Well, I personally wouldn't mind seeing another game using the Infinity engine. It's pretty spectacular. I mean, obviously, it's getting the job done.

Heh. Maybe this will bring the price of Icewind Dale down a bit, into a range that I might actually pay for it! Forty bucks is just too much for a game that old...

It's not a rumour. I confirmed it at my site - Icewind Dale 2 is in development.

Stefan

Heh, just noticed that the quote on the main QtT page is from my page, not RPG Dot. At least the RPG Dot guys gave me credit, heh heh.

Oops! Sorry, I didn't notice that they attributed it to you. I'll fix it.

Well this brings up a real big question. Will IWD2 use the 2nd or 3rd edition D&D rules? From what I understand, the engine was based heavily on 2nd edition rules and is fairly limited by them.

>Well this brings up a real big question. Will IWD2 use the 2nd or 3rd edition D&D rules? From what I understand, the engine was based heavily on 2nd edition rules and is fairly limited by them.

Likely the 2nd edition rules, although with a bunch of additions - like the classes added by BG2, and the thief skills, etc. added by the IWD expansion. Even Pool of Radiance uses a sort of hybrid system, although obviously with more 3rd Edition elements.

Stefan

Time to feed the rumor mill.

Planet Baldurs Gate (http://www.planetbaldursgate.com/) has posted some comments from J.E. Sawyer on the Black Isle developer boards. I guess this verifies Stefan's news. (Not that I don't trust Stefan).

IW2 should be cool, though i think they should make an IW2 with the NWN engine. It would be cool to see them use the NWN engine to make some fully playable crpgs... or maybe they already have plans for that? Though, then we'd have to wait for NWN to come out first... but i think its doable to have an IW2 that was purely solo player and used the NWN engine first (before NWN even came out), but would that steal the NWN hype? am i just babbling?

etc

It probably would make NWN less breathtaking upon release. I think part of the selling approach for NWN is the new engine. Icewind Dale 2 will sell itself to a lot of the people that played the original. They don't need that big hook -- they're not expecting to sell to a whole new group of people. With NWN, they're couting on a whole new group buying it, as well as faithful fans of the Infinity engine. I bet they succeed, too. NWN will be on the charts for a while, I think.

IW2 is using the Infinity engine, I'm sure. I'm also worried that it will be a rushed product.

"I'm also worried that it will be a rushed product."

Well, if they keep engine enhancements to a minimum, and concentrate on artwork and story, there shouldn't be much of a problem.

"It would be cool to see them use the NWN engine to make some fully playable crpgs... or maybe they already have plans for that?"

Supposedly, the dev tools that ship with the game allow the user to easily create their own adventures. I don't know if there will be much of a market for commercial modules.

What I'd like to see is them handling the NWN engine as "open source," in the same way that WOTC handles the d20 system.

I've grown to be a big Infinity engine fan, so I'm actually pleased to hear we'll get one more game out of it. I wish it was something more thoughtful and deep than an Icewind Dale game, I'd prefer something more along the lines of Planescape, but it'll do, so far as I'm concerned.

-Andrew

>think they should make an IW2 with the NWN engine

It'll definitely use the Infinity engine-- that's why the whole project was greenlit, bumping Fallout 3, a second time (Icewind Dale bumped it the first time).

Stefan