Posted September 18, 2016
Hello mortals!
Today we’re going to talk about the lost BG game; Baldur’s Gate 3: The Black Hound.
Take this post with a grain of salt. According to J.E. Sawyer’s blog, there are some pieces of information floating around that are inaccurate, but he doesn’t go in to what that is.
Development started in 2000. The project had a larger team by the end of Icewind Dale 2. It was announced in 2002.The game was meant to be a trilogy, with the first part being released in 2004 (although another source says Christmas 2003). The other parts were planned to be released throughout 2005. Development was possibly canceled in 2003. There was a delay in development because Interplay had to renew their D&D licence with Wizards of the Coast.
The level cap would have been 5, but was later changed to 8. There were no prestige classes in the game. This is because they would’ve been difficult to implement at low levels.
It started out with the Aurora engine from Neverwinter Nights, but eventually the developers created one for BG3, called the Jefferson engine. The Jefferson engine used several graphical improvements, like real time shadows. The engine was used in a canceled version of Fallout 3, which was a project called Van Buren. Damien Foletto, a developer on the project, wanted to incorporate themes from Temple of Elemental Evil into the new engine.
It was unrelated to previous titles and used the 3rd edition rules. Its tagline was “You cannot kill guilt”. The game was canceled when Black Isle became insolvent. The team wanted to create a single player experience, in contrast to Neverwinter Nights which had a heavy emphasis on multiplayer. I haven’t actually played NWN multiplayer, that’s just what I got from my sources. The game was to be set in the Dalelands.
BG3 had a more complicated decision and morality system. The choices the player made affected the later story (obviously), but the outcome of failed or incomplete quests also affected the player throughout the game. The player’s alignment would change based on his actions. There were points in the game where you would have to make a choice, favouring one faction over another.
Just like the previous games, if the player said or did something an NPC disapproved of they may leave. A high charisma might’ve prevented this from happening. However, before leaving, the NPC would be reduced to “follower” status. Which meant the player could no longer control the NPC, but the NPC was still in the party.
NPCs weren’t able to talk to anyone. But they did have speech skills. What this did was allow the NPC to interject. You do see this when talking to certain characters in BG2 (when talking to certain characters, one or two party members might comment on what they ask of you). But it looks like this new speech system would have a bigger impact on gameplay. Low speech skills with certain party members would cause conflict within the group. A high charisma would also help in this situation.
The game had a more complicated reputation system. This included: regional reputation, factional reputation, fame/infamy, and epithets.
Feargus Urquhart (CEO of Obsidian) wanted to revive BG3 in 2008. He asked Atari for the budget of a big ticket title, but the plan ultimately fell through.
Beamdog said they wanted to create Baldur’s Gate 3, but what they have in mind is different from The Black Hound.
Apparently, there’s a book about the game. The page I found has no information on the book: https://www.amazon.ca/Baldurs-Gate-III-Black-Hound/dp/B00BIAMM1Q/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474138398&sr=1-2&keywords=baldurs+gate+black+hound
Sources:
Jefferson Tech Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TvcanIELcY
http://www.snackbar-games.com/features/the-games-that-werent-baldurs-gate-iii/
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur%27s_Gate_III:_The_Black_Hound]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur%27s_Gate_III:_The_Black_Hound[/url]
Feargus Urquhart wants to bring back BG3: http://kotaku.com/5967965/obsidian-almost-made-baldurs-gate-3)
J.E. Sawyer’s Blog: http://twofoldsilence.diogenes-lamp.info/2012/09/the-black-hound-what-its-deal-was.html
Google images
Today we’re going to talk about the lost BG game; Baldur’s Gate 3: The Black Hound.
Take this post with a grain of salt. According to J.E. Sawyer’s blog, there are some pieces of information floating around that are inaccurate, but he doesn’t go in to what that is.
Development started in 2000. The project had a larger team by the end of Icewind Dale 2. It was announced in 2002.The game was meant to be a trilogy, with the first part being released in 2004 (although another source says Christmas 2003). The other parts were planned to be released throughout 2005. Development was possibly canceled in 2003. There was a delay in development because Interplay had to renew their D&D licence with Wizards of the Coast.
The level cap would have been 5, but was later changed to 8. There were no prestige classes in the game. This is because they would’ve been difficult to implement at low levels.
It started out with the Aurora engine from Neverwinter Nights, but eventually the developers created one for BG3, called the Jefferson engine. The Jefferson engine used several graphical improvements, like real time shadows. The engine was used in a canceled version of Fallout 3, which was a project called Van Buren. Damien Foletto, a developer on the project, wanted to incorporate themes from Temple of Elemental Evil into the new engine.
It was unrelated to previous titles and used the 3rd edition rules. Its tagline was “You cannot kill guilt”. The game was canceled when Black Isle became insolvent. The team wanted to create a single player experience, in contrast to Neverwinter Nights which had a heavy emphasis on multiplayer. I haven’t actually played NWN multiplayer, that’s just what I got from my sources. The game was to be set in the Dalelands.
BG3 had a more complicated decision and morality system. The choices the player made affected the later story (obviously), but the outcome of failed or incomplete quests also affected the player throughout the game. The player’s alignment would change based on his actions. There were points in the game where you would have to make a choice, favouring one faction over another.
Just like the previous games, if the player said or did something an NPC disapproved of they may leave. A high charisma might’ve prevented this from happening. However, before leaving, the NPC would be reduced to “follower” status. Which meant the player could no longer control the NPC, but the NPC was still in the party.
NPCs weren’t able to talk to anyone. But they did have speech skills. What this did was allow the NPC to interject. You do see this when talking to certain characters in BG2 (when talking to certain characters, one or two party members might comment on what they ask of you). But it looks like this new speech system would have a bigger impact on gameplay. Low speech skills with certain party members would cause conflict within the group. A high charisma would also help in this situation.
The game had a more complicated reputation system. This included: regional reputation, factional reputation, fame/infamy, and epithets.
Feargus Urquhart (CEO of Obsidian) wanted to revive BG3 in 2008. He asked Atari for the budget of a big ticket title, but the plan ultimately fell through.
Beamdog said they wanted to create Baldur’s Gate 3, but what they have in mind is different from The Black Hound.
Apparently, there’s a book about the game. The page I found has no information on the book: https://www.amazon.ca/Baldurs-Gate-III-Black-Hound/dp/B00BIAMM1Q/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474138398&sr=1-2&keywords=baldurs+gate+black+hound
Sources:
Jefferson Tech Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TvcanIELcY
http://www.snackbar-games.com/features/the-games-that-werent-baldurs-gate-iii/
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur%27s_Gate_III:_The_Black_Hound]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur%27s_Gate_III:_The_Black_Hound[/url]
Feargus Urquhart wants to bring back BG3: http://kotaku.com/5967965/obsidian-almost-made-baldurs-gate-3)
J.E. Sawyer’s Blog: http://twofoldsilence.diogenes-lamp.info/2012/09/the-black-hound-what-its-deal-was.html
Google images
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