The Black & White 2 Mailbag

Lionhead | 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!

Taken from www.bwgame.com at http://bw2.lionhead.com/team/mailbagw1.html