Open World DA:O

[Darkstorne]

I'm a big fan of open-world games like The Elder Scrolls series, and one of the biggest disappointments in DA:O for me was how the developers only really created a handful of locations in the game. Most of Ferelden is just a map that gets covered (bizarrely) in blood splatters as you move across it. Would the editor allow, in theory, a mod team to create the roads between the existing locations? The Imperial Highway looks amazing, and I would love to be able to explore Ferelden's roads and countryside, as I'm sure many players would. Does the engine, and indeed the editor, allow for large exterior creations such as this?

 

I've always believed the phrase "It's not the destination that matters, but the journey" holds a lot of truth. In DA:O, the journeys are largely ignored save for a random encounter every now and then, and instead you are automagically fast-travelled to your destination. I can't help feeling there's a lot of potential for a great mod here, that can add a real sense of adventuring to the game.

[Kaerar]

Unfortunately it seems that DAO is still limited by its obvious NWN development. This means small areas are all it can cope with as large ones would lag it out. If it was using the UT3 engine it wouldn't be such an issue as it has a draw/load distance function that can roll allowing for openworld gameplay. Hell even the tech from Just Cause 2 would be fantastic for this game. However it's not something they have implemented.

 

Basically you would need to port the dialogue and metagame (menu's, story, cutscenes, etc...) to a different engine that is capable of open world without killing your PC. Hell if it was model based not script based then things would be a lot easier on the CPU straight away.

[danscott84]

It's a difference in tthe engines that makes this problematic. The engine for DA moves the game in a linear fashion, and since DA is story driven helps to move it along. Games like Oblivion and Half-Life are FPS based and thus use engines for a more open approach. (I know you may not agree, but Oblivion is an FPS game with RPG elements) The logic for the latter being it does not matter how you get there as long as you get there.

[Kaerar]

It would help if the DA engine wasn't based on the clever but flawed premise of the NWN engine.

 

Oblivion had the right idea, just not the support from the story/lore to pull it off IMO. To me the RPG should feel epic, and not everything that happens should be good. Hell I would prefer it if you could lose party members in certain areas, instead of them just having a go at you if you go against their story.

 

But hey that's not really possible with DA at the moment. Other engines would work better but we don't have 35 people to work on it at once in the same place for 3-4 years...

[Jonnywah]

It would help if the DA engine wasn't based on the clever but flawed premise of the NWN engine.

 

Oblivion had the right idea, just not the support from the story/lore to pull it off IMO. To me the RPG should feel epic, and not everything that happens should be good. Hell I would prefer it if you could lose party members in certain areas, instead of them just having a go at you if you go against their story.

 

But hey that's not really possible with DA at the moment. Other engines would work better but we don't have 35 people to work on it at once in the same place for 3-4 years...

 

You can lose party members in certain parts of the game through dialogue choices. You can lose Shale if you choose "the wrong" choices in the Anvil of The Void quest and you can lose Alister during the Landsmeet.

[Kaerar]

That's not what I am talking about. They are all dialogue choices, whereas I think the large party with limited numbers usable is actually flawed. In combat there should be situations you can lose party members instead of them being totally fine every time they get killed in combat. It's not that the party is wrong, more the mechanic behind it is wrong. It's like a copied version of Final Fantasy rather than a proper party system.