Dragon Age Forum News (Mar. 13, 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

Long Flowing Hair

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But the reason why computer games often don't have long hair is NOT that the programmers didn't liked the idea of having long hair !!!!!

Its just very expensive to have long hair in the game. Hard to make it look good, and making it behave natural would require masses of computation power.

Thats really all.

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This is it, exactly, though I'm sure we'll look into it whenever the artists examine the hair issue.

The technology involved has come a long way since NWN was developed, but even if the clipping issues are easier to get around it is still an effort to make flowing hair look good. Naturally it can be done, but like usual the question is whether you want to put the effort into it or spend the time doing something else.

A good idea from KOTOR 2 for DA..

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I'm a bit sick of playing the "focus" of the story, might be nice to play the "side effect"

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Huh.

When I see a comment like this, or the one where someone complains how they're so weary of "epic" stories and how they'd prefer to be someone unimportant doing something mundane...

...that's when I think to myself that maybe you've played one too many RPG's. I don't know for sure, but it sounds like the kind of idea that would wear thin after about 5-10 minutes. Tops.

Just a thought.

More: Hey, don't get me wrong. Some ideas are definitely over-used in fantasy and cliches abound. In DA there is, for instance, definitely no sense anywhere that you have been chosen by destiny nor are there any prophecies to be found. But there are important events in the making and you are the hero of the story. And when some folks despair over those very qualities it does come across as a tad jaded.

If Morrowind is held up as the kind of game that these sorts of folks need and want... well, it's good that there's a choice, then. If wandering vast tracts of plotless landscape and interacting with spreadsheets is your thing, then I can assure you that DA is so totally not for you.

More:

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Gromnir has pleaded for a developer to take focus off of the protagonist… do more like iwd. we feel that nobody has really given orik’s suggestion a shot… is kinda a working assumption ‘mongst developers that it won’t work… and we not know why.

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Well, here's the thing... it's not that I (or other developers I know) think that there's no way it can work. it just seems really hard to make it work like that because every time we've tried it we've had to scrap it.

As soon as the focus comes off the player character and onto an NPC, your average player loses interest. Doesn't matter how interesting that NPC might be or how interesting we think the story we've crafted is. It's about the player's story and that's the only story that they're going to be interested in.

Like you pointed out, it's different from a novel. Part of the reason you make a character and play it in a CRPG is that there's a personal level of interaction there that you don't get from more passive forms of entertainment.

I happen to run live RPG's occasionally myself, and I've found the same thing. If I have actor characters who have stories going on that are supposed to draw in the players, the players never quite care as much as when those events are happening to their characters personally.

Unless it's just that we've never crafted a story that's gripping enough or done it in a different way that would interest a player, and I wouldn't rule that out (and here's where I guess I leave myself open to snide remarks about not being a very good storyteller or just not trying hard enough), but experience tells us that players prefer to be the focus of their own story and that this is the best way to actually engage them.

As for IWD... how does it take the focus off the player? Maybe I didn't play it enough, but I never got that impression with it that this was the case with that game.

At any rate, if you can explain to me how this might work, it might be something to consider trying, but it seems a bit high concept to me. And high concept stuff always sounds good, but generally ends up appealing only to a pretty niche audience.

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

To disarm or not to disarm, that is the ?
The only way you're going to disarm someone fighting with a rapier is via grappling (or if you cut their hand/arm, and get them to drop it).

Attempting to beat a Rapier out of someone's hand is next to impossible (if they know what they're doing).

More: The only problem with grappling is that it's very hard to represent visually.

Throw potentially scaling models of various sizes into the mix along with different weapons... well... unless you have an animation for every size and weapon combination you'll have problems.

If we were to do it, it would probably have to be abstracted a bit... in my experience disarm is only truly annoying when you have to go pixel hunting for your weapon in the middle of a fight (eg: NWN).

@Kinthalis - Erm, sorry - my above post was directed at a specific post... I just forgot to quote it.

Word based stats

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no. i want numbers. the higher the numbers the better.

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Like having a strength of: 5.31441e+74 ?

Scott Meadows, Programmer

will it be possible???
Hey I know, How about rideable NPC's. We could have a David Gaider NPC take us on a tour of Dragon Age on his Back.

James Henley, Technical Designer

Best Damn Game Ever

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What's the record for real-time compleation of BG2? - Under 2 hours I think . . .

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Something along those lines. I know one of our guys in QA pulled a stunt like that. I know another that did KotOR in 3 hours or so.

Best Damn Game Ever
Less caps, please.

The Big List:

BG = Baldur's Gate
BG2 = Baldur's Gate 2
SoA = Shadows of Amn (Baldur's Gate 2)
ToB = Throne of Bhaal
TotSC = Tales of the Sword Coast
KotOR = Knights of the Old Republic
ToEE = Temple of Elemental Evil
NWN = Neverwinter Nights
SoU = Shadows of Undrentide
HotU = Hordes of the Underdark
JE = Jade Empire
DA = Dragon Age
PS:T = Planescape: Torment

Did I miss any?

Word based stats
I'm a fan of quantitative values, myself. I'm mathematically minded, so I like to be able to calculate and plan to maximize whatever kind of character I'm building (for single player; different story when I RP in multiplayer). Having vague word descriptions has never sat well with me.

Word based stats
Let's say that 15-17 is "very strong." I have 15 strength. For whatever reason, I get a chance to increase an attribute; I choose strength. I'm still "very strong." I do it again later. I'm still "very strong."

So, I stop increasing that value thereafter, since it doesn't seem to make any noticeable difference.

Non-quantitative values aren't conducive to character planning, or even to understanding your character's capabilities.

Of course, that's just my own humble opinion. I do agree, however, with what was said earlier about "we need a very strong person to lift this rock" sounding more natural.