Peter Thomas confirms no Friendly Fire in Dragon Age 2

[Kaanyrvhok]

Except on Nightmare

Friendly fire is only on Nightmare. There were discussions on it months ago (including toggles, having it not be toggle-able in certain modes, and even locked difficulty levels) and that was the decision that was reached.



For reference, here are our current goals for difficulty balance:



Casual - Able to be beaten playing a single character sub-optimally, with the rest of the party using default AI tactics.



Normal - Able to be beaten playing a single character optimally, with the rest of the party using default AI tactics.



Hard - Able to be beaten playing the entire party sub-optimally, either controlling directly or using custom AI tactics.



Nightmare - Able to be beaten playing the entire party optimally, either controlling directly or using custom AI tactics. Friendly fire active.

Link

I'm dumb. I'm simply not an intelligent man. Compared to most recent RPGs Dragon Age was pretty tough on normal and hard on hard.

Note* RPGs are the easiest genre in video games.

The game still sold 3 million on consoles alone so why are they acting all feminine about friendly fire? Its like they know us Americans cant resist bombing our own tanks if it takes out Iraqi Darkspawn.

 

[baronjohn]

IDC as long as there are friendly sex scenes between gay elves.

Notice how I made no mention of consent

 

[Crooked Bee]

As to the reason why, it's explained by none other than DGaydar himself:

Why can't it simply be a toggle?

Because it has a profound effect on the difficulty. Hence it being attached to the difficulty.
Or that, anyhow, is what I assume. Attaching things to toggles is great, but if someone flips that on and doesn't know that it will suddenly make their "Easy" game not quite so Easy anymore... well, that wouldn't be good.

:facepalm:

EDIT: Link

 

[Destroid]

Peter Thomas? I want to know that William Wallace is on the job.

 

[Konjad]

As to the reason why, it's explained by none other than DGaydar himself:

Why can't it simply be a toggle?

Because it has a profound effect on the difficulty. Hence it being attached to the difficulty.
Or that, anyhow, is what I assume. Attaching things to toggles is great, but if someone flips that on and doesn't know that it will suddenly make their "Easy" game not quite so Easy anymore... well, that wouldn't be good.

:facepalm:

That's an insult to the audience I think.

 

[SimpleComplexity]

As to the reason why, it's explained by none other than DGaydar himself:

Why can't it simply be a toggle?

Because it has a profound effect on the difficulty. Hence it being attached to the difficulty.
Or that, anyhow, is what I assume. Attaching things to toggles is great, but if someone flips that on and doesn't know that it will suddenly make their "Easy" game not quite so Easy anymore... well, that wouldn't be good.

:facepalm:

The fuckkkkkkkkk
Requesting newspost frontpage asap.

 

[desocupado]

As to the reason why, it's explained by none other than DGaydar himself:

Why can't it simply be a toggle?

Because it has a profound effect on the difficulty. Hence it being attached to the difficulty.
Or that, anyhow, is what I assume. Attaching things to toggles is great, but if someone flips that on and doesn't know that it will suddenly make their "Easy" game not quite so Easy anymore... well, that wouldn't be good.

:facepalm:

That's an insult to the audience I think.

Bioware, now catering to retards!

 

[made]

I don't even remember if DAO had FF at all. I do remember filling rooms with fire- and icestorms through walls and locked doors, the oblivious AI unable to react.

I predict party composition, not a setting, will dictate difficulty, just like in DAO.

 

[Tycn]

DAO had FF on all but the easiest difficulty. Might have been halved on normal though.

Bioware, now catering to retards!

Now?

 

[made]

Ah yeah, you could freeze your own doods with that ice cone spell. That was nifty.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

That's fucking retarded, taking in account how higher difficulty levels are usually achieved by creating artificial difficulty by beefing up monsters and stuff like that.

 

[Jools]

Well, I found DA:O piss easy on normal and still easy on hard.

But hey, we know that Bio's motto is "Making Games Dumb", rather than "Making Dumb Games". Or both.

Anyway, the word choice "sub-optimal" seems to imply a certain retarded-ness in the player choosing that option, as in, for people with "sub-optimal" brains size/functionality.

Anyway, FF on nightmare only translates to Faggotry +5.

Next on, in-combat regenerating health.

 

[Azrael the cat]

So we now know what the 1st week 'most popular mod' will be.

Seriously, does anyone think that a modder isn't going to add the ability to toggle friendly fire in? What were they thinking? Shutting off gameplay options is both retarded and pointless these days - retarded because it denies customers a choice on the presumption that they are morons, and pointless because they're just going to add the option back in. The few folks that would be so idiotic as to switch friendly fire on and then complain about the game being harder, will probably STILL complain or blame the game when they download a mod and do the same thing - THAT'S what idiots DO.

 

[Cenobyte]

Retarded. Bioware must really think of their audience as a bunch of lazy illiterates. And Gaider's argument makes no sense at all, since even if you toggle it unconsciously, you could always deactivate it later if you realize your mistake or if the combat gets too difficult

 

[Crooked Bee]

Retarded. Bioware must really think of their audience as a bunch of lazy illiterates. And Gaider's argument makes no sense at all, since even if you toggle it unconsciously, you could always deactivate it later if you realize your mistake or if the combat gets too difficult

The players Gaider has in mind wouldn't even know WHAT to toggle off to make raep stop.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

As to the reason why, it's explained by none other than DGaydar himself:

Why can't it simply be a toggle?

Because it has a profound effect on the difficulty. Hence it being attached to the difficulty.
Or that, anyhow, is what I assume. Attaching things to toggles is great, but if someone flips that on and doesn't know that it will suddenly make their "Easy" game not quite so Easy anymore... well, that wouldn't be good.

:facepalm:

EDIT: Link

Bwahaha, that's fucking priceless!
But with the audience which reacts to the interface changes in that way:

I think the DA devs are a better judge of what does or does not fit the DA universe.

So explain to me why anti-BioWare is okay but pro-BioWare is ass-kissing?

What if I just think it's stupid for some random person to declare what does or doesn't belong in the DA universe?
What if I just think it's stupid to assume that everything in a video is current as of that video's release?

Of course you reserve the right to dismiss any dissenting opinion as "ass-kissing," as though no one could actually hold those opinions, and their sole motivation must be to try to curry favor with BioWare. How convenient for you.

Count me as another person who vastly prefers the new UI. It looks way cleaner and much more functional. I played DAO on an xbox with a slightly dated CRT television, and on occasion it was difficult to tell how much health a given character had. I would also get distracted for a second or so when I saw the portrait. I didn't like the old UI overly much. It seemed... cheesy.

This new one fills me with oodles of happiness. It just looks better, in my opinion. I feel more at ease when I see it. It's very efficient.

I like the new UI. Translucent UI is good.
The map is now larger and doesn't cover the top right screen anymore.
The same goes for the bottom with the action bar.
Portraits are squares, they take less spaces on the screen and can be closer together, meaning less covering on the screen, again, good thing.
HP & MP/STA bar are much accurate at first sight than half circle (to me at least).

This looks pretty much like the UI I use in WoW. I got rid of the default one which looks a little like DAO and use XPerl which get rid of artworks and replace them with translucent UI.

As for the style I see no problem. Definitly a better UI, not better looking but not ugly, cleaner, more efficient.

With the audience whose most important concern is the lack of ghey romances, with the audience who shlicks furiously to this guy:

I don't know... Fenris seems to be one who takes the initiative.

... Hawke opened the door, surprised to see Fenris standing in the archway. His hair was plastered to his skull, those moss-like eyes blazing. "Maker's breath, Fen, how long have you been––"

He stepped inside her house without further greeting and immediately took her face into his damp hands. "Is something wrong? I––" He silenced her with a kiss, not tentative at all but zealous, deep. He wanted––no, needed––something.

She did not object when he pushed her up against the wall, a knee rammed between her legs almost angrily, his bare feet leaving wet prints on the floor...

...I think Gaider's concern is justified.

tl;dr By retards - for retards!

 

[Cenobyte]

So DA 2 will feature Drizzt Do'Urden as a companion???

 

[racofer]

IDC as long as there are friendly sex scenes between gay elves.

Sorry to disappoint you, then. But since you're stuck with a human character there's no way to have elf on elf gay buttsecks.

 

[Jools]

Funny enough, there is a good chance that many of those "fangirls" are actually posing "fanboys".

 

[SolipsisticUrge]

So now anyone who mistakenly purchases the game thinking to find the barest minimum of tactical (read as: requiring thought to any degree beyond "push this button") combat won't find even its shadow unless they put the game on the setting which takes the 492692940238 extraneous encounters and adds to their length by inflating monster HP. OH SWEET JESUS.

I think BioWare is fucking trying, here. They must have silently built up rage over being viewed as less of a declining factor in gaming than nu-Bethesda, and are out to decimate that perception once and for all in one title. To their credit, they appear to be on the verge of success.

 

[JarlFrank]

Why are those graphics so incredibly fugly?
Shit textures, shit models, overall it looks like it was made in 2005 or something, and even then it would've looked slightly outdated and just very low on detail.

It just looks shit. NWN2 probably looks better than this.

 

[KalosKagathos]

For reference, here are our current goals for difficulty balance:



Casual - Able to be beaten playing a single character sub-optimally, with the rest of the party using default AI tactics.



Normal - Able to be beaten playing a single character optimally, with the rest of the party using default AI tactics.



Hard - Able to be beaten playing the entire party sub-optimally, either controlling directly or using custom AI tactics.



Nightmare - Able to be beaten playing the entire party optimally, either controlling directly or using custom AI tactics. Friendly fire active.

I love how they admit that their party members AI is useless.

 

[made]

"Why are those graphics so incredibly fugly?"

Try and ask that question on the bio forums. My thread lasted 2 pages BTL.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

So DA 2 will feature Drizzt Do'Urden as a companion???

More like Elf Sephioth,

with a dusting of Dante,

and bit of Geralt
with a lot more

...and it seems that Gaider basicly stole that character from some fangirl's fanfic, (if she's telling the truth) lol.

Shadow of Light Dragon wrote...

I totally called the lyrium tatts thing in the MEG thread. Booyah.

The fact that I have Tevinter magister slaves with glowy lyrium runes who serve as living weapons in a DA fanfiction of mine also entertains me. In a good way.

(So is Gaider a closet fanfic reader or am I just tapping into the hivemind of Bioware? o_O)


I don't wanna sink your ships but...David Gaider said that he never reads fanfics because he feels like someone is sleeping with his wife (meaning the characters are too dear to him)

 

[Turisas]

Why are those graphics so incredibly fugly?
Shit textures, shit models, overall it looks like it was made in 2005 or something, and even then it would've looked slightly outdated and just very low on detail.

It just looks shit. NWN2 probably looks better than this.

Has to be from the 360 version. Surely PC version will have higher texture sizes, along with a proper resolution + AA&AF.

 

[hanssolo]

Hard - Able to be beaten playing the entire party sub-optimally.

Easy is the new Hard.