Official Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal Chat at RPG Vault
June 27, 2001 (6 pm PST) at chat.ign.com, #ignvault
Edited log prepared by Silverdawn and MageDragon of PlanetBaldursGate (http://www.planetbaldursgate.com)
The chat was moderated by Jonric and Ulairi.
BioWare:
Bio_Alan - Alan Miranda, Assistant Producer
Bio_Kevin - Kevin Marten, Lead Designer
NinjaStan_Bio - Stan , Quality Assurance
Bio_Mark - Mark Darrah, Lead Programmer
Bio_Robin - Robin
Drew_Bio - Drew
Bio_Nathan - Nathan Plewes, Line Producer
*** Jonric sets mode: +m
Ulairi Vampire was cool because of the editor.
Ulairi whoops - sorry.
Jonric please get your questions ready
NinjaStan_Bio I've got my ninja cap on, ready to go.
Bio_Mark But do you have ninja-like table manners?
Bio_Robin "Everybody was Kung-fu fighting..."
Nathan_Bio hehe
NinjaStan_Bio Aw, man! I can't resist "Kung-Fu Fighting" The commercial said so
Bio_Mark b
Bio_Mark oops.
NinjaStan_Bio Darn you, Motts Clamato!!!
Bio_Mark Ummm Stan you just pegged yourself as Canadian.
Bio_Mark Clamato isn't an american thing.
Ulairi And we don't take kindly to Canadians 'round here.
Nathan_Bio lol.. remember trying to get Clamato in the US?
NinjaStan_Bio Proud to be Canadian, Mark. Yessireebob!
Nathan_Bio mmm.. clam bits
Bio_Mark That's Mark not Bob
NinjaStan_Bio Yessireemark!
Bio_Mark What is wrong with you. How can you get a ceasar?
NinjaStan_Bio It doesn't quite roll off the tongue as well
Bio_Robin they don't have Clamato in the states??!!
Nathan_Bio nope
NinjaStan_Bio they don't have Caesars in the States?
NinjaStan_Bio Or Smarties
Nathan_Bio but they'll puree clams for you :)
NinjaStan_Bio Ewwww
Bio_Mark Welcome to the Bioware Canadian food weirdness Chat...
Nathan_Bio haha
Jonric okay please message ulairi with your questions
Bio_Robin they do have smarties!!
Jonric and as usual, let's ask the team members to introduce themselves
NinjaStan_Bio Do they? Mysister was in NY and said they didn't
Bio_Robin they aren't like ours though
Nathan_Bio Nathan Plewes, Line Producer
NinjaStan_Bio Stanley Woo, QA Ninja
Bio_Robin Robin - Web Monkey
Bio_Kevin Kevin Martens, Lead Designer
Bio_Mark Hello I'm Mark Darrah Lead programmer of TOB etc... Lord of Clamato, and new CodApple!
NinjaStan_Bio Mmmm, two great tastes that taste great together
Jonric ready to go? Are the new low level spells from Icewind Dale (ie Icelance) in ToB?"
Bio_Mark Hmmm trapped out side of the proper place...
Bio_Mark Ever rejected...
Bio_Mark So sad...
Bio_Mark No Icelance isn't in TOB.
Bio_Mark We actually ran out of slots for spells as some levels. (No more then 24 per level)
Bio_Mark Done (If I'm even in the right place)
Ulairi (JanJansen) Ok first off thx for a great expansion! Question is simply is there a truly neutral/secret ending to ToB as supposed to just the Good/Evil ending? Thx
Ulairi (Drew_Bio) There are multiple endings for TOB, but I don't want to spoil anyone here. I will say there are more than just 2 endings.
Nathan_Bio Why is Drew going through Ulairi?
Bio_Mark Okay I move...Bye.
Ulairi (BigPimpin) Will there be any chance that you will be able to use boo? Ie use him in battle etc.
Drew_Bio Boo provides wisdom and moral support to Minsc. Other than that he doesn't have any uses in the game. Done.
Ulairi (Flabbyjack) Question - "Is this really "the end"? A pretty unfullfilling ending to an epic series..."
Drew_Bio I don't know that I'd call TOB unfulfilling. It answers all the important questions, brings the Bhaal saga to a fitting conclusion, and provides 30-50 hours of gameplay. But yes, it is the end of this particular storyline. Done.
Ulairi (Lorax) Will we be seeing any cameo apperances from Minsc and other BG characters in future games?
Bio_Kevin Well, Minsc is popular. You like Minsc. We like Minsc. Neverwinter is so far away. That is all that I have to say. ;P
Bio_Kevin Done
Jonric (MageDragon) Question: I have covered the boards for BGChronicles (PlanetBG) for a long time, and have seen a lot of dedication to the fans from BioWare. Listening to the fans requests, complaints and praise while giving feedback when possible. Thanks for the fond memories, the question is: How many hours a day does David Gaider spend on the boards ?
Nathan_Bio whoa
Jonric hey magedragon hold it down 8-)
Ulairi Sorry!
Bio_Mark #neverwinter
Bio_Kevin Well, Dave goes one during work for a few minutes every hour. I've also noticed that he goes home and goes on the boards. Weekends, too. I'm not sure if he does anything else. That's dedication! Done
Bio_Mark I a spaz. Sorry.
Ulairi Question: when will the BG2:TOB and Icewind Dale:HoW music be available like it was for BG2:SoA plz?
Drew_Bio There aren't any current plans to make the music available that I know of, but I suppose if demand is strong anything is possible. Sorry I can't be more helpful. Done.
Ulairi I fond the game bosses to be extremely challenging and some players have said they were too easy...what gives?
Bio_Kevin That's a natural byproduct of the ludicrous numbers of spells and combat options. In some cases, if you know the creature well or have the right deadly combination of (more..)
Bio_Kevin attacks prepared, the creature goes down fast. If you get some lucky critical rolls in at the right moment, by by boss. If you're not as familiar with (more...)
Ulairi Given that it is the "INFINITY" engine, when will Mark be porting the engine for Word, Quicken, and Netscape so users can summon djinni's to do essays, disintegrate bills, and whirlwind attack webspam with that oh so special top-down isometric flair.
Bio_Kevin AD&D or the BG system, it may be harder. We balance everything as well as we can for the average player.
Bio_Kevin Done
Bio_Mark Its already been ported to Word, Quicken, and Netscape. Unfortunately it will only work
Ulairi What did you think of the VO work after it was recorded? /me thinks of Cespenar and shudders. Any paricular character's voices you espeicialy liked?
Bio_Mark With the new Netscape/Word/Quicken Hybrid version 9.A3455353453456356 on
Bio_Mark Windows 3.11a
Bio_Mark done.
Nathan_Bio I've always liked Viconia's VO (done)
Ulairi (Ulairi) Any chance for a BG editor, like for NWN?
Bio_Mark No.
Bio_Mark Done.
Bio_Mark Long Answer...
Ulairi (Iarwain) When will we hear about the future beyond NWN, or is NWN the only thing in the oven?
Ulairi (Alan_Bio) doh'
Alan_Bio Releasing the music for ToB is something we're looking at, bug I have not definite answer at this time. I think it was pretty fantastic myself :)
Bio_Mark BG was never designed for user created content.
Bio_Kevin There is of course, the Starwars RPG, Knight of the Old Republic. There isn't much we can say about that right now but it will be supercool. More...
Bio_Kevin We apply everything we learn from previous games to make the next ones into the best game experience possible. After Star Wars...
Bio_Kevin We always have plans. :P
Bio_Kevin Done
Ulairi (Ainamacar) It seems like the romances are much more fleshed out, both in quality, and particularly in bulk. Is this a correct judgement, and about how much more is there compared to SoA?
Bio_Kevin We've added quite a bit of romance into TOB. There are numerous additions to each of the four romances and all of them come to their logical conclusions...
Bio_Kevin Some with surprising results.
Bio_Kevin I don't know exactly how much more.
Bio_Kevin Done.
Ulairi (Hosun) Does every NPC get a conclusion to their story in ToB?
Bio_Kevin Every NPC has a post game bio that brings their stories to a close. Some are happy, some are sad, some are... Jansen-esque. There's been a lot of positive feedback about it on the boards so we're quite happy
Bio_Kevin Done
Ulairi (Lorax) What's the deal with the big metal unit. Is it an inside joke, a real D&D relic, or what?
Bio_Kevin I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't played the game by telling them what it is but...
Jonric please message ulairi with your questions
Bio_Kevin The BMU is the ultimate silly ending to an extremely silly easter egg. Always keep the pantaloons...
Bio_Kevin It is completely made up by us. And it's silly. Did I mention that? Done
Ulairi (Dave-MMORPG) What are you're favorite D&D Modules? (Any chance for an other PlaneScape game, or a Birthright, or DarkSun game)
Drew_Bio Favorite modules... so many to choose from. I'm partial to the old ones... I've always liked the Giants-Drow-Demonweb Pits (more).
Nathan_Bio Well I'd say the Temple of Elemental Evil and the Return to. Good for party paranoia
Nathan_Bio (done)
Bio_Mark This will sound somewhat self serving but I generally created my own adventures.
Drew_Bio And of course the Tomb of Horrors. I haven't played the 3rd Edition Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, but I've heard good things. (more)
Bio_Mark I'm just that nerdy.
Nathan_Bio no arguments here :)
Bio_Mark Okay not so self serving I guess.
Drew_Bio Funny how we tend to like the broad, multiple module campaigns. How many total hours was the BG series?
Drew_Bio Done.
Ulairi (MageDragon) Question: Are there any Easter Eggs in ToB anyone would like to share ?
Bio_Mark Well there is this myrthical rabit that comes around once a year...
Bio_Mark of course in his world mythical is spelt with an 'r'
Bio_Mark The big metal unit is a easter egg.
Bio_Kevin Look for the chinchilla. Also, never forget the value of subcontracting eyeball retrieval quests. That's all for now. :)
Drew_Bio And we do have a "mirth" ical rabbit... or is it a chinchilla? I can't remember.
Nathan_Bio Watch for tiny dogs
NinjaStan_Bio There's one under the tree, and one behind the couch...
Bio_Mark done.
Ulairi (Lunix) Black isle made a free dungeon addon, with a few new weapons etc, does Bioware have any similar plans in store? or any extra goodies in the future? that we can look forward too
Bio_Kevin Throne of Bhaal is enormous. There's a huge dungeon, an epic conclusion to the story, about 80 areas split over 16 main adventure areas, numerous spells items and monsters, and 30-50 hours of gameplay. I think that people will be very happy with the value of this mission pack. It is already bigger than most full release games. Plus, everyone keeps bugging us to get NWN done. We're hard at work on that.
Bio_Kevin Done
Ulairi ([SoCoM]) Have you thought about the possibility of making a DVD Special Edition? (and if this is possible, ships in spain (europe))? Thx. (Note: Sorry for my horrible english :D)
Bio_Alan We are thinking about doing a special edition to DVD with perhaps SoA and ToB, but there's nothing concrete yet.
Ulairi (Hosun) Have any of you read the Baldur's Gate novel adaptations? They were pretty bad in my opinion. I'm wondering what you guys thought.
Drew_Bio Adaptations of novels are tricky... I speak from experience. I think some of the problems with the BG novels comes from too many cooks stirring the stew. (more)
Drew_Bio Mr. Athans was working on the novels while we worked on the games, and whenever changes came up he had a hard time working them in. Between all the designers here, the editors and the author, it's tough to come up with something that closely resembles the game experience. (more)
Drew_Bio As a side note, the next BG novel has been written by me, and since I was closer to the design team I think people will find it more closely resembles the plot and characterization of the TOB game - although even my version has some elements that weren't changed for the computer game.
Drew_Bio Done.
Ulairi (Dave-MMORPG) Any chance that BGII will be ported to the Xbox or Gamecube?
Bio_Mark While I would never rule anything out, BG is fundementally a PC game. It relies heavily upon the user interface available. Further it is truly a memory pig. Even the XBOX with 64megs of memory would be swamped by(more)
Bio_Mark BG. This would require writing a virtual memory system. A pretty icky proposition.
Ulairi (Kaine679) could you please somehow find out more about Druids and whether they equal to the other character classes since they were somewhat low in SoA
Bio_Mark In the end a port probably isn't that feasible though a re-write inspired by the original might be.
Bio_Mark done.
Ulairi Question: Is it feasible that all the games u develop a year from now including NWN will be playable on a pentium2-266 with no 3dcard?
Bio_Mark No.
Bio_Kevin Druid answer: Druids are very fun to play in Throne of Bhaal. They have some unique, super powerful high level abilities such as the ability to summon elemental princes. They also gain levels a lot faster than they previously did. They level up quite quickly, especially at the beginning of TOB. They also have unique class items. Druids are a powerful and fun class in TOB.
Bio_Kevin Done
Bio_Mark NWN is fundementally a 3D game. As such Its requirements are different then BG.
Bio_Mark However the visual payoff is also much greater. AND other things are possible as bandwidth is freed up for greater AI.
Bio_Mark Done.
Ulairi I'd like to become the new Lord of Murder, I've built up an impressive resume of dead references, will I be hired?"
Bio_Kevin As a matter of fact, we have several openings for Lord of Murder. Their primarily janitorial in nature but the title is quite cool. And the mop. It's definitely a sharp looking mop. (Note: I refuse to spoil any potential endings to TOB)
Bio_Kevin Done
Jonric (Sartaeus) What new kits/classes will be added?
Bio_Kevin And that would be they're, not their
Bio_Kevin We've added a brand new kit to Throne of Bhaal, the ever so cool (and dangerous!) Wild Mage Kit. A wild mage is a wizard who specializes in the control of unpredictable wild magic. He/she tries to bend it to do what they want it to do.
Bio_Kevin Other than that, we've also added a ton of new high level abilities and spells that characters can pick an choose from to customize their character and kick more butt!
Bio_Kevin Done
Jonric (Kaine679) could you please somehow find out more about Druids and whether they equal to the other character classes since they were somewhat low in SoA
Ulairi (osun) Were there any favorite side stories, NPC interactions or quests you had to drop in ToB? Can you share some with us?
Drew2_Bio Unfortunately we always have to drop plots because we don't have infinite resources. One in particular I liked was a trial we had, where you could use the red/blue/green circles to see how well you had influenced the jury. It may show up in another game.
Drew2_Bio Still, we did manage to put in more than a fair amount of stuff for the player to do. All in all I think people will be very satisfied with what actually made it in.
Drew2_Bio Done.
Ulairi (Kaine679) Will the werewolf form of the shapeshifter improve with levels in ToB?
Bio_Kevin The Shapeshifter kit has been improved in several ways. Like all druids, he/she gains access to the high level abilities. They also can shapeshift into their werewolf forms more often and the Greater Werewolf is more powerful and regenerates at a faster rate.
Bio_Kevin Done
Ulairi (WGBanshee) Now that the series is concluded, looking back, what was your favorite bit out of all the games?
Drew2_Bio It's gotta be Bondari, Nanoc and Tim. Pure genius. (Kevin's baby, I believe.)
Drew2_Bio Done.
Ulairi (Sartaeus) Can you add a system where one could build a character from scratch (starting from level one). Ie you could make a duel class fighter/mage level 2/10 Its kinda frustrating to start off at around level 8 and have to work from there.
Bio_Mark Essentially no, we can't add a system to allow you to start a character from level 1. At least not in game. Allow me to explain why. Of all places in the entire Infinity engine, the character creation screen is truly colapsing under the weight of 4 games. In order to allow what is suggested (a good idea BTW) the entire screen would have to be stripped to the ground and rewritten. Further it would complicate a screen that many novice users already
Bio_Mark Done.
Ulairi Question: Thanks for coming out with the dialogue fix for ToB so quickly, but i'm wondering how your beta testers managed to miss it .. is it possible to apply to be a beta tester for your games?
Bio_Kevin My favorite bit is the one that Drew mentioned. I hope you like it. Also, there is a distinct reference to text adventures that should make old school players grin. Enjoy!
Bio_Mark Actually the reason that the Dialog bug was missed can be explained quite simply.
Bio_Mark This bug ONLY occurs with Win2K SP2 (and Win XP). Since SP2 didn't come out until May 5 it was simply missed.
Bio_Mark As simple as that. Once it was tested the bug is pretty hard to miss. Beta testing wouldn't have helped as it would have all happened before
Bio_Mark SP2 came out. In the end it really is a stupid programming error rather then a testing problem.
NinjaStan_Bio Oh, good. It wasn't me. *whew*
Bio_Mark The bug itself has been in since BG2 but only shows up with SP2.
Bio_Mark Done.
Ulairi (Howdy) are the BG games considered canon Forgotten Realms history by WotC?
Drew2_Bio Because of our multiple endings, the BG games can't be considered "official" in the FR world. However, the novels (including the upcoming TOB novel - another free plug for me! ) are considered cannon.
Drew2_Bio Done.
Ulairi I could have sworn i hear the voice of Minsc in a Courage the Cowardly Dog cartoon. Is the cast also employed elsewhere?
Jonric just to let everyone know, we're going to finish up in about 5 minutes
Bio_Mark While I can't speak specifically to this instance, YES voice actors are very prolific people.
Bio_Mark For example Sarevok is in Voltron.
Bio_Mark We have Whiney the Pooh
Ulairi Do you have tigger too?
Bio_Mark Pinky from Pinky and the brain.
Drew2_Bio Brain, brain, brain...
NinjaStan_Bio Narf!
Bio_Mark Half the cast of Transformer Movie (Thhough it almost seems like every voice actor did that)
Bio_Mark Also I'm not sure about this but I think we also had Wilbur from Mister Ed. (Though that could just be random synapsis in my brain)
Bio_Mark Done.
Ulairi (Zipnab) will the next BG games still be in 2D' or will they change into 3D like NWN?
Bio_Alan Well, we can really talk about possible future BG games that haven't been announced. But you can tell that the trend lately has been for 3D games. I think they both have their advantages/disadvantages and both look good.
Ulairi (Dave-MMORPG) Whos ass do I have to kiss to get put on the beta list? :)
Bio_Mark Mine. Note however that While I'm small I'm pretty damn crazy.t
Bio_Mark Oh and I have a 400 man militia living in by yard.
Bio_Mark Actually. We don't currently do external Betas.
Bio_Mark Done.
Jonric there's a problem at bioware so we're going to close the chat thanks to all of you and to the team for coming and enjoy ToB
*** Jonric sets mode: -m
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