84 réponses à ce sujet

[Jack Pipsam]

So many games are setting shut down from this it's not funny.

[Pstemarie]

Personally, I have never used Gamespy for anything. Any server I ever wanted to find was easy enough to locate without having another essentially useless (at least for me) app on my system. I wonder how much PW traffic in the last several years has actually come through Gamespy. I'm much more inclined to think that traffic comes through the PW's very own sites, this site, and word of mouth.

As far as killing the game, well TBH, compared to its heyday, the game's been pretty much dead for some time now. This certainly doesn't help, but I think the impact - at least upon NWN - will be pretty trivial.

EDIT - added the itaicized bit for clarity. Put simply, I think the Gamespy thing will prove trivial compared to other events that have "shaken" the game in the past two years.

Modifié par Pstemarie, 09 décembre 2012 - 06:54 .

[Borrie BoBaka]

Contrition is relatively young, about 10 months old or so. And I'm not alone, there's quite a few other new PWs out there (and hopefully many more to come, if the game is to persist). I've noted that our primary exposure to new players has been the GameSpy lists, despite attempts to advertise on many different websites. GameSpy is extraordinarily helpful in gathering new players, and without it, I've noted a significant decrease in sign-ups on our forums.

Older PWs with high numbers probably won't feel anything from the GameSpy shutdown, but new Persistent Worlds and PWs with growing playerbases will feel this loss greatly.

NWN 1 and 2 may not have playercounts up in the tens of thousands like many games out there, but they still play host to well over a thousand individuals, and many more join in as they buy the game to check out what they might've missed (I bought NWN in 2009, not knowing about it back in it's early days), or coming back to a game they once loved. 

NWN isn't dead, it's just been downsized quite a bit, but the players who still play, do so because they still love the game, and there's enough of us that a signifigant blow to the game's operations will be noticed. Those of us who still play and build treasure it's value, and will continue to do our part to keep it alive. With the fall of the GameSpy network, and the rise of a replacement, following the shutdown of the Master Authentication server, Neverwinter Nights is now fully in the hands of the community. A testament to our dedication. A dedication that makes this game immortal.

It's important to me, as I hope it is for others, to not only help my own server to flourish, but also help others flourish as well. As long as there are servers, there will be a community, and as long as there is a community, there will be Neverwinter Nights.

Modifié par Borrie BoBaka, 09 décembre 2012 - 12:30 .

[Luj1]

Borrie BoBaka wrote...

Contrition is relatively young, about 10 months old or so. And I'm not alone, there's quite a few other new PWs out there (and hopefully many more to come, if the game is to persist). I've noted that our primary exposure to new players has been the GameSpy lists, despite attempts to advertise on many different websites. GameSpy is extraordinarily helpful in gathering new players, and without it, I've noted a significant decrease in sign-ups on our forums.

Older PWs with high numbers probably won't feel anything from the GameSpy shutdown, but new Persistent Worlds and PWs with growing playerbases will feel this loss greatly.

NWN 1 and 2 may not have playercounts up in the tens of thousands like many games out there, but they still play host to well over a thousand individuals, and many more join in as they buy the game to check out what they might've missed (I bought NWN in 2009, not knowing about it back in it's early days), or coming back to a game they once loved. 

NWN isn't dead, it's just been downsized quite a bit, but the players who still play, do so because they still love the game, and there's enough of us that a signifigant blow to the game's operations will be noticed. Those of us who still play and build treasure it's value, and will continue to do our part to keep it alive. With the fall of the GameSpy network, and the rise of a replacement, following the shutdown of the Master Authentication server, Neverwinter Nights is now fully in the hands of the community. A testament to our dedication. A dedication that makes this game immortal.

It's important to me, as I hope it is for others, to not only help my own server to flourish, but also help others flourish as well. As long as there are servers, there will be a community, and as long as there is a community, there will be Neverwinter Nights.

It is so amazing that after all this time, people are still making new PWs : ) Thank you so much !

[Borrie BoBaka]

Of course! So much new content has been created in the past five years, so much more experience and knowledge about NWscript has been gained all this time, with NWN1 and 2 there are very few mysteries to unlock, the game is a blank canvas to explore our creativity, the final frontier of Neverwinter Nights.

There's still so much to be created with and for these games.

[ehye_khandee]

New and returning NWN gamers can still find the best servers listed at

neverwinterconnections.com

Where new features will soon replace the lost gamespy functionality.

As always we continue to operate our growing and evolving server ArgentumRegio (information found at playnwn.com ).

Be well. Game on.
GM_ODA
direct connect at 66.232.100.90

[Knight_Shield]

Question :So nwmain.exe /nwserver file are being made to replace .I run nwserver on linux Im going to need a linux nwserver to point to new server? 

Modifié par Knight_Shield, 10 décembre 2012 - 01:43 .

[Visavant]

Knight_Shield wrote...

Question :So nwmain.exe /nwserver file are being made to replace .I run nwserver on linux Im going to need a linux nwserver to point to new server? Where do I send my money?

For immediate announcement of your server, please view this link.

[BelowTheBelt]

I applaud and am amazed at what this community is doing and can do to develop innovative solutions quickly.

As part of thinking towards the future, can we take a moment to reflect on what additional functionality might be warranted? This is a golden opportunity to go beyond the limited functionality that GameSpy provided. I would hate to limit ourselves to the 'box' that we were locked into when the game was launched more than 10 years ago. The community has driven this game so much further that I think we can do better. The Gamespy client made it easy to browse and join servers (to a point) and we would/should replicate that. However, that limited UI was also isolating - players did not get any more info than the name of the server.

What I specifically would like to see includes:
- more categories of server types
- more detail about servers
- Hak installer/updates: auto load required server Haks and check for updates
- Hak preloader: preload Haks so that functionality (such as weapon feats for CEP weapons) can be at client creation
- server host e-mail account registration for notification of when players log on/off

I'm sure there are other things that I'm not thinking of. Can the client-side application be integrated into NWNCX?

I would rather not just emulate the limited Gamespy server list if we are going to the effort. If some of this needs to wait for version 2 of the current solution in order to respond quickly, then that's fine. But, let's build something that has an idea towards something better.

Also, let's please make this available via an environment similar to nwconnections, which enables game scheduling and some host/player or player/player interaction. With the limited community we have, it is vital for our future to combine these resources and provide players a one-stop shop that makes enjoying NWN as simple as possible.

I've said from the beginning and continue to believe that this might be the best thing that's happened to our community in a long time. We have ONE golden opportunity here. Let's not squander it. GoG.com will probably be willing to support our efforts to point players where we want them to go, but we can only ask them to do that once or twice before we become an annoyance.

Thanks.

[Visavant]

more categories of server types

Could do this but with the current server count, I'm unsure as to why...

more detail about servers

The approach I was taking with this for the out of game browser was that the server host would place something like [nc:hX9] to their server description, which in turn support external applications that provided file download options (haks, etc), as well as more details and features as time went on.

Hak installer/updates: auto load required server Haks and check for updates

Tons of implementations exist out there to some degree, though easy enough to muster something together for this.

Hak preloader: preload Haks so that functionality (such as weapon feats for CEP weapons) can be at client creation

I'm not versed well enough to figure out how that's accomplished in NWN1.

server host e-mail account registration for notification of when players log on/off

Doable but... seems spammy. I wouldn't want SORBS blacklisting the domain.

I would rather not just emulate the limited Gamespy server list if we are going to the effort. If some of this needs to wait for version 2 of the current solution in order to respond quickly, then that's fine. But, let's build something that has an idea towards something better.

Tons of ideas here, including replicating something that nwn2db does but with server admins supplying the 2das so that players can template their builds outside of the game.

Also, let's please make this available via an environment similar to nwconnections, which enables game scheduling and some host/player or player/player interaction. With the limited community we have, it is vital for our future to combine these resources and provide players a one-stop shop that makes enjoying NWN as simple as possible.

Scheduling is pretty easy to implement, something that'll take just a day to put up for hosts and DMs to push announcements through.

[SteelStallion]

Borrie BoBaka wrote...


It's important to me, as I hope it is for others, to not only help my own server to flourish, but also help others flourish as well. As long as there are servers, there will be a community, and as long as there is a community, there will be Neverwinter Nights.

I agree!  As an administrator of another relatively new PW (Tales of Amn for NWN 2), I certainly understand where you're coming from.

Fact of the matter is, there is no other game that fills in the niche of a shared D&D online roleplaying platform in the way that NWN 1 and NWN 2 does.  And with the way WotC licensing is going (and the release of the Neverwinter MMO, yuck) it sounds like NWN 1 and 2 are all we've got to scratch that itch for a long time.

There will ALWAYS be a playerbase for NWN because there is nothing else now, or in the forseeable future, that can fill its shoes and do what it does.  Even if that playerbase comes and goes.

I'm sticking it out, and I know a lot of PW admins will as well.  So long as even a handful of players want to play, I'll still be running my ship.

Modifié par ThePhalanx, 10 décembre 2012 - 05:42 .

[Rokene]

Yep same here and congrats on launching ToA Phalanx! I might visit to check it out when I have more time after finals.

Quick question though for visavant and skywing are you guys combining your efforts now to have one emulated master server?

[Visavant]

Talked with Skywing, although we are tackling this from different angles, we're combining efforts to ensure players are not left in the dark.

Modifié par Visavant, 11 décembre 2012 - 02:49 .

[Rokene]

Nice ^^ can't wait!

[Lazarus Magni]

Visavant wrote...

Talked with Skywing, although we are tackling this from different angles, we're combining efforts to ensure players are not left in the dark.

*Feels a little in the dark here...*

[Nighthirster]

Great news everobdy !

Thanks to various people's hard work - and particularly Skywing's, we're well on the way to replace Gamespy with our own free and open network, complete with a web interface, and full client integration !

So far we've got a Gamespy Master Server emulator which functions very well - all it needs is for NWN2 Server Admins to implement the latest version of xp_bugfix (available here), or modify their hosts file so it points to the new master servers:

NWN2: nwn2.mst.valhallalegends.com 
NWN1: nwn1.mst.valhallalegends.com

 Zebranky has a NWNX2 plugin coming to enable participation for NWN1 users soon. 

We're currently building up a nice looking web interface that works well with this new network, but in the meantime - make sure to let your favorite servers know that they should participate instead of staying lost in the dark ! A fair number have already registered:



The above screenshot is a little program I wrote which interfaces with the new master server web service - its a quick and dirty prototype, but you can download it here.

Currently, efforts are focused towards the client component, basically translating the server response into something NWN/NWN2 can understand and display in the regular server browser. This is in research phase, but things are coming along nicely. So tell your friends, tell your neighbors, and tell your game masters . 

[Rokene]

From what I understand Visavant is making a patcher for the NWN 1 & 2 clients and servers point to the new community master server and Skywing is adding some new functionality in his NWN2 Extension and the NWNX plugin "xpbugfix" which most NWN2 PWs use already to point to the new community master server. All is well.

Though the important thing here is that we have to spread the word to everyone to get the patches and updates once it's all setup.

[Rokene]

Ohh nice! Congratulations!

[Borrie BoBaka]

Personally I'm awaiting for the in-game list update, as having an outside app is a bit cumbersome and hard to adjust to. Excellent work though.

I believe Visavant and Skywing are trying to make all services work together so that everyone is unified despite using different methods of this system. I'd talk to either one to see if you can get your system recognized by NWNCore and vice-versa.

[Visavant]

Rokene wrote...

From what I understand Visavant is making a patcher for the NWN 1 & 2 clients and servers point to the new community master server and Skywing is adding some new functionality in his NWN2 Extension and the NWNX plugin "xpbugfix" which most NWN2 PWs use already to point to the new community master server. All is well.

Though the important thing here is that we have to spread the word to everyone to get the patches and updates once it's all setup.

Correct, they're not conflicting projects.

[SkywingvL]

Visavant: Please give me a shout when you're around.

[Highv Priest]

Actually I tried to contact BioWare(via a direct email) about having them temporarily paying GameSpy for one month out of my own pocket(about 20 to 200 dollars depending on player access and API requests, but they NEVER responded back with me. My goal was to pop up the server list, grab an IP address from -every- server as well as a name associated and compile a list of them and post them somewhere on nwnwiki or otherwise. Not all modules are still being actively run, but they are still good adventures(I do module hop a lot). However it would seem BioWare even having no loss of money would not want anything to do with this game and GameSpy REFUSES to let me pay for it. Stating to me "The company discontinued support for this game and you must speak with them in regards for reinstating it."

[OldTimeRadio]

Highv Priest wrote...

Actually I tried to contact BioWare(via a direct email) about having them temporarily paying GameSpy for one month out of my own pocket(about 20 to 200 dollars depending on player access and API requests, but they NEVER responded back with me. My goal was to pop up the server list, grab an IP address from -every- server as well as a name associated and compile a list of them and post them somewhere on nwnwiki or otherwise. Not all modules are still being actively run, but they are still good adventures(I do module hop a lot). However it would seem BioWare even having no loss of money would not want anything to do with this game and GameSpy REFUSES to let me pay for it. Stating to me "The company discontinued support for this game and you must speak with them in regards for reinstating it."

Good on ya for the attempt, at least!  Here is a Google cache of the powered by GameSpy page for NWN servers from December 5, just a day or two before GLU took it down.  This is probably as close to getting what you're looking for as is going to happen, I think.

Modifié par OldTimeRadio, 14 décembre 2012 - 04:38 .

[HipMaestro]

Apologies if my question is noobish, but EXACTLY what is it that GameSpy provides that a simple list wouldn't cover? I mean, all that is needed is a dynamic table that lists all the available servers IPs, (even right here in the BSN boards would be better than no host at all). No?  To make it more accurate, a verification widget could be devised to assure that an IP indeed exists, but even a purely text-based table would suffice.

Granted, I am not privy to all the behind-tthe-scenes services that GameSpy may be providing, but with the MS out of the equation and server managers adopting the community-devised security measures, I cannot understand why GameSpy itself is anything but a handy shortcut that is initiated via the BioWare MP interface when the game executable starts.

I (and probably oithers who have never sponsored a PW) need some education.  I appreciate if you could keep the explanation as nontechnical as possible for the reason I just detailed... like "Connecting to a PW for Dummies".

Though our gaming group plays primarily via LAN, still we do visit PWs occasionally and would like to have access to a dynamic list of servers when we do.  It would be handy to be able view the server capapcity (whether it is full or not) beforehand but that is secondary to actually locating the game server itself.  It would also be handy if the web sites were furnished, assuming the sites actually tracked participation that may be a reliable means to establish status.  Just a few random thoughts.

Comments?

[SHOVA]

why not add such a list to the player ini file, under favorites? favorites and history still show up in gamespy. adding to the ini file is as easy as adding lines to notepad.