145 réponses à ce sujet

[Il Divo]

Rawgrim wrote...

Il Divo wrote...

Meh, I'd prefer Bioware take the Jade Empire approach to customization, that is to say, none at all: unique outfits, unique weapons, and no player control. I find customizing anything outside of my own PC to be very boring and would prefer not to have resources devoted to companions instead.

Then maybe action games would be more to your liking? 99 percent of party based roleplaying games have customization, after all.

No. I love customizing my PC in great detail. But Bioware has demonstrated in the past that they can make games with very little companion customization (DA2, Jade Empire, ME2). I want as much of the former as possible and as little of the latter.

[Knight of Dane]

Why can't we have vanity slots? Slots for apperance without breaking stats. Then a few different outfits for each companion to equip in the vanity slot.

[Iakus]

Il Divo wrote...

Meh, I'd prefer Bioware take the Jade Empire approach to customization, that is to say, none at all: unique outfits, unique weapons, and no player control. I find customizing anything outside of my own PC to be very boring and would prefer not to have resources devoted to companions instead.

Well, Jade Empire was something of a different animal.  Since you can only have one companion with you, combat roles were something of a non-issue.  The Spirit Monk was all the roles in one: tank, damage, and healing.  The companion was there for some extra damage or to passively buff you.  In games like Dragon Age, party balance is a greater factor.

If it's appearance custommizaton, well, I've made my views on that clear in the past.  And I think that blog post a while back shows DA3 may have found a happy medium between customization and iconic appearances.

[Iakus]

Knight of Dane wrote...

Why can't we have vanity slots? Slots for apperance without breaking stats. Then a few different outfits for each companion to equip in the vanity slot.

Vanity slots?  You mean like changing hairstyles or adding scars or tattoos?  SWTOR has something like that for thecompanions, though it's pretty limited.

[Dhiro]

iakus wrote...

Knight of Dane wrote...

Why can't we have vanity slots? Slots for apperance without breaking stats. Then a few different outfits for each companion to equip in the vanity slot.

Vanity slots?  You mean like changing hairstyles or adding scars or tattoos?  SWTOR has something like that for thecompanions, though it's pretty limited.

I believe s/he means being able to equip the companions with two sets of armor: one will change their stats, while the other will change their appearence.

[Iakus]

Dhiro wrote...

I believe s/he means being able to equip the companions with two sets of armor: one will change their stats, while the other will change their appearence.

Hmm, I've never heard of that before.  That is an interesting idea.

[Knight of Dane]

You haven't? It was used in Dragon Age: Legends

[Sylvius the Mad]

wright1978 wrote...

Rawgrim wrote...

It does make complete sense, yes. BUT he could just as easily been with the expedition in the way his brother was, instead of taking up a party slot.

He really has to be a companion for his personal arc of his brother betraying him to happen.

I don't see that at all.  Varric gets betrayed either way - the only difference is whether Hawke is part of Varric's response to that betrayal.  Hawke & Co. could just as easily have found their way out of the Deep Roads themselves, and then had Varric find them again in Kirkwall.

Moreover, the story should be written around these sorts of restrictions.  They should design the game's lore, then design the game's systems to fit within that lore, and then design the game's story to fit within that lore and those systems.

Designing them independently weakens the game.

[Realmzmaster]

Il Divo wrote...

Rawgrim wrote...

Il Divo wrote...

Meh, I'd prefer Bioware take the Jade Empire approach to customization, that is to say, none at all: unique outfits, unique weapons, and no player control. I find customizing anything outside of my own PC to be very boring and would prefer not to have resources devoted to companions instead.

Then maybe action games would be more to your liking? 99 percent of party based roleplaying games have customization, after all.

No. I love customizing my PC in great detail. But Bioware has demonstrated in the past that they can make games with very little companion customization (DA2, Jade Empire, ME2). I want as much of the former as possible and as little of the latter.

Bioware also did it in NWN with the henchmen. The PC had no control over the armor/arms or stats of the henchmen. The gamer was free to customize the PC. Strategy and tactics have to adapt to the resources at hand.

[Dhiro]

Sylvius the Mad wrote...

wright1978 wrote...

Rawgrim wrote...

It does make complete sense, yes. BUT he could just as easily been with the expedition in the way his brother was, instead of taking up a party slot.

He really has to be a companion for his personal arc of his brother betraying him to happen.

I don't see that at all.  Varric gets betrayed either way - the only difference is whether Hawke is part of Varric's response to that betrayal.  Hawke & Co. could just as easily have found their way out of the Deep Roads themselves, and then had Varric find them again in Kirkwall.

Moreover, the story should be written around these sorts of restrictions.  They should design the game's lore, then design the game's systems to fit within that lore, and then design the game's story to fit within that lore and those systems.

Designing them independently weakens the game.

Or they could have Varric as a guest companion, following Hawke and the party and fighting alongside them without player's input maybe?

[Il Divo]

iakus wrote...

Well, Jade Empire was something of a different animal.  Since you can only have one companion with you, combat roles were something of a non-issue.  The Spirit Monk was all the roles in one: tank, damage, and healing.  The companion was there for some extra damage or to passively buff you.  In games like Dragon Age, party balance is a greater factor.

If it's appearance custommizaton, well, I've made my views on that clear in the past.  And I think that blog post a while back shows DA3 may have found a happy medium between customization and iconic appearances.

A different beast, sure. But it's a beast I think Bioware should be taking more pointers from. DA2 was already a step in the right direction. Healing/tanking seemed to be less of a requirement. In general, I like having my companions along with me for the plot/dialogue/banter they provide, not really for the gameplay benefits. I can spend hours designing my PC for maximum performance. I don't find companion customization to have the same appeal.

[CELL55]

I liked how each companion in DA2 had their own look, but I didn't like how their roles (DPS, Tank, Healer, Nuker) were so much harder to change than in DAO.

[Sylvius the Mad]

CELL55 wrote...

I liked how each companion in DA2 had their own look

I also liked that.

I disliked how those looks were mandatory

[CELL55]

Sylvius the Mad wrote...

CELL55 wrote...

I liked how each companion in DA2 had their own look

I also liked that.

I disliked how those looks were mandatory

Well, did you see the Bioware Blog post that showed how they want to give companions a distinct look while still giving you the option of changing their armor? And if so, what did you think of it?

I think that it looks pretty sweet, though I doubt that there will be many different armors, what with them having to make a generic set for you and NPCs, a set for warrior companion 1, and warrior companion 2. When they have to make 3 different sets for just 1 armor, I can't imagine that they will have the means or motivation to make a lot of them.

[TEWR]

Face of Evil wrote...

I don't recall DAO's Merrill knowing any healing spells aside from this corruption-cleansing spell that you mentioned.

I believe the game makes it a point to actually ensure she knows the basic heal spell from the Creation tree, since there wasn't any Dalish tree in Origins until Awakening.

And I wouldn't be quick to label that as "healing." I would say there's a difference between mitigating the effects of a metaphysical "corruption" and actually closing a wound or mending a broken bone.

It's called healing magic by various people in-game, IIRC. Duncan, Marethari, Merrill, etc. Additionally, Marethari thought it was simply a sickness -- like a very nasty normal sickness, until Duncan talked to her -- and employed her own healing magic on it. Remember how Anders also does this for ill refugees with his own brand of magic.

So I'd say that if Marethari used healing magic that treated something she believed was just a regular, but still deadly, illness and it worked then it's certainly healing magic.

Furthermore, Merrill will cry out to bring Pol back to the Keeper if the party doesn't have a Mage aside from Merrill in the party when he dies, saying "the Keeper can heal him". Meaning she does know healing magic. And Marethari said in DAO that Merrill knows this same healing magic.

Modifié par The Ethereal Writer Redux, 12 octobre 2012 - 02:23 .

[Rawgrim]

Realmzmaster wrote...

Il Divo wrote...

Rawgrim wrote...

Il Divo wrote...

Meh, I'd prefer Bioware take the Jade Empire approach to customization, that is to say, none at all: unique outfits, unique weapons, and no player control. I find customizing anything outside of my own PC to be very boring and would prefer not to have resources devoted to companions instead.

Then maybe action games would be more to your liking? 99 percent of party based roleplaying games have customization, after all.

No. I love customizing my PC in great detail. But Bioware has demonstrated in the past that they can make games with very little companion customization (DA2, Jade Empire, ME2). I want as much of the former as possible and as little of the latter.

Bioware also did it in NWN with the henchmen. The PC had no control over the armor/arms or stats of the henchmen. The gamer was free to customize the PC. Strategy and tactics have to adapt to the resources at hand.

If i remember correctly, not being able to customize companions in NWN was a huge complaint when that game came out as well.  The original campaign was pretty much just hack and slash anyway, and you had that teleporting stone so no tactics were nessecary at all. i beat it just by charging my enemies, if i died, so be it. i just teleported right back into the fight untill i beat the enemy.

All of this got "fixed" in the expansion packs, though. I the underdark one you could even customize your companions.

[TEWR]

Filament wrote...

If she knows the same healing magic, why does she need to bring Pol back to Marethari?

Because the Keeper's more powerful in this regard. 

Even so, she's distraught over the fact that a person is dead in front of her. Thinking rationally isn't really going to happen if you see a person you were friendly with running away from you and into the arms of a crazed Elven guardian, because he thinks you're more of a monster then the other one.

Filament wrote...

That still doesn't necessarily mean it would be the kind of healing magic to mend broken bones or be useful in combat. Penicillin is not the same thing as a splint.

As I said above, I believe the game makes it a point to ensure Merrill knows a combat healing spell so as to reflect the lore we were given about her knowing healing magic.

Modifié par The Ethereal Writer Redux, 12 octobre 2012 - 02:54 .

[Sylvius the Mad]

CELL55 wrote...

Well, did you see the Bioware Blog post that showed how they want to give companions a distinct look while still giving you the option of changing their armor? And if so, what did you think of it?

I love it.  It's a refinement of the DAO customisation system.

My enthusiasm assumes they're going to make all the armour equippable by anyone, limited by stats only.  If they make the armour class-limited rather than stat-limited, then I don't like it at all.