Neverwinter Nights Forum News (Oct. 20, 04)

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Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights, collected by NWVault. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager

20 Oct 2004 - NWN Goes To School
Yeah, I had some pretty cool teachers in school but yeesh, not this cool.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

High Processor usage on Win
I have posted this many times now, but here we go again

High processor usage for the game server is not a problem. Period. The server will use as much cpu as it wants / needs/ gets to run it's module, it's designed to do that. CPU usage can not be used to gauge the server's overall performance performance, it's job is to run the game, not to produce low cpu usage graphs by calling a few sleep()'s every once in a while.

The amount of CPU time consumed by the process is dependent on many things, including # of CPUs, OS/kernel and, of course, player load and activity as well as module design. If you have performance problems in game (and this means actual problems, not a high cpu load bar), use the timegraph console commands as well as other available means of performance measuring (i.e. nwnx's script profiler) to get to the source.

Finally, needless to say that a 112 MB module with 1000's of placeables is way beyond our recommended and supported scope for NWN. With that many objects, just the AI update loops are probably sufficient to cause a certain level CPU activity on the server.

GetHasSpell crash hotfix
As a note, I think Eligio was so nice to put the 2da into the CEP 1.50 http://nwvault.ign.com/cep/downloads/ patch that has been released today, so people running CEP won't need to worry about getting this hotfix anymore. Thanks to the CEP team!

Craig Welburn, Live Team Programmer

AoO Attack of Opportunity and NPC casters

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I started a AoO thread not too long ago in which a large number of people posted their support. I play NWN daily, now why on earth would I start a post about something such as this when it has been supposedly fixed a year ago.

Reason: Cause it hasn't.

Now maybe, maybe, it has. But if it has, then I can only think that when you are actually in the middle of casting a spell you won't take an AoO. All the other times and theres quite a few, you do take an AoO.

Say for instance you select a target for a spell but that target is 5 feet out of range, you run the 5 feet and during that run you take an AoO against another monster and don't end up casting the spell on the intended target.

Say for instance you have multiple spells que'd up to cast on a mob of monsters, you cast one and then instead of casting the next, you take an AoO.

These are the types of behaviors I continue to see in game and its these types of behaviors that make playing a caster more frusterating than it should be.

NiV23

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OK first just to be picky on the details (because the details actually matter), the issue that has been brought up was with taking AOOs while casting a spell.

You've indicated two cases where you find it is annoying for your character to take AOOs.

1) While running up to a creature (in preparation for casting a spell).

2) In between the casting of two different spells.

Neither of these is an AOO while casting a spell.

Secondly while I believe there is an issue with AOOs being annoying to users. I don't believe it is taking AOOs while casting spells. I think the real issue is getting lost in the details (which aren't being supplied by anyone). The issue with spells has been fixed for a long time and some people in the community do seem to concur with that statement.

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But its true. It is fixed. My own Sorcerors never try to make AoO's anymore while casting spells. Never while using stealth mode either.

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The code checks to see if you are currently casting a spell (doing the conjure animation), or if you have any spells on your action queue. If either of those are true you do not take an AOO.

What I suspect is happening is that you are using a spell like ability that is not in fact a spell, but is in fact more likely a feat. Which is quite possible and might explain why some people feel the issue is fixed and others don't. However, that's not what anyone has ever mentioned in any bug reports or posts that I've ever seen.

As they say the devil is in the details and so far no one is supplying any details on how to reproduce the problem every time. Which is why I believe the problem with taking AOO while casting a spell has been fixed.

If you do have a reliable way of reproducing the problem, send in a detailed bug report to nwbugs@bioware.com indicating the exact steps to reproduce the problem (including the spell/spell like abliity, feat, etc that is causing you problems). A small demo module (and possibly the character you are using) that demonstrates the problem would also be helpful.

Hope that helps clarify the issue a bit,
Craig.

NPC soundset.2da that works with 1.64

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I've been having problems with any characters that are using a soundset.2da file that allows them to pick any voiceset from the game. Basically, the characters voices are no longer working, nor does any text appear above their name if you use the "V" commands. Did 1.64 do something with the override and the soundset.2da that it no longer is valid?

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From the patch notes: Soundset.2da will now work correctly when placed inside a hak pack. Its possible that this change is affecting you in some way. Try putting the soundset.2da in your hack pack (if you are using one). It should work from there now.

Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance

Storyline Help for a newbie - real quick
Neither expansion really "continues" the official storyline, though Hordes of the Underdark is set sometime after Shadows of Undrentide.

Neverending Nights - Machinima.
That's really cool! Keep it up, guys!