Dragon Age Forum News (Mar. 14, 06)

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Here are today's Dragon Age forum highlights, taken from the Dragon Age Official Forum. 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.

Scott Meadows, Programmer

New Dragon Age Fact Sheet

Well, All I can really say is that I am having a lot fun making the tools for the designers.

Now as a player the way I am looking at it is this;

If I am having this much fun building it then, Wow I can't wait to play the retail version.

Wait a minute, ah crap I guess I have to wait just like the rest of you.

DragoN Age & E3 2006

It's not a bug if it is a throwing axe.

<disclaimer>
This in no way implies that throwing axes will or will not be in DA.
</disclaimer>

Multiplayer designed campaign?

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Singleplayer needs not much more then a basic storyline, a main character (you) and fully controllable npc's.

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Wow! that's it, okay then.
Here that David, You should be able to pop that off in a couple of days...

And yes that was sarcasm...

Trust me when I say even I know it isn't just all that, even though I am not a designer.

The designers do a heck of job and a lot of work goes into the story and the world in general.

Check out this link for more info on the game world Click Here

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

DragoN Age & E3 2006

Action RPG's are generally a lot more animation-centric in their rules systems than what I would refer to as a rules based RPG. In other words, if I swing I don't know if I've hit something until the moment of impact... I could hit five people, or one. I don't know until it occurs. Generally the rules only apply to what happens when we've decided you hit something.

The difference is that in a fully rules based RPG, the animations are simply a representation of the rules. The rules determine in advance what is going to occur and we model it visually for the user.

So, why does a rules based game seem to imply to you that there is no logical link between an action and a consequence?

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If your target is 10 feet away and is still animating like you're not... then it's a bug.

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Yep, I understand what you're saying. What I'm saying is that the case you describe should be extremely unlikely since people shouldn't swing so slowly that you can actually manually move out of the way while they're swinging.

The other case where something like that might occur would be under an extreme amount of lag, but in that case you're screwed already since most things on your client are probably going to be looking... odd... anyways.

The main thing to keep in mind is that we've done this sort of system before. We understand what the limitations are, and since we actually have control over the rules system we have the ability to change it if it would make the visual representation easier to model.

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If you're in an animation driven game, then your swings aren't determined until you hit someone. If your target is suddenly hit at the same time by a huge ogre and your blade just happens to miss them because their animation makes them move in an odd manner... you'll miss them. But you won't know that until you actually finish your swing and didn't register any hits.

Because you don't know what will happen during a given swing, you can't plan for it. You have to wait and see what you hit, when you hit it and even who it is... since you won't know these things in advance. Sure, you can make educated guesses... but you'll be wrong sometimes, which leads us back to the problem that some people have with a rules driven solution.

Additionally, sequences like you describe work wonderfully in single player action games... however, in a server-client model it just doesn't work easily.

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Quote: As DA is considered a spiritual successor to BG, I was thinking of BG's infamous magical homing arrows as a specific example, where a sufficiently fast character could move out of the way of the missile and still be hit based on a random dice roll. It's an extreme example, I know.

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Solution:

a) No haste.
b) Make arrows go faster (50+ m/s)

David Gaider, Lead Writer

Multiplayer designed campaign?

I think it can be summed up by saying that with a multiplayer campaign there may be less needed from us writers in terms of dialogue, but there still is plenty of work to do in terms of story and design. What you do must be purposeful and story-driven -- at least for it to still be a Bioware game and not an MMO writ small.

History of the Gameworld...

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There shouldn't be that initial disconnect between the character and the player, ever.

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But that's just it, it's not so easy as that. You either start the character in the same state as the player (ie. the character has no knowledge of the world and is discovering it all just as the player is, whether by virtue of being a complete stranger or an amnesiac) or you're going to have to introduce world concepts and events in such a way that it teaches the player without making the player's character feel like a complete moron.

If that part isn't done well, it feels like a complete kludge -- which is why so many games opt for the 'tabula rasa' route.

It's not impossible to do, though, and you don't have to default to heavy-handed exposition, either. Let's say you run into a fellow who mentions a camp of something called, oh I don't know, the "Strikers". The player has never heard of them before -- but it's like the player's character should know at least a little:

"You best be careful. There's Strikers camped in the valley just to the north, watching the roads."

We've already ascertained that Strikers are something to be wary of, right? Now the player responses:

1. Why would there be mercenaries out here?
2. (if not an elf)They have no reason to bother us, I'm sure.
2. (if an elf)Thanks for the warning. They have... issues with my people.
3. (Lore) They're a little far from Narlund, no?
4. We can handle ourselves.

Even if we haven't introduced these Strikers elsewhere (which we would, if it were a more complex concept, I suppose), just by virtue of the nature of the responses you're offered you can already tell several things about them -- and no kludgy exposition necessary.

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Interestingly (and this is a bit of a tangent) one of the rules we've arrived at about imparting world information is this: you must never introduce an exception to the rule when trying to explain the rule.

More than once we've tried to introduce a character or an experience that was in some way exceptional to the norm the very first time the player encountered that type of thing. And after going through convolutions trying to explain the concept while also explaining how this thing was an exception (and inevitably ending up with blatant exposition) we generally just end up throwing it out and starting over.

Not sure if that's of interest to anyone, but there you go.

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The Question is: has DG written any dialogue for DA yet?

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HAHAHAHAHA!

The short answer: yes.

The longer answer: I'm on vacation right now because I'm all but burnt out from the amount of dialogue I've written.

HAHAH -- *faints*

Chris Priestly, Quality Assurance

Windows only?

Yep, well said. Any talk of systems and O/Seseses and all will be made clear in the future. Till then, stay tuned.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Windows only?

Please do not turn this into an My OS is longer than yours kind of debate ;p

Bottom line is at the moment: We can not answer this question. We will answer it in time, but don't expect any developments in that direction for the next while.

Thank you for your patience.