Dragon Age Toolset

[DeadPoolX]

Has anyone messed around with this yet? I've looked it over and it seems pretty damn complicated. Certainly much more complex than the toolset for Neverwinter Nights.

The toolset is the primary reason I installed DA on my machine. Maia is currently playing it and since we have one copy, we can't play at the same time. So I'm happy creating stuff -- or at least I would be if I could figure this damn thing out.

It's still not as complicated as Valve's Source SDK. I wanted to make some maps for TF2 and after looking at the SDK (which highly resembles 3D Max), I'm not so sure I can do this.

[Tawmis]

After I beat it on X360, I plan on purchasing the PC version of Dragon Age just for the toolset. I am interested in making Machinima with it more than I am making actual maps.

[DeadPoolX]

I've tried using the toolset and it's not user-friendly at all! I remember the NWN toolset (yeah, even though I despised the game, I still used it a bit) being extremely simple and easy to use. Granted, that toolset was nowhere near as powerful as the one in DA, but seriously... this toolset looks and feels like it was designed for game developers, not the average gamer.

I have learned a thing or two, however. I was actually able to create a new sword.

Well, sort of.

The sword appeared in my inventory (name and tier intact), but for some reason it couldn't identify the extra abilities I gave it. The numbers and percentages were at zero. Obviously, that wasn't what I had planned.

In addition, TWO copies of the sword appeared in my inventory every time I loaded the game. I checked the downloaded mod section and sure enough, my sword was recorded TWICE there. I didn't do that on purpose.

I suppose the good news is that the mod was easily deactivated and I'm slowly getting somewhere. Even so, this toolset is far more complex than it needs to be for most gamers. It's great that BioWare gave us a developer-level toolset, but the extreme learning curve necessary to use it hurts the overall DA community.

I have a feeling there won't be too many mods available. Yes, I know there are mods on Dragon Age Nexus, but if you look closely, most -- if not all -- of the mods are for relatively minor details. Hair, weapons, armor and so on. I like the fact we have those (I've used some myself), but do you see ANY separate campaign modules? I sure don't and NWN had tons of them.

I suppose one major strike DA has against it is that, unlike NWN, there's no online capability at all. While there were plenty of single player mods, lots of gamers enjoyed playing online with friends. I know Maia had a group she used to play with online.

[Tawmis]

The DA toolset is a lot like the NWN2 toolset - and yet a step up from that, even.

So in the "School of Bioware Related Toolsets"

NWN1 - Easy. VERY easy to use. Scripting took some knowledge, but the community was VERY helpful.

NWN2 - Not user friendly. This toolset took a good bit of work to make it happen. It was easy to lay down land, modify it, etc. But if you expected the characters to do anything - the scripting was serious work.

DA - Both the general use of the toolset as well as the scripting is like a job unto itself. It's the least user friendly of them all - and requires some serious knowledge on how to do scripts, cut scenes, etc.

My dreams of doing machinima with DA were rapidly dashed. Good thing is, I have not really seen any other DA machinima out there (which amazes me) - but this could be because of the lack of online play (which allows for easy use of puppet control).

[DeadPoolX]

My dreams of doing machinima with DA were rapidly dashed. Good thing is, I have not really seen any other DA machinima out there (which amazes me) - but this could be because of the lack of online play (which allows for easy use of puppet control).

That doesn't really surprise me. As we've both said now, the DA toolset is very hard to use. I think BioWare screwed up by releasing a toolset that has such a steep learning curve.

My ambition in life isn't to make a DA mod, so I'd have appreciated it if BioWare had made their toolset easier to use. At the very least, they could've included a "simplified" interface (in addition to the normal one used right now) for those gamers who didn't want to do really complicated stuff.