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Dragon Age Forum News (Mar. 02, 05)

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by chevalier, Mar 2, 2005.

  1. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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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.

    Tim Smith, Tools Programmer

    Up to date info
    I hate to break the news to you guys, but that 4.5D isn't as good as it sounds. We have implemented a total of 11 dimensions. The problem is we don't do them very well at all and the sum only gets up to 4.5 :(

    Brenon Holmes, Programmer

    Constant HP system proposal
    d3 and d4 dont roll too well, as far as i see....
    But d4s make good caltrops.
    It's almost a rite of passage! You can't call yourself a true gamer in our group until you've stepped on one... :D

    More: I understand where you're coming from and the example was illustrative. The intention with our system though, is for real time simulation which means that some of the trappings of a turn based system probably won't apply.

    A lot of the calculations and things we're taking into consideration aren't necessarily something a human would want to do in their head or on paper (though I imagine it would probably be possible for those who are *truly* interested in doing so).

    Essentially though, there is no discernable difference between a relatively high (if you look at the amount of damage a base weapon can do, with no criticals) and a constantly increasing hp system with scaling damage.

    The only argument really (that I can see) for a constant style health system is the "it's more realistic" argument. Which *is* something to consider... but should not be the whole point of the rules system.

    If realism *were* the goal... well, your characters should probably be quite mortal. Though we want to make the system *more* realistic than we've made previous games... realism will probably always have to make way before fun (within limits).

    If it turns out that things will function better with a scaling health system, that's what we'll do. If it turns out otherwise, then we'll go with viable alternatives.

    I'll forward on your suggestion and we can discuss the idea and see how it fits.

    I like the idea of more interesting critical systems... I never did like the idea of more raw damage from a critical hit. So we'll probably take a look at that as well.

    3D Game Engine?
    Riding: Probably not. That's a design issue though, as we've mentioned in several other threads.

    As for the rest... well, we'll have to see. They're possible to do, mostly it's a question of whether or not we need it. :)
    Isn't it a little bit a question if the features are fun ? :cry:
    Oh, for sure... but we aren't going to add something "just 'cuz". There should be a section in the game where it's used... or at least some kind of need for the feature.

    The climbing of Gothic 1+2 was one of the things I actually liked in that game, even if I hated so many other things of the game that I never went so far doing it by myself (I only saw it on the screen of a friend who tried to make me a fan of these games, but utterly failed).

    Having swimming + dipping would be big fun, too.

    Even if there is no levitating and no waterbreathing (like in Morrowind).

    P.s.: Hmm, on second throught, I changed my mind completely on this. After all, DA will have a party, so its really a much different playstyle.
    The last bit is a fairly important thing to remember, there are still control issues in a lot of cases with some of these features. Yes there are work-arounds... but if we don't necessarily need a particular feature *and* it's going to compromise our vision for how the controls of the game... well... that's probably a candidate for exclusion for the initial release of the game.

    Carl: I'm not going to comment too much on your post because I'll probably get into trouble :).

    All I can/will say is that some of the implementation for some of those features could potentially be done by the community. But in most cases there will probably have to be some kind of in-game support. Whether that support will exist as part of another feature we are already working on or not is not known at this time.

    To sum up, basically there are probably going to be less technical restrictions. But there still might be a few, as I've mentioned.

    More:
    Why is it that, some people think that they can convince the
    makers of game engines to hand over thier IP, so they can make complete games of their own? It just seems to me that all these people want all the stuff in the game engine so they can create a whole new game themselves, and still expect technical support from the game maker.

    Isn't that slightly conterproductive from the game developers point of view?
    Not necessarily. We place a lot of value on our community, and supporting that community is something that is very important to us.

    That can involve quite a few things such as: content distribution, post game support, additional post-ship features... etc.

    If a particular game allows an end user to customize the game (or mod) then there may also be some support in that area as well, such as adding hooks or engine support for custom content projects...

    Granted, I don't think we've made a game yet that's been relatively open to a TC (total conversion mod)... but in those cases if there was an issue with the engine I'd think that we'd still want to support and fix bugs involved with that sort of thing...

    After all, it could be indicative of a more overarching problem. :)

    Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance

    Up to date info
    Bio, Still, needs to get over their over-rated pathfinding in program.
    It's okay, Draak. The dynamorphs have been downgraded to 4.33 hyporads, and with the new Ferromer algorithms obfusing the mitospatial arrays our programmers have developed, we'll be able to fit 2.43^128 more transpoints into the directional determination subroutine, thereby permanently downrating our "pathfinding in program" by a good 34%! I don't think we'll get over that anytime soon! :D
    Quote: And Quit Thinking In 2D. Yep I hear the words 3D but I am still seeing 2D.
    We'll go you one better, Draak. We're concepting this metareality in 4.5D! That's right, one-and-a-half more D than will be acceptable to you! Go BioWare quantum hyperstring polydimension task force!
    Quote: You may cringe at this but, they need to shelf this idea for a couple of years then come back with a new perspective on how to make a good game. That is my Profesional Opinion. My player opinion is 'I want it yesterday', but that is always my player opinion.
    Sorry, Draak, but if we accepted everyone's "professional opinion," none of our games would get made. As usual, we'll just have to rely on our own talent, ingenuity, dedication and passion to make the game, while counting on the community interaction and comments (both good and bad) to let us know how we're doing. :)
    Quote: This Dragon is going back to sleep. Have fun.
    G'night, Draak. Next time you wake up, you'll have to search the forums again to see what you missed. Have a good sleep.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 3, 2018
    chevalier, Mar 2, 2005
    #1
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