Here are today's Dragon Age forum highlights, collected by NWVault (http://nwvault.ign.com). 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.

<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">David Gaider, Designer</font>

Elven blacksmiths..... What?! (http://forums.bioware.com//viewpost.html?topic=378765&post=3126120&forum=84&highlight=)
There's nothing wrong with mixing it up with regards to fantasy stereotypes. If I want to make my elves a bunch of albino blacksmiths living underground, my dwarves a bunch of peace-loving druidic farmers and my halflings a race of ninja assassin religious fanatics... nothing wrong with that at all in my book. It doesn't mean I need to turn every single stereotype upside-down just for the sake of doing so, but the Lord of the Rings is no more our Bible than D&D is.

<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Georg Zoeller, Designer</font>

Real Time or Pause Game (http://forums.bioware.com//viewpost.html?topic=377754&post=3124533&forum=84&highlight=)
<hr />Instead of making threats why don't you just say what style of combat will it be for sure and end this argument. Will it be real time thusly twitch base combat or will it be a turn base or a variant such as Phase Base. You said that DA will not be twitch base so it won't be real time. You also say that it won't be turn base, so that eliminates its variants such as Phase base. Just fess up and tell us what it is.<hr />I think it has already been explained more than enough, just not in your terms, which is not my problem, I really don't care what you call twitch based, or turn based. For everyone else, somewhere between NWN, KotOR and BG is fine thing to look. And to be very clear on that, I consider it trolling when you misunderstand and misquote people (including developers) on purpose in order start a flamewar or bait others to beat on you. Your "mmorpgs suck" from the other thread was only one of several threads of that type, apparently because you understood that spamming "NWN sucks" in all threads on this board was too aggressive. So chose whatever you post here very carefully for the near future.

Ressurection (http://forums.bioware.com//viewpost.html?topic=377863&post=3124628&forum=84&highlight=)
And the great thing is that DA has a multiplayer campaign and a singleplayer campaign and there is no reason why the death rules for singleplayer and multiplayer need to be the same...

More: <hr />A singular rules set is needed in all aspects of the game. Keep in mind that how the rules are interpretated can be different based on SP and MP.<hr />Who said that? I remember plenty of games that had different multiplayer and singleplayer rules (including diablo), consistency is nice, but it is not worth sacrificing gameplay over it. Take StarCraft - lot's of campaign specific mini rules or changes to the rules that didn't take effect in multiplayer at all. The market is full of games that have different rules, special rules or rule changes in singleplayer. Even NWN had (on several levels) - just take the death rules there - people die in multiplayer, they get the "wait for help" option, in singleplayer they get to reload.

<hr />So, what Bioware needs to determine their core group. Are they going to cater to those who need training wheels to enjoy the game or those who are veterens and have full experience from their past games.<hr />No need to select one of the two groups and only cater them, would be bad business after all. The group that's going to buy the most copies will get the most attention, of course.

Are the game rules being playtested? (http://forums.bioware.com//viewpost.html?topic=377236&post=3126140&forum=84&highlight=)
<hr />One word: Rolemaster. Now that was a system. Ah, the Charts of Endless death! AH!<hr />The only system where you not had to teach player the hard way about ways to avoid combat, they would do it on their own...

Sticky factions (http://forums.bioware.com//viewpost.html?topic=378019&post=3126650&forum=84&highlight=)
<hr />If Dragon Age has a similar faction system to NWN [..]<hr />Unlikely.

<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Brenon Holmes, Programmer</font>

Real Time or Pause Game (http://forums.bioware.com//viewpost.html?topic=377754&post=3125158&forum=84&highlight=)
<hr />I agree. Give a good full explanation of how the combat will be resolved without using buzz words such as real time/twitch base/phase base/turn base. That way we can decide for ourselves on exactly what kind of combat it is.<hr />I'm not really certain how much we're allowed to divulge at the moment... but a few things I can mention: Rounds are dead - there is no longer a fixed period of time in which characters are forced to act. It's now subdivided into commands, which have variable lengths; they simply occur sequentially - no delays (well, no arbitrary delays - if you do delay it's because you're doing something else... like reacting). http://forums.bioware.com/_global/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif In practice it should end up working much like NWN, only without the 'pumping' at lower levels. Theoretically it should be a whole lot prettier and quite a bit more dynamic, we want to get a lot more of the KotOR style combat interactions in - or something in that vein.

More: Just a quick note, by no means will we be requiring people to click or target every second. As we've mentioned before... we want the game to be mostly based around the character's abilities (and your mind, driving the decisions). If it turns out that combat is simply a frantic spill of mad clicks and annoyance as you try to eke that small bit of extra clicking out of your index finger... be assured, we'll make some modifications. http://forums.bioware.com/_global/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif

<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Brent Knowles, Co-Lead Designer</font>

Are the game rules being playtested? (http://forums.bioware.com//viewpost.html?topic=377236&post=3125194&forum=84&highlight=)
<hr />Though, the fact that the rules are simple enough for you to use in PnP worries me slightly...<hr />Actually because the rules are so calculation intensive we had to write the simulator. The pen and paper sessions were taking too much time. We used them mostly for getting a feel for making fun characters -- is there enough choice and so on. Since that point the rules have gotten even more involved so I doubt we'd be able to do any more pen and paper testing with them.

Theoretically it should be a whole lot prettier and quite a bit more dynamic, we want to get a lot more of the KotOR style combat interactions in - or something in that vein. That is good. The fights in KotOR really seemed like true Star Wars fights, right out of the movies. I never had the feeling of turnbased rules I had in nwn, even though that was still the system in KotOR.

Just a quick note, by no means will we be requiring people to click or target every second. As we've mentioned before... we want the game to be mostly based around the character's abilities (and your mind, driving the decisions). If it turns out that combat is simply a frantic spill of mad clicks and annoyance as you try to eke that small bit of extra clicking out of your index finger... be assured, we'll make some modifications. To me this seems like a superfluous comment, since I already thought nobody would be foolish enough to still bring out such a game. I thought the constant clicking died after Diablo 2 showed it's idiocy (even though to me it was already ridicule in number one).

I loved the combat in KotOR as well and it would be nice to see the same in NWN2. Having to click a specific enemy while the fight is going on may be a deviation from turn-based system, but the character always fights some enemy if you don't select any, so it's not so much of a problem.

Well, even in BG, you only had to click really once in swarming fights, since with the party ai turned on, once your char had engaged someone, he would turn to another enemy and attack that one if his current target died.

Well, I remember something getting wrong in my BG2 in the combat scripts area for no apparent reason. Perhaps I screwed something up, don't know. I was able to finish the game, but I had to click every single enemy for combat. Normally, characters defend themselves if attacked even with AI turned off. And suddenly they no longer did. Oh bliss :rolleyes:

Oh, they did? In my games they never defended themselves, unless party ai was turned off. What I do remember is that they defended themselves, even if they had no script selected, but party ai had to be turned on.