26 réponses à ce sujet

[Chiramu]

Similar to the codex entries in Diablo 3 where personalities read the lore out to you. 

 

Just my first time stepping into Trespasser and the heavy reliance on the codex entries... ugh ><. I started reading them and then my mind went, blah blah blah and I scrolled to the bottom to see if there was anything of worth. Dorians' codex journal thing was particularly wordy and would have benefited greatly if it was spoken to us imo. 

 

My personal opinion about the codex is that it shouldn't even really be a thing, if there is lore than it should be given to us as a part of the story and the experience. Not a tacked on thing that you find randomly in the world. 

At least in Diablo 3 it was enjoyable listening to some of the entries XD. 

 

I hope the Dragon Age devs will take something like this for future ideas. To make more parts of the game and the lore enjoyable and accessible to a much larger audience. It seems at the moment that they only take into consideration the opinion of the people who play the game on Nightmare.

[DarkAmaranth1966]

Good Idea but, I think not in game directly. have it as an option when you go to the Codex page, not auto when you get the codex entries.

[Madmoe77]

I liked this and preferred it in Mass Effect. It set the tone for a lot of what I find nostalgic in that series. It would give them the chance to also continue using character voice actors long after they are no longer part of the series. (ya know-instead of forcing them into the plot... )

 

It would also be a great opportunity to continue the origins feel of old. Dwarven accented codex, Elven spoken codex, etc 

[Andraste_Reborn]

The talking codex drove me up a wall in Mass Effect, so if they introduced it for Dragon Age I'd want it to be completely optional. There is also no way they could voice the entire codex and have it be even a tenth of the size it is in DAI - it's thousands and thousands of words and would blow the entire voice acting budget.

 

y personal opinion about the codex is that it shouldn't even really be a thing, if there is lore than it should be given to us as a part of the story and the experience. Not a tacked on thing that you find randomly in the world.

 

There are all kinds of interesting things that don't belong in the main story but are perfect for the codex, though. We don't really need someone to tell us about Andraste's Mabari or how embrium was discovered or the ins and outs of Orlesian theatre as part of the actual plot, but I like finding out all that stuff.

[Evamitchelle]

As long as there is an in-game option to turn it off. In Mass Effect I have to mute everything, including the background music, if I want to read it in peace. 

[Madmoe77]

Options are always good! 

[nightscrawl]

The main difference between ALL of the DA games and a game like Diablo is that the DA games are heavily cinematic and have a ton of dialogue. Both DA2 and DAI even more so since the protagonist is fully voiced. Considering the large amount of codex entries in Dragon Age games, it would be prohibitively expensive to have the codex entries be voiced.
 
Also, there is the issue of who would read which entry. Diablo III has journal entries that are read in each of those character's voices. There are lore entries read by Deckard Cain, and a bestiary read by that other guy. It's relatively straight forward with few reasons to have a large variety of people.
 
But again Dragon Age is different. Each codex entry is written by a different person. Or sometimes it might be something that is unattributed, or anonymous, or simply a text with no specific author. Who would narrate those? Perhaps the most commonly found person would be Brother Genitivi, but there are still the remaining numerous entries by a random person.

 

It seems at the moment that they only take into consideration the opinion of the people who play the game on Nightmare.

I have no idea what you even mean by this. The various difficulty modes only have to do with combat, which is only a portion of the gameplay in any Dragon Age game.

Also, there are different reasons for whether to take certain player feedback into consideration. The writers are going to look at feedback on the story and characters in a different way than the mechanics designers will look on feedback for combat systems. For one thing, they can do all the testing they like prior to release and/or patching, but there is no substitute to potentially millions of players actually using those skills in ways and combinations that they never thought of, including exploits and abuse.

 

In general, I think it is more important to look at feedback, and actual skill use from telemetry when working out patches and updating combat, and I think those designers should take that into consideration. But I do NOT think that the same applies to the writers. Story is different from gameplay. I also think it's an unfair statement as most of the non-combat feedback can't really be taken into consideration until the next game is in development.

 

Some of the remarks revolving around the player's exposure to Corypheus thought DAI are one example of this. I believe Mark Darrah (or Mike Laidlaw) did say at one point that they realize that the story could have benefited from Corypheus being a stronger presence. But there isn't anything they can do about it post-release. They can only incorporate that into whatever future game they work on.

[Abyss108]

I hope not, I can read much faster than a person can speak, and a disembodied voice isn't going to make the actual entries more/less interesting. 

[Wulfram]

I wouldn't mind it if it could play while doing something else, but a lot of the point of the codex is that its cheap, and adding voice acting to it will make it more expensive.

[MisterJB]

I would rather not for the following reasons:

 

1-It does not fit the setting. ME happens in the future where the possibility that Shepard is reading the ME Universe's version of Wikipedia which has an audio feature is entirely plausible. Not so in Dragon Age.

 

2-I can read faster than the narrator speaks which gets irritating.

 

3-Budget. Having someone narrate the Codex invariably makes it more expensive to write codex entries. When DAI already sinned for having certain parts of the plot be so realiant upon information gleaned from codex entries (Orlesian Civil War), voiced codex would just make matters worse.

[thats1evildude]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

This is the sort of idea that looks good on paper but is bad in practice.

1) Like MisterJB, I can read faster than the voice actors can recite dialogue, which will leave me having to wait until they finish talking.
2) Spoken journals might warrant a dramatic reading, but what about dry academic articles? Tedious!
3) It takes up a lot of memory, which will result in a lot fewer codexes in the game. I would rather have more lore, not less.

[nightscrawl]

I hope not, I can read much faster than a person can speak, and a disembodied voice isn't going to make the actual entries more/less interesting.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

This is the sort of idea that looks good on paper but is bad in practice.

1) Like MisterJB, I can read faster than the voice actors can recite dialogue, which will leave me having to wait until they finish talking.
2) Spoken journals might warrant a dramatic reading, but what about dry academic articles? Tedious!
3) It takes up a lot of memory, which will result in a lot fewer codexes in the game. I would rather have more lore, not less.

 
Pft... believe me, if Ramon Tikaram (Dorian's VA) narrated some significant chunk of the codex, like all the Tevinter entries or something, I would be playing those ALL DAY LONG.

Also, some of the more academic codices are actually amusing, like one my my faves, "What is Green?"
 

What is green? Imagine I should present to you an object which, to my mind, is of indisputable greenness and ask, "Does this thing appear to you to be green?"

Naturally, you might say that it does, for you have come to recognize the appearance of the color of the object to be "green," associating the word with what your eyes see. But could it be my understanding of "green" differs entirely from yours? What if, perchance, you could see into my mind? You might realize that all things that I name "green" are actually "red" in your understanding.

Ah, without the moorings of objective truth, we are set adrift in oceans of solitary experience.

—The promising opening to a lecture given by Karsten Groeke, philosopher-poet at the University of Orlais. The lecture's quality dropped significantly after this point, and ended quickly when Groeke subjected audience members to a poorly constructed ode to Chartreuse. He fled from the auditorium under fire from students armed with overripe "red" tomatoes.

[Nimlowyn]

I'm not sure how feasible this is given how expensive VO is, but if they did ever go this route, I hope it would be optional. I enjoy reading the codex quietly to myself.

[Lebanese Dude]

I read pretty quickly but I liked the ME narrated codex.

 

It gave me more time to think about what I was reading/hearing.

 

Also hearing something helps you visualize it more. Senses and all that.

[AnimalBoy]

I say yes. I rarely read them anyway unless needed so someone reading them for me would be helpful.

[Madmoe77]

Woe is change. I've been on both sides of this coin as a Bioware fan (hate that word at my age). We want the games to improve and grow with all the technical aspects available in each installment but each new implementation of this has everyone crying for paper and pencil again! 

 

Wouldn't this be a better way of getting a more diverse group to play the game? Instead of changing many other aspects of the game? Like I read players pitching and moaning, "hack and slash." "Dumbed down!" Roar. 

 

Something like this would probably eliminate a lot of debate about codex and also bring a much needed vehicle to the base game for new players outside the 'hardcore' die-hards. "They forced the spoken word on us! The codex is ruined!" lol

[Andromelek]

Some codex are way too large, while I like the idea, I don't think that will happen, or at least I don't think it can be applied to all codes.

[Melbella]

I hate the audio codex in ME....it's pace is way too slow and the voice distracts me from trying to read things myself. And, you can't turn it off.  Every time you scroll through the main codex entries, voice guy starts babbling away. So, no.  

[GoldenGail3]

No.

[Chiramu]

https://www.youtube....h?v=Ir24b4TQ8rs

 

I don't really remember a spoken word codex from ME or maybe I didn't pay attention to it lol XD. But Diablo 3 really has some entertaining entires, particularly about the monsters!

 

It is true what you say, a lot of the entries are too long to be spoken word, but if the entries from future and past companions were spoken word? ^^

[GoldenGail3]

https://www.youtube....h?v=Ir24b4TQ8rs
 
I don't really remember a spoken word codex from ME or maybe I didn't pay attention to it lol XD. But Diablo 3 really has some entertaining entires, particularly about the monsters!
 
It is true what you say, a lot of the entries are too long to be spoken word, but if the entries from future and past companions were spoken word? ^^

But wtf would they speak in Dragon Age? So no! Becuase it'd taint Dragon Age even more and it doesn't need anymore tainting off. Plus they'd need a tape recorder becuase they doesn't exist in DA (beside for that jewel thing in the Templar quest for Calperina; but those are extremely rare).

[Evamitchelle]

https://www.youtube....h?v=Ir24b4TQ8rs

 

I don't really remember a spoken word codex from ME or maybe I didn't pay attention to it lol XD. But Diablo 3 really has some entertaining entires, particularly about the monsters!

 

It is true what you say, a lot of the entries are too long to be spoken word, but if the entries from future and past companions were spoken word? ^^

 

In ME Primary codex entries are voiced while secondary ones are not. 

[Patchwork]

I hope they cut down the number of codexs that explain plot in the next game, DAI relied too heavily on text entries to explain backstory especially in the DLCs. For example the reasons why the Jaws of Hakkon wanted to free Hakkon could have easily been explained by Thane Sun-Hair but instead it's information you find while in the middle of the final fight.

 

A voiced codex is an interesting idea but personally I'd want it restricted to lore/world building and voiced by the pc as the go through the tutorial level. With 'Read Now' or 'Read Later' being a way to listen to it or just read it when you want to. Your starting companion(s) could even throw in their opinion on the subject.      

[AnimalBoy]

People seem way too resistent to changes,

[Chiramu]

In ME Primary codex entries are voiced while secondary ones are not. 

 

From Diablo 3 I liked the voiced codex because I could do other things while listening to it . I wasn't limited to sitting on the codex screen while I listened to the lore about monsters, characters and locations.

 

With the heavy reliance on the codex in Dragon Age I think it will be a nice addition, just add the voice to the important aspects of the lore while the less important aspects are read-only.