new dragon forms

Crashed me on trying to zone...then caused me to be stuck in dm speed mode till i logged out(which also crashed my game) upon coming back..speed back to normal. But the shape also crashed alastair as well. Prob old news..but i figured id post anyhow

Thanks. I'm trying to figure out exactly what the problem is with the forms. It just seems to be for shapechanging PCs, not with NPC dragons (as far as testing has revealed).

If I can't figure it out, the shapechange/dragon shape forms may have to go back to the original dragon models.

I've been getting crashes with NPC red and green dragons (just crashed off the three green Xroads of Othic dragons in fact).

It seems to be something in their animations, and it doesn't -always- crash me, but a good deal of the time. In particular, the spawn in, the "rears on on hind legs (threaten emote), and knocked down/fall down dead animations seem to be the three doing it most.

It seems that even being with the new dragon models seems to cause crahes. Froze my system completely, and had to do a hard re-boot. Hurn also reported this to me IG that he had 5-6 such incidents, and now both of us (ie; Hurn and Aargyle) are stuck in the Cauldron until the next server reset.

On a positive note Jay had no problems with the new white dragons (in Icereach East) the other night ...

Dang...and I like those dragons. But preventing crashes trumps better looking red dragons, so I'm going to have to upload a version of the hak file without them.

... and no problem with the Ancient reds in the cauldron, or the calithian blues, or the shieldland brasses, or the othik crossroad greens, or the submerged nightwood blacks... ... or morphing into/out of red dragon via Talon's Scale... .. ..

... or any of the three known dracoliches (Vorschy, Elder Guardian, Vengers Lookout) .. (though they look funny walking on all fours likes skeletal dogs!) ... .... ....


I really like these models, it saddens me that they be causing so many others a pain in the a*** .... ..

I had just battled the Graveyard dracolich before confirming Hurn's report to me of the Cauldron drakes; no problem with it at all.

But the Reds froze me up totally.

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:Dang...and I like those dragons. But preventing crashes trumps better looking red dragons, so I'm going to have to upload a version of the hak file without them.

So far, it's only been the reds and greens that seem to be the problem. Black, white and blue dragons have yet to crash me once, nor do I remember anyone else mentioning those colors crashing them either. Perhaps just change the reds and greens back to the bioware/cep versions? At least some of the dragons will be better looking

The Reds are still creating full game freeze. Wished to *bump* this one to the top of the stack before the VIP tour.

I am going to put back the Bioware versions of the reds and greens. Oh, well.

Maybe some of those red dragons around Aenea will have to eventually be replaced by some other form of evil dragon.

Possible Fix

Ok, for those players that are having crash issues with adult red and green dragons...let's see if reverting your model to the older ones from CEP works.

The file linked above contains a compressed cep2_customl.hak file with just those two dragon models. This file takes precedence over the Aenea hak that contains the new dragon models, so this may fix things. Just decompress into your NWN/hak folder.

If you already have something else in your cep2_custom.hak file, you'll want to merge the files, rather than just replace your current one. This hak file is normally empty, so adding in the two dragon models shouldn't affect anything else for you.

Tested Fix! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Tested out in-game with a character that was experiencing the dragon-related crash.

Thanks, Werner!

Somehow this is not working for me, but it may be because I am forced to replace files; dunno how to properly merge them, I guess.

Now what?

If you've never edited your cep2_custom.hak file, it should be a tiny, empty file in your NWN/hak folder. I'm not sure if any other worlds you played on had an altered one for you...the only reason I'm offering it up like this is it's a hak that automatically associated with the game module and is normally empty.

If you've never altered your's before, it should be find to completely replace the original file with this one.

If you need help with merging one that has been altered, email me the file you have in your hak folder and I'll take a look.

Sorry to say so, but the file didnt help me with the dragon-related crashes.
Tried both ways, replacing and merging, but to no avail. Strange thing is that the dragons in question still use the new model.
And just out of curiosity: Why is the .mdl-file for the green dagon 8 times the size of the red dragon model´s file?
Anyway, i hope we can find a solution for this, cause i really like the new dragons!

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:Tested Fix! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Tested out in-game with a character that was experiencing the dragon-related crash.

Thanks, Werner!

you're welcome.

unfortunatelly i seem to have the same problem the others have. took a lvl 24 char to the place i know there is a red dragon. i saw at least 2 spawning. crashed. after relog, i was in the great halls. took the gift of zolaras. saw the 2 dragons again. seemed quadruped to me, crashed again.

either the fix isn't working on these special dragons, or more models need to be replaced than we thought after the test.

Cauldron Reds and Deathwater Crypt reds still causing crashes.

Thanks, I'll get those models added and re-upload the fix hak. Knowing exactly which ones helps me narrow down which one(s) to work with.

The Fix (9-19-09) <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Ok. Made a new version that has all of the older CEP green and red dragon models, for those having the dragon crash issue.

If any other dragon models are causing issues, please let me know.

For those wondering about individual model file sizes...it appears the green dragon models include animation code. The reds borrow their animation from another model, so don't have to include that code.

I have tested this new file on six Red's, and no crashes or freezes. It still needs tested on Green dragons, but thus far it looks like a winner for me. Thanks!

Alundaio wrote:Huh? The new file marked "Fix" has the older models of the dragon. But I have noticed somthing with the new dragon models before I switched over to the fix is that my PC only Crashed when the Dragon first appeared and then only crashed when it died. It was fine while fighting it. If there was a problem loading the model I think it would consistently crash everytime I logged back in, right? Could there be somthing wrong with some of the animations? Oh well, who knows.

I think it might be something wrong with one or two of the animations, but I am clueless (right now, anyway) about animations, so the "fix" is just adding the older CEP models back over the "new" models. It's only needed by those suffering from the crash issue with the red and green dragons.

if this might help: when testing it out i allways saw the model before i crashed.

first test was with a scroll of shapechange. i saw the red dragon model all stretched out, wings pointing up. freeze and crash.

next was with you throwing in the dragons. saw the red one come from the sky, it ended up in a threatening pose (much like those statues). freeze and crash.

then i tried the ones in cauldron. they appeared sitting, freeze and crash.

i never saw them move (except for the fly from above animation). it might be an issue with the very first animation they call (or maybe with the call itself or any animation for that matter)

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:The Fix (9-19-09) <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Ok. Made a new version that has all of the older CEP green and red dragon models, for those having the dragon crash issue.

If any other dragon models are causing issues, please let me know.

For those wondering about individual model file sizes...it appears the green dragon models include animation code. The reds borrow their animation from another model, so don't have to include that code.

Just moving this to the tech support section, since it's a client-side issue for some players but not others.

*bumping* so the beuttlerians can find this link.

Link doesn't exist anymore, can someone point me in the right direction.

Link was added to the main downloads page of the site under the optional downloads.

Here's the direct link: dragonfix

Tried to enter darkwood where the emerland dragon is. Screen crashed as before. Have downloaded dragonfix 4 times and not solving the problem. Also when a[[eared before the last event on Sunday I was a silver dragon like a statue with wings sticking straight up. Something is FUBAR.....

mighty moomin wrote:Tried to enter darkwood where the emerland dragon is. Screen crashed as before. Have downloaded dragonfix 4 times and not solving the problem. Also when a[[eared before the last event on Sunday I was a silver dragon like a statue with wings sticking straight up. Something is FUBAR.....

To my knowledge other players have not had this issue, nor have I myself... what this leads me to think is that something client-side is causing the issue. What you may want to try for starters is to redownload and installl both the aenea.tlk and the aeneahak_updates.hak. After those two try the dragonfix again.

If that doesnt get it, then its probably an issue with CEP 2.3/CCP2 files.... so you may want to re-download those and reinstall them.

Failing that, dare I say it... you may be looking at a full reinstall

Am redownloading CEP 2.3. Do I need to redownload all of the aenea file sor just latest hak and tlk updates?

Also by full download do you mean Aenea files or... gulp... NWN??

Re-installed CEp 2.3 re-installed latest hak and tlk updates and just tried to log back in and still cannot get on.

What does it say when you try to log in ? .... Is it possible that you are missing a hak ?

When i try to enter clawwood where the emerald dragon is the load screen freezes with th ebar about 25% across, same happened in Carpatha.

The dragon cave/emerald dragon crash itself sounds like just a dragonfix issue (although I've never heard of anyone else having trouble with the emerald dragon, since it doesn't use the new dragon models as far as I can see).

That appeared to you as a silver dragon with no animation is very curious though.

How are you getting the Aenea hak files BTW? Off the vault page, or through wolrdgate?

I was trying to think if it's at all possible that something in your override is messing with things ? ... I'm not sure it's possible because hak content overwrites override content but maybe... what's in your override folder ?

After re-downloading the CEP2.3 did you put the dragonfix file (cep2_custom.hak) back into your hak folder ?.....

Are you using anything else that may be overwriting the dragonfix hak? (Does anything else use the cep2_custom.hak for files that may need the two different haks merged together ?)

The as a silver thing seems to scream .2da issue to me (maybe appearance... which as it turns out with a bit of investigating there is indeed an appearance.2da in the updates.hak which, from what I can tell, should have the following lines :

913 "* The Amethyst Dragon" **** The_Amethyst_Dragon c_drgtad default R S **** 1 1 1 FAST 2.6 4.68 0.86 1.56 2 0.86 2.6 H 1 5 1 1 po_DrgBrnz 4 10 1 22 1 60 30 Dragon_head 3 1
914 "Yuant-Ti: Serpent Disciple" **** Yuan_Ti c_yuant02 default G F 2 1 1.05 0.85 NORM 2.5 3.6 0.3 0.7 1 0.3 1.7 H 1 11 1 1 po_yt_abom 4 9 -1 51 1 60 30 neckdummy 6 1
915 "Dragon: Amethyst" **** Dragon_Amethyst c_drggemam06 default R S **** 1 1 1 FAST 3.33 6 1.1 2 3 1.1 3.2 H 1 5 1 1 po_DrgAmet 5 10 1 22 0 60 30 Dragon_head 3 1
916 "Dragon: Crystal" **** Dragon_Crystal c_drggemcr06 default R S **** 1 1 1 FAST 3.33 6 1.1 2 3 1.1 3.2 H 1 5 1 1 po_DrgCrys 5 10 1 22 0 60 30 Dragon_head 3 1
917 "Dragon: Emerald" **** Dragon_Emerald c_drggemem06 default R S **** 1 1 1 FAST 3.33 6 1.1 2 3 1.1 3.2 H 1 5 1 1 po_DrgEmer 5 10 1 22 0 60 30 Dragon_head 3 1
918 "Dragon: Ruby" **** Dragon_Ruby c_drggemrb dlag__ref01 R S **** 1.5 1 1 FAST 3.33 6 1.1 2 1 1.1 3.1 H 1 5 1 1 po_drggemrb 5 10 2 22 0 60 30 Dragon_head 3 1
919 "Dragon: Sapphire" **** Dragon_Sapphire c_drggemsp06 default R S **** 1 1 1 FAST 2.6 4.68 0.86 1.56 2 0.86 2.6 H 1 5 1 1 po_DrgSapp 4 10 1 22 0 60 30 Dragon_head 3 1
920 "Dragon: Topaz" **** Dragon_Topaz c_drggemtp06 default R S **** 1 1 1 FAST 4.15 7.49 1.44 2.88 4 1.44 4.46 H 1 5 1 1 po_DrgTopa 5 10 2 22 0 60 30 Dragon_head 3 1
921 "Dragon: Obsidian" **** Dragon_Obsidian c_drggemob06 default R S **** 1 1 1 FAST 3.33 6 1.1 2 3 1.1 3.2 H 1 5 1 1 po_drggemob 5 10 1 22 0 60 30 Dragon_head 3 1

... note that this block includes both and the Emerald dragon, so if you haven't got it, that could be half the problem.... ...

It looks like I'll have to change that dragon back to the old form. I just changed it to a more gem-looking one, with glowing emerald eyes, which looks incredible...but now appears to cause the crashing bug for some folks.

Edited: Changed the emerald dragon's appearance.

The avatar dragon? Maybe just a dragonfix addition for it?

Found another area which causes me to crash cystal forest central. Any ideas??