83 réponses à ce sujet

[TanyaT]

how do the well heeled travel long distances, or wing messages back and forth from Kirkwall to Denerim?

We never seen a horse although there must be some because Ohgren wanted a pony, the halla aren't for riding (apparently).
we see carts pulled by oxen, we see boats, and we march, and sometimes we forced marched and that's it.

I get an "ooh my poor feet" feeling about the place.

[Herr Uhl]

They didn't have enough resources to implement horses in any meaningful way, so they're simply not included.

But as Kirkwall and Denerim are both port towns, I don't think much riding would be required.

[whykikyouwhy]

Mabari sleds, aravels, nug wagons, and First Enchanter Scholl's squishy pads of toe comfort.

[RagingCyclone]

When talking to Elora as a human noble in the Dalish camp you have the option to tell her humans have mounts, and she will reply that they do not use bridle and saddle on the halla. So there are horses or horse-like animals in Thedas, just not shown in game. Also when meeting the merchant to trigger the Stone Prisoner he mentions his mule ran off and his helpers were looking for it.

[Cutlass Jack]

In MotA there's a painting of a mounted person that gives a codex entry that pokes fun at how mounted travel has fallen out of fashion.

Modifié par Cutlass Jack, 16 octobre 2011 - 03:22 .

[tmp7704]

RagingCyclone wrote...

So there are horses or horse-like animals in Thedas, just not shown in game.

There's horses, yes. Loghain's forces at Ostagar were initially supposed to be cavalry, but as there's no horse models made --because the devs have it stuck in their heads that if there's horses then they absolutely must be made part of game mechanics and that's quite harder than just making ambient models like other animals-- it was eventually changed.

[Ophir147]

Interesting codex entry from Mark of the Assassin that got me thinking the same thing:

"An image in oil of the last pure Anderfel stabled at court, before the practice of mounted sport fell from favor. This is an absolutely iconic and typical example of the artist.
The work preserves the true majesty of a species that, while in abundance on their natural plains, becomes exotic to a people who eschew mounted travel in their daily existence" - "Pride and Rider" Codex entry

This got me thinking about the fact that horses are native to the plains of the Anderfels, and are more heavily concentrated there. You know how Fereldan culture is intrinsically linked with the Mabari, but other cultures look at Ferelden dogs with disgust for this? Perhaps, even though mounted sport is no longer "proper" among the Anderfels, perhaps the terrain of the Anderfels would be more flat plains and such, that would lend more to mounted travel.

So perhaps we will see more mounted horse riding when we visit the Anderfels in some future game? Hmm..

EDIT:  ninjad

Modifié par Ophir147, 16 octobre 2011 - 03:34 .

[DonJohn80]

The darkspawn didn't kill off the dwarves. Surface dwellers decimated the place to steal brontos.

[Sith Grey Warden]

Cailan's tent's guard says about him and the wardens "He rides with them wherever they go." Riding implies mounts, most likely horses. Also, horses do appear in Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne. So clearly, they exist.

[Brockololly]

If the scope of the world in future games goes like Laidlaw mentioned at the NYCC DA panel, they'll need to come up with some means of transportation over land. If not in game, then at least acknowledge that horses exist in a more meaningful way.


Laidlaw made mention at the panel that they wanted to expand the scope of any given game to encompassing the whole southern half of Thedas:


Which if you look at the big map makes things clearer:


So they'd potentially include going from all the Free Marches, Nevarra, all of Orlais, Kal Hirol, The Silent Plains and the Dales in one game? Obviously not the whole thing, just select spots, but unless they do it through time jumps or something where they dictate where you go, they'll need to do a better job of conveying a passage of time than Origins or DA2 did. Cause travelling from one end of Thedas to another has got to take quite a bit of time.

[tmp7704]

Brockololly wrote...

Obviously not the whole thing, just select spots, but unless they do it through time jumps or something where they dictate where you go, they'll need to do a better job of conveying a passage of time than Origins or DA2 did. Cause travelling from one end of Thedas to another has got to take quite a bit of time.

Thought the blood trail showing the party route worked pretty well to reflect there's some actual travel taking place -- it's the same technique Indiana Jones movies used, with the travel route being drawn on the map. And that guy would hop literally from one end of the world to another.

Modifié par tmp7704, 17 octobre 2011 - 02:24 .

[Brockololly]

tmp7704 wrote...
Thought the blood trail showing the party route worked pretty well to reflect there's some actual travel taking place -- it's the same technique Indiana Jones movies used, with the travel route being drawn on the map. And that guy would hop literally from one end of the world to another.

Oh, I liked that in Origins and it is effective at conveying some sense of travel. I'm just wondering how (or if) they'd try to reflect the passage of time if we're traveling all over the whole continent? Cause Origins is all over the place in that regard just going across Ferelden, let alone the whole continent.

I guess it would be entirely dependent on the story being told, but basically would they let us just travel like Origins going from place to place at will even when its a much larger map and thus going from one end to another shouldn't be an easy walk? Its not like Indiana Jones where he's usually flying from place to place.So if DA doesn't introduce horses, we're supposed to think a group of people are walking across a whole continent?

Or would they make it so things were structured in such a way that maybe Act 1 of the story only has you in Orlais and then some fixed story moment forces the player to go to Nevarra and its surrounding areas or something.

I just think the potential is there in making the world feel really small if you're just zipping from one end to the other at will. Like its supposed to be hundreds and thousands of miles from one end to another, but it wouldn't feel like it.

Modifié par Brockololly, 17 octobre 2011 - 02:47 .

[kyles3]

Ride ze shoopuf?

[tmp7704]

Brockololly wrote...

I guess it would be entirely dependent on the story being told, but basically would they let us just travel like Origins going from place to place at will even when its a much larger map and thus going from one end to another shouldn't be an easy walk? Its not like Indiana Jones where he's usually flying from place to place.So if DA doesn't introduce horses, we're supposed to think a group of people are walking across a whole continent?

I imagine it'd be similar to Origins in that regard -- just because there's no horses shown explicitly in the camp never made me think the group actually walks around on foot entire year+ the plot takes place, pulling Bodhan's cart behind them and carrying all these tents and crates and equipment to boot. Ferelden may be small part of Thedas but it's still something like 800 km (500 miles) wide, iirc.

Modifié par tmp7704, 17 octobre 2011 - 02:56 .

[TanyaT]

I assumed there had to be horses of some sort, or some of the toys around would be weird. Although we saw ox and carts we never even saw stables, which I think should be around the posher places, with piles of horse poo rotting in gardens, even if we never see a horse ridden.

Legends start screen is currently showing a ridden halla

[TanyaT]

oh save us a dragon NO! we fight the things, or there's bloody Flemeth.
we need to have a magic cart like thing with wings

[tmp7704]

simfamSP wrote...

It would be ridicolous for your character to travel from the northern most part of the south, to come back south and then north again in the space of days, not months...

What makes you expect such travel to only take days then and not these months?

DAO takes between 1-2 years to complete, which means the travel bits the characters do around the map take up to couple of weeks each, sometimes more. There's just very little attention drawn to the flow of time in general, given the events advance at the speed of the plot.

[TanyaT]

it would be nice if these sort of games gave us some idea that we made it from A-B by horse/halla/bronto ect or on foot.
The only time I spotted distance travel mentioned is in Origins, when Alistair says we could make it to Denerim in two days with a forced march

although Nathaniel does complain that Grey Wardens do a lot of walking!

[SkittlesKat96]

Transportation does exist in Dragon Age Origins that is for sure... There are oxen carts and horses are also mentioned here and there. Particularly in the human noble Origin and the DA novels.

Obviously though for limitation reasons we haven't really seen much transportation or transportation in action.

Also I think some people overestimate the size of Ferelden. Ferelden is big but its not extremely massive in size...

A small group like the Grey Warden's group could easily make it from Redcliffe to Denerim in maybe two days max by following the main road/path. In fact it might only take them one day max considering what is said before the final battle in DA:O
Plus the time span of DA:O is a year or two so it makes even more sense.

It'd be good if they started showing or mentioning transport a bit more though.

Modifié par SkittlesKat96, 19 octobre 2011 - 07:46 .

[nightscrawl]

tmp7704 wrote...

RagingCyclone wrote...

So there are horses or horse-like animals in Thedas, just not shown in game.

There's horses, yes. Loghain's forces at Ostagar were initially supposed to be cavalry, but as there's no horse models made -- because the devs have it stuck in their heads that if there's horses then they absolutely must be made part of game mechanics and that's quite harder than just making ambient models like other animals-- it was eventually changed.

This is true though. You know how I know? Because I've seen it from players in other games. Disregarding the resources it would take to implement NPCs riding horses in cutscenes, if you show people riding mounts, or show mounts in action, people will want them. Do you know how long people carried on about mounts for Neverwinter Nights until they finally implemented them for the final patch? Years! They have made it very easy on themselves by just not showing them in the first place. That's perfectly fine with me. DAA has Alistair and his retinue approaching Vigil's Keep. I just assumed they were mounted and dismounted before the cutscene starts. It wasn't a huge stretch.

There are many ways to do long-distance travel in games and not have it be tedious or lame without using mounts, or showing your characters physically riding in/on something.

[whykikyouwhy]

simfamSP wrote...

It would be ridicolous for your character to travel from the northern most part of the south, to come back south and then north again in the space of days, not months...

Unless we have...


A DRAGON!

And this is why we must find and restore more Eluvians. Dragons are so tempermental, and thus, unreliable. But with the right Eluvians set up, the proper magicks in place, etc, you might just have the ability to hop to different lands. Imagine if the Thedas tourist industry got a hold of some magic mirrors?!

[Dominus]

To the Makermobile!...

I like the idea, but curious how BioWare would afford to do that as a mode of transformation. I've seen world map dragonflight before with Secret of Mana's Flammie. However, that was a sprite - an entire dragon model with millions of polygons, well...

Transportation is something that definitely could use improvement. If it's on top of a giant dragon, I'll take that - even if it ends up seeming like a cheesy neverending story-type thing. If it can be pulled off.

[Foolsfolly]

Dragons?

Horses?

Eluvians?

Please, people.

...

...

GRIFFINS!