Change Log

New Systems:
-- The initial portion of the improved Overland Map support is available in acr_travelmap_i, but only covers the aspects of scale, movement, and effects/ item properties that present vulnerabilities in our current live overland map.
-- The initial portion of the Defensive Fighting / Combat Expertise fix is available for testing, provided that people doing so can produce a functional interface to do so.
-- Hair dyes are now available for use by builders through the use of the Cast Spell: Disguise (Take 10) and Cast Spell: Disguise (Roll 1d20) item properties. Eight examples (000000-- black, 0000FF-- blue, 00FF00-- green, 00FFFF-- cyan, FF0000-- red, FF00FF-- purple, FFFF00-- blonde, and FFFFFF-- white) are included in the hak update as examples. When used, these items will roll a disguise check to determine the success of the check; players who are not confident in their ability to roll well on disguise should expect very unsavory results from attempting such permanent tools of disguise.
-- It is now possible to roll skill checks, ability checks, and saving throws through a chat-based interface. 

Balance Changes:

-- Spawn loot drops will be somewhat more frequent than before.  (10% increase in frequency)

New Spells
-- Dimension Door is offered; DM support is required to cast the spell without line of sight. 

New Models
-- Minotaurs
-- Gibberlings
-- Rapiers #220 and #221
-- Basilisk
-- Monodrone 

New Items
-- Shortspears (1d6 / x2 – medium simple/druid/rogue weapon)
-- Shortstaves (1d4 / x2 – medium simple/druid/rogue/monk/wizard weapon) 

New Soundsets
-- Edwin 

New Deity
-- Amaunator can be selected as a deity on character creation, to represent ALFA’s handling of the rise of the dead sun god beginning in 1374 DR. 

New Base Item
-- Trade Goods 

Building Tools
-- Blueprints for KEMO compatible chairs are now available through the haks 

Fixed Systems:
-- The language system introduced in version 1.81 can now translate for player characters within hearing range without the workaround introduced shortly after 1.81’s release.
-- Elves are no longer blind while resting, to better emulate the effects of reverie.
-- PCs who rest in armor are warned of the hazards of resting in armor.
-- zspawn NPCs will now acquire identified magical amulets, when they acquire magical amulets.
-- gear spawned on zspawn NPCs will no longer risk dropping when those NPCs are killed.
-- An exploit related to item-retrieval quests can no longer be used to gain infinite XP.
-- ACR fatigue now uses the NWN2 engine effect
-- Skill roll reports produced through the PC Tools interface will no longer translate to your default language, if that language is not common.
-- Attempts to act on doors through area transitions will now make sure that the target door exists before attempting to act on it.
-- KEMO chairs will no longer make corrected / resized / nonhuman sitters turn invisible upon standing up.
-- The spawn system will no longer run away with the server’s processor if it fails to retrieve the delay between spawn checks.
-- Modules may now be configured to ignore item acquire events.
-- Slain NPCs will now drop slightly-less money slightly-more frequently, resulting in a (minor) net gain to monster drops.

Fixed Spells:
-- The Mass Cure [x] Wounds series of spells have received a number of fixes:
--- a. They no longer have infinite area of effect for the purposes of healing party members
--- b. They now properly count the number of targets healed
--- c. They are now capable of healing neutral creatures
--- d. The priority of application of the spell’s effects will be allies > neutrals > hostile undead
-- Ray of Frost is now an evocation spell
-- The Frightful Blast essence will now produce a shaken effect (-2 attack, -2 skills, -2 saves) instead of a panicked effect (flee irrationally; cower if cornered), per Complete Arcane p134.
-- Charm Person will no longer apply the “charmed” effect to PC targets, as “charmed” is interpreted as “disabled” in the NWN2 engine. 

Fixed Items:
-- Gloves now do bludgeoning damage 

Fixed Soundsets:
-- Missing resources from the soundsets in the version 1.81 release are now included. 

Mechanical Fixes:
-- The vampiric regeneration property is now available for use on gloves, for use when those gloves are used as weapons. 

Mechanical Changes:
-- Selunite paladin is now a valid deity/ class combination. 

Performance Enhancements:
-- Asynchronous database writes have been expanded extensively, now improving performance around especially-intensive areas of activity during play, especially combat, client enter, and client exit events.
-- Asynchronous database writes have been expanded to include caching of data, allowing data to be read from the module in some instances when we would typically call the central database, making lag become less severe as players are on longer.
-- Will no longer attempt to start a status cache (that is, dead, dying, etc) for an NPC.

Updating

For Players: The process is as always. Log in to an upgraded server. Wait for auto downloader magic. 

For Builders: 
1. Acquire the new haks and load the module with the new scripts in use.
2. File > Compile > All Scripts in Module
3. Find and remove the workaround in your module’s OnChat event
4. Save. Ship it off. 

For Hosts:
1. Badger the builders until they provide an updated module.
2. Acquite the new haks and place them in nwn2server’s hak folder.
3. Acquire packages.2da and place it in nwn2server’s override folder.
4. Acquire the new version of nwnx_objectattributes.dll
5. Inform tech team of readiness; switchover should not happen until ADL server is ready.

Chat Dice

It is now possible to achieve the effects of the dice bag through the chat event. Enter # followed by the name of the thing you wish to roll to generate dice.

The following commands are functional: 

Fortitude Saves:
#fort
#fortitude 

Reflex Save:
#ref
#reflex 

Will Save:
#will 

Strength Check:
#str
#strength 

Dexterity Check:
#dex
#dexterity 

Constitution Check:
#con
#constitution 

Intelligence Check:
#int
#intelligence 

Wisdom
#wis
#wisdom 

Charisma
#cha
#charisma 

Appraise
#app
#appraise 

Balance
#bal
#balance 

Bluff
#bluff 

Climb
#climb 

Concentration
#concentration 

Craft (Alchemy)
#alch
#alchemy
#craft alchemy
#craft (alchemy)
#craft: alchemy 

Craft (Armorer)
#arm
#armor
#craft armor
#craft (armor)
#craft: armor 

Craft (Bowyer)
#bowyer
#craft bow
#craft (bow)
#craft: bow 

Craft (Weaponsmith)
#weap
#weapon
#craft weapon
#craft (weapon)
#craft: weapon 

Decipher Script
#script
#decipher
#decipher script 

Diplomacy
#dip
#diplo
#diplomacy 

Disable Device
#trap
#disarm
#disable
#disable device
#dd 

Disguise
#disguise 

Escape Artist
#escape
#escape artist 

Forgery
#forge
#forgery 

Gather Information
#gather
#information
#info
#gather info
#gather information 

Handle Animal
#handle animal 

Heal
#heal 

Hide
#hide 

Jump
#jump 

Knowledge (Arcana)
#arc
#arcana
#knowledge arcane
#knowledge (arcana)
#knowledge: arcane 

Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering)
#arch
#architect
#knowledge arch
#knowledge (architecture and engineering)
#knowledge: architecture and engineering 

Knowledge (Dungeoneering)
#dung
#dungeon
#knowledge dungeoneering
#knowledge (dungeoneering)
#knowledge: dungeoneering 

Knowledge (Geography)
#geo
#geography
#knowledge geography
#knowledge (geography)
#knowledge: geography 

Knowledge (History)
#hist
#history
#knowledge history
#knowledge (history)
#knowledge: history 

Knowledge (Local)
#local
#knowledge local
#knowledge (local)
#knowledge: local 

Knowledge (Nature)
#nat
#nature
#knowledge nature
#knowledge (nature)
#knowledge: nature 

Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty)
#nob
#nobility
#knowledge nobility
#knowledge (nobility and royalty)
#knowledge: nobility and royalty 

Knowledge (Religion)
#rel
#religion
#knowledge religion
#knowledge (religion)
#knowledge: religion 

Knowledge (The Planes)
#planes
#the planes
#knowledge planes
#knowledge (the planes)
#knowledge: the planes 

Listen
#list
#listen 

Move Silently
#ms
#sneak
#move silently 

Open Lock
#ol
#lock
#open lock
#pick lock
#open locks 

Parry
#parry 

Perform (Acting)
#act
#acting
#perform acting
#perform (acting)
#perform: acting 

Perform (Comedy)
#comedy
#perform comedy
#perform (comedy)
#perform: comedy 

Perform (Dance)
#dance
#perform dance
#perform (dance)
#perform: dance 

Perform (Keyboard)
#keyboard
#perform keyboard
#perform (keyboard)
#perform: keyboard 

Perform (Oratory)
#oratory
#perform oratory
#perform (oratory)
#perform: oratory 

Perform (Drums)
#drums
#perform drums
#perform (drums)
#perform: drums 

Perform (String Instruments)
#string
#perform string
#perform (string)
#perform: string 

Perform (Wind Instruments)
#wind
#woodwind
#perform wind
#perform (wind)
#perform: wind 

Perform (Sing)
#sing
#perform sing
#perform (sing)
#perform: sing 

Profession
#profession 

Ride
#ride 

Search
#search 

Sense Motive
#sm
#sense motive 

Sleight of Hand
#soh
#sleight of hand
#pp
#pick pockets 

Spellcraft
#sc
#spellcraft 

Spot
#spot 

Survival
#surv
#survival 

Swim
#swim 

Tumble
#tumb
#tumble 

Use Magic Device
#umd
#use magic device 

Use Rope
#use rope

Change Log

New Systems:
-- A new graphical interface has been added to DM clients, which allows DMs to create and customize NPCs with control over build and appearance.
-- KEMO Chairs
-- A new graphical interface has been added to the multiplayer chat window which allows control over languages through the default chat window. In addition, the chat window now accepts text commands to select language.

Enhanced Systems:
-- The ALFA spawn system now supports spawn types of Encounter (5), Triggers (6) and Lights (7)
-- The multiplayer chat window now accepts text entries of up to 4000 characters, upgraded from 255. It should compare to the Client Extender’s chat input for length, it being at 4096, but not necessarily for functionality (as the default multiplayer chat window will still not accept copy/paste commands).

Fixed Systems:
-- RPXP no longer gives double rewards surrounding lag and crashes.
-- The quarantine system is now able to handle missing location data correctly, and quarantine characters who have logged onto the wrong server without a valid saved location.
-- The module load event now clears old/stale character data from previous instances of the module.
-- The DMFI wealth tool now reads PC wealth, instead of the value of the helmet slot times the number of items in the PC’s inventory. The Omega wand is still inaccurate, and should be considered unsupported and depreciated.
-- PC wealth is now logged in the “wealth” column of the “characters” table; it previously consistently logged “0.”

Fixed Spells:
-- Mage Armor now treats its AC bonus as armor, instead of armor enhancement.
-- Previously, wall of dispel magic listed minute/lvl for duration, and cast at round/lvl. Now it casts and lists at minute/lvl
-- The VFX on Barkskin has been made more subtle, in an attempt to bring the spell closer to its description of “makes a creature’s skin as tough as bark” and not necessarily “turns a creature’s skin into bark.”
-- Panther Shape, having been removed by OE for NWN2, is restored to functionality.

Removed Spells:
-- Glass Doppleganger has been removed from the wizard spell list. It is now only mechanically available through items.

New Feats:
-- Craft Construct**

New Soundsets:
-- Flaming Fist (611)
-- Amn Guard (612)
-- Helmite Cleric (613)
-- Villager (614)

New Monster Abilities:
-- A "Shadow Touch Attack" is available as a feat to be given to monsters of the same name. It used a touch attack to do 1d6 strength damage, and kills the target if strength is reduced to 0.
-- Two new perception ranges, named “PC – 10” and “PC – 5” have been added. They represent perception ranges that are nearer to PC perception range than was available previously.

Mechanical Fixes:
-- Kobolds are now treated as small (instead of medium) creatures.
-- Goblins are now treated as small (instead of medium) creatures.

Performance Enhancements:
-- Log writes to the SQL database are now performed asynchonously, so that they may be sent in batches. As a result, server performance should be markedly improved during combat and player login events.

Structural Changes:
-- We now have a repo, which we may use to handle branching, commits, and checkouts to help manage the development of ALFA's core content.
-- We now compile scripts for inclusion in the haks in the process of preparing the haks for distribution. This reduces the likelihood of a fix "not taking" when it is pushed out. This does have the potential to create changes in behavior to logs and spawns; we believe that these changes will all be fixes, but oddities should be reported to Ronan.
-- We now have a complete build system that handles our custom content, managing the compiling of scripts and the movement of resourecs into hak files.
-- We now host the dmfi_* scripts inside of the haks. These are necessary for our new build system (above) and may be used to fix some of the bugs in the dmfi systems.

** This is a “placeholder,” and has no effect without DM support.

Tutorials

NPC GUI
The NPC GUI is intended to be relatively simple in its use-- the basic structure of the GUI’s use is as follows:
1. DM opens the GUI by clicking the “ZSPAWN” button, which appears on the upper left corner of the screen
2. DM uses the GUI to select gender, alignment, class, race, and appearance of the expected NPC, if desired. Any selection not made will be random, except alignment, which will default to neutral unless some aspect of race or class prevents that. Paladins, for example, will always spawn as Lawful Good.
3. DM gives the NPC a name and description, if desired. If neither are specified, the resulting NPCs will appear as nameless.
4. DM clicks a number corresponding to the number of HD that he or she would like the NPC to have. If the “Natural Level” button is used, the NPC will be created with the number of hit dice specified in the Monster Manual or, in the case of races which advance by class and have no natural hit dice, as level 1.
5. The DM GUI will spawn an item into the DM’s inventory. Using this item will give the DM two on-use powers: Spawn One and Spawn 2d4.
6a. If Spawn One is used, a single NPC will be created. It will use the class selections under the assumption that the DM wishes the NPC to have all of those classes, and will take up to three of them. The spawning scripts will typically favor more-skilled classes, as is the consequence of functionality to make the first level be in the class with the most skill points. The infrastructure existing in the NWN2 engine does not support leveling in a fourth class, even though uniquely-tooled NPCs and PCs are not so limited. If no classes are selected, the NPC will be single-classed, and the class will be random.
6b. If Spawn 2d4 is used, 2d4 NPCs will be spawned (That will be 4-6 spawns 62.5% of the time.) It will assume that a group consisting of NPCs of the selected classes is desired, and each NPC will have one class selected from the options. If no classes are selected, each NPC will have a random class from the options available.

Caveats:
-- Races which do not advance by class (for example: shadows) will ignore selections for class made.
-- Races which have a HD cap (for example: ghouls) will treat all HD values above the maximum as the maximum value.
--  Races which have a HD floor (for example: gnolls) will treat all HD values below the minimum as the minimum value
-- “Advanced” races, such as humans or dwarves, will be equipped by the ALFA-defined “low end” wealth for characters of their level. DMs should be extremely careful with these NPCs, as most PCs are not currently accustomed to (or equipped for) fighting NPCs with level-appropriate gear.
-- “Primitive” races, such as orcs or goblins, will be equipped by the ALFA-defined “low end” wealth for characters of half their level and will never use heavy armor.
-- Mindless or animalistic races, such as ghouls, will not use any equipment unless the DM actively equips them with something (they have the proficiencies to do so, should a DM equip them).

Known Deficiencies:
-- Upon switching between races, the GUI does not “reset” selections made for appearance, and the last interaction with the GUI related to appearance will be treated as valid. For example, if you selected hair color #1 on an elf, and then switched to dwarf, the dwarf appearance panel would still show hair color as random. However, all dwarves would spawn with the same hair color.
-- The initial process of loading the GUI is fairly-performance-intensive, as the client must negotiate many objects being added to the screen. DMs on less-performant machines may notice that the window appears to ‘freeze’ briefly while it loads. DMs on modern computers will not typically notice more than a brief stutter. Opening the GUI after this first time is less demanding, and typically happens without any measurable performance damage.

Language System
The language system enhancement is designed to be as simple as possible. A new button has been added to the multiplayer chat window, which now lives beneath the channel selection buttons. It can be identified as the “@” button. When clicked, it will bring up a panel in the center of the screen which lists the available languages to the character. Clicking one will cause the character to begin to speak that language, and will assume that any text entry, which is not indicated as being some other language, will be in that default language.

The language system enhancement will also now accept text entries prefaced with abbreviations for languages, and will treat the following text as being of that language. This setting takes priority over the default language selected through the GUI. That is, if one were to click the “@” button and select Chondathan as the default language, and then type “@elf Hello world!” into the chat window, the character will attempt to say “Hello world!” in elven: subject to the character’s ability to speak elven, of course.

The language will appear in the same channel that is used to send it, provided that the channel is in character. Language use, thus, may now be used in normal talk, party chat, and whispers. It may not be used on the DM channel, in tells, in shouts, or on the server channel.

It is worth note that, while this system supports all of the languages that the DMFI tools do, there are no current options for player characters to acquire Leetspeak or Thieves’ Cant.

The language abbreviations are as follows:
@com – Common
@anm – Animal
@ass – Assassin
@aby – Abyssal
@alz – Alzhedo
@aqu – Aquan
@aur – Auran
@alg – Algarondan
@can – Thieves’ Cant
@cel – Celestial
@che – Chessentan
@cho – Chondathan
@chu – Chultan
@dwa – Dwarven
@dro – Drow
@drs – Drow Sign
@dru – Druidic
@dra – Draconic
@dam – Damaran
@dmb – Dambrathan
@dur – Durpari
@elf – Elven
@gno – Gnome
@gob – Goblin
@gia – Giant
@gnl – Gnoll
@hlf – Halfling
@ign – Ignan
@hdr – Halardrim
@hlr – Halruaan
@ill – Illuskan
@ims – Imaskarran
@inf – Infernal
@l37 – Leet
@lan – Lantanese
@lor – Loross
@mid – Midani
@mul – Mulhorandi
@nth – Netherese
@rsh – Rashemi
@ser – Serusan
@sha – Shaaran
@sho – Shou
@syl – Sylvan
@ter – Terran
@tre – Treant
@tsh – Tashalan
@tui – Tuigan
@tur - Turmic
@orc – Orcish
@nex – Nexalan
@yti – Yuan-Ti
@und – Undercommon
@ulu – Uluik
@unt – Untheric
@vas – Vaasan

KEMO Chairs
The use of KEMO chairs from the end-user perspective is simply a matter of selecting options from the provided GUI.

Builders who wish to make use of the KEMO chairs system will find templates on the page’s documentation:
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Nwn2scripts.Detail&id=235

The provided templates are designed to be placed, though the documentation for KEMO itself will be more robust than the release notes. The core scripts, GUI, GUI scripts, and animations are part of this hak release.
 

Under construction: The article and the dev environment aren't complete. 

The ALFA development environment

We're working on a development environment for ALFA that will make it easy us to all contribute towards the ACR and haks. We do this by using a Git repository located on Github.com.

This environment lets you download the latest haks, build them into a test mod, and commit your changes to ALFA with a few simple commands. Of course the environment is not required (you can still email stuff to the tech staff), but when used properly it makes everyone's life a lot easier.

This guide will help you get started, depending on your level of experience.

Everyone needs to sign up for a Github.com account, and to let the tech team know what your username is so they can add you to the project (without that you won't have the permissions to make any changes).

Git for experienced developers:

The repo is here: https://github.com/ALandFarAway/ALFA-Base-Resources/

Get Git for Windows here: http://code.google.com/p/msysgit

If you don't want to mess with ssh keys and auth, you can use https by typing the following and entering your Github password when prompted:

git clone https://YourGithubUsername@github.com/ALandFarAway/ALFA-Base-Resources.git

If you do what to mess with ssh keys and auth, read here for how to set them up: http://help.github.com/win-set-up-git/

If you're familiar with SVN but not Git, try this: http://git.or.cz/course/svn.html

SVN doesn't seem to work well with large commits/updates (our haks are just under 2gb), while Git seems to work flawlessly and has better compression for large pulls/pushes.

Git for non-developers:

Firstly, read this tutorial. It assumes no knowledge of version control systems: http://blogs.sitepoint.com/version-control-git/

Get the latest version of Git for Windows here: http://code.google.com/p/msysgit

You have the option of installing Git with its own bash command prompt, or integrating into the windows command prompt. If you're familiar with bash commands the former is probably the better option. If you don't know what the hell that is, go with the later.

To clone our repository, go to a directory where you want to put it, and type:

git clone https://YourGithubUsername@github.com/ALandFarAway/ALFA-Base-Resources.git

Anyone wanting a GUI:

I suggest using SmartGit:

• Download and install Git for Windows: http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/
• Download SmartGit: http://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/index.html
• Run the installer.
• On the second step, select "Non-commercial use only".
• In the third step, point SmartGit to your git executable. It generally finds it automatically.
• In the fourth step, select "Use SmartGit as SSH client".
• In the fifth step, enter whatever name and email you want associated with your commits.
• Next, enter the name you used at github (NOT your email address) and password.
• When SmartGit launches, select "Clone existing repository", and paste the following: git@github.com:ALandFarAway/ALFA-Base-Resources.git
• You'll need to enter your github password again (click the checkbox to make SmartGit remember it).
• Then select the directoy where you want the repo. I'd recommend putting it off My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2.

Using the environment

Fix me.

Don't know what any of this means?

You can always email any submissions to someone who does. It does make our lives a lot easier if you use Git, however.