Dragon Age - Character Creator Now Available

318 megs? A little bigger than I thought it'd be, but the download speed is good. I'm hitting 1 meg/sec.

I'm a little curious to try out the origins part of the creator for myself.

Edit: Well if your a mage you get one and only one origin whether you are an elf or human. That sucks. Not the end of the world though. I guess if I really like the game I could try out a Dalish elf fighter on the second run through. I really liked those elves from the book. Reminded me of the Darksun Elves.

Originally Posted by Badesumofu
Thinking my party will be made of 2 Mages, a Rouge and a Warrior for most of the time.

Do you get to choose your party-members' classes? I was under the impression that you would just pick up companions along the way, with no say in the matter (a la Dungeon Siege). If you can actually "hand-craft" your entire party … well that's another tick in DA's favor for me!

Edit: Okay, I guess in fairness to DS, you *could* control the development of all chars in your party, but they came on board clearly favoring a particular class.

PS - Do I get in trouble for referencing Dungeon Siege on this forum? I know it's blasphemy to some people.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Last name is tied to your Origin, I believe.

That's necessary because the different races have a different perspective on the story. As a dwarf you are the king's 2nd son. So you carry the king's last name, are a royal treated with respect and obedience by everybody except the king himself and your older brother, the heir to the throne.
Other races are probably much lower in the food chain.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I'm sort of confused why they all share the same skills, even though several skills seem tied to stealth/thievery and why the Rogue has little more than half the talents warriors have. Why so few and where's the compensation?

I guess there's an explanation somewhere.

The warrior has more talents because all of the weapon talents are unlocked for him at the beginning of the game. The rogue can put skillpoints into Combat Training to unlock the remaining weapon talents.

From what I've seen in the character creator, this system totally lacks any sings of multi-classing or any kind of hybrid character. While it it's not a huge block, I'd like my rogue to be able to throw a fireball or two or even my warrior to cast a couple of spells, thank you very much. Hope there is something to remedy this ordeal in the game.

Originally Posted by Polyester
From what I've seen in the character creator, this system totally lacks any sings of multi-classing or any kind of hybrid character. While it it's not a huge block, I'd like my rogue to be able to throw a fireball or two or even my warrior to cast a couple of spells, thank you very much. Hope there is something to remedy this ordeal in the game.

The more customisation the merrier but you have other party-members to sling spells, so I don't see it as important in most party-based games.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
The more customisation the merrier but you have other party-members to sling spells, so I don't see it as important in most party-based games.

Having a magic wielding warrior would also clash with the lore of the game where magic is something you're born with and where all magic users are kept in the Circles or practice magic in secret, hoping that a Templar doesn't find them.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Last name is tied to your Origin, I believe.

Uggh … I can tweak my nose hair but not my last name so that teenager console buys can get ego-stroking from hearing their character by name?

I have to say that what I consider the almost entirely wrong-headed approach in this character creator … or should I call it 'Dark & Gritty Fantasy Sims' … has taken my enthusiasm back down a notch. The thing is 99% about tweaking appearance.

Originally Posted by rbtroj
Do you get to choose your party-members' classes? I was under the impression that you would just pick up companions along the way, with no say in the matter (a la Dungeon Siege). If you can actually "hand-craft" your entire party … well that's another tick in DA's favor for me!

Edit: Okay, I guess in fairness to DS, you *could* control the development of all chars in your party, but they came on board clearly favoring a particular class.

PS - Do I get in trouble for referencing Dungeon Siege on this forum? I know it's blasphemy to some people.

No problem with referencing DS here, we're BIG supporters of both Lazarus and the soon to be released U6 Project which are both based on the DS engine. There really wasn't a 'game' released with the engine was there?

I see a new kind of marketing approach dawning upon us : Release a creating program first, as a kind of "teaser" with which the characters and creatures generated by it can be used in the full game … In some people, it might even work that they develop some kind of "emotional bonding" to what they've created so that they might want to try to test/play it in the real game …

To me, it's quite an interesting marketing approach. I'm impressed.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I see a new kind of marketing approach dawning upon us : Release a creating program first, as a kind of "teaser" with which the characters and creatures generated by it can be used in the full game … In some people, it might even work that they develop some kind of "emotional bonding" to what they've created so that they might want to try to test/play it in the real game …

To me, it's quite an interesting marketing approach. I'm impressed.

Even better - the approach is simply listening to fans.

Some people requested a character generator on the forums. They said they'd look into it, and lo and behold this pops out after a while.

In principle it's been before that : The character generator of the REalms Of Arcania series is in fact a standalone EXE file, don't know what files it additionally needs, though.

Plus, don't you remember the creating program for Spore ?

Also by EA.

Originally Posted by kalniel
Even better - the approach is simply listening to fans.

Some people requested a character generator on the forums. They said they'd look into it, and lo and behold this pops out after a while.

Yeah right. :facepalm:

You really believe they haven't decided about this "demo" long before anyone on the forum mentioned it? It was just a nice coincidence so they could praise themselves how they listen to their fans..

Originally Posted by Tan
Yeah right. :facepalm:

You really believe they haven't decided about this "demo" long before anyone on the forum mentioned it? It was just a nice coincidence so they could praise themselves how they listen to their fans..

I do actually believe them, I know, cynicism is the fashion around here.

There's not a lot of point doing a character creator for a limited RPG game like this one. It's not like Spore where the game is essentially about the creature you've designed. Character generation for DA:O only takes moments and doesn't have a great effect on the game, outside of choosing which origin, which is hardly something you need an external creation tool for.

Originally Posted by kalniel
There's not a lot of point doing a character creator for a limited RPG game like this one. … Character generation for DA:O only takes moments and doesn't have a great effect on the game, outside of choosing which origin, which is hardly something you need an external creation tool for.

So you're basically saying the character creator is something pointless biowhore has put out instead of a real demo? I agree.

Originally Posted by Tan
So you're basically saying the character creator is something pointless biowhore has put out instead of a real demo? I agree.

Yes, exactly. Bioware don't do demos, for good reason. They can only put people off a game like an RPG, not convert them to buying when they weren't going to in the first place. But fans asked for a character generator and got one. Win win.

Originally Posted by kalniel
Bioware don't do demos, for good reason. They can only put people off a game like an RPG, not convert them to buying when they weren't going to in the first place.

Only if it's a bad rpg. If it's a good game it can only attract new players. I understand they're afraid to let people test gameplay before *buying* the game.. and for good reason.

Originally Posted by Tan


Only if it's a bad rpg.

Is Risen a bad RPG?

Originally Posted by kalniel
Is Risen a bad RPG?

How do I know? I've never played it.