Dragon Age: Inquisition Pre-Release Thread

[Jick Magger]

Remember that problem basically ruined Skyrim's replayability beyond testing new mods: you could do basically experience everything the game has to offer you in just one playthrough, and as a consequence basically none of your decisions mattered to any significant degree. Particularly remember how the decision to kill Paarthurnax, which should've been one of the hardest decisions the player has to make in the game, is rendered irrelevant due to the Blades and the Greybeards no longer having any truly significant role in the story after that point. So what if the Blades won't support you anymore? They wouldn't of even if you did do as they asked. Newfangled 'gamer kids' no longer have the patience or the will to bother with doing different playthroughs where they actually try to make different decisions beyond "Let's play as an Orc instead" or "I might try not to horrifically break the game by abusing smithing and enchantments this time, not promising anything".

I'm sorry, I can just never get over the fact that I became the Archmage of the Mage's Guild with an Orkish Barbarian who knew nothing about magic beyond the two starter spells.

 

[Caim]

Thing is, if you start as an Orc in Skyrim you are automatically blood-kin of the strongholds, meaning you can barge into them all will-nilly and deplete the Ebony mine of that one in the north-west for easy profit/armor, breaking the game even earlier.

 

[Cynic]

Watched a few minutes of this video.

Can I just say, Laidlaw has one of the most fucking annoying voices I've ever heard.

It's like he is trying REALLY HARD to appeal to the CoD "get them psyched up before the kick off" crowd and the "spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate" aspies in the same fucking breath. Not many things have made me rage so deeply.

This game already has a lot of the problems which plagued DA2 coming back. Retarded looking combat. Generic characters who you can't change the appearance of. Predetermined main character in a WRPG. It seems that the only criticism which they've paid attention to is area size...and graphics. The graphics look good.

Seeing as he said the game will be basically one trash encounter after another, and the combat already looks like shit, there is no doubt this game will be only mildly less shit than DA2.

I sincerely hope this is the final nail in their coffin. Bioware just needs to die already. Dissing them isn't even fun anymore, it's just gotten sad.

 

[Rahdulan]

Developers don't think players like NPCs with real agendas, the ability to double cross or lock you out of rewards. They think players want to access everything and not be troubled or locked out.

I don't think this is true, mind you, but it's what developers think.

Bioware once said, I think it was around time DA2 was still in the making, that if only a certain percentage of players will ever see certain content then they might as well cut it out and focus on what everyone will see. That was their semi-excuse as to why playable races didn't make it into DA2. Thank god for Potato developers who have no qualms about cutting out an entire chapter of the story depending on your choice, I guess.

 

[Tommy Wiseau]

They don't seem to understand why someone would play a role-playing game in the first place.

 

[Roguey]

Generic characters who you can't change the appearance of. Predetermined main character in a WRPG.

Are you even paying attention? Because I don't think you are.

Dissing them isn't even fun anymore, it's just gotten sad.

Yet here you are.

I'm predicting this will be successful and Bioware will live on to release DLC for it and ME4.

 

[Lhynn]

Roguey, whitknighting the new DA, or merely just correcting people for the lolz?
And after ME4 am not sure it will sell that much anymore, i mean, lots of people are paying attention, but lots of people are still butthurt over ME3 and the trust in bioware as storytellers is fading, fast.

 

[Aeschylus]

Roguey, whitknighting the new DA, or merely just correcting people for the lolz?

The things Roguey pointed out were actually inaccurate. It's been stated than you'll be able to choose your race, and that you will be able to use custom armor on companions.

Cynic's post was a pretty fair description of DA2 though.

 

[set]

It all depends how the new consoles sell. Since BioWare decided to become a console-focused developer during the development of DA:O, DA3 and ME4 will hinge heavily on whether Sony and M$ can maintain the same kind of audience they did last generation. If they can, BioWare will continue to exist for as long as EA lets them. Console retards will buy ME4 and DA3 in enough units to offset their production costs.

You will be able to give your companions items (how novel) however they will retain a preset look (or they will have 3 preset looks you can toggle between based on heavy light medium armor). BioWare doesn't have time to make armor models or attachment systems.

 

[Cynic]

No sorry I'm not really paying attention to this shit I'll admit, please enlighten me...by choose race did you mean it's a purely cosmetic thing that has nothing to do with the story or are there origins like in the original game (one of the best things about it as well as the world reacting to your race on certain occasions). And by being able to change the "appearance" of your companions do they mean you can equip them with anything or is this just some sort of set equipment changes because you know, each Bioware NPC has their own "personality" and "uniqueness" and allowing the player to interfere with that ruins that character's "brand". Oh and apparently it costs too much to make armour scale to different model sizes.

I'm here dissing them, yeah, but it's not nearly as fun as it used to be. I'm more in a state of disappointment that codex still bothers with this crap.

 

[Roguey]

I'm more in a state of disappointment that codex still bothers with this crap.

Yet here you still are.

No there won't be origins and good riddance because those were a waste of time.

 

[Cynic]

Yet here you still are.

No there won't be origins and good riddance because those were a waste of time.

Reading any of your posts is a fucking waste of time.

Still here? I've posted like three times in this thread. And that's it. I'm out.

Have fun with your shit games.

 

[Delterius]

Developers don't think players like NPCs with real agendas, the ability to double cross or lock you out of rewards. They think players want to access everything and not be troubled or locked out.

I don't think this is true, mind you, but it's what developers think.

I've heard this sort of idea from designers such as Rolston, but with BioWare it seems to be more of a matter of logistics. Since they tackle burdens like full VO, they have to focus their efforts on a single playthrough. At least that's what Gaider says all the time.

 

[kris]

I'm more in a state of disappointment that codex still bothers with this crap.

Yet here you still are.

No there won't be origins and good riddance because those were a waste of time.

The origins were great. a nice piece of roleplaying which gave players a reason to try it again.

 

[Lhynn]

I'm more in a state of disappointment that codex still bothers with this crap.

Yet here you still are.

No there won't be origins and good riddance because those were a waste of time.

The origins were great. a nice piece of roleplaying which gave players a reason to try it again.

Thet were alright, not great or anything. the best part of the game comes right after that.

 

[Space Satan]

‏

@Mike_Laidlaw
I've decided to tackle writing more of the small characters around the world of DAI so, if nothing else, the writers can focus on big stuff.
‏@Mike_Laidlaw
Fun part is learning all the new stuff the conversation editor can do now. Multi-select to move nodes blew my mind.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Select multiple rows in a grid or listbox and move them, wtf? 21st century tech, the mind boggles.

 

[DalekFlay]

"Hey handsome!"

*copy*

*highlight rows of AI indiscriminately*

*paste*

 

[Roguey]

The origins were great. a nice piece of roleplaying which gave players a reason to try it again.

I don't like the plot fork in Witcher 2 either.

 

[Infinitron]

The origins were great. a nice piece of roleplaying which gave players a reason to try it again.

I don't like the plot fork in Witcher 2 either.

You've taken your obsession with JES to the point where you're now conflating developers' interests with gamers' interests. The above slide is intended as advice towards fellow developers who are working on a limited budget and need to make the best game they can with that budget. But as a gamer, you should always want more content in a game. More branching may be better than bigger branches, but bigger branches are good too, if you can get them.

More branching? Yeah, I want that. Bigger branches? Yeah, I want that too. As a gamer, why shouldn't I want more game?

 

[Roguey]

You've taken your obsession with JES to the point where you're now conflating developers' interests with gamers' interests. The above slide is intended as advice towards fellow developers who are working on a limited budget and need to make the best game they can with that budget. But as a gamer, you should always want more content in a game. More branching may be better than bigger branches, but bigger branches are good too, if you can get them.

More branching? Yeah, I want that. Bigger branches? Yeah, I want that too. As a gamer, why shouldn't I want more game?

Zero-sum. All budgets are limited and big branches usually happen as a result of heavy-handedness.

 

[Infinitron]

heavy-handedness

Who cares? It's more gameplay. Nobody played through the Witcher 2 branches or DA:O's origins and went "FUCK YOU CD PROJEKT/BIOWARE FOR CREATING THIS, I AM TOTALLY NOT HAVING FUN HERE, THIS SUCKS"

And you'll excuse me if I find relying exclusively on Alpha Protocol-esque "exact same mission except that the enemy faction wears different uniforms"-style "branching" to be a bit weak.

Actually, why don't you just go full Warren Spector? It sounds like you agree with him after all: http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9190

I'm not much interested in branching tree storylines, where players get to decide only what branch of a tree they choose to follow. I've always been more interested in offering players a single path through a game but giving them a variety of tools with which they can solve problems along that path. So the high level story arc belongs to me and the team – and players can't affect it – while the minute to minute of the story belongs to each player and they have total control over it.

 

[Roguey]

Who cares? It's more gameplay. Nobody played through the Witcher 2 branches or DA:O's origins and went "FUCK YOU CD PROJEKT/BIOWARE FOR CREATING THIS, I AM TOTALLY NOT HAVING FUN HERE, THIS SUCKS"

Oh really?
http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=233

First of all, don’t panic. “Many different ways” clearly means something different in Polish than it does in English. Same goes for non-linear. What Tomasz wanted to say is that a lot of quests are delightfully straightforward and can be completed in a very specific way. Usually, you get a quest from NPC A, then you run to NPC B who gives you more info, then you go to location X and kill something. Sometimes going to NPC B is completely optional, which means that you go to location X and kill something without having all the info.
...
Now, I assume that you’ve all heard rumors about The Big Choice™, which dramatically changes the entire game. It’s true. At the end of chapter 1 you’ll be offered to make the most important choice – which location you’d like to visit in Chapter 2: Henselt's war camp or the city of Vergen. Whereas most RPGs allow you to visit different places freely, CD Project redefines the genre once again by introducing this very important choice – left or right.

While it may seem like that you’re choosing sides in a conflict or that the game is wildly non-linear, we’d like to reassure you that CD Project knows that such things are very confusing, so you’ll merely choose which linear adventure path to follow.

And you'll excuse me if I find relying exclusively on Alpha Protocol-esque "exact same mission except that the enemy faction wears different uniforms"-style "branching" to be a bit weak.

That's not the only way to do it. AP's problem is that they spent so much time on cinematic reactivity and very little by comparison on making the choices that changed the levels themselves feel different. Notable exception being with paying Heck to spike Brayko's cocaine to make that boss fight easier and a few other places.

Actually, why don't you just go full Warren Spector? It sounds like you agree with him after all: http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9190

I'm not much interested in branching tree storylines, where players get to decide only what branch of a tree they choose to follow. I've always been more interested in offering players a single path through a game but giving them a variety of tools with which they can solve problems along that path. So the high level story arc belongs to me and the team – and players can't affect it – while the minute to minute of the story belongs to each player and they have total control over it.

Deus Ex and HR were fun. As was New Vegas, one of the best-branching games ever. Fallout 1 and 2, Torment, and Mask of the Betrayer didn't have big branches either. Arcanum had a big good/evil branch somewhere between the middle and end, but that was appropriate.

 

[Infinitron]

Oh really?

Yes, really. Nowhere does that review say that The Big Choice™ in itself is an intrinsically bad thing, all other things being equal.

If you want to play the "what if" game constantly and see opportunity costs everywhere, then knock yourself out, but most of us just want to appraise games as they are.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

No, the big choice wasn't a bad thing. But in hindsight it would have probably been better to have more choices of smaller scope than one big 20h left or right path thing.