DA2 Bioware's Stanley Woo on the rushed dev cycle

Captain Buzzkill · March 23, 2011

It's funny you mentioned that. I remarked way back when the demo first came out that the different camera was something that I didn't actually mind all that much. It enforced the idea that in the middle of a battle, you had to keep your head on a swivel to make sure you knew what was going on. If you only concentrated on the enemies in front of you, you wouldn't notice that your mage is getting pounded on.

That being said, with the way enemies show up in waves, I'm constantly spinning the camera all over the place, and running from one side of the board to the other (playing a 2H warrior), trying to pick up aggro. It's infuriating. I'm constantly sitting with an empty mana pool because I'm not concentrating on killing anything, just swinging at enemies enough to make them hate me, so that I can run to another enemy a hundred feet away to do the same.

azarhal · March 23, 2011

Alrik Fassbauer said:
This could be an explantion why there are o few TBS games out there … I often write here that we "live in an Age Of Action", and I mean with it that Action is just the current fashion in this current age of gaming …

What comes next ?

QTE (quick time events) for everything!

Dasale · March 23, 2011

txa1265 said:
Haven't you learned yet - it isn't the game, it is YOU!

You are either:
(a) doing it wrong
(b) a mindless hater who hasn't actually played
(c) have played but not enough to be allowed to comment
(d) not on the 'correct' difficulty to see the absolute pinnacle of design on offer
(e) just not 1337 enuff to 'get it'
(f) inferior in all of the ways mentioned.

Well I'll won't notice your little lesson few posts above, and I won't remove any lol, and I don't care you make it more subtly it's exactly the same. Thanks point I'm right, yes some of your affirmation about fights difficulty and waves necessarily pointless make me smile and quite largely. Consider it as you want, but at end I agree we disagree that's all.

txa1265 · March 23, 2011

Thing is Dasale, I am fine to disagree, and respect your position regardless of that disagreement. We can have good natured joking and still disagree - but ultimately it is all about a silly video game, and no reason for it to rise to personal insults.

JDR13 · March 23, 2011

You've already insulted him by not liking DA2.

Alrik Fassbauer · March 23, 2011

Ovenall said:
SO far, the single simplest tactic to use in this game is to have the party hold by a door or other choke point, then have someone move forward, get the bad guys to appear or attack, then pull them back to where the party is.

I used this tactic in Ork-Grammar (in Dragon Age Origins) several times within the Deep Roads.

Dasale · March 23, 2011

Mike don't worry I respect a lot ton of people in this forum including you, but being insolent is my weakness. I won't remove any lol still, even if I agree in a perfect world they are misplaced. Check only this thread and you'll see plenty post joking me. I think you aren't used to it that's all, but even if not cool, and that I often hate JDR because of that sort of stuff, it's also not that important.

For personal insult you are going far for some lol and in a post a bit general not quoting you, your "immature pissant" was quite closer to personal insult, but ok when I read that sort of stuff the positive point is I feel young blood suddenly rush back through the old veins.

Alrik Fassbauer · March 23, 2011

azarhal said:
QTE (quick time events) for everything!

I fear (intuition, that is) this could be one day more right than we wish ...

txa1265 · March 23, 2011

Dasale said:
For personal insult you are going far for some lol and in a post a bit general not quoting you, your "immature pissant" was quite closer to personal insult, but ok when I read that sort of stuff the positive point is I feel young blood suddenly rush back through the old veins.

Glad to help with the circulation!

I tried a smiley to show I was being ironic ... talking about a certain behavior while using it myself. But these things seldom translate well into text discussions anyway.

Dasale · March 23, 2011

JDR13 said:
You've already insulted him by not liking DA2.

That's not so wrong, even if misplaced, when you experiment something, think about it, and take some conclusion, woo the fights of DA2 are great and better than in DAO, it's like an insult that someone wrote an article summarizing them as "too easy and stupid console action RPG".

For me txa disqualify himself but quoting in his review that fights are too easy (they play automatic) and pretend be able to evaluate them well.

And for you it gives me a big smiles how you spread sarcastic comment about a game you haven't played but a limited demo. Quite a dishonest attitude.

txa1265 · March 23, 2011

Dasale said:
For me txa disqualify himself but quoting in his review that fights are too easy (they play automatic) and pretend be able to evaluate them well.

As I have mentioned that is a 'day one impressions' piece, which took me through ~4 or so hours of the game and got me familiar with things. My full review will include my experimentation at various difficulties ... but again, I have already aired my opinions about some of the basic design choices - which I maintain regardless of how tactics & strategy are applied at various difficulties.

JDR13 · March 23, 2011

Dasale said:
That's not so wrong, even if misplaced, when you experiment something, think about it, and take some conclusion, woo the fights of DA2 are great and better than in DAO, it's like an insult that someone wrote an article summarizing them as "too easy and stupid console action RPG".

For me txa disqualify himself but quoting in his review that fights are too easy (they play automatic) and pretend be able to evaluate them well.

And for you it gives me a big smiles how you spread sarcastic comment about a game you haven't played but a limited demo. Quite a dishonest attitude.

Those aren't the problems. The problem is how you try to find a way to dismiss any opinion that differs from your own.

Alrik Fassbauer · March 23, 2011

Which strongly reminds me of D'Artagnan ... :lol:

Um, sorry, couldn't resist.

Nerevarine · March 23, 2011

Dasale, those are all just your opinions though. To you, the battles are highly enjoyable tactical challenges, but some of us just don't see it in the same way. I don't find the combat to be anywhere near as enjoyable/tactical as you do, and yet I don't outright dismiss your opinion or accuse you of "not playing the game right." I enjoy discussing and digging into a game's design, but your hostility towards anyone who dares to dislike a game you enjoy or disagree with you is ruining the conversation. txa has made some very valid and well-thought points about why the game is not enjoyable or perhaps flawed to some, and others have defined reasons why the game is enjoyable without being so defensive or hostile.

DoctorNarrative · March 23, 2011

Ovenall said:
There's things about every single game I've ever played that I didn't like. DA2 isn't perfect, but it is fun to play.

I'll probably get flamed for this, but to me it makes sense that there is more limit to the "tactical" bird's eye view. How would a mage be able to see and target precisely an area past a bunch of stuff that would be blocking her view in real life? Why should she be able to target something that is actually, really blocked by a bunch of stuff that is in the way, especially in the heat of battle while injured?

I guess I'm just not that centered on having the old-school isometric tactics of the game as very important. I kind of don't care and simply enjoy the game.

Honestly I was surprised by how completely a non-issue the lack of isometric camera was for me.

Dasale · March 23, 2011

Alrik Fassbauer said:
Which strongly reminds me of D'Artagnan … :lol:

Um, sorry, couldn't resist.

That's just a totally bad educated attack, impossible to bear that, I go report your post asap.

But well for me the spiritual son of Dartagnan is JDR. Funnily it's both I suspect be from my country but hide behind a perfect English writing and fake origins, an it's not only a suspicion from their nick name with obvious French origin.

And no I'm not French alas I didn't birth in right country and get polluted a lot before to realize the curse.

Nerevarine · March 23, 2011

DoctorNarrative said:
Honestly I was surprised by how completely a non-issue the lack of isometric camera was for me.

I am still disappointed in the lack of an isometric camera, but someone brought up an excellent point in another thread that the tactical camera is actually not very realistic; how would a fighter be able to get a bird's eye view on a battlefield, anyway? Given this game's over-the-top approach to everything, it's ironic that this is a somewhat realistic approach. Go figure…However, this justification seems more like a convenient cop-out given the overall design process of the game.

Anyway, I still like the overhead view for convenience and tactical awareness, specifically for AOE abilities. Also, I would not agree with the idea that not having an isometric camera was a conscious design choice instead of yet another gameplay mechanic that was omitted due to time constraints/laziness/lack of optimization for the PC version. Nevertheless, the lack of an isometric camera isn't a huge deal at the end of the day. It's just another item on the list of small annoyances that begin to add up over time while playing the game.

JDR13 · March 23, 2011

Alrik Fassbauer said:
Which strongly reminds me of D'Artagnan … :lol:

Nah.. at least you can understand what DArtagnan is trying to say.

booboo · March 23, 2011

With regards to the non-tactical camera - I found it very problematic. In many cases it would back up against a wall (if you're fighting in tight quarters) and you simply could not see what your character would be able to see (and target). That is a major design 'fail'. Try targeting an AoE spell with FF under those conditions. I'm now playing on hard with no FF, because to do it any other way is simply to painful. I've just finished the Qunari story, so far I consider this to be be 'average' game. Can someone explain to me what the damage numbers scrolling up actually represent? Are they before resistances etc are applied? Because I was apparently damaging some creatures for 600+ "points" and their health bars barely moved. Particularly on hard/nightmare, even peons seems to have ridiculously implausible resistances (or insanely high hit points) compared to the party. That destroys immersion, since their simply should not be that many 'elite' level characters around.

Dasale · March 23, 2011

JDR13 said:
Nah.. at least you can understand what DArtagnan is trying to say.

Lol you understand Dartagan arguing constantly about arguing instead of sticking to a topic? Arguing arguing is just plain pointless and void, I'm not surprised you fake understand it.

That said I insulted Dartagnan by quoting you are a spiritual son, at least he has some imagination, when you seem like senile to repeat yourself again and again.

Not to mention you are insulting txa because he answered some posts I put here, so you mean he is stupid because he answer a post he doesn't understand.

And spare me your crap and don't answer this post because in all case you haven't understand this post. So for nth time don't be stupid and don't answer or comment any post you don't understand. But yeah you are unable to even understand that.

DA2 Bioware's Stanley Woo on the rushed dev cycle

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