I just got HotU, so I now have both expansions. I'm planning on joining this once I get NWN running on a computer with internet access. I don't quite know what this is, so I've got a few questions about it.

What is Escape from Undermountain?

I've completed the OC and partially played the SoU campaign, will I know what I'm doing with both expansions, or should I do the expansion campaigns?

What's the difficulty compared with the OC on normal?

Will I be fine without the special class-things from SoU? (planning to create a pure fighter, for simplicity)

I've never done an online game of NWN before, is there anything I should know? (I think I can follow Ziroc's instructions for how to find Escape from Undermountain from the 'How to Join and Play' sticky.)

How will I communicate with other players? I don't really want to try to communicate just through emotes.

I've got XP on the only online computer at my house, and NWN wouldn't run, for some reason. It would just sit there after doing anything to start NWN after installing it, as if it was totally ignoring that command. When I told the computer to shut down, a window would pop up asking me if I wanted to 'End Task' on NWN. How can I run NWN on XP?

Alternately, anyone good at networking? My dad's getting AOL-compatible wireless network cards, and we're planning on linking the online computer with the one that happens to work with NWN.

Thanks for helping, and I hope I won't be too much trouble once I get to Undermountain.

Ok, lets take the xp thing first, because I'm running NWN on xp, and have had very little problems. Check the video settings first, as they gave me fits. If you still can't get it to run, some of the more guru gurus here will be able to help you. As for communicating with the rest of us, I hope you can type, lol, because you'll be doing a lot of it. The difficulty is harder than the OC, but not drastically so, if your properly equipped. It is a server vault, which means you'll be rolling a new char, but you can get an early boost, as is mentioned in the how to join and play sticky, I believe, but if you want to play a pure class, any class, you will eventually be fine, as I said it is harder than the oc, so...I'm thinking that should just about cover you. Welcome to one of the best online games that I've ever played, and once you go down the well, good luck. See ya there.

piece of advice that Robert forgot to mention.....do not open any hidden doors until you have a few levels under your belt.....

Howdy and welcome to the Escape from Undermountain board.

For detaisl on what you will need to play on our server click on the link in my sig. Our server requires a 2 custom content hacks to make your online experence even better.

It has already been mentioned that as we run a server vault you will be rolling up a new character and using that character online (you can create more than one)

You will start the mod as a level 1 character however you will quickly level up to level 7 before doing any fighting whatsoever.

If this is your first time through undermountain i would recommend a fighter type character as they are generally a bit eaiser to play until you get used to the types of creatures Ziroc has cooked up for us.

I would also recommend looking over the team Ironworks thread so you will know when some of the others from here are online. If you ever see me online and need a hand give me a shout and let me know.

EDIT: Because I am stupid and was tired when typing :D

[ 12-03-2004, 05:16 PM: Message edited by: T-D-C ]

O....U...C...H [img]graemlins/lol.gif[/img] That is good advice, that I had to give to myself, after an extended abscence. Thank you Stormy, for bringing that up.

is it just me...or does this make no sense what-so-ever? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

is it just me...or does this make no sense what-so-ever? [img]tongue.gif[/img] </font>[/QUOTE]I was out of coffee when I read it the first time, so I thought it was just me. Now that I know, HUH??? :D

In my opinion, Escape from Undermountain is really best when you play as part of a party, but it is also pretty good solo if that's your style. I would heed the 'don't use portals or doors you aren't sure of' advice til you've got your character leveled up a bit.. well, alot! LOL [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]

But mostly, I think you'll get the idea once you log in and start playing. And there's lots of help available here and in the game when others are logged on, so don't be afraid to ask someone to explain things when you need it.

<font color=skyblue>I see you've been drinking again, old son!

"If you ever see me online and need a hand, give me a shout and let me know."

~TDC's intentional sentence.

LS0158: Have all your questions been answered well enough or is there something more we can do to get you running online?

</font>

[ 12-03-2004, 09:49 AM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

Thanks for the advice. I remembered we got a new graphics card for city of heroes, and I'll have to see if NWN has any issues with it.

The only question I have now is exactly where to type. I've never played NWN online before, and in the campaigns there's only NPCs to talk to.

LOL yeah the burbons were flying last night LOL

YOu will see a text box just above all your quick slot keys. There are different channels that you can talk on.

They are shout, talk, party, whisper and DM.

Shout broadcasts you message to everyone on the server, talk shows you message to anyone near you, party allows you to send your message to anyone in your party, whisper ????? not to sure as I've never used it. DM allows you to send messages to the DM if they are on.

Hope this helps!

Ah, thanks. I never noticed it before.

NWN isn't working with the new videocard now. It's doing what I said before. It did the checking system for optimal configuration thing that it does when you first start NWN, but it won't start the program. It does the loading screen with the symbol of the eye, the computer thinks for a few seconds, then the cd spins at varying speeds for about 10-20 seconds, then the computer thinks again. When it stops, there's nothing to indicate NWN starting or loading in the Ctrl-Alt-Del menu.

[ 12-03-2004, 06:45 PM: Message edited by: LS0158 ]

I had a similar problem when trying to get mine to start, or else I would get a laggy game, try updating the driver, if all else fails, the instal might have been corrupted, and you need to uninstal it, then close out all programs before re-installing it.

Well... now it gets slightly farther... now after the thinking-spinning cd-thinking process, it says something about being unable to authenticate the cd within the time limit. I just bought HotU new from Best Buy, so it's authentic, and it runs on one of the other computers.

My graphics card is a NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400, if anyone knows of issues between it and NWN.

edit: I noticed that it won't do the auto-NWN popup when the cd's put in... could it be my cd drive?

[ 12-03-2004, 08:02 PM: Message edited by: LS0158 ]

Is your drive a CD-RW drive. Sometimes the secureRom security software causes problems like this.

You may need to get a NO-CD Crack if you continue having problems. If your using a CD-RW drive try using a normal CD-ROM drive if you have one.

BTW I have the same video card and it works fine for me.

I thought they released an update that *fixed some of the secure rom issues. Been a while though, but there should be something archived...Uh, also if it's cdrw, and you've written any cd's, you'll need to restart the computer, that's the only time I've had problems with that. I too use an nvidia card, and, other than the fact that I can't have shiny water, no problems. I want shiny water, *pouts.

I'll have to make sure I've got the newest update. We've rarely tried to use the cd-writing capability, and we've only been successful once, and even then it only worked in other cd-rw drives.

What's a no-cd crack? An install of NWN that doesn't use the cd?

Edit: I'm updating it. Hopefully it will work now.

Edit2: I can't find the update for the cd-rw drives. I downloaded patch 1.64 and searched the portions of the download area that might have had the cd-rw drives on Bioware's site.

Edit3: I searched the self-tech support forum and I get the feeling that trying to get the game to work in the cd-rw drive is futile. I guess I'll have to wait until my dad gets the network working.

[ 12-04-2004, 01:10 PM: Message edited by: LS0158 ]

LSO158 Go to the NVIDIA web site and down load the newest driver update for your Graghics card. If this doesn't fix your problem then uninstall your NWN game completely and then re-install it.

One more thing if you have the setting set to high on your Video or graphics cards they can cause your computer to act the way you say yours is acting.
so go into the NWN config and turn every thing down one level and see if that helps.

Good luck

Its a program which edits the NWN program so that it dosent bother with the secuROM checks, thus enabling a)pirates to run copies of the game and b)legit users such as yourself to get in despite secuROMs inability to authenticate on certain hardware.

Its technicaly illegal, but then so is intentionaly selling a product which dosent work on a computer that meets the published specs, so let the lawyers argue over it.

You'll have to google around for one yourself if you want it, I dont have links to a crack for the current version. And virus scan it, because No-CD cracks are generaly intended to allow people to pirate the game, they are quite often infected with something nasty and it never hurts to be safe.

Oh, and backup the original NWN exe, since I think the updater will complain if run on an altered version.

[ 12-04-2004, 03:37 PM: Message edited by: andrewas ]

I think I'll just wait for my dad to get the network cards. I've got semester exams coming up and school projects due, so I probably wouldn't have much time if I could access EfU. By the time exams are over, the network cards he ordered off ebay should have arrived.

I've already downloaded the latest drivers and re-installed NWN once or twice, and I tried the config menu.

In regards to your question about networking...

The only way I know to set up a wireless network is to install wireless networking cards on all computers you want to have access, and then install a wireless router which usually accepts a broadband or DSL connection.

As far as AOL is concerned, I have no idea how AOL will work with it, especially if its dialup. It may technically be possible to turn the computer with the AOL connection into a wireless hot spot for the rest of your network, but again I'm not sure. Windows may have an Internet Connection Sharing for wireless networks to help in this department.