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Dragon Age Forum News (Nov. 25, 04)

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by chevalier, Nov 26, 2004.

  1. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    Remove all ads!
    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

    My thoughts on most everything
    Well, all I'll say is this.

    We've got the complex motivations and morales and hard choices and such wrapped up. It's in there, and lots of it.

    There's also a healthy dose of "just plain fantasy". Why? Well, not because we must or because we can't think of anything better, but because sometimes it's funner that way and because we want to and it's our world and we can.

    And, ummm... that's about it.

    Things that make you go GRRR!!!
    EQ, though an extremely successful MMORPG rather than a CRPG, does use food.

    And no one complains.
    I would just like to point out that anyone who dislikes drudgery or repeating needless tasks endlessly probably wouldn't be playing EQ to begin with. :)

    Quote: And as I have argued elsewhere adding food to the game opens up possibilities to interact with the game world that wouldn't otherwise exist.
    Well, I'd go so far as to suggest that food needn't necessarily be drudgery... one can make it a bonus, for instance, as opposed to a necessity. But "possibilities to interact with the game world" is stretching it. If you have a game that's about baking bread and crafting and chopping down trees, that's super, but if the game's about something else completely then you're not going to spend anymore time implementing that kind of superfluous stuff any more than riding or flying.

    Bio, can you give us a status report?
    Well, the thing is that even stuff that's been largely fleshed out is still subject to changes if we feel it is necessary. At the end of the day, no matter what you're talking about you're just expressing your opinion anyway, right? I mean, we may have the story mostly planned out, but does that mean everyone should simply stop commenting on the type of stories they'd like to see? Hardly. This is a forum, after all, and not a think tank. ;)

    As for your secondary list, those things are all planned but again, as I said, far from finalized.

    My thoughts on most everything
    funner? ;)
    Abso-frickin-lutely.

    And I'll just add a couple of finger snaps on top of that while I'm at it.

    New class wanted: Gnome Inventor
    This does, of course, make the huge assumption that DA will have gnomes, and that they'll be stereotypical D&D ones at that ;)
    Sorry, no gnomes, stereotypical or otherwise.

    And, no, I don't have anything against gnomes. I think the person you're thinking of is Trent Oster.

    Give us a v.3.5 game.
    Keep in mind that at this point we haven't really promoted the game much, and for good reason as it's still a ways out. So the fact that those who may have only heard the Dragon Age name (if that much) are making assumptions is not surprising.

    Once promotion for DA begins to kick in, the information will get out there I'm sure.

    Things that make you go GRRR!!!
    If food is really just a superfluous stuff, then it's luxury to implement it. It's likely the effort can be better spent at something else.

    I'd like to have hunger and food as part of PI in a RPG. But if it was just a "bonus" or superfluous stuff, then I wouldn't be happy at all.
    And make no mistake, some luxuries are going to be implemented. But what's going to make it in is going to relate directly to what our goal for the story is.

    If the story is about long, arduous journeys and about surviving the elements and hunger (or at least contains these elements) then certainly adding the need for food could possibly add something to the game.

    Imagine, however, that you're playing an RPG where you spend the majority of your time in command of an army or running a keep. Supplying your troops with food and supplies might be a feature then, certainly, but needing to carry around food in your inventory when it is readily available to you undoubtedly would not.

    I think it could be done, if the type of story you had called for it. My comment on drudgery was meant for food in regards to EQ... in that game it certainly is drudgery and no doubt is meant to be.

    Georg Zoeller, Designer

    Linux yet?
    What other excuses can you invent for Bioware?
    No excuses needed. Until we know 99.999% whether or not a certain platform will be supported, don't expect an answer, because giving a "well, yeah we are planning it" or "we are looking into it" will cause a lot more rabid behavior in case we have to change our plans than just saying nothing in this case.

    Things that make you go GRRR!!!
    Ultima 7 had food requirements, and it's on my top 10 games of all time list. Ultima Underworld also had food requirements and is still on my top 10 list.
    While I share the same thoughts about these games, I also think that the Food system was the worst part of Ultima VII and I hated it with a passion. Just having to babysit Spark & co all the time with so they wouldn't start crying about food make me even more angry than Iolo using a FireDoom Staff on enemies engaged in close combat.

    Bottomline: A feature being absent or present in a good game doesn't say anything about the quality of the feature.

    Tim Smith, Tools Programmer

    Quickslots to the toolset
    I just wanted to point out that these features would require a lot of work from the game side programmers. Thus the toolset people (like me) have much less freedom implementing features such as this.

    Brenon Holmes, Programmer

    Saving Issues
    In this it will probably be more a matter of what is more convenient to the end user than us worrying about if people will "exploit" (I use the term very very loosely) using saves...

    Save anywhere is much much nicer than the alternative and you'll most likely see something like that. I'm sure we'll have more concrete information on this at a later date. :)

    Bio, can you give us a status report?
    2. It turns red.
    Wouldn't that depend on if it was moving towards you or away from you? :)

    Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance

    Give us a v.3.5 game.
    Dragon Age is not D&D.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 3, 2018
    chevalier, Nov 26, 2004
    #1
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