787 réponses à ce sujet

[The Flame Knight]

I really like this idea for customization. I just have one question/request about the armor. Could you have all armor have the same stats and have the only upgrades be via runes/enchantments? This would allow players to have a fully customized look for their followers without having to put on a piece of armor they're not fond of simply because it has better stats or bonuses.

[Thori]

Sylvius the Mad wrote...

Thori wrote...

Equipment sets are always welcome addition to the game. It makes you go forward and collect items from the set. Not always it turns out good but it often turns out to be awesome. Example: Sentinel armor from Awakening. It is an awesome looking armor and has cool stats with great armor set benefits. Who wouldn't wear it?

That's sort of the problem.  Set bonuses discourage mixing and matching, and encourage predictable characte builds.

In that way, yes, I understand why item sets would need to go in trash can.

[Amycus89]

The Flame Knight wrote...

I really like this idea for customization. I just have one question/request about the armor. Could you have all armor have the same stats and have the only upgrades be via runes/enchantments? This would allow players to have a fully customized look for their followers without having to put on a piece of armor they're not fond of simply because it has better stats or bonuses.

In that case it would be better to let us "join" 2 different armor pieces at a blacksmith.

That is, you find helmet #1 and helmet #2. Helmet #1 looks really bad, but has great stats. Helmet #2 is any helmet that you think looks good.

By joining them, the 2 old helmets are consumed to produce helmet #3, that has the visual style of helmet #2, but the same stats as helmet #1.

[monima]

I actually really like this idea, it adds player choice and still lets the the companions look unique. But how do you extend that to our protagonist? I hope we are much more free in choosing the look we want for our own character. Because if each armor piece looks unique on different characters , what would it look like in the inventory? Wouldnt we know until we try it on?

[Pasquale1234]

Sylvius the Mad wrote...
That's sort of the problem.  Set bonuses discourage mixing and matching, and encourage predictable characte builds.

I can live with encourage / discourage, but take issue with require / prevent.

As long as I can avoid something I don't want via self-imposed restrictions, I have no problem with it being offered to those who would like it.

[TanithAeyrs]

First, thank you to David Gaider for the Blog post and to the developers who have commented in this thread to clarify his post. 

A few thoughts of my own.  I never really minded the uniformity of looks in DAO - it worked well for me and I liked being able to customize what my companions wore and, at times, to give the most choice pieces of armor or best weapons to a favored companion.  DA2 did give a unique feel to each companion - made them visually more their own person, but at the expense of ruining the fun of giving them the best of what we found in our adventures. 

Over the years I have gone from being very much a min/max player and fitting the roleplaying in only in my character's decisions to extending the roleplay aspect to my choice of companions and their equiptment.  Maybe they don't always wear the best gear (from a min/max standpoint), or I have an oddly composed party because of my PC's particular likes and dislikes  (3 rogue parties in DAO and DA2 were awesome!).  Even in DAO (or BG2 or Skyrim or any other RPG for that matter) I often equip characters with things that may have sentimental value to that character, even if the item is not nearly as good as some of the other options.  I find that I do this more with armor, amulets and rings than weapons.  For the record, I usually play on normal or hard - so I'm not compensating for poor equiptment by playing at a lower difficulty.

I think followers should have their own unique flavor, so I don't mind having a certain "look" as long as it doesn't limit my ability to give an appropriate piece of purchased or looted armor to a companion.  I really disliked the inability to give armor to my companions in DA2.  I would gladly sacrifice a unique look to each companion for the ability to equip a variety of items if that was the choice to be made. 

However, in an RPG, each companion should be his/her own person so I don't feel that we should be able to turn a warrior into a rogue or a mage.  Even within a NPC's class it should be difficult (but not impossible) to change his or her focus.  For example, you could focus Zevran on archery and he would make a decent archer, but never be in Leliana's class.  The NPC's should have all had extensive training before meeting the PC in specific skills at the expense of others.  I do appreciate that a companion's "look" does add to the unique flavor and gives a picture of some of their personal preferences.

Overall, it feels like the direction you are taking coincides with the points I have made in this post, and I do like the concept art we were shown (except for the ridiculous oversized weapons which I hated in DA2 - the bows were particularly awful).  My one concern is that this will take resources from the thing that I find most essential in an RPG - depth of story and well developed NPCs.  No amount of pretty armor can compensate for the ability to talk to my companions enough to bring them to life - not just their emotional issues but their whole personality (Sten training the kitten for "battle", Zev and fish chowder, Leliana and clothes, Minsc and Boo "butt kicking for goodness")

It seems from several of the dev posts that rune slots are being kept on the armors so that may be a way to keep a variety of armor that upgrades as you go, rather than create whole  new sets for every couple of levels.

A couple of requests - pants/ light leather armor for mages - male and female.  Wearing robes while wandering around the countryside, crawling through caves, ect, seem really impractical - and I really don't like the look of robes on a lot of the characters.  Robes also seemed rather ridiculous for a mage hiding from the Templars.  Also medium armor sets (chain, ect) for dex based warriors might even tempt me to play a warrior again.  And shoes for elves - I know this is probably a lost cause, but again, going shoeless seems really impractical. 

[addiction21]

I can't help it. Everytime I pop into this thread I now imagine Sylvius's avatar in highheels...

[gamya]

I'm really pleased with this idea. Being able to customze your companions again, but not having to use the "boring default look" of certain gear is definatly a thrilling idea. Definatly the best of two worlds. Great work there guys! Just hope there will be plenty of gear to go around now when they will be most costly do design.

[AKOdin]

The proposed system certainly looks nice- cool visuals are always good.

A larger priority for me is the amount of stat diversity on the pieces. Variety in armor gameplay effects is more interesting (to me) than iconic looks. Having iconic looks in the base camp zones was always sufficient for me.

As long as the proposed system has a wide variety of armor effects available for character customization*, it looks like an improvement over both DA:O and DA:2.

*=DA:O had a sufficient amount armor customization, imo. DA:O, for example, had roughly 55 non-mage helms. Some of them looked very similar, but that didn't bother me because there was enough variety that equipment could be combined with skills to create an enjoyable tweaking sidegame.

Also mage pants and robes?

[VampOrchid]

OOOooh Hooo, I like this! Not only do my NPCs still LOOK like themselves, but damn the customizations will still be endless...I'm a fan of this! Two thumbs and a big toe up for me!

[SirGladiator]

This sounds like a really excellent system, I love the customization options, they sound like they're not only vastly improved over DA2, but even better than DAO! This is definitely the type of idea that will go a long way toward making DA3 the greatest game in the series. In regard to the earlier discussion about item sets, I do like them, maybe only have a few of them, and make them really special. Hard to find, extra powerful, extra pretty, that type of thing. Not like, 20 different kinds of sets that each only provide a little bonus, and arent all that great looking anyway. But whatever they do on sets, I really like this fantastic customization idea, keep up the great work and the fantastic ideas!

[Tony_Knightcrawler]

First off, because of the whole Origin thing, and because of just how horrible DA2 was, I will not be buying Dragon Age III. However, I'd like to offer some advice.

The texture-swapping you have planned is okay, but it won't lead to enough customization on its own. If you want to keep characters looking distinct while also allowing customization, you should make small, modular pieces that can have their models changed out. For instance, on the breastplate, maybe the top bit that sticks out in front of the Seeker's neck can be swapped with 4 other models. Another example would be different talismans. Small investment, larger agency (sounds like you guys have been watching Extra Credits, LOL).

To be honest, though, it sounds like BioWare is stuck in a rut here. It's 2012, the next generation of consoles will soon be upon us, and PCs have so much unexplored power. Additionally, if you want to give Origin any value at all, you have to start taking advantage of that PC power instead of making games designed to work for 6-year old consoles. The fact is that PCs have enough horsepower to do realistic material physics and a small AI routine fitting armor onto characters. That is, the armor and clothing should be separate models from the character. If a larger character wears the same armor as a smaller character, the AI routine would expand this piece or that in such and such dimension, translate it a bit so there's less overlap of the pieces, and the model of the cloth would be stretched slightly and sag off the character less, have belts buckled further along its length, etc.. BioWare seems to be stuck in the past with its games nowadays, unwilling to push forward with new technologies that make a difference to the player.

Modifié par Tony_Knightcrawler, 15 avril 2012 - 10:54 .

[Sidney]

System really doesn't do anything for me but then again I hate playing dress up with my companions immensely. Nothing like immersing me in a world where adults can't dress themselves.

[Ponendus]

addiction21 wrote...

I can't help it. Everytime I pop into this thread I now imagine Sylvius's avatar in highheels...

That possibly says more about you than it does about him.

[twincast]

Pasquale1234 wrote...

Thor Rand Al wrote...
For me I'm just leary of going back to the way the females where portrayed in DAO,

And I would love to go back to that.  I always felt like FemHawke was desperately trolling for sexual attention with that exaggerated sashay.  I found it incredibly distracting, and not in a good way.

twincast wrote...
There's got to be an actually believable middle ground between manwalk and dislocated hip syndrome... one can only hope BioWare finally discovers it.

If it were up to me, I'd be fine with what you might call the manwalk - because it more closely resembles the way a trained athletic woman would be likely to walk, especially in armor.

Me too, and I didn't come up with the term (nor do I normally use it), but it was a rather widespread complaint and I see the point. But like with most other valid criticisms of DA:O they overcorrected it to the point of utter ridiculousness in DA2.

Firky wrote...

I love item sets.

But, they have to
be found in logically related places. I think it was the Spiral Eye
armour set in DA2 that was found all over the place? One bit on a
dragon, some in Kirkwall etc.

(It might be just me.)

This. Very much this.

seraphymon wrote...

Sylvius the Mad wrote...
That's sort of the problem.  Set bonuses discourage mixing and matching, and encourage predictable characte builds.

Actually
its not the set bonus that discourage that, at least for me. Its for a
full matching  armor, that mostly discourages mix and match. Mix and
match just for min/max i would think encourages predictability

Exactly.

Pasquale1234 wrote...

I can live with encourage / discourage, but take issue with require / prevent.

As
long as I can avoid something I don't want via self-imposed
restrictions, I have no problem with it being offered to those who would
like it.

Agreed.

Sejborg wrote...

Well. It appears to be a step in the right direction.

Are those two characters going to be NPC's in DA3?

Well, the Seeker character resembles the sole long confirmed companion Cassandra and unless he ends up getting cut I'd say a permanent party member option in DA3 resembling the Warden character is a fair bet, but they won't/can't confirm it for quite some time yet.

[nightscrawl]

Mike Laidlaw wrote...

Sabariel wrote...
A small, hopeful request... could mages in DA3 maybe be able to wear some type of light armor or chainmail-y robes and not just cloth robes/ugly pantsuits? Please?

I would also like to see this. I would say the odds are pretty good of it happening, but we wouldn't lose robes entirely.

I just want more pant selections overall for mages. Generally, full robes look bad in games. Any game. Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age, World of Warcraft, SWTOR. Unless the person is just standing there, pretty much any movement is bad because it looks stiff, unnatural, and has high potential for clipping. One particular scene I can point out from DA2 is after your sibling falls ill in the DR venture. You kneel next to them and the robe graphic looks quite bad. This is primarily the reason I dislike robes, and was thrilled to death for the mage item pack for letting me not use a robe at all, ever (Fugitive's Mantle being my favorite armor in the entire game).

[hussey 92]

This way the characters can have that copyright protected look. Yay for EA.

[meanieweenie]

hussey 92 wrote...

This way the characters can have that copyright protected look. Yay for EA.

Don't forget merchandising for action figures.

[addiction21]

Ponendus wrote...

addiction21 wrote...

I can't help it. Everytime I pop into this thread I now imagine Sylvius's avatar in highheels...

That possibly says more about you than it does about him.

Maybe it does... but I still would pay good money for those pictures.

[Zkyire]

Chris Priestly wrote...

Dragon Age Lead Writer and author of the Dragon Age novels and comic David Gaider has written a new BioWare Blog entry on Follower Customization in Dragon Age.

Check out David's blog here

Well, I'm in love with this new approach.

[Zkyire]

Thor Rand Al wrote...

Actually I have a question/idea for the devs.  What if we had the choice to make our characters how we wanted them as far as body wise.  Have a slider to how skinny or buff we want our protags (and um lol to have boob size sliders.  Seriously there was a few times when playing that I actually had the thought, hey why does she have bigger boobs.  Heck even mom was bigger then f!Hawke lol.  I know I know a good laugh but there are some that like to have that choice as far as how they'd like to build their protags body.  The boob slider was just a thought but) def the body build option I'm wondering about, if it would be possible or even feasible.

Edited:  I doubt I'll even get a response so it's no biggie and I'll understand if something like this can't be implemented due to either engine mechanics and resouces.  But I def like how you guys distinguished the male from female in DA2, it was a big improvement for me from Origins.

...no.

Giving them different clothing and armour makes sense as time goes by.

Giving them cosmetic surgery to completely change their appearance? Why would you even?

[Zkyire]

Brockololly wrote...

But I guess if armor is class restricted, that means no more Massive Armor Morrigan. BS, I say, BS.


I guess that gif sends Mike into a conniption fit since you cannot tell thats Morrigan anymore once you put armor on her. *sigh*

Leliana basically says that Morrigan deliberately wears revealing clothing in order to throw men off balance and give her another edge.

Having Morrigan walk around in heavy plate armour kinda.. goes against her personality.

Modifié par Zkyire, 16 avril 2012 - 01:10 .

[FieryDove]

David Gaider wrote...

In another thread, I promised that I would do up such a post to provide more detail on Mike's PAX presentation (with regards to the follower armor customization). So hopefully this shines some light on it. Comments are welcome.

"Other followers had little visual identity at all outside of their faces, and ended up looking like every other character who wore that armor. Again, that’s not terrible in and of itself (characters are defined by more than just their appearance, after all)—but we’d like to do better."

I will say this again people are not defined by what they wear. Some may say but in the games they are!
Well ok, why then does every new person I meet knows who Warden/Hawke/Shepard is? He/she has new armor, with a full helm and yet they know who he is? Yep space hamster did it, I knew it!

Personality makes a companion, not the weapons/armor...or lack of. Iconic looks is a strange buzzword for a Bio RPG. I still feel the companions are an extention of the PC in most respects except personality. We tell them where to move, when to fight, how to lvl up and yes find shiny new magical armor and weapons and upgrade them. Or used too. Sigh

I don't know how the suggested method will pan out but it sounds more expensive than DAO was. If so I say scrap the idea and let an armor set look this way on a male/female...like in DAO. I really do enjoy finding useful things like armor and weapons and...well using them, not just to sell.

Signed
Explorer and packrat

PS: No shiny chests locked or otherwise with a moth ridden scarf, torn trousers or 2 rusty spoons please!

Modifié par FieryDove, 16 avril 2012 - 01:34 .

[hussey 92]

Zkyire wrote...

Brockololly wrote...

But I guess if armor is class restricted, that means no more Massive Armor Morrigan. BS, I say, BS.


I guess that gif sends Mike into a conniption fit since you cannot tell thats Morrigan anymore once you put armor on her. *sigh*

Leliana basically says that Morrigan deliberately wears revealing clothing in order to throw men off balance and give her another edge.

Having Morrigan walk around in heavy plate armour kinda.. goes against her personality.

but it evens out because she is now protected by the armor

[Pasquale1234]

FieryDove wrote...
PS: No shiny chests locked or otherwise with a moth ridden scarf, torn trousers or 2 rusty spoons please!

You got 2?  I only got 1.