The news about 2.0 has been slow and quiet lately, so I'd like to take a minute to update everyone on the progress of 2.0. As you may remember from the previous announcements, all of the core systems of the update are complete, and those include:
- - New character attributes system
- New combat engine
- New magic system
- New skill system
- New race system
- New classes
- New races
- New saving throw system
- New damage resistance system
- Deities and Domains
- Feats
- New weapons/armor foundation and standardization
- New combat maneuver system
Note that this is not an all inclusive list - there is a ton of small features and changes, such as combat stances and cover, that are not included here for brevity's sake. There are also quite a few changes that have not been publicly announced yet, but will be forthcoming soon.
Content
While these core systems were all finished in the latter half of 2006, a large amount of work still remained in the content creation area. In a nutshell, that means creating spells, feats, combat maneuvers, and more. All of the feats and combat maneuvers had to be created from scratch obviously, but so did our entire spell list. While many, many new spells were added, our existing spells had to be ported or completely rewritten to work in the new magic system. While this was a lot of work initially, it will pay off in the long run, as the new spell system is designed from the ground up to accommodate rapid updates and creation.
I am happy to report that the worst of this is over, and the initial Toril 2.0 Feat and Spell lists are now complete. There are roughly 175 feats and 400 spells. Both of those numbers are sure to increase somewhat before final implementation of course. There are many, many, many more spells and feats that will be added into Toril in the future, and we anticipate a regular and healthy update cycle for new content after 2.0 goes live. An enormous amount of work has gone into streamlining and standardizing the spell/feat systems to allow for easy modification and creation, and you will see the benefits of this in the future.
What's Next
With all of the core systems complete, and the initial content complete, what remains is a small, but important part of this project - the details. Now its time to add bells and whistles, complete initial testing, clean up some messages, write help files, and code the last remaining pieces of the puzzle. Revamping the Mob AI to take advantage of these new feats, spells, and combat maneuvers is the biggest project left to tackle, as well as finishing up the new experience system. As soon as these final pieces fall into place and our initial testing is over, we will enter the beta testing phase of 2.0.
I know its been a long time coming, but we're almost there. I will be posting some excepts of the spell and feat lists in the coming weeks to give you a preview of what to expect.