Schminstallation Guide

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This page serves as a guide to help you get a copy of Neverwinter Nights and its expansions along with required files for playing on Higher Ground. There are only three major steps required in order to log onto Higher Ground, and you can find details of how to perform all of them on this page:

  • Obtain a distribution of the game and install it
  • Download and Install the 1.69 Critical Rebuild patch (manually or with ARF2, but not required with the digital version from GOG)
  • Download and Install CEPv2.3c

To make things easier, the "fast read version" is 'highlighted to make it easy to find.'


Contents

System Requirements

We once had a table with detailed requirement specifications but that was removed on the basis that, if your computer is less than ten years old, you are probably safe. If it is over than ten years old, you probably cannot remember what the specifications mean and probably cannot remember how to check your computer to see if it meets them even if you *can* remember what the specifications mean. Summarizing it as "having about 9GB free and Windows 7 or higher" will do it for most people.

The game is compatible with Mac OS X 10.2.6 or later and can run native on Linux. You can find information about the Linux client on BioWare's webpage.

Getting Neverwinter Nights

Short version

'https://www.gog.com/game/neverwinter_nights_diamond_edition for $10USD'

Long, Drawn-out version

There are two distributions of the game available: the retail distribution that you may occasionally find in stores or via online merchants for somewhere in the $20 range, and a digital distribution available from Good Old Games (http://gog.com) for $10. The digital distribution is recommended for ease of acquisition and setup.

You can choose to purchase the retail version, play DJ for a dozen CDs with 30-letter serial numbers and hunt down a patch program on your own. It will likely cost you more, be an incredible headache, cause you to consume several bottles of Gin (per week) (forever) and contract face dandruff, so it is not advised.

HG runs on version 1.69 of Neverwinter Nights [NWN]. The GoG version is 1.69. Retail versions are unpredictable and the patch program we use is no longer reliable. The Beamdog scheduled Fall 2018 initial release of Neverwinter Nights -- Enhanced Edition [NWNEE] is not currently compatible with HG, but plans to migrate to NWNEE are in the works.

Digital distribution is Windows only, but you should be able to install the game resources and use them to run a native linux client per the instructions at BioWare's webpage.

Installation

After purchasing the game from GOG, it will appear in your game library to be downloaded. There are three parts consisting of an installer and two content files. Once all three are downloaded you can run the installer to install the game. This will take up about 3Gb.

The destination folder for NWN will be either [DRIVE]://Program Files (x86)/GOG Galaxy/GOG Games/NWN Diamond or [DRIVE]://Program Files (x86)/GOG Games/NWN Diamond, depending on how you invoked GOG. ("GOG Galaxy" is a GOG platform that you can run in the background while you play. It allows cloud saves, screen capture using the same Windows-G key in every GOG game and a few other niceties, but it is entirely optional. If you use GOG Galaxy, it will change the save location of your games.)

'Make note of the location where NWN is installed. You will need this location in later steps.'

  • NOTE: If you are running Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 8.1 with User Account Control (enabled by default), it is recommended you click the Options button and set the installation directory somewhere outside of the Program Files directory (such as C:\Games), as UAC prevents write permissions within the Program Files folder, causing a great deal of headache when trying to modify game files or change settings.
  • NOTE: If you are running a version of Windows before Windows 10 and you did not read the preceding note, go back and do so now. Really. It's the last thing people remember to check, so your best friend, lover, parent, sibling or offspring will waste hours trying to diagnose something that is clear and simple.

Getting the Community Expansion Pack

Once you have installed the game, you will need version 2.3c of the Community Expansion Pack [CEP]. The CEP contains contributions from players and DMs ranging from Brownies to Purple Worms and everything else sideways and upside-down. These contributions are stored in files called "HAKs" (also "TLKs"), a remnant from the days when all extensions were one to three characters long.

You can refer to the Manual Downloads section for instructions on obtaining CEP 2.3c. Note that later versions of the CEP are supposed to be backwards compatible, but 2.3c is the standard for Higher Ground as of this writing. The _Installation Guide_ also contains links to the optional HAK written especially for Higher Ground, "Higher Ground Enhanced."

CD Keys

The GOG install of Neverwinter Nights now comes with unique CDkeys. 'If you installed GOG NWN Diamond on or after January 1, 2017, your CD keys are fine and you can skip this step.' If you have installed the game before December of 2016, the following procedure. (Procedures at GOG.com and earlier on this site do not work. This has been personally tested by LairdKendo. It's like they say about pens: others may work, but this one is mine. For the purposes of this set of instructions, "MAGIC" will stand for your installation directory.

  1. . Open MAGIC/nwncdkey.ini with your favorite text editor.
  2. . Save it as MAGIC/nwncdkey.SINGLEini as a text file. (you can close this)
  3. . Open MAGIC/nwncdkey.ini with your favorite text editor yet another time.
  4. . Open your browser to https://gog.com (not GOG Galaxy)
  5. . Sign in, click on GAMES, navigate to the NWN tile
  6. . Click somewhere on the NWN tile (on anywhere except on the downward pointing dropdown triangle) A panel will appear.
  7. . You will see a "More" button. Search for traps, then press the button.
  8. . Click on the "Serial Keys" button. A new panel will slide in from the right.
  9. . Cut and paste the serial numbers from the panel to the corresponding lines in MAGIC/nwncdkey.ini
  10. . save MAGIC/nwncdkey.ini as a text file.
  11. . save MAGIC/nwncdkey.MULTIini as a text file. (you can close this)

Fair notice: If you bought premium content, you will not be able to access it with these keys. GOG has a procedure for getting you back to your premium content. I present it to you here untested.

To play Neverwinter Nights online, you will require a unique CD key. You can find it in your Account on the website: https://www.gog.com/account (not yet in Galaxy), under MORE -> SERIAL KEYS. Please input it in the Multiplayer Key Changer that you can find in the Start menu, or in Galaxy, under MORE -> Other -> CDKey Changer. Changing the CD key will result in the premium modules (like Kingmaker) not working anymore, because they will use the default key for validation. To get around this, go to your My Account page and find the "premium modules re-installer", under the game's additional content. Download this file and install it. The modules will now be adapted to the new CD keys.


  • WARNING: Higher Ground uses a CD Key authorization system to prevent abuse; the first CD Key you log in with will be the CD Key your account is tied to--if you attempt to log in with another CD Key your connection will be refused by the server with a CD Key Denied error message. If you log in before swapping keys, you can use the PC Scrying Device in your inventory to Make Changes to your Character or Account and add an additional CD Key (which will record the CD Key being used on your next login). After doing this, log out, swap the CD Key files, then log back in.
    • If you for some reason you lose access to the CDkeys that are tied to your account, please make post in The Spotlessly Clean Oubliette with your player (login) name and an Administrator will clear the CD Key for your account so that you can get back into the game.

Now you can proceed to the Custom Content section to set up all the custom content you want to use while on Higher Ground.

Installation on Vista and Windows 7

After purchasing the game either from a retailer or from any online reseller, install the game from the discs following the instructions. If you are using Windows Vista or 7 it is recommended that you install somewhere other than the Program Files directory (such as C:\Games) to avoid dealing with restrictions associated with User Account Control.

Linux installation

This guide contains: 1.69 Critical Rebuild Patch links:Linux installation guide

Note that after first install you can just backup your nwn folder and copy paste it to install it again.

In Ubuntu 12.04 you can press windows button to minimize your game window.

Custom Content

The major portion of custom content that Higher Ground uses, and the only custom content required to join the server, is the Community Expansion Pack (CEP). Downloading and installing this is selected by default in ARF2, as you could not join the server without doing so. In addition to CEP, there are several other optional downloads you can select.

Higher Ground Enhanced

An optional hak that adds additional visual effects, enhanced descriptions, and a number of new game play mechanics, HG Enhanced is the hak utilized by Higher Ground to employ many of the unique changes we have made to the game, so it is strongly recommended. There are two versions of HG Enhanced to choose from:

  • Standard: As it states, this is the standard version of HG Enhanced, containing all the additions.
  • GUI: In addition to the edits specific to HG Enhanced, this version is also bundled with the Aenea Transparent GUI with various visual interface improvements.

Install Modified Client Executable

The Modified Client Executable enables a few added features not present with the standard executable

  • It raises the limit on effect icons from 129 to 254.
  • It raises the maximum camera distance from 25m to 40m.
  • It allows entering true first-person camera mode by pressing the Home key while in Drive Camera mode.
  • It allows angling the camera to look upward. Be warned that if you have HG Enhanced skyboxes on, you may see the edges of skyboxes which cannot normally be viewed. We will remodel some of these in the future to fix this.
  • It increases the maximum tile fog distance from 45m to 75m, which allows you to see more terrain around your character.
  • It allows running multiple instances of the NWN client.

Installation Note: Rename the original nwmain.exe to something else, such as nwmain_bak.exe and rename the new file to nwmain.exe

Install Additional Quickchats

Quickchats are SIMTools commands that have been bound to your character's voice commands through the !voicebind command. They are handy for quickly accessing Frequently Used Commands.

Manual Downloads

For any of the additional files mentioned above, you can find manual downloads for them in this section.

  • 1.69 Critical Rebuild Patch: for Windows for Linux for Mac
  • Community Expansion Pack v2.3c:
    • From neverwintervault.org Here
    • From Sabregirl's Site: here(Hak into Hak-Folder, Tlk into tlk-folder)

7-Zip Archive

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