Sir Elric's Blog

MoW's DRM activation limit is removed!

2009-06-16T20:56:00.000+08:00

Ossian Studios is pleased to announce that there is no longer a 3-activation limit on NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate. The activation limit has been removed by Atari after Ossian highlighted to them how many fans were not happy with it. You can now install MoW as many times as you like on your computer. Here are some quick facts about this change:

Q: Do I still need to activate MoW to play?
A: Yes. The DRM activation limit has been removed but you still need to activate MoW online for each new installation on your computer. After the one-time activation for each installation, you don’t need an Internet connection to play. Activation is necessary to prevent serial numbers from being posted to the web where hundreds or thousands of people can access it.

Q: So, I don’t have to worry about changing my hardware and not being able to re-activate MoW?
A: No. You can change the hardware configuration or operating system on your computer as often as you like and can re-activate MoW as many times as you like.

Q: Is it okay if I install the game on more than one of my computers?
A: Yes, that’s fine.

Q: Are the MoW resources still encrypted?
A: Yes, the MoW resource files are still encrypted. However, we have provided most of this content for free from the Mysteries of Westgate page on the NWVault

Mysteries of Westgate has been released!

2009-04-29T17:54:00.004+08:00

Well the day has come; Mysteries of Westgate has finally been released! At long last the fans will get to play our game.

I am personally elated that the fans can finally get their hands on a copy of MoW and to get some feedback on what they think of it. I am sure it will be all good due to the talent of the writers on the Ossian team in creating such an engrossing story.

Ossian Studios has a new website please drop by, sign up and join in the chat at the forums.

Mysteries of Westgate is available for purchase and download from several digital distributors, including the following:

Atari US for purchasing the game in North America.

DLgamer for purchasing the game in the rest of the world including Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa, and South America.

Mysteries of Westgate Latest News

2009-04-18T11:07:00.003+08:00

Well it is finally here. Atari US PR have told us (Ossian) that the official Atari press release will be going out the day MoW is released which is April 29th, and yes that's 2009 :-).

All I can say is it's a relief and I hope that short of an apocalypse the game is released on the 29th as we have been told.

SE

Mysteries of Westgate News

2009-02-11T20:00:00.004+09:00

Well after a long silence about the release of Mysteries of Westgate I have had official word that Mysteries of Westgate will be released soon.

Sorry I can't say the actual date but I have been told by the powers that be not to, needless to say soon really means soon. There will be an official Atari announcement in the near future. MoW will be compatible with both the previous expansions.

So after long wait it's finally here... huzzah! I can't wait for fans to get ther hands on MoW as I know that they will be blown away by it. I will post again when I have been cleared to give the actual release date till then happy gaming.

2008-12-16T00:02:00.005+09:00

It has been a long time since I have posted, since then I have become a father for the second time, huzzah! Another daughter, Lily, is now 10 weeks old. Olivia, my first daughter, is now 2 & 1/2 and close to DM'ing on my NWN1 PW so players beware as she likes dragons bwahaha.

I have been sent an invitation to beta test on "Dragon Age" a soon to be released game from Bioware so that should keep me busy until I kick off with some more stuff for NWN2 with Ossian Studios.

As far as any new news on the NWN2 premium module, "Mysteries of Westgate", we at Ossian finished sometime ago all I can say at the moment, due to an NDA, is it will be released really soon.

Neverwinter Nights

2008-07-13T08:46:00.011+08:00

Well the NWN1 1.69 patch has finally been released. It's the first time I have even looked at it. There are lots of new tilesets, creatures models, music and scripting functions to play with. I have already updated City of Melnibone to 1.69, not without a few headaches due to NWNX and some dlls that didn't want to play the game. Since then the server has been running well. So this means all players must update to 1.69 to be able to play. Also anyone that is using my optional music addon must delete the ambientmusic.2da from their override folder due to the new music added in the patch. I will be adding a new music addon in the future.

I will be adding some more ram to the server soon as one of the players has kindly offered some and it's in the mail. This will double the ram on the server which should make a noteable difference in game play during peak times.

I am yet to add any real 1.69 content and will do so in the coming weeks ahead. Firstly some sort of horse travelling system, new areas with the new tilesets and of course make use of some of the new creature models, watch out for them snakes!

As far as NWN2 and Mysteries of Westgate still no release date to report.

Speaking of NWN2 check this out. Some more nice work from Barry the Hatchet check out his releases on the nwvault.

2008-06-07T23:37:00.001+08:00

Latest news regarding the release, or lack there of, for MoW;

keehwan_her
Atari Producer

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

2008-05-13T00:09:00.004+08:00

On May 8th Ossian Studios and Atari gave a press preview in Los Angeles for the soon to be released Mysteries of Westgate, the first Adventure Pack being released for Neverwinter Nights 2.

Here are some of the previews from various people that attended:

IGN.com

thieves-guild.net

warcry.com

just-rpg.com

2008-05-08T00:41:00.001+08:00

The official Atari link for Mysteries of Westgate

2008-05-02T13:36:00.005+08:00

There are some nice screenshots of the new sewer tileset we used in Mysteries of Westgate, created by Brian Dunn, 3d Artist on Mysteries of Westgate. Here are a few of them. Be sure to check out the others, there are 19 of them all up.

Epic Status

2008-04-14T23:24:00.005+08:00

Well it seems someone will finally reach the heady heights of level 32 soon on City of Melnibone, after 5yrs online. To date the highest level ever reached on Melnibone is 31st, which has been achieved by only a handful of dedicated players. The difficulty of Melnibone over the past year or so has been slightly toned down as far as xp/gp loss on death and the xp gained for kills and quests has been raised considerably. This has helped to allow players to level a little faster and see more of Melnibone sooner.

With every epic level comes an epic task that must be achieved before the character can continue with their training. I have just added the 31st & 32nd level epic quests and have started to add more epic areas and new epic foe to cope with the influx of up and coming epic characters and the old and grey epic characters who have done the hard slog back when Melnibone was at it's toughest.

2008-04-05T07:53:00.005+08:00

Mysteries of Westgate on page 88 of May 08 PC Gamer

RPG reviewer Desslock of PC Gamer describes his playthrough of Mysteries of Westgate.

Excerpt:

"So, there are new D&D adventures for
tabletop fans; a special treat for grognards
hoping to squeeze some more life out of
Temple of Elemental Evil’s engine; and a
top-notch new NWN2 module. Every D&D
player should find a worthwhile new adventure
to embark upon. But the real gem
is Westgate, and NWN2 is a franchise that
continues to improve, so hopefully we’ll
see some additional adventure packs."

RPG reviewer Desslock

Games for Windows has reviewed Mysteries of Westgate in their April/May issue and had some great things to say about it!

Excerpt:

"Mysteries of Westgate is as worthy of attention as Obsidian's great Mask of the Betrayer expansion from last year. It's no big surprise, as it was made by Ossian Studios (helmed by a former BioWare producer), who made the acclaimed Darkness Over Daggerford mod for NWN1 in 2006. Ossian delivers again with a great-looking and engaging 10-to-15-hour (depending on side quests) RPG that any D&D dork should feel right at home with. Well worth the $10 download."

Pick up an issue of May's PC Gamer to read the full article!

Mysteries of Westgate Intro Movie

The intro movie for Mysteries of Westgate has been released on IGN! At almost 2 minutes in length, the movie tells the background story of the cursed mask and introduces players to some of the sights of the city of Westgate, with its inviting clutches...

2008-03-29T21:13:00.006+09:00

Rob McGinnis from Obsidian sheds a little more light on Atari's new online authentication system and the upcoming 1.13 patch for NWN2
NWN2 Blog

In a nutshell we are none the wiser as to a release date but factoring in that we are waiting on 1.13, Atari's new online authentication system is as yet untested, we at Ossian will most likely have to tweak MoW after 1.13 is released and beta test, in my humble opinion I would think late April at the earliest, hopefully I'm wrong and it's sooner, only time will tell.

Friday's Joke

2008-03-28T12:47:00.001+09:00

Being a mad golfer myself I found this hilarious...

Verne was teeing off from the men's tee. On his downswing, he realized that his wife, Lucrecia, was teeing up on the woman's tee directly in front of him. Unable to stop his swing, he nailed it, and hit her directly in the temple, killing her instantly. A few days later, Verne got a call from the coroner regarding her autopsy.

Coroner:" Verne, your wife seemed to have died from blunt force trauma to the head. You said you hit a golf ball and hit her in the temple, is that correct?"

Verne: "Yes, sir, that's correct."

Coroner: "I also found a golf ball wedged up her arse."

Verne: "Was it a Titleist 3?"

Coroner: "Yes, it was."

Verne: "That was my provisional."

2008-03-28T08:25:00.002+09:00

Well the word is Mysteries of Westgate will be released when everything gets finalized by Atari with their new security system.

Keehwan Her
Atari Producer

Hi everyone,

My name is Keehwan Her and I am the Atari producer for Mysteries of Westgate (MoW) among other D&D products. Most of you know that the release of Mysteries of Westgate has been delayed because of ongoing development of a new security system. Near the end of MoW’s development last year, we realized that the traditional protection of the .exe file would not work with it so we scrambled to find a reliable commercial method that would do the job. At the time, there was no solution that met our requirements. That is why, since the end of 2007, Atari has been working hard to develop a new security system that can be used not just for MoW but for all Atari products that need protection for data files without using the traditional route of wrapping the .exe file. Unfortunately, developing this system has taken longer than we anticipated and MoW’s release has suffered as a result, because it is the first product that will use this new system.

Atari has been working closely with Obsidian and Ossian to try to integrate the new system with NWN2 and MoW specifically. Although we wanted the security modifications to go out with Update 1.12, it simply was not ready in time so we unfortunately had no choice but to push it into Update 1.13.

I realize that many of you are anxious to get your hands on Mysteries of Westgate, and I know from firsthand experience that it is a fantastic adventure. MoW has been ready to ship for a while now and we are close to finalizing the new security system that will ensure that it has its proper day in the sun. In the meantime, we are working hard to keep cool information about the game coming.

Thank you,

-Keehwan

When will this be? Your guess is as good as mine at this stage.

2008-03-22T09:51:00.001+09:00

Alan Miranda, CEO: There is no official release date that has been announced by Atari yet. The game itself has been finished for quite a while and Obsidian is continuing to work on integrating the code to make it available through the 1.13 patch (these changes unfortunately didn't make it in time for 1.12). We know the delay is frustrating, but we think the game will be well worth the wait, as was indicated in the recent Games for Windows review of MoW (April/May issue). It's also going to be included in the upcoming NWN2 Gold edition. Please hang in there... and stay tuned!

So unfortunately the bad news is now out that we have to wait for 1.13 until MoW can be released, the good news is 1.13 is rather a small patch and should be out fairly soon.

2008-03-21T07:53:00.001+09:00

Well we are one step close to the release of Mysteries of Westgate now that 1.12 patch is out. Atari have announced the fact that they are going to add MoW to the upcoming release of NWN2 Gold slated for 29th April, 2008.

NWN2 Gold overview:
Neverwinter Nights™ 2 Gold combines Neverwinter Nights™ 2, the sequel to one of the best-selling and genre-defining role-playing games ever, and Neverwinter Nights™ 2: Mask of the Betrayer, which allows you to advance to epic levels (above 20) and choose from over 100 spells. Also included is a keycode to download Neverwinter Nights™ 2: Mysteries of Westgate, the adventure pack from Ossian Studios. All combined—over 50 hours of immersive adventure!