Dragon Age News Thread

I suspect DA4's development will be kept within BioWare. I don't expect Motive to get involved in their IP (despite absorbing BW Montreal).

Ian's with Motive now after BW Montreal got merged with them.

In that Visceral closing story, I remember that one of the problems the devs were having was that Frostbite didnt have certain tools that Uncharted had. Given Uncharted's cinematic quality, and given Epler's cinematic background, maybe it's those types of tools that they're working on?

Now, Uncharted transitions between cutscenes, gameplay, and cinematic quick time events kinda...gradually, for lack of a better word. Like with the zoom in while squeezing through a tight space thing. With DAI and MEA, the transition is pretty hard. No intersect between the cutscene and gameplay. Other than the zoom in conversations, which I think Bioware developed themselves, and weren't that well received, especially when used for certain quests like the Crestwood mayor or Michel.

So, that's whay I mean by "those types" of tools". And maybe those types of tools can make those zoom in conversations better somehow?

You're thinking about things way too literally, hence it doesn't make sense to you. But 'I don't understand it and therefore it's just something lame' ain't really sound reasoning.

TME is as much about Fen'Harel and potentially Mythal as it is about Celene and Briala. In many ways this was the point of the book. Felassan keeps telling Briala that she resembles Fen'Harel and almost tells that to Solas. But just because there are obvious parallels doesn't mean that similarities are literal. Fen'Harel's and Mythal's relationship doesn't have to be the exact same to still resemble the one between Briala and Celene (or - as some have noticed - between Leliana and Justinia, given that Leliana has many parallels with Fen'Harel herself).

rahaeli‏ @rahaeli
Basically I don't know who did the armor design for Inquisition, but @hanlsp / @davidgaider , if they're still at Bioware, please tell them I appreciated it immensely & *loved* that it wasn't the same body model for men & women but still looked like armor, not lingerie.

seb hanlon 🕚‏ @hanlsp
A lot comes from @mattrhodesart and his concept group, but the whole character art team made it happen.



[HASH]DAT

Yay another person who appreciates the DAI armor design!

Is there an outcome of WEWH where Briala is executed? Because I’d like to see her either team up with Solas, or better yet, set him up for a double cross in revenge for Felassan, in DA4. But that won’t happen if some world states have her dead.

Unless they do a Connor and have her be optional content. Unlikely given my plot idea.

This makes me excited. (Not John getting lost; John visiting DICE. ) 

I'm playing through more of Mass Effect Andromeda at the moment. Say what you want about the lack of polish to some aspects of the game, but the environments are lovely.  Tevinter (*cough*Minrathous*cough*) is gonna be gorgeous.

They could make those zoom in conversations with important NPCs better by making them cinematics (I'm talking about the cinematic conversations, not the more complex cutscenes). One traditional Bioware thing DAI got rid of that I was very happy MEA kept. Or kept half the time at least. In ports you sometimes just did the zoom in thing with your companions, but you always get a cinematic convo if you were on the Tempest, at least.

I understand why the cinematics might have been stripped as much as they were from DAI, given the challenges of just implementing the new engine in the first place. But I'm glad that MEA seemed to at least attempt a return to form there. Hopefully they'll have their processes ironed out in DA4's development enough so they can create the scope of the content they want and still not have to cut this particular corner this time. Honestly I'd like the cinematics back for every NPC you can actually ask a question (there were more of those in MEA, too), no matter how minor they are. Even if they're doing stock animations, the cinematic back and forth of their face then your character's is, well... cinematic. And it was something I personally really missed in DAI.

I didn't mind the zoom conversations with some random NPC. However, I prefer full cinematics for followers, even if we're just standing around and I'm asking them questions. DAO had that and it made follower relationships feel more intimate. I'm surprised they went this route with follower conversations, as lack of them was a complaint from DA2. We couldn't talk to DA2 followers whenever; most of their interactions was done during pre-determined cinematic cutscenes. But then with DAI, they re-added those conversations, but went halfway with the zoom camera.

Dorian had several interrogate options about Tevinter and some about other things. It would have been nice to be in a full cutscene with him. It's true that we get more follower cinematics and interaction in DAI than DA2, but this is one of those areas where Bioware needs to play to their strengths. Characters, and interacting with those characters, is a big draw of these games, so they need to showcase that.

Watching them, you get the feeling that they were used to save resources because the NPCs just run through the standard idle animations and gestures during those conversations.

Well, we all know how MEA ended up (although the argument there is that they pushed camera too close sometimes). There were more issues with some animations apparently not triggering before they fixed at least some of it, but during such zoomed-in conversations (that aren't really cinematics) all that happens are some very broad gestures and not really that many facial expressions, if any at all. It's passable in a 2009 title with lower graphics. It's way more acutely noticeable the better graphics there are.

user
Dental assistant calls.

DA: How are you feeling?
Me: Miserable.
DA: Is it better than what it was before, though?
Me: IT DID NOT HURT BEFORE.
DA: ...

Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes
I did not see the dental assistant part at first and thought this was about Dragon Age.


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