Development Info ToEE earlier

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Temple of Elemental Evil; Troika Games

Per <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=44164">this news post</A> on <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</a>, <A href="Http://www.greyhawkgame.com">Temple of Elemental Evil</a> will ship a full week earlier than originally anticipated. Here's the blurb:
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<blockquote>Atari and Troika Games are pleased to announce that The Temple of Elemental Evil? will now ship on September 16th and not September 23rd as previously reported. After years of research into the science of time travel and the mysticism of interactive entertainment distribution, Atari has achieved a breakthrough in the melding of the two disciplines. As a result of this revolutionary achievement, The Temple of Elemental Evil will now appear on retail stores shelves nationwide seven days earlier than originally anticipated.</blockquote>
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That's a better announcement than delaying the shipping for a number of months like what happenned with <A href="Http://www.arcanum1.com">Arcanum</a>!
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[Vault Dweller]

Wow, this is great! Finally they realised that sooner is better then later, especially in the gaming business. It's been a very long time since a good RPG's been released. I can't believe the wait is almost over. Alright then, it's hard drive cleaning time

 

[Visceris]

The problem with Arcanum was Sierra.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

Dude, thats like next TUESDAY and it's FRIDAY right now, the wait has gone faster then I thought it would. WHEEEE!!!

 

[Seven]

The problem with Arcanum was Sierra.

Sierra's always the problem, but Atarri's not sinless *cough* MOO3 *cough*.

 

[chiefnewo]

Is that for international releases too? Or am I still going to have to wait over a month to get my hands on it?

 

[HanoverF]

Wonder how many parties I'll create by the original scheduled date....

 

[DarkUnderlord]

It's shipping on the same day as the eye-on-troika dev chat.

 

[Spazmo]

/me grumbles

It was supposed to ship on the date of our dev chat...

 

[Vault Dweller]

At least there would be something to talk about there. I am sick and tired of "can you tell us again what module it's based on" :shock:

 

[Whipporowill]

/me grumbles

It was supposed to ship on the date of our dev chat...

What dev chat is that spaz? Anything you haven't told us?

And since the demo probably won't be out at our chat, as we hoped - we'll try to do our best to keep it interesting.

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

Damn, sorry, but HW2 is higer in the pipes for me. Guess Ill have to wait for ToEE, unless it gets stellar reviews from every oriface of the internet.

 

[Spazmo]

What dev chat is that spaz? Anything you haven't told us?

You see nothing! *throws a smoke pellet on the ground and disappears*

 

[Astromarine]

craptastic, what were your impressions on the HW2 demo? did it confirm your expectations? Did they actually do that Bizantine-like alien race you wanted?

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

The Vagyar have quite a bit in common with the Turks, and I think that is fair when you consider the new opeaning music (distinctly Armenian, I could almost recognize the tune) this does not sound as insane nor as crackpot as some of my ideas.
I really enjoyed the demo, but maybe I should wait for the ToEE demo to make a descision.

 

[jvn3t]

I think my heart just exploded.

 

[Astromarine]

Yeah, I just finished the Single Player part of the demo. Look rockin', but I rank ToEE higher.

Also, CCR, you never read http://www.baen.com/library/0671878654/0671878654.htm ? I think you will either have a fit over the inconsistencies, or enjoy it immensely.

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

Il get around to it, but pre-Herculian (pre-Islamic) Byzantium is not my favorite area.
Thanks for the link though.

 

[axel]

Seems the closer to release this game becomes the less interested in it I become.....

 

[Voss]

Thats OK, the publisher lost interest in it ages ago.

:wink:

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Note to the casual observer:

The above comments concerning developers not caring as well as people playing the demo are about Home World 2 and are NOT about Greyhawk: Temple of Elemental Evil.

Thank you for your time. Carry on.

 

[Voss]

Are there casual observers around here?

But yes- HW2 reference. Not ToEE. Mostly because we don't *know* what Atari thinks about ToEE because they have yet to say anything about it beyond official press releases. Of course after the fun Atari PR people had with Moo3 fans, I'm not all that surprised...

 

[Seven]

Are there casual observers around here?

But yes- HW2 reference. Not ToEE. Mostly because we don't *know* what Atari thinks about ToEE because they have yet to say anything about it beyond official press releases. Of course after the fun Atari PR people had with Moo3 fans, I'm not all that surprised...

The circumstances around MOO3 were horrible. I don't blame Atari for it though (Atari PR didn't really lie. It was the beta testers and the devs were the worst culprits in terms of lying). Plus MOO3 was a game that was given numerous extensions by Atari; it was Quicksilver that failed to deliver. Although, Atari did punlish it so they have to take some of the blame.

 

[Voss]

Eh... Atari tried to push it out even earlier (end of Nov) than it came, when it clearly wasn't ready. That game was screwed up by both the publishers and developers. I really should have stuck with my first instinct. Which, interestingly enough, was that the website was shoddy and unprofessional (more like a bad fan site than the official game site), and therefor the game probably would be too.

And yeah, I still wonder what game some of those beta-testers were playing. From some of their reports, the battles were ultra strategic and tactical mixes of plans and counter-plans. Yeah.

It would have worked so much better in turn based. It could have been very deep and complex rather than the standard RT 'loop and throw into battle'. (And hope the pathfinding doesn't get screwed up because of all that empty space in the way... )

 

[Vault Dweller]

That game was screwed up by both the publishers and developers.

The developers are the ones to blame in case of MOO3. It's true that publishers often cause otherwise avoidable issues, but games like MOO3 and LH have flawed design and they would have been fucked up no matter what simply because the developers have no clue what makes games fun. It's interesting to note that both studios lied about the games and attributed them some non-existent qualities.

really should have stuck with my first instinct

*sighs* If only I listened to my first instinct I would have been hundreds dollars richer at this point.