221 réponses à ce sujet

[andar91]

Meltemph wrote...

Good! I'm playing it right now, in fact, and being reminded just how much I adore shield bash.

Lies! Admit it! You are playing Minecraft and farmville right now, admit it!

He did say he grew up on a farm.... 

Mike, I'm gonna ask this since it's been on my mind.  You might not answer it, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

You've mentioned in the past that the difficulty of DA2 unfolds as the game progresses from easier to harder.  The other day, somebody made a great post (unfortunately, I can't remember who), and I"m going to parapharase it here.  "I don't have a problem with a gradually unfolding difficulty curve, if that actually happens.  I played ME2 and kept waiting for it to get more difficult and it never did."  He said something like that.  Although I can't speak for Mass Effect, I thought this was a good point.  I think a big fear here is that that upswing in difficulty won't be steady or significant enough and too much of the game (I know, that's rather subjective) will require little tactical thought, pausing, etc....  Could you maybe explain the team's approach on handling this?  A little?  Please?

PS: Thanks for posting earlier.  I love that we get to hear from the lead designer of a game on the game's forums.  All too rare, in my opinion.

[crimzontearz]

leonia42 wrote...

crimzontearz wrote...

leonia42 wrote...

I always enjoyed shield bash in Origins, can't wait to see how much more awesome it has gotten with DA 2. There's just something really satisfying about sending your enemy flying backwards while you charge in and gut them with your sword..

you must have missed the preview in which they describe the new Shield Bash then


you will be pleased

Indeed, I've been purposely avoiding any previews, reviews, or leaked gameplay footage. I want to be vaguely surprised when March rolls around. Sounds good though that warriors are getting some love, everyone was getting a bit panicky once they removed archery and dual-wielding from their arsenal.

I assume you would not care for me to tell you about the new shield Bash then?

[andar91]

crimzontearz wrote...

leonia42 wrote...

crimzontearz wrote...

leonia42 wrote...

I always enjoyed shield bash in Origins, can't wait to see how much more awesome it has gotten with DA 2. There's just something really satisfying about sending your enemy flying backwards while you charge in and gut them with your sword..

you must have missed the preview in which they describe the new Shield Bash then


you will be pleased

Indeed, I've been purposely avoiding any previews, reviews, or leaked gameplay footage. I want to be vaguely surprised when March rolls around. Sounds good though that warriors are getting some love, everyone was getting a bit panicky once they removed archery and dual-wielding from their arsenal.

I assume you would not care for me to tell you about the new shield Bash then?

Tell me about the new Shield Bash.  I don't think I saw that preview.  A PM will do if you don't want to spoil someone else.

[crimzontearz]

andar91 wrote...

crimzontearz wrote...

leonia42 wrote...

crimzontearz wrote...

leonia42 wrote...

I always enjoyed shield bash in Origins, can't wait to see how much more awesome it has gotten with DA 2. There's just something really satisfying about sending your enemy flying backwards while you charge in and gut them with your sword..

you must have missed the preview in which they describe the new Shield Bash then


you will be pleased

Indeed, I've been purposely avoiding any previews, reviews, or leaked gameplay footage. I want to be vaguely surprised when March rolls around. Sounds good though that warriors are getting some love, everyone was getting a bit panicky once they removed archery and dual-wielding from their arsenal.

I assume you would not care for me to tell you about the new shield Bash then?

Tell me about the new Shield Bash.  I don't think I saw that preview.  A PM will do if you don't want to spoil someone else.

ok...shield Bash Spoiler

















Leonia Stop reading
















I told you to stop















ok, apparently right after the shield Bash after an enemy is on the ground the warrior performs the equivalent of an "overwhelm" by jumping on the downed fow and wailing on him/her....which may I say sounds very satisfying

[FedericoV]

Mike Laidlaw wrote...

In general, though, I believe that the innaccuracies come from one very clear source: DA II does not "feel" like DA:O when you first play it. It's faster. It feels like you're actually in control of your characters, not issuing orders that will eventually be carried out. This is, in my mind, a success, because while not all of the previewers pause the game, or take a look at the more tactical side of things, they can feel and understand the changes in their bones.

That's so true: it's exactly how I've felt while playing the demo.

[Bryy_Miller]

crimzontearz wrote...

andar91 wrote...

crimzontearz wrote...

leonia42 wrote...

crimzontearz wrote...

leonia42 wrote...

I always enjoyed shield bash in Origins, can't wait to see how much more awesome it has gotten with DA 2. There's just something really satisfying about sending your enemy flying backwards while you charge in and gut them with your sword..

you must have missed the preview in which they describe the new Shield Bash then


you will be pleased

Indeed, I've been purposely avoiding any previews, reviews, or leaked gameplay footage. I want to be vaguely surprised when March rolls around. Sounds good though that warriors are getting some love, everyone was getting a bit panicky once they removed archery and dual-wielding from their arsenal.

I assume you would not care for me to tell you about the new shield Bash then?

Tell me about the new Shield Bash.  I don't think I saw that preview.  A PM will do if you don't want to spoil someone else.

ok...shield Bash Spoiler

















Leonia Stop reading
















I told you to stop















ok, apparently right after the shield Bash after an enemy is on the ground the warrior performs the equivalent of an "overwhelm" by jumping on the downed fow and wailing on him/her....which may I say sounds very satisfying

.... dammit.

[Archereon]

Mike Laidlaw wrote...

Archereon wrote...

Who knows?  He could've taken it for the money, I don't know enough about this guy to make a judgement on that, though I do know most people don't care enough about games to sacrifice a significant pay raise, its the decision I'd make honestly.

Then you certainly don't know enough about me. About the only claim you could make about me that would be more incorrect than "he doesn't care about games" would be "growing up on a farm had no influence on him."

Well then we're very different people.  And, while I apologize about the insulting tone I used, ultimately, I don't think it would be worth loosing a job over a game, despite the fact that it would be easy to get another one of equal or better pay in the same industry, I'd imagine you'd have to move, unless there's another major gaming company's studio within commuting distance of your house, as position's like your's can't (I believe) be carried out long distance.  Plus there's the fact that you undoubtedly enjoy designing games, and have worked for Bioware (and worked with your current coworkers) for quite a while.

[Mike Laidlaw]

andar91 wrote...

You've mentioned in the past that the difficulty of DA2 unfolds as the game progresses from easier to harder.  The other day, somebody made a great post (unfortunately, I can't remember who), and I"m going to parapharase it here.  "I don't have a problem with a gradually unfolding difficulty curve, if that actually happens.  I played ME2 and kept waiting for it to get more difficult and it never did."  He said something like that.  Although I can't speak for Mass Effect, I thought this was a good point.  I think a big fear here is that that upswing in difficulty won't be steady or significant enough and too much of the game (I know, that's rather subjective) will require little tactical thought, pausing, etc....  Could you maybe explain the team's approach on handling this?  A little?  Please?

A mix of automatic difficulty balancing with an awareness that fights need to consist of more than just "more guys" to be more difficult. As the player gains abilities, and gains experience with the game's systems, they become capable of dealing with more complex combat scenarios, and in order to prevent player boredom, you need to keep those scenarios more complex.

In Origins we didn't have enough variety in enemy behaviors to really ramp as smoothly as I would have liked. We've taken steps to rectify that this time around by introducing not just enemies with new abilities, but some new, challenging behaviors.

[Mike Laidlaw]

crimzontearz wrote...
ok, apparently right after the shield Bash after an enemy is on the ground the warrior performs the equivalent of an "overwhelm" by jumping on the downed fow and wailing on him/her....which may I say sounds very satisfying

Well, kind of. It's a function of the ability to make closing attacks. In Origins by the time your warrior got themselves lined up to follow up on a shield bash, the enemy was already standing. In DA II, the warrior can smoothly followup and continue attacking the downed foe.

[Mike Laidlaw]

And, crimson, I don't have any news on NG+ for you.

[Leonia]

@Crimzontearz: Hey I didn't say I was avoiding spoilers, just avoiding the bias and inaccuracy-laden world of previews/reviews for a product that hasn't been launched yet.

Mike Laidlaw wrote...

Well, kind of. It's a function of the ability to make closing attacks. In Origins by the time your warrior got themselves lined up to follow up on a shield bash, the enemy was already standing. In DA II, the warrior can smoothly followup and continue attacking the downed foe.

Sweet. It looks spectacular in my imagination.

Modifié par leonia42, 14 novembre 2010 - 02:10 .

[Archereon]

Mike Laidlaw wrote...

andar91 wrote...

You've mentioned in the past that the difficulty of DA2 unfolds as the game progresses from easier to harder.  The other day, somebody made a great post (unfortunately, I can't remember who), and I"m going to parapharase it here.  "I don't have a problem with a gradually unfolding difficulty curve, if that actually happens.  I played ME2 and kept waiting for it to get more difficult and it never did."  He said something like that.  Although I can't speak for Mass Effect, I thought this was a good point.  I think a big fear here is that that upswing in difficulty won't be steady or significant enough and too much of the game (I know, that's rather subjective) will require little tactical thought, pausing, etc....  Could you maybe explain the team's approach on handling this?  A little?  Please?

A mix of automatic difficulty balancing with an awareness that fights need to consist of more than just "more guys" to be more difficult. As the player gains abilities, and gains experience with the game's systems, they become capable of dealing with more complex combat scenarios, and in order to prevent player boredom, you need to keep those scenarios more complex.

In Origins we didn't have enough variety in enemy behaviors to really ramp as smoothly as I would have liked. We've taken steps to rectify that this time around by introducing not just enemies with new abilities, but some new, challenging behaviors.

Well that's good news.  Hopefully all that work on the AI you guys have been talking about will pay off.

[Archereon]

filaminstrel wrote...

Mike Laidlaw wrote...

crimzontearz wrote...
ok, apparently right after the shield Bash after an enemy is on the ground the warrior performs the equivalent of an "overwhelm" by jumping on the downed fow and wailing on him/her....which may I say sounds very satisfying

Well, kind of. It's a function of the ability to make closing attacks. In Origins by the time your warrior got themselves lined up to follow up on a shield bash, the enemy was already standing. In DA II, the warrior can smoothly followup and continue attacking the downed foe.

Since the last time you said that, I've checked shield bash on Origins, and found that my character was in fact able to attack after a shield bash while the enemy was still on the ground, and just starting to get up. Seems like a bit of an exaggeration of Origins' flaws, there. Perhaps it is the case in some instances if there are others crowding around you or such, though.

That's also very good news...

[Grand_Commander13]

All this talk of more tactical problems for players in combat has me wondering... What would you say the ratio of "filler" combat to the more meaningful encounters is? I fully expect most combat to be "filler" with regard to its importance to the story (i.e. the random swarms of cultists in the temple of the Urn), but what about a guess of how many of the fights are challenging encounters you'll need to think about and how many are ones you'll let your allies auto-attack you through?

And for some reason I can't get out of my head that the Brecillian Forest and temple filler combats would have been awesome if they had been essentially one running battle with you advancing rather than clusters of enemies meant to dole out experience points and keep your interest while you walked through the map and looted nearby items.

[andar91]

Mike Laidlaw wrote...

andar91 wrote...

You've mentioned in the past that the difficulty of DA2 unfolds as the game progresses from easier to harder.  The other day, somebody made a great post (unfortunately, I can't remember who), and I"m going to parapharase it here.  "I don't have a problem with a gradually unfolding difficulty curve, if that actually happens.  I played ME2 and kept waiting for it to get more difficult and it never did."  He said something like that.  Although I can't speak for Mass Effect, I thought this was a good point.  I think a big fear here is that that upswing in difficulty won't be steady or significant enough and too much of the game (I know, that's rather subjective) will require little tactical thought, pausing, etc....  Could you maybe explain the team's approach on handling this?  A little?  Please?

A mix of automatic difficulty balancing with an awareness that fights need to consist of more than just "more guys" to be more difficult. As the player gains abilities, and gains experience with the game's systems, they become capable of dealing with more complex combat scenarios, and in order to prevent player boredom, you need to keep those scenarios more complex.

In Origins we didn't have enough variety in enemy behaviors to really ramp as smoothly as I would have liked. We've taken steps to rectify that this time around by introducing not just enemies with new abilities, but some new, challenging behaviors.

Thank you very much for the reply!  That does sound very cool if it works right.  Now I'm trying to imagine what kind of behaviors that might include.  Could be quite a challenge.   Thanks again!

Modifié par andar91, 14 novembre 2010 - 02:20 .

[Firky]

Saibh wrote...
I'm pretty positive I could write a preview for DA2, having never played the demo, that would be both more informative and more accurate than almost anything else we have.

I've seen people say this around here a fair bit. Why don't people have a stab at writing a preview themselves? I know for a fact that previews are often written without a hands on. (You wouldn't pretend to have played it, you just wouldn't mention the demo at all.)

Through the process of doing it, it might become clearer as to why certain themes in DAII previews are coming up etc. It also might highlight how problematic "speculation" is and being objective and being informative.

But do it right. Pick a word limit first. Depends what format you are going for. 500? Make a thread. (Actually, given the knowledge of fans around here and that lots seem to write very well, I'd totally read that thread.)

[crimzontearz]

leonia42 wrote...

@Crimzontearz: Hey I didn't say I was avoiding spoilers, just avoiding the bias and inaccuracy-laden world of previews/reviews for a product that hasn't been launched yet.

Mike Laidlaw wrote...

Well, kind of. It's a function of the ability to make closing attacks. In Origins by the time your warrior got themselves lined up to follow up on a shield bash, the enemy was already standing. In DA II, the warrior can smoothly followup and continue attacking the downed foe.

Sweet. It looks spectacular in my imagination.

yes well.....now I want to see some 2 hander lovin 

[AlanC9]

andar91 wrote...
The other day, somebody made a great post (unfortunately, I can't remember who), and I"m going to parapharase it here.  "I don't have a problem with a gradually unfolding difficulty curve, if that actually happens.  I played ME2 and kept waiting for it to get more difficult and it never did."  He said something like that.

silimgrin said that, pretty much as you write it.

[CastorT]

Mike Laidlaw wrote...

Brockololly wrote...
But how is the PC version coming along? It seems like Gamescom was the last time we really heard anything specifically about the PC version as all of these conventions demo the console version.

Good! I'm playing it right now, in fact, and being reminded just how much I adore shield bash.

It's almost unseemly.

Must see!

[FellowerOfOdin]

Mike Laidlaw wrote...


Well, kind of. It's a function of the ability to make closing attacks. In Origins by the time your warrior got themselves lined up to follow up on a shield bash, the enemy was already standing. In DA II, the warrior can smoothly followup and continue attacking the downed foe.

Now that's awesome news here! It was really annoying that Shield Bash was good for nothing but interrupt enemies who are about to cast a spell but this change does sound pretty awesome. More love for Sword&Board please!

[Grand_Commander13]

FellowerOfOdin wrote...

Now that's awesome news here! It was really annoying that Shield Bash was good for nothing but interrupt enemies who are about to cast a spell but this change does sound pretty awesome. More love for Sword&Board please!

I wouldn't say that; it was quite useful for keeping the party's tank off of their feet whenever fighting a bunch of enemies with shields.  It wasn't useful for much else to the party but enemies love it.