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Title: Old to New
Date: Monday, 02 November 2009 02:06PM
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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 :)
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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 
David Gaider ~
Lead Writer

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Thread: David Gaider: “There will never be any horses in a Bioware RPG!”  [+8]
Date: Tuesday, 28 April 2009 03:31PM
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Quote: Posted 04/28/09 15:24 (GMT) by Darthain
So you are saying we need short wider horses?
I'm sure the programmers would appreciate it.

Any time you have a model that is longer than it is wide (or wider than it is long, I suppose) suddenly facing becomes a much dicier issue. A regular creature you can simply turn and it doesn't look so bad. Turn a horse in the same manner, however, and it's going to look very weird. Have multiple such creatures all with a large bounding box needing to co-ordinate their movements and... well, then you get programmers throwing themselves on their swords in protest.

Not that this is an obstacle necessarily, as sappuku is always entertaining, but it sure is something you need to keep in mind. smile smile
 Forum Post 
Mary Kirby ~
Writer

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Thread: New BioWare Blog: Cori May blogs about why DA custcenes make her swoon  [+80]
Date: Wednesday, 04 February 2009 10:37PM
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Quote: Posted 02/04/09 21:49 (GMT) by Kaeloree

Timer based as in, for example, romance talks trigger an hour apart or something like that. I rather thought it would be both, but I wanted to double-check--I didn't want to write dialogues I wouldn't be able to use.


No, we don't use timers, and haven't since BG2. They cause... unpleasant situations, like Aerie deciding that the optimal time to talk about her wings is right in front of the dragon. Romance talks (or any other NPC talks) are triggered by plot, location, approval, or any combination of the three.
-{ 2008 }-
 Forum Post 
Georg Zoeller ~
Senior Technical Designer

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Thread: Data Formats  [+0]
Date: Thursday, 13 November 2008 02:29AM
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Quote: Posted 11/11/08 20:32 (GMT) by Cyberqat

Hi Guys,

One of the best things you did with NWN was to publish (most of) the data formats so others coould write tools and extensions that tied into the game.

Some questions this time around:

(1) Will you publish all the data file formats? Are they based on the NWN formats or are they totally new?

(2) Will you, this time, publish the client/server protocol? That was something that was really missing last time and closed off whole areas of potential fan expansion.

(3) If you don't intend to make this information generally publicly available, will it be possible to get access to this information through some kind of reasonably priced developer program?

(4) Will the out-doors terrain editor this time around use the tile-set structure that NWN did? I personally thought the height-map external maps in NWN2 were a big mistake and really hurt the amount of third-party content that
was generated for it.
1) No promises, but we'll try to be as helpful as possible.
2) Here it is:
Code:

View Post/Code in separate window


3) I don't think we would charge for this kind of information.
4) No.
 Forum Post 
Scott Meadows ~
Senior Programmer

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Thread: Can we name something in DA as well?  [+11]
Date: Monday, 03 March 2008 03:37PM
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Okay all done

Code:

View Post/Code in separate window



thx
 Forum Post 
Scott Meadows ~
Senior Programmer

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Thread: Can we name something in DA as well?  [+11]
Date: Saturday, 01 March 2008 03:40PM
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Quote: Posted 03/01/08 15:06 (GMT) by Elof Valantor

First off, Firefox says improtu is not a word.


I don't care what Firefox says, my brain says it's a word. razz smile

Quote: 

Second, once DA is released I'm going to open up the console command and check that function. If it doesn't work Mr Gaider is going to show you the videos I've been sending him.

The punishment is that bad.

So if it's a private function you'd better make it public...

I can 100% guarantee that this function will not be a console function in any way shape or form.

I am also going to name one of the paramters LdyShayna.


thx
 Forum Post 
Scott Meadows ~
Senior Programmer

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Thread: Can we name something in DA as well?  [+11]
Date: Friday, 29 February 2008 11:01PM
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And that ends that improtu name the function/method contest.

The winner is

snafu_fun()

Congrats.


thx
-{ 2007 }-
 Forum Post 
Georg Zoeller ~
Designer

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Thread: Mods/Addon handling in DA?  [+4]
Date: Thursday, 16 August 2007 03:24AM
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english german spanish
As Dave said, DA is a different beast than NWN.

As a former community member, I'll make a few assumptions / predictions here:

* If you managed to mod Baldur's Gate, I doubt you'll have trouble modding DA. (Don't confuse this for 'DAs architecture is like BGs, it isn't).

* If you are familiar with scripting in NWN, DA won't be a big shock for you, in fact, you will find that the language has a lot more power this time around.

* If you expect modding DA to be easier or more 'userfriendly' than NWN, you will be disappointed.

* If you found NWN's resource organization (hak vs. override vs. module vs. ...) confusing and 'hacktastic', you may be pleasantly surprised with DA.

* If you exect to be able to do all the things you could do with NWN, you'll be disappointed - but if you expect to be able to do things you couldn't do before, you may be pleasantly surprised.

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enjoy smile smile
 Forum Post 
Mary Kirby ~
Writer

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Thread: Dragon Age's Tools  [+16]
Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007 05:58PM
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Quote: Posted 05/23/07 16:57 (GMT) by Stanley Woo

Quote: Posted 05/23/07 15:57 (GMT) by fluffyamoeba
And most importantly, is there a "make module awesome" button in the toolset?
Yeah, I just can't figure out why designers aren't using it! I mean, that's the first button I press when making test modules! razz smile

Scott told us that if we clicked that button, he'd set us on fire and throw us out the windows.

Also, about dual monitors: Yes. It is more suited for that.
 Forum Post 
Scott Meadows ~
Senior Programmer - Tools

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Thread: Dragon Age's Tools  [+16]
Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007 02:52AM
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Quote: Posted 05/22/07 20:59 (GMT) by Alodar

I know there's lots of stuff you can't talk about yet so I'm going to keep my questions fairly general:

What's been the biggest challenge with the Dragon Age Toolset?

Hmm. lets see. One that I can mention and not get in trouble....
Keeping it generic and reusing as much code as possible, so that when new features go into it, all editors can take advantage of the new features.

Quote: 
What are you most proud of?

I don't take pride in the toolset per se, I take pride in the content creators doing there job without even thinking about the toolset.
A good day for me is when noone comes into my office to complain.

Quote: 
Are there any lessons have you learned that stand out from designing this particulare set of tools?

You never stop learning lessons, and no, nothing stands out.

Quote: 
What have you had the most fun with?

Just doing my job and avoiding the Zombie Kittens.

Quote: 
Hmmmm, these sound like job interview questions.


As always any info is appreciated.

Alodar smile smile

No Problem, I just wish I could say more.
 Forum Post 
Stanley Woo ~
QA Ninja

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Thread: Dragon Age's Tools  [+16]
Date: Tuesday, 22 May 2007 09:48PM
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english german spanish
Quote: Posted 05/22/07 20:46 (GMT) by imported_beer
I can understand that the toolset will remain important right to the end. I however also wanted to add a few questions to the thread.

1. It had not been decided if the toolset was going to be shipped with the game. Has any decision been made regarding this?
Not yet.
Quote: 2. How easy is the bugger? I mean- will it spawn a vault of user created mods? Or will idiots like me quake in fear leaving only the "gurus" to do it.
Haven't decided yet. although the imported_beer quaking in fear bit is very appealing. I'd like to see that. smile smile
 Forum Post 
Scott Meadows ~
Senior Programmer - Tools

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Thread: Question on Combat Capabilities  [+2]
Date: Monday, 21 May 2007 03:57PM
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I have been working on Dragon Age tools for 3 years now.

Never stopped working on tools.

And yes, we have always said, the tools we make for our internal staff are the same tools that have been shipped with our game (NWN).

Nothing new there.
We have a responsibility to provide professional tools to our internal staff so that they can get their job in the most efficient way possible to ship a game.

Last thing I would want is for Feret to come into my office screaming and yelling that something doesn't work. He is a real terror first thing in the morning. I mean geez let a guy get a cup of coffee first.

Sorry, I digress.

Yes tools are being made for this game.

thx