- Joined
- Jun 18, 2002
- Messages
- 28,423
Tags: Eschalon: Book II
For some reason we've completely missed out on bringing these to you (At least, that's the excuse GameBanshee used and I blame them for not posting about it to remind me, so I think stealing their line is perfectly fair). Anyway, <a href="http://basiliskgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1580">there are two more questions up for Eschalon: Book II</a>:
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<blockquote><b>Question #2: [RezoApio] One question about translation: will B2 be available in other languages ? or will you offer fans the possibility to translate? This also leads to the question of moding B2 btw.</b>
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There is definitely more thought being put into translatability this time around. For Book I, much of the game's text was stashed away in proprietary files which made it very hard to give to others for translations. For Book II, we are keeping nearly all of the text in common format files outside the the game where translation will be much easier to do. What we have to work on now is a way to substitute the game's default fonts if the translated text contains Cyrillic characters. I don't believe this will be much of an issue, but it is something that we'll need to experiment with as the framework reaches a more finalized stage.
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To more specifically answer your question: Basilisk Games will not handle non-English versions ourselves, but I expect that alternate language packs would probably start appearing a few weeks after release.
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As for modifications, Book II is being designed to handle add-on modules correctly (as many people know, Book I was supposed to have an add-on but we could never get it to work properly). As for how easy it may be for players to create their own modules, again it is a little too early to make promises. We realize the benefit that can be gained by having an active mod community, but there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed before we can just release our production tools to the community and let everyone do want they want. It has always been the plan that Book III would be the game that is fully modifiable. Book II's framework will get us closer to that goal and may even allow for minor modifications (such as language packs mentioned above) but I cannot promise that you will be able to design your own adventures (then again, ingenious fans may find a way on their own! :D)
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<b>Question #3: [Yeliu] Will we be able to ride horses to move faster and add a charge attack?</b>
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No. There will be no horses (or other mounts) in Book II. To be fair, we tried...we spent 3 weeks in February experimenting with adding horses to the engine and it just requires waaaaay too much modification. Things we had to consider: what to do with horses in towns and dungeons, horses in combat, how do traps/disease/poison effect horses, horses in regards to boats and portals, how player encumbrance effects horses (and a horse's carrying capacity in general), food/water requirements (if player needs to eat, shouldn't their horse as well?), not to mention tons of additional animation needed to put horses in the game. Seriously, horses and mounts need to be worked into an engine at the development stage for it to work properly- it's not something that can be easily tossed into an already developed engine.
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I do promise that it will be considered for any future game we do outside the original Eschalon trilogy.</blockquote>
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Next up, we'll be told that not much has changed since Book I at all because it was too hard to do in three weeks. God forbid <i>effort</i> be required.
<br>
<br>
Spotted @ <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com">GameBanshee</a>
For some reason we've completely missed out on bringing these to you (At least, that's the excuse GameBanshee used and I blame them for not posting about it to remind me, so I think stealing their line is perfectly fair). Anyway, <a href="http://basiliskgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1580">there are two more questions up for Eschalon: Book II</a>:
<br>
<blockquote><b>Question #2: [RezoApio] One question about translation: will B2 be available in other languages ? or will you offer fans the possibility to translate? This also leads to the question of moding B2 btw.</b>
<br>
<br>
There is definitely more thought being put into translatability this time around. For Book I, much of the game's text was stashed away in proprietary files which made it very hard to give to others for translations. For Book II, we are keeping nearly all of the text in common format files outside the the game where translation will be much easier to do. What we have to work on now is a way to substitute the game's default fonts if the translated text contains Cyrillic characters. I don't believe this will be much of an issue, but it is something that we'll need to experiment with as the framework reaches a more finalized stage.
<br>
<br>
To more specifically answer your question: Basilisk Games will not handle non-English versions ourselves, but I expect that alternate language packs would probably start appearing a few weeks after release.
<br>
<br>
As for modifications, Book II is being designed to handle add-on modules correctly (as many people know, Book I was supposed to have an add-on but we could never get it to work properly). As for how easy it may be for players to create their own modules, again it is a little too early to make promises. We realize the benefit that can be gained by having an active mod community, but there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed before we can just release our production tools to the community and let everyone do want they want. It has always been the plan that Book III would be the game that is fully modifiable. Book II's framework will get us closer to that goal and may even allow for minor modifications (such as language packs mentioned above) but I cannot promise that you will be able to design your own adventures (then again, ingenious fans may find a way on their own! :D)
<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Question #3: [Yeliu] Will we be able to ride horses to move faster and add a charge attack?</b>
<br>
<br>
No. There will be no horses (or other mounts) in Book II. To be fair, we tried...we spent 3 weeks in February experimenting with adding horses to the engine and it just requires waaaaay too much modification. Things we had to consider: what to do with horses in towns and dungeons, horses in combat, how do traps/disease/poison effect horses, horses in regards to boats and portals, how player encumbrance effects horses (and a horse's carrying capacity in general), food/water requirements (if player needs to eat, shouldn't their horse as well?), not to mention tons of additional animation needed to put horses in the game. Seriously, horses and mounts need to be worked into an engine at the development stage for it to work properly- it's not something that can be easily tossed into an already developed engine.
<br>
<br>
I do promise that it will be considered for any future game we do outside the original Eschalon trilogy.</blockquote>
<br>
Next up, we'll be told that not much has changed since Book I at all because it was too hard to do in three weeks. God forbid <i>effort</i> be required.
<br>
<br>
Spotted @ <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com">GameBanshee</a>
