November 2001

Throne of Bhaal Review at 3DnGaming
Posted Monday, November 26, 2001 - 16:05 CET by Mollusken

3DnGaming has posted a review of the expansion pack to Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. The reviewer gives it an overall character of 7.0.

There's nothing remarkable about Throne of Bhaal. This is the fourth time around, and the sparkle and shine is starting to wear. The original game had a sort of whimsical gee-whiz charm. It was a first for anyone of my generation or for anyone who missed out on the gold box series that Bioware liberally borrows from. That charm has since then worn off.

Many people have credited Bioware for reviving the RPG genre. Certainly, it's better than what we had back in 1995. Remember Descent to Undermountain? How about Yoda's Desktop Adventures? Bioware deserves praise for reviving the genre, which has since progressed leaps and bounds. Throne of Bhaal concludes the Baldur's Gate series with the dignity it deserves. Now if only they'd release a patch to increase the resolution options of the original BG...

Read the whole review here.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Sunday, November 25, 2001 - 21:11 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate

Three new Diablo 1 soundsets made by Mollusken were added to the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

A new collection of portraits submitted by Big B has been added to the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection. Check them out.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

One new book (The Redemption of Althalus) has been added to the David Eddings subsection. Two new books (Quidditch Through the Ages & Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) have also been added to the Miscellaneous books subsection.

A sample chapter of the newly released first part of the Kingpriest Trilogy (Chosen of the Gods) has been added to the Page 1 of the Dragonlance books subsection.

This week I managed to finish yet another new book subsection, this time the Terry Goodkind one. You can find all of his popular Sword of Truth books there.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Worlds

There are some new things to check out in the Fantasy Movies subsection. Take a look at the News & Rumours page for the Lord of The Rings movie. It has been updated with some interesting new scoops.

Subsection Updates -> Community

After some more internal restructuring, I have updated the About Us page again. Erran has appended his bio to reflect his new position as an ALFA server DM and Azirath has submitted his own bio to be posted. If you're curious about the people who make the big cogwheels inside Sorcerer's Place turn smoothly, be sure to give this subsection a read.

Neverwinter Nights Interview
Posted Sunday, November 25, 2001 - 18:21 CET by Mollusken

Mark Thompson at Neverwinter Stratics has had lunch with and interviewed Marc Holmes (art director) and Rob Bartel (co-lead designer) from BioWare about the upcoming Neverwinter Nights.

Release Date: Of course I asked and they refused to even guess. Balancing the game, fixing bugs, these are very complex issues that they knew very little about. As such, they cannot give a real, factual answer of any kind. They are trying their best to get this game out soon. But they also will not release anything they're not proud of. Quality is the number one concern, and naturally a game this big and this complex cannot be predicted down to the day of the week. We'll just have to live with what they've given us so far… I'll soften that blow with this bit of information. Marc spends every night until 11:00pm working and trying to be finished for us. He takes one night of the week to REALLY work late. Now that's what I call dedication. These guys are going to be bringing us a work of blood, sweat and tears and I hope we can show them our appreciation by allowing them to finish without us pressuring them for a release date. When it ships, it ships.

Read the whole article here.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Sunday, November 25, 2001 - 0:11 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Which of the upcoming fantasy movies (Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings) are you going to go see?
(493 votes total)

Lord of The Rings movie (268) 54%
Both of them (201) 41%
Neither of them (20) 4%
Harry Potter movie (4) 1%

As always, it has proven that our allegiance to Tolkien is universal. A vast majority, 54% of people who voted in the poll, are determined to see the Lord of the Rings movie. Combined with the votes from those who will see both of them, 95% (!) of people who voted will see the Lord of the Rings movie. Brings a tear to my eye, it really does. ;)

41% of poll participants voted for seeing both of them, that is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone and the Lord of the Rings movies. What wouldn't I give to be the one collecting the cash these fine movies bring in...

Only 4% of people said that they would not see any of the two movies, for reasons unknown.

An absurd 1% of people voted that they will see the Harry Potter movie, but if we combine the votes from entry #2, we get a grand total of 42% of people who will go (or have already at this point) see the movie.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Saturday, November 24, 2001 - 22:35 CET by Tiamat

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

NWN World: The short answer, since that is all you asked for, is that we're aiming to utilize the region around the cities of Neverwinter and Luskan, Port Llast and Helm's Hold, and some other areas of the Neverwinter Wood region. The High Forest is all too far East for our adventure.

Conversation Filters: I don't know who started making them, but Preston has since put together a bucket load (yes, you could fill a bucket completely to the brim) of conversation filters, with such clarifiers as same or different class, gender, and race, all additionally filtered by low, medium, and high intelligence, as well as low, medium, and high charisma, and so forth with wisdom, too, and whether or not a character has taken at least one level of each of the various classes.

So, you could have a dialogue that only works for a rogue with high charisma and low intelligence, should you wish, and it would take you all of the effort of sorting it out of a drop-down box.

One common trick we're using a lot is to have a PC say one thing, and then have a million (literally, or maybe I mean a billion) different possible responses based on all of the above-mentioned factors, and so many, many more.

Conversation is good! Chris Priestly is evil. Therefore, Chris is not conversation! And the editor is also, therefore, easy to use (otherwise it would be hard to use, which is bad, which is Chris, which is not conversation).

EQ Requirements: 256 MB minimum? 512 MB recommended? It's crazy how hardware seems to advance oh-so-quickly, yet software always manages to keep up.

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Releasing Info: Well we certainly want to try to get you guys all the info that you would need for scripting. Can't say what it will be at this time, but it should be fairly impressive.

Chris Priestly, Quality Assurance

Evil News: I can confirm that (and I know Trent will not be happy about me leaking this to the public, but what the heck, I am evil after all) swords have been cut from NWN.
Yep. Long, short, bastard, two-handed, etc, all gone. They were taking up valuable space. So no sword for you. Also gone? Hammers, axes, bows of all sorts (but not arrows, you are welcome to throw them at who-ever you want), daggers, staves, martial weaponry, pointy sticks, rocks... infact, now that I think of it pretty much anything that you can use to hurt anyone.
Yep. NWN now stands for No Weapon Nation. Also your character must play the game with their hands tied behind their back. And they must wear very heavy boots.
So there you have it. A definite confirmation. Happy now? No? Too bad.

So now you must ask yourself the following: "Awww that Chris is just joking around. They'd never do that. But then again... he is evil. And what he says saounds very evil indeed.... Nawww, he must be joking. Mustn't he?"

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Friday, November 23, 2001 - 12:31 CET by Tiamat

Trent Oster, Producer:

NWN Demo Leaking: If a demo of NWN got out I would find the person who leaked it and wear their skin for an overcoat (it gets cold up here and good leather is hard to come by). Everyone here still has skin, so the demo rumours must be false.

NWN Compatibility: I'm not sure of the Open GL support for the Voodoo cards, as 3DFX is no longer with us. When we get a Voodoo rig in the compatability lab I'll have a better idea.
With the TNT2, you will have to turn some graphic details down, but the game will be quite playable. (I've seen it run on a TNT 1, without much optimizing).

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Stats: The stats depend on the class to some degree, because your stats are bumped up to reach the class minimums. When I made my paladin in BG2, I re-rolled two times. I had a 91 for total points.
In BG1, I rolled, on my first try for my fighter/thief, a 97. Books bumped that up a little
I won't spend more than a few re-rolls on that, though. For the most part, I think the stats are mostly meaningless.

Stacking Haste Effects: Any haste or speed effect will not stack. Don't worry about Monks, with the feats they have a monk will be a very tough character.

Racial Enemy: Rangers may not select "humanoid" or "outsider" as a favored enemy, but they may select a more narrowly defined type of humanoid (such as goblinoids, humans, or reptilian humanoids)...
(A ranger can only select his own race as a favored enemy if he is evil.)

Attribute Points: Attribute points will cost more as they increase, as some people have mentioned (i.e. it costs more to go from 17 to 18 than it would from 8 to 9).
Re-thinking the attributes is kind of tricky, because it is a bit of a change. I find myself having difficulty thinking through the level system, where D&D now scales up to level 20 in a more balanced manner. I'm so used to campaigns where you spent forever just getting to level 8, and then retired.

Canadians Playing Bards: I play a bard in a pencil & paper game run by Preston "The Law" Watamaniuk, as I've mentioned before on the Black Isle boards.
I really enjoy my bard, and think she's about the best character I've come up with in a while. I haven't taken the leadership feat, and never would (with her).
I don't want to give away too much of her character (other players from that game check these boards), but she's basically a tinkerer - she wants to figure out how things are put together, and how they work, so she can relate it to some grander scheme (that I can't talk about).
In a sense, she's played more like a sorcerer, but she's using those sorcerer abilities to help her figure out the way things work. Because she's so caught up in figuring things out, she doesn't spend a lot of time in combat, and basically couldn't care less for it.
She's extremely charismatic, but she's a manipulator - again, she uses her charms, her persuasions, her bardic abilities for the most part to get information from people so she can learn more and figure out more of the way things are. This isn't evil or good, it's just her own desire.
All her skill points go into stuff like Spellcraft and the Knowledge skills.
Anywho, like I said, she's a lot of fun to play. But obviously, a lot of her character wouldn't work the same way in P&P as it would in a CRPG like Neverwinter Nights. Gather Information, for example, is a skill that tells you that basically, after a day of research, you learned this or that. In Neverwinter Nights, you would actively go to each of those people in the area and speak with them, using your charm and Persuasion to gain information from them.
Oh well. I don't want to get into a discussion on how the classes balance against each other or anything like that right now (too busy), so I'll sign off with that.
So, the simple answer - yes, there is someone in Canada who is playing a 3rd Edition bard.

David Chan, Audio Producer:

Xbox: On a PC title you can only invest so much time into the whiz bang features because only a small number of people will be able to use them. Whereas on the Xbox you know exactly what features everyone has on the graphics side so you can use all the bells and whistles if you want. This is why a console game can look better in some ways than a PC game.

Two New Throne of Bhaal Reviews
Posted Friday, November 23, 2001 - 8:11 CET by Mollusken

At The Mushroom Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal is given 8 out of a possible 10 mushrooms. The whole review is found here.

For the most part, I very much enjoyed Throne of Bhaal. The plot was good, the dungeons were interesting, and the surprise new party member was a lot of fun. :) However, since it was such a high level campaign, almost every battle is very difficult. The entire thing (especially the Watcher's Keep) was exhausting. Every fight, every puzzle, and every NPC encounter was intense and required a lot of careful thought. This was the first RPG that actually fatigued me mentally while playing. On a few occasions I wanted to continue, but had to quit and do something else for a while because it was so draining. This challenging style of play makes finishing the game all the more satisfying, but it's truly a test of will to get all the way to the end.

For fans of the BG series, Throne of Bhaal is simply a must-own. Its your chance to laugh at Minsc, argue ethics with Keldorn, and wonder if Jaheria is capable of having an orgasm (I doubt it). Its certainly no cake walk, but in the end, the rewards justify the effort.

Another review is found at Multi-Player Online Gaming. Here you can find the whole article.

Throne of Bhaal may be the last of the Baldur’s Gate series, but I feel that by far it is the best one of them all. If nothing else, not only have they have done justice to the Dungeons and Dragons license, but they have also paved the way for all future computer role-playing games. This epic saga was by far the best of its kind. Throne of Bhaal is perhaps, no – Throne of Bhaal is the best conclusion to a game that I have ever played.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Thursday, November 22, 2001 - 3:23 CET by Azirath

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

Games on VR Glasses: From my understanding, most current VR glasses are set up to work with almost any OpenGL game. I've seen the PC version of MDK2 through VR glasses, for instance, even though we didn't put in any special code to support it (and it looked *really* sweet!). In other words, you should find that it works with most recent 3D games, NWN included.

One word of warning, however -- VR glasses tend to cut your frame rate roughly in half so that may limit their usefulness for processor-intensive games or people with lower- or middle-end systems.

BGII: Throne of Bhaal BETA Patch
Posted Wednesday, November 21, 2001 - 8:03 CET by Mollusken

A new Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal patch has been released by BioWare.

This BETA patch is being provided to fix a particular issue with the Throne of Bhaal 26498 patch. If you are having a problem with save and load times noticeably increasing, the new Throne of Bhaal 26499 BETA patch has been found to resolve the problem. The patch is applicable to the English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish versions of Throne of Bhaal.

Note: Please keep in mind that this patch has received limited testing and so is marked as BETA. You should only install this if you are having very slow save and load times in Throne of Bhaal. If you are not experiencing these problems, do not install this. Installation of the 26499 BETA patch must only be done after the 26498 patch is installed.

For instructions and download click here.

PoR Review at RPGVault
Posted Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - 15:45 CET by Darien

This latest review of Pool of Radiance covers the game in good detail. While it's not quite a ringing endorsement, the reviewer does leave us with a few positive comments.

Although this review has tended to focus more on aspects of Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor that I feel could have been better, my overall impression was moderately positive. I found to be worth the approximately 70 hours of playing time I put in; we require completing a game in order to review it, but I probably would have done so anyway were I just playing for myself. From one point of view, it's somewhat disappointing in that it comprises many elements that were not necessarily done badly, but did still leave room for improvement. From another however, if you're the type of gamer who enjoys a straightforward monster bashfest and you don't burden yourself with expectations of epic scope or of anything more than what the game actually offers, you may find returning to the ruins of Myth Drannor to be a worthwhile experience as well.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - 1:48 CET by Azirath

Trent Oster, Producer:

DM Interface: The DM interface was indeed held until late in development so we could use the player client interface as a starting point. We have begun work on the DM client and I've seen a rough version of one of the two major DM components. One component lists all the creatures in the current area, so you can manipulate them. The other component allows you to create creatures in real time from a tree list of creature templates. The other facets of the DM are going in over the next month or two.

It is looking quite powerful so far, Once it is all functional we can start tweaking it for ease of use and quick access.

Mods Without Scripting: Yes, you could use pre-written scripts or just create a simple dungeon hack. Both will not require scripting. We are also looking at providing "adventure templates" where you just replace the text listed and customize the adventure to your desires.

Don Moar, Lead Programmer, Tools:

Encounter System: In the NWToolset, the encounter system works like this (subject to change pending further usability tests):

1. Open Module in NWToolset
2. Open Area in Module
3. Select Desired Encounter from List
4. Draw Activation Region Polygon in Area
5. Place Spawn Points in Area

(Optional)
6. Open Properties Window of this Encounter
7. Modify Creature List
8. Set Encounter Difficulty
9. Close Encounter Properties Window
(Optional)

10. Save and Close Module

When a Player crosses the activation radius in the game, the Encounter System (subject to change pending further usability and 'fun' factor testing):

1. Determines the 'strength' or 'power' of the Players in the encounter zone (not the activation radius).

2. Randomly selects a number of creatures from that encounter's list, appropriate to the 'strength' or 'power' of the Players and the encounter's difficulty.

3. Spawns the creatures in randomly at the points specified in the NWToolset, giving preference to points not in the line of sight of any of the PCs.

This has several implications:

1. It is possible to design encounters that groups of low level Players will not activate (there aren't creatures in the list of low enough level).

2. Simply changing the encounter's difficulty (Easy - Monstrous) can have drastic results on the survivability of the Players.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Sunday, November 18, 2001 - 20:37 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

An updated version of the Weapons & Armour guide has been added to the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection.
The link to Freedom's Reign has been fixed in the TeamBG Tools subsection.

5 new portraits that were submitted to us can be found in the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection, along with three excellent new sound sets made from Diablo 1 voices.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

A new book subsection has been added, or rather an existing one filled if you prefer. Books from the popular fantasy writer David Eddings can now be found in the appropriate subsection.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Worlds

There are some new things to check out in the Fantasy Movies subsection. Take a look at the News & Rumours page for the Lord of The Rings movie. It has been updated with some interesting new scoops.

While you're at it, you can also read the latest review of Conan the Barbarian and the base info that accompanies it.

Subsection Updates -> Community

Since there have been some changes in the structure of the SP Team as of late I decided it was high time to update the About Us subsection. Two new members (Tiamat and Mollusken) have submitted their bios you can read and Erran was bumped down since he resigned the position of AORTA guildmaster. The third new crewman (Azirath) will be added to the list as soon as I get his bio. ;)

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Sunday, November 18, 2001 - 0:00 CET by Tiamat

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Skins: A "skin" is just a graphic file that is wrapped around a polygon in the game. It is not something that requires coding on the users side to do. Just the knowledge of how to create or modify one.

User Content: Actually, what we have said is that we haven't decided on how to properly support user created content. As it stands, once you figure out how things work, you could replace the texture/skin of something within the game. No coding is needed.
Valve was using the Quake codebase and it was already a well published method/format so everyone knew how to make skins.

David Gaider, Designer:

Encryption: I can't answer your technical questions about encryption, unfortunately. I do know, however, that your players don't have to have a copy of your module in order to play in it.
If you use any resources in your game that your players don't have, though, they would have to get those before they could play. So if you made your own tile-set or made some of your own 3d-models for placeable objects...they would need to dl these prior to playing.
I could be wrong, however. I'll mention the question to the programmers...though I suspect this is an issue that will change numerous times before programming is done, so will not be an easy question to answer at this point.

Modules: I don't think there's any designer at Bio who hasn't thrown around the idea of putting together their favorite module or something. I've heard 'Keep on the Borderlands' mentioned more than once.
Me, I'd love to do 'Castle Amber'.
We're all gamers...we love to play what we make because we make games we love to play. Does that make sense? So of course we'll make stuff and, no doubt, put them up on the NWN community for people to use...free time willing, of course.
I have little doubt, however, that there will be numerous people out there who will learn to use the tools to put together something of superior quality. We never have the time to tinker with our games as much as we'd like...just making them is mammoth enough of a task, probably.

Interface, and Moving Characters: The interface is constantly evolving, so anything that currently stands may not hold up.
But as it currently stands, there are two ways of moving about. One is to click on the place you want to go. Boom, the character walks there. And, yes, if the click is not far behind the avatar, it will back up.
The other is to hold down the mouse button and move the cursor in the direction you want to go. Keep the cursor farther away from the avatar and they run...closer to the avatar and they walk. It's really very intuitive (although I know the running/speed thing is being toyed with especially).
How this might work with a keyboard, or if that's being planned, I'm not sure.

Differences Between PC and NPC Dialogue: PC and NPC dialogue, on-screen, is the same. It appears above the character's head beside their portrait.
Most NPC dialogue will have a highlighted list of responses...but not all. A player who had a quick function key to type out 'Sorry, I'm too busy to talk right now.' would look pretty authentic.
I think typing speed, for the most part, will tell the difference. I was just in one module where two guards were standing around having a conversation with each other...easy to read, but probably not so quickly typeable by anyone who wasn't professional.

Making Items: You make items by flipping through choices (and there are a lot) for the various pieces. A sword, for instance, has a blade and a hilt. Lots of blades (curved, too) and lots of hilts...and you can specify color afterwards.
You can examine what you're creating in both icon mode (what it looks like on your paper doll) and in 3D mode (what it will look like in the game).
And you can add all sorts of magical effects to the weapon in the editor...including glow effects. It's very user-friendly, I've found.

Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance Ninja:

Devils: Devils? What about the ones from the Nujer Sea? I'd include them in my Blades of Steel module, wherein the player has five years to collect the four Grails of Stanley. The Grails are protected by the 30-odd monster tribes, but the player should be able to prevail. Armed only with a curved staff, a blue jacket, coffee, curry, a thick, round shuriken, and the Waingrets Key, the player will battle black hawks, thrashing sharks, wild bears, lightning-fast penguins and panthers, brave flaming hurricanes and island avalanches, depose kings and senators, oil up the sabre-wielding habitants of the Capital, capture flying stars, wing across the Blue Maple Range, and save Can-ducks from their mighty coyote predators.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Saturday, November 17, 2001 - 19:28 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Do you prefer Real Time or Turn Based combat in CRPGs?
(355 votes total)

Real Time (152) 43%
Turn Based (129) 36%
No preference (74) 21%

Not surprisingly, the Real Time combat is the most popular combat style in CRPGs with 43% of votes. In the poll I've explained that Infinity Engine's quasi-Real Time (with the pause button) was included in this category.

Trailing not much behind is Turn Based with 36% of people voting for it as their preferred style of fighting in CRPGs.

21% of those who voted have no preference and are equally happy with either of the two systems.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Saturday, November 17, 2001 - 3:22 CET by Azirath

David Gaider, Designer:

Armor Customization: You can adjust armor into any combination you wish...neck, chest, shoulder, upper arm, lower arm, gauntlet, etc...all of these are customizeable to versions of leather, chain, plate, naked with many variations therein.

I've seen cool armor that has one arm full of spikes and heavy plate, with the other one left bare. Also some cool mixtures of plate and chain and so forth...although the overall AC bonus does suffer when you leave out big portions of the full plate or substitute leather and such...but that's only to be expected, I suppose.

Weapon/Armor Editor: You make items by flipping through choices (and there are a lot) for the various pieces. A sword, for instance, has a blade and a hilt. Lots of blades (curved, too) and lots of hilts...and you can specify color afterwards.

You can examine what you're creating in both icon mode (what it looks like on your paper doll) and in 3D mode (what it will look like in the game).

And you can add all sorts of magical effects to the weapon in the editor...including glow effects. It's very user-friendly, I've found.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 23:43 CET by Azirath

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Character Levels: Really, it depends on the DM and everything else. Seriously, a 50th level character can be just as fun to play as a 1st level character if the story is set-up for proper challenge and so forth. Lower level campaigns are probably more (within the concept of fantasy) realistic, but either can be as fun.

Token Numbers: The number is one that I knew at one point, but can no longer remember. It was definitely a number with several zeroes attached. But for point of comparison, we're using less than 10 in a module, so the number is probably overkill.

Trent Oster, Producer:

Stoneskin Spell: In BG you could only cast stoneskin on yourself. Right now in NWN you can cast it on anyone or anything. I adventured for quite a while with my stoneskinned summoned dire wolf and my stoneskinned Bat familiar. Fun was had.

Casting Animations: The clerics use the same animation for spellcasting as the wizards. I don't think we will have the time to make any changes to the system to support custom casting animations for the cleric class

Item Names: Yes, you can give any item you create a custom name and description which only appears when it is identified. We have to make a game with the toolset too, so it has a lot of features which aren't obvious and don't usually appear on toolset wish lists.

PC/NPC Differences: There will be no obvious way to tell NPC characters from PC characters. The only way will be through observation, watching the character and seeing what they do. It will be possible to script characters with delays in dialogue replies and you can throw in the odd spelling mistake to make it more believable.

The truth will probably be if the character stays and talks to you it isn't a PC. If the character runs off at top speed it was probably a PC.

Day/Night Changes: This is incorrect. There is indeed a day/night system. You can set an area to transition between day and night, or you can flag the area to remain day or remain night, whatever setting complements your story best.

Character Height Variations: That is correct. We looked into height variation between characters of the same race and it involved a fair amount of work to prevent feet cutting through the terrain or floating or severe animation skating. We decided not to implement it in the initial release of NWN.

Neverwinter Nights Interview
Posted Tuesday, November 13, 2001 - 22:58 CET by Darien

MGON has posted an in-depth interview with Greg Zeschuk which looks at several areas of Neverwinter Nights, including the basic premise, the story, and the game's possible effect on the industry. Here's a short excerpt:

MGON: What sort of conversation engine are you looking to employ?

Our conversation engine is similar to Baldur’s Gate in that players chose from a variety of dialogue choices to drive conversation. The largest difference with the Baldur’s Gate series is that the choices the player is given can vary based on race, intelligence, class and events in the game – this adds even greater realism to the game. Players will also be able to use additional powers to modify conversation choices. It’s a very flexible system.

MGON: How will you look to use the concept of alignment in determining conversation and encounter outcomes.

As above – it will make a difference, as will another system we have called the Faction system. This system describes relations among all players and NPCs in the game world. It’s very interesting as every relationship has an impact – you make one faction happy and it might anger another faction. Again it’s very versatile.

Want to read more?

PoR Review at Intelligamer
Posted Tuesday, November 13, 2001 - 22:49 CET by Darien

Here's another dismal Pool of Radiance review, this time from Intelligamer. The game scores only 2 1/2 stars, and the Verdict is more of the same.

Here is a game that fails on so many levels it is hard to imagine. Almost anything is forgivable if the game play shines, and sadly, in Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor it doesn't come close. While the game gets better with time, it's nearly pure torture to slog your way through 40 hours of repetitive combat just to get to the bits that hint at what the game might have been. There isn't anything wrong with dungeon hacks, but this isn't a well realized one nor is it a particularly fun one. Save your money for something else.

Poll Problems
Posted Tuesday, November 13, 2001 - 21:39 CET by Sorcerer

I have to apologize for the lack of a new poll yesterday at the regular time... I took down the old one but couldn't create a new one because Sparklit was having some major problems which didn't allow me to set any settings on the poll. It still works only so-so, but at least I managed to get this new poll through...

So please, go here and make up for a day's worth of no voting. :)

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Monday, November 12, 2001 - 22:48 CET by Tiamat

Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance Ninja:

Characters: Your character needs to be Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance Ninja; or Chris Priestly (Evil!).
But I think the white lady, Lumina, said it best (if you want a serious answer):
"There is no other way to decide how to create a character. It must be done in harmony with your feelings."
Keep smiling, everybody!

Losing a Memory: Well, first one has to do the Dance of Cleansing, which involves marsupials, vegetables, automotive fluids of varying consistencies and colours, and noisemakers.
Then, one must seek the Paper Airplane of Ennui in the Lost Caves of Apathy, but no one seems to care about this part of the trek.
Finally, one must meditate within the Sacred 1982 Toyota Corolla of Coupe-ness for 30 days and nights (or until one is done, whichever comes first).
Then, and only then, can one-- um, then one can... you know, I've forgotten what ritual this procedure outlines. If I remember, I'll let you know. But try it out, anyway, something is SURE to happen.
Keep... doing whatever this ritual does, everybody!

Clandestine Operations: Rule number one about planning a clandestine operation over this Forum: DON'T POST YOUR PLANS ON THIS FORUM!
Rule number two about planning a clandestine operation over this Forum: The Quality Assurance Ninjas are everywhere.
Rule number three about planning a clandestine operation over this Forum: Mmmm... doughnuts...
Rule number four about planning a clandestine operation over this Forum: The line is "If my head were veal, which I know it is not, how much would it be worth?"
Rule number five about planning a clandestine operation over this Forum: Always ask permission. "Hey BioWare, can I plan a clandestine operation over this Forum"? That way, we'll know the threads to avoid.
Rule number six about planning a clandestine operation over this Forum: There is NO rule six.
Rule number seven about planning a clandestine operation over this Forum: Make sure it isn't silly, or you'll have the QA guys pouncing on it faster than a very rapid thing that is prone to pouncing on things that are amusing.
Keep planning clandestine operations, everybody!

Grumpy Gamer on PoR
Posted Monday, November 12, 2001 - 15:21 CET by Darien

The Grumpy Gamer over at CG Online has taken a look at some recent RPG games, and he had a bit to say about Pool of Radiance. Here's a short excerpt from the tail end of the column:

If you're one of the multitude of people who are buying this game but don't generally read game industry news, and you only stumbled on this article accidentally, say while looking for jpegs of the hot Vulcan babe on the new Star Trek show, let me give you this friendly warning: If the Pools of Radiance installer wants to put the game somewhere, let it. Don't argue with the friendly Pools of Radiance installer. It can get angry. And don't ever run the uninstaller. Love Pool of Radiance. Live with it. Keep it close to your chest. If you try to uninstall Pool of Radiance, it might get angry. You wouldn't like it when it's angry.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Sunday, November 11, 2001 - 19:24 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

Two new additions have been made to the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection. Check out The Big Book of (Almost) Everything, an extensive monster-battling guide and BG1 & BG2 Complete Item Texts, a handy reference of all legally and illegally obtainable items in the games.

In the Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection (Page 1) there are three new soundsets made by Grojlach, two from Futurama and one from Family Guy.

If you check out the TeamBG Tools subsection you will notice I added a link to the Freedom's Reign minimod.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

Only one addition here, namely a boxed set of the Lord of The Rings in the J. R. R. Tolkien subsection.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Worlds

There are some new things to check out in the Fantasy Movies subsection. Take a look at the News & Rumours page for the Lord of The Rings movie. It has been updated with some interesting new scoops.

Where Are Your Screenshots?
Posted Sunday, November 11, 2001 - 19:17 CET by Darien

I know they're out there, send them in! If you've got a game in progress, take a moment to capture the highlights and share your greatest triumphs (or most elaborate death scenes) with the rest of us. We're especially looking for some good shots of Torment, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate 1. Shots from their expansions, including Heart of Winter, Trials of the Luremaster, and Tales of the Sword Coast would also be great.

If you need instructions for how to take a screenshot, click here. All shots should be mailed to Taluntain at sorcerer --at-- sorcerers.net and put SotW or Screenshot of the Week in the topic. Can't wait to see some new shots! Have fun!

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Saturday, November 10, 2001 - 22:01 CET by Tiamat

Trent Oster, Producer:

Dual-Wielding: You can equip two Katanas or two longswords when dual wielding.

Resting: There is no "time compression" in NWN as there was in BG. When you rest you recover hit points and spells quite rapidly. Again, the time it takes is going to be up to playtesting, but we don't want players having time to develop other hobbies while playing NWN.

NPC Scripting: Would it be possible to script an NPC to assign a quest or challenge to the PC, and know when it's completed, then give a reward?

There are a few different ways to do this, but the easiest way to manage it is by using items. Here's an example.

Billy the PC speaks to the NPC. The NPC says, "Hi, nice to meet you Billy. Would you like a quest? I'm really looking for someone to slay the dragon. Here, take this dragonsbane, and use it to fight the dragon. You might as well keep the dragonsbane, even if you aren't going on the quest. I have plenty. See you later!"

[behind the scenes: NPC realizes that no one has talked to him yet]

Moments later, John the PC initiates dialogue. "Hi, nice to meet you John. I just gave a quest to Billy, but maybe you want to try it, too? I need a dragon killed, and that could be pretty tough. Here, take this dragonsbane, and use it to fight the dragon. You might as well keep the dragonsbane, even if you aren't going on the quest. I have plenty. See you later!"

[behind the scenes: NPC realizes the quest is active, but this person does not have dragonsbane]

Of course, this second dialogue could repeat for each and every PC that initiated dialogue.

After a short while, Billy comes back to speak to the NPC, but the dragon is still alive. The NPC sees the dragonsbane, so he knows that he gave Billy the quest. Furthermore, the PC stored Billy's name as a custom token, so he knows that Billy was the one to activate the quest.

"Hi Billy. Back so soon? Does this mean you aren't going to fight the dragon? Listen, I won't make you decide right now, but if you kill that dragon, I'll give you this magical spoon my uncle gave me. Plus, you can keep whatever treasure the dragon might have. I hear he has the original 100 X-Men comics!"

And, with a minor change for other PCs showing up...

"You know, I gave that quest to you and Billy both, but darn it - that dragon is still alive. Listen, I won't make you decide right now, but if you kill that dragon, I'll give you this magical spoon my uncle gave me. Plus, you can keep whatever treasure the dragon might have. I hear he has the original 100 X-Men comics!"

Finally, Steve decides he is going to do something about this dragon, and he goes off and kills it. From the remains of the battle, he takes the dragon's heart and brings it back to the NPC.

"Wow! I wouldn't have believed that you could have killed the dragon, but seeing his heart, I believe you now. Listen, I promised the others that I would give them a magic spoon if they killed the dragon, and though I never told you about it, I think it would be only fair to make sure you get it."

[behind the scenes: PC has no dragonsbane, but PC has heart of dragon. quest is resolved, new quest is prepared.]

And then there would be the obligatory alterations for the characters that did have the dragonsbane. And, for those character, he would take away their no-longer necessary dragonsbane.

Now, the NPC says that his first quest has been completed, and increments his global by one.

Billy the NPC walks up again. "Hi Billy. I know you never got around to completing that quest with the dragon, but that's okay because Steve killed him. So you don't need that dragonsbane anymore. But here, I have another quest. You don't have to commit to this or anything, but if you want to help me out, this is what you can do."

[behind the scenes: NPC compares custom token of quest resolver to currently speaking PC, knowing that the quest globe has been incremented by one.]

Etc. etc. etc.

Make sense?

On Charisma: "Charisma measures a character's force of personality, persuasiveness, ability to lead, and physical attractiveness."

My opinion is that a person with a stronger personality may very well seem more attractive physically. And I think it's more than fair to say that you can become more persuasive, a better leader, and have a stronger personality as you experience more of life.

David Chan, Audio Producer:

NWN Will Have All-New Sounds: We will be including a good selection of voice sets for characters and NPCs. A balance of male and female for sure. There will be a range from the serious type to the more jovial. There might even be the comic relief, it really depends on what the designers want. It will be new sounds created specifically for NWN.

Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance Ninja:

Release Dates: Allright, here we go. After eating dates, we will be releasing a date of releasing the release date's release date when the date of the release date's release is released by my date. Mmmm... re-leased dates. Keep dating, everybody!

Magical Items: I am forced (by my membership in the Royal "thanks, it's these pants" Guild of Silly, local 1) to contribute.

Wand of Call Dungeon - each charge will summon a full dungeon to come crashing down from the sky. This may require a dodge, but it can immediately be explored for XP and treasure.

Flying Boomerang of Travelling - this item may be thrown as a weapon, or--if the wielder hangs on to it--may travel with the boomerang in a flying, spinning manner. CON check to resists vomiting in flight, and another one after landing. Disadvantages: the Boomerang drops you off back where you started.

Cloak of Billsh At-Nar - wearing this cloak causes the character to... start... over... acting... and speaking... with... many.... pauses... and crying KHAAAAAAAAANNNNN!!!... occasionally.

Britney Bikini - creates the illusion that the wearer's bust size is natural

Girdle of the Priest - instantly turns wearer EVIL... mwahahahaha!) temporarily, after which it summons the dread gnomish sorcerer Trentoster, who is immediately hostile.

Sequined Hat of the Ninja - causes wearer to ramble and speak facetiously. Wearer may make a WIS check to speak seriously about anything. Donning this item also summons the dread gnomish sorcerer Trentoster, who is immediately hostile.

Pool (of Radiance) Noodle of Assured Quality - acts as a decrepit Quarterstaff +2 until wielder tries to drop the item, at which point all of the wielder's clothes and items fall to the ground, broken.

Keep smiling +3, everybody!

Pool of Radiance Review at Gameraiders
Posted Saturday, November 10, 2001 - 18:42 CET by Mollusken

At Gameraiders a new Pool of Radiance review has appeared, giving the game an overall score of 76%.

Despite minor gameplay, performance, and technical issues, the game brings a great adventure to the player. There are a lot of items to gather and goals to accomplish, keeping gamers busy for many hours. Overall, Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor is an good attempt at reviving an old game. The game's just not as good as it could have been.

Read the whole review here.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Saturday, November 10, 2001 - 17:12 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Would you buy Icewind Dale 2 if it was made using the Infinity Engine with the modifications from SoA/ToB?
(429 votes total)

Yes, definitely (291) 68%
Maybe, depends on reviews (124) 29%
No way (14) 3%

Surprisingly enough, it seems that people still aren't fed up with games made with the Infinity Engine. Not that I can blame them, since the only different type of a D&D game lately has been the poor Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. And we all know how well that was received...

Anyway, on the figures. 68% of people who voted in the poll wouldn't think twice about buying Icewind Dale 2 if it contained all the tweaks and mods that were introduced with Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal. Since BIS haven't announced any new CRPGs in quite some time, we can only hope that IWD2 will be next.

29% of poll voters would not be so quick as that and would rather wait for the reviews before heading to the shop to get their copy.

Only 3% of the poll participants exclaimed that there is no way they would buy another Icewind Dale game. Needles to say, this figure is very encouraging.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Thursday, November 8, 2001 - 21:22 CET by Tiamat

Trent Oster, Producer:

Chaotic Neutral in NWN: CN is a representation of a 'free spirit'. A character that does whatever he feels like at the time. Where would he sit on the Alignment scale? He does something lawful today, and something neutral tomorrow. His alignment would just be sliding around back and forth never staying on CN which is what he is supposed to be. So of course there will be CN in NWN.

Shifting Alignment: The alignment moves back and forth very little for each action performed, so the alignment will not be moving all over the place unless you perform wildly out of alignment actions like killing innocents.

Letting Stopped Paladins Fall: You will be able to do this in NWN, just as it is possible in pen and paper. So, if you are very knowledgable with regards to the rules you will have an advantage. (Until it gets posted to the internet as the "Killer Kombo".)

A Silly Question: Will there be spiked breatplates for female fighters? NO.

Game Development: This is the best and worst part of game development. You get to make the game you always dreamed should be made. Then, when the game is done you've been working on it so long you can't stand it. NWN has the consolation of the toolset. We can play the modules you write and have a new gaming experience.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Design Goals and Style: We're (obviously) aiming for a campaign that is as good as anything else that we've put out; as for style, we're aiming for a lot of central areas that you can wander out from to find your various modules. And as for the rest of the discussion, you can play our campaign on-line or off-line, by yourself, with some strangers, or with your friends. It's all the same game, either way. You can also download modules that other fans have made and uploaded to the 'net, or play on-line in games hosted by other users' servers. It's always been the goal to make every new game better than any older game, in every way.

Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance Ninja

Developer Joys: Are you kidding? One of my great joys is opening up a game that I had a hand in, flipping open the manual, finding my name, giggling like a schoolgirl, installing the game, either playing a new kind of character or a different play style, and then being mysterious and vague when one of my roommates asks "Hey, Stan, how do you get past this spot?"

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Thursday, November 8, 2001 - 0:31 CET by Azirath

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

NWN Mods: 6.12 - Will the ability to create custom skins and other art content be included in the game?

BioWare has a lot of respect for the considerable skills and talents of its fan base and Neverwinter Nights is all about bringing the abilities of that fan community to the forefront. The ability to include custom art content is a difficult issue and we are working very hard to arrive at a graceful means of supporting it. Until we have such a solution in the game and running, however, we don't feel that we are in a position to promise its inclusion.

Racial Modifiers and Stats: Hmm? That's 25 points. Drow have different racial modifiers than elves.

David Chan, Audio Producer:

Battle Audio: Not quite sure what you mean by charges. It will most likely be similar to BG where you select the character to do a combat action and it plays a battle cry randomly.

sound effects & music: The sounds will be very comprehensive. There will be sets of ambient sound effects for each area type, plus you can place sounds anywhere in your areas with parameters like radius, volume, looping, or random play from a list. You can use the sounds we supply or your own. If you use your own the other people playing the module will need the sounds as well.

As for music, there will be area music, combat music and possibly character specific music. As with the sound effects you can use your own as well.

You will also be able to play sounds from scripts as well. So, if you wanted to play a scream in the distance when someone enters a cave you could.

Pool of Radiance Review
Posted Wednesday, November 7, 2001 - 17:45 CET by Mollusken

This time The Electric Playground reviews PoR: RoMD, and again opinions are somewhat different from other reviews. The overall score from the reviewer is 58%.

One bright spot in the game that I particularly liked was the inclusion of a DM (dungeon master). Text, meant to represent the DM, would pop-up every so often describing something such as a smell, a change of temperature or an unexpected feeling a character might experience. This reminded me of long ago Saturday afternoons spent role-playing with friends. It was a wonderful way of adding to the atmosphere of the game.
I really wanted to enjoy this game. But the more I played the more I found myself bored and disappointed. Its uninspired dungeons, two-dimensional characters, repetitive gameplay and frustrating technical problems make this one not worth the time or the money.

The review summary is found here, the whole article is found here.

Pool of Radiance Slaughter
Posted Wednesday, November 7, 2001 - 8:01 CET by Mollusken

With the comment I want my 80 hours back, The Gamers Press gives Pool of Radiance one of it's toughest reviews so far. The score is only 4 out of 10.

In our review of Pool of Radiance, we’re going to try to cut through the tech issues and get to the main question, which is this: Beneath all the sloppy coding, it there a good game? I don’t want to give away the review, but I’ll give you a hint to the answer - it starts with an “N” and ends with an “O”.

Read the whole review here.

Lord of the Rings Movie Soundtrack
Posted Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 16:28 CET by Mollusken

SoundtrackNet has reviewed the Lord of the Rings soundtrack CD, and they have also posted a sample of each track (in mp3 format) for us to download. File are about 0,5 mb in size, so they should be available to everyone. A little something from the review:

For the record, I have not yet seen the film, so I cannot say how well the score works in that context. But as a listening experience, this album is one of the most enjoyable discs I've heard all year. Stylistically, fans of Howard Shore can expect something akin to his choral score in Looking for Richard and the dramatic tragedy of The Fly, mixed with a stirring nobility and some wonderfully interpolated ancient, almost Celtic elements. It's a dark and heartfelt score with tremendously memorable thematic motifs and plenty of drama.

Read the whole article and download the samples here.

Positive Pool of Radiance Review
Posted Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 8:06 CET by Mollusken

iHigh.com gives Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor one of the highest scores the game has got so far: 9 out of 10. Their views on for example the implementation of the 3rd edition D&D rules are very different from what we have seen in other reviews.

The implementation of the 3rd edition rules is quite successful. As in any conversion, some modifications have to be made to make rules usable on a PC. Certain spells have to be cut out, such as wish, and the spell system has had the wizards removed from it and is based exclusively on sorcerers. This is primarily because wizards, while they have much more versatility, have to re-memorize their spells after they are cast and have to spend experience to cast them. Sorcerers don't have these limitations but once they have a spell they have it forever. Feat and skill changes are set in stone for the different classes, although you are allowed multiple classes if you want to spend the experience.

Read all of it here.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Monday, November 5, 2001 - 19:28 CET by Tiamat

Rob Bartel, Co-Lead Designer:

International Translation of NWN: While I don't know the full details about what we have planned for international publishing and translation, you can rest assured that both the Neverwinter team and BioWare as a whole are well aware of the phenomenal PC game market in Korea and the interest that our games are beginning to generate there. With the flexibility and customizability inherent in Neverwinter Nights, I personally feel that it has really strong potential in foreign markets. Hopefully we can get a Korean version out to you in as reasonable a time as possible.

Trent Oster, Producer

Translating Scripting Lagnuage: When we make localized versions of NWN we will not translate the scripting language. The complexity of even attempting such a translation would be overwhelming. As to the Korean Market, we are very interested in creating a native Korean version.

More On Factions: Every party is it's own faction. So, if you haven't formed a party with anyone you are your own faction. What you do in the game will have no effect on other player's faction standings.

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Windows Compatibility: I've only run it on WinNT, but it runs very well indeed.

Computer Requirements for NWN: Our minimum system specifications currently are a Pentium II 300 MHz or AMD K6-2 350 MHz, a TNT2 or Voodoo 3 class video card, and 64 MB of RAM. An internet or LAN connection will be required for those wishing to play multiplayer games, of course, and a 56k modem should allow any such computer to support approximately 8 players or so. As bandwidth is the primary determinant of server capacity, a cable modem or xDSL line will be able to support significantly more. The maximum number of clients (player and/or Dungeon Master) allowed on a server is fixed at 64.

NWN on a Commodore: Maybe I'll have to get you guys to help me, then. I got it to run on a Commodore 128, but it would just hang on the C64. Like, I load it and run it and I get a bunch of ascii characters scrolling about halfway down the screen and then the screen blanks. After a moment, it goes back to the ready prompt. I usually have to do a hard reboot from there.

Hmm...

Screenshots do not determine final game content: DO NOT look at the screen shots as indicative of final content! Because one feat or another isn't on the list, or IS on the list, don't think it's not in the game, in the game, or implemented in a manner that will be similar to the final game content! To be honest, I don't even think that list maintained an alphabetical order throughout. That build of the game was put together in a short period of time to show off as many things as we could. So please, nobody panic! And no, you won't need 300 XP to get level 2, either.

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Is the compiler a part of the server? No, sorry, the compiler is part of the Toolset.

Animals: The art and programming departments have done a truly fantastic job on the "real" animals in NWN. It's one thing to make a cool looking orc, cuz no-one knows what one really looks like. All you have is references from artists and your own imagination. But a badger, or deer, or raven, etc you know what one looks like. If you do weak version of the basic stuff, it makes the game weak in comparison. But our guys and gals have done a terrific job and our badgers (and everything else) look like something you might see in the backyard going through the garbage.

Site News - New Additions
Posted Sunday, November 4, 2001 - 17:51 CET by Sorcerer

Subsection Updates - Games -> Pool of Radiance: RoMD

A strategy guide for going through the game solo has been added to the Walkthroughs & Guides subsection. I have also added a cheats page to the Tips, Tricks & Hints subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Baldur's Gate 2

The concurrent romance scripts (both the version for BG2 and ToB) have received a script upgrade for the Jaheira romance so you should re-download them if you have an older version you are using. Get the final version from the Page 2 of Editors, Hacks & Custom Characters subsection.

Subsection Updates - Games -> Neverwinter Nights

I've updated the list of monsters with some new ones we were able to spot on the wallpapers and screenshots released recently. You can find the list in the Miscellanea subsection.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Worlds

As usual, there are a couple of new things to check out in the Fantasy Movies subsection.
Firstly the News & Rumours page for the Lord of the Rings movie has been updated with some new scoops. Next there's a list of all fantasy movies - mail us if you know of one we've missed - for those who want to know what to rent when they're in the mood for some fantasy stuff and finally, a review of Dungeons & Dragons: The Movie, complete with some pictures.

Subsection Updates -> Fantasy Books

After going through a rehaul of the whole section last time, I needed to do it again for reasons too bloody stupid to list here. Suffice to say, there have been a couple more changes to note.

While I was at it I've added Terry Pratchett's latest book (The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents) to his respective subsection. There are also four new books in the Miscellaneous Recommended Books subsection. The first three are from George R. R. Martin - the books of his "A Song of Ice and Fire" saga. The last one is called "Hobbits, Elves and Wizards: The Wonders and Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings" and I probably don't need to explain what it's about.

Last Week's Poll Results
Posted Saturday, November 3, 2001 - 13:05 CET by Sorcerer

What we asked:

Q: Do you use game editors and/or hacks in the CRPGs you play?
(365 votes total)

Occasionally (179) 49%
No, not at all (141) 39%
Yes, all the time (45) 12%

As I expected, almost half of the people who voted in the poll (49%) use game editors or hacks in the CRPGs they play at least occasionally. Judging by the popularity of fan-made (and those semi-official ToB ones) most people have no objections to hacking or editing their games. I won't even begin to talk about the wide-spread usage of the *Keeper family of editors either, since practically everyone knows about them, even if they don't use them.

Surprising however is the number of people who don't use hacks or editors at all. Vote count for this group stopped at 39% which is quite a large number. I suppose this group consists of people who are dead-set against cheating or tweaking of any sorts and of those who are too intimidated to try any modifications to the game since they think they might break something.

12% of people who voted are hard-core game fans and edit and hack their games all the time.

Gamezilla Reviews Pool of Radiance
Posted Friday, November 2, 2001 - 13:35 CET by Mollusken

This time the game gets a positive score, with 82 out of 100. After the Gamezilla scale, this would indicate a very good game.

This game is HUGE! Anyone who buys it, plays the whole thing through (I haven’t yet) and beats the end battle is a person with drive. The only thing preventing me from scoring this graphics masterpiece in the 90’s was the somewhat weak storyline and the tedium that got me down on more then one occasion. Again, 100 hours is a long time to play a game -- you should be getting more than simply more powerful monsters once you reach the 50-hour mark. A must buy for the serious RPG player; a casual player won’t finish it.

Read all of it here.

Neverwinter Nights Forum Update
Posted Thursday, November 1, 2001 - 20:41 CET by Tiamat

Bob McCabe, Writing & Design:

Asynchronous Animations: Okay... from memory... at one point, this *was* in the game. I can clearly remember Preston (The Law) writing up those spell scripts and saying that it looked silly how they all fell over in unison. So he added in a delay which, I think, was in effect for the E3 video.

But then we started thinking about attacks of opportunity and things of that nature. If it's meant purely for eye candy, then it's not so fun when your character has to stand back up and gets killed in the process. I think at that point the effects were removed entirely. But that's where my memory gets hazy... maybe I'll see if Preston can explain this one further...

More On Animations: Okay, spells will have the variable effects in the final version; I just checked. No more falling in unison.

Greg Zeschuk, Joint CEO:

Various Traps: Gas Traps, there are definitely gas traps (or it might be my character....)

David Chan, Audio Producer:

Client-Only Installation: It would be impossible to tell wether it was 2 computers that you owned in the same house trying to play on a server or someone that is giving their key to a friend to play a pirated copy.

Marc Taro Holmes, Art Director:

Gnome and Halfling Avatars: Yes, Gnomes and Haflings get different models. You can also be a fat or skinny person of any race. As well each race has a selection of heads, and all have choice of skin and hair color, including some specialty skin colors for dark elf, drugar, half orc, sea elf, tiefling, that sort of thing....

Tileset Textures: The gist of this thread is correct.... You will not be able to make a convincing desert out of the rural tileset that ships with the game. Sorry, but hey, there are limits one of which is the texture memory available. Each tileset has to stick to a color theme....That's all we can say offically right now. We are working on ways to help teach people how to mod the tile sets, and we are certainly planning to expand the game in the future.

Derek French, Assistant Producer:

Beta Version: I would like to thank you all for your interest in beta testing Neverwinter Nights. At this time we have no public information about the beta, nor do we have a timeline for the beta. The game is still under development.

Noel Borstad, Programmer

Local Variables: Rather than global variables, we have something called 'local variables' which can get set on any object in the game (module, area, creature, etc...) which can be accessed by any other object.

Another Pool of Radiance Review
Posted Thursday, November 1, 2001 - 19:34 CET by Mollusken

This time we go to Wewp! to find the Ruins of Myth Drannor with another medium rating of 6.

Several aspects of the game got quite annoying. The fact that none of your characters could travel off the screen from each other. So much for having your Rogue go up ahead and scout, eh? Some skills were activated automatically instead of manually. Search was one of these. All you need to do to find a secret door is walk along the walls of the dungeons. If you have rolls turned on, you will see all your characters instantly make roll checks when you pass by a secret door, informing you that there is in fact a secret door there even if no one made their checks! You could turn rolls off, but then you wouldn’t see what I am about the rant about. The random number generator algorithm is F’d UP!! My Paladin had a +15 to hit, yet he always seems to roll just under what he needs to hit his opponent, like a 3 or 4. I found most of my other characters like to roll 6’s quite a lot. This is NOT my imagination either. Every single friggen’ combat was like this. 4… 1… 12… 6.. 5.. .6.. 15.. . 16… 6…5 etc.. The monsters somehow always rolled high. My Sorcerer/Monk with an Armor Class of 25 at get hit roughly 1 in every 6 swings. I check the type of monsters I am fighting to see what kind of attack bonus they have and it was usually +1 to +4.. (according to my official 3rd Edition Monster Manual, which I guess means D*CK in this game). That means they need to roll a natural 20 to hit me. How does that come out to me getting hit about every 6 attacks? Seems like.. oh.. roughly every 20th attack should hit me (a 1 in 20 chance after all)? At this point, I turned off rolls and played the rest of the game ignoring the grossly misprogrammed number generator.

Read all of it here.

Two New Pool of Radiance Reviews
Posted Thursday, November 1, 2001 - 19:19 CET by Mollusken

Gamers Uplink and GameZone have both posted reviews of Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. With clearly different views, Gamers Uplink gives the overall rating of 8.5, while GameZone gives only a 6.

From Gamers Uplink:

I think that Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor has raised the bar again for FRPG. This game strong in most aspects and should be rock solid with the upcoming bug patches. The old game absorbed days of my time but I think this one has the potential to absorb months of it. I would recommend this game to anybody who likes D&D or FRPG's. Put away your copies of Diablo II for a bit and come see a classic reborn into a new age of gaming.

From GameZone:

PoR: Ruins of Myth Drannor is an attempt to carry on in the enthusiastic adventuring spirit of games like the Baldur’s Gate series.  Unfortunately by offering little to no role-playing experience and by being based on an outmoded and poorly accessed combat system PoR is anything but radiant.

Neverwinter Nights Wallpapers
Posted Thursday, November 1, 2001 - 8:10 CET by Mollusken

BioWare has released a couple of new Neverwinter Nights desktop wallpapers. Click your resolution below to download.

Bats 800*600 1024*768 1280*1024

Badgers 800*600 1024*768 1280*1024