Dragon Age Forum News

Remove all ads!

(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

Is it at all possible to step back from the precipice of mediocrity? (classes)

---------------
With all due respect to the designers, I do feel this is a rather [important] topic to leak to us gamers. Classes or non is a very important issue; and one I really feel should be addressed asap.
---------------

As Carl already mentioned, we've already stated that the game will be class-based. The reason we won't get into any more detail than that is because of the questions that such information naturally engenders. It would be a disservice to the system we're making to only provide partial info... when we're ready we want to give out everything so you can see that we've actually put some thought into it and not set ourselves up to have people jumping to conclusions over the parts we haven't specified.

That's why while we may have some things set in stone, sure, we still can't talk about it for quite a while yet.

My amusement was simply over the whole thing about classes being either "open" or "closed", words which don't really mean anything in this context. Some of the explanations of why people favor one or the other have been much more revealing. I could go on, but I'm certain it would only cause Carl to come back and explain very reasonably why I am wrong or (far worse) decide that perhaps more classes of classes are needed.

ANYHOW, I don't want to squelch the dialogue. And like I said the information will roll out eventually. At this early stage, though, a little info would be more hindrance than help though I know you're all dying to participate and give us feedback. You little eager feedback beavers, you!

More:
---------------
I think it will be more interesting when and if something is leaked because they are about to make a decision and want to stimulate some discussion about it.
---------------

Actually, I suspect there will be points where we will likely ask the community directly for input on specific topics. That should prove... interesting.

What we "DO" know so far....

---------------
- the world will be colder than a desert
---------------

Mmm. Except for those parts of it which actually are desert. We got all wild one night while we were drunk on Tequila and decided to have multiple terrains and climates.

---------------
Quote: - there won't be space flying gaider monkeys
---------------

There won't be spacefaring gaider monkeys. Get it right, dammit.

More:
---------------
SO - there might be space FLYING monkeys. As in: "Flying is IN!"? (And if monkeys can fly in space, that means a fantasy cosmology with ether or some other substance rather than a vacuum in space. Hmm - could be interesting).
---------------

*begins violently stabbing out own eyes*...*then pauses... and begins violently stabbing out Carl's eyes*

Dragon Age title

---------------
We know that it's called Dragon Age because it's like Stone Age, or Ice Age, in this case an Age of Dragons.
---------------

It's an Age where dragons exist, meaning it is an age of the fantastical. It does not necessarily mean that the story revolves around dragons or even that they are numerous.

If that means that you think the title doesn't make sense, then... well, okay. Thanks for the input.

More:
---------------
is a generic fantasy title... the kinda title you can build a series 'round.
---------------

Yep. If you make the title too specific to the story (like "Baldur's Gate", for instance) then the title stops making much sense for sequels (if any), which is not good.

DA Toolest: More Editing-Wizards please

OOooh, so we can make entirely new classes in DA?!
We don't know yet. But the plan is to make a lot of things more open than in DA. At the very least, we know what things we did in NWN that ended up hindering the builders significantly. Experience is good.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Subdual damage, grappling, etc.
The number of options you would have to provide for a global "nonlethal damage" system to work and make sense is mind boggling - as already mentioned,

If there is no difference between a knocked out/sapped/etc creature and a killed creature (i.e. like in Splinter Cell, the only difference is that your mission fails if you kill someone you should knock out) - then there is not much point in having a global system (through it would be easy to do, of course).

If you are only able to subdue certain creatures you better use a scripted event as a global system would be inconsistent and mostly useless

If you want special option to knockout every possible information giver in the game, you are asking for a *major * investment in both scripting and writing - large enough that other major features of the game would have to die for it...

So the question is - is it enough for the "pacifist" player to knock out a creature, we treat it as dead but instead of playing the death animation you play the knocked out animation ... and if it's hit again, it's splattered? Would you want to sacrifice another major game element (i.e. the Origin Stories or a class) for this to make up for the need in writing/scripting?

DA Toolest: More Editing-Wizards please

---------------
Though they did say it would be "easier than NWN"...
---------------

because in NWN it's not possible to make entirely new classes without overwriting existing ones and performing some serious GUI hacking.

Tim Smith, Tools Programmer

Modder Tools
We have NOT said that we will release the toolset early. It is way too early to know if we will or if we won't. I haven't been involved in ANY discussion regarding early release and I doubt I will be for a long time.