NwN 2: Mysteries of Westgate

[kgambit]

NEW YORK, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR), one of the world's most recognized brands and a third-party video game publisher, today announced the development of the first Neverwinter Nights(TM) 2 Adventure Pack to be available exclusively by digital download. Created by Atari and some of the most prominent members of the Neverwinter Nights 2 communities, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate provides hours of additional entertainment with all new engrossing storylines, professional voice acting, enchanting musical scores, new in-game content, and much more. Neverwinter Nights 2 is set in the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS(R) Forgotten Realms(R) universe created by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS). DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is under license from HPG, the licensing division of Hasbro.

Developed by Ossian Studios, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate is the first full featured Adventure Pack available from Atari. Set in the infamous Forgotten Realms city of Westgate, players find themselves in possession of a powerful but cursed treasure that threatens to destroy them. Linked to the underworld organization known as the Night Masks, the treasure will draw players into a city-spanning clash between warring factions. Players must choose their allegiance in order to break the curse and ultimately uncover a plot that threatens Westgate itself.

"Our premium module program for the original Neverwinter Nights was an enormous success due to the sheer amount of new, high-quality content we provided in each adventure," said Hudson Piehl, Vice President of Product Development, Atari, Inc. "With our new Adventure Packs, such as the upcoming Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate, we are evolving the premium module: fans can expect higher production values, deep storylines, and lengthy new campaigns they've come to associate with Neverwinter Nights."

From the creators of the critically-acclaimed Neverwinter Nights module, Darkness over Daggerford, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate will feature a non-linear, open-ended single-player campaign with numerous side quests covering more than 15 hours of game play. Atari's new Adventure Pack will also feature 3 new companions; an entirely new underground sewers tile set themed after the seedy underbelly of Westgate; a host of new monsters to do battle with, including some truly epic foes; an exciting new and original musical score; as well as thousands of new lines of professionally recorded dialogue.

The Neverwinter Nights franchise has sold more than three million copies worldwide, is translated into 10 languages, sold in more than 40 countries and features one of the largest and most active fan communities in all of gaming. To date, fans of the franchise, which includes Neverwinter Nights, Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide(TM), Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark(TM) and Neverwinter Nights 2, have created more than 5,000 modifications to the original game using the award-winning toolset included with the full game that allows players to create their own universes, quests and storylines.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate is scheduled for release in fall 2007. The new Mysteries of Westgate, as well as future adventure packs, require the original game and will be made available for purchase and download directly from Atari.

For more information (inlcuding a couple of enlargeable maps of the area and westgate itself) check out Tiberius' blog here:

http://tiberius209.blogspot.com/2007/10/nwn2-mysteries-of-westgate-mow.html

[lurchman]

I was reading about this over at Atari a day or so ago. It looks like it's going to be quite a mod. I will definately want to try it. And this time I'm going to play it before any walkthroughs. LOL

[kgambit]

I was reading about this over at Atari a day or so ago. It looks like it's going to be quite a mod. I will definately want to try it. And this time I'm going to play it before any walkthroughs. LOL

AMEN!! :D

[Fletchman1313]

Fall 2007?

They're running out of time... muahahahaha!

[kgambit]

Yeah and so far no word of an actual release. lol I thought I had read that it would be available end of the week in Europe and next week in the US. But that's not solid ..... lol

For more details, read this interview with Ossian Studios:

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Interviews. Detail&id=311

[cal1s]

I was reading about this over at Atari a day or so ago. It looks like it's going to be quite a mod. I will definately want to try it. And this time I'm going to play it before any walkthroughs. LOL
no walkthrough?
YOURE FIRED !!!!!!!!11111111111111111

[kgambit]

Uh cal1s ... it hasn't been released yet AFAIK ..... LOL

if it HAS, I sure don't know where to buy it from yet. LOL

part two of the interview is here:

http://nwn2.warcry.com/news/view/78334-NWN-2-Ossian-Studios-Interview-Part-2-The-WarCry-Edition


Expected release date: end of November +/-

[mivanc]

Well I've been reading up on this and only found out about it recently. Its 2008 and as far as I know it's still not out.

Latest news release I found was yesterday, January 14, 2008.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/845/845404p1.html

Sadly, no info on release Date yet.

[kgambit]

Well I've been reading up on this and only found out about it recently. Its 2008 and as far as I know it's still not out.

Latest news release I found was yesterday, January 14, 2008.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/845/845404p1.html

Sadly, no info on release Date yet.

Rumor is that it will be released on January 25th. But it's only a rumor.

:D

[Fletchman1313]

They're still running out of time...

[kgambit]

They're still running out of time...

Not for Easter they aren't ...... :rolleyes:

Here's a thread describing the hang-up. It's tied into the authentication system in NWN2.

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=6126 27&forum=122

[mivanc]

Well as for me, I haven't taken MotB out of its box yet, so no rush :-)

[ball lightning]

Is it out yet? It is the 26th now...

[cal1s]

not yet :)

[ball lightning]

Do you know when it is coming out? And is it free?

Thanks

BL

[kgambit]

Do you know when it is coming out? And is it free?

Thanks

BL

It definitely will NOT be free. :D

There is a hang-up with getting it coded for download authorization or some such nonsense. The mod has been ready for at least a month. :(

[ball lightning]

Thanks for that, hopefully it will be out soon.

[kgambit]

Thanks for that, hopefully it will be out soon.

We've all been waiting patiently but this is starting to drag on. :(

Atari just can NOT seem to get their $hit together.

Latest Info is that Mysteries of Westgate will cost $9.99 and will be available thru digital download. The latest and still unconfirmed release date is now February 15, 2008. Probably set to coincide with version 1.12 patch for NWN2.

[Fletchman1313]

February 15th?

They're still running out of time...

[sirchet]

If I understand Alex (Hughie) Hugon's comments, the adventure has been completed for months now, and is waiting for security type coding to be done by Obsidian.

btw...he doesn't seem very happy about it either.

[kgambit]

If I understand Alex' (Hughie) Hugon's comments, the adventure has been completed for months now, and is waiting for security type coding to be done.

btw...he doesn't seem very happy about it either.

That's my understanding as well.

On BOTH counts ..... :D

[kgambit]

Looks like MoW is delayed AGAIN.

Here's the latest:

From keehwan_her



Dear NWN2 fans,

As you may have heard Atari, Obsidian, and Ossian have been working together to create a new security system to protect games that don’t have an .exe file. NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate is our first product to utilize this new system, and consequently its release has been delayed until we can effectively implement this important aspect.

The good news is, the new security system is nearly complete. Obsidian has just recently completed work on the client side of this system and Atari is currently setting up the production servers in preparation to go live in the next few weeks. Our priority is to get the security in place for release with NWN2 Update 1.14 in July and shortly thereafter Mysteries of Westgate will be released.

We sincerely apologize for any frustrations these delays may have caused to Ossian, Obsidian, and especially the D&D community. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate is a fantastic adventure that should be properly evaluated independent of Atari’s security system delays. We appreciate and thank you for your continued patience and enthusiasm for Neverwinter Nights products.

Thank you,

The Atari Team

[christofeles]

Yeah, good for you Atari! Great Job, no really. How long will it hold the people that get games illegal at bay? 1 Week? 1 Month? That would be utopic. I'm not saying they should drop security totally. But come on.....

[Epirote]

Not even 24 hours, but that's not the point. :wtf: You cannot blame Atari for wanting to protect their work; :rolleyes: you can only blame them for not planning ahead. ;) If they had started work on the new DRM, right away, it would have been out by now. ;)

[christofeles]

I never said that they shouldn't, but what they shouldn't do is frustrating costumers and driving them away from their products. By trying to enforce a concept that just doesn't work. How often do people need to install cracks and non-original executables because their original game won't work on account of an f'ed up protection? I'm all for legal purchase of games, don't get me wrong here. I love most of the work the producers of games do, I appreciate most of their work, I really do and they deserve to be paid for that. But the whole "copy protection" is just not working and is in a lot of cases contraproductive, because it drives off some of their costumers. And I don't think that the amount of illegal acquired games would rise in any significance if they'd drop their "copy protection" all together, because it wouldn't get much easier anyway. It's already easy enough.

[Epirote]

First of all, no need to quote a post directly above yours, hence I removed it as redundant. ;)

In my life, I've been on both sides of the fence. However, I never pirated a single game. Always bought them. Also, it's been some years now, that I am 100% legit, no cracks, no pirated software, everything is either bought or downloaded as free ware. :wtf::vine::D

I don't think it happens that often that DRM software messes up a machine; it's more the exception to the rule. And while it would really be nice, if game devs and publishers in general would drop the DRM, that will be cracked withing hours, days or weeks (maximum) of publishing, it aint gonna happen. Can you imagine Bill Gates suddenly deciding to drop all his DRM protection schemes and opening up the code to the open source people? :confused: Not gonna happen, sorry! :D

[christofeles]

I know they won't ever do that. But they should'nt make such a fuss about it either. And I don't know if I got you wrong now but by dropping it they wouldn't open their product to the open-source community. Because stealing them would still be illegal. And I am not a supporter of that "legalize gametheft/make every damn thing opensource"-theme. If someone wants something, he should pay for it.

I just don't think it makes that much sense to waste resources on top of the loss by theft, if it doesn't get you anything. I know that I am pretty alone with my point of view and I accept the fact that it may sound rather strange.

Games that are played over the internet are another story however, here the protection works quite good and thus should be further developed and kept. (All those FPS f.e.)

[Epirote]

They not making any fuss about it; as I said they are only to blame for bad scheduling, organizing etc. It is us [there is no us!], the community or the vocal part thereof who are making a fuss, because we were promised things and did not receive them yet. :wtf::D

Yes, you misunderstood the open source comment. I would not urge them go open source. In a sense NWN2 and MotB are already open source, meaning that you have a powerful toolset to view and change things and design your own stuff. Let's try and agree that DRM does not stop the determined experienced hacker/cracker, but it stops a lot of casual piracy, like lending disks to a friend, for example. And that's what the companies are after. ;)

I just don't think it makes that much sense to waste resources on top of the loss by theft, if it doesn't get you anything. I know that I am pretty alone with my point of view and I accept the fact that it may sound rather strange.

Well, it does get you something; it gets the casual and clueless pirates. From Atari's point of view that is not a waste of resources; on the contrary, as they have proved thus far. ;)

Games that are played over the internet are another story however, here the protection works quite good and thus should be further developed and kept. (All those FPS f.e.)

Ok, they could have adopted bioware's authentication scheme. They didn't, 'cause they felt they needed something new. I only blame Atari for shortsightedness; they should have anticipated that they would need a new DRM. Instead, they relied first on finding something suitable on the market, once MoW was finished. Then, they realized in a panic, that they would need a new one, 'cause none of the available ones on the market would do. It's that simple real ...:vine:;)

Interestingly enough and in comparison to an other Atari published game that I love to play, namely Gothic 3, they only supplied support for about two patches after release and then left everything to the community. A while later, a community patch came out, fixing a lot of broken things and removing the CD check on start up. Cool, huh? :confused::D

The latest DRM thread over at the bioware forums! (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=6484 21&forum=109)

[kgambit]

How often do people need to install cracks and non-original executables because their original game won't work on account of an f'ed up protection?

Not very frequently actually. If you scan the Bio and Atari forums carefully, you will see a very small number of posts where users are actually encountering trouble playing NWN2 because of Securom. Even in the most recent cases, the problem lies NOT with the Securom within NWN2 but in the Securom that was installed by ANOTHER game.

But the whole "copy protection" is just not working ...... .

Quite the contrary. It is working exceptionally well. Several of the no-cd exe's that are available are fatally flawed and actually cause some critical path scripts to fail to fire and making it impossible to advance the game. What good is a no-cd .exe that makes the game unplayable? So although there is a certain truth to the claims that the game would be cracked within 24 hours, not all of the attempts have been successful.

Quite frankly, Atari is well within their rights to add copy protection to their games. In a perfect world it wouldn't be necessary. Unfortuantely some people think they have a god-given right to pirate games because "they are too expensive anyway", "piracy doesn't hurt the game companies" "I never pay for something I can steal for free", or any number of other lame and immature rationalizations of theft.

[Epirote]

The problem with piracy and no-cd cracks etc. is also that you really need to know where to get, so that it works flawlessly and it is virus free. The latter is not as easy as it was a few years back ... ;)

[kgambit]

The problem with piracy and no-cd cracks etc. is also that you really need to know where to get, so that it works flawlessly and it is virus free. The latter is not as easy as it was a few years back ... ;)

No, the basic problem with piracy and 3rd party no cd-cracks is that they are pure and simply ILLEGAL. 'Nuff said. :D

[sirchet]

I must agree and yes I too am frustrated at the release being delayed again.
But we as veteran gamers have almost become used to games being delayed.
When they have it ready for us... they will have it ready for us. (profound huh?)

Thank the gods for a community that produces professional quality modules that can keep us occupied while we wait. :D

[Epirote]

You're both right of course! I don't mind the waiting! I waited almost 4 years for Gothic 3 and about as much for NWN2, so I don't sweat it much.

[christofeles]

Not very frequently actually. If you scan the Bio and Atari forums carefully, you will see a very small number of posts where users are actually encountering trouble playing NWN2 because of Securom. Even in the most recent cases, the problem lies NOT with the Securom within NWN2 but in the Securom that was installed by ANOTHER game.

Not everyone who is forced to use a NO-CD.exe or other form of crack will post it in the forum. And as for the "another game" part. Be that as it may. It sounds a lot like: "It wasn't me! Someone else did it!" =)


Quite the contrary. It is working exceptionally well. Several of the no-cd exe's that are available are fatally flawed and actually cause some critical path scripts to fail to fire and making it impossible to advance the game. What good is a no-cd .exe that makes the game unplayable? So although there is a certain truth to the claims that the game would be cracked within 24 hours, not all of the attempts have been successful.


Several, yes, but not all of them. Not by a looooooooooooooong shot. And even if not all of the attempts are successful, a few is all that it takes, to ruin the whole lot of work you put into piracy protection. However both you and Epirote are right if you say that you are at least holding back some of the piracy, with the protection and that this is maybe enough to justify it for them. For me it wouldn't.


Quite frankly, Atari is well within their rights to add copy protection to their games. In a perfect world it wouldn't be necessary. Unfortuantely some people think they have a god-given right to pirate games because "they are too expensive anyway", "piracy doesn't hurt the game companies" "I never pay for something I can steal for free", or any number of other lame and immature rationalizations of theft.

I never stated that they aren't. I am all against piracy, don't get me wrong. And if I have to, I'll state it again and again. :P It's just that I am against a concept that doesn't work really good as well. But, nevertheless, it's not my decision, is it? It's theirs and they've every right to work on whatever protection they want to -as long as it doesn't compromise my PCa integrity or my personal information-.

Well, generally, I don't care how long I'll have to wait. -Duke Nukem Forever, anyone? *cough cough*- I just don't see the advantage of what they are doing.

[kgambit]

Just a reminder - check out the TG Interview with Ossian (http://www.thieves-guild.net/index.php?pid=410) and the Mysteries of Westgate Sneak Peek (http://www.thieves-guild.net/index.php?pid=390) for a preview of the game and sewer tileset screenshots.

:D

[sirchet]

Christofeles said;

I never stated that they aren't. I am all against piracy, don't get me wrong. And if I have to, I'll state it again and again. :P It's just that I am against a concept that doesn't work really good as well. But, nevertheless, it's not my decision, is it? It's theirs and they've every right to work on whatever protection they want to -as long as it doesn't compromise my PCa integrity or my personal information-.

You sir have summed up my opinion in one quick shot, well said.

[D.0.a]

Christofeles said a mouthfull there. I have never obtained illegal software myself, but have been exposed to it when I was using the same cpu as an aquaintance. It was rarely operational (both software and cpu):mad:

Stear clear!

[Epirote]

Ok, this is getting way out of topic now. If you want to discuss DRM, make a new thread. Besides, Rob McGinnis stated that the authentication will most likely consist of a activation code and a one time online activation. So, any further discussion of DRM in connection to MoW is pointless.

[kgambit]

New Article on MoW at gamesradar.com (http://www.gamesradar.com/f/extended-mysteries/a-20080829161728171042)

One brief excerpt:

"Westgate is still on its way, but it’ll be released concurrently with the NWN2 1.14 patch."

One can ONLY hope. :D