NWN EE Chat logging

slkNihilus

I've been playing on a persistent world for years now and something I like to do is keep a log of chat so that I can look back at it later if I need to.

Unfortunately, on or around the time the server transitioned to the EE my nwclientLog1.txt has begun to consist solely of this:

Error: 40964
Error: 40964
Error: 40964
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.

I've tried following other guides, that usually suggest adding the following to nwnplayer.ini (such as https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/70668/chat-logging-filled-errors-no-longer-working-in-ee):

[Game Options]
ClientChatLogging=1
ClientEntireChatWindowLogging=1

But my nwnplayer.ini file is virtually empty, with all the options seemingly contained by the new settings.tml file, but switching these to "true" from "false" doesn't seem to have any bearing.

Thank you

Symphony

I'm not sure why you say your nwclientLog1.txt has begun, this is a different file, in a different folder, for a different game.

It would not be different for someone playing EE to start playing NWN Diamond, to try to notice that none of their game is logging chat, since chat logging has been disabled by default since the game's release, and the tutorials someone might look up for chat logging for their NWN Diamond might end up being working advice for changing the settings.tml as is the method in EE currently.

If you are suggesting that the game should have chat logging enabled by default, that's an argument, I suppose, text files are pretty small. The settings.tml system has a huge list of advantages over the established Bioware .ini's, however, so I'd rather like to see it stay.

Meanwhile, just as in NWN, NWN:EE's logging does not log chat until enabled, and I haven't seen the changes you know about in the settings.tml not work for anyone, you would be the first. Unlike the .ini setting, it's even the case that you can edit them to true while in game, save the document, and your chat will start to log immediately, and then you can edit them to false, save the document, and the game will stop exporting chat to log, immediately.

Additionally, unlike the .ini's in the original NWN, the settings.tml has all of the game settings, even if they are "hidden" or "secret" like "AllowWindowedMode", and default to off, so you do not need to find a website with the secret parameter names to change the settings to what you want. Almost all of them are also present in the game in the current version, 8193.13, through the temporary "Debug Menu", accessed by CTRL + SHIFT + F12, within the Config pane. Using the filter box, you can search for settings for "log", and quickly find the parameters as defined in settings.tml, without opening settings.tml, and change them without resetting the game, or anything like that.

This is incredibly helpful, especially in the case of chat logs, since not all players understand what Bioware's different chat logging parameters do. Being able to individually activate and deactivate ClientEntireChatWindowLogging and LogMyEmoteUsage etc., to see what is appearing in nwclientLog1.txt as you change those settings, without restarting the game, is very valuable.

NWN is currently in the middle of a transition to the next game version, with many testing the 8193.14 development build. In this build and the future builds, I suppose, this debug config pane is gone, as the settings have been injected into the rest of NWN's options in the new Options menus.