And again, the same old "If it's free, no one has a right to complain about it!" nonsense that is every poor man's argument when they don't have an actual argument to substantiate their reasoning. Yes, it is free but it is a feature that should have been available at release or at the most 1-2 months after, since it offers barely any new content and there's simply no logical reason that it took so long, other than it being a PR move  - and that is simply not enough for me to return to the game, 5 1/2 months after release.

Some people were waiting for the chance to change their character without having to reload because that was in the previous installment and was something heavily requested by the fans and something the developers said they were looking into? That's what I know some people have been waiting for in a long time.

I get that. And I'm glad for the people that are still playing the game after all these months, who will benefit from this feature. For me it's a simple matter of "too little, too late", though.

So... what exactly did we wait several months for? No face codes? No new hairstyles? Not even a single new armor model? This is, once again, beyond lazy - definitely not reason enough to give the game another go.

Still, thanks for providing the video BioFan.

A few screens of my latest playthrough, re-visiting DA:O for the first time in like 2-3 years - which made me realize just how much better it was than Inquisition, in so many different ways... but I digress *g* - I have a few screens of my human noble Warrior, Corin Cousland. The screens are kinda spoiler-ish, but I guess everyone here has played it by now anyway.

And now, Awakening... awaits.

I don't see it as one arbitrary moment, but three specific moments when the Inquisitor directly challenges the way Leliana runs things

This is where you're wrong though. On the first two occasions the PC isn't the Inquisitor, but "only" the Herald. They don't outrank Leliana, nor do they have the direct power to challenge her actions/decisions. There are so many more important and significant choices throughout the game that should have affected Leliana way more on a personal level, especially considering that she actually had a notable relationship with the Inquisitor later on. All those moments don't count.

It can basically be like this: You can appeal to Leliana's good nature throughout the entire game, make her question or even challenge (at least later on) her often ruthless attitude, set a good example by showing her that it's possible to succeed by taking the high road and just generally be a good friend... and it simply doesn't matter because of that one time you didn't stop her, completely disregarding the fact that you hadn't even talked to her tête-à-tête, not even once, at that time. She will still, quite literally, blame you for the things she had to do, even if you did nothing but appeal to the good in her in all the time you actually knew her.

Equally, you can be a complete mofo all game, tell her to slit throats and treat her like sh*t and she will still turn into this gentle flower (beware the exaggerated sarcasm) if you said the 'right' thing on two occasions, despite not knowing her at all on the first, and barely on the second.

If this isn't the epitome of gamey-logic and the complete opposite of realistic and believable character development, I don't know what is.

It's kinda funny how you all keep missing the point of this thread. It's not about how Leliana's questline ended (or rather can end), as it fits her overall characterization, it's about why it ended the way it did. Not because she was a bard, not because she was a spy or an assassin, or simply the overall hardships she experienced over the course of DA:O and DA:I - but because a person she didn't even know at the time didn't stop her from disposing of a traitor, which quite seriously doesn't even come close to some of the harder/crueler decisions she had to make. That's just bad writing and honestly diminishes her authenticity as a character, at least to me.

Equally, you can spend the whole game having her murder inconvenient Grand Clerics and have tongues cut out and stuff, and that does nothing to harden her if you pick "right" in those two choices.

Exactly.

But anyone whose saying she became some monster out of nowhere isn't paying attention.

And no one did. No one was saying that her becoming like that, generally speaking, didn't make sense. What doesn't make sense, as I elaborated in my last post, are the moments that ultimately lead to the two completely differing attitudes to life.

If her becoming ruthless or rather more ruthless had simply been the canon route, regardless of our choices, I don't think many would have had a problem with it. The same would be true if the moments that decide the outcome were more emotionally and narratively defining.

You're not seriously playing the real life logic card now, are you?

Either way, that most certainly wasn't the first time Leliana killed or ordered to kill someone who wasn't necessarily an enemy and it sure as hell wasn't the last time. Not to mention that the one she had killed wasn't exactly an innocent bystander. So no, considering Leliana's character and what she's been through before, there's absolutely now way that this should have been such a defining moment. And even if it were, blaming it on the Inquisitor when all they did was not interfering in her business when they barely knew each other? There's simply no legitimate reason for that train of thought - it's completely and utterly random.

The other moment, where you can tell her that soldiers are/aren't expendable is another story, though.

In the end you can sugarcoat Leliana all game (and you know, in situations/conversations that actually matter and have a background), tell her stories of flower fields and romantic sunrises and you are still stuck with her ruthless persona because of that one random moment right at the very beginning, where you didn't even do anything to impact or change her actions. That's bad writing, plain and simple.

My decisions don't matter!

My decisions mattered too much

And then people wonder why the DEVs don't show their face on here.

You completely missed the point. As was already said before, it's not about decisions that matter per se, it's about decisions that matter in a believable and consistent way. Leliana turning into a cold-blooded psycho and basically putting the blame on the Inquisitor for no reason whatsoever, just because they minded their own business ten minutes after meeting her, doesn't fall under that category.

Both conversations have a logical impact on her personality, I think. I don't think they were meaningless for her.

I agree on the second conversation, but the first one? Definitely not. How can the decision of someone she has known for literally 10 minutes have any kind of impact on her? I mean, I could have lived with it if you were to be "punished" later on for pushing Leliana to kill the traitor, but getting the same result for staying quiet (rightfully so, because the Inquisitor has no idea what's going on) is just complete and utter BS and horrible writing.

Nevertheless, I agree that more choices should have effected the outcome instead of just two, one of which is totally random.

More of this type of thing, please.

What? More of this type of completely inconsistent and nonsensical writing? Interesting.

What you people seem to be forgetting is that the Inquisitor is NOT the Warden, and you can't assume that everyone who plays DA:I has played Origins in the past, Dragon Age isn't Mass Effect.

I am not someone who is that big into head-canon and/or roleplaying your character but here you are, a person who has just been thrown for a loop, with barely any idea how you got there and completely out of your element - then you see someone "you" don't know, like at all, conversing with one of her agents over something you are completely clueless about. What would be the most sensible thing to do in this type of situation? Asking what's going on or keeping your mouth shut, and since you can't do the former... what definitely isn't sensible is outright interfering without gaining insight of the situation. Not to mention that the cutscene as a whole can be easily missed, which did happen to a lot of players.

Overall it's just the wrong sort of significant choices.

Inquisitor: "Oh, hey Leliana, don't mind me! I met you like ten minutes ago, so I will refrain from interfering with your affairs, which clearly don't involve me yet btw, and just kindly keep my trap shut instead of being an obnoxious busybody. Ok? Cool."

~ 50 hours of real life time and several months ingame later ~

Leliana:

Yeah, that totally makes sense. Well done, Bioware. Well done.

A few shots of my two-handed Templar, Lowell 'Chris Pratt' Trevelyan.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Wish I could give you some of mine - I have stacks of it, and quite a few Fade-touched pieces

Of course, what I want is Infused Vyrantium Samite, and I always find Templar camps in the Wastes instead of Venatori!

Haha, it's exactly the other way around for me. I keep reloading my saves at certain locations and the first thing I notice is that intrusive whispering/muttering, it's driving me nuts. ;X

Must have killed like one hundred Red Templars in the Hissing Wastes and Emprise du Lion by now and not a single Dales Loden Wool - it's really getting more than just a little ridiculous.

Well, no - rogues have both more survivability and damage than mages and warriors, but you do have to know how to play and build them.

More damage? Depends. More survivability? Definitely not. And you have to know how to play them? Please, Rogues aren't hard at all if you disregard the Artificer spec.

That being said, an offensive Reaver probably offers the best consistent damage output in the game while a Fire specced KE has the absolute best Burst Combo.

And no Rogue spec will ever offer the survivability of a KE or Champion (or even a Templar with a lot of points in the Vanguard tree), unless you're playing a Tempest Archer and only fighting against melee enemies.

I found that quest on nightmare wasn't too bad. I was playing as a mage and had Cass, Blackwall and Sera with me. Fighting the ugly was easy. Just avoid it when it goes into the ground and comes out near you. Just like fighting the greater/lesser terror

Unlike the Terror, the Envy Demon pops out much faster and when it spams the uninterruptible AoE fear literally every single time and within 3 seconds of its teleport, you're pretty much screwed if your team consists of 2+ melees, since you can't even dodge.

I guess it really comes down to how lucky you are with its ability pattern and whether or not it decides to be a scumbag, aside from your level and equipment of course.

It's absolutely hilarious what a walk in the park "In Hushed Whispers" is in comparison. I just got my ass handed to me by the Envy Demon 6 times on Nightmare before I finally took it down, immensely satisfying.

Okay I now return this thread to it's regularly scheduled flames. 

I swear that people denial is plain stupid because she was damn right!

No, what is stupid is this incredibly annoying, personal rendition of Groundhog Day. Everyone and I mean literally everyone got the point the last hundred times, but behaving like a whiny brat who's nagging his mother to get down the cookie jar from the top of the cupboard, will result in nothing but silence or a proverbial blow on the head.

[...]

Do you mean the dai patch giving you those issues or the nvidia hotfix?

This, exactly. Idk why you're even mentioning something that has absolutely nothing to do with the Nvidia drivers. Obviously not everyone had problems with 344.75, that'd be ridiculous, but most of those who did, experienced major improvements after installing the newest beta driver.

None of that has anything to do with the performance issues in DA:I after the second patch, though. Those are two completely different and separate issues.

Edit: Apparently I need coffee. He said XP64, not X64. Funny how a letter changes a lot. That said, the part about it not fixing a lot of the issues you stated still stands. That's confirmed here and on those forums.

No, it's not confirmed at all. It fixed several issues for the majority (including me) while only a few still have problems. And I'm guessing those few just don't understand that sometimes you have to completely remove your drivers before making a clean installation, as simply updating can (!) occasionally lead nowhere or even disimprove things. That's especially true for beta drivers.

According to this post, there are no X64 drivers for 344.80. I try to avoid BSOD where possible.(And normally I'm fairly adventurous with updating drivers, but after DA:I's hotfix yesterday, I'm a little gunshy without forum confirmation.)

 

https://forums.gefor...382412/#4382412

XP 64. As in the operating system Windows XP, for which there hasn't been a new and updated GPU driver for quite some time, 32/64 bit or not.

Saw that posted elsewhere, checked it out and realised why nothing's showing for me. This non-WHQL release is X32-only and I'm running X64. I retract what I said previously since it obviously exists through legitimate channels, but according to their forums regarding the release, it doesn't fix anything.

What? No, it's not. And yes, it fixes everything.

Wary of said link. There are no updates on Nvidia.com, no beta drivers for the alleged "344.80" -- 344.75 is, in fact, the latest version. I don't download "drivers" from "custhelp.com", sorry. So I call shenanigans on the entire thing.

It literally takes 10 seconds tops to find the official topic on the GeForce forums, amongst many others.

I have a GTX 980Ti

Well, hello Mr. Time Traveler (;

Credit where credit is due, this is a good patch.  Shame most of this stuff should have been in place at launch a month ago...

Forcing everyone to play on the lowest graphic settings is considered "good", now? In that case, yeah, the patch is f**ktastic.