Dragon Age Forum News (Sep. 21, 04)

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

If Jesus came down to Bioware, things still wouldn't change!

---

or how about 'this looks really really cool but it will be 3 years before the game is made' prize?

---

Which would be a bit redundant as that applies to most games shown at E3. The exposition is designed, after all, to showcase games that are either quite new or planned for the future. It's kind of the whole point.

More:

---

when jesus comes, he will give Bio an award for all their future games that they haven't made yet. and a basketful of wriggly puppies. or something like that.

---

Do you have something to add to the discussion that doesn't make it seem like we just finished coming over to your house and kicked your dog?

A lot of work went into that demo, and the underlying technology was present to show what we intended to do. We received the awards because people were impressed and felt the game showed great promise, and those awards (for what they're worth) are deserved.

Whether it's three years or not before the final game comes out makes no difference whatsoever and your outrage is a bit out of place. Please get over it.

More:

---

i don't doubt it. a lot of work goes into most commercial demos. it's merely that the computer game industry is the only one i'm aware of that hands out awards for a polished demo.

---

I suppose. There are plenty of places that give out awards of all kinds. It's not exactly the Oscars, is it? But, still, the fact that people were impressed enough with our work to date is something that we feel good about. You seem to be taking umbrage with us for letting others know about this.

---

Quote: outrage? you confuse mere incredulity for anger. relax. think calm thoughts.
[/makes ocean noises]

---

Well fine, okay, incredulity it is.

But I'm not angry, either. But I'll take the pleasant ocean noises. Much better than the craptastic country that Dan plays in the office.

No mages in DA?
Just to point out, I did say that magic was not very commonplace, especially in comparison to our former titles. Calling it "low magic" may be a misnomer, as that category has certain connotations to it... such as the idea that there might be no mages at all, which is not the case.

The Writers and designers of Dragon Age

---

who are the writers for Dragon Age? How many are there of you and have you hired some outside help?

---

I am the lead writer for Dragon Age, and there are currently two others (including Dan Whiteside, who worked with me on the NWN expansions). More will likely come on as they are freed up from other projects. And, no... unlike other development houses, having full-time writers means we don't need to contract writing out.

---

Quote: Are the design team and writer team the same team, or two seperate teams?

---

The Design department includes both the writers (who also do level design) as well as the technical designers (the people who do the scripting and level implementation).

---

Quote: Also, the people that are working on Dragon Age are they the same people that worked on, say, Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights? I think I saw somewhere that David Gaider created the character Carth in Knights of the Old Republic.

---

I've had a hand in the writing for a lot of our games though my primary credits are for BG2, Throne of Bhaal, KotOR and the NWN expansions. And, yes, I wrote Carth.

Dan has written for NWN (he created Linu, for one thing) and the expansions.

The third writer is new. I don't know who else will come on board, yet, though.

More:

---

New writers don't get names? Do they get names in the Bioware offices? Does everyone just say "Hey, you!" to refer to them?

---

No, they have names. I'm just not certain as to their status or if they even know which projects they've been assigned to yet, or if they're even on the current project long-term, so I don't want to go blabbing anything I shouldn't.

More:

---

Ahh....but naturally, David fails to give any credit or mention of his "secret" minions that he has performing all the menial tasks which he refuses to dirty his hands with.......

---

What menial tasks? You mean assassinating smart-mouthed forum posters?

Whoops. I guess my secret is out.

Developer's Favorite Voice Actors and effects on a game

---

I wonder, who did Viconia's voice?

---

Grey De Lisle, I believe.

Origin Stories we’d like to see
Just a clarifying note on the origin stories, which PipBoy and LdyShayna have touched on.

Unlike, say, Arcanum, the origin stories are not just lines of text that you select and which change a few stats and that which might affect dialogue choices after the game begins.

The origin stories start you off in a completely different part of the world and start you off with a plot unique to that origin that gives you the opportunity to define your character in the context of that origin and tells the story of how your character ends up being a part of the main plot as it unfolds.

It's a bit like Temple of Elemental Evil in that respect... but instead of a short vignette prior to the beginning of the main plot you actually get a whole stretch of story and adventuring which is unique to your character's background.

So they're a fair amount of work, to say the least. As it is, I'll hold off on saying how many there are and the precise mechanics of how they work... these things can still change.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

If Jesus came down to Bioware, things still wouldn't change!

---

---

You present an idea and get comments on it. This time the audience liked the idea and gave out awards, but they also could have responded: "Ugh, Bioware tries themselves on yet another fantasy RPG. *yawn*".

---

an award for fanciest promo, great. does this strike nobody else as slightly absurd?

do film festivals give prizes to the best movie trailer? do book fairs give prizes to the author with the best blurb on the dustjacket?

or is the computer game industry simply so desperate to sell itself, that it needs to give awards for the game with the best press release?

---

Quite offtopic - but E3 has their own webpage, I'm sure they are receptive to critique.
http://www.e3expo.com/e3expo/

More: I think Darcy mentioned in one of the countless other threads that while there are no plans for this feature at the moment, it is hardly set in stone at this point.

Also, as LdyShayna pointed out, we are working on more than one project, so it's certainly possible that features that don't make their way into DA will appear in one of the other projects down the line.

Concerning the TAB key
Jade has a property to make object "unselectable", meaning that you can't target them and interact with them. Might be a cheap way of achieving what DMs want.

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

Concerning the TAB key
Hey all, just a quick comment on the tab-key. If I recall correctly, the tab key did a hilight on all objects on the client.

There are two types of visibility in NWN, creature perception and client perception. The client perception was an estimate (the server would make a rough guess about what the client could see), this was usually radius based. These were the objects that were sent down to the client and could be hilighted with the tab key. This was for all objects except other creatures.

Creature perception worked on the DnD rules we all know and love, every few seconds (longer for NPC's/Monsters) the creature updates what it can see... this only worked with creatures. There was also the separate listen and see states... unfortunately the creature exists on the client when it is heard, it simply has a 50% alpha applied... so when you use tab you generally 'saw' hidden creatures that your character could only hear.

Now... all that said, as Georg said, it'll most likely depend on play-testing... but I'm fairly sure there will be some form of hilighting - as to whether it will be modifiable via scripting... well, we'll see.

Perception based hilighting would probably be out, as I think we want to move away from having to maintain perception lists for everyone on both the client *and* the server... but what about a toggle in general? Or the ability to remove a specific object from hilighting for a specific player?

NOTE: The usual blurb. None of the above is indicative of what may or may not be in DA, please don't take it as gospel. Just discussion.

Edit: I'm pretty sure non-useable placeable objects did not show up with the hilight.

More: We might end up doing LOS checks for objects as part of the client perception, which would remove objects appearing in other rooms - I'll add it to my fanciful list of things to look into.

This is something we probably could have done in NWN, but was probably too expensive. Doing LOS checks from the player character to every other object in a fairly large radius (I think it was about 40 meters or so) can get fairly expensive to do every few frames.

On the upside though, if we could get something like that in it'd reduce bandwidth (marginally)...

James Henley, Technical Designer

If Jesus came down to Bioware, things still wouldn't change!

---

In fact according to this poll from nwvault, there are 10x as many people playing a PW than there are playing the official campaign:

http://vote.sparklit.com/poll?ID=774087

---

Just thought I'd make a point of noting that you're referring to a poll that is on the premiere site for people involved in multiplayer NWN...which skews the entire result right off the bat, since the vast majority of users stick to the OC and do not use the vault in the first place.

The Nature of Evil

---

How does your character know about the sword?

---

In a single player roleplaying game, I doubt anybody has any real qualms about metagaming. I know I certainly don't.

The Nature of Evil

---

James Henley:
"In a single player roleplaying game, I doubt anybody has any real qualms about metagaming. I know I certainly don't."

Yes and no. I don't care if people metagame. However, if they metagame and then claime that their character was following their alignment based on knowledge they couldn't have isn't logically consistent.

For instance, if my paladin kills a character based on my knowledge that they're going to turn out to be evil then I still expect to receive a 'killing innocent' penalty.

---

Bottom line for me, in a single player CRPG, is that I'm going to do whatever I find enjoyable, whether that's championing the ill or slaughtering an entire village...or my more usual style, which would be to do one and then the other. Hell, my Fable character is basically a good guy, but I'm not adverse to murdering innocent people so that their houses go on the market, for me to purchase and rent out.

Metagaming is a concept that only applies to games with more than one player, really. It doesn't hold much ground in a single player game.

Romance options
We will be continuing with our trademark romances, just as we have always done, so fear not. It's all part of what makes the NPCs that much more real and immersive, after all.

Origin Stories we’d like to see
As David Gaider stated above, the backgrounds do indeed provide you with a unique plot. The backgrounds are a key element that are tightly woven into the grand scheme of the game, so you can be sure you're not just "picking a past for flavor," if you will.

Come on, it wouldn't be BioWare if it were that basic, now would it?

The Writers and designers of Dragon Age
The writers on our team are extremely talented. You all know David Gaider is a genius, and the work I've seen from the new people (who are still remaining nameless for policy sake) is nothing shy of stellar.

On the design side, you've got talent drawn from several previous titles, if I recall correctly. Personally, I'm the "fresh" talent. *cough*MeaningI'mTheFreshMeat*cough*