Dragon Age impressions

[Fudus]

You get stat penalties as you die, curable with injury kits. It's not the main thing that ruins the combat, really, though I suppose it's there because the developer's didn't want to think about how to make a combat system where you can avoid dying with even remotely intuitive tactics.

To clarify, if a character dies in a fight, but you manage to kill all the enemies afterwards, they just stand up with stats penalties? No need to use resurrection spells/whatever?

 

[Volourn]

Ressurection per se doesn't exist in the DA world (at least as far as we know at this point).

The game is balanced for your party being at full for every encounter. While I'd prefer no health or mana regen the game, as said, is balanced for it, so it works. And, the injuries do range from useless (minimal strength loss for mages to completely nullifying mana regen).

 

[Trithne]

and adjectives (clouded moon?)

Cloud is a verb, to conceal something. A 'Clouded moon' is an entirely valid grammatical construct. It's a passive adjectival clause, using a verb in past tense to demonstrate a quality of the noun.

Verbosity does not equal validity, and neither does age; the 'classics' might be 'classic', but that doesn't mean they're relevant to the present use. Use language to suit the context, not to suit your preconceptions of how language is used.

 

[hiver]

yes. automatic.

Sounds horrible i know but considering amounts of combat and how easy it is to die im not surprised its there.

Alternatives would be either spells of resurrection or reloadfest.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

he fun part in movies comes when a given character says something with greater depth, and that usually involves intelligence of some kind, be it present in what the message conveys or the way it is delivered (or more interestingly both).

But that's the point, the passage you wrote isn't deep, it's actually p simple. It's just the delivery that tries to make it seem deeper than it is, for no real reason.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Or a combat system where you have alternatives to taking a ton of damage.

 

[hiver]

working on it.

 

[1eyedking]

and adjectives (clouded moon?)

Cloud is a verb, to conceal something. A 'Clouded moon' is an entirely valid grammatical construct. It's a passive adjectival clause, using a verb in past tense to demonstrate a quality of the noun.

I didn't say they were grammatically incorrect, I said they were misused.

Verbosity does not equal validity, and neither does age; the 'classics' might be 'classic', but that doesn't mean they're relevant to the present use. Use language to suit the context, not to suit your preconceptions of how language is used.

"Validity"...

Validity of what? Of use? Of quality?

You're saying I shouldn't use language in my preconceptions of how language is used, when I have no preconception whatsoever (where did I draw them from?); how veritable a sentence is does not depend upon its inspirational (or direct) source as long as the context allows it. In this case it does, and with solid footing.

 

[1eyedking]

he fun part in movies comes when a given character says something with greater depth, and that usually involves intelligence of some kind, be it present in what the message conveys or the way it is delivered (or more interestingly both).

But that's the point, the passage you wrote isn't deep, it's actually p simple. It's just the delivery that tries to make it seem deeper than it is, for no real reason.

Well then, and what did I say? It can be one thing, the other, or both. Shakespeare for example usually delivers very simple messages but in exquisite ways: when Romeo buys poison for his planned suicide and wonders if, in having given money to the poison-maker, has he been the one actually selling poison to the seller the message is plain, simple and obvious: money is a dangerous thing. The way it is delivered, however, is sublime.

Even then, my message is a little bit deeper than "you swallow a lot for small comfort", which sounds horrible and clumsy, by the way.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

he fun part in movies comes when a given character says something with greater depth, and that usually involves intelligence of some kind, be it present in what the message conveys or the way it is delivered (or more interestingly both).

But that's the point, the passage you wrote isn't deep, it's actually p simple. It's just the delivery that tries to make it seem deeper than it is, for no real reason.

Well then, and what did I say? It can be one thing, the other, or both. Shakespeare for example usually delivers very simple messages but in exquisite ways: when Romeo buys poison for his planned suicide and wonders if, in having given money to the poison-maker, has he been the one actually selling poison to the seller the message is plain, simple and obvious: money is a dangerous thing. The way it is delivered, however, is sublime.

Even then, my message is a little bit deeper than "you swallow a lot for small comfort", which sounds horrible and clumsy, by the way.

Actually, look. I was being unfair. Your writing rolls off the tongue like the tolling of some great bell.

Edit: Oh, and comparing "You wanna know why my sword is named bloodgutter mutha fucka" (or whatever incredibly inane sentence you wrote) to Shakespeare is... classic.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Another thing, why are Intimidate and "Fuck you" lines so goddamn boring and lifeless?

If a highwayman assaults me and demands "Give me all your gold pieces or I'll gut you alive!", I want to be able to say something as cool as "The only coins you'll get from me are for the Styx's boatman" or maybe "You'll have two over your eyes before I finish my sentence."

Instead we get "You won't get anything from me! (Attack)" (because putting actions in parenthesis instantly earns you cool codex points), "Go away before I kill you", "I am a mage. Do you want to test me?", "I am a Grey Warden. Do you want to test me?".

How about "A trail of corpses follows my wake, and not even the red dawn can paint the blood I have spilled over the land. Move aside."

"My sword, Bloodbath, is barely sheathed, fools! Do you want to learn the meaning of its name?"

I want fucking cool one-liners like the ones in Fallout, not the filler shit this game hands you out.

As bland as Bioware's writing might be at times, it is at least functional. Sorry, but your attempts are on a par with Bethesda. If I saw them in a game I'd snort breakfast out my nostrils at how writing that atrociously bad made it past testing.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Actually 1eyed... if I had come across either of those things you said in a video game/novel/message board, my face would be firmly planted against keyboard. That's horrible horrible writing there.

And since we've established you can't say that without some backup, let me see what I can come up with...

"A trail of corpses follows my wake, and not even the red dawn can paint the blood I have spilled over the land. Move aside."

"My sword, Bloodbath, is barely sheathed, fools! Do you want to learn the meaning of its name?"

"The only coins you'll get from me are for the Styx's boatman"

"You'll have two over your eyes before I finish my sentence."

These statements aren't very "badass", and in fact, I think if they were ever said in a dialogue, you have as much of a chance of stumbling over your words as actually intimidating someone. It's overly verbose and likely to be misinterpreted.

I may reply (if I were feeling smart-assy) "I didn't know Styx had a boatman, I thought it was just a guitarist, drummer, and lead singer". And then where would you be? I mean, you may end up killing me, but your comrades would be laughing about you at the campfire that night.

Oh my god that's worse.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Well no shit it's worse. I was being purposefully absurd to highlight the silliness. Come now, even I would be loathe to place such a ridiculous anachronism in that setting.

 

[Fudus]

yes. automatic.

Sounds horrible i know but considering amounts of combat and how easy it is to die im not surprised its there.

Alternatives would be either spells of resurrection or reloadfest.

Thanks for the clarification!

 

[1eyedking]

I never said I write like Shakespeare, nor that it's exceedingly good prose. In fact what makes you think those were my best tries, or that I am particularly proud of them? I just wrote whatever came to my mind and then defended them a little, if only because the claims against them were wrong. Whatever you may think they are, however, they're certainly better than BioWare's.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Then post a story. Or something. Just give us your best stuff, and we'll go from there.

From what I've seen though, I have a feeling it would be overly verbose and it would look like you just had a thesaurus at your elbow while writing. But by all means, prove me wrong.

 

[1eyedking]

Thesaurus? I haven't used a single "big word" yet...

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Thesaurus = big words? I just have a feeling you're the type that uses "throbbing member" instead of penis. But by all means, I'm sitting here waiting for you to make me look silly.

 

[Balthamael]

Thesaurus? I haven't used a single "big word" yet...

Then, by all means do. Show us your best. You know you want to.

 

[1eyedking]

Thesaurus = big words? I just have a feeling you're the type that uses "throbbing member" instead of penis. But by all means, I'm sitting here waiting for you to make me look silly.

Actually, for a guy who doesn't even know what a thesaurus is, those sentences might be a tad too much for you.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Thesaurus = big words? I just have a feeling you're the type that uses "throbbing member" instead of penis. But by all means, I'm sitting here waiting for you to make me look silly.

Actually, for a guy who doesn't even know what a thesaurus is, those sentences might be a tad too much for you.

HAHAHAHAHA YOU SHOWED ME OMG YOU SO SMART!!!

Fucking post something faggot.

 

[1eyedking]

Wait, you actually expect me to put effort into writing something good? When half the Codex barely understands what the meaning of irony is?

I'll spare myself the boredom of watching every cool codex kid on the block start maddeningly flinging shit at random intervals accusing me of using long words, then backing down, then saying I'm the thesaurus type when they don't even know what a thesaurus is, nor how to properly identify "purple prose" and "meaningless meaningful words" or whatever literary blunder they just found out about in Wikipedia, etc.

The point lies not in my writing being good or not; rather, in DA's being utterly mediocre and unforgivably bad at times.

 

[Nael]

Ha! Ha! Thesaurus...

Ha!

It's funny because it's true...

Wooooooo!

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Okay, so you've proven that you can't write for shit (and who said they don't know what a thesaurus is?) Now, DA's writing is serviceable. What I haven't seen is any instances of it being unforgivably bad. Where is it?

Oh wait, you're just a fucking retard who jerks off on copies of Twilight all day (since we're talking about Purple Prose) and can't write for shit. You attempted to stretch and find an instance of "unforgivably bad" writing and found something that while isn't Pulitzer material, it's at least serviceable.

So go ahead and rant about how your genius isn't properly honored and keep working on that Twilight fanfic, and when you finish, post it here and I'll promise I'll give good constructive criticism on it.

 

[toro]

The point lies not in my writing being good or not; rather, in DA's being utterly mediocre and unforgivably bad at times.

The point lies in the fact that you are a moron and cannot comprehend the fact that the game is unforgivably good at times. GTFO.
PS. I'm not even a DA fanboi, but I'm disgusted of retarded conversations. Don't bother to answer.