No Console?
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Mooooshi420
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2022 1:47 am
No Console?
Ummm..... me and my console friends were all online until this last server shutdown about 20 mins ago.... now console cannot connect to Arelith. The servers are back on and it says people are playing on them yet all X Box users are unable to connect. How long till this is fixed because we were all just playing. We got booted bruh...
Re: No Console?
I'm not sure why this is. We'll investigate.
Re: No Console?
I believe this is almost certainly due to the limit on HaK (download) sizes on consoles, and our recently exceeding it, and the reason, chiefly, is that console users do not have the new NwN tilesets, included on the PC.
I have explained this before, but will do so again, and then outline my current options, which I have chosen, and possibilities for the future.
When working at Ossian I asked that many of the resources we used were updated into NwN, which some months after release of Tyrants, they were. Creatures, models, and most importantly, tilesets.
These are the tilesets, and where we use them.
Medieval City, used for Guldorand main city areas.
Medieval Rural, used for much of Shyr, Guldorand (non city) and Minmir.
Early Winter, used for Skull Crags, Skal Fell and the upcoming Dark Spire update.
Forest Facelift, used for Myon, The Twilight Grove.
These tilesets comprise a significant chunk of our current HaK download, even though they are not even necessary for PC players at all.
Furthermore consoles, as I said above have a cap on the overall download size, of which these are the largest part.
Having to constantly consider that size limit curtails our ability to add content, overall, however were it not for those tilesets we would have a great deal of space to work with.
So I am left with 3 options.
Option 1. Remove Arelith from consoles.
- I've already ruled this out. While these players are currently only around 50 of our 2500 regular players we're not leaving anyone behind. It's not okay, in my view, to withdraw a service they were promised when purchasing the game. As I understand it, Beamdog and the other companies involved are unwilling (or unable to financially justify) the cost of updating platforms they explicitly marketed NwN EE on, without mention of that fact. Is that okay? Honestly I don't know enough about the factors involved, but I do recognize our own obligation (and the opportunities it still affords.) I hope one day it is rectified.
Option 2. Reduce the overall texture quality of our exisying Haks, and restrict more content from being added in future.
- At best this would only buy us a little time, and given it lowers the overall quality for PC players I've also chosen to reject the idea.
Option 3. Remove one, some or all of the above tilesets from our HaK, thus removing access from all associated areas for console players.
-Frankly this is the least worse option. PC players have their overall HaK size significantly reduced and console players can continue to benefit from new content.
Here is how this will work.
I have asked our developers to remove the 'Medieval City' tileset from our HAKS, as such the following areas will be off limits for Console (Xbox and Switch) players:
Guldorand (Fortress City)
Guldorand (City Port)
Guldorand (Elven Quarter)
Attempting to transition into one of these areas will return an error message and cancel the transition, or (in the case of server transitions) move the character to a viable alternative.
You will still be able to access the Deep Wells via Soulhaven Crypts and all console players will be automatically attuned to the Soulhaven portal from level 3.
If you currently own property or a shop in Guldorand (And are a console player) contact the DM team to retrieve your items and property cost.
And, my apologies this is necessary, I hope from my above explanation you can at least understand why.
So, the future then...
The good:
Possibly Beamdog et al will update consoles (I'm doubtful)
Possibly we will be able to signal downloads based upon platform, so that we can readd any removed tilesets (at a lower quality) for console users.
The bad:
It may still be the case that future updates to NwN, specifically NwNX break console support in a way I cannot control. Rest assured we will do all we can to keep the lights on at Arelith for as long as possible, just as we did for PC users back when Gamespy went dark.
I have explained this before, but will do so again, and then outline my current options, which I have chosen, and possibilities for the future.
When working at Ossian I asked that many of the resources we used were updated into NwN, which some months after release of Tyrants, they were. Creatures, models, and most importantly, tilesets.
These are the tilesets, and where we use them.
Medieval City, used for Guldorand main city areas.
Medieval Rural, used for much of Shyr, Guldorand (non city) and Minmir.
Early Winter, used for Skull Crags, Skal Fell and the upcoming Dark Spire update.
Forest Facelift, used for Myon, The Twilight Grove.
These tilesets comprise a significant chunk of our current HaK download, even though they are not even necessary for PC players at all.
Furthermore consoles, as I said above have a cap on the overall download size, of which these are the largest part.
Having to constantly consider that size limit curtails our ability to add content, overall, however were it not for those tilesets we would have a great deal of space to work with.
So I am left with 3 options.
Option 1. Remove Arelith from consoles.
- I've already ruled this out. While these players are currently only around 50 of our 2500 regular players we're not leaving anyone behind. It's not okay, in my view, to withdraw a service they were promised when purchasing the game. As I understand it, Beamdog and the other companies involved are unwilling (or unable to financially justify) the cost of updating platforms they explicitly marketed NwN EE on, without mention of that fact. Is that okay? Honestly I don't know enough about the factors involved, but I do recognize our own obligation (and the opportunities it still affords.) I hope one day it is rectified.
Option 2. Reduce the overall texture quality of our exisying Haks, and restrict more content from being added in future.
- At best this would only buy us a little time, and given it lowers the overall quality for PC players I've also chosen to reject the idea.
Option 3. Remove one, some or all of the above tilesets from our HaK, thus removing access from all associated areas for console players.
-Frankly this is the least worse option. PC players have their overall HaK size significantly reduced and console players can continue to benefit from new content.
Here is how this will work.
I have asked our developers to remove the 'Medieval City' tileset from our HAKS, as such the following areas will be off limits for Console (Xbox and Switch) players:
Guldorand (Fortress City)
Guldorand (City Port)
Guldorand (Elven Quarter)
Attempting to transition into one of these areas will return an error message and cancel the transition, or (in the case of server transitions) move the character to a viable alternative.
You will still be able to access the Deep Wells via Soulhaven Crypts and all console players will be automatically attuned to the Soulhaven portal from level 3.
If you currently own property or a shop in Guldorand (And are a console player) contact the DM team to retrieve your items and property cost.
And, my apologies this is necessary, I hope from my above explanation you can at least understand why.
So, the future then...
The good:
Possibly Beamdog et al will update consoles (I'm doubtful)
Possibly we will be able to signal downloads based upon platform, so that we can readd any removed tilesets (at a lower quality) for console users.
The bad:
It may still be the case that future updates to NwN, specifically NwNX break console support in a way I cannot control. Rest assured we will do all we can to keep the lights on at Arelith for as long as possible, just as we did for PC users back when Gamespy went dark.
Re: No Console?
I have been speaking with NwN luminary Niv who proposed another solution which may not restrict access after all.
Or at least the restriction may only be temporary.
Or at least the restriction may only be temporary.
Re: No Console?
Okay so edit to the above proposed changes...
I won't be removing that tileset from our HAK immediately, as we may be able to replace it with one, of reduced size, that only console players will access (PC users will see original in all its glory)
This may take some time, but you need not be restricted from Arelith until that happens. The console download limit is spread between both ourselves AND Ravenloft. Meaning if you have a console with the downloads for both, you will have exceeded the size, if you haven't and are on ONLY Ravenloft or Arelith, you can still connect.
So if you are are a console player and want to connect to Arelith or Ravenloft and cannot. Clear your NWN downloads from your device, and ONLY connnect to whichever of the two you prefer to play (I hear Ravenloft is awesome...)
Hopefully we will have it working for both again soon.
I won't be removing that tileset from our HAK immediately, as we may be able to replace it with one, of reduced size, that only console players will access (PC users will see original in all its glory)
This may take some time, but you need not be restricted from Arelith until that happens. The console download limit is spread between both ourselves AND Ravenloft. Meaning if you have a console with the downloads for both, you will have exceeded the size, if you haven't and are on ONLY Ravenloft or Arelith, you can still connect.
So if you are are a console player and want to connect to Arelith or Ravenloft and cannot. Clear your NWN downloads from your device, and ONLY connnect to whichever of the two you prefer to play (I hear Ravenloft is awesome...)
Hopefully we will have it working for both again soon.