5 réponses à ce sujet

[Zerker]

Hi people,
In the second game of the DA series, I noticed that how irritated an action movies/games enthusiast can get from poor made combat scenery, especially when the scale of combat is not pictured as it should. Yes, I do like scenes with a lot of adrenaline to offer.

I'm very well aware that Dragon Age series mainly aim for role playing rather than action(how much they succeed at this, is another issue); though visuals of combat in large scale is always appreciated by the gamer base. Player doesn't participate in most of it; but most of the time experiences it while on his/her way to an urgent mission. We are at the point that we accept even if are not able to touch any npc during this war; but are able to experience it's atmosphere greatly due to realistic and epic environment.

I've prepared an example, please forgive the horrible ms paint skills.

In Dragon Age 2, if you side with Templars(which I usually do) at the final mission, you get to invade the Gallows with a Templar army. Meredith invokes the Rite of Annulment, so every single Mage in the Circle of Kirkwall is to be executed.
After a not-good-enough cinematic, we(players) "invade" the whole entrance like this;





Aside from the fact that some stuff are burning, this battle which will decide the fate of all the Circles and Chantry laws throughout Thedas is actually no different from a common side-quest which you get to kill some abominations and apostates.

However, if it was to be pictured like a true ground invasion, at least with big-scary Templar troops behind our back, challenging and organized Mage resistance(a back up plan of First Enchanter may be? Considering the obvious insanity of Meredith?), a bunch of "tanking" demons while Mages attack from a distance, and multiple entrances to that gigantic place,
it would look like this;






And that is a much more appealing combat scale for the end of the game. I do realize it would be hard on hardware; though there are games who manage this perfectly fine, even old ones. Return of the King and Witcher 2 are the first ones that come to mind.

A mission or a well-prepared cinematic like this for the third game, it is doable, and it is a much more epic, entertaining and realistic scenery most of us will enjoy greatly.

Modifié par Maddok900, 20 décembre 2012 - 10:47 .

[Zerker]

Shameless bump.

[Gazardiel]

My guess is that we'd run into the problem where in a truly epic-scale battle like that, the PC would feel insignificant. Why do we need to bother when we've got a whole army behind us? I'd just take a break and get a sammich and popcorn to watch Meredith storm the castle. That's part of the Catch-22 in games like this - we like to be the hero whose actions matter, but we also want there to be an epic scale. Except in unusual circumstances, it becomes an either/or choice.

[Wulfram]

I think a lot of the problem was that with the waves we had throughout the game, the numbers in the final sequence didn't feel at all special.

[Gazardiel]

One mechanic I've seen to allow for a small party to survive an army of mooks (even with big AOEs and high level, the "death of a thousand cuts" is entirely possible with just cannon fodder) is to have a powerful NPC assist with a protection spell or an ability to CC some of the morass to let your characters survive long enough to take them down. That comes with its own problems, of course...