CoPaP Newbie FAQ

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Orleron
Multiverse Scholar
Posts: 1247
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2003 11:15 am
Location: Avlis
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CoPaP Newbie FAQ

Post by Orleron »

Please read this before emailing anyone with questions:


Abbreviations:

AFAIK = as far as I know
AFK = away from keyboard
CE = Chaotic Evil
CG = Chaotic Good
CN = Chaotic Neutral
CRPG = computer roleplaying game
CODI = City of Doors Initiative
CoPaP = Confederation of Planes & Planets
ECL = effective character level
ELC = enforce legal characters
HoTU = Hoardes of The Underdark
IC = in character
IIRC = if I recall correctly
ILR = item level restrictions
IMO = in my opinion
IMHO = in my honest opinion
IRC = Internet Relay Chat
LG = Lawful Good
LN = Lawful Neutral
LE = Lawful Evil
MMORPG = massive multiplayer online roleplaying game
NG = Neutral Good
NE = Neutral Evil
NPC = non-player character
NWN = Neverwinter Nights
NWNX = Neverwinter Nights Extender
OOC = out of character
PC = player character
PM = private message
PrC = prestige class
PW = persistent world
SoU = Shadows of Undrentide expansion pack
TN = True Neutral
XP = Experience point(s)

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Dictionary:


- Camping: The act of spending an inordinate amount of time in a certain location for your own personal benefit. An example might be spending several hours each day in the exact same dungeon, killing monsters repeatedly for experience. While there are no specific rules to prevent this, the Team does frown upon this style of play, and you are likely to be ignored by DMs should you repeatedly camp certain spawns/dungeons.

- Cheesing: The term ‘cheesing’ encompasses pretending to possess an ability, race, skill, power, feat, etc that is NOT represented on your character sheet. If your character doesn’t have wings, you cannot roleplay that you have the ability to fly. Similarly, if your character model is a model of a halfling, not a giant, you can’t tell people ingame that you’re a giant. (barring the fact that you’re playing one delusional halfling)
An example of cheesing we commonly see is someone creating a halfling character and claiming to be a human child. Unless your sheet says “Human” as your race, and you have a child model, you’re NOT a human child. You can play a halfling that is pretending to be a child, but IC, you will never actually be a human child.

- Duping: Duping refers to the illegal duplication of items ingame. The specific mechanics of this are irrelevant, as the Avlis Team works continually to remove the possibility of doing this. However, should you discover your items have been accidentally duplicated somehow, or you’ve found an exploit (see ‘Exploit’ below) that allows you to dupe, you are REQUIRED to place all the duped items in a trashcan or ask a DM to remove them, and report the situation as a bug. Capitalizing on this sort of situation is a bannable offense.

- Exploiting: Exploiting encompasses all ingame actions that essentially exploit flaws in either Avlis’ design, code, scripts, or one of Bioware’s own engine bugs. An example might be a certain spell combination that you’ve found invariably crashes the server and thus let’s you camp a certain ISD. (See above) Other possibilities are methods of making gold illegally via an engine bug, or somehow duping your items. Exploiting of ANY form is a BANNABLE offense on Avlis, as well as all other CoPaP worlds. The Avlis Team reserves the right to define an action as exploiting on a case by case basis.

- Powergaming: Simply put, levelling up far too quickly. On Avlis, the general rule of thumb is that if you think you’re levelling up too fast, you probably are. While ingame, we’d like you all to enjoy the experience of the journey, rather than the culmination of it. There’s no official rule preventing powergaming, however it could garner you negative DM attention. A good rule of thumb is that your character shouldn’t level up more than once in a week after level 3, and shouldn’t hit level 20 in less than 6 months. The average exp gain for the majority of players doesn’t exceed 1000 xp/real life day. Some people level faster, some slower, that’s just a good guideline to keep in mind.




Getting Started


1. I registered an account on the boards, but the servers say I need a password to log in. Shouldn't I get the password when I register on the boards?


No. You must register for the boards and the servers separately. To register to play on the servers, you must fill out an application and get accepted. The application is found at:

portal.php?getpage=application_form

If you read the application all the way through, you will note that it can take up to 72 hours to get a response from it.




2. I sent in an application but haven't gotten a response. What do I do?


See this thread: http://www.avlis.org/viewtopic.php?t=25939



3. What do I do when I start ?


Three things:

? Look around where you have started, get an idea of where you are and the layout, but don't venture far until you know its safe.
? Make a map and take notes
? Talk to as many PC's and NPC's as possible

The information from this will enable you to work out what your going to do with the character you have created. Most PC's will be very helpful and friendly. Don't forget they were in your position once.

It helps to read the background information for the serer you are playing on. On the front page at www.copap.org, every server has a link to its web site where this info should be found.

Also be sure to read the server rules on the web site for the world you play.
We have a large playerbase and limited staff, and thus ignorance of the rules is not an acceptable excuse for breaking them. You are responsible for your own playtime.


4. You have many servers. What server do I start on ?


This is largely up to you. Some servers are more developed than others because they have been around longer, but that does not mean that the newer servers are not as good. In fact, your chances of getting DM attention are often better on these servers because there are fewer players and more DM's per player. Once you pick a world to play on, you can still journey to any other world of your choice in game, if you find out how to do so through the proper channels in character.



5. What is a Fed Ex quest ?


These are jobs you can get from NPC's whom you interact with. They normally involve you carrying something to another NPC. They are good for two reasons, firstly you get to understand the local area a bit more and you also gain a reward for doing the task. Most can be performed in complete safety.



6. What does Out Of Character or OOC mean?


This is when you have to say something within the game that has nothing to do with the role you are playing. Examples are:
"OOC I have to go now", "AFK (a phone call)", etc.

They should not be used unless really necessary. If you want to discuss something outside the game then private messages (PMs) can be used or use IRC.



7. What are Private Messages (PM's) ?


These can be used from the player list to directly contact a person or persons. Again this should not be used to transfer game information about your character. They should only be used to talk about things that have nothing to do with the events in the game.



8. How do I try to contact a DM ?


One of the options you can choose by selecting Talk in the bottom left hand corner of the NWN player screen is DM. This is a channel you can use to contact a DM about a problem you are having. This does not guarantee a response as there may not always be a DM on line or he may choose not to intervene.

When you talk in this channel, your words will not appear in the chat window, but they do appear to DM's that are online.

Conversely, you can just preface your text with the tag ‘/dm ‘. We ask that you please not abuse the DM channel to ask for quests, items, or Prestige Classes.



9. My character is stuck and I cannot move him. Help!


Sometimes your character will be stuck in place due to a flaw in the mapping of your character onto the terrain. There are three options to try:
- Select the ` key and type "makesafe" and hit return.
- Logging out of the game and logging back in again.
- Calling for a DM on the DM Channel.

These should be tried in that order, and if a DM cannot be found, you may have to wait for a server reset.



10. When can I use someone's name ?


This can only be used in character when you have been formally introduced or a third party has told you it. Until then you have to physically describe that person, such as "a gnome in black clothes who was very nervous, and he had a very big nose".



11. I got myself killed what happens next ?


This depends on which world you are playing on, and it is a good suggestion to research that on the world's website before beginning to play.




12. I found a body, what do I do ?


This depends on your character. Some people guard them, some ignore them and some look for useful items to take. The final option is called looting and if caught can have serious negative consequences for your character in the game, though it is not illegal to loot bodies on most CoPaP servers.



13. I’m in an IC bind, and don’t want to deal with the negative consequences of my ingame actions. Can I just logout?


In truth, yes you can. There is no way for us to stop you from logging out. However, this practice is EXTREMELY frowned upon by both the players and the staff, and if you are caught doing this in the presence of a DM, there could be dire aftereffects on your character.



14. Why did my alignment just change ?


Your character or someone you are partied up with has done something outside your characters alignment. This has caused a shift in your alignment for good, bad, lawful or chaotic. You can either rethink how you are playing your character and either accept the change or try to correct the change. This is part of roleplaying.

Many actions are scripted to automatically incur an alignment shift, however a DM could also shift your alignment should they deem your actions disagree with the alignment on your character sheet.




15. Why is my character moving slowly all of a sudden?


There are 3 possible explanations:
- This is a known bioware bug. It occurs after area transitions or logging in and can be cured by switching your search and hide functions on and off.
- When you die on Avlis and come back to life through a death quest or a ressurection, you are slowed for 2 minutes to simulate your recovery from death.
- You are encumbered and have either just picked up something that puts you over your maximum encumbrence, or your Strength has been decreased, thus lowering your max encumbrence. Open your Invetory Panel and look at the bottom center to see if you’re carrying too much.




16. It says I need a special file, where can I get that ?



All CoPaP servers use things called hakpaks, which are files that enhance the functionality of the game. Each world's website contains links to the hakpaks you will need.

Problems with unpacking: Use WinRAR. It can be found here: http://rarsoft.com/




17. It says I can craft somehow, how do I do that ? How can I create a sword ?


All crafting ingredients have to be found in the game, either by becoming an apprentice to a craft, or by experimenting. It is also useful to get a book of Tradeskills so you can view your crafting skill progress.

Sharing crafting recipes anywhere other than ingame is strictly forbidden on Avlis. If you wish to learn, do so IC. The same goes for teaching others.

Crafting systems can sometimes vary from world to world, and the ingredients may not be the same on every world, though they are often close. Other worlds may not have crafting at all.



18. Where can I find information about .... ?


Take a look into the website for the world you have a question about.



19. I think I found a bug. Where do I report it ?


Each world usually has a section of their forums or website where bugs can be posted. Please be sure that your bug is not a Bioware bug before you report it. We do not have control over bugs caused by the company that made NWN. We can only fix bugs in scripting. Thank you.



20. I stopped playing CoPaP for a while, and now that I've come back, all my characters are gone. What happened and what do I do ?


Some worlds have a vault purging system that gets rid of characters that have not been played for 90 days. The character files are not destroyed. They are simply stored someplace else. This helps to keep the size of our servervault down.

Depending on the world, you may need to log onto their forums and ask to get your character restored.




21. What do I do if I log in a character and see only a black screen?


This is a known Bioware bug. Email the staff of the world you are playing for details on a workaround.



22. I type in the password for the servers and it says the password is in correct. I even pasted it into the space and it's still wrong. Why don't the passwords work?


The passwords DO work. Trust us. If they didn't, we would have 2000 screaming people telling us they don't work.

Some things to try:

Do not paste your password into the space. Type it. Pasting sometimes puts extra spaces in there, causing the password to be denied.

Make sure you type the password ExAcTlY as it is given. It's case sensitive in a big way.

Also, sometimes while the server is rebooting, we change the password briefly so people cannot log on while the server loads. If this happens, just wait about 5 minutes and come back. The password will be changed back to the original.




23. I logged into one of your servers, and then logged out. Now when I try to log into a different server, it tells me I need to wait nearly an hour. What is that?


What you did is called "server hopping": that's when you log out of one server and into another, effectively teleporting your character across vast distances. We want to discourage this, so we have code in place that causes you to be dominated when you log into the wrong server. Effectively, you need to either travel "properly" (i.e. actually go in-game to your destination) or you need to wait one hour to represent your character's travel time.



24. What's up with the server lag? I play on one or more of your servers and I'm getting really choppy gameplay.


We are aware of various problems with lag. For starters, you should be aware of WHICH kind of lag you are dealing with:

1) Your internet connection is one big factor. Our internet connection is 10 Mb down and 1 Mb up, which is considerably faster than what is needed for our traffic. Our internet pipeline is never even close to full. So if you are having internet lag and you already have a good internet connection, do a traceroute to our servers and see where the problem lies. We assure you it is not us.

2) Your graphics settings are the next big factor. Try turning down the amount of sound and detail you have in your client. If your graphics or sound card is not a very good one, you will experience a lot of lag. Our hakpaks use a lot of TGA textures which require a decent graphics card.

3) Your computer is another factor. If you are playing on a slow computer, you will likely lag. If you don't have at least 512 MB of memory on your computer, you will likely lag.

We cannot do anything for you about issue's 1, 2, and 3. You must take the steps to fix it on your own.



25. I’d like to join a Private Discussion group on the forums, how do I do that?


Just below the Website’s titlebar at the top of the page is a link labeled ‘Groups’. From here you can find the group you’d like to join and apply for access. Keep in mind that many Player-run guilds don’t appear on that list, and the majority of guilds require you to actually join their guild ingame before you’re granted access.



26. I’d like to help code/build/model/design/etc. something for CoPaP. Can I do that?


Certainly! We’re always looking for anyone with technical skills and the knowledge and free time to help make CoPaP that much better. If you’re interested in helping in any sort of technical capacity, be it building areas, scripting quests, or DMing, feel free to look in our classified ads forum:

viewforum.php?f=47



27. I’d like to start my own guild. Is this possible, and how would I go about setting it up?


Sure it’s possible, and we encourage players to make their own groups and guilds.

The first step you need to take is to decide on which world you want to set your guild. Next, contact the staff of that world.

Be sure to include an outline of your guild including its name, a brief synopsis of what it stands for, and how many players are currently interested in joining with their characters. It’s fine to want to start your own guild, but if there’s no one intrested in joining, there’s not much of a point to making one. If a DM likes what they’ve read, they’ll contact you and explain to you how to proceed about getting your guild together and making it official ingame.
Avlis: http://www.avlis.org

"My name is Orleron...a dungeonmaster...two years ago I got shot through a game client...I'm in a distant part of the internet aboard these servers of escaped mental patients...my players. I've made enemies, stupid, and annoying...now all I want to do is make CoPaP a reality, to warn Earth...Look inward(to your monitor) and share the newbies I've seen..."
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