[Memnoch]

Part 3. Some interesting info on how dragons will be handled.


Throne of Bhaal
Kevin Martens (Lead Designer)
High level Turn Undead: There's nothing 'special' but it does kick ass. On a related note, did you know that evil clerics can turn paladins now?

David Gaider (Senior Designer)
Class specific quests: There isn't any room in the expansion for putting in quests that only 1/8th or less of the player base is going to see. Everything in the expansion has to be accessible to everyone...if it wasn't, it would seem quite short to the individual player even though there might be a lot of content in there.

Besides, at this point the plot revolves around the PC's status as a Child of Bhaal...and that is universal regardless of class.

Using custom items: There's no way for us to know what will happen to the game if you change anything or bring your own items in. We certainly don't account for those items when we design the game. You do so at your own risk, as with any kind of alteration.

The Wyvern in the Adventurers mart: The Wyvern in the Adventure Mart is just what she appears to be. Kevin put her in...maybe he had a character once who had a pet wyvern named Lucy or something (sounds like the beginning of a Jan story), but maybe not.

Sometimes we designers can be a bit perverse.

(Ummm...not to be confused with 'perverts'...)

Monsters being able to open doors: The problem with this is the way the engine is set up via object-recognition. Were we to start over and work on a new engine (like, say, Neverwinter Nights), we might take something like this into account...but currently in the Infinity engine there is no 'door' object that exists.

The doors, themselves, exist...but solely as graphical objects that have been laid down. I, as a scripter, can refer to a specific door (ie. "DoorO2" or "Door1240") but not to "a door".

Furthermore, a specific door only exists to a creature if they can see it (if it's not in fog-of-war).

So in order to get a creature to use a door, I would have to give each room of creatures in an area its own scriplet, something like this:

IF
!See([GOODCUTOFF]) //if I don't see the party
See("Door02") //but I do see Door02
OpenState("Door02",FALSE) //and Door02 is closed
!Heard([ANYONE],151) //and no-one's in combat
THEN
RESPONSE #100
MoveToObject("Door02") //go to the door
OpenDoor("Door02") //open it
END

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I suspect this scriplet would probably work, but like I said...it would have to be tailored to each individual fight. That'd be a lot of fights to go back to in BG2...and a lot of testing to be done again to make sure nothing screwy happened (which it probably would...I've never used the above script except in cut-scenes so it's hard to say whether it would work as I think).

We know what you're talking about...and while in some cases it might seem cheesy, we also don't allow the players to exactly get behind a door and block it, cast Wizard Lock or barricade it some fashion, either...so, in a way, it's a trade-off that monsters can't use most doors, I think.

Something to chew on, I suppose.


Throne of Bhaal
David Gaider (Senior Designer)
Updating the Dragon AI: A lot of the fights are going to be pretty tough, that's true. But that's because you're going to have a pretty tough party. The idea, however, is that the fights should be challenging without being impossible (or nearly so). Impossible fights lead to frustration, which is not fun. Sure, some uber-gamers might complain a fight is too easy, but I would rather allow an easy victory than have a battle that half of the player base can't get by fairly.

I'm not making an uber-dragon. I'm making a dragon that has less loopholes in its AI, that's going to fight you with a bit more intelligence, that puts a bit more thought into when it uses its breath weapon and wing buffet and uses its spells more effectively.

I'm not putting a dragon in a null-magic field or anything like that...every type of player should have a fair shot. No worries, my friend...a 'nightmare' expansion is not what we're interested in.


Throne of Bhaal
Mark Darrah (Lead Programmer)
XP gained past the cap and ToB: The game does keep track of XP beyond 2.95 million. As soon as you install TOB this will be lost.

The reason for this is so that you DO NOT instantly gain several levels.
David Gaider (Senior Designer)
Number of spells for Old Dragons: Well, the thing with this is that even the oldest dragons apparently only have 2 1st through 4th level spells and 1 5th level. That's not exactly enough to go toe to toe with an archmage.

There could be exceptions, true, but I wouldn't want to make that the rule.

A Dragon's lair being to his advantage: In PnP, the lair is to their advantage because they can fly. How does a dragon take advantage of their lair in the Infinity Engine?

There was a post above that mention using a Tail Slap (or something similar) that would cause an Earthquake-like effect. I kinda like that.

Dragon's casting silence and being immune to low level spells: I could certainly see Silence...they do get cleric spells in addition to wizard spells. And in the last script I just did, the 'smart' dragon targets mages with his spells and attacks until the melee opponents really begin to annoy him...which seems to work OK so far.

But immune to 4th level spells and lower. I dunno. There's enough big bosses that have plenty of immunities without giving ones to dragons that they shouldn't have.

Some good ideas, though, and I like some of the other ones I've seen, too. Wouldn't walking into a dragon who suddenly put up Death Ward and Spell Immunity: Abjuration and Stone Skins be a little specific, though? Would you think 'hey, smart dragon, this should be a challenge' or would you just roll your eyes and see another reload coming?

From what I can see, the problems with dragons are as follows:

1) Too easily defeated by lowering their Magic Resistance and then using an instant-death spell.
2) They don't recognize the true dangers facing them, spending time on summoned monsters and fighters instead of the mages.
3) Their offensive powers (whether magical or breath weapon) aren't used well/often enough.
4) They don't see and/or deal with invisible opponents well enough.

Is that about right? Because I THINK I can script around these things. But you have to be careful, because it should be challenging...not impossible.

Adding drugs into the game: I think there are almost as many stereotypes about the people who make games for a living as there are about Dungeon & Dragons and role-playing in general. Unfortunately, not a lot of them are very positive. Growing up, D was not only a hard sell to my parents but to my school when I wanted to start a D club.

I know that drugs is a part of life, and probably part of life in the Forgotten Realms as well...but hey, you know as well as I do that drugs is almost as sensitive an issue as violence. There's room for edgy material in almost every project, and I enjoy it as much as anyone else, but in a game that includes kids as part of its market let's not try to deliberately shoot ourselves in the foot, eh?

I know you were talking about an item you wanted to see in the game, sure, but as someone who still gets the occasional weird look when I tell someone I design computer games for a living, I know that perception is a big thing. It was a small miracle that I was able to convince my school's principal that D was a tool for creativity and a positive thing...I love computer gaming and I love role-playing, and I'd hate to see either slandered by offering free ammunition to those who are ignorant of its true value.

I know that wasn't the aim of your post, but it brought this thought to mind...especially considering recent events down in the U.S. I'd love to work in a society where edgy entertainment was viewed solely as that...entertainment...and not some mind-warping influence on children who no doubt encounter a hundred other influences to make them who they are. I feel fortunate that we can include what we do and have the freedom we have...because the alternative, vanilla PC-sensitive monitored output, strikes me as a very frightening thing.

And then again, it also makes me wonder to what extent we have a responsibility to the public. Do we? Or is our responsibility solely to provide the best entertainment we can? Sobering thoughts.

(And I apologize for the sudden introspection...it's late and I'm tired and about to go to bed.)

I don't find any fault with the request...after all, some form of drugs probably do exist, so why does it have to be potion after potion after potion all the time?

I just find it frustrating that we have to take into consideration that there are those who would turn what I would consider harmless fun into something much more meaningful than maybe it should be.

A harmless question to put forth, I guess, but you never know.



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