9 replies to this topic

[ArtemisJ]

Interview with Feargus Urquheart (CEO of Obsidian)

http://www.gamepress...om/e.asp?ID=720

 

 

White Wolf Publishing registered Vampire Bloodlines. Would you like to work on that?

I think Vampire would be really cool, but that’s the tough bit – there are so many cool things, there are so many awesome things out there. I know Tim and Leonard both loved working on it. We flirted with White Wolf long ago, right before CCP actually bought White Wolf. Mike Tinney was the president of White Wolf, and we got to know each other. What we were trying to figure out back then was whether we could take the Neverwinter 2 engine and do a Vampire or a World of Darkness game. It would be cool, not only as just a game, but also from the standpoint of people who love World of Darkness, who would then be able to go and make more World of Darkness modules and things like that. It would be cool, I’ve always loved Vampire, I read the books, read the novels, all kinds of that stuff.

 

Now not to get too conspiracy theorist here.. But it's clear that Feargus would love to refactor the NWN2 engine in some regard so their future games can be modded.

 

Also, as many of you may or may not know. Recently Obsidian rehired Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky.. both from Troika who worked on Bloodlines.. And the publisher of Pillars of Eternity.. Paradox recently purchased the rights of World of Darkness by acquiring White Wolf.

 

(Tim Cain was hired to work on Pillars of Eternity.. but Leonard was hired off Blizzard exactly around the time that Paradox announced their purchase of World of Darkness)

 

Too Conspiratorial?

 

NWN2 engine beefed up for a Vampire Bloodlines sequel? Uhm Yes Please! 

Of course.. this is all hoping and wishing.. but it seems Obsidian holds some rights on the electron engine.. they just don't own the rights to DnD.. That makes me hopeful.

[GCoyote]

Since I can't get my toolset to even open under Windows 10, an updated engine with the toolset appeals to me.

[kamal_]

The key phrase is probably "back then". I think the nwn2 mention was more because of it's relation to the interviewers question on Vampire games. I don't think it means they'd try to use nwn2 for a hypothetical new Vampire game.

 

Beamdog has done the Baldur's Gate enhanced editions. It's been clear from them they'd like to do a nwn1 enhanced. I think Beamdog doing a nwn1 enhanced and then a nwn2 enhanced from them would be more likely that Obsidian returning to the nwn2 engine. I'd like to see a refactored or whatever nwn2 engine, but I just don't think it's going to happen.

 

I will mention Xoreos, the open source reimplementation of the aurora engine and it's successor engines (including the nwn2 engine). They can always use help from real programmers (eg. not me). DrMcCoy is the main programmer for that. He hangs out in the irc channel, and posts here on occaision, he was also interviewed by the nwn podcast at some point.

[ArtemisJ]

The key phrase is probably "back then". I think the nwn2 mention was more because of it's relation to the interviewers question on Vampire games. I don't think it means they'd try to use nwn2 for a hypothetical new Vampire game.

 

Beamdog has done the Baldur's Gate enhanced editions. It's been clear from them they'd like to do a nwn1 enhanced. I think Beamdog doing a nwn1 enhanced and then a nwn2 enhanced from them would be more likely that Obsidian returning to the nwn2 engine. I'd like to see a refactored or whatever nwn2 engine, but I just don't think it's going to happen.

 

I will mention Xoreos, the open source reimplementation of the aurora engine and it's successor engines (including the nwn2 engine). They can always use help from real programmers (eg. not me). DrMcCoy is the main programmer for that. He hangs out in the irc channel, and posts here on occaision, he was also interviewed by the nwn podcast at some point.

 

Great points..

 

This was all wishful speculation anyways.. I would love to see a NWN3 or a refactored NWN2 engine that irons out some of the kinks and breathes life into the community..

 

Why has nobody done a NWN3 style toolset.. the world may never know.

[rjshae]

Why has nobody done a NWN3 style toolset.. the world may never know.

 

Probably economics factors into the reason. Building a stand-alone toolset adds extra cost that needs to be funded through increased game sales. But the addition of a toolset won't increase the purchases significantly.

[ArtemisJ]

Probably economics factors into the reason. Building a stand-alone toolset adds extra cost that needs to be funded through increased game sales. But the addition of a toolset won't increase the purchases significantly.

 

I think that used to be the case.. but consider this.. Would NWN2 have sold as well with no toolset? What about Fallout 4.. Would as many people have bought it without a modding community? I probably wouldn't...

 

Sword Coast Legends and the NWN MMO are both trying to bank off the toolset feature (without actually putting effort into their versions) I think modability and toolsets are becoming a sales feature that turns heads..

 

As for cost.. Normally companies have a toolset.. they need one to make the game themselves after all.. Usually a released toolset is just a polished up version of that internal tool.

[-Semper-]

Now not to get too conspiracy theorist here.. But it's clear that Feargus would love to refactor the NWN2 engine in some regard so their future games can be modded.

Of course.. this is all hoping and wishing.. but it seems Obsidian holds some rights on the electron engine..

 

the talk between obsidian and white wolf happened before the fusion with ccp, which in turn happend 2006 - the year nwn2 was released. this means that this idea is at least 10 years old and evolved while nwn2 was developed or near its actual release. with other words: it's clearly understandable why feargus considered the electron engine. since then they worked with unreal engine, gamebryo, unity and even developed their own inhouse engine onyx. i highly doubt that they would return to electron nowadays.

 

ps: tim was hired 2011, almost 5 years ago.

 

As for cost.. Normally companies have a toolset.. they need one to make the game themselves after all.. Usually a released toolset is just a polished up version of that internal tool.

 

this polishing costs money - lots of money. it's also common that those inhouse tools and the engines use third party software which can't be distributed because of licencing contracts/costs. removing and replacing those parts of the tools costs even more money.

[kamal_]

Sword Coast Legends and the NWN MMO are both trying to bank off the toolset feature (without actually putting effort into their versions) I think modability and toolsets are becoming a sales feature that turns heads..

For the record, Sword Coast Legends literally closed their dev. The dev, N-Space, has shut down. Last time I looked Steamcharts (SCL was sold only via Steam so that should be relatively accurate) showed fewer players for SCL than the nwnlist pw listing website does for nwn2.

 

The Neverwinter MMO has turned off their toolset and removed all user content. It's not officially "turned off", it's just been unavailable for months with a statement from the devs that no bugfixing or improvements to the toolset are scheduled for this year. There are also only 25 user written quests available since the toolset "bugged out", a reduction of about 99.9%.

[Tchos]

The Neverwinter MMO has turned off their toolset and removed all user content. It's not officially "turned off", it's just been unavailable for months with a statement from the devs that no bugfixing or improvements to the toolset are scheduled for this year. There are also only 25 user written quests available since the toolset "bugged out", a reduction of about 99.9%.

 

The very ephemerality of an online-only game guaranteed I would never mod for it (let alone the other reasons particular to this one), but I expected it to last a little longer than that.

[rjshae]

I think that used to be the case.. but consider this.. Would NWN2 have sold as well with no toolset?

 

I don't know the answer. But I could speculate that if the OC campaign had been well received, the modding community would have been larger. Note that DA:O does have a toolset available, but not much of a community.

 

What about Fallout 4. Would as many people have bought it without a modding community?

 

I suspect the answer is a qualified "yes". But also there's obviously a big difference between a modding community and a toolset.

 

Not that I wouldn't want to see a good NWN3 w/ toolset, of course.