94 réponses à ce sujet

[errant_knight]

That was very interesting! Thanks for posting the link! It sure makes the reason for having one origin more clear, doesn't it? I can't argue with any of that. If it makes the story better, it makes the story better. Now, I hope it won't ALWAYS make the sory better, but there's no reason not to go there when it does.

[tmp7704]

People ask “Why don’t you have horses in DA?” You want path finding issues? Try programming for creatures that are longer than they are tall!

Truly, that there's games at all which feature AI-driven cars, motorcycles, tanks, planes, ships and even actual horses, it's nothing short of a miracle.

[SeanMurphy2]

nightcobra8928 wrote...

probably more to do with hawke's family rather than hawke himself/herself, on one side you have a noble mother and on the other you have an apostate father and let's not forget the twin siblings.

It seems a combination of origins they could have had for DA2.

*Penniless human commoner refugee struggling in a new city
*Privledged Kirkwall noble ancestry
*Apostate mage potentially threatened by chantry.

I wonder if those were the initial starting points.


Though I agree that it was best not to have origins in DA2. It is a lot of work to put into the beginning of the game before you can even start to build the rest of the story.

I liked the origins in DAO. But maybe it meant less time could be spent on some mid and end game plots.

[arafinwe_ingalaure]

But won't it hurt replayability ? In Origin you had very different story for each origin, that was cool and a reason while I'm still playing Drago Age origin. While I stop playing Fable 3 after 2 playthrought because there was nothing new to do.

[ZeRoToXiN]

Thanks for posting this interview. This is the 2nd Gaider interview I've read, it's interesting to hear what the main writer has to say. I respect him, he really does a lot posting on these forums and giving lots of interviews and expalianing and justifying what he does as a writer, he's also humorous at times too

Why did you take the decision to have just one main character for DA2 as opposed to the multitude of main character options in  Origins?

Part of that is budgetary. If you look at Origins each of those origin stories was a huge undertaking. That kind of expense is great, as long as there is some impact to it and I think we got that in Origins. I think it was really important as Origins had to introduce the world and introduce every slice of life to the player. For the DA2 story, we
actually started off with multiple starting points but we found that prevented us from telling the tale we wanted to tell and not to mention led to an extra expense. Splitting the story at the start diluted the story we wanted to tell further down the line. For example, if the player was a Dwarf you could not have a Mage in the family. For every variation you have to provide a whole new path. One day we just sat down and said, budget aside, what is more important to us?

When I first found out we were concentrating on one main character, as a writer I wasn’t exactly thrilled. From a writing perspective it narrows down the character. It does give you the opportunities to hook a story onto a character when they are a little bit more defined and now I do find after playing DA2, I have a really hard time going back and playing Origins.

I think having 6 unique Origins is what made Dragon Age Origins unique in terms of story, that was something new and fresh and a nice draw. Now, it's time to focus on somwthing else, with a single character with an existing background that we discover as we play.

Modifié par ZeRoToXiN, 07 janvier 2011 - 03:26 .

[David Gaider]

tmp7704 wrote...
Truly, that there's games at all which feature AI-driven cars, motorcycles, tanks, planes, ships and even actual horses, it's nothing short of a miracle.

The issue's actually more involved with having a party on horseback. Having a group of horses maneuver behind you is infinitely more difficult to pathfind-- that's why such games generally feature a single controllable mount. Even so, it's do-able. Nobody's claiming it's not. You can design levels around the fact that someone could be riding a horse, for instance. The issue is really just how important it is to the game you're making for such a feature to be accomodated. One day I'd like to do a game where it plays enough of a role in the gameplay to warrant the work.

Incidentally, when I said "concentrating on one main character" I suppose I meant one version of the main character. I tend to think of the different threads a player can pick up as different characters, and from a story perspective they sort of are.

Modifié par David Gaider, 07 janvier 2011 - 03:30 .

[SeanMurphy2]

(Although Bioware have not promised huge amounts of branching narrative)

Maybe it allows them to put more resources into having slightly different outcomes after each time jump.

[PrinceOfFallout13]

arafinwe_ingalaure wrote...

But won't it hurt replayability ? In Origin you had very different story for each origin, that was cool and a reason while I'm still playing Drago Age origin. While I stop playing Fable 3 after 2 playthrought because there was nothing new to do.

the origins didnt change anything in the game tough only different dialog here and there and we have to wait who knows maybe this game will have so many paths that they will make origins look like child play

[tmp7704]

David Gaider wrote...

The issue's actually more involved with having a party on horseback. Having a group of horses maneuver behind you is infinitely more difficult to pathfind-- that's why such games generally feature a single controllable mount.

I'm not really trying to argue that it isn't hard   At the same time though it did struck me funny, maybe because the way it's put makes it sound like the difficulty causes it to be skipped through multiple games by now... but yet it is something that any regular RTS game does routinely with their vehicles, and with many more units than 4 trailing behind the leader.

That said, personally i'd be pretty happy with having just stationary, animated horses to flesh out the world -- similar how in DAO we get to see the oxen that pretend to be having break from pulling carts and the like. I'm guessing though this isn't done based on presumption if players saw he horses they'd demand option to actually ride them... i.e. the "give them the finger and they'll want whole hand" thing?

[MerinTB]

It's a good interview overall - I seriously hope this doesn't just devolve into another argument of "6 origins is awesome" vs. "6 origins was a waste."



I think Mr. Gaider's thoughts about how having magic spells like "Charm Person" in the real world is very interesting.

[Night Prowler76]

Sigh, I hope everything in this game isnt getting stream-lined, I mean they had the 6 variations in DOA, but its not feasable, cost wise in DA2? LMAO.

The writing in DAO was great, and the different play throughs made the game very interesting for a long time, seeing the same character, and the same voice, no matter what "few" paths you have in DA2 will get boring really quick, at most this game will be a play twice and sell, and thats disappointing to alot of RPG gamers like myself.

[David Gaider]

Night Prowler76 wrote...
I mean they had the 6 variations in DOA, but its not feasable, cost wise in DA2? LMAO.

Perhaps you need to read the interview again.

[Night Prowler76]

I understand why you guys are doing it David, but like you said in the interview, you werent thrilled at first about having a main character, there are many people on here and that I know outside of here that loved the first game and how great the story was and the variations for each player made it great. Im positive that you will have made a great story and a quality game, but most of the fears that some of us have, is that the game is streamlined and wont have the same replayability, I hope Im wrong, I really do. Im still looking forward to the game, Im just a bit worried, thats all.

[Bryy_Miller]

Night Prowler76 wrote...

I understand why you guys are doing it David, but like you said in the interview, you werent thrilled at first about having a main character, there are many people on here and that I know outside of here that loved the first game and how great the story was and the variations for each player made it great. Im positive that you will have made a great story and a quality game, but most of the fears that some of us have, is that the game is streamlined and wont have the same replayability, I hope Im wrong, I really do. Im still looking forward to the game, Im just a bit worried, thats all.

It's not unheard of for someone to dislike something at first and then get into it.

[drahelvete]

David Gaider wrote...

 One day I'd like to do a game where it plays enough of a role in the gameplay to warrant the work.

Jade Empire 2: Hordy Horde Horde
The horselords are back and they have found an ancient and powerful Weapon of Wall Destruction.
I imagine a story akin to that of Musa: The Warrior, but with more Fox Spirits and karma meters.

[Brockololly]

Dragon Age: Orlais = Chevalier PC= horsesB)

As for the lack of Origins and such, my hope anyway is that while the beginning of DA2 may be similar across all playthroughs, that hopefully there is now some greater divergence in the middle parts of the story to make up for the lack of a unique Origin. We shall see.

Modifié par Brockololly, 07 janvier 2011 - 04:14 .

[Meltemph]

I would assume that the amount of work that goes into multiple different origins is quite time consuming not only for each origins but also because story pathing has to take into consideration those exact things.



And while they are nice because it gives you a nice sense of the different... aspects of the world that you are playing in, it also, at least it did so for me in origins, thins out the actual content that you play. As in, generalizing events according to the story itself instead of making the event specifically about the individual you are playing as.



Which is why, I think games like BG, NWN, NWN2, and a whole host of other games, don't really give much attention to the races themselves, even though you could play as all of them. OF course with those games, there is so much lore that you can work with w/o even having anything to go by as in why you are the race you are, because in those games your race has near 0 bearing on the story, overall.



That is not to say that I don't want to be able to play as other races. for instance, I would have much preferred the game to be about a Dwarf family with the player named Hawk instead. However, due to them going this route I think the fact that they can have a lot more freedom with making the character in DA2 much more fulfilling in terms of fleshing out of the character.



The sacrifices to customization is the downsize to this obviously, but for me personally, I played DAO and am going to be playing DA2 for the lore/story of the setting and not really because of the customization. At least right now, with how young the world is, in terms of what we know of the setting.



Once the setting gets "older" I will definitely want to see more origin type games. I will say though, that the one fear I have about DA2 is that it is going to be too much about Hawk and not enough about Thedas. However, I remain hopeful that I am wrong and I am, in fact, satisfied with what I will be given(whether I will end up wanting for more in terms of lore is another matter and not necessarily a bad thing).



Did not proof read this at all, so sorry for the grammar and sentence structure to any who care enough to read this.

[drahelvete]

Brockololly wrote...

Dragon Age: Orlais = Chevalier PC= horsesB)

But we've already been there...
What about the Anderfels? I know I wouldn't want to cross those steppes on foot.
Also, it's the birthplace of the Grey Wardens...

Modifié par drahelvete, 07 janvier 2011 - 04:36 .

[Saibh]

I don't even care about horses. I just don't. Why is this such a fixture from some fellas? If being able to ride around on my pretty princess pony takes away from resources devoted to, say, make my Lady Hawke's hair look nicer, I don't want horses.

[Brockololly]

drahelvete wrote...

Brockololly wrote...

Dragon Age: Orlais = Chevalier PC= horsesB)

But we've already been there...
What about the Anderfels? I know I wouldn't want to cross those steppes on foot.
Also, it's the birthplace of the Grey Wardens...

Ummmm...we've been to Ferelden and DA2 is in the Free Marches. Haven't been to Orlais yet.

Hell, for Dragon Age: Anderfels, bring back the Griffins!

[slimgrin]

Saibh wrote...

I don't even care about horses. I just don't. Why is this such a fixture from some fellas? If being able to ride around on my pretty princess pony takes away from resources devoted to, say, make my Lady Hawke's hair look nicer, I don't want horses.

The way I see it, horses are for open world games.

[drahelvete]

Brockololly wrote...

drahelvete wrote...

But we've already been there...
What about the Anderfels? I know I wouldn't want to cross those steppes on foot.
Also, it's the birthplace of the Grey Wardens...

Ummmm...we've been to Ferelden and DA2 is in the Free Marches. Haven't been to Orlais yet.

Hell, for Dragon Age: Anderfels, bring back the Griffins!

Ah. I thought Leliana's Song was set in Orlais.  I never played it (obviously).

[Dudalizer]

David Gaider wrote...

tmp7704 wrote...
Truly, that there's games at all which feature AI-driven cars, motorcycles, tanks, planes, ships and even actual horses, it's nothing short of a miracle.

The issue's actually more involved with having a party on horseback. Having a group of horses maneuver behind you is infinitely more difficult to pathfind-- that's why such games generally feature a single controllable mount. Even so, it's do-able. Nobody's claiming it's not. You can design levels around the fact that someone could be riding a horse, for instance. The issue is really just how important it is to the game you're making for such a feature to be accomodated. One day I'd like to do a game where it plays enough of a role in the gameplay to warrant the work.

Incidentally, when I said "concentrating on one main character" I suppose I meant one version of the main character. I tend to think of the different threads a player can pick up as different characters, and from a story perspective they sort of are.

How do you guys plan on doing it in The Old Republic?  Aren't there going to be mounts/vehicles AND companions?