Well, after a long hiatus, the Engliton Server is back online and running on a Quad Core PC with 4gb of RAM. That means that no matter what is going on, there should be absolutely no lag coming from the server. The player cap is currently set at 40 (not that I expect that many to even log on given the age of NeverWinter Nights). But, should we need more player slots, I feel fully confident that I can double or triple the player count at a moment's notice with no/little impact.

Those returning to Engliton...welcome back! If your character was one of the few that went over the character level cap, and now are unable to log back on, please email me and we'll set up a time where I can fix your character. Oh, yes...I forgot to mention, all characters and items from before the previous server crash are safe and sound, and fully useable. So enjoy!

For those players logging into Engliton for the first time....welcome! I'm sure that you will find Engliton to be a well-thought out and entertaining NWN server. Over the years, many ideas grew with the help of the Engliton community to bring the richness and background you will find in just about every area you visit. Experience the quests and encounters tucked into the module. And remember, enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! There, I'm now all caught up. The past few months have been extremely busy between work, Hero's Journey and other events in Life. But, I have been able to put aside some time to write/convert some scripts for Persistent Worlds on NWN2. The offical page to download this Toolkit is NW Vault - Rowell's Persistent World Toolkit. I invite anyone that wants to add some very cool features to their PW to download the package and look it over.

At the moment, the following is fully implemented, testing and working:

With the coming of Halloween, we've also got the release of Neverwinter Nights 2 slated to ship. This new game has its high points and its low points. On the positive side, the game is a beautiful update; with great graphics and rendering engine. On the negative side, it seems that to make this game work, many features that make Persistent Worlds possible have been drastically neutered. At the moment, it is difficult to say just how large persistent worlds can be, and what type of server will be needed to host such a game. Only time will tell.

As for Engliton, I will not be opening the Engliton server right when Neverwinter Nights 2 is released. The computer that I would be using for a the server is only a 2.4ghz Pentium 4 with 768mb of RAM....hardly enough muscle to run the NWN2 beast. Also, there currently no SQL support add-ons (NWNX4) available. Since Engliton relies heavily upon a working SQL database, I feel that I would be doing a disservice to the players should I open Engliton up without the tools and things they've come to know and love.

On the bright side, I have re-tooled many of the scripts from the original Engliton server. Some of them, like the Fair Loot Treasure Chest and the Bashable Door, are small, do not rely on a database, and will be released to the public after they are tested. Other scripts, which rely on a database, will be tested once NWNX4 (or someother database gateway) is created. These scripts include a complete Player/Character tracker, Area Statistics, Item Statistics, Loot Drop Tables, and more. Plus, there will be web pages which will allow players and DM's to view information from the database on the web. These I plan on releasing to the public once they've been thoroughly tested.

Anyways, that's the update for now. Engliton won't immediately be moving to NWN2...but it will eventually, when I feel that the NWN2 suite has enough to support Engliton with all the goodies from the previous version.....and when I get enough free time to actually build in the NWN2 toolset.

Until then, happy trick-or-treating!

My apologies for the delay in posting a follow up message regarding the status of the Engliton Server.

Upon examination inside the belly of the beast, I discovered that the fan on the video card ceased, causing the video card to overheat and short out. Swapping the video card out didnt bring the server back...still no video. So, odds are that when he video blew, it took the motherboard with it.

At this time, due to the low user count on the server lately, I've opted to hold off making repairs to the server. I'll be waiting for the release of Neverwinter Nights 2, and seeing exactly what that game engine has to offer first before going forward. There have been alot of announcements by Obsidian that have me concerned that Persistent World builders might be limited in what they'll be able to create based on the power of the server machine. If these worries are proven to be unfounded, I may purchase NWN2 and do a conversion of the Engliton module.

Also a factor in this is my work with Hero's Journey. Recently, I've been promoted to Assistant Senior GM on the World Building Team. This means lots more responsibilities to go along with the regular work that I'm doing to help get the MMORPG ready for the market. Depending on the work schedule there, I may not have time to re-write Engliton for NWN2. But...we'll see how everything goes.

If you want, take a peek at Hero's Journey.

When I came home today, the server was dark. well, there was power and the fans and hard drive were spinning, but video, and probably network operability are gone. I plan on looking into the problem this weekend when I get a chance. Until then, the server will be down.

Sorry for the outage.

(Last Edited On: 5/25/2006 4:41:52 PM)