117 réponses à ce sujet

[kaiki01]

Stone Prisoner: Perfect in every way. If DLC kept coming out with characters as well integrated as Shale I would buy everyone.



Warden's Keep: Too short and too segregated from the main game. Didn't know that the blacksmith was the one that used the Superman ore. Thought it was unimplemented Wade side quest.

[Fredescu]

Rob Bartel wrote...
I can speak to this a little...

Great post. Thanks for this.

[toronto13]

Nosuchluck wrote...
 We were pretty much told that Warden's Keep was going to be longer than 2-3 hours but it turned out to be less than an hour and more along the lines of paying for new equipment rather than actual story content. 

It took me two hours to complete that one...........but then again I spent 15 or 20 minutes in the courthyard admiring how beautiful that keep was,marvelous job who ever did that one,oh and the story was great,I realy enjoyed playing it. 

[Eurypterid]

I took between 1 1/2 to 2 hours to complete it and I generally play slowly. So I think it was, indeed, short and shorter than I expected it to be. I do believe there are grounds for some of the complaints on this one. That's not to say I didn't like it, because I did. Very much. And I personally feel it's worth the $7, considering they got the original voice actors, there was some extra content, and some good background history. And I liked the adventure through the keep.



But I can definitely see why some people don't think it's worth the cost.

[Mage Dan]

Stone Prisoner is definitely worth it if you have the DLC locked and loaded while starting the game. It does give you a brand new character, and plenty of vendor fodder that goes for a good amount. Warden's Keep, I benefited a lot from with the two extra abilities gained by drinking the tonic from Avernus.



All in all, I first got the DLC's after I beat the game, so they were the only content I could really mess with. Save that initial impression, they've definitely helped tremendously (on the PS3 of course, PC I just modded my own chest and merchants, etc.)

[Eurypterid]

BioWare hasn't said anything about expansions as far as I'm aware, but I personally don't see why the existence of DLC would mean there wouldn't be expansions. If the game sells well, I'd imagine an expansion would be a real possibility.

[CaptBurn]

I've counted nine areas about the size of Ferelden on the Geography map in the guide. I figure each of those could see a pretty good sized campaign add-on and bring new races/classes to the table. Hopefully, there will be a MUCH larger item database with better variety and most especially design (the boring basic bland stuff we have now is just horrendous).



The current DLC were okay, especially Shale as with the personal quest it is quite long; however, they really weren't enough to justify the cost. I think the other areas campaigned up like Ferelden would be worth 10-15$ and an item pack that really diversifies and adds great new creative models to the game would be worth $3-5 (talking a lot of stuff here). New races/classes should come with each new area, duh.



Can't be too far off. The design of the current game seems VERY basic for a Bioware title to me... it is really missing a lot of content it seems (as far as art models for items, etc.). Almost as if it was intentionally set up to be a pretty boiler plate basic starter release with the good stuff yet to come. I just hope it doesn't take them forever to release them. I'd like to see a new area like Ferelden (of the nine on the map) about every month or two. That would be peachy.

[0LunarEclipse0]

Rob Bartel wrote...

buba10 wrote...

Nite77 wrote...

The thing about Stone Prisoner being so integrated is that it originally was supposed to be part of the normal game, and not a DLC. But something happened and it didn't make the final cut. As it stands, I'm happy that it is included now (for free in the CE I bought), in it's finished state. It's quite good piece of work, actually and I rather liked Shale... But not pidgeons

Indeed, its quite clear that Shale was intended to be part of the game.
And although i quite enjoy having him around, i think its a bit silly they make people believe that their getting something  for free.
Same goes for the wardens keep thing, if they had time to make that and bring it out at the same date as the game. Why then dint they just released it with the game, instead of making us pay for or "giving" it for free?

PS. im a huge fan DAO, but i was wondering about this.

I can speak to this a little. Shale was originally designed to be part of the main game that the player would stumble across in Redcliffe. A lot of the banter and interjection lines were written with that in mind and a number of NPCs went as far as having those lines recorded.

Shale posed some serious issues, however, and the project was on a very tight timeline. The existing golem models were too large to fit through doorways, for instance, and posed some problems when party-controlled in combat. The large size was also extremely difficult for our cutscene designers to work around and pretty much every cutscene in the game would be affected. Meanwhile, the golem models also didn't have the full range of animations that a party member requires and their facial structure was poorly-suited to lip-synching. Between that and a variety of other issues (a complex custom inventory proposal, no clear design for custom abilities, etc), the team made the correct decision to cut Shale from the core game.

I was brought onto the Dragon Age PRC team after that decision was made (previously, I had been heading up the NWN PRC team and working on another unannounced project that had recently been canceled). Shale was recommended as a piece of content that could potentially be salvaged for use as PRC. Looking at the scope of the problems surrounding Shale, I actually made the recommendation that we not proceed. In the end, Shale's humor and story and inherent value won the day and we decided to gamble everything and go ahead.

Emergency meetings were held and the artists and animators burned a ridiculous amount of midnight oil (after just coming off crunch time to finish their work on the main game) to shrink Shale down to Qunari size, sink the head so that its eye level matched that of a human, apply the Dwarven overlay animations to account for a slightly stockier body, and merge the Qunari and golem animation rigs. Programming went the extra mile to provide the animators with a means of excluding some of the more emotive or "human" animations that just didn't look right for Shale (no on likes a bum-scratching golem). The cutscene designers still had to make a pass through every cutscene in the game but these changes brought the required fixes down to a manageable level.

Meanwhile, Design simplified the inventory GUI plans down to leverage the existing interface already being used by Dog. Shale's talent tree was designed and redesigned multiple times to minimize the impact on core scripts, which were already under a tight lockdown. The VFX for Shale's crystals piggybacked on an unexpected node inheritance bug that we decided to approach as a feature (if you want to see the bug/feature in action, try casting Flame Weapon on Dog :innocent:). Shale's dialog (which fortunately hadn't been recorded yet) was rewritten to account for her removal from Redcliffe and the changes to her character art and inventory systems. The level artists went to town creating Honnleath, the Cellars, and Cadash Thaig.

The vast majority of this took place after the PC version had entered a tight lockdown and the core DA:O team had moved onto the console versions or over to Mass Effect 2. It wouldn't have been possible without the additional manpower made available as a result of our very difficult decision to cancel the project I had formerly been on. Even with that additional manpower, there's no way that content would have made it fully onto the disc rather than via download (some aspects did make it onto the disc but most of those were the elements that had already been created as part of Shale's initial design). In the end, it was an extremely high risk gamble and, right until the very end, emerging problems and unexpected issues threatened to derail the Shale project entirely. Fortunately, it all worked out (by the skin of our teeth!) and we were able to have Shale available for download at the time of launch.

Knowing that Shale had previously been announced as being a part of the main game and knowing that there was the potential for a community backlash if we asked all of you to pay cold hard cash for it at launch, the decision was made to include the redemption code in all new copies of the game. In essence, we're choosing to provide Shale as a "lost leader" and a demonstration in good faith of what's to come with future PRC. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into making Shale happen - the fact that the content blends so seamlessly with the rest of the game and looks so effortless is a sign that we did our job right.

Enjoy the game,
Rob

THIS
Developers like this make me want to chase my dreams. Thank you Rob.

[Azinulbizar]

This ALL should have been part of the original game. This is the first PC game I've ever seen that costs $60. EA, yet again, has proven to be one of the worst publishers out. And BioWare? Wow, really expected different from these guys. "Spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate." That's a laugh. This game takes 40 hours to finish, finishing many side quests. And then we have to pay extra for subpar add-ons? Probably not going to get another BioWare game after this. All foreplay and no sex.

[Sarakinoi]

It took me two hours to complete that one...........but then again I
spent 15 or 20 minutes in the courthyard admiring how beautiful that
keep was

Enchantment?
Enchantment!

[Valamyr]

My largest gripe with the DLC and the bonus items are that it includes overpowered stuff to help it sell.

Shale is actually quite balanced, but the Keep is problematic; the Starfang swords for example are overpowered and obtainable early on, as well as the mage staff. The storage should really be available to everyone right in the Camp. The items the DLC add to the camp vendor like the uber mage staff and the crazy helmet are out of whack. And Blood armor should be found in-game, later on, rather than being given/buyable to anyone with the right DLC.

Its great for DLC to add items. But make everyone earn them, and keep them in check in terms of power scale.

[Puzzlewell]

The best part about WK for me is the added random encounter that gives you the metal to make either of the two nice swords, aside from that I was a little bit let down with it. SP though is amazing, I love Shale and keep him with me all the time now. It's so wonderful that they gave him banter with the party members. I can't tell you how many times I cracked up at some of you.



[Paraphrased]

Lel:But deep down you have a good person inside of you.

Shale: If that is true, it's because I ate him...



I just hope that BioWare makes some full fledged expansions for this in the same way that NWN1 got two. Expansions end up being more worth the money (usually) because they tend to be lengthier and usually continue the story where the main game ends.

[SoopaMan]

Rob, is it possible that any future DLC could be made into completely different modules akin to how the Premium mods in NWN were done, or can we just expect more expansions to the main campaign?



Additionally, would there be any possibility that community modders would be able to work on a DLC mod like DLA did with WCoC or CODI's unfinished/unreleased mod?

[DarrenHollywood]

I just have one question.... "When?"



I want to try a new play through for each new DLC, but if I have to wait long I might explode.

[MOTpoetryION]

i just think EA is testing the water even more then they did with the battlefield saga most of the later

cough(games)cough.were really just mods sold at full price as new games.with in game advertisement to boot.now this DLC released the same day .i bet they are the first ones to raise the price of their games.I'm just getting tired of just being a dollar sign to these companies and i doubt the ones that deserve the extra money are even getting it .the devs .





"that's just my feeling anyhow take it for what it is "

[spadger]

i had the Stone Prisoner Free of charge along with other goodies codes, and at $15 dollars for those who don't have it is a pretty even deal, considering the quest took me about 3-4 hours, and the Shale Character itself is really cool, and also somewhat tied into the games storyline but $7 for Warden's Keep is overpriced. I finished the whole thing in less than an hour, an apart from a few perks and random encounters stuff, it's really not worth it at all, either make a huge add on or lower the price i think.

[Orfinn]

Nice! Thanks for the clear-up Rob I enjoy Shale a great deal, and yes he IS in my opinion the fantasy version/equalient of HK-47. I used Shale alot along with Oghren and Morgan for some hilarious and epic moments of humour through my first playthrough with Orfinn

The only tiny grip I had with Shale was the link in my thread I recently posted.

http://social.biowar...58/index/271971

Modifié par Orfinn, 22 novembre 2009 - 08:49 .