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Someone at Black Isle actually listened to our questions... and provided answers.
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Someone let Ilya Popov ask Chris Parker of Black Isle Studios some questions about Icewind Dale, so here they are:
1. I was told of an interface change from that of Baldur's Gate. What things are being changed? Is there anything specific about BG's interface that was bothersome to the design of Icewind Dale?
Nothing major is being changed in the Baldur's Gate interface. We are essentially giving the interface a facelift just to make sure that the artwork matches the feel of the game. Overall the usage of the interface
will not change.
2. What towns will be seen in Icewind Dale? All 10 towns of the Ten Town area? Or only certain sections?
Only the town of Easthaven is going to be featured in Icewind Dale. We are spending more time working on dungeon type levels than town type levels as a whole, as this is the focus of the game. There will be a
reasonably large amount of time spent in towns and such, but our focus is more on combat and exploration.
3. In the Icewind Dale trilogy, it's made clear that barbarians are the racial enemy of all of Icewind Dale and want nothing better than to take over it. Does this mean that a barbarian cannot be part of the group?
We aren't adding any optional character classes to Icewind Dale that aren't in Baldur's Gate, with the possible exception of specialty clerics. Therefore, no barbarians... sorry.
4. The game uses hardware acceleration. What sorts of things are being "accelerated" that we would recognize (or perhaps not) from Baldur's Gate and TOTSC?
The overall framerate is not going to be largely affected by the 3D cards, primarily because the engine is still a 2D sprite based engine. The boost we get from the 3D cards is primarily seen in the places where it was the worst in Baldur's Gate, when there were a large number of sprites and effects in the game - so primarily in combat. So they will make the overall game play at a more constant and enjoyable framerate. We are able to do some cool background effects with transparencies that weren't so easy before.
5. Most games allow saving during any period in the game, but in Baldur's Gate the game could not be saved while in the middle of casting a spell or in a battle. Will Icewind Dale adapt a different sort of thinking?
Not at all. The reason we didn't allow saving during combat or combat actions (and why the game wasn't paused whenever you were in the inventory screen) was to more closely simulate real pen and paper role
playing games. We hoped, and I think succeeded, in getting the player to think about making sure their player was well equipped and ready to rock before they adventured further. We are sticking to the same philosophy.
6. When I first heard of Icewind Dale being translated into a game, I feared a Diablo clone, as the words "dungeon crawl" describe Diablo fairly well. What sort of elements are being added to Icewind Dale to heavily distinguish itself from Diablo and Baldur's Gate?
You should think of Icewind Dale as a sort of halfway point between BG and Diablo. Diablo was highly action based with essentially no significant dialogue or quests, and was extremely fun. Baldur's Gate was
highly dialogue based with a ton of quests, and was also extremely fun. We are trying to mix the more dialogue and quest intense nature of Baldur's Gate with an action combat and puzzle environment (the dungeon). On top of that we have really big monsters, completely different and interesting environments, a very driving story, and a number of BG engine tweaks that should all hopefully mix to make a great gaming experience for the player.
7. What kind of music should the audiences expect this time around? More dark music ala the mine music from Baldur's Gate and/or Diablo? Or will there be more musical variety than in anything predating Icewind Dale?
We haven't decided on our musical direction for Icewind Dale yet. There is going to be a large variety of music, certainly no less than Baldur's Gate; and hopefully I can learn from my experience on that project
and we can use it more efficiently so that it will be less repetitive.
8. I'm sure fans have been crying out for code to create their own maps. What's your opinion on this, and is it something that could possibly happen?
The Bioware Infinity Engine, the engine that runs Baldur's Gate, is behind Torment, and is now being used for Icewind Dale is extremely complex. I think both Bioware and Black Isle agree that it would take an immense amount of work to get the editors to a releasable state (there are over 20 separate editors for the game) and document them properly. Neverwinter Nights, which is being developed at Bioware, has had the goal of user-created levels from the start and will be our first foray into that area.
9. With Bioware currently using the Omen engine to create Neverwinter Nights, why was it decided that the Infinity engine would be used for Icewind Dale?
The primary reason is the Bioware Infinity Engine is done and the Omen engine is not. =)
10. What sort of expansions are being considered if any? Replayability is a large factor in a game's success, and once a game is over, it's over. Perhaps downloadable missions/dungeons? Or disks that can be bought that add new missions and expand to new stories or the current story? Personally I'd love to have more meat and bones added to Baldur's Gate, to be able to move outside the Sword Coast.
Currently there aren't any expansions planned. If we decide to do any in the future I am sure you will all hear about them. But for now, we are just going to finish this one, and we plan to have it stand alone as a
single product.
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