Icewind Dale Official Chat on March 22, 2000 at 6:30 PST Held in channel #ignchat on server irc.damaged.net. Editted chat log prepared by Silverdawn of Baldur's Gate Chronicles (www.bgchronicles.com) In attendence from Black Isle Studios were: ID_Parker - Chris Parker (Producer) ID_Sawyer - Josh Sawyer (Designer) ID_Ray - David Ray (Software Engineer) ID_French - Tom French (Programmer) ID_Bokkes - Steve Bokkes (Designer) id_meihuizen - Pete Meihuizen (Animator) 80 people were in attendance at the most crowded point. [ka] Mode change "+m" by IcewindChat_1 Here we go ... CHAT STARTING NOW SEND ALL QUESTIONS TO ICEWINDCHAT 1 AND 2 What exactly is Icewind, can you summarize it for me? <@ID_Parker> Icewind Dale is a computer role playing game... <@ID_Parker> set in a northern region of the Forgotten Realms. <@ID_Parker> It uses the Baldur's Gate engine to bring the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rule system to the computer. <@ID_Parker> In the game you play a party of adventures who strive to do all those heroic things... <@ID_Parker> save the world, get more powerful, kill lots of monsters. Fun stuff like that. <@ID_Parker> done #1: In terms of 1 to 10, 1 being so easy one key kills all, 10 being you have no hope of winning whatsoever... how hard is Icewind Dale going to be? <@ID_Parker> It should be a mix, but average should be around a 6. <@ID_Sawyer> It varies. <@ID_Sawyer> Some areas are very hard, some are a little below average. <@ID_Parker> Some of the encounters will be easy, some will be really hard, but avoidable. Question: Is there any chance we'll get *anything* on the story tonight? <@ID_Sawyer> I can tell you that there are some strange things happening in Icewind Dale. The weather's getting strange... SEND ALL QUESTIONS TO ICEWINDCHAT 1 AND 2 When is this games release? <@ID_Parker> 2nd quarter this year

err... make that.. How much involvement has WOTC had on the development of Icewing? and has anything had to be changed because of them? <@ID_Parker> WotC reviews our story and design documents... <@ID_Sawyer> They approve our general storyline and character involvement, but they haven't been super hardcore in their overseer role. <@ID_Parker> but primarily from a 'consistency of world' standpoint. They just want to make sure that we don't nuke something in one of their favorite regions... How much of the Icewind Dale trilogy storyline by R.A. Salvatore will the PC game be following? will there be any characters from the book trilogy? <@ID_Sawyer> RE: Characters & Storyline> We touch on things that R.A. Salvatore established in the trilogy, but the story is wholly new. <@ID_Parker> There are ties to the books within Icewind, but...yeah...what he said. <@ID_Sawyer> Part of that is because our game takes place 100 years prior to the current date in the Forgotten Realms. <@ID_Parker> None of the characters from the books will appear within the game. <@ID_Parker> I would like to note that RA Salvatore was part of the approval process as well, since we don't want to mess up anything he is planning for the future in his books. Question: What is the one gameplay feature you feel will make IWD stand out? <@ID_Parker> One? That's tough. <@ID_Sawyer> I lean towards magic items because I'm making a lot of them. Heh heh. <@ID_Parker> There are a bunch of little tweaks and changes that just overall improve gameplay. I would say the biggest thing that will make it stand out is the really big monsters. <@ID_Sawyer> We've also implemented a lot of spells that we West Side BISers like to refer to as "totally rad" in technical terms. <@ID_Parker> But little goodness items are things like the characters walking faster, the bumping system for pathing, improved AI scripts for the bad-guys, more animations, more spells, etc. #2: Will the actual spellcasting be more like Baldur's Gate or Planescape: Torment? <@ID_Parker> The spellcasting will be more like BG than Torment. <@ID_Sawyer> It will be more like BG in that the effects won't quite be so large and they will never stop the game. <@ID_Sawyer> It will be more like BG in that the effects won't quite be so large and they will never stop the game. <@ID_Parker> Most of the actual gameplay mechanics are as they were in BG. Torment changed quite a few things that we have left essentially the same. <@ID_Sawyer> However, in graphic style, they will be somewhat similar to Torment simply because the same team is working on them. <@ID_Parker> One thing we did decide to change was to remove most of the 'traveling' of the spells. What kind of system requirements are we looking at? <@ID_Sawyer> RE: Sys Reqs> Hopefully... similar to the Sys Reqs for Planescape: Torment, but Dr. DRay would know better... <@ID_Ray> The system requirements as they stand right now are Pentium 200Mhz, 32MB RAM, 4MB Video Card and I have no idea about disk space yet.

BG did a great job of getting the player into the storyline and having motivations for doing the quests... has a lot of attention been given to making sure there are proper motivations? <@ID_Sawyer> Yes. At the *very* least, survival is a great motivation... <@ID_Sawyer> There are other motivations for different classes and alignments. We're trying to make it a little special for different characters. <@ID_Sawyer> We understand that players want to feel like their characters have a reason to go on the adventure, and we're keeping that in mind.

BG did a lousy job with the alignment system. Has IWD made any improvements on what alignment affects in the game? <@ID_Sawyer> We're still struggling with that. It can be difficult at times, but we're making sure that dialogue options often reflect alignment, among other things. <@ID_Parker> The alignment system isn't being changed greatly. We are trying to make more use of it in the various dialogue options. I was wondering if there was going to be any changes in the multiplayer play in Icewind Dale from Baldurs Gate. Perhaps allowing for a more open ended storyline or something like that. <@ID_Parker> The game was designed so that the story would make more sense when played by a group... <@ID_Parker> We wanted a player to be able to hop into somebody else's game and be able to figure out pretty quickly what is going on... <@ID_Parker> So that was done on the design side. Hi there.. will you be able to transfer you characters from Icewind Dale to Neverwinter Nights? <@ID_Parker> There will not be any ability to transfer characters between Icewind Dale and any other Black Isle games. How is the 'world' taveling acomplished? is it done by map, divided into 'square' sections, like in BG, or have you created a new way of travel? <@ID_Sawyer> World traveling is done through the world map... and oh... what a world map it is. <@ID_Sawyer> Parker made our temp world map. It's PHAT. <@ID_French> (#G010E328RM1) I finally saw it last night and i have to admit it sure is purdy... Is Icewind Dale going to come out on DVD? <@ID_Parker> There hasn't been any official decision as to whether the game will come out on DVD or not. We in development would of course like to see it, but it remains to be seen. will there be a difference type of dialog depending on sex/race of the main character? @ID_Sawyer> Yes, sometimes. Gender options are not so common as race options, but they are both in the game and used. <@ID_Parker> There are sometimes class-specific dialogue options as well. <@ID_Bokkes> Actually there will be many instances where race/class/sex will play a role in determining the dialogue options available to you. <@ID_Sawyer> There are at least two areas in the game where gender plays a significant role in dialogue options. Many, many others where alignment, race, and class make a difference. One of the best things about BG was the game world's immense size and the sheer amount of places to go... How large of a game world are we looking at when compared to BG? <@ID_Parker> Icewind Dale is smaller that BG in terms of square footage, but we are filling up the world more and trying to make sure that... Will Icewind Dale handle having a lot of AI controlled characters on the screen at once for the low end PCs, or do you anticipate that it will bog down like it did in Baldur's Gate? <@ID_French> (#G1<0E810M1) I'm trying to keep the scripts optimized as possible so hopefully it should run ok on lower end machines too... <@ID_Parker> Oh, we are all about bogging down the system....just kidding. There may be slow-downs in some places as this is unavoidable, but we are taking steps so that hopefully it won't be as drastic. And the higher system requirements will help a LOT. <@ID_Ray> Just a tech note, RAM probably affects speed of the game more than any other factor. <@ID_Ray> Since we doubled our RAM required, it will probably help significantly. <@ID_Sawyer> Having a dual P3-1GhZ will be ideal. <@ID_Sawyer> Just kidding. Question: Is it costly to add more voice acting to your games? I think more is good...it adds to the quality of play. <@ID_Parker> Voice acting gets very expensive, at least if you want to do it right. <@ID_Parker> Voice comprises about a third of our audio budget. We got about 10 more minutes, folks How many characters will there be to choose from? <@ID_Sawyer> Character portraits? Lots. 30+, I think. <@ID_Parker> A nearly infinite number! Since you generate your entire party of six characters, and pick scripts for them and portraits for them, there are a lot of combinations. Will there be a "large text" option for dialog in IWD? (or, failing that, will text generally be larger than in BG?) (y/n) <@ID_French>We really pounded our heads over the idea of a dragon... <@ID_Parker> We would like to have voice for everybody, but that would run several hundred thousand dollars if we did all of the dialogue in the game. And it would take months to record and process. in terms of % how close to are to completing the game? <@ID_Bokkes> I'd say design is around 95% completed

I hear that Tom French and Steven Bokkes are drinking buddies. Has their drinking affected the progress of the game? And will the usual 4th of July celebration be on at Steve's again this year? <@ID_Bokkes> Hey Moltar... yes, yes, and yes. You big gallut. Will there be a "large text" option for dialog in IWD? (or, failing that, will text generally be larger than in BG?) (y/n) <@ID_Parker> The font is both more readable and slightly larger than it was in BG. <@ID_Sawyer> The font is definitely more clear. Baldur's Gate had Wyverns instead of Dragons. Does IWD have some sort of huge ice lizard ? <@ID_French> (#G310E936RM1Tid_meihuizen) We really pounded our heads over the idea of a dragon... <@ID_French> (#G010E:10M1Tid_meihuizen) In the end we opted not to do it due to some limitations we had... FINAL QUESTION <@ID_French> (#G310E010M1Tid_meihuizen) we felt that if we were going to do a dragon, we wanted to do it right... <@ID_French> (#G010E510M1Tid_meihuizen) so we decided to leave it out... How long is the game expected to be in terms of play time? also approx. how many cd's? <@id_meihuizen> (#G610E810M1TID_French) whew...now that's a tuffy <@ID_French> (#G010E:10M1Tid_meihuizen) That's a question for a producer if I've ever seen one... We are very lagged at the moment

Will the music in Icewind Dale be far different from what was in BG? I get the feeling that Icewind is a much darker game, will the music change to match? <@ID_Parker> The music is going to be darker and have more of an edge to it than the BG music did. However, it will still be of the epic/classical Conan type that was used in BG. <@ID_Sawyer> Our music is, once again, in technical terms, "rad". It sounds a bit darker, from what I have heard. It's really good. #8: Will you be doing opened or closed beta testing? <@ID_Bokkes> I believe that testing will be handled internally by Interplay's fabulous QA dept. Alright folks, thanks for showing up for the Icewind Dale chat. That's all the time we have for the development team today, but we welcome you back to future chats very, very soon. Peace out! [ka] Topic changed to "Welcome to IGN Chat" by IcewindChat_1 [ka] Mode change "-m" by IcewindChat_1