Dragon Age - Forum Highlights @ Sorcerer's Place

Time for the latest batch of Dragon Age tidbits from the official forum, via Sorcerer's Place. Here's a snip from programmer Scott Meadows who wades in a number of times on the EA issue:

Oh noes doom and gloom….

For those that have been following the forums you know the game has been playable for awhile, and yes we haven't given a ton of press to the game.

Did you ever think that maybe that was the plan.

Look at the backlash we got when we released some screens via the Games for Windows article.

Geez, and you wonder why we don't release anything until we are sure of it and are ready to commit to it.

Anyways, Back to improving the tools and playing the game for me….

thx

More information.

I must say that they don't really understand Scott's comments here

They released some very nice screenshots, I think, in the Games for Windows
article. The reaction was not a backlash one, as I saw it. It was more of 'ooh, that's looks interesting, tell me more about this thingie here' and of 'hey, these dragons don't look like D&D dragons, why don't they do that?' and 'hey, nice orc,
down nice orc' or like 'wow, that's look amazing, especially the mage's town and the dwarven towns - please tell us more?'

And then - nada - silch - nothing.

I mean if devs. can't understand that fans want to talk about the game, and maybe critize the game constructively, then maybe they shouldn't be devs. at all? Just saying. Anyway, hopefully, when Mass Effect is out, Dragon Age will be hyped as much as Mass Effect were

I dunno. I think the devs spend much too much time justifying everything they do, as if they're constantly beating down tiny sparks they think are going to explode into a conflagration of hate (a la FO3) for DA. It's tiring to read and always seems condescending.

So here's my question for someone who keeps up with their forums: Are the NPC's still going to be immortal, like in NWN and NWN2?

I personally think this is the single worst design decision plaguing modern RPG's. I suppose it's all part of everything being rewritten to the MMORPG template.

I think the Lead Writer David Gaider once stated that once the main character died (you) the game ends. And it's reload time. I can't rember exactly all the stuff&things Gaider has said about how the death thing is going to work.

The only thing I seem to remember is that you and your party can get injuries, and there will be no healing potions in in other fantasy rpgs. There, will, however, probably be bandages and stuff like this. You will likely also have to travel to your base, sometimes many hours away maybe, from the fight, and there and only there can you get your wounds & cut mended by a physician or something similar to a healer/cleric in the D&D universe.

Death is also permanent in this game, I think, David Gaider, once said on the forums. There are no resurrection spells, healing potions and such things, you can use as the main character or that your party can use. However, there might be temples and such thing where you, for a price, high of course, can get healing or maybe even a teammember resurrected. But all of these features could be cut since Gaider told us this.

The reason for all this is that magic in Dragon Age is low magic. Ordinary people are not trained to use magic probably, so they don't use it. Only high level mages (or mages in general) are able to use magic. Think of the wizards in Buffy - the Vampire Slayer and Angel. They use magic, but there are also a certain % of failure involved. They draw the magic from their inner strength and from the surroundings, not from spells and such things. It will be the same magic that's in Dragon Age - if David Gaider has his way…

That actually sounds refreshing, if they can make it so that it isn't game destroyingly frustrating to play with.

What was the backlash from the GFW article?

I think the backlash he's referring to is in regards to no follow-up of things like a release date and more in-depth information.

Originally Posted by doctor_kaz
What was the backlash from the GFW article?

I believe that was the article that contained the pre-viz work they were doing on the NWN1 engine, with the half-orc and mage girl pics, alongside the pre-rendered shots of armies fighting -- which raised complaints about how their next-gen game looked so horrible. I think the first early shots of Witcher were out about the same time, and everyone was drooling over how nice that game looked while running on the same engine.

Originally Posted by Stanza
I believe that was the article that contained the pre-viz work they were doing on the NWN1 engine, with the half-orc and mage girl pics, alongside the pre-rendered shots of armies fighting -- which raised complaints about how their next-gen game looked so horrible. I think the first early shots of Witcher were out about the same time, and everyone was drooling over how nice that game looked while running on the same engine.

Apparently what people seem to be forgetting is that The Witcher and Dragon Age are two different games. The screenshots for Dragon Age could also well be about 2-4 years old by now while The Witcher's screenshot were of game closing in its release date.

I do think that the Game Informer article posted a screenshot of what some people saw as a blue orc and very thinly looking dragon, at least if you looked at it in the traditional D&D way of thinking.

I don't think of what the Bioware dev mentions as a backlash, more a result of people really wanting information of this game.

/aries100