Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Here's where all things related to Book II are being discussed!
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IJBall
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Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by IJBall »

As BW is busy getting Book II together - and I'm bored! ;) - I thought I'd revisit the Book II Questions thread to see if I could dig up the answers to some of the questions that weren't answered either there or in the Book II Q&A Question of the Week thread.

So any question that I feel has been answered in those two places won't show up here.

In that vein, see also the following interviews with BW about Book II:

RPGWatch (7/7/08): http://www.rpgwatch.com//show/article?a ... f=0&id=328

RPGVault Peek #1 (1/13/09): http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/944/944387p1.html

RPGVault Peek #2 (2/10/09): http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/952/952707p1.html

Colony of Gamers (2/23/09): http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums ... php?t=6100

Without further ado, here are some of the Book II questions that BW hasn't tackled yet, listed by author. First, here are some of the questions that have been answered elsewhere:

realzmaster:
- Since there will be weather effects that affect equipment skills and stats, will the weather also affect the actual equipment? Will the wind help or hinder the flight of my arrow?
confused1:
- Sorry if this was already asked, but, will there be a storage type system in Book II?
Jedi_Learner:
- Before you released Book I, you said that dual-wielding was planned for Book II. Is this still the case, and if so will you be doing anything to prevent it from being too powerful?
- In-game gamma adjuster is in, what about in-game mouse adjuster?
  • Not explicitly Answered, but I'm guessing the answer is "No"...
Unclever title:
- You mentioned three major regions for Book II, a temperate region, arctic region, and a volcanic region. About how large are these regions in comparison to the familiar Thaermore? In adddition, about how long can we expect this game to be? (ballpark estimate if necessary)
  • Not explicitly Answered, though it may be by the 'World Map'...
Hurleye:
- Is there a chance Executioner and Skullsmasher could be in Book II?
  • Not Answered, but I think you can guess there will be some weapons that will be quite equivalent to this... ;)
me (IJBall):
- Will we have the option to set up keyboard equivalents (e.g. the up/down/left/right arrows) for moves in Book II?
- Will the character's Origin be listed along with Class & Axiom on the 'Stats screen' in Book II?
  • Not Answered, but I think the answer may be "No"
- And speaking of the Spell Journal window, will the Spell Journal window be sortable by spell type in Book II?
and Technical questions:
- Is possible for there to be random placement of items within a single map in either Book I or Book II?
- Is possible for there to be random placement of items *among multiple* maps in either Book I or Book II?
- Is it possible to make certain items attract or repel certain creatures?
- Is it possible to create monsters or NPCs that can take (steal) objects in either Book I or Book II? Samurai Drakon:
- Will you get to meet the crusaders mentioned but never seen (as they are off to pointlessly search for the gnome-like Orakur) named the Commonwealth Guards and possibly fight alongside them?
  • Not explicitly Answered, but as we're not going back to Thaermore...
- Will the Orakur play a bigger part in part 2? Will you meet one? Do they exist? At the very least, will we get details of them?
And here is the list of (some of) the Book II questions that haven't been answered anywhere yet, as far as I can tell:

realzmaster:
- Will the cold make my armor and weapons more brittle, therefore easier to break?
- If I am in a forest and use demon oil will the wind help fan the flames?
Will the fire burn longer and cover more ground because of all the combustible material?


Rune_74:
- Are we going to see teirs as in different levels to each skill? Like if we have two skills at certain level will a new skill become available to the character?

Jedi_Learner:
- Will any characters from Book I return for Book II? Chancellor Malcolm? Abygale? Vekkar? Father Michael?
  • A very good question, IMHO!! :)
- At the end of Book I you had a choice on how the main storyline proceeded. Will Book II feature any branches in the main storyline early in the game, or will such choices be made in the final areas of Book II?

- I think the soundtrack for Book I is really good, but it would of been nice to have more than one combat track, especially during special events, like outside the Goblin Citadel or the fight with Gramuk. What are your plans for the combat tracks in Book II?
Mongolian:
- is it possable Book II could have a guide to explain what weapons do and other things? Or perhaps a NPC that could explain the differences?

serenetempest:
- In book I, it seemed like chosing which weapon type to train in was almost trivial - the only in-game consequence I could discern was some weapon groups have unique/higher level weapons avaliable earlier in the game than others. In Book II, will there be any more distinction between the different weapon types.

me (IJBall):
- ...Will there be a trainers for armor (and/or shield) skills in Book II?
- Also, will there be (lots) more non-merchant NPCs in Book II?

- Will there be an "Undo Last Move" option?
  • I'd very much like an answer to this one... :mrgreen:
- Will Attributes & Skills be control-clickable from the character's Stats screen (yielding the descriptions) in the same way that spells are control-clickable in the Spell Journal window?

- NEW/ADDED: Have the Attribute bonuses based on Origin been reworked for Book II?

Thief:
- Will there be any NPC's providing training for the core rogue skills in Book II?

azrealck:
- My question is this: Will the classes have any real differentiations between them? In book 1, it was 3 skill points; and a single skill. Had the classes been removed entirely, there would have been no discernible difference other than the titles.

Necromis:
- However, as we were able to imbue items in Book 1, but were not able to imbue with abilities I am wondering if that is something that would be/has been added to Book 2. What I mean is you can find items with +2 to move silent, +2 to pick locks....etc, but we couldn't create those stat/skill modifiers when imbuing. I think this would be a great addition and give a person more thought in how they imbued their items.
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by Kreador Freeaxe »

I always appreciate people like you with too much time on their hands to compile this stuff. :)
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by King_ov_Death »

Kreador Freeaxe wrote:I always appreciate people like you with too much time on their hands to compile this stuff. :)
I appreciate them, but I also envy them. :D :lol:
Great work!
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by BasiliskWrangler »

Well, since we haven't had an update for a while and IJBall did such a good job at compiling these, I'll answer them up for everyone...

realzmaster:
- Since there will be weather effects that affect equipment skills and stats, will the weather also affect the actual equipment? Will the wind help or hinder the flight of my arrow?

Yes, that is the plan. As of yet we have not implemented too many weather related penalties (just a few) due to the fact that balancing hasn't begun yet (balancing comes in around beta test time).

confused1:
- Sorry if this was already asked, but, will there be a storage type system in Book II?

You do start with a house that has several areas for storage and a bed that you can get an instant, safe, free night's sleep in.

Jedi_Learner:
- Before you released Book I, you said that dual-wielding was planned for Book II. Is this still the case, and if so will you be doing anything to prevent it from being too powerful?

No. Duel wielding is outside the scope of Book II's ruleset. Book III is a better possibility. Sorry.

- In-game gamma adjuster is in, what about in-game mouse adjuster?

No.

Unclever title:
- You mentioned three major regions for Book II, a temperate region, arctic region, and a volcanic region. About how large are these regions in comparison to the familiar Thaermore? In adddition, about how long can we expect this game to be? (ballpark estimate if necessary)

The main region of Mistfell, where 60% of Book II is played, is about the size of Thaermore in Book I. The other two regions make up the remaining *40%. This doesn't include dungeons.

*Note that the arctic region (the Northland Expanse) is actually HUGE, but not all of it will be mapped and explorable. I don't think that too many players would enjoy crossing 30 screens of white-out blizzard conditions where not a single living thing exists. Well, except for the dreaded Ogrin. Yeah, you don't want none of that.

Hurleye:
- Is there a chance Executioner and Skullsmasher could be in Book II?

No, but Book II will have it's own set of unique weapons.

me (IJBall):
- Will we have the option to set up keyboard equivalents (e.g. the up/down/left/right arrows) for moves in Book II?

Yes.

- Will the character's Origin be listed along with Class & Axiom on the 'Stats screen' in Book II?

No, unless people really want it. Probably wouldn't be that hard to squeeze in there.

- And speaking of the Spell Journal window, will the Spell Journal window be sortable by spell type in Book II?

Yes.

and Technical questions:
- Is possible for there to be random placement of items within a single map in either Book I or Book II?
- Is possible for there to be random placement of items *among multiple* maps in either Book I or Book II?
- Is it possible to make certain items attract or repel certain creatures?
- Is it possible to create monsters or NPCs that can take (steal) objects in either Book I or Book II? Samurai Drakon:
- Will you get to meet the crusaders mentioned but never seen (as they are off to pointlessly search for the gnome-like Orakur) named the Commonwealth Guards and possibly fight alongside them?

The Commonwealth Guard were the military of Thaermore's government. They were been disbanded after Thaermore's collapse.

- Will the Orakur play a bigger part in part 2? Will you meet one? Do they exist? At the very least, will we get details of them?

Yes. No. Maybe.

And here is the list of (some of) the Book II questions that haven't been answered anywhere yet, as far as I can tell:

realzmaster:
- Will the cold make my armor and weapons more brittle, therefore easier to break?

No, not at this time. But possibly- it could be done.

- If I am in a forest and use demon oil will the wind help fan the flames?
Will the fire burn longer and cover more ground because of all the combustible material?


No. We don't model combustion like this in Book 2, however I would like to in Book 3's engine. I've experimented with it, but it'll need some work to get it done right. However, explosions (Fireballs, Powder Kegs) do effect the environment a bit more in Book II.

Rune_74:
- Are we going to see teirs as in different levels to each skill? Like if we have two skills at certain level will a new skill become available to the character?

To some extent. Not all skills will have tiers, but for example Piercing Weapons can earn the feat of multiple hits when your skill gets high enough. Shields will allow bashing at higher skill levels.

Jedi_Learner:
- Will any characters from Book I return for Book II? Chancellor Malcolm? Abygale? Vekkar? Father Michael?

Yes. There are several returning characters.

- At the end of Book I you had a choice on how the main storyline proceeded. Will Book II feature any branches in the main storyline early in the game, or will such choices be made in the final areas of Book II?

Book II will have some similar choices later in the game. However, this is a trilogy and as such you should expect the biggest choices to be made in the 3rd game. Book II, being sandwiched in between games, will have to be a bit more ridged to maintain storyline integrity.

- I think the soundtrack for Book I is really good, but it would of been nice to have more than one combat track, especially during special events, like outside the Goblin Citadel or the fight with Gramuk. What are your plans for the combat tracks in Book II?

Yes, you can expect new music and additional combat cues in Book II.

Mongolian:
- is it possable Book II could have a guide to explain what weapons do and other things? Or perhaps a NPC that could explain the differences?

The user manual should be more informative this time around. And there is always these forums. I haven't developed any NPC that would explain such things to the player.

serenetempest:
- In book I, it seemed like chosing which weapon type to train in was almost trivial - the only in-game consequence I could discern was some weapon groups have unique/higher level weapons avaliable earlier in the game than others. In Book II, will there be any more distinction between the different weapon types.

Yes. Most notable are things like Hammers and Axes being more durable, and gives you bonuses when bashing items. Swords are less durable and require more maintenance, but come in more varieties. Piercing weapons are the lowest damage-inducing of the group, yet once highly skilled you can deliver multiple strikes per round making them highly attractive. Thrown weapons are priced and configured to be a more useful choice.

There are likely to be additional differences in weapons when the game is final. We are always playing around with this sort of thing.


me (IJBall):
- ...Will there be a trainers for armor (and/or shield) skills in Book II?
- Also, will there be (lots) more non-merchant NPCs in Book II?

Yes.

- Will there be an "Undo Last Move" option?

No. What fun would that be? :D

- Will Attributes & Skills be control-clickable from the character's Stats screen (yielding the descriptions) in the same way that spells are control-clickable in the Spell Journal window?

Ummm, no...not yet. If that would be a helpful feature, I could certainly add it to the ToDo list.

NEW/ADDED: Have the Attribute bonuses based on Origin been reworked for Book II?[/color]

No. But there is a new Origin area as we demoted The Rifter origin.

Thief:
- Will there be any NPC's providing training for the core rogue skills in Book II?

Perhaps.

azrealck:
- My question is this: Will the classes have any real differentiations between them? In book 1, it was 3 skill points; and a single skill. Had the classes been removed entirely, there would have been no discernible difference other than the titles.

Eschalon is a skill-based RPG. Class-enforced limitations are traditional for RPGs, but not really very realistic. Why couldn't a fighter learn to cast some spells, or a Mage to disarm a trap? To answer your question, there will be a few small additions to make your Class choice more unique each game, but overall Book II is still skill based.

Necromis:
- However, as we were able to imbue items in Book 1, but were not able to imbue with abilities I am wondering if that is something that would be/has been added to Book 2. What I mean is you can find items with +2 to move silent, +2 to pick locks....etc, but we couldn't create those stat/skill modifiers when imbuing. I think this would be a great addition and give a person more thought in how they imbued their items.[/quote]

Imbuing items has been expanded and updated. As of now it doesn't include Imbuing of Skills. We'll see what we have time for.

Ultimately, Book II will be a bit better at handling updates than Book I was. So, if the game ships and there is some feature (such as Skill Imbuing) that doesn't make it in before we go gold, there is always the possibility of adding it afterward via a patch. I do plan on offering a few "bonus content" patches in the months after the game ships to keep interest up (and thus revenue flow) while we work on Book III.
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by AK_Marty »

Thank you BW for the excellent and VERY informative update!!
Of course with all these questions answered, the wait for Book II will now be that much more painfull.
Keep up the good work :!:


ps: any clues on the release date?
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by Unclever title »

BasiliskWrangler wrote:Thief:
- Will there be any NPC's providing training for the core rogue skills in Book II?

Perhaps.
Is that, perchance, a "shifty eyed" perhaps?

Also I had thought my question was already answered in the Q&A thread.

Now it's answered even more! :mrgreen:
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by Dragonlady »

Oh THANKS BW!!

Now I'm even more eagerly awaiting Book II. :mrgreen:
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by Painted Lady »

This is the good news, bad news post from BW.

Good news - Book 2 is sounding better and better all the time.
Bad news - I can hardly stand the wait because it sounds like such a great game.
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by dare49devil »

- Will the Orakur play a bigger part in part 2? Will you meet one? Do they exist? At the very least, will we get details of them?

Yes. No. Maybe.
-RAWR RAWR RAWR. LOL. I luled at that.

-Anyway, great to see you taking part in our lives, thanks for the updates. Very like-able answers. =)
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by King_ov_Death »

I'm getting impatient!!!! :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

:D
I was just joking.
I think things are getting very well. It's going to be a great game.
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by Unbeliever »

>> Will Attributes & Skills be control-clickable from the character's Stats screen (yielding the descriptions) in the same way that spells are control-clickable in the Spell Journal window?

> Ummm, no...not yet. If that would be a helpful feature, I could certainly add it to the ToDo list.

As a rule, I am ALWAYS in favor of the interface giving me as much information (on demand) as possible. Everything should be clickable. :)

(In this case, I can specifically see myself going, OK, I *THOUGHT* the skills I raised should let me do thus-and-so... is that a different skill?)

As always, thank you for keeping us posted, but most of all for taking the time to do this right...

[BTW, you're doing the job I dreamed of doing when I became a programmer -- but lacked the raw nerve, skill and financial resources to pull off. So I became a database programmer for a major university. Boring, but safe...]
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by IJBall »

BasiliskWrangler wrote:Well, since we haven't had an update for a while and IJBall did such a good job at compiling these, I'll answer them up for everyone...
I didn't get to this earlier, but thanks for the super-fast response to my post! :mrgreen:
I really figured that you were busy, and so just wanted to do something to help out because I was bored! :wink:
BasiliskWrangler wrote: Unclever title:
- You mentioned three major regions for Book II, a temperate region, arctic region, and a volcanic region. About how large are these regions in comparison to the familiar Thaermore? In adddition, about how long can we expect this game to be? (ballpark estimate if necessary)

The main region of Mistfell, where 60% of Book II is played, is about the size of Thaermore in Book I. The other two regions make up the remaining *40%. This doesn't include dungeons.

*Note that the arctic region (the Northland Expanse) is actually HUGE, but not all of it will be mapped and explorable. I don't think that too many players would enjoy crossing 30 screens of white-out blizzard conditions where not a single living thing exists. Well, except for the dreaded Ogrin. Yeah, you don't want none of that.
Very cool.
I'm really looking forward to that World Map now! :lol:
BasiliskWrangler wrote: me (IJBall):
- Will the character's Origin be listed along with Class & Axiom on the 'Stats screen' in Book II?

No, unless people really want it. Probably wouldn't be that hard to squeeze in there.
At this point, my response to answers like this is:

In the abstract, would I like this feature to be in the game? Sure.
Would I still like this feature, if adding it means delaying Book II even a little bit? Heck no!! :wink:
(Maybe for Book III!! :lol: )
BasiliskWrangler wrote: Jedi_Learner:
- Will any characters from Book I return for Book II? Chancellor Malcolm? Abygale? Vekkar? Father Michael?

Yes. There are several returning characters.
YAY!!
BasiliskWrangler wrote: me (IJBall):
- Will there be an "Undo Last Move" option?

No. What fun would that be? :D
Yeah, I figured that... :cry:

I can totally see why it would be a bad idea (effectively, it would 'allow' you to 'reroll' during combat (potentially)).
But being able to 'undo' the annoying 'step towards enemy, when you just meant to fire an arrow at enemy' would have been nice... :| :wink:
BasiliskWrangler wrote: - Will Attributes & Skills be control-clickable from the character's Stats screen (yielding the descriptions) in the same way that spells are control-clickable in the Spell Journal window?

Ummm, no...not yet. If that would be a helpful feature, I could certainly add it to the ToDo list.
Like Unbeliever, I'd actually like this, but... see above:

In the abstract, would I like this feature to be in the game? Sure.
Would I still like this feature, if adding it means delaying Book II even a little bit? Heck no!! :wink:
BasiliskWrangler wrote: NEW/ADDED: Have the Attribute bonuses based on Origin been reworked for Book II?

No. But there is a new Origin area as we demoted The Rifter origin.
Interesting. I look forward to seeing the details on that...
BasiliskWrangler wrote: Ultimately, Book II will be a bit better at handling updates than Book I was. So, if the game ships and there is some feature (such as Skill Imbuing) that doesn't make it in before we go gold, there is always the possibility of adding it afterward via a patch. I do plan on offering a few "bonus content" patches in the months after the game ships to keep interest up (and thus revenue flow) while we work on Book III.
That is very good news indeed. :mrgreen:
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by Saxon1974 »

The main region of Mistfell, where 60% of Book II is played, is about the size of Thaermore in Book I. The other two regions make up the remaining *40%. This doesn't include dungeons.

*Note that the arctic region (the Northland Expanse) is actually HUGE, but not all of it will be mapped and explorable. I don't think that too many players would enjoy crossing 30 screens of white-out blizzard conditions where not a single living thing exists. Well, except for the dreaded Ogrin. Yeah, you don't want none of that.
The arctic region sounds great!

Question;

For these large white-out snow areas will the player be challenged with trying to survive while crossing them? I think making it a challenge to reach a settlement in the arctic regions would be very cool.
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by Dragonlady »

Saxon1974 wrote: The arctic region sounds great!

Question;

For these large white-out snow areas will the player be challenged with trying to survive while crossing them? I think making it a challenge to reach a settlement in the arctic regions would be very cool.
Oooo, that was a cold to the bone pun there! ("..very cool.") :lol:
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Re: Revisiting The Book II Questions Thread...

Post by dare49devil »

Dragonlady wrote:
Saxon1974 wrote: The arctic region sounds great!

Question;

For these large white-out snow areas will the player be challenged with trying to survive while crossing them? I think making it a challenge to reach a settlement in the arctic regions would be very cool.
Oooo, that was a cold to the bone pun there! ("..very cool.") :lol:
-Dragonlady you like finding everyone's pun's eh? lolol. =] (personally i missed both the ones you pointed out. hehe)
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