Dragon Age: Inquisition

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I'd say in DAO a Rogue could best a Warrior in damage output. He would have to be a dual weapon Assassin because Ranged did not synergize well with rogue abilities, but with back stabbing he could excell in raw damage. If anything, Warriors were the weakest overall.

[Sarex]

"They did it because they wanted to make a distinction between a warrior and rouge (in da:o a warrior did everything better then a rouge),"

 

But, this isn't true.

 

This is what they told the fans, when asked. I just added the part about system complexity and my opinion on the warrior being better.

 

I'd say in DAO a Rogue could best a Warrior in damage output. He would have to be a dual weapon Assassin because Ranged did not synergize well with rogue abilities, but with back stabbing he could excell in raw damage. If anything, Warriors were the weakest overall.

 

That may be, but bioware felt that they weren't different enough.

Edited August 23, 2013 by Sarex

[Keyrock]

In DA:O both rogues and warriors could be competent archers, but rogues had better potential as archers.  In Awakening, however, warriors could actually potentially be better archers than rogues.  The reason, in both cases, basically came down to gear.  

 

I have no problem with classes overlapping other classes.  I enjoy the ability to build a rogue-ish warrior or a warrior-ish rogue. 

Edited August 23, 2013 by Keyrock

[HoonDing]

I pressed a button in Awakening and Nathaniel suddenly did 200+ damage a shot.

[Sarex]

I pressed a button in Awakening and Nathaniel suddenly did 200+ damage a shot.

 

That was nothing compared to a buff that gave warriors attack speed. I think that the animation couldn't keep up, because it stacked with another buff.

 

Yeah found them:http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Spirit_Warrior

 

The blessing of the fade and beyond the veil stacked for some reason. I think it was later patched out.

Edited August 23, 2013 by Sarex

[Hurlshort]

My eye twitches when I see rouge confused with rogue.  That probably isn't healthy.  

 

 

 

I think we have firmly established that David Gaider is a fantasy writer.

That is true. He writes as a living, he is publised, so he is. How good he is is irrelevant.

 

 

It is pretty relevant to Dragon Age, given that he has played a huge role in the creation of the universe.   

Edited August 23, 2013 by Hurlshot

[Nonek]

Tried reading the first book some time ago when it appeared in Waterstones, not a fan of Mr Gaider's prose.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

Seriously, guys, no love for Miéville? I think he's at least on par with Sanderson in almost every respects. 

I haven't read him yet, but he is in my list to be read. What do you think of him?

 

 

- awesome worldbuilding skills, on par with Sanderson, but his characters are generally more nuanced than the black & white caricatures B.S. tends to vomit out

- is able to create an actual plot (see The Scar for example), although, in some of his works, he didn't (I'm looking at you, Perdido Street Station)

- prose and dialogue is better than Erikson's, although it's faint praise; tends heavily toward purple in PSS and The Scar, is absolutely minimalist in Iron Council, didn't read anything else from him (although I'm planning to)

- tends to include some heavy-handed communist b.s., but still far from being author tract-ish

- awesomely weird ("I AM IRON SNAIL!")

 

This pretty much sums it.

[Maria Caliban]

I enjoy Miéville's works a great deal.

 

Tried reading the first book some time ago when it appeared in Waterstones, not a fan of Mr Gaider's prose.

After reading it, I asked David about the editing process it went through. Apparently, he submitted a draft and it went through a single revision before the final.

 

I know a woman whose debut cozy mystery novel went through about ten revisions with the editor, and previous to it being submitted to any editors, I her agent had her make some changes to the plot and alter a few character. That's standard for a debut novel published by her house.

 

Joe Abercrombie is the best current fantasy writer.

Edited August 23, 2013 by Maria Caliban

[Sarex]

snip-image-

 

 

 

Perfect. XD

[Maria Caliban]

A new article today - Creating Dragon Age Party Members - which I found perplexing in parts.

 

Here is an excerpt:

 

“As they progress, the descriptions get more elaborate, giving the artists more to consider with the design. For instance, a coat can say something about a character’s history, and as most know, BioWare is infamous for hiding trinkets to tell stories. “We always love hiding stuff on a character, like really big important things that are huge aspects of [them],” Rhodes says. “We love hiding them somewhere, having some trinkets so when the revelation hits, you’re like, ‘That’s what this has been this whole time!’…”

Okay, BioWare is infamous for hiding trinkets to tell stories?

 

Rhodes is a character artist and he’s suggesting that the companion designs have ‘hidden trinkets’ that lead to revelations. But I can’t think of a single Dragon Age companion where that’s true. I mean, not even minor things and he’s suggest that they’ve hidden ‘really big important things.’

 

This entire section appears to have come from an alternate universe.

 

Another excerpt:

 

“[We] decide, ‘What does this character think of all the others? What do they banter about? And do they even like each other?’” Kristjanson says. “And that illustrates the main themes of the game even more. Sometimes in surprising ways because, maybe [you would think] that two characters would obviously hate each other, but maybe they don’t. Maybe those two liking each other says something even bigger about the games or themes in play." Laidlaw adds, "Or them growing to like one another. That’s essentially Isabelle and Aveline.”

 

Yes, Isabela and Aveline grow to like one another, and it’s one of my favorite relationship developments… but how does that say something bigger about the game or the themes in play?

 

The best companion relationship that illustrates the themes on the game would be between Fenris and Anders. They meet, they hate one another, they constantly bicker, and as the years go by… nothing changes. In Act 3, you get the same bitter sniping you got in Act 1.

I don’t know.

 

At best, they’re talking about things they’re attempting to do and for some reason the article treats it as something they’ve already done.

[licketysplit]

I do see an attempt to get more detailed and authentic in the DA:I character models, but that's a new thing.

[Maria Caliban]

[licketysplit]

I'd cook it on a spit. Nug samiches.

[Labadal]

Won't someone please think of the 500 post limit? *faints*

[Orogun01]

Does anyone else gets the impression that people in the entertainment industry are full of hot air and make big deals from nothing?

 

Edit: I disagree with everything that article said about creating characters.

Edited August 23, 2013 by Orogun01

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I would say most are full of something else entirely.

[NOK222]

I'd eat that nug in an instant. What's that creature on the rock?

[ShadySands]

Dragon?

[alanschu]

I don't believe it is, actually.  (Just going by memory)

[ShadySands]

It does seem too small

 

a smaller dragon like creature then?

[alanschu]

Well, dragon like is a bit nebulous

 

I can't remember if it's a creature we have revealed yet, previously in the series.  If it is, it might be a wyvern.  If it isn't a creature seen previously, well...

 

Edited August 24, 2013 by alanschu

[ManifestedISO]

Looks like another unnamed wyvern creature in the background, possibly winged, feasting on a dead troll, perhaps. Or napping on the rocks. Or dead, too. Why else would a nug be unmoving and unafraid. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

“I have those feelings sometimes where I don’t want to send my kid to his first day of school wearing a propeller hat, you know?” Gaider says.

 

I demand that propeller hats be in the game and that you can romance them!

[anubite]

That video they pulled at the EA gamescom conference was exactly the same kind they pulled for SWTOR and DA2. It's honestly not promising - a bunch of vague marketing jargon about how the game will be epic and such. I'd really appreciate it if they stopped trying to bull**** us, because my bull**** detector was on full alert with all those developers trying to cover their ass on camera. It didn't feel meaningful or genuine.

 

In comparison, the article linked above is much nicer. I wish developers would come out of their shells and just tell us what's really going on. Stop acting like you guys have stuff to hide. Their character designing process doesn't sound any different from Obsidian's, so I can hardly find any thing wrong with it.

 

The less surprised I am by DA3, the better. As I think I've said before, BioWare has to sell this game to us. It's not going to be an impllicit purchase like DA2 or ME2 might have been. Tell us what the game is going to look like, what we'll get with our purchase, because fewer people are going to take a risk, especially at full price. Of course... it is a year before it comes out, so I guess it's not worth it? It would mean BioWare is willing to engage in iterative design process with the fans, but I don't think they want to listen to us, or are convinced we're too negative to provide constructive feedback.

 

So maybe they should save all this hype for next year? I actually don't understand why they are busting out all these interviews this month, what's the strategy here?

Edited August 24, 2013 by anubite