Returning player's questions

[MithrilBlade]

After a long hiatus I decided that it was the time to get my good ol' NWN2 out and start playing the game again. After a massive amount of work related to the Win10 incompabilities, patch installation issues, server IP address locating problems and whatnot I managed to finally get the game up and running (big thanks to Luna's pre-patched installation!). I still havent' managed to make the Client Extension work, but at least now I can theoretically start up the game and it should work on basic level.

The fact that this server was still running, custom content-rich and surprisingly active was a very positive surprise!

However, during character making I ran into some important issues that have this far prevented me from making my character. I'd really appreciate if someone could help me with my questions:

1) After doing semi-thorough research on the custom changes of the server I logged in and noticed that quite many of the latest spell- and PrC changes hadn't been documented on the Important announcements forum section. This is a shame, as I see many new tempting spells, classes and other changes that aren't visible beyond the game engine and ignorance isn't excuse when designing a character build So my question is: Is there any other place where I could see complete collection of changes especially regarding new PrC's, feats, spells in more detail?

2) One way how I tried to test this was loading the modules to a character leveling-up module, but I couldn't make it work because the modules probably bugged theirselves out when not placed in correct order. Does anyone know how can I install the haks in the correct order to make them work in a sample module? Are there any other things besides haks that are required to make the module work?

3) Last (and perhaps least important) detail: While making character I wanted to use United Colors override so I could make (completely reasonable, I assure) customization to the character skin/hair color, etc. However, when I tried to make a new character I saw that these options were disabled even though they worked just fine on other modules. I recall that these changes were acceptable before, so I wanted to ask did the policy change and are the visual overrides illegal now? If so, would it be possible to have character custom changes by leto or other methods by exchanging Role Playing tokens or by other means manually?

If anyone has also fixed the Win10 problem related to Client Extension not starting up, that'd also be helpful.

Thanks for the answers in advance and hope to see you all in game soon!

[Blackhorizon]

When upgrading Windows 10, I ran into problem with the game (or CE or java or something related to the game) not finding the path and needed to fix it before the CE started working but it did give an error message to identify the problem. I can't say exactly what it was since it's been a good while ago now.

Though, I do have original disks. People have ran into propblems also when they have steam version, perhaps also GOG.

I'm running mine on Windows 10, full screen, pretty much maxed details without hiccups and using the NWlauncer to start the game.

[Maximvs]

When a new windows comes out, do NOT upgrade to it right away. Wait at least 1-2 years.

[Dagesh]

Hidden: show

After a long hiatus I decided that it was the time to get my good ol' NWN2 out and start playing the game again. After a massive amount of work related to the Win10 incompabilities, patch installation issues, server IP address locating problems and whatnot I managed to finally get the game up and running (big thanks to Luna's pre-patched installation!). I still havent' managed to make the Client Extension work, but at least now I can theoretically start up the game and it should work on basic level.

The fact that this server was still running, custom content-rich and surprisingly active was a very positive surprise!

However, during character making I ran into some important issues that have this far prevented me from making my character. I'd really appreciate if someone could help me with my questions:

1) After doing semi-thorough research on the custom changes of the server I logged in and noticed that quite many of the latest spell- and PrC changes hadn't been documented on the Important announcements forum section. This is a shame, as I see many new tempting spells, classes and other changes that aren't visible beyond the game engine and ignorance isn't excuse when designing a character build So my question is: Is there any other place where I could see complete collection of changes especially regarding new PrC's, feats, spells in more detail?

2) One way how I tried to test this was loading the modules to a character leveling-up module, but I couldn't make it work because the modules probably bugged theirselves out when not placed in correct order. Does anyone know how can I install the haks in the correct order to make them work in a sample module? Are there any other things besides haks that are required to make the module work?

3) Last (and perhaps least important) detail: While making character I wanted to use United Colors override so I could make (completely reasonable, I assure) customization to the character skin/hair color, etc. However, when I tried to make a new character I saw that these options were disabled even though they worked just fine on other modules. I recall that these changes were acceptable before, so I wanted to ask did the policy change and are the visual overrides illegal now? If so, would it be possible to have character custom changes by leto or other methods by exchanging Role Playing tokens or by other means manually?

If anyone has also fixed the Win10 problem related to Client Extension not starting up, that'd also be helpful.

Thanks for the answers in advance and hope to see you all in game soon!

1) I'm not sure where the pre-req's are located myself although I don't think they're out yet. I would look at D&D source books to get a better idea of skill requirements.

2) There was a module called JEGs that you could practice making a build with. As it is, since RCR is 100% for now most folks are simply re-RCRing to find the right tweaks.

3) Not sure about this.

[Rasael]

A lot of documentation can be found on the BGTSCC wiki.

[MithrilBlade]

Thanks for the answers everyone!

Blackhorizon: I have also the original discs, although updating the game proved completely impossible. I did manage to make it work with a lot of tinkering, but just with the regular game launcher as you mentioned. Did you manage to the Client Extensions work on your Win10?

Maximvs: It wasn't my decision to make I got a new PC and the Win10 came out with it so I'm stuck with this for the time being. Overall I've been rather happy with the system performance. I suppose there can't be eternal support for old platforms like NWN2.

Dagesh: I use the Halls of Advanced Training module, which I've been using for ages. I tried to add the module in alphabetical order, but that mixed everything up with the classes and such. I'd really like to try out the details of some of the new builds as I have tons of questions and I could get answers to most of those by trying it out manually.

Rasael: Thanks a ton, this helped a lot. I notice that there are still some things that are under construction in the wiki, but now I'm spending most of my time studying the content from here. Really nice stuff you have built here since my last visit!

PS: I have one more detail-level question that I couldn't figure out: Now that the lore skill has been split into sub-skills there are still some classes that require certain amount of Lore ranks as their requirements. Does anyone know if I can have for example 15 ranks in -any- Lore to unlock the classes or is it class-specific? For example: Do divine spellcasting classes such as Hierophant/Stormsinger, require Knowledge: Divine and Arcane spellcasting classes (f.e Thaumaturge, Arcane Trickster) Knowledge: Arcana?

[DM Ninox]

PS: I have one more detail-level question that I couldn't figure out: Now that the lore skill has been split into sub-skills there are still some classes that require certain amount of Lore ranks as their requirements. Does anyone know if I can have for example 15 ranks in -any- Lore to unlock the classes or is it class-specific? For example: Do divine spellcasting classes such as Hierophant/Stormsinger, require Knowledge: Divine and Arcane spellcasting classes (f.e Thaumaturge, Arcane Trickster) Knowledge: Arcana?

I am working on getting the Custom Server changes pages updated with this information ASAP. Hope to have it 100% done by the end of tomorrow (about 80% complete just for this component of it). Keep your eyes open!

[Blackhorizon]

Blackhorizon: I have also the original discs, although updating the game proved completely impossible. I did manage to make it work with a lot of tinkering, but just with the regular game launcher as you mentioned. Did you manage to the Client Extensions work on your Win10?

Sorry for not being more spesific. I don't think I had problems with the game itself, just CE. When trying to reinstall/reapply CE, it couldn't find the game path if I recall correctly. Though I did get an error message which helped me get forward.

It's worth checking your registry entry though that shouldn't be a problem if you reinstalled your game. I didn't and the registry path is different in win7 than in win10. I'll be able to shed more light on the registry issue when I get home in a few hours.

Atm I don't have any problems with the game or the CE. I run the game in full screen and only the CE log or is it called command window window open (the map at least made my game really laggy). My game is also fully patched.

Do you get any error messages when trying to apply CE?

Also have you tried the other method of running CE?
1. (First time only.) Double-click hdlinstall.reg to install support for .hdl files. You only need to perform this step once per computer. If you'vealready done this before, ignore this step.
2. Start Neverwinter Nights 2 in normal client mode, and go to the main menu. It is recommended that you use Neverwinter Nights 2 in windowed mode but this is not strictly required.
3. Navigate to where you have placed ClientExtension.hdl in Explorer, right-click the ClientExtension.hdl file, and choose the 'Apply' option from the menu that appears. This step needs to be done every time you start the game.
4. Log on to your server as normal. Be sure to apply the extension before you log on to your server.

UPDATED: Registry (for Win10 64bit)

If you are comfortable looking into your registry with regedit, then check if you have an entry called path with value to your NWN2 installation folder under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Obsidian\NWN 2\

I had to add string value entry there because I didn't have it (as I didn't reinstall the game after Windows10 upgrade). Name: Path, Value:NWN2 intallation location (mine is for example E:\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2)

The difference from Windows 7 on my machine was WOW6432Node in the key path. In 7 it is Wow6432Node and in 10 it is with capital letters WOW6432Node and apparently it matters. For this reason CE on mine wasn't able to determine the NWN2 installation location because it was pointing to the Win7 path that did not exist in 10. It seems insignificant but wasn't. Either that or the installation path was simply lost in the upgrade.

After the path addition I didn't have any problems with CE any longer.