185 réponses à ce sujet

[Jaldaen]

Conspirator,



Very interesting idea... although I wonder about the timing of Sten's capture, the battle of Ostagar, your recovery, and then the travel time to get back to Lothering...



Doesn't Sten mention how many days he's been without food? I don't remember. I'll have to play through Lothering again to see if I can glean more about his timeline...



However, your comments did remind me that darkspawn were attacking areas as far as Lake Calenhad just after Ostagar... which is much farther north than I was initially remembering. So it could make sense that some refugees are coming from not only the south, but also the western parts of Fereldan.



Thanks,

Joseph

[Jaldaen]

Tatooine92,



I'm glad you are looking forward to this mod and I'll add your name to my notes for those who might be interested with testing once the mod is playable. Btw... are there any particular story options you prefer?

[Jaldaen]

q0rra,

Thanks for your interest in this project and I've noted your vote. As for any origin (including a farmer), I'd be sure to include a reason why you have martial training. It's not too difficult considering Fereldan's recent history of war and the probability of a commoner's father being a war veteran who might have passed on his knowlege to this son/daughter. Also as others have pointed out bows and daggers would probably be weapons commoners would have some familiarity with given the life and times of Fereldan. Another possibility would be that your grandfather/mother was a warden who recently went through the Calling Duncan is bringing back their weapon as a gift for you. 

Still, I like the guardsman approach because it has a very clear background for your skills and maybe because I would get to have some fun with the good-guard/bad-guard routine.

Modifié par Jaldaen, 02 janvier 2010 - 11:13 .

[-Conspirator]

Hi Joseph.



Sten said he was imprisoned for 20 days. I think this could work.

[q0rra]

Jaldaen wrote...

q0rra,

Thanks for your interest in this project and I've noted your vote. As for any origin (including a farmer), I'd be sure to include a reason why you have martial training. It's not too difficult considering Fereldan's recent history of war and the probability of a commoner's father being a war veteran who might have passed on his knowlege to this son/daughter. Also as others have pointed out bows and daggers would probably be weapons commoners would have some familiarity with given the life and times of Fereldan. Another possibility would be that your grandfather/mother was a warden who recently went through the Calling Duncan is bringing back their weapon as a gift for you. 

Still, I like the guardsman approach because it has a very clear background for your skills and maybe because I would get to have some fun with the good-guard/bad-guard routine.

Thank you for making the project. I've got no doubt it'll turn out fine either way, you seem like a good writer. 

[Jaldaen]

Conspirator,



Thanks. I just looked it up, too. I'm also trying to find out what the distance between Lake Calenhad (where Sten was attacked) and Lothering is... and the distance between Lothering and Ostagar (trip there and back, plus a few days for the Ritual, Battle, and Recovery with Flemeth). I've yet to find a map of Ferelden with a legend... but if all the numbers work out then this could be doable (though I still like some of the other story options, too). At the very least, this makes for an interesting bit of research and I'm a sucker for story puzzles/problems.

[Jaldaen]

q0rra,



Thanks for the vote of confidence

[Jaldaen]

After doing some research, the timeline could work since the Calenhad Docks are 100 miles from Lothering and Ostagar is about the same distance away from Lothering; 300 miles in 20 days seems possible, even given a few days at Ostagar and Flemeth's Hut.



However, I think that might be a bit much to have Sten kill your family because it would be very difficult for RPers to ever take Sten into their party after such an introduction and I don't like the idea of making it hard on the RPers to recruit Sten. Yes, I know I could write dialogue that allowed you to recruit Sten in spite of him killing your family, but at the moment I'm not sold on this approach.



Alternatively, I could see Sten making an appearance in the refuge origin. Perhaps you are the one who finds him by the side of the road and drops him off at the farm while you and your family continue on your way to Lothering? It could be interesting... but then again it might not.



Anyways, thanks for the ideas... keep them coming! I'll probably have one more week of playing with possibilities and then I'll make my decision on the mod's direction.

[Jaldaen]

I have trimmed down the ideas to the three that I'm most interested in pursuing:



The Denerim Guard origin

The Parent of a Mage origin

The Darkspawn Refugee origin



The reason I've chosen these is because each one offers something unique in terms of storytelling.



The Denerim Guard origin offers a glimpse into city life (alienage, curruption, thieves, etc.), an opportunity to meet Daveth before Ostagar, and the possibility of seeking out those who betrayed/frame you later in the game (maybe Howe is behind it all).



The Parent of a Mage creates some tough choices, would have an effect on your conversations with companions (especially Alistair and Morrigan), and color your opinion of the Templars and possibily the Chantry.



The Refugee origin offers a very good reason to join the wardens of your own volition, it also might allow for some interaction with Sten, and again offers the possiblity of some very interesting dialogue options with companions about the death of your family, it also ties in with the main storyline quite nicely.

[Maximus741000]

@Jaldaen, why did you decide to scrap my original idea, #8?

What was wrong with it??

[Lotion Soronarr]

ERm...I got the impression that the distances are a bit shorter than that.



From Redcliffe to Denerim with a forced march - 2 days (or was it 4??)

Either way,a lot less than a 20 day figure.



From Orzamar to the Circle tower it takes 14 days methinks, but that's because you have to go around the lake and over mountain terrain.

[Wizard of thay]

Maximus...I think that your idea fell due to the highlander factor...

there can be only one...



considering the ideas left.



The Denerim Guard origin

could lead to interesting dialogue with that elf assassin companion. (useless with names today)

cool to see dark underbelly of denerim (as opposed to the dark overbelly)



The Parent of a Mage origin

again interesting. I like it. but potentially as a apostate mage origin as opposed to a human commoner origin.

reasoning. each origin appears to set up a conflict wit one of the human/elf/dwarf groups.

mage/templar.

human noble: rowe (other human noble)

dwarf/?

The (for want of a better term) enemy is a group or person who is related in some way to the character,

the "parent of a mage" has an enemy who is related to the child of the warden as opposed to the warden them selves. thus not following the conventions of the origin story.

am I making sense.

admitedly it is always cool to play with conventions but thought I would mentio it.



The Darkspawn Refugee origin

This appears to be on the surface an interesting option.

but also a blank slate option a la Morrowind/Oblivion.



example.

cart entering lothering carrying refugees

pc gets off cart

asked questions about where they came from

these questions determine the character.

[Jaldaen]

Maximus,



Option #8 fell because I think I can weave in most of the elements in it into option #9 (being recruited into the militia after arriving at Lothering)... and as Wizard of Thay said... there can be only one origin.

[-Conspirator]

Regardless of the final choice, it seems we definitely need to recall at least one voice actor.



Daveth, Alistair and/or Morrigan, Sten



And before you say you could do without them in most cases... this would kill half of the fun for me. And I think I'm not the only one who thinks so. So this would be another point relating to the choice of the setting.

[Jaldaen]

Conspirator,



Hopefully we can splice together most conversations from the current dialogues... baring Daveth there is probably enough material to work with considering all the dialogue files we have access to. Of course, if the dialogue files aren't kosher to splice together, then I might have to create a completely new area and base the origin there to cut down on the need to recall any voice actors. Anyways, I don't even know what would be involved with recalling voice actors. Worse comes to worse, if I can't pull off what I want with the current dialogue files, then I'll just have to change this project to a stand-alone mod or something like that.

[-Conspirator]

Slicing together would have been my idea as well. It would be most difficult to do this with Daveth I think, he got very few dialogues in comparison to the companions.

[q0rra]

Making the original voice actors come back to record some dialogue on their own spare time would be almost impossible. I've yet to encounter someone who would work for free or even have the spirit of a franchise to do work for the fans. I think we can exclude that idea even now. It would be interesting to see what you could do with the existing VA files though. 'Cause an impersonator wouldn't do it for me. Try to write the origin with as little dialogue with Daveth (or any other companion as well.) as possible is my tip.

[Wizard of thay]

q0rra wrote...

Making the original voice actors come back to record some dialogue on their own spare time would be almost impossible. I've yet to encounter someone who would work for free or even have the spirit of a franchise to do work for the fans. I think we can exclude that idea even now. It would be interesting to see what you could do with the existing VA files though. 'Cause an impersonator wouldn't do it for me. Try to write the origin with as little dialogue with Daveth (or any other companion as well.) as possible is my tip.

voice actor vo has been done a few times to my knowledge. but pretty much everything else has to be finalised before you even ask.
it depends on the person and how you ask them ..

as for splicing existing lines I would recommend using "audacity" a free program.

[Jaldaen]

I'm actually working on compiling all the dialogues into a word document so that I can see which characters speak what and where. This should help me know what is doable (and build a dictionary of words I can use for each character). Thankfully, Duncan has a lot of dialogue throughout the game (Game and Origin Intros, the Ending sequences, etc.)... so I think his voice over shouldn't be a problem. The real problem will be minor characters I might try to use, like Daveth. If not enough material is there than I'll drop Daveth and other elements of these origins in favor of new characters without VO bagage. Or perhaps I will "recast" those minor characters with new VO so that there isn't a noticable change in voices.



Wizard of Thay, thanks for the recommendation of audacity... I'll check it out.

[Jaldaen]

PS: If anyone wants to help me transcribe dialogues into Word, then let me know as it would be a great help. Right now I'm focusing on Duncan, but eventually I'll need to have a library for the main companions (Alistair, Morrigan, Leliana, Gwynne, Oghren, Sten, and Zev), too. I'd love to have a few volunteers that focused their efforts on collecting the dialgues for each of these characters.

Also if anyone knows any modding tricks to make this process easier for me and others, then feel free to share.

Modifié par Jaldaen, 04 janvier 2010 - 01:49 .

[creininger]

Jaldaen, creating a new origin is perhaps the best mod anyone could make considering it is the game's namesake. The biggest problem I see with creating an origin is that with the default origins there is a moment in the game when your past collides with your destiny. For example, as a Human Noble, returning to Denerim after curing Eamon and getting all the treaties signed, you end up face to face with none other than Loghain and your bloodsworn enemy Howe. Other orgins have an equally significant story climax built in to the very game that must be played through in order to complete the game (though I was somewhat disappointed at the Dalish event. It only seems to make getting the treaty signed marginally easier).



Creating a new origin would be vastly incomplete and feel very much less genuine without this event. Unfortunately, something of this magnitude would very likely require an expansion set or the hiring of paid staff to record new voices, program intricate scripts, and ultimately make that origin affect the way the player ends up viewing his character. With the Human Noble, for instance, everything from the excellent animations and scripting to the background music made me want to jump through the screen and kick Howe's ass myself.



I do not mean to discourage you from taking the project to the very end, but I do want to open your eyes as to the expectations such a mod would garner from your prospective users. Honestly, I wish you the best of luck with this mod, and would love to see a whole series of them.

[Lotion Soronarr]

Thankfully, there are scripts to palce NPC into areas and trigger stuff, so you can add new quests to allready existing areas.

IMHO, a new origin is possible to do, altough it may require some smoke and mirrors approach.

[Wizard of thay]

1) re voice actors:

best list I could find so far



http://www.imdb.com/...ullcredits#cast



2) give me an NPC and I will do one of them .

any particular format you would want the information in?

off the top of my head I would suggest

dialogue number dialogue details emotion used.



3) creininger.

yep agree will not be easy, but if stuff was easy would it be worthwhile to do?

my suggestion to Jaldaen would be as follows.

a) complete story for initial part of origin (start to ostegar)

release to other team members for feedback, scriptwork, bug killing

c) whilst this is going on work on NPC interactions

d) when completed merge to main file release again to other team members

e) work on epilogue



I anticipate this taking at the very very least about 6 months.

It will be fun.

[-Conspirator]

Jaldaen.



The voice actor of Daveth also voices one of Dwyns bandits in Redcliffe. You might check that out.

Anyway, I would be ready to do some voice acting on my own, without any payment of course, although the possibilities are a bit limited. I can record the dialogues using a rather good headset and a recording program and send them to you. If you're interested, send me a message.

[Jaldaen]

creininger,



I have no illusions that this mod will be anything but difficult to pull off, especially considering that I only have very limited modding experience (I created a Portugal mod for Sid Meier's Colonization last year). My hope is that once I start releasing the storyline and dialogue, other modders will want to help make this a reality. Sort of a... "if you write it they will help" idea. Worse comes to worse, I'll have a whole bunch of dialogue I can show off to Bioware and/or other game companies that might help me land a job someday.



I also expect this will be a very long process... like 6 months to a year depending on how much help I can garner from the rest of the community. On the bright side, I usually do everything in my power to follow through on what I start so if there is a chance I could do this, then I'll finish it.