Update #70: New Year Project Update

[lordkim]

I'm sure the good folks at the 'dex are crushed by all this disapproval. Crushed!

Stupid is stupid does

 

 

Cant wait for this game !! )

[lepetitmac]

On the AoE thingy, thinking of a shaped blast that radiates outwards from center (the inner radius) and thus dodges any friendlies inside the outer radius but also ends up not harming the enemies behind them. Ending up shaped like a star.

 

I have no idea as how to program this though.

 

This is my first post, don't eat me, pretty please?

[Matt Sheets]

 

Adra is a grown, shell-like substance that the Engwithans used both as structural elements and for binding purposes in their architecture.  Often they would build things like traditional stone arches and grow adra in-between, using it like slow-growing mortar.  As their buildings fall apart, it results in impossible-looking/gravity-defying ruins.

 

Not that I care either way, and I like it, but honesty time: did you come up with that solely to address this issue?

(I like the attention to detail though)

 

 

Adra is  mentioned in several past updates.

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64452-update-65-ciphers/  - Talks about standing stones of Adra

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/63672-update-50-so-project-eternity/ - Talks about Adra being used as a construction material

[Qmpel7]

Oh my GOD.. the artwork of ruins is so damn good.. Guys, you're making a legendary game (likewise Baldurs Gate) I believe in that. Keep it up!

[Caerdon]

I'd prefer it if friendly fire was always there, but you could adjust any AOE between Area / (1 + AOE_INT_bonus) and Area * (1 + AOE_INT_bonus). For example, with +75% AOE bonus a spell area of 10 could actually range from 5.7 to 17.5. Radius could always default to maximum if you don't bother to set it manually while casting.

Edited January 19, 2014 by Caerdon

[John Forseti]

Woedica's name tickles me, maybe even more than Pallegina.

Edited January 19, 2014 by John Forseti

[Reever]

I'm actually all for a more user-friendly friendly-fire :D

So if we'll have it anyway, then I'm all for Josh's idea. Of course, I'd love to be able to switch it off, but only if it isn't too much of a hassle. I get that the game already has lots and lots of scales and switches...

[IRMA]

The EXPORT button...!!!!! Woot!

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Excellent update. The area and creatures look absolutely superb. Hats off to the artists. I also appreciate the view of the character sheet and all of the headache--erm, feedback that it will provoke. That being said...here's my contribution...

 

I'm suprised that duration is impacted by intellegence rather than resolve. I would think that a character's force of will would have more impact on maintaining the duration of an effect. Also, how does dexterity translate to accuracy with magical spells? I can see the need to guide magical projectiles, but I would think that intellect, or perhaps perception would be more relevant, as a spell would be guided by one's mind rather than their coordination.

[rjshae]

I'm suprised that duration is impacted by intellegence rather than resolve. I would think that a character's force of will would have more impact on maintaining the duration of an effect. Also, how does dexterity translate to accuracy with magical spells? I can see the need to guide magical projectiles, but I would think that intellect, or perhaps perception would be more relevant, as a spell would be guided by one's mind rather than their coordination.

 

My guess would be that the duration is something that is established at the start rather than something that is maintained through resolve. Since a higher Intelligence can plan further ahead and hold more information, that results in a longer duration. Perhaps the role of Resolve is to maintain spells that require some level of concentration while under duress, such as a mental domination.

 

Dexterity is as much the domain of the mind as it is the body; you have to compute the position and movement vector of the target as well as the trajectory of the projectile/spell in order for them to meet. This doesn't require intellect, but it does take good reactions. I would think the role of Perception in this would be to spot a hiding target and notice details that would effect the spell or projectile.

Edited January 19, 2014 by rjshae

[Ffordesoon]

It probably says something rather curious about me that I found the UI mockup more exciting and heartening than anything in the Big Update. Sure, the gameplay trailer was pretty neat, but seeing the way the systems interlock under the hood confirms for me that the folks at Obsidian are making the game I wanted Dragon Age to be. The fact that the Detailed Stats tab is not the one that's clicked makes me giddy with excitement.

[generic.hybridity]

OH man. I am super excited.

[Cabal]

Does anyone have an idea, when the beta is starting?

Can't wait to test the game and then finally play it, when released. :D

[mstark]

 

We are looking into either allowing you to scale the effect size or have the "bonus" area be a foe-only AoE.  E.g., if you cast fireball and it normally has a radius of 4m, but it's grown to 6.5m because of your Int, the area added between 4m and 6.5m only affects enemies.  We probably won't get to it for a while, but we've been thinking about it.

 

I love this idea and hope it gets implemented

 

I hate this idea and hope it doesn't see the light of day.

 

...but I will behave if it's implemented.

[BillyCorgan]

 

 

How about:

1. click the spell icon in question
2. move the mouse to the target area
3. scroll the mouse wheel to decrease the AoE size (optionally, of course - the maximum AoE should be used by default)
4. click to fire the spell

This would feel more natural and convenient to me than click-and-drag.

 

Brilliant!

 

My only concern would be if the mousewheel was destined to zooming in and out, although I guess you could always assign zoom (or AoE size) to a different key in the game's options.

 

Or something like :

1. click the spell icon in question
2. move the mouse to the target area
3. hold left click and move left or right to increase/decrease the AoE size (optionally, of course - the maximum AoE should be used by default)
4. move your finger out and let the fire destroy them all ^^

Edited January 20, 2014 by BillyCorgan

[Lephys]

Yeah, it doesn't HAVE to be click-and-drag, but, I was just thinking of something that still maintains mouse-wheel zoom functionality, in case you had zoomed in some, and needed to zoom out to see better to plan your AoE target. *shrug*. And the only reason I'm not a fan of the click, adjust size, then click again to set size is that it's mildly more clunky if you want to fire off an adjusted-size AoE spell on-the-fly/real-time, rather than pausing.

 

Of course, options could always be available.

 

And yeah, gotta say I'm not a fan of the "your bonus area only hits allies" thing. It just seems like a compromise between two things that achieves neither. If my allies aren't going to get hit, I'd rather it be because of the type of spell I use (not a radial explosion, but rather a "targets-every-enemy-within-this-area"-type spell, for example), or because they've been warded against it first (by whomever), or because of something they're doing, defensively/evasively.

 

If we're to be able to hit only enemies, then I'd want it to be because of tactical capability (the ability to cleverly remove my allies from harm and/or not-strike them) and not because I have a supreme amount of control over my spells, but still want to use one big explosion/effect instead of a bunch of little ones. If I'm a Wizard, and I possess the ability to make a big frost nova, but have it completely dodge my allies, then why wouldn't I just use that level of magic control to make a bunch of smaller frost novas on all of the enemies I want to strike, or just fire ice missiles at them or something?

Edited January 20, 2014 by Lephys

[Zeckul]

 

 

We are looking into either allowing you to scale the effect size or have the "bonus" area be a foe-only AoE.  E.g., if you cast fireball and it normally has a radius of 4m, but it's grown to 6.5m because of your Int, the area added between 4m and 6.5m only affects enemies.  We probably won't get to it for a while, but we've been thinking about it.

 

I love this idea and hope it gets implemented

 

I hate this idea and hope it doesn't see the light of day.

 

...but I will behave if it's implemented.

 

I don't like it either, I think it's confusing.

[MyrddinEmrys]

 

 

 

We are looking into either allowing you to scale the effect size or have the "bonus" area be a foe-only AoE.  E.g., if you cast fireball and it normally has a radius of 4m, but it's grown to 6.5m because of your Int, the area added between 4m and 6.5m only affects enemies.  We probably won't get to it for a while, but we've been thinking about it.

 

I love this idea and hope it gets implemented

 

I hate this idea and hope it doesn't see the light of day.

 

...but I will behave if it's implemented.

 

I don't like it either, I think it's confusing.

 

Agreed.

[the proctophantasmist]

I think the mouse wheel is a better idea, especially with the "click to select spell then click on target" , IE style way of doing things (which is better than radial menu anyway, especially for AOE abilities) .

Mouse wheel functionality would be contextual (would change once you've selected an AOE spell), but you could always get the original function through a modifier, i.e. ctrl+mouse wheel. 

You would have two different interfaces for targeting and size of AOE, faster and less error prone than putting everything on mouse movement and click I think.

 

Of course all this would work much better in a TB game :-D

Yeah, it doesn't HAVE to be click-and-drag, but, I was just thinking of something that still maintains mouse-wheel zoom functionality, in case you had zoomed in some, and needed to zoom out to see better to plan your AoE target. *shrug*. And the only reason I'm not a fan of the click, adjust size, then click again to set size is that it's mildly more clunky if you want to fire off an adjusted-size AoE spell on-the-fly/real-time, rather than pausing.

Of course, options could always be available.

And yeah, gotta say I'm not a fan of the "your bonus area only hits allies" thing. It just seems like a compromise between two things that achieves neither. If my allies aren't going to get hit, I'd rather it be because of the type of spell I use (not a radial explosion, but rather a "targets-every-enemy-within-this-area"-type spell, for example), or because they've been warded against it first (by whomever), or because of something they're doing, defensively/evasively.

If we're to be able to hit only enemies, then I'd want it to be because of tactical capability (the ability to cleverly remove my allies from harm and/or not-strike them) and not because I have a supreme amount of control over my spells, but still want to use one big explosion/effect instead of a bunch of little ones. If I'm a Wizard, and I possess the ability to make a big frost nova, but have it completely dodge my allies, then why wouldn't I just use that level of magic control to make a bunch of smaller frost novas on all of the enemies I want to strike, or just fire ice missiles at them or something?

[RabidRatMonkey]

 

 

 

 

We are looking into either allowing you to scale the effect size or have the "bonus" area be a foe-only AoE.  E.g., if you cast fireball and it normally has a radius of 4m, but it's grown to 6.5m because of your Int, the area added between 4m and 6.5m only affects enemies.  We probably won't get to it for a while, but we've been thinking about it.

 

I love this idea and hope it gets implemented

 

I hate this idea and hope it doesn't see the light of day.

 

...but I will behave if it's implemented.

 

I don't like it either, I think it's confusing.

 

Agreed.

 

I don't like it at all, either...

[IndiraLightfoot]

I reckon it's a bad idea too. I can live with it, but I think at least the periphery of the AOE should do some damage. And like I've said elsewhere, for an AOE attack like fire, acid or a blizzard, I would love to have a fuzzy edge in effect, so you can't predict the outcome of such powerful forces all the way. There should always be a risk involved in these cases, but that's just my take on it.

[rjshae]

Here's a thought: allies get a 'save bonus' against friendly fire in the periphery of the AOE due to better control of the outburst.

 

But perhaps that's not different enough...

Edited January 21, 2014 by rjshae

[Lephys]

Here's a thought: allies get a 'save bonus' against friendly fire in the periphery of the AOE due to better control of the outburst.

 

But perhaps that's not different enough...

I'm actually behind that, conceptually. *shrug*, Maybe anyone who's stunned or otherwise incapacitated/occupied (basically, someone who couldn't easily go "Oh, I see... Mr. Wizard guy's gonna be hurling a fireball" for whatever reason) doesn't get the bonus. That way, it's still abstract, but at least it's not just a magical blanket of constant friendly-fire mitigation. I dunno, that at least makes a lot more sense than "you just somehow will your exploding fireball to not-harm people standing in its midst, just because."

[ZornWO]

I'm not so much a fan of having AoE attacks all be partitioned so they cause friendly fire in one chunk and don't in another depending on INT (though, yeah, I'd live with it if they do it that way).  Maybe having a particular spell or two that work that way would be fun, but not as a general game mechanic.

 

Maybe instead, INT can raise the AoE and also reduce the percent damage friends take within the area?  It'd be easy to understand and it'd be "smooth." 

 

O/w I can't think of alternate ideas.  I'll keep trying...

[ShadySands]

 

Here's a thought: allies get a 'save bonus' against friendly fire in the periphery of the AOE due to better control of the outburst.

 

But perhaps that's not different enough...

I'm actually behind that, conceptually. *shrug*, Maybe anyone who's stunned or otherwise incapacitated/occupied (basically, someone who couldn't easily go "Oh, I see... Mr. Wizard guy's gonna be hurling a fireball" for whatever reason) doesn't get the bonus. That way, it's still abstract, but at least it's not just a magical blanket of constant friendly-fire mitigation. I dunno, that at least makes a lot more sense than "you just somehow will your exploding fireball to not-harm people standing in its midst, just because."

 

 

It's magic... just like the exploding fireball

 

Really though, I get the criticisms and even though I like the idea of a safe or safer area around the fringe of the explosion (provided you pump your stats in that area) where the wizard/mage/dance machine can somewhat control/mitigate the effects. I do think a having the entire bonus area, depending on the size, friendly fire free would be too powerful

 

Also, I think people are trying too hard to make sense of nonsensical things (read magic)