June 2001

ALFA Player Database Goes Online
Posted Friday, June 29, 2001 - 0:49 CET by Darien

After long silence and even longer wait, the ALFA player database is finally up! Yay! So all you members who've been saving your ID numbers and passwords for many long months can... throw them out. That's right. Read what Kellith has to say FIRST:

DATABASE!!!

Thought that might get your attention ;)

Well, first I gotta say thanks to Liming Xu, for donating her time to us without any charge. Thanks Liming!

The Player and Guild Databases are now live. Now hold on a minute! Before you rush off to search it, let me fill you in on something. Every one of your ID numbers and Passwords have changed. In order to get them, you have to go log into the Database to change your player profile. Enter in the e-mail address that you used for your player application, and you will be e-mailed your new ID number and Password. Everyone's Alignment has been set to "Not Given" in order to protect your privacy. You may decide to change it back... also, your backgrounds have been taken off for your protection. You may place them back if you wish.

For ALFA Guild leaders: Most of your info is labeled as "Not Given."
Please log in and change it to your liking. Log into the database and it will ask you for your email address. Use the email address that you placed for your profile, and it will be sent to you.

If you guys do a search on alignments and you get a "Sorry..." page,
that's because the DB just went up :) I imagine most of you will be changing your profiles tonight, so that will take care of itself pretty soon.

Thanks for your patience everyone! The DM Database will be online any day now. So what are you waiting for already? Go look!

Another ToB Review at GameRaiders
Posted Thursday, June 28, 2001 - 20:17 CET by Darien

GameRaiders has posted a detailed review of Throne of Bhaal, with individual scores for gameplay, sound, graphics, etc. With high marks all around the expansion walks away with an overall score of 97.

Throne of Bhaal proves to be a worthy conclusion to one of the best RPG series of all time. As expected from an expansion pack, Throne of Bhaal offers new villains, new areas to explore, a new class, higher levels, new spells and abilities, new magical items, and even a few surprises. These enhancements, combined with a cool storyline and many hours of exciting gameplay make Throne of Bhaal something that every Baldur's Gate 2 fan simply cannot live without.

Update on the D&D License
Posted Thursday, June 28, 2001 - 14:36 CET by Darien

Desslock rambles a bit more about the status of the D&D license, which still isn't clear. Here's an excerpt from the column.

Who now owns the rights to produce D&D licensed games? I've rambled a lot in the past on the D&D licence, but the status of the license still isn't clear. Interplay currently has a non-exclusive license to produce D&D games for another year or two (covering Neverwinter Nights, for instance), and has the right to request a renewal of the licence with the consent of Wizards of the Coast, "such consent not to be unreasonably withheld". That last clause is usually legalese for a sure thing, but since the granting of the original license to Interplay, Hasbro (parent company of Wizards of the Coast) has sold the rights to make D&D games to French publisher Infogrames - so there likely are "reasonable grounds" for withholding consent and not renewing Interplay's licence.

Throne of Bhaal Review at GA PC
Posted Thursday, June 28, 2001 - 14:26 CET by Darien

Gaming Age PC has posted an early review of BGII: Throne of Bhaal, which offers praise for the expansion, but still leaves room for some unanswered questions.

Despite all of the above praise, these are first impressions, and many questions I have about the game remain unanswered. How well will the AD&D 2E rules, which the Infinity Engine is based on, stand up to level 30-40 characters, when not even the pen and paper version of the game handle those characters well? Will Watchers Keep, a large dungeon that makes up a significant portion of the expansion, progress smoothly or bog down in places like Durlag’s Tower in Tales of the Sword Coast. Does the skill system introduced to higher level characters break the game balance in later levels? These are all valid and serious questions, and I have no answer yet for them. What I do know is this-Throne of Bhaal is so far a well-produced, high quality expansion that fans of Shadows of Amn should strongly consider purchasing even with these issues unanswered.

RPGVault Reviews Throne of Bhaal
Posted Thursday, June 28, 2001 - 14:18 CET by Darien

A great review of Throne of Bhaal over at RPGVault takes a look at the expansion back, and offers up some decent screenshots. It also gives a good idea of how the expansion complements Shadows of Amn when the game is played again from the beginning.

The Throne of Bhaal storyline takes you from the pocket plane to the city of Saradush, which is under siege by a Fire Giant Bhaalspawn named Yaga-Shura and his army. You learn that he is almost invincible, and naturally, the critical path involves finding out how to defeat him and doing so. In the fashion of Baldur's Gate and especially of Shadows of Amn, this plotline is interwoven with a number of concurrent side quests that involve various locations in the city such as the sewers, a prison and the palace as well as sundry characters such as the paranoid city leader and a deceitful merchant. These quests also tend to have multiple or complex steps. The result is that while there is a relatively linear critical path, there's always lots else to do so the game ends up playing in a manner that feels far less so.

Read more here.

New Pool of Radiance Info at GameSpot
Posted Thursday, June 28, 2001 - 9:56 CET by Nazgul

A new preview over at GameSpot takes a look at some if the features of PoR, including the voices, the adaptation of 3e D&D rules, and some particulars of gameplay.

The setting and story behind Ruins of Myth Drannor are rooted deeply in the history of the Forgotten Realms, the popular D&D campaign setting. In keeping with the established gameworld, Stormfront Studios has converted authentic D&D maps of the area into accurate, explorable replicas of this section of the Moonsea. Myth Drannor is what remains of an ancient elven city, whose populace fell victim to some horrible fate. By no means limiting, this part of the Realms makes for a varied environment--Myth Drannor was home to many races and cultures, including elves, dwarves, humans, and monsters.

Read the full story here.

Beta Patch for Throne of Bhaal
Posted Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 19:07 CET by Darien

Bioware has posted another beta patch for BGII: Throne of Bhaal, this one not just for Windows 2K. There's also a short list of the major items fixed.

Throne of Bhaal Review at CBG
Posted Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 15:03 CET by Darien

The flood of reviews continues, it seems like every time I log on there's another. The latest one comes from CBG, and scores the expansion at 85%. Oh, and don't forget to check out the screenshots at the bottom of the page, (although they are labeled Spoilers).

New tactics are often required to get through some of the new areas such as the Dead Magic or Wild Magic zones inside Watcher’s Keep when playing as any spell-casting class. In the Dead Magic zones, magic doesn’t work at all and in the Wild Magic zones, casting causes different effects to occur. Sometimes it casts properly and sometimes you get a weird feedback effect. Some improvements in the AI were done for the expansion, most notably on the dragons. They choose their opponents much more intelligently, now attacking mages and sorcerers who can tear down their defensive spells before focusing all their attention on melee fighters. I noticed this first when Draconis decided that my character deserved to die more than anyone else did, and started chasing me. Oh, that was such fun. One, two, three, and I am dead.

Read the full review.

Gamespy Reviews Throne of Bhaal
Posted Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 14:54 CET by Darien

Another Throne of Bhaal review has been posted over at GameSpy. The article offers a quick introduction to some new features, a tour through Watcher's Keep, and a few teasers about the final battle.

The five levels of Watcher's Keep all have puzzles to solve, some more difficult then others. Though I am reluctant to tell you about them (I'd much rather you experience it fresh), I will mention one of the coolest parts. One of the puzzles involves an almost Nethack-style "mini-dungeon" where your party controls a warrior avatar that explores the dungeon. Your warrior fights enemies, searches rooms, equips items, and quaffs healing potions. Kudos to the developers for pushing the engine to the limits with Throne of Bhaal.

Bhaal or Baal?
Posted Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 13:58 CET by Darien

GamesDomain has offered up an amusing article on the small controversies surrounding BGII: Throne of Bhaal and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Enjoy!

Last week Baldur's Gate 2: The Throne of Bhaal expansion pack was released. On June 27th, Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction expansion pack will be released. Raise your hand if you're like me and you've only played through Diablo 2 as two of the five characters and you still haven't finished Baldur's Gate 2 yet. Anyone? I thought so. Think about it - last year (last June in fact), Blizzard released Diablo 2 and Black Isle released Icewind Dale. Then BG2 came out, then Icewind Dale: The Heart of Winter and now this... how many mice have I gone through since then? Sigh.

Throne of Bhaal Review at GameSpot
Posted Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 13:46 CET by Darien

GameSpot has slapped up a review of Throne of Bhaal, giving the expansion a score of 8.7, the reviewer's tilt bumping up the final average with a perfect 10. For those of you who like cheat codes, GameSpot offers a few of those as well.

Though it'll challenge even the most dedicated fans, ultimately, much like Baldur's Gate II before it, Throne of Bhaal is essential for anyone who enjoys computer role-playing games. The overall level of quality found throughout the game exceeds even that found in Baldur's Gate II--perhaps even more so than last year's game, Throne of Bhaal is persistently rewarding and interesting. As such, if you've followed the Baldur's Gate series since the original game, you should be especially pleased with Throne of Bhaal. At the end of the game, you'll look back over the course of the series and see how far it's come and how far you've come along with it. It finally gives a satisfying sense of closure to the story of the beloved role-playing series, which is what's most important.

Interview with Bob McCabe of NWN
Posted Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 5:07 CET by Darien

Bob McCabe of Neverwinter Nights was recently interviewed by Cespenar over at ALFA. (No, he's not the imp, although for some reason people seem to confuse the two).

What's the most enjoyable part of being a member of the team (i.e. what makes you feel rewarded the most)?

Well, the never-say-die mentality of the team is really cool. Working on games isn't a business here, it's an obsession, and my co-workers are just so adamant about getting in every last feature ("Biting off more than we can chew."). When you hear someone complain about the lack of a specific feature, know that it hurts us that much more - we are, after all, trying to make the game that we want to play :) But I guess that's where patience and sequels come in. I think it's going to be really exciting, as well, to play Neverwinter Nights when all is said and done, knowing what I've put into this thing. I cannot even imagine what that will be like…

Throne of Bhaal Review at RPGPlanet
Posted Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 4:23 CET by Darien

RPGPlanet has posted its first impressions of Throne of Bhaal. The favorable review includes a brief introduction to the game and a couple of screenshots.

Of course, there are a multitude of new creatures and characters for you to interact and do battle with, some extremely powerful. Speaking of powerful, Throne of Bhaal contains numerous new magical items; some are what BioWare are calling 'constructed items'. An imp named Cespenar, in your planar stronghold, can upgrade these items, in some cases, multiple times. Remember that sword you got from that big Red Dragon in Shadows of Amn? I hope you hung on to it.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Tuesday, June 26, 2001 - 21:16 CET by Darien

Here's a truckload of comments from the BIS message boards. Happy reading!

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

Dave Gaider, Senior Designer:

Updated Dragon AI: The thing about the dragon AI is that it's meant to close up some of the cheese-kills that people were using to fight him...and also make him a bit smarter.

You mention the dragon ignoring your fighters and trying to take care of the mage first. I'd say that's smart on the dragon's part. If he puts up a Protection vs. Magical Weapons that's all he can do is hope that will ward off the fighters...the real threat comes from the mage, after all, and the dragon would hope that the wing buffet will blow away any short-term melee problems.

And he ONLY gives the mage priority until he's dropped down below half his hit points...then he goes 'uh-oh' and tries to do something about the melee combatants.

If you got 4 tanks, though, chances are that you're dealing damage so fast that he doesn't have time to switch tactics. That's not bad AI...that's just uber-powerful melee ability. Even if the dragon tried to focus on your melee fighters, chances are he wouldn't be able to do it fast enough. And then people would be complaining because he's leaving the mage alone, and that would be dumb of him.

Besides...we realize that there are people of vastly different skills playing the game. There are always going to be people who come to the boards and go on and on about how easy ((some fights are)). Perhaps true, perhaps not. Regardless, there are ten times as many posts (look around) for people who are finding these fights a challenge. A battle should be winnable fairly easily if you put a little thought into tactics...that's on purpose. You're supposed to feel good about kicking some butt. We're not trying to make fights impossible except by only the most skilled players, after all. (yes yes yes...Chain Contingency...3 Abi Dalzim's...YAWN...BOR-ING).

Dragon names: Kevin comes up with those damn unpronounceable names and I hound him for it constantly. It's like the hint-book guy said: "Apparently, nothing says fantasy like the random insertion of an apostrophe into someone's name."

Pfooey.

Demogorgon: Demogorgon too easy?
Well, none of the fights were supposed to be so difficult you couldn't get by them. And with a lot of fighters, Demogorgon can be whittled down fairly quickly, it's true.

Tell ya what, though. We actually toned down the Demogorgon script prior to release. I think his old 'Summon the Infernal Horde' spell is still in there...I'd be happy to re-tweak the DG's script and send a copy to Kevin Dorner for all you freaks out there who like to thump your chest.

Yeah...what we found, for the most part, is that there was a certain level after which DG became quite easy. Before that, he was very very difficult for all but the most skilled of players (who could probably take him in SoA).

I don't mean to knock anyone. If you got him, great...he's supposed to be defeatable. There are lots of people out there who are having problems, though (just look at the posts). And he WAS tougher with the old script...we just toned it down because lots of people will think that killing DG is a must and would have gotten frustrated that way. I would rather make a fight too easy than too hard.

But if someone wants me to put together the old script, it's not that hard. And he IS defeatable, there, too...it's just...ummm...much tougher. As I recall, he casts an instant time stop...the majority of which is used to cast a spell called 'Summon the Infernal Host' which is 1 merilith, 2 cornugons, 1 balor and 1 high-level mage cambion. He also repeatedly summons cornugons afterwards and his first spell is a nasty Storm of Vengeance.

Heh. But anyways...

In retrospect, it seems the best way to make a creature tough to fight was to give them room to maneuver. Look at Draconis...he isn't meant to be all THAT tough, but because he's scripted to move around and make use of his space, he can be a big challenge to the unitiated. Abazigal is MUCH tougher, stat-wise, but he has almost no room to move. Makes a big difference.

Quasits: Invisibility at will is supposed to be a terrible thing. But unless you're desperate for the 1,500 XP or so for each of the quasits, there's no reason to kill them all.

But if you must, area-effect spells work wonders. No fire, though, as they're immune...but magic damage (like Death Fog, Abi Dalzim's, etc) works nicely, as they have only a 10% MR or something low like that.

Viconia, and epilogues: If Sarevok can find a poison that you can't cure normally, I'm sure Lolth can. I mean, hey, she's only an intermediate goddes, I know...

And why wasn't Khalid resurrected in a similar manner? I thought Jaheira explained this way back in the beginning of BG2. Viconia couldn't be resurrected because that's the way Lolth arranged it, probably.

There certainly wasn't room in the epilogues for us to go into great amounts of detail. And keep in mind that this is only what was publicly known. Maybe the PC did go to fight Lolth to reclaim Viconia from her. I could see it. Use your imagination a bit.

Well, whatever. If you want to quibble, that's up to you. Point is, the majority of the epilogues are simply what was publicly known about these great heroes.

This is our view of what happened to our characters. If you want to decide that something different actually happened, that Viconia wasn't actually poisoned or didn't actually die, then that's up to you. We certainly didn't have the space to write a novel about each character, after all.

I don't see what's so close-minded about it. We wrote the epilogues because people on the board demanded it.

True...maybe Viconia being poisoned is a bit hard to justify with relation to a fantasy world where death has little meaning when you can simply Raise Dead at the snap of a finger. I'm not going to argue that.

But the epilogues are about story, period...what happens to the characters way down the line. Or what appears to happen to them, anyway. You can scrutinize to your heart's content...all I'm saying is that the stories don't necessarily have to be true for what happened in your world. 'Canon' doesn't apply here, after all. The BG games aren't 'canon', if you want to be technical about it...and if you mean canon in terms of the BG universe, what could be canon when every person's game is completely different? In my experience, most people take what parts they like into their own games and leave the rest. You don't think Edwin's ending is justice? Hey, that Edwina thing was just a rumor...most likely he's a lich somewhere, and there you go.

If it bothers you somehow, though, that what was written at the end of the game wasn't what you liked...well, that's too bad. We can't please everyone, obviously.

Half-Orcs: The avatars are 3D sprites already, as far as I know. We've known about the weapon-hand switching for a long time, and while it's irritating (to us, at least), the amount of work it would take to fix isn't worth it (and by amount of time, I mean also the amount of time our relatively few animators would need to be drawn off of other projects to do this).

The half-orc looks like a human for the same reason he did all through BG2. Making avatars for the party characters is the most time-consuming process, even compared to making monsters. To save us a lot of time, gnomes get the dwarf avatar and half-orcs get the human one. It'd be nice (really nice) to get the extra animation time...but that's not the sort of thing we put into a patch. Patches are reserved for stuff that is broken, generally, and I doubt we'd draw the animators from other projects at this point to work on the avatars. Sorry to disappoint.

Ashamed? Pfft. I don't know about you people, sometimes.

Yes, it would have been nice if we had the time and the animators, but the alternative would have been to leave the half-orc out altogether. Making an avatar takes a lot more time than making a maquette (the inventory paper doll).

Avatars: Hmph. You should have seen it before the designers began squawking in indignation. The female elven mage, especially, originally looked like she was wearing a bikini with tassels.

Just like here, everyone at Bio had wildly different opinions about what looked good regarding the maquettes. The artists did the best they could...and for the most part did a good job, I think.

As for the monk avatar that someone mentioned...in order to implement the monk, we HAD to do an avatar. The fighter avatar wouldn't have done because the avatar needed hand-to-hand fighting animation. And that one was a bit easier, I understand, simply because the class can only be human and they have relatively few weapon & armor animations.

I really wanted a gnome avatar, myself, simply because that's one of the base AD&D races (half-orc being an extra). That would have meant sacrificing elsewhere, though, and we'd already cut out so much at that point. At least we got the paper doll, though.

The creature avatars aren't anywhere near as complex as the party character avatars. Many of them support only one weapon that, even if it's taken off the creature file, the animation still has it present. Some support maybe two weapons (1 ranged and 1 melee). None of them would have armor variations.

They were done like this on purpose. Far, far less time to create...and there's really no need for the variants like there are on the party character avatars. And even were we to try using the creature as a base and build onto it, it would still take as much time as starting over.

This is the reason we couldn't use the old Sarevok animation for him in ToB.

Valygar's Romance: There are certain sections in the game which were written before any of the romance dialogues in ToB themselves were added...the meeting with the Gorion wraith and the ending being two of them. Romance dialogue was written for both (although I think the dialogue in Valygar's own banter file has since been erased).

We really wanted to put it in, but a) we ran out of time and b) in the end, it just seemed like adding another romance into ToB would be too rushed, since we couldn't go back and add it into SoA.

I was pretty disappointed, personally, that it couldn't be done in the end...but that's what needed to be done. I'd like to write a Valygar romance someday, I think, given the tools and the opportunity.

Minsc dialogue: My favorite Minsc line in the game actually got cut...even though it was recorded and everything. It's absolutely hilarious. How did it go?

"Minsc and Boo shall stop your eeeevil from spreading like jelly across the cracker of the world!"

LOL! I love that line.

Cespenar: The actor that did his voice was Neil Grahn, he is a very cool guy. It was a lot of fun recording Cespenar because Neil comes from a stand-up background and his ad-libs were quite hilarious.

ToB Novel: Drew Karpyshyn, my fellow writer on Throne of Bhaal, got to pen the novel. I've read it...it's good stuff. Drew was a bit restricted because he had to continue the story and characters from the previous two novels, but he did a good job. For those people who have played the game, it's interesting too because it goes into some depth about what was going on behind the scenes a lot.

Mark Darrah, Lead Programmer:

Greater Restoration Spell: Greater Restoration was improved in TOB to effect the entire party. I'm not sure if this spell shipped. But even if it didn't it is posible that the temple version did.

Stalker Backstab Bug: This is the same as the assassin bug.
The actual problem was in BG2 but is only now being revealed. This will be addressed in the patch. Creating a new Stalker will not have this issue.

Kevin Martens, Lead Designer:

Demogorgon: I am the one who made the decision to not put treasure on him. There are three reasons why:

1) You need the best stuff to kill him. For most players (hardcore power gamers are an exception) he'll have to be killed very close to the end of the game. Most people just plain will not be powerful enough to kill him earlier.

2) I couldn't put any of the weapons or class specific items on him. If I put part of a sword on him, the person with that proficiency who is not a powergamer will probably need the most powerful version of their sword to kill him. Not too fair to that person to have half of their sword on the demon. Same goes for classes and their class specific items. Weapons and class specific items account for most of the best stuff. Putting something low level on Demogorgon wouldn't be appropriate. The other good equipment was already split up amongst other plots/devices (Machine of Lum, Deck of Many Things etc.)

3) Demogorgon gives you a massive amount of XP. That is a very very good reward. Between killing demogorgon, walking upstairs to finish the plot, you get more XP than any other place in the game."

As I said, people who know the system can probably beat anything. Some of the QA guys here, with cleverness, can beat Demogorgon with one character. However, that certainly doesn't represent the entire population. Even at the highest level with teh best stuff, some people will have trouble beating him. Even some experienced people may not find a way to maximize their assests and kill him easily.

While we're talking about easy, the Add-In is a major new part of SOA. Lots of SOA players who buy BGII now or start playing it now will play it with TOB installed. Experienced players who know the system will probably be able to beat him with SOA weapons and XP as well. We can only try to make the fight appeal to everyone.

Yes, we probably could have put one of the sill items on him but I really liked how the Bronze Pantalettes turned out in their current plot.

Don't forget, the XP is massive there and a find reward for all of your hard work.

Valygar Romance: When we were tossing the idea around for adding a romance in, we made sure that the Valygar option was ready to be inserted if we could do it. If you poke around in SOA, as well, you'll find refrences to Valygar's Suna Seni romance as well. A second male romantic lead was probably going to Valygar, with Haer'Dalis as a close second.

High level abilities: Multi or dual characters get their first at the equivalent amount of XP as a single class person. Everybody get's their first high level ability at approx 3 million xp, give or take a few thousand.

Wizard Slayers: At high levels, the MR% goes up for Wizard slayers and they end up with about 80% MR.

Also, with TOB installed, they can use healing potions.

Scripting University Opens at NWVault
Posted Tuesday, June 26, 2001 - 17:56 CET by Darien

Do you need a crash course in how to script in Neverwinter Nights? Then check out this new feature at Neverwinter Vault. Here's what they offer:

1) Interview with Mark Brockington: Mark answers many questions from the community, ranging from the simple to the complex.

2) A FULLY FUNCTIONAL Neverwinter script: Yes, you read correctly. Mark Brockington was kind enough to give us a complete script, based on the Game of Life. Included in this section is also a screenshot of the script in action.

And if that wasn't enough....

3) Neverwinter Script course: Prepared by our Head Programmer, Rick "RBB" Blair, it's a complete course on scripting for Neverwinter Nights, taking the most novice of computer users through the experience, step by step in plain English with lots of pictures.

Throne of Bhaal Screenshots at GameSpot
Posted Tuesday, June 26, 2001 - 17:43 CET by Darien

GameSpot has posted a gallery of 50 screenshots from Throne of Bhaal, the long-awaited expansion the Baldur's Gate II. You can view them in a slideshow or check them out individually using the thumbnail index.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Monday, June 25, 2001 - 17:03 CET by Darien

Once again, here are some recent comments from the game developers on the official Neverwinter Nights message boards.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design

The release of Forgotten Realms: Actually... :) we get our stuff much earlier. When I first started at BioWare in April 2000, we already had copies of the PHB and DMG and some Monster Manual stuff. The problem is that those items change very rapidly from version to version, and are often dramatically different from the final released version.

For example, our version of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting listed the populations of cities such as Neverwinter at around 1,500 or so. To be honest, though, I really enjoyed getting to see their early versions. They generally included lots of comments in their writing which suggested their reasonings for going one direction versus another... you could really see it all get pieced together. And we all know that those guys did a fantastic job :)

So hope for lots of expansions and hard work from some creative fans, so that together, we can create the total package :)

PS On a side note, Rob and I were talking about the weird things you can do with the Neverwinter Toolset, stuff that's completely outside of what you would expect from the game. For example, two of our QA guys put together versions of games similar to Pong and Checkers.

I cannot wait to see where the community-at-large will take this...

Cut/Paste: You can cut & paste, and the toolset can be sized, which is nice, because we wrote a lot of our dialogue early, too :)

Brent Knowles, Co-Lead Designer

Resources: Actually, a couple of clarifications:

1. Areas with no players in them will still process scripts, but will have less AI time dedicated to them.

2. Although monsters are light in memory use their AI is not. Pathfinding and other chores can slow things down.

Cord Grimwinder-8d, Interplaygames.com Moderator

Class limitations: Funny how everyone fears that their favorite class will be nerfed isn't it? Heh, you see a post just like this weekly with a different class each time it seems. Monks, Barbarians, Clerics, Rogues, etc, etc.

I'm sure they are going to be very careful about rebalancing all of the classes, after all they are all going to be missing a thing or three, so don't worry too much ;-). That will include enhancing some things and even adding in things that aren't in the PnP rules. They've made it clear from day one that balance in all things is very important to their design plans and one of the main reasons
that NWN is taking so long to make.

Sound: Though I don't know the details of their sound implementation here are a couple of things that should give you warm fuzzies ;-).

One, sound is so important to them that the tilesets have not only a walkmesh for pathfinding they also have a soundmesh to make sure that when you walk on stone it sounds like it and when you walk on dirt it sounds like it, etc. Details are wonderful things, no?

Two, any sound or piece of music that ships with the game will be fully available for you to attach anywhere you please. These can be anything from continual loop effects (water dripping in a dank sewer) to having a piece of dramatic music triggered by the entry of a villain. You can even script it so that only certain players hear certain things-

Rogue- "Shhh...did you hear that?"

Fighter- "What? Are you hearing things again?"

All in all they've said on several occasions that sounds and music are, to them, just as important as good graphics.

Server Load: There will always be a "base" packet load for the server info no matter how many players you have, so after a certain point more players become slightly "cheaper" to support. Not a huge difference but it adds up over the range of 4 to 64.

Spellcraft skill: Spells of the same type (ie fire spells for instance) will have similar effects and you will still need the Spellcraft skill for your PC to know what the spell is for certain and thus be able to use counterspells.

Castles Tileset: Unless they changed things on us and didn't share the two castle sets (good and evil) will be somewhat Lego-like in nature.

Quote(Marc Holmes, NWN Art Director):

Since tiles are ten meters square, he smallest building essentially fills one tile. Larger buildings are groups of multiple tiles. The ultimate building is a castle, which is really a tileset of it's own. You can use castle tiles like Lego to build your own unique castle.

:End Quote

Disguise Skill: Quote (Marc Holmes, NWN Art Director):

We have not finalized any implementation of this idea, but we are planning for a disguise skill which will allow you to mask your name and class. If DM's don't wish to force players to use the skill, they can script items which grant the ability. Again, this is not working right now, and is only a *planned* feature, (of which we have hundreds yet to implement) but that's the current solution to enhancing this type of plot twist.

:End Quote

In other words, they are all over it ;-), if Disguise makes the cut it will mask your true name as well as your appearance.

Changing Names: From the E3 interview with Rob in the Members area at Interplaygames.com -

Aqua - How will PC names work as far as when they meet someone new, or are disguised? Will you just "know" their name by default, or will there be some type of "introduction" feature?

Rob - Introduction features are neat in a few rare circumstances but they can quickly become frustrating in the vast majority of others. For the time being, PC and NPC names will not be hidden. If, during the testing process, we find that this needs to be changed, we may consider it as a server option. Keep in mind, every creature in the game has a name, so just because a character has a name doesn't mean they are a player character.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Monday, June 25, 2001 - 16:42 CET by Darien

Here's a note from the BIS message boards on how to report any bugs you might find in Throne of Bhaal.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

Derek French, Assistant Producer - NWN

Basic BG2:ToB troubleshooting: I just wanted to call to your attention some of the easier ways to deal with issues with ToB as well as BG2.

First, only post bugs here on this forum (ToB Troubleshooting). Posting bugs on the other forums will most likely be missed until a moderator moves the post over here. Also, non-bug posts here will be moved to the appropriate forum without notice. This troubleshooting forum is one of the main places that we (BioWare) are looking for bug reports.

We have a Known Issues page for BG2 at the BioWare web site. Here you will find all the confirmed and verified issues with both BG2 and ToB. Please note that ONLY the confirmed and verified issues will be posted there, and reported bugs or bugs under investigation won't show up there.

Also, any patches for the game will appear on that page. Another page will list the major issues addressed and have a list of mirror sites from which to download the patch.

Now, if you don't see your issue on the Known Issue page and there isn't a thread here in the forum, then please start a new thread and give us as much information as you can. Please refer to the following link for some of the details that we are looking for:

http://www.bioware.com/bgate2/bg2reporting.shtml

And be polite! Rudeness will just get you ignored.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Monday, June 25, 2001 - 12:44 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

The Miscellaneous Books subsection sports a couple of new books, as well as the J.R.R. Tolkien subsection. I have also added two sample chapters of books about Tolkien; check the Tolkien books subsection for excerpts.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

Probably the most eagerly anticipated addition is finally here. Simpson's complete Baldur's Gate II FAQ/Walkthrough has been updated with a Throne of Bhaal walkthrough!

So far it covers Watcher's Keep, Grove of the Ancients and Saradush. Head over to the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection to download it.

Pool of Radiance Screenshots at GameSpy
Posted Sunday, June 24, 2001 - 19:12 CET by Darien

GameSpy has posted some PoR screenshots taken from the Ubi Soft gamers day in San Francisco. Some of them we've seen before, but they're still worth a look.

Throne of Bhaal Windows 2000 BETA Patch
Posted Sunday, June 24, 2001 - 0:26 CET by Darien

Bioware has a beta patch available for Throne of Bhaal, but it's only for Windows 2000 users. Click here for some notes about the patch and the download.

Throne of Bhaal Interview with Dave Gaider
Posted Saturday, June 23, 2001 - 20:52 CET by Darien

DB-Forge has posted an interview with Senior Designer Dave Gaider. Dave talks casually about things like wild mages, dragons and some of his favorite SF and fantasy authors. Here's his impression of Neverwinter Nights:

DB-Forge: Exactly how high is the drool&faint-factor when walking by the NWN offices? Could it prove to be a fatal experience for a non-prepared gamer? ;)

Dave: It’s less now that I’m working on the project, but it’s still pretty high. I think the real stun factor comes when you get into the game a little and learn about the scripting language and what it can do…how much was learned and improved from our BG experience. I’m also pretty impressed at just how much the whole team is determined to cling to…they refuse to compromise their vision of what NWN is meant to be. That’s really cool to be a part of.
As for the unprepared gamer, I don’t know about fatal…but you might want some extra layering for when you pee yourself at the occasional surprise.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Saturday, June 23, 2001 - 14:28 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Which dragon in Baldur's Gate 2 is your favourite?
(522 votes total)

Red dragon (Windspear hills) (253) 48%
Silver dragon (Underdark) (96) 18%
Shadow dragon (Temple ruins) (69) 13%
Black dragon (Suldanessellar) (65) 12%
Hell dragon (Hell) (39) 7%

Firkraag, the red dragon, won this poll with an overwhelming majority of votes. Almost half of the people who voted claim that he is their favorite dragon. Because of his "charming" personality, and because most people saw him first, no doubt.

Second place goes to Adalon, the good aligned silver dragon. 18% of people say that she is their favourite dragon. Of course, no self respecting party (unless evil) would go about killing her, so I suppose most people must have liked her lines and how she fits into the story. Or those glittering silver scales... ;)

Shadow dragon Thaxll'ssyllia, the one I encountered first, scored 13% of people's votes. Not much of a conversationalist, this dragon is simply there to be killed at your whimsy. You can either do it, don't do it, or come back later. (If you have the wardstone that prevents your detection, that is.)

Nizidramanii'yt, Irenicus' black dragon scored only 12% of votes. He was my favourite dragon because he seemed to be the toughest of all I've slain. Maybe also because you can spend quite some time convincing him to give you the goblet, but he doesn't fall for it. He's a smart wyrm after all.

The red dragon in hell is the least popular of all. It got only 7% of people's votes, and even that's quite a lot, considering the fact that it was really the one least people wanted to fight, when there is such an easy way around it.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Friday, June 22, 2001 - 20:40 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates -> Community

I've updated the About Us index page with the more current status of our team. Nothing breathtaking, but necessary.

In the Related Links subsection, one dead link was removed, and four new ones added.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

I'm doing a major overhaul of this whole section. It's a huge project, since I intend to have all books sorted and organized better, not to mention add all the ones I'm missing and the ones the fans suggested.

To date the Planescape, 3rd Edition D&D Books, Robert Jordan, J.R.R. Tolkien and Miscellaneous Books subsections have been totally renewed, all links checked, and many, many books added. Especially check out the Tolkien and 3rd Edition subsections, where most of the new books were added.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

I have added the latest version of the AD&D Rules FAQ and a guide to why thieves rule, by Ragusa. Both can be found at the bottom of the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection.

In the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection, an excellent NPC proficiencies list (compiled by Extremist) has been added. On a side note, I've put the familiars sheet on a separate page, accessible from the same section.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Neverwinter Nights

I finally got around to doing some more work in this section. To begin with, I compiled lists of known monsters and spells that will be in the game. Check them out in the Miscellanea subsection and let me know if I'm missing any. (Only confirmed stuff, no guesses please. I can make those myself.)

Interview with ToB's Alan Miranda
Posted Thursday, June 21, 2001 - 20:14 CET by Darien

TFH Gaming has posted an interview with Throne of Bhaal Producer Alan Miranda. Some of the topics covered include 3e rules, the resloution of NPC storylines, and dragons. Here's a bit about one of the concerns of some gamers:

TFH Gaming: How do you respond to some players that feel that the extremely high level experience cap of ToB may detract from the roleplaying experience - e.g. the game will devolve into a hack n' slash with absurdly powerful monsters. What will be the balance between roleplay/story development and combat in ToB?

Alan Miranda: ToB's story is intertwined with combat elements. You are the child of a god, facing the threat of your more aggressive siblings. There is plenty of story involved in this and as a high level character, players will have a unique experience to discover abilities associated with being a champion of the realms. True, there are some powerful adversaries to fight, but I don't think devolves the gameplay. As far as roleplaying is concerned, your actions do have a bearing on how the story concludes, which is probably the biggest roleplaying decision a character can make.

Throne of Bhaal First Impressions
Posted Thursday, June 21, 2001 - 15:35 CET by Darien

RPG Vault has posted a preview of what you can expect from Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal based on their own early adventures with the game. The article touches on installation, NPCs, and introduces the storyline. Also included is a double handful of screenshots.

As for the storyline that began back in 1998, your defeat of the villain Jon Irenicus has not brought you peace. Instead, the time has come for the cryptic Prophecy of Alaundo to play itself out. Terror an destruction reign across the Sword Coast as five powerful Bhaalspawn lead their mighty armies in savage warfare against anyone unlucky enough to be in their paths. Mistrust for all the children of the dead god of murder is rampant, even in cities you have aided in the past, and your friend, the Elven queen Ellesime, suggests that you visit a sacred grove where you might find some clues as to the prophecy and your role in it. You learn that some of your half-siblings are hunting you, and soon afterwards, you find yourself mysteriously transported to a place you do not know, the place where, as noted above, you can re-arrange your party. Also here is the impish Cespenar, a creature with the ability to upgrade a number of items provided you bring him the proper components. The manual includes a list that you may want to check so as not to throw away or sell any of them.

Want to read more?

Throne of Bhaal Chat
Posted Thursday, June 21, 2001 - 15:25 CET by Darien

Here's your chance to sound off about the game, directly to the ears of the producers. Here are the details from the official site.

Throne of Bhaal Chat!

Black Isle Studios, BioWare Corp. and the IGN Vault Network are pleased to present a chat with members of the Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal team on Wednesday, June 27. Here are the details:

WHO: You and members of the Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal team
WHAT: Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal IRC Chat
WHERE: RPG Vault Chat http://rpgvault.ign.com/chat/
(fans using IRC clients can connect to host17.webmaster.com in channel #ignvault)
WHEN: Wednesday, June 27, 2001, at 6:00 p.m. PST
WHY: To get the latest information straight from members of the development team

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Thursday, June 21, 2001 - 15:12 CET by Darien

Once again, some more from the guys on the official Neverwinter Nights message boards. Apparently Rob Bartel was waxing poetic this day. ;)

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

Strongholds: No, due to our module-based structure, we unfortunately won't be distributing strongholds in the official NWN campaign. After all, in multiplayer, you'd end up having two fighters claiming ownership of the same Keep, which would put a damper on the charm. ;o) We are giving you 'bases of operation' in each of the Chapters, though, and in the later ones, there starts to be a sense of ownership there.

I'm sure you'll find a variety of strongholds among the user-created modules, though, ranging from BG2-styled ones to your own house or castle in a persistent world, to a guildhouse shared by you and your friends. And the best stronghold of all, of course, is one you build for yourself and customize to your needs within the toolset.

User submitted models: It's a good idea, Atma, but you're unfortunately right - it would be quite an administrative challenge and not one that we have time or free manpower to handle effectively. Also, if bugs are found, it's always easier to fix something that you've created yourself rather than trying to decipher someone else's work.

Tileset size: It varies from tileset to tileset and is still in flux. The Rural and Urban tilesets are going to be the largest, though.

Eye in Neverwinter
"Wind by the Fireside"

So as you shiver in the cold and the dark,
Look into the fire and see in its spark--
My eye
Watching over you.

As you walk in the wind's whistling claws,
Listen past the howling of the wolf's jaws.
My song
Comes to you.

And when you're lost in the trackless snow,
Look up high where the eagles go.
My star
Shines for you.

In deep, dark mine or on crumbling peak,
Hear the words of love I speak.
My thoughts
Are with you.

You are not forsaken.
You are not forgotten.
The North cannot swallow you.
The snows cannot bury you.
I will come for you.
Faerun will grow warmer,
And the gods will smile
But oh, my love, guard yourself well--
All this may not happen for a long, long while.


(A traditional trail ballad of the Savage Frontier -- composer unknown. Recorded by Volothamp Geddarm in his "Guide to the North.")

All the answers that you seek
Have been sung of for a long, long time...
Rob Bartel

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Throne of Bhaal Staff: BioWare shares employees between projects a good bit, so some people already have been working on Neverwinter, some are coming on to Neverwinter now (and some of those will leave just as quickly), and some have moved on to other projects, such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Cord Grimwinder-8d, Interplaygames.com Moderator:

Signs in other languages: Simple enough though to make more than one text pop up, one plain worded and the other gibberish. Then have a script check the PC when they examine the sign to determine which pop up they get. You could base it on something as simple as the PC's Race, or make up your own simple/complex formulas, things like checking the PC's Int, Wis, Level, class, skills, feats, etc, in whatever combo fits your idea of a "language check".

Building houses in 3dMax: Also, keep in mind though, that buildings aren't limited to that size, many buildings are actually sets of 2 or more tiles in a fixed brush. So don't restrict your planning 10x10 unless you just wish to.

Release Date:
1)Read the posts on these subjects in the Official Announcements Conference here. They are 100% accurate (I wrote them ;-p).

2)EBWorld just moved their date back to 3/15/2002. Hmm wonder if they or Amazon will win the "Guess the Date" contest? ;-).

Retailers use projected dates to set up their marketing/advertising, that have little basis in reality.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Thursday, June 21, 2001 - 14:53 CET by Darien

There's lots of new stuff from the Black Isle Studios message boards today, so let's get to it. Enjoy!

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

David Gaider, Senior Designer:

Big Metal Unit: (Ed. Note: A very powerful armour made from pantaloons from BG1, BG2 and ToB).

Yep. That's all it's meant to be is an obscure easter egg.

But if someone wants to complain that there's an overpowered item that they only got by spawning the required items in and only heard about by reading the hint guide...well...I dunno...

Ah, yes. Someone else with a skewed sense of time. Let's see...time to come up with something fun (which is all it is) that only a miniscule number of players could honestly even encounter without cheating...mmm...a few hours. Time to give paladins a whole new set of their own powers and make new graphics for them? Hmmmm. Come on, dude.

Why does everyone who finds an element that they didn't like think that it could have been exchanged for more of something they did? I doubt the same people even worked on it.

Obviously we can't please everyone. It's completely impossible. Some people will like the Easter Egg. Some will not. Perhaps some of the things that you like about the game piss other people off, as well.

The point is, this Easter Egg is about .01% of the game at most. Hopefully you find something to make your experience worthwhile in the other 99.98% of the game.

Does anyone really need to argue about this?

ToB expansion: It's an expansion pack, my friend.

Watcher's Keep is half the game...and the entire expansion pack can be played in about 20-40 hours, we figure (depending on how fast you play). (TotSC was about 15 hours. HoW was, I hear, even less than that.)

There aren't many subplots...we already said this. There's no time (or use) for you to get cats out of trees, and you're hardly available for hire. There's one main story that unfolds.

This doesn't mean it's a bad story, or that Watcher's Keep is bad because someone went through it in 14 hours. Being an expansion pack, though, means that it's not BG3 (or BG2) as far as length or depth goes.

But you might want to reserve judgement until you play. I think it's a good expansion and good final story...but if you've shot up your expectations to a BG3 then you're only setting yourself up for disappointment, Mysterious Man.

Deck of Many Things: Actually, there's a couple of REALLY good cards that you can get...not even the hint guys picked up on that one, it seems, because the way I implemented it actually circumvents the whole save/reload thing.

I won't tell you how to do it, though, so nyah. :P

Dimension Door: All of this is correct. Plus it was kind of cheesy to have Dimension Door so limited as a short-range teleportation spell. Engine limitations required that the 'target' be on the screen, naturally.

Personally, I would have liked Dimension Door to be a sort of travel spell. If you cast it, it was like taking your party to the edge of the screen...you could avoid travel times and random encounters that way (and plus it would be pretty cool to bop around like every mage does).

Thing is, that would mean changing Dimension Door so it was long-range only. And there would have to be other tweaks as well...such as only being able to leave maps by sides you had explored (so you couldn't go to the next area of a dungeon unless you had found the exit)...but otherwise it might be OK.

Short-range teleportation is a nightmare, though. The entire engine would have to be redesigned...we'd have to look at every plot, transition point and trap polygon and design it so that it could conceivably be teleported past. Ick. Would need a bunch of engine changes to say the least...just thinking about it gives me shivers.

As for laying down waypoints for a Dimension Door, the engine just isn't built to do that. I think what would have been needed would be to have accounted for possible teleportation right from the very beginning.

Yes, THAT would be easy. Going in and adding it retroactively would be not. I can just imagine the amount of twitching that would result from even asking Mark Darrah about it.

But yeah...we realize that, too, about every other mage Dimension Door'ing about. That's why I created the POOF_GONE and the SWOOSH_GONE disappearing effects for some of the mages later in the game...so not EVERYone was using Dimension Door.
We would have liked to have included teleportation. Heck, we created the spell and even added the whole effect in, didn't we? And that's something we're going to have to try and account for in future games, I guess (although I guess the idea of players zipping about wherever they like is ALWAYS a really big design element...for what, in the end, is a small part of being a mage. Ya gotta think about that, too.)

Imoen's new dialog: Incidentally, the conversations between Imoen and Sarevok can be priceless, especially if you get Imoen to...well...never mind.

Dragon Scale and rings of protection:The rule, right from the beginning and right out of AD&D, is that the bonuses from rings of protection can't be combined with the bonuses from magical armor.

We don't allow people to put on the rings in that case because they would be confused as to why the AC bonuses weren't cumulative. The game tells you clearly why it can't be worn.

It's powerful armor because of its powerful magic. Period. The armor's been changed with lots of other things...and the change is retroactive to the beginning of BG2, just as any other patch would be.

Lots of items are fixed in ToB. The red dragon scale IS magical, after all. What's so cheap about that?

Actually, if you play BG2 again the dragon armor will be magical right from the get-go. All BG2 item changes affect BG2.

Oh, puh-lease. This is an old mistake that has nothing to to with balancing. Dragon scales are inherently magical...hence the bonuses when you make armor out of them. Generally any kind of powerful armor is powerful because it's magical, duh.

Not all of us hinged our entire existence on the exploit that one could combine a ring of protection with the red dragon armor, so we missed it. And besides, the patch was reserved primarily for stuff that was broken...not just implemented other than how we would have liked. Lots of other items that we wanted to change (like the ioun stones, the cloak of mirroring, darts, etc.) weren't changed for the patch, but are now.

Some make the items stronger, some make them weaker, as required. Issue a power-gamerish wail if you like, but that's the way it is.

Third Party Patches: Installing ToB over top of third-party fixes shouldn't cause any problems...although we've never tried that, here, so there's no way to be 100% certain. That doesn't seem to be the case, anyway.

There's another post on the dialogue bug by Kevin, elsewhere. As far as we can tell, the few people who have reported this (this is 'A LOT'?) are getting it on Windows 2000, which is an unsupported OS (Win95 & Win98 only). That said, some of our QA guys do use 2000ME and didn't have any problems. We will try to fix it regardless as soon as we can replicate the bug (I believe Kevin has asked someone for a saved game).

If you experience the bug (or any bug) and don't get a response here, contact us directly at bginfo@bioware.com. We may end up asking for a saved game if we can't duplicate it here, but we will try to be on top of it asap.

Don't forget to include system info like operating system (and OS patches installed), direct x version, video card and drivers, sound card and drivers, processor and motherboard, ram and so forth.

European Shipping Dates: We don't distribute the game, Myhaely. I imagine there's a few weeks delay simply due to the fact that shipping and duplication to Europe takes a bit. The same would apply to European titles coming to North America.

Beyond that, you'd have to ask Interplay (or their distributor in Europe...that would be Virgin, I suppose).

Sorry. I know how much waiting with anticipation must suck.

Derek French, Assistant Producer – Neverwinter Nights:

ToB working on Windows ME: Yes, BG2 and ToB will run on WinME, but I will warn you: we have had more reports of problems on WinME that go away when the user switches to another OS. Whether its by dual-boot or by reinstall, there seem to be more problems under WinME.

Kevin Martens, Lead Designer:

High level abilities: It depends on the ability. Some of them can be chosen multiple times, some can only be chosen once. If it would unbalance the game or otherwise screw things up, then the ability only shows up once.

Cloak of mirroring: Cloak of mirroring was stupid powerful so now, instead of reflecting the damage back on the caster, it just absorbs it. To fit in with the mirror theme, I believe we changed the description to say, reflects harmlessly away.

I apologize for it being so freaky powerful to begin with.

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter

Kevin Osburn, Line Producer

Trials of the Luremaster: Hey Guys, so far we are on schedule for the end of this month, if anything changes we will let you know.

My presence here on the board the next week or two may not be as strong as it has been. This is due to the fact that I am focusing most of my time on Trials of the Luremaster and finishing that project. I will still be checking the boards, but it may take me a little longer to get back to you guys.

Thanks everyone.

Neverwinter Nights Producer Update
Posted Thursday, June 21, 2001 - 6:06 CET by Darien

The official Neverwinter Nights page has been updated by Trent Oster. Now that E3 has come and gone, he's got some comments on programming, art, design, and more.

PROGRAMMING:
Back in March I said, "The additions to the graphics engine are looking good. Every few days I see a new little graphical addition and I'm amazed at how much better the engine looks. NWN is going to be one visually impressive game." Since that time, the engine has come even further. Many of you have had the chance to see the dynamic shadows and environment mapping that made it into the engine just in time for E3 and, judging by your reactions, you're just as excited about them as we are. Additionally, the E3 preparation was our first serious trial of the entire project framework and the handling of new content that was being created daily for our demos. The entire system worked extremely well and we had excellent stability for the entire show. On the tools front, Solstice has been renamed the 'Aurora Toolset' but everything under the hood remains the same… Well, except for all the increased functionality we've been plugging in as of late. Preliminary support for painting down terrain has been implemented, making all of us very happy. The demo at E3 consisted of painting down a small dungeon environment and then placing a character start point and running around in the area, in-game. It took less than two minutes to create a basic area, paint down some different terrain types and save the area out. The painting system is simple to use, easy to understand, and is a very fast method for creating areas. We also managed to implement the basic Radial Menu system in the game in a final manner, with support for many different visual modes, from exclusively icon based, to both icons and text, to text only. Now we'll be adding content to those menus and begin optimizing the GUI flow. A very rudimentary combat system made it into the E3 demo and the results are quite promising. As we spend more time working on the underlying animation and combat action systems, the look, feel, and functionality is going to improve massively.

Read the rest here.

Throne of Bhaal Screenshots at XGR
Posted Thursday, June 21, 2001 - 5:59 CET by Darien

For those of you who can't yet get your hands on a copy of Throne of Bhaal yet, XGR has posted over a dozen screenshots from the expansion.

DB-Forge Features: Ask the Pantless Knight!
Posted Thursday, June 21, 2001 - 5:55 CET by Darien

DB-Forge is offering up a new feature called Ask the Pantless Knight!. Got any questions for Dave Gaider? Check this out!

Throne of Bhaal Ships!
Posted Wednesday, June 20, 2001 - 19:40 CET by Darien

You've been counting the days, and scouring the stores, well, guess what! It's finally happened. Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal has been shipped. Here's the press release from PR Newswire.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal Ships to Retail; Vast New Expansion Product Completes the Epic Saga of Baldur's Gate

IRVINE, Calif., June 20 -- Black Isle Studios, the role-playing game division of Interplay Entertainment Corp. (Nasdaq: IPLY), and BioWare Corp. announced today that the expansion product to the award-winning role-playing game Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn entitled Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, has shipped to retail. The add-on product expands and enriches the gameplay experience by adding several new locations, high-level spells and powerful new characters to the Baldur's Gate II game. Set in the Forgotten Realms campaign world of the Dungeons & Dragons game, Throne of Bhaal is the ultimate conclusion of the Baldur's Gate legend as gamers fulfill their destiny as a child of Bhaal.

Developed by BioWare and published by Black Isle Studios, the Baldur's Gate franchise -- consisting of Baldur's Gate, its Tales of the Sword Coast expansion and Baldur's Gate II -- redefined the role-playing genre and has since dominated the PC game charts with sales of over 3.5 million units worldwide. The franchise continues to receive accolades from press and pundits around the world. Top PC gaming magazines Computer Gaming World and Computer Games Magazine have awarded RPG of the Year nods for Baldur's Gate in 1998 and Baldur's Gate II in 2000, as have the popular gaming-oriented online sites, GameSpot and IGN (Black Isle Studios has been presented the RPG of the Year award from Computer Gaming World and Computer Games Magazine for the last four years running). Additionally, Computer Games, Computer Games Online, IGN and Vault Network named Baldur's Gate Game of the Year for 1998, while leading websites such as MSNBC.com have named Baldur's Gate II Game of the Year for 2000, an honor rarely bestowed upon role-playing games.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal takes players through an all-new storyline rich with intrigue and treachery as they unravel the mysteries of the Dungeon of Watcher's Keep and explore other new areas such as the City of Saradush, the Fortified Monastery of Amkethran, Sendai's Underdark Fortress and the player's own Planar Stronghold. Throughout their journey, characters may reach up to level 40, made possible with a raised experience cap of 8 million points, quite possibly the highest level ever achieved by characters in any Advanced Dungeons & Dragons computer game. Also included in the quest are over 40 new powerful high-level spells and abilities. The Wild Mage Character Kit will also be included to the already extensive class list allowing gamers to create a powerful new character able to cast spells with very unpredictable results.

Baldur's Gate II players will be pleased to hear that the Dungeon of Watchers Keep (the add-in section contained within the Throne of Bhaal expansion pack) is fully playable either while questing through their Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn adventure or while completing the Child of Bhaal Saga (as part of the add-on section of the Throne of Bhaal expansion). Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal has shipped to retail for Windows 95/98-based computers and gamers will need to own the original Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn in order to play.

Throne of Bhaal Developer Diary
Posted Wednesday, June 20, 2001 - 14:32 CET by Darien

Gamespy has posted its final segment of the Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal developer diary. Alan Miranda's article brings you final thoughts on the development of the game by team members, including Lead Programmer Mark Darrah, Lead Designer Kevin Martens, Scott Langevin of QA, and others.

Well, it's been a very fun-packed 8 months! From the initial design stages to holding the final gold candidate of Throne of Bhaal in our hands, all of us have really enjoyed working on this final chapter in the Bhaal saga. With the process so streamlined after two full games and an expansion pack, our tasks were relatively straightforward. This does not translate into being easy -- oh no, games require too much to be termed that way. One of the greatest challenges was managing to accommodate everything we wanted to give our fans within the confines of a single-CD expansion pack. I can honestly say that there were times when we became a little apprehensive at all the stuff we'd created and how it was going to fit. But in the end our programmers figured out a few very clever solutions, and that one CD is literally about to explode with Baldur's Gate goodness! I mean, with a 30-50 hour estimated play time, this expansion rivals other full game releases out there.

Read the rest here.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2001 - 21:37 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates -> Screenshot of the Week

Since we started the whole SotW subsection on the front page, quite a number of screenshots have been shown, but once their week of fame was over, there was no way to see them again. A shame really, so I sat down and created a new subsection accessible from the SotW page. (SotW Archives). All previous screenshots will be archived and displayed there from now on.

Subsection Updates -> Articles

My buddy Chris of the GA-RPG fame allowed me to post some of his articles he and I managed to salvage from the sinking ship that was GA and later eUniverse. I revised and posted three of his game reviews which can now be accessed in the Articles subsection.
The reviews are of Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate II. Well written stuff.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

Even though I liked the old cover for the FR campaign setting better, I finally stopped fooling people and put up the right picture of it. While at it, I added another upcoming manual from SSS, the Creature Collection II. Yes, it happened in the Recommended 3rd Edition D&D Books subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate

Rhys Hess, whom some of you might remember as the guy who created the story of the Nameless One and the BG2 stories, has done it again. This time he went through the entire Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast and recorded his journey in written word. Check the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection where you can download it.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

Wildfire, one of our message boards/chatroom regulars reminded me that I don't have the demo of the game linked to anywhere, so I promptly fixed this. See the Miscellanea subsection for more, if you are interested.

There's also a new addition in the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection. A new Romances FAQ has been posted, though it deals with female romances only. (Sorry ladies, maybe you can mail the author and convince him to do Anomen too ;)

Subsection Updates - Games -> Icewind Dale

Not much to write about here, except for a new version of the IWD+HoW walkthrough, accessible from the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Planescape: Torment

More of the above... A new version of the Complete Guide and Walkthrough to Planescape: Torment in the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Neverwinter Nights

I finally got around to editing the log of the NWN chat from a while ago. If you haven't attended, make use of the prettied up version of it, which you can read in the Miscellanea subsection.

In the same subsection, I have also posted an overview of the game, according to the E3 material. It's a good summary of what NWN is all about.

Pool of Radiance Interview at WotC
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2001 - 17:06 CET by Darien

Wizards has posted an interview with Chuck Yager, Associate Producer of PoR 2: The Ruins of Myth Drannor about his impressions of the game's presentation at E3.

You'll all be happy to know that everything is in the game and functioning as it should. What's left, then? Why isn't it on the shelves yet? We are doing the last fine-tuning passes on the optimization of the game and catching the occasional path-finding bug that arises. We want to make sure that we deliver as clean a game as possible, and I feel confident about seeing a late August/first week of September release. It's been a long road, but when I can take a build to E3, just let people play with little to no instruction, and watch them have a good time with no slowdowns, crashes, or major issues, I know we are close.

Read the rest here.

Pool of Radiance Screenshots at PC Games
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2001 - 7:14 CET by Darien

A feast of PoR 2: Ruins of Myth Drannor screenshots has been posted at PC Games. Twenty one shots in all, with a good assortment of views.

Throne of Bhaal Elements of the Day
Posted Monday, June 18, 2001 - 19:36 CET by Darien

RPG Vault's Elements of the Day feature continues its look at Throne of Bhaal with a peek at some new abilities available.

Throne of Bhaal Screenshots at RPG Vault
Posted Monday, June 18, 2001 - 19:28 CET by Darien

Better late than never, here are a 10 screenshots from RPG Vault celebrating the Gold status of Throne of Bhaal.

Pool of Radiance Preview at PCZone
Posted Monday, June 18, 2001 - 19:23 CET by Darien

PCZone has posted a short preview of PoR: Ruins of Myth Drannor, including the obligatory handful of screenshots.

How today's RPG fans who have been reared on a diet of fast-paced action will react to this is anyone's guess, but SSI's decision to go back to basics with this title will at least ensure the combat rounds will require a large degree of strategy if you are to emerge victorious. Up to four player-made characters can be taken into the game, with two party positions left free for NPCs to join as you make your way through the adventure. Or, if you wish, you can replace most of your original party members with NPCs when you realise that the characters you made at the start of the game are completely naff.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Monday, June 18, 2001 - 19:14 CET by Darien

Here's an update from the Black Isle Studios message boards.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

David Gaider, Senior Designer:

Scarlet Ninja-To: I don't make the items, myself, so I'm not really sure. I would hazard a guess that the designer who made this was intentionally making a unique item for monks...some quality of the item means that it can only be used by the monk class, period.

But beyond that, there's no real reason why the ninja-to can't be changed. Go hard.

Upgradeable items: I think there were seven items total in BG2 that were either upgradeable or buildable from separate parts. (Thinking...thinking...seven? Maybe a couple more or less, it's been awhile...)

In the expansion, we add on an additional 37, a few of which are also upgrades to items from BG2 itself.

Swashbucklers attacks: Hm? How would they be 'supposed to'? The kit went through several mutations until we got to the current one. I don't think we ever planned for the Swashbuckler to have the same # of attacks as fighters.

At one point, we were trying to get the Swashbuckler have the same ThAC0 as a fighter, but we didn't like the implementation and James wanted something different. But that's just one of numerous changes.

So there's nothing to fix. So, no, the Swashbuckler hasn't been altered.

Sorcerer spell memorization: I think there's a spell or two added at 8th level (I may be wrong, but I believe at least one of the Bigby spells is 8th level), but nothing below that.

And, no, sorcerers don't get to re-pick all of their spells...not for the sake of one or two 8th level spells. Chances are you'll get access to that within a few level-ups, regardless."

Sorcerer spell progression: At level 20, they can cast 6 of each spell level right up to level 9...that doesn't advance. They do, however, continue to receive additional spell selections after level 20.

Item descriptions in ToB: The descriptions for many of the new items are, as a rule, much shorter. Someone mentioned earlier the cost associated with translation, and that's very true.

Keep in mind that an expansion pack is much cheaper than a normal game, and when you're looking at translating said game into numerous languages the costs can really run up. We were presented with a realistic and still very generous word-count limit for ToB...and as a design decision we decided to use the vast majority of that count for story and dialogue. There really is more story here than I think you would find in an ordinary expansion pack, and that was really important to us. The trade-off with the item descriptions may lessen something that was an occasionally amusing detail of the game, but the basics are still there and I don't think the game suffers overall...personally, I think people get more out of the dialogue and such, but I guess opinions vary.

Sarevok's Sword: Q: If we give the Sword of Chaos back to Sarevok,will it regain it's former abilities?

Whether it does or does not will make sense once you play the game. Honestly, I can't say more than that, sorry.

Wizard Eye tactic: Incidentally, this particular tactic won't work anymore. The Wizard Eye goes POP! and disappears if it's so much as looked at violently. Otherwise it wanders about invisible.

Characters played: Well, let's see...In BG, I played through as a human ranger named Rylock.

In BG2, I had to play through a few times. The funniest game and the most complete was my first time I got to go through the whole game and play seriously. That was as Samuel Thunderburp, my male halfling thief (who did very well as a thief, thank you).

After that I went through twice more, once with a female human paladin named Tess and my 'testing' character which was an evil male half-elf bard named Tamlan.

Romances: It's kind of hard that, while developing a game that we put our heart and soul into, we also have to give a nod to the harsh realities of business at the same time...but that's the way life is. The entire making of the game was filled with compromises and necessary cuts...not to knock BG2, though, I still think it turned out better than any of us expected...but one of the hardest was cutting out the extra romance.

We thought we had time to make five romance tracks, and since we knew there were way more guys who were going to play the game, we gave the 'extra' to them. 3 male-oriented, 2 female-oriented stories.

Time, however, ran out. The actual building of the scripts was waaay more complicated than we had anticipated (particularly the Jaheira romance), especially for something we considered (at the time) to be a relatively minor albeit fun part of the game. The amount of QA time we needed to devote to de-bugging alone was pretty big. If we were going to write romances now for a BG2-size game, it'd be a different story...we've done it once, now, and we know how it goes.

But it was a hard choice (among a lot of other hard choices) that had to be made. The male-oriented romances had been written first and it was the second female-oriented romance that ended up needing to be chopped (originally slated for Haer'Dalis).

I agree it was too bad...I think everyone at Bioware does. Putting in more romances would have made the game better, sure...so would have making them longer or having more interaction overall. But that's all we had time to do.

I do think, though, that the reaction we got to the romances was a bit unexpected. And the veritable scolding we've gotten from our female gamers has certainly taught us a lesson. In the future, I can assure you we will approach this kind of thing with a much different mind-set.

And I think, too, that it will take such well-expressed and thoughtful commentary from people like yourself to change not only the ideas that we developers have, but probably the view that the industry has on its growing female gaming population overall.

P.S.: As an aside, have you ever visited womengamers.com? It's a great site where people who share your viewpoint have gathered. I like it and I think it's a good sign of things to come. There may be others like it, I suppose, but it's the only one I know of.

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter

Kevin Osburn, Line Producer:

Improvements to OpenGL in TotL: We have made some minor tweaks to the OpenGL performance. We are waiting for some feedback from QA, and we will also run it through compatibility to see if we made any improvements. I will give you guys an update as soon as I get one.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Monday, June 18, 2001 - 18:07 CET by Darien

Well, it's been long enough, so let's get to it. There are a few days worth of comments here from the Official Neverwinter Nights message boards. Enjoy!

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

Swamps: I think the forest tileset would make a great mangrove sort of swamp (if you want a more traditional temperate style of swamp, I would still recommend the rural/grasslands tileset, however). Another thing I'd do, though, would be to paint down a whole network of interlocking streams. That way, everything would take on the look of hummocks rising out of the water and the characters would frequently get splashing sounds when they walk, etc. Add in some lizardmen and some good music to set the mood and I think you'll have a very convincing swamp.

Cure of the plague: Let's see, rather than telling you what the creatures are, how about I tell you what the reagents to the cure might be: a bundle of hair and twigs, a tailfeather, a venomous gland, the frontal lobe of moss-encrusted brain... They sound dark but Khelben Blackstaff and his Lady Laerel assure us that just such darkness is required to purge our city of the Wailing Death.

From single player to multi-player: When you make the jump from solo play into multi play is up to you. With the exception of the tutorials (which are single-player only), the entire campaign will be playable in both modes and, what is more, you'll be able to switch back and forth between the two from one module to the next.

Placing notes on scrolls and tombs: In Baldur's Gate, we used little doodads called "Conversation Tokens" to handle unknown elements like gender, player name, etc. Neverwinter's taken that system, expanded it, and renamed everything for easy use. We use angle brackets (greater and less than signs) to define them in the toolset but, as those don't show up when I post them here, I'll replace them with [square brackets.] For instance, if you want your NPCs to refer to the player in a deferential fashion, you might write it as follows:

"M'[lord/lady] [LastName], I'm glad you could get here so quickly."

Grin, my halfling sorcerer, would see this:

"M'lord Undergallows, I'm glad you could get here so quickly."

Our paladin Aribeth, however, would see this:

"M'lady de Tylmarande, I'm so glad you could get here so quickly."

So that's how to do it in conversation. Books get a little more complicated, at least in multiplayer. Whereas conversations have a target (who is being talked to), books do not (at least not one that makes sense - you generally don't want the subject of the book to change with every person who reads it). What we've done, though, is allow you to define a series of 10 custom tokens through scripting. They can be anything you want but we tend to use them to store the names of the first person to sneak into the prison in the Piers district or fulfill other objectives within the module. That way NPCs, journal entries, notes, text pop-ups, etc, can all refer to those players.

Expansions plans: Don`t worry, I`m sure you`ll be hearing plenty about expansion features when the time comes. Whether that time occurs before or after the original release is anybody`s guess at this point however.

But thanks to all of you who contributed your thoughts and preferences to the various expansion threads. It`s good to get a sense of what kind of approach would be preferred by the community. At this point, it seems like there`s pretty even support for both sides of the debate. We`ll let you know more as our plans for any potential expansion solidify.

No Low Light Vision: Our current plans (ie: still not in the engine and fully working at this point) are to include Darkvision but not Low-Light Vision. We simply found that LLV wasn`t different enough from normal sight to warrant implementation at this time. Darkvision, on the other hand, is quite distinct and useful, so we`re working hard to represent it within the game.

Charisma: Does Charisma count? You better believe it! ;o) As the others mentioned, it's key to playing effective sorcerers, bards, and paladins and also used for a variety of really cool skills (many of which will be finding their way into NWN).

The interesting thing with NWN, however, is that we've actually come up with a standardized method of integrating this kind of stuff into your conversations with NPCs. We based it off of the Skill Check system in 3rd Edition but modified it to accommodate things like spells and class abilities, as well.

For instance, if you're faced with a situation in which you need to obtain a favor from an NPC, you could Persuade them (our version of the Diplomacy and Innuendo skills), Bribe them, Inspire Greatness in them (the Bard ability), or cast Charm Person on them, all via conversation. Success or failure in each of these will be determined by whether or not your talent or skill with this ability (combined with a random dice roll) exceeds the necessary Difficulty Class (DC).

We've got plenty more of these Conversation Checks, too, and we'll be using them liberally throughout the official campaign. They really add a lot to the gameplay and give you an opportunity to use your various skills and abilities in a fashion that typically hasn't been available in most prior RPGs.

Official storyline feedback: Glad you guys like what`s been released of the story so far. Rest assured, that`s just the start. ;o) If any of you have questions about the official campaign, feel free to ask them either in this forum or in the Developer`s Corner. We won`t give away spoilers, obviously, but we love to spill teasers where we can.

Eric Noah's D&D 3E Site: Just as a heads up to those of you who aren`t already familiar with Eric Noah`s wonderful 3rd Edition news site, I`d encourage all of you wander on by sometime at:

Eric Noah's D&D 3rd Edition News Site

One of the really exciting things to come out of WotC`s work on the 3rd Edition has been their `open-sourcing` of the D20 rules that lie at the heart of D&D. There are plenty of third-party companies putting out D20 supplements, D20 conversions of existing pen-and-paper campaign worlds, and entirely new worlds, as well. You can find Noah`s fairly thorough listing of D20 products at:

D20 Products

Why am I telling you all of this? ;o) Well, Neverwinter`s all about building bridges between cRPGs and their pen-and-paper predecessors, right? So what are you waiting for - wander over and make friends!

Trent Oster, Producer:

Hacking/Cheating: All the rules happen on the server. In short, unless there is a special hack in the module placed ahead of time by the module creator it is not possible to change gameplay.

Brent Knowles, Co-Lead Designer:

Single Player as well: The multiplayer game is just one method of playing Neverwinter Nights. We`re creating a game that will be loads of fun, even if played single player. In fact, many of the people who will play this game may never even play Neverwinter Nights online.

Cord Grimwinder-8d, Interplaygames.com Moderator

Text pop-ups Yes, you may attach text to pretty much anything and any place in the game. You can then have the text pop ups appear based on any type of criteria you chose from simply having it appear when a PC examines an item, to having it
pop up when a PC comes near, to having it appear only to PCs that meet certain conditions. Like having a special text pop up that only appears to a PC that has a) an Intelligence of 18 or more, b) is at least a 15th level Rogue or c)is a CN aligned Elf, or any combination of those factors and pretty much an endless variety of whatever other factors you may choose.

Premonition spell: Premonition is a BioWare created spell they made to balance out the spells that didn't make the cut because they don't work well in computer games. We'll be seeing a few like that for every casting class (as well as some original feats/skills to fill out the non-casters). I believe I recall them saying that Premonition sucks up 150 points of total damage, but only the first 30 points of any one attack.

Mmmmmmm balance.....

Server Move Completed
Posted Sunday, June 17, 2001 - 17:57 CET by Sorcerer

Yup... This is it. Everything is back online & operational. The last part (the whole Games section) has just been finalized. Back to business. :)

(The new SotW may be a bit late since I'm redoing the system to include archives of them, so I'll probably post it along with a site update later today or tomorrow.)

Boards O' Magick Back Online
Posted Sunday, June 17, 2001 - 16:36 CET by Sorcerer

More good news, RPG fans!

Our sorely missed message boards, Boards O' Magick are back in action. These past few days without them have been murderous according to some of our more addicted community members, so this should fix you all up nicely. ;)

On a side note; the rest of the website (the Games section) will be up later today.

Up & Running On A New Server!
Posted Saturday, June 16, 2001 - 22:26 CET by Sorcerer

Testing... Testing... Is this thing on? ;)

Just to let you all know, we are progressing nicely towards having the whole Sorcerer's Place back up ASAP. Everything except for the whole Games section and the Boards O' Magick is already up at the time I'm writing this.
A big thanks goes to RPGDot and its boss Rendelius for being our new host and a swell guy who helped a lot during this move.
Not to forget, Darien, our main News Editor has also contributed a huge amount of time and effort during this gigantic move.

I plan on bringing the boards back online as soon as I can. Some of the legacy of our previous host like the GA buttons and such will all be removed once I get around to inserting the new ad code and such.

Thank you again for your patience. It won't be long now before everything is back to normal.

Throne of Bhaal Elements of the Day
Posted Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 22:13 CET by Darien

Another look at some of the items available in ToB has been posted at RPG Vault. This time it's Foebane, a very nice bastard sword. If you missed some of the other elements of the day, you can find them here.

Baldur's Gate II Interview
Posted Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 22:02 CET by Darien

For all you Mac users out there, (are there any?) here's an interview with Chris Jacobson, lead programmer of the Macintosh conversion of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.

IMG: Can you give us a status update on Baldur's Gate II and when you expect to go golden master?

C.J. Baldur's Gate II is in beta testing - we're ramping up our testing at the moment to try to find as many bugs as we can, so that we can ensure a stable and enjoyable game. I plan to reach GM by the end of the month, so we can launch the game at MacWorld NY.

Pool of Radiance Preview at PC Gameplay
Posted Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 21:55 CET by Darien

A preview of Pool of Radiance II: Ruins of Myth Drannor has been posted at PC Gameplay. It covers most aspects of the game from character creation to maps to combat, as well as offering up some decent screenshots. Here's the verdict:

Fans of the genre will not be let down by Pool Of Radiance. There has been some whining on the game's official forums that too many of the new 3rd Edition rules have been compromised for the sake of simplicity, but to them we say "Pah!" Radiance is a solid game that more than capably conveys the spirit of D&D on the PC. Whether or not you prefer it to Baldur's Gate will depend on your point of view: some may find the stop/start turn-based nature of the combat slightly jarring, but others will find it a joy. The graphics are excellent, the story is typically convoluted and entertaining, and there are at least 100 hours of gaming to be had.

Throne of Bhaal Screenshots at RPG Planet
Posted Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 21:49 CET by Darien

Throne of Bhaal is coming any day now, right? (Cross your fingers.) Just in case it ain't so, here are a 16 screenshots from RPG Planet to tide you over.

Throne of Bhaal Gone Gold (*Confirmed*)
Posted Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 21:28 CET by Sorcerer

After the initial doubt, it turns out that Interplay's website was right on the money.
The ToB master CD has really gone into duplication and will be coming in a store near you (or shipping out, if you ordered online) in the next two weeks or so, depending on where you live. This goes for USA only, of course. Everyone else will have to wait a while longer.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 19:39 CET by Darien

Here's a bit more from the Black Isle Studios message boards.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

Derek French, Assistant Producer – Neverwinter Nights:

International Languages: ToB (as well as all other BioWare titles) is always planned for English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish on release. Other languages get done based on market demands after the first run is done.

Heart of Winter

Kevin Osburn, Line Producer:

Jobs in Quality Assurance: I just wanted to clear something up. I came from QA, Darren came from QA, and most development people start in QA. It may seem like the greatest job in the world, but it is actually quite hard, for many reasons. QA is often under appreciated when they are extremely important to the development process. We here at Black Isle understand how hard it is in QA, and we appreciate our testers because if it wasn't for them we would have to test it and that would add months onto our development time.

But if you want to get in this industry that is the best way.

Oh yeah, the best thing to do is fill out a QA Application form that we have here in the Irvine office.

Updating the main page: I know it seems like old news (6/1/01 Update), but it is really the most recent we have. As soon as we get a better idea we will post another update. Darren and I have already talked about it. We want to keep you guys as informed as we possibly can. So as soon as we have a better idea, on the release we are still planning for the end of this month.

Interview with Feargus Urquhart
Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 15:34 CET by Darien

Gamasutra has interviewed Black Isle Studios Director Feargus Urquhart.

What's the most important thing anybody ever taught you about game development?

By far the most important thing that I was taught is as a game developer or designer we are not creating games for ourselves. We are making them for the people who are going to play them, and the press that is going to write about them. Taking that into account means that you have to think very seriously about how you make games, what features you include in them, and how they are presented to both the consumers and the press. As a game developer you have to take into account that the press wants to see new bells and whistles even as they are telling you that game play is all that matters. If you don't have eye candy or some "hooks" that can be communicated very quickly, they have a habit of losing interest very quickly. And while the consumers will also say that they don't care about graphics, if your screenshots don't blow them away then there is less of a chance they will type in the website that is listed on the ad.

Read the interview.

Site News - More New Additions
Posted Monday, June 11, 2001 - 21:47 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates - Games -> Icewind Dale

For starters, we have two updated walkthroughs to offer. The first being the IWD + HoW one, and the second a pure Heart of Winter solution. You can find both in the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection.

Next update was made in the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection. Both the Heart of Winter and Icewind Dale stores items lists were renewed.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

There are quite a few new additions on this part of the site. On the main Walkthroughs & Guides page I added a link to the official Throne of Bhaal strategy guide, which is now also available from Amazon.com.

On the same page, the Complete BG2 FAQ and Walkthrough has been updated with the latest version, as well as the AD&D Rules FAQ.

Next is the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection. Here a new version of the Guide to Sorcerers has been added, plus an updated items list.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Planescape: Torment

The Complete Guide & Walkthrough to Planescape: Torment has been updated. Obviously you can find this in the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection.

Extremist, one of the regulars of our message boards has extracted a list of all tattoos that are in the game, and I took the liberty of compiling it all into a nice handy reference. You can find it in the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

The Tome and Blood guidebook to wizards and sorcerers, due to be released soon has been added to the Recommended 3rd Edition D&D Books subsection. I've also added the d20 dice set to the same page.

Subsection Updates -> Community

In the light of the recent opening of a new forum (Throne of Bhaal) at our message boards, I have updated the Message Boards subsection with the new forum and made some cosmetic changes to the whole page.

Sorcerer's Place Moving
Posted Monday, June 11, 2001 - 21:29 CET by Sorcerer

As you might know if you have been paying attention to the news posted here lately (or our message boards), our current host eUniverse is no more. We have till Friday to pack our bags.

But, of course, we have come up with a solution to this predicament.
We will be moving to a new host shortly, so you will almost certainly experience periods when the website will not be accessible, and even once we get it back up, some things will have to be set up totally anew, so it'll be a while till we get back to normal. Stay tuned and don't abandon us. We'll be back before you know it. ;)

MegaTokyo Tours E3
Posted Monday, June 11, 2001 - 17:03 CET by Darien

Once again, Boo appears over at MegaTokyo, this time taking a tour of E3, and enjoying the exploits of Bob McCabe. ;)

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Monday, June 11, 2001 - 16:52 CET by Darien

Check out the latest comments from the game developers on the Black Isle Studios message boards.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

David Gaider, Senior Designer

Death Bow: Death Blow isn't useless. Not every enemy you encounter is over 12 HD, and some with less HD can have some extremely annoying powers (illithids, beholders and elementals come to mind). Perhaps you might want to keep in mind that Death Blow can be acquired, now, in the main BG2 game as well.

I've used it, and in the right cases it works just fine. Like all things, it is more or less useful to someone based on the tactics you use. Of course, if you want to go ahead and grump at how useless something is just because you'd never use it yourself, than go ahead.

The end boss: Topics like this are funny because everyone will claim that they knew who the endboss was, anyway.

"Oh, yeah, gosh, it was SO obvious. How could you not know?"

Heh. Relax, fellas.

I mean, do you really want to sit around and piece together the whole game and ending before you even play it?

Yoshimo in ToB: I said this once before, elsewhere, but here it is again:

Yoshimo does not return. He is dead.

Derek French, Assistant Producer – Neverwinter Nights:

Infinity Engine: Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal will be the last BioWare game using the Infinity engine.

For BioWare, BG2:ToB is the last Infinity Engine game. I cannot speak for Black Isle, though. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic will be using a brand new 3D, thrid person view engine.

Rumors of ToB incompletion: Completely untrue. It is still in QA right now. All the guys are working hard getting rid of these last bugs. So far, we have said it will be done "soon" for about a week now, but that is about as accurate as we can be now.

Status update: ToB is still in QA. We are working on the last bugs in the game and the game should be done soon. There was a fairly significant bug found Friday. It is fixed and the game is back in QA.

We don't have a release date for the game and any dates that you read from retailers are pure speculation on there part. Once the game is gold, we will be posting it here.

Becoming a play tester: Play Testers (or Quality Assurance as we like to call them) are hired like any other employee at BioWare. For QA, we are looking for people that have an eye for details and problem solving. A background knowledge of computer hardware and programming is an asset, but it is not required. Most of our QA guys come from a wide variety of backgrounds. It pretty much comes down to the interview for us.

To apply:

By mail:
BioWare Corp.
#302 10508 82 Ave
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T6E 6H2

For e-mail, use jobs@bioware.com

For more BioWare job info:

http://www.bioware.com/info/jobs.html

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter:

Steve Bokkes, Designer:

New stores in Trials of the Luremaster: There are a couple of NPC's that buy and sell. However, you will be somewhere in the middle of the Anauroch. So don't expect them to be Aurora's outlets or anything. Make sure you stock up on scrolls and potions before departing Lonelywood. If not, you'll probably find yourself memorizing alot of curative spells.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Sunday, June 10, 2001 - 20:58 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates - Games -> Icewind Dale

With the release of the free downloadable Heart of Winter expansion only a few days away (hopefully), I've updated my Heart of Winter: Trials of the Luremaster Features List with a few more details and screenshots. Check the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

Sylvus has been busy finishing his excellent Baldur's Gate 2 Online Solution, so this time we have five new areas available: Small Teeth Pass, North Forest, Forest of Tethir, Suldanessellar and Bhaal's Realm.

Throne of Bhaal is also nearing the "gold" status, so I've updated my Throne of Bhaal Features List with a couple new details. You can access both the solution and the list from the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection.

In case you haven't grabbed the ToB Demogorgon wallpaper yet, I've put it in the Miscellanea subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Pool of Radiance: RoMD

Not much news here, except for an interesting look at the mapping system in the game. Check the Miscellanea subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Neverwinter Nights

A few more details about the game are known at this point, so I have updated and split the Neverwinter Nights introduction page into three parts.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

I've noticed that I didn't have the two subsequent books to the Avatar trilogy listed, so I added both of them (Prince of Lies and Crucible) to the Recommended Forgotten Realms Books subsection.

Subsection Updates -> Community

One new Neverwinter Nights link has been added to the Related Links subsection.

Pool of Radiance Preview at MGON
Posted Saturday, June 9, 2001 - 19:10 CET by Darien

Another Pool of Radiance II: Ruins of Myth Drannor preview is up at MGON. It's a pretty thorough overview, and also has some nice screenshots at the end. Here's a bit about the new combat abilities:

Some of the new abilities gained as your characters become more proficient in their chosen fields include; Blind Fight, Cleave, Combat Casting, Improved Critical, Point Blank Shot and Toughness. What these abilities actually let you do remains to be seen, but at least their names seem to suggest you will be able to investigate the tactical possibilities of using different approaches in combat. This is much more exciting than simply selecting the same generic attack button again and again.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Friday, June 8, 2001 - 16:46 CET by Darien

Well, here we go again. Lots to read from the official Neverwinter Nights message boards, so let's get to it. In a couple of spots, I've included the original questions, since the responses alone are unclear.

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

Characters Level Affecting Item Properties: We like the idea and actively considered it for a time. Ultmiately, however, we decided that that was not how D&D works and we wanted to remain true to the license.

As for scripting it, there is actually a method that is at least reasonably portable across modules. Rather than have the scripting act as a wrapper over the core item, adding abilities, etc, it would probably be easier and cleaner to simply replace the item. If a Lvl 5 character picks it up, a script on the module swaps it out for the Lvl 5 variant of the item. When he trades it to his Lvl 1 friend, the module script does the old presto-chango and replaces it with the Lvl 1 variant. While that item won't upgrade while in foreign modules, it will still be whatever you last swapped in. Should that player ever return to your server (now a proud Lvl 9 character, having travelled the far worlds and killed the Vampire of Garoth), his well-worn blade will be upgraded to it's rightful place.

More on Tilesets: The Good and Evil castle exteriors are both subsets of the Urban tileset. Piers are another subset, as are what we call "Mix-n-Match" buildings - basically a hodge-podge of urban sprawl that all blends into one another.

Fixed Sun: (Q. I'm still puzzled by the "fixed sun" requirement. Torches can cast shadows dynamically, but a nearly un-moving sun or moon can't cast shadows fast enough? Vertex shading can't get done once every 15 minutes for a 1024 tile area, to match a slowly moving sun?)

A. I believe the key is that torches have a very limited radius whereas the sun has to affect the entire area. I might be wrong but I believe that's where things start getting processor-intensive.

Day to Night Transition: My Copernican quote is pretty old already and getting out of date. For a more recent response, see the "Proposed trick for sunlight based on time" thread below. I also made a similar post before the weekend - not sure where it's buried but some of the news sites might have it.

Sunlight Based on Time: Q: I have read that the sun won't move due to CPU demands to calculate shadow effects, but how about this as a sort of stand in.

Have it so that when you enter an area, the sun can be set to defined positions. Ie, if it is evening by your time scale, then when the characters enter an area, the sun will be low in the sky. If it is morning, it is low on the other side. IF it is noon, then it is high, and if night time, then it isn’t out.

This would allow the calculations to be simply made once when entry to the area is made and would be handled on the client end.

A further modification would be to allow this change while people are in the area, by having a soft shadowless light for a short period, then have the shadows kick in as appropriate. So if it is noon, and evening is coming, there would be a soft, shadowless period of several minutes, then the evening shadows would kick in. When night time came, another short cloudy shadowless period, then nighttime fades in.

I will have 2 areas (one of day, the other of night) for each of my outdoor areas if I have to, but I am not going to have the same lighting for everyone no matter what time of day it is.

A: Not sure if your proposal will work or not. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Just as a point of clarification, however, even if the shadow positions can't change, it's a pretty solid bet that the color and intensity of the lighting can, allowing for day/night transitions similar to those in BG (which I felt were very well done, personally).

Brent Knowles, Co-Lead Designer:

Tracking Dynamic Alignments: Currently, the plan is to use two 'sliders' to track alignment change (the good-evil axis and the lawful-chaotic axis). Rob's worked out a nifty system that we'll be using in the campaign modules, to allow for minor alignment drift through interactions with the world.

Random Encounters/Items, Teleport, and Banking:

Q. will randomly generated encounters have scripts assigned to the monsters? Or is that something I will have to add?

A. The encounter is spawning in monsters, randomly, but the monsters themselves are not 'random'. They are picked by the encounter list. When we ship, we'll supply many lists with creatures already built. These creatures will have generic AI attached to them. When you build your own encounters, you'll have to make sure that any creatures you add to the lists, have AI scripts attached.

Q. Will randomly generated weapons have randomly generated features, or will there be set defaults that must be manually changed?

A. Again, the items themselves are not randomly generated at run-time. They are randomly generated in the toolset, where they can be modified...plus there's a random treasure list system similar to the encounter system, where already built items are pulled from a list.

Q. Teleport seems a difficult thing to program, but maybe a caster can have a set number of locales, say equal to his intelligence, that he can "study" for familiarization. That will narrow the possibilities considerably, but better than nothing. Teleport is a major feature of several classes; hate to lose it.

A. Teleport won't be done in the official campaign, but the example you note would be relatively easy to script.

Q. Will there be any capability for banking, or will this have to be scripted?

A. Again, in the official campaign there's no real need for banks. We'll probably try and setup some kind of bank simulation as part of our non-campaign modules. It wouldn't be a trivial thing to script...

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Pre-Release of Any Tools: No, sorry, there will be no pre-release of any of the tools. All of the tools require all of the game data to be there, so we cannot separate the editors from the rest of the game.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

"Localization issues": "Localization issues" just means that all of the text we write needs to be translated so happy gamers world wide can play. When you start fiddling with all of the variations on how to get certain information out of an NPC (such as saying wood, woods, tree, trees, forest, grove, glade, etc.), and then think about how well those words translate to different languages (not! :), and then think about structuring keywords into sensible phrases... then you can see our "localization issues." So, if you aren't planning on releasing your modules for immediate translation world-wide, then I think you are safe using the keyword system :)

No Seamless World: I think it's more a matter of giving the end-user more power. If we create a seamless world, where buildings can be entered-and-exited without a loading screen, then we also have to provide pre-fabricated houses.

A lot of the reason we went with tiles was so that we could allow end-users to have total control over what the insides of each building looked like, instead of giving you three or four choices.

Believe me, I love the idea of seamless worlds, and I think they would be so much fun to do in a game, but I don't think we have enough time and artists to deliver on that :)

And More: The exteriors are pre-fab, while the interiors are customizable, drawn from the "interior" tileset. The point I was trying to make was that if the insides and outsides were seamless, then they would also have to match-up. And if they matched, then you got less customization.

Mark Brockington, Lead Research Scientist:

Scripting Information:

Q. It was stated a "vector" has three components: x,y,z
Components are accessible as v.x, v.y, v.z
Can they be ASSIGNED to as well?
?? v.x = 1.0

A.Yes.

Q. Is there a "constructor" for vectors?
?? v = Vector(1.0, 2.0, 3.0)

A. Yes.

Q. Are the components x,y,z "floats?"

A. Yes.

(Yikes, I didn't realize that I had left all this stuff out ... The "data types" document that was posted was my second attempt at writing the document, and I had to remove a LOT of very confusing tidbits that I had thrown in from the first attempt.)

Q. Is there a constructor for "location?"
?? loc = Location(objID, vecPos, fFacing)

A. Yes.

Q. Are the components of a "location" individually accessible like "vector?"

A. We have three functions similar to the one given below.

vector GetPositionFromLocation(location l);

You can guess what the other two functions are. :-)

Q. And if so, what are the components?

A. Finally, since we've "gathered" function lists from A-E, and some G,P and S

Q. Is there any chance of getting a function-parameter template "dump?" We KNOW it's all preliminary. Or, maybe just releasing it to the sourceforge developer group -- that way it wouldn't be "released" on the boards?

A. We are evaluating our options on how to divulge further information about the scripting language, but the plan hasn't been finalized.

Throne of Bhaal Composer Howard Drossin
Posted Thursday, June 7, 2001 - 14:10 CET by Darien

The second of RPGDot's interviews with the composers of Throne of Bhaal is with Howard Drossin, who also wrote some of the tracks in Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn.

RPGDot: What exactly did you do for the TOB Soundtrack?

Howard Drossin: I composed the music for the TOB Villains Battle, Yaga Shura's Enclave, Sendia's Enclave, Abazigal's Enclave, Talking Heads, and Amkethran tracks, plus one of the dream tracks. I also worked on the intro and ending movies.

RPGDot: What were your feelings on composing the soundtrack of TOB? Any track you especially like or any memorable scene while composing them?

Howard Drossin: I enjoyed composing music for this soundtrack. The most memorable track for me was Yaga Shura's Enclave - I had some fun with that one. It was also great having the opportunity to work with my friend and fellow composer Inon Zur.

Throne of Bhaal Element of the Day
Posted Thursday, June 7, 2001 - 14:00 CET by Darien

RPGVault has a new Throne of Bhaal feature which looks at some of the new elements you'll find in the expansion. Here is a peek at some of the high level warrior abilities.

With the title in the very late stages of bug-hunting and polishing, that seems likely to occur within the coming weeks. In the meantime, we thought you might enjoy this Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal Elements Of The Day feature offering daily glimpses ahead to some of the cool things you'll be seeing in-game before much longer.

Sorcerer's Place Needs a New Home!
Posted Wednesday, June 6, 2001 - 12:31 CET by Sorcerer

It seems that the plague which has been killing off so many big gaming networks lately has cought up with our host, eUniverse, as well.
We have until the 15th this month (next Friday) to get off their servers. As you can imagine, this brings up a few issues...
I've looked around the web a bit but most of the networks suitable for our needs either seem to be only a short way from closing, or aren't accepting any new websites for hosting because it just doesn't pay off any more. (Their wording.)
Obviously neither are of any use to us. Since moving a website the size of Sorcerer's Place is a tremendous task (I won't even begin to start thinking how much time it'll take to move our message boards alone), I'm looking for a stable network that will be able to host us for at least a year. Hoping for anything more these days is rather utopian anyway.

Here is a list of must-haves if you're thinking of taking us aboard:

NWN Designer for a Day Semi-Finalists
Posted Wednesday, June 6, 2001 - 9:16 CET by Darien

The Designer for a Day Contest is nearly over, and all that's needed is your vote to decide the winner. One of the finalists is none other than J'Kin Gristillodar, ALFA member and sometime poster on our own boards. The leader of the N'Vaelahr is currently leading the polls, and needs your vote to assure his place in the history of NWN. So head over to Interplaygames and vote!

You, the loyal gamer, responded very well to our contest! We thank you! But, it's not over yet! After our panel of judges poured over the thousands of entries, they have narrowed it down to the following 15! *yikes!* Now they need you to vote on the best one! Here they are, in no particular order, waiting for you to call down your wrath and judge them! (ooh, the power!!)

Pool of Radiance Release Update
Posted Tuesday, June 5, 2001 - 20:58 CET by Darien

Chuck Yager stopped by the official Pool of Radiance message boards with this update on the release date.

Hey guys and gals,

I know there's a lot of frustration out there about when the game is coming out. We're all working triple time to see that this baby is as bug free and fun as is humanly possible before it gets in your hands (hence some of the delays). And as I'm sure you all know, the multitude of sales that the company has seen in the last two years has somewhat slowed us down as well.

Now, we are at the end and back on track. I wish I could send you all the ending Beta to see how it is, but I'd rather wait the next 2-3 months and finish it up to give you the experience you deserve for being so patient.

End of August, first week of September. Not much longer to wait.

Desslock Rambles About Throne of Bhaal
Posted Tuesday, June 5, 2001 - 20:28 CET by Darien

This week Desslock, whom you may remember by his scathing review of Heart of Winter, talks about his impressions of Throne of Bhaal. After rambling a bit about RPGs in general, he gets down to his specific dislikes and likes, in that order. Hmm... since he's so impressed with Demogorgon, maybe next time he'll spell the name right. ;) Anyway, here's a snippet:

Starting with the bad first:

If you break the D&D rules to allow characters to become more powerful, you're just forced to break them over and over again to create challenging obstacles. There were already too many ways to "instantly die" in Baldur's Gate II - gameplay devolves by forcing players to constantly save/reload if they happen to walk into a room unprepared.

Then there's the good:

Demigorgon. In BG 2, the developers gave players the opportunity to acquire some of the most famous artifacts in D&D lore and fight some of the most powerful and legendary monsters. In the expansion pack, players will encounter one of the most powerful creatures in the original D&D source material - a demon prince, Demigorgon (who hasn't even appeared in D&D material since the first edition monster manual).

Read the rest here.

Interview with Throne of Bhaal Composer
Posted Tuesday, June 5, 2001 - 20:11 CET by Darien

Composer Inon Zur was recently interviewed by RPGDot about his work on Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. With a history of great soundtracks shadowing his work, particularly the score of Icewind Dale, Zur has a lot to live up to.

RPGDot: What were your feelings on composing the soundtrack of TOB? Any track, you especially like or any memorable scene while composing them?

Inon Zur: Composing for TOB was a serious challenge for me, working on a game that is already known and much expected, since it was preceded by 2 successful previous versions, with a strong musical content. I like the Melissan music and The Pocket Plane cue best of all.

RPGDot: Michael Hoenig did the music on BG 1 & 2 - did his work inspire you or was it more of a burden? Did you use some of the original BG tunes in the TOB themes?

Inon Zur: I did not use any of the previous tunes from BG 1 & 2, although I tried to stay as close as I could to the style Michael Hoenig used in order to keep the homogeneity of the game music.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Tuesday, June 5, 2001 - 19:52 CET by Darien

Busy, busy on the boards lately! Here's another feast for all you NWN fanatics, who just can't get enough from the official Neverwinter Nights message boards.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design

Localization issues: "Localization issues" just means that all of the text we write needs to be translated so happy gamers world wide can play. When you start fiddling with all of the variations on how to get certain information out of an NPC (such as saying wood, woods, tree, trees, forest, grove, glade, etc.), and then think about how well those words translate to different languages (not! :), and then think about structuring keywords into sensible phrases... then you can see our "localization issues." So, if you aren't planning on releasing your modules for immediate translation world-wide, then I think you are safe using the keyword system :)

Seamless worlds: I think it's more a matter of giving the end-user more power. If we create a seamless world, where buildings can be entered-and-exited without a loading screen, then we also have to provide pre-fabricated houses. A lot of the reason we went with tiles was so that we could allow end-users to have total control over what the insides of each building looked like, instead of giving you three or four choices.

Believe me, I love the idea of seamless worlds, and I think they would be so much fun to do in a game, but I don't think we have enough time and artists to deliver on that :) The exteriors are pre-fab, while the interiors are customizable, drawn
from the "interior" tileset.

The point I was trying to make was that if the insides and outsides were seamless, then they would also have to match-up. And if they matched, then you got less customization.

One day, though, one day...

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

Chapter One: Just to leave you with a quick teaser, Chapter 1 will take place in the city of Neverwinter. In the wake of a virulent plague known as the Wailing Death, the city has been placed under strict quarantine. Samples have been sent to Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun, a powerful wizard in Waterdeep, and he has gathered a shipment of exotic creatures who will serve as reagents to a cure. Unfortunately, the convey is beset by unknown assailants upon entering the city and the creatures are released into the Neverwinter night. Under the supervision of Lady Aribeth, Paladin of Tyr, the players will be working to recover the creatures, cure the Wailing Death, and get to the bottom of who or what is behind it...

And that's just Chapter 1... ;o)

Sub-Race Field: Also, if you'd like to use the Subrace field for anything else, you're more than welcome to (you just need to explain it to your players before they create their characters). The field could be used to represent your guild allegiance, for instance, or a 2nd Edition-style kit, or the fact that you are a creature of elemental fire or water or air. That's the wonderful thing about providing hooks for these fields within the scripting language - suddenly all manner of things become possible.

Editing Monsters: The NW Tools use a template-instance structure. In other words, there are two ways to create the Lickspittle creature from the E3 demo.

Method 1 - Editing the Instance: Select a pre-existing Goblin template from the panel on the right and place an instance of it in the world. Then select the instance within the gameworld and edit that (renaming it "Lickspittle," writing up some conversation, and swapping in some different scripts).

Method 2 - Editing the Template: Select a pre-existing Goblin template from the panel on the right and edit it directly. Save this out as a custom template named "Lickspittle," then place that creature as an instance into the world (as we did at E3).

NWN and ToB at Women Gamers
Posted Tuesday, June 5, 2001 - 19:36 CET by Darien

WomenGamers has written up their own tour of E3, and the article focuses in part on both Neverwinter Nights and Throne of Bhaal. There are plenty of screenshots, and a detailed explanation by Kevin Martens concerning the lack of new romances in ToB. (*sighs* Again?!?)

Here's a summary of the plot, blatantly swiped from the press kit since co-lead designer/writer Rob Bartel did such a nice job composing it:

Players begin the official campaign in the northern city of Neverwinter on the eve of a deadly and all-consuming plague. The sickness spreads quickly from its origin in the beggars' quarter, and soon all of Neverwinter is under quarantine and falling victim to what will become known as the Wailing Death. A plea for help is sent to the allied city of Waterdeep, and the powerful wizard Khelben Blackstaff Arunsun arranges for a collection of rare and magical creatures to be delivered to Neverwinter where they might serve as reagents to a cure. The heavily guarded caravan enters the troubled city with great secrecy, but to no avail. Somehow betrayed, the caravan is beset by unknown assailants who succeed in releasing the Waterdhavian creatures into that Neverwinter night.

At the behest of Lord Nasher and the young Tyrist paladin, Aribeth de Tylmarande, the adventurers of the city set out to recapture the dangerous creatures of Waterdeep, cure the Wailing Death, and unravel the conspiracy of Neverwinter's mysterious betrayers. With the lifting of the quarantine, the players follow the web of betrayals north, in search of answers and the words of a lost prophecy.

For the full article and tour of E3 you can look here.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Monday, June 4, 2001 - 18:58 CET by Darien

Once again, a few more comments from the developers at the official Neverwinter Nights message boards.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design

Creating Armor: You can create a suit of armor to look however you'd like it to look. Anyone who saw the E3 demo may recall Trent's comment about a "suit" of armor consisting of one golden boot... Spiffy! Of course, the protection you would get from wearing one golden boot would be minimal at best (not to mention the disturbed glances you would get from other inhabitants of the game world), but if that's what you want, then that's what you got! :)

(Of course, armor like this would have to be put together by the DM via the toolset (a task that could take you all of 2 minutes), and then dropped down into the world, either at a store or as a treasure, for example.)

FR Expansion: We have plans to do just that (provided we can do a sequel or expansion). We only just recently got our copies of the FR Handbook, but we have begun in earnest to look for feats, skills, prestige classes, creatures, plot hooks, spells, and all sorts of other things that we would like to implement, and would be easy to implement into a CRPG. Let's just hope that there is enough demand for a sequel or expansion so that we can do one (or more!) :)

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer

Stationary Sun: A clarification: The lighting model is still being worked out at the time being but, from the looks of it, you should be able to modify the color and intensity of the "sun" on the fly (allowing for a beautiful day/night cycle similar to that found in BG). What you won't be able to do, however, is dynamically adjust the actual *position* of the sun. This involves the dynamic recalculation of shadows throughout the entire area, something that is very processor intensive. Instead, the position of the sun will probably be an area property that you can freely adjust within the toolset. For all of this we will of course have a series of defaults available for those who don't want to meddle with it.

Playing Modules: What you're talking about is the Campaign Layer. We haven't decided on its final form but, yes, there will be some form of in-game or out-of-game interface for selecting which module you want to play within your current chapter.

For instance, in Chapter 1, you might be able to pick and choose between "The Head Gaoler," "The Barricades of Blacklake," and "The Bloodsail Conspiracy," among others. When your character is ready, you will be given the additional option of playing the Chapter 1 climax module: "The Hanged and the Damned." Those initial modules can be played in any order (and there will also be plenty of non-linear options within each module as well). Once you've completed the climax module, however, you'll be presented with a new batch of modules to choose from in Chapter 2.

There will be 4 chapters in total, each one pulling you deeper into our story and closer to your destiny.

Neverwinter: When we first started designing Neverwinter - the city - we were using The North's box set, as well as Volo's Guide to the North (two sources that have been compiled well into the Forgotten Realms Handbook), to make sure that our depiction of Neverwinter and the surrounding locales would be as close as we could get to the actual descriptions. We've found both books to be very inspiring in many ways, and those who have read these books, or the Forgotten Realms Handbook, will spot lots of little things that match up with these texts, once they play the game.

Of course, we couldn't assimilate every detail (I think the art & programming teams would have gone insane if we had even tried to ask), but I think we have more than enough of the feel so that everything will stand out with its own unique Forgotten Realms flavor.

BG to NwN Conversion: To be honest, this is more a question for the Interplay legal department than for any of us at BioWare. While we developed BG, I believe the intellectual property rights are shared between Interplay and WotC. I'd like to think that it would be okay to make such a BG -> NWN conversion but we're unfortunately the wrong folks to ask.

Mark Brockington, Senior Programmer:

On Scripting: Mmmm ... bracket matching. Personally, I wanted the scripting language to be more like Lisp, but take away all the nasty side-effects and things that actually make the language somewhat useful. How many times can you say "car" and "cdr" in the same sentence? In the end, I lost out, and they *forced* me into doing some variant of C and Java.

What do you mean, it's not April 1st? June 1st? Where the heck have the last two months gone? To be serious (for a change), if I remember correctly, bracket matching isn't in place yet, but it will be soon.

Neverwinter Nights Preview
Posted Monday, June 4, 2001 - 18:39 CET by Darien

Computer Game Magazine has posted a two part preview of Neverwinter Nights. Part one is a basic preview of the game from its conception to the actual process of setting up a game.

"I found that in most of the games that I played in, we would usually start out with a pre-made module," Oster says, "and then after that we would go out into our own grand campaign, usually with stories that somebody in the group had created." He found that it was natural to say that maybe we should include a tool set, so that people can make their own adventures, giving the game infinite content. "People can just keep downloading and playing new adventures. They can play them single-player or multiplayer or however they want—with one DM, with multiple DMs, or just playing on the server without anybody arbitrating."

In part two there's information on scripting, modules, character creation, and of course, more cool screenshots.

"The plan is to keep it as similar to the player interface as possible, so you don't have to spend a lot of time training up on it," says Oster. "At the same time, the key is quick access to commonly performed actions. You'll want to spawn in creatures, you'll want to control creatures, you'll want to resurrect them, you want to drop items, remove them... quick performed actions. We have to make the interface quick and easy to use, and very focused on the core actions that you often perform." The Dungeon Master can also pause the game at will. "We think the pausing is important for the DM to control arbitrary gameplay. 'Hey, he just stole my gold.' Okay, pause the game, deal with the situation, and then un-pause."

Pool of Radiance Screenshots
Posted Sunday, June 3, 2001 - 20:23 CET by Darien

There are four new screenshots from Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor over at the Russian site, Gameport.

Divorce Lawyers Awaiting NWN
Posted Sunday, June 3, 2001 - 18:43 CET by Darien

Ever wonder how you'll find the time to play Neverwinter Nights without incurring the jealous wrath of a significant other? You are not alone! Check out this article from Webdreamland.

In a quiet little town on the banks of the Mississippi, the law firm of Kohl, Kohl, Kohl, and Meyers is having a hard time finding new lawyers to join their firm. The reason? Neverwinter Nights.

"We expect the divorce rate to hit somewhere in the high 80's once the game is released," Henry Kohl, senior partner said. "Whether they will be busy playing the game, or creating new games, the fact is, no wife in America who has a husband who plays NWN can expect to receive any attention this winter."

"We fully expect many forgotten anniversaries, birthdates, funerals, and perhaps even Christmas presents due to time people will be spending online with NWN," he continued. "Its going to be awesome," he concluded.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Sunday, June 3, 2001 - 18:24 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Which do you think is the coolest new monster we will see in Throne of Bhaal?
(476 votes total)

Blue & Purple Dragon (133) 28%
Demogorgon (114) 24%
Succubus (69) 14%
Solar/Planatar (56) 12%
Undead Beholder (32) 7%
Baatezu (27) 6%
Fire Giant (16) 3%
Hive Mother (12) 3%
Magic Golem (11) 2%
Water Weird (6) 1%

Don't you just *hate* power outages when you're working on a computer? Well, it happened to me when I was making the comments to this poll. Of course, I didn't bother to save the thing in the process, so I lost the whole lot.

If you still don't know what some of the new monsters in the poll are, run a search for them in Yahoo for a plethora of relevant results. (I'm doing this because I've received a couple of mails asking me to explain what some of the monsters like the water weird are.)

Anyway, the new dragons we will see in Throne of Bhaal (blue and purple) are still the most anticipated adversaries with 28% of votes. I think I don't need to explain what dragons are. ;)

Second place goes to the Demogorgon, the Prince of Demons.

It is contended by some that this demon prince is supreme. His hatred for Orcus is immense and unending, followed closely by his hatred for Graz'zt. (Two other demon lords).
Demogorgon appears as an 18-foot tall reptilian-humanoid. He has two heads that bear the visages of baboons. His blue-green skin is plated with snake-like scales, his body and legs are those of a giant lizard, his twin necks resemble snakes, and his thick tail is forked. In place of arms, he has two huge tentacles.

Demogorgon attacks first using his gaze weapons and should any survive the onslaught, he will utilize his tentacles, tail, and bites. He uses his spells and spell-like abilities liberally in combat, and should the combat go against him, he will summon demons to cover his escape. This impressive monster got 24% of votes.

Third coolest monster on the list is the Succubus with 14% of votes. Since it is a rather common monster and most people have seen one in Diablo (if not in Planescape: Torment), I won't bother with more elaborate descriptions.

Next is the Solar/Planatar with 12% of votes. The Planatar (similar to a Solar) is a powerful, extra-dimensional creature that resembles a biblical angel. It possesses excellent melee combat abilities as well as a powerful spellbook and intelligence enough to heal a comrade when they are stricken.

Fifth place on the popularity list goes to the Undead Beholder. 7% of people think that will be the coolest new monster. This is a pretty common sort of beholder, so I won't go into lengthier descriptions. Just imagine an even more disgusting, green, rotting, floating orb and you're there.

In the 6th place with 6% of votes (heh) are the Baatezu. Abishai, Barbazu, Erinyes and a couple of others all fall in this category. If you have played Planescape: Torment, you know them well.

In seventh place with 3% of votes is the Fire Giant, closely followed by the Hive Mother, also at 3%. Fire Giants are nothing really new (we've seen them in Icewind Dale), but in ToB they will have an important part in the story, and they will use a totally different model and animations.

Hive Mother is, in short, a very powerful beholder, usually surrounded by a group of a bit less powerful ones. Like the undead one, nothing to get too excited about, since they will most likely use the same model and animations as the normal ones. (Except for a bit of change in colour.)

In the 9th place with 2% of votes is the Magic Golem. Thought to be the horrible mutation of unfortunate mages trapped in wild magic zones, the rare magic golem appears as a glowing yellow humanoid form. Composed of pure magical energy, the magic golem subsists by absorbing magic in all its forms.

Spells cast at these fearsome creatures, as well as magical effects and magically charged items coming within too close to the golem’s aura, are instantly and completely absorbed. Unlike the brutish physical attacks of most other constructs, magic golems attack by unleashing a devastating beam of pure energy. The range of the golem’s blast is such that few who encounter these terrible entities are able to escape before being obliterated by the lethal beams.

Coming in last in 10th place with 1% of votes is the Water Weird. Which is probably one monster practically no one had a clue as to what it is, so here goes:
The water weird is a life form that has its origins on the Elemental Plane of Water. They attack all living things, draining their life’s essence as the victim lies dying.
The water weird takes but two rounds to form from the body of water it
inhabits. It appears as a large serpent constructed entirely of water.
In combat, the water weird lashes out, attempting to wrap itself around its prey, dragging it into the water where the weird attempts to drown it.

Icewind Dale Update from Interplay
Posted Sunday, June 3, 2001 - 17:29 CET by Darien

Interplay has updated the Icewind Dale page with some screenshots and (finally!) a name for the downloadable dungeon pack.

Hey everyone,

It's been awhile since our last web update regarding the Downloadable Dungeon set, so we wanted to let you know about a couple of things. After some debating, we have finally come up with a name for our Downloadable Dungeon Set, Heart of Winter: Trials of the Luremaster. Also, we want to remind everyone that to play Heart of Winter: Trials of the Luremaster, you must have Heart of Winter installed. We are putting the finishing touches on it right now, and everything is looking great. It looks like it will be in QA later this week, so you can look for it this month. For now here are some new screenshots for you to check out.

Throne of Bhaal on DevTV
Posted Saturday, June 2, 2001 - 19:39 CET by Darien

InterplayGames has updated their DevTV feature with interviews from the Throne of Bhaal developers. If you haven't seen it before, here's what you get:

Welcome, all, to Development TV or DevTV as we like to call it. Here is a place for you, the gamer, to find out exactly what comes out of your favorite developers mouth. No silly misinterpreted interviews or misspelled words, only pure streaming answers to the questions you want to hear. Built for both high and low bandwidth types, no one will be turned away! So please, stay a while and enjoy what we have for you because, after all, it is what you requested and so we have provided!

NWN Adventure Creation Guide: Part II
Posted Friday, June 1, 2001 - 18:50 CET by Darien

Gamespy has posted the second installment of its creation guide for Neverwinter Nights. This time the article is Settling on a Story, and takes the reader through the creative process quite thoroughly. Here's a brief introduction:

I find that the best way to start is with a simple goal. As long as your heroes have a clear goal, then you can build suspense, throw in surprises, and make their story an exciting one. Remember, too, you can change their goals over the course of the adventure. As long as their current goal is always a clear one, it doesn't have to be the same one they started out with.

Throne of Bhaal Previewed at Games Domain
Posted Friday, June 1, 2001 - 18:36 CET by Darien

With the release of Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal coming in a (hopefully) few more days, here's a preview from Games Domain to get you in the mood to pick up your own copy.

And if you thought BG2 took you to a pretty high level, then you ain't seen nothing yet. ToB has an experience cap of 8 million points, which will shoot your character up to a mighty level 40. At this point, most D&D fans will have their jaw firmly entrenched in the floor, but more casual players will be wondering what all the fuss is about. Well, it basically means that you've become a walking demi-god, which is a good thing, because if there was one bugbear of the last two games, it's that you spent more time fetching little Rupert's teddy bear than you did saving the world. However, with this sort of power, you can now tell Lady Penelope to stick her invading trolls up her arras and go and do whatever you please.