Dragon Age Forum News

Remove all ads!

(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

Romance Options: A poll from the Community

---------------
Well, you're the writer here; if your Muse says, "straight as an arrow," then far be it from me to argue.
---------------

Err... why is that your interpretation? Did you even read my original post? I did say that I'd be happy to attempt a mature gay romance, given the right circumstances.

---------------
I'm still a little floored by your assessment of popular fantasy. To me, the fantasy genre has looked awfully gay (literally) for at least the last decade.
---------------

No offense meant, but I suspect you are seeing what you want to see. Either that or we are not talking about the same books when we say "popular fantasy". Either way is fine... I would have no objection to seeing more of it in fantasy, I am just speaking from my experience and my judgement of fantasy in general.

---------------
In any case, I'd recommend Judith Tarr if you haven't read her yet. The Hound and the Falcon series has a lovely epic sweep, a strong historical grounding (12th-century England and Constantinople), an interesting take on elves, religion, and magic, and a sympathetic treatment of GLB characters (most notably, Richard the Lionhearted).
---------------

I haven't heard of the book nor the author, but I will certainly look into it. Thank you for the recommendation.

Romance Options: A poll from the Community

---------------
Popular? Heck, if you only sold copies of DA to people who'd also bought a Heralds of Valdemar novel, you'd still be a financial success.
---------------

Sorry, but I've never even heard of the "Heralds of Valdemar", and while I'm familiar with some of the names on your list I still have not read of any gay themes in any of the popular fantasy I've read. As I said, I don't doubt there are some out there, but I am talking only from my own experience and about my own opinion, here. Your mileage may vary.

Romance Options: A poll from the Community
I'm not sure I agree with you completely, koronus, as same-sex romance was actually one of the options asked about in the original post. Whether or not they should be included is on topic... but should not be the totality of this thread, I agree. To that end, seeing as I've said my piece, I'll bow out to allow you all to continue on with your opinions.

Romance Options: A poll from the Community
In reference to my comment about gay themes not being a theme in fantasy, I suppose I should have been clearer and said popular fantasy. There are going to be variations of every type in every genre, I was just referring to the most common iterations of fantasy. Not to say those are the best, either... I have read some great, edgy fantasy in my time, too.

As for whether or not gay themes belong in a Teen-rated game, that is of course debateable and is just my opinion. As a writer, I would rather deal with issues of acceptance and tolerance with a potentially younger audience, though I can definitely see that gay themes have started to make their way into mainstream media as well as video games. Hopefully that continues to be a positive thing.

My intent was not to be inappropriate or to hijack the thread, but simply to respond to the mentioned possibility of a gay romance in a clear and mature manner, as it seemed the only discussion about it beforehand was either "yes I want to see it" or "no it should not exist".

As for moderating, I don't generally moderate forums myself except to occasionally lock threads that have gotten too long or veered too wildly off topic (if I happen to see it). When it comes to threads you find offensive, I would suggest messaging those folks who admin the boards directly in that case. I come here primarily to discuss, not to censor.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

D&D or not D&D? THAT is the question.
I used to DM with my notebook. You can run music / background sound (that dripping water loop can make players really mad ) fitting for the current situation, have quick access to maps and "utilities" and the screen provides a good "dm screen"

Tim Smith, Programmer

Toolset GUI
In NWN, the game and the toolset shared a fair amount of code. Neither was a throw-away prototype that never got thrown away.

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

Realistic physics and more...

---------------
Err... why? If the two balls are rolled down the same stairs with the same force, they should land in exactly the same position. It's just a few calculations, and I can't think of any reasons that the numbers within each calculation would be different on different machines.
---------------

They should... However in a multiplayer game every client has a slightly different view of the world and in an extended physics simulation, compounded differences can generate extremely different results.

---------------
Assuming the [likely] possibility of me being wrong above, what is wrong with running this code on the server?
---------------

The amount of data that we'd need to send down to accurately represent the simulation would be... painful...

---------------
Physics is just the rules system that governs the real world...
---------------

Yes... but the entire game doesn't run on that system, making the unification of both systems understatedly complex.

Realistic physics and more...
Again, just to explain... in another thread I mentioned that physics aren't normally deterministic. To expound on that... what I mean is that if you run two physics simulations on two different machines, say rolling a ball down some stairs... the ball will not roll the same way on each machine and will most likely end up in different positions.

So if you're flipping a table for example, the destination has to be an absolute fixed position if that table has any effect on the game state (hiding, LOS, etc...), because we want all clients to have the same view of the game. Otherwise things get wacky... and for us to have an absolute fixed position, we're either running simulations on the server - or we're not using true physics for the simulation.

In terms of interacting with the environment, the sorts of things mentioned here work lovely for FPS style games where you can arbitrarily interact with your environment... like shooting your gun at some fruit on a stand and watch them roll around. Or kick random things, like crates or boxes and watch them react.

How would that work with a 3rd person party based control scheme? Additionally, consider that this is a rules based game... if someone takes damage there has to be a rule system governing the outcome.

Realistic physics and more...
I'm kind of curious... assuming there was a physics engine, what exactly would you use it for?

Now keep in mind that you can't use physics for something that affects the actual game state unless the simulation is run on the server (which isn't likely).

Additionally, remember the style of gameplay. You're controlling a party of characters in one of two view modes... tactical (overhead view), or explore (behind the head).

Cloth and Hair simulators have already been mentioned, and as an aside do not require a full physics engine. That would be like hitting a finishing nail with a wrecking ball...