Dragon Age Forum News (Sep. 22, 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.

Stanley Woo, QA Ninja

Is there Adult Content in DA?

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However, I do mind when the character is herded along a single path that I don't particularly like. Case in point: a path where he must die at some point in the story (unless it's something like Chrono Trigger).

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This statement here, Althernai, is why this sort of thing is so difficult to do. It's highly subjective, and developers cannot possibly tailor content to suit the individual player. What is done, instead, is to craft games which appeal to as many people as possible while still telling the story you want to tell.

Certain themes are universal, certain archetypes are favoured over others. For a North American audience, you're unlikely to see a fantasy RPG with classes like Battle Tailor or races like the Puppet People of Hensonia.

But we keep trying.

Derek French, Technical Producer

A monthly fee??? :x
One day, someone will explain to me, how the rumours of a "monthly fee" for a normal retail game with internet multiplayer ever get started.

David Gaider, Lead Writer

Vampires...

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Well, thats sad to hear.

So you're rather Tomb Raider 4 (staying all the time in egypt) than Tomb Raider 2 (multiple locations).

I think having a lot of different kinds of environments is great fun.

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As has been pointed out, that's not really what I meant.

Different environments is great, so long as they have a logical relationship to one another and the background mythology is consistent between them. If we say that undead work a particular way in Land X they shouldn't work some completely different way in Land Y just because some different writer liked it that way and wanted his piece of the world to be different. The undead in Land Y should be consistent with the rest of the world, and if there's something different about them it should be based in the mythology we've already established and you shouldn't feel as if you've stepped into a disconnected microcosm.

Dialogue: trees vs tables vs ...?
I'm not very fond of the keyword system, myself. I suppose it could be done in a way that wouldn't be so bad, I just find it a little too abstracted. I get this sense like I'm grabbing an NPC by the shoulders and just yelling random words at them.

"Blue! Chains! Tower! Quest! Dungeon! Magic! Quest, damn you! QUEST!"

And they just stare at me blankly until finally their eyes light up with recognition. "Ohhhh, 'quest'! I thought you said 'best'." Rinse and repeat.

So, yeah, we're definitely going with the conversation trees. That system has a few drawbacks of its own, I suppose... some people will just never like us putting words into their character's mouth, any words at all... but I think it's the more elegant choice.

Retraining in DA?
Retraining? That strikes me as the sort of thing you strictly see in MMORPG's... it's a hand wave that abandons any semblence of it being a story-based game, and instead is a nod to the reality that in such a game classes and balance are being constantly tweaked and that if they didn't allow such a convenience that many players would revolt at the idea of having to start their character over from scratch.

Personally, I think it's rooted in the notion that many players in such an environment can't stand the idea of being even slightly "gimped" in comparison to other race/class/skill combinations... but, then, convenience seems to reign supreme in such games anyhow. Because they're simply not story-based, no matter how you look at it.

So, no, there is no current plan for any kind of retraining system for DA.

Religion of TheDAS
I don't think that priests have been associated much with healing except in D&D... which goes to show just how ingrained D&D is in the fantasy mindset. Historically, monks may have been amongst the most educated and thus you may have found those who were trained in or who had an interest in medicine... but if you were injured the first notion in someone's head wouldn't have been to go to a church. The concept of chirurgeons and physicians as a profession goes way back.

So, anyway, in DA priests are not healers. Not as a rule, anyhow.