Questions about DLC triggering in-game, specialization-specific dialogue, the pace of combat, and much more have been answered in the latest developer responses on the official Dragon Age: Origins forums.
Derek French on updated system requirements:
Windows XP Minimum Specifications
OS: Windows XP with SP3
CPU: Intel Core 2 Single (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater
AMD 64 (or equivalent) running at 2.0Ghz or greater
RAM: 1GB or more
Video: ATI Radeon X850 256MB or greater
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB or greater
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space
Windows Vista/Windows 7 Minimum Specifications
OS: Windows Vista with SP1, Windows 7
CPU: Intel Core 2 Single (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater
AMD 64 (or equivalent) running at 2.0Ghz or greater
RAM: 1.5 GB or more
Video: ATI Radeon X1550 256MB or greater
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB or greater
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space
Recommended Specifications
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz Processor or equivalent
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual-Core 2.7 GHz or greater
RAM: 2 GB (XP) or 3 GB (Windows Vista/Windows 7)
Video: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater
NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space
Derek French on an Internet connection not being required:
There is no requirement for an internet connection. If you don’t have one the game plays just fine. You won’t see any offers for new content, but that won’t affect your game play experience.
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I am talking specifically about the statement above that says there is authentication upon initial installation. Since we wrote the installer we know that there is no authentication built into the installer. In this case, we are talking about the retail and the EA Store versions.
I do not know off hand if the other digital distributors are using our installer or if they are installing Dragon Age: Origins; traditionally digital distributors will use whatever installation and authentication systems that they usually use. I do know that Steam does not use installers so they will deliver the DA files and use their own authentication system.
Derek French on Steam pre-loads:
Steam pre-load is a go.
Should start pre-loading world-wide sometime on November 1st.
Local regional unlock days are unchanged. You will be able to get the game on either of November 3rd, 5th, or 6th, depending on the region.
You’re welcome.
Fernando Melo on day one DLC:
It has certainly been interesting to hear all the feedback on this. I mean that in the best of ways to be clear – it is good for us to hear your thoughts as always, and why we frequent these boards.
I’ll try to recap the couple of points that keep coming up on this, and try to re-iterate some of what we’ve been saying…
Why is day 1 DLC not on the disc: – Think of it this way… forget it was DLC we were making, and pretend it was a web page.
We could continue to work on that right up to game launch day and still have it ready for “day 1”. But there would never ever have been a way to get that web page done back in time to make it for the dates for disc, or even the digital versions of the game, which needed to be locked many weeks (or months in some cases) in advance of game launch.
– DLC works on a relatively shorter dev cycle (months, instead of years), and the nature of it being downloadable means there are not the same lengthy lead times to get discs made and out to warehouses for retail shelves. Also, given most DLC is measured in single digit hours it is much quicker to test, the number of issues you find are lower volume which also makes for quicker turnaround of fixes, and even getting through console certification is quicker.
– That combined with the game delay from March to Nov meant we effectively caught up to the launch date. But there would still have been no way to ever get that DLC on to the discs or digi versions – it just was not ready in that kind of timeframe.
– On a similar vein, this is also the same reason why the content was not ‘ripped out’ at the last minute to make a quick buck. The game content was locked for the disc/digital versions, and taking something out can introduce just as many issues.
Perhaps the more relevant question is – why still choose to launch it day 1 then?
There are a lot of good reasons for this, otherwise we wouldn’t have done it. Suffice it to say that it was not a decision made lightly, but I still believe it is the right one for DA even if it means taking a few lumps in the meantime for it.
For the sake of brevity, let me reverse the question. Why delay it?
Sure, the easy thing would have been to artificially just sit on the release of these for a few weeks. But then, what would be the right time? 1 week? 2, 4, 6? More importantly, and honestly now – what would have been the benefit for fans that might want DLC in doing this?
Lastly, and this is my own personal view. The day after the game launches a lot of this will largely go away as the concept of ‘it came out day 1 or not’ becomes less of a stigma.
The only thing that will matter is whether it was good DLC, or bad DLC.
As always if you have doubts, wait it out – you have a massive game ahead of you before you should ever feel like you “need” to dive into DLC, regardless of how compulsive you may think you are.
Listen to other forum posters’ reviews. Listen to public reviews elsewhere on the net. Review the content descriptions, screenshots, and videos we’ll continue to post on our sites.
That is already a lot more information than you typically will see with most DLC. And in the end, if you still do not feel it is right for you – tell us why, I’d appreciate that just as much as your feedback if you played it.
But know that you will not be missing any part of the DA:O story because of this. The game will not be less playable, or less fun, or less of an epic RPG because of this.
If you play FPS games but don’t like MP, are you really going to feel like you ‘missed out’ or got an incomplete experience because a MP map pack DLC came out?? Really?
Fernando Melo on avatar rewards on the Xbox 360:
Not initially. This is something that was rolled out a bit too late for us. Probably also why you haven’t seen a lot of this with recent games – expect that to change with titles launching closer to Xmas and beyond.
For DA:O, it is something we’d like to add if we do a title update in the future – but no promises. Love the idea, wish we could have added it in time, but we have a lot of other cool things we want to do too
To be clear, we plan to roll out Avatar items. But this reward mechanism where you can unlock Avatar items through gameplay we weren’t able to add to DA:O in time.
Fernando Melo on DLC quest givers:
Thanks for all the feedback so far folks! It is something we’re anxious to hear more from you on after launch.
Please make sure you continue this on the social site and let us know your thoughts after you’ve encountered them. I’d also recommend taking advantage of some of the site’s new features like polls as maybe a good way to consolidate the top suggestions for what you’d like to see.
Specific to DLC quest givers – The intent is very much to keep the game immersion and consistency. These are the main quest givers for their respective DLC, first and foremost. Regardless of how you get the DLC (or not), you will still be encountering Felix to begin your quest for Shale, or Levi to start the Warden’s Keep quest for example – that *is* their role.
As with any major quest giver they are relatively significant characters in the game world in their own right. The fact they are added after launch should not be used to confuse that – it is not acceptable for us, for example, if you would see a noticeable difference in quality, production value, game mechanics, etc as you experience DLC.
The only ‘salesmanship’ involved is what you saw Nathan post – which is basically there if you have not already downloaded the DLC up to the point you encounter the NPC, then they have a line in their dialog that directs you to do so.
By their nature as main quest givers, they give you a lot more information, context and flavor about the DLC or the quest you’re about to embark on – certainly more than you’d ever get from just the simple text & icon description in the DLC store on any platform.
We considered this additional info to be a good thing to help you make a more informed decision on DLC, so opted to make that portion of the DLC free and available up front and separate it from the rest of the DLC quest. And yes, by doing so we also hope more players will want to try the DLC.
When there is new DLC available on the servers the game downloads the package of info – which includes the basic icon & text description to show on the in-game DLC store off the main menu, similar info for the in-game journal DLC section, as well as any additional content like this if there is DLC that makes use of that in-game – not all will, and not all will be NPCs. In fact you already have many more examples of DLC that does not have these NPCs, such as all the other retailer and promo items like Blood Dragon Armor.
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We’ve posted quite a few times about how we plan to continue to grow DA – viewing DA:O as a platform. DLC, and in general making the expansion of that world as seamless as possible, is one of our goals.
But at the risk of going around in circles, folks really should see this before hand so we’re all comparing and talking apples to apples.
My impression of the majority of the negative responses seem to be based on taking a description of a simple thing and without having seen it, proceed to blowing it out into proportions that play off of fears of the worst kind.
I’m not trying to stall – I really want feedback from players on this. But these reactions on the forums are something we’ve seen time and time again, for almost any feature or change throughout the dev cycle – ultimately, most of these were laid to rest once people saw how it really worked within the game context. That’s why I’m suggesting the pause and to look at this within the game in a couple days.
For what it is worth – the game doesn’t get incomplete quests. It’s not like you are half-way through something and get a credit card entry screen to continue. The NPCs don’t chase you around, and they are not salesmen with lines geared at ‘pushing’ any of the content at you. They are quest giver NPCs, and will act as you will expect any DA quest giver NPC.
I think you should give the choice to accept or refuse this download – honestly, I even have a hard time believing that installing something on a computer without asking was even considered, and even more, included in the actual game
You are. This is handled no different than any other game out there. For software, when you install something, or create an online account, or purchase something you should be presented with some sort of agreement that is appropriate for your locale. Like many other things folks may disagree and argue it is not done in a way that they personally would prefer it in, but it is there.
As for the general concept of getting content updates – we looked at the best examples we could find for deciding how we wanted to handle content updates for PC: Steam & MMOs. And tried to keep it in line with that.
As I’ve said before, I’m happy for us to adapt and change our approach – but that needs to be based on players actually using it if it is to be accurate.
Chris Priestly on Wardens’ Quest scoring:
So not only have I been awake FAR too long, am in a strange foreign country where people don’t speak English, but I hear you monkeys have somehow gotten into the Wardens’ Quest scoring system and are questioning what happened with the first elimination and why the Czech Republic/Slovakia team went first.
Some of you have crunched numbers and think that the math did not indicate that CR/S should have been chosen. What you do not know is that ALL teams, after they finished their Origin story, had their scores zeroed. This was done as it made for an even start to the Wardenss Quest for all teams. During their Origin play they were allowed to play as long or as deeply as possible. To balance play, it was zeroed and reset so everything was fair from that point on.
Now that I have hopefully cleared that up, I better get back to the Wardens Quest. Chat more post event (and post sleep).
Chris Priestly on DA:O already being for sale:
The game is not supposed to be for sale until Tuesday. If some stores have broken the street date and a few fans have been able to get copuies early, I hope they enjoy the game and DO NOT spoil the game for other here.
Nathan Frederick on activating DLC in-game:
There are currently, exactly, two of these people. One for Shale, and one for Soldier’s Peak. They are inserted into the game by the DLC system. Future content may add more.
These NPCs aren’t on the disk – they are added via the DA Downloader.
If you don’t want them there, simply disable the downloader – we even tell you how to do this in the readme. You never see them, or any other DLC content, ever. You don’t need to mod them out, hack the game, or any other drastic conspiracy measure to remove them. If you don’t want them there, THEY ARENT THERE.
You’ll never even notice that they are missing either – there’s already more henchmen than you can utilize fully, and side quests you won’t be able to do based on your class/origin, and some encounters that are simply incredibly low chances of happening.
Your logic is so full of holes that I could drain my spagetti with it.
Is your car incomplete if you don’t buy the upgraded auto-dimming mirror, roof racks, or custom mudflaps? No – they’re addons. The same is true with our DLC. They add features that don’t come with the base package. I don’t see you out boycotting the automotive industry, because you can get aftermarket upgrades.
DAPC was completed by the main team in March and was supposed to ship then, and was held for a simultaneous release with the console versions (next week).
The main team then moved onto getting the console versions ready.
The DLC team finished Shale after we finished the PC. The DLC then finished Soldier’s Peak after that point. There is future content being worked on, and will be released in the future once it is finished.
I’m part of the main team, and have been since 2002. I haven’t worked on any of the DLC… because it’s not part of the game, and never has been. I’ve been through the game hundreds of times.
The game was designed without this content in it. We didn’t take anything out to sell to you later.
However, you are going to refuse to believe that, so I’m not sure why I’m bothering.
The other argument I’ve seen you guys use is that “it was finished before you manufactured the discs, so you should have put it on”.
Each team has a budget, and a profit line they have to meet. You don’t get a copy of NBAX when you buy NFLX – they’re made by the same studio, in the same building, and their content is based in the same Franchise World (reality). Each team has their own people, their own operating costs, and their own profit margin. This is a business – if a team doesn’t make money, they don’t exist anymore.
And I’ll be brutally honest. The main reason why we have this “conspiracy of silence” as so many of you are calling it… is because there is pretty much nothing we can say that will change your mind.
I made my post to make it clear that we are not doing any “in-game advertising” – and by that, I mean there’s no sponsorship, product placement, or immersion-killing neon signs or billboards. I wanted people to see exactly what it looked like, so they had the facts.
You believe what we did is wrong, evil and you hate it.
Answer me this – is there ANYTHING I could possibly say, which would make you change your mind.
I’m pretty sure the answer is “No”.
And this is quite likely going to be my last post on the subject, because I’m well aware that you cannot change someone’s beliefs – religious wars are fought because of this, and in the end, nobody ever wins.
Each side still believes what they believe.
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Regarding the patch/downloader – somewhat complicated answer, which I cannot fully answer, so I’m not going to put my foot in my mouth and get it wrong by not knowing what I am talking about (patching is handled by a different team than mine, and I havent been involved with it much). Different delivery methods and different platforms also have differing requirements and patching methods, to further complicate my lack of detailed knowledge
Regarding a “partially complete” quest being added to yout game, I can see your point. DLC does at least show up it’s their own Journal Entry Section, so you can keep it minimized, and never look at them.
My personal take on DLC (and I had nothing to do with the system, it wasn’t my idea) – I’m lazy, and I’m really busy – if I have to go look for it, I’m not going to get it. I never got the Fallout 3 DLC, or any of the Oblivion stuff. I like the idea of having the content come to me (it’s a huge part of why I like Steam – I dont have to go find games in stores anymore). But, not everyone does. That’s the nature of opinions – they differ.
If you disable the downloader before the “offer” is on your machine, it will disable all offers. It is not a toggle, or selective, sorry. If you disable the DLC downloading mechanic, it’s dead – no offers, no getting promo items, no purchasing content you do want.
And to be honest, the comment about the wars is a bit over-dramatic, I’ve had real-life conversations with some people about DLC, and it is completely accurate. It’s not accurate for everyone, but for the people who are posting with such vehemence and conviction and twisting of intention… it probably is.
You however, put in a clear, concise (and rational) answer, so I’m responding .
As far as “not liking” something… I will say the same thing to you, that I have to my wife – a seriously picky eater. She doesn’t like a lot of things that she has not seen, smelled, or, let alone tasted. She simply doesn’t like the idea. You can’t truly say you don’t like something, unless you have tried it. I have managed to get her to try a few things over the years which she “did not like”. Some, she indeed does not like (which makes her less willing to try other things on her list). Some are also now her favorite meals (the only reason she does try them).
You may not like the idea, but until you actually try it, you cannot say you do not like the system or the process.
Nathan Frederick on unique dialogue choices:
Yes, your class does sometimes open up “unique” dialog options.
Your specialization can also have “unique” dialog options, but this occurs much less frequently.
Nathan Frederick on talent descriptions:
And to clarify the question – the descriptions in the Character Creator are as-seen in the game, so yes, they are indeed this vague.
They do not include specific details, partly because of the aforementioned post, and partly because the math of how many of them work actually made the details LESS useful.
We tried “showing the math” which was either: Confusing due to it being difficult to show the math, or, simply wrong, because we had to keep changing how they worked as we got more and more of the system online. Most of these ended up being both Wrong, and Confusing.
Developing our own system was great, because we got to make it ourselves, and not follow other people’s rules. It’s also full of pit-traps, because, when you aren’t following someone else’s rules… you discover that some of your ideas don’t work out once you add other pieces, and in turn, you’re redoing all sorts of things. With other people’s rules, they have done some of this “oh crap” discovery of interconnected bits already.
To Illustrate, via rough concept idea: Idea A for Mages sounds cool, and works well in general combat.
However, once it is fully implemented, and goes through “full gameplay testing” it turns out A breaks part of the Cutscene system, and gets redone as a result. Idea B that relied on A, no longer works, and must be redone. Idea C which used to be a counter to A is now useless, and needs to be redone. Idea D which was to compliment A is now no fun, and must also be redone. Combo X which used A is also no longer working now, and must also be redone.
Once you redo all of these pieces, you then realize that some of the Rogue abilities are lackluster, and with the new Mage spells, spellcaster NPCs are way overpowered, and need to be tuned in turn… and the spiral of changes continue.
And as I mentioned in the other thread, we hadn’t gotten everything to where we needed it to be before description lockdown, so it wasn’t feasible to be detailed in the descriptions, since the details were still changing.
Nathan Frederick on follower specializations:
Just to clarify:
Nibbles the Dog is his own class.
Shale is also her own class.
Both have their own unique talents and equipment.
The actual list:
Oghren – Warrior, Berzerker
Sten – Warrior, no specialization
Alistair – Warrior, Templar
Shale – Golem
Dog – Canine
Zevran – Rogue, Assassin
Leliana – Rogue, Bard
Morrigan – Mage, Shape Shifter
Wynne – Mage, Spirit Healer
There is one more warrior than any other class in this list.
Craig Graff on Dragon Age: Journeys vs. Dragon Age: Origins:
Think of Journeys as a (hopefully) pleasant diversion that has a little bit of Dragon Age flavor to it, mostly in terms of the basic setting, parts of the ability descriptions and certain aspects of the GUI.
Don’t try to extrapolate gameplay or (for the most part) story from it, as it was made by a completely different team (and studio)for a completely different purpose than Dragon Age: Origins.
Craig Graff on regular clothing being obtainable:
Yes, there are regular clothes that you can wear in Dragon Age. Doing so may end up with you splatted, but the choice is certainly there.
If you want to find some nice normal clothing early on, your best bet is the City Elf origin.
Brian Chung on the lack of a durability system:
If this was an MMO or open-world sandbox game where you could grind infinite respawns for money and XP, then yeah, a durability system would be a good idea to act like a tax on your equipment so you don’t end up with billions of gold pieces and be able to buy your own country.
Since DA:O has neither grinding nor infinite money from loot, so if such a system was in place, you’d eventually tax all the money the player has, then what? Can’t repair your stuff, so you end up going after the last boss with a rusty, dull knife because that’s the only weapon that hasn’t degraded on you/you could afford. Doh.
David Gaider on NPCs triggering DLC:
I’ll point out that the in-game “offer”, as it were, doesn’t use out-of-game language. You are offered a quest, or a journal entry, the same way that you would get any other quest. No turning to the camera and offering you a delicious Coke or anything of the like. If you accept, you are briefly taken to the DLC page to grab the content — if you have not already done so. If you have, you won’t even notice the difference. It will also be a simple enough matter to refuse the quest — you don’t have to endure a commercial.
Picturing scenarios where there are in-game neon billboards and NPC Shamwow salesmen trying to lure you conveniently into spending more money, and then railing against it, is a bit over the top. (It’s the internet, though, right? Who’d have thought?)
Although I do like the idea of the Shamwow guy as a pushy dwarven merchant, now. Hmm. I’ll have to make a note of that.
It’s a way to insert the DLC into the overall game, nothing more. If you don’t like the idea even of that interface (I suppose some people are going to object to the notion of DLC daring to sully their gaming experience no matter what), then that’s up to you — but at least get it straight what you are objecting to.
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If you really don’t like the idea, then fair enough — although I would recommend actually experiencing it in the game before you make claims about how jarring you’ll find it.
Beyond that, if you really don’t like the idea then by all means don’t purchase the DLC. There is a whole giant game still to play which doesn’t require any additional purchase, after all, and the number of these things you’ll encounter overall is pretty small. If you’re worried about the “slippery slope”, as it were, by all means register your disapproval. There’s a DLC team headed by Fernando Melo which will no doubt be looking for feedback, and I doubt they’re above adjusting the approach if they feel it’s called for. I also doubt they’d simply remove it outright just because some people don’t like it (especially prior to anyone actually trying it), but if concerns are communicated intelligently and politely it’s possible that at least some of them could be addressed.
If you haven’t noticed, I’m not really the person to talk about this stuff. It’s pretty far removed from my bailiwick, after all. But reasoned discussion, even when it’s something you don’t like, never goes amiss. So I’ll leave you to it.
David Gaider on the team’s first Dragon Age character:
For joinable NPC’s? I’d say possibly Wynne or Zevran — certainly they have survived most recognizably from their first concepts. If you’re talking about which character role was first conceived, then probably Morrigan.
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That old tech demo was put together before any of the world or characters were conceived. Those characters on the screen are simply “barbarian guy” and “enchantress”. Although I guess we could make claims as to how they evolved into the other characters and we meant it all along… yeah, that’s the ticket…
And Andrew Eric Knight on the pace of combat:
If you want a fasted paced combat, play the game on easy with all your tactics set up, I would guess you would not need to pause the game all that often… except on boss battles probably, or cast a specific spell at a specific time.
Though honestly the combat is still pretty fast paced. You might want to pause just to take a breather and scope out the action plan anyway. Your characters can die fast.
I think the issue is watching a trailer with pausing, it can be frustrating even for fans of the combat, since you have no control. It’s like trying to watch a movie with your wife pausing to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes. It breaks the action causes the viewer to get anxious to see the fight panned out.
If there was commentary during the pause, with the player explaining what he is trying to do… then it would be a different manner.
I bet if anything, you will wish to have the pace slowed down, managing 4 members.
