Weird problem - NWN:EE Steam - Lots of mods are in, but folders are "empty"
BelgarathMTH
Member Posts: 5,653
Hi, I am playing NWN:EE on Steam and wanted to work with my modules installations and folders. I have a *lot* of mods installed, including colored icons, and content mods like Savant's Saga of Aielund. They all work with their mods, haks, etc.
But, when I go to the Steam Workshop and try to install any new mods, they don't work, even though they say I am subscribed.
This is the weird part - all of my mod folders - overrides, mods, haks - in Documents: Neverwinter Nights are completely empty and totally blank. Yet all of my mods installed are still working just fine, as well as my Saga of Aielund saves, although none of that modding is showing up anywhere in my computer folders.
What on earth is going on here?
But, when I go to the Steam Workshop and try to install any new mods, they don't work, even though they say I am subscribed.
This is the weird part - all of my mod folders - overrides, mods, haks - in Documents: Neverwinter Nights are completely empty and totally blank. Yet all of my mods installed are still working just fine, as well as my Saga of Aielund saves, although none of that modding is showing up anywhere in my computer folders.
What on earth is going on here?
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Comments
Did you copy them into Documents > Neverwinter Nights, for example?
If you can find the file nwn.ini (normally in that Documents folder) it will tell you which folder your saves and old mods are in. You might have to use a decent file manager like FreeCommander to find it.
Clearly, the files must be there, otherwise your mods wouldn't work.
Once you've found the old mods, the next step is to get the Steam Workshop items working.
Though there has been no official comment on this from Beamdog, as far as I know, some players find it more reliable to move the Steam Workshop content to whatever folders contain your old mods.
The Steam Workshop content will be in anonymously numbered sub-folders within C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\704450. (704450 is correct for the development version but might be a different number for the production version).
I just had a very distressing problem where my internet suddenly slowed down so much it wouldn't load anything more than text. No pictures, no streaming. I went to my ISP website, and they had a message there that they were aware of the problem and were working as quickly as possible to solve it.
During this service outage, not only could I not view screen shots here on this website, but when I went back into my NWN:EE game, my colored icon mods and my portrait packs were suddenly not working.
My internet service is back on now, and my colored interface mod and my portrait came back when the internet did.
This leads me to believe that Steam workshop mods are now stored in the Steam cloud, and loaded from there.
I don't know why some mods aren't working - specifically the Beamdog HD weapon and tower shield models, or Beamdog's improved Aribeth. Amethyst Dragon's weapon models are also not working.
However, the Beamdog improved temple tiles from the Hall of Justice in Chapter One were working as I played through.
I still would like to know in better detail why all my mod folders in my Documents folders are showing up as empty, but my mods installed via Steam workshop are now clearly internet related. No connection, no mods. Connection restored, most of my mods work again, just not the Beamdog interface and models mods I mentioned.
I have had not the same but similar issues. I'm not an expert in that kind of things, so I apologize in advance if what I'm writing is totally irrelevant and, on top of that, not very well structured.
The mods must have been saved in the cloud only, because yesterday I played in offline mode on Steam for an hour during a quiet time at work (just to avoid misunderstandings, in the evening it's on-call, so I'm allowed to play or watch TV until the phone rings), and the colored icons had disappeared. I hadn't even noticed that until I saw this thread and went back to check it. But of course you have other mods installed than just the colors, and would have noticed if Aribeth suddenly looked completely different
The strange thing is that the other mods don't work any more for you. That's why I asked if you have another installation, too, and maybe had some mods installed there and not via Steam.
I had bought the game from Beamdog and was playing that way, with no other changes than portrait packs downloaded from the Neverwinter Vault. Then I activated the game on Steam with the included key, because you had said that in NWN:EE it's much easier to install modds and content via Steam. I thought that I would have to manually import my saved game files, but I started the game on Steam and it recognized my saved games from the other installation. Only my avatar portrait from the portrait pack was gone.
Then I noticed, as you did, that the folder in documents contained only empty folders, except for the saves.
I went to the NWN:EE directory in BeamdogLibrary and copied the portrait files into the empty portraits folder in documents, started the game again in Steam, loaded the last save again and my portrait was there, and stayed there when playing online or offline. And when I installed the colored icons, they were showing up in all the older saved games, too.
Those were not the Steam local files but the Beamdog installation, but maybe copying the override folder from the local files to the NWN:EE directory in documents would make it available again?
In case you don't know where to find the local files, in my case they're in Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Neverwinter Nights. Or you can access them by right-clicking on the game in your Steam app, selecting "Properties" then "Local Files" and "Browse local files".
The last information was shamelessly stolen from a post where @Tresset had replied to a similar problem as yours. Maybe he has a good idea?
The only difference between yours and the other person's problem seems to be that your mods had been working in the first place and now they are not. Still, maybe copying the override folder from local files into the directory that's empty except for saved games might be a solution to restore your mods. At least you won't have to worry about clean copies and new content, because the folder was empty anyway. If it doesn't work, just delete it again and no harm done.
And please intervene, any of you computer wizards, if my ideas are complete nonsense.
It doesn't affect the colored items, they still don't appear in offline mode. But maybe those are "cloud only" and the other mods you have aren't. Maybe it's still worth trying in your case.
That internet interruption last night was all over our local news this morning. Apparently it disrupted news broadcasts at the same time I was trying to play NWN:EE on Steam. They couldn't bring up weather maps graphics, or play videos that went with their news stories.
My portrait and icons are back up this morning. Since I have a game in progress that's working, and I'm mostly satisfied with the state of it, I don't think I want to mess around with my files and risk getting my current run corrupted. But I'll definitely look for those mod files where you suggest, because they've got to be somewhere.
During the internet outage, I tried loading an old save from a game I had going of Savant's "Saga of Aielund". It came up and was working just fine - custom portraits, custom tilesets, custom music tracks, and all. So I know all those files have be somewhere on my computer. They're just not in the Documents folder.
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Okay, I looked in the Steam/steamapps/common/Neverwinter Nights folder, and the files are not there. In fact, there are only game data files in there and no override, mod, hak, music, or portrait folders.
I tried my Beamdog Library folder, and they're not there. Only my Infinity Engine games are in there, in four different numbered folders, one each for BG, SoD, IWD, and BG2.
This is a really frustrating mystery - however, as long as I have my colored icons, custom portraits, and can still play Saga of Aielund, I'm good for now. I guess I have to let it go with the weapon models or other aesthetic changes. I'd better call this a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Inside that folder labeld "704450" there are dozens of folders labeled with 10-digit numbers. Each one of those folders contains separate override and other hak folders. It would be next to impossible for me to find anything in there.
I'm not about to start messing with it.
My current guess is that some of the mods I've subscribed to via the workshop have conflicts with each other. The next step in trying to trouble shoot would be, I think, to uninstall the game and unsubscribe all workshop content, reinstall the game, and then start re-subscribing one at a time. That would be drastic, and I'm not that unhappy with the current state of my install.
I've already tried un-subscribing and re-subscribing workshop mods, and that didn't help.
At this point, I'm just going to leave well enough alone. I can play all original content, I have working installations of Savant's "Saga of Aielund" and Adam Miller's "Shadowlords" series, my Darkness Over Daggerford installation still works, and I have my colored icons and a custom portrait I like. It's all good.
I have done this myself, it's not as scary as it looks.