Dragon Age Forum News (Feb. 10, 05)

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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

A Roleplayer's Full Party Control
The fact that there will be full party control is a pretty fundamental part of the gameplay. We might put in elements that take away the need to micromanage, but the full party control element is not up for debate. In case you were wondering.

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

making melee characters more tactical

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Very important point to address__Rogues. Rogues should be stronger in a 1 vrs 1 melee fight but run when taking on several enemies. Why? Low AC but high DEX. The melee weapon finesse training should emphasize a dueling/assassin style and not a bloodbath. It also suits the assassin missions so you can finish off the target.

Should the DEX/finesse route affect the ability to avoid/sustain attacks in a fight or recieve a combat penalty when fighting multiple opponents at once vrs skill & XP?
I perfer the latter because it's a bit more scalable.

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Why would a Rogue be better at fighting melee than a Warrior, someone who arguably would have more practical knowledge/application (maybe someone who has done some soldiering, or mercenary work) than a streetcorner cutthroat?

(I'm not saying they will be, or won't be... just curious)

making melee characters more tactical
A comment on pure fighter classes using magic, probably not too likely. As has been mentioned, the world is somewhat low magic-ey.

Magic types use the sparklies, other folks cut/stab/wound/pierce/break things.

Although, there could be exceptions... but, we probably shouldn't talk about that just yet.

Improved Movement Speed
Sooo... a couple of issues then?

We don't like situations where we're forced to run back and forth across un-interesting areas...

Do you notice the movement rate at *other* times, besides when you're running 'fedex' quests?

FYI, if I recall correctly - the movement rate in NWN was a bit faster than a stiff jog (in actual distance travelled)... so something less than a sprint, maybe a lope I guess?

How fast would you think it acceptable for a person to move? A dead sprint? Faster?

Improved Movement Speed

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I don't think messing with this movement rate is the solution.

I think providing:
- good level/quest design
- a game mechanic

are the solutions to 'trudging'. Basically, you're trying to keep the 'waiting' time between 'events' to a minimum.

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I don't think it's the answer either, mucking around with the movement rate has effects beyond how fast you can get back to town... It's also going to speed up the pace of the game in areas where we might not necessarily *want* it to.

If you can move to a target faster you're going to be able to attack that target faster.

Conversely, that target would most likely be able to move to you faster as well...

Meaning, (as someone has mentioned) that you would have less time to use ranged weapons... ranged magic... etc.

Even with pause, it's not too fair if someone can cover most of the screen in the time it takes you to fire off a spell.

This is something we'll be looking at, it may be that we'll end up with some kind of game mechanic to alleviate this sort of tedium... or perhaps something else. We'll see. Please keep the ideas/expectations coming, the feedback and discussion is useful.