from BGchronicles.com



Session Start: Wed Feb 11 12:13:24 1998

*** Mod3 sets mode: +m

(Ilibard) I'd like to welcome you all to the first monthly chat sponsored by the Vault Network (http://www.vaultnetwork.com).
(Ilibard) Tonight, we are very pleased to have with us Ray Muzyka, the CEO of Bioware Corp, who is producing Baldur's Gate for Interplay.

(bw-ray) CFO and joint-CEO, actually

(Ilibard) Ray - I'll let you introduce the other members of your staff who are here as well.

(bw-ray) Don is one of the senior programmers, Lukas is my lead writer, and Ben is my line producer...think that's about it who made it here.
(bw-ray) All good fellows.

(Ilibard) Before we begin, is there anythging you'd like to say in opening, Ray?

(bw-ray) Just to thank everyone for coming out, and that we'll try and answer as many questions as possible!

(Ilibard) OK. On that note, let's get the ball rolling. Go ahead and send questions to the moderators.
(Ilibard) [Harliquin ) okay...There are lots of configuraable options for controling your party, can you give us some examples?

(RayAtBio) Well (welcome Caspiar = James, my lead designer), we allow the weapons to be configured for quick use, the spells for quick use, and the items for quick use.
(RayAtBio) Similar to the way that Diablo allowed spells to be configured to four buttons, but slightly more complex, and a little more flexible. For example, for an archer character you can have one bow set up to fire magic arrows, one for poison arrows, and one for regular arrows.
(RayAtBio) A mage might have the dagger set for throwing as well as stabbing. Spells can be similarly hotkeyed, as can items.
(RayAtBio) Each of the bows in the above example would correspond to a key on the weapon hotkeys, which map to the function keys.

(Ilibard) (Gryst) How much control will we have over NPCs in our party? Example: if a thief NPC is in my party, can I ask him to pick a pocket for me?

(RayAtBio) Yes. You have full control over everyone in your party - they are all full PC's (player characters) once they join you.
(RayAtBio) And we have picking pockets in the game - it randomly chooses an item from the victim (if you are successful).

(Ilibard) [GregS ) Exactly how will starting stats be determined for your character ? ANy rolling ? A minimum amount plus a pool to distribute ?

(RayAtBio) Feargus is the main man at Interplay's RPG division - welcome Gus!
(RayAtBio) Starting stats are determined by rolls, which can then be modified by adjusting stats up or down.

(Ilibard) (MMartigan) Is there a "main" character, where if he dies the game is over, even though the rest of the party may be alive?

(RayAtBio) The main character is the first character you create, and if he or she dies, you must load the game from a saved slot.

(Ilibard) (Harliquin) What can you tell us about the AI scripting language?

(RayAtBio) It is fairly complex, and is a scripting language that we have created here. There will be three ways to approach editing a PC's script: 1) don't touch it (if you don't want to muck with scripts, you don't have to); 2) edit it by loading in a new script from a premade list that we provide (easy and quick); or
(RayAtBio) 3) edit the scripts line by line in a text editor outside the program (can be simple or complex, depending on how much you edit).
(RayAtBio) The AI scripts will provide a lot of flexibility in how the characters in your party react to the world...
(RayAtBio) e.g. if a mode dangerous foe is seen you can tell your party members to act accordingly.

(Ilibard) How much will your party be controlled by AI, and how much by the player?

(RayAtBio) Now, the editing of scripts might be able to occur within the program, if we can get this working...else it might have to be done via a text editor outside the program.
(RayAtBio) The realtime editing of scripts is a complex issue.
(RayAtBio) The AI can be turned on/off as you wish...if you want the PC's to be free of AI control, you can immediately toggle this off (i.e. if they are doing something stupid).

(Ilibard) (ReDDoG) what about interactivity with environment? I thought one of the low points in Diablo was that you couldn't manipulate very many objects. How will BG rank in this field?

(RayAtBio) Even while AI is on, you can still give them orders. But they might respond to new threats...
(RayAtBio) You can manipulate the objects in the environment that have uses. We have a LOT of interaction with the characters in the game world, but we chose to limit the number of forks you can pick up.
(RayAtBio) You don't need to hoard silverware in BG, nor do you have to worry about going to the bathroom.

(Ilibard) [Crumwell ) at present, how many spells in game, and also how many type of monsters in game!

(RayAtBio) There are...lessee...do you know the exact count of spells James? Close to 100, right?
(RayAtBio) And I think there are...about 40-50 types of distinct monsters.
(RayAtBio) Over 100 spells.

(Caspiar) Okay............there's probably close to 100

(RayAtBio) There are close to 500 creatures in the game world (uniques), and these represent about 40 or so different monster types.
(RayAtBio) Kevin is one of the lead QA types here at BioWare.

(Ilibard) Will there be many sub-quests in the game, or will the focus be on the main plot?

(RayAtBio) There are about 100 subquests in the game, James says (and he and Lukas wrote most of them, so he would know).

(Ilibard) Will there be a demo version released before the game ships?

(RayAtBio) John! Johnny G is my art director, and the prolific creator of art concepts for the game.
(RayAtBio) There will be a demo version of the game, and it will come out shortly before main game release. There will first off be a non-interactive demo, which should come out shortly, and then a full interactive demo, with a short adventure to play through.

(Ilibard) (Ueser) How much of the plot is based on the Known history of Baulder's Gate from AD&D Forgotten Realms ?

(Caspiar) We have used every source book published concerning Baldur's Gate.

(RayAtBio) We have heavily researched the game using the source materials from TSR. We draw very heavily on these books...

(Ilibard) [CDR-1 ) Will wizard's be able to enchant or make there own spells?

(Caspiar) The plot is original, but many of the characters and locations will be familiar to those who have run campaigns in the Sword Coast region.

(RayAtBio) No. That might occur in the sequel though...higher level.

(Ilibard) [|Zen| ) How many subquests/extended main quests will be in each addon pack?

(LukeAtBio) The first mission pack planned has an extensive number...

(RayAtBio) There are a few main quests in the mission packs...go ahead, James or Lukas...
(RayAtBio) And a lot of subquests.

(LukeAtBio) ranging from new areas, to adding new quest in pre-existing ares

(Ilibard) (Malix) Can you recruit monsters into your party? Or just people of the 5 races?

(RayAtBio) You can charm monsters, and summon monsters. They can't be the six main characters though. But you can control them.
(RayAtBio) And undead....you can control those too, though it's bad for the reputation and alignment might switch to evil... :)

(Ilibard) [Sleemer ) (Sleemer) will new character class choices be available in add-ons?

(RayAtBio) Perhaps. This is not known right now. But we'll try.

(Caspiar) I really think it would be cool to have the Psionicist in the sequel. What about you Ray?

(RayAtBio) Um...maybe in the Dark Sun universe, but Interplay doesn't have that license

(Ilibard) Ray, could you explain briefly how the multiplayer component of BG works?

(RayAtBio) The multiplayer game has exactly the same story as the single player game...it's just with 5 humans rather than 5 AI's.
(RayAtBio) You log on with your fellow adventurers much as in a pen and paper game...remember the box sets of old?

(Ilibard) (ReDDoG) will there be various types of multiplayer matches, such as CTF or King of the Hill type things? Or can multiplayer matches involve two teams racing to complete a quest?

(RayAtBio) Not in this game. Cooperative play only (you can fight, but this is between yourselves)
(RayAtBio) The key thing is the story, which is like a module from the AD&D roleplaying games.

(DonAtBio) The multiplayer experience Baldur's gate provides will be much different than what many got used to in Diablo.

(RayAtBio) Very different.

(RayAtBio) Long term game play with the same group is one difference.

(Ilibard) Will you be able to save the game and resume it with your friends later?

(RayAtBio) Yes.

(Ilibard) (Zarth) Has there been any decissions made about having a Multiplayer join different games? I know I'll be adventuring with different people at different times, and would like to continute to use my character and not someone elses.

(RayAtBio) We contemplate having the players who don't show up for later sessions being AI controlled.

(DonAtBio) You can also let a new player take over an character that was played by a previous person.

(RayAtBio) You will probably be able to export the CHARACTER, but items have to be left behind.

(Ilibard) jer_777 ) will there be a place like Battle.net where you can find people to play with?

(RayAtBio) We contemplate having a message board, where you can exchange IP addresses and find people to adventure with.
(RayAtBio) It won't be quite like battle.net, but since you find a group and largely stick with that group, there is less need to log on continually with the board.
(RayAtBio) But the same general idea.

(Ilibard) (Crumwell) How big of a factor will lag be in multiplayer, and can you setup minimum ping levels

(RayAtBio) The game is quite lag tolerant (we believe - this has not yet been fully tested). As for minimum ping levels...since you adventure with 5 others, you can choose to quit at any time if the lag is too high. Interesting idea though.

(Ilibard) [Sleemer ) if the host of the multiplayer game leaves, can another player control his character?

(RayAtBio) No. The host will be required to play (and serves as the leader of the game). He or she starts the game out.

(Ilibard) So a host computer is required?

(RayAtBio) Only in the sense that one player serves as the host - the leader, who creates the game.
(RayAtBio) I.e. server host, yes.

(Ilibard) So if he crashes, it doesn't take down the whole game?

(RayAtBio) It might. We're still working on this.

(Ilibard) [jer_777 ) if you played a multi player game with 2 people, who would control the npcs in your group? can everyone in the group control the npcs?

(RayAtBio) RIght now it would probably be the server host. But we're working on making these assignable to others in the party.

(Ilibard) How much did the inclusion of multiplayer delay the production of Baldur's Gate?

(RayAtBio) Several months. Not mostly because it takes a long time to put it in (it doesn't), but rather because QA for multiplayer will take longer.
(RayAtBio) More variables to worry about...

(DonAtBio) Multiplayer also affects the single player game, not in how it plays but in how it is implemented.

(RayAtBio) Yes, and because we were firmly in favor of putting in multiplayer, we decided to make it as clean as possible and put it in the main release.

(Ilibard) [Cadfael ) Will there be autosaves for multiplayer games? Or will AI take over immediatly if say a router failed for a player that is not the host?

(RayAtBio) Autosaving is possible.

(Ilibard) (GILSHADU) What about an auto pause feature for the game sort of Psuedo Realtime?

(RayAtBio) Auto pause is possible. We might put this in as an option.

(KevAtBioW) We'll see in playtesting...

(Ilibard) [Sleemer ) what animals could the Druid possibly change into? Will there be any way to fly?

(RayAtBio) Druids can shapechange into any available animal in the area that they are in. No, no flying.
(RayAtBio) Only when Druids reach 7th level in the game can they do this (it's normally 8th level).

(Ilibard) Are you concerned at all about people hacking characters or cheating in multiplayer?

(RayAtBio) No, since you play with a small group for an extended period cheating is somewhat pointless.
(RayAtBio) Cooperative gameplay...

(RayAtBio) You'd only hurt your friends...

(KevAtBioW) It won't be worth your effort to cheat...and no one would want to play with you...

(Ilibard) (MMartigan) if a player in a multiplayer game are being asses, can the person running the server boot them out of the game?
(Ilibard) OK, folks. We're finishing with the Q&A phase, so we're going to unmoderate the channel in just a sec and let the guys from Bioware hang out.

(KevAtBioW) Music will be a big part of Baldur's Gate....
(KevAtBioW) As well as sound effects....

(Ilibard) I'd like to send a big thanks out to Ray and the whole gang at Bioware for showing up for the chat. Thanks a ton!

*** ChrisLTD sets mode: -m

(BADWished) Is there Still going to be a DVD Version? and can the game be complety installed to a Harddrive is so How big?

(RayAtBio) DVD...yes. Complete install.. yes.

(PJ_) what about line of hearing(kinda like the line of sight?

(RayAtBio) No line of hearing.

(Ilmarin) When engaging in HTH combat, is distance from foe a factor? Or do you simply move into a set range and automatically swing at them?

(RayAtBio) You move to set range and swing.

(Ilmarin) Music won't be streaming, so how is it handled?

(RayAtBio) Music is streaming.

(Harliquin) QUESTION: Is the AI scripting basically like C++? or Perl or what?

(RayAtBio) Scripting is like C++, yes.

(Valdier) Ray, like C++ including functions and all?

(RayAtBio) No C++ functions...we have our own scripting language.