January 2001

Jaded Temple interviews ALFA Project Head Jon Atkinson
Posted Wednesday, January 31, 2001 - 14:20 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

The Jaded Temple got their hands on Jon Atkinson, Project Manager of A Land Far Away which is recreating the entire Forgotten Realms for Neverwinter Nights.

If you're interested in NWN or are looking for a persistant world to adventure in, this interview may interest you.

High five to stay alive here.

Meet The Team!
Posted Tuesday, January 30, 2001 - 22:43 CET by Shad

Over at Neverwinter Haven, a new section has been published, Meet Bioware, in which there are interviews with various members of the Bioware Crew. Up this week is Technical Designer Preston Watamaniuk, talking about his role in the company:

"What do you find the most exciting feature of NWN and why?

The most exciting feature to date is the scripting language. This is my personal bias since I am slated to do a lot of scripting in the coming months. It is nice to have a language that allows you to achieve maximum effect with a minimum of code."

Baldur's Gate 2 Expansion Pack
Posted Tuesday, January 30, 2001 - 21:40 CET by Sorcerer

We all knew it was in the works since we first heard about the development of BG2, but now it's been confirmed. (If not yet officially).
Voodoo Extreme reports that the European offices of Interplay have passed along a press release (that isn't up at its site) stating that an add-on for Baldur's Gate II is in the works and it's called Baldur's Gate II : The Throne of Bhaal.

EBWorld seems to agree, as they have it (The Throne of Bhaal) slated for a 5/31/2001 release. More butt-kicking for goodness coming up!

1000 Registered Members of Boards O' Magick
Posted Monday, January 29, 2001 - 17:20 CET by Sorcerer

I am proud to announce that we now officially have the first 1000 registered members of the boards since I started them at the end of June last year.
It's been a bumpy ride lately, but now things have settled down a bit. In the first few months the boards have been online there was really little need for any moderation, since I designed them so that they turned away some "undesirable elements". The obligatory registration before posting, no posting of signature pictures and generally keeping an eye on things and closing down topics when they simply got too hot to handle has also taken its toll, so the number of people visiting them is probably a lot smaller than it would have been if there were basically no rules or moderation, but as I have witnessed the chaos something like that can do to the usefulness of a message board, I definitely did not want this to happen at our own as well. And I think the decision has been the right one.
For as long as the boards have existed people have always agreed with me on this matter practically 100%, and have praised our boards as the most informative, clean, and no-nonsense out there. But hey, don't think I'm making this up, this stuff is all coming from what people have posted at our boards over the period of about 6 months.

In all the time the boards have been online till this day only 2 people had to be banned, which is certainly very good statistics and should give you an idea how our boards function. We try to solve every problem that occurs nicely and with patience, and resort to banning only in the most dire circumstances, for instance when people try to spam them. (As was the case with the 2 banned offenders). Together we have formed a pleasant community to which many people return to daily, and even if we see some of our earliest member disappear from time to time, they all eventually come back. I hope that all of our existing and future members will continue to enjoy the forums as much as I have. Thanks guys and gals, you are THE BEST! ;)

And in case you aren't a member of our boards yet, know that there we help people with all of the games Sorcerer's Place covers (Baldur's Gate I and II, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, Neverwinter Nights and any other CRPG you can think of), talk generally about CRPGs, fantasy books, the meaning of life, yellow feelings(?) and much more.
All in all, we're one big happy (if sometimes a bit dysfunctional) family everybody is welcome to join. ;)

-Taluntain (a.k.a. Sorcerer)

First Article of the BioFiles at GA-RPG
Posted Monday, January 29, 2001 - 16:53 CET by Shad

GA-RPG, our host website, is proud to present yet another column from one of the leading design houses of computer role-playing games at this time, BioWare. The column will be known as The BioFiles, and it is going to be written primarily by James Ohlen on a weekly basis intially.
James is the director of BioWare's writing and design department. He also just so happens to be the lead designer for BioWare's upcoming Star Wars RPG.
This column will focus on design philosophies, game ideas, and behind
the scenes stories from the Baldur's Gate series, Neverwinter Nights,
Star Wars and any future projects.

"When designing a level for Neverwinter, the designer must use a tileset. That means that he can’t ask for unique art content for any of his levels. However, the designer has access to a user friendly toolset that can be used to pump out content quite quickly. Because of this, he has a lot more time and room to experiment and make changes to his level. On a game such as Baldur’s Gate 2, each level contains unique art content, so that the designer is only limited by his imagination."

NWMap v. 1.0 is released!
Posted Sunday, January 28, 2001 - 22:58 CET by Shad

Itching to get your teeth into NWN? Well here's a starter for you. NWNmap has been released over at NWmap , which gives you a chance to start planning your campaigns before the game is released.

Black Isle Studios: We are not BioWare
Posted Sunday, January 28, 2001 - 12:22 CET by Sorcerer

Interplay's RPG development house has quite a history, but often gets confused with its Canadian cousin. In this recent article at Gamespy the relation between the two is explained, plus some interesting things about Black Isle Studios are revealed:

Black Isle has created a cohesive team of talented individuals who work very well together, Deiley said. "It sounds kind of cliché, but we really are a family who shares in the responsibilities of creating great titles. We often do not limit ourselves to a single project, but instead provide support and advice where it is needed. Game wise, I think our greatest accomplishment is Planescape: Torment. It was a revolutionary idea rather than just more of the same high fantasy. It had beauty, scope, and story. It was a wonderful project to work on and help bring to life. It was "art."

Well, definitely no arguments from me on this one. It's probably common knowledge already that I love that game. ;)

Site News - New Additions
Posted Friday, January 26, 2001 - 21:23 CET by Sorcerer

Ancient Order of Reasonably Trustworthy Adventurers - Neverwinter Nights Guild at Sorcerer's Place

I am proud to present yet another fine addition to our website, this one being of significant value to many Neverwinter Nights adventurers-to-be.
We will be hosting a NWN player guild run by Erran (whom some of you might recognize from our message boards). He has been eager to run such a project for some time, so having him on our team was a must. If you are interested in joining us, make sure you check out the AORTA pages in the Neverwinter Nights game section.

The whole NWN section has been updated, so from now on finding the AORTA guildpages will not be a problem.

Blizzard Anniversary
Posted Friday, January 26, 2001 - 8:32 CET by Mollusken

Blizzard Entertainment is 10 years old, and we thank them for all great games the have produced and will release in the future! While we are still waiting for the Diablo 2 expansion pack and Warcraft 3, they have arranged a little contest. The prizes are amazing: become a Warcraft 3 beta tester, or you can have your name on f.ex. an item in Diablo 2 exp or even a trip to Blizzard! Click here to register.

Send Your Saves to BIS And Win!
Posted Thursday, January 25, 2001 - 21:52 CET by Sorcerer

The official Icewind Dale and Heart of Winter website announced today that they need your help:

"WE WANT YOU!

OK, we really want something you've got. We're so dang close to shipping it hurts and one thing we'd like to do prior to going gold on this baby is to get some of your original Icewind Dale save games and characters and run 'em through our gamut of testing procedures.

If you're interested in sending them in, here are the instructions."

Site News - New Fixes
Posted Thursday, January 25, 2001 - 21:30 CET by Sorcerer

Cleanup Continues. Almost There...

This thing seems to be taking forever. I've spent the entire last two days going through the site pages, optimizing them and FINALLY I am beginning to see the end of it. Here's a list of all the stuff fixed in this update:

A NWN interview with Aidan Scanlan
Posted Thursday, January 25, 2001 - 19:28 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

ALFA's own Cespenar had the chance to pick the brain of Aidan Scanlan a designer at Bioware. It's a quick read with some interesting information.

Fuel your desire here.

On another note, the persistant Forgotten Realms world being designed by A Land Far Away (ALFA) has closed all player application forms until April 2001.

New Lord of the Rings Trailer
Posted Thursday, January 25, 2001 - 14:24 CET by Nazgul

That's right. The newest teaser for the Lord of the Rings is out. This will be the first of two teasers. The second will be out this summer, then the actuall 2 minute trailer will be out this fall.

You can watch the Trailer(You will need Real Player) here.

Biting the Hand at Happy Puppy
Posted Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 23:07 CET by Sorcerer

Another interesting column by Jessica Mulligan, the latest Biting the Hand... article discusses Neverwinter Nights and potential "creative" dungeon masters popping up all over the place when NWN is released and thus paints a picture totally different than the good folks at Bioware would have us believe...

There's just one small detail she's overlooking, and that's the fact that very few of the casual DMs she describes will have the will and necessary dedication to run their own servers. Sure, they'll still be able to make separate modules more easily, but then again, so can everyone else and not all of us call ourselves Dungeon Masters. ;)
Go read it, it's pretty funny.

Misc. Heart of Winter newsbits
Posted Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 15:50 CET by Calis

Gamespy posted a new developer diary from J.E. Sawyer, Black Isle designer and unofficial PR monkey. HOWEVER, the article contains a small error, as JE stated on his own messageboards, here.

Also, if you're not tired of reading about this upcoming Icewind Dale expansion, check out two new previews: one at The Reviewboard (awfully inaccurate in it's depiction of the story -Ed.) and one at Daily Radar UK.

NeverEverWinter Sites
Posted Monday, January 22, 2001 - 21:45 CET by Sorcerer

Lately I've been on a stroll through some of the official sites for the games we cover here at Sorcerer's Place and was unpleasantly surprised with the amount of dead links that can be found on the official Neverwinter Nights site in their links section.
It seems that almost every 3rd link there leads nowhere. (Among the ones listed as NWN Guilds and Adventuring Companies and Fan Sites).

After I've been unsuccessfully trying to submit Sorcerer's Place to the links there, seeing so many dead sites there makes me wonder what those guys in charge of the website are doing...
True, we don't have much to show in the Neverwinter Nights section yet, but then again, SP is constantly updated and that section will only grow.

OK, I let it all out now. ;)
In case anyone connected to Bioware (or Interplay) is reading this, please get someone to weed out the dead links and add the websites that request to be put among the links.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Monday, January 22, 2001 - 21:11 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Would you buy a (spiritual?) sequel to Planescape: Torment if it was made by the same people (BIS) as the original?
(294 votes total)

Yes, definitely (232) 79%
Maybe, depends on reviews (40) 14%
No, never (22) 7%

It seems that I'm not the only one that gets nostalgic every time Planescape: Torment is mentioned. Our poll shows that almost 80% of people would definitely buy a sequel to it, should one be made by Black Isle Studios.

About 15% of people are undecided and would wait until more is known about the game before buying it, though if the reviews favored the sequel, they would buy it.

To conclude, 7% of people would (for reasons unknown to me) never buy another such game.

Since there is not much more to say on this subject, I'll post a few comments from the people who voted in the poll. Unfortunately there's little chance of a sequel to Torment ever being made, but that won't prevent us from dreaming about it, now will it? ;)

Fan comments (unedited):

- What do you mean by 'spiritual?'
- Well you can't really have a literal sequel unless you intend to have a whole game about fighting in the Blood War. ;) -Sorcerer
- HELL YES
- It's such a game, that there is no way out ;-)
- the game is too damn good!
- Don't believe (corrupted) reviews, Just Buy It !
- Planescape freaking rocks
- I would suggest to them doing a planewalker theme though in the planescape world
- It is the best
- planescape torment was the best game ever and it needs to be given more credit and more publicity!
- the new sequel could be about the nameless one finding his name and trying to get out of purgatory!
- Inventive but just too much text - I'll stick with BG 1 and 2, and IWD
- planescape was a fantastic game if they can build on the original then this could be absolutely bloody amazing

How's that for a loyal fan base?

GA-RPG New Look
Posted Monday, January 22, 2001 - 16:25 CET by Sorcerer

GA-RPG, our gracious host has been changed in a few ways so that Sorcerer's Place is now nicely integrated on its pages. As usual, they will continue bringing everyone lots of RPG news.
Check them out!

HoW screenshots
Posted Monday, January 22, 2001 - 8:28 CET by mollusken

We don't get tired, aye? Take a look at the beauties at XGR.COM

Site News - New Additions
Posted Sunday, January 21, 2001 - 18:52 CET by Sorcerer

Cleanup Continues. To Infinity And Beyond

Heh, after a while I start forgetting what an enormous resource Sorcerer's Place is. But then again, as soon as something needs to be changed manually in all of the htmls that build the site, it all comes back with a vengeance. *grin*
After a considerable amount of effort, the whole Icewind Dale game section and Neverwinter Nights game section have been fixed. All pages will load fast and smooth now.

A bunch of other pages have been fixed as well, namely all of the ones that can be accessed through the central link panel below the title on the front page. More will follow shortly.

Subsection Updates - Miscellaneous

There are two new books in the Fantasy Books section. The first is Legacy of the Drow, a collection of 4 Salvatore's novels about Drizzt joined into one huge tome with over 1000 pages. You can find it in the Fantasy Books - Forgotten Realms subsection. The other new literary addition is J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator. A very interesting book chock full of the master's own illustrations of the world he created. This one can be found in the Tolkien subsection.

Earlier this week Amazon.com opened a page where you can order the official Icewind Dale expansion, Heart of Winter. As you probably know, Amazon is our one and only sponsor so if decide to (pre)order any of the games (or books) here, you will be doing us a great favor and enabling us to bring you even more content. If you are interested, head over to the Games section and browse the selection of games available.

And for the last newsbit before heading over the the gaming subsections, there is a new FR history available at our Fantasy Worlds - Forgotten Realms subsection. It has come to my attention that the previous submitted history of Myth Drannor has come from an external source, so it was removed and replaced.
Instead, I have collected a description of the city (and it's sister cities) and posted it along with a detailed chronological overview of the last few decades before the city fell prey to the invading Army of Darkness.

The whole thing took quite some time to make, so I hope you will enjoy reading it.

Subsection Updates - Games

Starting with the original Baldur's Gate, the link to the download site for Dark Side of the Sword coast, the unofficial expansion from TeamBG has been updated. Get it from the Baldur's Gate - TeamBG Tools subsection.

Planescape: Torment is next on the list. I have added the universal hint system file for the game to the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection, and another new editor and a trainer were added to the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection.

The Icewind Dale - Walkthroughs & Guides subsection has also been updated. I have modified my Heart of Winter features list extensively by adding some new information regarding the expansion, removing some things that didn't make it into the expansion and adding a complete list of all new clerical, druid & mage spells available in HoW.

Baldur's Gate II section has seen a bunch of new additions as well. Another cool Planescape: Torment soundset has been added to the Baldur's Gate II - Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection. This week we present Annah, everybody's favorite tiefling.
Two new FAQs/walkthroughs have also found their way to the Baldur's Gate II - Walkthroughs & Guides subsection.

The last two new BGII materials are an excellent items list and a reference listing all weapon styles/proficiencies and their attributes. You can find both of them in the Baldur's Gate II - Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection.

To wrap things up, I have posted the updated version of the Neverwinter Nights Frequently Asked Questions. I compared it point by point to the old one, and I can testify that it has been more or less written totally anew, so give it a read for much has changed.

The Lord of The Rings Trailer
Posted Sunday, January 21, 2001 - 18:24 CET by Sorcerer

A new trailer showing off the Lord of the Rings movie has appeared at the official site two days ago.
It's nothing much really, but hey, anything with LOTR in it is fine by me. Well, almost anything...
I think that the movie is coming along nicely and that the final product will be thoroughly enjoyable for all fans of Tolkien's literature. It better be, otherwise we'll feed the movie producers to Gollum. A fitting punishment, I think.

Compliments to whoever designer their website. Flash doesn't work for everything, but boy it can be impressive when used right. Make sure you check out the rest of the site as well.

Fade Out - Fade In
Posted Saturday, January 20, 2001 - 21:08 CET by Sorcerer

As you can see, we're back online again. The site has been down for about half a day, reason unknown.
Possibly something to do with all the electricity problems that part of USA where there server is located is experiencing?
Anyway, if it happens again, just bare with us. We'll be back before you know it.

Trent Oster Interviewed!
Posted Friday, January 19, 2001 - 21:05 CET by Shad

Neverwinter Nights Producer, Trent Oster, has been interviewed over at gaming-unlimited. Trent was engaged in a 20 question interview on NWN, covering some interesting topics, such as weapons, monsters, tilesets, and magical items:

"3.) Will characters be able to swim? Also, what kind (if any) of underwater environments and/or tilesets will NWN feature?

We decided against implementing swimming in Neverwinter. After a long series of discussions, we decided it would require too much time to implement properly for the initial release. It’s an interesting idea, however, and one we may choose to consider in the future."

You can read more here.

Drizzt Do'Urden Stats up!
Posted Thursday, January 18, 2001 - 22:15 CET by Shad

A full profile of, everyone's favourite Drow elf (With the exception of Jarlaxle :)) Drizzt Do'Urden, has been posted over at wizards.com, which provides a full listing of the Dark elf Rangers abilities.

"Skills and Feats: Climb +8, Handle Animal +9, Hide +13, Intuit Direction +5, Jump +8, Knowledge (nature) +5, Listen +20, Move Silently +15, Ride (horse) +7, Search +13, Spot +15, Use Rope +7, Wilderness Lore +8."

To read more, follow the link at the bottom of the post.

Help Wanted (No Berks Need Apply!) ;)
Posted Wednesday, January 17, 2001 - 21:22 CET by Sorcerer

The couple of times before that I've made this announcement I always seemed to be writing long-winded stuff about what we need, but I'll make it really short this time.

We need some RELIABLE people who wish to either
a) scour the web for interviews, screenshots, previews and similiar and post them here at the front page
b) scour the official (and the unofficial IWD one) message boards for any relevant news regarding Baldur's Gate II, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nighs or Pool of Radiance and post those news at the front page or
c) all of the above

If you think you have what it takes to fill any of those roles (you don't have to do everything, better take on little and do that well), drop me a mail and I'll tell you what to do.
As always, Sorcerer's Place is a non-profit fansite, so I can't really pay you anything, since I don't get paid either. But at least when you post something here, you can be sure your work will be noticed by many people visiting us daily.

P.S.
Please do not apply if you aren't willing to commit some time to this task. We've had way too many posters here who posted two or three articles and then disappeared.

Another HoW preview
Posted Tuesday, January 16, 2001 - 17:54 CET by Hexaruz

Actiontrip is next to post another IceWind Dale: Heart of Winter preview... Can we get enough of them?

"The expansion pack - Heart of Winter (HoW) is due to appear in about one month. It will feature many more new cold terrains for our heroes to conquer. The audience eagerly awaits HoW primarily because of the technical improvements which should enhance even some of the old locations like Kuldahar, Dorn's Deep, Severed Hand..."

Site News - New Additions & More
Posted Monday, January 15, 2001 - 21:22 CET by Sorcerer

Cleanup Continues

As promised, K fixed a bunch more htmls to load much faster. Most major files in the Baldur's Gate II subsection have been fixed, and our chatroom as well. The entire Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor subsection is fixed too.

Subsection Updates

I have made another scour of the web looking for things I might have missed, and guess what came up? A full list of all items, weapons, spells and more for Planescape: Torment. I also added a list of all movies in Torment which has been sitting on my HD for a while now.
You can find both new additions in the PS:T/Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection.

The updated version of the Pool of Radiance: RoMD FAQ is now up.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Monday, January 15, 2001 - 21:12 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Which new feature in Heart of Winter excites you the most?
(195 votes total)

New areas (51) 26%
New weapons & items (46) 24%
800×600 support (33) 17%
New monsters (25) 13%
New spells (18) 9%
Gem, potion bags (15) 8%
Other (7) 4%

I was pondering why this poll got so few votes for almost a week before I remembered that BGC, oops PBG has been running a poll with the same question since almost the dawn of time.
Ugh, there goes any interest of whatsoever in answering this one here. But lack of people willing to vote in the poll aside, we got what we wanted all the same.

It would seem that most people can't wait to see the new areas Heart of Winter will deliver. Lonelywood, Burial Isle, Barrows and so on are all pretty exciting. Well, apart from Lonelywood which manages to be even more boring than in Salvatore's books. *snicker*
Anyway, 26% of people want new areas, pronto.

Only 2% less are most excited about the new weapons and items. Definitely a good pick. From what I've seen in the press preview, this will most definitely be one of the best new things HoW has to offer.

800×600 support also has it's number of fans. 17% of people are waiting the most for it. Having seen it in action, I must say that it really makes a huge difference.

New monsters didn't seem to make as huge a impact, but that was only to be expected. Aside from remorhaz and the obvious white dragon, it's more or less variation on a theme. But don't be fooled, new cannon fodder looks pretty cool too.

New spells excite only 9% of people, in spite the fact that there are some really neat new ones coming. Seven Eyes comes to mind...
But then again I suppose there aren't that many people who played mages in Icewind Dale...

Gem & potion bags and scroll cases aren't major additions to the game by most people's reckoning, so they only received 8% of votes.

Last place goes to other things, with 4% of people voting for something that was not on the list. The ALT key showing all items on the floor and highlighting all doors would be one of them.

Screenshots!
Posted Sunday, January 14, 2001 - 19:27 CET by Hexaruz

RPG Vault has posted 14 new screenshots on IceWind Dale: Heart of Winter, with many cool spell animations etc.

Finally Some Insight on NWN's Story
Posted Sunday, January 14, 2001 - 15:06 CET by Sorcerer

To give Voodoo Extreme a nice kick in the ass for her re-launch the guys over there fired off an interview to the gang at BioWare about Neverwinter Nights, perhaps its most anticipated role playing game ever! In the interview they talk with its Lead Designer Trent Oster about topics ranging from the single player story, multi-player support, third edition D&D rules and much, much more! Here's a little taste to get you in the mood:

Voodoo Extreme -- It’s stated on the official NWN site that while the game is primarily multi-player, it contains a solid single player episode that spans some sixty hours. What it doesn’t mention is what the single player story is about (other than "drawing its players into an epic and unforgettable tale of faith, war, and betrayal along the windswept Sea of Swords"). Please share with us the epic saga behind NWN!

Trent Oster - In Neverwinter Nights, the single-player story and the multiplayer story are really the same thing – it’s just a question of whether you choose to play alone or with friends. Your characters will be able to move freely between single- and multiplayer games.

As for the actual content of the story, here’s a little bit of the setup for Chapter 1 (there will be four chapters in all): Players begin in the northern city of Neverwinter on the eve of a deadly and all-consuming plague. The sickness spreads quickly from its origin in the beggars’ quarter, and soon all of Neverwinter is under quarantine, victims of what will become known as the Wailing Death.

A plea for help is sent to the allied city of Waterdeep and the powerful wizard, Khelben Blackstaff Arunsun, arranges for a collection of rare and magical creatures to be delivered to Neverwinter where they might serve as reagents to a cure. As adventurers within the quarantined city, the players are asked to aid in the creation of that cure and unravel the mystery behind the plague’s origins. As for the rest of the story, we’ll leave it to your imagination for now.

You can read more here.

Tomes That Inspired Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale
Posted Sunday, January 14, 2001 - 14:57 CET by Sorcerer

Well...
It would be more accurate to only put Icewind Dale in the title since there is no real connection to Baldur's Gate in any of the books featured in this article at Happy Puppy.
Although I think the city of Baldur's Gate is mentioned 3 or 4 times in the books, but that hardly makes it an inspiration for the game. ;)
Still, it's a nice piece of info for any of you who haven't read any of R. A. Salvatore's stuff yet.
Coincidentially, you can get all of the titles mentioned in this article at our Fantasy Books section.

Site News - New Additions & More
Posted Saturday, January 13, 2001 - 21:55 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates

A few more item codes were added to our extensive Baldur's Gate II Cheat List. I've also fixed two codes which were wrong and obsolete. Next new addition is the universal hint system file for Baldur's Gate II, which I placed in the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection. The UHS program is already included in the zip file.
A list of Baldur's Gate II weapons, equipment and similar has been added to the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection. It also contains item codes.

And now to crown this update, a fan sent us two excellent sound sets for Baldur's Gate II. The voice packs are of Dak'kon and Vhailor, both NPCs from Planescape: Torment.
They are of great quality and a recommended download for everyone. The author has promised us the rest of the Torment crew too, and I hope we get our hands of them soon. Meanwhile, get these first two from our Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection.

Friendly Arm Inn (Chatroom) Changes

As some of you might have noticed the old chatroom client wasn't very stable, and now it has gone offline completely. I've set up an alternative which functions in the same way as the old one, with a few exceptions.
I can't get rid of the picture it displays above the topic, nor can I remove the scrolling line which now displays news, stock quotes and such. Hehe, well it's totally useless really, but it'll have to do until the old one gets back online. If ever.

Besides the fact that this new client loads significantly faster (one good thing about it) it supports avatar icons and small images, so I'm sure it will prove to be amusing to all the regulars.

For all of you who don't know yet, you can access the Friendly Arm Inn here. Semi-official chat hours are around 8-12pm GMT, when most of the regulars come by and (of course) I try to attend as often as possible too.

Site Ads Odyssey

This has been going on for a while and I must apologize to all who weren't able to access some of our pages, but know that I'm FULLY (oh yes!) aware of this problem. Thanks to everybody who mailed me about this and expressed their frustration in so many imaginative ways that I never thought was possible. Thank God the flames were down to the minimum, at least.

As I explained on the front page before, some pages might not load for some people at times, displaying only a black screen. Now, most people will only notice this as a slight delay in the loading time of the page, while the page will still show correctly (minus the ads), but for some people nothing will show at all.
The ads running on the site that are causing all this havoc come from our gracious host which would do well to update their ad servers and fix the bloody scripts which have this amazing tendency to show as broken 3/4 of the times the site loads.

I have noticed a slight improvement regarding all this fiasco, with some better ads coming up and even some fantasy-related stuff showing, which is definitely a good thing. However, it still happens (too often to my liking) that the ad area only shows as blank or that you have to reload the page simply because the ad script fails to load correctly.

Therefor I started removing the offending ads from some of the most frequently visited sections on the site (namely the Games section). There is also a significant improvement on load times there, as you will notice. Currently the whole original Baldur's Gate section and some parts of the Baldur's Gate II section have already been cleaned up. I'm also updating and fixing some long-unnoticed errors in html there, so it might take me a while to get them all fixed, but rest assured that I'm working on it as fast as I can.

The old ads are being replaced with my own, which I know load fast & correctly. You will notice that most of them are for Amazon, which is the only actual sponsor that pays us anything, provided you order something from them by clicking on their banners on the site, of course.

So if you would like to support us and enable us to bring you even more cool stuff regularly, please order stuff from Amazon through any of the links on pages here. We also have a Fantasy Books section (also available from the main site menu buttons above) where you can order Amazon's books (or anything else) directly, since the links I've set up will take you right to the page about the book/manual etc. you are interested in.

Friendly Arm Inn (Chatroom) Changes
Posted Saturday, January 13, 2001 - 0:24 CET by Sorcerer

Hmmm...
As some of you might have noticed the old chatroom client wasn't very stable, and now it has gone offline completely. I've set up an alternative which functions in the same way as the old one, with a few exceptions.
I can't get rid of the picture it displays above the topic, nor can I remove the scrolling line which now displays news, stock quotes and such. Hehe, well it's totally useless really, but it'll have to do until the old one gets back online. If ever.

This new client supports avatar icons and small images, so I'm sure it will prove to be amusing to all the regulars. *grin*

For all of you who don't know yet, you can access the Friendly Arm Inn here.

Ten Ways to Ruin Lord of the Rings
Posted Friday, January 12, 2001 - 22:35 CET by Sorcerer

An interesting article about the Lord of the Rings movie has popped up at Daily Radar. It lists 10 potential ways how the movie could be ruined, and is pretty humourous to read.

Number 6 on the list:
Modern Language

If the lights go down in the theater this Friday, the trailer comes up and we get a scene of Frodo hitting another hobbit on the head, pumping his fists and shouting "Yes!" it will be all over. One of the many things wrong with entirely execrable Dungeons & Dragons was its repeated use of modern jargon or turns of phrase -- thus utterly divorcing itself from its fantastic premise. But the fact that D&D was terrible had little impact on our lives. Now, imagine how much worse for us all it would be if Sam Gamgee ever yells "It's a ring thang, yo!"

Likelihood: 2%
Severity: Eight Nazgul

Flashback... On Coolness!
Posted Friday, January 12, 2001 - 0:26 CET by Sorcerer

Well we finally managed to find a commoner willing to invest the time to scan the issue 88 (Autumn), page 140 of PC Gamer UK. Why, you ask?
Because our fans have pointed out that Sorcerer's Place has been spotted there!
They gave the site and Sylvus' Icewind Dale walkthrough the score of 92%, which is definitely flattering. Almost enough to make you blush... almost. ;)

Well, as promised, a big thanks to Arkady for scanning the part in question. Click here to check out what PC Gamer folks had to say about us.

A new HoW preview
Posted Thursday, January 11, 2001 - 21:49 CET by Maverick

Computer Games Online posted a nice preview with 4 ingame schreenshots and 2 artworks. It's quite different from other previews. Just take a look at it.

"Amidst snow-covered plains and crystalline ice caverns, in the deep regions of the North, a fledging band of adventurers were swept into a battle against countless monsters and quarrelsome immortals. Ultimately they would emerge as victorious, battle-hardened warriors. But the story of Icewind Dale would not come to an end just yet. Unbeknownst to the heroes, hostility was brewing amongst the Ten Towns and the barbarian tribes. A shaman of the barbarian people appeared before them, requesting they attend an audience with their leader, Wylfdene, who claims he has been infused with the spirit of Jerrod. Legends speak of Jerrod, the warrior who sacrificed himself by throwing his body into a portal linked to the Lower Planes. Wylfdene seeks to lead his people against the Ten Towns to reclaim their land, and it's your job to keep the peace."

Icewind Dale HoW screenshots
Posted Thursday, January 11, 2001 - 21:36 CET by Maverick

Baldur's Gate Haven posted some screenshots of Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter.

Neverwinter Nights: Interview with Marc Holmes
Posted Thursday, January 11, 2001 - 21:21 CET by Maverick

GameSpy.com interviewed Marc Holmes, the Art Director of Neverwinter Nights. It is funny and interesting at the same time.

"GameSpy: What do you hope to achieve through the creation of art?

Marc Holmes: Holy cow, these are tough questions. World Peace would be a nice start. :) Well, I'm interested in creating worlds. Creating part of an experience that is going to suck you in and transport your brain to an alien world. However sometimes I look at the amount of awesome art that's out there and think, "Man, I should just concentrate on getting good. Work on my painting and that's enough!"

Neverwinter Nights Team Interview at BeGroovy
Posted Wednesday, January 10, 2001 - 21:47 CET by Septic Yogurt

The people at BeGroovy have posted an interview with Trent Oster regarding Neverwinter Nights, it can be found here.

"With the intense 3d and networking required, we can only assume that you have your hands on the BONE and OpenGL betas. If so, how have you found them both from a performance and coding perspective?

Don
I still haven't done any benchmarking of the OpenGL performance, but it looks very good. Be is working hard to make sure it is as fast or faster then the Windows version. Since OpenGL is a standard API, the only differences have to do with initial setup and the few platform dependent things you need to do between frames. I would say the BeOS implementation in these respects is cleaner but that is directly related to the BeOS user interface API. I have not done any benchmarking of the networking performance either. I haven't ported to the BONE API so I can't comment on it from a development standpoint. At this stage of development I want to stay with the standard sockets API to make porting more maintainable."

This interview is mostly about Neverwinter Nights running under the BeOS operating system, so if you are running BeOS you should find it very interesting.

Preview of HoW
Posted Wednesday, January 10, 2001 - 19:43 CET by Maverick

RPGVault posted a preview of Heart of Winter with some screenshots.

"While fighting, you'll be able to use some cool, creative and powerful new spells implemented by the team, with some very imaginative and eye-catching spell animations and effects. So as not to give too much away, one rather interesting example that has been described previously by the team is Seven Eyes, a Level 7 Abjuration spell that calls forth a ring of seven orbs that floats above the caster around the caster, each orb having a different offensive and defensive power. The preview build did slow down at times when there was a lot of action and spell effects on-screen, but given that it was probably not optimized, performance of the release version will likely be better."

More Pool of Radiance at Gamebanshee
Posted Tuesday, January 9, 2001 - 21:17 CET by Sorcerer

Flagg has let us know that they have some additional info about Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor.
This time they caught Chuck Yager and made him answer some questions. ;)

More news about HoW
Posted Tuesday, January 9, 2001 - 18:18 CET by Maverick

Check out ZDNet: GameSpot. They have a screenshots, 3 movies and a preview:

"Players apparently took notice of the critical acclaim that Icewind Dale received, and positive word-of-mouth reviews also probably contributed to the game's success. Indeed, perhaps some of the initial backlash against Diablo II, which suffered from network stability issues and short supply in its first few weeks, also helped Icewind Dale. Regardless, the game sold enough copies to justify the publisher's and designers' decision to create the forthcoming expansion, Heart of Winter. And this expansion promises to be every bit as satisfying as the original game turned out to be. Read on to find out what to expect from this second volume."

The preview is not badly written, but you probably already know everything they wrote. But the movies look inreresting.


There is another preview on GamePower including a short interview with J.E. Sawyer on page 4 and a movie.


RPGVault posted chapter 6 of their Heart of Winter Designer Diary.

Even more screenshots
Posted Tuesday, January 9, 2001 - 11:00 CET by Maverick

Believe it or not, but I found 12 new screenshots of HoW at GameSpy. Well, they don't make it much easier to wait for it.
And check out the Icewind Dale Homepage, it is updated.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Monday, January 8, 2001 - 21:26 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Have you read the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien?
(554 votes total)

Yes, more than once (337) 61%
Yes, once (137) 25%
No, not yet (61) 11%
No, and I never will (19) 3%

Well, well... I knew our visitors are quite familiar with fantasy books, but the results of this poll have surprised me all the same.

A whole of 61% of respondents have said that they read the Lord of the Rings more than once, and judging by the comments left in the poll, some have read it over 5 times and some read the whole thing annually. Remarkable.
I'm sure old J.R.R. would be pleased.

Also, a round 25% of people have read the book once. Combining the two entries we can gather that 86% of people have read the book at least once!

11% of respondents to our poll haven't read it yet, but probably plan to in the near future.

Finally, there are 3% of people who answered that they have not read it and do not plan on doing it either. If any of you who voted for this option are reading this, I beg you to reconsider.
As you can see, the amount of people who have read it is huge, so there must be something about Tolkien that puts him about all others in term of fantasy writing. There is only one way to find out... ;)

HoW Screenshots
Posted Sunday, January 7, 2001 - 20:16 CET by Hexaruz

Gaming Age has 5 new hot screenshots of Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter.
Check em out if the plethora of ours posted below isn't enough for ya. *grin*

Problems With Pages (Seemingly) Not Loading
Posted Sunday, January 7, 2001 - 16:31 CET by Sorcerer

It seems that some pages here at Sorcerer's Place seem to stop loading for certain people, displaying only black screen.
I am aware of this problem, even though it is a mystery to me why do all pages load without problems for me.
Since nothing has been changed in the site layout or the pages in question, I can only attribute these problems to the ad scripts we have to run on the site.
I have sent out an inquiry regarding this and will hopefully have some answers soon. In the meanwhile, do not dispair if the page doesn't load right away. Simply leave the window open and after a while the page should load fine.
At least that's what people who are having this problem tell me.

Heart of Winter Preview at Sorcerer's Place
Posted Sunday, January 7, 2001 - 15:51 CET by Sorcerer

Yet again we bring you something special. This time I've put together a preview of the expansion to Icewind Dale - Heart of Winter, coming to stores near you in February. You'll find plenty of information about the game inside, plus 17 screenshots of our own and bunch of concept art masterpieces by Jason Manley.
To top it off, there are all of the screenshots the developers have sent us with the beta.

Yup, it doesn't get any better than this! ;)
See the Adventure in the Heart of Winter yourself.

Games Awards at Desslock's
Posted Sunday, January 7, 2001 - 12:23 CET by Sorcerer

Desslock has posted his annoual gaming awards. And as you guessed, some of our favorite RPGs are among the winners.
Icewind Dale and especially Baldur's Gate II (who won in numerous categories) wiped the floor with competition in most cases, so head over to Desslock's website to learn why he liked both games so much.

Human Head Transplant at Bioware a Success!
Posted Friday, January 5, 2001 - 13:10 CET by Sorcerer

Producer Trent Oster was minutes away from death after a stack of monitors fell over and crushed his bones. "We must rebuild him," was overheard by onlookers as the CEO doctors of BioWare examined the carnage. Oster was taken immediately to the cellars of BioWare, where surgery began.
"It was touch and go, but we managed to scrounge up a body without a head from one of our old D&D campaigns." said Dr. Greg Zeschuk after the operation. "Grafting Trent’s head onto the body was a simple matter of a wish spell. Not common to the normal level four, but since we made up the level system, we decided that we’d make ourselves high enough level to manage," added Dr. Ray Muzyka as he gave the high five to Zeschuk. Weeks into his recovery, Trent has vowed to do whatever it takes to even the score with his saviors.
"THEY GAVE ME A FREAKIN’ GNOME’S BODY!" ranted a pained Oster. "WHAT KIND OF SICK JOKE IS THIS?" When asked if he’ll be back to work soon, Trent replied sadly, "Kill me… kill me please… won ’t somebody please just kill me?"
Truly, a triumph of the will. Get well soon little fella.

Enjoy more of the similar here. :)

Heart of Winter Preview at RPGPlanet
Posted Friday, January 5, 2001 - 4:56 CET by Sorcerer

A preview of Black Isle's upcoming expansion to Icewind Dale has been posted at RPGPlanet.
It contains a bunch of new screenshots, plus some interesting information about the changes and improvements that were made to the HoW engine originally used in Icewind Dale, new monsters, items and similar.

Pool of Radiance Interview at Gamebanshee
Posted Friday, January 5, 2001 - 4:48 CET by Sorcerer

Gamebanshee have scored an interview with Garrett Graham, producer for Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor at Stormfront.
After a series of delays regarding this title, it's a bit disheartening to read that they still haven't progressed further than the alpha stage of the development process.
Nevertheless, we still hope that the new Pool of Radiance will now be released on schedule, without further delays.

Here's what you can look forward to in this game:
Well Myth Drannor in and of itself is a great place for an adventure to be set in. With ruined temples, lost wizard guilds, miles upon miles of catacombs and dungeons, and a three leveled castle to explore, your adventurers will have tons of things to keep them busy while they are attempting to destroy the plans of the Cult of the Dragon. Aside from this backdrop, the game will feature a host of NPCS with their own agendas, the machinations of the Cult, and the ultimate quest of retrieving the Gauntlets of Moander, which can destroy the pool of radiance. Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor will present you with 3D rendered models, the first look at the 3rd Edition, and an adventure that will harken back to the good old days of the original in feel and scope.

You can check out the whole interview here.

Big, Sloppy, Wet Kiss For Black Isle at CGO
Posted Friday, January 5, 2001 - 4:24 CET by Sorcerer

The Grumpy Gamer column strikes again, this time focusing on our favorite developers/publishers (yea, I'm biased, so sue me), Black Isle Studios.
It's generally a praise to the almighty gaming gods that BIS and Bioware are, with some good points regarding the games they developed.
There's even a Planescape: Torment screenshot in there, which filled me with nostalgia. (Incidentally, check out our vast Torment Gallery for more of them).
Read the whole column here.

Vault Network 2000 Awards
Posted Friday, January 5, 2001 - 4:08 CET by Sorcerer

Vault Network posted it's annual awards where, not surprisingly, Baldur's Gate II pops into context a number of times.
Icewind Dale is also mentioned, all the way at the bottom of the page, winning the Outstanding Achievement In Music award. No arguments about that!

"The year just passed was an interesting one indeed for fans CRPGs and persistent online worlds, a year characterized by substantial growth in various forms. The range of games we cover continued to gain greater prominence within the broader computer gaming community. We saw a larger number of notable releases, more new and interesting projects announced, more attention lavished upon titles in development, and a continuing increase in the use of RPG elements to enhance games within other genres.
As a result, it came as no surprise that when we undertook consideration of the selections for our third annual Vault Network Awards, the process was the most difficult yet."

Happy New Year
Posted Tuesday, January 2, 2001 - 21:25 CET by Hexaruz

As a reminder of 2000 and a fresh startup on 2001 Baldur's Gate 2 was also named RPG of the year at Voodoo Extreme!
Go over there and have a look at it!

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Monday, January 1, 2001 - 23:36 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: At the end of this last year of the old millennium, how would you rate the year 2000 on a scale of 1 to 5?
(274 votes total)

3 (OK) (83) 30%
4 (Very good) (70) 26%
1 (Disaster) (51) 19%
5 (Excellent) (39) 14%
2 (So-so) (31) 11%

I hope that everyone will find this new year more satisfactory than year 2000.
It seems that for most people this year wasn't anything special so 3 was the most common rating for the last year of the millennium.

Next on the scale was the rating of 4, which means that about one quarter of our visitors think that the year turned out to be very good.

Third place goes to the grade of 1, something I certainly didn't expect to see 20% of people vote for. Better luck this year I suppose.

Almost 15% of people think that year 2000 was excellent and lastly, 11% have rated the year behind us as so-so.

This year's first news
Posted Monday, January 1, 2001 - 16:13 CET by Maverick

The new year hardly began and I already have very good news for you all. I fond 18 new screenshots of 'Heart of Winter' at Voodoo Extreme! I guess we all can't await to finally buy the extension CD of Icewind Dale.
Happy new year and take care of yourselves.