Dragon Age Forum News (Jan. 15, 05)

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Here are today's Dragon Age forum highlights, collected by NWVault. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

David Gaider, Designer

I hope the toolset is good...

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I'm waiting for the part in which Bioware confirms that no, there won't be DA level creation in the toolset, but the community will be supported by selling new in-house created levels trough DD.

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Because we've proven with NWN how willing we are to suck every dollar out it by selling new custom content and hardly supporting it with patches at all, right? Oh, wait, we're only selling new modules and will even be distributing the new content for free and have been putting out free patches for more than two years after release.

You're right, that's very greedy of us.

We're not jumping up and down like cheerleaders saying that it is preferable not to have a level-creator built right into the toolset, but we are looking into it and willing to discuss it with the community and consider alternatives. This is still a long way out.

More: Incidentally, I would like to say that we're not unaware of the "critical mass" argument. That phrase has been passed around in our offices as well in similar arguments.

I'm not wholly convinced that the critical mass involves strictly module builders, however. I think it may more involve the number of players. If there are enough good modules available, there will be people there to play them. If there are enough people there to play them, there will be people interested in building for them. So I think the quality of the toolset does play a role in the critical mass for a community, and that it's a mistake to place too much emphasis on how the bar of entry for building.

But even so, yes, there are definitely obstacles and we recognize that level creation will be an issue... and even if the toolset isn't the focus for DA, it doesn't mean we're not interested in it and unwilling to consider the options.

More:

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Who would "DD-buy" a DA module that reuses the same areas of the OC?

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What makes you think that if we were to make a module for DA that we would sell on DD that it wouldn't include new areas? And that's if.

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Quote: As NWN taught us, a big support for the community is not an easy task, not even for Bioware that is so dedicated to it. A DA Live Team, to exist, will need a financial support like the NWN Live Team and the DD project, if successful, can open a lot of possibilities for a custom-content friendly DA toolset. Or will it open them for NWN2 only?

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NWN didn't put forward the idea of using DD to support the live team until after two and a half years of getting it for free, and it does not mean that DD solely exists so that you now pay for all future support for other products. We have an infrastructure set up which allows us to easily deliver support (and less approvals required for how we wish to provide said support) and if there are downloads that you end up having to pay for... well, they had better damn well be worth it, I suppose. I really doubt that we would ever approach it in terms of "Ha ha! Those fools are desperate for custom DA levels! We will be rich, I tell you! RICH!!"

Although I really would like the kind of moustache one could evilly twirl.

Time progression, resting and inventory

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From my experience, anytime development has an option to enable/disable a feature and doesn't, it usually means that they care more for their "vision" of the game than customer enjoyment.

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And it's been my experience that there always seems to be someone who thinks that a toggle is the best answer to any development decision, and that everyone not getting everything is something that stems either from our laziness or our vanity.

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

I hope the toolset is good...
Keep in mind that the possibility here is only that you will not be able to create unique geometry in the toolset.

You should still be able to load up a level and add/remove/move the various types of placeables about to create a somewhat different look.

Dan Whiteside - Designer

Would you like (dialogue idea)...
To the original poster:
Have you played The Bard's Tale yet? That's basically what it does, except you only ever have two choices, snarky or nice (and even the nice is often fairly snarky). The reason this works is because the writers know what character you are playing: the Bard. (Voiced by Cary Elwes quite nicely.)

I wonder if you would want v.o. for the pc, or is that a separate issue?

Now, remembering that the cost of v.o. is quite high and that the number of pc lines is huge in a Bioware game, I have to ask you: Are you willing to settle for picking a voice from a choice of one (no real choice) or maybe two actors? If we allowed you to choose a voice from two selections, and we allow you to choose your gender, that's four actors/actresses. And considering how few people agreed on the choices in NWN for player voices, I doubt people would be satisfied with two choices.

Leaving v.o. aside, in Bard's Tale I would choose nice, and the Bard would say something just a little snarky, instead of really snarky, but I wouldn't have chosen either. Having a larger selection of choices might help that, but what I think is nice and you think is rude might be two different things. Personally, I think your suggestion might be interesting to try as an experiment in a mod, just to see how people react to it. I'm pretty certain you won't see it in an official game by Bioware anytime soon. You might want to throw the idea out in the Premium Modules forum though, just to see if anyone there would like to try it.