HLDS NS2 build 160 Error loading game_setup.xml

<div class="IPBDescription">Can't seem to get my Win Srv 2008 R2 going</div><!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro--><b>[SOLVED]</b><!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->

Turns out if you call server.exe through a batch file... make sure the batch resides in the root directory (with server.exe). So if your setup is C:\NS2\server.exe put the batch in C:\NS2. Process Monitor was a big help in this troubleshooting process, it returned a bunch of NAME_NOT_FOUND errors when looking for game_setup.xml (among other entities) in the same directory as my batch files...

<!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro--><b>[/SOLVED]</b><!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->

Note: this is a cross-post from <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=110351&view=findpost&p=1822533" target="_blank">this topic</a>.

I require a little assistance...

Windows Server 2008 R2 with PhysX DirectX and HLDS NS2 build 160 properly installed. Running with <!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->-name "SERVERNAME" -map ns2_tram -limit 10 -lan false -save true<!--c2--></div><!--ec2--> creates server.xml in <i>%APPDATA%\Natural Selection 2</i> but console shows the following feedback:

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Changing setting 'lanGame' to: 'false'...
Changing setting 'mapName' to: 'ns2_tram'...
Changing setting 'playerLimit' to: '10'...
Changing setting 'serverName' to: 'SERVERNAME'...
Build 160
Error loading game_setup.xml<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

As <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=112275&view=findpost&p=1821777" target="_blank">suggested</a> I copied <i>game_setup.xml </i>to the same folder as server.exe and changed <!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1--><client>lua/Client.lua</client><!--c2--></div><!--ec2--> and <!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1--><server>lua/Server.lua</server><!--c2--></div><!--ec2--> to <!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1--><client>ns2/lua/Client.lua</client><!--c2--></div><!--ec2--> and <!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1--><server>ns2/lua/Server.lua</server><!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->
I now had 2 instances of <i>game_setup.xml </i>both structurally correct but yet... to no avail.

The entire process is run as Administrator but I gave Users modify rights on the root directory just to be sure. No dice.

I'm running out of options to try, and this is really frustrating me since I seem to be alone in this. Anyone?

Updated: I've tried switching slashes around, removing the 'old' game_setup.xml, ensured ANSI encoding, running without parameters.... still nothing.