New or returning to NWN!

[Legacy_Diabolic Laughter]

               Thanks to Good Old Games (GOG.com)  and now the bundle packages of NWN and NWN2 direct from Atari's website I suspect there may be a lot of renewed interest in playing these titles. I found after upgrading to Windows 7 Professional 64 bit that my retail copies of both NWN 1 & 2 failed to run. After spending a few days tweaking and experimenting and even at one point attempting to run NWN in VMware with Windows Xp Professional, I gave up. I was very pleased when I ran across a link in a forum to GOG.com and found out that they were offering NWN Platinum for $10 DRM free and fixed to run on Windows 7 64 bit (and 32 bit) and uitilizing the latest version of Direct X so I promptly downloaded myself a copy and installed it.

Now that I am getting re-aquainted with the game, several questions in regards to the multi-player aspect:

1a. I understand that NWN is pretty much dead in the way of support from Bioware & Atari. How does this affect the main server?

1b. Are there any ACTIVE public servers, guilds, and GM run campaigns running any more as of 11/2011?

1c.. What are the methods people are using to connect running games? Does anyone use Hamachi to run games?

1d. What are people using to communicate while running a game?

2. What mods and hak's are people running?

3. What are the main ACTIVE community  forums and player support networks for NWN 1 & 2?


I thought  I would post my general questions here and see what turns up! I am no longer interested in paying subscription fees  and and refuse to play any of the Free to Play MMO games either (I disagree with paying actual money just to twink out your toon in order to effectivly play a game) - but I do enjoy the social aspect that MMO's offer and hopefully that will be realized here.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Diabolic Laughter, 29 novembre 2011 - 03:34 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_SuperFly_2000]

               Welcome back to NWN Diabolic L.,

I didn't know the different versions (Deluxe, Diamond, Platinum or others) actually where different in how they work. I thought they only differed in what was shipped with the game...

I would rather think that one must follow the instructions taken forth by the community to suceed with ones install on a non XP system.

Where it usually fails is that the player didn't read on theese forums first but rather has installed the game first and then turned to theese forums and it this was already got on the wrong foot...in theese cases the game needs an uninstall and then installing again following the instructions.

I think it works in most cases once it is installed and/or ran according to thoose instructions.


Regarding your questions:

1a) I think you could actually get support from Atari about this game if you contacted them. However, the master server is still down (been down for like more than half a year now). The only downside with the master server not working is that it takes a little bit longer time to log in to a server...

1b) Yeah there are, but not the ones I wanted to be active personally.

1c) I use Xfire. I don't know about Hamachi. Hamachi feels like something you use for closed world servers (not open to the public).

1d) Well...the built in chat functions are very good and usually enough.

However for out of game chat there are other programs.

Over a long period of time I've tried to get people to use Xfire for when playing NWN online or even just when playing SP. It hasn't really worked out but I did manage to collect almost 300 in an NWN community on Xfire.

Xfire as well as Skype and similar can be used to have voice-communication in-game if that is needed.

2) This is still very diverce, server dependant. The bulk of online servers don't use any HAK's at all.

3) This is the official forum for the NWN1 game and the same site also hosts the NWN2 forums and other.


Yeah....this is still the best MMO....the way I see it also....

...even though other games have, at least momentarily, taken over my time the last month or so (like Battlefield 3)....
               
               

               

                     Modifié par SuperFly_2000, 29 novembre 2011 - 05:52 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               

1a. I understand that NWN is pretty much dead in the way of support from Bioware & Atari. How does this affect the main server?

The Master Server (for account authentication) has been down for some time (as SuperFly_2000 noted).  You can still connect to multiplayer servers, you'll just have to a) wait for the master server connection to time out, alter a file in your Windows installation to bypass the master server, or c) install NWNCX (Neverwinter Nights Client Extender), which as far as I know simply speeds up the master server timeout process (amongst other functions).

1b. Are there any ACTIVE public servers, guilds, and GM run campaigns running any more as of 11/2011?

Quite a few.  Not all have high player counts, but there are plenty out there so that with some searching and testing, you should be able to find one or more that suits your play style.

1c.. What are the methods people are using to connect running games? Does anyone use Hamachi to run games?

nwserver.exe (which comes with the game) is used to run individual servers.  You can then connect to the servers via direct connect (if you know the server's IP address) or you can go through gamespy and pick a server.  Both connection methods are found in-game via the "multiplayer > join an internet game" buttons.  You can also pick the LAN option if you are playing on one that is running the server software (or with a DM running the game through the DM client).  I don't see a reason to try to run the game through software like Hamachi.

1d. What are people using to communicate while running a game?

There is the in-game chat functions (seems to be used by most) and outside software like Skype, Ventrilo, and other programs.  It just depends on your preferences, I guess.

2. What mods and hak's are people running?

There are a ton of single player modules available for free (mostly on the NWN Vault site), along with many that are multiplayer friendly (for gaming with a small group of friends).  Then there are the servers that are open to anyone, many of them persistent worlds (PWs) running 24 hours a day.  There are several popular hak (content) packages out there (such as CEP, Project Q, CTP, NWNCQ, and more) that are used by various servers.  Some use one of more of these packages, some use server-specific content, some use nothing that doesn't come stock with the game (hak free).  Once again, it's up to personal preference...although my personal opinion is that players miss out on a lot this game has to offer by instantly dismissing all of the high quality work that the community has produced over the years.

3. What are the main ACTIVE community  forums and player support networks for NWN 1 & 2?

Like SuperFly_2000 said, this is the official (and main) forum for information and player support for NWN and NWN2.  The old forums were locked down more than a year ago, and were shut down completely after a hacker attack earlier this year.

I thought  I would post my general questions here and see what turns up! I am no longer interested in paying subscription fees  and and refuse to play any of the Free to Play MMO games either (I disagree with paying actual money just to twink out your toon in order to effectivly play a game) - but I do enjoy the social aspect that MMO's offer and hopefully that will be realized here.

I've personally never paid a subscription fee to play a game online, which may be why my online RPG playing has not left from NWN since I started with it years ago.  And NWN suits me even more since I can always find a server that suits my play style (or make one of my own, if desired...which I did).

If you are looking for some of the more general information about this game (such as links to game enhancements, where to find modules you can play, and even information on creating your own modules and custom content, I'm going to suggest a quick visit to www.neverwinternights.info.

Good luck!