13 réponses à ce sujet

[Luke Barrett]

Hello, Gameplay Enthusiasts!

I have been having a chat with a few different people in PMs about things they would like to see improved/changed for future products and I thought it might be better to open it up to a wider audience.

Basically, if you have a question or suggestion on a feature that either could be improved upon in some way or something that should be added, feel free to bring it up and I'll do my best to address it, either by agreeing and extrapolating (simply so it's a more precise thought/design) or arguing why such a thing shouldn't be added (of course, you're welcome to disagree) with some very well explained reasons.

Now, I should warn you that I'm almost exclusively in the gameplay/combat side of things so if you plan on suggesting anything like "My GW > Hawke, let's bring him back for ..." or "LIs should bla bla bla" I'll probably ignore you . This is strictly for gameplay elements. It also should be mentioned that I may challenge your stance on an idea even if I agree with it just so we can get better clarity on exactly what aspect of something you like (or dislike). Please don't assume that because I'm attacking your logic or reasoning that I disagree with the concept.

Lastly, this is for constructive feedback - you're welcome to say design X sucks as long as you follow up with a valid reason or explanation.

[Disclaimer: In no way are any of these ideas definitely going to appear in any Dragon Age (or BioWare) game, even if they are suggested by myself. This is simply to get some good ideas going - I will update the report I currently have on the issue and add any new items.]

Modifié par Luke Barrett, 11 juillet 2011 - 04:54 .

[Luke Barrett]

[reserved for a list]

[Luke Barrett]

ishmaeltheforsaken wrote...

Make friendly fire available at all difficulties (Mr. Thomas has mentioned that it checks for Nightmare's ID so the FF settings in difficulty.gda don't have any effect except on Nightmare... that's a terrible method, very mod unfriendly).

Re-introduce the weapon swap button. The functionality is still there, and there's a PC mod that implements it via an activated ability, but a real UI element would be nice, and then console kiddies could have it too.

More as I think about it.

To the first point, I would say I think a lot more than just FF should be customizable. Around launch time I talked about this but one of the things I would have liked to see is a list of rules (FF, damage reduction, immunities...etc) and an ability to scale them. Each one would have a numerical assignment and then based on the sum of all of them it would give you a score and a rough difficulty term for convenience sake. So for example, I might play at a 92 (of 100) and that would qualify as 'Insane' and another player may have very similar things as me but some things turned way down and have a 77 and be 'Hard'. The label would really just give a way for you to better gauge how hard the game will be relative to a more traditional system.

Second point: given that it requires GUI work it has to go through an artist and a programmer (on top of the other regular channels) so that would make it lower priority simply on a cost:benefit scale. That said, I 100% agree, I found it very frustrating weapon/armor swapping to the point that I just got lazy and sacrificed effectiveness for ease of play.

[Luke Barrett]

Jamie_edmo wrote...

In terms of combat, i thought waves were overused, i dont mind having waves but when its constantly happening it gets boring (imo), and also with the exception of shades and demons etc, the spawning of men in the air and next to you breaks the immersion as you can actually see them appear from mid-air.

This should* be more to your liking in Legacy and afterwards. This and the re-used maps complaint were the top two things on my list to check against all new content.

Jamie_edmo wrote...
I would also like skills to be re-introduced as part of levelling up

While this is not possible in DA2 (without a complete redesign of how things work), it's certainly possible to address in future titles. Now, are you stating this because you liked the skills themselves or because you enjoyed the extra dimension to the leveling process? (dont say both, that's cheating!)

Jamie_edmo wrote...
I didnt mind the crafting in DA2 (could be improved) but I would like to craft on the fly rather than in the house or camp or whatever.

I think it makes a lot more sense for it to require some sort of station (logic wise) to craft an object but it's certainly impractical. Perhaps allowing you to do this out of combat and have some sort of portable station (with reduced quality).

Jamie_edmo wrote...
Personally I would prefer a lock-picking mini game when picking locks similar to fallout rather than the pure stat based lock picking in DA (imo)

I always find that this is really cool at first but then, 3 hours in to the game I curse every time I need to pick a lock. The problem with minigames like this is when they are mandatory AND on something you do over 100 times a game.

Jamie_edmo wrote...
Companion outfitting

You didn't really clarify which side of the fence you're on for this topic. I can only assume you meant that you want to be able to equip them as you do your main character? I actually would rather have unique weapons and armor that you can customize and upgrade through side quests rather than having to min/max every companions gear. The reason for this is simply because it allows for MUCH cooler looking companions and that you have that 'little brother' effect where your companions of the same class just wear your last set of gear when you get new stuff.

Jamie_edmo wrote...
Not sure this counts as "gameplay" but when choosing a specialization you actually change (or allowing you to wear special armour) appearance similar to the old republic, personally i think this, along with new abilities makes choosing a specialisation more dramatic.

Nope. Basically if it doesn't have to do with how you deal with combat (either directly or indirectly) it won't be gameplay. Now, if you said, when choosing a specialization it came with special quests that gave new abiltities upon completion that would count as gameplay (partially anyways)

Jamie_edmo wrote...
Toggle-able mini map

On/Off you mean? When do you like your minimap off?

[Luke Barrett]

Xalen wrote...

- FF on all difficulies and weapon swap are a must, I agree. FF toggle would be even greater, but I'm not picky.
- I said it already in the other thread, but I'll repeat: I don't think putting random immunities on enemies just for the sake of balance is a good idea. They really should be somehow justified, or removed from random encounters at all.
- Player's and enemies' stats should be more comparable. If a companion has 200 HP and an enemy has several thousand it's usually fine when damage has similar scale, but when take FF into account it's just looks ridiculous, imo.
- Another example related to the above - post-patch elemental resistance. I'm fine with 95% resistance cap for player, but enemies should have 95% cap too then.
- No Assassin-going-to-stealth invincibility, please and thank you.
- Hold position to actually hold position
- I get the feeling that elemental weapons, while a neat concept, need some re-thinking, but I can't put anything coherent together right now, will get back to you on that.

It seems I should reeeeally go finally finish my first post-patch playthrough...

The random immunities, 95% caps and elemental weapons all full under the general category of resistance system concerns.

For comparable stats would you prefer that your characters had insane amounts of HP as well? You can't really do it the opposite way otherwise all your damage would like very underwhelming and big numbers is a huge draw for a lot of people (for some reason). I agree that the damage:hp ratio being completely reversed between players and enemies often makes for some very bizarre events.

Modifié par Luke Barrett, 11 juillet 2011 - 07:57 .

[Luke Barrett]

Sparrow Hawke wrote...
ARCANE WARRIORS!

I think this is more of an animation issue. Personally I think all classes should be able to use all weapon types since they have stat requirements anyways to increase the number of viable builds. I really liked DW warriors in DAO and I'm pretty sure I could build an insanely good sword and board rogue in DA2 if it were possible.

[Luke Barrett]

AngryFrozenWater wrote...
I hope you are not offended, Luke. *goes to give his opinion anyway* Banzai. I think that the reason you
have given is more a side effect of reducing cost. Instead of making sure the armors you find in loot fit all companions (dwarf, elf, human, male, female) the armor has to fit a human PC only. The same goes for
having a human only PC. It saves origin story and dialogue lines and race specific dialogue lines. It also makes sure cinematics can be simplified because only the camera angles for the human only PC has to
be taken into account. You can say that a human only PC makes sense because of the story, but that's a chicken and the egg problem. It's hard to believe that DA2's features were chosen because of the story. The cost reduction looks more likely.

I enjoy that you are interacting in this way, Luke. Much appreciated.

Yes, sorry. I should have specified that due to the way budgets and things work for creating new assets it would be more likely to have cooler looking companions if it was done this way. Obviously they could be just as cool looking and fully customizable but then all the gear would have to look unique and I feel like that would be an insanely large undertaking.

Well, I don't think the entire DA2 story would have made sense as a dwarf or elf (or at least it would have been completely different from the start of Act 2 and on). That said, based on your hypothesis I can extrapolate it a bit and say that the additional dialog/reactivity work is dwarfed by the VO aspect of it. The amount of planning and prep needed for VO versus adding the actual text/reactivity in is substantially more, especially when you're talking about taking all the lines of the protagonist and tripling them.

Modifié par Luke Barrett, 11 juillet 2011 - 06:11 .

[Luke Barrett]

Wulfram wrote...

If friendly NPCs are invincible, they shouldn't have HP bars, and enemies probably shouldn't waste time attacking them.

They should possibly get some sort of 'wounded' state where they just fall down and moan if they would have normally died then? I see where you're coming from - I frequently let Anders tank in the Chantry when you're doing the Templar fight with Karl simply because he can't die.

[Luke Barrett]

hoorayforicecream wrote...
[snip]

Let's say, for arguments sake, that gameplay refers to anything that affects combat, directly (how you fight) or indirectly (armor strengths, weapon types, stat recalculation...etc). With that in mind I'll address the issues that fall under that category (and wasn't already addressed elsewhere)

1. Items that have interesting effects. Orsino's Staff of Violation that randomly casts Walking Bomb was pretty neat, but I didn't get the chance to use it. Items that aren't just stat sticks, but have interesting effects in combat.

Agreed, though Walking bomb was an odd choice as it's quite negative when you're not expecting it on Nightmare. I'd actually like to see some armor with reactive effects other than on hit stealth as well.

2. Summonable temporary allies. Perhaps some sort of consumable item that I can purchase to summon a golem to absorb hits and taunt enemies, or a spirit to heal my party.

Perhaps a summoner spec might better work for this? Otherwise we would need some sort of lore to explain why you can conjure things with a wand - it may be make people say 'why be a blood mage when you can just use an item to summon spirits?'

7. Places I can go to keep fighting that isn't pre-scripted. E.g. a battlefield, where I can always fight bad guys, even if they don't necessarily provide any sort of meaningful loot. If I want to grind levels, test builds, try out new gear, I should have that option someplace in the game. A place with restockable enemies to practice on.

So basically some sort of randomly generated dungeon system? That's usually what's put in place to accomplish that goal.

1. Specializations integrated/unlocked via gameplay, rather than just having them all selectable from the appropriate level. It's especially jarring when something like Blood Magic is made a plot point, but no attention is drawn to it via gameplay.

I actually touched on this a few months ago. I think we addressed different story based ways to accomplish this goal. The counter-point, I believe, was that users didnt like having to find these during gameplay if they required blocking portions of the game off (such as Reaver in DAO) as well as some of them appeared far later in the game.

2. More depth for Cross class combos. Instead of just bonus damage, other effects instead/in addition. Creating an obscuring cloud, setting all nearby enemies on fire, lowering the enemy's armor, etc.
3. Better differentiated enemies. I don't mind having the critters and normals being silly, but give more tactical and challenging fights by giving the Lieutenants and Bosses some actual tactics. When they show up, they should be sufficient to give pause and make the player have to think a little about strategy (esp. at higher difficulties), rather than just act like normals with higher HP. These should be legitimate tactics, like the ones the player can give to her companions. Make the 'boss' figures empower their cronies, and make use of the AI to provide more tactical combat.

Both of these simply require more depth to combat. We're looking at ways to improve enemy AI. As for the CCCs that's somewhat in the game already but in a very minor way. Perhaps we need certain skills to have this as their focal purpose instead of being somewhat of a secondary bonus.

4. More depth in Rivalry and Friendship. Perhaps instead of making it an on/off bonus, have a scaling amount... the more friendship/rivalry you have with a character, the larger the bonus gets (similar to inspire <stat> in DAO).

The problem I see with this is simply that it would require every single buff to be scalable (even though I think they are right now so it may be a non-issue if that trend continues)

Modifié par Luke Barrett, 11 juillet 2011 - 07:31 .

[Luke Barrett]

I'd just like to reiterate that this is being used as a dialog to discuss gameplay, and should not in any way be taken as us working directly on any or all of these ideas, even if I appear to agree with them, any time now or in the future. I want to discuss and flesh out some ideas of how people perceived our gameplay and gauge some reactions fans have not only to anything I suggest but to what you say to one another.

Just wanted to make that clear so people who jump in half way or skim the thread don't get their hopes up :innocent:

Modifié par Luke Barrett, 11 juillet 2011 - 08:09 .

[Luke Barrett]

hoorayforicecream wrote...

Actually, giving warriors a way to get stamina back in combat that doesn't involve killing enemies would be wonderful. Maybe stamina gain on getting hit or something. Against large, singular bosses, the warrior tends to run out of steam and is at the mercy of the stamina potion cooldown.

I believe there is half of an entire tree dedicated to this? [Battlemaster]

Modifié par Luke Barrett, 11 juillet 2011 - 10:07 .

[Luke Barrett]

It contains two active skills and one passive skill targeted at stamina regen. Also, Rally gives insane +mana/stamina to everyone else in your group (excluding the caster but if you have 2 warriors with it, it's insane)

[Luke Barrett]

The Ethereal Writer Redux wrote...
I think the two main problems with DA2's armor system are that:

1) the upgrades don't change the look of your characters' armor at all.
2) Hawke picks up armor for all classes that he can't use, so it's really just extra coin with an extra step. Instead of getting the coin, you get something that you have to sell for the coin.

The second point is not necessarily true. If you're really min/maxing your damage output you'll often see, for example, a Warrior/Rogue wearing a robe for +elemental damage or a Warrior/Mage wearing rogue armor for +crit% dmg or even a Mage/Rogue wearing warrior armor for a tank build. BUT in the majority of cases, yes you are correct. I think it would need an adjustment rather than completely removing the other classes armor type from your playthrough.

[Luke Barrett]

How does everyone feel about the combat direction after playing Legacy DLC? Are we on the right track?