July 2001

Throne of Bhaal Review
Posted Saturday, July 28, 2001 - 19:30 CET by Darien

A review of BGII: Throne of Bhaal at PC Zone scores the expansion at 82% and tossing in the requisite screenshots.

The expansion pack offers at least 30 hours of gameplay, depending on your dedication to the Church Of Beard, and with vast areas like the Watcher's Keep Dungeon to explore, it's definitely worth playing through a few times. In fact, there are a number of elements that actually surpass the original BGII, such as more realistic social environments where NPCs get on with their daily lives and the sheer number of epic battles. In fact, it's much more detailed, from the lushly rendered landscape to the kooky little things that BioWare likes to inject.

Interplay Confirms Job Cuts
Posted Saturday, July 28, 2001 - 19:17 CET by Darien

Interplay has been cleaning house lately in hopes of recovering from a less than stellar market showing.

A spokesman for the Interplay confirmed that the company laid off between 55 and 65 people this week. He could not immediately say how many employees were left after the cuts.

Year-to-date, Interplay shares are down almost 41 percent, including a 31 percent drop in the last four weeks, making it one of the weakest video game companies in a market where many leading publishers are up 40 percent or more.

Read more.

Interview with Jeremy Soule
Posted Saturday, July 28, 2001 - 19:08 CET by Darien

The Armchair Empire has posted an interview with Jeremy Soule, the composer of the Icewind Dale soundtrack.

5. Does the interactive nature of games make composing music for a title easier or harder?

It is much harder to compose music for entertainment that's interactive. The variety of elements and options that constitute today's computer and video games require a myriad of different musical arrangements and compositions. From one scene to the next, I often compose the same piece of music about a dozen times, dropping one instrument for another, switching tunes back and forth, adding new sounds, etc. It's a tremendous amount of work but for me, it is very gratifying to create music that stirs the player's emotions and draws him further into the game.

NWN Screenshots
Posted Saturday, July 28, 2001 - 18:52 CET by Darien

Bioware has updated their Neverwinter Nights page with the screenshots that were released at E3. You can see them here.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Saturday, July 28, 2001 - 17:07 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: When Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor finally gets released, will you buy it?
(377 votes total)

Yes, definitely (190) 50%
Maybe, depends on reviews (165) 44%
No, never (22) 6%

The poll results are not surprising; it is obvious that numerous delays in development of the game have taken their toll. Similar polls that were conducted at Sorcerer's Place regarding the already released games (BG2, IWD etc.) all had about 90% of our visitors ready to buy them.

In the case of Pool of Radiance, only 50% of our visitors will unconditionally buy the game.

44% of those who voted are obviously not sure any more what to think of a game that keeps getting pushed back for no more apparent reason than "bug fixing". (And numerous internal problems.)
Now I can appreciate them wanting to have the game as bug free as possible, but having a game ship more than a year late because of that... Just makes me wonder what exactly is going on at Stormfront.

Well, at least the percentage of those who are sure they will not buy it is reasonably low; about 6%.

3e Chat Reminder
Posted Thursday, July 26, 2001 - 20:52 CET by Darien

Don't forget about the chat tomorrow on 3rd Edition D&D rules. We'll be there ready and willing to answer your questions, so come prepared. :) The first chat will cover the basics of character creation, including point buy, AC, Skills, Feats, etc. Ok, for details:

When: Friday, July 27, 5pm EST (10pm GMT)
Where: #sorcerers_nwn

For more information on our Internet Relay Chat channels, or to get mIRC for easier access, check here.

Pool of Radiance Interview and Screens
Posted Thursday, July 26, 2001 - 17:47 CET by Darien

The official PoR2: Ruins of Myth Drannor site has been updated with an interview with Producer Chuck Yager and 18 new screenshots. Check out the end of the interview for a list of some of the major 3e elements (including combat features, skills and feats) that have been included in the game.

Q: How has using the 3rd edition rules changed PoR?
A: Drastically! Originally the game started off as a 2nd Edition product as the 3rd Edition rules hadn't been announced yet. After we made arrangements with Wizards of the Coast to get copies of the rules, we immediately started re-shaping the game to conform as best we could. Naturally, we already had a significant code structure in place, and while we were able to implement nearly all of the new rules, certain changes just didn't make sense for our game or work within the code. However, the bulk of changes earned the game the title of being the first RPG to show off the new 3E rules. We have everything from concealment and cover in combat, to delaying and refocusing your initiative, to brand new magical items, skills, feats, and special class abilities for players to use at their disposal.

Throne of Bhaal Review
Posted Thursday, July 26, 2001 - 17:30 CET by Darien

A BGII: Throne of Bhaal review has been posted at GameVisions, where the expansion received a score of 95%. Here's the summation:

Certainly a few of the things mentioned ruined the fun-factor a bit, but overall, if the series end had to come in the form of an expansion pack rather than a full game, this was an excellent expansion to do it in. While shorter than I would have preferred, it's still one of the longest expansions I've seen in a long time (don't worry about how quickly I beat it, that's me, and my over-powered party, it will take you far longer.) The storyline was great (if a bit predictable at times), and every aspect of it still left me wanting more when I was done. Certainly, if you're a huge BG fan, even if you didn't buy Tales of the Sword Coast, or even BG1 at all, you'll definitely want Throne of Bhaal to complete the story, and get another fix of Baldur's Gate. Do note that it doesn't really add much to the original game, so you didn't miss out on anything by playing without it. The new area is really the biggest part.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2001 - 17:26 CET by Darien

Here are some more comments from game developers on the BIS message boards.

Neverwinter Nights

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

Alternative OS Toolset: Hi again, folks. Many of you are still expressing feelings of being lied to and for that I apologize. As I mentioned in my last post, we had always hoped for full multiplatform capability for the toolset. We had reason to believe that Borland-for-Linux would be available by this time and that a third party would be handling a Mac port on our behalf. For reasons beyond our control, these once-feasible options have both fallen through. Again, we regret this deeply and understand how many of you feel - we want a multiplatform toolset, too. But I promise you that we have not been lying to you - we told you what we understood to be true and we continue to do so now that that understanding has changed.

As for concerns that, as a developer, we are abandoning alternate platforms, I sure hope not. Many of you on the boards have mentioned that games of any sort on these platforms are few and far between and top-of-the-line roleplaying titles even more so. Well, with NWN, you're still getting that - a simultaneous multiplatform release of a rich D&D RPG from the developers of the Baldur's Gate series. On top of that, you're also able to experience the adventure with other players, regardless of platform, in multiplayer mode. Plus there are competitive play modules, random dungeons, persistent worlds, user-made campaigns, and so forth that you'll be able to download off the 'net or simply join in and play via the matching service. While that may or may not include the toolset, that's still something bigger and better and cooler than a lot of things out there - to ignore it entirely is to do yourself a disservice.

Another thing I've heard alternative-OS users on this board say is that it's good to support developers who cater to their platform of choice because it shows the developer (and other developers who happen to be paying attention) that their platform has market potential. That holds true in this case, as well. If Linux and Mac users make up a good portion of the traffic on our Matching Service, you can bet that that will turn heads and make it easier for us to pitch the toolset to a third-party porting company or convince the powers that be that we should do the port ourselves. For that matter, if you really want to the toolset ported to your platform of choice, consider emailing some of these porting companies and letting them know that there is a market for such a product (as it's "just a toolset" and not the game itself, many companies are understandably reluctant to take on such a risk).

As for open-sourcing the toolset itself, I'm not enough of a tech-head to assess the feasibility of such a move, nor enough of a legal beagle to know if there might be unforeseen complications along the way. Personally, I'd love to see it but it's really not my call to make.

Hope that helps...

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Mac Toolset: Just to clarify some of my earlier posts, I should make it clear that I'm not privy to any specific details of our plans for a Mac toolset port. I know only that we had been in contact with a third party at one point and that whatever deal we had been working towards never came to fruition. Anything beyond that has been mere speculation on my part. So, for the record, I don't know who the third party was nor do I know which other companies were approached. The particulars of the deal and the reasons it failed to come together are also well beyond my grasp.
Remember, this kind of stuff takes place at the legal and corporate level, not on the development floor. Due to Non-Disclosure Agreements, those who do know the details generally aren't allowed to discuss them anyway, even internally.

Aribeth the Female Warrior: If memory serves me (see, I never state anything 100% if I can help it but it doesn't mean I have nefarious plots to go against my word, either... tee hee) this picture was drawn for a scene that comes about as described by another poster in this thread: Aribeth drops to the ground while her sword, already plunged into the ground, sort of holds her up. I could elaborate further, but that might suggest at our story, and if I get my way, none of you will ever know anything about our story. Muhuhuhahaha *cough, cough, gag* ... well, until you get to play it, anyway."

Ravenloft: Anyway, BioWare doesn't hold the license to Ravenloft, so we won't be able to do anything with that campaign setting.

As for more creative envisonments of that evil, evil place, we are using an already-established setting, so we don't have any room for a restructuring of their vision. However, their vision is quite wide-and-varied, and should contain just about anything you could ever want in a setting.

Wielding two weapons: All classes may wield two weapons simultaneously, so long as each weapon is able to be wielded in one hand. There are feats that will decrease the penalties associated with wielding two weapons. To the best of my knowledge, we are implementing this exactly as it has been implemented in 3rd edition D&D. Hope that clears the matter up.

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Terminology – NWN vs Others: One of these things that I am still trying to get straight in my head is the slightly different terminology that we are using as compared to your other modable games. I am just going to restate it here for your edification (and watch me get some stuff wrong and edit this post on Monday =).

Other -> NWN
--------------------------
map -> module
mod -> hack pack

In other games, maps need to reside on both the client and the server. In NWN, only the server needs to have the module, the clients just get positional information so they can run the game with no need for any type of download.

A hack pack is an addition to a NWN module in such a way that the client will need the new data file that is on the server. This could be music, sound effects, etc. This will require that the client download the hack pack externally from the game and have it in place to play.

At this time we have no plans to allow downloading of hack pack data from within the NWN game. This is the current plan and as per all things, is subject to change before shipping.

Also, I would like to ask you guys to try to be more polite on these message boards. I know it can be frustrating to see some of the same questions, but posting a flame about it is only going to make things worse for everyone. Let's try and keep it fun here, please.

OS and Modules: The OS doesn't matter because the modules are binary data that are OS independent. The file system question doesn't enter into it, as you would be using FTP or Samba to transfer the file.

Marc Taro Holmes, Art Director:

Aribeth the Female Warrior:I think some guys have summed it up pretty much - the armor in our paintings of Aribeth is not as realistic as some might like, but it is a nice design...I'd think she wouldn't dress like that if she was entering a pitched battle - she's wearing a skirt for goodness sake - this is more 'town gear'.

She has a similar outfit in game but with armored legs. You have to keep in mind, this is a fantasy world, not a medieval European military simulation.
She has access to kinds of protective spells after all. I don't think you would really wear 60 pounds of plate around all the time if you had the option of protections or magic circles, plus if you have a high dex you want to preserve your AC bonus...

Overall I AM glad everyone's looking at the paintings in any case.

Don Moar, Lead Programmer, Tools:

Alternative OS Toolset:Hi. As the lead programmer on the NWToolset, I figured it's about time I actually spoke up to address some of the comments that have been made in regards to its portability.

First of all, no one, no one wants a cross-platform NWToolset more than I do; I absolutely guarantee it.

When we started development on NWN a few years ago, these were our requirements for what would become the NWToolset:

1. Use C++ - to share some of the game's source files. This also makes it easier to do nifty things like display the areas in the program itself to give the module designers a real sense of how their stories will look and play.

2. Fast Development - so the designers can start making the game as fast as possible. This had the consequence of requiring us to select a Windows development environment initially since that's the platform we use on our machines internally.

3. GUI Flexibility - not at the beginning of the development cycle, at the end, when we would be doing our final analysis on all the form layouts, control interfaces, etc...

4. Cross-Platform - we all know about this one. Make the NWToolset available on every platform the game supports. ;^)

The first 3 requirements eliminated using the game engine itself, all native Linux and Mac development platforms as well as VB, Visual C++ (and MFC), Delphi, Powerbuilder, SQLWindows, any Java variants and left us with C++ Builder. It was decided that we would try to design with portablity in mind and hopefully have the tools, time and resources available to do the ports later, either ourselves or have some other company do it.

While business decisions sometimes force us to change our plans, we haven't lost site of the goals.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

David Gaider, Senior Designer:

Grandmastery: Fer cryin' out loud...

Don't be such a freak. I don't come here to answer every question posed by every fan, ya know. I answer the ones I know about or have something to say about...otherwise I don't post.

***Noodle-WHAACK!!*** just for that.

*I* didn't have anything to do with Grandmastery at all (nor am I the Dictator of DW, for that matter, since people seem determined to say 'Dave did this' and 'Dave did that' ). I have posted once or twice in the past about this topic (and not answered every question but yours, Lancer), and all I've said is that while I didn't necessarily agree with the choice, myself, that it was changed for balance reasons.

Now, if I recall correctly (it's been a while), the reasoning was that the overall bonuses for GM were felt to be too high. Maybe it would have been better to spread out the lowered bonuses instead of taking them all out of the last *, but that's what was done. It is only a half-attack per round and, what?, 1 less ThAC0? What is the exact difference?

Anyway, it's not the end of the world...and while I think it cold have been done differently I don't think it 'nerfs' the entire fighter class.

But agree or disagree with it, there you go. Rail at it or no, it's not a bug.

Wall Spells: Yes, we tried several different ways to implement the wall spells. Even taking away your ability to control how the wall is set up (making it a standard size), there were still problems both in how to avoid conflictions with the 2D backgrounds as well as avoid game-play breakers (same reason the Dimension Door spell had to be abandoned as a PC-usable spell).

Maybe NWN will be able to put them in. Hopefully. (They may already have, I'm just not sure of what their spell list looks like.)

Bioware Tour
Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2001 - 15:39 CET by Darien

The folks over at Bioware have shared an article with us straight from the Edmonton Sun.

Oh let the Sun shine in...
...or in our case, let the Sun reporters in. This Report was filed by Edmonton Sun reporter Steve Tilley, and picked up by the Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa Suns...as well as the London Free Press. Steve was part of a recent press tour of our swanky development studios.

Pool of Radiance Preview
Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2001 - 15:33 CET by Darien

Another PoR: Ruins of Myth Drannor preview has popped up over at PCGameplay. Read the beginning of the adventure:

This latest tale begins with news that the Pool of Radiance is turning people into undead creatures. Elminster the mage hears of the worrying news and sends a hardy band of adventurers to the site armed with an artefact called the Gauntlets of Moander, which can destroy the pool if necessary. Your characters (all level one at this stage) are assigned the task of guarding the site while this brave group of adventurers do their stuff.

This easy guard duty is cleverly implemented as a seamless tutorial stage, allowing you to get to grips with the game interface. This hand-holding session soon comes to an abrupt and scary end when screams for help from the adventurers are heard coming from the portal, which has somehow opened. As your team races to help the hapless group, they recklessly jump into the portal and suddenly find themselves the only people alive in the Ruins of the Elven city of Myth Drannor – and so begins your adventure.

DB-Forge Feature with Dave Gaider
Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2001 - 15:33 CET by Darien

Ask the Pantless Knight, from DB-Forge, has several questions answered by Senior Designer Dave Gaider. Here's a sample:

6. Why isn't the party allowed to return to SoA areas in ToB?
Submitted by Keldron
Think about it. Every character that was in SoA would have to have new dialogue written for them to recognize your new capabilities. The whole Bhaalspawn war was going on...so they would need dialogue for that, as well. If you go back to Suldanessalar, I suppose we would need to have a bunch of elves present, now, and a normal city going on, there. And what, really, would be the point of going back to areas where there are no new quests? The old quests are way below your current capability, so these are dead areas.
I would have liked to allow players to go back to their stronghold or resolve that in some way...but if that is the only reason to go back to Amn it just isn't enough to justify all the time it would have taken to implement...time that would have taken away from Watcher's Keep and the 3 new chapters (which were short enough as it is). Keep in mind that the team on ToB was about a third the size of the one on SoA.

Read the rest here.

Pool of Radiance: RoMD Board Bits
Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2001 - 10:44 CET by Nazgul

From Garrett Graham
Producer, Pool of Radiance

Concerning Interactive environment
We dropped many of the interactive objects because, quite frankly, they had no effect on gameplay. Pushing tables was neat to watch, but didn't do anything for combat strategy. We still would have left it in, but it was causing a lot of problems for the AI and pathfinding. If it did something for the game, we would have fixed the bugs and left it in, but it was really nothing more than eye candy. The Stormfront programming team came up with a system for a more interactive environment - an innovation that seemed really cool at the time. We played with it for months, and tried many things with it, but eventually came to the realization that it would just be eye candy. The biggest problem is that moving around a table takes X effort and pushing a table to try to block someone in takes 2X effort (if that makes sense). Especially since anyone can break a table. BTW, I don't know if its been made clear, but we only took out pushing objects, most things (tables, beds, barrels, etc.) can still be smashed.

We tried a variety of things, but nothing worked out well. For example, I would have my barbarian push a table to block a doorway. The orc on the other side of the door smashes the table. We each used our turn for an overall zero effect. My ranger pushes a table in front of my sorcerer as a roadblock for the Drow pouring into the room. The Drow movement rate is more than enough to go around the table. The idea of movable objects as tactical barriers was consistently stymied by enemies' movement rates and the fact that they could simply be smashed.

What sets the game apart? It has an outstanding story and lots of interesting NPCs. But I guess most RPGs have that Outside of that, my favorite aspects are the turn based combat (IMO, the most true to D&D combat system in the current batch of D&D games), the non-linear story and the beautiful look and movement of the characters. I become very immersed in this game. Oh yeah, the turn based combat also makes it much easier to use spells of mass destruction like fireball, lightning bolt, cone of cold, inferno and flamestrike.

Concerning the Delays
However, if we din't have those delays we wouldn't have had Paladins, Monks or Halflings, which were added in at the cost of time and money. If we were to add in Wizards, Bards, Druids and Gnomes, we would have to delay the game yet again and find more money to pay the guys at Stormfront. Also, if we'd shipped PoR a few months ago, we would have been shipping a buggy game. The small loss in sales due to delays is nothing compared to the loss we would have suffered if we had shipped with lots of bugs. I think most people will agree that a delay is worth it if it results in a better game. I guess I should clarify, we added Paladins, Monks, Half Elves, and we created skins for Halfling. This was done a year before I started working on the game, so my information could be a bit spotty. Thanks for the heads up.

On Pathfinding
Since the initial press release, we've greatly improved the pathfinding (Stormfront brought in an expert who revamped the entire system), we've greatly improved the performance on low end machines, balanced and re-balanced the game and fixed a few thousand bugs. The last thing we're working on is balance for multi-player. Its been tough since we have random dungeons where the monsters scale up to your party's average level.

Concerning the view of the party
Its an isometric view of your entire party. Its real time until you hit combat and then its turn based.

Virus Alert: Please Read!
Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2001 - 21:01 CET by Darien

There's been a recent flood of infected e-mail going around the addresses on the site, so read carefully. This virus has been rated HIGH RISK and it may be attaching itself to your outgoing mail without your knowledge. It appears to come from people you know, with innocent looking attachments. Even if you've seen or heard of this before, please search your hard disk drive for *sircam*. You may be surprised. This is the general text of the e-mail:

English Version:

First line: Hi! How are you?
Last line: See you later. Thanks

Any of these lines may be in the body of the text:

I send you this file in order to have your advice
I hope you can help me with this file that I send
I hope you like the file that I sendo you
This is the file with the information that you ask for

If you receive anything like this in your e-mail, do not run the attachment that comes with it but delete the mail at once.

For more information on this virus, go to the site of your Virus Protector program and do a search for W32.sircam.worm. Go here for a detailed description and a removal tool.

3rd Edition D&D Tutorial Chat
Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2001 - 14:00 CET by Darien

Well, there's been some lively discussion on the message boards lately, as well as some confusion, about the new 3e D&D rules, so here's your chance to clear some things up. Sorcerer's Place will host a short series of chats in which we will introduce 3e rules from the ground up. The first chat will cover the basics of character creation, including point buy, AC, Skills, Feats, etc. Future chats will look at Multiclassing, Combat, Magic Users and other topics of interest expressed by you. Ok, for details:

When: Friday, July 27, 5pm EST (10pm GMT)
Where: #sorcerers_nwn

For more information on our Internet Relay Chat channels, or to get mIRC for easier access, check here.

Site News - New Addition
Posted Monday, July 23, 2001 - 20:36 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

The full renovation of the Fantasy Books section is at and end. The last subsection that was rehauled is the Forgotten Realms one. It now lists 91 books and offers something for everyone's tastes.

Pop-ups on the Front Page
Posted Monday, July 23, 2001 - 12:05 CET by Sorcerer

You've probably noticed that a pop-up welcomes you now every time you load the front page (only here) of Sorcerer's Place. I deeply regret having to put this up (I know how annoying it is all too well), but I have no choice in this matter.
RPGDot, our host, is generating way too much traffic with us on board and the donation thingie doesn't bring in enough cash to cover the expenses. There might be another solution to our predicament, but in the meanwhile, please bear with us...

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Sunday, July 22, 2001 - 19:35 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: On average, how many fantasy books do you read in a year?
(462 votes total)

More than 15 (172) 37%
1-3 (60) 13%
7-9 (56) 12%
10-12 (56) 12%
4-6 (54) 12%
None (46) 10%
13-15 (18) 4%

Whoa! It seems that our visitors read much more fantasy than I expected.

37% of people who voted in the poll read more than 15 fantasy books per year. In a chat we had about it in FAI (our chatroom) I learned that some people read even more than 300-400 a year! I still don't know if I can believe that, but there you have it.

13% of all voters read 1-3 books a year, among them our poor Sir Belisarius who is too busy with law books to try anything else. ;)

Next is 12%, three times in a row. 12% of people read 7-9 books, 10-12 books and 4-6 books. If put together, about 36% of people read 4-12 books a year.

10% of those who voted read no fantasy books at all. Hopefully with our refurbished Fantasy Books section that is going to change. Everyone should be able to find something that interests him there.

Lastly, only 4% of people read 13-15 books per year.

Trials of the Luremaster Review
Posted Saturday, July 21, 2001 - 3:16 CET by Darien

RPGVault has a review of Trials of the Luremaster, the free expansion to IWD: Heart of Winter. The article gives a good overview of the game and, of course, includes some screenshots.

As for other aspects, Tales of the Luremaster shows ample evidence of the team's experience with BioWare's workhorse Infinity engine. In particular, the game settings are every bit as detailed and as gorgeous as we've come to expect from Black Isle's talented art team. Combat can be challenging, with the difficulty said to scale with the level of the party. I only played with one party, but found that changing tactics often makes quite a difference. In terms of playing time, my usual methodical style produced about 17 hours of enjoyment, although those who don't explore every corner might well finish in 10 or so. Nonetheless, given the price, it would still seem to qualify as a tremendous bargain.

Pool of Radiance Interview
Posted Saturday, July 21, 2001 - 3:07 CET by Darien

WotC has interviewed Mark Buchignani, the Lead Designer on Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. The article includes a sneak peek into the game, so read carefully if you don't want to be spoiled. Here's a "safe" excerpt:

The first thing that anyone notices is the artwork. It is top-quality, both the backgrounds and the animations. The game is wonderful to look at. But I also like what goes on under the hood. There is a strong storyline and interesting set of characters whose personalities comes across the more you talk to them, and who tend to do more than just answer questions. In addition, the play method itself encourages exploration and discovery because the player rarely gets into an untenable position. And with the DM's role played up, the game comes across in a tabletop D&D sort of way really well. That's what I like most about it, because we set out to make a CRPG that is more like the paper game than others before it have been, and I think we succeeded.

Read the full interview.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Saturday, July 21, 2001 - 3:00 CET by Darien

How about some more posts from the developers on the BIS message boards? Yes? Okay, here you go...

Neverwinter Nights

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer

Toolset Windows Only: Hi all! Wow, that should teach me for taking a coupla days off, huh? Yikes! Okay, here's the skinny:

As Trent explained, the nature of our development cycle has required us to build the toolset using Borland Builder, an environment that speeds up development time by providing programmers with a lot of pre-built components (scrollbars, text fields, radio buttons, and so forth - the standard Windows schtuff). Basically, it keeps you from having to constantly reinvent the wheel. Without a product such as Builder, the Neverwinter Toolset would probably take about 5 years to build (and that's just for a Windows version).

So the big question in everyone's minds seems to be "Why did you wait this long to tell us that the toolset is Windows-only?" That's a fair question and the honest answer is that we didn't know, we still don't know. As Brent mentioned, we haven't ruled out Mac and Linux versions of the toolset yet although they do seem unlikely at this point. The truth is that we want our toolset to be available on all platforms... Unfortunately, we don't always get what we want, either.

In his post, Trent explained that Borland did have plans for a Linux version of Builder and we had been pinning a lot of our hopes on that (and who knows, it still might happen). Sadly, their development seems to have stalled somewhere along the line whereas we need to keep moving forward. Likewise, we had been in discussions with Macintosh about getting a third-party developer to port the toolset as either a simultaneous or a subsequent release but that discussion seems to have dried up as well.

Now all of these things may still happen but we have to look at the situation realistically. Neverwinter is really starting to solidify and take shape right now and, while that's a really good thing, it unfortunately means that some of these outstanding issues need to be put to rest, at least for the time being. We'd rather tell you now and have to retract it later (Yay! Toolsets for everybody!) than keep it under wraps any longer and give you this kind of a shock on the day your pre-order arrives.

So if you really feel that not having a native Linux or Mac toolset kills Neverwinter for you, then I apologize. We would have loved to have you as part of our community, we would have loved to have a toolset there for you, we'll definitely miss you and all of the creativity that you would have brought to bear. Ultimately, however, you've got some tough choices you have to make, just like we do.

Trent Oster, Producer:

Toolset: We chose to develop the toolset in Borland's C++ builder to speed development as we felt it would reduce the development time by over a year. We looked into a number of options for porting the toolset and we will continue to look for solutions. With that said, we are pushing very hard to complete NWN and we are not able to allocate much time to looking for a solution for the porting issue.

On another issue, we only demoed at the last two E3 shows. (I know, it seems like three).

Brent Knowles, Co-Lead Designer:

How NWN Works: I'm going to try and remove some of the confusion in regards to how Neverwinter works.

You *CAN* play Neverwinter Nights single-player. This will work just like any other game. You can save. You don't need to connect to the internet. You don't need to run any weird programs. You simply run the game and play. Everything else is optional...

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Control Animations: It's actually really easy, and doesn't require any scripting at the moment. In the conversation editor, there is an "actions taken" tab. If you click it, you have three choices. The choices are "run script", "play animation", and "play sound". Click on "play animation" and you have a drop-down box of selectable animations.
Cake!

Anyone who saw the E3 demo might have picked this out already.

Hit Points at Level-up: Actually, we've decided to remove level up hit points from the game. All characters who gain a level do not also gain hit points. You can, however, use skill points to buy hit points.

Kidding.

We have not yet decided this. It'd be nice to see what everyone else thought, considering that we want people to gain their hit points and NOT attempt to re-roll / re-load; we want players to continue moving forward. We have a few ideas, but we would like suggestions as well. Of course, try to keep the suggestions simple, as we don't want to pull programmers off of game creation so that they can put together a system to police a small percentage of the gamers who'd likely rather not be policed in the first place.

By the way, all he meant was that any changes that occur to a character could be "undone" by loading a prior version from the character vault. For example, I check into the character vault before gaining a level, then gain that level. If I don't like the result, I go back to the character vault and undo all changes made to the character, restoring me to the point right before I gained the level, and then try again.

Dice-rolling: There's a dice-rolling section in the radial menu, equipped with various types of dice.

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Hours of Gameplay: The 50 hours I quoted was a current guess from one of the designers. Another argued that it would be 80. All of these numbers are quite meaningless at this time as playtesting (of which "fun" is an important part) will determine what parts need more fleshing out and what parts need shortening. None of these times are set in stone and nothing will be finalized until later.

NWN on DVD: The whole CD/DVD issue will not be addressed until right near the end of development. NWN will definately come out on CD. While DVDs are gaining in popularity the install base is not that large. A DVD version is really up to our publisher, Black Isle, and again, won't be made until the end of development. We do not have a CD count for you at this time, nor an install size. It will all be done at the end.

Single and Multiplayer: Unfortunately, this is the biggest miscoception of NWN right now. NWN is primarily a fantastic single-player game with a strong and integrated multiplayer aspect. The emphasis between the two is almost equal. We are taking what we have learned from BG2 multiplayer and made it seemless into the single player aspect.

Again (and I have no idea how we will be able to properly emphasize and explain this to everyone), the emphasis on gameplay in Neverwinter is equal between single player and multiplayer. You can play our 50 hour campaign (known to some as the "single player" part of NWN) on your own, or you can play the same 50 hour campaign with friends in multiplayer. I personally don't consider a 50 hour campaign that takes your character from 1st to 12th level (subject to playtesting, etc.) in 3rd edition rules a "tutorial".

Neverwinter Nights is designed to be the ultimate transition of PnP D&D rules to the computer. Doing this on a computer allows us to give individual users the ability to play a D&D game with no need for anyone else.

You have to realize that 90% of the games with single and multiplayer modes sold out there are played in single player mode only for various reasons. This messageboard skews the perspective slightly because we all have internet access and most of us play internet multiplayer games. This would be the worst place for a poll to ask how many would play single player only

Since the single player market is still the dominant force and thus we are building and equally strong single and multiplayer game.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

David Gaider, Senior Designer:

Cloak of Mirroring: Nope. Maybe I'm not being understood here.

The graphic isn't being assigned separately. As soon as you assign the 'absorb' effect, the item automatically gets that sphere graphic...it's hard-coded.

It's like the way the energy drain icon works. If you get level drained, it's hard-coded that the energy drain icon appears on the character's portrait. You don't have to add the icon seperately.

So as long as the cloak has the absorb effect, it has the sphere graphic.

Some people found it annoying. But it was the closest we could come to what the cloak was supposed to do without leaving it stupid powerful. Take your pick.

I think the cloak will go back to its old graphic if you restore its old powers...or give it some other abilities other than absorb. That's all that can be done about it.

Future Patches: Just to reiterate: future patches will only deal with things that are currently broken, meaning they do not work at all. Gameplay changes, graphical changes, et al, are not going to be included in any future patch... period.

(sigh)

The game is very complex. There's always going to be a lot of little bugs. We do have a live group that is working on a patch. You want it yesterday? Sorry. It'll be done as soon as it can. And there will probably still be lingering bugs afterwards.

You can complain all you like, but for most people their game is relatively bug-free. Play the game a lot under a microscope and, yes, there are going to be small bugs in lots of places. After months of QA and 10,000 bugs or more eliminated, we could have kept QA'ing this thing for years and it would never be completely bug free.

We appreciate what Kevin does, of course. We never asked him to do it, but he does it and we thank him.

I nor has anyone at Bio ever dissed Blizzard. Blizzard is a great company. It's also a company that makes lots of money hand over fist and can afford to assign lots of people to fixing bugs.

As for the Cloak of Mirroring...I've commented on that one before. The change wasn't made to its graphic on purpose. The graphic that you see is hard-coded to the effect that the cloak has. It can't be changed. I'm sorry you feel the way you do, Sir Terilem, but saying you won't be our friend anymore unless you get instant satisfaction doesn't change the fact that the cloak a) needed to be changed and b) can't have its graphic changed with a simple fix.

I know there's always going to be small things that we didn't do right or can't do. It's irritating for us to, to a degree. I'm glad, however, that most people can appreciate the BG series for what it does have, regardless.

Oh, I didn't think you were rude. It's just frustrating on this side when you hear people think that their bugs are easily reproduced...they will send us their saved game and we just won't be able to do it here. Very often these are related to hardware set-ups but mostly they are completely unrelated to what the player thinks they are.

The problem with de-bugging BG and BG2 is that there's SO MUCH of it. It's so complex and has so much scripting and different possibilities, etc., that something you did in another area, some change of status that happened two hours ago for you, will affect some quest in a way you hadn't thought of.

QA teams are only so large...there's no way we can play it in as many ways as a million people out there can. They will find stuff we won't...and considering we only had twenty guys playing the game, I think it was pretty polished (but I'm also comparing to other releases, which maybe I shouldn't). I know what some people think is the solution: open beta. I don't know about that, personally.

As for more bug-fixing: I agree. So does Bio. We wish we had the resources to dedicate a team (even a small one) to fixing everything quickly. I totally sympathize with those who run across a bug. But fixing them at this point...when three-quarters of your time is spent trying to duplicate what might otherwise appear to be a simple bug...is a long process. And we're spending all our time on the important bugs, the show-stoppers, which means that all the teeny bugs that people think should be 'no trouble' to change don't even get looked at.

Unfortunate but true.

Throne of Bhaal Review at Gamezilla
Posted Saturday, July 21, 2001 - 2:33 CET by Darien

In case you need another, here's a short review of ToB from Gamezilla. The Baldur's Gate II expansion scored a 92 with this final impression.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal is a fitting completion to the Baldur's Gate "trilogy," but was slightly disappointing to this reviewer due to the shorter amount of playing time available for the main game itself (around 25-30 hours). Perhaps this should just be billed as the completion of the Baldur's Gate series rather than as an expansion pack. Still, none of this truly detracts from Throne of Bhaal, which is well designed, excellently scripted and plays out almost exactly like a pen-and-paper version of AD&D. If nothing else, the new add-on dungeon will keep you coming back for more. High marks go to the Black Isle team and Interplay, who have shipped yet another quality product. I give Throne of Bhaal a score of 92 for the end of an excellent series.

Read the rest.

NWN Adventure Creation Guide
Posted Saturday, July 21, 2001 - 2:24 CET by Darien

GameSpy has posted Part III of its ongoing Neverwinter Nights feature. The article focuses on Creating Gaming Environments.

Adventure areas should be exciting, filled with challenges and the opportunity to explore, and they should have a definite direction in which you want the action of your story to flow. That action might have multiple paths or it might have lots of twists and turns along the way but, for the most part, you'll typically require two fundamental locations: a starting point and an ending point. Of course, there should be some space in-between these two points, space filled with the various elements that make for an entertaining tale -- we'll discuss this topic in a later conversation.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Friday, July 20, 2001 - 20:46 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

As usual, there is a new version of the Complete BG2 & ToB walkthrough in the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection.

Ragusa's guide (Why Thieves Rule) in the same subsection has been tweaked a little bit to fix a small error.

In the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection, the Spells FAQ/Listing has been updated so that it now included all spells, even those from Throne of Bhaal.

A level 50 patch & experience cap remover was removed (heh) from the second page of Editors, Hacks & Custom characters subsection. It was replaced with a newer and (hopefully) bug-free version from TeamBG. Which obviously means that you should get it from the TeamBG subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Planescape: Torment

A new version of the Complete Guide and Walkthrough to Planescape: Torment can be found in the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Neverwinter Nights

I have added an edited chat log of the NWN Stratics chat held about two weeks ago. Better late than never...

Also, a new version of the NWMap mapping and module design utility has been added. Get both new additions from the Miscellanea subsection.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

A bunch of small fixes and link changes have been made throughout the entire Fantasy Books section, but most importantly, the renewed Dragonlance subsection is now up & running.

It lists more than 100 Dragonlance books (all that aren't out of print) and I feel is a good reference as to what to read first. Remember, by buying any items from Amazon through Sorcerer's Place you help to keep us up & running since we have no other means of income. My gratitude goes to everyone that has ever purchased anything from SP and to all our future customers!

Pool of Radiance Board Update
Posted Thursday, July 19, 2001 - 15:27 CET by Darien

Looks like Producer Garrett Graham has a bit more free time to spend on the PoR2 message boards.

Difficulty Level: Actually, the odds of finding the path of least resistance (the critical path) are very small. The dungeons are not even remotely linear and the above ground areas are similarly open. And to top it off, we've balanced the game assuming that some wandering is going to occur. You don't have to worry about being too strong for the end, you only have to worry about not being strong enough.

Additionally, you have the option to add two NPCs into your party (there are more that can join, but you can only have two at a time). If you take the NPCs, you have a larger party, but if you don't take the NPCs, your party will have 3-4 extra levels (each), from not dividing the experience between as many characters. Each choice has its advantages and disadvantages.

Game Path: The game is pretty open. For example, very early in the game you find your way into the Dwarven Dungeons. From your initial entry, the corridors quickly branch out and there's no one right way to go. There are four or five stairways out, some going up, some going down. Again, you can go any way you like. The more you explore, the better equiped you'll be to face the later encounters. Plus you'll meet more of the NPCs. Also, some of the encounters change depending on who you've talked to, and what actions you've taken.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Thursday, July 19, 2001 - 15:18 CET by Darien

Even on a slow week there's plenty to read from the BIS message boards.

Neverwinter Nights

David Gaider, Senior Designer:

Module Maps: Yes, everyone playing your module will be required to have a copy of it.

When you hook up to a server running a module you don't download much of anything, because aside from a custom portrait option all the content will already be on everyone's computer.
A module on the server merely sends instructions to the clients as to which tiles it should be displaying in what order and things of that nature, it doesn't send any tiles, or sounds, or models.

For custom content outside of the portraits, like graphics and sounds, you will have to download things of this nature separately and install them into your NWN directories ahead of time. So, if you connect to a server running custom artwork you will be directed in the "lobby" as to where you can go to download their "hack packs", then you can return and play after securing the needed content. They wish to keep the process of content downloading separate because of performance issues.

It hasn't changed. The player doesn't have to have the module installed... they just have to have NWN itself installed. The artwork for the tilesets will already be on their computer. The host computer will just send info on what to use and how.

Like was just posted above, the only downloading that will have to be done will be for custom artwork and sounds, if any, that the host computer has for a particular module.

Aidan Scanlan, Writing and Design:

Protection: Armor and clothing in NWN are the same thing. The only difference is how much protection is offered. Clothing/armor is made up of pieces that may cover you from neck to toe. You decide what each body part will be, from naked up to plate mail. You can change neck, chest, belt, pelvis, shoulders, biceps, forearms, hands, thighs, shins and feet. There are six different areas color you can change with 32 colors or environment maps to choose from. The possible number of combinations boggles the mind.

Once made (or edited) in the toolset, the clothing is a single item that must be equipped to be worn. Helmets and head covering are not included in clothing/armor and will be a separate equip-able item. So, as a module designer, you have more or less control over the styles of armor and clothing that are available on your server (however players coming from other servers may bring other suits of clothing/armor with them).

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

David Gaider, Senior Designer:

Imoen: A few things:

1) Imoen is the same age as the PC, which she at one point even mentions (I think that was in BG1, but I may be wrong). We've always thought of Sarevok being the same age, as well, but the other poster who mentioned this was right...there is no baby avatar and that would be a pretty creepy thing anyway to have a baby standing there chatting you up. How, exactly, Sarevok ended up escaping the temple when he was so young is left to question (and your imagination...although obviously he didn't do it on his own and not by Gorion's hand.)

2) You don't remember your early childhood. Why is this more difficult to accept now than it was in BG1 or BG2? Either you were too young or Gorion deliberately suppressed your memories (no doubt they weren't good ones).

3) Imoen is not mentioned during the course of the Solar dreams/instructions because A) She has very little of the Bhaal essence in her and B) She would not be present in everyone's party. If she is present with the group at the end part there is resolution regarding her.

4) While the vast majority of Bhaal's essence is dealt with in the end by the Solar, we still consider there to be numerous 'minor' Bhaalspawn out there. Imoen could possibly be one if she wasn't present at the end, and so may Viekang be another. These Bhaalspawn have very little essence and will likely not amount to any trouble...cosmos-wise, anyway. Originally this was mentioned by the Solar, but she was thought to get too chatty at the end so we had to slim it down some.

5) I don't know where the thing about Abazigal being 1000's of years old came from. Maybe it could be justified, who knows, but he isn't a dragon...he's a half-dragon. Hmmm...now that I think about it, the problems he was having recruiting the other dragons due to his 'diluted' heritage may have been taken out. It's in the novel, though (as are many of the background details regarding the Five).

Baldur's Gate 3: Just regarding your signature, Elrik: who says we aren't working on a third game, hmm? I'm not implying anything specific, really, but the two games you mention are merely the announced ones.

As for BG3, anything is possible. The Bhaalspawn storyline is over, but the BG series need not be. Bioware may or may not be the developer that does it, though, if it comes up... personally, I wouldn't know.

Infinity Engine: That depends on what the question is.

If you're asking how much it costs to license the IE, then I haven't a clue. That's the sort of thing that Ray and Greg et al handle with whatever company is interested.

And if any company was currently interested in licensing the IE, that's also something that I'm not privy to (nor could I mention it if I was). It's another reason I hadn't thought of earlier, though, as to why Ray and Greg might not want to release the IE publicly (beyond legal issues, the existence of proprietary code and the state of the engine itself, as I said earlier).

If your question is what is the state of the possible public release of the IE, then I would say again that I haven't a clue. The IE belongs to Ray and Greg, period. As it's their property, they needn't release it to anyone who doesn't pay for it, completely aside from the reasons I mentioned above. Regardless, they've never mentioned any official position regarding the fate of the IE, so far as I know.

FR Timeline: (Comment: Yeah, I'm still not sure what dates the games take place in The manual says 1370-1371 DR but the game journal says 1368-1369 DR.)

Yeah...when it comes to dates, you got us there. Personally, I'm not 100% sure how everything aligns...but availability of official info was a bit, um, contradictory. Anyway...ultimately still our bad, I guess.

Harpers: Not all the Harpers know what the others are doing...they are not all of a single mind, and are instead broken down into cells, organization-wise. If the Harpers elsewhere were aware of what the Harpers in Athkatla were doing (the power play that the Harper leader was attempting), they likely wouldn't have put up with it.

Keep in mind that Jaheira is a Harper, too (an agent, anyway, originally) and she was just as subject to the machinations of the Harper sect in Athkatla.

Valygar Romance: Certain elements of the romances had to be written in before the main 'body' of them was written...such as the encounter with the Master Wraith and the very ending.
Once we got to the point where the romances, themselves, had to be written, putting in the extra one with Valygar had to be cut (sadly).

So one cannot 'patch' this. The dialogue has not been written or scripted, period.

Terrasque in ToB or BG2: There is no Terrasque in BG2 or ToB, period.

We toyed with the idea of having an animation of the terrasque's left foot (since that's all that would fit on the screen, size-comparison-wise) but decided against it. Whoever says there is or might be is just spreading a rumor.

Bioware Site Update
Posted Thursday, July 19, 2001 - 14:38 CET by Darien

Neverwinter Nights will be hitting the town at a couple of umcoming events. Here are the announcement's from Bioware.

Neverwinter shows more skin...
...at the biggest gaming convention of the year, GenCon. The Neverwinter Nights team will present the game, theatre style, and of course, they'll also be willing to chat about it ..especially if you buy them a beer. GenCon is in Milwaukee.

Neverwinter Nights' Only Canadian Showing...
...and our fine feathered friends at Fragapalooza are hosting the event. Members of the Neverwinter Nights team are slated to begin the demo at 1500 sharp on Saturday, July 21st. Check out the Fragapalooza website for event details - bring your l33t 5k!llz.

Help Us Pay for Bandwidth
Posted Wednesday, July 18, 2001 - 21:04 CET by Sorcerer

As you can imagine, Sorcerer's Place and Boards O' Magick (our message boards), take up a lot of bandwidth each month. Our host, RPGDot, has to pay for all the server costs, which is no small feat.
So please, donate some spare change (or more, if you can afford) to them via PayPal, which can be accessed through the banner on the left side of this page, just below the NWN Topsites vote button.

Remember, every cent counts! Thanks in advance to all who will help out in this fashion.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Wednesday, July 18, 2001 - 13:55 CET by Darien

Just a quick update for now from the BIS message boards.

Neverwinter Nights

David Gaider, Senior Designer:

Fallen Paladins: There is a provision for something like a fallen paladin in the 3rd edition rules. The 'Blackguard' prestige class seems to cover what most people would call a paladin. And the 'Divine Defender' is a prestige class that allows someone to be paladin-ish but be a holy warrior for any kind of god (including the evil gods). That said, prestige classes aren't going to be included in NWN (at least initially...later on, who knows?).

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Module Map: Question: "Is Never Winter Nights going to be like Counter-strike/Half-life/Quake, where you have to have the map (In Never Winter Nights case Module) installed on every players PC playing on the server?"

Yes, everyone playing your module will be required to have a copy of it.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Rogue Shuriken attacks: We had this discussion at work one day, and we're unsure until we found the following information:

quote:

Masked Avenger: A shuriken does 1 point of damage, but three of them can be thrown at once. If used in a sneak attack, what would the damage be, with sneak included?

WotC Dave: Terrific question! Here's the deal: Three shurikens are a single attack, so you get the sneak attack damage only once. It goes with the first shuriken of the three.

WOTC Mel: And here’s a related question. . . .

Sir Thundersmash: Why are shurikens the only ranged weapons with a Rate of Fire greater then one? Was it just balancing?

WotC Dave: Pretty much, and it mimics how they tend to be used in the "source material" (if not in reality).

Abelared_DM: If a thief hits with three shuriken in an attack that qualifies for his sneak attack bonus, does he get one bonus or three? That is, does a first-level thief get 3+1d6 damage or 1+1d6 three times, for 3+3d6?

MonteCook: The rogue makes one sneak attack per attack, and the three shurikens count as one attack.

Marc Taro Holmes, Art Director

Helmets: The only reason you have not seen a screenshot of a helmet yet, its that they are sitting in Source Safe right now with no textures(!)...coming soon my friends....patience of a grasshopper..there is a LOT of art in this game...

Aribeth: Hello all...glad my little pictures are sparking a bit of conversation...(no really...) I can't say I can really argue with all the points...she is very very very into that blade...some kind of adventurer thing I guess...this one was a CGW cover a while back...They had a 'ressurection of rpg's' theme going, so the sword-as-cross thing was kind of what we were after (it was their final choice anyway)...I don't think broadswords are razor sharp - you *might* be able to get away with this...but hey, it's fantasy....

I don't know if she's going to be on the box or not (somebody up the thread asked)... Aribeth is part of our campaign - she is one of the people you will meet and adventure with in Neverwinter.

Personaly I'm leaning for more of a graphic design solution to the box...but we have bit of time to decide...game comes first!

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

David Gaider, Senior Designer:

ToB Easter Egg: I was wondering when someone would post about this. When you're doing the spirit maze in Watcher's Keep, if you pause really quickly and bring up the area map, instead of the map there's a picture of the dev team.

(Not me, though, I was in Europe at the time.)

Everyone looks real tired, as I recall.

Making a Downloadable Expansion: Throne of Bhaal was a tremendous effort that added both the final chapters onto the story of BG2 (and ended it) as well as a dungeon that was larger than Durlag's Tower in TotSC.

It adds 30-50 hours of play-time (depending on how you play, naturally) onto BG2 and we are immensely happy with how the expansion turned out. Black Isle has its own reasons, I'm sure, for expanding HoW...but we have not had the same outcry over the length of ToB that there was for HoW. The fact that Black Isle was willing to put aside some people to work on a free expansion in response to their fans is to their credit.

There are people who have commented that they wish ToB was a full sequel rather than just an expansion...who doesn't? It would have been great if we could have done that, of course, but it wasn't realistic...and for an expansion, ToB is just about as large and complex as an expansion can be.

But now the story is done, the Infinity Engine is done and we can rest our tired little brains after putting in what was a tremendous effort for a labour of love and move onto other things. So, no...sorry, but there will be no expansion for the expansion.

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter

Kevin Osburn, Line Producer:

International Version of ToTL: There is no *official* release date. We will release them when they are finished going through QA. As we speak, they are almost finished so hopefully you will have it downloaded before this week is over with. If anything changes, I will let you know.

Neverwinter Nights Scripting Course
Posted Wednesday, July 18, 2001 - 13:33 CET by Darien

In case you haven't been following, here's an update on the NWScript Course at NWVault. With seven lessons so far, there should be plenty to keep some of you occupied for a while.

Pool of Radiance Update
Posted Wednesday, July 18, 2001 - 13:29 CET by Darien

Producer Garrett Graham stopped by the official PoR message boards with an update on the game progress.

The other game I'm working on is in its final stages and doesn't need nearly as much attention, so I'll now have more time to devote to the boards and the website. To recap for those of you who are new: when Ubi Soft bought us (SSI), we lost the services that were being provided to us by our former employers, including their web team. We also lost a bunch of our producers, so some of us (me) are working on multiple titles. Chuck, the Associate Producer, is only working on PoR, but it takes all his time, so I'll be working the forum.

So, on to the part you care about - the game *is* coming out and its going to happen in time for Christmas. We have poured way too much blood, sweat and tears into this to not have it see the light of day. For the last couple of months we have been doing nothing but bug fixing. We've worked the kinks out of the pathfinding, we've enhanced the performance, we've checked and re-checked the hundreds of permutations of the dialog and we're currently focused on multiplayer. A game this size is incredibly difficult to test thoroughly and we want to make sure we do a good job of it.

Slipping a game is not something that is ever done lightly. We know it pisses off the fans and it costs both us and the developer (Stormfront) a lot of money. It also gets me a lot of angry calls from Marketing. *But*, I think it is far worse to turn out a buggy game. Believe me, everyone on this end wants the game out asap, but we're not going to do it until we have a game we can be proud of.

As for the incomplete implementation of 3E rules, well, I'm not happy with that either. But at this point, there's nothing we can do about that. When WotC let us know that they were coming out with new rules, the Producer at that time made the decision to change over. Then we were trying to program in the new rules while they were changing every week. Eventually, we had to stop changing and just go with one set. I know a lot of people have written in to say that the changes can still be made, but programming skill isn't the problem. The problem is that more programming = more time and more money.

We're in the final stretch now and the game will go out this year, in plenty of time for Christmas. I'll give a more exact date when I have one that I know isn't going to change.

Pool of Radiance Preview
Posted Sunday, July 15, 2001 - 18:05 CET by Darien

IGN has posted another short preview of PoR2: Ruins of Myth Drannor. The page also has some of their earlier reports, in case you missed any.

Graphically, the game has almost completely come together. Since the engine uses 3D characters on 2D pre-rendered backgrounds, the characters have a much wider and more fluid series of animations. For example, the characters will have one animation for walking, but when they are running in to attack a monster they will have their weapoon drawn over their head ready for battle. Hell, just walking along they look a lot more lifelike than characters in previous D&D RPGs. If that wasn't enough, even the spell effects look great with almost each one having a different graphic look and some filling the screen with color.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Sunday, July 15, 2001 - 17:36 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Which unique BG2 monster did you find the hardest to kill?
(724 votes total)

Kangaxx (366) 51%
Irenicus (103) 14%
Firkraag (101) 14%
Black dragon (37) 5%
Shadow dragon (36) 5%
Other (32) 4%
Torgal (troll) (23) 3%
Bodhi (15) 2%
Wraith Sarevok (11) 2%

As I suspected, most people who voted definitely felt that Kangaxx was the toughest foe in the whole game. 51% of all participants in the poll said he was the hardest to kill, and the number would undoubtedly be even bigger if everyone who played the game also tried to kill him. From what I've heard, some people got so scared of stories they heard that they didn't even bother. ;)

Second place goes to Irenicus with a much smaller percentage of votes. Barely 14% of people thought he was the hardest to kill... But then again, by the time most people reached the end of the game and finally fought him, nothing could survive against them for long.

Firkraag, the first dragon most people saw in the game, got only two votes less than Irenicus, so they both share the same percentage, 14%. Since most gamers were relatively low in level when they tried to kill him, they died more or less spectacular deaths.

Another big jump in percents brings us down to the fourth toughest monster in the game, the black dragon Nizidramanii'yt. 5% of people thought Irenicus' pet was almost too much to handle.

The shadow dragon Thaxll'ssyllia received only 1 vote less than the black dragon, which puts it at fifth place with also 5% of votes.

4% of people voted for "other" monsters, but no real name came up in the poll comments.

3% of people found Torgal the troll the hardest to kill. I myself had quite a lot of trouble with him too, since my party was still pretty inexperienced when we cleared out the de' Arnise hold.

The last two places go to Bodhi and Wraith Sarevok, who each scored 2% and apparently weren't that much of a challenge.

Throne of Bhaal Reviews
Posted Saturday, July 14, 2001 - 20:16 CET by Darien

Intelligamer has reviewed Throne of Bhaal, giving the game 4 stars. Here's the verdict:

Throne of Bhaal is a solid expansion pack for Baldur's Gate II. Not as great as the original in terms of overall fun or value, but worth it for fans as the conclusion to the saga as well as a bridge until the "next big thing" in CRPGs hits: Neverwinter Nights.

A longer review at Gaming Unlimited scores the game at 96%.

Does Throne of Bhaal have a satisfying ending? So many games, it seems, have half-wit endings that make leave you wondering just who the heck thought of them. Once you beat Throne of Bhaal, your character will be given 3 choices, each which lead to a different ending. Without giving anything away, the endings match up with your character's general alignment, and leave you feeling like you've just finished an interactive documentary on a great hero's (or villian's) life. They make sense and, most importantly, leave you with a sense of great accomplishment.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Saturday, July 14, 2001 - 20:07 CET by Darien

Lots of activity on the BIS message boards, so let's get to it.

Neverwinter Nights

David Gaider, Senior Designer:

Scripting: Learning how to script will take some time, obviously, but it's not too hard if you don't start off trying to be too ambitious.
One really cool thing is that the game will come with lots of pre-made scripts that you can drop right in, all with explanations on what they do. (These also work as examples)

The modules that come with the game will also serve as examples of how to do various things.

Best of all, the conversation editor is drag-and-drop and has user-friendly pull-down menus for the scripting. Without worrying about translating what you're writing, it can be as long and intricate as you like, too, with conversations across multiple characters and as many player responses as you wish.

Well, I don't want to talk too much about it because there are likely going to still be a lot of features in flux, but I really can't get over the conversation editor, myself.

I spent a couple of years working with the BG dialogue editor and I truly wish that I'd had this one to use. With the BG editor, you entered dialogue by string...you would have a big box up top that had the current string (which was whatever the NPC was saying).
Below that you could add various PC replies (or nothing if it was linked to another string...'CLICK TO CONTINUE'...or was the end of the dialogue). You could do scripting on the same screen (just type it in), but there were a lot of other frustrations.
For one, every time you entered a string, it had to be inserted into the database. As time wore on, that could take anywhere from 2-20 seconds per string, depending on how busy the servers were. May not sound like much, but when you type really quickly it can seem like forever waiting to move onto the next sentence.
For another, when you had really complex dialogues that linked between different characters (like with interjections) or linked a lot back on itself, it could be really hard to keep track of things. A lot of times we would have 'dangling' links that we wouldn't find until QA months later and not remember where it was supposed to go. Bad bad bad.
Even WORSE, if you had dialogues that had a set of questions (PC responses) that needed to be repeated, you only had two options...one, link back continually to a single string with the same set of responses (even if a question had just been answered) or two, re-type the PC responses in new strings.

How is the conversation editor better? Well, for starters:

- You type a string and it is entered instantly.
- You have a big screen where each string is tracked visually in a fountain-type format. You see what links to what, what the responses are, who's saying what (PC responses and NPC lines are in different colors and not only have names attached but you see the portraits as well)...and if it's taking up a lot of space you can 'minimize' a section (you click on the '-' sign next to it and all the links that followed that string disappear, leaving a '+' sign) or even double-click on a string to get rid of everything else that you're seeing so you can focus only on the links from that string and nothing else.
- Want to link a string to some other lines that you've already typed? Easy! Click on the string you're linking from, drag to the one you're linking to and voila...it reproduces the linked string below...greyed-out, too, to tell you that the link may go on from that point but it does so elsewhere.
- Want to link to a PC response over again? No prob. Click-and-drag, like above...the response appears greyed out below your string. You can even mix new responses and linked responses.
- Want to change the order of the responses? Pull down a menu, change your 'drag' option to 'order' instead of 'link' and click-and-drag the response to wherever you want it.
- Scripting's easy (as is making new and saveable scripts on the fly), you got options to tie dialogue to animations (want your NPC to laugh while its talking?), etc. etc.

There's lots of other things I could rave about, but as I said the whole editor's still subject to change. Even if we end up keeping 75% of what I've mentioned, I'll be happy. It is just so easy to use, I can't stress that enough. And that's not just me as a developer talking...that's me as a writer and a gamer.

OK, enough gushing out of me. It's late and I gotta write on that editor all day tomorrow...if I keep talking about it I'll be dreaming about it, too (and that can't be good...)

NWN Optimization: That's something that will have to be answered a lot later in development. The idea is to optimize it as much as possible... especially if we're going to ensure you can have a lot of players on one server, right? But system specs are something that can only be speculated about at this point and I am not the one to do that (when the programmers start talking, my eyes roll up into the back of my head...they find it so annoying...)

2D Art: Just a comment on something said by an earlier poster, where they said that the 2D art in BG looked a lot busier...
To a point, this is true. But I will say, from my experience working with the game, that how dense the area is depends on how dense you want to make it. And when we jump into an area at this point, keep in mind that for the most part no other characters or items have been placed there.

You can make a city or forest area complete with wandering peasants, animals and what-not, up to the point of your computer's capacity (what that ceiling will be, though, I personally don't know yet). Even items can be placed and will show up on-screen.

So as far as the areas looking relatively empty, this will change as game gets closer to completion and full-blown modules/areas are being crafted (what you can slap together in 5 minutes is fairly cool...what you can put down with some effort is pretty amazing).

3d instead of 2d: Sigh. It's not the only way to go, though. You really can't compare NWN to Eye of the Beholder, now, can you?

And truth be told, I don't think it was solely BG's isotropic view that 'revitalized' the CRPG genre.

Nor do I think that the 3D-style of NWN will be it's most important aspect. The quality will show in the end (or the proof's in the pudding, if you will), so all you non-believers can pout and panic if you like...I've got first-hand experience playing the game and I can speak from a gamer's perspective as well (having been a gamer waaaay longer than a developer). It looks GOOD.

Yes, not as good as a painted background for a 2D game...hopefully we can go and do another game like that at some point and improve upon the IE as well. That would still be cool (if a bit limiting in other respects).

NWN Screenshots: Yes, yes, yes...the NWN screenshots look 'dull'. Why some people base everything on screenshots I have no idea. 2d makes for great screenshots, that's already established.

And, yes, Star Wars Galaxies looks fantastic. NWN and that game really won't be competing, though. Star Wars Galaxies is massively multiplayer and sci-fi, to boot. NWN is fantasy, multiplayer (but not massively) and designed to put the tools in the hands of the user.

As for how well it will age? The on-line community that will be created around NWN will give it a lot of life. Beyond that, it will age like any other engine, I imagine, what do you think?

All I'm saying is that it's a given that screenshots for a 3D game don't generally match up with the game once you're in it...that you don't have to hinge everything on screenshots.

For those who simply don't like 3D games, though, not even the game's going to change your mind. I don't really seem the point in griping, then, though.

As for specific shots of what I'm talking about, I wish I could show 'em, really. But a shot wouldn't do it justice for the most part and they're not done their tweaking as it is (not by a long shot)...so, yeah, I guess in the end everyone has to just wait.

Me, I'd fly to an updated IE in a heartbeat. But there are so many opportunities for storytelling with NWN that I just get too excited. Not only do we get to put out a big single-player game that should be pretty cool (I hope), but with luck we'll get to play some masterpieces that other people make, for once.

Single Player in NWN: As far as the single player game goes for NWN, there's a large amount of focus being put into that, as well. NWN has a large design team on it writing the modules...and the modules are part of an overall story arc. Will it be as great as BG? That I don't really know...but NWN isn't being put out there with the thought that all of the responsibility for making a success lies in the hands of the fans.
The fans will give the game a long life. There's already a big community chomping at the bit, waiting for release to make their own modules. And all it takes is one relentless, inspired wit to make a module that thousands of other fans will play...and perhaps be inspired in turn.

But we're not betting entirely on that. That's where the single-player game comes in. It's big...but I think the focus so far when talking about NWN has been completely on the module-building side. Likely for good reason, as that's the most innovative part, but that's not all of it.

And, incidentally, I don't disagree with you. There are some effects with 3D animation that just don't look the same, like the aforementioned spiders. And trees...wow, did it ever take them a long time to come up with trees that didn't look like they were cut out from a cardboard box.
But I think they did it. The new trees look really good. I love the little details that come up automatically on the castle tiles, the little flags and pieces of garbage and crates and stuff. And believe it or not, it all still looks good even close up.
And if we could pull off a game as massive and complex as BG2 by sheer sweat and willpower, then the fact that the same kind of effort is going into NWN gives me considerable relief. The team (and especially Ray and Greg) just aren't willing to compromise their vision...which is good, because NWN has a lot of promises to live up to.

And so did BG, as I recall...and nobody believed us back then, either.

Dungeon Creation and Exploring: You can do something that's half-decent in about 15 minutes. With effort, you can do something really fantastic. A lot of the NWN screenshots look (I think) a bit on the 'empty' side simply because full modules with lots of NPC's and items and stuff filling up dead space haven't been done, yet.

I have seen, though, what can be done with effort. Tobyn, one of the artists on NWN, used the city tileset to make a city block that looked just astounding. And when you're in the game at ground level, what's surprising is that it looks even better.
I've had reservations in the past about the graphical look of 3D. Some early LithTech stuff, for instance, looked really blocky...but it's already come a long way. 2D painted backgrounds will always make for better screenshots, but decently-done 3D makes for a better experience.

The life of an engine that's built to evolve will be, hopefully, a bit longer. As far as it needing expansions, I have to agree. There's a large number of tile-sets that comes with the game, but that does restrict everyone to having the same kind of 'feel' to their modules. I'm sure there's a few wits out there who will alter the tilesets (it can be done), but for the most part new modules have to come out.
I don't know what the plans are for doing so, though, but by the talk it seems to be a no-brainer. After all, we have the capability of doing new modules with new graphics...and so will any other developers that care to do so (wouldn't that be cool?).

Skins for Sarevok and Jon Irenicus for NWN: Do you mean me, personally? Not a chance. I have a little artistic ability, but I haven't a clue how to use the art programs they have.

As for Bioware, I'm not sure that they'd want to. It isn't the BG series, after all, but I suppose you never know.

Incidentally, though, there's a LOT of room to tweak how your character looks (even down to hairstyles and facial hair and stuff). You can easily make a fighter wearing some very evil-looking plate (NWN specifically has 'evil' and 'good' versions of armor), so Sarevok would be pretty easy. As for Irenicus, I imagine it wouldn't be too hard for some wit to add in some of the detail he has, like the facial scars and stuff. Changing the graphics in NWN (like the skins) is a bit more advanced but still fully do-able...I imagine if the NWN on-line community gets big enough (and all indications are that this will be so), I bet someone will do it.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Old NWN Guilds: There may be the occasional reference to the original title, and possibly general references to the community-at-large. But for the most part, it’ll be more of a salute then a ceremony. Perhaps as we get closer to the end of the project, and we find holes that need to be filled, and we have a stronger sense of how it will all work legally, we can ask the community for their tales and exploits within the realm of AOL.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind adding in a few more books if we have the time and word count available but really, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Guild histories/crests: Well, I put together most of the books for inclusion in our Neverwinter Campaign, and I basically stuck with the official source material. There was talk of using some guild content and tales from the original Neverwinter Nights title that was hosted by AOL, but it was felt that specific, fan-created material would be better served by groups like the Neverwinter Consortium; as far as I know, they’re the leading group dedicated to re-creating the original title with the Neverwinter Toolset.

Character Vault and 20th Level Characters: It's not really too big of an issue. On the same token, I could write up a realistic character for a pen-and-paper game, and then convince the DM that I had roleplayed him over the course of the last few years. Really, is anyone getting hurt? I've never been able to keep up-to-date on the idea of the Vault (haha!), but I'm figuring that the idea of it was so that a 20th level character would be relatively as powerful as any other 20th level character. The idea is to try to prevent stuff like you see on Diablo I right now (a game I play far too often ), where a first level character will have 400 HPs and infinite spells and attributes in the hundreds. With the CV, you'd not be able to do that - a first level character would have less than 20 HPs, 25 points worth of statistics, and equipment with a low number of item points.

Pssst: I got a 20th level NWN character for sale on e-bay... but you can have him for just 500 bucks!

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

Guild histories/crests: With regards to the oNWN guild crests, your point about copyright concerns is a good one. As it turns out, texture conservation is also one of the better methods of optimizing the game right now (it can result in faster loading times, better overall performance, and more detail in the textures we do display). Given that there are both legal and technical concerns surrounding this, I think the best solution would be to find some other method of recognizing our oNWN roots. I'll ask around the office a bit for a few ideas and get in touch with you.

Brent Knowles, Co-Lead Designer:

NWN Debugger: A debugger would definitely be useful but is highly unlikely to appear in any initial release.
At BioWare our scripters have learned several creative tricks to get around the lack of debuggers in our scripting languages. Functions like SpeakString("script made it here") are very useful to isolate bugs. As well we practice incremental implementation, in that we implement only small isolated segments of plot, and test them independently until we are satisfied with them.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

David Gaider, Senior Designer:

End of the Infinity Engine: If I've already stated my case, I don't really see the point in responding to further posts just for the sake of argument...and I would hardly call it avoiding.

But you think we're being dumb by putting aside the IE? OK, then...'allow me to clue you in, if I may':

1) It does not make economic sense to go back and rework the IE. At this point it's been tweaked and played with so many times that even small changes that are made cause numerous problems in almost unrelated places. At this point it is far more economical to take what we have learned and start anew.

2) Sure...I guess it goes without saying that we could pump out more IE games. We could put out a BG3, BG4 or even use the IE for brand new series. Heck, with the money we'd make, we could put out five games at once, all with the IE! Let me back-track for a second, though. You said you'd buy good games, regardless of the engine of fancy-schmancy graphics, right? Well, there's a name for the 'sound economic reasoning' that causes successful games to be cloned endlessly. It's called Milking It. And they are not good for a reason.
Even in ToB, when the designers were going through certain areas, we kinda looked at each other and went "Wow...have we done this encounter before?" It was a real struggle to keep things fresh. Every time we thought of something cool or different we wanted to do, we encountered a limitation with the engine that made it impossible. We've milked the series enough, I think...sure, some new stories could be told, but not in as many new ways or varieties as you think. And the frustration involved with trying to continue would only increase. Going to a new engine is a necessary evolution, and can only improve what we're doing.

3)As far as releasing the IE to the public? I didn't say it wouldn't happen. Who knows? It's not my place to decide what happens to it. It's also nobody's right to demand it. I imagine there's a lot of proprietary code in there...who knows how much will get re-used? Maybe lots, maybe none. Regardless, I've worked with the IE from a designer standpoint. And while I haven't worked with it as a programmer, Mark Darrah has always maintained exactly the same point I have (yet more vehemently)...the IE is not in a state to be released. What good would releasing that do? Who would it help besides those people who could pick over its code carefully...and are likely already over at TeamBG or wherever working with it or using some other code that's simpler. Believe me...there's NO way I could ship the IE to your average user and they'd be able to do much with it.

And I DO agree...there's a lot of potential out there for people with creativity. I just don't think releasing the IE (if doing so was even possible) would be much of a boon.

And that's pretty much all I have to say on the subject. It's pretty complimentary that you guys like the games so much that you want the engine to carry on...but I really don't think the ends you want will be served by that. By all means, though...continue to call for it. Ray and Greg are a pair of great guys who have always listened to the community. If they thought there was a demand for it and that releasing the source code was both legally feasible and a good idea, then I can't see why they wouldn't do it.

Yeah, the whole computer market back then was quite a bit different. A game like the Gold Box SSI games could make a living off of the niche D'er market back then...although I imagine it wasn't much of one.

All I'm saying is that it's going to be pretty hard to maintain a good story and some originality when you keep running into road-blocks, engine-wise. I think ToB is about as far as we could take it...and there are lots of things we tried to do that sort of had to be cobbled together (and I think it shows...whereas doing those things with stuff the engine was meant to work with earlier on doesn't). Could ToB have been supported a full-blown sequel? Story-wise, heck yeah. Engine-wise...I honestly don't know. Never mind the high-level stuff vis a vis the D rules...I'm talking keeping the players interest through lots of new & different encounters and not bringing up the 'been there, done that' for all the fans who've been around since BG1. And one has to keep in mind especially that in a CRPG the story is always tied intrinsically to the gameplay...it doesn't stand on its own like in regular narrative.

Imoen's Belt: Gaaah, not this question again...
OK...Imoen can't die during the first dungeon. Wrecks the story. Instead, when she gets to 0 HP, she starts a script where she gets scared and runs off. The way we gave these abilities to creatures (indeed, all creatures) is through items.

Originally, Imoen had an 'invisible' belt in the slot. However, late in the day we found out that if someone was poking around on Imoen's inventory screen that this 'item' could be clicked on and momentarily moved (but not removed)...and this also tended to crash the game.

Not good. So we made the item real.

HOWEVER...I'm sure that if you read the description of the belt and REALLY REALLY try and use your imagination, any one of you could come up with a good story reason as to why she had it as well, no?

Familiar Changes: I went on the boards back then to get some ideas from people on what kind of changes they wanted with their familiars. A lot of the suggestions revolved around new dialogue, but I told everyone then that any dialogue changes would be very limited.

I never said there was going to be a Familiar-specific item, nor did I make any promises. I asked for ideas and I implemented some of them.

As for the fairy dragon, that is supposed to be 48 HP, same as all the other familiars. I don't know why that wasn't changed at the same time its abilities were added. I'll pass that onto the live team, thx.

BG2 and 3rd Edition Rules: We actually did most of the BG2 characters in 3rd edition back when we received the books from WotC (waaay back) as a way of learning the system.

How you slice the levels depends on what point in the game you're doing the characters. At the beginning of BG2, I think they're about 8th level...by the end of ToB, heck they're at least 16th or 17th (that is, if you don't want to go by the upcoming 3rd edition high-level rules).

If you're going by 10th level, I think you got Minsc right. Imoen, though, is better as a higher-level mage (a 5th level wizard doesn't have many spells...I'm thinking Rogue 3/Wizard 7) and Haer'Dalis is more of a bard (Bard 6/Fighter 4...mind you, someone later suggested adding the Duelist prestige class out of the Fighter/Monk book, and that didn't sound too bad).

We pegged Nalia as a Rogue/Sorcerer, Jan as a Rogue/Illusionist, Yoshimo as a Rogue with an Assassin prestige class...hmmm...can't remember the rest off-hand. Might have to dig up the character sheets sometime.

Viconia: This topic comes up repeatedly. I'm sure this has all been mentioned before, but here it is again:

1) Viconia was exiled from Menzoberranzan before the events in the Drizzt books. Viconia is likely much older than Drizzt.

2) Viconia has no idea what became of her house after she left. She assumes that it fell...but she would have had no idea that House Do'Urden was responsible for House DeVir's fall. Matron Ginafae was not Viconia's mother...it was another Matron Mother after Viconia's mother was killed, and a seperate falling out with Lolth.

3) If she did know that House Do'Urden was involved with DeVir's fall, she wouldn't care.

4) All the nobles of a House must be killed in order for there to be no repercussions. Servants and soldiers and such are generally either sacrificed, sold into slavery...or, I suppose, put on display in other cities as examples of what displeasing Lolth means. Technically, I suppose Viconia is still a noble of House DeVir...although I doubt the issue will ever come up.

2d Rendered Backgrounds: And I'd have to agree with Rob. Sure...the 2D-rendered backgrounds are very detailed, and part of that detail is being sacrificed for versatility. The casual gamer who wants to create something is NOT going to be able to create an area using the IE. You have to be an artist, first, to get something even approaching half-decent...then you have to go through the pain-staking clipping process, etc. etc.

With the NWN engine, the casual gamer can make what they want to. There are still restrictions, of course...something like a Machine of Lum the Mad COULD be made, but is likely going to have to be done by a professional artist/animator.

Now, the next thing you might say is that you have no interest in making your own adventures...you want us to make you adventures, and you want them to be as beautiful and detailed as BG and BG2.

I say why not do both? We can work on making our own adventures using the NWN engine...making unique animations like a Machine of Lum the Mad and similar stuff...all of which players can afterwards use in their adventures. You think WE don't want to use a more accessible engine, too?

And as far as 3D not looking as good...I have to disagree. It looks better than a lot of other 3D games I have seen, and it will continue to improve over time. Right now, we may be sacrificing the fact that the background art for every area amounts to a beautiful painting (albeit a flat one)...but what if we can get to that point with 3D and have that versatility?

Just one comment: I don't think there's any reason to bash someone who prefers the 2D environment. It has its advantages...one being the capability of plugging in some real great 2D art.
It does have its disadvantages too, though, of course.

In the end, it's just personal preference. There are some people that are just not going to like the sacrifice in detail that comes with moving to 3D, no matter how good the 3D environment we try to make. All we can hope for is that the other advantages of the engine make up for that.

I'm not knocking the IE, either. Heck, to me it's like an old shoe...by moving onto a new engine I've become a Beginner again. From an advanced scripter to yelling across the room "HOW do you set a Global?" Icky icky poo.

I love the art, I love the sprites...the gameplay altogether was very intuitive. But when you know as I do what that engine was limited to and the options that are opened up by moving to a good 3D engine...well, for me it was a no-brainer. Not everyone will agree, and I don't expect them to.

I don't think we've ever ruled out making a game in a similar style to BG, with a 2D-style engine. We may do something like that again, certainly...like I said, 2D has its advantages.

Just it's doubtful that we'd use the Infinity Engine.

We can only work on so many projects at once, though.

TeamBG Petition
Posted Friday, July 13, 2001 - 16:36 CET by Darien

Wondering what will happen to the Infinity engine, now that Bioware is through with it? Well, so are some others. Ken from TeamBG has sent out a call for our support.

TeamBG has organized an email petition asking BioWare to release the source code and development tools for the Infinity Engine games to the public or select groups to allow people outside of BioWare to use the source code and tools to develop possible add-ons to existing Infinity Engine games or create new Infinity Engine games using official BioWare source code and development tools. Please use the following link to get to the details about how to support this movement:

http://www.teambg.com/petition

Thank you all for supporting TeamBG to this point and here's to a bright new future ahead of us.

-Ken Baker, TeamBG Founder

Site News - New Additions
Posted Friday, July 13, 2001 - 0:50 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate

A small update was made in the TeamBG Tools subsection. The new addition is a hack that installs rules for all the way up to level 50, so you can play the game right for the next 100 years or so. ;)

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

Starting with the usual, there is the latest version of the BG2 & ToB walkthrough available in the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection.

In the TeamBG Tools subsection are two new additions. One is a patch which replaces all containers in the game with bottomless ones and the second one fixes fighter grandmastery to what it should be according to the rules.

A number of files have been added to the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsections as well.
On the first page there is a nice portrait of Drizzt, sent in by Silverblade.

On the second page I added a link to download MageDuel, a multiplayer add-on to Baldur's Gate 2. Two interesting patches you can find on the same page allow you to keep all BG1 items when you import a character into BG2, and the other one allows any race to have a romance in the game.

While on the subject of most-wanted hacks; I added one that allows your protagonist in ToB to have concurrent romances. (Same concept as the previous BG2-only patch.)

Finally, there are three unofficial patches released by Bioware's David Gaider which make certain ToB battles more difficult, while one grants you Bhaalpowers as was originally planned.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Icewind Dale

I have added an updated version of one of walkthroughs for Heart of Winter, which now also covers Trials of the Luremaster. Get it from the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection.

The TeamBG subsection has one new addition, a level 40 rules pack. Don't bother with this if you have Heart of Winter insalled.

The Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection has also been updated. There you can find an updated version of the Icewind Dale store items list, plus an updated version of the Heart of Winter store items list which now additionally lists merchants from Trials of the Luremaster.

Subsection Updates - Community -> Chatrooms

There have been a couple of changes in the past few days, among other things the opening of a new chatroom. At present called The Nameless Room since we haven't decided on a name yet, it can be found listed on the main Chatrooms page along with the updated info.

Since there'll be rolling going on, I have installed a dice script on Elminster (channel bot) and updated the Elminster Scripts with new commands.

Pool of Radiance Preview at GameSpy
Posted Thursday, July 12, 2001 - 14:52 CET by Darien

Still waiting for PoR2: Ruins of Myth Drannor? Well, GameSpy's got a promising preview to whet your appetite, along with some screenshots.

Using the 3rd Edition D&D rules, Pool introduces a new race -- the half-orc -- and three new classes, the barbarian, the sorcerer, and the monk. You begin the game by creating your party of four adventurers (you can use pre-made characters or create your own) and the 3rd Edition rules also lets you have your characters level up in more than one profession; this means your character could be level two in one area and level one in another. This looks to add a good deal of diversity to the gaming experience and will give your characters access to powers and abilities that are usually prohibited from a specific class.

Throne of Bhaal Review at TFH Gaming
Posted Thursday, July 12, 2001 - 6:42 CET by Darien

Yet another glowing review of Throne of Bhaal is up, this time at TFH Gaming.

One of the pleasures of the combats, apart from their definite purpose in the context of the story, is their diversity. Though every fight is not against a legendary uber-daemon, the protracted fights against hordes of lesser enemies were just as exciting. Protracted, in fact, is a good way to describe many of the fights in ToB; players will need to employ all the tactical skill they can muster (and have plenty of healing potions) to survive most of them. This, again, adds to the epic quality of ToB and is likely to evoke cheers of triumph from players who finally defeat the seemingly invincible hordes.

Neverwinter Nights Preview at MGON
Posted Wednesday, July 11, 2001 - 17:12 CET by Darien

Here's another look at Neverwinter Nights, courtesy of MGON. The preview offers a basic description of the game's features and some stale screenshots. (Btw, don't take the March release date to heart. The game designers have dismissed that rumor several times).

The maximum number of players is currently undecided, though Bioware is confident a high-end home based system will support up to 64 players. But wait... There's more! If 64 players just doesn't cut it for you, multiple servers can be connected through game "portals". Have your character stumble through one of these and you may just find him or her on someone else's computer. In other words, multiple systems can play host to a single game world. For example, a series of interconnected towns can be united using game portals. The possibilities for such technology married with the Neverwinter Toolset is really only limited by the player's imagination.

Throne of Bhaal Review at GamesFirst
Posted Wednesday, July 11, 2001 - 16:55 CET by Darien

Here's another BGII: Throne of Bhaal review, this time from GamesFirst where the expansion receives 4 out of 5 stars. Take a look at some of the new abilities available:

Probably the most important aspect of TOB is the high levels your characters can achieve. BG II experience capped out around 2.5 million. TOB lets you go up to 8. That translates into level 40 for some classes. As the Dungeons and Dragons rules don’t provide many spells or abilities after level 18, Black Isle has added a host of new goodies to make those levels worth it. Fighters get Critical Strike, making every hit a critical, Whirlwind attack, giving them 10 attacks for one round, and Deathblow, a massive hit that kills anyone 8th level or below. Mages get new spells like Dragon’s Breath and Wish. Clerics can summon Devas and tougher elementals, while Rogues can set meaner traps and gain the ability to scribe scrolls.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Wednesday, July 11, 2001 - 14:11 CET by Darien

There's a good selection of comments today from the BIS message boards, so enjoy!

Neverwinter Nights

Feargus Urquhart, President/Black Isle Studios:

Official Board moves!: Actually this board is now the official board, Bioware will be moving over here permanently and will be phasing out their answering of questions on the Interplay.com site. I was able to swing a new server that could be dedicated to just the Black Isle boards. So, this should be the official spot for NWN discussions for the forseeable future.

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

New Official Boards: We like it, too. For the most part, I think the Dev team intends to migrate to these boards.

Ability Point Distribution: Just to clarify, we don't have a firm decision on the number of points to distribute at this time. 25 is the official 3e figure but we're going to run it through some Neverwinter playtesting before we decide on anything final. My personal guess is that the final number will probably fall somewhere between 25 and 30.

Single Player Storyline: Good question, and I've actually got an answer for it. For some of the reasons you outline and also because we want the story to be equally enjoyable in multiplayer, we've built the Neverwinter story around the concept of the player being part of a small community of adventurers. When the city succumbs to the Wailing Death, Lady Aribeth puts out a call to all adventurers within the city, not just you (some of them NPCs, some of them other PCs such as yourself). If you choose to play through all of the modules in Chapter 1, then you're a very prolific adventurer - if you choose only to play a few of them, however, it's assumed that other adventurers must have completed the ones that you did not. Either way, you'll always end up playing a significant role in the climax to each chapter.

The result is hopefully a game that gives you a lot of freedom in defining who your character is, while still driving you forward in a dramatic fashion that ties you emotionally to the story at hand. It's a context that makes equal sense to the single player, to the tight-knit party that plays as a group, and to the fly-by-night adventurers who have new party members join them for every module. When the game ships, you'll have to let us know how well it worked for you.

Single Player Concerns: I'm the fella in charge of story around these parts (though I rely heavily on folks like Lukas Kristjanson, creator of Minsc & Boo, and Bob McCabe, our good man from Jersey, to keep the whole ball of wax together), so take my thoroughly biased opinions with a grain of salt. But just between you and me, I think we've got the most exciting story BioWare's had yet. In the BG games, the focus was really on your small group of henchmen - they were the ones who grew and adapted and with whom you became emotionally involved with. For Neverwinter, we're trying to take that concept and apply it to the entire gameworld. The city of Neverwinter is going to be a very dynamic place that grows and develops along with your character over the course of the official campaign. The NPCs that you encounter and interact with on a daily basis are all going to change and grow - they'll experience joy and tragedy and love and vengeance and you'll be there at the center of all of it, taking part and playing a vital role in their lives. When you finish the fourth and final chapter, be it in single-player or multiplayer, I'd like to think that each of you will feel that you've taken part of something really special.

So if you want to hear more about the official campaign, by all means keep asking these sorts of questions (and whip off a few emails to your favorite gaming mags and sites, telling them that that's what you want to hear more about). As our release date gets closer and closer, you'll notice that our marketing effort is slowly transforming. Phase 1 was designed to catch the interest of the DMs, the module builders, the server operators, the tech-heads, the hardcore gamers (and I think we've done a good job of that). Now we're just starting to enter Phase 2, which is all about reaching out to the mass market. You folks have all of these campaigns and persistent worlds and competitive modules in the works, now, and we want to make sure that you have plenty of people eager to play them. The official campaign and a rich BioWare story are going to be key to making that happen.

Item for One Character Only: If you want to limit it to you and only you, you'll have to rely on custom scripting. However, you can still get pretty specific just by using the standard properties. After all, how many neutral evil gnomish bards can there be?

As a general idea, though, I think it would be really cool for players to fiddle around in the toolset and create custom weapons and armor for themselves, with descriptions tied into their own backstories and the like. It has the potential to be a really strong roleplaying tool if people choose to use it as such.

Dialog and Text System: The underlying file formats are going to be a bit different but, from the player's perspective, conversation will behave the same as it did in the BG titles (and yes, while the keyword system won't be used in the official campaign, it will still be available for use in your own modules).

Brent Knowles, Co-Lead Designer:

Single Player Concerns: Neverwinter Nights is going to continue Bioware's tradition of creating epic role-playing games.

While the technical systems are being designed to allow for multiplayer gameplay and an end-user toolset, the campaign itself is getting more than enough work put into it to make it a great game.
We have most of the Baldur's Gate team (plus many talented additions!) working on Neverwinter Nights, so we will be shipping a game as good or better than any in the Baldur's Gate series. BioWare's goal is that with each new game we make, we build on our prior experiences and create a new game that rises above anything we've done previously.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Release Date: I hope it's pretty obvious that we try to release a game that you don't need a patch for. While making the perfect game is really hard to do, especially when you are implementing a complex, already established role-playing system into a game with as many hours as some of our past titles have had, try we do, try we must. I don't think you'll ever see us back down from that commitment to releasing the highest quality game that we are capable of. And, when mistakes are made, we'll do our best to fix them.

The BioWare logo means a lot to us, and we take great pride in maintaining it.

Ability Cost Breakdown:
Ability Score -- Ability Cost
09 -- 1
10 -- 2
11 -- 3
12 -- 4
13 -- 5
14 -- 6
15 -- 8
16 -- 10
17 -- 13
18 -- 16

Tracking Quest Variables: Well, the way we do them is the way that they were done in the Baldur's Gate series of titles: global variables.

If the quest has not been triggered yet, then set the global to 0. If you talk to the NPC that offers the quest, and the global is 0, he says, "Hey, come here a second. I got something you might like to hear about."

As soon as he finishes speaking, he sets the global to 10. If you try to talk to him when the global is set to 10, he asks, "What's the matter? Didn't you hear me the first time? Do you want me to repeat it all again?"

Item for One Character Only: And just think of the obvious places you can go with that [items based upon your own backstory] - you're putting your stamp upon the world in a way that can only make that world more rich and fulfilling. Imagine coming across a specific item, and finding that player while adventuring through the game. And think of it from the point of view of the other player, wondering how you got his abandoned item, and what adventure's it's been taken on since that time.

Reminds me of a story Brent told me of his playing through Ultima On-Line. Said he had one character keep an elabroate journal, and, when he eventually died, he made a second character whose whole raison d'etre was to find the original characters journal.

He'd walk about from town-to-town, asking people if they'd ever heard of the prior character, or a book written by him. Role-playing possibilities abound!

BioWare Characters: Here’s the quick update on Wu-Wei, my Level 5 (almost level 6!) LN Monk of the Yellow Rose:

Str 11, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 8 … HP 26, AC 15 … Skills of note: Tumble (11), Listen (10), Move Silently (8), Hide in Shadows (8), and Balance (8). I’m starting to put more of my skill points into Knowledge: Arcana (useful in Aidan’s campaign) and Jump, for now. I’ll likely put my level 8 bonus (if I make it that far) into Int, and my level 12 bonus into Wis. At that point, I’d have 2 points left, and only one odd stat. I’d probably put two more into Wisdom from there, and ignore strength. I see the use for having a high wisdom as a monk, but I don’t really see any necessity in it. Perhaps I’m not up enough on the strategies needed to maximize my character.

On a related note (not maximizing the combat potential of a character), fellow designer Preston is starting up a campaign this Friday the 13th (creepy!), and here’s the character I created for that game. Unlike the 4d6 method we used for Aidan’s game (resulting in my 22-point character), Preston wants to try out using the higher 30-point creation method (personally, I still prefer the 25 point buy, but maybe our opinions will change as we explore different avenues, and eventually balance the game):

Jandle Sorrowfield … Neutral Bard … Str 7, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 16, Wis 9, Cha 16 … Hp 6, AC 15 … Skills of Note: Perform (7), Decipher Script (6), Gather Information (6), Knowledge (Arcana) (6), Knowledge (History) (6), Knowledge (Nature (5), Knowledge (Religion) (5), Spellcraft (6), Use Magic Device (6) … I’m playing her as the inquisitive scholar. She’s obsessed with learning, tinkering, and just plain figuring out how everything works. She uses her natural talents as a performer, along with her high charisma, to manipulate people into helping her gain knowledge.

I’d been wanting to play a bard for the longest time, so I’m excited that I’ll finally get a chance.

Don Moar, Lead Programmer, Tools:

Shield Bug: Actually, the shield switching hands depending on which way the PC is facing, is not a bug. It is a technique called mirroring, which allowed the animators to reduce the amount of the time and data required for each model and consequently resulted in more content in the final game.

This is a good thing.

So, from a 'real life' point of view, it may not have been as accurate, but I think the trade-off was worth it.

Toolset Limitations: Using the NWToolset aspiring module creators will be able to design and construct their own adventures. This includes building the maps, designing and placing unique items and creatures, writing NPC conversations, and programming your own scripts. Don't think that you will have to do all of this on your own however, as there will be plenty of stuff included to help get you started.

The bottom line is that the NWToolset will be powerfull; so powerful that our own designers are building the fantastic single / multi - player campaign that will ship with the game using it.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

Downloadable ToB Expansion: Throne of Bhaal was a tremendous effort that added both the final chapters onto the story of BG2 (and ended it) as well as a dungeon that was larger than Durlag's Tower in TotSC.

It adds 30-50 hours of play-time (depending on how you play, naturally) onto BG2 and we are immensely happy with how the expansion turned out. Black Isle has its own reasons, I'm sure, for expanding HoW...but we have not had the same outcry over the length of ToB that there was for HoW. The fact that Black Isle was willing to put aside some people to work on a free expansion in response to their fans is to their credit.

There are people who have commented that they wish ToB was a full sequel rather than just an expansion...who doesn't? It would have been great if we could have done that, of course, but it wasn't realistic...and for an expansion, ToB is just about as large and complex as an expansion can be.

But now the story is done, the Infinity Engine is done and we can rest our tired little brains after putting in what was a tremendous effort for a labour of love and move onto other things. So, no...sorry, but there will be no expansion for the expansion.

BG2 end sequence: When the end-scene was done for BG2, we had a pretty good idea of how the story was going to go in ToB...we knew that there was a group of Bhaalspawn working together...but the details weren't penned at that point (the animations were done while BG2 was still in progress keep in mind).

The intent of the end-sequence was to get across a hint of the story to come, and that's all it was meant to do. The actual characters depicted just aren't specific...might have been weird, I suppose, had we actually had a fire giant, a half-dragon, a drow and so forth at the table...but at that point we hadn't even considered it. The Five didn't trust each other an inch...so maybe they were meeting in polymorph form? Maybe those were illusionary projections? There are lots of possible explanations...but we're not offering anything as an 'excuse'.

Perhaps the illusion that's being dispelled is that we at Bioware didn't have every detail of the series planned from the get-go. The end-scene had Bad Guys planning Bad Things for the Too-Powerful Bhaalspawn...and that's all it was meant to do.

Illasera: The problem with the original Illasera fight is that there was no way around it...the player had no choice but to have the fight. And, considering that the player could have just generated his character or imported, he could be alone or be any of a number of levels.

The fight with Illasera scales and she has companions if you are higher level/have more people in the party...but it couldn't be made that difficult simply because making an unavoidable Boss Fight right at the beginning of the game would lead to potential frustration for some.

So she underestimated you or was weaker than the rest, or whatever you prefer.

There was a plan originally that Illasera had feared that Mellisan was trying to kill her by sending her after the PC, so she sent in her Simulacrum instead...and the PC would run into Illasera again in Amkethran where she would try to help you (although ultimately still deceiving you because she discovered you didn't know the truth about Melissan yadda yadda yadda). Anyway...it was a complex plot that we couldn't add, so that was that. Which was too bad, because Illasera kinda got the short shrift, no?

Imoen's Story: Seriously, though, there IS a story behind Imoen. Who knows if we'll explore it in the future? The only reason we couldn't explore it in depth in ToB is because there was no guarantee that Imoen would be with the party...and no time to put that much work into a sequence that not everyone would see (unfortunately).

Until then, it's up to your imagination (as it probably should be).

Killing Saemon: Actually, Saemon is meant to be killable... both at the soldier encounter and later. He just tries to escape rather than fight, so you have to be fast.

If, of course, killing's him what you feel the need to do. Personally I think he's the most awesome character. Couldn't you imagine Saemon in your party? (I mean, eventually you'd figure he'd have to owe it to you.)

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter

Steve Bokkes, Designer:

Paladin Quest: To answer your question, the encounter was designed not as a traditional quest, but rather as a simple moral dilemma. After talking to Harald, it should've been apparent that his experiences inside the lure had driven him quite insane. He holds himself responsible for the deaths of his comrades and sees his own death as the only way to redeem himself in the eyes of Tyr. However, despite his madness, he still clings to the basic tenets of his faith--a fact that has prevented him from taking his own life long ago.

So you see, there is no "right" or "wrong" way of dealing with the situation. You can do as he asks and give him the warrior's death he craves, or you can simply leave him to his own personal torment. Either way, there is no happy ending. I realized when I was designing this NPC that the absence of a neat and tidy solution might provoke some frustration among certain players. However, every once in a while I like to "muddy the waters" a bit by injecting a bit of cold, hard reality into an otherwise pristine fantasy setting.

Throne of Bhaal Review
Posted Tuesday, July 10, 2001 - 22:44 CET by Darien

For another short review of BG2: Throne of Bhaal, including a handful of screenshots, check out Games Xtreme. The expansion scores a 90% as a satisfying conclusion to the series.

These features and additions are what makes TOB a great expansion pack and a fitting end to the whole Baldurs Gate series. If you’re a Baldurs gate fan then you need this expansion pack, its good, its hard but ultimately it finishes the whole saga off in good style.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Tuesday, July 10, 2001 - 15:49 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Which stronghold quest(s) in BG2 did you undertake?
(1439 votes total)

Fighter (393) 27%
Wizard (260) 18%
Paladin (208) 14%
Thief (157) 11%
Ranger (150) 10%
Bard (92) 6%
Cleric (90) 6%
Druid (89) 6%

This poll allowed multiple selections so the number of votes total is a bit higher than usual. Due to Pollit's unavailability at the time I usually write poll results, this one is presented a bit late...

Anyway, the biggest group of people who voted (27%) undertook the quests associated with the fighter stronghold.

Already substantially fewer went for the wizard stronghold, only 18% of those who voted to be exact.

The paladin stronghold quest was not too popular either, since only 14% of people did it.

A bit of surprise, 11% of people went for the thief stronghold. I was sure this number would be lower, but it seems you never know...

The ranger stronghold was only slightly less popular than the thief one, with 10% of people voting for it.

The last three strongholds; the Bard, Cleric and Druid one each got almost the same number of votes, so they all have 6% of people going for them.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Monday, July 9, 2001 - 23:35 CET by Darien

Here's a quick read from the official message boards. They've added a forum for Neverwinter Nights, so be sure to check here for those comments in the future.

Neverwinter Nights

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

Release Date Spring 2002?: Hi! Yes, we do post to this board (just started today, actually).

Just to clarify this whole March 2002 release date issue, we're... uh... not really sure where they pulled that date from. As always, we don't have an official release date at this time but our current target is still the one we announced at E3 - Winter 2001. Development is still progressing according to our latest schedules and Winter still seems perfectly feasible.

Marc Taro Holmes, Art Director:

Tieflings: Spirited discusson about these bastard child Tieflings...I can't tell you there are going to be in, but we ARE working on a neat-o technique to add tail animations to the player characters.....don't yet know how well it's going to work...we shall see...

Clothing and Architecture: The style of items in NWN is kind of unique to the game. We have blended a lot of different sources, and made art that works with the polygonal nature of the engine...I think it works quite well as a fantasy world in it's own right, rather than sticking to any one historical area. There are a lot of flavors to the Forgotten Realms.

Prestige Classes: Our guys in design are very alert to play balance problems...they're total power gamers so they find stuff pretty fast...plus we're planning to handle rules glitches in NWN with careful monitoring and patching after ship....(that does NOT mean we will skimp on QA !)...so I guess if we ever get around to prestige classes we'll make sure to do it well. (Like everything we do... )

JESawyer, Black Isle Moderator:

Druids: 3E druids don't have the goofy heirophant levels or trials by combat for mid-teen levels. They gain wildshape starting at 5th level. As they advance, they can change into more powerful creatures (Large, Tiny, and Huge animals at 8th, 11th, and 15th level, Dire animals at 12th level, and elementals at 16th level), and more often. They also gain venom immunity, trackless step, timeless body and all of that other jive. One of the only new things they have is a thousand faces, the ability to alter their appearance at will at high levels.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

David Gaider, Senior Designer:

The End of the Infinity Engine: Well, it's a decision made largely by our CEO's, Ray and Greg, but to a degree by everyone who makes the games here.

I don't disagree that more games could be made with the Infinity Engine, but let's put it this way: the engine was made to accommodate Baldur's Gate, the first game, and really wasn't made to be expandable. By the time BG1 was finished, there were quite a few things noticed that we didn't do right...a lot of areas where it would have been better had we known it would be a problem right from the get go and a lot of other things we wished we had implemented differently. At the point when an engine is done it's simply impossible to go back and make fundamental changes.

But OK, it's good enough at that point...lesson learned. But THEN we go and make a sequel...we stretch the engine in ways it was never meant to be stretched. Stuff that would have been pretty simple to do if it was included from the get-go becomes difficult simply because we have to do it the hard way, now.

By the time Throne of Bhaal comes around, we've stretched it even more. And it shows.

The technology is advancing and it's available...and we as developers would like just as anyone else would to move on, to start a new project that not only takes advantage of our experience but also updates in technology.

And, to a lesser degree, there's also a pressure to change because the majority of the customer base wants us to take advantage of their rapidly-upgrading systems. Or maybe it's just the media...hard to say. Regardless, it's a bit self-defeating to publish a game when every reviewer will automatically deduct points simply because the engine is a few years old regardless of whether it works or not.

As for whether or not the Infinity Engine would ever be made public, it's hard to say. BioWare built it and it's BioWare’s choice...but I will say that I think the engine's in no condition to be publicly released. Sure, we could say "here it is but take it as it is, we don't want to deal with it if you have any problems"...but that's just unlikely to happen. I won't say that it won't happen...it's up to Ray and Greg, I guess...but it's just unlikely. If there's a demand for it, I guess it's the responsibility of those people who want it to make themselves heard.

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter

Kevin Osburn, Line Producer:

International versions of ToTL: We anticipate on having the rest of the languages done within the next week or two. As soon as I have anymore information regarding this I will let you know right away.

Reported bugs in ToTL: Trials of the Luremaster was in QA for about four weeks. When we decided the game was finished, almost all of the bugs that were found by Harold (Lead QA Tester) and the guys were fixed. The bugs that you mention none of us have ever seen. I am not saying that they aren't happening, but we have been unsuccessful at reproducing them. The difficult thing about making a PC game is the fact that there are so many configurations for PC's out there it is impossible for any game to be perfect. Our goal is to get it as clean as possible before we release it to the public. This is why there is a QA, and we work very closely with them so we can get the game running great.

I am sorry you seem to be having so many problems. If you would like you can send a save game to icewind@blackisle.com, include a description of the bug that is in the save game and I will try it with your save game so I can see what exactly is going on.

Tom French, Programmer:

Reported bugs in ToTL: Huh. We in fact ran it through QA for a couple of weeks to work out bugs. I don't in fact think I had a single bug on my list when we shipped it (this is just my bug list I’m talking about) and i don't remember any "glitch full" pages of bugs being on the master bug list. If your sounds are acting screwy I'd recommend updating your drivers and/or re-installing the game clean. It seems to have fixed tons of peoples problems so far.

Do you have your AI updates turned up? I've seen this make the trolls go down without fire weapons. Just a suggestion.

ToTL on CD: Eventually we hope to release an IWD pack with all the games in it, but that's just our teams hopes. Maybe someday.

It will probably happen sooner or later. Hopefully not too long. I'd also like to see it all released on one DVD too. Darren and I joked about putting all the resources together before we move onto other projects so that we can clean off our hard drives and not have to set everything back up someday and try to remember how it all worked.

Keep your fingers crossed.

JE Sawyer, Designer:

Working on ToTL: I deserve almost no credit for Trials of the Luremaster. The only things I helped out with were a few dialogues (The Luremaster, Hobart, Crieck of Bane, Harald), some story ideas, and two items (Wind of Heaven and Dead God's Dreaming). Steve Bokkes and John Deiley did the vast majority of the design work for the expansion.

Neverwinter Nights Preview at PC Zone
Posted Monday, July 9, 2001 - 19:29 CET by Darien

PC Zone has posted a detailed preview of Neverwinter Nights which looks at some of the concerns with scaling battles and the possibility of cheating. It's a long one, but definitely worth the read. In this excerpt, Trent Oster talks about the encounter system.

"This is the problem with trying to balance any multiplayer game. How do you balance it for one sixth-level character, as opposed to ten sixth-level characters? To combat this, what we came up with was the idea of the encounter system.

Instead of placing a set amount of monsters in one area, you place a single encounter. The encounter has an activation radius, and when you hit that radius, it scans the nearby area to see how many hostile characters there are in your party. Let's say there are four. The encounter spawns in sufficient creatures to challenge those four players."

This sounds great in theory, but what if the player party is comprised of high-level and low-level characters? Surely the lower levels will be wiped out by the monsters spawned to deal with the higher levels? Bioware has thought of this too: "The encounter will evaluate for all the people there, and spawn enemies that will amount to a moderate encounter for the higher levels, and a really hard encounter for the lower levels."

Read the entire preview.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Saturday, July 7, 2001 - 21:34 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate

There was just one change here, and that is the updated version of the Complete Guide to Baldur's Gate & Tales of the Sword Coast. You can find it in the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

In the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection, two files have been updated to the most recent versions. The first is the complete walkthrough for Baldur's Gate 2 and Throne of Bhaal, and the second the Class FAQ, which now also includes the Wild Mage from ToB.

An interesting new addition has been made to the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection. It is a list of all Throne of Bhaal "epilogue" texts that tell what happens to your companions after Throne of Bhaal ends. Consider this a gigantic spoiler.

Slappy, one of our message board regulars, has provided me with a detailed guide on how to effectively make Boo a part of your group, i.e. an NPC. If you want to try it, you can find the instructions on how to do it on the second page of Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Icewind Dale

Trials of the Luremaster, the free official downloadable expansion to Heart of Winter, has only been released a couple days ago and already there is a solution available for it. Check out the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection, where you will also find an updated version of a Heart of Winter walkthrough.

Three updates have also been made to the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection.
I have updated my Trials of the Luremaster info page with more current data and download information. Heart of Winter store items list and Icewind Dale store items list were updated to the most recent version.

In the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection three AI scripts were added, thanks for which go to Tsumari Shiranai.

Finally, the link to Trials of Luremaster download has been added to the Miscellanea subsection. Unfortunately the file is still available only at FilePlanet, which forces you to go through a registration process before you can start downloading.

Trials of the Luremaster Review
Posted Saturday, July 7, 2001 - 18:20 CET by Darien

RPGPlanet has posted a short review of the Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter expansion, Trials of the Luremaster.

In Heart of Winter and Icewind Dale game play was kept pretty straightforward and mainly consisted of killing monsters and exploring dungeons looking for treasure. There is plenty of that in Trials of the Luremaster, but unlike the other two titles, you have to do some actual reading and put to use your noggin to be able to move on to the next area. These puzzles are more extensive than those before, which were limited to finding a key to a locked door or avoiding a room full of traps. I really want to stress the puzzle aspect of Trials of the Luremaster because if you're expecting a bunch of areas littered with baddies to kill similar to Dragon's Eye from Icewind Dale then you're in for a big surprise.

Throne of Bhaal Review at GameStats
Posted Friday, July 6, 2001 - 19:20 CET by Darien

A rather dry review of the BGII expansion has surfaced over at GameStats, giving ToB an overall score of 9/10. It also has a few screenshots tagged onto the last page. Here's the final comment:

Throne of Bhaal is the finest expansion pack in recent memory, really more of a full game at nearly expansion pack price. It is a stirring tale that ends the Baldur's Gate saga with the same excellence that marked its first two chapters.

Pool of Radiance II: Tales from the Mythal
Posted Friday, July 6, 2001 - 19:09 CET by Darien

Tales from the Mythal takes a detailed look at some of the features of Ruins of Myth Drannor, ranging from creatures to specific areas of the game. The latest addition to The Scrying Room's PoR2 feature is The House of Gems.

The House of Gems was originally the great meeting-hall of Myth Drannor’s dwarves and a repository for their treasure. Many of the city’s marvelous non-magical systems (such as the water system that fed the many public and private waterfalls and fountains, and the “liquid flame” system that lights torches, fireplaces, firepits, and streetlights throughout the city) were monitored and controlled by the dwarves from the House of Gems or its dungeons. Due to its massive nature and superlative dwarven construction, it suffered little during the fall of Myth Drannor, and is free of the kind of slipshod “remodeling” that other dwellings and the grounds themselves have endured.

Read more here.

ToB Interview with Kevin Martens
Posted Thursday, July 5, 2001 - 16:00 CET by Darien

Gamezone has interviewed Lead Designer Kevin Martens with topics ranging from Throne of Bhaal to some future goals for the gaming industry. Here is Kevin's response to a question about the evolution of characters in the games.

Kevin: None of the characters are based on real people, but all of us draw from our experiences to make them real, rather than just bags of hit points. Some of the characters were taken from previous AD&D campaigns while others were made specifically for the games.

The coolest thing about them is how they evolved on their own, like real people, without any of us directly pushing them in a certain direction. After writing up their initial bios and dialogue, everything else kind of fell into place. When we wrote later interactions and comments it was more a case of ‘That’s exactly what Minsc would say’ rather than the writer planning exactly where the conversation would go. It’s an interesting experience to write a dialogue but still feel like your listening to conversation between real people.

GamesDomain Reviews ToB
Posted Thursday, July 5, 2001 - 15:51 CET by Darien

Well, here's a less than flattering review of Throne of Bhaal from GamesDomain. While the final verdict proclaims the expansion a "must-have" the entire article seems to focus on the flaws.

All sounds good, right? Well, it is, but only to a limited point. The main plot is more linear than those featured in the earlier games. In many ways, it more closely resembles Icewind Dale than Baldur's Gate II, though perhaps this is a necessity considering that the designers are attempting to wrap up a saga that's three years in the making. Regardless, being on a forced path to the conclusion - with the exception of a stop-off at Watcher's Keep whenever you feel like it - is something that many fans won't like. Stops along the path can be rather frustrating, as well. Combat takes place much of the time in narrow corridors and cramped rooms where the pathfinding AI has difficulty. This restriction serves to make your battles more difficult that they should be. There's the ever-present feeling that Throne of Bhaal presents the gamer with nothing but set-piece battles, with the enemy and the surrounding terrain carefully arranged to provide the greatest challenge.

Read the rest.

Trials of the Luremaster Screenshots
Posted Thursday, July 5, 2001 - 15:40 CET by Darien

The HoW: Trials of the Luremaster Start Gallery has been posted over at RPGVault. Take a look at these 14 screenshots from the early part of the game.

Throne of Bhaal Review at GTC
Posted Thursday, July 5, 2001 - 15:36 CET by Darien

Gametechscenter has posted a review of Throne of Bhaal giving the expansion and 8 out of 10 score.

I must say the first time the game loaded. I was confused by what was happening to my character he suddenly leveled up to 20th level and was outfitted with all kinds of good equipment. I soon found out the reason for this is TOB is not for low level characters. Since it is supposed to be the final chapter in the series, I could see why it needs to end in a grand way. Get this some character classes can now get to 40th level. Can you say power extreme? The game engine will adapt its difficulty to your party's level and size so you don't need to worry about your characters being over powering and ruining the challenge.

Heart of Winter Expansion Available
Posted Wednesday, July 4, 2001 - 16:36 CET by Darien

Interplay has announced the release of the free downloadable expansion to IWD: Heart of Winter called Trials of the Luremaster.

First off, for our American friends, have a happy and safe July 4th from all of us here at Black Isle Studios.

We're pleased to announce today that Heart of Winter: Trials of the Luremaster is now available for download! Special thanks to our friends at PlanetBaldursGate and FilePlanet for hosting its release. Trials of the Luremaster is a 72MB download and requires Heart of Winter to be installed. It includes new monsters, quests, items, areas and portraits and is available free of charge.

For our non-US/UK customers, the French, German, Spanish and Italian versions will be available shortly.

Happy Hunting!

Neverwinter Nights Contest Winner
Posted Tuesday, July 3, 2001 - 20:30 CET by Darien

Interplaygames has announced the winner of its NPC contest for Neverwinter Nights. Although ALFA member J'Kin Gristillodar didn't make the game, he still landed a spot as a finalist. Check out the final results:

Winners!

Well, all the applications have been received, the votes tallied, the finalists selected, and the choices made. It was an exciting collection of knights and ne'er-do-wells but one has finally risen to the top to claim victory: the half-orc scoundrel and bounty hunter, Vlintz Vulst. While he may not be the most charming man in Luskan, this venerable old underdog is shrewder than he looks and persistent enough to get results. What I liked most about Vlintz was his simplicity - he was very human, if I can use the term. He has no superpowers, no equipment of note - just the street smarts that comes with being a needed man in Luskan. So Vlintz, step up to the podium and "Coom git yoor med'icin," indeed.

Now we had three other exceptional finalists and, while they didn't quite take the big prize, they all deserve honorable mentions in their own right. Fered Flintrock, the aging dwarf and master craftsman, captured the popular vote with tales of his younger years while Daab Nore (aka Damon Ross) made you shutter the windows and lock the doors to keep his Jekkyl & Hyde personality at bay. Then, as many of you know, there's the militant elven nationalist, J'Kin Gristillodar, whose controversial entry stirred up a hot debate on the official boards. If nothing else, at least now you know to keep your eye open for any N'Vaelahrns in the forests and woodlands of ALFA.

So a big thanks to all of you who submitted a character and a hearty congratulations to our finalists!

Until next time,

Trent Oster
Producer, Neverwinter Nights

and

Rob Bartel
Co-Lead Designer
Neverwinter Nights
BioWare Corp.

Black Isle Studios Board Update
Posted Tuesday, July 3, 2001 - 19:46 CET by Darien

Here's more from the BIS message boards. Looks like Dave's been a busy guy. ;)

David Gaider, Senior Designer:

Importing your character into NWN: Your BG character doesn't tranfer wholesale into NWN. You basically start over at Level 1, and whatever other adjustments that would need to be made to change to a 3rd edition character would need to be done then.

I don't think the exact process has been worked out, yet, though.

3rd edition has its own methods for 'rewarding' players as they level up. Personally I really like the various feats and the uses of skills...more things to look forward to and they aren't outlandish, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, even 3rd edition is about to put out their 'High Level' supplement, which is undoubtedly when things will get wacky once again. I haven't seen it, myself, though, so I guess I really can't comment.

Demogorgon: Well, I'll say a couple of things...

a) Facing Demogorgon at home in the Abyss is a lot different than facing Demogorgon on the Prime after he's been captive for years.

b) We don't want to make any battle impossible for the average player. Rather too easy than too hard, sucky as that might seem to the advanced gamer.

c) I sent a couple of files to Kevin Dorner which he is putting up on Baldurdash this weekend which makes the Demogorgon fight a bit harder (before we had toned it down)...this is only for those who deliberately want to make their Demogorgon fight harder, though, it's nothing official. he has some more allies (a marilith, 2 glabrezus, a balor and a cambion mage) and also pulls off quite the doozy right off the bat: Time Stop plus Dragon's Breath and Storm of Vengeance. His AI is changed only a little, though.

d) 3rd edition stats for Demogorgon weren't available to us...we were actually trying to go off the 1st edition Monster's Manual, believe it or not. It wouldn't be too hard to go in and change Demogorgon's .CRE file if you wanted...there's plenty of 3rd-party stuff out there to do that...and see if that makes a difference. 1300 HP? Ouch!

NPCs: It actually doesn't matter what we do, my friend. We could include one NPC of every character class and multiclass and there would still be people saying they didn't like THAT particular fighter...or whatever.

One particular idea that I liked (should we ever do another game like this, that is) is to allow the player to generate the NPC upon the NPC joining the group. Let's say you pick up Keldorn in the sewers, right? All that's set about him is that he's a paladin...otherwise it would allow you to assign his stats, proficiencies, etc. I suppose a system could also exist where you assigned the class and/or kit, as well, but then there's no way to give that NPC their own personality (something that a few players might prefer, I suppose...but I wouldn't want to make a game like that)...and I know there's no way to 'assign' a personality from, say, a list without going to a ridiculous amount of effort (it ain't gonna happen).

But that might resolve some of the dissatisfaction that people keep bringing up. Not that they wouldn't still complain, mind you.

Regardless, you can get through the game just fine with the NPC's provided, and that's their primary purpose anyway.

Balance and AI: No, you're very much right. I think AI is going to get better as technology does, but scalable AI represents an exponential extra amount of work. It can be done, I imagine, but I find it hard to imagine the percentage of resources that would have to be dedicated to such a task. Most often you get to a point in development where you have to say, "it's good enough" and move on to other just-as-important issues.

I'd hazard an educated guess and say that, in the future, AI considerations are going to have to become a fundamental part of making an engine in the first place if we're going to see marked improvement. I agree that that would be a good thing, too...there's lots of places where I wish we could have done better with the AI (scalable or not) in BG2.

As for K., no I'm not going to get into an argument with you. You are correct, obviously, in saying that balance in BG2 is far from perfect. I didn't say that it was. We do what we think is best, often for reasons of balance or whatever you want to call it...we don't seek to achieve what we see as balance without reason. The hardcore D&D'er might not appreciate some of those decisions, just like the casual gamers might not appreciate others, but the balance we're trying to strike is between that audience and for the betterment of the game as a whole. A lot of your opinions have merit, I agree, but there are lots of different opinions even here at Bioware over what makes a good game never mind a good D&D game. Call the opinions that don't agree with yours wrong, idiotic, misguided or whatever...that's your choice. I'm sure if you made the game with your vision, it would be quite different, without question. Better? Hard to say. BG2 and ToB turned out pretty well, even if they had design decisions that not every player agrees with...and when will a game come out when that occurs, do you think?

Anyhow, no matter how dumb or self-possessed you think we are, the feedback is always welcome.

Tough battles: We would rather have a fight too easy than too hard. For every player who found Demogorgon simple, there are ten others who get frustrated trying to beat him. Double for Draconis and Mellisan. We don't want the expansion to be completable only by the 'professional' gamer, after all.

The fights are designed to be winnable within a few tries at most...hard enough to be a challenge, but not so hard that the average player gets stuck and tosses aside the game. That means, of course, that there's always going to be people saying that a battle was 'too easy'...but the original poster said he had to try it a few times and that sounds about right.

For those who are interested, however, the original (harder) script for Demogorgon is going up at the Baldurdash site really soon if you want a little more challenge out of him.

Music from ToB: Hi, the music will most likely be available on a soundtrack CD soon. Get it from www.interplaystore.com.

Indeed, Inon and Howard worked their butts off, leaving them and me with little sleep in order to get it all done in time for the release. They had a big task ahead of them trying to live up to the fans' expectations set by the previous music of BG1 and BG2, but in the end they succeeded.

You guys will also love the music in "Torn", done by a newcomer to the gaming world who is super talented.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Tuesday, July 3, 2001 - 19:27 CET by Darien

Not a lot on the official Neverwinter Nights message boards. But one thing stands out. Pay close attention to the release info from Cord.

Cord Grimwinder-8d, Interplaygames.com Moderator

Release date: Hello everyone,

The day I knew would come, has come at last ;-/.

Okay, the jack booted foot of "the man" is about to come down. As much as I dislike outright censorship, you're about to start getting some.

There will be NO rants on any conference but the OT one about-

"The game is late!"
"They delayed the release!"
"They moved the release date back"
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

I've seen too many boards over the years become a slag fest over this totally silly subject. And I say silly in this case because-

BIOWARE HAS *NEVER* GIVEN ANYONE A RELEASE DATE FOR NWN, THEREFORE THE RELEASE DATE HAS NOT CHANGED, BEEN MOVED BACK, OR OTHERWISE ALTERED TO MERELY TICK *YOU* OFF!!!!!!!!!!!

That clear?

When BioWare comes here and says "NWN will be in stores December 28th", you may feel free to post all you like on all conferences on the 29th of December if it's not in your local stores. Until such time all you are doing is ranting and raving about someone breaking a promise that was never made, period!

So, I don't care when Amazon, EBWorld, Best Buy, the Queen of England, the Pope, the President of the U.S., or Jay Leno says that NWN is due to be released, until BioWare gives us a firm date, there *ISN'T* one.

Therefore, please, keep *ALL* release date rants-n-raves on the OT conference where they belong. All posts of this nature that show up else where will only remain there until I see them.

Search problems: As many of you have already encountered, the Search Function on the boards is not currently "finding" any posts made after 6/19/01. Interplay is looking into the problem but has, as yet, been unable to discover and correct the cause of the malfunction. It is however happening on all of their boards so they are working hard to resolve the issue.

Thanks to all that reported this problem to both the Moderators and the IP web folks, even if they don't always reply, they are always listening ;-).

Throne of Bhaal Review at XGR
Posted Tuesday, July 3, 2001 - 6:32 CET by Darien

XGR reviews Throne of Bhaal, scoring the expansion to Baldur's Gate II at 83%. It's a quick read with a double handful of good screenshots as well.

TOB is a good finish to the storyline from Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II. Your character's immense power finally has a tangible effect on gameplay. Everyone's been talking about how you are more powerful than you can possibly imagine, and now is the time to prove it. The addon is priced right, as low as $25 (plus shipping in some cases) so if you're interested in how the story ends, go get this and enjoy being a demigod. In your computer.

Gamepower Reviews Throne of Bhaal
Posted Tuesday, July 3, 2001 - 6:27 CET by Darien

This review at Gamepower lists the pros and cons of Throne of Bhaal for any who feel the need to read more. Enjoy!

Presentation is otherwise top-notch, complete with a high-quality musical score, and hours of excellent voice acting and dialogue. The main draw here, however, is easily the quality of the adventuring itself. This isn't some short, slapped-together final chapter, but a full-fledged game of its own. Clocking in at around 40 to 50 hours, Throne Of Bhaal is easily longer than most other stand-alone RPGs. Prepare your characters with new high-level spells and magical items as they venture through new towns and cities, dungeons, towers, giant army camps, monster lairs, and even the Abyss.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Sunday, July 1, 2001 - 18:48 CET by Darien

Not a lot from the official Neverwinter Nights message boards today, but here's what I've got.

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer

Multicast spectator mode: We've tossed the idea of spectator modes around a bit and the concept of a multicast server ties into that very nicely (ValvE is currently doing some interesting work and research into that right now). Will it make it into NWN? That's hard to say - we'd like to but we have to make sure that the other client types (DM, Player) are solid first.

Item Creation: Yes, this would be possible though such an item would require custom scripting and, as such, would only function properly in your modules (or others that have the appropriate script).

For the dragon's breath ability, you would get the wielder's hitpoints and then apply it as damage to your target. For added flair, you can assign it some visual effects such as the ones used for flamestrike or fireball (the visual effects are all available through the scripting language - we found this to be a very useful feature when making cutscenes or special combat abilities in BG2).

For the teleportation abilities, you could tie that to use of the item or simply put it into Draconis' combat script. Teleporting to a designated waypoint is no problem at all. Our only reason for avoiding teleportation spells in the game was their ability to circumvent and break plots (a player teleports over an important trigger or past a vital encounter, etc). We figured we'd save you the nightmare of having to deal with that where you don't want to.

Cord Grimwinder-8d, Interplaygames.com Moderator

Ways to Teleport: Easiest among them is to have a teleport "pad" in town and one at the dungeon entrance. You'll just select and drag trigger areas in the toolset and link them to the coordinates you want it to teleport the player/tester to. Then when the PC steps into the trigger area they are transported where ever it's pointed.

Another would be to give the tester PCs items scripted to teleport them to town (or where ever) when used.

When he mentions no teleport, he means the *spell* teleport will not be available to players, the *function* teleport however will very much be there for DMs and module makers to use in any number of ways. This just gives firm control to the DMs as to where a teleport can take the player, and thus avoid "breaking" the module by having players teleporting to places the DM didn't plan for.

Throne of Bhaal Review at Game Revolution
Posted Sunday, July 1, 2001 - 18:34 CET by Darien

Game Revolution has posted their review of ToB, giving the expansion a final grade of B+. Here's why:

+ More great Baldur's Gate-ness
+ Interesting story
+ "Hey look, I'm level 20!"
- Mildly tedious magic management
- Could use a facelift

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal is another great addition to the series. It's a little more geared towards the magic-lover, but anyone familiar with D&D knows that if you make it to level 20 and above, you're gonna find magic playing a huge part in your survival. So prepare your mental tome for the next installment of the greatest PC RPG from here to the Forgotten Realms.

Read the rest here.

Interview with Feargus Urquhart
Posted Sunday, July 1, 2001 - 18:29 CET by Darien

DB Forge has interviewed Feargus Urquhart, Director of Black Isle Studios. Here's a short excerpt:

What do your job duties entail?

Feargus: Hmmm... A whole bunch of things. My title is President, but I function as a combination between an Executive Producer and a VP of Business Development. What that means is that I oversee all of the internal and externally developed products that Black Isle develops or manages. I also look for new developers to work with and help with the management of our licensors like Wizards of the Coast.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Sunday, July 1, 2001 - 17:25 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: How will your time spent playing & discussing computer role playing games change during this summer?
(278 votes total)

I will play more (146) 53%
I won't change my playing habits (93) 33%
I will play less (39) 14%

Ah, summer time again at last. Judging by the poll results, the majority of our visitors, over a half of you even, will spend more time entertaining yourselves with CRPGs. Fortunately enough, I will do so as well. ;)

Exactly one third of our visitors who voted in the poll think that their playing habits will not change during the summer. Either to busy or not interested in spending time behind a computer when you could be swimming in the sea or executing any number of other leisurely activities perhaps?

And lastly, about 15% of people who voted will spend less time playing CRPGs. Especially those who will not have access to computers during their vacations, I bet. ;)

Interview with Kellith of ALFA
Posted Sunday, July 1, 2001 - 16:33 CET by Darien

Neverwinter Vault has interviewed Jon "Kellith" Atkison, Project Administrator of A Land Far Away (ALFA). Here's your chance to learn more about this ambitious project from the Man himself.

What will the story line be like? Mostly Fed-Ex quests or a more in depth storyline?

Some DMs are planning to implement "static" quests, much like EQ. While these quests will be constant, they will not be "world changing" What I mean by this is, our DMs will not put out quests that ask you to bring back the head of a certain NPC, only to get a chance to do it again. The static quests will be simple little "go fetch me this" scenarios that will make sense for it to be repeated. We feel these sort of quests will keep early level players occupied when they are not adventuring with others.

The other type of quest will, of course, have the involvement of the Head DM and Assistant DMs of the server the player is currently on. These quest will, no doubt, be ALFA's bread and butter. They may go as in depth as having the adventure span itself over the length of 5 or 6 ALFA servers before it's finished.

Missing Files - Do You Have Them?
Posted Sunday, July 1, 2001 - 11:19 CET by Sorcerer

Recently I have been notified by our users that some of the BG2 voice packs I've linked to in the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection are not accessible any more.

It seems that the website that we linked to has gone down (the website owner's mail doesn't work either), and unfortunately I don't have any back-up copies of these files so I could upload them to SP myself.
I'm hoping some of you who have downloaded them before (and are hopefully reading this), will contact me so we can arrange for the transfer of files. Please check the url above to see if you have any of those files, and let me know. The missing files start at Holy Grail Voice Pack and go all the way to Yellowbeard Voice Pack.