NWNCX

[odbo255]

Thank you for an excellent modification to a great game.

What is the viability of adding additional quickslots? Is it even technically feasible from what you've seen?

[pain]

Just to give a heads up where I am coming from...

I am working on a program which is aimed at making NWN and NWN2, on both mac and PC ( and linux if possible ), easier for players. It does this by launching the game, but further doing adjustments to their installations, fixing things for them, similar to how the autodownloader feature developed for NWN2 PW play. The idea is to integrate the searching of PW's, and modules, and content from the vault, and launching the game, and installation/version checking for the chosen modules content. Basically make it so all the complexity goes away, and they just click play on a SP or MP module, and it just works.

For example if the player ( in this case me) is on a mac, and has 1.68 version of NWN1, and opens my program and selects neversummer, then hits play. The entire point is without the player having to know anything for it to fix the game version up to 1.69, verify nothing else is needed ( is there a hak required ), then launch the PW via the connect parameter. ( which i just got working, from 1.68 mac version, hit play on never summer, which i got from skywings api, and I was able to make a lame character and get killed by some bandits )

Another example is the CEP, I can just use the declared description, and if it includes CEP, i can verify the player has CEP of some sort installed by looking for certain files. If I know they have an older version, i can do an update. The idea again is, the player can hit play on ANY row in the list of PW's, and they might have to wait for files to show up, but when it finally connects, it's all set up exactly like the PW wants. ( including removing extra content the user accidentally leaves in their override )

Now i want to do the same thing for single player, so if a player selects a vault page, and selects play, for it to download the given files, and dependencies, then it opens the module, perhaps adjusting the module so it has any override content in a hak to prevent conflicts. Ideally this allows module makers to do much more complex requirements for custom content then just saying CEP. But it also means i am doing checksums, merging 2da's, assembling haks, and setting up some means of managing the content like they do for software distribution on linux.

I am thinking NWNcx is just going to be something I pre-install when used with my program for all PC users, just like the NWN2 client extender is required, so the end user just has to check a box, and i make sure they have the latest versions thereof.

So what I am looking at doing, and some of this I can do this entirely via parsing the game formats and direct communication to the PW servers, but some things I think might require features being added to NWNcx and the NWN2 client extender, ideally enough so there can be feature parity between NWN1 and NWN2, in adding parameters which allow you to command line launch the game.

• Ability to get a list of the haks required to play on a PW, prior to launching the game - generally this should mean no help from the PW owner, and i can guess which hak content is needed. ( probably can get this with wireshark and tracing how I connect to a PW which needs haks i don't have, as it's posting this list in the client now, but perhaps via a nwnx plugin. )
  
• Giving PW owner in NWN1 access to the PWC URL which NWN2 uses to download the PWC file, they can put some instructions for files they which the end user to install prior to playing, which my program can use. Perhaps automate this so the listing of haks is visible, soas to determine which servers i can play on without installing anything. ( NWN2 has ADL already, but would love to recreate this functionality in NWN2. )
  
• Ability to connect to a SP module via command line, just like you can connect to a PW. ( perhaps this is already doable similar to how it does it from the toolset? ) This would be useful in both NWN1 and NWN2. If I can get the end user using my program for the general management of modules, loading of saved games, well it allows me the chance to fix their problems right before the module loads, and makes browsing custom content on the vault easier if I do all needed merging for them. ( Note it was seeing skywing re-implemented the +connect parameter for NWN2 that really got me working on my program again )
  
• Ability to pass the desired bic the player wants to use via command line. I would like to implement a character editor into my program, which lists, adjusts bic files. In NWN2 just browsing the characters can make the NWN2 program crash ( unless skywing fixed that ). This would also allow modules which provide a single bic file you HAVE to use, the ability to restrict it.
  
• Usage of NWNx in single player, ie setup the NWNx for them, make it look like the SP interface and disabling it showing up in gamespy or people connecting to it from outside. Connect them to 127.0.0.1 and try to hide the fact they are actually now using 2 cores on their computer.
  

Ideally these features being in NWNcx and the NWN2 client extender allow other developers to implement new features as well, and push the edges of what NWN1 and NWN2 are capable of. I can see for example letting the player posting the http://nwn2db.com/ url, and being able to hit connect and my creating that chosen build at the minimum character level listed for that module on the vault page.

I could further see if a program were somehow secured or coordinated with a PW, to be able to either take a build from a url, or provided by the PW itself, to generate a character with my program, and send the bic to the pw ( ala vaulster type of plugin ), and direct connecting with the bic parameter, and just hopping into game play. ( for NWN2 you cannot control character generation at level 0, UI scripting won't work, but you can control it thereafter ).

[Skywing]

The invalid subrace 2da reference causing a character browser crash should be fixed with the CE in use.

[virusman]

NWNCX 0.2.6 - GameSpy replacement plugin!

0.2.6 // 06.02.2013
Added Connect plugin for hak/tlk preloading on character creation (server-side plugin is required for this to work)
Added Serverlist plugin - a replacement for GameSpy

http://data.virusman.ru/nwn/nwncx/nwncx-0.2.6.rar
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In Soviet Russia, NWN plays you!

[virusman]

NWNCX 0.2.7
http://data.virusman.ru/nwn/nwncx/nwncx-0.2.7.rar
0.2.7 // 11.02.2013
Serverlist plugin: fixed server connectivity, Action game type listing bug
Tweaks plugin: moved Instant Feats to another position in radial menu, giving DMs the ability to cast NPC's instant feats while possessing the NPC
Updated the loader to handle command line parameters correctly
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In Soviet Russia, NWN plays you!

[Nissa_Red]

First of all, sorry for posting again in this thread, and not in the support forum, but my interest really lies in NWNCX, and not in NWNX2. I am back to some module building, and am trying to determine what could be useful to me in a NWNCX enhanced single-player game. I hope you don't mind, and if it's a bother please feel free to move the message as you see fit. Anyway, here goes.

I've managed to use NWNCX version 2.5 (no NWNX2 installed ) with success (on WinXP/SP3). I could open a module in the toolset, and by hitting F9, I was connected to the game with the DM interface.

I've then managed to use NWNCX with NWNX2 installed in my NWN game folder, with "nwncx_nwnxbridge.dll" and "nwnx_events.dll" activated. I could load the demo module ("events_demo.mod") through the game interface ("nwmain.exe"), and leave it without crashing. The log files are as follows :

.\nwn\logs\nwncx.txt

[virusman]

Unfortunately, not all NWNX plugins work correctly within the client. Funcs and other plugins may and probably will crash the game because they expect nwserver addresses and offsets.
Make sure you use only the compatible plugins from this package:
http://data.virusman.ru/nwn/nwncx/nwnx2_nwncx_compatible_plugins.rar
They were modified to hook functions within nwmain's address space, but even then they haven't been tested extensively. If you experience any issues with these, please post here. If you need some features from other plugins that are not yet compatible with NWNCX, you can also post here or ask the plugin's author to make modifications.
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In Soviet Russia, NWN plays you!

[virusman]

Oh, it seems like you're using the correct Events plugin and it can find the addresses, but still doesn't work for some reason.. I'll look into it, thanks.
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In Soviet Russia, NWN plays you!

[Nissa_Red]

Wow, you replied quick, thank you.

I understand about the restrictions of NWNX2's plugins. They were not coded to work in that way to start with.

As I said, I am grateful for whatever we can get through this project of yours, which I personally find extremely valuable as it is (the AABB showing in the toolset, for example, or booting into the DM interface directly from the toolset, and I haven't really looked into the new beam VFXes yet).

I realize it may take patience, but if I asked about the soundset and gender swapping, it would be to allow a very convincing way to swap between characters in single-player modules (as seen in KOTOR, for example). Right now, the only way for me to achieve this in NWN is through the possession of a familiar (which only sorcerer and wizard classes get), and even that comes with heavy restrictions (not being able to leave the area, loss of the hotbar, need to hide/invis the master character, etc.).

Anyway, I know you (and other NWNX contributors) probably have already enough on your plate with multi-player evolutions of the game. I just wanted to attempt to motivate my request(s), so that they hopefully do not come out as more than a plea for consideration in the future ^.^

Thank you again kindly for your time.

[virusman]

I think there was PossessCreature in one of the plugins somewhere.. Maybe in Linux NWNX, but it should be possible. Modifying the main character for that just doesn't seem right.
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In Soviet Russia, NWN plays you!

[Nissa_Red]

It's not that much about changing the main character than giving them another temporary and *convincing* "appearance".

I mentioned KOTOR already, where you play two different "main" characters at one time during the game, working in two separate teams, but I remember another game which had a mission during which the main character was captured, and her companions had to free her. The game then asked which of the companions the player trusted the most in, and the player character would then take the appearance, gender and soundset of that companion, till the mission was accomplished. It was in Dragon Age maybe, though I am not so sure anymore ?

Polymorph should have been the immediate choice to fit such a scenario design need in NWN, but it has two drawbacks : it doesn't have a voiceset (it really sounds weird to have a male character speaking with a female voice, or vice versa), and (even worse) it can be cancelled by the player at any time. It's no surprise since it was designed by Bioware as a stat-enhancing tool to be used mainly during battles, not as a "forced" disguise of some sort. Possessing a familiar can be cancelled in the same fashion, it removes inventory, it has the other limitations I listed above, so it isn't satisfactory to me either.

Changing the soundset (which already seems to exist in "nwnx_funcs", and would have my priority as module builder to getting it to work) and the gender (just to avoid duplicating tons of bodyparts) of the main character in a single-player module doesn't seem illegitimate to me, considering all that LETO can otherwise do (bypassing caps), but I will of course respect your choice if such was your decision.

I just would be sad, hehe, since nwnCX seemed like the ideal tool to fulfill what I was looking for.

[Balkoth]

[virusman]

NWNCX 0.2.8
http://data.virusman.ru/nwn/nwncx/nwncx-0.2.8.rar
0.2.8 // 03.04.2013
Serverlist plugin: fixed Gamespy chat feature
Removed the camera tweak from the default patch file, leaving alternate patch file with the tweak for those who want to have it. There is no need to re-patch, as nothing has changed in the patcher itself, this change is just for convenience.
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In Soviet Russia, NWN plays you!

[Gioz]

Hi, I'm new here. Reposting after a search on Windows technical support but founding anything; hoping it's the right thread.
I need some help to preload haks.

I created a new base class called 'Warlock' in my classes.2da
(entry is: 42 Warlock 16777217 16777217 16777217 16777217 IR_WIZARD 4 CLS_ATK_3 CLS_FEAT_WARLOCK CLS_SAVTHR_WIZ CLS_SKILL_WARLOCK CLS_BFEAT_WIZ 2 CLS_SPGN_WIZ **** 1 1 10 14 14 12 16 10 INT 0x00 0x0 0 CLASS_TYPE_WARLOCK 1 1 1 2 2 4 6 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 **** 0 1 0 0 -1 10)
I created a similar custom entry in packages.2da, and created CLS_FEAT_WARLOCK.2da and CLS_SKILLS_WARLOCK.2da copying the Wizard ones
I saved my custom 2da files in a custom hak under the hak/ directory, using nwhak.exe
I created a custom module, importing the custom hak generated earlier
I downloaded nwnx2 and nwncx, put everything in my nwn folder (used nwnx-2.7-beta4-win32-full.rar, nwnx2_nwncx_compatible_plugins.rar, tried both nwncx 0.2.8 and 0.2.7)
I configured the server in nwnplayer.ini
I configured nwnx in nwnx.ini (actually only changed the module name)
I started the server using NWN2.exe
I then started the client using NWNCX_Loader.exe

After creating a character and leveling up, I can choose my Warlock custom class. But at character creation... no way.

What am I doing wrong? Do I have misunderstood completely what nwnx can do?
TIA for the help and the great work you're doing!

Edit: if that matters, I'm playing under Win7 with both client and server run as administrator in XPSP3 compatibility mode.

[virusman]

NWNCX allows you to use custom content (skills, feats, etc.) on character creation, but it does not unlock custom base classes yet.
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In Soviet Russia, NWN plays you!