27744 réponses à ce sujet

[dreamgazer]

See, he did say something interesting, after all.

*reads the wall of text about conflicts and character traits again*

... he did?

[JeffZero]

I'd prefer more meat on the DAI companion arcs, but I would say they're generally on the same level as DAO's.

[Phoenix_Also_Rises]

So I leave for a couple of days on account of return to work after vacation (MADNESS!) and the ME forums explode. Great tweets, btw.

 

And with the E3 being just behind the corner - there has been an awakening. Can you feel it? The hype side and the, er, not hype side.

 

I am not good at this.

[SofaJockey]

Perhaps some nice music for the Mako,

which the crew can sing along to as they drive around from quest to quest,

 

it could be like Saints Row IV 

[Cheviot]

Imagine, if you will, that you are a writer for Bioware.

 

You are trying to portray the group dynamics of the companions in Dragon Age Inquisition.  That is, you're not concerned about how the inquisitor and each companion gets along - you've already worked for years getting that sorted out - but instead how each companion gets along with each other.  The Inquisitor speaks to each in turn, hardly ever one or more together, and even then it's decided by you, the same combinations repeating endlessly.

 

What if there were another way? A way where the player's choices (what party to take with them) reveals their companions preferences, even shows off new aspects their personality? Makes them seem more like living characters in a way that film, TV and books could not?

 

A banter system allows you to do this.

[KrrKs]

I hate riding Mako on Eletania and Ontarom. That's about it Oh, and I love attaching it to a generator in that Starship Troopers mission

I found Ontarom to be ok, but there is one planet during the Geth incursion missions that is annoying.

(But that's only because I insist on going up the vertical wall next to the landing spot, there is a perfectly fine way a few metres further)

 

About the last picture:

Any bets what the Char is held over? Lava? A bottomless pit? Anything?

[Sion1138]

About the last picture:

Any bets what the Char is held over? Lava? A bottomless pit? Anything?

 

A mattress, ball pit or trampoline.

[Milana]

To me it seems like people miss what the Mako represented: a bigger emphasis on exploration of uncharted places and more freedom to find new stuff out in space. The Mako was a vehicle for the wild unexplored frontier, which wasn't really an environment that we saw much of in the sequels.

 

Sure the handling was horrible, but ME1 was a significantly different type of game to its sequels because of the Mako, and I don't think it was necessarily an improvement that ME2 and (especially) ME3 focused so much on combat at the expense of exploration.

Yeah, you are right. But "bigger emphasis on exploration" actually scares me after Inquisition(it was a good game, but too much of exploration made the game loose the heart that previous games had). I hate to see the same happen to Mass Effect.

[Heimdall]

Yeah, you are right. But "bigger emphasis on exploration" actually scares me after Inquisition(it was a good game, but too much of exploration made the game loose the heart that previous games had). I hate to see the same happen to Mass Effect.

I feel the same.

 

Knowing I have a lot of space to run around in just makes me anxious about whether or not there will be sufficient meaningful content to make that space interesting.

[Torgette]

I feel the same.

 

Knowing I have a lot of space to run around in just makes me anxious about whether or not there will be sufficient meaningful content to make that space interesting.

 

I think it just boils down to fun-factor, give the horse in DAI the ability to cut down enemies like a Mako would and it would instantly be more fun. They could stand to lighten up on the collectibles and/or never do requisitions ever again for sure though. I also think Bioware should play Far Cry 4 and see how an open world shooter w/ vehicles can benefit from a little "emergence" (aka: chaos), as I think static enemies and open world shooters don't mix. The important thing is fun-factor though.

[dreamgazer]

What kinda worries me is that "requisition quests" would actually make a lot more sense if they're working within a new, unexplored setting and a protagonist who's trying to make a name for themselves. I'm hoping they keep it under control, but I'm definitely expecting a good amount of it, especially if they're putting this much work into zipping around in the Mako.

[Heimdall]

I think it just boils down to fun-factor, give the horse in DAI the ability to cut down enemies like a Mako would and it would instantly be more fun. They could stand to lighten up on the collectibles and/or never do requisitions ever again for sure though. I also think Bioware should play Far Cry 4 and see how an open world shooter w/ vehicles can benefit from a little "emergence" (aka: chaos), as I think static enemies and open world shooters don't mix. The important thing is fun-factor though.

Well, it would also have been more fun if you could get banter while riding and didn't have to stop every twenty feet to pick elfroot.  Mounts were definitely an afterthought.  half the time i forgot I even had one.

 

What kinda worries me is that "requisition quests" would actually make a lot more sense if they're working within a new, unexplored setting and a protagonist who's trying to make a name for themselves. I'm hoping they keep it under control, but I'm definitely expecting a good amount of it, especially if they're putting this much work into zipping around in the Mako.

That worries me too, but if they limited the number and actually made them serve a purpose I could see it working.

[themikefest]

2016: Mass Effect Commando
with Arnold Schwarzenegger as "The Father Man"

2019: Mass Effect Shock Trooper
with Ian McDiarmid as "The Electricity Man"

2021: Mass Effect into Multiplayer Classes Darkness
with various BSN personas as "The OP Men and Women"

Andromeda Trilogy confirmed.

2024 Mass Effect: The Return of Commander Shepard

with guest cameo by Harbinger 

[dreamgazer]

That worries me too, but if they limited the number and actually made them serve a purpose I could see it working.

I could too. The key will be exercising control, keeping it relevant, and making travel in the Mako fun ...

... hopefully with some cruisin' banter.

[Iakus]

I think it just boils down to fun-factor, give the horse in DAI the ability to cut down enemies like a Mako would and it would instantly be more fun. They could stand to lighten up on the collectibles and/or never do requisitions ever again for sure though. I also think Bioware should play Far Cry 4 and see how an open world shooter w/ vehicles can benefit from a little "emergence" (aka: chaos), as I think static enemies and open world shooters don't mix. The important thing is fun-factor though.

Nah.

 

Let banter trigger while on the horse (or Mako), and that would make it a lot more fun.

[Torgette]

Nah.

 

Let banter trigger while on the horse (or Mako), and that would make it a lot more fun.

 

[Hrungr]

Barrett Rodych ‏@ForgedPixels

The plush Elcor is pretty much the softest and adorablest thing. (http://www.biowarestore.com/elcor-plush.html …)

[Cheviot]

Barrett Rodych ‏@ForgedPixels

The plush Elcor is pretty much the softest and adorablest thing. (http://www.biowarestore.com/elcor-plush.html …)

The next stage has got to be talking Elcor plushies, right?

 

"Adorably: I wuv you."

[dreamgazer]

The next stage has got to be talking Elcor plushies, right?
 
"Adorably: I wuv you."

Can't tell if you've heard the little guy or not:

[Cheviot]

Well, at least I've got good business instincts.  All I need now is a time machine.

[Malanek]

Imagine you're a writer for BioWare. And you're writing banter.

 

You pick or get assigned a character, and every day, for months on end, you go into work and you think, and you write. You think about the character's personality, you think about what kind of details would be interesting or humorous to talk about. You go back and forth with the art department, with other writers. You attend countless meetings. You talk to other writers endlessly to come up with conversations between their character and yours. You edit. You go back and dig through lore. You research topics on your own to try and make sure you get the details right. You scrap a lot of what you do. You talk to the other writers about the protagonist, about romance, about the central plot, and about dialogue that builds upon it all. And slowly, you grind out progress. And after months and months, you're finished. You've got dozens of pages, probably, of dialogue between your character and others.

 

You've almost certainly been doing this for months. Been going to work every weekday and spending a serious chunk of your time thinking about this character for months. I mean, unless you've written a thesis, I don't think any of us have experienced spending that long on a single project. A very long time and effort.

 

When it's over, you're going to feel pretty exhausted, yes? Exhausted, but hopefully satisfied with all the work you've invested into building this character. You've ran a marathon, but it's over with. You can turn your attention to something fresh.

 

The problem is all this work you've done, all the time spent thinking, all the effort you've put into building this character...it ultimately doesn't count for all that much. That sense of accomplishment is ultimately a lie. An illusion. After months of work, a writer is bound to feel like they've much more than they actually have. You've worked and worked, but all you've ultimately done is banter. Which can be nice, can be humorous...but banter is never conflicts. It's never qualities. No amount of banter is ever going to make a character smart or strong or powerful.

 

And so you get characters like what we see in Inquisition. Characters who have a whole lot of banter about all sorts of topics...and ultimately weak and shallow arcs. Because spending all that time on banter forces the writers to lose objectivity. To forget that the player doesn't see or appreciate all the content that goes through their heads. They're saturated with thinking about this character for months, and it erodes their ability to perceive that the player is only going to see and appreciate a small bit of it. It makes the writers too satisfied with the characters, too early because they lose objectivity of the difference between the theoretical character that's been living in their heads for months and the actual character the player sees and experiences.

 

Not saying this is their fault, of course. We all do this. I get up and go to class and sit there and zone out as often as not. And when I get home, I feel more satisfied with myself than if I had slept in and done nothing. Even though I objectively know I didn't learn a thing and I may as well have stayed in bed, it's an illusion, a perception that still holds.

You gave a reason so fair enough. However I doubt this is even how the process works for Bioware. I suspect there is a banter repository where anyone can jot something down when they have inspiration. At a certain point someone will go through and collate it and if there is a lack for certain characters they might sit down and focus on a few. There will be no writer who spends months and months and produces nothing but banter.

 

I also feel you are significantly underestimating the amount of character depth that banter provides. You learn about a character by what they say and do. A single piece of banter can give you more insight into a character than an entire mission, which is obviously less resource intensive. I actually thought Lair of the Shadow Broker actually had more character building than any of ME1, 2 or 3. Just because the shadow broker files allowed the writers to show more what was inside the characters heads, things they wouldn't show Shepard on their own accord.

[BioFan (Official)]

Barrett Rodych ‏@ForgedPixels

The plush Elcor is pretty much the softest and adorablest thing. (http://www.biowarest...or-plush.html …)

 

 

I can vouch for that. 

 

 

 

[Hrungr]

User

I still can't believe how sharp the graphics are on @masseffect 3 after so long. Vancouver is still looks stunning.

 

Michael Gamble ‏@GambleMike

you should see the new game...