Installation directories

It is possible to install custom content for NWN2 in a variety of ways/places.

Two Trees
Firstly you should notice that NWN2 creates two new directory trees when installed. One for the game core and one in the "My Documents" folder for user data. You can install custom content in either of these places.

Overwriting Original Files
This is a no/no and should only be used as a last resort.

Data Archives
The folder Program Files\Neverwitner Nights 2\Data\ contains a number of zips with various content (eg special effects). Placing your custom content into these archives is discoraged. Use the override directory or a hak pack.

Override
Custom content placed in one of the override directories will take precidence over game defaults, hak packs and custom content placed elsewhere. Custom content is placed here if you want it to always be used by the game.

Hak Packs
The hak directory contains custom content packaged in a compressed archive or .hak file. Content in a hak file will only be loaded if the module being played calls for it. Module specific custom content uses hak files.

UI
Custom UI files may be placed here. This normally includes .xml and .tga files, though it seems to also work with .2da's.

Some modules (mostly persistent worlds) have their own UI. Players who visit different PWs, each with their own UI, need to be able to tell the game which UI to load. This is done by a setting in the nwn.ini file. By default this is set to: [UI Options] CurrentGUI=default

Changing this setting allows you to specify which UI folder to load. With the default setting, each folder is evaluated in alphabetical order. UI/zzz/my.xml will override UI/aaa/my.xml

If you install your UI mod in this way then it's behavior will depend on the nwn.ini setting, other UIs installed and the alphabetical ordering of them.

Using Folders
Custom content can be placed into subdirectories within these locations, such as override\MyCustomContent - i.e. you don't need to mix all your custom content files together in the same directory. It is therefore recommended that you do this so that your custom content can be readily identified from other installed custom content.