Larian Studios Forums Dragon Commander Dragon Commander - General Any News?

Looks like the forum has been a bit inactive and no new updates so devs do you have any new news for us about the game?

The fourth milestone in GOG's PWYW promotion for Divine Divinity is a video 'Dream of the Dragon', "a look at Dragon Commander with never-before-seen footage of the upcoming title's gameplay". The counter is 60% to that goal, so if sales pick up a little bit it is reachable (ends 01:00 AM GMT Oct 18th).

For the promotion you can buy DD for as low as $0.01, beat the current average to get Beyond Divinity and get in the top 10% for Divinity 2: Developer's Cut (which is currently under $12.50 for all 3 games).

GOG and CD Projekt RED are having a Special Event live stream on the 18th. Given the timing there could be news from Larian there, as well (possibly just if the relevant milestones are reached).

All our attention in communication has been on www.divinityanthology.com for the moment, but in the background a lot of work is being done on Dragon Commander. Once all of it is going to come together, there should be an avalanche of Dragon Commander news.

That... sounds like a poor marketing strategy (though I don't know anything about marketing).

Wouldn't it make more sense of have semi-steady trickle of titbits to keep the game alive in the 'gamer consciousness' so that the Big News will be noticed more easily?

I mean, all this silence will probably only lead to people losing interst and wandering away to other projects that catch their attention.

Also, avalanches bury people.

On the other side :
be too hasty to give away new information, how little it is, can give also a "wrong" vision about a new upcoming game . And as long as things are still in consideration you can't give correct new info

But I can understand WotanAnubis' argument

Yes, I suppose one must strike a careful balance between total silence and Peter Molyneux, basically.

All of my lol.

So, we'll have to trickle the avalanche I guess - Small studio, many projects, much to talk about, not enough time, demanding fans. It's a complicated mix to do right each day, I tell you You can't say we've been very silent when you look at all the noise we had for the Anthology or even today for the Steam release of the Developer's Cut. (e.g. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/10/31/larrys-mod-divinity-ii-developers-cut/ )

But, you are right that we've been too silent on DC, so now that the old stuff is dealt with, we'll make it a point to focus again on the new stuff.

Well, in my case, Original Sin hasn't yet captured my imagination the way Dragon Commander did and I already own two versions of Divinity 2 so the whole Anthology thing didn't interest me *that* much either.

So perhaps I'm slightly more disgruntled about the lack of Dragon Commander news than other fans.

thanks, for the update larian, and dont worry im not afraid of avalanches

I believe this is a good suggestion. It could be better if larian implements a "dev diaries" portion. It wouldn't matter if the old concepts will be shown in the initial dev diaries. In this manner, people won't lose interest and they have a pretty huge expectation in the game. It could also create a feedback/suggestions from forum lurkers improving/polishing your work.

Dev diaries could be done in a bi weekly manner, once every three weeks, or once in a month. IMO, an avalanche is not good because it will create a tremendous interest and a sudden decline of interest because nothing new comes up (much like facebook's IPO as far as its stock value is concerned). It's better if the interest is gradual.

On a side note, I expect a lot in DC.

EDIT:It seems there is a dev diary but in a blog form. Didn't know that bit much because there are no readily available links.

Wheres the Frag-o-matic footage at? Expected it to be out by now, also when are you gonna release the new trailer and new website you talked about on your blog?

Sorry if I sound demanding but I’m going crazy waiting

I'd certainly like to see the new footage as well, but there's at least another blog post:

http://www.lar.net/2013/02/19/note-to-self-about-deadlines/#more-706

The feedback from the Frag-o-matic thing was "it's good, but the Dragon dies too easily and it's hard to know what killed you".

I can deal with the Dragon dying easily under certain conditions.

Mainly, if it's still early in the game and your Dragon form is still in serious need of upgrading and you need to rely on your troops to do the heavily lifting. Which culminates in your Dragon form being a near unstoppable juggernaut during the late game. OK, 'near unstoppable juggernaut' may be an exaggeration, but you get what I'm getting at.

Personally, I don't think it's the usefulness curve I would've chosen. I think I would've made the Dragon form really powerful in the early game, when you don't have much in the way of units and resources to help out, but make the Dragon become less and less relevant as the game progresses and you get more ways to deal with things. The Dragon as Jeigan, I suppose.

Of course, the Dragon dying too fast and too easily all the way through is less acceptable. I mean, what would be the point of having one if it always just keels over at a stiff breeze?

Good point.

All I can say to that is that it works for Square Enix lol

Just wanted to share this interview, It has some sweet gameplay clips in it, But I was wondering if anyone can translate the transcript for me?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaFSineHJZg

Frankly, there's nothing really new that gets said in that interview. Except for two things:

1) The Dragon can only materialise near your units.

2) They're aiming to release the game in May.

All the rest is pretty much stuff we knew already.

*crosses fingers and prays*

May 2nd...May 2nd