A "Guide" or some sort of documentation on NWN1.69 PW to NWNEE transition.

ricoyung

Documented help/guide for NWN 1.69 persistent worlds to help with the transition to NWNEE.
This was proposed and discussed on the latest Beamdog stream on YouTube (close to the end of stream)
Maybe some 1.69 PW admins/devs that have already made the transition can help with input.
I know of one server that has made the move (I played a lot before the move) I am able to login and play there, but the server vault is messed up me thinks; you can use local characters and any toon you make won't save server side..also you login on horseback..lol
So anyways I am hereby making this officially a Request. Thanx

GM_ODA

We have begun the transition to EE. Our server has a staggering number of features (coded very clean and lean) and thus far we have found the vast majority of systems are working fine. We are testing the feature set and have a boat load more testing to do, but so far, very little has been 'broken'.

We have discovered a couple of our database related systems are fluffed due to the change in handling of playernames/login, our Lead Scripter has submitted a fix for these and we'll be testing more again later today. COME JOIN US! Perhaps you can help document the experience?

http://argentumregio.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page?&cb=8705

ricoyung

Bumping this, I was mainly asking this for a 1.69 PW that would like to make the move to NWNEE but the current server host/admin knows little about dev (basically just a host for existing handed down PW) so our host is hesitant to try the move fearing failure...and considering it is a heavily modded PW (unlimited levels and more @Aventia) I can't say I blame him for his hesitancy.
I personally have never hosted a server, only lite dev work for 1 other PW so I am not really qualified/knowledgeable enough to make such a basic "Guide" for the transition.
So I am asking anybody with this knowledge @Beamdog or in the community for help in this quest if they feel like helping that would be uber. Thank you.

The few things I do know:
Load the 1.69 mod in the NWNEE toolset. Save mod in EE (modnameEE.mod) to your NWNEE mod directory...Play the mod locally; and from the one I tried with (another pw mod I inherited) it mostly worked without anything else (no ini or nwnx adjustments) but that is as far as I got. So it seems to me it may be fairly simple for someone with the knowledge/wisdom to lay out a simple basic template for the move?.

Drakon

Here is a helpful in-depth guide along with a tool that makes porting, maintenance, and updating much easier with a GUI for non-technical folks. Hopefully it's enough for the server host to work with: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1302872809

Otherwise, if I were you I'd get in touch with people leading the servers that have made the switch recently, like Cormyr, and ask them for advice. Here is a list of live servers: https://nwn.beamdog.net/

PhannSilverthorn

We made the jump. Largely it was saving the module under EE and then working through the changes that came.

We opted to use the new method of saving accounts that is based on the new Public Key. The folder structure saves each account as the name of the Public Key and all characters go under that key. There is a .2da file called knownservernames.2da that is created that maps "named" accounts to the new Public Key account structure. Based on either knowing the Public Key or the 1.69 account name, I was able to reconcile the server vault to each player.

We used nwnx and that broke for Windows users in EE. So now I am using JimBob's software to manage the server engine. This works for us as we do not have database connections into a SQL server. We have been able to manage with the native database and .2da files to store data.

Directory structure of the system changed and that took some getting used to. Modules are stored in a different location. Servervault and several other structures are stored in the user documents directory and not in the Neverwinter nights C: drive. If you use Steam the nwserver.exe file has changed locations as well. Basically, if I have it correctly, the .ini files are stored in the user/documents directory. For servers this creates a bit of an issue as the directory needs to be the same as what is logging in to run the system. Typically this is the Administrator Account. I wound up bookmarking each area once I figured out where they were located. In other words, I have a shortcut for the ServerVault, I have a shortcut for the Module location, etc...

There were some challenges getting .ini files configured correctly. I had to do some research to figure out why I was getting some new errors I had never seen before. Check and google the new errors in your log files. That resolved several issues.

All of my scripts seem to be working once I recompiled. The compiler is better than it was in 1.69, I could not compile our code using the default compiler. Now I can.

I think I an say that this has been an iterative process. Find a problem, work to fix it, then move on to the next problem. All in all, it has been a pretty smooth transition for us.

Hope this helps,

Phann - Narc's Bonds of Blood - PW

ricoyung

@PhannSilverthorn+12 mate! Thank you for that! it's pretty much what I was looking for; A basic "What it took to do it" and not overly detailed (PWs differ) I do know the first thing was to save the mod in EE as I have done that with another PW I inherited and it worked (mostly), and I know about the directory structure change and also found some data (in this forum somewhere) to help on the player vault move and already assumed the ini would need to change.
I did not know about recompiling the scripts..TY! and I will definitely be looking into "JimBob's software" as I will be likely using windoze7.
I especially liked your using "native database and .2da files to store data" and am hopeful this will work for me also I will need to read/learn more on that for sure.

I think I can say that this has been an iterative process. Find a problem, work to fix it, then move on to the next problem
So true in anything really, but not obvious to some, a necessary inclusion

I must be crazy/nuts; I have for some reason taken up the task of getting Aventia, a 1.69 PW (unlimited levels!) working on EE and maybe/hopefully as an EE PW....I have little experience in modding, and none in hosting but I am IT savvy, and I think I have a good shot at it, though it will take me some time/patience -turns out just getting the .mod to me from the admin is presenting a problem as it is a 25gb file, but I may have that sussed via https://drop.me/- also many scripts from what the admin said
so...*a hand full lol...yes I am crazy.
Anyways, Thanks so much for the help, it gave me a basic "flowchart" and many tips, which is what I was seeking, the rest is up to me. WML!

*Spoiler below what I have on a vault move.

the server admin copies their 1.69 servervault to the new NWN:EE user directory ~/nwn/oldservervault.
The server admin creates the “oldservervault.2da” file in ~/nwn/override that contains the player ID / CD Key pairs of their 1.69 users (such as the following):

2DA V2.0

Player CDKey169
0 trilobyte USVE763A
1 trinketpony UCDEFGHJ
2 trottingkrip URERLADE

When a client logs in to a server, we will provide you with the public NWN:EE CD key. But, we will also provide (if the user has moved their nwncdkey.ini into their ~/nwn folder) the 1.69 key to the server, at startup, along with the player’s name.

When nwserver/NWN:EE sees a user log in with a new CD Key (and has no characters built), but matches the player name in the oldservervault list, we will look at their 1.69 Key and verify that it is the same as the one that was passed in. If they are the same, we will copy the files from oldservervault/trottingkrip to servervault/(NWN:EE CDKey), and then disallow those files to be copied ever again.

Example of how this works. Trottingkrip used your server extensively before NWN:EE to create Deekin’s cousin Beekin (trottingkrip is terrible at naming characters), and now you’re running a NWN:EE server alongside the 1.69 server to allow people to migrate as they see fit.

So, trottingkrip logs in to the NWN:EE server (which he can see from the in-game server browser that accesses (yet-to-be-determined-URL-for-master-server). His NWN:EE public CD Key is UKJKHDWE, and 1.69 public CD Key: URERLADE.

We examine the folders:
~/nwn/servervault/UKJKHDWE has no characters.

But there is a character here:
~/nwn/oldservervault/trottingkrip/Beekin.bic

Since trottingkrip is the player’s name, and they’ve given their 1.69 public CD Key, nwserver can copy the .bic characters from oldservervault/trottingkrip to servervault/UKJKHDWE, and then changing the file extension of the oldservervault characters to ensure they can’t be automatically copied again (but we leave the files there, just in case you need to restore a specific user’s copy ability).

~/nwn/servervault/UKJKHDWE/Beekin.bic
~/nwn/oldservervault/trottingkrip/Beekin.xbc

If the PW client has not installed their 1.69 CD Key, they will show up without their servervault characters, and be given the opportunity to make a new one. The server admins (and forum stickys) can then counsel them on how to install the old nwncdkey.ini file into their new working directory to use the PWs they know and love in NWN:EE

Dracdevilen

I own a nwn server and I want to give the mod to another person so they can put it up on NWNEE but I am not sure what files I need to send them to enable them to get it up and running on NWNEE. Would someone let me know what files I need to send beyond the mod itself.

Carlo_One

If you open the mod in the toolset, go to Edit-Module Properties, and look under the Custom Content tab, that will give you the list of hak files associated with the mod. That should be everything needed to actually run the mod.

For other files associated with the server, it will depend on whether you want to transfer any associated database files, server vault folders, or folders related to other utilities you may have been running with it.