Dragon Age

[Jon AS]

[quote name='Anatole Kuragin']I really prefer doing battle with humans/PCish races than monsters/Yuan-Ti/demons. It looks like Dragon Age will be the same way though.[/quote]

I don't think there is enough in those trailers and screenshots to allow judgement on what will be the most common enemies. I'd like a good mix myself, but as long as all character abilities are equally useful throughout the entire game (contrary to, say, NWN2), I don't care too much about the shape of the beasties whose pieces my character scatters across the landscape.

[potsherds]

[quote name='Jon AS' post='1442397' date='Jul 16 2008, 08.52']I don't think there is enough in those trailers and screenshots to allow judgement on what will be the most common enemies. I'd like a good mix myself, but as long as all character abilities are equally useful throughout the entire game[b] (contrary to, say, NWN2)[/b], I don't care too much about the shape of the beasties whose pieces my character scatters across the landscape.[/quote]
I would [i]love[/i] for you to expound on this. :P I've adjusted party size in debug mode to allow 6, so I'm not sure it's necessary any more, but I couldn't find anywhere any suggestions for the make-up a well-rounded, useful party in NWN2.

[Jon AS]

Well, in the final parts of the game all you fight are undead. Immune to critical hits, sneak attack, mind affecting and necromancy spells. Probably a few more things. If you rely on any of those things, your character is bound to perform less than brilliant. It's kinda frustrating when your rogue suddenly turns into a subpar fighter. Sure, the party can bail you out, it's still bad game design.

[Anatole Kuragin]

[quote name='Jon AS' post='1442403' date='Jul 16 2008, 03.06']Well, in the final parts of the game all you fight are undead. Immune to critical hits, sneak attack, mind affecting and necromancy spells. Probably a few more things. If you rely on any of those things, your character is bound to perform less than brilliant. It's kinda frustrating when your rogue suddenly turns into a subpar fighter. Sure, the party can bail you out, it's still bad game design.[/quote]

I *hated* the last part of the game.

ETA: I was a rogue.

[potsherds]

[quote name='Anatole Kuragin' post='1442404' date='Jul 16 2008, 08.07']I *hated* the last part of the game.

ETA: I was a rogue.[/quote]
I'm a dual rogue/ranger. :( I don't feel so bad about increasing the party size, now.

[Anatole Kuragin]

[quote name='potsherds' post='1442406' date='Jul 16 2008, 03.11']I'm a dual rogue/ranger. :( I don't feel so bad about increasing the party size, now.[/quote]

I was actually a rogue/warlock/assassin, which was pretty strange.

[Werthead]

[quote name='Jon AS' post='1442337' date='Jul 16 2008, 07.36']No, the sentient dinosaurs are in the Realms (Warhammer Lizardmen are much less dinosaurlike. They just [i]ride[/i] actual dinosaurs.). I think TSR's writers were smoking some good stuff back in the day. Unless the Saurians (or was it Saurials?) were part of Ed Greenwood's original Realms, of course. I wouldn't put it past him. The guy had a lot of great ideas and a lot of rather lame ones.[/quote]

It was Saurials. They were pretty interesting as a specise/race of characters. Their fate in 3E was a bit obscure, as their homeland is right in the path of the expanding Empire of Shadows, so I think they got displaced into the Dalelands somewhere.

A somewhat-modified version of the Saurials are a core race in D&D 4th Edition, the dragonborn.

[Jon AS]

[quote name='Werthead']A somewhat-modified version of the Saurials are a core race in D&D 4th Edition, the dragonborn.[/quote]

I thought these were more like those humanoid dragon creatures in Dragonlance, Draconians? At least I don't recall Saurial's having a breath weapon. Well, maybe the carnivorous ones...

[Shryke]

[url="http://pc.ign.com/articles/890/890260p1.html"]New IGN Article:[/url]
[quote]As an old school Baldur's Gate fan, I'll get the key parts of what I saw, first. Dragon Age can be played two ways. For most of the demonstration, it had a Mass Effect or Knights of the Old Republic style of camera, where you watch from third-person as your character runs around the level. Conversations happen in Mass Effect style, with cinematic angles and cuts. However, the game features what is called a pause-and-play feature for combat, which lets you pause the game at any time and give orders to your squad. You can also pull the camera back to top-down point of view similar to that of Baldur's Gate. Zeschuk told us that you could play the game entirely from that angle, as well.

The game is set in a world where an elite society of warriors known as the Grey Wardens battle the Blight, an evil infestation that appears to be the side-effect of the presence of an arch demon. The level that was demonstrated had the player character accompany Duncan, a mentor and friend, to help him and his army battle the Blight. Duncan is young and eager for battle and glory. The conversation system looked similar to other BioWare games in that you have multiple options, so you can basically respond in friendly, neutral, or rude manner. BioWare showed off some of the possible actions that can change the story. For instance, in one town there's a prisoner in a cage. He explains he has a key to a magical chest that he will give you if you get him food. You can do so and he'll give you the key, or you can just knife him and take it from his body. Your decision will have consequences later.[/quote]
[quote]The combat system looks like a close-up Baldur's Gate style of combat, as you can pause the game at any time, give orders, and then unpause the game and watch the action unfold. What's important is using tactics. In this case, a shield bash to stun an opponent and then toggling assault, which orders up four rapid sword strikes. Magic effects the environment, so the heroes rushed into a trap with the floor covered in grease and the enemy lit it with fire. The elf magic user used a blizzard spell to extinguish the blaze. It's important to use teamwork and coordinate attacks, so you'll use pause-and-play quite a bit, just like in Baldur's Gate.[/quote]

[Werthead]

[quote name='Jon AS' post='1442527' date='Jul 16 2008, 13.18']I thought these were more like those humanoid dragon creatures in Dragonlance, Draconians? At least I don't recall Saurial's having a breath weapon. Well, maybe the carnivorous ones...[/quote]

They're a mix of the two. In terms of general appearance, the Dragonborn look a lot like Saurials, except that the Saurials have a bit more dinosaur-like features (some have big neck-protrusions like stegosaurases, some have big horns like triceratopses) whilst the Dragonborn are obviously dervied from dragons. Draconians have wings, which neither the Dragonborn nor the Saurials have, but Saurials don't have short-range, weak breath weapons which the Dragonborn have (can't remember if Draconians have a breath weapon, but I think they do).

[potsherds]

[quote name='Werthead' post='1442875' date='Jul 16 2008, 16.31']They're a mix of the two. In terms of general appearance, the Dragonborn look a lot like Saurials, except that the Saurials have a bit more dinosaur-like features (some have big neck-protrusions like stegosaurases, some have big horns like triceratopses) whilst the Dragonborn are obviously dervied from dragons. Draconians have wings, which neither the Dragonborn nor the Saurials have, but Saurials don't have short-range, weak breath weapons which the Dragonborn have (can't remember if Draconians have a breath weapon, but I think they do).[/quote]
I totally need pictures to wrap my head around this.


As for Shryke's most recent post about Dragon Age: awesome.
And there's even a sentence about character creation:
[quote](By the way, character creation will let you create a male or female character with the wide range of customization options.)[/quote]
Sounds ok to me. Although I'd love a bit more detail than that. I hope it's like Perfect World. Character creation in that game is the best I've ever seen.

[Jon AS]

[quote name='potsherds']I totally need pictures to wrap my head around this.[/quote]

For Saurials scroll down a little in [url="http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frx/20030528a"]this[/url] article. Oh [url="http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fc/20061208a"]look[/url], this one is in colour.

[url="http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dreo/20080709"]These[/url] appear to be Dragonborn who do look different from the [url="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/dlcs_gallery/DLCS_PG35.jpg"]Draconians[/url].

[quote](By the way, character creation will let you create a male or female character with the wide range of customization options.)[/quote]

I assume they mean a system to customize facial features to a very large degree, like in [i]Mass Effect[/i].

[potsherds]

[quote name='Jon AS' post='1442944' date='Jul 16 2008, 17.03']I assume they mean a system to customize facial features to a very large degree, like in [i]Mass Effect[/i].[/quote]
Well yeah, but that's sooooo last year. :P

In Perfect World, in addition to facial features, you can adjust the width of arms, legs, bust, torso/waist, and even head. So I always play voluptuous women with an average bust in that game. Eyes, hair, skin tone, eyebrows, and for women, the color of any eyeliner/eyeshadow/bizarre eye paintings, can be adjusted on a very diverse pallet, where you simply move the cursor around to get hundreds of different colors.

I suppose for a single-player game, such diversity isn't really important, but I really like that about PW, as it's an MMO and it's rather annoying in those when you come across 4 other characters that look like yours. [i]No one[/i] looks like my characters in that game.

Thanks for the pics. :)

[Anatole Kuragin]

We can knife people? This is the feature I've been waiting on in an RPG for years.

[Werthead]

I'm hoping this means you can replicate the classic [i]Knights of the Dinner Table[/i] moment when the thief is trying to hit a squirrel that's landed on his back with his dagger, misses, and backstabs himself for x6 damage.

[potsherds]

[quote name='Werthead' post='1443269' date='Jul 16 2008, 21.05']I'm hoping this means you can replicate the classic [i]Knights of the Dinner Table[/i] moment when the thief is trying to hit a squirrel that's landed on his back with his dagger, misses, and backstabs himself for x6 damage.[/quote]
:lol: I've never heard that before.

[Shryke]

There's a beautiful gameplay video floating around apparently. I'm trying to track it down, but it's only on a video feed right now.

[potsherds]

[quote name='Shryke' post='1443313' date='Jul 16 2008, 20.33']There's a beautiful gameplay video floating around apparently. I'm trying to track it down, but it's only on a video feed right now.[/quote]
Do not rest until you are victorious. :pirate:

[Anatole Kuragin]

Shryke, god be with you.

[Shryke]

Alright, I found an [url="http://livewire.ign.com/2008/e3/index.html"]annoying feed[/url] version of it. Skip to just before 9:49 on the video thingy. It's interspersed in between the interview. I'm trying to find a better, less annoying copy.