Dragon Age 2 Designed for Console Players

BioWare has revealed that Dragon Age 2 will not contain the tactical view option from the first game, or have any new tools for modding - as the console community does not value them.

In an interview with French magazine Joystick, lead designer Mike Laidlaw revealed that development of the sequel to BioWare's hit RPG would be more console-focused.

"To be short, DAO 2 will not have a toolset. I think that DAO I toolset is very powerful but very complicated" said Laidlaw.

He later clarified on the BioWare forum that the feature was omitted because the tools for 'Dragon Age 2 are very, very close to the tools' used in the first game.

Laidlaw also confirmed that the game wouldn't have the overhead tactical view, a feature that PC players were particularly fond of.

While the tactical view was outright dismissed for the console, the PC version would be getting a modified version that has the 'key elements' of the view.

"As to the subject of tactical view, I can confirm that we will not be doing a tactical view on consoles, though we are looking into some expanded party control that I think will make console players quite happy."

"On the PC, however, we are still working with the camera to keep the key elements of the tactical experience there" said Laidlaw.

According to the translation of the magazine, the changes were inspired by the game's success on consoles.

It reads: "For budgetary reasons, we focused our work on a third person view, that asks for very detailed and nice textures so that the player can admire the game with a close-up view," he said. "With an aerial view [isometric] we should cover much more ground and so create other textures. Now, the game mainly sold on console, so we're going the way of the audience."

Bioware co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk recently said that 'consoles are the past', and encouraged studios to branch out, these changes indicate a conflicting attitude.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=259160
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Dev clarification post:

Victor managed to hunt me down, and I wanted to clear up a few things with regards to what I'm seeing as the two major concerns on this thread.

First off, let's talk about the toolset issue. Obviously in this community there's going to be some concern that we wouldn't release a toolset, so let me clear the air a little: The tools we're using to make Dragon Age 2
are very, very close to the tools you guys have used to make your mods for DA:O. They're not identical, as we've made a few in-house improvements, but they're almost identical. As such, there isn't a new toolset to release, per se.

While we won't be releasing a toolset update in tandem with Dragon Age 2, we ARE investigating what it would
take to update the community toolset to match ours, along with providing DA2 content in the future.

As to the subject of tactical view, I can confirm that we will not be doing a tactical view on consoles,
though we are looking into some expanded party control that I think will make console players quite happy.

On the PC, however, we are still working with the camera to keep the key elements of the tactical
experience there. I was actually playtesting some new camera code when Victor found me, in fact, so I can give you the latest news on that front.

While we likely won't pull as far up as we did in DA:O, I have always felt that the key to tactical play was actually freeing your camera from the character you're controlling to issue precise orders, which is what we're tuning now. So, this means you can still maneuver the camera around the battlefield and issue orders from a remote location, just as you could in Origins.

As you can probably tell from my phrasing, all of this is a bit in-flux right now, so things may change between now and ship, but I wanted to update you guys on the current direction of things.



:shuriken:

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Originally Posted by MagicNakor

BioWare has revealed that Dragon Age 2 will not contain the tactical view option from the first game, or have any new tools for modding - as the console community does not value them.

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I didn't read all the article but, gosh, the best part of the game is how it "resembles" Baldur's Gate... =/
Anyway, they will probably keep the tactical view to the pc.

I played it on 360.

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Originally Posted by 7th

they will probably keep the tactical view to the pc.

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I read a few weeks back that they will. Loved the first Dragon Age, but I also liked the Mass Effect series which is very consolized, as well as everything else Bioware has put out. In other words I'm not too worried about DA2.

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Originally Posted by jackywky

I played it on 360.

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Would ya kindly fuck off?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 1000possibleclaws

I read a few weeks back that they will. Loved the first Dragon Age, but I also liked the Mass Effect series which is very consolized, as well as everything else Bioware has put out. In other words I'm not too worried about DA2.

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Yep, coming from Bioware, we shouldn't be worried. Those guys know what to do. At the same time, ME and DA are two completely different games in my opinion. I played, finished and loved both games but I really enjoy in DA was the Baldur's Gate like gameplay. Actually, I wish it was even more like Baldur's Gate and I would miss the strategic view in DA2 (if it ever comes out without it).

ps: just out of curiosity: do you remember that "ethor" thread of mine?

haha yes I do. I have stopped using that site for awhile and my account fell off, how is it fairing for you? its hard to come by too many folks from back in the day, am glad i still see you around. :)

edit: I went back to look at that thread again, had a couple laughs :lol:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 1000possibleclaws

I have stopped using that site for awhile and my account fell off

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that's not a problem since I would be glad to return the favor. You'll just need to post another 500 times and... :lol: Nah, just let me know if you're interested. :)

Maybe you won't believe me but I took it for serious when you asked me to try to be more active here. During some times of the year I still don't have much time, but I'm still doing my best :P

Today my French "knowledge" is a lot better and a big part of this thanks to that tracker, hence, you. And I still use it from time to time. It's still one of my favorites, maybe because I had big problems to get in there :yup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 1000possibleclaws

edit: I went back to look at that thread again, had a couple laughs

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and that's still my favorite thread here, at FST :fst:
Well, I should stop for now... I've never being so out of topic as with this post and I'm looking for a warning here. :mellow: And it's nice you still remember. ;)

another game i won't be playing. never played Dragon Age in the first place, but i did play the first Mass Effect and boy was it boring as hell. no idea how this style of western rpg ever got popular. JRPG ftw! thx.

I played it on 360