November 2000

WOTC Interview: Heroes and Villains of Myth Drannor
Posted Thursday, November 30, 2000 - 10:29 CET by Nazgul

By Chuck Yager, Associate Producer, Pool of Radiance: The Ruins of Myth Drannor

Heroes and villains are a staple of almost every RPG out there, and they play a vital role in Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. Within the crumbling, ancient walls of Myth Drannor lurk unspeakable evils, some of which are masterminded by intelligent and cunning villains who ply their trade of death and destruction for personal gain and power. And with the rise of great evil comes the need for stalwart heroes to rise against the challenge that these villains pose and crush them beneath the weight of their good actions.

Villains

Let’s start off with our cadre of villains who pose a serious threat to the player’s actions in the game. Focusing on two in particular -- the dreaded Malgi Hi and the game’s arch-nemesis Kya Mordrayn -- should give you a decent understanding of the threats lying in wait for would-be heroes.

Heroes

With villains like these (and trust me, there are many more, ranging from drow to other Cult figures, to dark nagas and even Ormyrr), the call for mighty heroes echoes across Faerūn -- most notably in New Phlan, where the first new pool of radiance has sprung up. Even though players will create their own elite bands of do-gooders to stop the rising tide of darkness, others are already enmeshed in their own heroics across Myth Drannor as well. To focus on a few, let’s talk about Bronwyn and Kellan, two Sisters of the Silver Fire, and Athan, a classic hero if ever there was one.

You can see the full intervew here!

BG2 Final Patch has arrived!
Posted Thursday, November 30, 2000 - 5:45 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

The Final patch for Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn was released today by Interplay, which you can snag here. Please note, this is for the english release of Baldur's Gate 2 and may or may not work with the international releases distributed world wide.

For all the changes that the final patch covers, you can sit back and read it here.

Baldur's Gate II Online Solution - Trademeet Added
Posted Wednesday, November 29, 2000 - 22:40 CET by Sorcerer

Another area of our fine Baldur's Gate II Online Solution has just been added.
Fresh from the typing oven we bring you Trademeet!

Another masterpiece by our Exclusive Solutions Scribe, Sylvus Moonbow. (aka Ye olde fountain of knowledge).
Now if I could just get him to fix those NPC tables... ;)

Neverwinter Nights Project Update
Posted Wednesday, November 29, 2000 - 20:21 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"Neverwinter Nights Project Update

Throughout the last month we have been working hard to ensure that Neverwinter Nights will meet the expectations of gamers everywhere. This has involved refinements to both the content and the code. With our PR campaign once again ramping up, you'll be seeing and hearing a lot more from us over the coming months. As we don't want to give too much away, however, we'll be starting you off with some simple but tantalizing glimpses of what's still to come.

Programming

The game interface is beginning to take shape, including the character generation process and the major in-game panels such as maps and spell memorization. The interface is a vital component of the project and we are working hard to ensure that it is easy to understand and use. Beyond interface, our interactive combat animation system is almost complete and looking great. Say goodbye to the "Flintstones Boxing" of yesteryear, because we're bringing you a whole new level of combat interaction. Thrusts, parries, and dodges all add up to the intricate ballet that will be combat in Neverwinter Nights. As for the focus of the coming months, we just have the small challenge of implementing the entire 3rd Edition D&D rules set, a high-quality toolset, a DM Client, and a tiny little matching service. Trust me, the pain is worth it. ; )

Art

The art team has been busy defining the look and feel of Neverwinter, across various aspects of the game. The portraits are piling up and I think you'll be pleased with the amount and variety we're making available. Monster and animal models are coming along nicely, with textures and animations being applied at a steady rate. In terms of tiles, City, Rural, Sewer, and Dungeon are all progressing well, with more scheduled for the future. The tiles are looking amazing and we can't wait to show off some of the new content in the coming months. Also, armor pieces are starting to fall into place, interface art is being created, and icons are streaming in at an ever-increasing rate. Little by little, it's starting to look like a game around here.

Design

The Design Team has completed the Implementation Plans and is now making a second pass through them to make sure they're as fun and tight as possible. Narration for the various modules is being written, as are the voice-acting lines for the numerous generic player and non-player voice sets. On the technical side, we're on Design Doc 5.0 now and are continuing to keep the document up to date as more and more things get tweaked and decided. The design on the underlying effect systems for spells, monsters, and items is almost complete and we will soon be ready to begin implementation. We're getting our first taste of the scripting language and, while it has a ways to come before we can start any serious work on plot and combat scripts, we've been very happy with the power and flexibility that the programmers have been building into it. All in all, while we still have a lot of work ahead of us, things are progressing smoothly and staying on track.

Summary

In short, Neverwinter Nights is the game we've all been dreaming of and it's exciting to see it start becoming a eality."

D&D Movie: Interview with Justin Whalin
Posted Tuesday, November 28, 2000 - 22:35 CET by Maverick

Melanie Creel, movie correspondent for the Wizards of the Coast web team, talks with the 25-year-old Actor Justin Whalin. Go to wizards.com to read it.

By the way, the seednd.com movie homepage has recently been updated and is now full of information about the film.

Trent Oster of Bioware on saving vaulted characters
Posted Tuesday, November 28, 2000 - 20:47 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"Portal travel will do an automatic check-in / out for you. So you don't have to worry about losing your character.

However, we want to avoid the constant checking in and out as it would make for a massive load on the Character Vault. Constant check-ins would also remove the sense of danger from adventuring as it could be used to "save" the game."

Trent Oster of Bioware on NPC portability
Posted Tuesday, November 28, 2000 - 20:46 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"We are planning to support the export of independent NPC files. You script, write dialogue and equip the NPC and then export him/her out. Zip the file and post it if you wish and share it with everyone.

We are hoping to have this kind of support for items, monsters and encounters as well, allowing you to pull down content and build modules faster through collaboration"

Bob McCabe of Bioware on NWN and level caps
Posted Tuesday, November 28, 2000 - 20:45 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"Purely for background & comparison... a "high-level" character would be someone like Artemis Entreri. Entreri is the Realms greatest-known assassin, and sits at about 16th level or so. The leader of a small village would likely be no more then 2nd or 3rd level, while the leader of a major city, like Neverwinter, might not be more than 8th level.

Having said that, you will be able to go up to 20th level in NWN, so you will be plenty powerful enough :) An ancient red dragon might be out of the reach of a single character, but there won't be too much else in the world that is.

As for why we capped the game at 20th level, it comes as much from the needs of our own campaign, as from getting the game out on time, and working with the rules that are outlined in D&D's PHB. However, when the Forgotten Realms "levels 20+" rule books are released, working them into a potential expansion (cross your fingers!) would be a very high priority.

Then, we'll all be liberally butt-kicking dragons -- for goodness!"

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Monday, November 27, 2000 - 22:34 CET by Sorcerer

A week has gone by, and as per contract, the last week's results are here.

What we asked:

Q: Would you chat with other people here if a web-based chat room(s) were available?
(212 votes total)

Yes, occasionally (75) 35%
No, probably not (61) 29%
No, never (50) 24%
Yes, very often (26) 12%

This poll was more of an indicator for me than something most people would be interested in (as are other polls), but we managed to get a few things out of it despite the low vote count.

It's encouraging that about 47% of people coming round here would also chat here (even if only occasionally) and that's a good sign that there is some interest in the idea.

The other 53% probably wouldn't chat online here, or never at all.

Well, I decided to go through with the online chat idea anyway. I'm sure that with time we'll get even more people interested. ;)
I'm in the process of trying out various solutions and when I decide which one is best, I'll be sure to let you all know. And of course, invite you all to chat with us!

You can read all previous poll results in the Poll Archives section, and vote in this week's poll here.

Trent Oster of Bioware on video card requirements for NWN servers
Posted Monday, November 27, 2000 - 18:00 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"There server video card can be as cheap as you wish. We are providing a visual "Server Monitor" program to allow you to check in on the server and change set up options, but this application can also be run remotely. So if you could get and OS to boot and get the server started, you could run with any video card in the server you desire."

Rob Bartel of Bioware on NWN issues about Climbing, Swiming and Flying
Posted Monday, November 27, 2000 - 17:58 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

1) Levitate - No, at present, the Levitate spell is not on the Neverwinter spell list. However, according to the 3rd Edition rules, Levitate does not allow for lateral movement. In other words, you would not be able to use it to cross a canyon as you suggest.

2) Swimming - Swimming will also have to wait for a future expansion or sequel. The additional animation required to allow all creatures (including monsters) to swim was simply too much to accommodate within a realistic time frame.

3) The Look of your Character - Here's where the good news starts. There will be literally billions of possible armor and clothing looks in Neverwinter and that's not including the wide range of color variations that will also be available. All of these unique looks will be apparent, both in your inventory and within the actual gameworld. Also, unlike Baldur's Gate, your class no longer determines the look of your character - you do. This allows for a much freer roleplay environment, where you dictate the nature of your character, not us.

4) Ring Mail Armor - Yup, we've definitely got some. In fact, we've got plenty. The textures the artists are working on look great and the reflective environment mapping is as sweet as ever. We'll be creating plenty of magical versions and you're more than welcome to create a few of your own as well... Elven chain anyone?

5) Climb Walls - The issue is more complicated than simply pathfinding. As with swimming, animation was an important factor in our decision. This includes animations not only for climbing but also for falling, for combat while climbing, for window entry and exit, etc. Also, players need visual feedback to determine which surfaces are climbable and which aren't and the module designer needs
to have specific control over that within the toolset. In short, it was a big task and one that we ultimately decided we needed to back away from, at least for the initial release.

6) High-Level Druids - We've made a few interface tweaks, such as splitting off their high-level Wild Shape abilities (where they can finally polymorph into powerful elementals) into a separate ability called Elemental Shape. The effect is the same but things fit around the radial menu a little more easily. The Timeless Body ability they gain at 15th level doesn't really hold any bearing on Neverwinter, so that's been removed but we've made up for it with some minor enhancements to Wild Shape as a whole. If anything, Neverwinter druids are currently slightly more powerful than their pen-and-paper counterparts. There will be further tweaking and balancing during the testing phase but we're committed to keeping the classes as true to 3rd Edition as feasible."

Bob McCabe of Bioware on NWN with player levels and Drow
Posted Monday, November 27, 2000 - 17:57 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"1.will triple classing among humans be allowed? (ex:9thfighter dualed to a thief and then to a mage)or will 3rd edition remove this all together?

In 3rd edition, this has all changed. You start as one class, and each time you gain a level, you can add one to your current class, or add a new class. There are no racial restrictions to multi-classing.

2.will drow be a playable race, or would a potential drow player have to be a dark skinned common elf again?

You can custom script this, but we're only including the PHB races initially.

3.will there be a level cap, or an exp. cap?(ex:can i become say an 18 fighter and dual to a mage, and take that mage to 19,or would that not be possible due to a limited amount of exp.)

The level cap in 3rd edition is 20th. Your classes may not exceed this. You can have a 20th level character, a 10th/10th, or some other combination :)"

Dave Gaider of Bioware Interview
Posted Monday, November 27, 2000 - 17:56 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

Cespenar of A Land Far Away (ALFA), which is an online, persistant world creating the Forgotten Realms for Neverwinter Nights (NWN) had an interview with Dave "Gravy" Gaider of Bioware. Some questions he asked were regarding the wrap-up of BG2 and his current work with Bioware. Certainly not an interview to pass up and one you can read here.

Pool of Radiance level change
Posted Monday, November 27, 2000 - 17:02 CET by Nazgul

From Chuck Yager, Associate Producer

The fact that we are allowing for the "possibility" of a 16/16 character is an extreme. Realize that reaching 16th level will be a task in and of itself. We extended the cap of 16th level period for the main reason of letting certain players who wanted to go all out and play through multiplayer a bunch to see the effects of certain classes working in tandem with each other at various levels.
We understand that 32nd level characters would be an EXTREME goal for most players, but we wanted to give die hard gamers the ultimate goal. Realistically speaking, most characters will never attain this lofty, demi-god status of character advancement, but they will be able to mix and match a variety of classes between the mid range levels.

IWD:HoW Designer Journal at Gamespy
Posted Sunday, November 26, 2000 - 17:45 CET by Calis

Man, does that J.E. Sawyer fella ever, like, work on the game or something? :-) Yet another of his infamous designer diaries has appeared on the web, this time at Gamespy. As usual, the amount of info in the article is negligible, but it is filled with interesting Black Isle-infobits such as this one:

Almost three hundred years later, when Feargus Urquhart became the division director of Black Isle Studios, he planted the sacred seed of his great-great-great-great-great grandfather in the Von Karman Corporate Center between the Interplay buildings. There it stood for almost five years. It was the inspiration for the Great Oak of Kuldahar, a site of sacred worship for neo-pagans, and the home of ten families. Unfortunately, this weekend, it was ripped to pieces by cybernetic dinosaurs under the control of the McDonalds Corporation.

IWD:HoW Designer Diary day 3 at RPGVault
Posted Saturday, November 25, 2000 - 16:27 CET by Calis

Part 3 of RPGVault's Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter design diary, written by designer J.E. Sawyer, is now online. In this issue, J.E. talks about monsters and combat.

Neverwinter Nights at Gamespot
Posted Saturday, November 25, 2000 - 16:25 CET by Calis

Day 5 of Gamespot's feature on online RPG's is now online. Today, they take a look at Bioware's Neverwinter Nights. It contains an insane load of info, as well as an interview with producer Trent Oster.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Saturday, November 25, 2000 - 0:13 CET by Sorcerer

Things have finally calmed down a bit, so I was able to do some REAL work on the site for a change, not just the most urgent updates as has been happening here for the last two weeks. There are plenty of new things to be seen here, so take a few minutes and read the exact details of this rather big update.

Subsection Updates

Starting with the smallest changes, the Neverwinter Nights section has been updated with a chat log the Neverwinter Stratics had with Bioware earlier this month. It isn't all that long, so if you're interested, weren't there and haven't read it before, now is the time. ;)
The NWN Frequently Asked Questions page has been updated as well.

The really big additions have been made to the Baldur's Gate II section of the site.
I'll start with what I spent the most on - the Baldur's Gate II NPC Guide. Although the NPC guide has been on the site for quite a long time (a few weeks before the game was released), some readers have noted that certain stats in our list were wrong, in one instance even a whole class was reversed.

Well, all the stats and classes have been fixed now, plus I added the locations of all NPCs and how to get them to join you. As an additional bonus, all of the old portraits (some were taken from the screenshots back then) have been replaced with crispy-clear new ones. A link to the list was also added to the main BGII section for easier access.

The second time eater was the Baldur's Gate II area map. Sylvus was good enough to have scanned it, and I put my editing skills to work and so we can offer you the whole Baldur's Gate II paper map, which was only included with the US version of the game. On a side note, a bunch of in-game maps are also available in our Baldur's Gate II Online Solution.

The BGII/Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection has been split in two parts due to it's size. The upper half now consists of things like custom characters, portraits, savegames, voice sets etc., while the lower is purely for hacks, editors, scripters and the like.
New things that should be mentioned in this section are a bunch of submitted voice sets (excellent ones), and the extra merchants that enable you to access some of the very special, very expensive weapons and items.

As usual, check the Site News section for direct links to all new stuff.

Bioware releases BG2 Beta Patch
Posted Friday, November 24, 2000 - 6:04 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

The Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn Beta Patch is available for downloading and a full list of issues they have resolved can be found at the Official Bioware Site.

Expect the *FINAL* patch out shortly.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted Thursday, November 23, 2000 - 21:06 CET by Sorcerer

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating it, on the behalf of the crew of Sorcerer's Place!

Yet another Heart of Winter update
Posted Thursday, November 23, 2000 - 16:50 CET by Calis

The official page for Heart of Winter, Black Isle's upcoming expansion for their combat-oriented RPG Icewind Dale, has been updated again. This time, lead programmer Bernie Weir gives us an overview of the new features in the expansion. Here's a little quote of particular interest:

MORE HIGH RESOLUTION MODES SUPPORTED - Danien Chee has added support for lots of new high resolution display modes. Now you can play at 640 x 480, 800x 600, 1024 x 768, 1600 x 1200, even 2048 x 1536! Combined with the new ability to drop-away all of the interface panels for full screen gameplay, the view of the game world is huge. The artwork is stunning at 2048 x 1536 pixels!

Eurogamer previews Neverwinter Nights
Posted Thursday, November 23, 2000 - 12:17 CET by Calis

A preview of the game that's commonly mistaken for the holy grail, Neverwinter Nights, was posted at Eurogamer. No new info is offered, but it's a good read if you need to remind yourself why this game is going to rock.

But although the game features a strong single player component, it is the multiplayer features which really make it stand out from the crowd, with a mixture of both competitive and co-operative modes. Gladiator-style arena combat between players is a strong possibility for those of you looking for a simple deathmatch environment, while treasure hunts and castle sieges are apparently on the cards if you want something a little more interesting.

Black List column update at GA-RPG
Posted Wednesday, November 22, 2000 - 17:40 CET by Calis

A new Black List column went up a few days ago at GA-RPG. In this issue, Icewind Dale (and Heart of Winter) designer J.E. Sawyer talks about assumptions players have when playing a computer game that's based on a pen & paper license.

Another IWD: Heart of Winter update
Posted Wednesday, November 22, 2000 - 17:33 CET by Calis

The official Heart of Winter site has been updated again. This time, Chris Avellone, one of the greatest game designers in existence (*puts the $50 from Chris in his wallet*), gives us an overview of the team currently working on this Icewind Dale expansion. Included is some whiteboard cartoon coolness.

Jeff Vogel on Baldur's Gate 2
Posted Tuesday, November 21, 2000 - 21:23 CET by Calis

Jeff Vogel, Big Kahuna over at Spiderweb Software (Exile, Avernum), updated his Grumpy Gamer column over at CGO. In it, he offers a very funny look at Baldur's Gate II. This is one of his conclusions:
It was an awful lot like dating.

Interview With Greg Zeschuk at Baldur's Gate Haven
Posted Tuesday, November 21, 2000 - 19:41 CET by Sorcerer

The guys at BG Haven have let us know that they posted an interview with the co-executive producer at Bioware, Greg Zeschuk.
It's a pretty short one, but here's a snippet anyway:

Who is the idea behind Minsc, and what is the inspiration behind Boo?

Minsc and Boo were characters in an AD&D campaign played by some of the members of BioWare - he was a concoction of the one of the players in the group, as were a number of the other BG and BG2 characters.

You can read the rest of it here.

Offical IWD: HoW site updated
Posted Tuesday, November 21, 2000 - 17:29 CET by Azardu

The Official Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter Page was updated on Monday with the following news:

    Howdy folks...just getting you guys up to speed on what's been going on in the art department of H.O.W., it's getting close now. Background effects are getting wrapped up by David Pursley as well as some really cool character effects. We've acquired three new soldiers for our team: Hector Espinoza, Chris Amaral, and Primo Pulanco who are all contributing to the expansion. My main man Aaron "the master modeler" Brown continues to create masterful areas for you to explore and is also getting the intro and outro pieced together. Our man with the brush, Jason Manley is busting out some mad character portraits...i think you guys will fully dig them, i sure do, sweet! Speaking of which, Justin Sweet has just finished with the intro/outro paintings. nice! He is also responsible for that awesome ad currently in the magazines, check it out. Man, the box art is looking really good. Kelly Wine has been focused on upping the ante on the box design, it looks really good. Myself...I've been busting out the anims for remaining monsters. The whole package is coming together and I'm stoked!

In addition they've got a nice new wallpaper with a white dragon and what seems to be an axe-wielding barbarian up for grabs.
Go see for yourselves.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! - Vote! Vote!! Vote!!!
Posted Monday, November 20, 2000 - 22:20 CET by Sorcerer

Ehm.

I hope that headline was clear enough. I don't know whether the poll server (or the site?) has been down, but the number of votes in the poll today has been catastrophical.
I'm used to site-related polls getting very few votes, but this is ridiculous. So I'm ushering each and every one of you to go and vote! in this week's poll.

What's the poll about you ask?
It's about a potential new community here at Sorcerer's Place. We've built a series of very successful forums here, but sometimes delayed responses just don't cut it...
Of course, we have a few channels on EFnet (namely #sorcerers, #BaldursGate and #IcewindDale) but they've been pretty much lonely lately.

The idea is to incorporate some sort of java, or web-based chat client here, on the site, so that you won't even have to download mIRC or go to any efforts to be able to talk with other people about your favorite games, discuss any unrelated things or, best of all, talk to me, Sylvus and the rest of the crew if they'll bother to drop by. ;)

So, again, please don't disregard this poll. I really want to establish an opinion about how much interest YOU would have in this. It's meant for the benefit of the whole community, after all.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Monday, November 20, 2000 - 22:03 CET by Sorcerer

Another week has gone by sooner than I cared to notice, and a new batch of poll results is here, as usual.

What we asked:

Q: Have you finished Baldur's Gate II yet?
(594 votes total)

No, not yet (365) 61%
Yes, once (97) 16%
No, I'm not playing it (65) 11%
Yes, twice (34) 6%
Yes, more than three times (26) 4%
Yes, three times (7) 1%

The results show that a large majority of people still haven't finished the game, a bit contrary to what I keep hearing all time. (It seemed to me that Sylvus and I were the only ones who haven't finished it yet).
Well, I feel a bit better now. And really, I see no point in rushing through the game just so I can play it three times to see all of it and do all quests. Kinda pointless. At least that's how I feel.

Well, waaay back by the number of votes (but on second place) are the ones who have finished the game once.

Third place is taken by those who aren't playing the game at all. (Or haven't started yet). About 11% of our visitors obviously come here for other things, like Icewind Dale and Torment info.

6% of people have finished the game exactly twice, 4% more than three times (what wouldn't I give to have so much time on my hands! ;) and lastly, a whooping 1% of people finished it exactly three times.

You can see the results of previous polls at the Recent Poll Archives page, and vote in this week's poll here.

Chuck Yager on POR2 and the changes that are happening
Posted Saturday, November 18, 2000 - 3:49 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

POR2 definitely explains the missing Phaerum (did I spell that correctly ) and Baatezu that have plagued Myth Drannor's halls for some time. Now I don't claim to be as much of an enthusiast of Forgotten Realms as I do for Dragonlance, but I do know that the story goes into great length to depicit the work the Cult of the Dragon has done in Myth Drannor. As a result of some of their shock troops and fortifications throughout the city, most of the Baatezu (or are we calling them devils again gentlemen) and Phaerum have either been banished, killed, or have hid away somewhere that this adventure will not take you to exploring. We wanted to keep the look and feel of Myth Drannor's environments as true to the history and WotC license as possible, so Stormfront actually hired an architect to re-create the city before its fall since we couldn't locate complete maps for all the structures since before all the wars tore old MD apart. In a sense, we have been able to breathe new life into what Myth Drannor might have looked like in the beginning, and then tore some of those same structures down to give it the battered down feel it has.

However, our story revolves aroud the emergence of a new pool of radiance and the involvement of Sammaster's Cult of the Dragon, and not the denziens of the once proud city that lived there prior to the Cult's arrival. Although I am a big Baatezu...er, devil (damn..I'm never going to be able remember we're switching back with the 3E rules ) fan, there are plenty of other nasties that fit right in with the Myth Drannor setting as we all know it.

Did someone mention gargoyles? Well, after this game you're sure to know gargoyles and margoyles inside and out (makes sense when you figure your pushing them off your blades as you find their roosting spots). Well, don't want to give too much away, but that's just a teaser for now.

Trent Oster on NWN and out of combat weapon animations
Posted Saturday, November 18, 2000 - 2:57 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"We are putting in the draw and sheath animations, but the items will disappear after they are sheathed. We are doing this to allow more creatures on screen through a lower polygon count and object management."

Trent Oster on NWN and Elven Tree Cities
Posted Saturday, November 18, 2000 - 2:56 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"In a future expansion we could create a large tree with a doorway in the bottom. When you enter the tree you are transported to another area using the "treetop city tileset". Basically a very woodland tileset based around suspension bridges and treetop dwellings.

I like the idea and hopefully in the future we can create the tileset in an expansion pack."

Trent Oster on NWN and voice sets shipped with the game
Posted Saturday, November 18, 2000 - 2:56 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"We are shipping a number of generic player voice sets with the game and a number of generic NPC sets. Both of these sets can be used and will cover most common combat and casual chatting. The user created sounds idea fits into the concept of user created content and we want to wait until we can do it before we say anything further."

Boards O' Magick Problem Report
Posted Friday, November 17, 2000 - 23:41 CET by Sorcerer

Yet again I must apologize for the downtime we've had on the boards, as well as here in the news.
Hopefully this has been fixed now and won't happen anymore, but if it does bare with us and know that the butts responsible are being kicked liberally and in good measure. (As Minsc would say ;).

In case you don't know yet, you can access our forums right here.

The Outer-Edge Baldur's Gate II Review
Posted Friday, November 17, 2000 - 23:14 CET by Sorcerer

The folks at The Outer-Edge have let us know that they posted a review of Baldur's Gate II which scored 97% overall. As usual, the game made a very good impression:

What it all comes down to is simple, BG2 is a long game that never fails to entertain. It is visually beautiful, sounds great, as is technically solid. I have relished every minute spent with BG2. It hooked me from the title screen and even though I have beaten it, it still has its claws in me. This may all seem like a lot to believe, but I assure, it is an awesome game. While not everyone will LOVE the game, almost everyone will LIKE the game, unless you HATE RPG's. For anyone wanting to know which RPG to spend their money on, this is it: The epic, classic.

Read the rest here.

Bob McCabe on NWN about DMs naming NPCs
Posted Friday, November 17, 2000 - 1:43 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"As for naming the NPCs, that's something you'll have to determine on your own. If you want your NPCs to go nameless, such as in the Infinity Engine titles (to help you differentiate from who you need to talk to, and who is just ambient), then that's fine. If you want to name everyone for realism, then that is fine as well. You can do either :)"

Bob McCabe on NWN about player names appearing over their avatar
Posted Friday, November 17, 2000 - 1:42 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"I think it is going to be set that you can write a line of description, similar to most MUDs, that people will get if they "examine" you. I'm not certain if we have discussed whether the PC's name will be instantly known or not, at this point, though it does seem better to go the route of not knowing unless told."

Trent Oster on NWN about scripting something to trigger death
Posted Friday, November 17, 2000 - 1:40 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"We are providing an "On_Player_Death" event which can call a custom module script. So if you could script an event at any period in the game you can do it when a character dies."

Trent Oster on NWN about being a stupid thief
Posted Friday, November 17, 2000 - 1:39 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"Monsters will be making Spot and Listen checks against the party. If the players are carrying a torch we could increase the "visibility" of the character. If you are trying to hide in shadows as a thief and carry a torch at the same time, you wont last long in any dungeon."

Trent Oster on NWN Video Card Issues
Posted Friday, November 17, 2000 - 1:38 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"We are enjoying great support from NVidia on the development front, so as a matter of course our game currently runs great on NVidia graphics hardware. If I had any recommendations to make It would be to put the video card as a high priority when upgrading a system. The performance difference between older and newer processor is less than it has been in the past, while every generation of video card makes a huge leap in terms of performance and features."

Rob Bartel on NWN User Interface
Posted Friday, November 17, 2000 - 1:37 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"We're still working out a lot of the finer interface details (and will continue to tweak things, right until the end), but we have been discussing a number of non-mouse-based selection methods for those who want to keep their hands on their keyboards. Our basic goal for the interface is to make it as flexible and useful as possible."

Rob Bartel of Bioware on NWN Body Sizes
Posted Friday, November 17, 2000 - 1:36 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"As Blade, uh, sorta mentioned, you'll be able to pick a body type during character creation. Right now, the choices will probably be Average, Muscular, and Fat (we found that Skinny and Average didn't look all that different, given our isometric perspective). As the art content starts coming in for all of the the different gender, race, armor, and body type variations, we may come up with one or two more that are both distinctive and useful."

Trent Oster on some NWN issues
Posted Friday, November 17, 2000 - 1:36 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"1) Q: Will there be restrictions to which weapons you can put into your quickslots? eg) in bg2 you were unable to put a bow in your quick slot if 2 weapons(dual weilding) were equiped.

A: We are still implementing the weapon equiping system, so I can't really say. Ultimately we'd like to be able to replace both weapons with a two handed weapon, but we probably can't support quickslot equipping two weapons with one click.

2) Q: If a ranger or thief hide in shadows will the other PC's be able to see them?

A: Only if the other players make a Spot check.

3) I noticed in the NWN demo that the invontory cache was switched to more of a diablo style; where an item takes up more than one invontory space. I thank you for doing this because i find it much more realistic compared to my bg character carrying 10 suits of armor...THANK YOU..

A: You are welcome. WE decided to model inventory both by weight and size, so the different sized icons made sense.

4) refering to the post below about missle weapons missing a target when running through the woods, I too have a question on this issue. Will a missle weapon ever miss its target and hit a alie? for instance, if an archer was firing arrows into a melee frey would
there be a chance of another pc getting hit?

A: It will be difficult to pick out the character running through the woods to target him/her with an arrow, but once you have the target, your character will fire and make standard to hit rolls until the target moves out of range, or you interrupt your character."

Pool of Radiance info.
Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2000 - 16:10 CET by Nazgul

From Chuck Yager, Associate Producer, SSI

The fact that the product has slipped from when everyone was tracking to is a result of fine tuning what we already have in the game. While we at SSI are certainly looking very hard at gameplay, fun factor, and game length, we are also touching up dialogue, quests, interactive environments, treasure found in game, and addressing issues like bringing the backgrounds to life and filling in sections of the dungeons, in particular, that we feel might need a few more hooks and side quests to make them complete. I am not precluding the addition of a feature here or there, but for the most part we are heading toward polish rather than adding new features to the game. However, I can assure you that should some of the minor tweaks we are considering get into the game, you'll be the first to know about it.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Monday, November 13, 2000 - 20:52 CET by Sorcerer

And you thought I forgot to post them...
Ah well, no reast for the weary. Votes trickled and, were processed, commented and served here, as usual.

What we asked:

Q: Which of the upcoming D&D games/add-ons are you mostly looking forward to playing?
(475 votes total)

Neverwinter Nights (195) 41%
Baldur's Gate II addon (168) 35%
Pool of Radiance: RoMD (58) 12%
Heart of Winter (IWD addon) (54) 11%

It seems that the majority of us are mostly looking forward to playing Neverwinter Nights, not much of a surprise. With the exciting new features and the ability to create your own dungeons and areas with very little effort, this one is going to be another bestseller for Interplay. (Trust me on this ;).

Second place goes to the still unnamed and unannounced Baldur's Gate II expansion that we all know the Bioware guys are hard at work on, but we'll have to wait a bit longer before we can post anything concrete about it.
The sheer amount of votes this unnamed project got clearly indicates that people will buy just about anything with a BG II title on it.
But then again, I'm not one to judge since I'm among that crowd. *grin*

Surprisingly, the new Pool of Radiance beat the Icewind Dale expansion. Not by far, but still. It has been least favorite of all our previous polls and it's standing today isn't rosy either. And since it has been delayed until May next year, I fear the majority of people that might've otherwise bought it this winter will rather buy Neverwinter Nights which is scheduled to arrive only a bit later.

The last place goes to Heart of Winter, the Icewind Dale expansion that's about to be released next month sometime. (Hopefully).
It didn't really fare well in this poll, but since this was a people's selection of "most anticipated" we can assume that many people who voted for other three options will play it as well, it just won't be their favorite.
(This conclusion is based on the poll we've had three weeks ago when we questioned gamers if they will buy the IWD expansion).

You can vote in this week's poll here or check our other recent polls in the Poll Archives.

HoW diary
Posted Friday, November 10, 2000 - 20:32 CET by Maverick

The first Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter Developer Diary is up at GameSpy today. It really is worth a look.

More NWN-screenshots
Posted Friday, November 10, 2000 - 20:22 CET by Maverick

Believe it or not, GameSpy put again new screenshots of Neverwinter Nights on their page. Check them out.

Trent Oster of Bioware on food requirements and body parts for NWN
Posted Friday, November 10, 2000 - 14:10 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"Food will not be in the campagin we ship with the game. If a module creator wants to use food, he/she can script it in the module.

We will not be supporting decapitation or limb removal. This could be implemented on a server through the bag suggestion made below. On a character death, a "head" item is created and can be treated as proof of a kill on the character."

Neverwinter Nights screenshots posted!
Posted Friday, November 10, 2000 - 14:07 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

XGR-X-TREME Gaming has posted some new Neverwinter Nights Screenshots for those waiting for this game. Check it out!

Rob Bartel of Bioware on armor in Neverwinter Nights
Posted Friday, November 10, 2000 - 14:03 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"Just to clarify:

From the player's perspective, armor is single-piece. Not only does this make inventory management much easier, it also maintains the integrity of the D&D Armor Class rules.

Within the toolset, however, we're allowing you to build individual armor suits in a piece-based fashion. It's a very powerful system and will go a long way towards personalizing the heroes and villains of your modules as well as your own player character, as well."

Trent Oster of Bioware on monster respawns and performance machines for NWN
Posted Friday, November 10, 2000 - 14:02 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

Trent Oster (Bioware) gives a quick update on monster spawns and "good" performance machines:

"NWN will be able to support the respawning of monsters. You could also place a trigger which spawns the creatures in.

As for system and processor reccomendations, anything over 600 mhz runs the game exceptionally well. The graphics card seems to be more important for the feel of the game than the processor at the moment though."

Biowares Chat about NWN
Posted Friday, November 10, 2000 - 13:59 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

A redefined chat log of Bioware's discussions on Neverwinter Nights can be found here.

News about NWN and BGate II
Posted Thursday, November 9, 2000 - 23:13 CET by Maverick

Hi folks

Neverwinter Nights
GameSpy just put five new screenshots on their page. Don't miss them!


Baldur's Gate II
Fans, pay attention: there's a great BGate II Giveaway. Fifteen lucky ones can win very, very cool prices. Just visit Planet Baldur's Gate and fill out the from. But the contest is only open to American and Canadian residents. The winners will be picked on Thanksgiving, November 23, 2000. Wish you luck!!

Trent Oster on the official NWN boards answering some questions about NWN
Posted Tuesday, November 7, 2000 - 23:14 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

Trent Oster had some good news on the issue of running two opposing parties simultaneously and at the same time:


"Both parties could be played by players, each with its' own DM.

The parties do not have to be in the same area. The only time this is required is when the area transition to the next area requires all players present (good plot tool).

Multiple start points are not a problem either. You can place as many as you wish and set the conditions to determine placement as you wish."

Answers a question on hardware specificity and the evils that favoring one chipset over another could bring:

"Our development workstations are mostly dual processor Intel P3 systems with Nvidia Geforce2 video cards. We have a few AMD systems in house and a variety of other cards and we will be optimizing for all platforms and all video cards before release."

And goes on to discuss the weather...:

"The toolset will allow changing the replay rates of environmental animations. With regards to sky textures, these will be fixed to the tileset."

Trent then kicks it into overdrive and tackles some really serious issues -- content creation, graphics and tilesets:

"1) Is it possible using the toolset (or even from an external source) to create new tilesets for NWN when the game ships?

(see #2)

2) Is it possible using the toolset (or even from an external source) to create new player/monster/item models for NWN when
the game ships?

The toolset will not allow the end user to create his/her own tiles, monster models or item models. The creation of the models and icons will require an art tool of some form. We are interested in supporting the creation of custom art and we are looking into a system to support custom content. Creating content will still require skill and a 3rd party tool.

3) Can a "map" use more than one tileset at a time? I.e. can we have an evil castle in the middle of a dark forest (a single zone/area/map)?

No, areas are limited to one tileset at a time. The main reasons are texture memory and tileset size in ram.

4) Will it be possible to make new "skins" (textures) for player/monster/item models?

(see #2)

5) Can we take an exisiting tileset and change its textures to simulate an other? i.e. take the grassland tileset and modify texture colors to simulate desert or snow?

In places we will allow the tinting of objects in the game to give a little more visual interest when possible. This will not allow the changing of textures in game. The changing of textures will require a 3rd party tool and the exporting of a new tileset."

Rob Bartel (Bioware) on NWN nudity
Posted Monday, November 6, 2000 - 22:37 CET by Sylvus Moonbow

"Right now you can strip you character down to his or her skivvies but that's as far as it goes. I don't know the full details but, if we were to include nudity in Neverwinter, I believe it would mean forgoing our Teen ESRB rating, something we take fairly seriously here at BioWare."

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter Designer Diary
Posted Monday, November 6, 2000 - 17:27 CET by Brandubh

J.E. Sawyer, designer of the Heart of Winter expansion pack, has posted the prologue to the Designer Diary at RPGVault's Designer Den. It's an interesting beginning, and there's definitely more to come from this in the future.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Monday, November 6, 2000 - 12:23 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Will you buy the inevitable expansion(s) to Baldur's Gate II?
(560 votes total)

Of course (501) 89%
Not sure (45) 8%
No way (14) 3%

Very interesting. Two weeks ago we had a similar poll regarding the upcoming Icewind Dale expansion, and I thought that one had a pretty amazing outcome.
Hah, check this out. Practically 90% of people who bought Baldur's Gate II will certainly buy it's yet unnamed expansion as well. 8% are still undecided (logically, nothing has been revealed about the expansion yet), but only 3% of people are certain they won't buy it.

No wonder Interplay is finally out of the red zone. Baldur's Gate II is a tremendous success, and with an expansion in the works it'll be an even bigger one. Likewise with Icewind Dale.
Who would have thought that a genre considered dead only a couple of years ago would be saving giants like Interplay today?

You can see all older polls in our Poll Archives and vote in this week's poll here.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Saturday, November 4, 2000 - 23:48 CET by Sorcerer

Bringing 'em in quite often these days. ;)
Here are the new goodies: