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Neverwinter Nights Forum News (Oct. 29, 04)

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by chevalier, Oct 29, 2004.

  1. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    Remove all ads!
    Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights, collected by NWVault. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

    Derek French, Live Team Producer

    Live Internet Connection
    The world != the USA (in case you've forgotten :D )
    Georg thinks that the world = Germany, which is in Europe, in case you've forgotten. :D And we are based in Canada, so its not like there is any US fixation during this whole process. :shake: If this initial offering is a success, I am more than willing to find and off-line solution for the rest of our customers that do not have an existing, reliable, or inexpensive internet connection on their main gaming computer.

    Perhaps you only have to authenticate when the "unpacking module" loading screen come on - and this only happens when going into a new module or loading up a save.
    That is exactly how it works.

    OS statistics?
    Will Bioware be collecting statistics for what OS people claim they will primarily play the modules on?
    Not in any real way. If you mean at time of sale, we will be guessing that if you download the .exe, that you are a Windows user, and if you are downloading the .zip that you are most likely a Mac/Linux user.

    I imagine this is something for the lawyers to decide and we'll find out more about it when the store launches and the Privacy Policy is made available. I expect (and don't quote me on this) that they will track OS statistics, obviously not linking it to accounts, and will keep the data internally.
    Don't know what lawyers and privacy have to do with something like this. Now understand that I am referring to the initial question of OS at time of sale that was implied above.

    I am not in the know here by any means but I bet they have a pretty good idea about this from patch updates. I would bet each OS downloads a different patch version and I bet they keep track of what and how often patches are downloaded from their site.
    Correct, as the Windows, Mac, and Linux files are all different and separate, so we know the percentages of each per patch.

    Well, I was talking about collecting information at sale-time...
    OK, that will teach me to read the whole thread before responding...

    do you have access to Mac, Linux, and Windows Downloads for these modules?
    Yes, since there is an .exe version for Windows and a .zip version that works on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

    I think the poster is saying what about people who have multiple copies of NWN? For example: 2 brothers who have different NWN modules so it's possible to play multi-player. Do they both have to buy their own copies?
    In this example, yes, as it is exactly like purchasing an expansion pack, where you need a legal valid copy for each computer.

    BioWare can simply check their web logs if they really cared, and I doubt if that is on Derek's list of things to do.
    Actually, I have been banned from ever touching the web logs again, after I broke them last time...

    how does live connection work?
    What does the live connection check for to verify you have obtained the module legally?
    You original Neverwinter Nights CD Key, which you used to purchase the Premium Module.

    Quote: Is it a log in procedure,
    No.

    Quote: or is it checking something like IP address? I'm hoping it isn't IP addresses, because I'd hate to pay for a module and then lose it when I leave school and my IP changes. Also, some people have dynamic IPs.
    The system has nothing to do with IP addresses.

    Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager

    Nathrock's Unofficial FAQ
    Dan Whiteside thought this needed more visibility and I agree. My big thanks to Nathrock for putting this together:


    Nathrock's Unofficial Premium Content FAQ


    Will there be any security measures to ensure that content cannot be pirated?
    Yes, there will be security measures in place to prevent pirating. The module being tied to your CD-Key and a required Live Connection.

    Will we be allowed to open the modules up in the toolset?
    No, the security measures in place prevent the module from being opened in the toolset. However we may showcase scripts and other content on Bioware Wednesday.

    What is the price range for the premium content?
    The price range will range between $4.99 USD and $7.99 USD.

    If for some reason I lose the module on my hard drive, can I download it again?
    Yes, you can log into you Bioware Community Account and download it.

    What forms of payments does the store.bioware.com accept?
    At this point we accept Visa and Master Card, but we are providing a mechanism whereby someone can purchase a module and send it along as a gift to someone else. Other forms are being considered.

    Will Mac users be supported?
    Yes, Mac users have been tested and will work.

    What is the anticipated release date on Premium Content?
    It will depend on how long it takes to development the content.

    What is the difference between the Lite and Full versions of KingMaker?
    The lite version was created to provide a smaller content download.

    Rob Bartel: “Kingmaker Lite is intended for those with low bandwidth or those who are uncomfortable with the $7.99 price point we've established for the full version of Kingmaker. Here's the breakdown of what's been removed with the aim of reducing the filesize (please recognize that these may change slightly prior to release):

    Kingmaker has 500+ lines of custom VO including voicesets for the four henchmen. Kingmaker Lite has no custom VO and no henchmen voice sets.

    Kingmaker has 4 custom load screens. Kingmaker Lite has only 1.

    Kingmaker makes use of the Stormy Skies skybox (that we were unfortunately unable to cram into 1.64 but will try to include in 1.65). In Kingmaker Lite, any areas using that skybox will show blank fog instead.

    Kingmaker includes a custom credits movie that plays when you complete the module. Kingmaker Lite places the credits into a *.txt file in your docs folder instead.after the module starts...

    What is the rating of the content?
    The content has not received an official rating yet.

    How do I get content published as Premium Content?
    Please, don't spam BioWare with your latest work. The best way to get your content noticed is by forming a solid reputation and fan base by building modules in the community such as getting your modules in the Hall of Fame.

    Will the modules only be in English?
    Yes, the modules will be in English-only, for the time being as the costs and logistics of translation appear to be prohibitive. If the modules are successful in English, we may consider localizing these or other BioWare Premium Modules in the future.

    Will custom content be included?
    Any modifications done will use a HakPak and will not interfere with any other user modifications like CEP unless you are modifying things in the override folder.

    What does ‘Live Connection' mean?
    You will be required to have a connection to the Internet upon staring a new or loading a save game from one of the Premium Content Modules. You will be able to disconnect from the Inter

    Will I be able to play the modules behind a firewall?
    If you cannot play Neverwinter Nights multiplayer, you can't play the Premium Content Mods.

    The modules listed are fairly low-level. Will new modules have a higher level adventures?
    BioWare is aware of the desire to see higher level modules and hopes to have content in the store tailored to what fans want.

    Now, here's a thought...
    Good points. Ultimately it will be in the hands of the consumer to decide what they want to do. All we are offering is a choice and, hopefully, a tangible way to continue to support this thriving community.

    story background
    We have more details on each of the modules in the coming weeks but I can say that the worlds the modules are set in are new. If you have played through Witch's Wake you will understand what I mean by 'new world'.

    27 Oct 2004 - All-New Adventures For Neverwinter Nights!
    Eventually we hope to include some of the new monsters, scripting, placeable and so on in the premium modules. :)

    Rob Bartel, Senior Designer Live Team

    Neverwinter Nights: ShadowGuard
    Atleast now we know why altaris didn't continue the lone wolf series, he's been working for bioware. Hmmm. I noticed it does say VOs on the Witches wake page, but Shadowguard won't feature Voice-overs then? That would be a shame. I assume the customization of the PC is limited as you have to be this child of Orakis person?
    There is some VO in ShadowGuard but not as much as for Kingmaker and Witch's Wake. This is largely due to the fact the text in the latter two was locked down and stable quite early, while Ben, Keith, and I were still making revisions to the ShadowGuard dialog and storyline as late as a month or two ago. As for PC customization in ShadowGuard, you can still choose any race, class, gender, or name; the story will adapt accordingly. It is a coming of age story, however, so it may feel a bit strange if you play as an old geezer.

    Two Cents for what it is worth
    It's always a difficult decision to make and I respect both schools of thought on the matter. I really like xitooner's suggestion of tying it to difficulty settings in some way and I'll strongly consider approaching it in that fashion in the future. The one problem I foresee with it, however, is that the stripping often occurs at the very start of the module, before the player has had a chance to adjust their difficulty setting for this particular game. For games where the item stripping occurs a little deeper into the module, it's a lot easier to manage. A good discussion

    Disgusting Idea.
    This idea is just not cost effective, or money well spent IMO.

    I don't relish the idea of my single player games contacting the internet and sending/receiving info in order to verify things. Most people call that, SPYWARE!

    No one needs to when I'm playing a single player game, PERIOD!
    Uh, for the record, the information being sent is the same as what we've always sent when you play multiplayer. It's a simple CDkey lookup with our master server to verify that you are a legitimate owner of the module/game/etc. It's a pretty standard, minimally invasive strategy used throughout the multiplayer games industry. Spyware/Malware/Adware is an entirely different and more invasive beast. I should know - I've just spent the last two evenings trying to remove one off of my home computer (I think I've finally managed to vaporize it. Grrrr).

    PS - Now, Rich, I've been following your various posts since we first announced our Premium Modules initiative and it's clear that you're making a very deliberate and desperate effort to spread misinformation about what we're doing and why we're doing it. If you have legitimate concerns, please raise them and we'll do our best to listen to and address them. Your current theatrics aren't of much constructive use or value to anyone, especially those who actually do have legitimate issues they wish to raise. Thanks.

    More:
    I've sent my private message with questions. They haven't been answered in more than 48 hours when you or someone else decided to ban me from posting here because of my "theatrics".
    Is it misinformation to question someone who is trying to find out when and where I'm playing a singleplayer game? Is it theatrics? I don't think so, and I'm sure quite a few here agree.
    I've answered all private messages I've received and no, none of them have been from you.

    As for us "trying to find out when and where" you're playing our premium module, the master server probably does datestamp incoming authorization requests. I don't think we really care if you're playing from Timbuktu or your grandma's bathroom, however.

    And yes, suggesting that a run-of-the-mill authorization check with the master server (that has already been pre-existent in NWN multiplayer for 2.5 years and is a de facto standard throughout much of the industry) is somehow spyware is both 'theatrics,' 'misinformation,' and 'disingeneous' besides.

    I don't know the details of why you might have been temporarily banned from these forums but I suspect it had something to do with your previous attempts to encourage others to pirate these modules. Welcome back but, please, if you want to be a constructive part of this community, it behooves you to act accordingly. I'm locking this thread. All contributors are welcome to continue this discussion in a new one.

    Requirements (SoU)
    Yes, Witch's Wake is using the Winter Rural tileset that is only available in SoU so that was the major deciding factor for me. I think ShadowGuard was using some SoU voicesets or something. I don't remember off the top of my head.

    Live Connection Idea, Boo...hiss!
    Does anyone believe that most Bioware customers will slide towards free rather than some other fair price? If so why? And human nature is a lame answer and doesn't explain then people who pay who could get it for free (and we know this happens everyday).
    One of the main psychological factors we face is the longstanding (and wonderful) NWN tradition where community-created module files (even a handful of BioWare-created modules) are available for free and fluidly exchanged. This is the default behavior within the community and, in that context, it is perfectly noble. If Premium Modules relied wholly on the honor system, however, the result would largely be one of confusion. A large portion of our potential customer base would 'pirate' the modules without even realizing it or being aware that this is in any way counter-productive or negative. In essence, we'd be criminalizing a large number of perfectly honest community members and that would be a far worse nightmare in my mind. This very harsh, potentially heavy-handed distinction that we've made between premium and non-premium modules will at least break through that initial awareness barrier and potentially allow us to find less intrusive security measures in the future.

    Now I'm not saying that the above was our sole reasoning for going with our current security measures but it is a part of the equation that I think has been largely overlooked so far.

    New Models/Tilesets???
    Note, as well, that our initial offering of these three modules is just a small, experimental step into the field of digital distribution. They each have custom portraits and custom music. Kingmaker has some custom voicesets for the henchmen that may be reusable in some fashion. If these first three modules prove successful, that opens the door to some of the bigger-ticket items like creatures, tilesets, etc, in our upcoming titles.

    Tom Ohle, Public Relations

    NWVault or Review Guild early reviews?
    Well, Maximus over at NWVault has the modules but he won't be discussing his experiences for a bit... keep watching his site for his impressions. We'll also be getting the content out to other sites.

    Georg Zoeller, Designer

    x2_inc_toollib
    I created that file, mainly for some new spell VFX in Hordes of the Underdark. I think Holy Sword uses such a pillar effect.

    Chat Colors
    Yepp, you can set the chatcolors in nwnplayer.ini I think (or was it nwn.ini ... not sure).

    Great idea but just a tad TOO expensive
    EP! Bioware wants to know when your playing your single player games. Who knows what other information they might be collecting, posting. I care to venture they might be putting adware with these soon, especially when people don't buy them. They are trying to make a buck afterall, and spyware/adware is the most proven way to accomplish this. They may say no, but contact the P2P networks and they'll deny including Spyware too. BAD! BAD!
    Spyware would imply a component of stealth. We tell you beforehand that you need to have an active internet connection when you start these modules because that is our copy protection. The game is performing the same procedure as it always does you enter multiplayer already. It's doing the same thing games have been doing ever since Quake was released, an online cdkey verification. Rich, I get the impression that you are just here to troll rather than to engage in any discussion. Stop it now.

    More:
    so what it has new music and voice overs anyone with a computer microphone or a keyboard or mixing program can add new music and sound it is not that hard. and anyone who is familier with scripting or has a program that can generate scripts for them can easily make a module like these upcoming.
    Well, that's more cats and glass plates than I can bear. If this was the case, all modules on the Vault had full VO and music. If this was the case, Rob would be the person doing all the VO for our games and we could spare the $$$ going into VO for all projects. I mean, who needs Actors these days anyway, right?

    If this was the case, why would you need professional game development stuidos, because cleary, any amateur could do their work just as good. I gather you never tried creating your module yourself, because anyone even remotely adebt with creating a module knows that this assessment is complete bull***. Why is it that on the internet people feel so inclined to comment on things even if they have an embarrassing lack of knowledge or information about them? Feel free to ask those people who created the top rated modules for NWN how much time they spent on it. Talk to Adam Miller, Stefan Gagne, Lisa, Beerfish, and all the others about how many month it takes to create a good module. Talk to Dave about how much time he spent composing the music for these modules. Talk to the DLA or CODI team how much work creating mods for games these days is. whatever you do, please inform yourself ... then post.

    More:
    You do make one point which I belive is valid. If what appeals to you is not simply voice/story/music but new 3d game content and class features as well, you are perfectly entitled to that point of view.
    If expressed correctly, the answer would have been "we are aware people would like to see these things... we'll see". If expressed in an offending manner, the answer is spanking from angry designers - after all, it's slightly offending when someone tells you "anyone could do your job" :)

    OS statistics?
    Can we assume these individual modules will allow us the same freedom as those expansion packs?
    You can assume anything you want. But educated people take the way of sighting the available information that is openly available on these forums instead of making assumptions. If you had done that, you would have seen the answer to that question. Actually, since I think you actually did read this information (after all, you commented on it in other threads) and posted this anyway, I think you are trolling again.

    Live Connection Idea, Boo...hiss!
    So because some jerk wants to steal the module I have to suffer?
    Hey, ... a small correction - you don't *have to* suffer, through I know what you mean. Our offer is "premium nwn modules" and I think we have been very open about the copy protection they feature. That's the bundle we put into our store - it is up to you whether that bundle is attractive for you or not. In a way, it's not much different from "I really would like to buy this movie, but I don't like the part where the hero dies, can I get a different version?". I know that comparison is kind of broken (at least we tell you about the hero before you see the movie), but I think it serves to bring across the message - it's a bundle and you need to evaluate for yourself if that feature makes or breaks it for you, as we are not selling a version without it. We know that it's going to be "break" for some people, it's not that these decisions are done lightly. I hope this clarifies that a bit.

    Dan Whiteside - Designer

    Two Cents for what it is worth
    Granamere, I understand your feeling and when I designed Kingmaker I really struggled with whether it should be done. In the end we did it, not to hurt the player, but because it made sense to the story. With what happens right at the start of the game, it just worked better. I would suggest that since this is a new world entirely, creating a new character is the best choice for playing. Sorry to hear that you don't intend to play. We look for constructive feedback from fans, particularly those whose opinions we respect.

    More: Don't worry about leveling up a new character for Kingmaker, you don't need to.

    Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker
    The plot is optimized for a party system. You can still fire henchmen or what-have-you, but you will miss out on items, clues and plots. Still, I did leave it open for your choice.

    Requirements (SoU)
    Kevin is completely right. I wanted to have multiple interesting henchmen who could banter with each other in my mod, so it has to have the Hordes scripts that make it possible. I didn't really need very much from SoU, so we decided to make it easier by not using anything from it.

    Owen Borstad - Programmer

    Premium Modules
    Yes you buy them online, yes they work for mac and linux.

    CDs, content, demos, English, FAQ, PR, web page
    There currently is an issue with IE and mac and the store site. We're looking into that and hope to have it resolved. In other news: Safari seems to have no trouble, Mac and Linux guys won't be left out of the Premium fun, and my skin colour only changes when there's "sun" outside and I spend time in said "sun". For further crazy mac ramblings, visit me in teh mac forums.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 3, 2018
    chevalier, Oct 29, 2004
    #1
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