Interview ToEE queries at GameBanshee

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Temple of Elemental Evil

There's a really interesting <A href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/toee2-1.php">interview</a> over at <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/">GameBanshee</a>, which asks some really, really neat things, like this:
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<blockquote><b>GB: In the original module, certain spells wouldn't function (or functioned differently) in the elemental nodes. Can you tell us a bit about these elemental nodes and how much of a challenge (if any) they were to implement into the game?
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Tim:</b> Actually, we did not implement the special spell rules for the elemental nodes. We ran out of time, and we had the choice to either get rid of the rules or get rid of the nodes altogether. We decided to keep the nodes. Each node is its own little pocket universe made primarily of one type of material: air, earth, fire or water. Each node has some peculiar inhabitants that are found nowhere else in the game, and some interesting items to acquire.</blockquote>
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That's rather disappointing. I always like the concept of powerful areas screwing with magic spells. It gave a sense of physical realism to magic, kind of like being able to fly a jet in the sky, but not in space.
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So, <b>no doughtnuts for <i>Tim</i> for the next week</b>!
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Spotted this at <A href="http://www.homelanfed.com">HomeLAN Fed</a>.
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[Spazmo]

Actually, we did not implement the special spell rules for the elemental nodes. We ran out of time

Time that was imposed by Atari/Infogrames. Timmy should get loads of donuts to keep his sugar levels up for all-night designing jags.

 

[Whipporowill]

Bah. I for one is happy the game isn't delayed... even though it would have been a great feature... it mightn't have been worth a few more months of dev time. I'm impatient as is!

 

[triCritical]

Bah. I for one is happy the game isn't delayed... even though it would have been a great feature... it mightn't have been worth a few more months of dev time. I'm impatient as is!

I tend to agree. I think the only thing that should warrant a delay is when you still have not completed parts or issues on your original design doc. However, I feel that the elemental nodes are inherantly an important part of the game. But I do agree with Tim that its difficult to design an area void of natural principles with an engine like theres. Spell effects might have been more approachable. But I guess it does kind of beg the question of why, when it might actually be a minor part of the big picture.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I think such a feature is good enough to warrent delaying it, since magic does have rules and this is part of them. There are just some places in the world where that magic is going to act and behave irradically due to the power of the areas. There are several of these in D&D settings, but I don't think there's ever been a game to do them yet.

 

[triCritical]

I think such a feature is good enough to warrent delaying it, since magic does have rules and this is part of them.

I guess it would all depend on how much of the game took place in the elemental nodes. He has already stated that the nodes are much smaller since it was difficult to implement them as is. And since he possibly contemplated leaving them out entirely, it leads me to believe that they just might not be that big. Nevertheless, I completely agree with you that it would have been damn nice if spells did behave differently. Hopefully things like fireballs will still be useless in areas such as the fire plane.

On a side note. The best implementation of elemental nodes IMO was Might and Magic 2 as well as Might and Magic 8. Both of them did a terribly good job of bringing the nodes to life. It was quite neat.

 

[Dan]

Well... Master of Magic had elemental magic nodes that changed your ability to cast spells...

But it wasn't really developed, and it's not an RPG.

 

[Jed]

There are just some places in the world where that magic is going to act and behave irradically due to the power of the areas. There are several of these in D&D settings, but I don't think there's ever been a game to do them yet.

One of the crappy BG games had a huge dungeon with a level that had "dead magic" & "wild magic" zones...i dont' remember how well it was done, though...

 

[DrattedTin]

BGII: ToB did have a wild magic zone, but it was like a single room.

In any case, it just made all spells wild surge according to the 1d100 wildsurge table from 2nd ed. Nothing special. They, of course, left out all the TOUGH wild surges.

 

[Psilon]

Similarly, there was a "dead magic" zone, again limited to a single room in the same over-hyped dungeon.

I don't think it affected item properties, though. Wouldn't a +5 sword lose its enhancements in such a place?

 

[Vault Dweller]

No, the loot is sacred in loot-oriented games. A gamer should not have any doubt that his prized +5 sword will function as advertised

 

[triCritical]

I think wild magic was a sham. It rarely ever happened and it just took pre-existing things and made them behave more insane. The added them to those rooms for no other reason, then very few people were probably ever going to play a wild mage.

 

[Jed]

No, the loot is sacred in loot-oriented games. A gamer should not have any doubt that his prized +5 sword will function as advertised

Just like how the dr0w l3wt miraculously survived in direct sunlight...

 

[Spazmo]

triCritical, I imagine fire spells will be useless on the fire plane because the fire creatures therein will be fire immune, not because the area will have special properties.

 

[DrattedTin]

Regarding drow items in BGII: They turned to dust when you reached the surface unless you used an exploit.

Of course, these exploits riddle BGII (keeping all BGI items at the beginning, anyone?)

 

[Spazmo]

The thing with those items was that rather than having drow items be destroyed in surface areas, there was simply a script in the first area you enter after the Underdark that would turn all the drow items to dust. Seems like a little more work would have prevented a pretty big exploit there.

 

[DrattedTin]

Yes, but to them it was more of a thematic than gameplay thing.

They didn't *really* care if you had +5 equivelant weapons; they were handing them out on the surface anyway.