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Dragon Age Forum News (Dec. 12, 06)

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by chevalier, Dec 12, 2006.

  1. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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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

    Romances Part 2 (llama edition)

    Excellent. Moot point, however, as nobody's going to betray you. We've already done that once or twice.

    what races are there?

    Nope. And I'm not sure where this "fourth race" thing comes from. This must be an assumption that, if there is a fourth race, it is also playable? I think this may hearken to way back, I'm not sure.

    More:

    Hmmm. It's hard to remember, sometimes, what was mentioned waaay back then and what wasn't. From my perspective, a great deal has changed since the early vision and concepts. But if the "fourth race" stuff came from us, I guess it's to be expected that it's still kicking around.

    More:

    Or we could just say that nothing stated in the original FAQ can be considered useful information anymore, which we already have and is why we took it down.

    Though I didn't actually know that the "fourth race" thing was in there. Fair enough. It's been a while.

    Mind you, if you were ever looking for a reason why we tend to lean towards saying nothing official at all, look no further than a post like that.

    More:


    when I start the game and I see an DA(tm) elf/dwarf for hte first time...will I be schocked?
    No, I doubt it. Physically they will look like you would expect... otherwise what would be the point by then of still calling them dwarves/elves? There has to be a familiar point of reference.

    Death, Part 3

    That's super. There are certainly games out there that are all about free-form adventuring. Bioware has, however, always made story-driven games... so complaining that we are telling you a story is, in my opinion, a little pointless.

    There are certainly degrees to the amount of freedom that one might feel they have. More optional areas to explore, for instance. More side-quests, less cut-scenes that actually take control of and move the player around... that sort of thing. But ultimately it will always be about us telling you a story and you operating inside those parameters. If you don't buy in that much, you never will.

    More:

    Right. And the "injury system" I've referred to is very much along these lines. A consequence for a character going down which is not death, but more serious than just jumping up after combat at full HP.

    More:

    No, not like that, then.

    We're talking about a system where persistent injury states are applied in some instances (like when a character goes down in combat) which, until removed by rest & healing item usage, cause issues ranging from blindness to reduced movement to hit/damage penalties and so forth -- with a severity that is set by the difficulty level. Usual caveats apply (as in this plan could change at any time, it's just a quick summary of the current iteration).

    More:

    The difficulty level affects the actual amount that stats and such are affected and the maximum amount that cumulative injury states can reduce a single stat.

    The Importance of Being Evil

    There is no alignment or good/evil slider in Dragon Age... and thus we also don't go out of our way to make sure a distinct "evil path" (or "good path", for that matter) exist in every single plot or dialogue, which is something you need to do once you have a system in place for changes to the alignment/slider.

    The end effect is that there will be individual instances where you can do some pretty despicable, immoral things... but only where they make sense. Playing good or evil is not really the point of the game as it might be in, say, KotOR or Fable.

    Which perhaps is as it should be. Forcing an "evil path" onto an otherwise heroic tale (as most are, whether or not you think heroic fantasy is a good idea is a completely different argument) tends to be a bit forced at times. Not only that, what most players seem to demand is not just to be evil but to be intelligent evil... which is the sort of thing that requires long-term plans rather than short-term actions, which is very hard to telegraph to the player without using outright exposition. And even then, I suspect the answer in many cases would probably be, "oh, that evil plan sounds fine, but my evil plan would be even more sinister and intelligent than that."

    Not to say that it couldn't be done, or done better, just that it's problematic when it comes to heroic fantasy. And it isn't something we're concentrating on when it comes to Dragon Age anyhow.

    Mary Kirby, Writer

    Romances Part 2 (llama edition)

    I'm not entirely certain what it is you're asking here, so if my answer meanders way off target, feel free to holler. Your origin story (whichever one you pick) is a fully playable chapter of the game, where you get all of the relevant information about your own background.

    Plot?

    He will be able to get through doors... somehow or other.

    I'm not sure he'd be much use as a war machine if he were designed to be smaller than any possible player character. I mean, elves are generally not renowned for their sheer mass, and dwarves aren't exactly towering. . . we'd be talking pocket-sized golems. That might be cute but I don't know how effective they'd be.

    But don't worry. If you don't want a giant rock in your party, you don't have to take him.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 7, 2018
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