Dragon Age

[Guy Kilmore]

[quote name='Matrim Fox Cauthon' post='1410818' date='Jun 22 2008, 17.33']I'm confused. Where's the Dragon Age discussion?[/quote]

/waves my hand

"This is not the discussion you are looking for."

[diabloblanco18]

[quote name='Matrim Fox Cauthon' post='1410818' date='Jun 22 2008, 15.33']I'm confused. Where's the Dragon Age discussion?[/quote]

We're all convinced it's going to be awesome, so instead of having a big, boring circle jerk over it, we're bitching about KotOR III instead. It's much more gratifying this way.

[Shryke]

What's there to talk about with Dragon Age anyway?

It's got Dragons?

It's got an Age?

It's got Dwarves?

[Matrim Fox Cauthon]

[quote name='Shryke' post='1411047' date='Jun 23 2008, 01.37']What's there to talk about with Dragon Age anyway?

It's got Dragons?

It's got an Age?

It's got Dwarves?[/quote]What's there to talk about Knights of the Old Republic III?

It's got Knights?

It's got Old Republics?

It's the third one?

[Derfel Cadarn]

[quote name='Matrim Fox Cauthon' post='1411050' date='Jun 23 2008, 01.46']What's there to talk about Knights of the Old Republic III?

It's got Knights?

It's got Old Republics?

It's the third one?[/quote]

It might be an mmorpg which doesn't please everyone. Lucasarts and EA are involved, so there is concern whether or not Bioware are strong enough in the Force to prevent the beancounters from makiong the game suck. If it is an mmorpg will there be a fourth one to carry on the storyline from 1 and 2?

etc

[Krafus]

There's not enough out about Dragon Age to have a discussion about it.

There [i]is[/i] enough out about the many failings of MMORPGs in general, as well as Luca$Art$ and Electronic Arts in particular, to have a (worried) discussion about them.

[Werthead]

What do people think of the different openings to [i]Dragon Age[/i]? Personally, I've never done what so many others seem to do, which is to complete a RPG and then start over with a different character to replay the game with somewhat minor cosmetic differences and maybe a few different side-quests. However, if the entire opening section of the game is completely different for each race, and there are two social strata-based variants and then further changes to each based on class, I would be much more inclined to restart the game and try a different race or class.

[Altherion]

[quote name='Werthead' post='1411294' date='Jun 23 2008, 08.37']What do people think of the different openings to [i]Dragon Age[/i]?[/quote]
They've been going in this direction for a while. The BG series had minor differences based on race and gender. Mass Effect made it much more explicit: you get different dialog and a couple of different quests depending on the backgrounds you choose. I am curious what they'll do in Dragon Age: they say an entire chapter, but we don't know how many chapters there are so it is rather hard to tell how much of the game this is.

[Rhom]

I'm also intrigued by the possibility of some actual differences in the early game experience. I'm also not one to turn around and immediately replay a game for a few cosmetic changes. (My backlog of games due to my WoW addiction is much too large!) However, after some time goes by I have been known to pick up a game on a subsequent play-through and do things differently.

This Dragon Age does seem like it could be a great game. If they can get some good, realistic politcal machinations into a game [i]and[/i] make the player feel that they are a real part of that, it could make for a unique role-playing and story-telling experience.

Plus... Dwarven War Golems just sound flat out cool.

[Shryke]

I'm more excited about the new alignment system they used for Mass Effect, which I hope they use here.

It's 2 scales instead of 1. Your bad actions don't go away, their just out-weighted by your good ones. Works much better conceptually imo.


I like the idea of multiple openings though. It would serve to make the opening less generic. It often feels like what you choose to make your character (race, class, sex, etc.) isn't all that important to the overall story.

[Ran]

What the multiple openings made me think of is, it'd be rather cool that all the "opening" roles are going to be present in the game world, even if you play only one. Imagine playing a noble warrior getting attacked by a common assassin one dark night, coming to your own conclusions as to why they were trying to kill you ... and then, starting over, playing a common assassin, and finding out the noble who indirectly caused your family's death is in town and deciding you're going to off him... ?

It'd give some good reasons to go back and play the various openings if each one contained information and details that would be unique to those characters, and as you played them all more of the story would be illuminated.

[Altherion]

[quote name='Shryke' post='1411335' date='Jun 23 2008, 09.08']I'm more excited about the new alignment system they used for Mass Effect, which I hope they use here.[/quote]
There is no alignment in Dragon Age (see here: [url="http://www.dragonagecentral.com/single/1178317140"]http://www.dragonagecentral.com/single/1178317140[/url] ). They've said that there will be dialogs that affect how individual characters interact with you and have other consequences, but there is no Paragon/Renegade, Open Palm/Closed Fist or other Good/Evil meters.

[Rhom]

[quote name='Shryke' post='1411335' date='Jun 23 2008, 10.08']I like the idea of multiple openings though. It would serve to make the opening less generic. It often feels like what you choose to make your character (race, class, sex, etc.) isn't all that important to the overall story.[/quote]

What... you mean you didn't like it in Dragon Warrior 3 when you chose for your main character to be female and they still refer to you as the "Son of Ortega."

[Shryke]

[quote name='rhombencephalon' post='1411378' date='Jun 23 2008, 10.36']What... you mean you didn't like it in Dragon Warrior 3 when you chose for your main character to be female and they still refer to you as the "Son of Ortega."[/quote]

It's a JRPG. I'm surprised if I get any choice besides "Do I want my character to wear sub-par equipment or should I grind for better stuff?".


[quote]There is no alignment in Dragon Age (see here: [url="http://www.dragonagecentral.com/single/1178317140"]http://www.dragonagecentral.com/single/1178317140[/url] ). They've said that there will be dialogs that affect how individual characters interact with you and have other consequences, but there is no Paragon/Renegade, Open Palm/Closed Fist or other Good/Evil meters.[/quote]

Ahh, so they take it one step further. Excellent.

[Werthead]

It's also worth mentioning that each opening section's choices will also impact the rest of the game. Apparently you make a 'nemesis' during the opening section unique to each variant, and that person is a thorn in your side for the rest of the game. I'm guessing that this person isn't the 'main' enemy but someone else who is a personal enemy for you (think more of Padan Fain than the Dark One, for example).

[Altherion]

It's not necessarily an enemy:

[i]"Nemesis" makes it sound like every origin has a villain who is your archenemy that carries forward into the story. Every origin has a character (or more than one) that carries forward in a significant fashion, but not all of them are enemies.[/i]
[url="http://www.dragonagecentral.com/single/1171560780"]http://www.dragonagecentral.com/single/1171560780[/url]

[Derfel Cadarn]

[quote name='Werthead' post='1411294' date='Jun 23 2008, 09.37']What do people think of the different openings to [i]Dragon Age[/i]? Personally, I've never done what so many others seem to do, which is to complete a RPG and then start over with a different character to replay the game with somewhat minor cosmetic differences and maybe a few different side-quests. However, if the entire opening section of the game is completely different for each race, and there are two social strata-based variants and then further changes to each based on class, I would be much more inclined to restart the game and try a different race or class.[/quote]

Sounds interesting. Lord of the Rings Online has a different opening for each race albeit after the early stages the quests and storyline is the same. There are some class-specific quests later on though.

The Age of Conan 'singleplayer' stuff at the start (night-time in Tortage) has differing quests for each archtype class (rogue, priest, fighter and mage). Also after Tortage the city you end up in is based on your race. Apart from that though it's pretty much the same game for everyone.

[potsherds]

[quote name='Werthead' post='1411294' date='Jun 23 2008, 13.37']What do people think of the different openings to [i]Dragon Age[/i]? Personally, I've never done what so many others seem to do, which is to complete a RPG and then start over with a different character to replay the game with somewhat minor cosmetic differences and maybe a few different side-quests. However, if the entire opening section of the game is completely different for each race, and there are two social strata-based variants and then further changes to each based on class, I would be much more inclined to restart the game and try a different race or class.[/quote]
I'm much more inclined to get bored with a game, and see if I can't make it slightly more interesting by playing a different character. :P I also tend to find games more interesting in the beginning, and mediocre by the middle/end, so them making the beginning more varied this way means I'm [i]never[/i] likely to finish the game, but to keep playing the beginning over and over with different characters. :P Fine by me, of course. :)

I'm obviously going to be mostly interested in whatever assassin/ranger/other ranged weapon characters they have.

[oar]

I literally cannot wait for this game :)
The new beginnings and lack of evil/good swingbars sounds brilliant, you'll be able to properly role play without having to get your evil rating above a certain amount.. Also, with the number of times i've replayed BG2 and that has the same start no matter your character, this will be even more replayable. :)

I just hope the world is big enough for it, if its anything like morrowind with more diverse quests that'll be perfect for me :)

[Ratty]

I'm actually hoping they go for only a few companians/henchmen etc more like Mass Effect. 3-6 well done characters is better than 10 less well done ones. I'm also hoping for large levels with multiple area of different difficulty so you can keep coming back to that area as you level up.