Obsidian does it again...

[SpiritWarrior]

If this is true I am beyond shock. What are they doing to this game?!

[robertthebard]

They are killing it, at least for some people. Now that I've had some time to consider what's been said, hinted at, and ignored over the last few months. Most of this is undoubtedly Atari's deal. They are pushing it to release as soon as possible to try and help their financial situation, but ultimately, I believe it will be the biggest nail in their coffin. I don't play the single player campaigns any more, not since I found online play. The guy who builds Fates, one of the two servers I actually play on, has never finished the first campaign, and never started the other two. I really don't play downloaded SP modules either. These issues could be dealt with, if the developers had the time, but they don't. Atari wants the game on the shelves, and that's where it's going to be, in all it's not ready for the public glory. I have already spent hundreds of hours developing the next version of Fates, the tentative online module we were developing for NWN's 2, and I'd hate to see that time be wasted. If it is, it is, and the game will be added to the collection of games I never play in my collection. No big loss to me, I collect games anyway, and have quite a few that have never been installed on this rig. I hope they get this stuff resolved. I just have to wonder though, with all the MP, and PW issues they are releasing with, what's the SP Campaign going to be like?

[shamrock_uk]

Thanks [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Ziroc]

IF it is just walkmeshes and such, ok then. But if you need to download the mod, here is what can happen:

1. Players can load it up in the toolset, and find all the secret areas, and goodies.

2. Somehow cheat (I know EFU players wouldn't do this though)

3. re-release it as their own with some changes..


I dunno, just so much BS and last minute bombs dropped. These are major warning signs.

[robertthebard]

Here's my take on the cheating aspects. They can, for sure, run rampant through the toolset, and find all the little tricks that they need to find, secret doors, monster weaknesses, etc. That's a bad thing in a new module, because it takes all the challenge out of finding things. They can't, however, affect things server side, other than OOC knowledge, which in and of itself is a bad thing, unless they have either a DM password, or otherwise have access to the actual server the module is on.
The part of this that actually concerns me the most is the putting it online as their own work, and this has happened before, according to what I've read at the Bioboards. As a parttime developer, builder, and a DM, this aspect of it really affects me. I have invested literally 100's of hours into testing scripts, and planning out areas and quests for NWN2, as my builder is determined that we are going forward with the project we have in mind. I'd hate to see that module online under a different name, or find out that it's online under a different name, with someone saying we stole their work. I really feel that this issue would kill NWN2 for online play at all, as I'm not willing to sacrifice that work. We have a smallish core group, that we could trust to not steal the module, and that would be our gaming community. I guess it would be like getting together on a Thurs night for a session of PnP play, w/out the added mess...But I've met literally hundreds of great people playing NWN's online. I'd hate to think that I have to sacrifice that aspect of the experience, because the developers couldn't overcome this obstacle.

[pritchke]

Well the good thing is I will not be buying NWN2. If I had my time back I would not have bought KotOR2. Obsidian seems to take previous Bioware products and makes a go of them, all of which should be better since Bioware has already done most of the work by creating the first game which means the basic groundwork should be out of the way leading to more time for development, but they are never better. They do pretty good financially because people all go out to buy a bioware sequal. So me I will not be fooled by Obsidian sequals anymore.

[ 06-13-2006, 11:18 AM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[SHO-VA]

the latest batch of info, and my responce to it on the bio-boards. Again only posted for your enjoyment [img]smile.gif[/img]

Quote: Posted 06/17/06 07:50:03 (GMT) by Charles Mead

I'll shed what little light I can on this topic...
As for the max application process size, 2 GB is indeed what I've heard is the limit. As for how many areas that would translate to, that of course depends on the size and type of the areas. Exterior areas generally eat up a lot more space than interiors - on the order of several times more than the same sized interior.

The largest module we ever had was on the order of 30+ areas. We have a lot stricter rules on module size than the community however, and have since restructured that module to be a bit smaller.

The good news is that modules can be connected together - so the for the non-pw campaign you can build a world as big as you want. The PC's can travel back and forth and the state of the modules will be retained.

Although NWN2 was never designed to support PW's, we are continuing to looking at ways to make larger modules possible.

Im gonna get called a troll, and a doom crier, probably even banned for this, but at this point, dont even care.

OE, thank you for removing all the best aspects of NWN in your "sequel". The dm client included, PW capabilities, PW support, and the easy to make custom content. You are the worst thing to happen the the name Neverwinter nights.

I am boycotting any product you make, due to your failure of including the PW part of the community. It may just be a loss of sales of 3 copies of your crap game, But I'll be sure and tell others why, Including the 300+ registered players of my current NWN PW.

to all you Cummunity members that think this is just another doom cry post, I suggest you reread that quote above. the largest mod they have made is 30+ areas. the largest mod they have made is the OC. No wonder its 20 hours of play. What a joke.

Oe seems to think its all going to be ok, because you can connect mods to each other.. yippy, to bad lots of those of us who would have built something in this game, Were constantly ripped for posting concerns about the lack of features, support, and, most of all just plain left out of the plan, wont be building anything at all. NWN2 wont last longer than 3 months. Go ahead and say how great it will be, even though you havent played it. Tell us again how great the graffix are that made the PW not possible. Tell us how OE cares about the community, even though it keeps ignoring, and and cutting features for a big part of that community. OE do us all a favor, and go make console games, stay away from the PC, its to big for you to handle.

[Albromor]

If that is the final case for this game then I'll wait until it drops below $20.00 before buying it.

[Memnoch]

I didn't have the time to go through all those threads linked - what's the reason why they're having to do this?

[SHO-VA]

the reasoning is rather simple. They have made a game with such advanced, memory eating graffix, that there is little to no way that the average pc can host it. Their latest work around for this is that it will be alot easier to hook up one PW to another, since everyone who wants to play will have to dl the mod anyway. While the abillity to hook up 1 PW to another is a good thing, they forgot that lots of hosts/builders have different styles, and different allowable magic item levels. For example, Zs PW, could be hooked upto mine very easily, no more than a regular area transition type from his to mine. But, Z- has made his PW with higher end Magic items, where my PW has very limited ones, and to compensate for it, I would have to put in scripts to strip out most of the PCs items. Players of Zs would hate comming into mine and getting all their gear removed.

Because of this way they have made it, A pw the size of Zs could be done, but he would have to host it in upto 4 different mods, on 4 different machines. extreemly lame of them to think that anyone has the money to run, buy, 4 machines with internet connections, and keep them all up 24/7.

As I posted above, I refuse to buy the game. They can quote Bio-Ware that it wasnt made with PWs in mind. I fully understand theat Bio didnt make NWN with the PW in mind, as the PW wasnt born yet. It came about because of the funtions of NWN. Obsidion on the other hand, knew full well how popular NWN PWs are, Saw how many people played them, and Are even now requesting that PW, as well as SP builders contact them to give out their beta toolset. The Sad fact is, OE ignored the PW part of NWn, and decieded that the best thing for NWN2, was the soloplay aspect. They even went as far to say, "we are making this game for the play it once and shelve it crowd" I certainly hope, that they reach their target, and find out what a stupid plan it was.