[Megathread] Dragon Age 3

[Deleted]

I hope an eventual DA:I toolkit allows us to make and break everything as i see fit.

I have a world to shape, and it will be glorious.

At the very least, there WILL be an arachne morrigan.
Or im burning bioware down to the ground.

[rayvio]

would a canine Morrigan aka Doggigan do instead for the meantime?

[Deleted]

Most certainly not.

Also, fanfiction is bad and you should feel bad.

[rayvio]

ah but it's a parody of DA2 so it's an exception to the rule :P

[Deleted]

I hope an eventual DA:I toolkit allows us to make and break everything as i see fit.

I have a world to shape, and it will be glorious.

At the very least, there WILL be an arachne morrigan.
Or im burning bioware down to the ground.

Damn this is the time where I hate being a console player. Toolkit would probably be PC only ... FUCK !!

Want to create Morrigan as a spider-mount with toolkit and make her marriageable.

[zealo]

I hope an eventual DA:I toolkit allows us to make and break everything as i see fit.

I have a world to shape, and it will be glorious.

At the very least, there WILL be an arachne morrigan.
Or im burning bioware down to the ground.

It will probably remain as an "eventual" in this case, people have wanted a toolkit for frostbite since BF3's release in 2011 and nothing have happened yet.

[Nazrark]

I think it is mostly because EA is not wanting to give it up yet. Where as previous engines were a little bit more outdated. In a few years we will probably see mod kits for the newer engines. But I suppose they want us to buy the license.

[Wilian]

I hope an eventual DA:I toolkit allows us to make and break everything as i see fit.

What eventual toolkit? EA's DLC sales policy will effectively remove any hope for such. They've been very good at breaking promises even to have modability for games that were supposed to have such (Like SimCity)

[Deleted]

Well, DA:I is BioWares shot at remaining alive since EA just might finish them like they have done with so many gamestudios before if they fuck up again (DA2/ME3 ending have hurt them) so they better bring the cake with the fanciest frosting they can make.

[May90]

The problem with presenting a toolset available for majority is that it restricts game developers in their work. The thing is, developers usually use very-very complex toolset developed specifically for the game they are making, and some random guy from Hiveworkshop won't be able to use without studying it for a few months first. If they use simplified toolset, they cannot do as much as they can with original toolset. And if they use two different toolsets, one for internal development and another for external use, then there is a problem of synchronizing these toolsets which is quite costly.

[zealo]

That did not stop Crytek or Epic Games from releasing SDK's for their engines, only reason i can see to why EA do not want to do the same is because it would reduce the need for paid for DLC if people could add their own content and map packs.

[May90]

That did not stop Crytek or Epic Games from releasing SDK's for their engines, only reason i can see to why EA do not want to do the same is because it would reduce the need for paid for DLC if people could add their own content and map packs.

It is a little bit easier for gameplay-based games. It is worse for games like Dragon Age or Mass Effect with a lot of cutscenes and such: as you probably remember, Neverwinter Nights, while certainly an amazing game, didn't have cutscenes in most cases, or they were very-very clunky, even dialogues were not "cinematized", there was just a dialogue box separated from the game. They changed it a bit in Neverwinter Nights 2, making it much more cinematical - and so many people complained about the toolset becoming so hard to use. Now imagine a similar toolset for Dragon Age providing ability to do as much as developers could... Or Mass Effect... It is just a different category of moding.

Now, I don't say that it is absolutely impossible to implement. I think Bioware just believes that the benefit they get from selling this feature will be much less than the cost of its development. Since DAI is expected to be played by many millions of players, many of which are RPG fans, regardless of whether it has a toolset or not, adding the toolset just is not very beneficial for them. And if they just add the "internal" toolset developers themselves used for creating the game, I don't think anyone outside Bioware will be able to use it.

[Wilian]

It is a little bit easier for gameplay-based games. It is worse for games like Dragon Age or Mass Effect with a lot of cutscenes and such: as you probably remember, Neverwinter Nights, while certainly an amazing game, didn't have cutscenes in most cases, or they were very-very clunky, even dialogues were not "cinematized", there was just a dialogue box separated from the game. They changed it a bit in Neverwinter Nights 2, making it much more cinematical - and so many people complained about the toolset becoming so hard to use. Now imagine a similar toolset for Dragon Age providing ability to do as much as developers could... Or Mass Effect... It is just a different category of moding.

Now, I don't say that it is absolutely impossible to implement. I think Bioware just believes that the benefit they get from selling this feature will be much less than the cost of its development. Since DAI is expected to be played by many millions of players, many of which are RPG fans, regardless of whether it has a toolset or not, adding the toolset just is not very beneficial for them. And if they just add the "internal" toolset developers themselves used for creating the game, I don't think anyone outside Bioware will be able to use it.

Dragon Age Origins had perfectly fine and fairly easy to use cut-scene editor. Fuck, even Warcraft 3 was more complex really.

Besides, I don't see "complex" as argument. It's more like non-argument considering that typically the best and most played/appreciated mods are very complex in themselves are have typically required some very advanced tinkering to begin with. I'm perfectly fine with not everyone and their grandmother being able to alter everything with given tool if the skill ceiling is too high, as long as the tools exists and those with dedication can work things out.

[zealo]

I was actually not talking about Bioware's inhouse dialogue and cutscene scripting tools here but more about the frostbite engine. It was originally developed by DICE based in Stockholm, Sweden for use in the Battlefield series, if an SDK where to be released it would not actually be Bioware standing behind the release.

Not having access to Biowares inhouse scripting tools for dialogues and cutscenes is a setback for sure but its nothing that regular programming can't fix if you want to set dialogue trees up.

That said it would probably require quite a bit of reverse engineering of the systems used to get to grasps with how they work, but if you have the know how to do that not being handed tools to script dialogues is mostly irrelevant.

[Deleted]

Modding finds a way.

[Wilian]

Modding finds a way.

If modding was a thing taken in consideration, DA2 could've been probably saved.

[rayvio]

no probably about it, mods can save almost any game so long as enough talented modders are interested and that was certainly the case with DA2
look at the Elder Scrolls games for example, if you don't like an aspect of one of the games there's almost certainly a mod to fix it. even games without a toolkit have a lot of players finding ways to create their own content for them these days. Dragon Age 2, Saints Row, Sleeping Dogs, Stick of Truth, Mass Effect... there's a limit to what can be done without the proper tools but there's some very impressive efforts considering the limited resources
a lot of people speculate that EA wouldn't allow BioWare to release a toolkit for DA2 as it may impact the sales of DLC, especially the bland DLCs like weapon and costume packs. whether or not that's true we'll probably never know for certain but if it is the case it's yet another mistake on EA's part. the longer people play a game for, the more likely they are to buy the DLCs when they're released. if I buy a game and after a month I've stopped playing it, I'm not likely to be tempted to return to the game for DLC. if I'm still playing the game though, the DLC looks more appealing. player made mods add lifespan to the games and keep players playing
I bought Morrowind when it was first released on PC. by the time the Tribunal expansion was released I'd finished the main questline and most of the faction quests and more interesting sidequests in the game but I was still playing because there were hundreds of interesting mods to try. by the time the Dragon Age 2 DLCs were released I'd moved on to other games and the only reason I bought the DLCs for them now is because I'm going to have to play the game again when I reach that point in my parody so I may as well include the DLCs as well (the things I do for my readers! both of them). half the Mass Effect 3 DLCs are still on my todo list, haven't even bought them yet, because I'd already stopped playing the game when they were released

[Nazrark]

Current discussion aside. You should play the dlc for ME3.

[rayvio]

oh I plan to, just haven't gotten around to it yet

[Deleted]

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