885 réponses à ce sujet

[DebatableBubble]

Which classes will be able to use the staff seen in the Destiny trailer?

[Peter Thomas]

falloutseriesfan wrote...

Which classes will be able to use the staff seen in the Destiny trailer?

The only class able to use the Staff weapon style is the Mage.

[uberdowzen]

First off I'd like to whole-heartedly thank you for doing this. It's fantastic. Secondly, I'd like to apologise for what is probably going to be a stupidly long post and once more if any of these questions have already been asked.

1. Is the plan in DA2 to make the combat have the clarity of ME2's?  I found that in that game you always knew what you were meant to do to fight a certain enemy. For example, in ME2 if you're fighting an armoured enemy you
know that you need to use a heavy pistol, warp or similar. I found stuff like that slightly hazy in DAO.

2. Are characters in your party going to have fewer abilities to draw on in combat? The way I understand it is that you are going to be upgrading the talents you already have rather than continually getting new ones to avoid that
situation you had at the end of Awakening where the quick bar was stretching out across the entire screen.

3. Are you going to be allowed to fight with just a sword anymore or is a default shield going to fill in if you only equip a sword? Also will the default weapon change based on what weapon set a character is better with or is
it based on class?

4. As the talent system is being changed are similar plans in place for the skill system?

5. Will there be separate quick bars for alternate weapons?

6. Will it be more practical to build a character with talents for more than one type of weapon than in DAO? E.g. a two handed weapon user who also uses a bow.

7. Having presumably played it a fair bit, is DA2 as awesome as it sounds/looks?

[DebatableBubble]

So what you're saying, Mr. Thomas, is that mages will be able to fight like Hawke did?

[Peter Thomas]

uberdowzen wrote...

First off I'd like to whole-heartedly thank you for doing this. It's fantastic. Secondly, I'd like to apologise for what is probably going to be a stupidly long post and once more if any of these questions have already been asked.

1. Is the plan in DA2 to make the combat have the clarity of ME2's?  I found that in that game you always knew what you were meant to do to fight a certain enemy. For example, in ME2 if you're fighting an armoured enemy you
know that you need to use a heavy pistol, warp or similar. I found stuff like that slightly hazy in DAO.

The differences in creature vulnerabilities are to be more pronounced in DA2. I don't know about any UI changes to communicate visually. It may end up being trial and error to discover what works and what doesn't. Each category of enemy is consistent in its strengths and weaknesses though.

2. Are characters in your party going to have fewer abilities to draw on in combat? The way I understand it is that you are going to be upgrading the talents you already have rather than continually getting new ones to avoid that situation you had at the end of Awakening where the quick bar was stretching out across the entire screen.

One of the aims of DA2 is to make the abilities more distinct and unique. This, combined with upgrades and investment requirements within individual trees (you must have spent X points in this tree before getting the highest level abilities), characters will generally be more focused and have less overall active abilities. Balancing is still ongoing with requirements.

3. Are you going to be allowed to fight with just a sword anymore or is a default shield going to fill in if you only equip a sword? Also will the default weapon change based on what weapon set a character is better with or is it based on class?

In that example, a default shield will appear in your off hand. Currently it's based on class only, but we're looking into the default default (when nothing at all is equipped) being whichever style you have the most points invested in.

4. As the talent system is being changed are similar plans in place for the skill system?

I can't comment on the skill system.

5. Will there be separate quick bars for alternate weapons?

Currently you cannot switch weapon sets.

6. Will it be more practical to build a character with talents for more than one type of weapon than in DAO? E.g. a two handed weapon user who also uses a bow.

In DA2, those two weapon styles aren't available to the same character, but I'll take it to mean Dual Weapon and Archery. It can be practical to use both if you don't want to specialize in one particular style. Each weapon style is only a single tree. The vast majority of class abilities are more general, and can be used no matter what weapon style you're currently using.

7. Having presumably played it a fair bit, is DA2 as awesome as it sounds/looks?

Out there somewhere is an EA marketing guy dying to answer this question...

[Peter Thomas]

falloutseriesfan wrote...

So what you're saying, Mr. Thomas, is that mages will be able to fight like Hawke did?

The trailer is a prerendered cinematic by Digic Pictures. The real game can't behave exactly like that. The combats aren't choreographed (except stuff like deathblows) and, while everything in it was based on DA2 abilities and stuff, there will be differences in the actual final game. At some point we will release more videos of what the game actually looks like (besides what's been seen in demos), but I don't know when that will be.

[DebatableBubble]

I'm sorry, I should've worded my question better. What my actual question was that will mages be able to fight in melee combat with their staffs?

[Peter Thomas]

falloutseriesfan wrote...

I'm sorry, I should've worded my question better. What my actual question was that will mages be able to fight in melee combat with their staffs?

Yes they can, but the exact nature of their animations is an animation direction question.

[Peter Thomas]

distinguetraces wrote...

If the warrior's default attack is an 120-degree-arc AoE, how is it targeted? Do you select a target and then automatically swing your weapon in an arc extending sixty degrees to the left and right of the target?

Or does the arc begin at the target, or end at it, or what?

Or ... wait, though ... you said before that AoEs could only target the ground, not an enemy. If that's the case, and if all warrior attacks are AoE, is it going to be impossible for warriors to ever target enemies directly?

Thank you for staying up for us, and I really don't mean to be a naysayer, but I just have to say that an AoE auto-attack seems to me to be very very strange.

You attack an enemy and swing your sword. Enemies are hit from 60 degrees to the left of him to 60 degrees to the right. There are a couple other games that do this sort of thing, but some of them restrict it to later moves in a combo. When playing it, it feels pretty good. It also requires you to manage the battlefield to get the most use out of your Warrior, clustering enemies near him to take advantage of his attacks.

[Alias Oddvar]

does displacement/magic resistance still use the 1-(displacement/magic resistance persentage) when considering if a spell/ability hits or not? Meaning player stats are irrelevant?
or does it use attack(a flat number)-MR(flat number)=persentage for spell to land?

Is spirit the best way to hit very magic resistant enemies for mages?

is it still possible to get 100% magic resistance/displacement  by stacking displacement/magic resistance items?

you mention diminishing returns on stacking attack or defence, which ways are you useing to get that result?
in dao it encourages stacking of attack and defence, and only a few points are useless.

Modifié par Alias Oddvar, 12 septembre 2010 - 06:31 .

[lunarknightmage]

Peter, again, thank you so very much for answering all of our questions.....

I'm speaking for myself, but I'm sure other posters on here would agree, I think one reason why you've been getting so many questions ( mine included ) about Mages and melee combat is that many of us enjoyed playing as Arcane Warriors in Origins.

We like playing as mages, but we don't just want to sit in the background firing spells while the warriors and rogues get to have all the melee fun. We want to wade into the thick of battle, too, hacking and slashing with our melee weapon.

In DA2, we've learned that there are now weapons restrictions based on class, and that mages can only carry staves. And, while you can't comment on the specs yet, I think many of us are worried that an Arcane Warrior type of spec will no longer be in DA2, since the emphasis is on making the classes distinct.

I know that's how I feel, and I'm sure other posters who like melee-oriented mages feel similarly.  We're kind of looking for "assurance" that, with all the changes in DA2, we will be able to play a similar type of character as the Arcane Warriors in Origins....

Your answers and comments have given hope that it is possible to build a melee/close combat oriented mage of some sort, maybe not quite the same as the Arcane Warrior in Origins, but a different kind of staff melee mage nonetheless.

Hopefully, in the near future, we will get more info ( and videos ) of mages in combat, and of the specs in DA2.

again, thank you for all of your time and help in answering our questions, mine included!

Modifié par lunarknightmage, 12 septembre 2010 - 06:31 .

[Esbatty]

I"m 7 pages in and I'm in love with Peter and Seb, I'm talking Talimancing levels.

[Peter Thomas]

Alias Oddvar wrote...

does displacement/magic resistance still use the 1-(displacement/magic resistance persentage) when considering if a spell/ability hits or not? Meaning player stats are irrelevant?
or does it use attack(a flat number)-MR(flat number)=persentage for spell to land?

Displacement has a 100-X percent chance of ignoring any hit result, where X is the value of that attribute.

Magic Resistance is slightly different. It reduces magical damage and effect durations by that percentage. This will be subject to balancing and we may need to rework that once more testing has been done.

Is spirit the best way to hit very magic resistant enemies for mages?

Yes, since it halves the resistance they'd get from that stat. It is also the best way to hit extremely damage resistant enemies. This is a specific damage resistance property, not physical/fire/cold/electricity/nature/spirit damage resistance. Something that seems to be immune to most everything will likely be more vulnerable to Spirit damage.

is it still possible to get 100% magic resistance/displacement  by stacking displacement/magic resistance items?

For players? Not in any sort of permanent fashion, though I can't comment on specific abilities. Also for enemies it's unlikely except under special circumstances.

you mention diminishing returns on stacking attack or defence, which ways are you useing to get that result?
in dao it encourages stacking of attack and defence, and only a few points are useless.

I'm going to pull numbers out of thin air to give an example.

Suppose you are a level 1 Warrior and have an attack score of 20. That gives you a 50% chance of hitting an equal level enemy. If you get another +20, you now might have a 70% chance of hitting. Another +20 would bring it up to 80%. Another +20 would bring it to 85%, with a total attack score of 80.

Now let's consider a level 2 Warrior. He, too has an attack score of 20. For a level 2 character, though, 20 is kinda low. His chance to hit is only 35% against an equal level enemy. The other Warrior with the score of 80 moves up to level 2, and his attack score is above average, even for level 2. He has a 75% chance to hit an enemy because he already had a high attack score. This second Warrior gets another +20, bringing his attack score up to 100. Unfortunately, at level 2, 20 attack doesn't mean as much as it used to, and it only bumps his percentage up to 80%.

Our UI has not been finalized, but we are planning on letting you see how much attack score an individual item property or attribute point would give you, but for readability reasons the display of the attack score on the character sheet will be the resulting percentage (with all other factors folded into it). This will tell you absolutely how effective your character is, while clearly showing which properties give more benefit than others. This is a byproduct of the diminishing returns and showing how effective your character is against an enemy of your current level. This UI has not been finalized, though, so I can't really say more about it.

[BlackVader]

1. Will there be any way to respecialize Hawke and/or her companions? I'm not asking about the specific way it is done. Even simple yes or no would be great.

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2. Since you said a melee-weapon is either sword and shild or dual-wield style: Will dual wield still allow us to use two individual (dual wield style) weapons or will one such "item" automatically fill both slots? (Like the double-bladed swords in Nevewinter Nights)

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3. Will the AI be able to cancel an action when a condition with a higher priority is met before the action is completed? The AI couldn't handle this in DAO and made the game feel ... "clumsy" quite often, especially if you happen to have played with FFXII's gambit-system for a few hundred hours.
Examples of this hapening in DAO would be:
An enemy runs past the tank because he wants to attack the mage in the back row. The tank taunts right when the enemy passes by, giving him the highest threat. The enemy would STILL carry out his former command (attack the mage) once before turning around and go to the tank.

A character with his tactics set up like this:
1. Health below 50% -> use healing potion.
2. Attack neares enemy.
At the beginning of combat, he would run up to the nearest enemy even if he drops dead on his way (due to enemy archers or whatever) without ever using the potion.

----

4. On a similar note, is the awful AI-reset at the beginning of a combat gone? You know what I mean. The whole "Pause the game and issue commands to the party right when an enemy appears - just to have the commands forgotten by the time your party draws their weapons"-thing.
I can't even count the times that my whole party suffered some huge AoE damage (scatter shot, fireball, etc.) just because of this.

Thanks again for your time and efford!

[JoHnDoE14]

Peter Thomas wrote...

JoHnDoE14 wrote...

Will mages still be able to cast spells without a staff ??
 (Apologies in case it was asked again)

Mages will always have a staff. Even if they don't have a particular item equipped, they will have a default staff.

 Thank you for answering all our questions!!! It is truly a good thing you do here, opening this thread and taking the time to reply to almost everything.

[1varangian]

Peter Thomas wrote...

Sorry, followers will still scale with you. If they didn't, ones you didn't take with you would be useless later in the game with no way to catch up.

I know the logic behind that and I guess I should have asked if there will be plot related "non-combat" companions? Finn should have been one, definitely.

But wouldn't it make it possible for lower level companions to catch up if XP gains were adjusted by the recipient's level? An enemy that is worth 50xp to a level 10 character could be worth 100xp to a level 5 companion. Different level characters would really help establish a scope of power in the game, something that was absent in DA:O.

Also, will the number of enemies scale at all or just their levels? Encountering more enemies is more believable than having to fight some level 16 wolves.

Q2: Will stats (and equipment requirements with them) scale as heavily as in DA:O?

If those stats were associated with class and level only, then every character would be the same. By associating with stats instead, we give the player choice in how he levels his character and what properties are more important to him for the build he's creating.

To clarify, I meant the scope of it. In Origins, a 1st level warrior had 20 str at best while a high level warrior would easily have 60+. The question was more RP related than mechanics related. How strong is a character compared to an ogre or a dragon? How can a level 10 Leliana be stronger than a level 1 Sten? Wouldn't a more patient ability score progression help create a system where the stats would better indicate certain level of strength or cunning etc? The stats in DnD do a very good job of portraying the character while the stats in Origins mostly just correlate to experience.

Q3: Will mages be required to invest in Str / Dex this time if they want to fight? Or will simply dumping everything into Magic result in a well rounded arcane warrior/caster again?

Dumping everything into their primary attribute is a viable way to create a character. They will hit a lot and do a lot of damage, but will suffer in every other way. It will work in a lot of situations, but it won't be a well rounded character.

Need to clarify again, heh. Will a mage's melee capability be determined by both Str and Magic, or Magic alone like with Origin's Arcane Warriors? Will there be a reason for a Mage to invest in Str / Dex / Con / Cunning?

Modifié par 1varangian, 12 septembre 2010 - 09:56 .

[Nighteye2]

Peter Thomas wrote...

tmp7704 wrote...
Is
there anything planned to be introduced instead, or does it basically
mean the item system was simplified and all weapons (of the same rank)
deal identical damage to everything? I.e. there's no longer advantage of
certain weapon types against heavy armour etc?

The focus
is instead on different damage types. Armor is resistance to Physical
damage. If a creature is very resistant to it, the best way to deal with
it would be to switch to an alternate damage type that can harm it more
effectively.

Individual items (or subgroups of items) will be
differentiated by the types of properties they have, though this hasn't
been finalized yet.

So, to get this clear, there is no more distinction between piercing, cutting and blunt physical damage?

Peter Thomas wrote...

Brockololly wrote...
So no more punching enemies with your fists when you don't have a weapon equipped?

No, there is no more unarmed combat for players.

Won't that be awkward during the sex scenes, if characters who stripped themselves naked are forced to keep holding on to their default weapons?

[DPB]

Nighteye2 wrote...

Won't that be awkward during the sex scenes, if characters who stripped themselves naked are forced to keep holding on to their default weapons?

Uh, they still put away their weapons when not in combat.

[They call me a SpaceCowboy]

Peter Thomas wrote...

Shinian2 wrote...

So the info about default weapons brought another question to my mind.

Will there be default armour too?

Not in the same way, no. A character stripped of all armor will have their default appearance. What that is is an art direction question.

Nah I wasnt going for the appearance side of it. I've read enough of this thread to know what the answer was to that. I was thinking more about base armour stats.

I thought the player could pull a suit of armour out of the same place they pulled the weapon.

You've said many times that you can't talk about skills. Is this because they aren't your area or that they are still being designed? Will it be a matter of weeks or months before you can answer questions about them?

[filetemo]

can we combine two handed weapons and sword and shield with our character or do we have to choose one weapon specialization and stick with it?

I mean, when you choose your first sword and shield ability for example, does the two handed skill tree become unavailable for the rest of the game or can we have a warrior capable of using both skillsets and use sword and shield and two handed depending on what suits for our next battle?

it would be cool to be able to tank with a shield large groups of mobs and then use two handers for a big boss

[Tinxa]

Will warriors be unable to use ranged weapons since they don't get archery talents? Are crossbows still in the game?

In DAO it was smarter to stay away from some types of enemies so I gave all my party ranged weapons even if they weren't proficient in them, will this be possible in DA2?

[Kriz_Light]

Greetings to all people from Bioware.

I have a few questions regarding Dragon Age 2:

1. During character creation, apart from changing the gender, appeareance, class and name of Hawke, will it be also possible (like in Dragon Age: Origins) to select starting skills, talents and abilities or will those be set? In Gamescom demo it wasn't possible.

2. Are skills (i.e. crafting, coercion and such) in the game and do they work differently from DA:O?

3. In one of the previous questions in this thread you said that it's not possible to entirely switch off AI like in DA:O. Could you elaborate more on that?

[SoleSong]

About this:

Peter Thomas wrote...

lv12medic wrote...

I noticed this a lot when using archery in DA:O that groups of enemies would not react when attacked from a distance, only the enemy that was shot (and maybe one buddy) would react and initiate combat while the rest stood there watching the paint dry. Will DA2's enemies react more cohesively?

The player's attack range is within the enemy perception range, so they should react. Things like that in DA2 would be bugs.

Hm!... So if I was standing 2 meter behind my firend who fell... and I was also standing 1 meter more distant from the atacker and so outside perception range... I should do nothing? ... Bugridden me :-)

[Loc'n'lol]

Tinxa wrote...

Will warriors be unable to use ranged weapons since they don't get archery talents? Are crossbows still in the game?

Already answered : yes (only rogues) and maybe.

Modifié par _Loc_N_lol_, 12 septembre 2010 - 03:21 .