Irony: Canceled Premium Modules

[Legacy_haildodge]

               I noticed Bioware opted not to recreate the NWN Premium Modules forums here at social.bioware.com. As we know, Atari apparently compelled Bioware to stop selling the modules and even asked Bioware to deny re-download privileges of those modules to existing license owners.

Several premium modules were canceled during development. The authors of those modules went on to publish their work for free on the vault: Tyrants of the Moonsea, Darkness over Daggerford, and the Hex Coda (actually canceled earlier than the other two, when Wizards of the Coast mandated that all future premium modules be published in the Forgotten Realms setting).

These free premium modules, which in the opinion of many (myself included) are just as high quality as the official premium modules, have actually outlived their official counterparts. For many authors, I assume the reward of recognition and the fact players will continue to enjoy their work matters more in the long term than a few $. The irony is that free premium modules will continue to receive praise and players while the official premium modules will disappear. Was being canceled in the premium modules program a blessing in disguise?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par haildodge, 17 juillet 2010 - 07:13 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               WCoC made it to premium module and their content made it into the official 1.69 patch.  Content from the other released premium modules also made it into the 1.69 patch.  The DLA team have spread out but they have jobs as a result of their work.  I don't know about the other premium modules.



I don't think any of them will agree that having their modules cancelled was a good thing, having an officially recognized module is a lot of prestige and recognition.  Has their work as a result of their modules being cancelled benefitted the custom content community?  Most definately.  I think at the end of the day though, most creators would like to see their work to be so highly regarded as to be good enough for official releases.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_olivier leroux]

               Interesting thread. I didn't even know Hex Coda should have been a Premium mod. It's definitely a blessing for the NWN community that we still have access to the canceled Premium mods while the other ones were taken off the market and offline.

With regards to the authors, Calvinthesneak is probably right, even though my personal opinion is that DoD and Hex Coda were top-notch and a lot more satisfying to play than the two official Premium mods I know (that weren't bad but shorter and felt more like demos). So I think it's not about being not good enough for official release but more a matter of being in line with certain rules, licenses and commercial expectations - or not.

What makes me sad is thinking about that one project that never evolved into neither Premium mod for Atari nor cancelled Premium mod for the community - with the latter being the more probable fate, had the CODI team even signed the contract with BioWare (because it was not Forgotten Realms). I don't know if it's true but I heard they split and abandoned their common Planescape project also because of that Premium mod offer and its decline by team members or withdrawal by BioWare, I'm not sure what exactly was the case. At any rate, a real shame (for the community).
               
               

               

                     Modifié par olivier leroux, 17 juillet 2010 - 07:59 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_dunniteowl]

               I am not sure where that stuff is, but Papermonk and another Community member did, at one time release all that to the Community to use 'at will.'  I don't think it's on the Vault anymore, though I might be able to track it down.  The Rogue Dao Studios folks got hold of me at the Citadel way back when (they thought Papermonk was still hanging out there at the time) and asked if they could borrow and transfer the assets into NWN2.  If anyone in the NWN side of things is interested in resurrecting CODI or any other Planescape modules, I'd be happy to do my best to help track that stuff down.



dunniteowl
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_haildodge]

               Calvinthesneak makes a good point that much of the custom content developed for premium modules was rolled into 1.67/1.68/1.69 patches. So in that sense the work lives on.

Rob Bartel offered some comments on the financial viability of the NWN premium modules program in this thread.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par haildodge, 17 juillet 2010 - 08:08 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_ChaosInTwilight]

               http://nwvault.ign.c....detail&id=6800

http://nwvault.ign.c....Detail&id=6222



Those at least I can come up with links to.  Not sure if that's all or not.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_olivier leroux]

               

dunniteowl wrote...
I am not sure where that stuff is, but Papermonk and another Community member did, at one time release all that to the Community to use 'at will.'

ChaosInTwilight wrote...
http://nwvault.ign.c....detail&id=6800
http://nwvault.ign.c....Detail&id=6222
Those
at least I can come up with links to.  Not sure if that's all or
not.

Yes, I'm aware of those. Btw, they're not only available as haks on the Vault but are all part of CEP, ASFAIK, and CEP2.3 even includes the Sigil tiles with fixed walkmeshes in a versatile CEP city tileset.
(Thank you, CEP team! You rule! )

Of course, it's a another blessing that we have access to the finished CODI material. But there was even more in the works and I for one would have loved a Planescape Premium mod, for sale or for free.

To give you an impression of what we missed take a look at this unfinished and never released CODI Blood War Battlefield tileset created for the cancelled Premium mod "Survivor", on Schazzwozzer's old website.

And also at this and this and maybe also this (not sure if the Grell model was released or not, I haven't seen it anywhere yet). I fear all of it is lost to us (and maybe even to the creators).
               
               

               

                     Modifié par olivier leroux, 18 juillet 2010 - 12:01 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_olivier leroux]

               

dunniteowl wrote...
If anyone in the NWN side of things is
interested in resurrecting CODI or any other Planescape modules, I'd be
happy to do my best to help track that stuff down.

I'm no CC creator but I'm definitely interested in playing or building Planescape modules. So if you can do anything for the NWN Planescape fans and track down some stuff that's unreleased or under the radar or contact one of the old CODI members for more trivia, that would always be appreciated.
'>

It's not my intention to derail the thread but in this regard I recently discovered some new and yet unreleased Planescape CC created by one Phoenix who's building a Polish multiplayer mod or PW server based on PS:Torment with ProjectQ and the CODI content. Unfortunately I don't speak Polish and he's currently just hosting the mod for himself and his friends but he said he would eventually upload some models he built to the Vault, if requested, once he's finished work on his mod. Yay!

For anyone interested:
The Harmonium...
... wants you!
Dak'kon
Anna in her natural environment
Morte and The Nameless One (?) try to decipher the speech of a dabus
The Mortuary
A portal on the Lower Planes (using Lord of Worms' Scorched Earth tileset, I believe)
A portal on the Astral Plane (using Timdalo's GHI Aethyr tileset)
A video tour through the Hive

He even tried his hands at a bariaur model based on my suggestions on the ProjectQ forums to merge the satyr model with an animal body.

Here's a link to Phoenix' forum Inthecage.pl for anyone lucky enough to understand Polish.
'>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par olivier leroux, 17 juillet 2010 - 11:06 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Jez_fr]

               A Planescape thread would be welcome. I'd be glad to make some CC for that. Maybe an open project could bring something? Since you started it Olivier, you're appointed Planescape thread maintainer
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Jez_fr, 18 juillet 2010 - 07:55 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_olivier leroux]

               

Jez_fr wrote...

A Planescape thread would be welcome. I'd be glad to make some CC for that. Maybe an open project could bring something? Since you started it Olivier, you're appointed Planescape thread maintainer

If the outcome is more Planescape content I'd gladly be your appointed Planescape thread maintainer. '>

Should I copy these posts over to the CC forum?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par olivier leroux, 18 juillet 2010 - 08:22 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Jez_fr]

               why yes, it'll be definetely better than here where its totally out of subject '>



               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Sharona Curves]

               Has Infinite Dungeons ever been released on Disc?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_QNecron]

                What gets me is www.crsponseller.com/kraken.html seems almost done, then there is the bearded devil thats modeled but doesn't have animations (on the same site). If only there was someone with those files and finish them up for the community.

I tried emailing the author sometime ago about more information on his examples to see if there was a way of getting ahold of them, even if that meant me paying for them so I could release them to the community via the Vault and hope someone would put the finishing touches on the models.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Estelindis]

               Oh crsponseller.com...  How you taunt me with your gorgeous but forever-inaccessible custom content.  (It seems that anything developed for a cancelled premium module is covered with so many legal non-disclosure issues that the makers of that content simply aren't allowed to release it in any form - they're not even allowed to pass over unfinished content for others to finish and release it.  What a waste of all their effort!  Though, of course, if they enjoyed making it and improved their skills, it's far from a total waste.)
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Estelindis, 19 juillet 2010 - 04:09 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_olivier leroux]

               From what I heard, CODI didn't sign any contract yet, so I believe in this case the problem are not legal issues but that the CODI members have moved on and are out of reach, and it may also be that they lost some of the content themselves...
               
               

               

                     Modifié par olivier leroux, 19 juillet 2010 - 04:38 .