ToEE Interview Questions

As a complete Newbie to ToEE I should start with the general question: What willthe game be about? What is Greyhawk? What characterises the world of Greyhawk in comparison tom other AD&D settings? Will it use 2e or 3e rules?

 

What kind of graphics will it use?

Will there be a party style(bg games) or single char(nwn)?

Whats the level limit?


Thats all for now

 

- In what way will the gameplay differ from previous D&D crpg´s?

- How will the story evolve, is it something like NWN´s "do this, then that, etc" or does the player get the total freedom to choose his path and his style of solving the main-quests?

Edit:
- I´ve also read that the world of Greyhawk is more "realistic" when it comes with dealing with magic, how big is the effect this "realism" will bring on magic-using classes as sorcerers and wizards?

- Are there any celestial classes the gamer can look forward too?

[ March 11, 2003, 20:47: Message edited by: Morgoth ]

 

Will your characters be given a past - like in BG or will you be free to make your own histories. Will there be NPC interactions between party members. Will there be lots of funny little things like in IWD2

 

What sorts of spells and weapons will be unique to this game? (for example, BG2 focused on two-handed swords, IWD2 lacks good katanas)

Key: When will it be released and how can I be a beta test candidate?


What races will be included?

Prestige classes?

Forseen expansions, moving towards Epic Levels?

 

Will there be a toolset, ala NWN, Morrowind, Arcanum, etc.?

Will the graphics engine be based on any existing engines, or will it be developed from scratch?

What will be the approximated gameplay in hours?

What kind of templates will be available (i.e. various elemental templates, etc.)?

Will the game be more geared to purist RPers, or will it be Hack 'n Slash?

[ March 11, 2003, 23:44: Message edited by: enjan ]

 

Ask when the release date will be.

 

Boy!

Based off Arcanum, they did an outstanding job on the plot. They really got their plot together on that one; what, with all the sub-quests fitting together.

That right there shaves off a whole slew of questions.

I'd ask about music and atmosphere. Who's doing the music? Are they working CLOSELY with the musician, or is he just one of the hacks off to the side doing his own thing. Do they call him one a week, and give him some kind of information?

Also. Will they PLEASE consider using a DVD to distribute the game, rather than a cd. A dvd (with it's 4.3gig capacity) will solve a whole slew of their "compression" problems, and let the game be everything that it should be, rather than a castrated version.

Q: Will there be a DVD version of the game released? Or will you still be using the old compact disk technology to distribute the game?

 

"Last I heard, the whole game will fit on just 1 CD"

God. I hope not. I seriously hope not.

 

If turnbased will the game have a timelimit for the turns? This leads to a complete loss of strategy as in POR.

Will joinable NPCs have real AI and control? or will they be like the stupid followers in Arcanum that would commit suicide every minute rushing into a battle and never healing themselves etc. I found that very weak.

 

Right, I've tried to read every single interview on the net so far...

Lemme first answer some questions from above that have already been answered before I give my own questions.

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Q: Ragusa's post ->
A: Tal's intro ->

Q: Graphics and engine?
A: Prerendered backgrounds with 3D characters in 3rd person isometric view. PoR:RoMD style. The engine is new, however I suspect that it's in fact modified/improved engine from Arcanum.

Q: To party or not to party (BG vs NWN)?
A: Party with up to 5 followers, user created or picked up from more than 3 dozens of available through the game.

Q: Level cap?
A: Level 10 is the highest reachable. Lame? No, because you'll have variety of creation skills that you have to spend experience on.

Q: Story – evolving or NWN like?
A: Story will evolve first depending on your initial party (alignment), all quests have many alternate solutions, there is no critical item or sentence needed to finish the game, plus there are plenty of side quests unrelated to main story.

Q: "Realism" with magic, what's that?
A: The question is not clear, I bet it is related to the ability of determining area effect spells so you see if the spell will hurt or not hurt someone before you cast it. Similar thing could be seen in PoR:RoMD.

A: Characters history?
Q: Every follower who joins your party will have history and reason for joining. For example, don't surprise when you discover that fighter you recruited was in fact fighter/thief who joined your cause just to rob you! No, you won't be able to see character sheets to check this up before.

Q: Spells and weapons?
A: There will be more than hundred spells to choose from and almost unlimited varieties of weapons (remember, you'll have creation skills to gain items that are not available as goods or loot). So far there are no exotic weapons in the game, but Cain promised adding them if there is enough time (for example, he mentioned shuriken as one of such pending weapons). As for unique spells and weapons, yes, there will be such things. You see, since level cap is 10, available spells go to level 5. But on some scrolls you'll be able to find spells of level 6! You won't be able to scribe/memorize those, but you'll be able to cast them from the scroll.

Q: Release date, beta test, expansions?
A: Release is planned for June 2003. There will be no beta testing, the demo will be available when the game is released. There is no plan for any expansion yet (get serious, this depends if the game will sell or not).

Q: Races and classes (any prestige)?
A: So far available races (both genders) are human, dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, half-elf and half-orc. Subraces will be in only if there is enough time. All classes from Player's Handbook are available, and that includes some prestige classes. Mind me, I don't have a clue what are prestige classes and just mentioning of the word "prestige" makes me sick (anyone played Panzer General here?).

Q: Gameplay time? Is it hack 'n slash?
A: Cain already said that talking to noone, solving no side quests and no reloading to repeat battles will take at least 30 hours to finish the game. Will it be RPing or hack 'n slash, depends on the player.

Q: Music?
A: Music will be provided by Infogrames, there is no definite name yet, only a tip that most of it will be of ambient type.

Q: NPC AI?
A from Extremist: Not a clue, but I never saw a suicidal NPC in Arcanum. Please fill here your experiences with NWN NPCs.

Q: Turns timelimit?
A: No such thing. You may go for a walk, for a beer, for an outhouse, for anything you want and return in few months to finish your turn if you want.

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All in all, the questions unanswered from above are:
- any NPC interactions?
- toolset?
- BTA's post ->


My questions:

• I want to add a question to 8people's one about existence of NPC interactions. Will there be any romances? (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)
• It's known that there won't be zoom option for game screens. What about zoom in map screens?
• Will we be able to see in the store that we already have at least one such item in party inventory, or for a scroll that one party member already have it scribed?
• Does gold take space in inventory, and is there a "too small" cap for cumulative items (for example up to 5 scrolls of the same spell in BG take one space, 6th such scroll has to be placed in another inventory slot).
• BTA mentioned turn-based implementation in PoR:RoMD. It sucks! Why it sucks? You have to wait too much time for enemy spellcaster to cast Magic Missile because missiles are too slow, and AI that runs those spellcasters is so slow that the enemy caster "thinks" more time than you need to move all of your party members. Not to mention almost the same experience with other spells and arrows. So Tal, ask Cain why does he like Magic Missile so much, when that was my most hated spell in PoR:RoMD? You see, casting each missile on different target is fine, but waiting 5 seconds for each missile to end it's animation so you can cast another one, sucks.
• Does casting a spell from a scroll or from an item depend on user's level, or what? In case it depends on user's level, and let's say we have cleric/paladin and a scroll with "Draw upon Holy Might" spell that both classes can use, level of which class is used for casting from such scroll?
• Cain already said there won't be any jumping, climbing or riding. However, he also said that in the game there will be water with "multiple levels of depth". Does this mean we'll be able to swim or dive?
• What about that extra planar adventure he mentioned also? Are we going to visit Sigil, meet Aoskar or Lady of Pain? Ok, this is not important question, but I can't wait ToEE just because of this teaser!!!
• Although creation skills/feats are in, will there be possibility of recharging items? It is nice to have Craft Wand feat, but sometimes I'd wish to recharge a wand I've found instead of creating some other wand.
• And what about gaining ability score at level 4th and level 8th vs creation skills? I'm not into d&d 3E rules, so I'm unsure what will happen if my hero is level 8, spends experience to create a magical weapon, because of that drops to level 7, kills something with the new weapon and gets to level 8 again. Will this provide my hero the third ability score bonus?

Happy Tal?

 

Hey! Don't say that, I didn't read that 57 pages long FAQ for nothing!

 

Well I think it was good Ex

I was thinking about the romance thing but was embarressed at writing it with my Mutti behind me.

Perhaps if there are any it could be asked if there are any decent ones for us lasses this time

 

What will be the min requirements?

Will it include guns? (Hope not.)

Will you be able to MOD it?

 

Will there be easter eggs and items
Such as secret items and areas and encounters and NPCs from other places