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News and notes on the game, prior to it's release
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If it wasn't for all the bugs I would have finished this game three times over. I have better things to do with my time than beta testing release problems!
The extract and link below is from Bioware. Interplay, bless 'em - NOT - still insist TOTSC has no bugs. Yeh, right!
May 19, 1999
BG Temple
Tales of the Sword Coast This review was copied from
[ Baldurs Gate II Temple ]
Just to round a few things up, if you load up the final save game you will then start in one
of the new areas called Ulgoth`s Beard and the only other change will be to do with the final
battle, as your characters will be able to gain more levels due to a higher xp cap, the
consequently the final battle with Sarevok and his minions will be more difficult.
I think most of this makes sense, most of the new additions to gameplay will add more
realism to the game, and for example with the backstabbing from behind it will make some
battles harder. Pretty much all of the above list makes sense and will make welcome
additions to the way the game is played.
Summary:-
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"Tales of the Sword Coast is in full QA now. The bug lists are being passed
around and the bugs are being killed. The voice over will be ready shortly and will be added
along with the movies. These are the last things to add as far as content goes. It's coming
together surprisingly well, and on time. You'd almost think that we've done this before
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"When you install the expansion you can load any save you wish - whether
it be the final save or any other - and continue playing in the game world. Once you have
loaded this save, you will be able to play the new installed areas, but the final battle
with Sarevok (which is the end of the game) will still need to be refought. It's being
toughened up a bit for the expansion. The reason why the final battle (i.e. the end of the
game) needs to be refought is that otherwise we would have to re-QA the entire game in
a "post-final" battle chapter (in essence, a chapter 8) - which wasn't/isn't feasible - i.e.
the amount of dialogue and resultant QA that would have to be added in would have delayed
the release considerably."
XP Cap Clarified - Belgarion 28/2/99
"Non-hacked versions will play the game we designed - with the XP cap of 89,000 and the expansion started at the XP shown in the character record page (89,000 if they reached the cap, less than that if they didn't). Hacked characters will be imported "as is," with no attempt to either modify down the XP of the hacked characters, but no guarantee that they will work either. Installing the expansion will add new adventures and areas to explore which will allow you to continue to gain XP to 161,000."
A Day On the boards - Belgarion 27/2/99
"The final save game, when loaded, will place you in Ulgoth's Beard. You technically will have NOT defeated Saravok. This means that you would have to fight him again to create another "final save" game to be importable to further BG products that would include you TOTSC XP. Saravok will have been make tougher to compensate for your higher level party, and to make it worth your while
That was Ben`s input on the matter and now on to Greg`s:
"We have made a few changes to the start of the adventure pack, based on everyone's input. If you have NOT completed the game of Baldur's Gate, the installation of TSC will not impact your game play - i.e. you will pick up where you left off, however there will be new higher level areas to adventure in (once you find them). (Note: stay away from these areas until you are ready - you will die REALLY fast). If you HAVE finished the game of Baldur's Gate, the installation of the adventure pack will transport you to the village of "Ulgoth's Beard" where you will be able to start accessing the new areas immediately. If you return to Baldur's Gate, the game will pick up where you left it - with the exception that the final battle will still need to be fought (and it will be tougher the second time around). If you have already finished the game, the game state remains the way it was just prior to the final battle, however you will appear in the game world in the town of Ulgoth's Beard. What this means is that you can play through all of the additional areas without returning to Baldur's Gate, if you wish, or you can finish the new areas, and then return to Baldur's Gate for another round with the big guy. Again, this is only if you want to start with a save game from just prior to the final battle. If you desire, you could either start over, or start a save game that you have from a little bit PRIOR to the final battle..." The next subject was regarding Thieves and their Backstabbing shenanigans:
"Backstabbing from behind was added for two reasons (that I can think of off the top of my head, there are probably more And the Thieves hiding in shadows needed a bit of tweaking: "With Tales of the Sword Coast, a thief's ability to hide in shadows and move silently (stealth mode) will be affected by the amount of shadows in his location. Expect that it will still be easy to creep around in dark dungeons, but forget that backstab in the middle of Beregost at noon (unless you are in the shadow of a building or statue, for example)." Certainly something I didn`t expect was the ability to import your BG1 characters into BG2, but this seems to quash my theory:
"I can't say much about any other BG product out of the respect for the publisher, but when/if we do create a BG2, your main character will indeed be importable. This has been planned from the very start. Characters will be importable into future BG products from TOTSC and/or BG1. This makes balancing the beginning of future products a little more difficult, but I think we've got it covered A small bit of info was then released about the location of further BG products and the size of the expansion was clarified again: "Future BG products will most likely take place in different locations (read: not BG). As to the 5 MB, thats the Install [size]; the actual size of the game is 1 full CD (and I mean FULL)." Finally after all this mountain of information someone brought up the question of implementing AD&D modules into BG and here`s the answer to that:
"We all have our favorite TSR modules, but whenever the idea comes up about brining the modules to electronic life, there are significant challenges. First, most modules are too short to be free-standing computer games. Granted, a series of them might work, but you still have the problem of creating a campaign out of them. Singular modules like the "Tomb of Horrors" would be difficult without creating an entirely modular game system that would allow you to adventure between games at will. There are a LOT of design issues around modular RPG gaming (we have looked into this a fair amount) most of which have to do with game balancing, i.e. tailoring adventures to the abilities of the characters in the game.
Troubleshooting - Belgarion 27/2/99
"The install size for the mission pack is not final yet, but, if you did the recommended install (or larger) then the TOTSC install will be quite small. Probably under 5 megs. This may change (for the smaller) after we finalize the install (usually one of the last steps). If you did a minimum install, it will be closer to 150 megs." Then on to how the final battle will be modified after installing TOSC: "Yes, the final battle changes slightly if you install the mission pack. It will be tweaked for the higher level player." And the best news so far is about new weapons, items and classes being implemented: "There will be no new classes in TOTSC. There will be in future BG products. Yes, there is a new weapon out there in TOTSC. The scimitar is now out there for people to play with. We felt that the druid really needed a boost, so, we added the weapon. Yes, there are more items for you to find in TOTSC. Actually there are quite a few new items 70+." Tip Central - Belgarion 26/2/99
"We're working on an Online RPG that out of courtesy to our publisher, Black Isle/Interplay, I can't discuss at present, until we release a joint press release later this year," Muzyka informed.
Looks like we may be in luck with some brand spanking new features for TOSC, will they include the two suggestions in paragraph two? We`ll just have to wait and see.
"It's intended as an expansion to allow balanced higher level character advancement and adventure, not as a "marketing pack." There is of course marketing benefit to the original game, but I imagine this is true of almost any expansion...
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) One, the thief backstab in BG1 was so powerful that some of the major battles were unbalanced because of it. Have you ever been backstabbed? Didn't think so. In the mission pack, NPCs will backstab, in BG1, they didn't. The second reason is that, well, it just made sense. We tweaked the "which way am I facing" code and we re-applied it to the thief backstab (as well as summoned monsters, random encounters, etc.) It is after all called a "back" stab. This is currently all being play tested. If it suck, we will change it. We will not put crap out, we want the best damn RPG out there( I say that a lot don't I ?
"Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (TSC) adventure pack for Baldur's Gate (BG). It is installed 'on top' of BG and adds new areas, items, characters, monsters, spells, and quests into the Sword Coast where Baldur's Gate takes place. The adventure pack can be installed while you are currently playing through the game, or it can be installed and played with a game saved after having beaten BG." How does the adventure pack use my characters?
"The adventure pack will simply add areas into the currently existing world. That is, the world map will be replaced with a new world map with areas on it that weren't in BG. With the adventure pack, you will still be playing BG, it will just have a bigger world.
If you beat BG with the adventure pack installed, the game will end as it would without it. How much gameplay time and space is added? "There are 4 areas that are being added to the Sword Coast. There is a small town called Ulgoth's Beard, an Island, and the famed Durlag's Tower. All of these areas are complex, having multiple interiors and subterranean levels. Our estimation is that the adventure pack will add roughly 20 hours of gameplay into the world." Where does the adventure pack take place? "The adventure pack takes place on the Sword Coast in the exact same region as BG. Part of TSC takes place to the west of the city of BG (on the high seas) and some takes place near the Wood of Sharp Teeth." Is the adventure pack actually Chapter 8 of the story from BG? "No, in fact, the adventure pack cannot be played after BG proper has been beaten. TSC adds areas directly into the BG game world to be played as a part of BG." Are you planning on modifying any of the rules from BG? "No, not the rules, but there will be some changes to game mechanics. The majority of these things came from feedback directly from the message boards:"
How will multiplayer work for the adventure pack? "Multiplayer will work exactly the same in TSC as it does in BG. If you have installed the adventure pack however, you will only be able to play with others who have it too. This is because game data has to be the same on all machines and TSC will be modifying some existing BG data when it installs. What will happen to the experience point cap?
"It's going up. We haven't exactly decided what the new experience point cap is going to be however. In BG the cap was 89,000, this allowed characters to attain 7th or 8th level depending on their class. In our discussions it seems pretty well agreed upon that the cap will allow characters to get up into the 8/9th level range in TSC.
Are there going to be new items? "There are going to be a lot of new items, but most of the items will exist within the same broad categories as the items from BG. As we get closer to the release of the project, we will make a smaller version of the Faerun Querum with pictures and descriptions of some of the new items. Are there going to be new monsters? "There will be some new monsters, but not a ton. We think there'll definitely be enough to keep you satisfied. Of the new monsters, only a few will actually be created from scratch with new models, animations, and all that. There will be new variations on many of the existing creatures in BG. Are there going to be new spells? "We will be adding a number of spells from the 4th and 5th level for both Priests and Mages. The number will not be huge however, somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 spells or about 1/5th of the spells in BG. There will likely be some new higher level spells, but unfortunately for the players, those spells will be used against you by NPCs." How many new NPCs are there? "There will be a lot of NPCs. As it stands there will likely be a hundred with 20-30 major parts. Are there any more characters from the books? "No." Will there be a lot of new Voice Overs (VO)? "There will be new VO, but not a huge amount. The amount of VO per character will be roughly equivalent to the amount of VO that is currently in BG per character and it is likely to be for the major NPCs only." Will there be new movies? "Yes there are several pre-rendered cutscenes in TSC. They are placed as such to further the story and to immerse the player further into the game." Will there be new music? "We might do a small amount of new music, but it would be relatively brief and is likely to be very location specific." Will any of the NPCs be able to join my party? "There will not be any new NPCs to join your party in TSC." How big is the installation going to be? "You must have BG installed in order to install TSC, but the adventure pack will only make a number of small modifications to your current installation. That is, if you choose a minimum installation where all of the SFX and music stay on the CD, then the adventure pack will be roughly equivalent to patching BG, less than 5 megs. If you choose to do a regular installation, the size will depend entirely upon the amount of new assets in sound and animations that we add into the game. It is likely to be less than 50 megs however. If I uninstall BG, will I still be able to use my characters in the adventure pack? "You must have BG installed in order to play the adventure pack because it adds into the currently existing world. If you choose to uninstall BG until the adventure pack is released, keep your save games folder backed up someplace. There are two of them '\saves' and '\mp saves'. After you get the adventure pack, reinstall BG and then install the add pack. By copying over your saves at that point, you could resume where you left off. Will the system specs change for the adventure pack? "There will be no change to the system specs for TSC." Will I be able to use my 3d hardware acceleration with the adventure pack? "No, not yet. As it stands, 3d implementation will only happen if there is a sequel. We want to do it right, and to give the player the full potential of the 3d support, not just some hack to get it working." Will the German/French/Italian/Spanish versions be done at the same time as the English? "We're going to do the best we can. BG shipped out in the US on the 12/23/98, in the rest of the world it took around one or two weeks to arrive on the shelves. The reasons for this were primarily logistical. BG has 5 CDs (which means it takes a long time to duplicate and build units) and it silvered on what is probably the worst week in the entire year to try and get something done. Since TSC is only one CD, and since its not shipping in the middle of Christmas, we may be able to turn it around faster. However, because we are developing the adventure pack very quickly, we may not have time to produce all of the localized materials such as the box and manual fast enough. So there are a number of factors at play and all we can say is that we'll do the best we can." Will there be other adventure packs? "Maybe". When is it going to be released? "Spring '99"
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