32 réponses à ce sujet

[C0uncil0rTev0s]

It seems like Bioware is fine now with copying things 'that sell' and the ones 'that are supposed to work right' in game development. Hence that I'd really want Dragon Age developer team to play Divinity: Original Sin game at least once. Larian made some bold statements what's acceptable in party-based RPG and what is quite not. 

 

First of all - D:OS isn't like older DA games at all. It's more of Lionheart: The Legacy of the Crusader played in 4-men party (starting from the setting to the dialogue mechanics and plot reveal). Yet it is a party-based cRPG which has a lot in it, and that encouraged me into going even further.

 

Let's start with the dialogues and their impact on role-playing aspect of the game.

 

I'm fine with the dialogue wheel. While this mechanics has its flaws it's also simple to get, easy to go with, and saving us from thinking like 'well what could happen if I choose this'. In one word - the main benefit of the DW is certainty.

 

But choosing the options in dialogue also has to contribute to our roleplaying, right? If you choose an evil option - your PC gotta be more evil since that. If you choose a selfish option, which isn't evil by default, your PC should become more selfish. And so very on. 

 

Let's say I propose a Personality Development Feature here.

 

Spoiler

Imagine it as a Circle/Star with, let's say, four axis:

1. Kind* <--------------> Evil*

2. Lawful* <-----------> Uprising**

3. Altruist* <----------> Selfish**

4. Materialist* <------> Idealist**

 

1* somewhat similar to ME1's paragon

1** somewhat about Renegade choices in ME3

2* abiding the laws of the realm and the traditions of the people

2** spitting on the laws and everything that can be considered holy

3* this PC prefers other peoples' interest to the ones of his/her own

3** this PC prefers own interests to the ones of the people around

4* somewhat similar to pro-Templar alias in DA:I

4** somewhat similar to pro-Mage alias in DA:I

 

Choosing certain dialogue options will contribute into developing four of those eight possible "alignments". 

 

(1) On the one hand, you Bioware folks can build a really variable dialogue options from this, providing unique dialogue experience in the franchise. Elven nationalists will be behaving the best with the lawful idealist PCs, and rebel mages - with uprising idealists and so on.

 

(2) On the other hand, you'll be able to go away from that failure with dialogue options unlocks with the Power thing. Just bind those unlocks to the personality build - let's have underground understanding to the selfish PCs, and the law enforcement understanding to the lawful ones. It'll be rational and logical, don't you think? Jacks-of-all-trades should go to where they belong - MMORPGs and Mary Sue books.

 

(3) Somewhere in between of those hands there can be additional 'perks'. Selfish materialist can be quite traited in Trading. And the Kind Idealist gotta be quite good at healing/helping skills. Uprising Altruist should be awesome for encouraging the mob to do his/her bidding, while Lawful Evil can get a boost to dark arcane arts thing. 

 

Just saying - this will also help with those MMO reputation points. I mean, it'll help to get rid of those reputation points/progression bars that are considered very,very MMOish by your customers.

 

Then there goes a crafting thing. While I'd like to remind you of my earlier suggestions, there's a way around. One that is still better than the failure we have in DA:I. 

 

First of all - make those recipies not that obvious as an ingredient. Let's say player can make most item parts if the right components are used from the very start, but the quality of the product should rely on the access to the blueprints and certain improvements of the crafting hall.

 

Second - please make crafting feel like crafting, not like solving puzzles for 6 y.o. kids with all those 'defence', 'offence' and 'support slots'. Consider making some stages in crafting. Somewhat like these examples:

 

Example 1. Crafting a sword. 

 

Spoiler

Action one: PC goes to the forge and makes ingots from ore he/she collected.

Action two: PC chooses a form for the blade part of the sword at the anvil. Each form should have it's unique bonuses.

Action three: PC goes to the worktable and chooses a grip part for the sword. Again, each form should have it's bonuses.

Action four: PC assembles the sword at the worktable, choosing between unique modifiers (magical tokens, elemental runes, whatever you are able to think of). 

 

Example 2. Crafting a crossbow (miss those a lot in DA:I)

 

Spoiler

Action one: PC goes to the worktable and works the collected wood into blanks, sinews into strings.

Action two: PC chooses a form for the crossbow's bed and butt. Each has it's bonuses.

Action three: PC goes to the fletcher station and chooses a string for the crossbow.

Action four: PC assembles the crossbow at the fletching station, choosing between unique modifiers (magical tokens, elementals runes - I hope you get the pattern). 

 

If those actions are going to be animated (even as a cutscenes) players will be a lot more attached to crafted items. Specially if you trade those lame 'Fade-touched' materials for unique crafting components, like a string from unicorn's mane or a grip of that big bad  badass darkspawn boss'es horn PC killed few hours ago. Or dragon claw. Or undead balls as a dark magic token. Whatever your wild imagination can go for. 

 

Third thing to consider in crafting - weapons made from common materials should be balanced somewhat around the 'common' items (white ones) that we meet in a usual drop. No more OP crafted daggers that are better than anything we can find... like anywhere. Even in a largest dragon's belly. 

 

However if player manages to get a cut of the unicorn's mane for a string and some ironbark for the bow blank the results should be respecting the invested time.

 

Somewhat late here so I'm going off for a while. I'll start another topic with suggestions if I have the right mood for it.

 

Ty for reading and good night

[b10d1v]

I think you are driving at an improved character controller that actually tracks the PC and the NPCs and their alignments.  Valid point, since inquisitions can barely keep track of the inner circle let alone provide reliable feedback on your actions.  

 

Crafting- "Ya just can't let it go" and most of us agree it needs an overhaul -I wouldn't even complete it at this point!  Collect the suggestions, optimize the design and move forward.  Just because you can craft is no reason for items to be better than vanilla unless you have learned how to coax a bit more at the anvil and enchanter.

 

While you were out, this has been posed from the beginning:  what if you were just a servant that wandered in on Cory?  What if Cassy and her cronies pissed you off and you ran at the first opportunity?  Are you repentant and return to help or just looking for payback - screw them all?  As a front end mod to create your character's development up to obtaining the glowing hand.  Many have tried to fix a few plot holes and inconsistencies with this process. 

[b10d1v]

Looking forward you also hit on the dialog system and I agree that the wheel is not the fundamental problem.  The codec and pointer system corruptions are often puzzling at how they arrive at incorrect dialog or sound effects and I'm pretty sure that the sequence of events issues in cutscenes and quests start in these system modules.  Foundations first!  And learn from these mistakes!

 

I would like to add that Voice recognition is past due.  When an NPC has a topic an icon appears over them and color lets you know its relative importance, while team mate bubbles may change the discussion attributes by adding new viewpoints or information as may random NPC interactions.  Simply saying their name will activate an NPC and the dialog wheel and then focus on the choices or possibly deviate to a teammate.  I also feel a voice emulation module is needed to create new dialog when responses exceed the actor voice data base.

[AlanC9]

They tried something like personality development with ME2, didn't they? You could only pass the difficult Paragon checks by consistently making a lot of Paragon choices throughout the game, and the opposite for Renegade.

Everyone hated it. Or rather, some people hated it and nobody really liked it. CRPG role-play is limited enough without the game judging how you're playing your character and rewarding you for doing it in a particular way.

[C0uncil0rTev0s]

They tried something like personality development with ME2, didn't they? You could only pass the difficult Paragon checks by consistently making a lot of Paragon choices throughout the game.

Everyone hated it. Or rather, some people hated it and nobody really liked it.

That was a flat Paragon-Renegade scale, while I'm proposing something other than that. Don't you think?
As for the ME2, I see it the best game in ME universe in the means of roleplaying, even though the ME1 had a lot more impact on me and my tastes.

[b10d1v]

Well that was the point Alan, and there were workarounds planning your missions and the like.  If you next look at DAO bioware added items and gifts to modify your team mate bias toward you to see the extreme hate, disgust and love.  Bioware was leading the pack with much of this team mate dynamics, others have done well with NPC bias to the character.  

The point here is that moving forward there are many proven practices that work well -use them as this game system evolves.  

[AlanC9]

That was a flat Paragon-Renegade scale, while I'm proposing something other than that. Don't you think?

I see that you've proposed to have more axes. I don't see how having more axes prevents your system from suffering from the same flaws.
 

As for the ME2, I see it the best game in ME universe in the means of roleplaying, even though the ME1 had a lot more impact on me and my tastes.

I thought ME2 and ME3 were both awful in the way they handled persuasion -- ME1 had the only decent mechanic in the series.

I was about to say that you're copying the worst feature of ME2, but it's more like you're copying the worst feature of AD&D. (Well, one of the worst, anyway -- there's a lot of competition for that award.)

[AlanC9]

Well that was the point Alan, and there were workarounds planning your missions and the like.  If you next look at DAO bioware added items and gifts to modify your team mate bias toward you to see the extreme hate, disgust and love.  Bioware was leading the pack with much of this team mate dynamics, others have done well with NPC bias to the character.  
The point here is that moving forward there are many proven practices that work well -use them as this game system evolves.

So sell me on these practices. Right now it sounds like, as I said, you're taking a bad thing about CRPGs and making it even worse.

Reminding me about working around these design issues just reminds me of why I didn't like them; besides, I would never use those workarounds. I thought the generic DAO gifts were a terrible idea too

[b10d1v]

Ok, Alan I'll give it a shot.  

 

Emotional character development is supposed to replicate the difficulty holding a team together to achieve a goal.  When you work as a cohesive unit -outstanding results and when dissolution encroaches the efficiency falls off.  You see this in business and government often.

Teamwork is critical for mods as an example: a DLC mod is a big task and we add value to one another as best we can to we move toward a common goal.  Often others will add tools or spend time for training to help the project's lagging components - Yea it's almost an ideal situation when it works and just a bunch of folks plodding ahead when it doesn't. Now that is an extreme example, we only have the common desire to create something. 

 

The gift concept in DAO was to compensate for the some of the more extreme dialog choices and could have been done better, but seeing how the behaviors changed was easily achieved and you could recover easily.  I looked at them as simply a development tool.  

 

I think you're missing the big picture about evolving better game play with complex behaviors:  

In ME1 you are military and told to follow a few leads on all the odd goings on and then as a spectre you must balance Earth's needs against those of the galaxy -You are still held in high regard by most.  

In ME 2 you have been recovered by Cerberus and if you had ME1 see them as dangerous and untrustworthy terrorists, but they spent a lot recovering you, so benifit of the doubt and soon find bigger issues - the collectors!  You are set in uneasy territory and get a better sense of the power cerberus wields and the people you pick up and contact are wary of cerberus (and rising from the dead), but see the bigger picture.  Even your allies from Earth are wary of you, however some of the DLC demonstrates that you carry a lot of clout with the military hierarchy and you must show that a few times.

Me 3 is a bit more complicated because of the schism between writers and management.  Much of the "dark gameplay" come from the mood of the teams-It's not appropriate to discuss it further.  So In Me3, You've taken your licks as a good soldier and the hierarchy asks for your help -all to late.  The emotions are high we are "losing our planet" and your first teammate want's to jump ship.  Now you are just an instrument of hope using diplomacy and consoling folks and where else could you be -no where to run.

 

Let's look at Sera and Bull in the next game.  Sera demonstrates a lot of new independent behaviors hunting, scouting, resource scrounging and she can take bull or any teammate along to increase loot returns.  Bull is quantity, Solus or equivalent is fade materials, Varric is lyrium and/or dwarven trade, etc.   So early on you see her as a must have companion, but she is abrasive and weak on diplomacy, it's your job to keep her on point and in the game, if not your economy suffers.  Sera has always been designed to be difficult and could be tailored a bit, but not much.  So, "what have you done for me lately" becomes an issue with Sera - Red Jenny missions, rescuing the little people and never hit on the Girl she likes!  She may also want to have person talks with you. 

 

Well w/o powerpoint and gantt charts its a start!

[eyezonlyii]

Didn't they try something like the personality thing in DA2 with Hawke? And then people complained that "Hawke wasn't their character" or that they "couldn't roleplay because of auto dialogue"?

 

I think the problem (which you've pointed out with your OP) is the fact that in these games, "good" and "bad" decisions are all lumped together on the wheel, instead of, as you've done, been separated into their respectful categories. 

[VickVeel]

They should make Dragon Age 4 exactly like Dragon Age Origins and pretend dragon age 2 and dragon age inquisition never happened.

[b10d1v]

I'd agree, Trev is probably teaching about now.  Da2 was a small project with rapid turn around and used a lot of cutscenes to build on DAO's success and really sell the inquisition concept. Game play was weak, but DA2 was very small and expectations were low, furthermore they did introduce some new characters especially Varric and Cassandra quite well and sold inquisition as a next generation game -mission achieved!  Making good on the promise with all the unknowns was a management headache with schedule slippage.  I expected problems from my own analysis, just not as many that cropped up.  Some folks are still having trouble with acceptance that inquisition is a lemon and not nearly what it could be, but let's move on.

 

Hawke was really a trapped character (linear) with very limited choices, there just was not enough material to do much.  I don't understand getting hung up on Hawke -it's about your choices and decisions and how NPCs respond to your actions.

[b10d1v]

They should make Dragon Age 4 exactly like Dragon Age Origins and pretend dragon age 2 and dragon age inquisition never happened.

Many would agree, but don't stagnate the technology, move character behaviors and story to the forefront.  That is what is meant by using established practices that worked well in DAO and other games and moved millions and yet so much was abandoned for often illogical reasons -someone has a hardon for healing magic effects and no one challenges the history or how to make such a change logical?  RH not talking to the left issue.  I've added other posts that have Sera on the next version hounding the idiot for skipping creation classes. Sera; "all that power in that glowing hand and the idiot couldn't heal a paper cut." 

[Sartoz]

It seems like Bioware is fine now with copying things 'that sell' and the ones 'that are supposed to work right' in game development. Hence that I'd really want Dragon Age developer team to play Divinity: Original Sin game at least once. Larian made some bold statements what's acceptable in party-based RPG and what is quite not. 

 

First of all - D:OS isn't like older DA games at all. It's more of Lionheart: The Legacy of the Crusader played in 4-men party (starting from the setting to the dialogue mechanics and plot reveal). Yet it is a party-based cRPG which has a lot in it, and that encouraged me into going even further.

 

Let's start with the dialogues and their impact on role-playing aspect of the game.

 

I'm fine with the dialogue wheel. While this mechanics has its flaws it's also simple to get, easy to go with, and saving us from thinking like 'well what could happen if I choose this'. In one word - the main benefit of the DW is certainty.

 

But choosing the options in dialogue also has to contribute to our roleplaying, right? If you choose an evil option - your PC gotta be more evil since that. If you choose a selfish option, which isn't evil by default, your PC should become more selfish. And so very on. 

 

Let's say I propose a Personality Development Feature here.

 

Spoiler

Imagine it as a Circle/Star with, let's say, four axis:

1. Kind* <--------------> Evil*

2. Lawful* <-----------> Uprising**

3. Altruist* <----------> Selfish**

4. Materialist* <------> Idealist**

 

1* somewhat similar to ME1's paragon

1** somewhat about Renegade choices in ME3

2* abiding the laws of the realm and the traditions of the people

2** spitting on the laws and everything that can be considered holy

3* this PC prefers other peoples' interest to the ones of his/her own

3** this PC prefers own interests to the ones of the people around

4* somewhat similar to pro-Templar alias in DA:I

4** somewhat similar to pro-Mage alias in DA:I

 

Choosing certain dialogue options will contribute into developing four of those eight possible "alignments". 

 

(1) On the one hand, you Bioware folks can build a really variable dialogue options from this, providing unique dialogue experience in the franchise. Elven nationalists will be behaving the best with the lawful idealist PCs, and rebel mages - with uprising idealists and so on.

 

(2) On the other hand, you'll be able to go away from that failure with dialogue options unlocks with the Power thing. Just bind those unlocks to the personality build - let's have underground understanding to the selfish PCs, and the law enforcement understanding to the lawful ones. It'll be rational and logical, don't you think? Jacks-of-all-trades should go to where they belong - MMORPGs and Mary Sue books.

 

(3) Somewhere in between of those hands there can be additional 'perks'. Selfish materialist can be quite traited in Trading. And the Kind Idealist gotta be quite good at healing/helping skills. Uprising Altruist should be awesome for encouraging the mob to do his/her bidding, while Lawful Evil can get a boost to dark arcane arts thing. 

 

Just saying - this will also help with those MMO reputation points. I mean, it'll help to get rid of those reputation points/progression bars that are considered very,very MMOish by your customers.

 

Then there goes a crafting thing. While I'd like to remind you of my earlier suggestions, there's a way around. One that is still better than the failure we have in DA:I. 

 

First of all - make those recipies not that obvious as an ingredient. Let's say player can make most item parts if the right components are used from the very start, but the quality of the product should rely on the access to the blueprints and certain improvements of the crafting hall.

 

Second - please make crafting feel like crafting, not like solving puzzles for 6 y.o. kids with all those 'defence', 'offence' and 'support slots'. Consider making some stages in crafting. Somewhat like these examples:

 

Example 1. Crafting a sword. 

 

Spoiler

Action one: PC goes to the forge and makes ingots from ore he/she collected.

Action two: PC chooses a form for the blade part of the sword at the anvil. Each form should have it's unique bonuses.

Action three: PC goes to the worktable and chooses a grip part for the sword. Again, each form should have it's bonuses.

Action four: PC assembles the sword at the worktable, choosing between unique modifiers (magical tokens, elemental runes, whatever you are able to think of). 

 

Example 2. Crafting a crossbow (miss those a lot in DA:I)

 

Spoiler

Action one: PC goes to the worktable and works the collected wood into blanks, sinews into strings.

Action two: PC chooses a form for the crossbow's bed and butt. Each has it's bonuses.

Action three: PC goes to the fletcher station and chooses a string for the crossbow.

Action four: PC assembles the crossbow at the fletching station, choosing between unique modifiers (magical tokens, elementals runes - I hope you get the pattern). 

 

If those actions are going to be animated (even as a cutscenes) players will be a lot more attached to crafted items. Specially if you trade those lame 'Fade-touched' materials for unique crafting components, like a string from unicorn's mane or a grip of that big bad  badass darkspawn boss'es horn PC killed few hours ago. Or dragon claw. Or undead balls as a dark magic token. Whatever your wild imagination can go for. 

 

Third thing to consider in crafting - weapons made from common materials should be balanced somewhat around the 'common' items (white ones) that we meet in a usual drop. No more OP crafted daggers that are better than anything we can find... like anywhere. Even in a largest dragon's belly. 

 

However if player manages to get a cut of the unicorn's mane for a string and some ironbark for the bow blank the results should be respecting the invested time.

 

Somewhat late here so I'm going off for a while. I'll start another topic with suggestions if I have the right mood for it.

 

Ty for reading and good night

I understand where you want to go.  No doubt it would make a good game. Game design, however, needs to control the easy path exponentiality of what is described,  especially, if it's a Dualogy or a Trilogy.  But, as a stand alone game?.... yeah it has potential.

[AlanC9]

Didn't they try something like the personality thing in DA2 with Hawke? And then people complained that "Hawke wasn't their character" or that they "couldn't roleplay because of auto dialogue"?
 
I think the problem (which you've pointed out with your OP) is the fact that in these games, "good" and "bad" decisions are all lumped together on the wheel, instead of, as you've done, been separated into their respectful categories.

Well, the DA2 thing didn't take away any control you ever actually had. Default tone was only used for lines that wouldn't have had any player input anyway. Whether this felt alright or not is another matter.

[eyezonlyii]

Well, the DA2 thing didn't take away any control you ever actually had. Default tone was only used for lines that wouldn't have had any player input anyway. Whether this felt alright or not is another matter.

Oh I liked the system from 2. It actually made Hawke feel like a person who was growing throughout the story. I would have liked to have seen the same in Inquisition, with the more segmented and defined wheel we got.

[CDR Aedan Cousland]

If they're hopping aboard the popular train, I'm looking forward to everything being cube-shaped, undead looking more like zombies, jump scare cutscenes, half-naked women everywhere, anime facelifts, and lockpicking minigames resembling flappy bird!

[C0uncil0rTev0s]

If they're hopping aboard the popular train, I'm looking forward to everything being cube-shaped, undead looking more like zombies, jump scare cutscenes, half-naked women everywhere, anime facelifts, and lockpicking minigames resembling flappy bird!

Half-naked elves are fine if you ask me, but... You get the point, do ya? It's not so long before Witcher III launches, a game I feel Inquisition can't compete. So the future game has to bring something innovative.

[Monster20862]

Don't put out a game until it's actually ready.

[CDR Aedan Cousland]

Half-naked elves are fine if you ask me, but... You get the point, do ya? It's not so long before Witcher III launches, a game I feel Inquisition can't compete. So the future game has to bring something innovative.

 

Ha, I'm personally not even remotely into the Witcher series, but you're probably right. As long as the "innovation" is nothing like Inquisition's, it may have some hope.

[C0uncil0rTev0s]

That's exactly why I don't like it, but I worry that complaining about it will cause others to accuse me of being some kind of sex-hating prude or something. Anyway, if it wasn't sex-focused, I bet I could have had a lot of fun with that series. As an American (and not even of Polish heritage), I've no idea what Polish culture is like, but if that really is a (modern day, I'm assuming?) trademark of theirs, then... yikes. I dunno.

Oh you didn't see a recent Polish Eurovision performace and a videoclip for it? Be advised - very sexualized video. In HD.
 

[Shevy]

Half-naked elves are fine if you ask me, but... You get the point, do ya? It's not so long before Witcher III launches, a game I feel Inquisition can't compete. So the future game has to bring something innovative.

Well, TW3 isn't out yet, so it's difficult to make a judgement/prediction on quality and sales. If TW3 is going to be the next Skyrim saleswise, DA will adapt.

 

I don't know if DA has found its identity as a franchise yet. Every entry had a completely different concept aside from the name and some characters.

[PhroXenGold]

It seems like Bioware is fine now with copying things 'that sell' and the ones 'that are supposed to work right' in game development. Hence that I'd really want Dragon Age developer team to play Divinity: Original Sin game at least once. Larian made some bold statements what's acceptable in party-based RPG and what is quite not. 

 

First of all - D:OS isn't like older DA games at all. It's more of Lionheart: The Legacy of the Crusader played in 4-men party (starting from the setting to the dialogue mechanics and plot reveal). Yet it is a party-based cRPG which has a lot in it, and that encouraged me into going even further.

 

Let's start with the dialogues and their impact on role-playing aspect of the game.

 

I'm fine with the dialogue wheel. While this mechanics has its flaws it's also simple to get, easy to go with, and saving us from thinking like 'well what could happen if I choose this'. In one word - the main benefit of the DW is certainty.

 

But choosing the options in dialogue also has to contribute to our roleplaying, right? If you choose an evil option - your PC gotta be more evil since that. If you choose a selfish option, which isn't evil by default, your PC should become more selfish. And so very on. 

 

Let's say I propose a Personality Development Feature here.

 

Spoiler

Imagine it as a Circle/Star with, let's say, four axis:

1. Kind* <--------------> Evil*

2. Lawful* <-----------> Uprising**

3. Altruist* <----------> Selfish**

4. Materialist* <------> Idealist**

 

1* somewhat similar to ME1's paragon

1** somewhat about Renegade choices in ME3

2* abiding the laws of the realm and the traditions of the people

2** spitting on the laws and everything that can be considered holy

3* this PC prefers other peoples' interest to the ones of his/her own

3** this PC prefers own interests to the ones of the people around

4* somewhat similar to pro-Templar alias in DA:I

4** somewhat similar to pro-Mage alias in DA:I

 

Choosing certain dialogue options will contribute into developing four of those eight possible "alignments". 

 

(1) On the one hand, you Bioware folks can build a really variable dialogue options from this, providing unique dialogue experience in the franchise. Elven nationalists will be behaving the best with the lawful idealist PCs, and rebel mages - with uprising idealists and so on.

 

(2) On the other hand, you'll be able to go away from that failure with dialogue options unlocks with the Power thing. Just bind those unlocks to the personality build - let's have underground understanding to the selfish PCs, and the law enforcement understanding to the lawful ones. It'll be rational and logical, don't you think? Jacks-of-all-trades should go to where they belong - MMORPGs and Mary Sue books.

 

(3) Somewhere in between of those hands there can be additional 'perks'. Selfish materialist can be quite traited in Trading. And the Kind Idealist gotta be quite good at healing/helping skills. Uprising Altruist should be awesome for encouraging the mob to do his/her bidding, while Lawful Evil can get a boost to dark arcane arts thing. 

 

Just saying - this will also help with those MMO reputation points. I mean, it'll help to get rid of those reputation points/progression bars that are considered very,very MMOish by your customers.

 

 

(cut off the crafting bit as I'm not discussing that)

 

While I definitely feel that this is a good basis, there is one thing I would expand on a bit, and this is something I feel very strongly about with regards "alignment" systems in RPGs:

 

They should not reflect how you actually are. They should reflect how you are pecieved by others.

 

Whether a person is "altruistic" or "selfish" is not defined by their actions, but their motivations - something which is incredible hard to capture in a cRPG. Many of my most self-centred characters in various games will often behave in a manner that appears to be altruistic. They will help people without being asked. They won't go around demanding rewards from people (especially if those people are peasants and thus can't pay anything worth paying). Why? Because a favourable reputation is a valuable commodity. They aren't doing these things because they like helping others. They are doing them because they believe that, in the long run, these actions will be beneficial to them. The very essence of a selfish act. But of course, the people that he helped pecieve him as selfless.

 

Then of course, you have the fact that different people percieve the same action in different ways. To take one of your continums, imagine a nation which has long been a kingdom, but a couple of years ago, the king was deposed and a council of nobles now rules. Is it "lawful" or "uprising" to support the last son of the old king in his attempt to take the crown? Answer: it depends on who you ask. To the followers of the young prince, he is the rightful, lawful ruler of the nation. To the supporters of the nobles in power, he is a rebel leading an uprising.

 

So ideally, you would have a different reputation with each of many groups. Of course, not every action will affect how every group feels about you - and indeed, if no-one knows that you took an action, it shouldn't affect any reputaiton....

[Lord Bolton]

I'm not into the Witcher aswell, as I feel the amount of raw sexuality in those games/books/movies disgusting. I want to play a game about adventures with some possibility for relationships, not the meet-and-f**k simulator with swords and magic. However that much of a sexuality is a trademark for Polish culture, so I can't blame them for doing so. 

It's just the way those folks think and live their lives. It's just different from what I believe is right, but it's not bad.

I'm Polish, I live in Poland and I can assure you that you're completely wrong. 

It seems that you're judging an entire country by a single, silly game. Please, don't.

 

 

Oh you didn't see a recent Polish Eurovision performace and a videoclip for it? Be advised - very sexualized video. In HD.

Actions of a few people doesn't determine the whole country. For most people in Poland that performance was cringeworthy.

And... You're bringing up Eurovision? Really?  Usually, Eurovision songs are for the lulz and everyone knows that. Here, have some completely random polish song: link. Yeah, very, very sexualized video. 

 

Sorry for off-topic, but I won't let you to spread this misleading information.

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[Dubya75]

Although I appreciate the OP's sincerity with this post, I don't believe it is going to help Bioware at all.

 

The problem with Bioware (and more specifically, the Dragon Age team) is that they don't really seem to know what kind of games they want to make any more. They have all the tools, but owning a hammer and a chisel doesn't make you Michelangelo.

 

They have clearly demonstrated their lack of creativity and imagination with DAI by borrowing so much from other games and coveting the success of Skyrim's open world that they completely lost their way. They got so caught up creating this massive, expansive world that they completely lost touch with what made games like DAO and ME2 so successful - Story content. Variety. Character development, an actual true sense of exploration, etc etc.

These elements are so obviously lacking that it bewilders my mind how this could ever be Bioware's most successful game launch to date.

 

The level designers did an amazing job (I don't think anyone can argue against that) but all that effort really counts for nothing once the novelty of it wears off.

And this makes that 2nd play-through akin to watching paint dry.

 

So we can make all kinds of suggestions and point to other games that get a lot of things right. It matters not. Because all we will get is another attempt at implementing elements into a game that really does not know what it wants to achieve.

 

What the Dragon Age franchise needs is for EA to kick out the old hats and get someone in there with a solid vision for the future. Someone with real passion for Dragon Age, with the ability to look back at what actually, really worked in the previous games and build on that formula. 

 

But even that may already be too late...