Beginner modding questions, Not quite clueless Options

[NOG]

I've been looking through this site for mods and the like for a while now, and have decided I would like to make my own, a custom character with a custom kit. I downloaded a tutorial for making a custom NPC (written by ghreyfain@yahoo.ca) and got a kit editing tool, NearInfinity, and InfinityExplorer. I've run across some problems, though, and would love a little help.

First off, the tutorial says to use NearInfinity to turn my NPC's .CHR file into a .CRE file. I understand that just fine, but I look through my NearInfinity folder and can't find any way to start it. There are no .exe's or anything like that of any kind. Did I get a poor download or am I missing something? Another site said I needed a perticular compiler, but their link to the compiler was dead and I can't find it anywhere else.

Secondly, the tutorial said to make the dialog in a .txt file and then change the extention to .d. Problem is, I'm using Win98 and it doesn't let me change extentions, not that I can figure out at least. Is there some other way to do this?

Third, I find the tutorial rather vague on anything more than making the actual joinable NPC. It doesn't describe in the least how to make quests, banter dialogs, romance dialogs, or flirt options (probably because that isn't a natural option in BG). I don't mean to criticize the author, as I don't think it was intended to cover these things, but if anyone could give me some pointers, or point me to some more tutorials, I would be most grateful.

Lastly, I tried to make my custom kit, but it didn't seem to save anything I did. I didn't get any errors, nor did it give me any kind of warnings that there were any problems, but the kit doesn't show up in the game, it doesn't show up when I try to re-load it in the editor, and I can't find any files associated with it anywhere on my PC. I currently have all my kit slots taken up, but the (very poor) tutorial that came with the editor said the kit would be saved in a seperate folder somewhere and that I should check the files to make sure there weren't any problems. Is this a problem with the editor or do I need an empty slot to actually make a custom kit? Can anyone suggest a better way to make a custom kit? Maybe a different tool?

Please realize that my computer programing and modding experience is basically highschool computer programing (Basic and C++) and computer science (C++). I don't know what all the different file types do, nor what various variables and commands do. I have no experience with hex-editing. I aced both those computer classes and computer stuff generally comes quickly to me, but from there I went into engineering, so I don't actually know much. Basically, what I'm trying to say is to keep any advice you give simplistic and explain how to achieve everything or point me to something that tells me how.

Thanks in advance for any advice I get.

[WizWom]

In windows Explorer, if you right click a file you get a context menu.
One option is always "Open with..." which opens a dialog. If that file type is already assigned to one or more programs, that will show up in the "Reccommended programs" list at the top. The "browse" button will actually let you locate a program to use. you don't want to do either of these things.

You want to click the Explorer Tools menu, select Options, and click to the File types tab. Scrill down the list until you find the extension JAR. If it is not there, then you need to add it with the New button.

If it is there, select it, click the Advanced button and you get the Edit File type dialog. This is the magic that happens when you double-click a file. It chooses the default action, and executes the commands that are descriped in the Edit... dialog here. This Dialog lets you change the name ("open" to "run") and what to do. My system has

CODE

"C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_06\bin\javaw.exe" -jar "%1" %*

That's the full path to my javaw executable, then the command-line options to send to it. Notice the '-jar' bit there? that tells javaw that it needs to look inside the file as an archive rather than treat it as a class. The %1 is replaced with the file name that you clicked on, it is in quotes, because it might have spaces, which would mess up the command line otherwise. The %* is "all the rest of the command line. That means if you set up any special things to do with a particular JAR, they get passed along.

Once Windows knows what to do, all you need to do is double-click a JAR file and it will properly execute it. NearInfinity has no splash screen and can take a few seconds to start up, but be patient and it will prove to be a very nice tool indeed.