Dragon Age Forum News

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(Originally posted by chevalier)

Here are today's BioWare 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

Missing Family members?

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Very true...but there is a difference between ‘constructive criticism’ even the forceful ‘in your face kind of criticism’ vs. just bashing someone by implying (correctly or not) that other people don’t think very highly of you.
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Oh, Grom's not bashing me. He's just pointing out that there are people who gleefully enjoy referring to me as a talentless hack (or whatever... I can only imagine, for the most part) to prevent me from getting a David Gaider-esque swelled head. Mind you, there are people out there who think feet are sexy, so the opinions of some are only worth so much.

One major concern regarding no tilesets
Any system we go with is obviously going to have its advantages and drawbacks. If you were required to download the maps involved, for instance, suddenly we are not required to stream tile information anymore over the connection constantly and we free up bandwidth for other things.

One major concern regarding no tilesets

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In any case, I'd prefer you guys had that extra bandwidth available to stream other, perhaps more important things, even if maps have to be downloaded sperately.
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Indeed. I remember the reason we couldn't do portraits that got sent automatically to all the servers involved was because our bandwidth allowance was tapped. Maybe that's the kind of thing that could be included, who knows? Not me, naturally... I only vaguely understand the whole concept. When a programmer takes the time to explain it to me and pat me on the had, though, I eventually get the gist.

One major concern regarding no tilesets

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So in order for me to GM a group of my friends in game, they'll have to download 10 MB of maps for a small, 20 area module? Neat. And they'll have access to the entire map ahead of time? Neat-o.
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Did I say that the downloading had to be ahead of time? And you're assuming that your players would be able to examine this downloaded data. Such might be the case, but don't presume. Mind you, don't stop pointing out potential problems, either... just don't presume that we won't address these issues as well.

Voice-over

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It doesn't seem to take all that much more time and the writers still write what they want to, correct?
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Just so we're clear, I'm not saying that full VO doesn't take more time. It just doesn't require much effort on the part of the actual writers. For the actual production team itself, full VO is a herculean undertaking. Take it out and what do you get? Well, you've got less work. But you do not get a longer story or more dialogue, and that was my point.

Voice-over

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You see, if full V-O takes more time and money, those resources could instead be reallocated to provide a longer or deeper storyline - the writers are legion, so more writers == more story.
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Riiight. Because if you don't do full VO, obviously that means that you would go out and hire a bunch of full-time writers. That equates. And obviously the cost of paying numerous writers is the only cost associated with making a game that is causing the trend for shorter games. I think you need to think this one through a bit more, Sylvius. Seriously.

Voice-over

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Think of that as writer*hours instead of writers, then. With fewer resources devoted to the previously described fluff, perhaps the writers could be part of a longer development cycle. You could write longer, deeper stories if you had an extra year to do it.
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Well, sure. If we had an extra year to write, we could write reams and reams of stuff. You don't get an extra year on the schedule by taking out a feature like full VO, however, it doesn't work like that. You're thinking that VO = $$$ and time = $$$ so less VO can equal an investment in more time. Not so.
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I'm not saying I don't appreciate the contributions of artists and modellers - I once sent fan mail to Mike Sass - but their contributions are becoming too expensive relative to what they add to the games.
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Maybe so, but there is a minimum acceptable standard that is at work. If we cut back on the quality modeling so as to make more of it, what's the first thing that would be universally complained about? And that's a simple fact.

Missing Family members?

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I think real life circumstances in ultra interesting fantastic (David Gaider-esque) ways interjected into my hero's story would be cool and compelling.
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I'm still stuck on the idea that "David Gaider-esque" apparently equals "ultra interesting fantastic"...

Missing Family members?

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funny how that phrase can mean radically different things simply by changing boards. rpg codex and obsidian regulars seems to have a slightly different use for the phrase...
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Yes, no doubt. My response to them is something *I* consider to be very David Gaider-esque. And it only involves one finger, too, which is very economical of me.

Missing Family members?

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If I recall correctly, Gaider was the new guy who drove Ben nuts because Dave would not write much until near the deadline, and then he would pump out enormous volumes seemingly overnight. Ben never really said much about Dave's quality (grin), but he did say something to the effect that he had never seen anyone capable of writing so much in a short period of time. Gaider-esque.
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You know, some of the guys in Design were joking about making a Bioware tradeable card game. The "David Gaider" card, naturally, was the card that did nothing for two turns after you activated it but then became twice as powerful as all the other ones. Procrastination means never having to commit to a firm deadline.

DA Announcement

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I just think it was poor planning to announce the game this early in its development.
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Those people who are interested will follow its development, just as with NWN. Those who aren't, won't, and probably won't think of it again until much closer to release when the whole PR thing will kick into overdrive... and it will do that just fine, I'm sure. As for you, Hades, you may say now that you'll be all bored with DA by the time it's released and immune to the pre-release excitement... say that again when the time comes. I shall say "pffft" and roll my eyes thusly:

Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager

How Long to Wait?
A little more than a few months in waiting I think..

Georg Zoeller, Designer

One major concern regarding no tilesets

The whole issue of predownloaded maps lends itself towards cheating; an obvious drawback. Hopefully, the infamous "Bandwidth Nazi" will take into account that an even larger number of folks will have broadband by then.

It's not just bandwith however - people would start to stream down their favourite p0rn pictures to the rest of the players, possibly children. Also there's a legal side. People using i.e. copyrighted pictures would spread them over to unknowing participants in the game.

Playing Styles and Splitting the Party
Nothing better than a good load of "you must gather your party before venturing forth" kind of fun, eh?

I looked at the "Army under the bridge" screenshot ... yeah!
It is hard to predict what minimum hardware a game will have when you are so far from being done. I'm sure there will be a list of required and recommended hardware once we have a better idea what kind of computers people will have when the game comes out and what the requirements for our engine are. But Visc will need a new computer to play it, that old A800 won't do it

D&D or not D&D? THAT is the question.

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What I am honestly more interested in, is by the limitations of the toolset and perhaps even spell system and combat system, will it be possible for independant creators to create D&D settings like Forgotten Realms using the new framework of DragonAge and included tools.
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If you ask if it will be possible to alter Dragon Age's rule system be like d20 / D&D instead - no, that will not be possible.