10 replies to this topic

[Tiggerlicker]

Well I finally got everything working like it should and I have managed to get a few NWN players here at work to help test on a internal server. Server-side no problems but the 4 players all reported the same thing to me (quotes taken from e-mails sent to me):

I spend 3 minutes creating my character through the NWN character creator then spend 45+ minutes to create a character with the PRC dialog.  By the time I wait for things to load in the PRC I am already bored and don't want to play anymore.

What is up with the hour character creation process?  I've drunk more tea than my body can handle and I'm tired of watching the 0%...0%...0%...0%...0%...0%...0%...0%...1%...1%...1%...1%...1%...1%...1%...  Will the game ever finish the character creation process or have I gone to purgatory to wait out the end of my life?

Is there a way to ditch the prc stuff?  I've read up on NWVault about the various parts of prc and while it seems cool the load times are killer.  If I have to spend more time creating my character than to get them from level 1 to level 2 then there is something wrong.

Can you create a character any faster or bypass that character speech stuff when you enter the module?  I waited a long time and didn't even get past the feats and spells section before I closed out of the NWN game.

The test server I'm running in-house (on our LAN...not accessable to the Internet) is a P4/3.2GHz with a 800MHz front-side bus, 1GB RAM, Win2K server, RAID5 160GB array (using 10000rpm drives), on a gigabit network. The client PCs are all P4/1.8GHz, 512MB RAM, WinXP, 40GB, connecting to the server with gigabit NICs. This is even using the SQL exports to speed up the table creation process

Is character creation taking others this long or is it something else that I should look at? My hopes were that the long character-create process was due to NWN having to build all of the needed tables at runtime and the SQL export should make that time much, much shorter. But from the guniea pigs I'm using they seem to have a pretty strong voice that they would stop the character create and go do something else if it takes a long time to just create a character.

Not a slam on anything...just evaluating how to handle things...

[sigil333]

yus i have the same problem...

[udoh]

Hi,

Well there is a way... sort of... We run on a local server, and we use the PRC CC (can be found at http://nwvault.ign.com/Files/other/data/1050041596353.shtml).

The user then has to copy the BIC file from their "localvault" folder and the server admin has to place it in the "servervault\userxxx" folder. This works fine on a LAN, but maybe a bit of a problem over the NET, email and the user needs to know how to move around with files etc.

The program is a JAVA based program, so I had an idea, that maybe one of you talented server admins out there, who have web sites, would like to try and place this file on a web site, and see if some of your users can access it and create characters "remotely". Anyone have any ideas on this PM me.

udoh

[muaddib]

I might be wrong, but i think what is killing you is the feat, racial feats, racial characters, and classe tables being created that is killing you. The more your server gets used and the more VAried the characters get created the less time players will have to spend making characters.

I used Horreds .sql file to make my tables and it now takes me 5 minutes to make a character.

[Tiggerlicker]

I used Horreds .sql file to make my tables and it now takes me 5 minutes to make a character.

That's the same SQL export I'm using too.

[sigil333]

yaaaay
it worx!!
i rebuilt the database
and now is about 5 minutes on prc char creation
but....i made a drow rougue and got destination invalid on re-entrance to the world and get ported to sundalee when i talk to server guide...with all the disadvantages a drow has above ground....its a long way home

[muaddib]

thats strange tigger....i did the same thing (made database straight from horreds file) and ran the server.....it took it awhile to boot up (rebooted a couple of times) When it was done i loged in and created a drow....character was the fastes one ive made to date.

[Infernus]

yaaaay     
it worx!!
i rebuilt the database
and now is about 5 minutes on prc char creation
but....i made a drow rougue and got destination invalid on re-entrance to the world and get ported to sundalee when i talk to server guide...with all the disadvantages a drow has above ground....its a long way home  

Hio just thought i'd put my two cents in for character creation, once i finally got everything up and running (TYVM to all the very helpfull peps here)

i personally as in the server/dm guy made one of each character class/ race in the mini mod it took me about 5 hours in total to do. the upside very fast character creation for my friends online :thumb:

ohh thats with a pentium III 999Mhz, with 512 ram

Edited by Infernus, 23 March 2005 - 02:39 PM.

[horred the plague]

i personally as in the server/dm guy made one of each character class/ race in the mini mod it took me about 5 hours in total to do. the upside very fast character creation for my friends online :thumb:

ohh thats with a pentium III 999Mhz, with 512 ram

That's what I did as well, in my own DB (the one I uploaded the SQL file from).

[Gorgotham]

I'm running it on a crap machine, 1.3 ghz P4, 512megs, and after importing Horred's SQL, and making a few characters myself, creation now only takes my players a few minutes, literally.

Just thought I'd throw that out there, I know it don't help you.

[muaddib]

I am noticing in the database there are a few NULL entries for characters and races....i think these tables havent been built yet and thats causing the difference in build times....if the table is already full build time is 5 min...if they choose a more exotic character and table is not filled yet build time = 30min +

Edited by muaddib, 25 March 2005 - 10:00 AM.