New 3.5 edition PC games?
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Gygaxian Discip
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New 3.5 edition PC games?
Has anyone heard if Atari is going to release anymore of the classic DnD modules for PCs? Or maybe just anymore games like ToE? I think ToE's format and style blow away NWN and Icewind Dale and would love to see more games like it. After finishing ToE (three times) I went out and tried those other two games and was severely disappointed. I need a new 3.5 game fix!
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Lord Plothos
- Posts: 525
- Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2004 12:00 pm
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So here's the scoop as it appears to me:
Atari got impatient and really pressured the actual developers of the game, Troika, to get ToEE to market before it was ready. This resulted in a highly buggy game (though in fairness to Atari, Troika had a bit of a previous reputation for bugginess; however, I think we can be sure ToEE would have been much less buggy, had Atari been patient). In any event, the game was buggy and nobody bought it; the price dropped, and Troika made nothing. They tanked, and now there's no more Troika.
Atari has the rights through Wizards of the Coast (I think) to make D&D games still, but Troika had the rights to the engine of ToEE, which they had created (and which is phenomenal, and apparently a programmer's dream, because it's really supremely easy to mod extensively). Anyway, somebody has bought the rights to the engine, but we have no idea whether they'll work with Atari (I wouldn't), or whether they'll try to get the rights for D&D themselves, or if they'll just use the engine for something else, or what.
So the prospects of a 3.5 game are pretty good, since Atari will almost certainly do something with their rights, but it will very probably not look anything like Temple. Also, I believe there's no word yet on any Atari D&D project, so anything they do wind up making will be a while. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there it is.
If you want to, you could try Livonya's mod. She's changed a LOT. With co8, there'll be a brothel in Nulb, children running around Hommlet, tons more quests, and better AI. On the downside, it seems you'll have to be prepared to die a lot. Livonya is a good modder, I guess, but IMO a terrible DM.
Atari got impatient and really pressured the actual developers of the game, Troika, to get ToEE to market before it was ready. This resulted in a highly buggy game (though in fairness to Atari, Troika had a bit of a previous reputation for bugginess; however, I think we can be sure ToEE would have been much less buggy, had Atari been patient). In any event, the game was buggy and nobody bought it; the price dropped, and Troika made nothing. They tanked, and now there's no more Troika.
Atari has the rights through Wizards of the Coast (I think) to make D&D games still, but Troika had the rights to the engine of ToEE, which they had created (and which is phenomenal, and apparently a programmer's dream, because it's really supremely easy to mod extensively). Anyway, somebody has bought the rights to the engine, but we have no idea whether they'll work with Atari (I wouldn't), or whether they'll try to get the rights for D&D themselves, or if they'll just use the engine for something else, or what.
So the prospects of a 3.5 game are pretty good, since Atari will almost certainly do something with their rights, but it will very probably not look anything like Temple. Also, I believe there's no word yet on any Atari D&D project, so anything they do wind up making will be a while. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there it is.
If you want to, you could try Livonya's mod. She's changed a LOT. With co8, there'll be a brothel in Nulb, children running around Hommlet, tons more quests, and better AI. On the downside, it seems you'll have to be prepared to die a lot. Livonya is a good modder, I guess, but IMO a terrible DM.
Proud user and advocate of [url="http://rptools.net/doku.php?id=maptool:intro"]MapTool[/url]for all my RPing-at-a-distance.
(Use the lastest 1.3 build - it's still beta, but stable and far better than 1.2)
(Use the lastest 1.3 build - it's still beta, but stable and far better than 1.2)
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ordnaryjones
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- Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2004 12:40 am
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I think you'll find the mod worth downloading, especially if you've beaten the game a few times. Livonya's stuff can be pretty hard, but the original game was a breeze. It has been stated over at co8 a few times one of the intention of the mod is for parties to loss a few characters here and there during battles, and having played through the beginning a few times I can confirm that's real likely to happen. I'm enjoying the game a lot more though, enemies are more fun when they try everything in their power to kill you.