Dragon Age Forum News

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(Originally posted by chevalier)

Here are today's BioWare forum highlights, collected by Neverwinter Vault. 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.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Game length

As for VO: VO allows you to show emotions and tension much better than plain text. I doubt we could go back to "silent" storytelling. Facial animation to show expressions is another such thing - we use it in Jade and it makes a *huge* difference together with VO.

Does your own IP speed things up or slow them down?

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Any chance since it will be Bio IP that you will have another NPC contest or entry from the community? I enjoyed the NWN one in theory, and was saddened that it was lost in the red tape of development.
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Hmm, too bad "Torias" is now officially tied to the Forgotten Realms after he managed to sneak into SoU -- who knows, we might need replacement in the future

Races...

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As for the half-dragon race idea - sounds great, with just one problem that I can think of. There are, how shall I put it... creation problems. Just imagine (or better yet, don't) how a dragon and a human would pro-create... Just a (distubing) thought.
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Hey, a certain recently released animated movie features Donkey-Dragons, think about that...

Ultima-esque?

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Yeah, my cousin did that all the time back then..., although I never cheated and always laughed at those who succumbed to the dark side of cheating.
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I think in case of the Ultima Games you missed a whole lot of fun, it added quit some replayability to the game. Someone remember the room with the whole cheerleading team in Serpent Isle?

Full community realistic suggestions.

Hey,

just to give my $.2:

Of all ways to communicate your wishes and suggestion on this board, random "wishlist"/"post your ideas here" threads are the least optimal. Why?

- They usually have nonspeaking topic titles, so people are less likely to read them

- People avoid wishlist threads out of experience

- The good ideas you might have will get lost in a blend of bad ideas, plain impossible wishes and things that have already been asked a hundred times before

The best way to communicate your favourite feature / wishes / concerns is to create a dedicated thread about it. An (even heated) discussion is far more interesting to read than a mix of non related random thoughts.

I'm not deluding myself to believe that this post can spell universal death to every wishlist thread that is going to be spawned here in the coming month, but hey, at least I tried

hope that helps

Game length

Hi

I don't think there will be any 200 hours story driven games anymore. In times where people have come to expect full VO for all dialog, normal mapped creatures and large and lush areas to explore, 200 hour story driven games are just too expensive. To create a 50 hours game today you need already about 2-3 times the staff you needed for a game like BG2. Currently the trend is shorter but more immersive and replayable games. Compared with most games you can buy today, 50 hours is quite long. It's a bit sad, of course, but it's an inevitable trend as the industry matures.

Personally, I've actually come to like it - I hardly have enough time to play through a complex RPG anymore, a 200 hour game would probably last about half a year for me, when I would finish it, I probably would hardly remember how it started.

But also, games today often come with mod tools, full featured toolsets - which can give you a nearly endless supply of stories to experience.

Tim Smith, Tools Programmer

New languages? Ooooh ...

*Gets on the BioWare overhead paging system three days prior to ship*

"Does anybody speak Goktu? I can't tell if this VO file matches what is being said in this conversation."

And yes, I had to do that stuff with KoToR and the foreign languages. I had to bother Georg twice to check some German lines.

(P.S. Goktu isn't the name of a DA language. I made it up.)

Toolset GUI

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Please allow us to open multipli windows in the toolset! It is annoying to do this: Hunt down Script, Find Tag to change, Forget Tag, Close Script, Check tag, Hunt down Script, Find Tag to Change, Change Tag.
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There are a lot of usability issues we are looking at with the DA toolset. I can't comment on anything at this time, but usability not only affects the end user but also our designers. Thus we have a vested interest in fixing them.

Scripting language - OO?

In a single pass compiler that doesn't allow things to be defined after they are used can still support circular includes by placing the responsibility of proper ordering on the script creator.

Both Mark B's and my compiler for NWScript are multipass compilers. In the case of Mark B's, it creates a parse tree and then builds result (ok, not a true multipass I guess). My compiler actually parses the script twice (I got lazy). The only reason my compiler is two pass is because Mark allowed some things to be defined after they are used. If this wasn't the case, then my compiler would have been a single pass compiler and would still handle circular includes.

In NWScript, there is an implicit #ifndef/#define/#endif in every include file.

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

Must have flying

I'll take a peek at it Sancus, but since I don't have it on hand right now (and I can't seem to find the information on any news sites)...

How does the control scheme work while flying? Is it first person? Or does it play more like Freedom Force style flying (3rd person, static 'flying' height')?

Question on Parties

As it currently stands, you will create the main character... other NPC's you meet as you adventure may join at your discretion.

As to whether or not you'll be able to create your own full party, stay tuned for details.

Two simple ways to reduce Warezing and increase Sales

Regarding copyright protection... a lot of publishing studios are now requiring certain forms of protection... and this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The main idea (as was mentioned) is simply to make it difficult for the average person to copy the game... ie: Rusty McFinger shouldn't be able to pop a game in his burner, hit the 'copy' button and give one to his friend Steve.

Yes, there are cracks for every major game that comes out... heck, if they're popular there's usually something out within a day (at most) of release.

On the whole, I'm sure none of us (as gamers) enjoy the various methods that are used to secure a game from being copied, as in some cases they have some adverse side effects. However, as Georg mentioned... discussing copyright protection at this stage really isn't that useful.

* Negotiating encryption/protection schemes for the CD/DVD release are still quite a ways out (we still need a publisher )

* We already know how our users feel about it. It really really sucks when you can't play a game because of copyright protection.

* Copyright protection of some sort is a necessary evil. In an ideal world where we didn't have to worry about piracy, it probably wouldn't exist.

DA as a mmorpg

Let's keep the discussion civil folks... we're all friends here... aren't we?

Just a note:

Dragon Age is not a massively multiplayer game.

The current plan is for an extensive Single Player campaign and a seperate multiplayer campaign with the same core story elements, only optimised for multiplayer.

new 3D engine

One of the main issues with physics are that they are not normally deterministic in a multiplayer environment. Because clients can get out of sync and we normally don't trust the client completely, we'd have to run physics simulations on the server (our trusted source) and push data down to the client, which would be bad.

Now it's true you could probably have certain items that we don't care about, ambient fluff and objects you can't interact with, such as debris on the ground or something like that react to blasts and other forces... however, for things of this sort the simulation could probably be done without the use of a physics engine.

We haven't ruled out using a physics engine for certain applications... but if I had to guess, I'd say most likely you won't see any iteration of such a beast in DA.

As for glitzy new graphical features in the engine, I occasionally like to pop across the hall to the graphics team offices and see what they're up to... a lot of the features being added are 'very purdy'.

Races...

Humans, Elves and Dwarves will be in the game as well as one other playable race... possibly more. We'll be releasing more details regarding the playable races later in the dev cycle.

As for the world background, we can't really talk about that yet... however, having read through *all* of the world design docs - they're quite extensive, the history of the world and the various cultures are quite fascinating...

PW Engine Hooks - Economically Viable 4 Bioware

Just some official information:

* There will be a Single Player campaign, the scope of which will be quite large.

* There will be a separate Multi-player campaign with the same core story as the single player campaign, only
optimised for the multiplayer experience.

* Dragon Age is not a massively multiplayer game.

* There will be a GM client.

As for adding support for PW's, exactly as Tarmack has stated... If you can think of some feature(s) that will benefit the community as a whole, please feel free to suggest away! We will take all reasonable requests/suggestions into consideration.

Must have flying

So, assuming 3D swimming was in the game... How would the interface work? How would you move around in a 3D space? What about fighting and using other skills/animations? Theoretically you'd have to be able to do all these things underwater as well... right?

The act of swimming itself would have to be tied to your skills in some way, wouldn't it? Additionally, would your party follow you around?

Can you drown underwater? What about your followers/summoned creatures/animal friends (these things may or may not be in the game), do you need to worry about them asphyxiating since you can hold your breath longer?

Again, just to reiterate... I enjoy discussing game systems, this post is in no way a reflection of what we may or may not be doing for Dragon Age.

Must have flying

Just a note, none of this is indicative of anything we're actually doing in the game... this is just what the forum title says: 'discussion'.

Okay, let's talk about swimming for a moment. The main idea behind swimming in a game would be to bypass a natural boundary, such as a river or lake. Secondary uses could be exploration ("lets go diving in that scummy pond!"), or enjoyment ("let's go frolic in that waterfall pool")... but are any of these (besides the primary use) actually useful?

The same goes for flying (especially for free-form flying), they are 'neat' features... but would they see enough use to justify the system work required?

Remember, we're not making "Dragracin' Dragons" where you pimp out your flying ride and cruise around the medieval nightclub scene looking for a highly illegal nighttime race around the flaming mountain of death.