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Post by Superhik on Apr 19, 2019 2:47:47 GMT
Wonder what people think now of Frostbite engine? I remember a few years back it was widely praised as one of the best engines around. From what we've learned from that article it seems absolute pain in the ass to work with. And that's not a good idea for a "GaaS" title or an rpg, in general ( which are some of the most complex games around, with whole variety of different systems) From Manveer Heir ( yeah, that dude):
" I can't speak to any of Anthem's dev itself, but all the criticisms of Frostbite, the shittiest engine I've ever worked with are 100% on point and seriously my life is so much better on Unreal now where things, you know, work and content creators are, you know, empowered"
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Staff Mini-Profile Theme: Heimdall
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Post by Heimdall on Apr 19, 2019 12:17:49 GMT
Wonder what people think now of Frostbite engine? I remember a few years back it was widely praised as one of the best engines around. From what we've learned from that article it seems absolute pain in the ass to work with. And that's not a good idea for a "GaaS" title or an rpg, in general ( which are some of the most complex games around, with whole variety of different systems) From Manveer Heir ( yeah, that dude):
" I can't speak to any of Anthem's dev itself, but all the criticisms of Frostbite, the shittiest engine I've ever worked with are 100% on point and seriously my life is so much better on Unreal now where things, you know, work and content creators are, you know, empowered"
It sounds like the biggest problem is a lack of tools and adequate support from the Frostbite team for BioWare. Plus having to start from scratch each time for the last three games they produced. Hopefully using Anthem’s base code should help
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Post by SirSourpuss on Apr 19, 2019 12:47:34 GMT
It sounds like the biggest problem ... adequate support from the Frostbite team for BioWare Which is a problem caused by Bioware's games not generating the same revenue as games of other EA studios. Which is why Bioware needs to focus on player sentiment and capitalize on it. EA and Bioware could use the PR.
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Post by samhain444 on Apr 19, 2019 17:53:13 GMT
It sounds like the biggest problem ... adequate support from the Frostbite team for BioWare Which is a problem caused by Bioware's games not generating the same revenue as games of other EA studios. Which is why Bioware needs to focus on player sentiment and capitalize on it. EA and Bioware could use the PR. Hence the change to "Games as a Service"...if you are essentially being ignored by your publisher because you are not generating the money FIFA is the answer is not to go back to the old model of release SP and 3 SP DLCs. "Dragon Age Inquisition" was BioWare's biggest launch overall, generated multiple "Game of the Year" awards, had an 89 metacritic...fan sentiment could not have been higher and yet they were still fighting for Frostbite support from EA during "ME:A" and "Anthem's" development. FIFA 18 has sold 24 million copies...Madden 19 was the 4th best selling game last year behind only RDR2, COD BO4, and NBA 2K 19. RDR2 obviously is a phenomenon and has an online multiplayer mode...COD BO4 didn't even have a campaign...NBA and Madden are sports games. After that, Spiderman and God War show up at 6 and 8 respectively as console exclusives that are owned by Sony and are designed to sell playstations. Far Cry 5 (7), Monster Hunter World (9), and Assassin's Creed Odyssey (10) round out the top 10, all with some type of online, MTX, live service, or CO-OP aspect. If BioWare wants to create the sprawling, ambitious RPGs that the fanbase here is seemingly demanding, is EA going to commit $80 - $100 mil in development money to DA4 plus 3 SP DLCs only to see that revenue generation drop sharply about a month after the last DLC drops? "AC: Odyssey" came out about 7 months ago and is still telling it's meta-story via "season pass" DLC and I guarantee you is still generating $$$ from cosmetic MTXs. "Anthem", despite it's rough Metacritic reception, was the best selling game in February, and the 2nd best-selling in 2019, after only 7 days. "Morrison" is likely incorporating elements that are allowing it get, and keep, EA's attention during its development.
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Post by SirSourpuss on Apr 19, 2019 18:13:49 GMT
Which is a problem caused by Bioware's games not generating the same revenue as games of other EA studios. Which is why Bioware needs to focus on player sentiment and capitalize on it. EA and Bioware could use the PR. Hence the change to "Games as a Service"...if you are essentially being ignored by your publisher because you are not generating the money FIFA is the answer is not to go back to the old model of release SP and 3 SP DLCs. "Dragon Age Inquisition" was BioWare's biggest launch overall, generated multiple "Game of the Year" awards, had an 89 metacritic...fan sentiment could not have been higher and yet they were still fighting for Frostbite support from EA during "ME:A" and "Anthem's" development. FIFA 18 has sold 24 million copies...Madden 19 was the 4th best selling game last year behind only RDR2, COD BO4, and NBA 2K 19. RDR2 obviously is a phenomenon and has an online multiplayer mode...COD BO4 didn't even have a campaign...NBA and Madden are sports games. After that, Spiderman and God War show up at 6 and 8 respectively as console exclusives that are owned by Sony and are designed to sell playstations. Far Cry 5 (7), Monster Hunter World (9), and Assassin's Creed Odyssey (10) round out the top 10, all with some type of online, MTX, live service, or CO-OP aspect. If BioWare wants to create the sprawling, ambitious RPGs that the fanbase here is seemingly demanding, is EA going to commit $80 - $100 mil in development money to DA4 plus 3 SP DLCs only to see that revenue generation drop sharply about a month after the last DLC drops? "AC: Odyssey" came out about 7 months ago and is still telling it's meta-story via "season pass" DLC and I guarantee you is still generating $$$ from cosmetic MTXs. "Anthem", despite it's rough Metacritic reception, was the best selling game in February, and the 2nd best-selling in 2019, after only 7 days. "Morrison" is likely incorporating elements that are allowing it get, and keep, EA's attention during its development. We know that Joplin's concept was going very well, but it completely forgot about going "Live Service" and it's why it got scrapped. While Morrison is being designed with that in mind and I do play AssCreed Odyssey, a live service game that I am thoroughly enjoying, the Schreier article pointed out that the reason Bioware isn't getting Frostbyte help isn't that their games aren't Live Service enough, it's that they're just not making EA enough money, period. Anthem making only $3.5 million in its first month, although it's the most Live Service game Bioware ever released. So what do you suggest?
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Post by samhain444 on Apr 19, 2019 18:30:33 GMT
Hence the change to "Games as a Service"...if you are essentially being ignored by your publisher because you are not generating the money FIFA is the answer is not to go back to the old model of release SP and 3 SP DLCs. "Dragon Age Inquisition" was BioWare's biggest launch overall, generated multiple "Game of the Year" awards, had an 89 metacritic...fan sentiment could not have been higher and yet they were still fighting for Frostbite support from EA during "ME:A" and "Anthem's" development. FIFA 18 has sold 24 million copies...Madden 19 was the 4th best selling game last year behind only RDR2, COD BO4, and NBA 2K 19. RDR2 obviously is a phenomenon and has an online multiplayer mode...COD BO4 didn't even have a campaign...NBA and Madden are sports games. After that, Spiderman and God War show up at 6 and 8 respectively as console exclusives that are owned by Sony and are designed to sell playstations. Far Cry 5 (7), Monster Hunter World (9), and Assassin's Creed Odyssey (10) round out the top 10, all with some type of online, MTX, live service, or CO-OP aspect. If BioWare wants to create the sprawling, ambitious RPGs that the fanbase here is seemingly demanding, is EA going to commit $80 - $100 mil in development money to DA4 plus 3 SP DLCs only to see that revenue generation drop sharply about a month after the last DLC drops? "AC: Odyssey" came out about 7 months ago and is still telling it's meta-story via "season pass" DLC and I guarantee you is still generating $$$ from cosmetic MTXs. "Anthem", despite it's rough Metacritic reception, was the best selling game in February, and the 2nd best-selling in 2019, after only 7 days. "Morrison" is likely incorporating elements that are allowing it get, and keep, EA's attention during its development. We know that Joplin's concept was going very well, but it completely forgot about going "Live Service" and it's why it got scrapped. While Morrison is being designed with that in mind and I do play AssCreed Odyssey, a live service game that I am thoroughly enjoying, the Schreier article pointed out that the reason Bioware isn't getting Frostbyte help isn't that their games aren't Live Service enough, it's that they're just not making EA enough money, period. Anthem making only $3.5 million in its first month, although it's the most Live Service game Bioware ever released. So what do you suggest? Have you seen the storefront for "Anthem"? It's the most passively marketed MTXs I've ever seen...and it appears that was intention since people were already giving BioWare crap about MTXs for "Anthem" even before it was released. It's 6 items that have been rotated two to three times already every 2 to 4 days and there is no way to purchase them if you miss them until the next time they rotate around. They need to maintain the "Storefront" with featured products, but then have a "Main Store" where every item eventually ends up for purchase and keep cranking out the new content. The combination of units sold plus MTX money hopefully starts to turn around at some point.
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Post by Polka Dot on Apr 19, 2019 18:50:58 GMT
Pretty easy to rack up a ton of time in that game, innit? There is so.much.content. I understood what you meant. I'm saying it isn't anything they haven't done before. There were 3 (4 if you count Javik) full SP DLCs released for ME3, and quite a few for MP as well. I believe they did the same thing for DAI. But I think there may be some misunderstanding with what I was suggesting with the whole "season pass" thing. I don't mean to suggest that BioWare do anything different from what they've always done - just that they offer an optional package that would include all of the DLCs and stuff packs they plan to release. Yes, I expect that was Ubi's intent. You can continue one ongoing playthrough with ACOD. You could also begin anew if you want to play through the story content again. I certainly hope DA4 has choices w/ consequences and supports different types of characters and playthroughs. I'd be mighty disappointed if it doesn't. I guess we'll see. I continue to hope that whatever "live service" means in terms of DA4 has a minimal impact on its competence as a good old-fashioned character, narrative-driven, choices and consequences, party-based SP RPG. If Odyssey is any indication it can be all of that. Eh? ACOD party based? Uh, no. Different types of characters and playthroughs? You can play Kassandra or Alexis. Choices with consequences? Can you cite any examples? I don't recall ever making a decision that had any real impact on the world. The dialogue choices allow a bit of RP flavor, but that's about as far as it goes IME. That, and choosing which quests to take on, which items to equip, and how to approach combat - which is pretty standard in any game with a lot of combat and open world content - is about the extent of it. Not to mention that a DLC actually... forces the character into a relationship and having a child within that relationship. This after marketing the game with a promise that romantic/sexual liaisons are entirely players' choice.
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Post by colfoley on Apr 19, 2019 19:14:21 GMT
If Odyssey is any indication it can be all of that. Eh? ACOD party based? Uh, no. Different types of characters and playthroughs? You can play Kassandra or Alexis. Choices with consequences? Can you cite any examples? I don't recall ever making a decision that had any real impact on the world. The dialogue choices allow a bit of RP flavor, but that's about as far as it goes IME. That, and choosing which quests to take on, which items to equip, and how to approach combat - which is pretty standard in any game with a lot of combat and open world content - is about the extent of it. Not to mention that a DLC actually... forces the character into a relationship and having a child within that relationship. This after marketing the game with a promise that romantic/sexual liaisons are entirely players' choice. well except for the companions but given Od did have several unique characters that you interacted with over the course of the game I don't think it's impossible that bioware would be able to adapt it. Especially if they cut out some of the fat. I have only played one playthrough so far but there is the definite impression you can play a ruthless psychopath or someone a lot more covert and clever. Let's see: There was the choice at that one random side quest with the plague that could leave kepholonia devastated. If you aren't stealthy during that initial segment some of the cyclops men terrorizes the vineyard. During the quest where you are helping that one slave find his presumed dead brother you can encourage him to reconcile... which gets him killed. Choosing the wrong sister gets her killed. You can choose to spare Aspasia... no consequences since it's at the end of the game but its still a choice with juicy implications which is sometimes all that's needed. And how you interact with Deimos and your family has profound impact on the ending.
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Post by SirSourpuss on Apr 19, 2019 20:01:57 GMT
We know that Joplin's concept was going very well, but it completely forgot about going "Live Service" and it's why it got scrapped. While Morrison is being designed with that in mind and I do play AssCreed Odyssey, a live service game that I am thoroughly enjoying, the Schreier article pointed out that the reason Bioware isn't getting Frostbyte help isn't that their games aren't Live Service enough, it's that they're just not making EA enough money, period. Anthem making only $3.5 million in its first month, although it's the most Live Service game Bioware ever released. So what do you suggest? Have you seen the storefront for "Anthem"? It's the most passively marketed MTXs I've ever seen...and it appears that was intention since people were already giving BioWare crap about MTXs for "Anthem" even before it was released. It's 6 items that have been rotated two to three times already every 2 to 4 days and there is no way to purchase them if you miss them until the next time they rotate around. They need to maintain the "Storefront" with featured products, but then have a "Main Store" where every item eventually ends up for purchase and keep cranking out the new content. The combination of units sold plus MTX money hopefully starts to turn around at some point. That depends on player retention and actual units sold. We know that Anthem's retail sales for February was somewhere between 0.98-1.29 million copies for the US, it sold another $100 million in digital sales and that in its entire first month it made $3,5 million in MTX revenue. It's a good number, it's not a FIFA number. And right now, Anthem looks a whole lot like ME:A did after its first couple of months.
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Post by Polka Dot on Apr 19, 2019 20:14:26 GMT
Eh? ACOD party based? Uh, no. Different types of characters and playthroughs? You can play Kassandra or Alexis. Choices with consequences? Can you cite any examples? I don't recall ever making a decision that had any real impact on the world. The dialogue choices allow a bit of RP flavor, but that's about as far as it goes IME. That, and choosing which quests to take on, which items to equip, and how to approach combat - which is pretty standard in any game with a lot of combat and open world content - is about the extent of it. Not to mention that a DLC actually... forces the character into a relationship and having a child within that relationship. This after marketing the game with a promise that romantic/sexual liaisons are entirely players' choice. well except for the companions but given Od did have several unique characters that you interacted with over the course of the game I don't think it's impossible that bioware would be able to adapt it. Especially if they cut out some of the fat. Yeah, that wouldn't fly for me. The party-based combat and follower relationships (and arcs) are among my favorite features in BioWare games. People around here get upset about LIs that are staff members rather than squadmates. That's mostly just combat styles, though. Most games offer different ways to approach combat. Kassandra and Alexis are set characters with the same background and overall story arc. Even Shepard had multiple background options that were recognized in-game. I think I read somewhere that it spreads regardless of what you do in that quest. I'll take your word for these since I have no direct experience with them (I haven't played the game since the content of a certain DLC was exposed). I appreciate the info.
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Post by colfoley on Apr 19, 2019 20:31:32 GMT
well except for the companions but given Od did have several unique characters that you interacted with over the course of the game I don't think it's impossible that bioware would be able to adapt it. Especially if they cut out some of the fat. Yeah, that wouldn't fly for me. The party-based combat and follower relationships (and arcs) are among my favorite features in BioWare games. People around here get upset about LIs that are staff members rather than squadmates. That's mostly just combat styles, though. Most games offer different ways to approach combat. Kassandra and Alexis are set characters with the same background and overall story arc. Even Shepard had multiple background options that were recognized in-game. I think I read somewhere that it spreads regardless of what you do in that quest. I'll take your word for these since I have no direct experience with them (I haven't played the game since the content of a certain DLC was exposed). I appreciate the info. *scratches head* I must be really bad at communicating ideas. What I meant was that it should be possible, based on some of the interactions in Odyssey, for BW to create companions that are as fully fleshed out as ever in a service game. Maybe even more so depending on where they focus their expansions. Granted this is the largest question mark but it's still possible. Sure you can do those things in combat and combat can be an expression of RP. But you can do it through dialogue. Like instead of beating up a guard you can bribe him or instead of fighting your way through a Olympic training ground you can reason your way. Not sure sure what this changes so I didn't include it in my list above but Od is the first game that made me feel uncomfortable in the kill everything school of thought.
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Post by biggydx on Apr 19, 2019 20:36:07 GMT
Choices with consequences? Can you cite any examples? I don't recall ever making a decision that had any real impact on the world. The dialogue choices allow a bit of RP flavor, but that's about as far as it goes IME. That, and choosing which quests to take on, which items to equip, and how to approach combat - which is pretty standard in any game with a lot of combat and open world content - is about the extent of it. The big choices & consequences have more to do with one particular Spartan commander that you work with. I know one of the choices you can make, which affects the ending, depends on whether you kill a specific individual in a certain location or not. Another is if you kill a high-ranking leader in one of the provinces; which said Spartan general wants you to meet up with. The final one is whether you've killed The Wolf or not; during the beginning of the game.
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Post by samhain444 on Apr 19, 2019 22:25:13 GMT
Have you seen the storefront for "Anthem"? It's the most passively marketed MTXs I've ever seen...and it appears that was intention since people were already giving BioWare crap about MTXs for "Anthem" even before it was released. It's 6 items that have been rotated two to three times already every 2 to 4 days and there is no way to purchase them if you miss them until the next time they rotate around. They need to maintain the "Storefront" with featured products, but then have a "Main Store" where every item eventually ends up for purchase and keep cranking out the new content. The combination of units sold plus MTX money hopefully starts to turn around at some point. That depends on player retention and actual units sold. We know that Anthem's retail sales for February was somewhere between 0.98-1.29 million copies for the US, it sold another $100 million in digital sales and that in its entire first month it made $3,5 million in MTX revenue. It's a good number, it's not a FIFA number. And right now, Anthem looks a whole lot like ME:A did after its first couple of months. It's the 2nd best selling game of the year, outselling "Resident Evil 2" which sold 4 million units but under Kindgom Hearts III...it moved a lot of units in a short period of time. The fact it didn't go on sale until the first week of April, along with the fact that they are still hiring talent to make the game better, tells me they aren't exactly panicking right now.
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Post by Polka Dot on Apr 19, 2019 23:34:55 GMT
Yeah, that wouldn't fly for me. The party-based combat and follower relationships (and arcs) are among my favorite features in BioWare games. People around here get upset about LIs that are staff members rather than squadmates. That's mostly just combat styles, though. Most games offer different ways to approach combat. Kassandra and Alexis are set characters with the same background and overall story arc. Even Shepard had multiple background options that were recognized in-game. I think I read somewhere that it spreads regardless of what you do in that quest. I'll take your word for these since I have no direct experience with them (I haven't played the game since the content of a certain DLC was exposed). I appreciate the info. *scratches head* I must be really bad at communicating ideas. What I meant was that it should be possible, based on some of the interactions in Odyssey, for BW to create companions that are as fully fleshed out as ever in a service game. Maybe even more so depending on where they focus their expansions. Granted this is the largest question mark but it's still possible. Okay - let's back up a bit. I expressed hope that DA4 will be these things: "I certainly hope DA4 has choices w/ consequences and supports different types of characters and playthroughs. I'd be mighty disappointed if it doesn't." "I guess we'll see. I continue to hope that whatever "live service" means in terms of DA4 has a minimal impact on its competence as a good old-fashioned character, narrative-driven, choices and consequences, party-based SP RPG." (Note: I have no doubt that it can be whatever BioWare chooses to make it, live service or no. My primary concern is what BioWare will choose to do with it, and what they're actually changing with this reboot to live service.) You used ACOD as some sort of example that a live service DA4 can meet the usual expectations of a DA game, but there are some distinct differences: -- ACOD's "romances" are basically one-night stands. -- The Eagle Bearer doesn't have followers with whom to build relationships and go into battle. -- The Eagle Bearer does have a "home base" if you count the ship. EB can even recruit those one night stands (and others) to populate it, but there's no ongoing conversation or indication of any real relationship. -- The "narrative drive" is barely there imho. The story - what there is of it - is strong enough, it's just such a tiny part of the overall content that it's pretty easy to forget about it. None of this, btw, is meant as any sort of indictment of ACOD. It is what it is, and Ubi's approach is different from BioWare's. Yes, all of those things are RP opportunities. One thing they did that I don't much care for is the scaling. You're not supposed to go into areas until you're leveled for them, but in order to attain the higher levels, you pretty much have to do some of the other side content. It ends up feeling like the main story pacing is purposely dragged out to push you to do more of the side content. I'm a bit curious about your experience with the underlined - and that's actually another big difference between typical BioWare games and open world types of games - the latter often allow you to kill anyone, anywhere, whereas Bio limits potential combatants to those your character has some reason to fight.
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Post by garrusfan1 on Apr 20, 2019 0:32:16 GMT
A good way to keep people playing the game long after it's made is very simple. Make the game like they do know with that team and have them do some dlc but have another team just make a fuckton of dlc that adds like thirty minutes of playing and have them do this once every month or two and I guarentee if the game had ALOT of fans like ME2 did for example that you would consistently sell small story dlc's. Take overlord for example. It doesn't really add anything to the game's main story and with the exception of the two brothers in ME3 showing up or having some extra war assets it didn't do much but people played it and liked it.
If they want to "extend" the games life or whatever they call it this is what they should do for games like mass effect and DA. And yeah they can add MP as well. As long as it doesn't take away from the story I don't see the problem.
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Post by garrusfan1 on Apr 20, 2019 0:34:31 GMT
well except for the companions but given Od did have several unique characters that you interacted with over the course of the game I don't think it's impossible that bioware would be able to adapt it. Especially if they cut out some of the fat. Yeah, that wouldn't fly for me. The party-based combat and follower relationships (and arcs) are among my favorite features in BioWare games. People around here get upset about LIs that are staff members rather than squadmates. That's mostly just combat styles, though. Most games offer different ways to approach combat. Kassandra and Alexis are set characters with the same background and overall story arc. Even Shepard had multiple background options that were recognized in-game. I think I read somewhere that it spreads regardless of what you do in that quest. I'll take your word for these since I have no direct experience with them (I haven't played the game since the content of a certain DLC was exposed). I appreciate the info. Exactly the biggest draw about bioware games is the companions
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Post by colfoley on Apr 20, 2019 0:44:56 GMT
*scratches head* I must be really bad at communicating ideas. What I meant was that it should be possible, based on some of the interactions in Odyssey, for BW to create companions that are as fully fleshed out as ever in a service game. Maybe even more so depending on where they focus their expansions. Granted this is the largest question mark but it's still possible. Okay - let's back up a bit. I expressed hope that DA4 will be these things: "I certainly hope DA4 has choices w/ consequences and supports different types of characters and playthroughs. I'd be mighty disappointed if it doesn't." "I guess we'll see. I continue to hope that whatever "live service" means in terms of DA4 has a minimal impact on its competence as a good old-fashioned character, narrative-driven, choices and consequences, party-based SP RPG." (Note: I have no doubt that it can be whatever BioWare chooses to make it, live service or no. My primary concern is what BioWare will choose to do with it, and what they're actually changing with this reboot to live service.) You used ACOD as some sort of example that a live service DA4 can meet the usual expectations of a DA game, but there are some distinct differences: -- ACOD's "romances" are basically one-night stands. -- The Eagle Bearer doesn't have followers with whom to build relationships and go into battle. -- The Eagle Bearer does have a "home base" if you count the ship. EB can even recruit those one night stands (and others) to populate it, but there's no ongoing conversation or indication of any real relationship. -- The "narrative drive" is barely there imho. The story - what there is of it - is strong enough, it's just such a tiny part of the overall content that it's pretty easy to forget about it. None of this, btw, is meant as any sort of indictment of ACOD. It is what it is, and Ubi's approach is different from BioWare's. Yes, all of those things are RP opportunities. One thing they did that I don't much care for is the scaling. You're not supposed to go into areas until you're leveled for them, but in order to attain the higher levels, you pretty much have to do some of the other side content. It ends up feeling like the main story pacing is purposely dragged out to push you to do more of the side content. I'm a bit curious about your experience with the underlined - and that's actually another big difference between typical BioWare games and open world types of games - the latter often allow you to kill anyone, anywhere, whereas Bio limits potential combatants to those your character has some reason to fight. Ah. In that case I have very little doubt that bioware will at least try and emulate their past style when making their next game. Ie... including everything you talked about above. How successful they'll be is largely a matter of execution and as we've seen can vary from game to game My only real quibble on your list is a question of narrative. The story for Odyssey was personally deep, immersive, and something I hope DA 4 can emulate and improve upon. As for the grind... I get your point, i know there are people who like to speed run through games... but then if the content in question is good why shouldn't we want to play it? And the side content in Odyssey was good, very good. Some of the best I've played. So much so that the game didn't especially feel grindy. Which is, I believe, what companies should go for. Creating content that people will want to enjoy whether it's a side quest, or a main one. Furthermore even if such a system was in place it'd hardly be a first. DAI had your power level locking you out of content until you 'grinded' a little and witcher 3 had level caps very similar to Odyssey which encouraged you to to go off the main path, explore, and level up.
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Post by SirSourpuss on Apr 20, 2019 3:01:57 GMT
"Resident Evil 2" which sold 4 million units According to Capcom, RE2 shipped 4 million units. I don't know about sold. Anthem, in its entire February release,counting preorders, can have sold up to 1,29 million copies and we can add to that something like 1,6 million copies sold digitally up until ~March 22nd when a report on digital sales came out. That's all I know. The fact it didn't go on sale until the first week of April, along with the fact that they are still hiring talent to make the game better, tells me they aren't exactly panicking right now. We also know that they haven't been communicating with their Anthem fanbase at all, since the Schreier article came out. So, regardless, something is wrong. And I'd also like to point out that Anthem is the only game I know, that got its pre-orders discounted. www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-01-18-anthem-down-to-32-85-on-pre-orderBut maybe that's a regional thing, as Anthem reportedly sold half of what Andromeda did on launch, in the UK. These are the things that I know.
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Post by samhain444 on Apr 20, 2019 8:08:07 GMT
"Resident Evil 2" which sold 4 million units According to Capcom, RE2 shipped 4 million units. I don't know about sold. Anthem, in its entire February release,counting preorders, can have sold up to 1,29 million copies and we can add to that something like 1,6 million copies sold digitally up until ~March 22nd when a report on digital sales came out. That's all I know. The fact it didn't go on sale until the first week of April, along with the fact that they are still hiring talent to make the game better, tells me they aren't exactly panicking right now. We also know that they haven't been communicating with their Anthem fanbase at all, since the Schreier article came out. So, regardless, something is wrong. And I'd also like to point out that Anthem is the only game I know, that got its pre-orders discounted. www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-01-18-anthem-down-to-32-85-on-pre-orderBut maybe that's a regional thing, as Anthem reportedly sold half of what Andromeda did on launch, in the UK. These are the things that I know. Sold half the physical units in the UK...coming out on a Friday versus the usual Tuesday release. And was #1 the next week too. It was also the #1 digital download for the entire month of Feb, in just 7 days, for both the Playstation store and XBox live...no (supposed) pre-order discounts with those places.
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Post by Sartoz on Apr 20, 2019 8:20:19 GMT
Wonder what people think now of Frostbite engine? I remember a few years back it was widely praised as one of the best engines around. From what we've learned from that article it seems absolute pain in the ass to work with. And that's not a good idea for a "GaaS" title or an rpg, in general ( which are some of the most complex games around, with whole variety of different systems) From Manveer Heir ( yeah, that dude):
" I can't speak to any of Anthem's dev itself, but all the criticisms of Frostbite, the shittiest engine I've ever worked with are 100% on point and seriously my life is so much better on Unreal now where things, you know, work and content creators are, you know, empowered"
It sounds like the biggest problem is a lack of tools and adequate support from the Frostbite team for BioWare. Plus having to start from scratch each time for the last three games they produced. Hopefully using Anthem’s base code should help
And what base code is applicable to DA4?
What code does Anthem have for sword fighting? Archery? The rogue character? The only match I can see is the Storm for the mage character minus flight mechanics. I would look at some DA:I code here.
Additional code pulled from Anthem may be for co-op, matchmaking and surely NOT the rubber banding code. Take Freeplay... you want that in DA4? BTW, co-op implies no NPC characters to take with you. I can see the HUB code being used. But, that's first person view...
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Post by Ajna on Apr 20, 2019 8:46:51 GMT
If they use the HUB code for Anthem and keep it FP then I'm screwed.
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Post by SirSourpuss on Apr 20, 2019 8:51:48 GMT
It was also the #1 digital download for the entire month of Feb, in just 7 days, for both the Playstation store and XBox live...no (supposed) pre-order discounts with those places. That is covered by the $100 million digital revenue in sales.
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Post by Heimdall on Apr 20, 2019 11:15:47 GMT
It sounds like the biggest problem is a lack of tools and adequate support from the Frostbite team for BioWare. Plus having to start from scratch each time for the last three games they produced. Hopefully using Anthem’s base code should help
And what base code is applicable to DA4?
What code does Anthem have for sword fighting? Archery? The rogue character? The only match I can see is the Storm for the mage character minus flight mechanics. I would look at some DA:I code here.
Additional code pulled from Anthem may be for co-op, matchmaking and surely NOT the rubber banding code. Take Freeplay... you want that in DA4? BTW, co-op implies no NPC characters to take with you. I can see the HUB code being used. But, that's first person view...
That’s not what code base likely means. It really does mean BASE. From what we know, Frostbite lacks extremely basic low level tools for building a BioWare game, things like cutscene support, the ability to have an inventory, basic event triggering, and such. All of these things had to be built from scratch for DAI, MEA, and Anthem. Using Anthem’s code base means they will be able to use Anthem’s tools to develop an inventory system, but it does not mean the inventory system will be implemented like Anthem’s. This is a question of low level technologies and tools that ease development, not importing Anthem’s features.
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Post by melbella on Apr 20, 2019 16:42:54 GMT
things like cutscene support, the ability to have an inventory, basic event triggering, and such. All of these things had to be built from scratch for DAI, MEA, and Anthem. Using Anthem’s code base means they will be able to use Anthem’s tools to develop an inventory system, but it does not mean the inventory system will be implemented like Anthem’s. What's wrong with DAI/MEA inventory system for another DA game? Both games also had cut scenes and triggered events. I don't see why they would have to 'start from scratch' if they didn't use Anthem code. All their claims otherwise makes no sense and comes across as an attempt to hide what they are really using it for.
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Post by samhain444 on Apr 20, 2019 16:57:05 GMT
It was also the #1 digital download for the entire month of Feb, in just 7 days, for both the Playstation store and XBox live...no (supposed) pre-order discounts with those places. That is covered by the $100 million digital revenue in sales. Point is, it sold a lot. How much we'll find out at the 2018 Q4 investor meeting in May.
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