NWN2 - First Adventure Pack Mod Details @ NWVault

[magerette]

NWN2 Vault (http://nwvault.ign.com/fullstory.php?id=34250) has posted news of Atari Europe's announcement of a new 15 hour module for NWN2 from Ossian Studios (http://www.ossianstudios.com/) (Darkness over Daggerford)called Mysteries of Westgate:
Neverwinter Nights 2.FR have reported that Atari Europe have announced the imminent launch of their Neverwinter Nights 2 Adventure pack! This adventure pack will be available exclusively via digital download -so we're talking bigger in every way than Premium Modules folks! The first Adventure Pack is developed by Ossian Studios and titled "Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate" and offers 15 hours of gameplay set in the Forgotten Realms city of Westgate. With an all new storyline, professional voice acting, musical scores and new in game content, this sounds like it is going to be a smashing NWN2 adventure!

You can read the full press release here (http://www.neverwinternights2.fr/modules/news/article.php?storyid=343) (in English--just scroll down) at the French Neverwinter Nights fansite, Neverwinter Nights 2.FR.
Thanks, Lucky Day!
More information. (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=6858)

[Dhruin]

Noone interested in this? Seems pretty exciting to me, depending on the details. Ossian is a welcome developer.

[KazikluBey]

I need a little bit more than just a press release to get excited since I haven't played Darkness over Daggerford and therefore have no idea what can be expected in terms of RPGoodness.

[Dhruin]

Sure. What about the simple idea of resurrecting the equivalent of Premium Modules?

[mdev]

As long as the quality is higher than the first 3 premium modules, sure.

(It probably will be...but I'll be wary after wasting that money)

[Lucky Day]

Was Darkness over Daggerford one of the NWN1 premium mods that was cancelled by Atari? I don't remember. It was mod of the year for 2006.

Ossian studios is run by Alan Miranda and Elizabeth Starr http://www.ossianstudios.com/pages/about.html. Miranda is an ex-Bioware employee and former producer of BG2: Throne of Ball and co-producer of NWN1.

The Adventure PAck looks to actually be a game and not a mod enhancement.

This is Atari's first foray into Premium Mods for NWN2 and follows up on the controversy of them cancelling the last of the PM's for NWN1. Some groups, and I believe Bioware and the DLA team are among them, have decided not to produce anything for Atari after that incident. I believe Bioware had two PM's on the drawing board.

[Fenris]

I played the Darkness over Daggerford Module and it was fun - as a free download. The Mod was a lot like BG 1 - a overland Map, much to explore, and some quests were fun (the cow stealing Goblins) and IMO some pretty though puzzles (the wizards tower) but IMO there are a lot community-mods that are better, I guess I wouldn't have paid for it.

The Adventure Pack looks to me like a new (and probably short) campaign. I will wait for the reviews and probably some story-spoilers before I decide to buy it or not.

[doctor_kaz]

Sweet! Darkness over Daggerford was one of the best mods that I have ever played for any game and it would have been worth paying $15 for. The only thing I wish it had was more NPC's that can join you. I was hoping that there would be some good downloadable adventures released for NWN2.

[txa1265]

I absolutely loved Daggerford and am excited for this!

[Lucky Day]

Yeah, I confirmed Darkness over Daggerford was supposed to be a Premium Mod but faced the wave of cancellation.

I give kudos to the Ossian gang for keeping their head above the water and getting this mod done in face of the backlash against Atari.

Here's a terrific interview with the team:

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Interviews.Detail&id=256

Looks like Alex "Hugie" Hugon was a member.

DoD was the mod that added the Overland Map to NWN. That was quite an accomplishment.

[JDR13]

I'm confused, is this a free module?

[Dhruin]

"....will be made available for purchase and download directly from Atari."

Nope, not free.

[Cm]

If they price it like the other premium mods they offered I may have to wait a long while before getting it. (I got a bargain bin copy of NWN 1 with the premium mods included for $10 bucks so I didn't mind.)

However if player mods don't start showing up more readily For NWN2 I may have to pay for it. lol The original mod was good, and I would like to see how they manage it for NWN2.

[doctor_kaz]

I would probably pay $15 for this, but probably not more than that.

What didn't you like about the pricing on the old premium content? I thought it was pretty good. Kingmaker was something like $8 and I thought that was an excellent deal for the 10+ hours of content that it had (if you did all of the quests that you could). I guess that my standards are a bit low from looking at the pricing model used by companies like Bethesda ($2 for horse armor) and Valve ($20 for a three-hour chapter).

[Ionstormsucks]

Have to agree with doctor_kaz here. One can certainly discuss the quality of the content, but the pricing was ok. Other companies are asking much more for less. I guess as long as they remain in the 10-15$ price range it's a rather nice offer.

[Cm]

The pricing was not really the issue for me on those as much as the fact that there were so many free mods out to pick from at the time. I just figured I should take free over paying. lol I have gotten them since then. And as I said I may have to buy the new mod due to the shortage in player made ones. ;)

[doctor_kaz]

There are a lot of free ones, but the premium mods are better than almost all of them except for maybe one or two. Especially Kingmaker. It was really good. The really good free stuff (i.e. the stuff worth playing) took a long time to come out.

[Lord Alex]

I saw a beta version of this and can say that the quality level (and associated music, art, and writing assets) are worthy of your gaming dollar. I can't say much more, due to NDA, but the team for this project included some of the brightest stars from the NWN1 modding community.

[Avantenor]

I hope Atari offers a solution for german customers to get this module even without having a credit card. Credit cards are not that common in Germany and so this would be a problem especially for the younger gamers to purchase the game. And of course it would be nice to get a translation.

[doctor_kaz]

Has a priced or a release date been announced for this module yet?