74 réponses à ce sujet

[Allan Schumacher]

Excuse me, I must have missed your question.  What was that?

 

I asked "How does Sera not look like an elf?"

[Allan Schumacher]

She has square face, square jaw and broad nose with short hair. Pointy ears are not enough to be considered as an elf I'm afraid.

 

A female elf looks like a dwarf, nothing to see here, move along.

 

Short hair is irrelevant.  I think it's an absurd critique as though elves for some reason are not able to cut their hair or something.

 

No, Sera doesn't look like Liv Tyler.  Must all elves look like Liv Tyler?

 

 

Here's a depiction of an elf:

Spoiler

 

 

I don't think she looks anything like Sigrun.  Or any other dwarf.  Even with her rounded face, it's still a slender face and a slender body type.

 

 

Sorry, when I see something like this, I don't see a dwarf at all:

 

Spoiler

 

 

Perhaps, finally, we have an engine where we're able to better allow greater degrees of freedom in what we want our characters to look like?  Perhaps elves have a wide variety of faces, just like humans do?  Because why not?

[Allan Schumacher]

Nordic mythology disagree.

 

"However, some generalisations are possible. In medieval Germanic-speaking cultures, elves seem generally to have been thought of as a group of beings with magical powers and supernatural beauty, ambivalent towards everyday people and capable of either helping or hindering them."

 

And since im from the Nordic region. I say you are wrong with the gnome like elf. That is not the elf from our mythology which Tolkien from what I remember, got inspired by. But I presume you at Bioware went for santas little helper or garden gnomes when you designed Sera.

"The "Christmas elves" of contemporary popular culture are of relatively recent tradition, popularized during the late nineteenth-century in the United States"

I still say her face is more  dwarven than elven and she looks clumsy in many screenshots. Not the graceful and agile elf.

 

I'm not sure what Nordic mythology has to do with our elves.  Note that I didn't link to a Christmas elf.  My point is that the application of the term "elf" leads to a lot of different looks.

 

I'm not even sure where your quote comes from, nor why you think it applies to Dragon Age's universe to be frank.

 

You may say that he face is drawn more "dwarven" but I'll completely disagree.  If you think one's face is in any way telling of whether or not someone is graceful or agile, then I think that that is a personal bias that you'll need to reconcile.

 

 

 

 

And are you telling me the Unreal engine is not "good" enough for Bioware "Artist integrity"? We saw how that worked out in Mass Effect 3's ending when you guys moved Karpyshyn to ToR. The best writer Bioware had of late.

If I see anything else like this again, you will be removed from the forums.  Dragon Age has never used the Unreal Engine, so your tangential reference is irrelevant aside from seeking an opportunity to denigrate the company I work for and the coworkers and friends of mine that work within it.

 

At this point, you're just going to have to deal with the fact that Sera is an elf that looks different from the ones of "Nordic mythology."

[Allan Schumacher]

Anyhoo, Sera's an elf.  I hope that this is settled now? <.<

[Allan Schumacher]

Why? Racism exists in Thedas. Why couldn't one of the companions be racist?

 

That doesn't preclude someone from thinking ill of Sera for those racist reasons (not saying she is or isn't)

[Lukas Kristjanson]

I don't mind if Bioware confirm other romances that way.

Doubt it. It kind of got buried because of the turnaround for TV production time. When it was finally set to air, Marketing was in the middle of E3 reveals. They weren't counting on that overlap, and the show sort of got forgotten. Fun experiment though. I think the ep is available on the syfy site now.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Isn't that Jessica Merizan as Morrigan and Holly Conrad is the fem inquisitor in the back? Don't know the girl who is cosplaying Sera tho.

Chloe Dykstra

[Lukas Kristjanson]

I just hope she's not easily missable, would annoy me if they pulled another Leliana/Zevran with Sera just so some uncomfortable players could find it easier to avoid recruiting her.

Wat? I'll own that we've had some followers who were too easy to miss, but that's because implementation could have been better. Do some people think these tens-of-thousands-of-words/VO/cine/art/anim/tech-invested characters were somehow deliberately obscured because 20 hours later in optional content they might make someone uncomfortable? In a game where you can kill a demon possessed child? Mind--->Boggled.

 

In any case, we don't want a repeat of characters being missed for pretty much arbitrary reasons. Active decisions? Hey, your character, your team. But we've taken pains in DAI to try and make sure you won't be left wondering why you never met someone.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

When they said that I think they meant it more in a "you can potentially end up with just one companion if you screw up" than in a "almost everyone will die horribly or leave without you ever getting to save them or keep them from leaving" way. That's how I read it, I might be wrong though.

That's how I read it too

This. Although I don't think Mike called it screwing up. It's an extreme edge-case of decisions and effects. Not every decision involved was necessarily "bad."

 

I wonder if he says that Dorian is the first openly gay character in Dragon Age.

Wheaton's a fan of the setting, so I expect he'd aim for better than a lot of the uninformed click-bait articles we've seen.

[Allan Schumacher]

 

Allan Schumacher ‏@AllanSchumacher 41s

Playing around with @DragonAgeKeep and went Dwarf Quisitor. She hates everything except dwarves and cute adorable animals...   (for now?)
 

Allan Schumacher ‏@AllanSchumacher

If I get far enough before doing other stuff, I'll likely romance Sera with this character! 

 

 

 

SERA CAN BE ROMANCED BY LADY DWARVES!

 

 

 

Further reminder that I shouldn't talk about the game lest I accidentally misspeak, or reveal something authentic. Up to you.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Canon!

 

 

Maybe.

 

 

Okay no, but yes.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

As far as I know, Jen Hale and Mark Meer both recorded all romance-specific lines regardless of gender for ME1. So the VO files were there but BW picked and chose as to what to include in the final build.

 

It's funny because this doesn't appear to have been the case with ME2, where most of the romance-specific lines appeared gender-restricted with no indication of recording everything.

Seen some conspiracy theories about this, but never bet on malevolence if inexperience is an option. The Mass 1 tools were just not as sophisticated. Game tools don't suddenly exist, they are developed along with the games. I mean, Frostbite didn't even have a conversation editor before we got hold of it. For Mass 1 we were adapting our tools from previous games, and hadn't had to deal with player VO prior. So we didn't initially think to have a way to flag a player line as male or female Shep only, we could only print the whole thing to excel and manually make notes for the VO director, which wasn't always viable. Cost us thousands in recording time.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

I hope I'll be able to craft a sword/dagger that looks like this: 

 

Spoiler

 

Why? So I can call it the 'Serated Knife'.

That is where the name came from, actually. For an entirely different character that used serrated swords, because I'm ever so clever. That was about a billion years ago, cut from a project that likewise never saw the light of day. But I liked it and saved it, and gave it to Sera. Who is absolutely nothing like the old dead concept, but now the name is appropriate for other, less strained reasons. Yay process.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Indeed. It's really rather disconcerting, and it seems as though someone was just sloppy to draw the string over the arm.

It happens. The string is an Escher-like mistake, but It'll probably be fixed before it goes elsewhere. The rest, poster rule of cool.

 

I wonder will they release anymore VA vids, would love one with Robyn.

She was too busy when those were being made. Unfortunate for us, but deservedly so for her. She's damned good.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Really cool post about casting the voices of DA from David Gaider.

 

http://dgaider.tumbl...d-to-say-that-i

 

Robyn was Lukas' first choice for Sera, that's pretty cool, perfect casting then.

Dave is misremembering a bit, and I want Caroline and Robyn to have proper props. Caroline put out her feelers to agents first, and Robyn was one of the first test scripts we got back. She nailed it. Her laugh nailed it. I didn't know her Brit TV work, so did I some searches, saw her range, and was dead certain she was perfect. Later, Caroline was looking for suggestions for what-if casting, because we'd had some luck with Torchwood alums. She wanted to know if there was a "name" I pictured in the role. I told her I could probably come up with someone more "known" if she wanted, but it wouldn't be because they were better.

 

Caroline's network found Robyn. Robyn's skill made her Sera. I had the easy job of suggesting we go with the obviously best actor for the role. Tough day.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

I'm running Sera, Bull, and Viv. Pretty sure it's Team "Do keep up, dears."

[Lukas Kristjanson]

I always left it till last myself, that's one long ass quest.

I did a count back then. Paragon of her Kind/Orzammar was over 80,000 words in its dialogue files alone. Getting it releasable was a real pain. If I had it to do over again, I'd risk the scripting house of cards and take a chunk out of the middle. Fun fact, the Deep Roads were originally even bigger.

 

Sera is not behind an Orzammar.

 

Folk mentioned it in the Varric thread. 

If "Folk" aren't Mike it don't mean nothing.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Well, Cass and Solas did look different so I won't be surprised if Sera got tweaked a lil too.

Not so much. Her head hasn't changed in quite some time. It's more other effects coming online. Outside environment, face effects, lighting, all that jazz. Cass too for the most part.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Best I can do on the second banter (Cass-Sera). Bull and Sera, the first banter, were almost totally unintelligible due to Mike + Cam, but they might have been talking about something of Hubert's (?) falling down the stairs, which was apparently hilarious.

CASS: Another guess, Sera: were you born in Denerim?
SERA: What? No. Is that what you're [try?]ing for?
CASS: That was the question that began this whole thing!
SERA: That was your question. I just [???????????]. And besides, I don't know - or much care - where I was born.
CASS: ...Ah.
SERA: [????? - possibly "Hey, don't look at me."]

That seems close enough.

Close enough? Tsk. A little clarification because you guys didn't get any who-likes-who in the ancient interviews.

 

CASS: Another guess, Sera: were you born in Denerim?
SERA: What? No. Is that what you're trying for?
CASS: That was the question that began this whole thing!
SERA: That was your question. I just hoped something on the map would rhyme with "arse." Besides, I don't know or much care where I was born.
CASS: (Sighs, clears throat.) Arse.
SERA: Aww, for me? (laughs).

 

Also did you hear Sera's after battle remark, I think she said "Fists up Face Down", aha. It's at the 13:20 mark on video 2.

Bits up, face down!

Because, you know, she can't always be sure they have fists.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

I've mentioned this in the Vivienne thread, but I don't like how the camera doesn't zoom in on characters during a conversation. Like the conversation with Josie was perfect, but the one with Viv looked too static for my liking.

"Full" conversation system versus "simple" conversation system. "Full" requires hand-touched cameras/cine throughout. We save them for scenes with movement or multiple characters. "Simple" conversations have a single camera you can rotate yourself, and button-exit if you want.

 

The question of which is better is really "do you like content?" Because while "Fulls" are shiny, with the "Simple" system, we were able to include a lot more simply talking to people. We have plenty of both, but the option wouldn't have been "make more shiny," it was "don't have them at all."

 

Jesus people you lot worry WAY TOO MUCH

You really, really do. Maybe Cam romanced her and had something spoilery up next. How about them apples, huh?

[Lukas Kristjanson]

I'd actually love to hear Luke comment on Cat's writings so far.

 

I'm sure he's been lurking in the shadows all along.

My comment is that it's great to see people inspired by a character, but I'm not the person you want reading it. Not because I'm a big meany or something. But it's the same reason for the advice I give people applying for jobs as writers:

• Use our worlds (or other well-known settings), so there is something familiar as a benchmark to show you can do tone, setting, blah blah "right."
• NEVER use our major characters in your submission, because you don't want to roll those dice on an application.

Because you may think you know their voices, but you're up against a very specific ear that goes way beyond what is in the released character's actions and dialogue. It's a minefield of previous versions I've rewritten for tone alone after months of evaluation. There are dialogue rhythms and little things/words the characters would never do/say, stated only in dev bibles for direction of writers, art, animation, and actors. Plus future arcs in potential stories that only exist in the writer's head and our deepest lore. Plus written prose has descriptive narrative of thoughts, increasing the chances of stepping on some unknown booby-trap.

 

I've known some version of Sera buried in dusty design docs for nearly half a decade. It is not a fair test, there is no way players could or should know any of it.

 

So please, have fun. But if I show up, I'm a party killer. I'm afraid it's tc;dr.

too close; didn't read

 

 

Pics are cool though. I can't draw for crap.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Being a writer myself I know all too well how I would react if somebody took my character and wrote about her.

You get used to it. You have to, if you do this for a living. We had seven fulltime writers for most of DAI. We each "own" certain characters and plots, but that doesn't mean we are the only ones writing them. The main dialogues, yes, but those are (like everything) evaluated at multiple stages by peers who don't pull punches. And when the characters pipe up elsewhere, in games the size of ours it's simply not possible to jump in to write every interjection/banter at the time. We're usually in each other's heads enough that we can write for the other characters. But sometimes not, so you go in after and check voice, and you bounce it back and forth to satisfy both. Sometimes one of the others suggests a direction that changes how you look at the character. On a meta level, it's the only time I get to "play" a BioWare game unspoiled.

 

So yeah, we are specifically trained to brutally dissect what other people do to the voices of our characters. I won't subject fans to that. But, you know, start drawing a paycheque and the glare from the eye of Sauron turns. Shades help.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

That's why I would really like to hear what her writer meant by it when he wrote it.

 

No.

 

It's been two days. Play the game. Discover the themes and how the characters reflect them. Learn what kinds of things Sera puts behind uncertain language and what she doesn't, then decide what she means. Hint: despite the focus of certain forum threads, the vast amount of content that the characters are concerned about has nothing to do with romance.

 

That "nothing exists in a vacuum" thing applies to the whole game within itself as well.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

So I did a quick playthrough with male Qunari, and unfortunately it confirmed the worst scenario. Sera just says a line about wondering how "your" women look like instead of "their".

 

Which means that the line she tells female Qunari was written specifically with her in mind, and it was fully intentional for Sera to compare the female Qunari PC she's crazy about and is clearly attracted to, even if you don't hit on her, with Iron Bull, after saying that he makes her wonder about things (which, following advice of Lukas and looked at with the context of the game including different playthroughs in mind, obviously means sexual thoughts, or at least it meant in conversations with all the other PC's), which makes it look like Sera is attracted to Iron Bull to some, though smaller than to female Qunari character, degree.

No. You misunderstood my response. I'll try again, but nothing kills the player/reader/viewer experience like a writer explaining a character.

Spoiler

I stated in my reply that most character concerns have nothing to do with romance, which was meant to reassure you that this line is not about romance. Because Sera never displays uncertainty about what gender she is attracted to. To understand what does make her uncertain, think about Bull without thinking about romance at all. The things Sera worries about in her dialogues give context to how she might view an outsider who still seems so confident about where they come from. "he's got nothing on you (he's not appealing to me like you are) but that Qun stuff, I don't know (but maybe he's on to something with that philosophy of his)."

To say it plain: Sera is not sexually attracted to Bull. If someone reads it that way, they are wrong, because that single line in isolation can only be interpreted that way if everything explicitly stated by and about her character everywhere else is ignored, both in and out of the game.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

He said "jeez people". The "people" part is why I responded.

All Red Jenny missions done.

Hi. For clarity, a couple questions for you:

Spoiler

Please state how you chose to end the confrontation with the noble in Sera's personal plot.

Also, have you been "chatting Sera up" by going through the new topics that open up after arriving at Skyhold and after her personal plot? Not the cine conversation scenes, but the ones that appear in her "simple conversation" hub?