Dragon Age story/plot discussion

[Starwars]

I posted this just a few posts ago:

 

I picked up my copy yesterday at my local game store, which was a bit surprising considering it isn't supposed to be out here until tomorrow (I think?). It was afaik the cheapest edition and I got the Stone Prisoner DLC, but not the Keep one. Didn't really look into those when pre-ordering.

 

So, yeah mr officer. But as I'm sure you're aware, there are plenty of shops that break street dates. This happened in the US as well where I think some places started selling it as early as last week. I know

[mkreku]

So, yeah mr officer. But as I'm sure you're aware, there are plenty of shops that break street dates. This happened in the US as well where I think some places started selling it as early as last week. I know

[Niten_Ryu]

I'm loving the some of the more bitter posts on offical boards but nothing too bad. I like that character stats page, it's very much like Wow's armory feature.

 

Steam changed EU release date to 5th (I think midnight, so only 10 hours away) but I think I'll go get physical and strangely enough, cheaper copy from my local store tomorrow or friday. I'm not going to pay $73,77 (that's €50) for normal digital copy. Euro to dollar exchange rate sucks as no matter how cheap the dollar is, prices are 1 to 1.

Edited November 4, 2009 by Niten_Ryu

[Oner]

Someone was asking earlier about how a sex scene looks like: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sexy-mon...ragon-age/58583

[Starwars]

Steam changed EU release date to 5th (I think midnight, so only 10 hours away) but I think I'll go get physical and strangely enough, cheaper copy from my local store tomorrow or friday. I'm not going to pay $73,77 (that's €50) for normal digital copy. Euro to dollar exchange rate sucks as no matter how cheap the dollar is, prices are 1 to 1.

 

I paid 449 swedish crowns for my physical copy, that's about 44 or 45 Euros I believe. Still feels sorta expensive, but I think it's cause I'm used to buying either older games or games that typically enter the market at a lower price, like the STALKER games.

 

And sorry mkreku, I'm not signing up for that stuff, I have no interest in it. Maybe if I'll need it for the toolset community stuff I'll register. You can regard me a pirate if you wish which is fine. But if you swing by other swedish sites, you may see that some people have also gotten their copies. sweclockers for example had one guy posting a picture of his copy on the forums (because the mods thought the discussion of the game was based on only pirated copies) and another one said he'd be picking up his copy from komplett (I believe it was) today.

[taks]

I paid 449 swedish crowns for my physical copy, that's about 44 or 45 Euros I believe. Still feels sorta expensive, but I think it's cause I'm used to buying either older games or games that typically enter the market at a lower price, like the STALKER games.

$66.57 for the digital deluxe edition. yes, you must be used to lower price point games i think. most AAA PC games are between $50 and $60 (DA is $49.99 for the regular), and console games (PS3 at least) are >$60 (as i recall, uncharted 2 for the PS3 was $64.95 plus tax).

 

taks

[Kaftan Barlast]

Does DA have male-male homosexual romances?

[Hurlshort]

Apparently rats are just big bags of blood that explode when they get hit.

 

I'm playing as a human noble, and I'm a little upset that

my entire family was killed and I can't go track my brother down to let him know and then take revenge on the guy who did it. I have to be a Grey Warden

 

[Fionavar]

Thread Pruned: When in doubt, please take a few moments between writing something and hitting "add reply." Play nice everyone ...

 

*Watches the sand begin to spill out of the sandbox

[Wrath of Dagon]

Too bad for the console versions. I think this feature is the best part of the game so far.

 

It's really a result of the control scheme. There's no way to give move orders to all 4 of your party members at the same time (since the Left Stick is used to move). The tactical abilities with the mouse are limited, though perhaps it still would have been useful from a visual standpoint, I don't know if it would have worked as well with the Radial Targeting menu of the console.

 

But yes, PC reigns supreme!!

The Left Stick should've been used to control the cursor in overhead view, so you could do click to move, which is what's needed to control the entire party. The official reason Bio gave was that the consoles don't have enough memory to support the zoomed out view (which is weird now that I think of it, doesn't the entire 3-D area have to be in memory anyway?)

[Oner]

Does DA have male-male homosexual romances?

Yes, even a threesome.

 

 

 

Thread Pruned: When in doubt, please take a few moments between writing something and hitting "add reply." Play nice everyone ...

 

*Watches the sand begin to spill out of the sandbox

I know my response above sounds like a joke, but don't delete someone's post just because you don't know about it.

[alanschu]

The Left Stick should've been used to control the cursor in overhead view, so you could do click to move, which is what's needed to control the entire party.

 

My experience with emulated mouse pointers on consoles has typically been less than awesome. It would have definitely required a different approach in general to the control scheme from earlier than when I started on the project. Transitioning between different control schemes depending on your viewpoint starts to make things complicated as well.

 

The official reason Bio gave was that the consoles don't have enough memory to support the zoomed out view (which is weird now that I think of it, doesn't the entire 3-D area have to be in memory anyway?)

 

I don't know enough about 3-D graphics to know which parts would have to remain in memory and whatnot.

 

My guess is that I could see information about the 3D geometry needing to be in memory from the start, but the requirements for rendering the 3D images on the screen only look at what is actually on the screen. It'd be wasteful to render the entire scene when you're not looking at it, and if this was the case in 3D graphics, you wouldn't really get differences in frame rates depending on where you looked in the map, because all that information would still be getting rendered. Storing unrendered stuff could be a way to reduce the load on graphics memory. Makes sense logically, but I don't know enough of the underpinnings.

 

As such, I couldn't definitively comment whether or not the decision was made for graphical reasons. I just know that, without an emulated mouse pointer, the usefulness of the tactical view disappears.

[HoonDing]

It seems I'm getting the game tomorrow after all. And very conveniently tomorrow I don't have work due to a national train strike. Thank you, socialism.

[Wrath of Dagon]

The Left Stick should've been used to control the cursor in overhead view, so you could do click to move, which is what's needed to control the entire party.

 

My experience with emulated mouse pointers on consoles has typically been less than awesome. It would have definitely required a different approach in general to the control scheme from earlier than when I started on the project. Transitioning between different control schemes depending on your viewpoint starts to make things complicated as well.

Surely if I can aim with the pointer, I can use it for positioning too. It also helps to make the pointer a bit "sticky", sort of like autoaim. As far as transitioning, if overhead was treated as a separate mode, like menus are a separate mode, having the controls work a little different would make sense I think. It's pretty common to do that on consoles, due to the scarcity of buttons.

[alanschu]

The thing about aiming with the left stick is that it works if you're aiming at the creature's foot, hand, head, or chest (and you're given the visual cue since the creature highlights while aiming). The solution you describe works well for aiming at creatures, but that usually isn't a problem on the console from my experience.

 

I don't have issues with selecting or targeting creatures on the console. The issue comes with specific move orders to a specific point on the ground, which you couldn't auto-aim for. On the console you can still give each party member a specific combat order while paused. But you would be unable to move them to a specific spot on the map, which I found to be the most useful part of the tactical view (since it gives you the higher viewpoint to specifically click on the ground). I don't think that an emulated mouse pointer would have helped, but I have never been a fan of emulated mouse pointers on consoles, so I am biased.

 

It seems to me that the changes were to give a slightly different experience on the console compared to the PC. Perhaps the idea that the console BioWare fans may have different expectations than the PC BioWare fans? Console DA is a bit more like KOTOR in its control scheme, and I thought it worked well for KOTOR on the console.

Edited November 4, 2009 by alanschu

[Wrath of Dagon]

Well, my point is it could've worked like KOTOR in 3rd person, but worked more like the PC version in overhead mode, if there was one. Now I'll probably have to get both versions, but I'll wait until PC one drops in price and I'm ready to replay it.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

...I'll wait until PC one drops in price and I'm ready to replay it.

 

 

So you bought the more expensive version, limited version and are complaining about the price of the less expensive, "full" one?

[mkreku]

And sorry mkreku, I'm not signing up for that stuff, I have no interest in it.

And the coincidences just keep piling up.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

And sorry mkreku, I'm not signing up for that stuff, I have no interest in it.

And the coincidences just keep piling up.

 

Still hunting for witches? Well here's a data point for you - I'm not going to sign up for it either, or at least not until I have to, and yet I have a legal copy of the game. Yup, that's true. But accoutering to mkreku Logic™ I must be a pirate.

[Wrath of Dagon]

...I'll wait until PC one drops in price and I'm ready to replay it.

 

 

So you bought the more expensive version, limited version and are complaining about the price of the less expensive, "full" one?

First I haven't bought anything yet. Second I'm not complaining, I'm saying if I have to buy a game twice, I'll wait till it goes down in price. Third, it's only limited depending on your priorities, I've decided for the first play through console offers certain irresistible advantages for me.

[alanschu]

Well, my point is it could've worked like KOTOR in 3rd person, but worked more like the PC version in overhead mode, if there was one.

 

It could have. For reasons unknown to me it was decided to go in a different direction however. Sorry.

[Wrath of Dagon]

That's OK, I don't blame you personally.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

...it's only limited depending on your priorities...

 

Uhhh... No. You do not get the editor or user modifications - thus making it the limited release.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Well, I don't care about those, but I would've liked the top down view, which I can get later as I said, along with any mods if I get the urge.

[Tigranes]

What happened to this thread?

 

"YOU'RE A PIRATE! A FILTHY PIRATE! A PIRAET PIRATE PIRATE!"

 

"it's missing features, but that doesn't count as limited because I don't care about those features."

 

 

Retail release is Friday for NZ as well, waiting waiting.