreaking 9 - Outstanding, a Must Have 8 - Excellent, Recommended to Anyone 7 - Very Good, Deserves a Look 6 - Good, Qualified Recommendation 5 - Fair, Solid yet Unremarkable 4 - Some Merit, Requires Improvements 3 - Poor Execution, Potential Unrealized 2 - Very Little Appeal 1 - Not Recommended to Anyone
Site
at 2009-03-01 10:42:36
at 2008-07-25 12:21:26
at 2008-07-22 16:52:13
