5 days to go

[tanita]

so right now the infamous counter says that we are (again) about five days away from getting access to the toolset. for a change i will _not_ discuss the point whether there will be another delay but simply suppose there won't.

could anyone in the knowing please explain how exactly we will have to proceed in order to download the toolset and its included files?

how much data will it be, estimated?
will there be a dvd-iso to download? or a zip'ed archiv?
will we have to wait for download-slots, or even register to some donwload-companies?
will you provide ftp-servers? will there be mirrors?
have you thought about providing a torrent?
will we need to enter the code to download, or just to activate the toolset?
will it be possible/allowed/encouraged to download the pack and afterwards give it to others, or even provide lokal mirrors or start a torrent?
will the toolset contain all artwork provided with the full game, especially tilesets and placeables?
will there be any sort of "developers information", like file formats or the plugin-api-documentation?
when do you plan to open downloads, considering that the counter is to run out at different times all over the world?

there are four working days until weekend... please, try to sort out some or most of these questions and for once get us informed _before_ timers run out again... (no pun intended; if you _have_ to delay again, it'll sure be for good reason, but please, don't ruin another weekend by letting us hope until the last minute).

[CCAP12]

bump. I heartedly agree , if Atari is going to delay again , please let them let us know early this week instead of after the timer runs out.

I strongly believe that they are simply holding it back until this weekend to be inline with the whole "30 day" thing, so it should happen this weekend .

Josh Sawyer (lead dev) posted details for the reasons behind the delay of the game release, which mostly were game based, not really involving the toolset.
However, other than the "in an effort to provide you the best product possible ..." line on the prerelease page, nothing has been said about any bugs involved in the toolset delay.

[tanita]

for a change i will _not_ discuss the point whether there will be another delay...please follow my lead and don't discuss that matter in this thread.

[tenebra_uk]

bump. I heartedly agree , if Atari is going to delay again , please let them let us know early this week instead of after the timer runs out.

I strongly believe that they are simply holding it back until this weekend to be inline with the whole "30 day" thing, so it should happen this weekend .

Josh Sawyer (lead dev) posted details for the reasons behind the delay of the game release, which mostly were game based, not really involving the toolset.
However, other than the "in an effort to provide you the best product possible ..." line on the prerelease page, nothing has been said about any bugs involved in the toolset delay.

Obsidian's statement (http://nwn2.warcry.com/scripts/news/view_news.phtml?site=91&id=64916)

[tenebra_uk]

Some questions answered :)

how much data will it be, estimated?
Approx. 2.5 GB

will there be a dvd-iso to download? or a zip'ed archiv?
It is a file download, zip’d archive – no dvd iso

will we have to wait for download-slots, or even register to some donwload-companies?
Awaiting answer

will you provide ftp-servers? will there be mirrors?
Awaiting answer

have you thought about providing a torrent?
No. We are not providing a torrent, that would defeat the purpose of this presell being exclusive.

will we need to enter the code to download, or just to activate the toolset?
Code will be required to download the file, the codes can be used only once. There is no CD Key requirements.

will it be possible/allowed/encouraged to download the pack and afterwards give it to others, or even provide local mirrors or start a torrent?
We can discuss how to distribute this after launch to a wider audience, but this is not the intent of the presell.

will the toolset contain all artwork provided with the full game, especially tilesets and placeables?
Yes.

will there be any sort of "developers information", like file formats or the plugin-api-documentation?
Yes. There is some documentation, and a suite of tutorial information for the user.

when do you plan to open downloads, considering that the counter is to run out at different times all over the world?
Good question. We will have it ready to push live the evening of Sept 30.

[tanita]

wow!

thanks a lot for providing this information, that's making up for a lot of doubts and troubles we had :-)

one issue remains uncertain, however:

how are you going to handle broken downloads if the key is only valid for one download? will your servers recognize broken downloads and let us try again? i think this is of great importance, as there will be a great run for the toolset and even if your servers can stand it there almost always are people who can't finish a 2.5gb download at once (maybe due to lack of diskspace or when their internet connection is reset and the like...).

and regarding this possible problem:

will it be legal to share the downloaded archive to those who have also bought the preorder pack (and don't want to download using a 4 kb/s dialup connection, paying their isp for every minute)?

thank you again for your timely answers!

[CCAP12]

"will we need to enter the code to download, or just to activate the toolset?
Code will be required to download the file, the codes can be used only once. There is no CD Key requirements."

I am hoping for the best, but with atari's history I expect the worst. If the codes can only be used once, what happens if a download is started and is interupted ??? Will the code not be accepted again if we try to re download?

[tenebra_uk]

As per Atari's answers, the code can only be used once. Should you experience any technical problems you can rely on Atari's Technical Support who will be able to help.

[BlackHawk01x]

Thanks for the great answering Tenebra :)
*gives a flower* ---'---,--{@

About teh techsupport... well I guess I wait 1 or 2 days and then download heh, and if there are still problem then I just can hope german tech support is better than german information-support rolleyesa

[tanita]

i'm not so worried about ataris professionality but about ours...

2.5 gb is a monster of an archive (and i'm glad it is - we're really getting something worth the waiting!) and i'm sure there will be kids who don't read the warnings, start the download, and then find that ther disk is full. or someone gets disconnected from the internet because their isp reconnects every 24 hours. or i simply hit the wrong button while waiting.

[Lorft]

Many thanks ten (and the guys who provided you the info if they are watching!). On my behalf, this has relieved a lot of fears I had over this release :)

The only thing is, with a 2.5 gb download it will take over 6 hours for me to download. My connection is more than likely to go out at some point during this (if only for a minute). To this end I will be using a download resumer (like getright) I am assuming that resuming will be enabled?

Thanks,

Lorft

[tenebra_uk]

The only thing is, with a 2.5 gb download it will take over 6 hours for me to download. My connection is more than likely to go out at some point during this (if only for a minute). To this end I will be using a download resumer (like getright) I am assuming that resuming will be enabled?


I'm going to check on that, but don't panic - we had people with downloading issues over XboxLive for TDU (similar promotion, pre-order and get extra content, code works once only) and everything was handled timely and professionally ;)

[BlackHawk01x]

i'm not so worried about ataris professionality but about ours...

2.5 gb is a monster of an archive (and i'm glad it is - we're really getting something worth the waiting!) and i'm sure there will be kids who don't read the warnings, start the download, and then find that ther disk is full. or someone gets disconnected from the internet because their isp reconnects every 24 hours. or i simply hit the wrong button while waiting.

That's why I hope they put in a directl link so people - like me :) - can use download programs liek Flashget to download it part by part... especially since I'm one of teh persons who do not want to let their computer run while sleeping...
Well but yes: Worth the download *nods* well and I'm just a pessimistic person, I'm quite sure it will work fine :)

[tanita]

as the guys at atari are really cool (at least i'm told so by someone who knows them and have come to trust her that much :) ) they'll surely find a way to modest our concerns - perhaps _that's_ what they've been doing for the last nine days... tonguegre

but i don't think any sort of download manager tool will be compatible with the "one download per code" arrangement. these tools accelerate downloads by downloading multiple chunks of the file simultaneously, using multiple connections, and there's almost no way to distinguish between multiple connections from one source or different sources (e.g. multiple computers using the same download link).

[tenebra_uk]

The cool guys at Atari have passed your legitimate concerns to Obsidian, fingers crossed for an answer by tomorrow :)

[Dazlar]

We can only hope for the best right now. *nods*

I'll need to see if I can get it to my 2nd PC, 2.5 GB is a lot and limited internet here.

I think it shouldn't be hard to chop it up in maybe 5 parts of 500 MB which each can be gotten with the same code.

Shouldn't be hard to remove the code from the database (or flag it as gotten, whatever the case is) after the last bits have been send rather than after the download started. But that logic is likely only belonging to me... again.

Not wanting to sound negative here, I'll just wait and see (and likely get extremely frustrated if my download aborts).

P.S. Thanks Viv, for the link. *gives Viv a flower and hugs* Don't forget to instruct your teddy'army if your download breaks. *grins*

[Lorft]

but i don't think any sort of download manager tool will be compatible with the "one download per code" arrangement. these tools accelerate downloads by downloading multiple chunks of the file simultaneously, using multiple connections, and there's almost no way to distinguish between multiple connections from one source or different sources (e.g. multiple computers using the same download link).

There is a diferance between chunking and resuming, most of the download tools have both within them, and you can enable/disable them at will. I have seen a few sites that allow resume, but do not allow chunking.

Resume is generally availible on most websites I have tried. However, there are a few where it is was not enabled (or was time limited). With a massive 2.5gb download (which I cant re-start if it fails) I want to be 100% sure that If my connection drops I don't loose my download.

Lorft

[BlackHawk01x]

*looks at topic*
Uhm... 34minutes to go for GMT+1 *Grins* +xhours until the download'link is working (I guess it's US-time it starts) :laugh:


however a bit offtopic-question:
Anyone knows if Atari-Germany Website'Adress was changed?
Asking cause it's down for teh whole day today already... forum still works but reaching it only over the Atari-UK site, so I'm a bit worrying about the missing site at the moment...

[Taneli]

Strange that page went allready for "zero" some time ago (like 45min) and this site do not work yet either:

http://www.atari.com/nwn2/presell/preorder/UK/preorder.php

Allso, none of these sites do not work yet.. ..strange. Make me wonder what timeset we are waiting for. In here finland it is GMT +2 but well, I have plenty of booze, some company and 3 computers waiting that download to start :D

[swe_wolfis]

Strange that page went allready for "zero" some time ago (like 45min) and this site do not work yet either:

http://www.atari.com/nwn2/presell/preorder/UK/preorder.php

Allso, none of these sites do not work yet.. ..strange. Make me wonder what timeset we are waiting for. In here finland it is GMT +2 but well, I have plenty of booze, some company and 3 computers waiting that download to start :D

Well, GMT+1 has entered the very nice time loop setting, so I guess that in a few hours there will be a message that says that they found another bug and it will take just a few days more until relese

[Lorft]

There is currently evidence that the final stages of setting up the download are in progress:

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=499408&forum=100&sp=15

While I agree that the whole timer thing was a mistake (especially based on the client PC clock!) I think we will see release some time within the next twelve hours or so.

Lorft

[swe_wolfis]

There is currently evidence that the final stages of setting up the download are in progress:

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=499408&forum=100&sp=15

While I agree that the whole timer thing was a mistake (especially based on the client PC clock!) I think we will see release some time within the next twelve hours or so.

Lorft

That thread is locked use http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=499322&forum=100&sp=60 instead

[tanita]

if they fail us again, then at least they made more of an effort of it. but don't start to despair, this day is still young, and noone promised that they'd open downloads before church's over, did they?

[CCAP12]

They did make more of an effort....an effort to screw us over....again.