May 2001

Heart of Winter Review at Women Gamers
Posted Sunday, May 27, 2001 - 18:50 CET by Darien

Here's a review of Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter from Women Gamers. With a final score of 8.5, the game got higher marks than by some other reviewers. Read the final verdict:

Overall Impression:

The thing is, after having played BGII, which came out after IWD, the feeling that HoW is not worth the USD30 Interplay is asking for is somewhat magnified. Many fans will feel this way, I suspect. Does the "heart of fury" mode balance up the scales a little more? Maybe so, but only for those who want to take a break from their BGII marathon.

Still, I feel that this doesn't mean that Interplay did a haphazard job. As EPs go, HoW is one that encompasses all the right factors to make IWD a more complete game. In that aspect, I think it's worth my 30 bucks.

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:

Well, the antagonist and a large portion of the premise is surprisingly relevant to our gender, not to mention the fact that your chief aide in the game is also a woman. I can't say more without giving away the story. Does the fact that they just did a beautiful portrait of a female halfling count?

Neverwinter Nights: Best RPG at E3
Posted Saturday, May 26, 2001 - 21:28 CET by Darien

Quite a few reports from E3 voted Neverwinter Nights the best RPG. Be sure to follow the links to read the reviews.

Well Rounded Entertainment: With a simple editor where your most bizarre or nightmarish dungeons can come to life, and a beautiful engine to realize those visions, Neverwinter Nights looks set to take the rich and wholesome elements of an RPG to the online realm in classic fashion. Meanwhile, new spells, monsters and a strong story develop the offline element just as strongly. Neverwinter Nights may just be poised to take the role-playing world to new heights.

Stratosgroup: Rather than pumping up what the game will include, they showed us what the game already includes; in about 5 minutes, they made a dungeon from scratch, complete with enemies, NPCs, and a magical sword to come upon. They then linked the dungeon to another area that they had already created. We were walked around said areas, and shown the game's impressive 3D engine. I'll save the details for our preview of the game, but let's just say all of us left the room with our jaws hanging precariously close to the crowded floor.

Voodoo Extreme: Neverwinter Nights is shaping up to be one of the finest role playing games of the year, boasting a powerful 3D game engine as well as a rich game world set in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons universe. As with most of BioWare’s games, Neverwinter Nights is rich with content, and should really shape up to be one of the coolest Dungeons and Dragons licensed RPG’s to date.

Pool of Radiance Board Update
Posted Saturday, May 26, 2001 - 21:06 CET by Darien

Here's a rare update from the official Pool of Radiance message boards, with comments by Associate Producer Chuck Yager.

The release date: It takes about 3-4 weeks to manufacture and we are still in the closing stage of getting the last bugs out for the areas I mentioned (read about 4 weeks more), not to mention add in marketing and localization and you have about mid to late August as a result. That's the quickest miracle I can work...no BS.

Comparison to Neverwinter Nights: Let's also not forget that we are talking about two very different games here. NWN is a module based game that is mostly about you creating your own adventures for people to enjoy (an awesome concept I might add and one I am eagerly awaiting). However, it is not a traditional party based RPG like POR and it does not revolve around the same story, setting, or even gaming concepts, except that both are RPGs using the 3E rules. I for one would buy both and am not too worried about being overshadowed in the marketplace.

On save slots and dropping party members: There are many save slots. I've hit 52 and still climbing! As for your party's dead, they are assummed to be carried buy the living unless you remove them from the party, but they do not count against the encumbrance limit of any individual in the group.

You can drop anyone from the group (NPC or created PC) at any time. Although if you drop a created PC from the party, they get reaped after you travel a certain distance away whereas NPCs, since they are hard coded into the game and we have advancement schemes set up for them, will return to a stated location and await you there. Make your decisions on who to keep and who to let go with caution then.

The combat system: You can definitely scale the game to be either strict turn based or else have a timer added to each characters round that can scale to anywhere from 45 seconds a round to 6 seconds (exactly as described in 3E rule books)! 6 seconds is a pretty short amount of time too, so you do get a very real time feel from that if that is what you are looking for.

As for me, I'll stick to turn based combat since I'm an old timer and can't learn new tricks!

Various comments: [best party] I've used a bunch of different parties but I keep coming back to a Half-orc Barbarian/Cleric, Dwarven Cleric/Fighter, Elven Ranger/Sorcerer, and either a Human Fighter/Rogue or a Halfling Barbarian/Rogue. As far as fine tuning goes, that's my job, but I'm very happy with how everything has turned out.

[spending ability points] On my sorcerer or ranger, I almost always get the 18 in Dexterity because it helps out a lot. Often, my scores are 12-14 in most abilities with maybe a 16 or 18 here and there and sometimes an 8.

[preferred combat style] Turn based all the way.

[in game help] No in game help per se, but the right click interface of explaning all the feats, skills, spells, and special abilties never left me wondering how things worked.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Saturday, May 26, 2001 - 20:52 CET by Darien

It's been a while since my last update, so there's a lot to read today. Here's the latest batch of comments from the Official Neverwinter Nights message boards.

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

Interplay's Demo Video: Just so you know, this was the footage that was playing on the big screen in the South Lobby of the Convention Center at E3. There was other footage playing at the BioWare booth and then there's the half-hour demo itself that the Nexus guys had a capture of (We had someone from ALFA in filming as well - I don't know if that's the same stuff or something separate). Also, Aqua came in and interviewed me in the Interplay booth so that's probably what she'll be releasing at Interplay.com over the next little while. In short, there's plenty of footage out there and, little by little, it should start filtering out to everyone soon.

A Baldur's Gate Toolset: Unfortunately, the BG Tools were never intended for public release. They're needlessly complex, inadequately documented, broken into a thousand little individual *.exe's, and full of nasty bugs that need to be understood and worked around. There may come a time when they get released to the public, "as is," but don't hold your breath.

That said, we've got some amazingly talented hackers in the BG community and a wide variety of user-created viewers, tools, and editors available from TeamBG and other fansites (even an unofficial expansion or two). If you're interested in editing the Infinity Engine games, your best bet would be to hook up with them.

Depth of Global Settings: Hard to tell at this point. That's the stuff we'll be cramming more and more of into the tools towards the end of the cycle. That said, some of those things (such as text bubbles vs. chat windows) make more sense as client-side settings than server settings, if that's any help.

Building interiors in one area: Yes, placing the different floors of an inn within a single area is more than possible. In fact, it's a good way to reduce the number of load screens experienced by your players.

Trent's comments on Pick Pocketing: Trent: There is an animation of Pick Pocketing currently. It will be a small motion of the player bending down and stealing. If you are stealing from another player character and you fail the dice roll, the player will get a message letting them know. If the player notices the animation, they can also catch the thief.

Bob: Don't worry, we don't have our hearts set on this feature yet. Once it's in the game, we'll have a closer look at it. If it sucks, we have no qualms about getting rid of it at that point. That goes for plenty of other things as well.

Guessing Monsters: Just to verify the guesswork, those two monsters are the flesh golem and the red slaad. That said, if they look like Banedead and Gray Renders to you, by all means use them as such (and feel free to change their stats, abilities, and scripts accordingly).

Inventory, Cost, Weight, and Stacking Adjustments: We don't have cost, weight, and stacking adjustment in the toolset interface yet so I can't make hard promises. That said, in Baldur's Gate, a stack of 20 arrows usually cost 1 gp. In other words, while the currency itself didn't go into decimals, the value of an individual item could be thought of as fractional - 1/20th of a gp. Presumably a similar system will emerge for NWN. If it costs 1 gp to buy a stack of 100 runestones, then each runestone is worth 1/100th of a gp and a merchant would presumably consider 1 arrow to be a fair trade for 5 runestones.

Clarification on Inventory: Just to clarify, in the example I gave, you're not creating a single item and naming it "100 copper pieces." You're actually creating a single item that, when you have 100 of them stacked together, is worth a gold piece. Therefore, where a kobold in BG might drop 3 arrows instead of 20, a goblin in NWN might drop 27 of these stacking items, rather than a full 100.

As I said, the interface hasn't been fully defined yet but that was how things worked in BG at any rate.

Coinage: Sorry, folks, I'm still a little bit confused about the issue here, so I'll ask you to bear with me. Questions of coinage weight aside, why are people wanting pennies and dimes implemented?

What would make a lot more sense to me would be units of currency representing $1, $100, and $10,000. That way, when you got a $10,000 coin, you'd be amazed at how cool and rare it is and how you're a 10th level adventurer and this is the first one that you or any of your friends have ever seen.

With gold pieces being so common in the D&D universe, even at low levels, pennies and dimes ultimately strike me as being boring and mundane.

More on Coinage: Okay, so if gems can act as upper-value coinage, why can't other non-coin items act as lower-value coinage? Ultimately, currency is an abstract concept and any item will do (as illustrated by the humorous chicken example already given or by various anthropological examples of currencies based on seashells, carved bones, or -strangest of all- fragile scraps of multicolored paper).

In short, our choices for the official campaign don't limit you. If you want to create a currency system of trade notes or gems or runestones or chickens or huckleberry twigs or little generic bags of whatever you want, by all means do so. You have the power to define their store price, their weight, how many of them can stack together, and so forth.

Now, as for the example given of a torch-based 'qet-rich-quick' scheme, it probably won't be a problem. A wise merchant is as unlikely to buy back such a valueless item as they are to buy back a single arrow when they sold you the quiver full for a gold piece.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Dropped Torches: Dropped torches currently remain lit while on the ground... makes for cool shadows and dramatic battles. :)

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Saturday, May 26, 2001 - 20:00 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: If you could have a romance with any of the NPCs that can join you in Baldur's Gate 2, which one would you pick?
(827 votes total)

Viconia (205) 25%
Imoen (202) 24%
Aerie (130) 16%
Jaheira (85) 10%
Nalia (81) 10%
Mazzy (35) 4%

Haer'Dalis (21) 3%
Valygar (14) 2%
Minsc (11) 1%
Yoshimo (9) 1%
Edwin (8) 1%
Jan (7) 1%
Keldorn (6) 1%
Cernd (6) 1%
Anomen (4) 0%
Korgan (3) 0%

I had this feeling that some people would start an uproar over this poll, but I never imagined it would last for so long...
The problem is, some people who voted don't really know enough about the game so as soon as they saw Imoen on the list they started calling everyone who voted for her sick and so on. Well, they show their ignorance as soon as they call Imoen sister, when she is in fact only your half-sister.
Anyway, a couple of days after this poll was set up, a topic about it was opened on our message boards, so go check that out if you want to hear all the pros and cons regarding it.

The fact remains that most people would love to be able to have a romance with Imoen, which is perfectly understandable, what with all you've been through together. Remember, we don't actually learn about Imoen's heritage till Spellhold...

While Viconia is the winner of the poll, only a few minutes before I changed polls, Imoen was still in the lead, so I'll call it a tie.

The third most popular female was Aerie, with a little over 15% of people voting for her. Jaheira fares only marginally better than Nalia (both gained 10% of votes), which is quite surprising. It looks like in the end, Jaheira doesn't come out any better than she did in the original Baldur's Gate.

As I suspected, the halfling paladin-wannabe Mazzy got the least votes, only 4%.

As far as men are concerned, it is quite obvious that a overwhelming majority of women absolutely hated Anomen, who is the only romance option for women in the game. Only Korgan fared worse, and only by one vote. Obviously Bioware should have hired a woman to pick a more suitable romance partner.

The absolute winner among men is Haer'Dalis, as I suspected. Follower-ups are Valygar, Minsc, Yoshimo, Edwin, Jan, Keldorn and Cernd.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Friday, May 25, 2001 - 22:23 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates - Guestbook -> Guestbook Archives

I have replaced the older guestbook records with the ones posted more recently. You can find these newer entries in the same place as before (Guestbook Archives), while the page that previously displayed there can be found by clicking on the link at the bottom of Guestbook Archives.

Subsection Updates -> Screenshot Taking Guide

The (probably) final version of Slappy's screenshot taking guide has been posted in the regular spot below the Screenshot of the Week. Quite a number of things have been changed and simplified, so if you read a previous version of it, please re-read it now. And send me some screenshots! (Currently IWD/HoW ones are in demand.)

Subsection Updates - Games -> Icewind Dale

The information released by Black Isle Studios regarding the free downloadable Heart of Winter expansion (due soon) has been compiled and is accessible from the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection.

A few days ago a bunch of official HoW patches for languages other than English have been released, so I have added them all to the Miscellanea subsection. Some of the previously posted patch links have been changed as well.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

Let us start at the beginning, shall we?
My Throne of Bhaal Features List, probably the biggest and most detailed listing of all Throne of Bhaal will have to offer, has been updated extensively. Too much new info has been added to explain it all here, just surf along to the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection where it can be found.
The Baldur's Gate II Class FAQ which can be found in the same subsection has also been updated with a new version.

There are 3 new additions in the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection. The first is the Spells FAQ/Listing, the second a guide to sorcerers and the third a list of creature codes. All three are downloadable.

In the Miscellanea subsection, a very cool trailer showing off Throne of Bhaal has been added. It comes in two sizes, but don't feel bad if you download the smaller one. The big one's content is identical, only the picture is a bit bigger.

As I've suspected for some time, the Editors, Hacks & Cap Removers subsection needed to be split in two parts due to huge amount of content. On the first page you can now find Custom Characters, Portraits, Voice packs and similar, while the second page is dedicated to Editors, Hacks, XP Cap Removers and similar tools.
Links from the first page to the second (and vice versa) have been placed at the bottom of both pages.

But wait, there's more! (No Ginsu knives though, sorry.)

Tyresian sent me a bunch of BG2 voice packs made from StarCraft character voices. They are of excellent quality and definitely worth the download. Currently Templar, Tassadar and Zeratul packs can be downloaded.
If you paid attention to the text above, you would know that you can find them on page 1 of Editors, Hacks & Cap Removers subsection.

Throne of Bhaal Developer Profile
Posted Friday, May 25, 2001 - 20:37 CET by Darien

Another developer profile is up at RPGVault, this time an interview with Scott Langevin, Lead QA.

Jonric: Do you have an interesting story, something funny or maybe even a little secret about yourself that you're willing to share?

Scott Langevin: Yeah, I do actually. You know that dream that everyone gets every now and again about going into work with out pants on? We'll one day last year, just before the release of Baldur's Gate II, I actually started walking out of my house in my boxers. I managed to catch myself before I hit the street, but that's gotta be worth a laugh. (Gimme a break, I had slept for maybe 24 hours total for the entire week previous) Don't tell anyone, kay?

Throne of Bhaal Preview at GamesFirst
Posted Friday, May 25, 2001 - 20:31 CET by Darien

Another short Throne of Bhaal preview is up, this time at Games First.

Just what every D&D junkie needs—yet another 50,000 or so hours playing through the Forgotten Realms. If the Baldur's Gate games weren’t so good, I’d say something bad about Interplay riding this horse until it drops. Throne of Bhaal is an add-on to the huge and hugely successful BGII: Shadows of Amn, and while it doesn’t promise any revolutionary changes in gameplay (which is probably a good thing) it does offer several new locations, like The Dungeon of Watcher’s Keep, the City of Saradush, and the Monastery of Amkethran.

Infinity Scripters Moved
Posted Friday, May 25, 2001 - 20:23 CET by Darien

The scripting site, Bgscripts, will be closing soon and they have formed a new scripting site. If you're interested, check it out here.

The purpose of this group is to make, use, improve and test AI Scripts for the games Baldur's Gate, Tales of the Sword Coast, IceWind Dale, Heart of Winter, Baldur's Gate II, Throne of Baal, NeverWinter Nights, DarkSide of the Sword Coast and Planscape Torment.

Neverwinter Nights Preview
Posted Friday, May 25, 2001 - 16:32 CET by Darien

Game Revolution has posted a preview of Neverwinter Nights, which of course includes the obligatory screenshots.

Want to build a kick-ass dungeon romp? Then just drag and drop different sized rooms into the handy little window. Want to populate it with monsters? Click away. Even want to drop some treasure in certain spots to reward your buddies for beating a particularly ornery Troglodyte? Go nuts.

Actually, you really can go nuts when you consider the depth. You can actually build magical weapons and armor using a huge variety of skins. You can design a magical bastard sword (+3 vs. zombies), give it a name (Braineater), choose a blade and hilt (including graphical spell effects like frost or flame), then drop it in your map where it can be discovered by the player characters. Just make sure you throw in some zombies so they will actually use the damn thing.

About the Pool of Radiance Release
Posted Friday, May 25, 2001 - 11:46 CET by Nazgul

Chuck Yager, Associate Producer, Ubi Soft / SSI

After getting back from E3, I was sure this issue would arise. Unfortunately, this is the first chance I've had to check the boards since Monday! At any rate, we are tracking to a late August (perhaps 1st week of September) release date at this point. The game is done, with all levels in, balanced, and all assets finalized. What we are doing now is simply optimizing the game's running performance a bit and fixing the occasional pathing bug. In fact, if you were sitting where I am right now you could play from beginning to end of the single player game without hindrance, as well as dive in a fully functional multiplayer.

Just five to six weeks more and we should be good enough to code (perhaps sooner, but let's keep the above dates as benchmarks for a realistic view).

I can assure you (although you may choose not to believe me) that we will deinfitely be out long before Christmas. However, given the delays we have experienced in the past, I can understand and even empathize with the cynicism this might be met with. I can only hope to pleasantly suprise you in this regard.

Neverwinter Nights Interview
Posted Thursday, May 24, 2001 - 5:17 CET by Darien

An interview with Trent Oster, Producer of Neverwinter Nights, has been posted at E3Realm. It covers topics from the toolset to portraits to servers, and has a good selection of screenshots.

You are working with gamespy to do your net matching service, how will that work?

TO: We are hoping to allow people to see the servers listed by type, i.e.: Action or Role-play or PvP. We really want people who want to play in a certain style to be able to do it in an environment with other people of the same mindset.

How much time will people get out of the first story?

TO: 60 - 100 hours. There are 4 chapters to it so people can move around in it a bit. Each part of the story is module based, which means that you can play the different modules multiplayer or single. So the single player game can be a shared experience if you choose.

Site News - New Additions & Changes
Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2001 - 21:42 CET by Sorcerer

I have to apologize for the lack of (visible and documented) news content coming from me lately, but these last three weeks have been really demanding on me so I haven't had the time yet to put together a list of all updates I have had sitting here on my hard drive for some time. And as I started to look at the amount of new content that piled up, I've decided that there is way too much there to post in one update, so I'll split it in parts and post updates here more often for a while.

Sorcerer's Place Forums - Boards O' Magick Rule Changes

As most of our regular members have noticed, there have been quite a number of changes to our message board rules. Newly registered members have been warned of these in the updated registration page, and there have also been numerous posts about it appearing all over the boards.
But in case you still managed to miss it somehow, you can read all about it by clicking on the "faq" link which appears on top of most forum pages. As has been discussed in the related topic in the Whatnots forum, these changes are nothing really new, the sort of behaviour they forbid has always been frowned upon. The only difference is that now it is all sorted, documented and displayed. Which means, as you might have guessed, that excuses such as "I didn't know that I can't do that or that" or "I'm new here, give me a break" will not be tolerated any more.

We take great pride in our forums and strict moderation that keeps them clean, enjoyable and most importantly, informative. With the amount of new members who aren't used to participating in forums in an orderly way (or come from messed up forums where everything was allowed and moderation an unknown word), making this list of rules has unfortunately become necessary. Still, I feel our community will only benefit from this. Actually, it wouldn't hurt any of our members to read it in detail. ;)

Subsection Updates - Community -> Chatrooms

I have added a few more words to the short guide on how to join us in chat, and changed some of the wording so that the whole page is more coherent now. Not to mention bloody obvious enough even for an ettin to understand. :p

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

Our Baldur's Gate 2 Online Solution has been updated yet again. In this addition, the walkthrough for Sahuagin City has been added. I have also updated the Foul Beasts part of the solution with a few more tips for easier disposal of tougher monsters.

Well, this is it for today. More coming up soon.

Neverwinter Nights Preview at Gamers Pulse
Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2001 - 15:40 CET by Darien

Gamers Pulse has posted a preview of Neverwinter Nights based on one reviewer's impressions of the game at E3. There are also some more screenshots worth checking out. Here's a bit on the ease of creating a new dungeon.

First of all, I got to watch as a dungeon was created using the tools that will be released with the game (coincidentally the same tools that are being used to create the campaign that will ship with the title). A decent, compact dungeon was created nearly effortlessly. Dungeon corridors were simply dragged out, decorated automatically (though these aesthetics were customizable).

E3 Pictures from Gamespy
Posted Tuesday, May 22, 2001 - 21:21 CET by Darien

Couldn't get to E3 this year? Well Gamespy has posted a bunch of pictures from the show, including some of the Bioware booth.

Gamespy Previews Throne of Bhaal
Posted Tuesday, May 22, 2001 - 21:08 CET by Darien

A short preview over at Gamespy looks has a couple of screenshots from ToB, as well as some news about the release date.

Fans of the popular Baldur's Gate series of games can start their rejoicing now. BioWare is set to release Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal as gold next week while Interplay is aiming to have in stores around June 25th.

Throne of Bhaal - Preview at Gamesmania
Posted Tuesday, May 22, 2001 - 21:01 CET by Darien

Gamesmania has posted a preview of Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal based on impressions from the display at E3.

The two quests conclude with two wicked boss fights. I am not allowed to give away what you'll be fighting, but if you're a long-time D&D gamer, you will be fighting two things you'll recognize, and you'll probably have to wash out your mouth with soap when you see them. You probably sat and read the handbooks describing these things and thought "I hope I never meet that" or "I'm going to drop that into my next campaign and watch my players wet themselves."

Throne of Bhaal's Demogorgon
Posted Monday, May 21, 2001 - 22:57 CET by Darien

In a Throne of Bhaal preview by Firing Squad I posted earlier this week, there was mention of a new monster for the Baldur's Gate II expansion: Demogorgon. Well, if that wasn't enough of a tease, Interplay has posted a great pic of the new beastie, with a wallpaper and a couple of concept shots. Check it out!

Demogorgon is another of the tanar'ri lords who, like Juiblex and Yeenoghu and others, has managed to extend his influence beyond the Abyss. Awesome in his power, this gigantic tanar'ri is 18 feet tall and reptilian. Demogorgon has two heads which bear the visages of twisted and evil baboons. His skin is plated with snake-like scales. His body and legs are those of a giant lizard. Rather than arms, Demogorgon has massive tentacles. This Prince of Demons is the essence of malevolent power and all that he beholds is destroyed.

Baldur's Gate 3-D?
Posted Sunday, May 20, 2001 - 19:14 CET by Darien

Well, this is an interesting piece of gossip from Well Rounded concerning Interplay's plans for the series.

Interplay was keeping eyes trained on the expansion pack to Baldur's Gate II at this year's E3, but preliminary plans are already underway for Baldur's Gate III. An Interplay rep mentioned to us that Throne of Bhaal will be the last of the games to use the current engine. The next installment in the series, he said, would be in 3-D.

Gamespot Previews Throne of Bhaal
Posted Sunday, May 20, 2001 - 19:06 CET by Darien

Here's a preview from Gamespot of Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. Check out these new skills available to Edwin and Sarevok:

Once your characters attain these extremely high experience levels, they'll have access to all-new innate skills known as "high-level abilities." For instance, the evil conjurer Edwin will eventually attain an ability called dragon's breath, which rains down a scorching gout of flame on an area and deals up to 200 points of damage to any enemies unfortunate enough to be within range. The mighty Sarevok can complement his already exceptional physical strength with a high-level ability called smite, which briefly causes all his attacks to count as damaging critical hits and also lets him hurl his enemies backward with the force of each blow.

Throne of Bhaal Preview at Firing Squad
Posted Sunday, May 20, 2001 - 18:59 CET by Darien

Firing Squad has also posted a short preview of Throne of Bhaal, with a look at the experience cap and a new powerful enemy.

Major spoiler!:Among the many new enemies you will face is Demogorgon - Prince of Demons. He's a perennial favorite supervillain since 1st Edition and is the most powerful of the demon princes. To give everyone an idea how powerful he is, BioWare threw up an encounter between him and a 30th level party. It lasted one, maybe two rounds. The party wasn't completely prepared for combat, but they were extensively equipped and would be hardly pressed to take on regular demons, even Balors.

Throne of Bhaal Screenshots
Posted Sunday, May 20, 2001 - 18:52 CET by Darien

Voodoo Extreme has posted their latest batch of nine Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal screenshots from E3.

Pool of Radiance Preview and Screenshots
Posted Sunday, May 20, 2001 - 18:46 CET by Darien

Two more Pool of Radiance pieces have been posted at IGN and EuroGamer.

IGN has posted a preview of Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor which includes a few screenshots. And guess what! It's almost FINISHED!

And the best part about Pool of Radiance is that its essentially finished! Hardcore fans who have been drooling over this gem for quite some time now will be able to get their hands on it just in time to spend the last days of summer locked in the computer dungeon (August 2001 of those of you unable to put two and two together).

More screenshots have been posted at EuroGamer from publisher UbiSoft's E3 press disc. Enjoy!

Neverwinter Nights Screenshots
Posted Sunday, May 20, 2001 - 18:33 CET by Darien

Haven't had enough screenshots yet? Voodoo Extreme has posted nine new shots from Neverwinter Nights for your enjoyment.

NWN Preview at Firing Squad
Posted Sunday, May 20, 2001 - 18:30 CET by Darien

This short preview at Firing squad looks at some of the games features and offers a handful of new screenshots as well.

NeverWinter will of course be 3rd Edition D&D and have 7 standard races with 11 classes. Character creation is quite simple and looks a lot easier than it is in the pen and paper game. As in 3rd Ed., characters do not roll for stats but instead start with basic stats, and then use points to buy attributes. After that, you select a 'package' of skills and feats to customize your character's abilities. It is possible to make a battle mage who can wear plate armor, or a warrior with excellent stealth with such packages, making character creation much more interesting than it has been in the past.

Neverwinter Nights Update at IGN
Posted Sunday, May 20, 2001 - 18:21 CET by Darien

IGN has posted an update of Neverwinter Nights straight from the show floor at E3, along with most of the screenshots that were posted earlier at Gamespot.

First off, the graphics are sharp and it's going to be hard to go back to flat sprites after seeing this. You can play from a pulled back perspective like that of Baldur's Gate with most of your party in view, or you can get in real close to your character with the more traditional, over-the-shoulder third person point of view. The only you can't do is control your character in the first person point of view, the reason being -- I was told -- that they wanted players to be more aware of their party around them. Otherwise all the little graphic flourishes are there -- flame effects on demon wings, translucent spell energy, rippling water, the works. It's been in development for a while and the graphics aren't the best of show by any means, but they'll more than do.

Read the rest here.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Saturday, May 19, 2001 - 10:13 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: How do you feel about Sarevok being the new NPC in Throne of Bhaal?
(704 votes total)

He might prove to be an interesting addition (269) 38%
He should've stayed dead (240) 34%
I can't wait to see him again (114) 16%
I've no room for a new party member (81) 12%

Thanks to whoever inspired me to ask this poll question in our Friendly Arm Inn. As I suspected, it was received quite well.

The majority of people who voted (almost 40%) agree with the statement that Sarevok, your rather unfriendly half-brother whom you killed once before in the Undercity of Baldur's Gate, and yet again in Hell, (though some debate arose on our message boards whether the Sarevok there was the real McCoy or just a figment or your imagination) might prove to be an interesting addition to Throne of Bhaal, the official Baldur's Gate 2 expansion.

But on the contrary... almost 35% of people who voted thoroughly disagree with the posed question and think he should stay dead already. How many times do we have to kill that bastard anyway? Call me unforgiving, but I sincerely doubt that Bioware can come up with a good enough reason I would want to have him in my party. If nothing else, the trek down to Undercity below Baldur's Gate was a serious pain in the ass and he deserves infernal torment for making me go through that damn maze twice! (Strictly speaking, this is Bioware's fault, but I'll just blame it on the bad guy.)

A rather small percentage of people (16%) can't wait to see him again. Whether they can't wait to rush at him and stick him on their weapon of choice or can't wait to add him to their party is open for debate. Sorry, it wasn't meant to be a trick question, I just made it look that way. ;)

12%, the smallest group of voters, doesn't care much about Sarevok or any new party member for that matter, and simply state the cold fact that they do not have any room for a new party member. I suspect this would be the case with a much higher percentage of people, but these 12% simply won't budge to give their poor half-brother a chance at proving himself worthy of their presence.

Baldur's Gate 2 Online Solution Update
Posted Saturday, May 19, 2001 - 0:13 CET by Sorcerer

After a REALLY long break between updates to our Baldur's Gate 2 Online solution, Sylvus has surprised me by informing me that he will continue to work on the solution until it is completed.
To prove that he sticks to his word, he sent me the whole Spellhold Area Walkthrough to proof-read. Well, I got down to it at once and an hour and a half later, the corrected version of it is already available online by following the link above.
Good job Syl, and I hope we will see the other areas shortly as well!

Neverwinter Nights Screenshots
Posted Friday, May 18, 2001 - 23:15 CET by Darien

GameSpot has posted a whopping NINE pages of Neverwinter Nights screenshots and art. Need a fix? This should do you for a while...

Pool of Radiance II: All About Maps
Posted Friday, May 18, 2001 - 23:06 CET by Darien

A new feature interview at WotC looks at the maps in Pool of Radiance II: Ruins of Myth Drannor, and includes a few screenshots as well. Here's an excerpt.

The game features a three-quarters isometric view of the Forgotten Realms city of Myth Drannor. Quests take players to diverse environments, from the overgrown gardens in the northern portion of the city, to the swamp-infested eastern reaches, to the crumbling steps near the Hall of Wizards. Players soon realize the importance of the in-game map, which allows them to see where they have already traveled and where they still need to go. Each level of the game has its own map, which includes interiors (like the Hall of Wizards and the dwarven stronghold known as the House of Gems), underground complexes (such as the elven catacombs, lizardfolk tunnels, and subterranean reaches under Castle Cormanthor), and, of course, the aboveground map of Myth Drannor. Players can freely change between the overland map and specific maps for areas they are presently in.

Here's the rest.

Throne of Bhaal Progress Report
Posted Friday, May 18, 2001 - 16:36 CET by Darien

The Adrenaline Vault has posted an update they recieved on the progress of Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. Here's an excerpt:

We have just finished putting in all of our final audio. Audio was the last thing we were waiting for so now we are content complete and can hammer away at the bug list. Since we have all of the new content in the game we are just about finished. We also have most of the European text back from the translators so our foreign versions are coming along great as well. At E3 we will be showing some of the new areas--which will include a tour of Watchers Keep. We will also be showing off some of our new spell effects and high level abilities. The continuation of the story will be our primary focal point. We will not give away the ending but will be showing off the city of Saradush. The Pocket Plane--a sanctuary for the player that is located in the Abyss--will also be on display.

Read the rest here.

Throne of Bhaal Developer Profile
Posted Friday, May 18, 2001 - 16:30 CET by Darien

This time, the developer profile at RPG Vault focuses on Tony de Waal, the Lead Animator.

Jonric: What would you rate as the best and worst parts of your job? And what are the biggest challenges?

Tony de Waal: The best parts of my job are being able to have the freedom to give characters their own personality. When we are assigned a character to animate we are given basic ideas to what our designers want to see, like a character description or an example from a movie. From there we are allowed to add our own style to the character.

I guess the worst part of the job is just trying to do the best job you can in as little time as possible. With three games in production; Throne of Bhaal, Neverwinter, and Star Wars, our animation department team of eight animators and one technical animator has the task of doing all character animation and cut scenes, which is a rather large amount of work.

More Throne of Bhaal Screenshots
Posted Friday, May 18, 2001 - 16:22 CET by Darien

Game Banshee has posted two pages of screenshots from Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. GameSpot has also put up 11 pieces of concept art that you can check out on two more pages.

Pool of Radiance II: Tales from the Mythal
Posted Thursday, May 17, 2001 - 14:18 CET by Darien

A new feature at The Scrying Room called Tales from the Mythal will be exloring the game from monsters to magic and some of the area in between. The first installment takes a look at the Hall of Wizards/Speculum, and includes concept art and images from the game.

The Hall of Wizards, also known as the Speculum during the height of Myth Drannor's power, was a place where wizards demonstrated new spells, took on apprentices, came seeking apprenticeship, and purchased exotic spell components. At the height of its power, many of the city’s magics (such as its system of magic gates) were generated and controlled from here.

Throne of Bhaal Screenshots at RPG Vault
Posted Thursday, May 17, 2001 - 13:39 CET by Darien

RPG Vault has posted a number of screenshots from Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. The 16 shots show some action from early in the expansion, and include a description of the wild mage class from the character generation screen.

Heart of Winter Review
Posted Wednesday, May 16, 2001 - 23:47 CET by Darien

Here's another review of Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter, this time from Gamer's Pulse. This time the expansion averages a 90 out of 100, with the highest score for sound (100) and the lowest score for gameplay (72).

Icewind Dale is a hack and slash linear dungeon crawl. The expansion is no different and gives you more of the same, which is a good thing. However, it also fixes a few problems in the original, adds a higher experience cap, and a higher difficulty setting. All these things change the original game enough to make a fan want to experience the whole thing again and I think this alone is exceptional. The idea that the expansion area is available to anyone with characters over a certain level and the expansion-ready characters come with the game gives many choices to the player. It should also be noted that pure RPG expansion sets are relatively infrequent and are quite different in focus from other genre expansions.

ToB Screenie Party
Posted Wednesday, May 16, 2001 - 14:37 CET by Mollusken

The german site 4Players has posted nothing less than 40 new screenies from Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. By clicking here you will be brought to them.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Wednesday, May 16, 2001 - 14:10 CET by Darien

Here are a few words from the game developers on the Official Neverwinter Nights message boards.

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer

Between servers: Faction standings won't carry over between servers - as one person already commented, just because the Villager faction on server one thinks you're a hero doesn't mean that the Villager faction on server two thinks the same (especially if one's a village of halflings and the second is a village of duergar).

What does carry over, however, is the character's alignment. Unlike in Baldur's Gate, your character's alignment is dynamic and will change according to the choices you make in the official campaign (and presumably in user-created modules as well).

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design

Helping out: To be honest, the best way that you can contribute to Neverwinter's successes is by posting on these message boards (well, that, and buying the game, and telling all your friends about it ;). The discussions that y'all go through here help us to make our decisions, because it helps us to understand what is really wanted. So, dive on in, and welcome to Neverwinter! :)

Don Moar, Lead Programmer

Secret doors: Of course, NWN will include secret doors. As everyone has already mentioned, what kind of dungeon, castle or cave doesn't have hidden areas for the occupants to hide in or use as escape routes?

Screenshots from Heart of Winter Expansion
Posted Wednesday, May 16, 2001 - 13:50 CET by Darien

Four new screenshots from the HoW free downloadable expansion have been posted at RPG Vault. Check them out below.

Several weeks ago, it was made known that several members of the Icewind Dale development team at Black Isle Studios are working on a free downloadable dungeon pack that will plug into the Heart of Winter expansion pack released earlier this year. It will involve a mysterious halfling who introduces himself in the Whistling Gallows Inn in Lonelywood, seeking a party of heroes for a quest to a place with unimaginable treasures. When the party accepts, it will be transported to a new game location far from the frozen Dalelands, and within the walls of a ruined castle in an unfamiliar land, a new adventure will begin. We thought you might like to take a look at some of what lies ahead for the party, and Black Isle was kind enough to oblige with these cool new screenshots:

Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Screenshot 3
Screenshot 4

Behind the Closed Doors at Bioware
Posted Tuesday, May 15, 2001 - 5:05 CET by Darien

A huge interview with Bioware has been posted at Gamespot. Listen to Trent Oster, check out the editor and some game footage, both old and new. There are several options available for download, so be sure to check them out!

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Sunday, May 13, 2001 - 4:28 CET by Darien

Here's another batch of comments from the Black Isle Studios message boards.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

Charles Deenen, Director of Audio:

Audio update for Throne of Bhaal: Good news! All audio got completed early this week for this title, including all of it's movies. I hope you'll have fun playing it once it hits the stores ! Please shoot me an email if you feel we could have done something better (or worse), and if you like what we did.

Thank you for all your interest in this exciting title!

Kevin Martens, Lead Designer:

Wizard slayers: We've made 2 minor tweaks to Wizard Slayers that make a huge game play difference.

1) Magic resistance is significantly increased. At 40th level, a Wizard Slayer will had 84% MR. Yikes!
2) They can now use healing potions. Simple change, major difference.

Nope, Monks are capped lower to avoid ludicrous power levels. 120% MR? That's just too much. Wizard slayers have the best MR in the game.

Starting a new character: You can start a brand new character in TOB and gain access to all of the SOA characters almost immediately. All of the characters have new interactions.

If you want to try some different party setups without playing all the way through SOA again, I would suggest starting a new TOB game. Perhaps, after you've finished the game with your SOA party, try a completely different party makeup at the beginning of TOB.

Magical hammer: We have a very cool new, artifact level hammer. It starts off strong and can be upgraded with a missing piece to make it even stronger. Nuff said.

All in good time. I'll let a few teasers now and then. The hammer is called Runehammer. Let's cover all of the bases in one post. All weapon types have something new.

The Dradeel story: The whole sordid Dradeel story:

Relevant Parties:
1) Dradeel - Elven Mage, first met on the Werewolf Isle in TOSC
2) Golodon the Unmanned - mortal enemy of Dradeel and a former employer of Jan Jansen's
3) The Gibbering Twelve - mysterious brotherhood of mages, not affiliated with the Purple Brotherhood (Socerous Amin and Sorcerous Amon - they're brothers)
4) Buffy - Golodon's pet mastiff
5) Golodon's Wife - never named, excellent resistance to mandrake poison.

The tale - Dradeel and Golodon, as young mages, made a raid on the HQ of the Gibbering Twelve. They stole numerous powerful and valuable magic items. They got away with it but were hunted for years by the Gibbering Twelve and their agents. Eventually, Golodon betrayed Dradeel, black-jacked him, took the stuff, and left him in the then town of Baldur's Gate to get picked up by the agents of the Gibbering Twelve.

Dradeel, on the run, managed to convince the great hero, Balduran, to allow him on his ship which was about to set sale on a grand adventure in the western seas.

The ship never returned. When you reach the Werewolf Isle, you find Dradeel, the only crew member of Balduran's ill-fated ship to not get infected with Lycanthropy. He's gone mad out of paranoia over teh werewolves, wolfweres and the Gibbering Twelve. You help him escape, after hundreds of years of being trapped on the isle.

In the meantime, Golodon used the artifacts and became a very powerful mage. He got married and eventually had a falling out with his wife, a powerful mage in her own right.

A few centuries later, a young Jan Jansen was hired as a house gnome for Golodon. It was his job to clean up after Buffy and to take care of the daily attempts at poisoning Golodon's ex-wife. The wife also had Jan on her staff. He was to attempt to poison Golodon every morning as well. This was where Jan began to learn magic.

Later, long after Jan had departed, Dradeel returned to the mainland after being freed by the player. Quite mad, he immediately killed Golodon and was captured by the local authorities. He was then sentenced to a life of imprisonment in the Asylum, where the player finds him in SOA.

High level abilities for Thieves: We're releasing High Level Ability info pretty slowly but I'll give you something special here.

Evasion. A rogue's natural sense of preservation becomes heightened with the use of the Evasion ability. Evasion gives a bonus of 4 to AC and 2 to all saving throws. The effect lasts for 3 rounds.

This is one of the High Level Abilities in the Rogue Pool. Many of the High Level Abilities have more powerful versions, as well. Evasion is one of the base Abilities and has a more powerful form called Greater Evasion.

I think this is the most info that anyone has ever gotten out of me about a High Level Ability at one time.

Monk's cap for magic resistance: It slows down in Throne of Bhaal and caps in the 70s. As always, it can be altered by items.

Possible scenario: With a natural MR of 84%, you can sell all of those items and buy that super sword you've had your eye on. Or, you could give the items to other party members so that everyone has some sort of MR.

Yes, nothing will happen to existing characters. Monks slow down starting at the first level in TOB. It will not retroactively change any monks that have already leveled up.

Monks are still frickin' powerful.

Tracking ability for Rangers: It must be revelation day. Tracking is in.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Saturday, May 12, 2001 - 21:10 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Will you be playing the upcoming free downloadable Heart of Winter expansion pack?
(253 votes total)

Of course! (180) 71%
Hmm, maybe... (53) 21%
No way! (20) 8%

Although not many people voted in this poll, the majority of those that did seem to be eagerly anticipating Black Isle Studios' free downloadable dungeon which will be approximately 75-100 MB in size. Since most people who have played Heart of Winter complained that it was too short, this bonus feature might improve their opinions a bit.

21% of people aren't certain yet whether they will play it or not; there have also been a few complaints in our poll comments about not being able to download such huge files over dial-up. I recommend GetRight or Go!Zilla which are two nice programs that allow you to resume downloading files if you get disconnected in the middle or aren't able to get them in one session.
But since BIS will provide one big file for all those folks lucky enough to have connections fast enough to download it one shot and a split package for all of us on dial-up, that shouldn't be that much of a problem.

Finally, 8% of people said that they will not play the extra dungeon no matter what.

CyberCon 1 Online Convention (June 22-24, 2001)
Posted Saturday, May 12, 2001 - 12:34 CET by Sorcerer

RPGHost have sent us some details regarding a new online-only event dubbed CyberCon. Surprise, surprise, Gygax will be one of the guests there as well. Seems to me like all the RPG sites smelled gold (or unique page views, if you prefer the net translation) the mention of that name brings... He has appeared in the news over the last two weeks more often than previously for 10 years. Heh.
Anyway, here's the scoop:

CyberCon is the first ever totally on-line convention for role-playing gamers. That's right, there are no travel costs, no booking headaches, no long drives, and no lines to wait in!

We have spent a lot of time gathering the best games and game masters
the Web has to offer. We have screened every GM to make sure they know
their stuff. Every game has to be pre-approved to meet our high standards!
We have famous guest speakers whom will talk live with you. We host comprehensive seminars to help you better understand your gaming and
industry. World premiers! Art Show! Auction! Even a costume contest!
On top of all that you get to meet new players that share your interests.
Did I forget to mention the contests & raffle and prizes for most games?

Very early in the recruitment phase, but we already have commitment from:

GUESTS:
Gary Gygax, Sandy Antunes, Aaron Williams, S. John Ross

COMPANIES:
White-wolf, I-Kore, Storn C, Nbos, Flying Buffalo, Cheap Ass games, deep7, nodwick.com, Dominion Games, Atlas Games, Talsorian, Apophis Consortium, Aetherco, Green Goblin Games, Design-A-Dungeon.com, Nexon USA, Skotos.net, Jolly Roger Games, Fast Forward Entertainment, Cumberland Games, Basement Games Unlimited, Eternal Tempest Productions, Ultra-PRO, Valent Games, Working Stiff Productions

ARTISTS:
Clyde Caldwell, Steve Ferris, Stephanie Law, Todd Lockwood, Matt Hughes, Kari & Cambria Christensen

If you are interested, you can pre-register here (flash) or use this link for the non-flash version.

Bioware's E3 Plans
Posted Friday, May 11, 2001 - 19:42 CET by Darien

RPG Vault had a chance to talk to several of the Bioware people about their plans at the annual trade show, including Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, Bob McCabe and more.

In the minds of many CRPG fans around the world, Canada's BioWare is the leading developer working within the genre. At this year's show, the attention of gamers and the media will very definitely be focused on the company since three of its current projects, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, Neverwinter Nights and the as yet un-named Star Wars RPGs all rank as must-see titles. Several of the BioWare team were kind enough to share their show plans and to reveal what they're looking to see.

Read more.

Throne of Bhaal Item of the Week
Posted Friday, May 11, 2001 - 19:35 CET by Darien

The latest Item of the Week is available to view at IGN. This time we get to look at the Darksteel Shield.

Desperate as he was to avenge his sons, Argeld could not send more of his people down into the depths of the mountain to face such horrors. Glimred himself, however, could not be dissuaded. To aid Glimred in his quest for vengeance, the dwarven smiths set about constructing the Darksteel Shield, a heavily enchanted shield that provides more protection than most suits of armor.

STATISTICS:

Abilities: +10% resistance to fire, cold, acid and poison

Armor Class Bonus: 5
Weight: 8
Requires: 15 Strength
Not Usable By:
Bard
Druid
Mage
Thief

Heart of Winter Add-On Screenshots
Posted Friday, May 11, 2001 - 19:30 CET by Darien

The Adrenaline Vault has posted some new screenshots from the upcoming free downloadable expansion for Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter. They also had some details about the size and release date.

Black Isle Studios sent the Adrenaline Vault these screenshots from its upcoming free downloadable add-on for customers of their Icewind Dale expansion. The download will be close to 75MB in size and will plug into the retail expansion. This expansion will add several new monsters to Icewind Dale, up to 40 new magic items, and a brand new adventure in a castle and dungeon setting. It is planned to be available no later than the first part of June 2001 and will target gamers with level 11-18 characters. Once the add-on is installed, a new character will appear within the game who is searching for a group of heroes to go on a new quest. Should the user accept, he or she will be transported to a distant place filled with new puzzles and traps. The add-on will also upgrade Icewind Dale to version 1.42 with additional program fixes.

Throne of Bhaal Developer Profile at RPGVault
Posted Friday, May 11, 2001 - 5:42 CET by Darien

Another developer profile profile has surfaced over at RPG Vault, this time of Dean Andersen, Lead Artist on Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal.

Jonric: Based on your time at BioWare, would you say your experience making games has lived up to your expectations?

Dean Anderson: They have exceeded my expectations; every day is a great joy knowing that I can go to work and create something that will entertain the world. When I look back at my childhood and remember the great joy games have brought me, the chance to instill those same emotions in another is overwhelming.

Dungeons & Dragons on the PC
Posted Thursday, May 10, 2001 - 18:55 CET by Darien

Today's D&D article at Computer Games Online looks at the blending of the personal computer with the popular roleplaying genre, from the original Pool of Radiance and Neverwinter Nights games to the immensely popular Baldur's Gate series and more.

1988
Pool of Radiance

The one that started it all—the first of the "Gold Box" games. SSI's Pool of Radiance was the first full-fledged AD&D game for the personal computer. Originally available for 8-bit machines such as the Commodore 64, the PC version ran under DOS 3 and required 384 KB of RAM. You controlled a party of six characters created using the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules, and adventuring was a mix of first-person stepped 3D movement on grid-based maps, and top-down third-person 2D tactical combat reminiscent of a miniatures wargame. A genuine classic.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Thursday, May 10, 2001 - 4:07 CET by Darien

Here are a few more bits of news from the Black Isle Studios message boards.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

Kevin Martens, Lead Designer:

Add-On and Add-In sections: To start - here's a brief explanation...

The Add-In section is a massive dungeon complex called The Watcher's Keep. When you install Throne of Bhaal (TOB), the area is added to your existing Shadows of Amn (SOA) map. You can play it whenever you have access to it (Chapter 2,3,6) although you should have an average party level of at least 10 to venture in. The Watcher's Keep makes up approximately half of the expansion and can be accessed from both Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal. The area is on both maps.

The Add-On section continues the main story after the final confrontation in SOA. An Ill-wind sweeps across the Sword Coast and the party drives southward in an attempt to learn more about the Prophecy of Alaundo and to find his or her place (as a Child of Bhaal) in that prophecy. We give you an entire new WorldMap with tons of stuff to do. This new map is made up of Southern Tethyr and Northern Calimshan. Just like the transition from BG1 to BG2, everything is new.

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter

J.E. Sawyer, Designer

Spell disruption: Some creatures "force cast," meaning they can't be disrupted. Reason: none of the spellcasters in the game would ever get spells off if this was not the case. Magic Missiles would pretty much ruin any caster's chance of doing anything. The only alternative would be to have every caster use Shield or Minor Globe of Invulnerability before battle. Even then, people just wipe the floor with them. It's the same reason why the Lower Dorn's Deep thieves auto-backstab you and cannot be revealed by Detect Invisibility. After the first time you fall for it, the entire point of the encounter is lost. Thankfully, those two problems (spell disruption and backstabbing criteria) are "better" in 3E. In 3E, it can be downright difficult to prevent casters from getting spells off. Also, rogues can sneak attack any time their opponent is denied their dex bonus (or they flank them).

A possible side-quest left out for Edion? No, it wasn't left out. Edion wasn't interested in prolonging his life. He just wanted to be left alone, more or less, in his final days. I did talk to Steve at one point about the possibility of including Edion in the Host Tower Battle Royal. Basically, when Alpheus and the others show up, Edion pops in to help Kieran, saying something like, "Why can't you just leave us alone?! All we wanted to do was live in peace. You can't even let us do that, can you?" BLAMMO!

David Hendee, Designer

Expansion pack distribution: Don't know yet but we'll try to get it spread around to make it as painless as possible when the flood gates open.

The current "plan" is to have one big version for the people with high speed connections that can download the whole thing in one shot. Then we'll have another version that'll be around 7 to 10 segments that can be downloaded individually.

If you don't have a high speed connection I'd strongly recommend getting one of those download managing software programs that allow you to pick up your download where you left off should you lose connection.

Kevin Osburn, Line Producer

Playing the free expansion after finishing Heart of Winter: Since you already beat the Expansion, one thing you might want to consider is to start an "Expansion Only" game. You can import your high level characters then go immediately to the Whistling Gallows to access the downloadable dungeon pack when it is released.

Interview with D&D's Jonathan Tweet
Posted Thursday, May 10, 2001 - 3:47 CET by Darien

Today's scheduled article from Computer Games Online is with Jonathan Tweet, the lead designer of the 3rd Edition rules. Tweet talks about "tinkering with a classic" and a bit about Neverwinter Nights.

Were you nervous about tinkering with success or angering long-time fans?

Peter surprised a lot of us by saying that he wanted the new version of the game to be significantly better than what had come before, even if that meant changing the game drastically. I'd gone into the project thinking that we didn't dare tamper too much with the game that so many people loved. The irony is that, while we were ready to turn away lots of our current players if that's what it took to improve the game, the current players have been overwhelmingly in favor of the new game.

How about Neverwinter Nights?

Neverwinter Nights is the computer game that we paper role-playing game designers have talked about as a concept—and as something of a boogeyman—for years. We've long told ourselves that, while we don't have animation, sound effects, or digital record keeping, we have something better—a live Dungeon Master. And we knew that someday there'd be a computer game with a live DM. Neverwinter Nights is really going to be something new and different.

Read the rest here.

Interview with Bioware's Founders
Posted Thursday, May 10, 2001 - 3:33 CET by Darien

This interview in Computer Games Online weeklong series is with Founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka. They offer some great information on Neverwinter Nights, as well as some new screenshots.

What sort of plans do you have for add-ons?

Muzyka: We'd love to be able to support the community, post-release. That's very important to the continuity of the game—making sure that people can enjoy it long-term.

Zeschuk: I think our perspective is that it will be an evolving beast. Neverwinter two years from now... who knows what it will be? I think our goal is to look at how we can continue to improve it. It's not a case of just sitting static; we really want to support it.

Muzyka: We're kind of evolving the model and asking, well, how does the community for a game like this get supported? Part of it is that they actually have all the tools that we have, to be able to make things. We want to develop more content and improve the tools themselves—that's something we're interested in.

Zeschuk: The other issue with the tools as well, which is really important, is that we've made them to be inclusive, not exclusive. In a sense that, sitting down with the Quake editor—it's a fairly significant experience. You have to do a lot of stuff and know a lot of things to be able to accomplish anything. In Neverwinter we've really scaled it, so that basic user, the first time out, can build some areas and drop some monsters in and play in them. At the same time we don't take any power away from the power users—you just have this very scalable experience. The extreme, of course, is that you can go in and start changing scripts. That's available. So that's our goal—to have it scale to the user's desires.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Thursday, May 10, 2001 - 3:19 CET by Darien

Here are a few bits of information from the Official Neverwinter Nights message boards.

Rob Bartel,Co-Lead Designer:

Interview with Greg and Ray: Hi folks, Just an overview and verification of Greg & Ray's interview from the front lines. =o)

It was a great interview with plenty of new content for newcomers and old-timers alike. I recommend giving it (and all of the recent D&D articles on the site) a read.

As for the current status of the project, some early art testing has begun, as well as some focus testing on the conversation editor. That said, we're using an iterative testing model. This means that the testing process will extend over a long duration, with testing occurring first on the individual game components and later on the actual game, itself. It's a very thorough process and it will mean a more bug-free product at the end. However, while testing has begun, don't get your hopes up yet. A lot of development and implementation still needs to occur.

Regarding their discussion of open file formats and the potential support of custom NWN art content (new skins, models, tiles, etc.), the standardized 'Hack Pack' framework they outline is the one that we've decided to work towards. It's fairly graceful in that, by handling each Pack as a discrete and mutually exclusive unit, it should prevent a lot of the corruption and instability that could result from end-user customization. That said, while we're confident in the system as outlined, it still has yet to be implemented. Should significant complications arise, we may be forced to alter or back away from this sort of approach. Hopefully all goes well. For the time being, at least, NWN Hack Packs are slated for inclusion.

About Noober: Hehe, it's funny - when I wrote Noober, I had no idea how notorious he would become. It was just the end of a long day of work and my brain was fried from too many bloody Fed-Ex quests (I have an aversion to this very day). I showed Noober's conversation to James Ohlen, BG's Lead Designer, and he insisted that the programmers implement a new function just so we could get it into the game. The function ended up seeing some more benevolent use as well, thank goodness, but that Noober encounter seems to be the one that's stuck with people. Every time I see a post about him, I shake my head and chuckle.

Are you going to throw rocks at me?

Single player game quality: I can't speak for end-user content, of course (except to say that I think there's a lot of talent out there and a lot of interest in creating single-player content), but we're definitely making sure that the official campaign is fun to play in single-player mode. Despite all of the goodies and features we're adding to the multiplayer framework, the simple fact of the matter is that most cRPG players still prefer playing single-player. For some, it's a matter of taste, for others a matter of necessity. Whatever the case, the single-player market is important to us (after all, that's where we've built up a lot of loyalty with the BG series). In short, when you buy a copy of Neverwinter, we want you to feel that you've gotten your money's worth, even if you never played online, used the toolset, or had a DM guide you through your adventures.

Using a Neverwinter Nights logo: Not a problem, as long as you do 2 things:

1) Give credit where credit is due (BioWare as the game's developer, Black isle Studios as the game's publisher, and Wizards of the Coast as owners of the D&D license).

2) Provide links back to the official site (www.neverwinternights.com). The best way to do this is to have the actual image be the link. Links to BioWare, Black Isle, and WotC never hurt either. =)

We love to see all of the fansites that are emerging out of the community, especially ones dedicated to creating new Neverwinter Nights content. Post a URL when you have the page ready!

Cord Grimwinder-8d:

On monster AI and boundaries: the orcs will cross the area boundary too and keep right on chasing the party ;-). Unless of course the DM has set them up to remain in their own little area, in which case they can be made to wait where they lost the trail, or after a set time wander back home, or any of ten zillion other possibilities depending on what the module maker designed ;-).

Flying, swimming, climbing, etc: The present NWN engine is fully capable of supporting all of those things (flying, swimming, climbing, riding, etc). The reasons those features aren't going to be included initially are primarily; the extra animation work that would be involved (any of those mentioned *could* easily double that work which would add months to the dev cycle) and pathfinding (both the mentioned increase in the complexity which would impact performance and the fact that it would make it more difficult for the average DM to control access to areas in their modules).

Vault characters: Quote(Trent Oster, NWN Producer): When you set up a NWN server with the server character option, the player has to create a character on your server. In essence you have a miniature character vault on your server (for sake of clarity let's call it a character chest)(I know it is cheezy, but hey, what else could you call it?). Each player has a password for your character chest which he/she must enter to access his/her character. When you set up the Character chest you can specify the number of characters allowed per CD key. :End Quote

1st person perspective: Covered before? ;-) 6,492 times and counting (j/k). Here's an old post from BioWare on the subject, it covers the decision making process pretty well on this matter-

Quote(Rob Bartel, NWN Co-Lead Designer): A first-person perspective alters a lot of things on the technical side. For starters, we don't have any sky, so there would just be big pall of darkness hanging above you. Secondly, by anchoring the pitch of the camera, we have better control over the number of polys onscreen at any given time (looking off at a horizon can range anywhere between 1 poly and oodles). This allows us to have higher-poly terrain, buildings, and creatures, and also allows us to pack more creatures into a given scene. It is also part of what makes our Solstice toolset possible - anyone who's made a Quake or Unreal map knows that you have to spend a lot of time tweaking sightlines and things like that to minimize the danger of poly-lag (I've never made a Quake or Unreal map but I know that anyways, somehow...). Lastly, by limiting the zoom function to within certain parameters, we can guarantee that our textures always look sharp and clear, rather than the blurring and pixelation that is inherent in any first-person perspective. Then there's the whole question of perspective-based interface changes, as well, which is another ball of wax entirely...

So, no, you probably won't be seeing a first-person perspective in NWN, though the editor might include a map viewer that allows you to swoop the camera around however you wish. That's probably the closest you'll get. :End Quote

In addition they felt the 3/4 down view was better suited (in their opinion mind you) for multi player CRPG play than the 1st person view.

Heart of Winter Interview at PlanetBG
Posted Wednesday, May 9, 2001 - 7:31 CET by Darien

Planet Baldur's Gate has interviewed Steve Bokkes, Designer for Icewind Dale and Heart of Winter, about the downloadable expansion for the game.

How long do you estimate will it take to complete the expansion?

Well, let's see. Most of the art for the new areas has been completed. We've only have one or two more levels to do, plus some 2D touchup. The story and individual level designs have been pretty much nailed down. Right now, we're cranking away at full steam, populating areas and implementing items, spells, and scripts. If all goes well, I'd say we should be ready to release the expansion sometime in early June.

How many full screen areas and dungeon levels comprise the expansion? How dastardly are their design?

There are a total of nineteen new areas in the expansion. Most of them are above ground locations. However, four of the levels are huge, subterranean dungeon environments that are each about 36 screens in size. John Deiley and I are working to ensure that each level is chock full of nastiness. One of the levels, which I've dubbed "the Crypts of Eternity," is perhaps my most dastardly design yet. I don't want to give away too much, but I will say that parties that enter this crypt expecting a straightforward dungeon sweep are in for a big surprise.

Read the interview.

Throne of Bhaal Trailer
Posted Tuesday, May 8, 2001 - 22:07 CET by Darien

A trailer for Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal has been released by Interplay. It comes in two sizes, either the 8MB or the 17MB.

Dungeon Master Tools at Wizards.com
Posted Tuesday, May 8, 2001 - 19:32 CET by Darien

Two new offerings have been posted at Wizards.com for all you DMs out there. The first tool is a custom creature sorter that lets you create customized lists of monsters sortable by any of several criteria. The second tool is an exclusive web enhancement for Defenders of the Faith: A Guidebook to Clerics and Paladins which includes quest ideas and spell planning worksheets.

D&D Interview with Dave Arneson
Posted Tuesday, May 8, 2001 - 15:06 CET by Darien