[Guide] New players from GOG giveaway - how to host and join LAN or internet games, and have up to date patches etc.
My wife and I fought to get online for about an hour til I did some research. I decided to make a guide for other new or returning players who want to be up to date, functional, and online with the game. You can probably replace your serial keys and skip right to the NWN client extender step to play lan and online, but if you patch the game you'll have to redo the client extender so you might as well get all the patches and crap in first.
Step 1:
You need to change your serial keys for the game.
Go to the install folder (usually C:GOG GamesNWN Diamond) and open nwncdkey.ini as a .txt document. You'll see 3 serial keys in the file.
Go to your GOG account>library>Neverwinter Nights, dropdown arrow> View downloads> More> Serial keys
Copy the first serial key from GOG and replace the first key in the nwncdkey.ini with it.
Do the same for the 2nd and 3rd serial keys.
SAVE the nwncdkey.ini
Note regarding use of premium modules after changing the serial keys:
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.
Step 2:
Install, from this link, the NWN 1.69 critical rebuild patch
Click the link, and find the link for your OS. Since you have NWN Diamond, you need the link for your OS entitled 'HOTU Critical Rebuild', and NO OTHER.
Download and run the appropriate patch.
Step 3:
Install, from this link, the NWN 1.71 community patch
Clink the link, then download and run the patch.
Step 4:
Install, from this link, NWN Community expansion pack (CEP) 2.61
Yes, this is an unofficial site and it's a google docs download. It allows you to get 2.61 all at once in one download, with some minor fixes created by the people who run the Ravenloft - Prisoners of the Mist persistent world server.
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Create a new folder on desktop to temporarily use. Call it NWNTEMP
Download the CEP 2.61 from the link above, then transfer the 7zip file to that new temporary folder called NWNTEMP.
Extract the 7zip file inside of the NWNTEMP folder (extract here). The NWNTEMP folder will now have 5 subfolders in it: docs, erf, hak, modules, tlk.
Go back to or re-open C:GOG GamesNWN Diamond.
You will notice that in the NWN Diamond folder, there are several subfolder with the same names as the NWNTEMP subfolders.
For the NWNTEMP docs folder, copy the CONTENTS of the folder, and then PASTE them into the docs folder in NWN Diamond.
Do the same as above for the NWNTEMP erf, hak, and modules folders, copying the contents and pasting them to the corresponding NWN Diamond folder.
Copy the tlk folder itself from NWNTEMP and paste that folder into NWN Diamond
Step 5:
Download, from this link, the Neverwinter Nights Client Extender. EDIT: NWNCX works only with Windows. If you are on some other OS, you'll need to direct connect by IP for internet games/servers.
Place the nwncx-0.2.9.rar (or .7zip) file directly into the C:GOG GamesNWN Diamond installation folder
Extract the nwncx-0.2.9.rar (or .7zip) file inside of the NWN Diamond folder
In the C:GOG GamesNWN Diamond installation folder, locate the 'patch' subfolder, and open it. Run the vpatchprompt.exe.
A window will pop up entitled 'Select patch file', Navigate to C:GOG GamesNWN Diamondpatch and Select nwmain-patch.pat (or nwmain-patch+camera.pat to also include a camera tweak) and hit 'Open'
A new window will then appear entitled 'Select source file', Navigate to C:GOG GamesNWN Diamond and select nwmain.exe and hit 'Open'
It will ask you to save the altered file. Enter the new, temporary file name for nwmain, nwmain.exe.NEW, and hit 'Save'
Inside the C:GOG GamesNWN Diamond installation folder, rename your original nwmain.exe to nwmain.exe.OLD. This is now a backup.
Inside the C:GOG GamesNWN Diamond installation folder, rename nwmain.exe.NEW to nwmain.exe.
It's over - everything works and is up to date. Some servers may require you to download and install various other files in order for you to join them and enjoy their custom content. Follow their instructions if that occurs.
EDIT: added info about premium modules