Game News Dragon Age official FAQ posted

[Monte Carlo]

I wasn't even drunk when I made my post. Wow. :: shakes head ::

I'm an asshat sometimes.

You live and learn. At least I can take solace in the fact that NWN was shit.

Cheers
MC

 

[Spazmo]

It broke my thread predicatability meter, though. I was expecting a pure climb to mass hysteria, just one giant peak- no plateaus of rationality at all. Though some of the folks are definitely on schedule.

Hey, I wouldn't want to disappoint you, Voss. I'm think this is where I'm supposed to declare I'll sever my own testicles if I ever play Dragon Age, right?

 

[Voss]

You can if you like... just remember that the best way involves tight rubber bands.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

When I said exponential back in that argument, what I was referring to is how plots get exponentially more complex the more paths you start adding to them. This still doesn't make it impossible to do, just from my experience writing the more complex a plot gets the longer it takes to do and the more that can potentially go wrong with it (and hence a much, much longer period of debugging is required). Time is the ultimate resource, after all, and it was really what ToEE was short on overall in my estimation.

If you're talking about time in terms of your engine/art assets growing ugly compared to the competition, then that's one thing - and a pretty minor thing really. NWN was ugly as hell, but even the expansion packs got decent scores on their graphics. In most cases, the graphics scores in reviews are nothing more than popularity contests anyway.

I do agree, though, that there are economical ways of acknowledging such choices that do not require full, independent paths (if that's what you're saying) and that not all options need to be checked for in all situations. If you're going to start including differences during the game that stem from choices, however (like we're doing with the origins) then I think they had better be at least meaningful, which is going to require some work.

One simple way is to have plot outcomes for locations. Say you have a castle and the goal for the player is to get a goblet out of the thing. There could be a number of ways to do this based on the origin of the player, whether or not he's a good guy or a bad guy, what type of character they are, and so on. You could have the tradiation thiefy sneaky way in and such, fighting your way through it, talking your way through it, poisonning the well, and so on.

The end result is what matters, though. You don't need to script the Dwarven Lord plot way, the Goblin King plot way, the SuigglySpooge plot way, etc. Just allow those player types their way to the goblet, and put a few hooks in the dialogue for that. But the important part of that scenario is what effect the player had on the castle! Did the player kill someone important? Did the player make the castle a better place? Is the castle now ruined for all time? Are the lives of the people in the caste worse or better?

Just allow the freedom with a few reminders of the origin, track the outcome, and everything will fall in to place.

 

[Rosh]

Instructions: if you have someone about who happens to do good impressions, call them over and have them read Rosh's post above (the "that's why you're a bitch to smack around" one) to you in the Comic Book Guy voice.

That may just be the funniest shit ever.

You know what's even funnier? Considering you to be serious in anything you post far outweighs anything else. For some reason, I think of Woody Allen when you come up with your sniveling and pathetic excuses as to why your sorry ass can't come up with anything outside of Fed-Ex.

Thank you, Rosh.

Thank you, David. Without piss-poor design and excuses, there can't be good design. I thank you for giving us the double-bogey standard.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Oddly enough they seem to be missing the important question from the FAQ: Where are the Dragons?

I do find it interesting that once again, when it comes to developing an exciting new franchise we somehow end up with the same god-damned dwarves, elves and other shit that we've seen time and time again.

... and that, honestly is my only problem with Dragon Age at the moment.

Well, if I can't play as a Dragon and go around setting fire to local villagers than that'll be a complaint too.

This still doesn't make it impossible to do, just from my experience writing the more complex a plot gets the longer it takes to do and the more that can potentially go wrong with it

... yet if you somehow manage to pull it off, you shall be held up high upon the shoulders of men who will worship at your feet. Game sales should theoretically match that to some degree as well.

 

[DemonKing]

I do find it interesting that once again, when it comes to developing an exciting new franchise we somehow end up with the same god-damned dwarves, elves and other shit that we've seen time and time again.

The problem is that the same god-damned dwarves, elves and other shit tends to sell, whereas whenever someone tries to make different dwarves, elves and other shit (like Arcanum, for instance, or the Dark Sun D&D world) it goes down like a lead ballon with most of the public.

DA will most likely be the Bioware-created equivalent of the Forgotten Realms, but you can't really blame them for creating something that most of the market wants - they are a business in the end and while it would be nice to see them taking a bigger risk I guess with their first non-licenced PC IP you can't blame them if they don't stray too far from established fantasy stereotypes.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I dunno. I think if anyone can push a non-traditional fantasy game to huge, honking success, it'd be BioWare. Heck, KotOR was basically a D&D game, and it was pretty successful. Not too many people commented on how lightsabers were nothing more than glowing swords in every other fantasy type game and how weak blasters were compared to swords. A good chunk of the game was spent fighting scary monsters in tombs.

 

[Stark]

The problem is that the same god-damned dwarves, elves and other shit tends to sell, whereas whenever someone tries to make different dwarves, elves and other shit (like Arcanum, for instance, or the Dark Sun D&D world) it goes down like a lead ballon with most of the public.

I agree. if the game setting is too "different" most people (that includes me) tend to get put off. Planescape Toment (with the blue face guy in the cover) probably put off alot of potential buyers, myself included.

However Arcanum flopped for other reasons. the setting, though somewhat different, looks very promising, but the poor graphics plus the poor game ratings it received from most game sites convinced me not to get it.

 

[Dark Elf]

However Arcanum flopped for other reasons. the setting, though somewhat different, looks very promising, but the poor graphics plus the poor game ratings it received from most game sites convinced me not to get it.

Your missing out what's probably the greatest RPG ever made...

 

[Rosh]

I would suggest a try of the game if you like quests that have multiple outcomes, a good bit of variety, and people in a world that treats you a variety of ways, depending upon how in tune with the juju you are (or tech, for that matter), how intelligent you are, race, and what you do. You also have the option of being nice to certain elements of the populace, or just killing them and taking their steaming journal off of their dead body (and loot everything and everyone in the house), if you so choose. (Okay, it's in their locked dresser, but it's nearly the same thing.) Thieving takes a fun aspect as you have to pay attention to not only light (which you can destroy some), but you have to be careful of sound as well. It definitely is fun for those who enjoy playing a catburglar.

Unfortunately, if you know how, it's not hard to compensate a bit for lacking speech skills. The character system is a bit flawed, and the inclusion of RT into the game kludged it to hell and is the crux of the problems with it (and then there's the HEAP problem, which may be negligible for some of today's computers). However, it still is a pretty enjoyable game, if you can avoid the bad points. It's the first game since Fallout that had me creating a dozen characters in rapid fire, to see how the early areas would respond to them.

It's also the one I would recommend if you enjoy playing a sneaking, stealing, and killing bastard. :twisted:

 

[Anonymous]

Arcanum had great NPCs, great roleplaying and an excellent story, which is why I think the good outweighs the bad, in it's case.

Combat can be tolerable if you're melee (in fast TB).

And it's setting is good, you jerk. I tend to find myself looking for more original or not used often settings (steampunk has a few PnP games and books, most notably The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling).

And i'm going to seriously punch you if graphics hold you back on getting an RPG, not to mention the world graphics in the game were nice.

 

[Voss]

This reminds me of the ads in Dragon magazine in the late 80's for an RPG called Talislanta. It was just a small line drawing of an odd looking humanoid of some sort, and the caption-
Talislanta:
No Elves.

Anyway- you guys might want to hold off on jumping to conclusions just a wee bit. At least until there is some setting info beyond 'there will be elves, dwarves and dragons'
As entertaining as it is, hmm. Actually, screw it. Entertain away, little virtual troll-maggots.