26 réponses à ce sujet

[Sir_Rule]

Eventhough the Obsidian team is busy with patching and perfecting the recent new Fallout game, I'm beginning to wonder if NWN2 has anything going for it in the horizon.  It's absolutely more then unlikely, but I have a new expansion pack on the top of my wishlist.  Something that brings up 3.5 to all the core 'Pathfinder' rules would be really nice.  But that's just me pipe-dreaming.

I can only hope that we're given something to tide us over until a 'proper' 4E D&D is put into development, (that said, I have very small tiny hope for the new 'Neverwinter' game).  Either way, I don't want to believe that more stuff for NWN2 is a dead thing just yet.     

[BigfootNZ]

Chances for something new from Obsidian for NWN2, expansion or otherwise?... 0%



Chances for anything new from the NWN2 community?.. 100%



Its a little unfortunate really, but the games at a pretty decent point patch wise even with no more coming and we dont really need Obsidian for anything anyway. I recon NWN2 will be around just as long as NWN has been thanks to the Community.



I personally will never touch anything even remotely 4th edition.

[Shallina]

The best you can hope is a final patch after the lawsuit would been settled.

[puiwaihin]

Unless there's change on the Atari/Hasbro contract disputes, it's pretty much impossible for there to be a new official release.

[-Semper-]

puiwaihin wrote...

Unless there's change on the Atari/Hasbro contract disputes, it's pretty much impossible for there to be a new official release.

even then there won't be another official release for nwn2 due to the fact that the engine uses 3.5 rules. obsidian would have to redesign the core rules to get a go from wotc.

[dunniteowl]

Actually that's not so, Semper. The real issue is one of time. Now the game is just over 4 years old and nothing new has been released since MoW (which was heavily delayed.) The powers that be at this point in time are just going to move on, unfortunately. Atari has the right to continue to develop and improve the game, but they don't have to bring it up to 4.0 edition to do so. Once it's out and released, they have the right to improve and update the core engine and game mechanics, but to do an edition change in the rules would be essentially making a new game, coding wise (at least the way the engine was coded to start with) and that's cost prohibitive.

New Expansions? I think that 0% comment is dead on.

New Adventure Packs? I think Atari sank their own ship before launching it on that one.

New Patches? It might be possible, but at this point it would have to be Obsidian doing it for the sake of the fans with their own dime, in similar vein to Bioware with the 1.69 patch for NWN.

New Content, New Plugins, New Adventures, New Ideas, New Fixes? Again, the above estimate from BigFoot NZ I think is dead on: 100% certain to happen.

I don't agree that we don't need anything more from Obsidian, but I do think what we have we can live with.

Sadly, NWN2 was and is a great game which was hamstrung by Atari by their own financial incompetence vis-a-vis: No real advertising; Intractable insistence upon a release date specific and unyielding; The Worst Customer Support in Software Award; Inability to Release an Adventure Pack without new DRM; Poor Communication With WotC/Hasbro; and, last, but not least, Shooting Themselves in the Foot with the Namco Bandai Deal.

It was all these things and more that hurt NWN2 the most. Atari has been pretty good about giving the RPG crowd (and D&D fans in particular) some very decent and fun games over the years. Not often enough, in my opinion, and lately, not well enough supported to make the impact they could have. And definitely not well enough supported after NWN to keep the flame alive.

NeverWinter Online has potential, but a smart company would diversify it's RPG fare with SP only, SP with MP ability, and MMO lines that are complimentary with each other, if possible, but even if they weren't, the RPG fans out there would still play them if a solid playable and fun experience could be had.

NWN2 does fit that bill and it's sad that Atari couldn't see that post release of SoZ and even sadder that they scuttled the Adventure Pack program through their own complete ineptitude to be ready with MoW when Ossian was.

Sorry for the little rant there. All that is to highlight that at this point in time, the new stuff, adventures, plug-ins, workarounds, fixes, new content, adventures and gaming goodness is going to be 100% Community Made.

And believe me, the stuff this Community can produce has, in my opinion, put the developers in 2nd place when it comes to design and development of that content. These folks are over-the-fence ball players with NWN2 and you should be glad to be part of it as a player or otherwise. It's going to be interesting in to see the way new and cool things that are going to come out in the next few weeks to six months from now. A lot of big projects are coming to fruition within that timeframe and I think this Community will definitely have something to be excited about in that regard.



best regards,

dunniteowl

[Sir_Rule]

@BigfootNZ



I find a lot of 4E hate is very unfounded, mostly by those who have simply refused to play 4E as of yet . I personally wouldn't mind a 'end all' patch _if_ it happens but mostly, I'm looking forward as to what the community is coming out with next, if 'Misery Stone' is to be an example.

[dunniteowl]

Then go out and grab Legend of White Plume Mountain. Great gaming!

dno

[Dundalis]

There are certainly a few pretty good games out for NWN 2, but there is so much good stuff out for NWN, though I now find it difficult to go back to that graphical platform. If NWN 2 could get even a quarter of the quality modules that NWN had that would be great. In particular there are lots of lengthy 15 hour plus modules out for NWN, while most NWN 2 modules are rather short. Only a couple of the more talented NWN modders seemed to have moved across to NWN 2 modding.

[The Fred]

dunniteowl wrote...
New Patches? It might be possible, but at this point it would have to be Obsidian doing it for the sake of the fans with their own dime, in similar vein to Bioware with the 1.69 patch for NWN.

I thought the situation was that the next patch was pretty much done, but it couldn't (for whatever reason) be released during the lawsuit? It would be a shame if it got shelved when it already exists and is pretty much just bugfixes anyway.

[dunniteowl]

There is no actual confirmation that it was basically done. The lowdown that I had at the time of the lawsuit was that they had made some significant progress in bug fixing and were hoping to get not only a few more in, but maybe a few new features on the top 5 list as well. As even the patch was not officially confirmed, it's hard to say.

In any case, the patch will not come out unless Atari says it's okay. And most likely, if more work has to be done to get it ready, it will probably have to come out of Obsidian's pocket, not Atari's. No matter which way the wind blows, I am hoping that someone will see fit to bring it to fruition. If for no other reason than as a "Last Hurrah," and homage to the Community that made it sell in the first place. Because, honestly, the near total lack of advertising in the market itself meant that those of us who were waiting for it to come out were the primary market voice for NWN2. We deserve patch 1.24 for that, I'd say.

dunniteowl

[BigfootNZ]

dunniteowl wrote...
I don't agree that we don't need anything more from Obsidian, but I do think what we have we can live with.

I should have used better words with that, but yeah I more or less meant that given what we have to work with  the community can do what it wants or needs without any real continued support from Obsidian.. must admit a final patch with as many bugs fixed and no new ones introduced would be perfect.

Sir_Rule wrote...
I find a lot of 4E hate is very unfounded, mostly by those who have simply refused to play 4E as of yet . I personally wouldn't mind a 'end all' patch _if_ it happens but mostly, I'm looking forward as to what the community is coming out with next, if 'Misery Stone' is to be an example.

Ive played D&D since I was a child starting with the old basic red and blue box set way back in the early days of the 80's , those magical AD&D manuals that sat on my older brothers shelf always entranced me and eventually I got to read em and understand em, then latter as a teen my friends got the 2nd edition manuals with their flashy painted full page illustrations and little blue boxed optional/additional rules... I left playing AD&D for a number of years and then finally took the dive into 3rd edition with NWN1, took some getting used to but it was effectivly still D&D, then 3.5 ....

4th edition unfortunatly is just way way way to much of a shift, to much was changed, to much was dumbed down to catter for the MMO crowd turning D&D into a pnp version of a computer game simply to make more money (fighters have a taunt for crying out loud...), not to mention shoe horning it into an even more rigid narrative... and for me the biggest blasphemy... taking a blunt butchers knife to the outter planes, that to me is unexcusable, decades of work and evolution stripped down and stomped on in the name of making it simpler... all it really did was turn it into a bland mush more cliche and worse than the 3rd edition, but at least 3rd edition planes were still at their heart the original.

but thats all im gonna say on that subject, since you directed a comment towards me I answered, we dont want this derailed into a 4th edtion rant after all

i just have to get off my lazy backside and put my modeling and modding into proper gear, its either the weather or something but ive been finding it real hard to get motivated artistically for a good year and a half now... stop, start, stop, start.

[foil-]

What's sad about the comments made regarding advertising dollars sinking this NWN2 is that it seems to hold for NWN3 (or "Neverwinter") as well. Its due out next year and there's barely a dribble of information or marketing for it.



NWN1 in my recollection had quite a bit of marketing in it including full page magazine spreads with main characters in swimsuits, etc. Kind of hard not to notice something like that, even if you aren't a D&D nerd. That advertising was widespread and had shock value. Dragon Age did similar with the rock music shaking things up. Funny that BioWare seams to be better marketers than the people who are supposed to be handling that side of the business. With BioWare off the NWN scene, things sort of went downhill from a numbers standpoint. That says nothing about the quality of the modding in NWN2 which actually seemed to improve.

[metatheurgist]

foil- wrote...

What's sad about the comments made regarding advertising dollars sinking this NWN2 is that it seems to hold for NWN3 (or "Neverwinter") as well. Its due out next year and there's barely a dribble of information or marketing for it.

Er, that's because there's still this little matter of a lawsuit. That's why there hasn't been any DnD title NWN or otherwise for years.

[kamalpoe]

Just play community made content. A) The good stuff is that good. Lot's more content there than in official stuff.

[foil-]

metatheurgist wrote...

foil- wrote...

What's sad about the comments made regarding advertising dollars sinking this NWN2 is that it seems to hold for NWN3 (or "Neverwinter") as well. Its due out next year and there's barely a dribble of information or marketing for it.

Er, that's because there's still this little matter of a lawsuit. That's why there hasn't been any DnD title NWN or otherwise for years.

Yup, familiar with the lawsuit drama.  It may be a little overstated since they are still forging ahead with development of Neverwinter.  Just not marketing.  Its not unheard of for companies sort out differences in court while business as usual occurs in the office.

If you mean that they are withholding advertising dollars in the anticipation that the plug might get pulled on Neverwinter: maybe.  Marketing these days does seem to require more funds than development, so very possible.

Not to take away from this community either.  There's still plenty of good community stuff here I would like to play if I get the time...Mysery Stone and Purgotory at the top of that list.  Even if Neverwinter has a tool set, it will take a year or two for its own community stuff to ramp up.  Although I'm interested to see how an RA Salvatore single player story will mesh out. I've never read any of the D&D books by him, but he seems to have a rabbid following.

Speaking of purgatory, did the first chapter ever get officially released as non-beta?  I haven't had much of an opportunity to check in here for the last year abouts.

[metatheurgist]

foil- wrote...
 It may be a little overstated since they are still forging ahead with development of Neverwinter.  Just not marketing.  Its not unheard of for companies sort out differences in court while business as usual occurs in the office.

They would continue development if they anticipated winning the case or at least being able to release the game - even if they had to return to some less than ideal arrangement with Atari. Since 4th ed has had no revenue from Comp Games at all I imagine this is really hurting their books and their flagship product in the eyes of the shareholders and bean counters - they will probably do anything to get something out.

But - it would be imprudent of them to announce triumphantly the release of the first game using 4th ed rules with a fixed date and then watch that date slide by because they're still tied up in the courts. Gaming Media would eat them in the press for annoucing something they had no chance of delivering. This would damage the brand, and since marketing is all about branding, they'd never let it happen.

[foil-]

I know its not a firm date, but given what we saw with MOW, and the NWN franchise as a whole, they must have some confidence to go even this far:
http://www.playneverwinter.com/

[metatheurgist]

Now that's interesting. The Atari logo and name are prominently displayed. Implies that they might be close to settling. Seems like Atari will hang onto the license after all.

[Haplose]

foil- wrote...

Not to take away from this community either.  There's still plenty of good community stuff here I would like to play if I get the time...Mysery Stone and Purgotory at the top of that list. 

There are many more modules to play here. And new seem to pop every few days. For me some are more interesting than the ones you listed. Just try Maimed Gods Saga or Legacy of White Plume Mountain. And many others, most of which I haven't had to opportunity to play yet.

[The Fred]

Personally, I take issue with the bit which says:

The #1 best-selling Neverwinter Nights series of PC RPGs returns with an epic Dungeons & Dragons storyline...

As awesome as their new release may or may not be, I'm not sure it would be fair to call it part of the Neverwinter Nights series... I mean it's an MMO, for crying out loud. Still, we had a topic for this stuff, let's not get off on a tangent.

Certainly community-made stuff ought to be coming for a long while yet, at least.

Modifié par The Fred, 08 décembre 2010 - 11:20 .

[foil-]

Haplose wrote...

foil- wrote...

Not to take away from this community either.  There's still plenty of good community stuff here I would like to play if I get the time...Mysery Stone and Purgotory at the top of that list. 

There are many more modules to play here. And new seem to pop every few days. For me some are more interesting than the ones you listed. Just try Maimed Gods Saga or Legacy of White Plume Mountain. And many others, most of which I haven't had to opportunity to play yet.

I keep hearing "White Plume Mountain" pop up which is also peaking my interest.  It was near release when real life pulled me away from gaming.  Its good to here an old D&D mainstay has had a successful conversion.  Yup, will have to add that to my list also.  Maybe Jan/Feb 2011 will be kinder to my free time.

[Sir_Rule]

I was just looking at the 'White Plume' mountain mod at the nwnvault. I'm a bit suspicious of the lack of story though. Other then that, the rating is saying otherwise.



For those who do hate 4E, I have low charisma. So I doubt I can sway you. But I can definitly share the common ground of worrying about the new Neverwinter game coming out o_o.



But back to Whiteplume, isn't that a greyhawk setting? With six-shooting wizards and shotgun toting kobolds? 0_o

[Arkalezth]

Lack of story?