Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update

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(Originally posted by Z-Layrex)

Doug Avery, Associate Producer

Mass email sent out and collector’s edition: 1) Okay, just to lay any fears to rest, that e-mail was sent out to everyone on the Interplay mailing list. Heck, I received it this morning. If you've pre-ordered from us, your order will still be processed unless you receive something to the contrary.

2) The CE is the only place you can get the spiral bound manual.

3) Electronic's Boutique is also offering the CE from their online store, but they are getting them from our online store.

I hope that answers all of the questions that have been posed here. If not, ask away.

Icewind Dale: Ark of Warrior: Allow me to clarify. It is Icewind Dale, Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster being released in one package. There may be more swag included, but that is the core of the package. The title is currently under debate. There are currently no plans for an expansion to Icewind Dale II...it's big enough as it is.

J.E Sawyer, Lead Designer

Spell scrolls: Yes, you can get all of them. None of the spell scrolls are random. You can buy most of them and find the rest. Also, there are duplicates of most spells. There are a lot of scrolls in the game, including low-level ones later on in case you multi-class.

Killing children: All versions of IWD2 will have unkillable kids. Imagine that we're using GURPS cinematic rules and all the kids have their tunics pulled up over their heads.

Bards getting CHA bonus added and Paladins/Rangers getting WIS bonuses added on: They certainly do. A while ago, someone doubted the effectiveness of certain enchantment school spells in the game (Charm Person, Hold Person, Confusion, etc.). Here's a screenshot from my first run through the game. The wizard has a 19 Intelligence and Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment.

I encountered packs of these barbarians. They usually contained a dozen barbarian warriors and a barbarian shaman. Every time my wizard cast Confusion, almost all of the barbarian warriors failed their save by a huge margin. I tried just using blasting magic on them, but it was nowhere near as effective.

It depends upon whom you are using the spells. Using area effect damage spells that grant a Reflex save are usually not very effective against high level warrior characters and (especially) monks and rogues. They are great against masses of mid-level guys who aren't rogues or monks.

Fighters and feats: Fighters get feats very often, and it is frequently in your interest to gain focus and specialization in more than one weapon -- even melee weapons. Remember, all IWD2 fighters start with basic proficiency in ALL weapon types. Focus and Specialization in two weapons costs only four feats total.

Tex Yang, Quality Assurance

Skill points: Characters always get a minimum of 1 skill point even if their modifiers go into negatives.

Killing a lone mage: That is definitely true in IWD2 - a lone mage is a walk in the park even if they're high level, but throw in a few support units to keep the party busy for a few seconds, and suddenly they become extremely deadly.

Precise shot: Personally I haven't used it too much, as I'm more of a melee hacker, but there are some monsters that move extremely fast, thus closing the distance between them and an archer very quickly. If you don't micro-manage a lot, it's nice to have if you want your character to just do their own thing (Sometimes things get thick and heavy as well, and you don't really have time to micro-manage everyone), plus some enemies have this feat too, so it's helpful to them when they're cornered and do not have a melee weapon. In my opinion, this feat is more for role-playing and variety, but hey you never know when something might end up being useful.

Spot skill: There is no spot skill in IWD2. The only 'trap' that can be 'set' is the one that ghostwise halflings get.

Difficulty levels: Besides the monsters hitting more often and harder, you'll most likely get more XP in the earlier levels, thereby raising the party's level compared to the maps and generating more monsters on the process. If you adventure with less than a full 6, it gets even worse, since you'd advance a bit faster than that still.

Alchemy: Alchemy is a pre-req for the envenom weapon feat, is used in some dialogue checks, and also some other things in-game which which would be spoiler material if I divulged it.

Wall spells: I believe wall of moonlight and wall of fire were the only two that made it into the game.

Scott Everts, Technical Designer

Screen resolutions: At one point both 800 and 1024 were "supported". The rev I have at home only has 800 in the supported category while the other 3 are in the "unsupported" category. Now earlier versions were not like that. They had 800 and 1024 in the supported category. But I don't have the latest version at home so its possible it moved back.

Even if 1024 is unsupported I don't know of anyone at work that has had problems playing in that resolution. Its always worked fine for me on both my two work machines and my home machine. Now the higher resolutions do have some problems depending on the video card RAM you have.

The only reason I can think that 1024 was moved to "unsupported" was that it required more video RAM then what the basic system requirements allowed. All my machines have 4 megs or more of video RAM and the game works fine in 1024.

Don't know if that helps. When the game comes out try it on your system and see what happens. If you have problems, just drop it to 800x600.

Part of game most proud of: I'm most happy with the new interface. Brian, Aaron and I put it together and I think it turned out very well. And thanks to the programmers for making the code changes to make the new stuff work!

I'm also happy with the 3rd edition change. It was a very difficult job but it makes the gameplay very different. Character generation is so very flexible now. You can spend hours making a party (if you want to).