19 réponses à ce sujet

[Falcon084]

Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Baldur's Gate Legacy, and the Value of an Open World

 

So you don't miss it ^

 

[Allan Schumacher]

How is this mechanic, which clearly relies on the player's skill and response rather than character's, being fair to both Tactical mode users and Third-person view users? I mean, if I were playing the game in Tactical mode completely, will I not be at a disadvantage completely for not actively using this mechanic? Will I be forced to play in third-person mode and dodge roll whenever I can so I can get the most out of the character?

 

You can still use those abilities while in tactical camera.  You activate the ability and pick a direction to move in.  When you unpause/engage you'll execute the maneuver.

[Allan Schumacher]

And I'm not saying DA:I is nothing like BG - Bioware is the one saying that.

 

What are you referring to with this comment?

[Allan Schumacher]

And yet you keep implying that it make more sense for them not to and they are just fallowing Shyrim.

 

Are you confusing posts?  THere's several people talking and it's possible you're attributing someone one poster said with another.

[Allan Schumacher]

Wouldn't it be hard to execute it in that mode though? I mean, you are in the Tactical view which covers a large part of the battlefield with the camera being freely movable.

 

No.  I select the character (like I would for anything else) and I pick the dodge ability (I can't remember the precise name off hand).  I then pick a direction that I'd like the character to roll in.

 

I'm obviously familiar with the system and that biases my interpretation, but I'm not sure how the circumstances of your statement would make the move more difficult to execute.  Can you elaborate?

[Allan Schumacher]

Sure. What I'm saying is; say you're playing in Tactical view only, how would you be able to see when to execute the move? Couldn't the camera be somewhere else during the fight, not to mention the camera angle itself makes it harder to see the moves of your enemies precisely to execute the roll?

The game is usually paused in tactical mode. Even if you're in the real-time "engage" mode, it just means recognizing an incoming attack and pausing the game, switching to the character and issuing the command. You may miss some of they are away from your focus, though you'll still have this problem with the over the shoulder camera too.

 

In DA 2, we were stuck with Third Person view but it is because of that we were able to use Evade on our Rogue characters properly. Simply put, how do you solve the problem of the player who prefers Tactical mode gameplay when he's at a disadvantage compared to someone using third person, since the guy can't really use the skill as effectively as the TP one because of the lack of similar amount of combat visibility.

I'm not sure the tactical camera person has less combat visibility. In the over the shoulder camera, your focus is very much on the controlled player, which compromises your visibility towards the other companions. While I'm in tactical camera mode, my visibility is still typically towards one of my characters. So yes, I may miss something if a player is off camera, but I'll be missing them in the other view too.

The only place I could see it being an issue is if you had none of your party members on the screen, and didn't have the game paused. This is an unfamiliar state for me (it's definitely not how I play the game).

Seeing an ogre winding up for a powerful attack, or a spell incoming isn't something I struggle with. I may miss basic attacks, but unless a player is at ultra low health (which would have me focus my attention on them anyways) I wouldn't consider dodging those attacks to be the best use of the skill, since it incurs the resource and cooldown cost.

 

Also, can I ask if we can set the roll to tactics for characters, to make them use it on their own?

The move has some issues because picking an automatic direction can be problematic - no one wants to see their companion dodge roll right off of a cliff or into another more powerful attack. But it is something we want to deliver.

[Allan Schumacher]

Okay, so it's Engage mode if it's real time top-down view? Anyway, if you're in "Engage" mode, you are still controlling the melee character but the visibility of the enemy that is directly in front of your character is lowered because you're in that top-down view. I wasn't talking about the overall visibility. So say the enemy directly in front of your melee character uses a power move, you might not be able to see it in time therefore not use the pause function to activate the ability. Yes, you may not be able to dodge in TP view sometimes as well, but this is more likely to happen in top-down since you're not clearly able to see what your melee character's enemy is doing. Just saying that the problem is still there despite your character being on screen.

I don't think that this will be a concern because I don't think the characters will be that small that this type of detail will be missing.

I understand your concern but it hasn't been an issue in my experience.  It may come down to personal player experience as to whether or not it's an issue.

[Cameron Lee]

Hey all.

Thought I'd clear up some things for anyone who hasn't had the time to read the whole article yet.

My comment about moving on from BG and NWN was part of a conversation about camera perspective, movement and the immersion of the worlds we play in. What I was saying is that BG is 16 years old, that gaming and tech have moved on and evolved over those years to the point where you can get lost in a massive 3D worlds.

That's all. I wasn't distancing us from our games. In fact the article has me explicitly talking about the RPG system similarities of DAI to BG.

But headline grabs are always interesting right. Inquisition is probably the deepest RPG we've ever made, it's certainly the largest. Story, party, tactical and real-time combat, quests, tons of equipment, crafting, more stats than you can poke a stick at, alchemy, your own castle to control... I could go on and on about RPG systems in DAI.

Hope that puts some people's mind at easy.


Cam

[Cameron Lee]

Please do.
We have next to no information about the all stuff that's really really deep according to you guys.
We have no detail on our Castle, no Information about the Stats or Skill Trees, no Information about crafting, no Information about alchemy and so on. 
We want to believe that DA:I is going to be awesome and deep and a really cool rpg, but we don't have anything to work with.
Besides that one leaked video, all the marketing just keeps showing action and cool dragon fight and badass inquisitor walking away from a conversation without even looking back. We haven't really seen anything deep so far.

Understood. Now we're past E3 we have a bunch of things coming soon which will help show this much better.

[Allan Schumacher]

Removed some posts.  Keep the discussion about the article.

 

Yes, we haven't released much beyond the companion content yet.  There's more stuff coming.  Talking down about other posters that are interested in other aspects of the game than you is not acceptable.

[Allan Schumacher]

I suddenly feel so old. I'm too young to feel this old.

 

Yesterday someone FINALLY acknowledged my Predator 2 movie quote... after 24 years >.>

 

 

 

 

The only depth revealed so far is just how deep down the rabbit hole you guys went with the romances. 

 

Yup.  IIRC the companion stuff is pretty much done now and we'll be moving on to other aspects including more gameplay and "RPG" stuff.

[Allan Schumacher]

Are you at all concerned about the amount of derision the "romance first, gameplay second" approach is garnering on forums outside of your control?

 

Nope.  I think people have a tendency to overstate how frequently they see something that they aren't particularly fond of (especially if they're looking for something else) and it's a bit overstated.  Though I do think some of those opposed create a Streisand Effect (I find myself more likely to find posts lamenting that the game is a romance simulator rather than celebrating romance).  But the loud, critical stuff is typically always the loudest.

 

Would you rather, though, that we wrap up the final bit of marketing push in the days before launch to be romance stuff?  I think that that sends a stronger message that romance is the key point of the game.  Kind of like finishing your essay with the point you think is the strongest.

 

 

There's lots of voices for Thing I Really Want To See™ and it happens even with the romance fans.  It's still happening romance fans as they wait for the last two romance characters.  It happened with Josephine, for example, when fans were hoping for it to come out on a particular day and it didn't.  When they finally got their news though, they were mostly excited... I don't get the impression very many are feeling vindictive towards BioWare for missing that day.  Some might, but they certainly aren't vocal ones.

 

So in this case, the stuff you're looking for is still coming.  When it shows, you probably won't care much if it was shown in May or if it was shown in August... you'll care about whether or not you like what you see.  You might or you might not, but the conversation will shift to that.

 

 

I will actually have to see what their talking about in a video before i believe any of it.

 

Perfectly fair.  And if we don't show it, I think it's safe to say we stand virtually no chance of selling the game to you or people like you.

[Allan Schumacher]

Allan is there any way you can comment on the questions I posed earlier in this thread about the PC interface?

 

Which ones specifically?  When will you see the Mouse and Keyboard UI?  I don't know when it's planned to be shown off unfortunately.  Probably not at SDCC (I saw you ask that in a different place).

[Allan Schumacher]

But it does exist, yes?  And the mouse panning and zooming, that will work just like the previous games, correct?

 

It does exist.  Mouse panning exists.  I don't remember what DA2's zooming in and out can do so I don't remember how similar it is to that game.  You can zoom in and out while in tactical mode, and it looks and responds very similarly to the bits you've seen but with a controller.  When we show of the tactical camera mode more thoroughly you'll get a better idea of the range of motion that the camera has while in that mode.

[Allan Schumacher]

I suppose it depends on who you're trying to sell to.  I'm still not clear on why the romance aspect needed more than cursory focus to begin with.  Sure, it excites the vocal folks on your boards here, but you have to know they're a miniscule drop in the bucket compared to the numbers you guys are clearly chasing with this game, and that Bioware romances don't tend to be all that well spoken-of off Bioware boards.

 

We announced the companions for the most part.  I mean, how much of our official marketing includes an actual focus on the romance content, specifically?  How much of it is the "drop in the bucket" fans carrying the conversation around?

 

 

 

 

And I'm not so sure you can chalk finding posts about the game being a romance simulator up to the Streisand Effect.  The only real solid info you're handing out has to do with the romances.  You've got employees going to cons to discuss the romances.  You've got your writers devoting their Tumblrs to discussing the romances.  Meanwhile, I can't find any basic information on character statistics. 

 

We have employees going to GaymerX to have a PANEL that talks about LGBT content in video games.  It's not a huge marketing beat.... it's a conference and we'd attend it regardless.  If the choice is "don't go at all" to placate you, then I wouldn't choose what you want.  If you want to voice a complaint for that, tell GaymerX to reschedule when they host their event.

 

You want to know why the writers are talking about romances on tumblr?  It's because the "drop in the bucket" is asking David questions.  How far reaching does the tumblr interactions go beyond tumblr and this message board?  David is also a writer.  He fields questions about the stuff he does, which is writing.  Of which the bulk of it is companions (which many people DO love about our games, romances or no) and plot.  Look at what Mark talks about.  Look at what Mike talks about.  Though a quick look at David's Tumblr and most of the questions he deals with are not about romances.  Some are about voice acting, he's got two about The Keep!

 

We don't go to GaymerX to advertise the game in any significant manner.  We go to GaymerX because as a studio, we think that recognizing LGBT content is a decent thing to do and our game happens to include it.  For the people of that audience, it's no real surprise that they talk about LGBT content since that's a significant part of the focus of the event.

 

 

 

 

Intended or not, you guys are giving the impression that romance is a huge, important component of the game.

 

Because I think your impressions are incorrect.  You want to know what *most* people have been exposed to about our game?  Do a search for things that include "E3."  Look at how much romance content was discussed during E3.  Look at how much romance content was shown during the gameplay footage.  I mean jeez, look at the article linked in the OP of this post.  Tell me how much romance comes up in that, and it's a focused event with a major games publication for the purposes of specifically promoting the game.  The answer to the question is none.  But I bet your sampling bias has overlooked that, because you are so focused on romances. 

We have blurbs and writer interviews talking about our characters.  Most of which don't even touch on romance (e.g. David simply mentioned that Dorian was gay, and the world jumped up on that as the talking point.  Sounds like the mere existence of a gay character is newsworthy).  The romance information goes out to the hardest of the hardcore that have their eyes glued to the forums or other more direct forms of communication with fans, like Twitter.

 

To be perfectly frank, at this point you come across as trying to coerce us into releasing Information You Want™ by making suppositions that we're undermining our game because several months before release, we're announcing the companions the Inquisitor will hang out with.  So no, at this point I don't agree with your perspective.  I think it's biased because you want other stuff and you really hate other stuff, so you frame it in a way in the hopes of encouraging us to give you the information you care about.  If you'd like to prove me wrong, do a wide scale intersectional analysis of our fanbase and run some panels and talk with the fans face to face and find out what it is that they are so excited about for the game.  Yes, a LOT of people LOVE our games for the story and the characters.  My favourite parts of BioWare games have always been the companions (Minsc, Jaheira, Viconia, Imoen, Irenicus, Edwin, Max, Aribeth, Jolee Bindo, HK-47, Juhani, Bastila, Garrus, Tali, Mordin, Leliana, Shale, Alistair, Morrigan, Thane, Varric, Isabela, Aveline), even though I probably care less about romance content being included than even you do.

 

 

So I'm telling you: the content you're looking for is coming.  Hopefully enough of it comes out for you to be satisfied, but at this point we're just going to start arguing in circles since it's your impressions versus mine.  I answered your question with what I feel is the right answer.  You don't seem to actually care what my answer is and seem more inclined on pointing out that I'm wrong, so I guess we'll see if the course of marketing this changes much.  But I'm not seeing a discussion here at this point, nor am I particularly interested in continuing this one.

[Cameron Lee]

I find if interesting that there's a perception we've marketed romances when none of our official marketing has focused on that.

In general terms, our marketing has run something like this;

- Announce game (E3 2013, premise)
- Show the game (PAX - combat, keeps, announce tac cam on all platforms etc)
- Locations (vids, screens etc)
- Characters (vids, screens, etc)
- Show the game (E3 2014 - story, dragon combat, exploration, towns, mounts etc ).

Next we're moving into mechanics and more gameplay.

Sure various devs have tweeted stuff about romances, just like we do on many other topics. There's a few writer interviews which include one or two questions on orientation but that's amongst many other topics of the characters personality. Some devs have unofficial blogs which I'm sure it comes up there too. But official marketing? Nothing on romances.

Perhaps it's due to it being one of most common question by press, community panels and on social media? All that gets retweeted or passed on here in an amplified manner, so from a community/BSN I can see where that perception may come from.

[Cameron Lee]

Cameron quick question if you dont mind answering, would a UI ever work with small companion quickbars on the pc screen? for quick combo setup etc an basic non stop interruption of combat

Or even just move specific/limited companion skills to my skill bar

It's a cool idea Caladin, I'll pass it on to the UI team to think about.

[Allan Schumacher]

It does in fact look like something for console versions who did not have the ability to scroll (zoom) out, around, or up while paused or un-paused.  Hence why they are describing it as "new" feature.

 

As a note, the tactical camera didn't actually exist in DA2 either.  So in the sense of the franchise, the tactical camera for the PC is a return to a camera mode that allows you to detach the camera from a character and move the camera around.

 

Based on your posts, I think you're thinking that it's some sort of additional camera mode on top of something else, but just to be clear it is not.

[Allan Schumacher]

Wich Predator 2 quote was it?

 

"Want some candy?"  I can't even remember the context by which it came up (I think someone was literally giving a coworker some candy... XD)

[Allan Schumacher]

I'd really prefer this to not turn into a discussion over the viewpoints of those that frequent RPG Codex, and how valid/invalid they happen to be.