Two Worlds II - Roundup

Looks like some effort is being put into marketing Two Worlds II.

First, Two Worlds Vault has an interview with Mirek Dymek, specifically on multiplayer.  The first question:

TWVault: Multiplayer has been a major selling point of the game, and it’s most likely what kept the game still popular among quite a few people, even got it a cult status. What can you say about the mulitplayer in console versions? Will Xbox version support, as previously, Live connectivity? Have multiplayer lag problems, that drove many players away, been dealt with on all platforms?

-Mirek Dymek: The console and PC version will retain its MP build-up, but without the lag, of course! Previously, we’d taken the RTS multiplayer and adapted it to the RPG realm. It has been heavily basing on player-to-player synchronization, to the point of making situations in the game identical from every player’s viewpoint. Right now we’re rather focusing on fluency; the worlds are actually separate [even during the same match] and we use dead reckoning algorythms to approximate positions and events all the time instead. This means that if someone has ‘lag’ of some sort, the game doesn’t freeze, but the player who’s ‘lagging’ might be shown as standing still and then, on retaining connection, will simply be ‘teleported’ to another position as if not having had lag at all.

Next, they also have a Q&A on exploration:

TWVault: We’ve seen a lot of information regarding the upcoming release of TW2, mostly in Antaloor Post newsletter and in some specialist magazines, but some of the basics are still waiting to be ‘unveiled’. Can you tell our readers something more about the scope of the game – how long will it take to finish the singleplayer game? What’s the rough estimate of the landmass size?

Mirek Dymek: Players who strictly follow the main story will need around 20 hours to get to the final Boss fight. And after that the game can still be played! If, on the other hand, a player wants to play all the side quests too, we're talking about 100+ playing hours. There's a heck of a lot of side quests in this big world of Antaloor (60 square miles) - which, by the way, consists of islands this time around. Much of the surface area is actually water - but since the developers have introduced a new sailboat feature, it’s no hindrance to players!

...and a preview from CD Projekt's Spring Conference, covering technology, multiplayer, combat, craft and magic:

DEMONS is an acronym for TW2 magic system, which was about the most astonishing thing we've seen during the presentation. Imagine a game with such type of dynamic combat in archery or melee, but also aided by very potent magics. Antaloor is still a land of raw, untamed energies, harnessed by mages and warriors alike. DEMONS system, from what we've seen, consists of a spellbook with spellcards, collected or bought in the world, and an amulet, which is the "hotbar" of sorts for the spells.

Much like in TW1, the amulet is the place where you can customize your spells - but unlike TW1 or even Oblivion, spell customization is almost an art form in TW2. First, there're 5 schools of magic, each containing 30-odd spells. Then, each of the spells can be used as a spell effect, rather than a single castable entity - you can use your CRAFT system (or so we think) to disassemble your amulet, "crack it open", to actually be able to remove and add spell effects at will, with certain Willpower level restrictions and amount of spells co-existing being limited. The variety of the effects has been presented with the example of a simple magic missile. The magic bolt at its most basic is a simple on-target spell, which may or may not hit the target depending on Line of Sight. Now, that same missile, can be made into a homing missile, chasing an opponent regardless of your LOS checks. You can then boost that homing missile by creating a Nova-type explosion around target upon impact. But that's not all; that homing Nova-splash magic missile can also be enchanted to ricochet from the solid obstacles (physics system, remember?) to provide chaotic movement puzzling a defender... THAT'S variety!

Here's a preview from a site called Battlemouth, although they seem to believe the original game was Japanese:

First up, we got a look at the intro Castle Tutorial level. It is obvious right away that they are moving to leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that the games graphics will be nothing short of stunning. The character skins are beautifully textured as are the settings themselves. Torches flicker and visibly put off heat; shadows that fall in the nooks and crannies of the castle as well as across faces add depth and mood that the first game didn’t even come close to. All of the cut-scenes, save two or three, are done with the in-game engine (developed specifically for this game, by the way). Jake explained that this is to break up the monotony of face-to-face, standard camera angles during dialogue-heavy scenes. The game allows you to move your character around the room or do whatever you want (besides leave the area obviously) during conversations, with special attention paid to character-tracking. In other words, your character is not going to just quit looking at the person he/she is talking to, which ends up making for a more realistic and less robotic atmosphere. Personally, I always found it odd when a cut-scene would show a conversation, and suddenly it would end and all the characters in the cut-scene are now in different places magically mopping floors. The character-tracking and ability to move freely within an area during a conversation help to combat this small annoyance.

Finally, the official site is pointing out some themed Firefox Personas and InsideTwoWorlds has some concept art and renders from PAX.