Forum posts were made by game developers. Please do not take posts out of context. While these individuals will have special insight into certain game-related questions, they are by no means the final authority. Please read the full topic and all its replies before forming an opinion. Remember, all things are subject to change.
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Georg Zoeller ~ Designer |
Thread: Appearance of cloaks and such [+1]
Date: Thursday, 15 July 2004 03:59AM
That makes three muffins. |
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Brenon Holmes ~ Programmer |
Thread: Will there be a physics System? [+7]
Date: Thursday, 15 July 2004 01:27AM
Ignoring the fundamental issues with using physics engines in a multiplayer environment...
Whether damage is calculated from a physics based perspective, force, collision, penetration of materials (density)... etc. or as a simple roll of the die, would you as a player be able to tell the difference? (Aside from the simple fact that in one case it's incredibly difficult to know (as a player) how much damage you'll do in a given swing...) If we were going to do a fully realistic simulation of real life (tm), your character would probably die quite often and quite quickly... a lucky slip and your character is breathing through the hole in his throat. Reload time! In other words... un-fun. Personally, I just can't see the benefit of having a full physics engine in the game (assuming we could even do so in a MP environment). Especially as if we need to do something physics-like we can usually implement a simulation for that specific feature. Example: I want to implement a system where arrows ricochet off of walls/rocks properly then fall to the ground in a realistic manner... do I need a physics engine for that? Nope. Additionally, addressing one of the issues of emergent behaviour and environment interactivity... would you really want a fireball to light a house on fire? As a module maker, what happens then when some psychotic PC sets off a blast in the centre of town? Uh oh... city burns down, all the NPC's die (except children and quest NPC's). In the meantime a burning, physics-based wall has probably fallen on the PC and their party... killing them instantly  .I'm overstating the issue... but basically, you generally don't want unforseen things to occur. You want your world to be able to react to what's happening; the people that live in it to be able to respond intelligently... meaning you have to know what the possibilities are. Emergent behaviour kind of flies in the face of that.. as the very definition of the word means behaviour that the game designers did not anticipate or predict. Having small things that can't directly affect the plot be affected by some sort of physics simulation isn't bad... and visually can be quite appealing. A wave of force blasting back from a fireball flattening grass or blowing leaves/small brush for example... or the wind fluttering the character's hair (or *gasp* cloak? <- does not mean we're including cloaks  )... Glass shattering from a sonic blast spell... etc. The list goes on, all these small things do not affect the game state - but visually are quite additive.We will be using physics in the game for all sorts of things. There will most likely be no physics engine. Edit: Forgot the blurb, the things mentioned in this post are not necessarily indicative of what will be in Dragon Age... well except for the last bit
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer |
Thread: Should people in DA use east London dialect? discuss [+12]
Date: Thursday, 15 July 2004 01:19AM
Pfft.
The real trick will be getting the voice actors to use the correct accent while speaking elven, not to mention using a dipthong correctly.
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer |
Thread: is it possible that dragon age will be an epic saga [+9]
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 10:17PM
That's certainly an option. As was pointed out as well, there's also the consideration of leaving room for further possible sequels down the line. It's not an easy decision, we don't want to paint ourselves into a corner but we also don't want to underwhelm, and you never see it quite so clearly until after it's done (hindsight being what it is. )As for game length == game quality, perhaps that wasn't the best choice of words to illustrate what I meant. Certainly there are many people who expect a long game, period, outside of other considerations. |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer |
Thread: Should people in DA use east London dialect? discuss [+12]
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 09:51PM
Would each nation having unique names for its particular coin denominations be alright? |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer |
Thread: is it possible that dragon age will be an epic saga [+9]
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 09:39PM
To a point. Just because epic deeds are in the offing does not necessarily mean godly power must be possessed (that's rather the gist of this thread, I think). Regardless, we have rough ideas of how powerful the player should be at any given point in the story... but nailing down exactly what's fun and what's excessive is a job for later. |
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Georg Zoeller ~ Designer |
Thread: BioWare: do we have any impact? [+7]
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 09:23PM
You rarely start with zero anyway, it would be stuipd and a waste of time. An engine is defined by it's capabilities, the framework/workflow required to use it and it's main features. The file formats (.2da, .bif,...) are just one way to store data, if it works, there is no need to change that - you copy over the appropriate classes from your previous project. For graphics it's a bit different - every new generation of graphics cards offers new features and ways to do thing better, faster, more efficiently, etc - and in order to make use of those features, you usually need significant rewrites. The "game engine" is a complex thing with hundreds of components, and some of those components (i.e. basic file IO) rarely change at all, while things like the graphics or the rules engine could be scrapped and redone (obviously since we are not going to use d20). |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer |
Thread: BioWare: do we have any impact? [+7]
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 09:19PM
I think the process involves re-using the infrastructure from another engine to save time, but the guts are entirely ripped out and replaced. With entirely new guts, similarities between such engines are mostly superficial, so that may be a distinction that's more apparent to programmers than end-users I guess.
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer |
Thread: is it possible that dragon age will be an epic saga [+9]
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 08:48PM
Yep, you get a cookie. And I'd also have to agree with the comment bumf made about it sometimes being too much of a good thing. We go on and on and the leveling continues until, by necessity, you are fighting overly-powerful opponents. Especially in a scheme where level 20 is (well, at least it was back then) the be-all and end-all. We could end the story earlier, and I agree that often shorter would be make for a tighter and better story (BG2 should have ended in the Underdark, in my opinion, or skipped the Underdark completely and ended in Suldanessalar) but ask some folks around here about shorter games and you're likely to get heart attacks as a response... to many, game length == game quality. So to a point, it's story considerations battling against gameplay considerations (and, in the case of D&D, game system considerations). But no, we're not attached to the "god-like" power levels as a rule, and considering we not only are not obligated to follow the 20-level scheme anymore but also are back to the party of NPC's whose leveling up you (maybe) will control, a lot of that pressure is removed. About the only reason to achieve high levels of power in the Dragon Age OC that I can think of would be to display as much of our new game system as we can... but how far that takes us remains to be decided: we're writing the story through first and will nail that part down later. So this is a good time to comment on the subject. |
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Georg Zoeller ~ Designer |
Thread: Radial Menus [+1]
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 06:41PM
Hehe good idea, "localize it yourself" - I'm sure some publishers will be jumping with joy when hearing that idea
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Georg Zoeller ~ Designer |
Thread: BioWare: do we have any impact? [+7]
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 06:33PM
Wrong decision Robes lead to cloaks and robes ( http://www.dladventures.com )
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Georg Zoeller ~ Designer |
Thread: Radial Menus [+1]
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 06:29PM
Text is problematic as it will cause localization issues (different length of text in different languages). |
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Georg Zoeller ~ Designer |
Thread: BioWare: do we have any impact? [+7]
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 06:18PM
What about the "  " part was unclear above? This thread is titled "do we have any impact?", so if we add cameos of certain boardies, that's some kind of impact, through not neccessarily a very useful one, I have to agree with you on that one. right "if" I think that. You got it. 100 points. |
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Georg Zoeller ~ Designer |
Thread: BioWare: do we have any impact? [+7]
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 06:16PM
Hey, Keep in mind that every decision is a conflicting one. Adding robes may have meant not adding horses or cloaks
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Georg Zoeller ~ Designer |
Thread: Pay to play? [+8]
Date: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 06:06PM Uh, I don't think that would work. a) If it's "I put so much work into my PW, I want to make some cash with it", being forced to open source your module will not be very well received. b) If you have a successful PW module and open source it, people will grab it, run a server as well and collect cash with it as well. I doubt many PW builders would agree with that. Just check out the complaints about "stolen PW modules" we already have on these boards. Add money to the equation and it will get exponentially worse. c) It cuts out the creative people in the community that make the content. Since they can't charge for their content, they will have to watch how others make cash from their work (i.e. that cool werewolf script or that cloak model) while they can't make anything themselves. d) It will alienate a part of the community. Before I joined BioWare, I scripted a lot of generic scripts and objects - http://gulbsoft.de/phpBB2x/g_viewcat.php?f=23 , at some point I would find these scripts in nearly every single module published or PW I joined. I personally would not have liked to see anyone making money of my work. I contributed it to a non profit community for global use, not for commercial exploitation. e) It would collide with our approach to make the game modules open source as well. We could never release any part of our work under a viral license like GPL. No, using the GPL will not solve the trouble that money will incite into your community, in fact it will aggravate it.
I wouldn't rule anything out at this point, but I doubt it's very likely NWN was very successful with the open module approach. I doubt that the community we have right now would exist in this form if the open module approach was abandoned. However we are investigating the possiblity of contracting some of the talented members of the community to create modules for our Digital Distribution project, you can read more about it in the Witch's Wake Forum. |
