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Dragon Age Forum News (Jan. 25, 05)

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by chevalier, Jan 26, 2005.

  1. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    Remove all ads!
    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

    More choices for female characters, please
    We always get one romance NPC (usually a twerp, at that) while men get three plus 2 more in every expansion pack.
    Actually, BG2 was the only game we've done where there was a difference in the number of male and female-oriented romances.

    Since then, we've generally had one for each, and the only expansion which had romances was HotU (which, again, had one for each). That's about as fair as you can get.

    Actually, I'm wrong... KotOR also had Juhani for female characters, as well, come to think of it.

    Quote: I think for the limited amount of effort it would take, you and your fans would be pleased with the results if you evened out the choices in appearance and gameplay available to to female and male characters.
    And maybe some armor that protects more than just that vital nipple area. . .
    I can't remember when we didn't have the same number of choices for each sex. NWN has equal amounts of portraits, appearances, voices and armor types for each gender, if I remember right.

    As for the armor, the argument can be made I suppose that we tend to aim for the, umm, fantastical. For Dragon Age, at least, what I've seen so far from the concepts says that we'll get a bit of both styles. The chain and plate, at least, are very covering.

    More choices for female characters, please
    David, did you not consider it a romance?
    Actually, I'd forgotten about that. It wasn't planned, and Rob decided to put it in to add some closure to Aribeth's character (who was his originally, I believe).

    I don't consider it a full romance, really... but, then, there's people who thought Linu and Sharwyn were romances in NWN. *shrug*

    Day/Night Cycle Part 2
    Oh, but we take all of this as granted, therefore as a zots-free feature of no concern.

    The beauty of being on the community side.
    It's kind of like shopping for a car with a friend who keeps dickering with the salesman over whether or not the car has cruise control when you can't even get the ignition to fire yet.

    Sometimes when I read these forums I roll my eyes so much I figure they should have rolled all the way to China by now.

    Day/Night Cycle Part 2
    Sometimes it is nice to be ignorant and ask for the sky.
    True enough. You expect the engine of a car to run, after all. What you want is cruise control.

    Me, I'm shopping for a car right now and I get totally excited by power seats. Take it for a test drive? What for? It's got power seats!

    Druid in armor
    Personally, I think the only reason that someone should not be wearing armor is because they're either not strong enough to walk around in it or because they rely on agility not to get hit rather than armor to soak damage.

    Or if magic is inimicable to things like steel and such, I suppose.

    But there's been no talk in DA of arbitrary armor restrictions. None that I've heard, anyway. *looks around suspiciously*

    Darcy Pajak, Assistant Producer

    Artifical intelligence quality in DA
    There are many different types of AI the designers need to work on for Dragon Age. Each one has different requirements, and serves different purposes. But they are all designed to be realistic in the context of their situation.
    There is the monster/encounter AI, the Party/NPC AI, and townie AI, and to some extent the AI displayed by people you chat to in the game.
    Monster/Encounter AI needs to be challenging, and reflect the specific tactics of the creatures you are fighting. Even dumb creatures like bugs need some sort of AI which reflects their particular tactics. The more intelligent creatures may have completely different tactics, but the important thing is that they know what they can do, and what they cannot. Bugs cannot cast spells, and wizards may not want to get into hand to hand combat.
    The party AI is similar but also includes a constraint that people may want to turn it off. (Instead of doing their own thing the leader would shout instructions). It's much harder to do because, where a general monster would already know what weapons or attacks it had, NPC equipment may change constantly, so the AI needs to find out what it has, and how useful it is against whatever they are fighting.
    None of this is new information really, and I'll just say that it's hard work to get it right.

    I will also mention something about pausing the game. Pausing, and issuing commands is pretty cool, and in a pure tactics game is necessary. But I'm concerned about how this would work in multiplayer. If everyone can pause the game then the action slows down to a crawl. On the other hand, part of the appeal of party multiplayer is finding out who has the best tactics.

    At this time, we're still figuring out exactly how the multiplayer experience will play like. Before we figure this out, we're going to complete the single player experience first as it's the foundation we're going to be working from.

    How many styles are there in multiplayer anyway?
    Co-operative - people playing together to complete a common goal.
    PVP - People competing against each other to reach common, or different goals.
    Persistent - people who happen to be in the same area, that may, or may not be competing against each other to reach goals.
    anti-social - People who play multiplayer games just to ruin the experience of other people by exploiting rules. Their goals have little to do with the goals set out in the game, and use the game as a medium to express some need for power, and/or revenge for something.(end rant)

    Artifical intelligence quality in DA
    (quote)Posted 01/24/05 18:10:15 (GMT) by Darcy Pajak
    I will also mention something about pausing the game. Pausing, and issuing commands is pretty cool, and in a pure tactics game is necessary. But I'm concerned about how this would work in multiplayer. If everyone can pause the game then the action slows down to a crawl. On the other hand, part of the appeal of party multiplayer is finding out who has the best tactics.
    Errr...I'm really hoping you can pause-n-play in Dragon Age. Not only is it party control, but there's been a few hints that the combat, though still rules based, will move quicker and not have a lot of in-between round time. Are you just wondering out loud if people want pause available in multiplayer? (Please say that's what you mean ).

    quote]

    I'm just saying that it's one of the many things we need to take into account in the game, so yes, I'm wondering out loud if people want pause in the game, or would they be happy if they didn't need to becaues the AI rocked?

    Bioware Blogs
    There are too many issues surrounding public logs.

    So, We're not post em.

    Robin Mayne, Webmaster

    15 Dec 2004 - Neverwinter Nights 1.65 Update Now Available
    MAN!!! ever since ive downloaded that patch, every few minutes, Neverwinternights keeps crashing. Is there anyway to fix this
    If you are encountering this problem when playing Chapter Two of the Shadows of Undrentide Official Campaign, try the 1.65 Hotfix

    Robin

    Georg Zoeller, Designer

    Bioware Blogs
    Just think of the "ohh ... I read developer x worked on this feature on the blog and I bought the game because of it and now it's not in there"...

    Plus, I think you want the time rather spent on developing the game than updating blogs ...

    Brenon Holmes, Programmer

    Artifical intelligence quality in DA
    My guess is that we'll have something like NWN where the pause control is something you can define on the server for multiplayer. That would seem to make the most sense... although, still we're a ways out - we may find a better solution.

    As we've said before... you won't have to have amazing reflexes, it should be your tactical choices (as a player) and the abilities of your character that win you a fight. Not the speed of your clicking finger.

    Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance

    Pumpin' Out Da Stereo
    I just discovered the Notorious MSG. Wicked awesome food-based Chinese gangsta rap.

    Listening to "Straight out of Canton" right now.

    Where are most of Bio's employees?
    Nope they werent

    *pulls on bioware tshirt and laughs!!!!*

    Its always good to laugh at oneself
    We had to cut Perion. We couldn't get his scripting to work correctly and he didn't test well with the focus groups.

    DA Beta Testing
    Sorry, guys, but speculation on beta testing belongs in the same category as release date speculation. Try asking again next year. Thanks!

    End of line.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 3, 2018
    chevalier, Jan 26, 2005
    #1
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