Interview with the creators of The Darkest Day

I recently had a chance to chat with the creators of the Baldur’s Gate 2 mod The Darkest Day. I must say it looks to be quite an awesome achievement. Well here is what one of the lead creators, known as Minto, had to say:

What is the plot behind ‘The Darkest Day’?

Well the main plot I can’t give away but i’ll give a hint that it starts after irenicus. This is where everything you do is mainly based on one thing and that is the darkest day chapter but from the very start we’ve done a lot of quests. Some of those are totally of topic like umar and windspear and others are more realated to the master plot and give hint to what has happened and what you can await when you meet the dilema.

Where does it take place?

It takes place in amn and the surrounding lands. I have made the map larger so about 2.5 times more land is now playable and we use this. The map goes south the the forrest of tethyr, north to nashkel and east to the troll mountains and Eshputra. These are used in sub plots and the main plots no doubt.

What new stuff has been added?

Well it has taken time but the new stuff that will apear includes 75 kits, 120+ spells, 100+ items, special set items like the balduran set of equiptment, and when all on 1 person grants bonuses, new spell animations and icons, new areas, new npc’s andd 25+ new creatures.

Who did what on the project?

Well the project has been on for a long time now and many have come and gone realising that the load and requirements were a wee bit too much so the bulk of the work has been done by myself (Minto) along with the other main creator Potencius who compiles the expansion. Then we get some graphics from Kazz. These are the main people to mention but there are other members such as Guildrunner for the wedsite he has provided, Uril, Mat, Fzoul, Testy, Peter, Gyzer and Ric that had some input in the past and deserve credit for their past input.

How long did it take?

Well personally the items, spells, Kits, icons and creatures I wanted to do before I started making the quests so things were there ready to put in. This took me about 3/3.5 months to do. The work that now takes place is the tough stuff like puting the quests together that Potancius and I do. I would say that when we finished the whole thing will have taken about 7 months.

How big is it?

Size wise it’s gonna be pretty big indeed. Of course it can’t be as big as a bioware effort but it will certainly justify downloading it. If anyone played Heart of Winter then it should be quitea bit larger than that and also changes the old game somewhat.

What gave you the idea for ‘TDD’?

Well I joined the team at the start when 2 no longer preasant members thought it up. At the time they just wanted to make a small mod that added some npc’s and a few items but as things started rolling ideas and ambitions got larger and larger. Before long the thing turned in to something that was expected to be the size as an offical expansion and we are trying quite hard to get that done.

What did you use to make ‘TDD’?

Well we used a few utilities from Ken Bakers site “TeamBG”. These utilities were made from Gustov Montessi and Cat and Ken and these utils have saved the team alot of time so thanks to those guys. the rest has just been via various hex and text editors and the main help is from the infinity engine file format hacking project site that provide info on the games structures. Also I think our graphics man uses 3D studio max and I used an adobe photo shop here and there

Are there continuations of the romances or are there new ones?

If there are then they will be done later and I doubt we will touch old ones. We may indeed add a few new ones as well as some female ones as we have had several requests for these but this will be up to Potencius as he’s a better scriptor than I.

When is it due out?

I can’t really say and more to the point would rather not as we would get crucified for failing the date. I guess july to august is a good estimate for us to work for but we just work on it in our spare time so we can’t be all that accurate with these estimates. All I can say is that when it comes out I hope people Download is despite the large size because I kinda put a real massive effort in to this and I know it will be worth the effort and is well worth having rather than not.

My thanks to the Darkest Day Team for taking time out to answer my questions. I, for one, really look forward to this so go check out the site for yourself.