Dragon Age Forum News (Nov. 30, 05)

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Here are today's Dragon Age forum highlights, taken from the Dragon Age Official Forum. 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, Lead Writer

The Mysterious Stranger

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Given this explanation, I am a little confused as to what Dave G. is going on about.

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Okay, I give up. I'm going to go get drunk, now.

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BG1 romances were much better in that regard.

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Eh? BG1 romances? Am I missing something?

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I think she meant the community modded ones?

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Ah. Well that's... great, I suppose.

Myself, I'd say that character interaction was probably one of the weakest elements of BG1. I also don't see much benefit in divorcing that interaction (like the romances) from the events that go on in the story. That doesn't seem like it would be better at all.

Personally, I find it much easier to write dialogue with a character when there are hooks that exist in the player's history or in the events of the game to make it feel like the two of you are having a real dialogue, as opposed to talking solely in generalities or solely about the NPC themselves all the time.

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I don't know. I actually thought the "mysterious stranger" plot was one of the selling parts of KOTOR.

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Okay, I think you misunderstand what the Mysterious Stranger represents insofar as DA goes.

Having the player start off as "mysterious", whether his background is unknown to himself or just to the NPC's around him, and then establishing a set background later on as it occurred in KotOR is NOT what we're talking about. If we establish who the player is and where he comes from at any point in the game (as in KotOR's revelation plot) then we are defining that character for the player.

The proponents of the Mysterious Stranger want a non-background, an origin that is never defined at any point so therefore whatever they have come up with in their own heads is never contradicted by the game itself. The mysterious stranger breezes into town from "somewhere" and never speaks of where he's from or who he is and it never becomes important. Period.

The KotOR version is simply another background, whether you want to call it "Amnesia Victim" or "Mysterious Identity" or whatever -- it does not do what these proponents are looking for (worse, maybe, in that they will think their concept is okay only to find out later on that they are "actually" this other identity altogether). Giving them the Mysterious Stranger as a non-background, however, is also giving them the "freedom" to be ignored by the various parts of the game which play off your background as a way of hooking you into the story.

Does that make sense? You need to differentiate the name that's being supplied here from the "mysterious stranger" story archetype, which is a little different and here is being used as one way of having the player dropped into the plot without actually coming from anywhere or being anyone.

Does the New Merger Mean DA will be longer?

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or is this just fanboy day dreaming

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Yes, this is just fanboy daydreaming.

Until 3D art content can be produced as quickly and as cheaply as the 2D art in the Infinity Engine games, it simply isn't feasibly (never mind whether or not it is desireable) to produce something og BG2's length.

Having extra money isn't really the point. Should we double or triple the size of our production team so we can bring you a massive game at exactly the same price?

DA is plenty large, but it cannot be and will not be the size of BG2. Period.

Race specific classes

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The dwarf thread made me wonder if the designers are planning on implementing some classes restricted by race

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Not really, no. Some classes are more popular with or originated with a particular culture, but anyone can learn them.

There is an example of a class or two which some races cannot learn, however, but only by way of it being logical that they couldn't.

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So the classes are probably pretty much set in stone already?

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It's subject to change as we test it, but we do have an entire rules system all complete along with classes and such. That shouldn't be surprising, I hope?

The 4th race... the discussion goes on
I'm not sure at what point this became a "submit your race idea" thing... all I asked for originally was for opinions on what you'd like to see/not see insofar as an additional race went. Not that some of these ideas aren't very interesting and all, but I don't want to give the impression that we are looking for submissions per se.

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Perhaps the answer lay not in trying to make a race different physically than humans (though cool looking models are always nice), but instead in the culture presented by the different race? Just a thought.

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I think the feeling here is that culture should be the primary thing that differentiates a new race, yes. I'd rather see a race that had a radically different culture than one that was very different physically to the point of being practically alien.

I'd almost prefer to see new races proposed (if they are going to be proposed) from the perspective of how they differ as a people rather than how they differ physically and what abilities and resistances they might have.

Though, naturally, you're free to discuss whatever you'd like.

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For the forth race to be different without any type of physical different, is not that easy to answer.

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I am not saying that there should be no physical differences at all -- just that the physical part of the race should not be what defines them.

Think about it: physically speaking, just how different are elves and dwarves from humans? Elves are more slender and have pointed ears, and dwarves are shorter and stockier -- and really, that's it. If that's all that were different they wouldn't be very interesting. You'd have the equivalent of a Star Trek alien, different from a human only by the little knobbie on the top of their nose. When people describe what elves and dwarves are all about, they're going to do so primarily in terms of habitat and culture.

So I'm not suggesting that a new race be humans with a different culture, just that people might want to approach the idea from a different tack.

But ultimately it's just a matter of personal preference, I suppose. Forget I said anything.

Stanley Woo, QA Ninja

Does the New Merger Mean DA will be longer?

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lets say there was 20 years of 2d computer graphics work done before bg2 was made.

there's been about 10 years of 3d graphics work in computer games...

so maybe in 10 years we'll be at that point?

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Are you kidding? In 10 years, we'll be dealing with deeply immersive holographic games and we'll have this argumetn all over again. I say we skip right to 5D graphics and be done with it!

Chris Priestly, Quality Assurance

Does the New Merger Mean DA will be longer?

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Remember you heard it here folks! And as we all know, developer quotes can never be taken out of context, so it must all be true!

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Really? In that case, where is the 1 million dollars you owe me, Orik?