Most of the content of Dragon Age Central has been developer posts to the official Dragon Age forums, first opened in May 2004. But all things must come to an end, and these forums were shut down on 2nd November 2009, the day before the game’s release in North America.
Since I haven’t had time to add much other content to the site for most of 2009, I’ve decided to also shut down Dragon Age Central as it was, leaving it here as an archive.
The new Dragon Age Central is now a much simpler (and fully automated) website dedicated to making developer posts to the new official forum (on Bioware’s social site) easier to find and search through.
It’s been interesting running this site, and in a way I’ll miss it... but hopefully I’ll be too busy finally playing the actual game to care :)
Dragon Age Central
Updated: Monday, 02 November 2009 02:07PM | Synced: 447714 mins ago
Forum posts were made by game developers. Please do not take posts out of context. While these individuals will have special insight into certain game-related questions, they are by no means the final authority. Please read the full topic and all its replies before forming an opinion. Remember, all things are subject to change.
-{ 2009 }-
Forum Post
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Brent Knowles ~ Lead Designer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: Does Bioware actually listen? [+4]
Date: Thursday, 04 June 2009 07:31PM
The more concrete the suggestions are, the more likely they'll be adopted.
"I wants" generally don't happen because they are subjective. They might get us thinking, but it is unlikely that a want will simply get implemented. The developers of the game know how it works, what features make sense in the context of other features, et cetera. Fans, no matter how diligent they are in scouring information about the game aren't actually playing it until it has been released. On the other hand, especially with sequels, the fans do have a pretty good idea of how the game works. And suggestions are much more likely to become reality. Especially when they are no longer "I wants" but "here's how". Example: On Baldur's Gate 2 we were investigating how to add containers to the player's inventory. We had some ideas. And then someone mentioned on the board about using a modified store interface as a container interface. There was much positive response to that particular way of implementing the feature and since it was the least costly manner in which containers could be added, it was done. So, it does happen. - Brent |
-{ 2008 }-
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Brent Knowles ~ Lead Designer Categories:
Quality:
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Thread: Consol UI ideas [+0]
Date: Wednesday, 22 October 2008 09:51PM
A couple points of clarification based on what I've mentioned in interviews:
- the player will not be able to plug in a controller to the PC version and play Dragon Age that way. That was only a temporary thing we did for some testing. The interfaces on the PC version won't support a console controller - during that testing we played around with the main interface and it was quite playable (with a controller). Our main interface is almost identical to Baldur's Gate... the same thing could have been done with that game. But at that time we didn't do any experiments with more complicated interfaces like inventory. |
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Brent Knowles ~ Lead Designer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: Game Informer and DAO coming for consoles Part 2 [+5]
Date: Friday, 17 October 2008 06:35PM
Wow.
React much? "We've kept consoles in mind throughout the development cycle so I think we're going to have a really strong offering to the console players." Keeping something in mind is a lot different than actively planning around it, or making sacrifices because of it. We have always set out to make Dragon Age a strong PC title. But that doesn't mean we never *thought* about how it would/might play on the console. My wording in the interview was slightly poor in that at the very beginning of the dev cycle we WERE only considering a PC version. But over the last few years we started to consider the consoles as viable. But that in no way undermines the PC version. I am playing Dragon Age constantly (on the PC!) and its a blast. The controls are awesome, the combat is tactical, satisfying, the story is amazing, the party members rock. Dragon Age is a very fun game. Now please, go panic about something else. |
-{ 2007 }-
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Brent Knowles ~ Designer Categories:
Quality:
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Thread: Concerned about quality of actual gameplay (particularly combat) [+2]
Date: Thursday, 25 October 2007 07:19PM
You will find Dragon Age combat very satisfying. There has been a lot of focus on making DA's combat more tactically engaging than the Baldur's Gate series. It is quite fun to know you have to [deleted] against the [deleted] in combat all the while the [deleted] does [deleted]. And then when you combine [deleted] with [deleted]... wow. You'll enjoy it. |
-{ 2004 }-
Forum Post
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Brent Knowles ~ Designer |
Thread: Is it "Build your own Dragon Age Module" or "Make your own fantasy world"? [+4]
Date: Friday, 08 October 2004 07:12PM
With Dragon Age we are creating an exciting fantasy world to be the backdrop for our equally exciting story. With that in mind, our focus is entirely on making sure that we have the tools needed to let us build this rich world and the strong rule system needed to support it. We are chosing a cohesive system that meets our needs *exactly*, not a generic system that would dissapoint us and our fans.
Unfortunately for some, this means that we not making a kit to help users build their own fantasy world. I do not imagine that doing this will be any easier than in NWN. |
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Brent Knowles ~ Designer |
Thread: Are the game rules being playtested? [+4]
Date: Tuesday, 31 August 2004 03:26PM
Actually because the rules are so calculation intensive we had to write the simulator. The pen and paper sessions were taking too much time. We used them mostly for getting a feel for making fun characters -- is there enough choice and so on. Since that point the rules have gotten even more involved so I doubt we'd be able to do any more pen and paper testing with them. |
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Brent Knowles ~ Designer |
Thread: Enemies At The Gate: Calling For Reinforcements [+0]
Date: Monday, 30 August 2004 08:20PM
The enemies in Dragon Age will display a broader range of behavior than in our previous titles. However, retreating enemies is, as some of the posters have already suggested, more annoying than entertaining.
There will however be some circumstances wherein enemies will fall-back to spring an ambush on the player. There will also be situations where enemy reinforcements arrive to assist their allies. |
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Brent Knowles ~ Designer |
Thread: Scalable Models discussion [+14]
Date: Friday, 27 August 2004 07:39PM
NWN had several features added solely to support the multiplayer community. One of the big ones was Portals -- this cost us a fair bit of time and was never used in the official campaigns.
Almost every single decision made on NWN had to be evaluated in terms of its impact on Single Player and Multi Player (i.e., the faction system is more complicated and hard to use because of multiplayer). We added database support in XP1 solely for the end-user community. We never planned on using it in the campaign. After it was added, we found a use for it. Dragon Age will not officially support persistent worlds. Our focus is on the single-player and the multi-player campaigns and we will do everything we can to make those as enjoyable as possible. |
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Brent Knowles ~ Designer |
Thread: Are the game rules being playtested? [+4]
Date: Wednesday, 25 August 2004 07:04PM
Dragon Age is not going to be a "generic build your own game system" toolkit. You will be able to add to our rules more easily than you could add to the rules in Neverwinter Nights. But you will not be able to modify core concepts (i.e., our rules for determining whether a hit occurred). That's unavoidable and is not the focus of what we are trying to achieve with Dragon Age. Our primary intent is to create an awesome gameplay experience, which requires a great story and a solid rule-system. |
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Brent Knowles ~ Designer |
Thread: Are the game rules being playtested? [+4]
Date: Tuesday, 24 August 2004 07:42PM
We are doing two kinds of pre-game rules balancing/testing
1. Play-testing: This is the time-consuming pen and paper method. We did this for several weeks and gathered "fun-factor" information and made changes. This is the most useful kind of test but the most time consuming. 2. Simulator testing: We have an application that churns away on my second computer performing simulated combat (a hundred thousand or so combats of varying group sizes and levels every week). I track all the results in a big excel document and compare results, fiddle with things, and then run the tests again. You can also use the simulator to play manually against another opponent. Simulator tests are useful for understanding how well a particular build will do against another build, or how a particular weapon stacks up against another. |
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Brent Knowles ~ Designer |
Thread: How about... ahem... riders? [+22]
Date: Monday, 23 August 2004 07:28PM
A major reason against doing horses is campaign design. Horses require a campaign with large, relatively empty areas. If there are many dungeon and city areas in the game and only a few plains areas, what's the point of having a horse? The cost to implement a horse riding system (especially in regards to combat) is expensive... but not impossible. However, if the campaign being designed does not require horses, wasting resources on a underutilized feature would be silly. |
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Brent Knowles ~ Designer |
Thread: Dynamic treasure [+0]
Date: Monday, 09 August 2004 07:23PM
We will probably (at this point most decisions are tentative) have two different treasure systems.
In the single player campaign we will mostly be using placed treasure so that we can create logical treasure distribution. In the multiplayer campaign we will probably be using an approach similiar to the one you suggested. |
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Brent Knowles ~ Designer |
Thread: Is it possible to play Solo (no party)? [+0]
Date: Friday, 06 August 2004 08:02PM
Anything is possible but the game will be balanced for a party of adventurers.
We have an exciting and interesting storyline and the joinable NPCs are a vital element towards telling that story. With that in mind, the combat in the game will be balanced for a diverse party. Just like BGII though, those are truly intent on playing alone probably can. It just might be very difficult. |
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Brent Knowles ~ Designer |
Thread: Is it still "We design the game with the same toolset we're giving to you" thing [+12]
Date: Thursday, 15 July 2004 07:50PM
Actually in NWN you can modify the existing classes. You can also add new spells. It all involves editing the 2das. DA will be much the same but hopefully with fewer restrictions.
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Brent Knowles ~ Designer |
Thread: Dynamic wildlife in DA? [+1]
Date: Thursday, 15 July 2004 07:39PM
On Dragon Age we plan to have environments that look more realistic/interesting than anything we have done before. That said, as has been suggested above, we will be using placeables and triggered events to fake it. There won't be any AI per-se running behind the scenes simulating how many bugs Bird X has eaten and then having him fly back to his nest once he is full.
But we will implement many triggered events that will make the player feel that the world is realistic and that things are happening even when he is not around. |