The Black Hound FAQ

[Humodour]

My Webpage.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I ****ing love it!

 

Go guys! Fight those French Interplay bastards. Oh wait. That was so a far years ago.

 

 

Either way, it looks like an awesome project to take on.

Edited January 12, 2007 by Krezack

[ramza]

Small Poll for the fun of it:

 

Which of the two options would you prefer?

1) Sawyer uses the old Mystary engine (supposing that such a thing was possible) to complete TBH as it was supposed to be. There were only 6 months of work left before the project got cancelled (area population, implementing dialogues, etc) so this won't take very long. I wonder if we could buy the engine from Herve since he is in desperate need of money (100 bucks would do...no? hehe)

2) Sawyer uses the NWN2 engine to develop TBH and takes 2-3 years to do so...

[SteveThaiBinh]

You'll need to link me to a site about the Mystary (is that right?) engine so I know what that entails...

[ramza]

I uploaded a folder containing all the info about TBH I could collect on rapidshare. There's a pic of the game in it, which kinda reminds me of the BG2 engine (which I really like).

 

The link is somewhere in this thread (page 2 I think).

 

Cheers.

[Sammael]

The graphics pipeline of the Mystary engine is horrible. There's no way Josh would want to use it over NWN2 engine.

[Spider]

Not to mention that 6 months of the entire team working on the game does not translate to Sawyer working 6 months on it.

 

Besides, if such a thing was even feasible, it probably would have been mentioned long ago. I was under the impression that this project was only possible in the first place due to the arrival of NWN2.

[Darque]

Let go of the past Ramza.

 

You're getting your dream game, be happy with how you're getting it.

[Hurlshort]

I'm very happy to hear about the low level experience. I'm terrible in the upper levels because I have more power than I know what to do with. Realistically (you know, in a fantasy land sense ) most people and animals should be in between the 1-5 level range. Getting over level ten is quite an accomplishment in FR if you are really following the rules.

[J.E. Sawyer]

The "old" engine had really nice lighting, mostly because we pre-baked all of our lightmaps and had full radiosity. Also, Vance could go through and vertex paint the entire landscape for some really beautiful and subtle effects. That's also what contributed to making the art pipeline really terrible.

 

The desktop "screenshot" from the old engine is also taken from a very flattering distance. Dennis Presnell was looking at some of the old models and comparing them to NWN2 models. Not only are the textures from the old engine pretty low-res, but the models have about 1/3 the number of polys -- that's 1/3 the number of polys in the low-res model. A NWN2 high-poly model used for generating normal maps is even crazier.

[Morgoth]

Yeah but from the distance (isometric view, no close-ups) this doesn't really matter. Hand-painted vertex colors, baked lightmaps and other subtle effects that improve the "arty" look surely is what I'd have craved for more than the full real-time lighting engine in NWN2. But that's maybe just me.

[J.E. Sawyer]

Personal tastes aside, the old engine's art pipeline was absolutely terrible and there's no way I'd want to use that again. Anyone who complains about NWN2's walkmesh baking times never had to wait seven hours for a single level's lightmaps to burn.

[mkreku]

Personal tastes aside, the old engine's art pipeline was absolutely terrible and there's no way I'd want to use that again.  Anyone who complains about NWN2's walkmesh baking times never had to wait seven hours for a single level's lightmaps to burn.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Perhaps. But it would stil be fun to see what a Core 2 Duo X6800 (or whatever you developer types use) would need to "burn" those same lightmaps today. Surely not seven hours?

[ramza]

I have a couple of question about Jefferson:

 

1) BIS intended to make a new trilogy out of Jefferson's story. If I had understood correctly, TBH was just the first part of it. So my question is whether Sawyer intends to produce the entire trilogy in his module, or just the TBH part. Sorry if I sound greedy, this is not my intent. I just want to clarify things...

 

2) TBH was supposed to have a level cap of 8. I really don't mind playing low-level campaigns and I really hope that Sawyer's module will remain as it was planned to be. Will that be the case or will the module adjust everything so that players can get from lv1 to lv20 like the OC?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

1) It would be nice just to deal with the main Black Hound campaign and see what happens. I'd estimate about 15-20 modules worth of material, which is an enormous undertaking.

 

2) Still levels 1-8, core PHB classes only (no warlock and no prestige classes).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think it would be better to raise the level cap to lv9 or 10. Level 9 because any character gets a feat, level 10 because some classes gain some bonuses on that level (rogue, fighter, wizard bonus feats, extra barbarian rage, etc). It would be a shame to prevent the player from gaining such bonuses. Is that feasible though?

 

Please, don't put phat l00t in TBH. At best, +2 enchanted items should be available in it. No more than that. Oh, and no random loot either, please. I hate that (I hope the others will agree with me on that issue).

[Pop]

He's not working off of NWN1. NWN2 didn't have such a ridiculous loot system, and in the core campaign you weren't running into good +1 weapons until 5th or 6th level. I think it's reasonable to assume that Josh knows how to do this right.

[Briosafreak]

Old FAQ

 

Ah I still have everything from there and the pics on a cd that, by coincidence, is just behind me on the table. I'll keep it as backup for you just for now. Good luck with the new FAQ

[Volourn]

"NWN2 didn't have such a ridiculous loot system, and in the core campaign you weren't running into good +1 weapons until 5th or 6th level."

 

Nah. Not true. NWN2 wa sjust bad. And, you didn't get any real good +1 wepaons in NWN1 until level 4+ due to the fact just like NWN2, you gained 2 levels in the prologue.

 

Still, if this work is not ph@t lewtish it would be kewl; but NWN2 OC is not the one to go by.

[Tale]

Please, don't put phat l00t in TBH. At best, +2 enchanted items should be available in it. No more than that. Oh, and no random loot either, please. I hate that (I hope the others will agree with me on that issue).

I was under the impression that +2 items is pretty phat loot for level 8.

[J.E. Sawyer]

I was under the impression that +2 items is pretty phat loot for level 8.

I think +2 items are pretty appropriate at 8th level unless you're in a low-magic setting.

[Schazzwozzer]

Was just poking around Sammael's website. It's pleasing to see that Black Hound apparently has a "leitmotif". Too many games never try to express or even be informed by any greater meaning or message, instead being content to present a series of small and typically disconnected vignettes.

 

Re: low levels, low loot. Done well, the fame/reputation/epithet system should probably offset any feeling of a lack of advancement/rewards/carrots.

 

Also, low level characters are significantly more interesting to develop in NWN2 than, say, BG1's AD&D rules. And with the equipment materials (darksteel, adamantite, etc) and all that jazz, a designer has greater variety of loot to throw at players beyond just typical increments of +1, +2, etc.

 

Btw, I've just been playing through BG1, with expansion, myself. I'm near the end of the game and I believe everybody has at least one +2 weapon and I think I've got a few +3 items in there too.

[Atreides]

Fast level-ups can get pretty annoying, especially in Kotor. I always felt the Level-Up sounds rings every 5 min there. Drove me nuts... That's why I prefer games that don't have any level-ups at all. But that's maybe just me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think it's a subtle difference in game mechanics that's the root of this annoyance. In BG the characters have different xp numbers depending on when they join. So leveling is spread out and happens at widely different times (unless there's a huge xp reward).

 

Whereas in KOTOR and NWN2, the party leveling depends on the main character. Once s/he levels, everyone levels. You spend the next 10 mins leveling half a dozen characters, sometimes multiple levels at once creating the ZOMG LEVELING OVERLOAD!1 which pisses people off.

[ramza]

What do you guys think about my suggestion to raise the levl cap from 8 to level 9 or 10?

[Tigranes]

Really depends on how long the module is, don't you think?

[ramza]

Well, I like powergaming. That is why I don't want to miss the bonus feats available at level 9 and 10.

[Tale]

Well, I like powergaming. That is why I don't want to miss the bonus feats available at level 9 and 10.

Then on principle I have to dislike the idea. If the concern is for feats and not relative power, then I don't hold faith for it.

[Pop]

I think the best idea would be to not really cap levels, but balance the XP rewards such that a character can get to level 9 if he tries hard to do so, but if everything is as it should be then they'll ideally hit level 8.

 

Also, low level characters are significantly more interesting to develop in NWN2 than, say, BG1's AD&D rules. And with the equipment materials (darksteel, adamantite, etc) and all that jazz, a designer has greater variety of loot to throw at players beyond just typical increments of +1, +2, etc.

Actually, that's something that I've been meaning to ask Josh about. I don't know if item creation is something he's willing to put into the module. It's a whole other aspect of the game that has to be balanced and tested.

 

Geek that I am, I'm reading up on the 3 Dales in the FR core book and I'm seeing a lot of potential for intrigue and plot there, including the Thayan / Harper / Sembia factional stuff. Hopefully that wouldn't pan out to just Evil / Good / Neutral in terms of quest paths, but going that far I'm assuming a lot about what TBH is going to be, and how much it's going to rely on what's in the books (probably not a lot). I'm stoked. Now I just have to wait a few years

 

I wonder if Josh will include the FR surface drow in his module. They are threatening Battledale from Cormanthyr " Seems a bit too big of a challenge to low-level characters, though.

 

I'm just hoping that this "Black Hound" is not, in fact, the Pariah Dog :D

Edited January 13, 2007 by Pop