820 réponses à ce sujet

[EnduinRaylene]

The radial menu pauses the game. This is not the same team that created ME3, and this team clearly made the decision to emphasise the action over the tactical in the UI and control schemes by removing active abilities from the radial menu. They didn't just pull the number 8 out of their backsides, it reflects the buttons available on console controllers. 

 

They've tested and tweaked this, I assure you. In this process, they apparently determined that people using a controller prefered having 8 mapped abilities to using a radial menu for active abilities. 

 

So, when designing the PC interface for keyboard and mouse users, we see the same limitation of 8 active abilities. Now, I ask you... do you think the KB+M interface is limited to 8 slots because (a) "it's a fun tactical challenge;" or ( because the console versions are limited to 8, and we wouldn't want to ship the game with an advantage for PC gamers?

You do realize that the radial wheel was present in DAO and DA2 on consoles giving players full access to all their abilities, outside of the 6 abilities mapped to the controller face buttons. And not only that but the radial wheel is still present in DAI giving players who use a game pad access to the 3 potion/consumable action slots, as well as the command options for things like defend, halt and so on which will still be necessary to use during combat so there's no reason to remove the abilities section of the wheel if not for other reasons outside of control limitations. This is a design choice independent of console input. You might not like it, but there is little reason to blame it on consoles.

[AlanC9]

And regardless of BioWare's choice, somebody will find a way to mod the UI and allow us PC gamers to use our full ability pool at all times instead of being arbitrarily limited.

Not necessarily. It's quite likely that the difference between active abilities and un-loaded abilities is coded at a level below easy modding.

[In Exile]

Alright, after my initial outrage about 8 slots for abilities, it's time to cool down and comment on the rest.

 

1. Mana/stamina and health bars:

They should decide on one system and stick with it. Either do stamina and health both around the portrait (like in DA:O), or make stamina to be a separate bar, under health bar (like DA2). Combining both systems in such a weird way is confusing and difficult to read. 

The health bar itself has a strange choice of colours and design. Why fragmented bar, and why is it green?

 

2. Character potraits:

I actually really like this design, it's coherent with graphical style that they've introduced in DA2 during Varric's between-acts transitions. It seems to be the same style as DA Keep. It looks good and I like it very much.

 

3. Potion slots:

Three slots for potions seem suitable at first glance (health, lyrium/stamina and 1 more), but when you consider just how many different potions, poisons, bombs and things like that DA2 introduced, it just doesn't seem to be enough. I seriously doubt that they'll cripple crafting, so it might be hard to actually find enough space to use different potions or poisons/bombs. I realize, that each character has 3 slots, but probably each character ill need health and lyrium/stamina potions. I'm sceptical so far, we'll see how it actually works in-game. 

 

4. The visual design:

Quickbar looks aesthetically pleasing, at least to me (looks cool and clean it other words). The empty bar above skills looks like experience bar. Minimap looks fine as well. I'm not sure whether this magnifying glass (Tab) is necessary here, previous titles worked just fine without something like that taking space on the screen. 

 

True enough. But you also had probably 2-4 sustained abilities. And level cap in DA2 is probably lower than in DA:I. I mean, Dragon Age 2 is about 50 hours long for completionist? My first playthrough with MotA DLC (no Legacy yet) netted 65 hours. I skipped 2-3 side quests, but struggled heavily with combat on Nightmare, due to my inexperience. 

DA:I on the other hand is supposed to be 150 hours for completionist. Let's call it 120 hours for doing all side quests and main story but without finding all collectibles/stufff like that (sounds reasonable). This is still at least twice as long as DA2. So gaining more abilities/levels would be justified.

 

The bars are presumably fragmented because of the renegeration cap introduced by difficulty. You have bars to know how much you can regen after each encounter. 

[durasteel]

If so; they really seem ugly to me. I think the art they use for this purpose on the controller ui is way better than this...

 

I have no problem with the way it looks, it seems clean and balanced between informative and unobtrusive, to me. My only problem is the 8 slot limitation.

[AlanC9]

So, when designing the PC interface for keyboard and mouse users, we see the same limitation of 8 active abilities. Now, I ask you... do you think the KB+M interface is limited to 8 slots because (a) "it's a fun tactical challenge;" or ( b ) because the console versions are limited to 8, and we wouldn't want to ship the game with an advantage for PC gamers?

Alternatively, they could have designed the entire game around the assumption that we'd be limited to eight active abilities. In which case more abilities on PC would be an outright violation of the design intent, rather than merely an "advantage."

[Giantdeathrobot]

I like that the tactical camera zoom is far off and in an isometric-ish perspective, rather than being too close like in DA2. Also having detailed information on enemies (health, immunities, buffs, ect.) is a big jump forward. For an RPG, Dragon Age had been pretty tight-lipped about the nitty gritty of its combat system, hopefully the numbers will be more visible and clear in Inquisition.

[durasteel]

You do realize that the radial wheel was present in DAO and DA2 on consoles giving players full access to all their abilities, outside of the 6 abilities mapped to the controller face buttons. And not only that but the radial wheel is still present in DAI giving players who use a game pad access to the 3 potion/consumable action slots, as well as the command options for things like defend, halt and so on which will still be necessary to use during combat so there's no reason to remove the abilities section of the wheel if not for other reasons outside of control limitations. This is a design choice independent of console input. You might not like it, but there is little reason to blame it on consoles.

 

Considering the de-emphasis on potions and the redesigned tactics options, I'm getting the strong impression that there was a real objective to make the game playable without pausing at all, even in single player mode. Sure, the commands are still there, just like the tactical camera and the option to control party members, but it's also viable to play the game as a hyperkinetic TPS if that's how you want to do it. They're trying to expand the audience.

[Veggie55]

Sweet!
The clean, minimalist approach is actually a lot better looking than I thought it'd be

[durasteel]

Alternatively, they could have designed the entire game around the assumption that we'd be limited to eight active abilities. In which case more abilities on PC would be an outright violation of the design intent, rather than merely an "advantage."

 

Pull the other one, it's got bells on.

[Amaror]

Thank god that you can only use 8 abilities. Wouldn't want this game to become too tactical now would we. 

[In Exile]

Considering the de-emphasis on potions and the redesigned tactics options, I'm getting the strong impression that there was a real objective to make the game playable without pausing at all, even in single player mode. Sure, the commands are still there, just like the tactical camera and the option to control party members, but it's also viable to play the game as a hyperkinetic TPS if that's how you want to do it. They're trying to expand the audience.

 

Potions were always worthless. Their bonuses were negligible at the absolute best of times.  DAI couldn't have de-emphasized them more even by removing them entirely. 

[In Exile]

Considering the de-emphasis on potions and the redesigned tactics options, I'm getting the strong impression that there was a real objective to make the game playable without pausing at all, even in single player mode. Sure, the commands are still there, just like the tactical camera and the option to control party members, but it's also viable to play the game as a hyperkinetic TPS if that's how you want to do it. They're trying to expand the audience.

 

Potions were always worthless. Their bonuses were negligible at the absolute best of times.  DAI couldn't have de-emphasized them more even by removing them entirely. 

[Novos]

I have no problem with the way it looks, it seems clean and balanced between informative and unobtrusive, to me. My only problem is the 8 slot limitation.

 

I was trying to quote the post above yours but i guess i have been a victim of yet another IE bug and the quote didn' t register. So my message was seen like a reply to yours. Sorry

 

On the other hand regarding your previous message; i would also put multiplayer in it. I believe the design decision is probably made under the influence of consoles and multiplayer combined.
 

[Chari]

It kinda reminds me of elves redesign in DA2. They were just fine in DA:O and majority liked them but someone decided to change everything and they became navi-like horses.

Now the slots have to suffer a "brilliant" redesign

[Novos]

Potions were always worthless. Their bonuses were negligible at the absolute best of times.  DAI couldn't have de-emphasized them more even by removing them entirely. 

 

Funny thing is that i always disliked using potions; i mean in any game. I don't know why but i'd rather die or go out of mana instead of using one. It has been always like that.

 

Therefore; lack of healing and in and out of combat regen was and still is horrible for me  But i guess i have to live with it. 

[mugwuffin1986]

8 ability slots is fine. 32 abilities across the party is more than enough.

 

The game is a tactical RPG, it's about putting together a cohesive party for the encounter at hand. It's not a game about adding 40 abilities to your hotbar and using your party as human shields while face-rolling to the credits.

 

Go back and watch some of the gameplay footage, you'll see enemies are clearly highlighted with a "Weakness/Resistance" tooltip, this would lead me to believe the combat and encounter design is based around using the correct abilities/team loadout for specific areas.

 

The design is clear... a focus on party cohesion, more of a focus on using the party, tactical decisions concerning what to abilities use in a particular situation and a lack of emphasis on hording abilities for a shotgun approach. Throw in the old tactics system, the new "focus" mechanic as well as the new healing mechanics and you have a far more thoughtful combat design than previous entries in the series.

 

I'm sure some people will still disagree but everything coming out of the released video content and the designers themselves points toward this.

[I WANT MOD]

PC 8 ability slots

is a bad dsign

[Rawgrim]

Only 2 weapon styles per class. 1 for mage. Down to only 8 abilities\spells per battle now too. Less choice = less tactics.

[aries1001]

I still don't get why health is green now.

I think I'd rather have DA2's variable length bars.  And have stamina with the health bars, rather than curled round the portrait.

 

Maybe because of people like me. I'm colurblind. And had a very difficult time seeing how much my health was (in the game, obviously ) since the blue colour for many was sort of reddish blue, I found...

[tmp7704]

The health bar itself has a strange choice of colours and design. Why fragmented bar, and why is it green?

Green tends to be shortcut for "safe" while red is code for "danger" (consider street lights as most common, obvious example). So having your life bar green makes lot of sense on intuitive level.

[Rawgrim]

Maybe because of people like me. I'm colurblind. And had a very difficult time seeing how much my health was (in the game, obviously ) since the blue colour for many was sort of reddish blue, I found...

 

Same here. Can't tell red and green apart most of the time.

[DragonAgeLegend]

Meh.. I won't complain about it until I play it and feel that I need more.. 

[Rawgrim]

Green tends to be shortcut for "safe" while red is code for "danger" (consider street lights as most common, obvious example). So having your life bar green makes lot of sense on intuitive level.

 

Red is also the colour of blood. Wich is life.

[In Exile]

Green tends to be shortcut for "safe" while red is code for "danger" (consider street lights as most common, obvious example). So having your life bar green makes lot of sense on intuitive level.

 

True, though I thought that "red" was meant to somehow represent blood. 

[JamieCOTC]

The look is fine and I really like how things are separated, but 8 ability slot limit is a bit disappointing. Best case is that this does what it is meant to do and makes the player think more tactically, especially on who to bring into the party. Worst case the gameplay becomes even more tedious than DA2. We'll have to wait and see I guess.