Post
by One Two Three Five » Fri Nov 24, 2017 8:03 am
Notable beamdog staff includes Trent Oster (NWN Producer, bioware founder), David Gaider (Hordes of the Underdark- responsible for Deekin and Valen Shadowbreath, also has credits for the rest of NWN/expansions), Cameron Tofer (Baldur's Gate 2: Shadow of Amn programmer).
Idunno, it's as indefensible as releasing an expansion pack back in the day.
Alright, how's this: Those names up there? They were last notable to the NWN community back when 1.69 came out. The thing with 1.69 was that it was mildly rushed, and PDK specifically shipped kind of broken. But it added: PDK, many of the newer-looking tilesets, music, creatures, placeables, doors, VFXs, those gem swords certain WMs keep using, tabards, various fixes, windows Vista combatibility, several toolset/scripting improvements, so on. So forth.
And do you know what happened? There was a series of arguments in the IRC (and some on the forum if I remember?) and in MSN chats about whether or not to update Arelith. Imagine that. Arelith without tabards. With old epic dodge. No trenchcoats. Missing scripting functions. No windows vista compatibility stuff. That last one? Would've sank the entire NWN community in a couple years. Probably 1.69 and some of the improvements/modernizations in that one last patch is the only reason the game limps along on modern systems.
So why are the old coders of NWN notable for 1.69? They had lost the license already. This was the first rumble of the plug getting pulled. Gamespy support dropped not too long after, in the grand scheme, and Bioware's own NWN forums went dark after the crew that would become Beamdog left. But the fact was, with little legal allowance to touch NWN anymore, they dropped one big final goodbye patch for the NWN community before they went. Idunno. Dumb, sappy, whatever. I just don't think it's a cash grab. There's easier ways to grab gamer cash. NWN holdouts are nowhere near as profitable as MMO Whales, for instance. There's MMO players that drop thousands of dollars on cash shop garbage. Often. Hell, Battle Royale games are heating up- or they could've jumped on the Survival Gankbox Semi-MMO trend, right?
I'm not trying to convince anyone, but- saying it's a bunch of randos who stole someone else's game to make a quick buck is being deliberately obtuse at this point.
For my other point: After a little waffling that I remember, and some arguments and trepidation-tinged-excitement, Arelith switched to 1.69. Some people wailed that they wouldn't do it, or couldn't, or whatever, and I could swear I still see them logging in from time to time. In short order, with the server patched and the playerbase grumbling but quieted down with new toys, .69 (nice) became an integral part of Arelith. It would be unimaginable to revert at this point. It was unimaginable to revert five minutes it. It was better. It was good. I fully believe after the upgrade we'll see the same thing. Some grumbling, so low murmurs, and then nothing six months in as the controversy becomes the day-to-day of server visitation for everyone.
Edit: All that said, I'm not trying to sell anyone on anything. If you don't want it, don't get it. You want it, do your own thing. Arelith FL will be there, and Arelith Classic (tm) is around for at least a while in .69. I'm just getting a little 'ehhh' about the whole back and forth. It's like the hak thing. Happening either way, so both sides are screaming into the wind. I've liked what I've seen and damn but it'd be cool to have an informational thread/discussion about something without shill/cash grab accusations.
The devil does not need any more advocates
Clerics are just socially acceptable warlocks.