Black Isle Studios Board Update

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(Originally posted by Darien)

Once again, the latest from the greatest at the Black Isle Studios message boards. There are comments on everything from items, to special abilities, to issues witht the HoW patch. Read on...

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

Jonathan Epp of Quality Assurance:

The expansion pack: Here's how it works:

Option 1) Start an expansion pack game with a new character - This is a character you can create using the usual character creation screen. You will start with 2.5 mil xp and given some items, and soon after the start of the expansion you will be able to build up your party. (Using the Import button of the character creation screen you can also import any single character from BG1 or BG2 character files or saves).

Option 2) Import party from any BG2 save (including the final save) - Your entire party and their items are carried over into the expansion. The bonuses from using the tears before the final fight would not be carried over, because the final save is before you use the tears. (you really don't need the extra help anyway, do you? )

Option 3) Replay the final fight - After the end movie you and your party will be taken into the expansion, with items, and with the bonuses you received from the tears.

The expansion has a seperate world map, so you cannot travel between the BG2 areas and the expansion areas. The Watcher's Keep area, however, is on both maps, so it can be accessed from both BG2 and the expansion.

I hope I got that right.

Kevin Martens, Lead Designer:

Shapeshifter abilities: The Shapeshifter gets both upgraded existing forms and access to the new super elemental forms. The Greater Werewolf form is more powerful and you can turn into it more than once per day so:

If you get in trouble, you can switch back to human form, cast some spells, and jump back into Greater form and whack away.

The greater elemental forms are part of the general druid perks while the increased power of the Greater Werewolf is specific to the shapeshifter.

David Gaider, Senior Designer:

Flaming sword animation:: Anyway, according to the item guy:

1) the sword has the BG2 flaming sword animation (the sword glows, but no visible flames).
2) the sword doesn't do extra fire damage, and apparently it doesn't say this in its description. (Don't argue with me, I'm just reciting, here).
3) the troll thing is being worked on (same with a couple of other items that are supposed to slay trolls but don't...problem with the way they do their regeneration as I understand it).

Actually, I went and asked the art department to make sure. It wasn't the size (although that was a factor) so much as it was the fact that the flaming sword animation looked really crappy when we switched to 800x600. Everyone agreed it looked good in BG1, but it didn't in BG2 and after a few tries to fix it all induced collective vomiting it was switched to a glow, instead.

Monks and barbarians using the Amulet of Power: The Amulet of Power is another one of those items that was made before Barbarians, Monks et al were entered into the game...and then over-looked later as far as class uses.

Also: All Paladins, although I doubt Undead Hunters will see a need for it. Keep in mind that Inquisitors, while not spell-casters per se, still have significant spell-like abilities.

Minsc's berserk ability: You're probably right about it being copied over. It's different from normal enrage in several respects, so I'm not sure what was intended. At the very least, I doubt that he should be vulnerable to Stun.

Cavaliers and kensai using thrown weapons: I'm pretty sure this was intentional. Thrown weapons, yes, missile or 'launched' weapons no. Don't ask me, I just work here.

The Hamster: Boo is a hamster.

He does not really go for the eyes, either, although I could imagine Minsc throwing the poor rodent at a foe and scared little Boo scurrying off until Minsc found him again.

But, regardless, Boo does not have any special powers. He cannot 'call' other hamsters and while I suppose he could trip traps like the original hamsters did for that character, I'm not sure that's the fate we'd want to subject Boo to, himself.

At best, Boo is an animal companion for a ranger. But that still makes him a normal hamster, wishful thinking aside.

On Drizzt and his items:

We take the items away because:

1) It balances out with the good path involving Drizzt. Those people get a hero of the realms to help them defeat Bodhi. You get to defeat a hero of the realms and use his & his friends' items until you defeat Bodhi. Getting to keep the items permanently would also make killing Drizzt a must-do, even for good players, which it shouldn't be.

2) Drizzt has a lot of powerful friends. You got your thrill...there are plenty of other items for you to use, after all.

And then there's the fact that whenever I think of the giggling little player who suddenly discovers he doesn't get to keep all of Drizzt's neat-o stuff and I LAUGH and laugh and laugh...

...that alone makes it worth it.

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter

Scott Everts, Designer:

Fixing bugs with patches: One of the biggest problems with computer software programming are the thousands of different system configurations. We test our games on as many different systems we can but it is impossible to test EVERY configuration out there. It's not really fair to compare us to other things like cars or toasters. If I was writing an ignition system program for a 99 Grand Am, I know exactly what hardware I'm making it for. But try to write a generic ignition system for every car from every manufacturer for the last 10 years. So you see, its not that we are stupid or morons, it just means we try to make it work on the most systems we can. But there will be systems that won't work. We try to fix these in patches when we get reports. That's why we have message boards like this.

J. E. Sawyer, Designer:

Multiplayer problems with the patch: Bernie and some of the other folks changed the way the networking code operates. I'll try to explain without getting in over my head (I'm not a programmer). Basically, the way that the host communicated with the clients could be very slow. It was doing a lot of redundant work. To fix this, they had to re-write the way the networking code placed things in memory. Regardless of how well BioWare wrote the code, they're not hanging around to inform us of all the places where the code might be hiding out, or tell us how changing line 235 in one file will affect something seemingly unrelated any time a spell is cast. So, apparently the end result has been fewer synching problems with more general instability. ::sigh::

Kevin Osburn, Line Producer:

Patch fix info: With the 1.41 patch, the Storm Bow can now be equipped by Thieves. As for the enemy clerics casting healing spells on you party, this unfortunately didn't make it into the patch but will definitely be addressed by the time the downloadable dungeon pack is ready.

John Deiley, Designer:

Suggestions: Thank you for your suggestions. I'm always willing to listen to what our fans want. As far as your improvements...

1. Yes, I felt that the wolf was an area of the expansion that should have been explored more. I wanted to address this issue in the web expansion but I guess it was not meant to be... The wolf will still be a mystery.

2. Wylfdene would have made an excellent enemy. Unfortunately we had to do a lot of setup for other areas in the game and it worked out better that we not have the party fight him.

I don't know, maybe I should have done more with this area. Maybe I made it too chatty and political. I'll take this under consideration...

3. Yes. More small areas would have been nice. We were under certain limitations as far as resources and time available to us so we didn't put in a lot of the stuff that we all would have liked to. Was this a mistake on our part? Probably. But that is why we are doing the web expansion. We like to recognize our mistakes and learn from them.

4. Too linear... Yes, that is a point about all rpg's that bother me. Most of them are linear in one way or another. Even games that claim to be non-linear are, in many ways, linear. Ok, so you can go anywhere you want in the game only you get your butt kicked till your nose bleeds which then forces you to go to the place the designer wanted you to go... which means the damn thing is linear.

Oh well, just my two cents worth. Thanks again for the comments and please keep em coming.

Large XP rewards: There are a couple reasons for the massive exp awards.

1. We wanted people who were taking experienced characters into the game to level. That way you get more power, spells, whatever and see what life is like at a higher level.

2. If, for some reason, you decided to ignore our warnings and start the expansion with first level characters you would have a good chance of hitting one of these rewards and getting some levels. No one likes crib death characters that don't even make it through the first battle.

I know that the high exp has been a matter of debate and that there are many differing views on it. My personal view is that unless I level on a regular basis I can get bored with my characters or a game in general. So, I tend to give high exp rewards so that high level characters can see improvement and advancement.