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Post by Gileadan on Aug 3, 2021 20:46:47 GMT
It is the 41st Millennium. Dragon Age: Dread Wolf is slated for a 223.M43 release. Psyker Weekes has promised to purge all Multiplayer Heresy from the franchise, in praise of the God Emperor. Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl approves.
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Post by Gileadan on Aug 3, 2021 5:54:02 GMT
DAI's combat needs a lot of iteration if it is to be the base of DA4's combat.
1. Fix hitboxes. They need to match the model of the enemy instead of being vaguely human sized. It messes up combat with short ranged melee weapons.
2. Fix attack animations. Starting an attack with dual daggers would freeze you in place until the animation finishes, making it impossible to hit even just walking enemies.
3. Fix tactical combat. Move the actual camera instead of an invisible character that gets stuck on obstacles. Make companions understand what "Hold Position" means.
4. Rework Barrier. Spamming it is such a joyless chore, change it to something like a chanelled spell that keeps one target safe from harm while the mage has mana to uphold it or some such.
5. Give weapons special properties like "causes bleeding", "armour piercing" etc. that makes their choice more meaningful than just "best source of DPS".
6. Remove "attribute bonuses" from gear and give them back to the character. Wielding a heavy weapon shouldn't give you strength, it should require it.
Just the most obvious things that came to mind immediately.
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Post by Gileadan on Aug 1, 2021 12:55:44 GMT
DAI's melee combat was barely functional. Dual dagger rogues for example were locked in place once the attack animation started, automatically missing if the enemy moved. Hitboxes didn't fit the shape and size of non-human enemies, making hitting some creatures with short ranged non-AOE melee a nightmare.
Ranged attacks were fine though. Click enemy, shoot homing missiles. Then revive the rest of your party, including the puny god.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 31, 2021 17:36:16 GMT
I like both the tactical and the action-focused approach to combat, but BioWare has never made any good melee action combat and I somehow feel that they aren't going to start now. DAI's combat was the low point of the franchise for me. Ideally they'll go back to DA2's combat, minus the awful wave mechanic and with less over the top animations like rogues roundhouse-kicking their thrown flasks and mages spazzing about as if trying to be shaolin monks with a gun-stick. When I press a button, I just want a good looking attack to happen, not always something awesome.
And please no clunky mess like DAI with its barely functioning hitboxes again.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 29, 2021 18:35:04 GMT
I don't know Sam Maggs, but I don't think she's out to ruin someone's career. She didn't mention any names as far as I could see, and she probably didn't post it on a Friday night. Hopefully this will get investigated and the bad apples identified and treated with all due justice.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 28, 2021 21:48:44 GMT
Are...Germans allowed to make that joke...? Probably not, but then again I'm not on social media so I'm probably safe...
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 28, 2021 21:24:35 GMT
However, the stupidity swings the other way too, at least over here. Our fearless leaders thought it was a good idea to grant extra financial aid to hospitals whose intensive wards are near full capacity. What happened? Hospitals reduced the number of free beds in their intensive wards to qualify for the payments, and the media promptly ran with the "COVID causes Germany's intensive care capacity to reach its limits!" headline. Panic! Lockdown! The idiocy was eventually discovered but the general public barely took any notice by then.
That said, I got my second BioNTech injection yesterday. Neither vaccination caused any ill effects other than a light pain in the affected arm, and I have not felt any desire to start WWIII yet. So far, so good.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 27, 2021 5:17:35 GMT
Models and animations are usually created using 3rd party software like 3DSMax or Maya and then exported to the graphics engine, so if models look crappy like Scott Ryder's godawfully proportioned body, then that is on the artist who made the model in whatever model/animation software that was used. The graphics engine itself can only be praised or blamed for the features it offers, like subsurface scattering to make skin look more realistic.
What Frostbite apparently can be blamed for is being notoriously hard to learn and use, and BioWare seems to have an especially hard time with it. Games made by DICE, who know their engine best, usually run smoothly like an elven baby's ass while BioWare's Frostbite games seem to stutter along at about half the FPS and are plagued by rookie mistakes like the fixed 30 FPS for cutscenes in DAI. But then again, BioWare likes their 30 FPS, see also ME3MP on PC...
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 25, 2021 9:47:58 GMT
The 'what does the orb mean?' Conversation is the new peak of absurdity in the BSN. I doubt it means more than a "round object from one of our franchises that goes with the square and triangular ones to its left and right to form an EA logo that says Hey remember all the cool games we made". It's a thing from the past, not the future.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 23, 2021 12:18:38 GMT
The incompetence of your own side plus that of any possibly allied factions is a pillar of BioWare plots. See also: DAI's mage/templar conflict, Wardens going full moron, the entire Andromeda Initiative and so on. In BioWare games I often feel like I have to force everyone to their own salvation through a constant barrage of kicks delivered to pretty stupid derrières. To be fair that is actually pretty realistic. Just look at how so many people and governments have dealt with covid. I to thought the way the Council and Alliance handled the Reaper situation was pants on head level stupid. After living though an ongoing pandemic suddenly it all makes a lot more sense. Yeah, it actually is fairly realistic... sadly. It also reminds me of Max Brooks' "World War Z" (the book, not the movie!) where the world's governments turn out to be similarly incompetent when dealing with a really nasty pandemic.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 23, 2021 8:30:05 GMT
The incompetence of your own side plus that of any possibly allied factions is a pillar of BioWare plots. See also: DAI's mage/templar conflict, Wardens going full moron, the entire Andromeda Initiative and so on.
In BioWare games I often feel like I have to force everyone to their own salvation through a constant barrage of kicks delivered to pretty stupid derrières.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 22, 2021 16:32:39 GMT
Some mysteries better remain mysteries in my opinion. Mysteries contribute to a feeling of wonder in the setting, and taking them away makes the world a little poorer for me. I don't want to know exactly who Andraste was and where she came from - she is a myth and I'm happy with her remaining a myth. I don't want to know what exactly happened in the Black City and what it's like there.
It's like Santa Claus. He was an awesome figure of wonder until I found out it's Uncle Hubert with a silly beard and red coat.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 15, 2021 13:48:08 GMT
BioNTech is supposedly developing a special delta-variant of their Comirnaty vaccine, claiming that it won't take long since their formula is modular enough to allow for easy modifications. This might be used for a third shot for people most at risk. We'll see what's going to come from it...
Fun fact: BioNTech's address contains the street name "An der Goldgrube", meaning "at the gold mine".
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 13, 2021 22:22:37 GMT
The team lead of the original World of Warcraft, producer of Starcraft, and Diablo 2 just had something interesting (and by interesting I mean he tore his former employers a new one) to say on twitter about the state of the AAA industry: .... Great find. I've always said that if there is an increase in game development costs, it's because of corporate fat cats wanting a nice big slice of the pie, even if they didn't contribute that much to it being made in the first place. Whenever someone from the games industry or related corporate shill whines about the cost of game development, the first reply should be a link to this.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 12, 2021 9:51:01 GMT
I've spoken to gamers who've never heard of Dragon Age at this point, and that number will increase until they ramp up the marketing for the new game. In my circle of real life friends, almost all of which are RPG video game fans, I am the only one who hasn't forgotten that the Dragon Age franchise exists... go figure.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 11, 2021 9:10:35 GMT
The only magic system I ever really enjoyed was Ars Magica's Technique + Form style of magic that was balanced by requiring magical ingredients to cast something powerful and permanent.
I would love a system where different spells have different synergies with each other. Like a freeze spell followed by a fireball shattering armour or weak enemies entirely outright. Not just the simple "prime and boom" we have right now.
But since BioWare's lead platform is console and they have a tendency to reduce and streamline everything from iteration to iteration we will probably get another "X spells / abilities loadout prime and boom" system, where X <= 8.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 8, 2021 16:09:30 GMT
Steve Rogers is Captain America.
But I guess you could have Cyber-Shepard go "Hail Cerberus" in the post credit scene.
That said, new protagonist with a good story please.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 6, 2021 7:02:16 GMT
I've found that a lot of people don't object to killing too much as long as they agree with who's getting killed. Otherwise you couldn't play any game that doesn't allow for a completely pacifist play through, and very few games do that. Pretty much every BioWare protagonist and their gang have killed hundreds of people and creatures over the course of the game's story. And some seemed to enjoy it, like the ever so popular psycho clown (purple) Hawke. My comment wasn't aimed at you though, I think wanting to avoid death and bloodshed is a good hearted sentiment. My apologies. I assumed that since my comment seemed to have started this conversation. Shame we’ll probably only have one DA character that ever shares that sentiment. There's nothing to apologize for. Yeah, Dragon Age just doesn't seem to be the setting or franchise for that kind of character because of how the gameplay loop is designed in that genre. You could have such a character as a companion (which could lead to some interesting dialogues if someone could rustle up a good writer to write them), but not as a protagonist unless you added Deus Ex style non-lethal stealth gameplay or some such.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 6, 2021 6:36:24 GMT
I don't think characters from a fantasy world that have grown up in different societies than ours should be judged by present day western morals or ideologies. I mean, isn't that what Andrastians supposedly do? Assume that their ideology is the only right one and judge everyone who's different? Same zealotry, different symbol on the banner. A lot of this is hardly present day or western. People all over the world for the most part have though “someone who likes killing people is bad” for example throughout all of human history. Also, why not? The people of Thedas have those morals or ideologies about a bunch of other things in the setting. I've found that a lot of people don't object to killing too much as long as they agree with who's getting killed. Otherwise you couldn't play any game that doesn't allow for a completely pacifist play through, and very few games do that. Pretty much every BioWare protagonist and their gang have killed hundreds of people and creatures over the course of the game's story. And some seemed to enjoy it, like the ever so popular psycho clown (purple) Hawke. My comment wasn't aimed at you though, I think wanting to avoid death and bloodshed is a good hearted sentiment.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 6, 2021 5:03:39 GMT
I don't think characters from a fantasy world that have grown up in different societies than ours should be judged by present day western morals or ideologies. I mean, isn't that what Andrastians supposedly do? Assume that their ideology is the only right one and judge everyone who's different? Same zealotry, different symbol on the banner.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 4, 2021 14:20:31 GMT
Well, yeah, it's absolutely possible that Crow Lady doesn't exist as a specific character - I wasn't originally talking about specific characters anyway, only the atmosphere that I'm getting from these images. We've come full circle, I suppose. After having some tea and coming back to this discussion, I'd like to make it clear I'm not trying to be combative for the hell of it, I'm just a little bit tired and frustrated with a specific type of mentality. The theatricality and casualness of the piece might not be your cup of tea or a lot other people's and that's perfectly fair, as long as we all recognize it's just a small moment that ultimately might not even make it in the game or be significantly altered. What I'm particularly miffed with is the fact that certain types are really trying to make it out like the game is going to be a steaming pile of BS just because they don't like the sexy leather clad lady who's smirking at the camera. It's taking things we have no context for and generalizing to the Nth degree and ruining it for everyone. It's particularly aggravating when the wait for substantive information from Bioware is so long, so all you have to look forward to is this kind of nitpicking that sucks the fun out of everything. It's like taking only the moment of Teagan acting like a jester for Connor and presenting that bit to someone whop has no knowledge of Dragon Age and completely ignoring the context of how unnerving that snapshot in time was because of the possession questline. I quite understand that the current situation frustrates you. In fact, I wish I felt so involved with Dragon Age that this would frustrate me too. It's just that those images of theatricality and casualness are all we got of that lady. It's like having four images of Teagan, one where he's acting like a jester and three other ones where he looks like a fool in some way and nothing else and showing that to a person who doesn't know Dragon Age at all. If one out of four images is just about show and style, okay - but if four out of four are, as is the case with Crow Lady, it does look like this is the dominant aspect of the concept art available so far. And that doesn't need to be a bad thing - Marvel made a killing with stylish action and humour while the world is ending (again). None of this means that the game will be awful. Those images may just show one aspect of Crow Lady, if she indeed exists as a character. There are still all those other one we practically know nothing about - badass Qunari lady, budget Ghost Rider and frictionless two dagger dude and others. We've only glimpsed a small aspect that may not be even final. But this is what they chose to show us, and it does look like an action comedy to me.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 4, 2021 10:08:30 GMT
Here's an idea, Crow lady doesn't actually exist. She's not an actual character but the personification of a mood and theme. She's a shorthand for swashbuckling, adventure, fearlessness, daring. There are subtle changes to all the concepts we've seen of her, first alone at night in an alley with hair down and using a rapier, then her using a bow and arrow, now again with a rapier but with hair tied up. That's as much of a valid interpretation as anything right now because we just don't know anything of actual substance. Plus, comparing the concept of an entire scene to the concept art of a single focus character seems counterproductive. A single focus character can be in any stance/pose/emotion the artist chooses, but where they create an entire scene or a snapshot of a scene they have to make that character fit the mood and react appropriately to what's happening around them. Well, yeah, it's absolutely possible that Crow Lady doesn't exist as a specific character - I wasn't originally talking about specific characters anyway, only the atmosphere that I'm getting from these images. We've come full circle, I suppose.
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Gileadan
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 4, 2021 7:17:25 GMT
Yeah, it is not something that produces confidence or interest. The expression on her face is toonish. Edgy. Do they know who their audience is, at all? Or are they trying to attract an entirely new audience, and happy to dump the old audience in the process? My answer to these questions, respectively, is - they should, they do, and they don't care. Yes. This is suicide. Popcorn ready. Hey guys, remember when Alistair wasn't snarky at all? Remember when Zevran took everything seriously from the get go? Remember when Shale didn't threaten to reduce Thedas' bird population? Remember when Oghren was a completely well adjusted and sober veteran? Yeah neither do I, because from the very beginning the tone was never 100% serious. The "audience", as you call it, has experienced these things already from the very first game. What's edgy isn't the theatricality portrayed in these concepts, it's the fact that people are trying to pretend really hard that the humor and light hearted moments from the games were either very few or were super high brow. I don't know about you but I still hear Oghren in my mind yelling "Asschabs!" and belching. Good times! I had a lot of laughs! Concept art portrays a mood or a momentary snapshot, not an entire story or character arc. Imagine thinking Alistair is nothing but a buffoon who has no chance of growth and maturity after just that first conversation you have with him in Ostagar. Wild to think something like that, right? Yeah, I remember. And? We were just talking about the concept art here. We don't know any other aspect of crow lady's personality yet since said concept art hasn't shown us any, so we're talking about how things look like right now. If we had seen concept art from Dragon Age Origins before release and all it showed was Alistair slapping his knees and laughing out loud after another joke, Oghren farting into the campfire and Shale leaving a trail of pigeon splats in her wake - never seeing a hint about the reluctant templar who has to shoulder the burden of being king, the sad man who misses his lost wife and the dwarf woman who was made into a fighting machine in a really horrible way, then we would have probably said something similar. But I also remember that DAO's concept art wasn't like that. The character art showed some rather determined looking individuals. The female elven commoner looked like the Bride from that Quentin Tarantino movie. It gave me an entirely different vibe than DA4's concept art has so far, that was what I was talking about.
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 3, 2021 18:14:39 GMT
It's not just the cloth designs, it's in the names too. Wasn't some important Crow or other named "Dellamorte"? That's about the same level as having a really shady scientist named "Doktor von Tod". Hm, I wonder what those people could be about...
But hey, if that's what they want to go with, more power to them! They seem to be aiming at lots of snark and drama and romance anyway, and maybe the whole thing shouldn't be taken too seriously.
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Gileadan
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Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Gileadan on Jul 3, 2021 15:31:54 GMT
I'm getting some mild style over substance action comedy vibes from this, complete with theatralic poses and impractical clothing. And I LOVE IT! Sometimes realism needs to be set aside for the rule of cool/sexy. Coming Soon <tm>: Springtime for SolasA BioWare Musical
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