Hi there,

Me and two friends recently bought the NWN2 and want to run through the main campaign together. However it appears that this a bit more difficult than anticipated, and requires some setting up that we are trying to figure out.

We have found info here and there about certain things but they are a few years back and since we are new to this "direct connect" thing we would be grateful if someone could help us out in starting this up.

Few things:

1) We saw that you have to insert the CD-keys from the site into the nwncdkey.ini file, and this part we did.

2) When trying to enter multiplayer we are prompted to make a Bioware account even if we read somewhere that those don't really exist. We have yet to try and make one (since we bought it today), but is this what we are supposed to do? Do we all need to make accounts?

3) We see this extension being mentioned throughout the years NWN2 Client Extension (for some reason I can't link it) . Since we are new to all of this, does this simplify the process of starting our game up, and should we use it? If so, a bit of info on it would be welcome.

4) Threads throughout the years mention port forwarding, something we are all new to. Are there any guides, specifically for NWN2, when it comes to doing this? Also is it only the player who is hosting the one that needs to follow this port forwarding procedure or do the players joining need to do it too?

If I missed anything that both the game host or the joining players need to do in order to make this playthrough please elaborate.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Okay so a small update.

We downloaded and installed the Client Extension. I forwarded UDP 5121 as the host both on my Firewall and my router, we made Bioware accounts, I started a game and my friends are getting the attached picture error when they try and join.

Are we missing something, is there something the people who want to join need to do (like forward some ports as well)? They are trying to connect to the external IP (one that can be checked on whatsmyip.com), and adding :5121 at the end of it.

What are we missing what what should we check out?

Some people mention trying to go with Tunngle or Hamachi, but as far as I understand that means we cannot use the Client extension, and thus not really be able to play to begin with.

Any help would be greatly appreciate.

EDIT: We noticed that none of us actually opened the hdlinstall.reg registry file when we copied it with the rest of the Client Extension files in the game folder. Were we supposed to? None of the online tutorials mention opening it.

Thank you very much m8, we were wondering about trying some of the available Virtual LAN software, but we thought it does not actually work together with the Client Extension. Did you guys keep GoG Galaxy open while you played over Hamachi? We found out that you can start the game through the NWLauncher even when GoG is not turned on, and we don't really know if this is the way to go (not starting up GoG) or if you actually need to have GoG open before starting the game.

One thing though, do we still need some preparation? How did you and your friends setup the whole thing? Does the host still need to forward UDP 5121 ?

And more importantly, since I don't see this mentioned in any of the threads during the years that I've found, did any of you who were simply joining need to do something to make it work, or was it just the host ?

Lastly, is there perhaps a certain point in the game when a host starts the original campaign that the host needs to "finish" on his own before the server will even let others join it? Like I am assuming you can't have players join the tutorial, but once you leave the first house to fight the Grey Dwarves at the bridge, I'd assume that's when people should start to try and connect?

Thank you for your time and help.

So i'll run you through everything we tried.

First thing we did was try to run it using the Client extension, however we had no joy. Further digging suggested using port forwarding so I opened up exceptions for TCP/UDP on ports 5120-5300, which was from an old port forwarding guide.

This still didn't work.

After that we used Tunngle as that was the recommended program (we use gameranger for IWD2, which is similar), only to find that Tunngle no longer exists.

I have used Hamachi ages ago and tried to see if it was still up, and it was. We set up the virtual LAN and it worked fine. Launched via NWLauncher with GOGGalaxy still running in the background with no issue.

As far as game set up, there wasn't much to do. I would recommend that all players make a character first for speed - the game lets you select characters that are already made or make a new one.

All I did was select the NWN2 main story campaign, it launched into the tutorial, my friends joined and were just in the house, able to run around etc. What seems to happen is that all the players are counted as the protaganist, whoever starts dialogue gets the chat options, and if someone goes into a different area, all players are ported there.

If NPC's join the party, any player can control them by clicking their portrait.

It also appears that they can drop in and out of the game as long as the host is still hosting.

I see, so I am assuming you were the host? Did you still leave the port forwarding 5120-5300 open in your router and inbound/outbound exceptions for the same ports in your Windows Firewall after trying Hamachi?

I am trying to figure out if other people besides the host really need to do anything on their end to make this work, or if all of it is on the host.

Thank you again for your time man, we will be trying this as soon as possible, I will certainly followup on how it goes.

No problem mate, it took me a lot of time to trawl around the internet for a clear indication, looks like many people are struggling or have struggled, so if I can get it pinned somewhere with how I did it, then so much the better!

I left everything open port-wise, it doesn't affect anything anyway outside of things like this so it's not a big deal.

Additionally, I was the only one who made any changes to my computer/router settings as host. I'll try to get one of my friends to attempt hosting this evening and let you know if the port forwarding is necessary at all or if Hamachi has it covered.
*EDIT*

I checked with my friend hosting. no port forwarding needed, just used his Hamachi IP and port 5121 :)

Sorry didn't find the time to respond earlier.

It works like a charm, thanks for the help! We just installed the Client Extension, installed Hamachi and they just joined my Hamachi IP with :5121 at the end of the IP. I even removed the port forwarding rules as well to check, and they could still join fine.

Hope this helps other people who try the game out, and it probably should indeed get pinned somewhere.