NeverWinter Nights 2 Multiplayer Beta Test!

[tenebra_uk]

Atari Announces Neverwinter Nights 2 Multiplayer Beta Test!
Atari Inc. and Obsidian Entertainment are pleased to announce a closed public beta test for Neverwinter Nights™ 2 for PC. Neverwinter Nights™ 2 is an extensive role-playing game that employs a rich single-player experience, a toolset for creating custom adventures, as well as a multiplayer component where adventurers can team up and explore the world of Faerun as a team! This sequel to the original award-winning Neverwinter Nights takes advantage of the new “3.5 edition” DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® rule set while also utilizing an astonishing new 3D graphics engine. Neverwinter Nights 2 is set in the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Forgotten Realms® universe created by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS)

This beta test will comprise the multiplayer game mode only, the purpose of which is to get your feedback on game tuning and balance, hardware compatibility testing, and also general functionality testing. Please remember that if you are selected for this beta test you will be under a strict non-disclosure agreement (NDA), which means you cannot discuss the product outside of our dedicated private beta forum at www.ataricommunity.com.

At the present time, we are without our www.betatests.net site; therefore sign-ups will be handled a little differently for Neverwinter Nights 2. In order to sign up for the beta, please visit the below URL and be sure to fill out all of the required information.

http://www.atari.com/nwn2betatest/multiplayer

Hope you roll a +2 on luck!
Best Regards,
Betatest Administrator
Atari, Inc. and Obsidian Entertainment

System Requirements
Recommended
- 3 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
- 1GB System Ram
- ATI Radeon X800 series, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series or higher video card
Required
- Windows XP
- 512MB System RAM
- 2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
- 128MB Direct3D compatible video card with DirectX 9.0c compatible driver
- 5GB free hard disk space
- DirectX 9.0c (included)
- DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
- Broadband connection for multiplayer online play

**Note: If no modifications are made to this announcement, and you have a site you would like to host it on, please feel free to republish.

*Neverwinter Nights is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast in the U.S.A. and other countries. Used with permission.

[Gaspode]

Signed up already ... just keeping my fingers crossed that I will get in ;)

[tenebra_uk]

There are spots for Europe...and this announcement didn't go to the press but only to selected sites. Fingers crossed for you all, guys ;) I wish I had the time to do it :(

[NWATA]

A second one :nuts: This improves my chances. Thankyou Tenebra :atari:

[Gaspode]

Is there a date for the start of the betatest?

[tenebra_uk]

Sorry, waiting for a reply on this.

[Gaspode]

no problem ... don't want to seem too impatient ... but really looking forward to this ;)

[tenebra_uk]

Pretty sure you are ;) I'll do some pestering to get a date ;)

[Gaspode]

Just reading on Game Daily that Asherons Call 2 servers are going to be shut down ... which got me to thinking ... When NWN2 comes out, will this spell (excuse the pun) the end for servers (and support) for NWN1 ??

I know all good things come to an end but I would still hate to lose the original NWN

[tenebra_uk]

I'm afraid to say that the support is coming to an end - I was trying to find the press release that announced it but I must have archived it in the wrong place :mefiant:

From what I've seen and been told, I very much doubt that you'll miss NWN1 when NWN2 is released ;)

[Gaspode]

Shame .. but all good things come to an end. But with a the NWN community behind it there will still be plenty of servers for multiplayer.

However, jumping across to another genre, FPS, I know that a lot of players are staying with CS and DoD (Half-life 1) because they don't have good enough computers to support the source engine. Do you think a lot of players will stick with NWN because NWN2 has higher system requirements?

[tenebra_uk]

I don't know, we'll have to see how the up-to-date NWN1 players' PCs are. Personally, as a gamer, I understand how "traumatic" moving from NWN1 is after all these years, but evolution is not always bad :)

Guys, could you please tell me how many of you are based in London or able to come to London for a day on a weekday?

[aphrodite1]

Not all support for NWN1 will be lost. I'm in the Nordock.net community and we still have dozens of players who wont or cant meet the specs for NWN2. At this time (and this may change at some later date), we intend to continue offering at least one server that supports NWN1, as I'm sure some other communities will do as well :)

[NWATA]

I don't know, we'll have to see how the up-to-date NWN1 players' PCs are. Personally, as a gamer, I understand how "traumatic" moving from NWN1 is after all these years, but evolution is not always bad :)

Guys, could you please tell me how many of you are based in London or able to come to London for a day on a weekday?

I can come to London for a weekday :nuts: :nuts: :bravo:

[tenebra_uk]

I had no doubts about that, NWATA lolblue: ;)

Good to hear, aphrodite1 :) I was pretty sure that communities would carry on independently, there's such a wealth of expertise around that official support is hardly needed :) What is the general feeling around, are people planning to upgrade their pc's at some point to meet the specs for NWN2?

[NWATA]

I had no doubts about that, NWATA lolblue: ;)

Good to hear, aphrodite1 :) I was pretty sure that communities would carry on independently, there's such a wealth of expertise around that official support is hardly needed :) What is the general feeling around, are people planning to upgrade their pc's at some point to meet the specs for NWN2?

LOL, I did :nuts:

[the_woozle]

Guys, could you please tell me how many of you are based in London or able to come to London for a day on a weekday?

I could hop a Eurostar for a day if you're welcoming "outsiders" :p

[NWATA]

I could hop a Eurostar for a day if you're welcoming "outsiders" :p

Thats the spirit ! :chapeau:

[tenebra_uk]

Cool :) Anyone else? I need 20 willing victims dark:

[Blastie]

What is the general feeling around, are people planning to upgrade their pc's at some point to meet the specs for NWN2?

We usually like to have semi-current computers running in our house. You know, technology that is new to 1 or 2 years old. So my computer should be good to go for this game. *crossing fingers*

[tenebra_uk]

Cool :)

So what's your plan, Blastie? (I'm assuming you're a well seasoned NWN player, please correct me it I'm wrong). Are you going to move from NWN1 to NWN2, or playing both? :)

[Blastie]

Oh yeah, I have NWN1. I've been waiting for #2 since I read that it was coming out. I feel like a 4 year old waiting for that piece of candy. LOL I was having sound issues with NWN1, but it's that SoundBlaster issue. I'm hoping it doesn't happen with this one, but if it does, I'm gonna be buying one that this game likes. ;)

[Gaspode]

I live just outside of Amsterdam (Holland) so I won't be able to 'nip' over to London :( ... but at least it will be a good test for the netcode :D

The weakest part of my PC is the graphics card. Handled DoomIII and HL2 like a dream .. but stalled on FEAR and Oblivion. So the PC will not be updated but the card is definitely getting replaced.

As for moving from NWN1 to NWN2 .. it is a certainty but I don't think I will leave NWN1 behind totally initially.

Other than the good news about NWN2 finally being produced, the best news was that the toolset was going to be essentially the same .. this means the community will be able to get to work and produce some great adventures again.

Really looking forward to it.

[tenebra_uk]

Thanks for your input, Gaspode :)

I should have something interesting for you guys next week...watch this space ;)

[NWATA]

Thanks for your input, Gaspode :)

I should have something interesting for you guys next week...watch this space ;)

:chapeau: :chapeau: :atari: mdr1

[tenebra_uk]

I could do with more feedback on who could be in London on a weekday, please. Could you wave your paws for me, please? :)

[Gaspode]

well irrespective of whether I get into the beta or not, it's inspired me to start playing NWN1 again, but this time using a similar character that I have in Guild Wars. It's a ranger, and it's interesting to compare the two games.

Enjoying playing NWN1 again though, nice to get back to "proper" D&D ;)

[Nimir]

Heh new user here, only signed up to reply to this really, been spending my time on the NWN2 community forums.

I'm a UKer with usually a fair amount of time on my hands during the week, a trek to london would be a bit of a stretch but I should be able to make it.

Like Gaspode Ive just recently dusted off my NWN1 disks. Monks are far too over powered, finished Act1 and almost all the sidequests in it (missed finishing off the neverwinter tombs, forgot about the last one and clicked to go to the ritual :mad: ) in about 6 hours yesterday

[the_woozle]

Heh new user here, only signed up to reply to this really, been spending my time on the NWN2 community forums.

You should mention this tread over there to see if there are other UKers there who would be interested in this. This forum seems a little quiet in comparison to "over there", and could use a little promoting I think.

Oh, and Welcome... :salut2:

[tenebra_uk]

Thanks for registering here and for your answer, Nimir :)

Is there anybody here from Obsidian's communities by any chance?

[Lord-Timus]

I live in the Maidstone area and work shifts so might be able to make a trip to the big bad smoke for a day depending on when it is.

What did you have in mind?

[tenebra_uk]

I can't really get into details right now as they haven't been finalised, but we're talking about setting up a pre-release NWN2 session in London at the Atari office. We did it for Test Drive Unlimited and it was a very enjoyable experience.

Hopefully I'll have some more news next week, unfortunately this week it's been pretty hectic with the release of TDU :)

[aphrodite1]

Watch your emails guys and gals. The beta emails have begun being sent out :)

[Gaspode]

anyone received any invites yet .... have I missed out :(

[etherdose]

Heya folks...is it too late?? I used to run a server and I'd love to see how the new on-line play is going. I have a prepay code that I got the toolset with, but you can't really see how it goes online. Send an email to me if I am not too late, or I can do it for just 2 days or so....

Thanks!


etherdose@gmail.com

[tanita]

ehm...

nwn2 just went gold, i case you didn't notice. that is, it's right now beeing boxed and delivered! so you may join the worldwide beta-test phase on october 30th for about 60 bucks if you like...

[Knight_Sir_Galahad]

dam i saw this thread too late :(
i knew i should've stopped running people over on Halo and have a look at the Atari boards lol

ah well, hope i see you all on the 3'rd of November on NWN2 :D

[obikes]

The fact that nwn2 has gone gold does not mean the beta is over there are still 15 days untill release, and in that time bugs can be found for the firsts patches. However, its unlikely they need more people at this time, but you can always try.

I actually got into the beta and I can't really say anything about the game because of the NDA, but I want you people to know that after been able to try it I am even more convinced to buy it the same day it's released.