Author Topic: Layonara is soon to be migrating to Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition (Read 43698 times)

orth · « **on:** March 27, 2019, 03:22:33 pm »

A lot more details to come.

Expected migration is a couple of weeks, could be sooner, could be later, may depend on testing but there are administrative tasks that need to be performed as well.

Speaking of testing though, I'm going to need testers so if you have EE already and want to help test please raise your hand in this thread. You will need to be accessible via Discord to help test.

Again, I'll have a post(s) in this thread with a lot more information but I wanted to start with an official heads up and let people know if they don't yet have EE it will be needed soon.

Ke' Koa · « **Reply #1 on:** March 27, 2019, 04:05:10 pm »

I have it on both PC and Mac, I'll test it!!!

davidhoff · « **Reply #2 on:** March 27, 2019, 05:39:41 pm »

It says on some of the NWN EE descriptions that you need an OS of windows 7 or higher. So, my brother and I only run windows XP right now...is that gona be a problem?

orth · « **Reply #3 on:** March 27, 2019, 06:52:21 pm »

Quote from: davidhoff on March 27, 2019, 05:39:41 pm

It says on some of the NWN EE descriptions that you need an OS of windows 7 or higher. So, my brother and I only run windows XP right now...is that gona be a problem?

Yes. If you're still running XP I also worry about your graphics cards too. NWN:EE will support 10 year old type hardware but not 20 and the same goes for the software drivers needed. I don't know what your hardware is so I can't comment on the upgrade path or cost. Nor do I know what else you use your PCs for but if you want to continue on with Layonara you're going to have to upgrade to at least Win7 or move to Linux or if it's in your budget consider an altogether new (refurb) machine, even something like this will suffice.

davidhoff · « **Reply #4 on:** March 27, 2019, 08:33:16 pm »

Thanks for the link and info.

We run Dell Optiplex GX 280's right now with Pentium(R) 4 CPU, 2.8GHz, 1.99GB Ram (Ram was upgraded a little by us). Our graphics cards are original equipment; Intel(R) 82915G, Express Chipset Family.

Wonder if cheaper to buy Win7 (x2) and two graphics cards? We'd need miscrosoft office for Word and Excell.

We use our computers for light business (Word, Excell, Quickbooks) and casual internet surfing and email. Probably Layo is the biggest draw.

We'll look into our options some more. $189 (from your link) for a new system doesn't seem to bad considering.

orth · « **Reply #5 on:** March 27, 2019, 10:25:58 pm »

Feel free to consult me before buying but I think for the headache that can come from attempting an upgrade of XP to 7 plus installing new graphics drivers the cost of that would be close enough to just grab a refurb instead. Here's another option right here.

davidhoff · « **Reply #6 on:** March 28, 2019, 12:46:46 am »

Thanks again. We're kinda still waivering on the cost issue and the setup time. Also I've formed a bond with my old Dell.

We're considering the Linux option now. It seems to be free. I'm learning more about it but it sounds interesting. I was hoping on being able to run it at the same time as windows, but not sure if I can or how. Any advice about installing/running Linux and playing NWNEE on it?

Also, we might just get the EE and try running it on our current system n see what happens. Some forum posts say it may work.

orth · « **Reply #7 on:** March 28, 2019, 09:19:14 am »

Quote from: davidhoff on March 28, 2019, 12:46:46 am

Thanks again. We're kinda still waivering on the cost issue and the setup time. Also I've formed a bond with my old Dell.

We're considering the Linux option now. It seems to be free. I'm learning more about it but it sounds interesting. I was hoping on being able to run it at the same time as windows, but not sure if I can or how. Any advice about installing/running Linux and playing NWNEE on it?

Also, we might just get the EE and try running it on our current system n see what happens. Some forum posts say it may work.

You can look up dual booting linux and windows xp, it's not incredibly difficult. But certainly give it a try on just windows xp if you've caught some reports of it working perhaps.

Tobias · « **Reply #8 on:** March 28, 2019, 11:51:48 am »

I’ll help test!

jadewillow · « **Reply #9 on:** March 28, 2019, 09:55:34 pm »

Definitely try to run it on your current system and see how it performs. Alternatively, look at Ubuntu which it appears NWN EE runs on natively. Then I would use Wine to run your on-prem Office software. No costs above the NWN EE costs.

orth · « **Reply #10 on:** March 28, 2019, 10:15:03 pm »

Quote from: jadewillow on March 28, 2019, 09:55:34 pm

Definitely try to run it on your current system and see how it performs. Alternatively, look at Ubuntu which it appears NWN EE runs on natively. Then I would use Wine to run your on-prem Office software. No costs above the NWN EE costs.

This is all good advice if XP doesn't work out. That's what I run as my NWN:EE client, Ubuntu 18. And for all my office suite I use Libreoffice.

Ke' Koa · « **Reply #11 on:** March 28, 2019, 10:58:20 pm »

Quote from: jadewillow on March 28, 2019, 09:55:34 pm

Definitely try to run it on your current system and see how it performs. Alternatively, look at Ubuntu which it appears NWN EE runs on natively. Then I would use Wine to run your on-prem Office software. No costs above the NWN EE costs.

I didn't have much luck with wine to play Diamond, but I found a slick program called "Porting Kit" that uses wine wrappers but it's all tweaked for the game. Hope it helps...

Lindel · « **Reply #12 on:** March 29, 2019, 08:32:46 pm »

I'm down to help test! I own Steam PC version and yeah just @ me on discord!

WarriorOfTheLance · « **Reply #13 on:** March 29, 2019, 11:12:36 pm »

I only run linux.... so I run nwn original on linux natively, as well as Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition Digital Delux (x2) on my machine (you can run about 10 copies of the game before you can start to slow down a geforce 1070). I've got an optiplex 745 slim i use as a server, you can play nwn on it run 2 nwn servers, and possibly EE on it if you buy a slim card. not sure if you have the slim models or not

Quote

Wonder if cheaper to buy Win7 (x2) and two graphics cards? We'd need miscrosoft office for Word and Excell.

I would -not- buy windows 7, you're going to end up in the same situation down the road. Windows 7 is near it's EOL... If i was you I'd get Lubuntu (you don't want to run unity on that old hardware trust me) and run vmware for your M$ office suite. you can install and run windows xp and your office using virtual box or vmware or qemu.
you can run MS office in wine, and Excell. Open office can handle anything they put out I believe, but I wouldn't use Open Office, I'd use libreoffice

WarriorOfTheLance · « **Reply #14 on:** March 30, 2019, 12:25:02 am »

Quote from: Ke' Koa on March 28, 2019, 10:58:20 pm

Quote from: jadewillow on March 28, 2019, 09:55:34 pm
Definitely try to run it on your current system and see how it performs. Alternatively, look at Ubuntu which it appears NWN EE runs on natively. Then I would use Wine to run your on-prem Office software. No costs above the NWN EE costs.

I didn't have much luck with wine to play Diamond, but I found a slick program called "Porting Kit" that uses wine wrappers but it's all tweaked for the game. Hope it helps...

Wine runs diamond out of the box.

Ke' Koa · « **Reply #15 on:** March 30, 2019, 02:22:11 am »

For whatever reason I couldn't get it to work, but I'm new to the Mac scene... I'm sure it wasn't the application or computer that was the hang up there... But like I said, porting kit made it stupid easy, and they have a ton of games to go with it.

orth · « **Reply #16 on:** April 01, 2019, 03:26:51 pm »

Here are a couple starting notes for the migration:

Migrating your Characters
If you have played on Layonara before and still have your old CD Key you will be able to migrate your characters from the servervault automatically. To do this you need to copy your old nwncdkey.ini file from NWN 1.69 and place it in the new NWN:EE folder (this is usually My Documents/Neverwinter Nights for Windows installs.) You will know it's the proper place for the file if you see a cdkey.ini file in that folder, as that's the key file for NWN:EE. Once that's done, you will also need to make sure your login name is the same as the one you used on the old Layonara. You will be prompted for this before you login. Remember it's case sensitive! if your login name before was orth don't enter Orth. If you do not have your old cd key and can prove you are the player who once played certain characters, please send me a PM. If you have access to your forum account this is usually sufficient evidence.

Automatic Content Downloading With NWSYNC
The first time you connect to the new version you will be presented with an automatic download dialog box. NWN:EE includes a fantastic new feature called nwsync that means players no longer need to download, extract and install haks. Whenever changes are made that would in the past require hak updates you will now just automatically download the content before connecting to the server. Note: there is no way to speed this process up for the first time even if you already have the old layonara haks. In addition while the download will be large the first time, future downloads will be much smaller.

New Features and Bug Fixes
The extent of the improvements made and bugs fixed in NWN:EE can be viewed in this log of updates at Steam. (some are still in the dev edition) I have also added some great new feature enhancements and fixed a lot of issues specific to Layonara. Over the coming while I will outline some of these features so they're used and passed along. To get you started please make sure to read the updated online help system using =c help

Ke' Koa · « **Reply #17 on:** April 02, 2019, 01:06:30 am »

when can we log in?

silverblades · « **Reply #18 on:** April 03, 2019, 09:52:49 pm »

GAH.. DLC's... WHY!...
$52 for a 10+yr game.. jees..

Well considering the games that are out now this isnt bad as most are half baked.. reskinned of previous versions... Oh wait.. thats what this is..

silverblades · « **Reply #19 on:** April 04, 2019, 12:59:20 am »

Apologies for the Halfbaked comment if someone took it the wrong way. . This has nothing to do with the excellent Developer team we have here..
Too bad Layo Devs team didnt have the coin the so called AA game producers have out there ..I envision even greater things than what we have here if that were the case.