Today's news from the IWD and BG2 boards.

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(Originally posted by NightKin)

Hello all you happy people, here comes today's load of news from the Baldur's Gate II and Icewind Dale boards. Enjoy you little monkeys

On the Baldur's Gate II board.

From Mike Geist, Designer and Webmaster

Information on Athkatla:

You won't be locked out of Athkatla, and should have no problems returning to visit. But there are a few times when you physically can't reach the city, such as being in the Underdark, Abyss, etc. You'll have to leave those areas completely in order to access Athkatla again.

From David Gaider, BG2 Designer

More on Release dates:

We're not legally restricted, only morally. I could say when I think the game might hit the shelves... but I could be wrong, and why get you guys all hyped up over something that I, personally, have little control over?

So instead of having us all guessing when we'll be done the Bug Hunt, we leave it to one person (generally Ray or Greg or Ben or someone) to make the 'official guess', so there isn't a bunch of dates floating around.

Heh... I know that sounds obscure, but it is a pretty educated guess. Currently we're targeting Fall of this year.

On Weapons:

Kensai can't use missile weapons, but beyond that Kensai are free to choose any melee weapons. Swashbucklers are only restricted to weapons that the Thief class can use.

NPCs and character kits:

Six out of the 16 NPCs have kits. Korgan is the only Fighter-class NPC with a kit (Berserker kit, technically a Battlerager since he is a dwarf). So, no, there is no Wizard Slayer or Kensai NPC unless you make one yourself.

Drow city:

The drow plot in BG2 does not take place in Menzoberranzan. LOL... you guys should know we like to chart new territory.

From Kevin Martens, BG2 co-Lead Designer

More on Rest until healed:

Rest until healed is an *option* in BG2. So, you can turn it off if you wish to.

And on the Icewind Dale board.

From Darren Monahan, IWD Producer

On the Patch:

Hello everyone,

We're planning a release of another patch for the end of this week (most likely Friday afternoon). It will include a fix to the Constitution problem.

For users of the foreign versions, the US patch should work fine on your builds as no text was changed, but we're finishing up localization of those for you as well.

From J. E. Sawyer, IWD Designer

Scrolls and spells:

Every mage spell in the game is on a scroll that is not randomized. There are multiples of some of the more popular spells.

The summoning limit is done for balancing reasons. As another user said, there's plenty of reason to take multiple summoning spells. You just can't cast them all at once -- which is exactly what we were trying to prevent. Would you like it if, for every day that passed after you entered a dungeon, the summoner inside conjured up twenty trolls? Probably not. We didn't want you to do it, either. It gets pretty silly otherwise. Sorry.

On other BIS Games:

I believe that there's room for all sorts of games to be developed at Black Isle. Some people loved Fallout 2. Other people hated it. Some people loved Planescape: Torment. Other people hated it. Some people loved Icewind Dale. Other people hated it.

There are a lot of gamers out there, and they have a lot of different tastes. I'd rather make a bunch of different products that appeal to a wide selection of tastes than make a bunch of products that are very similar in style and design.