Black Isle Studios Board Update

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(Originally posted by Darien)

Check out the latest from the new developer message boards at Black Isle Studios.

BGII: Throne of Bhaal

Dave Gaider, Senior Designer:

On romances: Anyway, before I say anything at all about the romances, I want you to think of something. In the space of the expansion (and this has to be the part that continues on after defeating Irenicus, since Watcher's Keep can occur in the space of BG2, itself), how much time really do you think there is, playing-wise?

Think of Heart of Winter, if you've played it. Throne of Bhaal will be longer, most likely, but not by leaps and bounds.

In that short space of time, even the romances that exist can't have a long and complicated conclusion to them. Now...if we were to try and fit an entire romance into that timespan, would someone be at all satisfied with it?

I'm not going to say, yet, what we're planning with all the romance stuff (some of it still isn't finalized, after all), but I want you to think about this question honestly, especially considering for BG2 itself how many people who liked the romances so much said that they were too short, even despite the monumental amount of effort that was required to write them in the first place.

Think about it and let me know. I'd be interested to see the response.

(And, no, don't tell me how unfair it is that female PC's 'only' got Anomen. That has nothing to do with anything I'm talking about.)

And later: While we can add a few things into BG2, itself, a romance cannot be one of them. There are just too many places that the romance has to come into play, and the scripting gets too complex...and therefore the chance of new bugs being introduced is too great.

QA has to test enough things in the expansion, itself, without going back and re-testing all the way through BG2 again. Just testing the bug fixes will be enough of a resource drain.

It's be nice to have another full romance in BG2, I agree with you, but it realistically can't be done. Any additions for romance plots will have to come into the space of the expansion.

As for the person who suggested a short 'fling' or two...well, that is an idea. But would it be appropriate? Or maybe a bit disappointing? I mean...if it's a fling, we'd have to script in the fact that it ends so quickly, whereas the player might have other ideas. I dunno...I'd be pissed. We could do it, though. Heh...Edwin or Korgan comes to mind.

Anywho, the idea of a fling still isn't a bad one, I suppose, if it was done right. "I had a one-night stand in BG and all I got was this t-shirt?"

On play balance and quests: I'm sure I don't need to tell... anyone else here that the skill level of people playing the game is wildly different. We're not just talking about who's good at combat, either...I mean, there are *still* folks who get stuck in the initial dungeon.

I'm not saying they're stupid, there's just a whole lotta people that don't want to think too much when they play...and it is extremely frustrating to be caught in the game and you can't figure something out.

Do we want to simplify things to the point that they're inane? No. But in a game that's played as much as BG2 is, we can't have hordes of people getting stuck, either. What you consider moderately challenging (and therefore fun) could be frustrating to the extreme for a lot of others.

Okay, okay, enough of that.

As far as the original question goes, we intentionally don't intend to have people running up and giving the player quests. The player is, for the most part, involved in one giant quest throughout the expansion (workin' on new area #88 right now...this is no small thing)...anything that could be considered a 'side' quest, per se, is something that leads the player further on their own quest or something that they've discovered on their own.

Hmm. Actually, now that I think of it, there *are* a couple of side-quests. But they are appropriate to your level. You are a BIG deal in the FR now and the NPCs treat you as such...there's no Mr. Schmoe running up to you and offering you a job. You're above that, obviously.

As far as the player being able to direct the response to situations, that sort of thing is limited for the same reasons that we didn't have multiple paths for every quest in BG2. To implement all these different routes makes the whole plot larger without increasing length (and in an expansion, space is at a premium on one CD).
But I think I get the gist of what Justy was talking about. You as the player WILL feel much more in charge of your actions and not at the beck and call of others...even in situations where your course is pretty much laid out for you.

To the one who wanted us to include the ability to initiate dialogue with your NPC's, we *did* consider that. We like the idea...and has we considered the design advantages waaay back when BG2 was being designed initially, I'd hazard a guess to say we would have gone that way. It was really effective in PS:T.

But it wasn't done in BG2 and BG2's style worked well enough. And while we could change it in the expansion, there are a LOT of people who wouldn't know about this feature simply because it didn't exist in BG2. An expansion seemed, to us, a poor place to have such a change of style.

So while we like it, that's something we'd do in the future. For now, your NPC's still do the talkin'.

On Gorion: Hmmm...how can I put this carefully?
...OK, here goes:

Gorion does play a part in Throne of Bhaal. In fact, you learn quite a bit about him, as well as yourself.

Beyond that, I'm not sayin'.