Q: theViking: In B&W1 I always ran out of wood, are you making the forests grow more rapidly this time? A: [LH]Dan: The villagers are a lot more self-sufficient in this repsect. They will tend to the fields and plant new trees, instead of just stripping the land bare Q: Unknown: Which creatures are your personal favorites? A: [LH]Jonty: My favourite Creature is the WOLF, he's cunning, fast, and kind. Well my wolf is. Seb's is one evil looking ferocious nasty piece of work. A: [LH]MarkP: My favourite is the COW. We've managed to really get some wonderful characteristics into all of the creatures. But the cow is just that little bit different. Very funny! A: [LH]Kelly: The cow is very special, she is probably going to be the most popular creature A: [LH]JBury: The testers prefer the wolf! A: [LH]MarkP: Each creature has it's own distinct personality. But the cow is definitely that little bit different to the others! Q: Silly: Will it be possible to affect the landscape (with spells, etc) A: [LH]AdamC: Absolutely. This is what we had in mind with the epic spells. They are not your everyday, multiple times per level types. They change the world around you. A: [LH]JohnVDB: yes A: [LH]Jonty: very Q: D`HERRY`CM: Will there be any public betatesting involved? A: [LH]AdamC: We are investigating the possibility of a public open beta for the multiplayer version, but not the single player. Q: Zabber: Does B&W 2 have a proper plot? A: [LH]JohnMF: As a matter of fact it does. As a god, you take particular interest in your High Priest and lead him through the lands. A: [LH]JohnMF: there are also many subplots which weave around the main plot. Q: phantom: what do you mean by 'advanced version of geomipmapping' ? A: [LH]JohnVDB: because of some optimizations made, and edge splits are calculated based on the geometry and tesselation is based on the texturing Q: Chalel: Can I teach my creature Kung Fu? A: [LH]Kelly: Not exactly Chalel, but the Wolf does know a few kung fu moves :) Q: Sitting-Duck: can u set peoples hair on fire? A: [LH]Kelly: The creatures fur can be set on fire - if you're feeling particularly sadistic I: [LH]AlexE: bw2 has a super cool hair system for the creatures. better than anything out there at the moment! and fully integrated into the game. Q: tC|ultraviolent: How many lines of code does B&W2 have? A: [LH]Dan: 2 million, including libraries and scripts Q: __Illusion__: Is the creature AI improved? A: [LH]merf: yep, not only is there lots of new stuff the creature can do - leading armmies etc but the AI is a lot more useable thanks to the new learning interface - it will be a lot easier to teach your creature to do the things you want. Q: YnX: Will there be modification tools after the release? A: [LH]AdamC: No. We will be releasing tools BEFORE the game. We are releasing a script compiler and audio editor for BW1 this week. We will be releasing those tools for BW2, along with a level editor for BW2 to coincide with the release of the game. Q: sid: did LH jump on the Matrix-esque bandwagon for any of the fightscenes? ala bullettime... A: [LH]Kelly: LOL well not really, but we do have a few super fighting moves that could have been used in The Matrix :) Q: Scouti: Could you discribe B&W2 in 3 words? A: [LH]PeterDoug: Cool, Amazing, Gods Q: Derobrash: Will we still have the advisors in the game? A: [LH]MarkP: Yep, the good and evil advisors will be returning in B&W2. Q: tauruz: Will B&W2 be ported to linux? A: [LH]Sam|WORK: nopes Q: megat: Can people put logs of the answers onto their websites? A: [LH]AdamC: We're kinda hoping that the logs of this chat will find their way onto the net pretty soon. We want everyone to know what we're planning :) Q: [DWC]-WebHawk: Is there a testing location in the netherlands? A: [LH]Sam|WORK: no, you can only come in and test in the Lionhead office. Q: fozi: how many bones does BW2 have per-character? A: [LH]AdamC: 72 bones for your average villager, although some have a slightly different number (such as the nymphs) Q: megat: and the creatures? Q: Thren: whats the average poly count for the creatures? A: [LH]seb: ahhh thanks aprox polycount on all creatures is about 5k. not including fur.. bonecount as adam said between 70 and 100 A: [LH]seb: the creatures also use normalmaps (like D3 for example) that are generated from very hires geometry (- 3 mio) Q: DBD|Blade: with such high amount of bone count and poly count wont the fps drop dramaticly when you have a lot of units in your screen (like in a battle?) A: [LH]Fek: No. We have a smart lod and batching system to keep the framerate high even during large battles Q: BSS|aQa: I heard roumers about Peter Molynyux (can't spell the game gurus name :S ) wanted to make B&W a 5 chapter work, where the final chapter will be in the present. Is this correct ?? A: [LH]Dan: this is absolutely correct, and we've got a good idea what each installment will be :) I: [LH]Jonty> The will be a new camera mode for navigating the world. Much more simple than the original one, but we're keep the original one for people familiar to it. Q: Bill: How long does it take to compile the game (and do you use M$ Visual Studio .NET 2003 C++ .NET to do it?) A: ajpiano: Roughly 5 minutes for a full rebuild, using incredibuild :). We use DevStudio 7.0 I: [LH]Sam|WORK: We will be releasing new material about B&W this week! Expect some hot stuff (i like it hot) Q: Monkster: can we see some of the concept art somewhere? A: [LH]MarkP: We will hopefully be including some concept art on the next update of the website. Q: Unknown: Will there be weapons for the creatures in B&W2? A: [LH]PeterDoug: There will be weapons for your creatures, in fact we are alowing you to use any appicable item as a weapon, things like trees, rock etc. plus the idea of you building/buying weapons Q: sunflash: will the creatures fight each other with weapons? A: [LH]Kelly: No - but the fighting is really cool Q: Norwegian: Will the Game come out later in Europe(as usual :'( ) or will it be reales worldwide at the same day` A: [LH]Dan: We are aiming for a worldwide release as best as we can, but some territories have delays due to manufacturing Q: CreTiNakE: does b&w2 work's without b&w1 ??? A: [LH]Dan: Yes, it does work without Black & White 1 :) Q: pvtpete: how will the building system work in b+w 2? A: [LH]Dan: Scaffolds are done away with, instead you can place planned buildings directly from the town menu-bar A: [LH]Dan: You can now also set buildings to be un-built Q: Flipmode_god: A: [LH]Dan: There's no wood, ore or water miracles now, we have other things that make up for them A: [LH]Dan: plus ore is a finite resource for any level Q: Cort3x^^: can your creature get ill in bw2? if so how does this affect it then? A: [LH]JBury: Your creature can become ill based on his diet, this can lead to things like 'the runs' Q: Domandos: Is B&W2 coded on C or C++? A: [LH]Dan: 95% C++, with some C and some assembler Q: MrMeltzer: Do you use C as the basis for scripting events in BW2? A: [LH]Dan: We have our own scripting language that's a lot simpler than C :) Q: megat: Will that scripting language eventually be available to modders? A: [LH]AlexE: AdamC said earlier a script compiler tool is being released shortly, I think :) Q: Liu: what are the minium requirements for running this game? A: [LH]Fek: Geforce 2MX, P3 733 Q: grison: Are you inspired by Lord of the Rings? Will the fights have a similiar dense? - A: [LH]Kelly: Yes, the battles will be epic and all of the soldiers have detailed animation, so it will be similar to the film Lord of The Rings Q: Brinx`: Give us some examples of the physics used in the game. Fluid simulation, fires, earthquakes? A: [LH]Dan: We have all of those in the game at the moment Q: [pD]Dore: Can u guys aDD my model to ur easter eggs :D. I'd love to feature in the game A: [LH]Dan: We have the ability for people to add their own custom models into the game Q: Lie|: Will there be blood in B&W2 when you smash villagers or hurting the creature? A: [LH]Dan: YES! LOTS OF BLOOD! We're working to be able to squeeze the villager in your hand to a bloody pulp as well Q: Kleptos: Can I skip the tutorials in B&W2, or do I have to complete them like in BW1? A: [LH]Dan: There is a seperate island for tutorials, which is not compulsory Q: Auk: Did you have to discard any design ideas that proved technically impossible for this game? A: [LH]Dan: We try to keep them in mind and re-visit them. We do have a list of ideas that we're putting towards B&W3. Q: BigFreak: Will the fluffy dice and phone box make a return? A: [LH]Dan: of course! Q: Brinx`: How much can you tell us about the water simulation without breaking your NDA's? A: [LH]Fek: you will be able to throw things into the water and see waves propagating realistically, but it will probably implemented only for DX9 cards Q: Berry2K: is the engine (almost) finished yet? A: [LH]Fek: it's in good "state" Q: fl0w: oh.. ehm, i've been wondering how the AI is improoved for the creatures A: [LH]Dan: well the original AI was still very good, so a lot of the structure has been retained, however the interface for the creature mind has changed a lot so you can see exactly why you're punishing and rewarding him. his mind is a lot more transparent to the player. Q: WeevilMan: Will there be vehicles in bw2? A: [LH]Dan: there will be siege weapons End: Megat: On behalf of the thousands of people present, I'd like to thank the Lionhead developers for joining us this evening. [LH]Georg: Was a pleasure! [LH]Dan: we must do this sometime again, there were so many questions and so little time [LH]Jonty: Indeed. Good fun everyone. This will become a regular event. [LH]PeterDoug: I have to go now thank you all for your questions and support I promise you all we are going to make B&W2 as good as it can possibly be. -----------------EOF--------------------- This summary of the B&W2 chat on Quakenet at channel #bwgame was made by BattleF08. It may be freely distributed, edited, and hosted by everyone. Though some credit would always be appreciated:D. Questions/Comments/Death threats? Contact: battle_fortress@hotmail.com