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: 389218 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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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: Dragon Age: Origins from BioWare Has Gone Gold on All Platforms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [+0]
Date: Saturday, 24 October 2009 07:04AM
I'll look around and see if I can find one to put up there.
*Rummaging sounds, followed by a wet "splotch."* There ya go. On topic, though, glad to see the excitement about us going gold, and really glad to have announced that we're able to pull in the PS3 version of Origins in North America. Exciting news for us, and you guys, I hope. Just a few more days, and we'll be welcoming you all to Ferelden. Thanks for your support, folks! |
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: Archer question... [+0]
Date: Saturday, 24 October 2009 06:54AM
Lethality does work for bows, and if you want to go archer, you should focus on dexterity.
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: What do the colored numbers mean that disappear above the heads during gameplay? [+3]
Date: Saturday, 24 October 2009 05:32AM
Correct. And they are in a larger font.
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: Se7en Reasons to Look Forward to Dragon Age: Origins [+0]
Date: Saturday, 24 October 2009 04:21AM
It was a good read! You did your research well, especially in the lore section, and the text moved quickly without resorting to lowest-common-denominator language. Keep it up. |
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: question about pause [+4]
Date: Saturday, 24 October 2009 04:18AM
Just set up your tactics wisely and you have something 10X as powerful as an action queue.
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: 2 more GT videos [+0]
Date: Saturday, 24 October 2009 04:09AM
Ahh, Sandal. He has a moment that is pure genius late in the game. You'll see it. You will laugh. |
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: What do the colored numbers mean that disappear above the heads during gameplay? [+3]
Date: Saturday, 24 October 2009 04:01AM
You can disable the damage number "floaties," yes.
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: GiantBomb 360 Quick Look [+2]
Date: Friday, 23 October 2009 12:36AM
On the Xbox 360 and PS3 versons of the game, the camera is at a fixed distance from the currently controlled character.
Everyone has a different "ideal" spot for the camera, so we chose the position that offered the best view of your character balanced with the best overview of the battlefield, based on our own instincts and focus testing. I find it quite a good distance, myself. |
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: Tactics: precisions needed [+1]
Date: Friday, 23 October 2009 12:32AM
As I noted before, you receive tactics slots automatically. If you choose to focus a character further, and thus receive MORE, by spending skill points, you may do so. If you do not wish to do so, you may not.
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: GiantBomb 360 Quick Look [+2]
Date: Thursday, 22 October 2009 10:56PM
This may have been answered, but just to confirm, you can change between "hold" and "toggle" on the radial. By toggle, I mean that you just pull the left trigger once and it stays open. By hold, I mean that the radial stays open so long as you hold the trigger down. Toggle closes when you make a selection. Hold does not.
Personally, I prefer "hold" myself, but some really prefer toggle. Either way you prefer to play works fairly well, IMO. |
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: GiantBomb 360 Quick Look [+2]
Date: Thursday, 22 October 2009 04:58PM
Mmm, good catch. Allow me to sound off! In short: Tactics is absolutely there, they just didn't find it. We're letting them know where it is now. You just press "Y" on the character screen, and it has the same level of control as the PC version. |
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: Tactics: precisions needed [+1]
Date: Tuesday, 20 October 2009 06:35AM
Every party member has their own pool of open tactics slots. Every character gains more slots naturally by leveling, but for very complex setups you will probably want to invest in the tactics skill to open up even more slots for that character.
So, to answer what I think is the root question: Yes, you will need to take the tactics skill on all characters that you want to have extra bonus tactics slots on. |
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: will monsters stay similer level to you? [+0]
Date: Monday, 19 October 2009 05:33AM
Origins uses a system which I call "Persistent Scaling."
Essentially, the game has the capability to scale around your level and adjust encounters, but it does not do so in a way that means the challenge level never changes. Some areas are harder, even at the lower end, and others are a bit on the easier side. Better, the game remembers when you visit places, so if you are having trouble with a particular encounter, you CAN leave, tackle a few side quests and come back tougher and know that the game won't have suddenly jumped the difficulty up on you to match. Hence "persistent." It's a very refined system. Some creatures are handled specifically, even. *cough*dragon*cough* All the brainchild of the DA systems guys, who are, I believe, Space Wizards in disguise, given the level of awesome they deploy on a daily basis. |
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: The Soundtrack [+0]
Date: Wednesday, 14 October 2009 05:19PM
Nope. It's orchestral in the game.
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Mike Laidlaw ~ Lead Designer |
Thread: Will chars level up if not used? [+0]
Date: Thursday, 08 October 2009 07:10PM
Characters not in your current party, but part of your "team" receive XP at the same rate as the characters in your current party.
After an epic dungeon run, it's not uncommon to return to camp and be able to level up everyone that stayed behind. I'm not a fan of "the B party," who remain permanently low level and kinda gimpular. |