Dragon Age Forum News (Dec. 15, 04)

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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

Dragon Age Languages
Actually, our linguist is indeed a psycholinguist working towards his PhD. When he talks about languages it is frightening how much of it goes over your head. I mean... jeez... jetliners don't fly that high.

More:

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so he could get a pre-existing language & pretend he had thought it up & con u outta some money

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So very true. For all we know, our elves are speaking Esperanto. Wouldn't that be embarassing?

Darcy Pajak, Assistant Producer

Online Construction

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One thing that would be nice and was hard to do in NWN is Online Construction.

Online Construction allows one to build areas or maps during the course of the game (normally multiplayer).

This feature can be highly interesting for Game Masters or for implementing building skills, where some character can build furniture and strucures like houses, boats, charriots, etc.

Will this kind of thing be available in Dragon Age?

Thanks a lot!

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This would be cool. But will not be a feature of Dragon Age.

Even thinking about how this could be implimented gives me a headach.

Familiars More Usefull
Dragon Age will have a very different rule set then D&D. Do not assume that anything from D&D will occur in Dragon Age. Magic is different, combat is different, the classes, and stats are familiar, but only because they make sense in how we describe a characters abilities. D&D is a great pen and paper rule set, but fundamentally not designed for a computer game. Dragon Age is designed to be a streamlined, easy to follow game to appeal to a wide audience.

This does not mean we’ve “dumbed” down the rules, it means we’re using the rules as a foundation to support a story. The focus of D&D is the rules; the focus of Dragon Age is the story

an idea on how food could be used....
We have no plans to impliment any sort of food system in Dragon age.

I don't think it will be missed.

Dan Whiteside - Designer

Any influence from Conan The Barbarian?
I am afraid you have read or seen too many fictional accounts of Genghis Khan. I would suggest you look at more historically accurate accounts. Khan was a murderer, but all conquerors are. How brutal he was depends on the accounts you read.

Try this link as a starting point, perhaps.
http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h11mon.htm

But hey, Conan was often brutal too. That's why they call them barbarians.

More: Hmm, not used to hearing Lenin and Hitler grouped together exactly. Certainly not in my studies of Russian history. (The place where the Mongol Empire actually lasted a fair while under good governance.)

And "no" disagreement amongst historians? I simply linked you to one of many historians who disagree with your point of view. I wasn't trying to say Genghis was a nice guy, not in the least, but he did have en empire, he did have cities under his control, and the empire fell apart so quickly in most places because he died and there was no strong leadership to replace him. At least that is one interpretation.

But thanks for the naive comment, I obviously have no educational background to base my arguments on.

More: Apology accepted. I was simply linking to something that opposed the presented opinion. I think this quote sums it up fairly well.
"Genghis Khan's rule has been variously assessed. Historians of the states he conquered, notably the Chinese and Persians who suffered greatly at the hands of Genghis and his descendants, stress his ruthless, indeed bloodthirsty tactics—massacring whole cities that resisted him. The Mongols have traditionally revered him as the father of their nation, who introduced a script for writing the Mongol language, and writing, and promulgated a harsh but fair code of law over his entire domain. Many scholars now emphasize his religious tolerance, tax policies, and the unparalleled "free-trade zone" his conquests created."
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I loved reading the early Conan novels, so I imagine there is some influence there. I couldn't honestly tell you how much.