Dragon age origin komplettlösung: Dragon Age: Origins — Komplettlösung

Dragon Age: Origins — Komplettlösung

Hinweis: Auf der Suche nach Hilfe zu den Nachfolgern? Dann schaut doch mal hier:

Dragon Age Inquisition Komplettlösung für Haupt- und Nebenquests

Dragon Age 2 Komplettlösung

60-70 Stunden, wenn ihr ausschließlich dem roten Faden der Hauptgeschichte folgt. Satte 100 Stunden, solltet ihr, wie meine Wenigkeit, jeden Ort bis ins Letzte erkunden, jedes Rätsel lösen und jeden Auftrag abschließen wollen. Und selbst dann habt ihr, dank unterschiedlicher Reaktionen auf Rasse/Geschlecht, noch nicht alles erlebt, alles gesehen. Kurz gesagt: Dragon Age: Origins, das jüngste Epos aus dem Haus BioWare, ist ein wirkliches Rollenspiel-Monstrum. Angefüllt mit zahlreichen verstecken Aufgaben, moralischen Entscheidungen sowie darauf fußenden Konsequenzen, die sich erst nach und nach abzeichnen.

Damit ihr während der Reise durch Ferelden stets wisst, was ihr als nächstes angehen müsst, und das, ohne Gefahr zu laufen, irgendetwas am Rande des Wegs zu verpassen, greifen wir euch ab sofort mit unserer ausführlichen Komplettlösung zu Dragon Age: Origins unter die Arme. Nachfolgend behandeln wir sämtliche Aufenthaltsorte eures Abenteuers, beschreiben euch den Weg durch jedes Dungeon und jedes Bauwerk und listen, wie es sich gehört, alle erhältlichen Quests und verborgenen Rätsel auf. Obendrein gibt es dort, wo es erforderlich ist, eine von uns erstellte Karte mit allen Positionen von Kodex-Einträgen, wichtigen NPCs und besonderen Orten. Und wir zeigen wir euch, sofern vorhanden, auch die unterschiedlichen Herangehensweisen auf beziehungsweise welche Auswirkungen die Wahl zwischen „gut/böse» für euch parat hält.

Anmerkungen zur Lösung: Aus Übersichtsgründen haben wir die Quests entsprechend der Gebiete gegliedert, in denen sie ihre Anfänge nehmen. Die Lösungswege findet ihr dann unter dem jeweiligen Querverweis im Text selbst. Jene Gildenaufträge, die euch über mehrere Ortschaften scheuchen, und auch spezielle Quests, die zu Zwischenkämpfen oder separaten Orten auf der Karte führen, listen wir darüber hinaus noch einmal gesondert. Welchen Ort ihr wann während eurer Reise anstrebt, liegt übrigens in eurem Ermessen. Der Lösungsweg wurde mittels einer Menschen-Magierin erschlossen…

Allgemeines/Spezielle Tipps

Allgemeine Tipps
Gefährten: Details, Besonderheiten
Gefährtenquest: Alistairs Familie
Gefährtenquest: Flemeths Zauberbuch
Gefährtenquest: Das Schwert der Beseraad
Gefährtenquest: Lelianas Vergangenheit
Gefährtenquest: Wynnes Bedauern
Gefährtenquest: Oghrens alte Liebe
Gefährtenquest: Erinnerungen eines Golems (DLC)
Spezialisierungen: Krieger — Champion, Templer, Berserker, Plünderer
Spezialisierungen: Schurke — Meuchelmörder (Assassine), Waldläufer, Barde, Duellant
Spezialisierungen: Magier- Arkaner Krieger, Blutmagier, Geisterheiler, Formwandler/Gestaltenwandler

Anfangsgebiete: Klassen/Rassen-Quests

B1. Mensch/Elf — Magier: Die Läuterung, Magierin des Zirkels, Schädlinge im Lager
B2. Mensch/Elf — Magier: Magierin des Zirkels (2), Gebunden durch Blut und Magie
B3. Adeliger Mensch — Krieger/Schurke: Väterliche Aufträge, Unruhe in der Speisekammer, Süße Iona/Dairren, Howes Verrat, Schatzkammer der Couslands
B4. Dalish-Elf — Krieger/Schurke: Verlorene Geheimnisse der Ahnen
B5. Stadt-Elf — Krieger/Schurke: Tag der Freude
B6. Bürgerlicher Zwerg — Krieger/Schurke: Berahts Gunst, Loyalitätsbeweis, Gefangen
B7. Adeliger Zwerg — Krieger/Schurke: Feierlichkeiten der Zwerge, Ehrenvolle Expedition, Verbannung

Komplettlösung Dragon Age: Origins

Ostagar:

Hauptquest: Der Beitritt zu den grauen Wächtern
Hauptquest: Verdorbenes Blut
Hauptquest: Die Truhe der Grauen Wächter
Der Mabari-Hund
Der verhungerte Deserteur

Korcari-Wildnis:

Der Missionar
Das Testament
Wegzeichen der Chasind

Ostagar (2):

Hauptquest: Nach dem Beitritt
Hauptquest: Turm von Ishal

Flemeths Hütte / Reise nach Lothering:

Morrigan / Mabari-Hund

Lothering:

Hauptquest: Lothering und der Kaiserliche Hochweg
Banditen auf der Straße
Der tote Templer
Ein giftiges Angebot
Mädchen lieben Fallen
Mehr als gewöhnliche Pflanzen
Der gefangene Qunari
Anschlagtafel des Kantors: Überall Banditen / Wenn Bären angreifen / Ein letztes Andenken
Blackstone-Freischärler: Der letzte Rest / Pflichtversäumnisse

Das Lager

Verzauberungen / Allgemeine Hinweise

Dorf Redcliffe / Schloss Redcliffe

Ein belagertes Dorf
Vermisstes Kind
Verschwunden im Schloss
Der Angriff bei Nacht
Anschlagtafel des Kantors: Oberflächlich / Karawane in Not / Brüder und Söhne / Zuflucht der Verzweiflung
Blackstone-Freischärler: Gut geschmiert
Gemeinschaft der Magier: Falsche Zeugen / Geschenk des Schweigens & Im Namen der Gerechtigkeit / Kräutermagie / Schriftrollen von Banastor
Hauptquest: Der Arl von Redcliffe (Weg ins Schloss)
Hauptquest: Der Arl von Redcliffe (Im Schloss) / Urne der Heiligen Asche (1)

Hafen am Calenhad-See

Vorgehensweise: Zugang zum Turm des Zirkels
Gemeinschaft der Magier: Orte der Macht / Mörder meines Bruders / Entlassungsschreiben

Turm des Zirkels

Hauptquest: Der zerbrochene Zirkel
Die Wissenschaft der Beschwörung
Die Wächter der Mündung
Die Wächter der Mündung — Fortsetzung
Fünf Seiten, Vier Magier
Im Traum verloren (Das Nichts: Reines Nichts, Invasion, Brennende Turm)
Im Traum verloren 2 (Das Nichts: Magierbrecher, Invasion, Brennende Turm)
Im Traum verloren 3 (Das Nichts: Albtraum des Templers, Albträume, Das Allerheiligste)
Hauptquest: Der Zerbrochene Zirkel — Finale

Weltkarte: Spezielle Orte / Zwischenkämpfe

Freunde der Roten Jenny / Zevran
Fünf Seiten, Vier Magier
Falsche Zeugen
Karawane in Not
Zuflucht der Verzweiflung
Unbeabsichtigte Konsequenzen
Brüder und Söhne

Grenzbereich des Brecilianwalds

Hauptquest: Das Wesen der Bestie
Cammens Kummer
Seltene Eisenborke
Opfer des Fluchs
Eloras Halla

Brecilianwald

Beschreibung: Westlicher Brecilianwald
Verwundet im Wald
Beschreibung: Östlicher Brecilianwald
Schatz des Magiers
Beschreibung: Brecilianwald Ruinen: Obere Ebene / Untere Ebene
Das Elfenritual
Der Arkane Krieger
Hauptquest: Das Wesen der Bestie (Finale), Zurück ins Dalish-Lager

Denerim

Beschreibung: Marktviertel von Denerim / Urne der Heiligen Asche (2)
Freunde der Roten Jenny
Perlen vor die Säue
Die Prüfung der Krähen
Eine Frage der Ehre
Anschlagtafel des Kantors: Loghains Offensive / Fazzils Bitte / Verschwundene Krieger / Gesetz der Gassen
Gemeinschaft der Magier: Blutige Warnungen / Wo könnte ich nur sein?
Schurken: Korrespondenzus Interruptus / Problemlösung / Verhandlungshilfen
Blackstone-Freischärler: Todesnachrichten, Vorräte für die Gilde
Beschreibung: Karte der Stadt, Die Perle, Zwischenkämpfe
Beschreibung: Dreckige Seitengasse, Dunkle Gasse, Heruntergekommene Nebenstraße
Der letzte Wunsch, Beschreibung: Leer stehendes Gebäude
Die roten Ruderer
Unmissverständliche Botschaft
Die Prüfung der Krähen: Teil 2

Weltkarte: Spezielle Orte / Zwischenkämpfe

Wo könnte ich nur sein?
Loghains Offensive
Prüfung der Krähen: Kadan-Fe

Hafen des Calenhad-Sees (2)

Die Urne der Heiligen Asche (3)

Dorf Haven / Tempel

Beschreibung: Dorf Haven / Urne der Heiligen Asche
Beschreibung: Verfallener Tempel
Beschreibung: Lindwurm-Hort
Die Rüstung aus Drago-Schuppen
Beschreibung: Berggipfel / Der Spießrutenlauf
Die Prüfung des Glaubens
Die Urne der Heiligen Asche (Finale)

Schloss Redcliffe (2)

Hauptquest: Baue deine Armee auf

Frostgipfel-Gebirge / Orzammar

Beschreibung Frostgipfel-Gebirge / Orzammar-Ständeviertel
Die Suche nach Seneschall Bandelor
Vartag Gavorn / Dunlin Forender
Eine verlorene Nug
Eine ungewöhnliche Gelehrte
Die Hoffnungen einer Mutter
Entfesselt
Gesang in den Tiefen
Beschreibung: Diamantenviertel
Das Vertrauen eines Lords: eine erste Aufgabe
Die Gunst eines Prinzen: eine erste Aufgabe
Bonus: Der Thron von Orzammar
Diebe im Haus des Lernens
Aus den Erinnerungen verschwunden
Beschreibung: Stadt des Staubs
Kostbare Metalle
Zerlindas Not
Beschreibung: Die Tornei
Vertrauen eines Lords: erste Aufgabe (2)
Verrat in den eigenen Reihen
Vertrauen eines Lords: zweite Aufgabe / Zugang zu Jarvias Versteck
Die Gunst eines Prinzen: erste Aufgabe (2)
Wechsel der Loyalität
Die Gunst eines Prinzen: zweite Aufgabe / Zugang zu Jarvias Versteck
Beschreibung: Versteck der Karta
Haupt/Nebenquest: Ein Paragorn der anderen Art
Der Amboss der Leere

Orzammar: Tiefe Wege

Beschreibung: Tiefe Wege — Aeducan Thaig
Beschreibung: Tiefe Wege — Caridins Kreuzung
Zerschnitten / Lager der Herumtreiber
Beschreibung: Tiefe Wege — Ortan-Thaig
Ein bewundernswerter Oberflächler
Amboss der Leere (2)
Beschreibung: Tiefe Wege — Todesgräben
Die Kaste der Toten
Beschreibung: Tiefe Wege — Amboss der Leere
Der Amboss der Leere (Finale)
Golemregistrierung
Hauptquest: Ein Paragorn der anderen Art (Finale)
Ungewöhnliche Maßnahmen

Schloss Redcliffe (3)

Hauptquest: Baue deiner Armee auf (Finale)

Denerim (2)

Hauptquest: Das Landthing
Rettung der Königin
Prüfung der Krähen: Das Lösegeld
Schurken: Unauffindbar / Falscher Zeuge
Beschreibung: Anwesen des Arl von Denerim
Ein gefolterter Adeliger
Ein verlorener Templer
In Gefangenschaft
Unruhen im Gesindeviertel
Irgendetwas stimmt nicht
Stimmen im Kopf
Entfesselt (2)
Gemeinschaft der Magier: Verteidigung/Widerstand der Gemeinschaft
Schurken: Übergaben / Harte Entscheidungen
Hauptquest: Das Landthing (Finale)

Redcliffe/Denerim (Finale)

Hauptquest: Die letzte Schlacht
Morrigans Ritual
Hauptquest: Die letzte Schlacht (2) — Denerim
Verteidigung des Gesindeviertels
Verteidigung der Tore
Hauptquest: Die letzte Schlacht (Finale) — Fort Drakon

Spezielle Gildenaufträge

Pflichtversäumnis
Der letzte Rest
Schriftrollen von Banastor
Entlassungsschreiben
Gut geschmiert
Mörder deines Bruders
Orte der Macht
Todesnachrichten
Unmissverständliche Botschaften
Korrespondenzus Interruptus
Falscher Zeuge

Spezieller Kodex-Eintrag

Die schwarzen Fläschchen

Dragon Age: Origins — Komplettlösung zum gigantischen RPG-Epos

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‚Baldurs Gate‘, ‚Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic‘ und ‚Mass Effect‘ stehen bei Rollenspielhabern ganz oben auf der Liste. Bioware versteht es, mit wahrhaft epischen Geschichten die Spielerschaft immer wieder zu verzaubern. Gleiches darf man vom neuesten Werk der Spieleschmiede erwarten. 80 bis 100 Stunden voller Spannung und Emotionen stehen allen in ‚Dragon Age: Origins‘ bevor, die sich in jeden Dungeon wagen, jeder Aufgabe nachspüren und die Erfolge und Misserfolge seiner Gefährten erleben wollen. Mit unserer Komplettlösung zu ‚Dragon Age: Origins‘ wollen wir euch einen Kodex für die Welt Ferelden an die Hand geben, in dem ihr alle Haupt- und Nebenquests, die Herkunftsgeschichten sowie Gefährtenaufgaben verzeichnet findent. Zudem findet ihr wichtige allgemeine Tipps für einen leichteren Alltag in Ferelden. Eine Übersicht gibt euch Informationen zu den jeweiligen Aufenthaltsorten und Fähigkeiten der verschiedenen Gefährten. Das Einhalten der Chronologie unserer Abhandlung ist aber nicht zwingend, sondern entspricht unserem Lösungsweg und dient der Orientierung. Wann ihr die mit den Storyquest in Verbindung stehenden Lokalitäten aufsucht, bleibt also euch überlassen.

Herkunftsgeschichten

• Menschlicher Adeliger: Die Couslands von Highever
• Mensch / Elf: Im hohen Turm der Magier
• Stadtelf: Ein Leben im Gesindeviertel
• Dalish-Elf: Ein Kind der Dalish
• Bürgerlicher Zwerg: In den Straßen der Stadt des Staubs
• Adeliger Zwerg: Der Stolz des Hauses Aeducan

Tipps zu Gefährten und Spezialisierungen

• Übersicht und Fundorte der Spezialisierungen
• Die Gefährten und Gefährtenquests

Ostagar

• Der Beitritt zu den Grauen Wächtern
• Verdorbenes Blut
• Die Truhe der Grauen Wächter
• Der Turm von Ishal
• Ostagar: Die Nebenquests
• Korcari-Wildnis: Die Nebenquests

Lothering

• Lothering und der Kaiserliche Hochweg
• Lothering: Die Nebenquests + Blackstone Freischärler

Redcliffe: Der Arl von Redcliffe

• Ein belagertes Dorf
• Schloss Redcliffe / Die Urne der heiligen Asche: Beginn
• Redcliffe: Die Nebenquests
• Redcliffe: Gemeinschaft der Magier + Blackstone-Freischärler

Der Zirkel der Magi

• Der Zerbrochene Zirkel
• In Träumen verloren
• Der Zirkel der Magi: Die Nebenquests
• Calenhad-See: Quests der Gemeinschaft der Magier

Die Urne der heiligen Asche

• Fortsetzung in Denerim und New Haven
• Verfallener Tempel und Lindwurm-Hort
• Berggipfel: Der Spießrutenlauf / Eine Prüfung des Glaubens

Brecilianwald: Das Wesen der Bestie

• Das Lager der Dalish-Elfen
• Westlicher Brecilianwald
• Östlicher Brecilianwald
• Untere Ruinen / Bau der Wölfe
• Brecilianwald: Die Nebenquests

Orzammar: Ein Paragon der anderen Art

• Die Suche nach Seneschall Bandelor
• Die Gunst eines Prinzen: die erste Aufgabe
• Das Vertrauen eines Lords: die erste Aufgabe
• Zugang zu Jarvias Versteck
• Der Amboss der Leere
• Orzammar: Die Nebenquests

Denerim: Das Landthing

• Denerim: Einführung
• Das Landthing: Rettung der Königin
• Das Landthing: In Gefangenschaft
• Das Landthing: Unruhen im Gesindeviertel
• Das Landthing: Abschluss
• Der Letzte Ansturm: Die letzte Schlacht
• Der letzte Ansturm: Das Finale gegen den Erzdämon
• Denerim: Die Nebenquests
• Anschlagtafel des Kantors + Gemeinschaft der Magier
• Blackstone Freischärler + Gefallen für gewisse Gruppierungen
• Kodex-Quests: Korrespondenzus Interruptus / Die schwarzen Fläschchen

Autor: Stephan Lindner

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History of the Dragon Age series.

Part #1. Birth Pangs — Games for DTF

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Hello everyone! Not so long ago, BioWare diligently approached the creation of new games in the RPG genre. Yes, she often had problems with completing the development on time, but the final product could almost 100% hit the average gamer. And in this article I will start talking about the Dragon Age franchise, which, according to the original intention of the authors, was to be limited to only one game without any numbered sequels.

Briefly about my acquaintance with Dragon Age: Origins

In 2008, after the donated disk with Neverwinter Nights 2, I first discovered the world of RPG, where, in addition to the main character, a small squad of various characters is given control, and the camera covers more space due to the location on top. Usually these games bypassed me, and from RPGs I hung out in Gothic, The Witcher, Fable and The Elder Scrolls.

At that moment, the game seemed insanely beautiful due to well-developed party members, a long and exciting storyline, new gameplay features and numerous variations. After going through it far and wide, I began to look for similar projects and came across a review of Dragon Age: Origins. Inspired by what I heard, I acquired this unknown object and plunged into the world of Thedas. When playing through, I really liked the moments that I compared with Neverwinter Nights 2:

• Gray guards were here, and in NN2 there were Gray cloaks;

• The powerful Shadow King has been replaced with a huge maimed dragon;

• The protagonist here and there had to unite several races into one army, and at the very end to conduct a joint battle with all the recruited allies;

Then I did not pay attention to any disadvantages, and I liked the game so much that in the future I began to look for various additional sources for the still unformed franchise.

Team gathering

After the release of Neverwinter Nights in 2002, the team began to think about a game in this genre. Since the main resources were occupied by the development of Jade Empire, only 30 people were allocated to the new project. They were supposed to form the main material base for those who join them after the development of Jade Empire, scheduled for release in 2005.

Scott Greig, the first official BioWare employee, was Executive Producer and Project Director. He is responsible for the development of the Infinity Engine for Baldur’s Gate and has been the lead programmer on nearly all subsequent projects.

Ross Gardner

Ross Gardner has been named lead programmer for Dragon Age. He started out at BioWare as a model designer for Baldur’s Gate, and for Neverwinter Nights has already been retrained as a full-time developer.

Dean Andersen became chief artist on Dragon Age. With BioWare, Dean got along on the first Shattered Steel game, where he was responsible for concept art. At Jade Empire, he was an additional artist, so in his free moments he could also work with Dragon Age materials.

Even during the development of Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights, Bioware planned to divide its employees into two teams in the future. The first will focus on science fiction, and the second on fantasy. When Dragon Age was still in its infancy, lead designer James Ohlen began looking for fantasy fans. He previously wrote manuals, dialogue, and stories for Baldur’s Gate before retraining.

Olen asked David Gaider to create a world for the new game while James and his team draw different backgrounds or locations. Still, without a clear verbal content, the pictures will not say anything. Therefore, the most responsible role went to Geider, who was immediately appointed lead writer. Compared to others at BioWare, he skipped development on the first Baldur’s Gate and joined the team on Neverwinter Nights.

What to create?

Once Neverwinter Nights was finished, the team began thinking about a new project. The main goal was to create a dark heroic fantasy with no connection to Dungeons & Dragons. The plot and rules of the game were expected to be original, but at the same time it was necessary to rely on Baldur’s Gate so that the fans would not experience any discomfort and feel at ease. The game had to contain a very deep story, elaborate characters and various cinematic scenes.

Many gamers thought that BioWare was the best fantasy game company. However, there was a small snag. All previous games were based on already created worlds, and although the benchmark was taken, the question arose: how not to slide into the usual copying of already existing works.

It is believed that fantasy is divided into two main categories: «high» and «low». The first is the brightest representative of The Lord of the Rings. Magic and various strange creatures are considered commonplace. The world is fictional and there are no references to real historical periods.

On the other hand, Grimm is a low fantasy series. The scene takes place in the modern period in the city of Portland. People do not know that among them there are various mythical creatures, both dangerous and benevolent. Only witches use magic, and then in limited quantities.

The A Song of Ice and Fire book series, which has been adapted into the TV series Game of Thrones, is a kind of medium object that balances between «high» and «low» fantasy. Although everything here is fictional, the events are similar to the real Middle Ages, of course, without supernatural elements.

In an interview, BioWare co-founder Ray Muzica said that the team wanted to do something similar to A Song of Ice and Fire, but with some elements from The Lord of the Rings. At the same time, the staff drew inspiration from other dark heroic fantasy (for example, Conan the Barbarian) to make the world not only rich and diverse, but also a little familiar to others.

The team needed to create a complete world of different stories that could easily compete with others. In order to fully delve into the process, artists often drew various maps describing the development of this universe over several thousand years.

Naturally, we didn’t forget to track in-game statistics from past projects. For example, it was believed that if a gnome was often created from the proposed characters, then this layer of gamers would expect something similar in another fantasy game, and therefore, it was necessary to provide a wide choice when creating the main character.

Gaider thought for a long time about where to start. Using history books as a starting point, he set out to make countries that were fictional copies of real ones. After sketching a map, he brought Medieval Britain south and renamed it Ferelden. Orlais became an analogue of France, which had both a rich culture and a powerful army. Well, Tevinter got the role of the Roman Empire after the crushing of the once united territories.

Then he thought about how to change the already familiar races. For starters, he made the choice that there would be no incest between different representatives, so there are no half-elves here. But on the purebred elves, he recouped in a different way. In the war with people, they lost all the main cities, because of which there was a severe decline in socio-economic development. Valuable knowledge was lost forever, many became slaves, others were forced to live in urban ghettos. Only a small part became nomads and after a long time began to restore the already ancient culture.

As for the gnomes, they still live underground, but they have a rigid caste system. Noble families are constantly vying for power, and objectionable ones are killed or exiled to the lowest caste of untouchables.

It’s still more difficult with people. The environment in most of the territories was heavy and gloomy. Some became mercenaries, not because of their desire to find adventure and treasure, but simply because there was no other way in their lives. There were no criteria for absolute good and evil. Heroes were quickly forgotten, and many simply helped because of secret intentions. Countries constantly staged wars, and civil strife reigned within the states.

As an additional race, Gaider introduced the horned Qunari foreigners, who were distinguished by both imposing physique and cultural values. According to the plot, they invaded the northern continent many centuries ago and tried to conquer the lands of people.

Gaider didn’t want to create any special chosen hero, as in the books he read The Wheel of Time and The Balgariad. The character had to overcome difficulties both alone and with a few comrades who had to earn their trust. The hero did not believe in anything, since there were no divine creatures in the world itself that could help in difficult times.

Also, various mythical creatures like dragons were absent in nature. There was magic, but the owners were under the strictest control, since their mind and body could be captured by demons at any moment. The use of magic in the city was strictly punished, and the magicians themselves were not allowed to learn protective, teleportation and healing techniques to make it easier to get rid of them. It was possible to restore mana only with the help of rest without the use of special elixirs.

Loghain was the first of the characters, and it was around his betrayal that the main plot was supposed to revolve. At the same time, Morigan was also present with her dark ritual, which could save the protagonist from the Archdemon that appeared. The story itself was supposed to be conducted from her perspective, as, for example, in Dragon age 2, Varric talked about the events in Kirkwall.

Plot revision

Half a year has passed since Gaider accepted the task from Olen. He always wrote to the rest of the team about all his achievements and possible further developments of the universe. Therefore, Gaider was 100% sure that no special difficulties could arise, and Olen would only make minor changes.

But everything turned out to be as gray as in the draft manuscript. Olen did not really like the plot, and he began to tell what needs to be corrected. For starters, the game is no longer called Chronicles, but Age of Dragons, as the first name is too low-key, and players may miss the release. This means that there simply must be dragons here, which, according to the plot of Gaider, died out a long time ago. Next, you need to make hordes of some creatures that were supposed to terrorize the surrounding territories, a la goblins or orcs.

After talking with Olen, Geider came to the artists and realized that they did not read his letters at all, because they simply did not understand the main essence of the messages. They made art similar to the universe of «Conan the Barbarian», and believed that various tribes would be the main enemies.

Some of the game classes and specializations had already been created, and few people wanted to remove them, so Gaider was asked to figure out how to bring them into the game world. In addition, many felt that the game should be very bloodthirsty, so it was necessary to paint the moments where it would be best for the developers to activate this moment.

During conversations with Olen, it was decided that the setting would be Ferelden, and the game’s prologue would consist of several parallel storylines with each of the possible characters created. Moreover, they should be very different and they cannot use classic clichés, such as amnesia for the protagonist, when he does not remember anything about himself, and the biography is revealed in the course of the campaign. Gaider agreed with this, yet he himself liked the created elves, and he wanted to write a separate story for the main character from this race.

The first dragon was a converted Archdemon, which looked like Cthulhu in early art. He had a blank black face, a large ornate crown on his head, a body made up of tentacles, and there was always a dark mist around him. Such a radical change led to the creation of separate time periods, each of which had its own name. The army led by the Archdemon was a horde of dark creatures that did not have their own mind and obeyed the call of their master.

The Order of the White Guards was supposed to resist them, the members of which could stop such a powerful and ruthless enemy only at the cost of their lives. To become part of it, recruits must drink the blood of the Archdemon, which made it possible to sense the presence of both his minions and the dragon itself. The downside of the initiation was that the candidates could immediately die from such a poison, and further life expectancy, with successful passage, was greatly reduced.

As an additional «bloodlust», Gaider introduced blood magicians using special forbidden skills. And I had to make other concessions with this class, as the team believed that they would simply be uninteresting to play with. The «circle towers» that control mages are still there, but the arsenal of spells has been increased. Moreover, Gaider was ordered to make a combination of several spells that increase the total damage, which further increased the power of the magician.

Olen approved of the concept of the Guardians, but concluded that it would be better to call them «Greys» to emphasize their connection to the darkspawn. Plus, Gaider should show moments in which not all people are eager to join this deadly order. On top of that, the Guardians had to sometimes perform contradictory actions in order to destroy the Archdemon. It is worth noting that Gaider reluctantly agreed to change the «color» of the Guardians, but then firmly defended this name when the rest of the team felt that there was not enough pathos in the name, and offered their own options, for example, «The Order of the Bloody Knights».

As for the prologue, it was planned to use a gnome, an elf, an avvar (a barbarian man) and an ordinary person. However, this initial non-linearity to the main story approach always had the same ending. In any case, the main character will be recruited by the Gray Wardens, after which the plot gets on a straight line with some branches, which again converge at the very final battle.

And although the prologue should have taken a couple of hours, it can still encourage the player to look at both alternative initial stories and the reaction of others on a different race and social status of the protagonist.

Needed reinforcements

As mentioned earlier, the main workforce was involved in the development of Jade Empire. By November 2002, part of the team was able to move on to the neighboring Dragon Age project. So the little exhausted detachment greatly expanded its ranks. I’ll tell you about especially important people from this group.

Brent Knowles joined James Ohlen and also became lead designer. Brent originally wrote the manual and did the level design for Neverwinter Nights, but then completely switched to the latter.

Mark Darrach

The Lead In-Game Animator was John Santos, who gained experience on Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Jade Empire and was therefore awarded the position.

Another executive producer was Mark Darrach, who also started out at BioWare writing a lot of the Baldur’s Gate code. Naturally, he became an indispensable collaborator and helped teams on other projects in the future.

Inon Zur and Aubrey Ashburn

Well, for the musical part, composer Inon Zur and vocalist Aubrey Ashburn (Devil May Cry 4, Lost Planet) were chosen. Moreover, Inon has already crossed paths with BioWare on Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. To record the soundtracks, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, which has been operating since 1995 and has donated music for games such as Age of Mythology, Medal of Honor, Halo, and many others, was invited.

Perhaps the most unique position was held by Wolfe Weekley. This man worked as a linguist and was a fan of various languages ​​​​from fantastic works. For example, he knew the Klingon language from Star Trek well. BioWare was just looking for someone who could come up with original languages ​​for new games. Still, if you just distort the words, then the player will quickly understand the catch and it will not be so interesting.

Wulf was already working on Jade Empire, where he created a new Asian language of 2500 words. Especially for this, he wrote phrasebooks containing useful phrases for this language. In Dragon Age, Weekly developed a language also of 2500 words but for each race, namely: elves, qunari and dwarves. When creating his dictionary, he used a combination of character names, location names, and various items.

Wolf Weekly

Demo version

So, the main team was almost completely assembled, and the game itself was announced at E3 2004 under the new name Dragon Age, as the management was afraid that it might be confused with the Age of Empires and Age of Myfology series. And the name Age of Dragon was also registered earlier. The 1987 game was released by Korean developers for DOS systems. It looked like an exact copy of Dragon Spirit, where the player must destroy enemies while flying on a dragon.

Now there was enough strength to create a presentable demo, where you can show the gameplay and the beauty of the graphic component. The team came up with the idea to put together already proven mechanics from their other projects. The 3rd person view is great for casual walks and exploration of the world, which is what KotOR used to do.

During tactical battles, it is already more convenient to observe the situation from above, especially when several party members participate in the battle at different distances from each other. It was planned to bind the change of the camera view to enemies. As soon as they noticed someone from a friendly squad, the player was connected to tactical mode. It has already set out to borrow mechanics from Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights. Of course, it was necessary to draw all the models in 3-D format, and the battles themselves should take place in real time with a pause.

The fight scenes were meant to be exciting and varied. Fights with large enemies were supposed to resemble the fight between a cave troll and the Fellowship of the Ring, when one attacks weak points, another distracts attention, and the third rushes at the monster’s head.

With ordinary opponents, skirmishes would be like gladiator fights. And as an example, they considered various series, including Rome. For their own understanding of how to animate the battles, Santos and Greig arranged duels with mops in free parking lots so as not to disturb anyone, since there was little room for such maneuvers in their office.

Jumps, dodges, crouches, dashes behind the back — all this would make the fights come alive. Moreover, they wanted to capture all kinds of collisions of guns both against each other and against shields, so that objects would not pass through obstacles, but would be precisely blocked. We also planned to listen to the fans who said that the heroes running without hidden weapons look rather strange. Therefore, the Dragon Age team decided to put all melee weapons in the sheath, which was unsheathed during the battle.

We were going to add to this the interactivity of the surrounding objects. For example, that the player, that the enemies had to overturn cabinets, tables, thereby protecting themselves from arrows or spells. This would force players to survey the battlefield in advance, planning all sorts of tactical tricks.

We hoped to make an open world with minimal loading between levels. As in Neverwinter Nights, they wanted to add both a single player campaign and a multiplayer part, but in a slightly different spirit. Players would go through the same missions from the original in co-op, however, the number of participants constantly varied during discussions.

We immediately decided to release a level editor in the future, which will help support the game with the fan community. Yes, and the management somehow admitted that with the help of the toolset from Neverwinter Nights, they hired new employees for a long time, who sent the created specific worlds using the hidden features of the Aurora Engine.

But then all the desires and wishes hit hard reality. The Aurora Engine simply could not master such new mechanisms. The developers fought with all their might and tried to improve it, but it was all in vain.

Prior to these events, CTO Trent Oster was tasked with developing a new engine for subsequent games. Knights of the Old Republic was built on the Odyssey Engine, which became the successor to the Aurora Engine used in Neverwinter Nights. Oster himself wanted to develop an open world game where various events would influence the main story. Development went on for two years, and the engine itself became known as the Eclipse Engine.

As soon as the Dragon Age development team found out that there was a test build of the Eclipse Engine, they immediately asked Oster to help them with porting the game to new rails. So the people who were working on the new engine started working with the Dragon Age team.

But due to the dampness of the assembly, many problems still persist. For example, regular characters couldn’t get long hair and beards. As soon as they went beyond the neck, there were serious problems with their movement due to the lack of proper physics. The view was, to put it mildly, not very good. All this turned into ordinary rectangular strips hanging on the character’s head. The Qunari had almost the same problem. Only now horns were not attached to the head, although they should have become their main distinguishing attribute.

When they got to the dialogue system, which they wanted to borrow from the neighboring Mass Effect team, the developers found that the engine did not support any text conversations at all.

The build of the demo took almost 18 months, but the team made it to E3 2004. It even got to the point that the developers made some of the functionality like in Neverwinter Nights. For example, the cursor was in the form of a hand with an index finger, the portraits of the character were on the top right, and the map was on the left.

Despite all this, the demo was highly praised by various journalists, especially admired for the graphic component. Greig often told reviewers to appreciate it down to the smallest detail. For example, what seams are visible on clothes and shoes, that there are small runic inserts on the chests, and the room in which the battle takes place is reflected in the eyes of the demon. But no one was allowed to film the demo. BioWare posted the screenshots themselves for use in various magazines.

Price of promises

Much of Dragon Age’s production effort so far has been focused on editing the engine. And Greig said that the game will be successfully assembled in late winter 2007 or early 2008. At the same time, he promised a bunch of functionality that has not yet been properly processed.

The engine could not handle if the number of party members in the forward group was more than four, so they did away with the idea of ​​​​participating six in the mission. The idea of ​​a dynamic change of day and night was abandoned almost immediately, since for this it was necessary to draw locations twice, and there was simply no time for this. Therefore, the forces were involved in the development of unique places so that they did not have to resort to copying.

Multiplayer also did not get up as it should. Some wanted it to be very similar to Diablo, while James Ohlen was more insistent that this mode contain a story and a party system of secondary players. At some point, they even thought about making a mode with a competitive type. After much debate, multiplayer was dropped, so the level editor could only be used to expand the single player campaign. Ironically, Dragon Age: Origins was often referred to as a single-player MMO because of the uniqueness of the locations.

Artists and writers have gathered together so much information that a separate wiki has been created, where they tried to put everything together. But this did not prevent them from acting, relying only on their opinion. For example, if you look at the concept art of Zevran and Wynn, you can see that the characters look like high fantasy characters in specific outfits.

It was believed that most of the passage of the player will travel through the wilderness and in cities. Only small episodes will take place in the dungeons. But they also had trouble. The ceilings were too low, and the camera either broke through them or simply blocked. After some time, they came to the conclusion that the top in all enclosed spaces must be raised to an unusual height for such buildings.

It’s funny, but there were also quarrels and disputes with doorways. Sheila’s stone golem was supposed to be in the game, but it was so large that it just didn’t fit in the standard aisles. Part of the team stated that the players would not pay attention to this, and she would just go through the textures, while others asked to expand the passages, but for this they would have to go through all the locations again. As a result, Sheila was simply reduced, and in the game itself they left an Easter egg about the fact that she had to be turned, because she could break doorways.

The promised scabbard also had to be abandoned. When the character took out the blade, the weapon shone through the outer shell. Long attempts led to the fact that everything just began to be mounted on the back without any special devices.

Cities and villages could not be populated by NPCs. Again, the engine simply could not withstand large crowds of people and monsters in one place. Moreover, the developers had previously promised that players would be able to attack civilians, however, the guards would definitely come running to save them, and because of this problem, everything looked vague.

The characters in the group were planned to be made as alive as possible through communication between them and reactions to the player’s actions. In the first case, the dialogue could start with a simple run through the area. But at the same time, it was not possible to make sure that the player himself could cut into the conversation of his comrades.

In the second situation, several events were made. In a mild form, partners could both approve of what the player is doing and speak negatively. But if something contradicted their worldview, then either the party member could leave, or he attacked the main character. So that all this does not look strange, each character must necessarily have peculiar motives and have his own point of view, which, if the opportunity arises, he could defend.

In order to better interact with the secondary heroes from the group, they decided to rework the camp system for rest. Many of the team agreed that it’s worth creating an appropriate atmosphere where everyone travels through different areas together and stops to set up camp and discuss various situations.

But, of course, everything is fine only on paper. At first they thought about making certain places for recreation, then they came to the conclusion that it was not worth restricting the player and it would be better to build a mechanism similar to setting up a tent. Then another question was born, what if the player and his party members decide to spend the night in some house or castle.

On top of that, there were thoughts of using all the heroes to produce certain materials. This would force players to come to the camp more often and chat with comrades who would start a conversation.

Epilogue to part #1

And with that, I’m wrapping up the development of Dragon Age: Origins for now. In the next issue, I will continue to cover the rest of the difficulties that arose on the way to the release in 2009. There, the topic of a new partnership with Electronic Arts will be touched upon.

History of the Dragon Age series. Part #2. EA and the New Order — DTF

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Hello everyone! In the last part of The History of the Dragon Age series, I said that project director Scott Greig, in his interviews at EA 2004, confidently stated that the final version would be ready in late winter 2007 or early 2008. However, the team faced numerous difficulties due to the engine and internal miscommunications.

Prologue Problems

Probably one of the most difficult parts, where they could not come to a common opinion, was the prologue of the game. Let me remind you that they wanted to make the beginning of the story unique for each race or species. Because of this, both writing a story and programming become more difficult when transferring textual material to code.

Each backstory showed one of the individual conflicts, an impending global threat, explained the player’s role in upcoming events, taught combat mechanics, research, interactions, and so on. By developing several different backstories, the developers had to decide over and over again how logically to fit all this into the game world and come up with a situation based on which the training was turned on.

So it took quite a lot of work for what seemed like a normal 2 hour prologue. And they also abandoned the Nemesis system. Each introductory story had to contain characters that appear at certain plot points. They decided not to invent all this from scratch and simply chose certain heroes who would 100% get caught at least once after a certain prologue.

Looking at the final version, which can be purchased at various sites, you can see that the player is offered a choice of three races: human, elf and dwarf. The first two have a separate story for the magician. There are two options here, but this is considered one, yet the scene and events are identical, only the race differs.

Further, a person has a variant with a noble warrior/robber, and the elves made a division for this class into an urban species, living in alienages, and a wandering forest (Dolli). In total, we already get four entry points in the prologue. It also adds a noble dwarf and a commoner for the warrior/rogue classes. In total, in the mythical ideal, it is required to write the plot and program code six times, but since we are in the real world, everything was much more complicated and, of course, led to the rejection of additional prologues.

The simplest thing is that the mages were locked up only in the appropriate tower of the Circle, because of which the heroes hiding their unnatural powers were not shown, both for the human race and for the elves.

Playing as a human commoner, the player would be the son or daughter of a farmer who is soon rescued from the darkspawn by the gray guard Duncan. On the one hand, they wanted to write a story for a commoner, where he lived a simple and boring life, and then was inspired by his savior and decided to also become a gray guard. On the other hand, it was planned to make him a murderer or a thief who was put on trial, but this would be like a prologue with a dwarf.

At some point, they wanted to completely switch to a barbarian origin. According to the history of Dragon Age, in the early period of the development of the world, one of the oldest human tribes, called the Alamarri, settled in southeastern Thedas. One part of the tribes settled in the mountains, and the other — in the swampy forest expanses and in the tundra, which eventually became known as the Korkari Wildlands. The highlanders were called Avvars and were considered freedom-loving, proud and stubborn.

Swamp tribes (Hasinds) fell into magic and shamanism. They were so afraid of them that on the border with them they specially built the reconnaissance and defensive fortress Ostagar. It is also believed that Flement once joined the Hasinds with her daughters. They gathered such a mighty army that all the northern armies could not resist them. Only after a long time they were defeated by the combined army of Alamarri and Dwarves. Therefore, these tribes are not trusted even after many years.

It was because of these features that the team believed that a special and specific dialogue system was required for the barbarian tribes. Also, the tribes, although they were human, but the culture and life of the Fereldans should have been incomprehensible to them, which made it possible to introduce a new system for studying the world around them.

Naturally, it all sounded complicated, but the process slowed down during implementation. Plus, the artists had to come up with specific clothing designs for the barbarian tribes, but after many attempts, this was abandoned. Actually, the prologue with the barbarians was also frozen.

In addition to these stories, a ton of revisions also touched on the introductory part for the magician. It is easy to guess that the problem was to create an otherworldly space called the Shadow, which, according to the plot, was separated from the real world by a metaphysical barrier — the Veil. This place was supposed to become the abode of various spirits, demons and other otherworldly creatures. On top of that, the protagonist would be able to do things that are impossible in the real world of Thedas. For example, transformation into other creatures could be applied.

More or less it was possible to build and even make it work, but due to heavy implementation, this functionality was used in only one mission. The protagonist could transform into a stone golem, a mouse, a possessed magician (witch horror) and a fiery man. But, unfortunately, most of the episode is focused on overcoming obstacles by transforming into one of the forms. It turned out that the player was severely limited, which is why it will not be possible to fully enjoy the transformation process.

The magician’s introductory story itself has been rewritten four times. The first three writers either failed to create the right atmosphere, or their ideas were virtually impossible to reproduce. A successful attempt was made by the writer Cheryl Chee, who became responsible for this prologue.

Another interesting thing about this prologue is that in the magic room with various artifacts there is a statue of the wolf Fen’Harel. The writers were already saying that this character would play an important role in future stories if the game was successful. This means that it is worth making a reference at the very beginning, when no one will immediately guess that they met such an important hero.

By the way, according to the plot, this statue blows up a stone wall, but in fact the engine was not capable of such a thing. They got out of the situation as follows: they took the side effect of the explosion, stretched it so that all the stone blocks disappeared, and before the final action they simply removed the wall. Well, they didn’t forget to put the camera in a horizontal position, so that the whole picture was a little at an angle and the whole secret of the focus was not revealed.

In the mage’s prologue, you can immediately find out about the pacification ritual. If the apprentice mage is unable to control his powers, or fails to pass the final exam, where he must resist the demon’s attempts to possess him, then his connection with the Shadow is blocked. It is from there that magicians draw strength, and since demons live in the other world, there is always a danger of becoming possessed.

The ritual itself is carried out quite simply: a special lyrium brand is applied to the forehead of the student, thereby creating a protective seal. And just the same, the artists completely forgot to demonstrate this important detail. In Dragon Age: Origins, no Humble has a forehead seal. Outwardly, they are no different from ordinary ones, and if it were not for a specific unemotional speech, it would not be possible to understand that a special ritual was performed. In subsequent parts, this defect was corrected.

Monsters

Along with the above problems, of course, new ones arose. As I said earlier, at first the game was supposed to have various forms of demons. Take the same Archdemon that was turned into a dragon. It’s funny that there were misunderstandings with the Desire Demon too.

James Ohlen was an avid Dungeons and Dragons fan, so he immediately spotted a few monsters that could be used as the basis for a new design. He made appropriate notes and sent them to everyone. And here on one of the lines the link “succubus” was lit up. The artists immediately understood everything clearly by the name: since this is a demon of lust and depravity, then it is necessary to depict a sexy girl with the appropriate identification marks.

As it turned out later, there was a detailed description inside the link, which should be taken into account when creating it. Naturally, the writers delved into it and made something similar to … a sexless genie. And in the struggle for the choice of the final design, the artists certainly won. Still, time was limited, and no one wanted to do a complete redrawing.

Equally got a simplified look and several other characters. For example, the spirit of valor was not originally a transparent templar, but looked much more epic. Yes, and the demon of idleness fully showed off only in one quest in the middle of the game. In the prologue, he was transformed into a small ghoul bear, which greatly reduced labor costs.

Interestingly, along with this, the team did not want to add a large number of animals to the game as enemies. Yes, many locations consist of forests or fields, but a group of the same bears would look too ordinary. It was not possible to add snake-like or creatures with tentacles because of the “beautiful” engine, but they did not hesitate to throw good old spiders into the caves and deep paths. And all why? Yes, because they are easy to model and copy, which again leads to a strong reduction in labor costs. According to the artists, the creation of ordinary creatures takes about three weeks. The larger the size, the more difficult the situation, so the whole six weeks were spent on the Archdemon.

But the Sylvan trees that came to life were almost cut out of the game. The animation did not work correctly, and from powerful enemies they turned into incomprehensible something. However, several developers have decided to spend their free time fixing these models. So it was only thanks to them that the Sylvanas survived to the final version.

Game revival year

Rewriting scripts, redrawing locations, monsters, characters, and the like lasted from the beginning of development until 2007. What was the turning point in the year when the production of the game should have been almost completed?

Let’s go back a little, to April 12, 2005. That day, Jade Empire was released, which had very high expectations, as it was the first BioWare game not based on any franchise. However, everything went wrong.

Yes, the game was mostly praised by the critics, but the sales were unimpressive and far from the plan. Jade Empire was originally exclusive to the original Xbox. Everything would be fine, but the new version of the Xbox 360 came out just a few months after the release of the game, namely on November 22, 2005. Accordingly, it was rather reckless to hope that the game would be massively sold out after such a high-profile release.

Here, as usual, there is another side of the coin. The company simply didn’t have enough money to make the game on better hardware. I have no doubt that BioWare management knew about the upcoming announcement of the new console in May 2005.

The risky move did not materialize, and doubts arose over the successful release of Dragon Age and Mass Effect. The offer of help came from private equity firm Elevation Partners. Moreover, among its founders was the former president of Electronic Arts, John Ricciello.

On November 3, 2005, Elevation invested $300 million to create an alliance between video game developers BioWare and Pandemic Studios, making it one of the largest independent developers in the world.

However, Elevation did not anticipate subsequent budgetary complications. Analysts from BioWare have concluded that new games on the Xbox 360 require twice as much cash as previously used. The situation gradually worsened and reached its peak in February 2007, when John Riccitello left Elevation Partners and returned to Electronic Arts.

He then offered to buy out BioWare and Pandemic Studios for $800 million, $620 million in cash, 145 in stock, and 35 in debt, before the deal was completed in January 2008. And on October 11, 2007, it was announced that both companies were moving under the wing of Electronic Arts.

With the acquisition of BioWare and Pandemic, EA has acquired not only 800 employees across four studios, but also a collection of brands that have helped the company fill the void created by the lack of role-playing and action-adventure games.

Fast-forward to 2006, when BioWare announced that their newest employee, Dan Taj, formerly president and founder of Exile Interactive, would be director of the Nintendo DS handheld game development project. Back then, there was even a small survey among players whether they would buy portable versions of BioWare RPG games.

Still, the project did not become stellar, and in 2008 the first and last BioWare game for the Nintendo DS was released called Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. But now it’s not about that. It is not clear under what conditions and how Dan Taj proved himself so, but he replaced Scott Greig as director of the Dragon Age: Origins project. And the ice finally broke, the team received new installations, and most importantly, a fresh goal appeared: to show the first gameplay video and trailer at E3 2008.

The team grew again, and among the newcomers was Mike Laidlaw, who joined the leading designers. Officially, he began to work only with the creation of Jade Empire. Partially helped with the Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark expansion, for which he received special thanks. Before Dragon Age, he worked on Jade Empire 2, but since the game was stagnant and the project was on the verge of closing, Mike was invited to a new team.

Then, to improve development, on December 18, 2007, BioWare partnered with Pipeline FX to use their Qube software for improved rendering control. Of course, the first project where it began to be used was the game Dragon Age: Origins. According to one of the developers, the program increased labor productivity at times, which allowed them to create new content in their free time.

By the way, even before the merger with EA on February 13, 2007, BioWare announced that the development of Dragon Age used the SpeedTreeRT software package from Interactive Data Visualization, which allowed automatic changes in foliage detail levels, real-time wind effects and several lighting options. So at least the team had no problems with the realism of foliage on the trees.

Well, the most important tool used for Dragon Age: Origins is the ZBrush program. After the completion of Jade Empire, many of the character and level artists at the time came together to share knowledge and explore new systems. Actually, at that moment, ZBrush began to popularize. It did not require powerful computers and significantly reduced production time.

The monsters were super-detailed due to fine adjustments offered by the program. Even the heads of the characters could be disassembled into their main components, and then the generation tools could be applied so as not to create subsequent faces manually.

Voices Dragon Age: Origins

On top of that, on August 24, 2007, the voice acting process for Dragon Age: Origins began. Caroline Livingston played an important role here, joining the company in the production of Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark. The first project in which BioWare decided to fully voice the game was KotOR, but then the team did not understand anything about it, and the whole process took place in a third-party studio Technicolor. Then their own studio was formed, and Caroline was taken as its leader.

She was very helpful in recruiting suitable actors and prompted them in a timely manner on how to correct any shortcomings during dubbing. For the casting, Caroline asked the writers to write short texts where several strong emotions could be portrayed. This helped to immediately determine what the actor is capable of.

In addition, Caroline used Geider as her main mentor during the early recording stages. He briefly told the actors about the nature of the characters, what they are, how, in his opinion, they should sound when talking. And for certain cases, they made special mini-guides, which explained how to pronounce especially intricate phrases.

In any case, serious problems arose. Claudia Black, known for the series «At the End of the Universe», «Stargate», has never participated in the sound recording of game characters. She auditioned for the role of Flemeth, but Gaider felt that Morrigan would be a better fit for Claudia.

The first sessions were pretty awkward. Initially, Morrigan was portrayed as a young girl, so thirty-six-year-old Claudia tried to change her voice to fit an eighteen-year-old character. This led to the fact that either she forgot and spoke in a normal manner, or the lines lost their emotionality. At some point, everyone was so tired that they wanted to choose another actress, but Caroline decided that Claudia should not adapt and just need to read out the lines in her own manner. It was after the restrictions were lifted that the voice acting of Morrigan went like clockwork, and the age of the character was decided to be increased.

A total of 144 people took part in the voice acting of Dragon Age. Yes, most of the actors were not particularly famous, but there were also popular personalities. Tim Curry voiced Earl Rendon Howe, Steve Valentine voiced Alistair, Kate Mulgrew voiced Flement the witch, Tim Russ voiced Zathrian the elf.

Cutting again .. .

So, the main process has begun, which means that the “small” thing was left to do. Cut or edit everything that is not needed so that the product can be released in 2009. It was originally planned that the game would become a PC exclusive, with Windows Vista acting as the desired system, since it was the only one that could run DirectX 10, allowing you to fully enjoy the graphic components. After the merger with EA, talks began about porting the game to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Consequently, there was nowhere to stretch the development.

Various quests immediately fell under the knife. In the prologue with the magician, the character Jovan appears, who was wanted to be added to the group of the protagonist when completing a series of quests in the village of Redcliffe. The player would use the right to call into the gray guards in order to save their acquaintance from trial or execution. But with Jovan’s dialogues, difficulties arose all the time, so we decided that the character would be a partner in only a few quests.

Pretty much the same thing happened to Loghain. He had a much bigger role than in the final cut. In Denerim, the player would be able to find out his backstory, what is the motivation. In addition, Loghain fell into the shadows with the main character, where his dream with innermost desires was shown.

By the way, the Orlesian Empress Selina was supposed to arrive in Denerim, who was going to marry the king of Ferelden Cailan Teyrin. And she even had to be saved when the city fell into a state of siege.

There were different quests with wood elves and werewolves, but due to lack of time they were merged into one. With the Mistress of the Forest herself, they were also misunderstood. Gaider wanted to make a strong asexual spirit out of her, but at some point he settled on a female image.

The golem Sheila almost fell under total destruction. The dialogues and animations weren’t finished yet, so we decided to release the final version as DLC. So it was also decided to finish the rest of the unpolished stories after the main version, and then release them as add-ons.

Reduced the complexity of the game by several times. Even at the start, they planned to make sure that all fights would be deadly. If a minor character dies, then nothing can revive him. No potions or healing spells were provided. Well, as I said in the last issue, Gaider was forced to expand the set of spells. Therefore, with the addition of first-aid kits and other elixirs, he again could not resist.

What pissed him off more were the special lyrium veins scattered around in some locations. Through them, the player could increase the mana of his magical characters. This strongly contradicted the revised script, where Gaider described that pure lyrium could not be used to replenish strength, due to its danger.

In addition, the templars were not shown to be addicted to this substance. There should have been separate gameplay and story components, when the templars needed to find a new portion of lyrium, otherwise their strength was significantly reduced, and their health deteriorated.

Don’t forget to significantly underestimate the ability of the Guardians to feel the creatures of darkness due to the drunk blood of these monsters in the rite of passage. In the gameplay, this could not be realized in any way, so they remembered her only in certain plot scenes.

By the way, all party members from the protagonist’s squad during the game had to be infected by the blood of the creatures of darkness. This quest was solved by conducting a rite of passage. Plus, some of the heroes might not survive. For example, in one of the versions, Ogren changed in character and looked at his life differently. This led to the fact that in the finale he sacrificed himself in the battle with the Archdemon.

Some moments were left as is. The majestic land ships of the Dalish elves are called araveli. They soared in the air with the help of magic, and moved under the force of the wind, which was caught by sea sails. Araveli were both transport and temporary housing.

In Dragon Age: Origins, it was not possible to make beautiful sails, and since, according to the plot, the technologies of the ancient elves are forgotten by many, they made a hefty wagon on wheels in the form of a small ship. The sails seem to be lowered, and the entire top of the transport is covered with the skin of animals.

The very first battle in Ostagar was almost not reworked. It was originally planned that it would be a small dilapidated fortress of ruins, among which the battle would take place, but the artists depicted everything differently. The territory looked very large, and the fortress itself could still provide good protection. As usual, they did not rewrite the order of actions and tried to stretch the battle over the entire territory.

Probably the funniest time saving solution is to use the same skeletal animation on both male and female characters. Plus, if through the program it was possible to generate various faces, then it did not work out with the bodies.