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[Fernando Melo]

Happy new year everyone!

Normally I try to do a quick update on a weekly basis HERE, but to keep number of pages down and easier for folks to follow on each week I'll start up a new thread for it each time from now on (and close previous one).

Since the last update, it has certainly been an eventful holiday season and first week of the year back in the office.
We've seen a lot of new players on the game, and new faces join the community over the holidays - welcome! 
Judging from the threads we could barely keep up with - you were all certainly aware of the delay announcement for Return to Ostagar.  
My thanks for all the feedback so far on that - the good, the bad, and yes... the ugly. 

We always strive to provide you with accurate info, particularly around dates - and in fairness we always do, based on the info we have at the time it is written.  Sometimes, despite best efforts, you just get a monkey wrench thrown in there to keep things interesting however.

In this case, having spotted something we felt impacted the quality we wanted at the last minute we opted to hold the release of the DLC in order to address it.  It was a really difficult decision for the team to miss getting this out to you for xmas and the holidays - but it was the right decision to make.
We'll update you as soon as we have a new date for it - believe me, we're eager to do so. 

We also announced Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, our first major expansion for DA:O, and the feedback so far has been great.

We're really excited to finally be able to announce this publicly, as we know how much you've been asking for a full sized expansion for DA:O.   Expect to see a lot more on Awakening in the coming weeks as we get closer to its launch. 

Some folks are questioning this announcement, in light of the RtO delay.  Please keep in mind there are lots of things working in parallel - some people are on Awakening, some on RtO, some of patch, some on ... other things, etc.  A bump in one doesn't mean it derails the others - we have a long plan for additional content, and 'the show must go on' as it were.

On a separate and personal note, I just wanted to say a big thank you for your feedback on the writers of dragon age  thread - David and the team have done an incredible job and fully deserve the kudos for their part in making DA such a wonderful place that we all love to spend so much of our time in. 

Lastly, now that folks are returning back to the office from their holidays near and far, work resumes in earnest on console updates - the first of which should roll out with Return to Ostagar DLC, as well as the next PC patch (ETA to be confirmed).  I'll try to get more details on the fix list for these in the next update, as everyone will be back in the office by then.

Thanks, and have a great weekend everyone.

[Fernando Melo]

padewan0913 wrote...
Will Awakening for the 360 be in a download form? Or will there also be discs like Origins that will add on to it? Thanks for the update!

It'll be available on disc as well as download.

TheMadCat wrote...
Eh, not much really new or updated there. Thanks though.

I can only share from what I have to offer   The alternative would be no update (or as Bfler put it, a 'no news' line).

Dennis Carpenter wrote...
Will they ever fix the character profile update problems.............if our characters cant update how do we get them into the new content. Thanks for listening.

Completely different system.  You'll select a DAO save game from which to import your character/plot info from DAO to Awakening - no internet connection needed.  If you'd like to have your Awakening updates/progress show up on social then you will need to be logged in etc (and resolve whatever is preventing your character from updating)   Have you posted/look on the tech support threads for the platform you're playing on?

Sneaky Monkey wrote...
I was wondering. I'm not sure if you could even tell me, but I'm just asking this out of curiosity: Would the bug found in Return to Ostagar have been comparable to the bug in the Fallout 3 DLC, The Pitt? When it was released, it was basically unplayable. I guess I'm just trying to at least see what the severity of the bug was.

I never encountered that myself so I couldn't tell you if it was similar to what we had on RtO - but from what you describe it definitely wasn't anything that severe.

Bfler wrote...

Its good to see a statement, however there is no real content in it. You can simply say the same with the sentence:
We are delighted that so many people like the game, but we don't have any news for you.

True.  But that's making the assumption that everyone reading it actually did know all of those things.  

The weekly update is meant to be a retrospective for the week, as well as a forecast of what is to come... or at least that's the intent - some weeks lend themselves better to one or the other of those.

[Fernando Melo]

squid5580 wrote...
So if a bump in one doesn't derail the rest why are we waiting for DLC to get a desperately needed patch for the 360 version? And should I plan on the same level of support if I buy Mass Effect 2 for the 360?

The first console update has been tied to RtO when we announced its original date, so yes in that case with RtO slipping it also delayed the release of the update - we can't separate those at this point - but folks working on patches/updates continue plugging away on a new wave of fixes that didn't make it into the first update, independent of RtO/first update release. 

I'd like to understand what you consider 'desperately needed'?

And if by level of support you mean a delay in the console update once it is tied up to a DLC pack then I expect they'll run into the same situation, as would any other developer, as this is an MS & Sony requirement at that point that they be sent to certification and need to pass together.

Clammo wrote...
Could you let us know if the increasingly long load time problem many of us are encountering on the PC version is being looked into please Fernando?

Most of these that we are aware of seem to be related to memory leaks - known ones are being looked at.  In the meantime, I realize it is a hassle but if you find it is taking too long you can try to save/quit/reload and that should help.

EricXIII wrote...
Sorry if this has been stated before but i was wondering,after we finish origins and start playing awakening,we will be able to return to origins locations?like denerim?

No, once you begin your Awakening campaign you've effectively advanced in time to a point after the Blight has ended - so you'll carry through decisions etc made in Origins, but there is no going back. 

Proleric1 wrote...
Any news on plans to improve the social site, especially the presentation of community downloads?

Good question - Yes, we still have quite a few features for social related to this that we'd like to implement.  In terms of timing, the web team is gearing up for the launch of ME2 as their next major priority so shortly after that I can get an update from them on the roadmap and start messaging that to the community.

[Fernando Melo]

Ghostrider06 wrote...

So tell us why Awakening has to be an expansion that is purchased through a retail store, where replication/duplication of CDs, packaging, shipping, etc...has to be accounted for to drive the price up, when it could just be hung on the server as DLC like RtO was and purchased with Bioware points? Size of the content? I'd gladly spend the time online to download it, no matter the size, to get the cost savings.

It is available for download as well. 

squid5580 wrote...

So then why would you tie a patch to DLC to begin with. I could understand if you were talking Day 1 DLC but this is months later and I would really like to play a different class. Like an archer. But making an archer is pointless since they don't get better (which is the whole purpose of an rpg). Sure they get more HP but when you are putting all your points into dex and they aren't doing anymore damage that is a problem. Liena in my current game has a dex of well over 30. And yet she is not doing any more damage than 22 (unless I get a crit) with "her" bow. This has been going on for 2 levels that I noticed (since I started paying attention because I was getting smoked). And since I have already put my money down on ME2 preorder for the 360 and this is the kind of support I have been getting (which is none) I would like to know if my money would be better spent on the PC version.

I understand your frustration, but try to keep in mind the timeframes we're operating at - when we were making those decisions (shortly after game launch when we started working on patches/updates) we weren't expecting it being delayed this late so this was not an issue, it wasn't months later. 

And to be clear, the update will still be delivered separately from the DLC - you don't need to buy the DLC to get it for example - but it'll be released at the same time as the DLC.

[Fernando Melo]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the feedback.  I'll try to tackle what I can from the posts up to now ...

What do I mean by Awakening being available as digital download?  It should be available at the same partners that offered the full DA:O game digitally.  It will also be available via 360 marketplace and the PSN store.  Before I get myself into trouble like RtO - that's the intention, we're still working on Awakening, and still need to get it through MS/Sony cert etc etc etc


ATI card fixes - good question.  As with any hardware specific issues these are harder to reproduce as we don't have every card/model in-house, and/or may require driver updates from the hardware partner.  I know we're looking at issues such as these, but off-hand I don't have an update for this one specifically.

Mods for PS3 - nothing to update on this yet.  Keep watching the toolset forums for more updates on this in general though.

ME2 game integration to social - Check in on the ME forums for ME news.  Off-hand I'm not aware of what they are planning. 

Collector's edition for Awakening - not that I'm aware of, if that changes i'll be sure to update it here.

Do you need to download a patch for Awakening/RtO, or voluntary?  Depends.  The patches are always recommended, but you don't need to buy the content to get them.  In the case of some digital PC versions (e.g. Steam), or consoles that are online, I believe the patch happens automatically before you get the content.  Not sure if that answers your question? 

Will the download version have more goodies?  No.  The content is the same regardless of version.

Will you carry over equipment and such to Awakening?  Pretty much.  And when you import your character in, you'll effectively continue that character as they were in DAO - unless you were not high enough level for Awakening, in which case you'll gain those levels.

Can you import the world 'state', but start new in Awakening as the Orlesian Cmdr?  No.  The world 'state' only exists and lives on as part of your character's choices - most of the reactivity to events and choices in Origins would simply not make sense if it wasn't 'you' that did it.

We should update the official dao add-ins page?  Ack.  Absolutely right.  Will poke again to get that sorted out.

On the IGN interview I said Awakening was the largest content evah!  That's a good catch.  That was meant as 'at the time'. 

Will Awakening characters be able to go onwards to future DLC?  Yes, sort of.  Sorry to make it cryptic - you'll have to wait a little more to hear about some of the future DLC for this to make sense.

The RTO fix takes more than a week?  Actually the fix was pretty straight forward but took a few cracks at it.  But it's getting it done across 3 platforms, 9 languages, tested, etc that really takes time. 

RTO is out already, and I'm an unhappy bear as a result.  Unfortunately it does seem like an earlier version leaked - as with anything digital we ultimately have to put it online to do some of our testing phases.   I haven't looked at what is out there myself so I couldn't tell you what version it is or whether it is content complete, but what I can say is since we haven't released it yet, it is not the final version that will be coming. 

Will Awakening be like a full 360 title and provide 1000 achievement score?  No.  Awakening is an expansion pack, not a new title so the limit is reduced by MS.

And lastly, when is RTO coming out?  We'll do a formal update very very soon, promise.  

[Fernando Melo]

RtO was delayed across all platforms.



Achievement points is a 'bragging rights' type of score, you will not be able to purchase content or spend these in any way.



BioWare Points is what you can use to purchase additional content.

[Fernando Melo]

I'll check on the patch fix list tomorrow.