Author Topic: Playing HotU Multiplayer  (Read 19876 times)

Offline 420

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4087
    • View Profile
    • Email
Playing HotU Multiplayer
« on: February 20, 2009, 03:01:22 PM »
Disclaimer: I haven't played the HotU campaign in years so this information may be a bit off.

HotU has a couple significant obstacles that prevented it from being classified as a multiplayer campaign. By far, the most prevalent problem was that a certain Preston Watamaniuk, who is strangely absent from the credits in the HotU manual, used GetFirstPC instead of GetPCSpeaker for all conversation based scripts he wrote. This means that all scripts called from conversations will affect the first PC to enter the module rather than the current speaker.

So here are a few tips to playing HotU multiplayer:

1. Pick one person to be the "main character", this person should always be the first to load/enter the game and should be the one to do all quest related dialog.

2. When starting HotU only the main character should go through the first cut-scene. Once the cut-scene is done and the main character is in the Inn room then everyone else can enter the game. If anyone else enters before the cut-scene ends they will be stuck in the cut-scene room.

3. Before killing the mimic in chapter 3 everyone, except the main character, should save the game and then individually go and load the game in single player, kill the mimic, export their character after picking up the demon hand then rejoin the multiplayer game and help the main character kill the mimic. Everyone must have a demon hand to move on from that point.

4. In Cania (chapter 3) only the PC wearing the Sleeper's Ring will see the VFX but the "Astral" objects will appear for all players.

5. The "Ragged cloak of the Worg" ports henchmen to you but not PC party members (not really a big deal).

That's about it I think.

-420

Offline Soul Sojourner

  • Resident Awesome
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2748
  • Nothing is true; everything is permitted.
    • View Profile
    • Email
Re: Playing HotU Multiplayer
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2009, 05:24:51 PM »
Sounds like more work than it's worth.

Offline Elessar Telrunya

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2095
    • View Profile
Re: Playing HotU Multiplayer
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2009, 05:32:28 PM »
Not really....I don't even remember the Ragged Cloak of the Worg, but 3, 4, and 5 don't sound like a big deal, especially since killing the mimic isn't too hard.  The only thing that's really obnoxious is number 1....I almost wonder why no one in the community hasn't bothered going through and replacing all of the unnecessary GetFirstPC() functions....then again, that would be rather painstaking, hehe....

Offline 420

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4087
    • View Profile
    • Email
Re: Playing HotU Multiplayer
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2009, 07:57:29 PM »
Not really....I don't even remember the Ragged Cloak of the Worg, but 3, 4, and 5 don't sound like a big deal, especially since killing the mimic isn't too hard.  The only thing that's really obnoxious is number 1....I almost wonder why no one in the community hasn't bothered going through and replacing all of the unnecessary GetFirstPC() functions....then again, that would be rather painstaking, hehe....
NWN XP2 (HotU) Multiplayer Modification by Ceros

-420

Offline cuchulann

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 486
    • View Profile
    • Email
Re: Playing HotU Multiplayer
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2009, 10:33:39 PM »
Also the same person needs to have both the senseis amulet and the sleeping man's ring, The ammy can be given to the wrong person if you are not careful thanks to the above mentioned scripting. Since they cannot be transferred they both have to be on that FirstPC, or else you'll be stuck right at the end.
One Less Car - SF Bicycle Coalition

Offline Elessar Telrunya

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2095
    • View Profile
Re: Playing HotU Multiplayer
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2015, 04:39:28 PM »
Bumping this because I might need it soon...


Does anyone remember if the original campaign or SoU had any multiplayer issues?

Offline cuchulann

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 486
    • View Profile
    • Email
Re: Playing HotU Multiplayer
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2015, 05:11:59 PM »
Bumping this because I might need it soon...


Does anyone remember if the original campaign or SoU had any multiplayer issues?

From what I recall the first two might if different players get quest tokens. The way to avoid that was to assign one person as the "leader" to handle all quest critical dialogues and to trigger events.
One Less Car - SF Bicycle Coalition

Offline 420

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4087
    • View Profile
    • Email
Re: Playing HotU Multiplayer
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2015, 07:06:45 PM »
Bumping this because I might need it soon...


Does anyone remember if the original campaign or SoU had any multiplayer issues?
Pretty sure there are no multiplayer problems with SoU or original campaign. Even though SoU was made by Floodgate Entertainment, they used the same "GetFirstPC" and "GetNextPC" functions to make sure everyone in the party got credit for any quest progress.

If I remember correctly, at one point  multiple people uploaded alternate multiplayer friendly HotU scripts to NWVault. But I felt the workaround posted above was preferable to making everyone download the same .hak file.

-420