A. UI and Camera Controls
- 1. Combat Chat Log: I think many are wondering why we don't have this as a feature or at the very least, a command console option to enable this. I firmly believe many of the bugs regarding damage and status/item modifiers slipped through QA simply because this was not a feature in the game that would allow testers to confirm and verify features as working as intended or broken as they appear in game.
- 2. Toggle option for "Highlight Objects", default [Tab]: Would be nice to allow this to always be on so that object and character names are always shown. At the very least, an option to allow this to toggle on/off like a light switch so that we don't have to constantly hold the button while running around.
- 3. Assignable Radial Wheel pop-ups for each character: There's already a radial wheel function in-use in the inventory, would be great to have a similar implementation that allows a radial wheel pop-up over each character when selected in the 3D viewport. You could then assign perhaps 8 abilities to the wheel per character using drag and drop similar to the default action bar, but obviously the radial wheel would localize execution of commands and make for a smoother control experience.
- 4. Fixed camera position toggles: Really surprised this isn't a default feature, but it would've been nice if there were fixed or assignable default camera positions, at least 2 positions (zoomed out isometric, zoomed in 3rd person) with ideally a 3rd, zoomed in slightly with a 1st person viewplane. Assign to say, "V" and you could quickly toggle between those 3 default views.
- 5. RMB + mouse forward auto-zooms: This is really minor, but something I repeatedly found annoying from a usability standpoint. If you're fully zoomed out in top-down isometric, a RMB + mouse forward motion will not shift your viewplane angle toward 1st person. You have to zoom in with the mouse wheel slightly *first*, then RMB+ Forward. Simply changing the default command to allow the camera to zoom as necessary and then shift viewplane simultaneously would be a nice fix.
- 6. Mappable "Loot All" Button: Would be nice to be able to simply hit an assignable key to loot all, or at the very least, have the mouse cursor center over Loot All once the lootable sparkle object is clicked.
- 7. "Item Received": Simply poorly conceived and implemented as seen in production. A chat log would largely take care of this, but having the item text string displayed in the lower left would be ideal. Its done for money received, really no reason it couldn't be done for items. You can choose to sort by Newest in the inventory screen, but that's not fully accurate either as stackable items will still be obscured. The other option would be to always show the newest item at the top or bottom until the list is manually sorted.
- 8. Changing Weapon sets simultaneously changes hot bar and tactics: If you change to alternate weapon set, this also changes your hot bar and tactics automatically, as many melee abilities can't be used with ranged weapons and vice versa. Similarly, you can set tactics AI to Ranged or Melee respectively.
- 9. Sustained abilities remain toggled on after zoning, cut-scenes. (Lisst) Current implementation is inconsistent and buggy. Some abilities do not stay toggled on between zoning or after cut-scenes (Miasma, Rally, Berserk, Blood Thirst), while others do. Also, some effects show that they're on but the effects aren't working (Cleansing Aura). Just needs to be cleaned up and made consistent.
- 10. Quest progress tracker (Lisst). More detailed codex entry on quests that involve multiple phases from multiple zones that detail which steps were already completed and where.
- 11. Option to increase font size at higher resolutions (BesterP12).
- 12. Option to hide helmets (Devil_Lucifer and Cornhorse).
- 13. Bullet-time Slo-Mo option (Paul Roberts). Would allow users to appreciate combat and animations more while retaining relatively real-time (vs. turn-based) combat.
- 14. Built-in Replay/Highlight reel. Would start recording on the start of combat, then an option to save the clip after combat ends. Similar replay implementations are used in popular titles like GTA4.
B. Gameplay and Balance
1. Stamina vs. Mana. I know there's tons of threads here and elsewhere about this topic, so I'm going to try and just cover some potential fixes rather than argue whether its OK or working as intended.
- a. STR or CON determines Stamina. Right now Willpower as a modifier for both Stamina and Mana. This should be an obvious disparity, as a Mage only need concern themselves with 2 major modifiers: Willpower and Magic. A well-balanced physical damage character needs to be concerned with STR/DEX and possibly CON, along with WIL. A rogue would also need some points in CUN. There's clearly a disparity here in that physical characters will be spread thinner by default in order to be effective.
- b. STR reduces fatigue. Again, makes perfect sense for lore purists or pseudo-realists. The fact physical characters are basically forced to use heavier armor that further compounds their stamina issues without any benefit from an attribute that would feasibly reduce that penalty just leads to further imbalance.
- c. Reduce Stamina cost for sustained abilities. Again, can tie this into STR reducing fatigue. The fact remains a physical dmg build character relies much more heavily on their sustained abilities in order to be effective. Not only are these sustained abilities deeply integrated into the various skill-trees, they're expensive in terms of skill points invested, so having them constantly on is a necessity to make full use of their various synergies. The use of multiple sustained abilities is once again compounded by the fact physical characters sacrifice more to build up Stamina via Willpower and also suffer greater penalties due to fatigue.
- d. Introduce a craftable Stamina potion or allow Mana pots to restore Stamina. It really feels like there was intent for a Stamina regain potion in early builds but was scrapped at some point in development. Fact remains, there is no way to regain Stamina as effectively as chugging a Mana pot. Deep Mushrooms are in the game as a Stamina regain item but there aren't any advanced formulae using it to regain Stamina. This clearly results in Mage builds being more effective than physical build characters by default, simply because Mage builds have a bigger tank (max WIL) that doesn't burn fuel as quickly (fatigue) that can be quickly refilled (Mana pots).
2. Mages vs. Physical. I don't really care that Mages are much more powerful and flexible than physical damage characters, my focus here is to improve physical damage classes to offer real choices and alternative gameplay styles rather than have everything gravitate toward mage-centric party builds. I won't cover the various problems with Dex and Archery/Dagger builds because I know its already being addressed internally by Bioware.
- a. Offer a wider selection of NPC mages. As it is, with only Morrigan and Wynne as choices for mages, the end-user will largely experience a homogenous gameplay experience regardless of what they choose as their PC. You have some flexibility, but the fact remains, you'll most likely be forced to play with either or both of them with every playthrough. Current NPC break-out is 5 Warriors, 2 Rogues, 2 Mages.
- b. Rebalance Physical damage Talent trees. It should be clearly obvious that current trees are imbalanced in favor of mages. Mages can basically pick and choose the most appealing "branch" in each talent "tree" without any penalty. For example, a mage would never need to max out the entire Primal spell tree, they can just as easily cap out the Cold or Lightning branch and basically get all the benefits, including Storm of the Century. As a physical character however, you are basically forced to max out a single Weapon's talent tree due to the vertical and horizontal dependencies and synergies. For example, you might need to go 3-4 points deep into a branch for Shield, but a major bonus of that branch relies on a 4 point passive in the branch below it, meaning you may need to invest 6-8 points just to fully benefit from that weapon. Realistically, you need to max out entire weapon trees, which limits flexibility and utility greatly, especially in comparison to magic users.
- c. Offer better, more reliable heal option or dmg mitigation/ignore options. If physical classes could heal themselves or become immune to damage more reliably, this would reduce their dependency on mages or heal pots for heals.
- d. Make Health potions cheaper to make and/or change their stat dependency. The first two Health potions are priced reasonably, about 2s and 20s, but they spike up in price greatly after that up to ~1 gold and 1.5 gold each. Also, potion effectiveness is currently set to depend on Magic rating, which again, would never be increased on a physical damage character. It would make much more sense to change this modifier to CON, where physical dmg types would benefit more. While its certainly possible to play the game by literally burning through gold by chugging pots, its clearly an inferior, less enjoyable option than simply maintaining a stable of mages to heal, nuke, and CC your way to victory.
C. Weapon Itemization and Design
- 1. More set items and better set bonuses. The biggest gains from using sets were significant decreases in fatigue, although much of that bonus was simply necessitated from the fact you were using such fatigue-heavy sets. Oftentimes, the bonus was underwhelming compared to stats foregone compared to what you might've gotten on peripheral pieces instead, like hands, helm, boots etc.
- 2. Quest rewards and customizable crafting options. There was some creative ways that loot was integrated into quest rewards, would've been nice to see this expanded upon. There's also clearly some mechanisms in-place that allow for customizable weapon stats. I'd like to see a hybrid of sorts similar to Shale's armor crystals and Weapon Rune enchantments for Armor. This would solve many of the perceived limitations on in-game loot variation. It'd also allow the end-user more control over cosmetic considerations, as they could just modify a particular item.
- 3. Weapon/Armor/Jewelry smelting, imbuing, improving (Sabin Stargem). This would give players an option to retain the stats of their items but also upgrade the base stats from a weaker material to a stronger one (ie. Red Steel to Dragonbone). This could be further customized by adding various artifacts, runes or gems to create more powerful magic items with a crafting/recipe system.
D. Quest Design and Replayability
- 1. More random encounters and ambushes. I really enjoyed these, but they clearly subsided as you progress in the game to the point they're non-existent and replaced by a Dwarven trader. I'm sure the modding community will be of help here, but it would've been nice to have seen more of these consistently. If anything, I'd expect the frequency of these encounters to increase toward the end as Darkspawn forces continued to mount.
- 2. More exp and gold farming encounters. Similar to the above, it would've been nice to be able to grind a bit before completing the game. Part of the fun of maxing chars out and gearing up is to put that gear and abilities to use with some mindless killing.
- 3. More search and destroy, named mobs. Always seems more personal when you give your enemy a name. There's some of these encounters already, and I'm sure community mods will add here as well.
- 4. Improvements to current DLC, like Warden's Keep (BesterP12). Ability to go back and explore/complete portions of the DLC. Expanded capabilities once DLC is completed, like actually using the keep itself as a base of operations. All amenities from traditional party camp transposed to Warden's Keep.
- 5. New Game+ (Antagonist86). Option to continue playing a new campaign with leveled characters, money intact, items carried over etc. with some changes in the campaign and increased difficulty.
E. AI and Tactics
- 1. Force Field (Lordhugorune). Enemies should not attack any party members that are force fielded.
- 2. Tactics secondary condition. Allow a 2nd modifier, like Mana or Health % so that a spell or ability is only used if mana or stamina is a certain % or higher/lower. You can currently do this by using 2 tactic slots, but it would be a lot more flexible if a 2ndary condition could be set for each tactic.
I'll probably add more to this list; these were the main things that came to mind that have been bugging me. It doesn't cover some other issues or shortcomings, like graphics, that can't be changed or improved without significant resources or effort. Most of the changes above could possibly be done via the toolset, but rather than have them pushed out in a multitude of unofficial mods, I'd love to see Bioware take another pass to improve their game for everyone.
I'll close by saying the game is great, this post isn't meant to insinuate otherwise, its simply a list of suggestions that might help to improve the game for future playthroughs. Right now design imbalances are the main thing holding me back from going through another playthru; the way the game is currrently balanced there's very little incentive to choose any other playstyle than the one I just completed. Please feel free to agree or disagree and add your own lists of what you'd like to see. Thanks for reading.
Modifié par chizow, 15 novembre 2009 - 05:05 .
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