Dragon Age Forum News

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(Originally posted by chevalier)

Here are today's BioWare 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

Please, no typical gods!
I think it was a mistake to give gods stats and defined powers like that. Where is the mystery? The enigma? If gods in D&D have been reduced to quantified beings (greater powers though they might be), why is there no interest in the powers that exist above them? Isn't the fundamental interest in the divine the search for truth and the creator? The reason for existence? Since the truth doesn't lie with these gods (since they, themselves, were created), it must lie with the likes of Ao. Now I know that the sourcebooks have arranged it so that Ao discourages worship, but isn't the fundamental reason that people worship in the first place being overlooked here? If everyone in Faerun was ignorant of the nature of Gods, then I could see how they would be seen as enigmatic beings with all the answers and power... but that isn't the case. The Time of Troubles should have been a huge crack in the foundation of belief, but it doesn't seem to have been. I guess my trouble is that religion should evoke awe, and having one's questions be fully answered sort of dispels that whole reason that people would worship higher powers for in the first place. Just my opinion, though.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

"What's yer beef" with NW-Script

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I've had some problems integrating new AI ideas with the existing AI. Henchmen AI will overwrite the actions I assign them unless I'm very careful, for example. Being able to dynamically change the OnEvent scripts for a creature would be very handy. There are certain functions that can crash the game, which is pretty major. My preference would be to have it log the offending line and cancel the script execution. I always wish I could have "more" - more functions, more of the game engine exposed via scripting, and so on. Still, what I have has worked out quite nicely. NWScript is the first scripting language in a game that I've felt comfortable with.
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I think Craig got the last "crashy" functions for 1.63 in NWN. Scripts should not be able to crash the game, if they do, it's a bug. As for changing the eventscripts on the fly, you can easily do that already by putting something like this into the creatures event scripts

sScript = GetLocalString("SPAWN_SCRIPT")
if ( GetStringLength (sScript ) > 0 )
{
ExecuteScript (sScript, OBJECT_SELF)
}
else
{
ExecuteScript ( "x2_c2_default9", OBJECT_SELF);
}

"What's yer beef" with NW-Script

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My guess is that some of the AI scripts need to be run from the event and the ExecuteScript method doesn't work very well. Perhaps some functions depend on being called from certain events.
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Nope it works well, if you check the X2_C2 scripts, they just add on top of the existing NW_c2 scripts (and execute those when they are done). It is also present in the DetermineCombatRound script to allow you to specify alternating versions of that functions for special villains (such as Mindflayers or Beholders).

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

Please do give us turn based combat !!
Personally I love turn based games... but only to a point. They're great because in most cases the result of the encounter is based on your decisions (strategy-wise) instead of on your characters abilities, or luck (though these do play a role, your strategic choices can have a much larger impact than they do in a realtime simulation).

Edit: *sigh* Read the whole thread Brenon... reposting previously posted stuff is silly...

It breaks down in multiplayer. Yes, it *is* possible to have turn based in multiplayer - the main issue is I think what people are looking for in a multiplayer game (in general/mass market appeal). Generally, in my experience, MP games tend to be a bit more on the hack and slash side of things... a bit more action oriented, less dialogue, less plot, more killin'. (It should be noted that this is just an opinion, I'm sure there are MP modules/severs that do not fit into this view.) Waiting for someone else to make a move, especially if they're controlling multiple characters (assuming an average PC party size, familiars, animal companions and the like) can quickly get rather vexing. Even if you put timers on how long someone can take, they're never 'right'... either too long or too short, in other words no one will ever be happy. That said, with sufficient auto-pausing features... TB can be almost indistinguishable from RT. None of the above is indicative of what may or may not be in Dragon Age, this is as always simply discussion and should not be construed as anything overly 'official'.

Please do give us turn based combat !!

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They will be happy if you let them set the delay time by a server engine setting with the lower limit being no delay and the upper limit being infinite.
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But then you have a turn based rules system/structure with no actual turns... which sounds pretty confusing off the top of my head, and rather prone to oddness.

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Yes but allowing autopausing without a time limit option in MP will end up frustrating people because they will have to wait for an indeterminate amount of time for other players.
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True, but it could be a server option at that point - you don't *have* to play like that. Additionally if that was a really big issue, you folks could always campaign for a timer on autopause features (assuming we were going to have that sort of thing). My point is simply that given enough options I believe you can make Real Time similar to Turn Based... however the reverse doesn't necessarily hold true unless you come up with some kind of kludge with personal rounds and all the oddness associated with that.

Please do give us turn based combat !!

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Isn't this how NWN works right now?
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*smiles* Sort of... if you really like at some point I can describe the system in excrutiating detail - but suffice it to say that NWN is Turn Based only in the vaguest sense of the term, it's much closer to a true realtime system than it is to a turn based system. However it still has some trappings of a Turn Based system, a prime example of which is the 'one attack per round' issue which I hear quite a bit of...

- Attack...
- Wait...
- Wait...
- Wait...
- Attack...
- ... etc.

Please do give us turn based combat !!
Now why would I go and ruin all the fun you folks will have theorizing on what it will be like? In the meantime though, we *have* picked up a few handfuls of suggestions for the combat system and we'll see how they fit with what we have in mind...

"What's yer beef" with NW-Script
Detailed documentation on NWScript and it's functions specifically? Or documentation on the AI and our custom library of functions?