Common bugs

"Pfah! You didn't get the memo?

"A wizard did it" has been a consistent and amazingly fool-proof way to explain the unexplainable for years now." Artos

Notes

The problems listed on this page are known to developers. You do not need to report them again, since they were already reported several times. Before you report any new bugs, please try to look at the Issue Tracker on the community if something similar was not reported already and see the Guide to bug reporting. You can also use Search function on forums to obtain useful information.

General NWN problems

Dual Core Processor and NWN

Enable Party Invite Popup

More players from the same network

Portraits and Voices

Horses freeze my game

Lag

Vista and NWN

Connecting problems

CD key still in use

Problem: When I try to log in the server, it gives me a message: your CD key is still in use, wait 5 min to retry.

This is not a server side bug. There is nothing that Arelith developers could do about this, sorry.

Solution: Waiting 10-15 minutes will clear whatever is going on and let you access servers again. Direct connect from desktop could helps with this issue.

CD Check Authentication Denied

Problem: After logging into the character vault and creating or selecting a character to play I receive the error: CD Check Authentication Denied

This is part of the character/player authentication method Arelith has created to replace the Bioware user login that no longer exists. Basically what the error is saying is "The Username you are trying to play with was not created with the CD keys you are currently using"

Solution: Double check that the CD keys you are currently using are the same ones you used when first logging into the Username. If you still get the error, change your Username.

Crashing after Entering Area or Logging On

Problem: I have a char that crashes the game each time I log on. The first time was when I went through a transition and now it won't load up. I can connect to the server, the game loads, passes through the GIGASCHATTEN loading area, then sends me to area I was last. Just as it gets done loading and I can see the terrain, it seizes up, and I end up with the old "this program is not responding" message. Occasionally, I'll get an "abnormal program termination" message.

Problem is persistent over resets.

Solution: Turn Shiny Water settings off.

1.) Press ESCape in game (can be done in single player or on another PC).

2.) Video Options

3.) Advanced Video Options

4.) Ensure that box next to "Enable Shiny Water" is unchecked

5.) OK

Alternative problem: Bad overrides can cause this problem too.

For example a cave override that is supposed to put ceilings in, make the cave walls look better, and all that. For one reason or another, it may not work (probably if the file is corrupt somehow). Then going into a cave with it, the game crashes instantly and crashes again every time player logs in until that override it taken out.

Solution 2: If turning off Shiny Water doesn't help, player can try renaming whole override directory (probably C:\NeverwinterNights\NWN\override on Windows) to something else (like override_backup) and see if that helps.

Election by citizens

With more then 10 candidates for position, not all candidates will show up to players for voting. Details are described here.

Known bugs with Spells

Are listed in Spell changes.

Scrying Bugs

• You can currently scry on Dead characters. This is not supposed to happen and therefore some players will RP it as the scrying being enveloped in a misty fog and nothing else.

• In times of high lag, the scrier can sometimes appear, stuck on *follows* next to the scry-ee. He gets teleported there and is unable to do much else then follow. The only help from this is reset of the server. (Logging off and on: sometimes able to move afterwards, but unable to cast or use wands. Water and a portal lens worked. Resting does not fix it.)

Both problems are known, but their fix is not expected any time soon.

Few ideas:

• Avoid scry during laggy times.

• Make sure your food/drink/rest values are high. It happened that someone scried, died of fatigue, and the corpse popped up in front of the person that was being scried upon.

• The target moving through transitions can cause the "transfer to target bug" to happen.

• It is not something that happens often, in about 60 scries, it can be happening only about 3 or 4 times.

• Roll with the punches. It can make funny rp when it happens. Scrying is a dangerous thing to do, like any powerful magic. Strange things can happen sometime.

My character

I can not see my character on list when logging on server

The Linux switched has caused some bugs, a minor one of these is the amount of time it takes for loading your character vault occasionally. Wait about 15-30 seconds (maximum) or simply log in again. This will solve the problem.

Disappearance after transferring between Surface and Underdark servers

Problem: I was playing with my character A on surface server. When I zoned to the Underdark sever, I was logged in with a totally different char of mine. And I appeared in the little ooc area that has the two server portals. I logged out. When I went to find my character A, the char was not appearing in my char list in either the surface or the UD server.

Cause: Uncertain as of yet.

Mithreas: "I've seen this happen occasionally, but (a) it doesn't happen enough and (b) we're always able to restore from backup, so I've not got around to investigating it yet."

Solution: Contact Mithreas, Jjjerm or Fire Boar to have your character restored from most recent backup. You can post your request on the Issue Tracker forum.

If you did not play your character for 6 months

See this notice from Jjjerm:

"Unplayed characters that have not been played in 6 months are now archived. Please note, this will happen automatically every week now. We're not deleting them, we're just putting them in a folder that doesn't get pulled on server startup. If you have a character that you'd like returned (which, please as a courtesy to us only ask for characters back if you're actually going to PLAY them) from our archive folder, please contact a dev team member (Artos, Jjjerm, Mithreas).

When contacting us regarding this, please retain that sense of urgency that has led you to not play the character in six months."

Meanwhile, such requests can be sent to Fire Boar as well.

"PM's generally work best for me, please be sure to include the name of the login and any characters you wish restored. If they are archived, I will return them. Keep in mind about 2-3 years ago we had a hard drive crash, so beyond that we do not have any characters."

Please, note that only developers with access to server vault can move characters out of archive. (Most DMs can not do this.)

Important note: Once your characters are restored in your vault, then make sure to log on each of them for a moment. Otherwise the next run of script will see them as unplayed for last 6 months and archive them again.

Character is not visible

Problem: Character vanishes, appears invisible, but is still playable. Image

Cause: This can sometimes happen after character goes by 'Cutscene Invisible', either through -scry or the caravans.

Solution: Rest or -dispel should fix this problem. Solution preventing this to happen is under development.

Third class is not visible on characters' sheet

Cause: The space to display race and classes is limited. Arelith implemented many subraces and backgrounds that make text there much longer then NWN developers expected. It is nothing to worry about. The text is just written outside of visible area.

Solution: The third class is still there, it can be visible on logging screen or when leveling up. It may be beneficial for player to keep track of characters' levels on paper or inside in game journal.

I can not see anyone further away from me

"Ultravision bug", "UV bug" or "Darkness bug".

Sometimes when Ultravision spell ends (especially if you were in area of darkness spell during its duration), the game starts to treat your character as if it was in darkness and without Ultravision spell.

Another way this manifests itself is with invisibillity. Casting ultravision on a player under the influence of invisibillity causes the UV bug on them, you should allways sequence UV buff before the invisibillity.

Sadly this is a NwN problem, less an Arelith problem. This is a bug that's has been around since release of NwN, something to do with the visibility state.

Solution:

• Casting new Ultravision or True Seeing will help temporary, but only for the duration of the spell. If you are dispelled, you won't be able to see anything again.
• If someone casts Darkness on you and you rest in the Area of Effect(inside that darkness), the bug may fix itself.
• Relogging works for permanent fix.

I move slower then I should

Sometimes this can be caused by lag in combination with:

• transferring between servers
• weather scripts (strong wind, high snow, etc.)
• armour penalties

Movement speed penalties work similar like subrace stats. Instead of putting a proverbial modifier on it, it hard-scripts the movement penalty every time you change your armour. Of course, when the server is uber laggy/crashes/etc, it might not register the removal of the armour penalty when you change your armour, thus, making your 80% movement speed your new base movement speed.

Solution:

• Try activating stealth and search mode and deactivating them again
• Try to re-equip all your items with armour penalty (armour, helm, shield).
• -dispel
• *prays*
• Make sure that your slowing down is not caused by high snow or strong wind in the area by transitioning indoor
• If switching servers caused this then try again switching to other Arelith server and back, disabling the search and stealth mode in the process
• Overload yourself so that you become heavily encumbered. When you get unencumbered your movement speed could get back to normal
• Have someone to kill you in the arena: go to Cordor/Jhared/Udos arena (where death is disabled) and get your character killed
• Reset of server might fix it

Please, try first all above before Contacting DMs!

• If even reset of server doesn't help or the penalty is too harsh, then contact a DM to assist you. (They have a little movement bug fix widget for that.)
• If DMs' tool doesn't help, then the last hope is to write Mithreas or Jjjerm to look at your char for bugs.

I am stuck

If you are stuck in some wall or furniture, then try one of these:

• Use Arelith console command -makesafe.

• Use NWN console command makesafe

Simply hit the key directly to the left of the number 1 on most keyboards, type in your command and then hit Enter. This function will move the player to a safe location, meaning a valid location in the area (ie. not in walls or on other creatures). If you are stuck on edge of rocks or walls, then this command will often not help.

• *follows* command on party member who will walk away or transition.

• Use a Fixture/placable (Tent, etc.) or Firewood and set it in opposite direction to where you wish to be pushed. Don't try to retrieve that item afterwards.

• Logout and login again - this may help sometimes

• Try contacting DMs in game to help you out

• The last resort: Death of the character

I receive messages that I shouldn't

There are several symptoms of this. You could be experiencing any or all of the following:

• Receiving multiple messages on a "tick" (every hour) lowering your food/water/rest much lower than it should or displaying the status of a deity that you don't follow. While this bug usually doesn't cause death when the values of food/water/rest reach -100%, there were several cases when the character did die from it.
• Receiving tells intended for a different player.
• Clicking on your icon will initiate a tell to a player with a different log-in name than yours.
• To others, your character is missing from the player list and they are unable to send you tells even when clicking on your icon.
• Being tied up to someone else corpse. You receive messages when it is picked up or dropped, even when your character is not in the Death area. If someone raises that corpse, it might get you teleported to them.
• You hear everything that some other character is hearing somewhere else. You might be also receiving his food/drink/rest status in addition to your own.
• Your character is displayed several times on the player list.

Cause: Lag or wrongly ended connections of some players. The server thinks that your character is tied to some different logging name.

Mithreas:

"Each character exists in two parts. There's the character file, which has your stats, inventory and stuff, and the game object representing your character, which stores your state (location, variables such as hunger/thirst, etc). Under conditions of lag, we've seen numerous cases of one character getting their state mixed up with another character's, which leads to Bad Stuff happening.

Happily, state is dynamically recreated after each server reset. So a reset is always the fix to any "Really Odd" problems you encounter."

Solution: Restart of the server. Sometimes logging out and back in helps, but often it doesn't. If it bothers you or your character is in danger of dying because of this, then log out of this character and play different character until the next server reset. You can try to ask on DM channel for a restart due to serious bugs occurring.

Clones / Multiple Characters

This could be reason for some problems described above in topic I receive messages that I shouldn't

Cause: This could be caused by More players from the same network.

Solution:

• See the link above to avoid future occurrences.
• Try and ask a DM for a reset or just log off and come back later after restart of server.

Lycanthropy bug

Logging in or out while under monthly influence of lycanthropy can cause some problems. If a lycan logs in during the hours when they would turn they are struck with the confusion (auto attacking all they see), but none of the other effects. The problem is that if other players see this, they don't see a werewolf attacking people, they just see the character going on a rampage. The same can happen when logging in after the character was logged off "under influence".

Solution: Stay logged on character until the tick occurs (each 6 minute) and it should fix itself.

Totem druids

See current bugs on Druids' page.

I see dead people or PCs that are elsewhere

Problem: Players can see characters where they are not. Very of often those are "death" PCs from death area.

Solution: This is classical symptom of lag and server needing a restart.

Death in a no-death area (arena)

Problem:If you die (blacken out) in the Arena and you crash or log off and back on, you die without a corpse. This is known bug.

Solution: I'm sorry. Unless there is a DM willing to assist you, the only option you have is to reread the book titled "When Bad Things Happen to Good Adventurers".

Remains do not disappear

There are two types of remains:

White Bones

• These will disappear shortly after every live PC leaves line of sight, even if they stay in the same area.
• Sometimes they can get "stuck" the same way like any container, in which case they will be handled the same way as item dropped on ground or Little Brown Bags. This can happen in lag when

- you open different remains before they are properly closed.

- you are pushed away from it and it doesn't properly close.

- for some other reason, when you need to click on them twice to open or close them.

Little Brown Bags

• These will disappear only if whole area is left without any PC for longer period of time and "despawn".
• The same way are handled any other items left lying on the ground.

Sometimes even empty remains don't disappear. This mean that they were incorrectly closed and got stuck (similar way like any other container can become stuck).

Solution:

• Reset of Server to clear all areas.
• If you wish to assist a little against lag on the server or don't like those Little Brown Bags lying everywhere around, then please empty Little Brown Bags and place items from them either inside White Bones or Trashbins. This is especially helpful in well travelled areas that are never empty for long time.
• It is also beneficial to bash the white bones when in very populated areas or "stuck".

Note: Items placed in crates or barrels will disappear only on reset of server.

Bank is telling me incorrect amount on my account

Causes:

• Lag (It can mix up some texts for dialogues and variables, which then change places and show up incorrectly.)
• Remake of character with same name
• Change of CD key (if you play from different computer or reinstalled your game)

Solution: Follow the links above.

If lag is the cause then do not worry, the money is still there. You can reassure yourself by Withdrawing all of it. ;-)

I can not use my Shop, Quarters, Bank, or Portals

Are you by any chance playing from different computer with different installation of NWN and therefore different CD Key?

All should return to normal after next reset of server. Just don't use them till then and try to play with the same CD Key in future. (All CD Keys are saved in file nwncdkey.ini in your inventory. You can just copy that file if you are using NWN on different computer.)

Crafting station, Enchantment Basin, Shop, or Chest is not working

Solution: Server reset should fix this.

To avoid this: Try to always properly close all dialogues and fixtures when you end working with them. Don't just run away from them and leave them to close by themselves. Also, multiple people opening the same crafting station (or Enchantment pool, or shops, etc.) causes this.

Chest bug

Problem: In chest some items keep appearing while others are disappearing.

Cause: Database malfunctioning.

Solution: The "official fix" is to empty the chest over the course of a few resets of server. Remove again anything that mysteriously appears in the chest until stuff stops mysteriously appearing after resets of server. More is in this topic on forums.

Cuchilla:

"So the recipe is this:

• Leave chest empty.
• Wait for next reset.
• If spawns in the empty chest after reset: Remove them.

Situation 1: It's single items: It should be safe to put the items in your inventory back in the chest.

Situation 2: It's stacked items: Leave chest empty for next reset. Continue removing the stacks after each reset until they disappear.

This need alot of patience, and reset."

Items

Stackable items

Current status is that there are the following known bugs.

• Unstacked items will keep the same name, but loose their custom description.
• Items taken to inventory will automatically stuck on items of the same type on all unfilled stacks. Any custom name or description will be lost in process. This includes:
  • Trophy Heads of PCs
• Partially finished crafting works should not stack. Each item is given a random tag (via scripting) when creating it, yet two same random numbers can be sometimes created. There is 1/1000 chance of the same unfinished products to stack together, so it is always better to finish each production first, before starting another one.
• 'Cast Spell X, N uses' items will drain a whole stack when used, rather than just draining charges/uses from one item. This is an unavoidable side effect of stacking and will not be fixed. Workaround is to split one item off the stack, quickslot that item, and when it runs out split another item off, rinse repeat. Effect is considered less severe than the benefit of having stacking for everything else.

Between items effected by this bug belong:

Lifesavers

Bandage rolls

Writing paper

Guaji Root

Blade Orbs

Travel provisions, Wind Bags, etc.

(Between items not effected by this belong: potions, scrolls, Portal lenses, Healer's kits, Food rations, Berries, Fruits, and Nuts.)

• Items that existed before the latest update won't stack with items introduced more recently (and can cause odd behaviour, stacking with items they shouldn't). This won't be fixed, eventually items like this will drop out of circulation (and occasionally old characters will become active again and experience the bug briefly until they rid themselves of antiques).

(See also how item stacking works)

Weapon / Shield disappeared

Have you by any chance drop your weapon or shield on ground because of full inventory before? At any time from last restart to moment when they vanished.

There is that bug that even when you take them from ground, the area will still think that they are on the ground and in the moment when the area despawns from server memory, those swords will be destroyed. (That's my guess on what is happening at least.) It is rumoured to occur only when you have one item in each hand. (It never happened to my greatsword that I was dropping very often.)

I have lost my shield this way recently. I have picked it from ground, yet some 15-30 minutes afterwards, when the area where this happened was likely empty and respawned, my shield went PUFF on other side of island. MAGIC!

An odd symptom that seems to accompany this bug is that when you pick up the item after it has been dropped it automatically equips itself...

EXAMPLE:

• Quick Slot 1 = Sword / Shield
• Quick Slot 2 = Sword / Sword
  • (In both slots the main hand sword is the same weapon)
• Click Quick Slot 2, both items that were equipped in slot 1 fall to the ground.
• Pick Up Items

Main Hand sword automatically equips as it was commanded to without first going into inventory, as though the command to equip it was never interrupted. (so I'm assuming the GetItem() event is never applied to it to change the "owner" of the item from the area where it fell to the inventory of the player.)

Possible Solution: You need to have NWN understand the weapon actually left your inventory and then re-entered it, to achieve this do one or more of the following.

Trade the weapon to a friend and have them trade it back. Put it in a container of some sort and then retrieve it. Examples are Barrels, Crates, and Corpses. If none of these are around dropping it and picking it up again might help as well.

Robes and cloaks are not visible

Cause: Video settings.

Solution: Check NWN video settings. If they are in "Compatibility Mode" some higher end graphic items are completely invisible.

Finding unusual items

Sometimes you can find unusual items in remains from NPCs. Those items were likely not intended to appear in those remains. Most common example are Claws from Stingers, but you can find in times of lag many other natural weapons. Other examples include items named:

• Creature hides
• Stolen Treasure - it looks a little like a deck of cards
• PC properties

Cause: Lag or small overlook by developers.

Solution:

• If there is no lag involved, report found item on forum, so that developers can see if it's marked properly as "non dropable".
• In case of lag, leave those items be and don't even touch them. If a DM finds such item in your inventory, you can get in trouble. Especially if description of said item includes words "*NOT FOR PLAYER USE!*"

From Artos:

"Anything that says NOT FOR PLAYER USE! (in description) is not for player use. In fact, you should just drop it and leave it right there. I don't want to hear: "I was just on my way to the trash barrel... yeah.." Just don't even touch it. Pretend its a chunk of Evil from Time Bandits. Pretend its all covered in Dhuggy germs."

"We try super hard to make sure that if an NPC has decent gear, he sure as heck isn't going to leave it to the likes of you. Sometimes things go wonky and NPCs accidentally drop armor/weapons/claws that they aren't supposed to."

Fire Boar about not touching other items clearly intended for NPCs only (and listed above):

"I certainly can't and wouldn't dictate rules like that, but I would suggest you get rid of it. You never know what sort of horrors may be visited on those who keep system items in their inventory. *spooky music*"

"Whether it counts as an NPC item is debatable, since it's effectively useless in a PC's hands, but getting rid of it is the recommended, and possibly official Thing To Be Done.

Besides, if you really want some stolen treasure, just rename and redescribe an item with an appearance more suited to the purpose."

Weight reduction from my Fixture is gone

In short: I'm sorry, but any enchantment placed on fixtures (for example Tent or Cooking Station) will disappear from them once you place them on ground. Note that should you try to barter the fixture, it will be placed on ground automatically too.

Details: When you set down you Fixture then new instance of a different object is created. Currently additional properties are not transferred to this object.

Fixture description is gone after reset of server

"There's a restriction in the database access code in the amount of text that can be retrieved of 16*128 characters, or 2048. I could bump this limit trivially but I'm not sure yet what the impact on performance would be (this is the size of the buffer object we create that is then rewritten for every single database call)." Mithreas

Please, use 2048 or less characters in any description to avoid problems. This count includes spaces and 2 characters for each carriage return (end of line). (So a paragraph break is 4 characters = two times end of line.) Note that Microsoft Word's "Characters (Including Spaces)" does not count carriage returns.

Any longer description will be replaced by the default fixture description on reset of the server.

NPCs

Drow Slave in the Spiders' Web Inn

Problem: If a players' character(PC) goes to the Drow slave in the spiders web for a massage, the darkness will clear, but after that the PC will be unable to use stealth without relogging. It may also effect possibility to use items or cast spells.

Cause: The dialogue with this NPC doesn't end correctly after the massage. It was investigated by Mithreas in length, but the bug was not located.

Solution: After getting the massage, always speak with the slave again and refuse the massage. This will end his dialogue correctly and you will be able to stealth again. Otherwise other players will be not able to use that slave, since he is still busy "in conversation" with the previous PC.

NPCs fighting other NPCs

Problem: Sometimes, different types of NPC enemies fight each other. For example:

• Swamp cats fight with lizards in swamps
• Orcs fight with boars
• Ettins fight with orogs and bugbears

Cause: It's an unfortunate side effect of the domination series of spells - even when the spell ends, the faction of the dominated creature is left hostile to the factions of creatures the dominated creature attacked.

Solution: Server reset will restore their friendship. Fixing this permanently is somewhere on Mithreas' list.