Lionhead is making these Q and A sessions a frequent event in an attempt to further explain the vastness that it promises will be Black and White 2, after all omnipotence is not easily achieved.
This week an extended version of the Mailbag, brought to you by the Black&White 2 Team!
Ants what's the point? You can see them, but are they doing anything? Greets From Denmark Kim
Hi Kim, the ants are part of the simulation; they are a part of the life cycle in the world of Black&White 2.
Hello, Ian here from good ol' USA, got a quick question. Will the different races have special abilities and certain advantages over the others, if they do, how will the game balance these advantages out without making a certain race overpowered? In Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth, the 4 different races have special abilities and advantages but are all balanced out quite well. Will B&W2 achieve this? Thanks for your time. Ian
Hello Ian, in Black&White 2 you are the god of the Greek tribe, and the different tribes will all look completely different and have their own unique architecture. The other tribes that you will play against have their differences, for example the Norse tend to have all their buildings made of wood, so fire will spread more easily in their towns. Differing tactics are prudent in taking on the various enemy tribes in Black&White 2!
When do you expect Alpha version to be finished because I have read in Gamespot that you are expecting to get to alpha in mid-May. Thanks Brenden.
Hi Brenden, you will be pleased to know that Black&White 2 has officially gone Alpha, as announced on the website.
Hey im just a very interested fan and i was wondering if you when the beta version for B&W 2 will be coming out and if there is a way to be a tester for the beta version of B&W 2. Thanks Robbie Steinberg
Hello Robbie, Black&White 2 is not a Massive Multiplayer Online game and for that reason there will not be a public (or non-public) beta test of the game. We do have a long lasting beta testing program going on at Lionhead Studios. Up to 3 people are coming in every single week for work experience, to test the latest version of a game and give their feedback and ideas on them to the team. If you are interested in signing up for a week (or two!) of beta testing at Lionhead Studios then please visit the following link: here.
I am wondering if you will be able to choose a disciple that you can "talk" to directly. Is there a system somewhere close to you getting to choose the equivalent of Moses from you followers? That would be cool if you could. Good luck on the rest of the game - can't wait to play. Thank you, Davie
Well hello there Davie, there are no Disciple Missionaries, and you won't be able to talk to your villagers directly, this wasn't possible in the first Black&White either. You can however decide what their jobs are, by re-assigning their current job. To do this you make the villager change home to one close to the building/job you want him to do; e.g. if you want him to become a regular farmer you drop him by a house that is close to a field. He will then live in that house and go to work as a farmer. If you want him to work longer hours you can make him a disciple; by dropping them directly at the building where you want them to work. So if you want him to be a disciple farmer you drop him in a field.
Hi, I've been a huge fan off black and white and many others of your games. I have heard how great the physiques of this game are going to be, and how you can see each blade of grass, if you shot a fireball into the grass, would the grass set alight?
Yes. There is a realistic physics engine within the game; fire will spread through forests and rocks can be thrown so they will roll down hills and crush people or damage buildings.
Hi B&W studios. Can't wait for B&W 2 I know its going to be ace. On B&W 2 if you make a wall that has the shape of a zero > 0 < can you fill it with water ( water hose spell ) if you can will it gush out in a massive flood like effect if attacking armies try and break through. (And if you can do this I am going to buy the game and frame it in my bedroom and worship it). Yours greatfully Jamie from Yorkshire.
Hi Jamie, good question but the water soaks into the ground too quickly for you to be able to fill anything up. It would require an uber-strong NASA computer to render it and make it run at a smooth frame rate. Now that wouldn't be nice, would it?
Hello, my question is: Will you need only wood to build buildings? If so, will trees grow back, because I always ran out of wood in the first B&W. Also can you also build statues? Also what kind of buildings will you be able to build? And can you turn soldiers back in to citizens? Thanks Michael.
Michael this is a very good question! You will always need wood for buildings, as you advance some buildings will also require ore, which is a new resource in Black&White 2. Trees will definitely grow back, especially in the more fertile areas in the land. Casting a water miracle (as you can also see here will make trees grow more rapidly, you can also easily make sure that your villagers (or creature) don't chop down all trees, assuring the future of your tribes desire for wood. There are plenty of statues that you will be able to build, both to enhance your city and for beautification. There are easily sixty buildings available to the player, and they all have a unique purpose! Soldiers that are in the army can also be easily turned back into citizens.
I haven't played Black and White 1 but I was going to. Anyway is there a story to it? And if so will it leave off from the first one? What genre will the second one be?
Yes there is a story to Black&White 2, but we are not revealing anything about it. The genre is a combination of a GOD/Simulation and RTS game. We also suggest you visit www.lionhead.com to find out more about the game.
Hello all people at Lionhead Studios. I just wanted to know if you could still assign all your villagers to do stuff such as logging, fishing, and so forth. Also, I wanted to know if the Single Player campaign would be much longer, or about the same. The first one was......too short for me and many of my friends that played the game. Thanks in advance, Xandar.
Hello Xandar, yes there are still disciples and we even made a few extra disciples that you can create. Black&White 2 is at least twice as long as the first game, and there are twice as many lands as the first game too. We hope this answers all your questions!
Hello my name is Tom, when will black and white 2 be released in the UK because I've heard that it is being released in October but that was from American websites. Please reply, thanks. Tom Wood
Hi Tom, that was said during a live TV interview and demo of Black&White 2 on German TV GIGA! Peter Molyneux said it's most likely to come out during October 2005 - and the team is quite confident they will make that date. We can't give an exact release date yet, but once we do (and its official) you will read this on our website! And obviously it will be a huge worldwide release!
I have a short simple question: Will it take a super-computer to run Black and White 2, or do you know the system requirements yet? Alan O'Dwyer
Hi Alan, currently we don't know the system requirements yet. Most likely we are looking at similar requirements like other (more demanding and recently released) games. Black&White 2 attempts to push back the barriers of games in all areas; graphics, gameplay, audio etc...
Hello Lionhead. I noticed in your astonishing trailer that you no longer use scaffolding to plan what kind of a house you would build. I was wondering if you could tell how you plan your houses and do they change depending on your alignment or due to any other factors. Yours faithfully, Liam Warriner.
Hello Liam, you're correct, we don't use scaffolding anymore. All buildings are constructed from the bottom up. Thus the foundations are the building site, and it will be obvious to you that a building isn't complete. You can select houses and buildings from the town centre; the most desired building by your villagers will always be displayed there. You can also duplicate any building that's built within your influence. Lastly, if you want to get more information and statistics about the buildings you can use the building menu which allows you to select any blueprint you wish to build. Almost every building will indeed change to reflect your alignment.
Hello, lionhead team. First of all, I'm really looking forward to BW2. I've got a few questions and I wonder if you could answer them. First of all I must say that there many good things in BW1, but there was something that bothered me. Due to the worldwide release I found my copy being synchronized in Dutch (in a way quite logical, since I live in the Netherlands, but on the other hand I'd rather play the original version.) Fortunately you saved the game from the American-western-synchronized-in-German effect that simply would have spoiled the fun. I know you're all busy with all kinds of stuff, but could you be so kind to release an English language patch asap after the BW2 release? My other question is, would I be able to harm the enemy creature (by throwing things at him, like fireballs, rocks and stuff?) when the annoying little fellow comes into my realm to steal my people? Many thanks in advance (and apologies for my English) Jeffrey
Hi Jeffrey, some of the Dutch were not happy with their translated version of Black&White, we became aware of that and released a language pack for the first game when this came to our attention. In B&W and B&W 2's case it's our publisher who deals with localization of the games, and you will be (hopefully) happy to hear that none of the voices will be translated into Dutch for Black&White 2. There will be Dutch subtitles that you can use, but all the voices will be in original British English!
Then carrying on to your second question: yes of course you are able to throw things at an enemy's creature, even fry it with some fire or lighting!
Hi! I am a very big fan of B&W. I am just wondering, how big of an influance can one GOD have on the world, and I specificly mean on the physics/environment. For example, will u be able to influence the weather, because that would be preaty cool.> to breake the storm so that the sun can shine the world. I wish u good luck from Croatia! Josip
Hello Josip, best regards to all fans in Croatia! If you can touch it with your godly hand, you can use it in Black&White 2 - that's the basic idea. So you can interact with the environment and everything that you see in the world. This goes for both land and water! We can also tell you that there are weather effects like clouds, rain and snow and even the temperature will have an influence in your world. You can also change the time of day to anytime you want, or whenever you want, by simply reaching to the sky and moving time. And with all the miracles that are available to you, you can do whatever you want within your influence, the water miracle will wash away villagers and soldiers while fire will burn them instantly.
Hello! Black and White 2 looks amazing! I just wanted to ask if you could please show us fans a picture of the temple (preferably when it is neutral). With much anticipation, Liam Warriner.
Yes Liam, take a look at our art section to see some concept art of the temple.
Is it true that the release of Black & White 2 has been moved to December 1? Michael Smutek
No.
Yo Lionhead, loved Black and White - can't wait for B&W 2. What are the tribes in this one going to be like and what differences are there? Tom Davies
Yo Tom, four: Greek, Norse, Aztec and Japanese. There are too many differences to list here, but to name one: the architecture is unique for every tribe.
Hi. I was wondering if there will be a weather system in the game. Like if it rains the army won't walk as fast or if it is snowing the villagers will be cold and get in their homes and light a fire? I thought of this when i saw this image. Are those clouds or what??? Thanks anyway Johnys from Cyprus
Hi Johnys from Cyprus, yes and yes, those are clouds. Villagers tend to light fires in their homes when they are at home to cook as well as to keep warm, depending on the weather.
Hi Lionhead, I have a question i hope you can answer. Now with the RTS side of B&W2, will you still be able to take over other cities by impressing the people like in B&W1? Or is it only by war, and civilization you can win? Anyways, good job with Black&White, I can't wait for the new game to get out! I'm even buying new hardware to play it! Johannes Madsen, Denmark
Hello Johannes, yes you can either take over other tribes by force and sending out large and vast armies to them - or by impressing those tribes by building up an impressive enough city.
Great looking game graphics look amazing and i can't wait to get it. All i would like to know is how will you be able to control your armies? Do you have to leash them to your creature or can you select them and give them your orders by yourself? Kieran Hanley
Hello Kieran, you control your armies by selecting their army flags. You can leash them to your creature, or to other platoons, or to a rock, or ... and you can indeed give them orders yourself by use of the army flags.
Can you have male and female creatures? Liam
No, all creatures are genderless Liam.
The Black&White 2 team answers more questions from the community.
Hi, I'm very interested in the 'making of' section on your site, and I was curious to whether you would be able to tell me more about the concept of 3d 'Blooming'. I am a graphics and programming student here in the UK, and I was wondering how exactly it works (sounds interesting). Any info is greatly appreciated and good luck to you and the team for Black and White 2. Thanks again, David Roberts
Hello David, the basic idea behind blooming is to extract the brightest portions of the image, based on some kind of threshold that can be chosen once or based on the overall brightness of the scene. For example, we want to extract all pixels of the image whose brightness is greater than 0.9 and we fix this value once and for all. The resulting image will be all black except for very bright spots, for example on very bright objects directly illuminated by the sun. The next step is to apply a Gaussian filter to the result of the previous pass: this will blur the bright spots of the image and create that usual "hairy" look. The final step is to add back the blurred result to the initial image, effectively further over brightening the brighter areas.
Hello, Lionhead Studios. First of all thank you for the beautiful trailer that you released three days ago, it was fantastic. Secondly, I would like to ask if those catapults will ride by their own like in all games, or they will be pulled by ten strong villagers. I know, it sounds really silly, but this is what I am really interested in. Thank you in advance. Bye Mammoth
Mammoth, (we honestly hope that's a nickname!) this is indeed another hot topic lately in the communities so it's a fair question to ask. Currently catapults do not require any pushers. We had it working with pushers where you needed at least five people to move the thing around and make it launch boulders the size of a truck. Sadly enough this gave some serious complications with other features and mechanics we have in Black&White 2. What happens for example when one of the pushers dies, but not only that - it would imbalance the game dramatically! For that reason we took the brave decision to not have villagers push catapults around. At one point we even considered having the pushers inside the catapults! You can however drop ammunition in the catapult of your choice. Like a cow for example. And then set it alight!
Hi, whilst I was looking through the screen shots at the community site I found this really strange one of a floating blue (and barely dressed) woman. Now I kind of want to know what this is. I really hope you can tell me. Tim
Heya Tim, yes a barely dressed blue nymph is what we call it. Or to use the real name: it's the Siren Epic Miracle. We're not telling you what it does, but it's cool, and you'll be blown away by it when you see its effect in action!
Hi there, Will there be a scenario editor (world builder) for Black and White 2? (The ability for fans to make maps for their favourite games is generally considered as being important to enhancing the replayability and functionality of these products). Yours sincerely Jeremy de Beer
Hi Jeremy, currently we aren't planning to release the world editor at the same time we are releasing the game. But we are considering releasing this in the future; this could be done with a patch, updates or even an add-on pack. We'd love to release modding tools to allow people to create their own maps, as that would add a lot of gameplay to it!
Will the sprites/guides/conscience, whatever everyone calls the good and evil consciences in the game, will they have the same voices as in the original Black and White game. Me and my brother would greatly appreciate it if you would answer this. Thanx, Sam and Bro
Hello Sam and his brother, yes the voices of the advisors will be done by the same actor (who does BOTH!) but he's making them slightly more developed in Black&White 2, which goes well with the epic nature of the game.
Hello! I was wondering, considering that there will be thousands upon thousands of soldiers on the battlefield in Black & White 2, what AI system will they use? Will we control each soldier individually, or will we use an officer to issue orders, or perhaps move them around in groups of 100's? The reason I was wondering about this, is that if each soldier has its own AI this can slow down performance quite much. I'm a great fan of Black & White, and I eagerly await the second part :) /Benny
Hi Benny, platoons can be made any size you want them to be. But as the size gets larger the cost of creating platoons rises ever faster. Our armies work with platoon flags that allow you to position your armies on the land and move them around. These flags can be used outside your influence and you can merge platoons by joining flags together. That's right, your soldiers will also gain experience, and there is a way of retrieving your best troops from previous lands, but we'll keep the way you do that a secret for now. So while they work and fight in a group, they're all independent soldiers that fight one-to-one for their lives, they'll enjoy their spare time around the campfire and play cards with each other or practice some in their fighting skills. Soldiers with a lot of experience might even become like heroes.
Hi my name is Kyle Brown and I was wondering if you will be able to teach you creature to build and repair walls and buildings. And can you as a god do it yourself?
Hello Kyle, yes, you can teach your creature to repair walls and buildings, or you can help your villagers. Or do it yourself! If a building is completely destroyed down to its foundations, then neither the Creature nor the Villagers nor you can repair it.
Hey BW2 team, this has been troubling me for a while now, but what ware going to be the creatures in the game, and the creatures available to you at the start! PlanetBlackandWhite says there will be five starting creatures, the lion, the ape, the cow, the wolf, and the tiger, while Pczone says just the wolf, lion, cow and ape! What happened to the tiger, did he get cut out? Please say no! Panther27
Hi Panther27 (again we hope that's a nickname!), no the tiger did not get cut out, although you won't be able to choose the Tiger as your creature but all will become clear when you play the game...
Hello, my question is: Will you need only wood to build buildings? If so, will trees grow back, because I always ran out of wood in the first B&W? Also can you also build statues? Also what kind of buildings will you be able to build? And can you turn soldiers back in to citizens? Thanks Michael.
Hello Michael, these are surely more then one question - but we'll answer them anyway. Buildings will require either one or both of the following resources: wood and ore. Forests and trees will grow, and villagers will be considerate in chopping down trees. You will be able to build many statues and more embellishments for your people in your city! There are more then sixty different buildings in the game. You will be able to easily turn your soldiers back into villagers. We hope this answers all your questions!?
This is the second part of Lionhead Studio's attempt to answer all gamer questions regarding the upcoming Black and White 2 game. The answers to the first batch of questions are also available below...
If at the moment you can specify what NEW miracles will there be and what will they do, and what sorts of creatures will you be able to have, and also how big the creatures can get like on the first one the trainer said they can be as tall as mountains and they were not near but the screens for this one make them look twice as big as mountains, so if you can say how big they can grow could you please say how big the original Black and White creatures were as well so we can compare thank you very much. Joe
Hello Joe, you actually managed to ask us at least three questions in one go! To start with the first question: there are two kinds of miracles; standard and epics. Standard miracles are cheaper to cast in terms of mana than epics; and far quicker to charge. Epics are hugely powerful - so we'll focus now on the standard miracles. In Black&White 2 there are six brand new standard miracles and each one of them can be used in two different ways (throw and pour) effectively giving you twelve miracles: Water (Water your fields or drown your foes), Fire (Blast the infidels, incinerate your enemies), Heal (Heal your wounded, show your mercy), Lightning (Electrify the world, blast the land with crackling power), Shield (Protect all within its reach from attack or magic) and Meteor (Rain down red hot rocks upon your foes, obliterate them...). How you use a miracle will determine any alignment change. E.g. pouring a wall of fire in front of enemy troops will block their path, and isn't an evil act. Setting them all on fire however will give you an evil boost!
The following creatures will be available to the player; Cow, Wolf, Lion and Ape, while three unannounced creatures will make an appearance in the story line. Regarding their size, they start at about four times the height of a villager - this is your baby creature. Throughout the game they can grow to over triple that size, provided they are well fed and rested. And they're much, much, much more advanced...
Would you have a more exact release date for B&W 2. On AOLgames it says June 1st, 2005 - I wasn't sure if this was right or not. I would like to know. Soquerdemon
No this is not right Soquerdemon. Basically, if it's not Lionhead Studios or Electronic Arts saying it, it's an estimate. And it shouldn't be taken too serious. Currently all we can say is that we're aiming to finish Black&White 2 as soon as possible and when we have a definite release date, we'll let you know!
Hi Lionhead Studios! I have a question about the villagers. If you are an evil god, will the villagers then be evil to? And what about fields, will they grow better if you are a good god, then if you are an evil god? I apologize my spelling, I'm from Denmark so my English may not be so good... Thanks - Frank
Hi there Frank. Definitely an interesting question and several people have asked it. If you're an evil God then - indeed - your tribe will reflect your alignment. Their clothing, actions and reactions will change depending on your alignment. This is not the only thing that will change of course; the land, the creature, the buildings, your hand, and many other things will be influenced by it. Alignment doesn't have an influence over your fields - what you mean is fertility: certain locations in Eden are better to grow certain crops then others.
Your new BLACK N' WHITE 2 IS awesome. Are you going to show us the devil??? Very great job!!! Jacek
Hey Jacek, it's always nice to see the excitement in ones' email and yours is probably one of the most interesting ones. We are aware that we haven't really shown the evil advisor yet, but ask yourself this, do you really want us to spoil the beans? Yeah, you probably do, so here goes, on your (and many others) request.
Hello, I have noticed that many people on your official forum (like me) wonder if certain epic miracles will be permanent or not such as an earthquake. Will the earth split permanently or not? Like many people on the forum, I LOVE the idea of you having to build bridges across the earthquake you or the enemy has created (as I would really feel like a God who can completely alter landscape permanently). If it will not be permanent, can you please tell "us" how long the earth remains being split? Thanks, Ilyas
Hi Ilyas, this certainly has been an issue in the B&W 2 Community so we feel like addressing this. Taking a strength and direction, the Earthquake Epic Miracle sends a crack through the land destroying everything in its path, swallowing up anything that gets in its way. Fissures open up but these will heal over time, just like the Volcano will heal over time. The length of the effect will vary depending on different factors, and we're continuously balancing and reviewing the length of the effect... And to address the final misunderstanding within our own community regarding this issue : villagers will not build bridges.
Hey Lionhead! I just want to ask about a digging or land shaping feature in Black and White 2. There is much speculation on the boards about one, with the creation of moats and other nifty battle-helping features but do you think you could finally put this speculation to an end? Will there or will there not be a digging feature in Black and White 2? Much thanks. Luke
Hello Luke - just to be clear: there's no digging feature in Black&White 2. We have a special mechanic or feature in Black&White 2 which we call 'physting'. Using this new feature will allow you to affect almost everything in the world; from the land and sea to the rocks, trees, villagers and the Creatures. You will be able to 'scratch' into the ground by moving the mouse fast to each side, while not being a digging feature it does allow for some cool stuff to happen and tactics to play around with. You can even use physting to push rocks down slopes to crush enemy troops; but that's quite an evil thing to do!
I was wondering will there be other alternative ways to grow food (apple trees, orange trees wine grapes, animals, fishing, and corn). To me just having wheat day in and day out isn't sane, or healthy. And in Black and White I didn't really like how the food in the store house was always on the ground in one big pile. Will there be crates and barrels where food is more realistically possessed and distributed in that way? Nils
We completely agree Nils; eating grain every day isn't very healthy! The stuff that grows on fields will not always be grain; the Japanese for example will more likely have rice fields. Especially fertility is something to keep in mind when building fields for your villagers. So in short; yes, there will be different sorts of crops, and there's fish farms as well! There's also wildlife, and these can be picked up and placed in the Store House.
When will Black and White 2 be released, how much will it cost, and will it be available for Mac as well as PC? Thanks, Jimi
Hello Jimi, it's amazing how many times we've received this specific question but seeing as you were the first one to mail it to us; we've picked your message to reply to. Currently we're hoping to finish Black&White 2 in 2005 and we're pretty confident about it. Heck the statement from Peter Molyneux recently at the Game Developer Conference that we're aiming for Black&White 2 to be released this Autumn! We can't tell you how much it will cost, but that will probably be around the same price as every other newly released game. And we'd love to do a version for the Mac, but we're keen to finish the PC version first.
I was wondering if soldiers in B&W2 will act like "normal" villagers. By "normal" I mean will they sleep? Eat? Pitch a tent and play cards next to a bon fire while they are out stationed away from the city? Most RTS games have soldiers that act like little more then statues, occasionally turning a sword or gun between their fingers, but can remain in the same spot idle from the Stone Age to the Modern Age. Will B&W2 make an effort to "humanize" its soldiers? Or will they to fall into the "statue" soldier category? Jesse
Hi Jesse, this is an interesting question. Obviously the main purpose of having military units such as soldiers is warfare, and having them spending a lot of time doing other things would obviously get annoying for players. However, soldiers will occasionally sit around a campfire if they're idle and will gather around their tents when they're building up forces. Your platoons will also do cool stuff when they're out on the battlefield, like practicing combat, and sit around sleeping or warming their hands around campfires!
What's it like working at B&WS? I wanna know cuz some day i wanna work on one of the black and White games. Sue
Hello Sue. It's great cuz we love it! B&WStudios is a studio full of people who are passionate about making B&W2 as good as possible. Sometimes that means celebrating our successes but other times it can mean heated debate. We're a development family really, and the brilliant people we're fortunate to work with make this a great company to work for. Right now it's absolutely intense. Everyone is working frantically for an important milestone and we're firing off each other. Everyday something new and amazing seems to be happening, only to be superseded by something else. It's the hardest but the most fun part of bringing the game together, and you can see it coming together at an unbelievable pace. The feeling is that all our hard work is now proving to have been worth while, and that is a fantastic feeling, and it's a great place to be right now.
I have a copy of Black and White. It wouldn't load with my Windows XP. Do you have a patch of some sort to make it work? Can you please help me? Thank you, Tina.
Hi Tina, you would be amazed how many times we receive this email! As some people might already have noticed, Windows XP and Black&White aren't best friends. The game doesn't work under XP, at least the version as you buy it in stores doesn't. Although we do not "officially" support Windows XP with Black&White (mainly because the OS didn't exist when we released the game), there is a way to get it working with this operating system! What you should do first is install patch V 1.20; there are many websites where you can get this patch from, check this page. Also make sure the game and patch are being installed under an administrator account. It will not work in a non-administrator account on XP. If this fails we suggest you contact the technical support of Electronic Arts or check our forums.
Hi B&W-Team My Question: will there be online playing...and if yes, how? Lobby? Gamespy... portal? Thx anyway...played a lot of B&W1 ... I loved my cow :D Peace! Gruenke
Hello Gruenke, we always reply to people that love cows. There's just something mysterious about these creatures. Anyway, to answer your question: we're currently focusing on finishing the single player version of Black&White 2 and will probably not include multiplayer. We're hoping for this to be an expansion or download that could be released after the initial game has come out. Obviously this will allow us to make the single player game balanced, polished and beautiful to look at.
Hello, First all, I'm not American and I don't speak English.... but I try to communicate in English. I'm a GREAT Brazilian fan of B&W, I really loved the game, and it's simply perfect!! I would like to know if B&W2 will be sold in Brazil, and if will have a Portuguese Brazilian version of this wonderfull game. I cannot wait more to play B&W2, please release it as soon as possible!!! Please answer this mail, Thanks, Tiago
Hi Tiago, you would be surprised how many people in Brazil are playing Black&White! Some of them, like yourself have sent us an email with this question. Black&White 2 will be a worldwide release. We can't be specific on which languages it will support at this moment.
Will there be a turtle/tortoise creature in the game, and if so will the player be able to use it for his/her creature? Thanks in Advance Benjamin
Well hello there Benjamin. You can now choose at the beginning between four different creatues, including old favorites such as the Ape, Cow and Lion. There are going to be less creatures in Black&White 2 (there won't be a Turtle Creature this time around) - as our main focus has been improvement on the existing technology. They're more fun; more advanced and have much more personality! And they look astonishing with a lovely fur too! We'd rather have more differences and skills on fewer creatures than have tons of creatures with a limited amount to do; quality, not quantity! The turtle is popular though, so who knows what we'll do next...
Hello! I am a big fan of the black & white series, following the development's every step. The problem is that I have an old PC and a new Mac. I have two questions: What are the system requirements? And will the game work on Mac or will there be a Mac version? I want to be able to play the game so badly! Thanks, Pontus
Hi Pontus, the system requirements for Black&White 2 are currently still unknown. As soon as we know we'll post them on our website - we're currently aiming for the recommended specs of Black&White to be the minimum specs for Black&White 2. We're considering a version for the Mac but just like with the original game this will only be done after the release.
Hello my name is Chris Brasino I have been trying to track the games date for when it will be released but I can't find it for some reason. So any help on that would be great. Also it would be lots of fun if I could possibly test the game but I don't want to be seen as trouble. It is just that I have been interested in Black and White 2 for a long time. I hope you get this because the last one I sent I didn't get a response. Please email me back. Chris
Hi Chris, due to the huge volume of emails we receive sometimes one or two might slip and they're left unanswered. Apologies for this! However you've made it into our mailbag now; as for your first question: yes, if you read on of the other messages in this issue you'll find out. As for testing; for years we've had a work experience scheme at Lionhead Studios. Check out this information page, but we have to warn you; we're currently fully booked until November 2005! We don't do public beta test because they simply don't serve any purpose with single player games.
Hello! I have a question regarding the "good/evil" system and how it relates to having an army in the game. Does having an army automatically make you "evil", or is it how you use your army? Can you be "good" and still have an army, but let's say, only use the army defensively? I am hoping you can get this question to the developers of the game. Thanks for your time! - Frank
Hello Frank! A very good question; yes you can have an army and defend yourself and still be good. We're not completely going to spoil the adventure but let's just say that armies are not only for evil players in Black&White 2!
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