Jan. 23: CEP 2.3 Update

Sometime on Saturday, January 23rd, I'll be updating the server to use CEP 2.3 (moving up from the current 2.2). I recommend downloading the new version of CEP so that you don't miss out on any of the content that's been added. I'll be uploading a new aeneahak_updates.hak file and aenea.tlk file near the end of this week, once I'm done merging files.

At the same time, I'll be removing CCP as a requirement, since most of CCP's content (the stuff I use, anyway) is in the latest version of CEP.

CEP now uses a little updater program for incremental updates (kind of like I offer with WorldGate and the Aenea files now). They tend to update CEP about once a week with smaller additions now, instead of massive updates that require a fresh download after months without anything.

I'll also be uploading a new version of the player build module once everything else is updated.

Swwweeeettttt!

Neat!

Awww, man ... gotta delete more stuff off of the ol' hard drives...

Nuke the override folder... 20 gigs freed right there for ya

Eric of Atrophy wrote:Awww, man ... gotta delete more stuff off of the ol' hard drives...

Methinks ye need ta git yerself an extra one o' them big new-fangled hard drives they done got at the e-lick-troniks shop. Move yer NWN to that, then ya got plenty o' room fer yer stuff.

* quickly shoves his excess files under a rug to hide the rapidly dwindling gigs on his laptop. *

Is 2.3 Backwards Compatable?

2.3 is (at the moment) no different to the auto-updated 2.2 (using the CEP updater) ... so yes 2.3 should be backwardly compatable ... the only real difference so far is the cep_top.hak has been changed to cep_top_v23 instead of v22 .... the 2.3 haks can be used with either top hak dependent on version you wish to use... ...

Not being totally au fait with all this jargon. Can I uninstall remove CEP 2.2 and replace so save space or does the update do this automatically???

MannyJabrielle wrote:Nuke the override folder... 20 gigs freed right there for ya

Out of the question, Manny, simply out of the question. No chance. Nada. Zip. Zero. Ain't gonna happen.

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:Methinks
ye need ta git yerself an extra one o' them big new-fangled hard drives
they done got at the e-lick-troniks shop. Move yer NWN to that, then ya
got plenty o' room fer yer stuff.

That's the direction I'm heading in, though it will take a bit for the fundage to build up. The wifemonster simply doesn't understand the dire need for storage - she would rather have cat litter. (And I say "phooey!" to that, for a hard drive is much more useful than kitty litter, and smells better, too!)

So, as long as I keep that file (and don't replace it, but add the new one as a second file) I should be good. I ask because I am currently bouncing between servers frequently (And I'm sure my absence will vouch for me) and this is the only one that tends to update very frequently. Therefore, the other server hasn't updated to CEP 2.3 yet.

CEP 2.3 is backwards compatible with 2.2, so long as you don't remove the 2.2 files. The 2.3 update alters some of the "core" haks (adding content) and adds a couple more hak files, but you'll still be able to play on servers/modules that still use 2.2.

Here's my suggestion:

1. If you haven't been using the CEP Updater with CEP 2.2, download the full CEP 2.3 package. It's a 700+ MB .7z file (with over 4 GB of compressed material!).

2. Decompress the contents of that .7z file.
- go in the "hak" and move the contents to your NWN/hak folder (overwriting your older CEP files))
- - - - Note: if using the "dragonfix", don't overwrite your current cep2_custom.hak file.
- go into the "tlk" folder and move the v23 tlk file into your NWN/tlk folder
- move all the miscellaneous files into your NWN folder (these are the ones that run the CEP Updater (erf.exe, and a couple other files)
- you can move the "docs" into your own NWN/docs folder if you like

3. Use the CEP_Update shortcut that's provided to run the updater. This may take a little while, as it checks all the CEP hak files for updates that may have happened since the full package was placed on the Vault.

4. After I make it available (Friday or Saturday), download the newest aeneahak_updates.hak and aenea.tlk files (or run WorldGate to update).

So, to my understanding...

I am not able to use the Worldgate client to update everything I need, I must actually download the CEP 2.3 stuff?

daveyeisley wrote:So, to my understanding...

I am not able to use the Worldgate client to update everything I need, I must actually download the CEP 2.3 stuff?

Unfortunately, yes. I do not host the files for CEP, so that part you'll need to update through them (if you've already got the CEP Updater via CEP 2.2, you can just run that and it should automatically get you the updated parts of the CEP files).

The Aenea hak and tlk files you can use WorldGate for.

I plan on running the CEP Updater on my end only about once a month (rather than weekly), since it's likely I'd have to do more 2da merging with new material...which leads to an update to my own updates hak, but that's something I'd be doing anyway.

Just figured I'd give a heads-up so that folks that need to download the entire CEP 2.3 can get it before I change over the server and the Aenea files.

Do you have a link to the CEP Updater?

Thanks for the info. I'll be updating once it's in place

You can update right now, with nothing breaking. I've had 2.3 for a while now, everything works all okeydokey.

Yeah, but I'm feeling lazy and don't feel like having nothing to do before tomorrow (or between tomorrow and Friday for that matter). I might do it this weekend while I have the time to devote to something else.

Maeglin Dubh wrote:Do you have a link to the CEP Updater?

It should come packaged with your CEP 2.3 download. Or, if running the 2.2 version, if you have the 2.2c, you should have it.

If you don't have the updater in your NWN directory already (perhaps running an older version of 2.2), you might want to just download the full CEP 2.3. If it takes too long for you, you could always do what I used to do when I had dial-up (and first starting to build Aenea)...start the download before you go to sleep and let it finish when you aren't going to get impatient waiting.

Cool. Running it now.

Once it's done updating, how do I see all the new stuff?

11+ hours of downloading to go....

Maeglin Dubh wrote:Cool. Running it now.

Once it's done updating, how do I see all the new stuff?

You could pop open the cep starter module in the toolset, then start making new items, creatures, and placeables, which lets you look through all the appearances for stuff. The newest placeable and creature appearances start with (I think) "[CEP23] ".

Of course, those appearance names will change if you end up working in the Aenea player build module after Saturday, since I'm removing the "[CEP23] " in the Aenea 2da files so that all the new stuff automatically gets sorted into the alphabetical list.

Ooh... I need to update the player building module, don't I?

Maeglin Dubh wrote:Ooh... I need to update the player building module, don't I?

After Saturday. I haven't uplaoded a new version yet (with the new hak file associations). Remember to export your items/homes from the old version if you want to import them into the new version when you get it.

Remember to export your items/homes from the old version if you want to import them into the new version when you get it.

Yeah ... that's something I normally forget to do....

Server's down for a little while so that I can copy over all the new files. I'll restart the game as soon as everything is loaded onto the server machine.

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:Server's down for a little while so that I
can copy over all the new files. I'll restart the game as soon as
everything is loaded onto the server machine.

The "Aenea Homepage" website states the status is 'Online'. I presume this is not true?

Any ETA when Aenea might be up? I finally got CEP 2.3 downloaded (heh...the easiest way to fix a hash RAM error is rebooting - who would've figured? Anyone but me in about 3 minutes...)

<rubber tube wrapped around lower bicep, fingers tapping the Aenea vein to make it taunt>

Back online now. It took a long time for the files to transfer to the server.

The new swimming... rocks

Found the bladed fans.
Awesome. Maybe I'm slow, but it was awesome.

Question: I overwrote my cep2_custom.hak, and also all the .tlk files not just the v23 one (didnt overwrite the aenea.tlk though). Is this going to screw me up and if so, how do i fix it?

daveyeisley wrote:Question: I overwrote my cep2_custom.hak, and also all the .tlk files not just the v23 one (didnt overwrite the aenea.tlk though). Is this going to screw me up and if so, how do i fix it?

Overwriting the old CEP .tlk files won't make any difference, but will bring your version of CEP up to date (Aenea doesn't use the CEP .tlk file, since I merge the CEP lines into the aenea.tlk file anyway). The cep2_custom.hak file is the one that I used for the "dragon fix", so you can just re-download it if you need to (it's an otherwise empty hak file).

Something I like to do too, I stick my CEP+ACP robe override files into the cep_custom hak. Keeps them working for Aenea, but won't interfere with any other module I play which doesn't happen to use the ACP and CEP merged in the same manner as Aenea does.

Finally got to updating in the wee hours of the morning. Of course, I'm a night owl, so it's nothing new to me. The rest of the family however... hates it. I'm a pain to get up in the morning

But hey, at least I'm quiet

After seeing this update all take me under 30 minutes (download, Unzipping and replacing of files) I'm starting to wonder if there's any fileset out there that this computer of mine can't handle...

Ok... so I updated, successfully no less, and went into the server. What do I come to see? (or not see, as the case may be) I can FINALLY see the SDI for a change. Yipee! The inn has returned from the outer planes! On the other side of that, Darla and the Baker seem to have... misplaced... their buildings from my view...

Got any ideas as to why I can't see them any more?

That's odd. Since I removed the need for the CCP (and some of the building placeables came from that), I changed those particular buildings to use the CEP versions of the same buildings (most of the CCP stuff got incorporated into the latest CEP!).

The buildings are showing up in-game for me just fine. I think your computer is just wacky. Actually, I just have no idea why you're having problems seeing certain buildings.

I'll put CCP back and see what happens

evilkittenofdoom wrote:I'll put CCP back and see what happens

It shouldn't make any difference, since the PW module itself no longer references that hak file (so your computer would never draw on it while you play in Aenea).

MannyJabrielle wrote:Something I like to do too, I stick my CEP+ACP robe override files into the cep_custom hak. Keeps them working for Aenea, but won't interfere with any other module I play which doesn't happen to use the ACP and CEP merged in the same manner as Aenea does.

Yeah Rusty's cep_custom.hak has a few things in it too ... the Aenea Dragonfix, MJ's CEP+ACP robes override, my own Gloss Coloured Scrolls and some icon and GUI overrides ... ... it's kinda becoming an "extension of my override folder" usable in CEP mod'ed stuff -- I hate the way hak content overrides the OVERRIDE folder.. always thought that should be the other way round.... ....

Is the player build module revision ready for download yet? Im still workin on the 3rd level of the inferno area i was doing... and i exported it, but i would like to get the new module to import it and make sure everything works right.

Nope no difference at all. I can't even begin to imagine what would have caused it.

daveyeisley wrote:Is the player build module revision ready for download yet? Im still workin on the 3rd level of the inferno area i was doing... and i exported it, but i would like to get the new module to import it and make sure everything works right.

D'oh! I knew I was forgetting something.

Updated version now uploaded.

Would you believe that there's more hak file updating coming soon? Yes, already since late Friday night I've been working on a couple of things that will lead to another upcoming alteration to the aeneahak_updates.hak file. Don't worry, I'm waiting until at least Friday to finish with the additions before I add them to the server (and download options).

Did update to 2.3 with the cepupdater, or the download of the 2.3 and then updated?

One glitch I have noticed with the CEP2.3 since putting it in quite a while ago is the shield model used by the Silverstorm's mystic shield. Rather than being a roughly flat VFX of concentric circles, it's pulled down so the circles are going through the PC's body. Other players have been getting this too. I thought it was just my own installation until others mentioned it as well.

, the modules in that link won't open in the toolset. It reports that the hak "vd_build" is missing.

Ah, looks like I forgot to change that back after testing something out. That's a leftover from when I was trying the Versatile Dungeon tileset. It's nice, but something I'll be waiting on until it become more complete.

New build module now online, so those first four downloaders can go back for the working one.

<--hehe, was the first four downloads *imp grin*

The new one still requires vd_build...

It is now working fine for me, thanks

Works for me too.

MannyJabrielle wrote:Did update to 2.3 with the cepupdater, or the download of the 2.3 and then updated?

One glitch I have noticed with the CEP2.3 since putting it in quite a while ago is the shield model used by the Silverstorm's mystic shield. Rather than being a roughly flat VFX of concentric circles, it's pulled down so the circles are going through the PC's body. Other players have been getting this too. I thought it was just my own installation until others mentioned it as well.

Even before thet update to the CEP I was getting it goin through Ray's body, didn't think anything of it till I saw your post. I haven't had a chance to get in there since the change but I'll let ya know when I do how it looks.