Important: Server Patch

[Avalyn]

I have now patched the server, and I am currently uploading the patched module.

You can now patch to 1.67, but please also make sure you have the cep 1.53 hak which can be located here (http://nwvault.ign.com/?dir=cep/downloads)

Also, you will require the updated merprc v1.4 which is located here (http://www.silverswords.co.uk/merprcv14.zip)

Many thanks for your patience.

[Steve-Law]

*Applaudes Avalyn* Good job that man.

[DM_Olórin]

A word of caution. There is a known issue with the patch regarding Linux based servers.

Expect that elective skill checks, like those in convos and crafting NOT to work. Alas this is something Bioware are aware of and we await their pleasure for the time being. It seems that built in skill checks like listen and spot for example, seem to work fine (as far as i can tell).

This should not spoil our enjoyment too much until either a fix becomes available or we find a workable means of circumventing the problem. A couple of methods seem plausible, but it involves making changes to core NWN files which is not exactly desirable.

In the meantime make the best of it and hopefully it wont be long before Bioware get their finger out and see to the patch.

Cheers :)

[DM Curumo]

There has been a new patch, just released 1.68. Please do not update until we notify you that the server has been updated as well. These things can take a short while so inorder to not spoil your gaming pleasure, wait until given the green light.

Thank you.

[DM_Aiwendil]

Great, 1.68 fixes the skill checks (that I already fixed) and procees to totally mess up cloaks (armour and cloak crafting) - if you didn't already know with 1.68 when you equip a cloak in your cloak slot a cloak appears on your character. Very clever, but not compatible with CEP crafting, and on first investigation not as varied/flexible (but I would hope there is more to them than on first inpection - some documentation would help Bioware...). We have various options going forward - I'm playing around with a patched copy now.

BTW, I doubt we will wait for this to be "fixed" before patching, as long as the other stuff is tested/updated to work we can go ahead, this stuff can come later (there's a dirty quick fix - remove all neck parts - we can throw in in an emergency if we need to ). Just warning you ahead of time...

[int19h]

Wouldn't you wait for the matching CEP patch first anyway? And if so, then surely they would fix their cloaks to work with 1.68?

[DM_Aiwendil]

Yes, and yes. (Probably) Nothing wrong with exploring options though.

[Silverleaf]

Wouldn't you wait for the matching CEP patch first anyway? And if so, then surely they would fix their cloaks to work with 1.68?
From what I have heard when talking to Avalyn, as well as previous patches in the past, MERP UK will be patching to v1.68 with the release of the latest CEP patch. This shouldn't be too long.

[ghost81]

Shouldn't be too long, but I've yet to find a release date for it.

Any news anyone?

[DM_Aiwendil]

They are currently testing the patch as far as I can make out.

http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=495033&forum=83&sp=30

(Among countless other threads on the same subject.)

There is an unofficial patch out (which doesn't even work for me anyway) but it's clearly fairly pointless putting in an unofficial patch when we'll only be replacing it with an official one later.

[DM_Aiwendil]

And if so, then surely they would fix their cloaks to work with 1.68?

It seems that the CEP team may not be going to be fixing the cloak compatibility issues ("neck-cloak" versus "cloak-cloak") in this patch, but it should be done in CEP2. (They are working on preventing more serious bugs/conflicts for the inerim patch.) So we may need other options in the meantime, hence my investigations.

[DM_Aiwendil]

The server is very shortly going to be updated to version 1.68

Please now update your own version of Neverwinter Nights to 1.68

You will also need to download the latest CEP patch found here: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=hakpaks.Detail&id=6949

And the latest merpuk patch, found here: http://www.silverswords.co.uk/merpukv168hak.zip

Both these haks should be extracted and placed in your NWN/hak folder.

There are various issues/workarounds for this new update, please read about most of the issues here: New Update - Progress Report - Wireplay Community Forums (http://forums.wireplay.co.uk/showthread.php?t=314143) and feel free to use that thread (not this one please) to ask questions.

Fingers crossed everyone and be patient. We’ll all be pacing the IRC chatroom (http://nwn.wireplay.co.uk/pages/irc.htm) while we wait for Avalyn to perform the update, feel free to join us in our, hopefully short, downtime.

[vulpex]

Link to CEP 168 goes to Entry not Aproved page, seems there has surfaced problems. Also Cep homepage http://nwncep.com/ had not that version. We have red alert :)

[DM_Aiwendil]

CEP homepage has not updated to show that patch, nor has the CEP download page at the Vault, nothing to worry about there.

Well spotted about the other thing though! Someone has already reported it to the CEP forum, we'll see what happens. In the meantime, if required, I'm sure Avalyn can temporarily host a copy of the patch.

(If they cause any more changes/updates I may well scream and/or kill somebody - I'm this *holds fingers a cm apart* close to finishing craftable cloaks by hacking the CEP crafting script (and using the soon-to-be patented Aiwendil-Lateral-Thinking) if they go and undo that all again...)

*sighs*

We'll keep you posted.

[VeruMontanum]

Hope it all works out good Aiwendil :)

[Avalyn]

I am on it like a Gin and Tonic - cep 1.68 Patch (http://www.silverswords.co.uk/cep1patch168.zip)

[DM_Aiwendil]

It's looking like the CEP team may be abandoning the project following the recent spate of abuse they've been receiving over the whole cloak business.

http://nwn.bioware.com/guilds_registry/viewtopic.html?topic=252055&forum=3561&gid=2226&sp=15

(Look down for Kephisto's post)

No actual official announcement to say this 100% explicitly but I'll quote it here


Greetings, fellow members of TBP. Please allow me to take a few moments to address the issues in this topic.

Normally I would have tons of nice comments to say but there's little point. While its true Sharona Curves has apologized for her statements and admits they were expressed while upset that doesn't change the immutable fact that such rantings and ravings seem like the norm coming from all across the very same community that, if not for CEP, would have absolutely nothing right now but just the game's two expansions - SoU and HotU, and thousands of individual haks that never easily worked together at all.

Yes, haks would continue, but welcome to pre-CEP reality, when if you wanted such and such you had to download and add it, but if you also wanted this and that you had to download that too - separately. You also had to edit each and every hak personally, all on your own, because each hak was made by a different author and they didn't plan for them to work together. Plus, everyone that wanted to play your adventure needed to have the exact same haks. No exceptions. Almost every module used different haks.

Pre-CEP, let nobody forget, forced most of us to spend more time and effort re-downloading haks we already had from another module but not the way the new module used it. Modules were small but their unique haks were huge and some modules needed five or six haks just to play it.

Right now, using CEP, your module can be a quick and easy download because over a million people have CEP and can easily play your adventure. Pre-CEP days, few people wanted to download 80MB of haks just to play your module because they knew those haks only worked on your module and not on many others. Yes, the horror of pre-CEP days.

I really appreciate our supporters and those that have given us help, advice, suggestions, and their praise, over the years, but sadly that's not enough against the constantly hurled vile and vicious onslaughts from those that either don't remember the times of pre-CEP or otherwise don't care. BioWare and DLA were paid to work on the game - nobody on the CEP Team is. Just like you.

Well, everyone heard it here first -

Thanks to the extremely unwarrented and brutal rants and raves of critics, complainers, whiners, and others, I hope the community enjoyed the chaos and horror caused by all the non-integrated haks of the pre-CEP days. Before there was a standard. Why? Simple.

Those days are about to return.

Hint : "You don't know what you've got til its gone."

[DM_Aiwendil]

(I'm wondering if we shouldn't revert the mod to CEP 1.53 if CEP 1.68 is gone forever... will make no difference to anything for us)

[DM_Aiwendil]

I'm going to revert the mod to CEP 1.53. We didn't need the new patch and as long as there is a question mark on it I'd rather not use it.

You shouldn't have to make any changes to your installs, as long as you have the latest merpukv168 and the cep1patch153 haks still in your hak folder you will be fine.

(cloaks will not be affected)

[int19h]

Looks like CEP 1.68 has resurfaced:

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Hakpaks.Detail&id=6971

It's the same old patch though, the one which disables the cloaks.

[DM_Aiwendil]

Thanks for that, no need to go back to it though as it adds nothing for us.

(Notice though that it from a third party not the CEP team... (same patch I know, but ... http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=496807&forum=83&sp=0))

The CEP team have now released a second patch to go with the original one. One disables the new cloaks, the other enables them. Again though I can't see us using either, we have cloaks working, and more importantly, craftable I don't want to jeapordise all that work (I had to make changes to the CEP crafting scripts to make cloaks craftable).

[vulpex]

Considering all fuss there is going on, i must say that from players perspective this went quite painless, seems Aiwendil is the one who deserves some praise here.
We have both old and new cloaks and can craft them, what is there to ask more....

[DM_Aiwendil]

Thanks, appreciated. I messed up on a lot of the little things (NPCs mostly :) - still learning the quirks of the toolset) but over all it went quite well I think.

[misterroboto2]

Aye thanks a bunch. :)