Interview Another Dungeon Siege III Interview

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: BioWare; Dungeon Siege III

<p>Another <strong>Dungeon Siege II</strong>I - themed <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/101779-dungeon-siege-iii.html" target="_blank">interview is up at Gamebanshee's</a>, this time Obsidian's Rich Taylor answers the questions.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong><span class="question">GB: In your opinion, what makes the Onyx engine perfect for a game like Dungeon Siege III? What are the strengths of the Onyx engine?</span></strong> <br /><br /> <span class="answer">Rich: The reason we decided to make our own technology was because RPGs are a different beast than a lot of different types of games. There's a lot of data, a lot of class abilities, creature and loot tables, and things like that. And we really wanted make an engine that catered well to that - something that let our designers do a lot of the work without having to wait in line for a programmer to have time to add or modify this or that. The designer can just go in there and manipulate it. <br /><br /> An example of something that we have in place in the engine is class abilities that each of the classes have access to. [Our designers] can open up a tool that lets them attach visual effects at different points in a timeline, or produce damage here or there. This attack should hit three enemies. This one shoots three projectiles. They just toggle a flag - all that stuff is right there in the tool for them. <br /><br /> As soon as they want to do something that isn't in there yet, we're just like, "Oh, okay; well let's work on getting support into the engine for that." And they can tweak and tune and adjust those things working with the animators and the visual effects artists. So it really catered well to the type of game we were making. <br /><br /> We also have things like our dialogue editor, which is perfect for the type of dialogues we write. It shows the dialogue tree, and because we always have these branching dialogues in an Obsidian title where the player can make so many different choices, having editors that cater specifically to that is the kind of thing we were looking for. <br /><br /> So those are a lot of the advantages of working on it. It's a lot of data-driven systems that let designers iterate quickly. And systems like quest and missions and the dialogue system all cater very well to Dungeon Siege III.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/101780-gb-feature-dungeon-siege-iii-interview.html">GB</a></p>

 

[halflingbarbarian]

Very nice! Thanks for the news. Onyx engine sounds like an updated redux of the Infinity Engine (which is cool by any standard).

 

[Xor]

If you've played some of our other titles like KotOR II, you'll find a lot of those same types of elements in the world of Ehb this time. The branching dialogue paths, optional side quests, and things like that. Players will be exposed to a very cohesive narrative from start to finish.

I'm really starting to think DSIII has potential. Obsidian has quite a few projects under their belt at this point, and if you look at their games in order of release, it's pretty clear they've been getting better as time goes on.

They tried to do too much in KOTOR2 and the game ended up unfinished, and NWN2 suffered a bit from that as well, but their later projects don't feel that way at all. The camera controls in their games have improved (despite what Racofer might say), you can see a clear difference in the shooter gameplay for AP and NV - it's pretty obvious the former helped them learn how to do a shooter, and they've been getting better at visuals.

It's an impressive feat; many studios would be content to release crappy games as long as the sold well enough, but Obsidian is actually working to get better with each title.

They've never really done a realtime hack&slash, but hopefully they'll manage to produce something I can enjoy again.

Edit:

There isn't a romance in Dungeon Siege III

 

[commie]

From the vibe I'm getting it seems that the 'Dungeon Siege' in the title is there for the marketing and brand recognition as the content seems a lot more IWD or Divine Divinity territory.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

They've never really done a realtime hack&slash, but hopefully they'll manage to produce something I can enjoy again.

There is a shitload of Dark Alliance 2 members on the team so that isn't entirly correct.

 

[Xor]

Ah, the Black Isle exiles, right? I thought there were only 12 or so of them at Obsidian. Even if all of them are working on DSIII, that's still probably not even half the team.

I hadn't thought of the Dark Alliance games at all, though.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

Ah, the Black Isle exiles, right? I thought there were only 12 or so of them at Obsidian. Even if all of them are working on DSIII, that's still probably not even half the team.

I hadn't thought of the Dark Alliance games at all, though.

Yep. Just mentioning. And its mostly the art team anyway.

 

[Forest Dweller]

I'm not surprised about the dialogue. It's an Obsidian game, after all; I think we can always expect that from them. Some people seemed to think it wouldn't be the case for a hack'n'slash, but all they have to do is give lots of "time to die, bitch" options and they're all set. I'm more interested in the four different characters you can pick and how that will (apparently) effect the story. Do they have seperate voice actors for all of them? That would be quite an undertaking.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

I'm not surprised about the dialogue. It's an Obsidian game, after all; I think we can always expect that from them. Some people seemed to think it wouldn't be the case for a hack'n'slash, but all they have to do is give lots of "time to die, bitch" options and they're all set. I'm more interested in the four different characters you can pick and how that will (apparently) effect the story. Do they have seperate voice actors for all of them? That would be quite an undertaking.

Yep. Naturally, thanks to BEEING a hack n' slash there are a lot less lines than say in New Vegas. Here is a passage about it in the interview

GB: So Anjali will have access to quests that aren't available to Lucas?

Rich: Hmm, how do I get around this – it's in a section of the game that I'm not supposed to talk about yet. I'm trying to think of how best to phrase it. You'll basically find that if you start with a character, it'll actually become very clear as you play through because there are certain quests that wouldn't even make sense if you were not playing as one of the characters we haven't talked about yet. If you're not playing as him, you'd get this quest that has you dealing with his storyline and getting him up and going. But if you're playing as him, you wouldn't get that quest because it doesn't make sense to be given that quest as a secondary thing. That whole sequence goes a little differently because you're now playing as him.

There are other quests that have a similar situation as that. There are different NPCs that you work with in the first region that tie in with the characters we haven't talked about yet. There are different NPCs that will help you out because of the character that you've picked.

Incline of Hack n' Slash

 

[J_C]

DS3 will turn out to be more of an RPG than DA2. Incline indeed. (or the decline of Bioware)

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

GB: Do people around here still talk about that project to this day, perhaps grumbling about its cancellation?

Rich: [laughter] I think we still probably have like 10 or 15 Black Isle people around here. But seven years is a long time and people come and go and forget.

4chandex never forgets, never forgives.

there isn't, like you said, the ability to change appearance or grab abilities from another character and bring them over. A lot of that went back to - we just wanted the game to be very approachable and we didn't want there to be a whole lot of setup involved with getting into the game.

I really don't see how being able to change appearance makes the game less approachable. The previous dungeon siege games were the epitome of "accessibility" and both allowed you to customize your appearance.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

From the vibe I'm getting it seems that the 'Dungeon Siege' in the title is there for the marketing and brand recognition as the content seems a lot more IWD or Divine Divinity territory.

 

[turn_based_fanboy]

DS3 will turn out to be more of an RPG than DA2. Incline indeed. (or the decline of Bioware)

It's kinda funny but few months ago i didn't care about DS III and wanted DA2 but while DA2 was looking shitier and shitier with every new trailer and comment DS was getting more interesting with every new bit of information.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

wanted DA2

 

[Metro]

Now all of a sudden everyone is an ARPG fan.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

well bro that's because 80% of games are action rpgs now

who doesn't like roleplaying a character in an action filled game

we just didn't have the technology to bring genres together back in the old days where game design was still outdated

 

[Esquilax]

well bro that's because 80% of games are action rpgs now

who doesn't like roleplaying a character in an action filled game

we just didn't have the technology to bring genres together back in the old days where game design was still outdated

Absolutely, back then we had to rely on turn-based combat and dice rolls because we simply didn't have the technology to provide the player with a more visceral experience the way that games this gen do.

 

[halflingbarbarian]

Loving both Diablo style H'n'S and oldskool CRPG is not mutually exclusive my friends.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Considering that ME2 is fairly liked here for what it is you're not exactly entering enemy territory there. It's when they apply horrible backalley design surgery to a genre and call it the new shit you get the mixed reactions.

 

[Jaesun]

No, I'm the resident ME2 faggot/fan. The rest of the codex hates it (and understandably).

 

[sgc_meltdown]

pretty sure racofer likes it

and I like it

except for the stupid one piece dlc armors that don't let you take the helmet off and have retarded shaders all over the place

and the normandy crash site dlc what the fuck is that shit god damn

and the fish tank

...

HELL YEAH SHOOTING SHIT WITH MY BRO GARRUS AND MORDIN POW POW I AM SAVING THE GALAXY

 

[Cynic]

DS3 will turn out to be more of an RPG than DA2. Incline indeed. (or the decline of Bioware)

It's kinda funny but few months ago i didn't care about DS III and wanted DA2 but while DA2 was looking shitier and shitier with every new trailer and comment DS was getting more interesting with every new bit of information.

THIS!!!!!!!!

 

[denizsi]

What the fuck, OPTIMISM in mah KKKodeks!?

Also, a little something I've thought about:

KOTOR2 = Poor PR campaign and relatively little attention compared to the first game, despite Lucas Arts >> one of the more liked RPGs at Codex, possibly makes it into Codex top 20.

NWN2 = PR machine at full power >> shit game.

MotB = occasional odd interview or preview >> Codex top 10 material.

AP = PR machine at full power, 3-Bs, "C&C overload, look at our script graphs!", lots of awesomesauce >> shit console game.

FNV = A barely average PR campaign even by Beth standards with Obsidian itself keeping a low profile >> One of their best.

DS3 = PR machine in progress, lots of awesomesauce, POW! factor and lots of talk >> ?

I sense a pattern. Multitasking might not be their domain. The more they talk the talk, the less they walk the walk.

And the way they started DS3 campaign with shit like POW! factor and whatnot...

Also, they are back to their own domain, ie. internal development. They were immensely lucky to have been commissioned to make FNV using FO3 tech; all the bugs and whatnot that would have taken YEARS of community modding to fix and generated popcorn internet drama had they developed the game completely internally, took the seasoned TES/FO3 modding vets only a couple weeks. It's likely their most complete and story/questing-wise bugless game to date. And now they are using their own stuff again. I wonder... Though I admit, AP was relatively free of bugs, to me at least, but also suffered from a lack of firm RP mechanics that was a console shooter anyway.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

FNV = A barely average PR campaign even by Beth standards with Obsidian itself keeping a low profile >> One of their best.

What? That was their biggest PR campaign to date. They made dozens of interviews with Obsidian, they even made a tv spot for fucks sake.

 

[denizsi]

Were you around during OB's & FO3's PR? But ok, some of the grandeur might have escaped my... uh, "attention".