2797 réponses à ce sujet

[Spell Singer]

This is a bit of odd constructive critism as it involves the dialogue something I'm generally more than happy with. Unfortunately there are times when my character isn't keen on satisfying the wants and needs of the companions. Usually this results in "drama" something not bad in itself.

I give someone a gift, they go all snarky and I get a chance to let em have it with both barrels and stalk off (well ok stalking off isn't in the game but my imagination works there). This is good, it has the player getting in the last shot. Yes this is a prejudiced view...I know...

But sometimes it doesn't work that way. Leaving aside situations such as attempting to solve some ones love woes with a bit of practical hands on training that didn't turn out as expected or situations where you apply "keep your friends close and your enemy closer" from DA:O and DA:A respectively...getting snarked on by NPCs isn't that amusing but they are understandable if not sensible responses...

In DA2 my character twice now did not bend knee to the whims of my companions. In one case the character denied the person some object. The companion then calls my character a thief and so forth. Uhm the object had been given to my character as a reward, being accused of not passing it on as implied may be sensible but theft? At least later on the companion makes mention to why the act was done saying "you kept it from me so no one would get hurt." This is a far cry from the 12 year old having a temper tantrum, tossing around racial slurs and baseless accusations of theft.

Then another companion tricks my character, turns evasive and is asking for something which given the political situation simply doesn't sound good. My character says "no", then "no you can't blackmail me into this, especially since I don't know what this is." To which the accusation of "you are all talk and no action" is then thrown at my character. Uhm...what? My character did several quests demonstrating in a highly lethal way that action rates higher than talk.

Now clearly people who are mad don't in real life make all that much sense. I know the quality of my argumentation takes a nose dive when I get angry. But still for me as the player having my character accused of something they didn't do and not being able to respond to the baseless acussation is iritating.

This has nothing to do with the meta game of how many points of friend or rivalry this is really about why should my character stand around and take this without the option of letting the companion know they just crossed the line. It was done in the gift case, my character was given a chance to respond to the companion going all snarky about the gift. It also seems to be there in other companion convesations, when the fact my character is a mage and all mages are inherently evil is thrown at the character there usually is a response to it.

I don't think this is due to not liking a companion as one of the two I like. I can only say that if I was actually role playing the character things would have gone differently after those triads then what happened in game. One person would not have been sitting down for a good long time, the other would have gotten a few small facts of life explained to them in exacting detail.

I'm not saying don't write this sort of thing into the game. I'm just saying that please give the player character a chance to have the last word...we are paying for the experience after all.

[Elhanan]

One of the small little things that nagged at me was the use of containers and loot during the conclusions of Acts 2-3. As the characters are in the midst of major evacuations and offensive assaults, stopping to look in crates seems to be a drain on the excitement.

Suggestion: As the party makes their way to the end of each staging area, other NPC's have gathered such loot for storage and transport, and have placed them in chests for safekeeping; much like Sandal does in both DAO and DA2. To me, this is far more enjoyable and seems to keep the thrill of the storyline more than the delay created looking for containers.

Modifié par Elhanan, 17 août 2011 - 06:55 .

[shedevil3001]

1 thing that bothered me in da2 was how only 1 companion had the option to kill him which was anders, this caused alot of problems with fans who actually like him, i think if your going to have an option to kill a companion it should be the same for all companions, as some people like different companions to others, maybe this might also stop some of the hatred towards certain companions on the forum if its balanced out by either giving the option to kill all companions at a crisis point or none, or as an alternative send them away rather than killing any, also showing characters good points more, not just their bad points might help to see things better and add replay value, i'm sure im not the only 1 who felt this way when playing :{

Modifié par shedevil3001, 11 août 2011 - 08:27 .

[esper]

shedevil3001 wrote...

1 thing that bothered me in da2 was how only 1 companion had the option to kill him which was anders, this caused alot of problems with fans who actually like him, i think if your going to have an option to kill a companion it should be the same for all companions, as some people like different companions to others, maybe this might also stop some of the hatred towards certain companions on the forum if its balanced out by either giving the option to kill all companions at a crisis point or none, or as an alternative send them away rather than killing any, also showing characters good points more, not just their bad points might help to see things better and add replay value, i'm sure im not the only 1 who felt this way when playing :{

Only three companions is non-kill able.

[TerraMantis]

(I wrote this as its own thread...then people started saying there was already a thread for it. Anywho,i didn't want to re-type it so imagine it is its own thread about constructive criticism.)

As i am sure we all know that DA3 is "in the works" now. It is our duty as DA players to make sure we tell Bioware what we want to see from DA:O and DA2 to be reimplemented or done away with if we want the gaming experience that the real fans of the franchise deserve. Now, criticism is one thing and it has been discussed and rediscussed for DA2 over and over. I don't want to see that...well, only that. I would like to see CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Simply complaining about the issue you believe the game has is not constructive and it only points out flaws (which is fine...at first) which is destructive only. I would like to hear interesting ways in which you, the player, has to fix said "pet peeves" with the DA franchise and build upon this IP's ideals and gaming mechanics.


EQUIPMENT
This may be personal preference but you gotta bring it back. I want to be able to suit and customize my team down to the letter. I've seen interviews with Mike Laidlaw with Gamespot and other places saying "he didn't like how he would see end-game screen shots of player's games of DA:O and 90% of them had the same characters wearing the same armor" so he wanted to change it. The logic there just seems empty to me. You didn't like the possibility that there COULD be a chance that every single player equipts their team the same so you made the companions wear the exact same armor for the entire game? DA:O had it right. Mages that can wear plate or wield swords and shields if attributed correctly. Like i said, Origins had it right with many equipment chocies and flexibility to customize your team for a malleable personal experience.

COMBAT
Both games have had room to be improved upon when it comes to combat. Personally i like many of the changes in DA2. I think the implementation of class effects-- stagger, disorient, brittle--was a great addition and added the sense of importance to your team effort and made skill-tree abilities feel paramount to victory. On the other hand, i do not like the ability to "close the gap" with a single press of an auto-attack button. I enjoy the way it looks and whatnot, but i believe that closing the gap should be part of the decision making when fighting. Rogues and Warriors are the melee classes in the game and they both have talent-tree abilities to arrive at their enemy very quickly; if that ability is on cooldown so be it. That is part of being a hand-to-hand class; you have to take travel time into consideration.

COMBAT/EQUIPMENT

These aspects go hand-in-hand when it comes to creating the gaming experience that the player manipulates and forges their own unique experience. Origins had a huge flexibility when it came to equiping your teammates and the skills they had at hand. Sure, the addition of class and cross-class debuffs was a new level of sophistication to combat but the variety in the different "jobs" the classes could do was made finite. In other words, in DA2 the lack of personalization of companion's equipment made it feel as though they only had a single role to play. Aveline felt as though she could only be a "tank", Varric was ranged DPS, Anders was a healing mage, and so on. In Origins people were coming up with all kinds of crazy team mixes. Mages or rogues that could tank, bow warriors, sword and board warrior, duel wielding warriors or rogues, rogues with a shield, a dagger and a sword, two swords or two daggers, mages with swords, rogues in plate armor, and so so much more. This combonation of what you could do through the variety of the equipment you could put on your team and the skills they could choose through their trees made for a much higher level of customization, personalization to playstyle, and (a big one) replay value was HIGH.

ENVIRONMENTS

I know it, you know, and Bioware knows it. Environments in DA2 look better, at times, than Origins, but are used and re-used far too often to an almost shameful point. The mini-map doesn't even try to give an illusion that the maps are the exact same over and over. This disillusion makes for the a lack in the feeling of an open world and asks a lot of the player to be okay with saying "go to cave A, come back later to section B of the cave which includes some of A, and yet several more returns will yeild parts of B and D sections of the cave, but A is closed off and this whole thing is trying to be passed off as several different places". The environments felt flat; i never really felt like i was scaling a towering construct or descending a treacherous labyrinth. Origins never seemed to suffer from this. One of the catches of DA2:Legacy is "ALL NEW ENVIRONMENTS" to explore. So, it is at least good to see that Bioware is listening.

BATTLE SCENARIOS

For me the largest drawback of Dragon Age II was the battle scenarios. Not so much the combat mechanics, but the actual battle situations.The battle situations felt regurgitated. The battles seemed unchanging throughout the entire game. I never felt intellectually challenged throughout. The fights seemed to always fit a "formula" and contained many archers and melee pawns. Enemies would "pop-out" of nowhere making fights seem tactically childish and waves and waves of enemies would keep splashing you after your defeat of the first sighted foes. Team placement was meaningless. Between the "formula" and the "pop-outs" battle's situations seemed as though their mechanics were extremely oversimplified from Origins. It felt like no one actually sat down and really thought of unique and interesting combat scenarios.

In combination with the reuse of maps it also made the battle scenarios seem pathetic. This is because you began to know every nook and cranny of each map from going there repeatedly and you know exactly where each and every "ambush" will take place. Furthermore, the "ambush" is used so often in the game that it is not an ambush...an ambush is only an ambush if you don't know it is coming and it doesn't happen 95% of every enemy encounter.

The reason i like Origins so much was because it felt like a single-player version of a MMO. Traditionally in a MMO you need a variety of several different archtype roles that need to band together to overcome a battle situation. These archtype roles are a healer, Damage, and a "tank" (someone to absorb and keep damage on them). Another extremely important role is the ability for your characters to be able to "control" enemies when you're outnumbered. THIS is why Origins was so much better when it came to battle situations and scenarios. Origins felt like a it implemented these gameplay qualities with the exception that i would control my "band" by myself.
Seldom did any extra enemies just show-up to the fight after the initial group in Origins. Maybe a stealther here-or-there or a invisible mage, but never guys just showing up late to the party. You had to mitigate damage and keep abilities spread out on the enemies to keep enemies in check. When i was outnumbered i would stun a guy and shield bash another to knock him down. All the while, trying to damage other targets and keep my foes from overwhelming my group...and that was just for normal groups of enemies. I was in control of this team of people and Healing, Damage, Tanking, and enemy control made the battle mechanics imulate these gameplay mechanics of the traditional community-based game on a single-player setting.

Also, bosses in Origins had a larger variety in their battle mechanics as well. The Queen of the Blackmarsh comes to mind when i am thinking of a good boss fight with smart mechanics to overcome. The Queen of the Blackmarsh was an electric dragon of sorts. Periodically she would disperse into a handful of electrical balls of energy around the room which would form a circle around one large dome of energy in the center of the fighting area. The handful of electrical spheres would slowly make their way to the dome and you had to try and destroy all of them before they reached the dome or it was a heal for the dragon form of the Queen. Great mechanics and things like this seemed void in DA2. Simple mechanics like group positioning didn't seem important. For example, everyone knows not to stand behind a dragon because they'll kick you or tailwhip you, same with ogres, but none of this rudimentary aspects seemed to make an appearence in DA2.

DA2 seemed to have basically one single battle mechanic which was throwing additional enemies at you, "adds". More than often adds would be thrown at you which was a sorry excuse for a mechanic in many situations. Really the only boss in the game that had an interesting battle mechanic was the stone giant in the Deep Roads. His mechanic involved two different forms with different fighting styles and his "power blast" required you to position your team behind pillars to protect you from the power blast. Although, even this fight had adds that would come out during certain health percentage intervals it was by far the most interesting and intellectual fight in DA2. The other bosses of the game were far less interesting and acute in their mechanics with the same old "adds" scenario for nearly every major fight. What was the Arishok surrounded by? What happened when you fought Meredith and the Mature High Dragon? Oh that's right, adds came during health percentage intervals. Where are the fights that take some trial and error...or intellect? I want an actual challenge...intellectually. Not through my stamina in the ability to click the "auto-attack" or smash the "A" button. That is not intelligent; Origins felt much more sophisticated.

Constructive Criticsm on Battle Situations.

The battle scenarios need to be stimulating even for "non-boss" pulls (trash pulls). When changing the difficulty fro one to the next it doesn't need to be much different than it was for normal, but the other difficulties should have introduced unique battle mechanics. The difference between Normal, Hard, and Nightmare shouldn't just be the weak implementation of...you guessed it, more adds. What i am getting at is, even these trash pulls should have intellectual mechanics and thought thrown into their development. The difference between Normal and hard shouldn't be just more guys, it should be a special battle mechanic. Maybe a single new special enemy among the group that that wasn't there before. If this new found enemy is not killed first and if you kill the other peons first the special new enemy will actually absorb their souls and enrage itself making it next-to-impossible to kill. Perhaps vice-versa that situation. Wherein, you need to kill the special enemy last or when he dies he explodes and hits the remaining enemies with his blood which enhances their strengths. Maybe tie mechanics into the environments as well. Examples, water in a room with lava enemies and you need to make them path through the water which they are then super-cooled so they can be hit otherwise they burn you if you get too close if not cooled, cover or height advantages/disadvantages, enemies that puke acid making parts of the floor hazardous. A real game about tactics and battle situations...not just throwing more adds and trash at the player and slapping a battle mechanics sticker on it.

I qoute an interview with Mike Laidlaw from PCgamer.com where in the interview Laidlaw states “If I’m going to ****** you guys off, it’s going to be because I still firmly believe that RPGs do need to be more accessible to new players,” Laidlaw adds. “Not diminished, but made less imposing and less terrifying to new players. In part because I want more people to play Dragon Age, and in part because there have been a lot of improvements in gameplay and UI design in the past 15 years, and we can learn from them.”

Have you not heard of World of Warcraft? Don't worry, us gamers are all grow'd up and we can handle a challenge; in fact we want it. Games like Demon's Souls and World of Warcraft implement some of the most challenging and complex battle mechanics and scenarios on the market. WoW quite frankly revolves around end-game battle mechanics and loot and i am pretty sure you cannot argue that game's success or its variety in bosses and their mechanics.
I am not saying to make a Demon's Souls or WoW; i'm just saying don't cut your audience short because you think you want the game to appeal to a wider audience and you don't want to scare newcomers away with challenge, a jump right in feel, or with complex tactical gameplay. Your audience already exists...and it is huge.


STORY
The reason i loved DA:O so much was it was a fantastic introduction to this vibrant new lore and fantasy universe. I was learning about the nuances of the Chantry, the Dwarven Cast system, the struggle and persecution that elves undergo on a daily basis, and the thin ice that templars and mages walk on together. DA2 didn't feel as though it touched base on this nearly as much. In Act 2 you learned quite a bit about the Qunari and that was my favorite chapter. I know that is some lousy constructive critism, but that is about all i can say on that front. I would like to hear more and see more of the introduction of new races/subcultures of races and or their intricacies through what makes them unique, taboo, or otherwise.


IP IDENTITY
I understand that Bioware is Bioware and they make more than one franchise, but Origins felt like Dragon Age and Mass Effect was Mass Effect. DA2's overall aesthetic of the interfacing, conversation choices, and even down to the way NPCs stand around an environment DA seemed to borrow far too much from its sibling RPG franchise Mass Effect. My constructive criticism here WOULD be that you need to find your own identity, BUT that is not true. DA already had its own identity. It just needs to be re-individualized.

When i play Mass Effect i want an other worldly space opera epic that takes me to strange planets and across the galaxy. When i play DA i want a big fantasy WORLD with medieval dungeon crawling and dark ethics.

DRAGON AGE 3 IDEAS

• • If you have followed Bioware for as long as i have then you know that they actually used to implement a four class system of Mage, Rogue, Warrior, and Cleric. I believe this is not only the perfect time for the DA game to implement the fourth class of a Cleric as a gameplay addition to mechanics but also a perfect time in the story as well. With the complete separation of the mages and templars it would now be a perfectly conceivable time to implement the new class because basically mages are the only healers in the DA universe and without the aid of the mage's healing abilities on the battle field templars are going to get smoked without any form of healing/magic. Sounds like the right time to bring about the caster plate-wearing zealot into the mix.
  • Manipulate the environment with more interactive abilities. I'll elaborate. I see mages that can make rock form over their body or "trap" enemies in an ethereal prison. How come they cannot use these abilities to manipulate the environment to protect themselves? or cast a "Prison of Protection"? If you choose the skill (i am imagining this) "Rock Wall" you could then put your cursor on the ground and then hold a specific button as you moved it across the ground. This would highlight an area on the ground leaving a path. When you exited your "paused time skill interface...mode" the game would then have rocks jut up from the ground creating a wall across the path you had just chosen. Create a circle around your ranged characters to create that "prison of protection" i mention earlier. This mechanic could be used offensively as well. Creating a custom designed fire trail on the ground that damages enemies when entering it. Perhaps a frost trail that could freeze or slow enemies as they walked over it. The possibilities in mechanics of this implementation are quite high if some good minds were put on it.
  • What happened to those nice little quick animation finishers from DA:O? I liked those. Enemeis bodies exploding into big polygon fragments is no substitute.
  • Companion gear customization needs to make a return.
  • Choosing companion's secondary "special" skill-trees need to make a return also. By limiting these game features your not only limiting the player's created character, but you're also limiting a game that is about vercitility of the group you're creating. More diverse roles means more diverse gameplay. I don't want to be locked into the idea that ONLY my warrior with a sword and shield in the group can "tank", i don't want to be locked into the idea that ONLY a Mage is good for healing or cannot do melee damage if desired, and so on.
  • Let the environment take us places that are amazing and tell a story just from looking at them. With a great variety.
  • Implement more strategic battle situations and a larger range of enemies and their mechanics.
  • Alchemy and trap making need to make a more in-depth return and possibly even add other additonal professions like; black smithing, rune crafting, wood working, enchanting, etc
  • If more in-depth crafting professions were introduced the use of the internet should definitely be more thoroughly utilized. Make it so only one crafting profession can be obtained by any one player character, then make a "market place" where players meet together online to trade other crafting profession goods to to get otherwise difficult items for other things. If you don't have the internet you could make is so each character made could somehow mail items from character to character.
  • I really enjoy when RPGs have sets of gear with different set bonuses where you can wear several parts to one set because you like the bonus and a few from another set to get different enhancements.
  • I would like to see stealth make some changes possibly with adding a stealth one-shot kill. This would not have to pertain to only or necessarily be exclusive to rogues. Mages can cloak, mabye a specific potion can grant a cloak and so on.
• Weapon versatility needs a return. I actually like the idea of one-handed swords being able to hit several targets, but you took swords away from rogues and daggers away from warriors. Why not let swords do what they're doing in DA2 and bring it to DA3 but let any class wield whatever they want if attributed for it? For example, swords are obviously weaker than daggers when it comes to single target. So the want to change weapons up could be situational. If i need to do more damage across more enemies i would want two swords as a rogue or warrior. Whereas, if i am attack a single target i would want daggers...makes sense to me. 

Conclusion
There you have it. I want to see what people have to say that could help Bioware make Dragon Age III a game that the true fans deserve to be delivered. This is not about my specific biases toward DA:Origins or DA2; it is about what great gaming ideas you've came-up with while playing both games that you think could help Dragon Age. Whether it be bringing back features from the past Bioware franchise or a change to the structure of the game with your fresh idea.

Let's hear your great gaming ideas for Dragon Age III.

Modifié par TerraMantis, 19 août 2011 - 11:22 .

[S Seraff]

there seems to be a facial hair glitch with models one and 3 of the male hawke generator. specifically, i can't get a smooth-face option. can that be fixed?

[S Seraff]

the quest about hawke's mom sort of weirded me out. it came out of nowhere, and hawke's reaction to it was oddly empty and unemotional. it popped me out of the story

[Monica21]

 I'm going to mention this when I do my review, but I have no idea what kind of personality my Hawke has. The manual says that choices I make at the beginning of the game affect what dialogue I get or can succeed with later on, but there's no indicator that says what she is. Can you implement some kind of green-purple-red slider so that I know where my Hawke is and can move her along that line appropriately? If she's too diplomatic than I want to be able to change that. 

And in addition, the dialogue system seems to not allow for the jumps in time and the change in social status. Just because my Hawke was a sarcastic bastard at the beginning doesn't mean she should always be a sarcastic bastard. Or at least, she should be able to be diplomatic when talking to the Viscount and then be purple or red when talking to the scum down by the docks. 

I think there may be promise in this system, but it's implemented rather poorly.

[Khalifrio]

I have not gotten very far into DA2 but frankly I am disappointed so far and may not even finish it. I was looking forward to a continuation of the DA Origins story set in a very similar world like DA Origins was set in. What I got was a totally different game system that is very limited on where I can go or what I can do.

I liked the open World of DA Origins. I also liked the finding a wide selection of better armor and weapons as I leveled up. Why the choice was made to change to this new system I do not know. Bioware didn't do this to Mass Effect 2, at least to the extent you did DA2, so why do it to DA2? Although you dumbed down the weapons and armor selection in ME2 but you didn't change enough to make it a major game breaker.

I have played maybe an hour into DA2 and, if I could, I would return it for my money back.

[Valthier]

I think I would have preferred more in-depth character interactions, as has been said. I loved all of the companion dialogue, I'd just have liked to have gotten more of it, to have felt like my Hawkes had gotten to know them better.

For example, I don't remember exactly when it was, but I recall there being a point in act 2 or 3 where Anders pointed out that my mage Hawke didn't know what it was like to have been in the circle. And that's correct, she didn't, and it was a little disconnecting to realise she hadn't ever asked him about it considering he was her LI and they'd bonded over both believing in the mages' freedom. With some DAO style player-initiated interactions and the opportunity to ask each party member about themselves with more unlocking at high friendship/rivalry I would have gotten more of a sense of my Hawke -knowing- these people.

There's also the case of gifts. In DAO the companion-specific gifts worked really well. Often you knew it was perfect for them when you picked it up because with the DAO talk system there was a chance it had come up in conversation before. Things like Zevran's love of Antivan leather and and Morrigan's story about the mirror. With DA2, you don't have these talks. You just pick up random things and only know where to take them because the game tells you in a quest. Some of them are obvious enough, like Sebastian's bow, but others just felt kind of tacked on because you the player had no idea why Hawke thought they would be a great present. Even things like the Tethras signet ring you give Varric felt really out of place because you didn't even know he'd lost it in the first place.

I think Aveline was the best for your Hawke feeling close to them. She got a lot more special dialogue, like her talk after the Leandra quest in act 2 that was very touching and personal, especially compared to my LI coming in and sitting about two feet down the bed giving very vague condolences. Admittedly DAO suffered from this problem too - my Dalish Warden had just had to slay Tamlen, and the only person who noticed was Alistair, who my Dalish Warden was at about -30 approval with. More extended reactive talks after big personal events from companions with a high enough friendship/rivalry that they'd care about what the PC had just gone through would give a better sense of them caring back, a reciprocation of the PC helping them through all their personal problems.

I also didn't enjoy the wave combat, especially the swarms at night when I was trying to move from objective to objective. It got to the point where I just got... bored fighting them, like they were just a time-wasting obstacle between me and whatever delicious storyline I was chasing. It didn't feel like there was a point to them. If I'd taken up the quest from the chantry board or something like that I'd have felt I was accomplishing something in defeating these gangs, as it was they were just a nuisance that made me begin to actively dread any quest that took place at night.

[miraclemight]

If this has been mentioned before, then I apologize for repeating it again.

The existence of loading screens that contain important spoilers are not what I wish to see in future games. Even in Act I, I knew something 'evil' was going to happen to Meredith, or that something sinister was connected to the Eluvian. It wouldn't have been this bad if the game didn't ask me to make a choice regarding them later on.

My knowledge from the first game was what made me determined not to help Merril finish the Eluvian, but if I had a doubt, after seeing a loading screen of a mirror shattering and consuming darkness, was I really going to feel any better? No. Meredith's 'red eye' loading screen was no difference.

Although, I want to say that the loading screen in Legacy showing the Magisters and the Black City was several steps in the right direction.

Modifié par miraclemight, 13 août 2011 - 12:37 .

[aries1001]

I would, as I've stated in other posts around this forum, really like to see the tactical view be in the pc version again. It is much missed, especially when battling a lot of monsters or enemies. Or even just 2 commanders and 4-6 normal enemies or monsters.

I'm currently doing the repetance quest for Sebastian in Act 2. I have Merril, Sebastian, me and Fenris.
The problem is that Merril does not have access to healing spells at all, (it seems?). I have about 12 healing potions, half of them I've used already battling my way to the last part of this quest. And it clear to me that I was supposed to take Anders along as he has acces to healing spells and Aveline as well. Of course, it can be done with Merril, but it means building her character in the same way as Anders e.g. with focus on elemental spells. Please don't make it so in sat DA3...

[Ci7rus]

I'd like to see a Nightmare+ option or something similar to that. I loved how challenging the unpatched DA:O was. Granted, it may have only been that hard due to a combination of broken mechanics (dex damage calculations etc) and me not knowing what I was doing at the time, but after the first DA:O patch I never got that feeling of accomplishment. I still remember how in awe I was after the first tower Orge fight, and how happy I was after I beat my first Revenant in the Mage's tower and that feeling of dread when approaching every door. The subsequent patches for DA:O just took all of that away.

DA2's nightmare mode was decent, even though most of the challenge was from the ridiculous high enemy HP and assassin cheese, but now even that's been taken away with patch 1.03. With the latest patch I'm sleepwalking my way through the game on auto attack the majority of the time, and I don't even need to have a proper tank for most encounters anymore.

I'd like to see a return to gameplay that requires the player to make the most out of their party's abilities to survive. I'd like to see gimmicky encounters like the Rock Wraith axed. The Rock Wraith was hard, but for all the wrong reasons, it was way too much like a console shooter boss, where you just got your tail kicked until you figured out the pattern, then it was simple.

I'd also like to see difficulty scaling re-visited. I understand the idea that players should feel more powerful as the game progresses, but I believe that doesn't have to come at the cost of gameplay. Having the first 1/3rd of the game be the most challenging, then having to come up with ways to artificially limit my characters in the latter stages of the game just doesn't feel right to me. 

Modifié par HooDooMagics, 14 août 2011 - 01:16 .

[Monica21]

 I'm not sure if journal entries have been mentioned before but I'll throw them in here just in case. Giving me the most recent task when a quest is several steps isn't helpful. I don't remember why I had to go to Darktown to deal with blood mages until I got there. I much prefer the Origins kind of quest entry, with each step finished as you move along.

[Big_Chief]

One thing I'm still annoyed by, even this far out, is that not only did the PC players lose the tactical camera, we didn't even get the detachable AoE camera that console players got. I'm genuinely baffled by this. I'm fairly certain I remember a quote from shortly after DA2 was announced where the devs said they wanted to make the different versions more on par with each other, hence being able to issue "move to here" commands to companions on the consoles. So why give the detachable camera to console players only, when the PC already proved it was capable of handling such a feature in Origins? It doesn't make sense.

Was there some unworkable bug with the feature on the PC? If so, why not tell us? I would have at least somewhat understood the lack of a tactical camera in 2 if the detachable AoE camera had been in place. As it is, it is increasingly frustrating to target enemies long distance or get a view of the battlefield. The paltry "zoom out a little bit" we got isn't nearly sufficient.

I dunno, maybe there's some weird behind the scenes reason where it makes perfect sense to strip out features entirely for DA2 even though console players got something relatively comparable this time around, but it's hard to see from where I'm sitting.

[BhallSpawn1011]

Does the fact that I think Dragon Age 2 a mediocre (at best) effort really make me a troll? The reasons are many. As a longtime fan of Bioware's products, I am sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are well aware of the obvious flaws of this game. Some of the very finest rpg's ever made have been Bioware games, they know the difference.

[Fireblader70]

I was playing Dragon Age 2 today, when I suddenly realised why the game seems so repetitive and monotonous at times.

There are too many pointless battles. At least have a little creativity! For example, I was playing the 'Justice' mission and went into the sewers to collect some... stuff. Anyway, just before I reach the 'stuff', I am predictably ambushed by the same enemies I have encountered throughout the entire game. No reason, no little story behind it, just a random battle that seemed like it was there just to tick me off.
What could have happened instead was a little scene when, just as the team is about to collect the 'stuff', a little conversation happens between you and the lyrium smugglers / apostates. Something amusing. Something serious. It doesn't matter, if there was that kind of attention to detail, the battles would have felt just a little bit less... well... 'gamey'.

You see, Dragon Age isn't about the combat. That wasn't what fans thought was the primary appeal to them. It was the narrative and the overall world that was created, a homage to fantasy's of the past. So wouldn't it make more sense to inject a little bit of narrative into seemingly normal situations like the one I just explained? Of course, that would mean a little bit more of pen to paper, but that doesn't stop Bethesda now, does it?

EDIT: I forgot to mention something else. With this kind of creativity, it would give the player the excitement of not knowing what would happen next, instead of thinking "oh god, here we go again...". It might even make the repeated maps and overall flaws more forgivable.
Fallout New Vegas: Old World Blues does this very well. Same old fighting, same old exploring, but the new injection of amusing creativity makes it feel new again.

And that, Bioware, is my two cents (or pennies, since I'm from the UK).

Modifié par Fireblader70, 18 août 2011 - 01:58 .

[aries1001]

If you play the dld, Legacy, the combat is much much better and somewhat similar to what Fireblader70 describes. And yes, the combat in DA2 feels repetitive....and feels as if it originally perhaps was part of combat in an MMO?

[Dave of Canada]

TL;DR about DA:O and DA2 first impressions.

Modifié par Dave of Canada, 19 août 2011 - 12:08 .

[TEWR]

That was a great read, Ser Dave of Canada.

[QueenPurpleScrap]

Well, here are my thoughts for DA3.
Make sure there is a strong story to tell. There was 'stuff' in DA2, but no theme or plotline that carried all the way through. Use conversations before and after events to flesh out the story and the characters, give them depth. In DAO, there were a lot of sidequests, but some at least made sense. They were broke, and needed money to survive and build an army. And they were mostly grouped: Chantry, Mage, not-so-legal, etc. There were enough quests that you didn't have to choose all of them and what you chose or didn't was a reflection of your character. I found the Qunari threat and the mage-templar issues to be too separate and not well integrated into the story. They were there, like this will be a good crisis for Act 2 and we can use the other for Act 3. The blight, the archdemon and Loghain were all issues directly and indirectly affecting the Warden, Alistair, et al.

The environment needs to be richer. There has been enough talk about recycled locations that I won't go into it again here. I have already talked about it elsewhere. Legacy is better in that regard. But remember, the environment includes the people. In the Viscount's keep there were what, 7, 8, 9 sets of twins and triplets? Even down to the clothes in many instances? DAO had a much better variety of the 'extras' in the scenes. In DA2 there was a constant undercurrent of deja vu all over again.

The characters should not be so plastic looking. If I want to play with Ken and Barbie dolls I will pick them up at local store. I much prefer the character generator for Origins, especially the skin tones and the hair. The hair in DA2 looks like Mr. Potato Head pieces. Bring the elves back closer to their Origins appearance, they are too buggy looking and are less individual looking. While I don't care that much for the darkspawn in DA2, and prefer the original versions, I'll be happy if Bioware stops mucking about with them. It's like for the elf redesign they were making a bad reference to Avatar, and with the genlocks in legacy a reference to the upcoming Planet of the Apes movie. Story, conversations, romances, friendships and rivalries, good quests are more important than constantly changing the looks of the different reaces because it is possible to do so. Sounds more like there is no clear vision.

The codex, I miss being able to review recent conversations, especially if I want to know where I left off. And the quests journal entries, I prefer that the entries build on previous actions instead of the latest action replacing what happened before. Especially for longer quests, it's nice to see you have done thing 1, thing 2 and thing 3, but still have more to go. And when the quest is completed, I don't want all of that replaced with a single line or 2. Kind of diminishes my efforts.

I really miss talking to people when I want to talk to them. Sure, I can understand certain quests and topics of conversations not being available until such and such time or series of events. What does that have to do with romance or friendship, or just finding out more about the people you end up traveling with? If there are important events in somebody's life, you can talk about them in more than one conversation (which seems more natural to me) than in a single cutscene. And maybe I want the option of not talking to them about it, instead of it being an incomplete quest. The gifts kind of go along with this, why should they be quests? And why not find out they might be important to the person by conversations you have had with that person? For instance, you would think that Fenris might like the book about Shartan because you would have had a conversation about having the time to read (even if he doesn't admit to being unable to read until you give it to him) or you discussed how little you know of Shartan . . . . stuff like that.

If there is going to be a character like Varric, make him romanceable!

And if I choose to have a romance, I should have the opportunity to repeat the experience. After all, I'm worth it. LOL

Combat is not really my thing, so I will defer more to what others say in terms of the style. Well, mostly defer. I like the ability to quickly target an available enemy with a keystroke as well as target a specific enemy the more traditional way. I know each companion has one skill tree just their own. Hawke can have one as well, depending on rogue, warrior or mage. Otherwise, all mages should have the same skill tree access, all rogues, etc. I like the greater flexibility of determining who does what.

I am undecided on the crafting issue. Sometimes I like DAO, sometimes DA2. Certainly the method used in DA2 wouldn't make sense in DAO; However, there is something to be said for finding different places to purchase crafting agents. Getting out and talking to different people.

I remember reading conversations about armor. I liked that in DAO I could put people in different armor based on the stats (as well as aesthetics). But I also like that in DA2 the companions each have their own style. However, what I don't like is that if I purchase or find an upgrade to somebody's armor you don't see a difference. That doesn't make any sense to me at all. I think something could be worked out so that the armor of your companions reflects their individual styles, but upgrades could be optionally equipped when found or purchased, and they would make some difference in the basic appearance - a cape, belt, quiver, tie, sash, boots, gloves, etc.Changes of color, whatever.

And better continuity checking. For instance, in Witch Hunt my Warden had her dog back, but the name did not get imported. Several people have already made note of inconsistencies when importing into DA2, among other things. It's a little bit jarring when somebody in DA2 says something or a codex entry says something that directly contradicts the game you played.

I prefer being able to choose my race as well as gender and class. I enjoy being able to replay a game from a different perspective, not just making different choices. Although I realize that option may or may not be realistic for a given story. However, if I had to choose between the variety of options for my character and whether or not my character has a voice, I'll take the options over the voice every time. It actually seems a little weird that all my female characters sound exactly the same.

I have absolutely no desire to see a multi-player Dragon Age game. If I want to do that, I will do Facebook Legends.

I would like to see the toolset updated or revisited. Modders did some great things which enhanced the DAO experience for me (especially after I played a few times without any mods), that I would like to see this capability going forward. I even made some of my own presets for DAO, and would love to add them to DA2, if I knew how. And I know I would like to do something in DA3.

I just had a thought, if I can go to the Hanged Man and order a drink when I want, why can't I go to the Blooming Rose and . . . . . .

One last thing, at least for now, why can't I go back into a cave or whatever after I finish a quest. I can't go into the Bone Pit any time I want, only when there's a job to do. The caves on the Wounded Coast don't stay open. I find that irritatingl It means my choice of companions is going to be somewhat determined by how badly I want to be able to check for traps and open chests. In the future, don't lock me out of places I have already been unless it makes sense for the story.

[aries1001]

As for people in armour, last night I played with Bethany (armour 165-170). I play with a mod that lets me choose the armour for followers. After I went through Kirkwall to get some mage armour, Bethany's armour rating went from about 165 to about 565 or so. This says to me Bioware really needs to let us choose the armour for companions in one way or the other. If they want to have followers still have their own unique look they could do it with this suggestions:

Please make armour (or armour sets?) for each companion that have a high enough rating that we can find throughout the game or maybe buy in shops or can be given us when we complete a personal quest for our companions...

[TerraMantis]

I would like to see more personalized story/quest chains that pertain to your specific class. Quests that can go above and beyond simple "when i show up somewhere i know enemies are going to jump me and i fight them". I love in Elder's Scrolls games when they have quest chains for the Thieves Guild and assassins guild like the Dark Brotherhood or the government sanctioned one in Morrowwind. Also, similar things for the Mage's Guild and Fighter's Guild.
That being said, i would like to see quest chains or series of events that are unique for the class you're specifically playing this time through. Personal trials that your protagonist overcomes or struggles with on their day-to-day basis. For example, at certain points in DA:Origins you would wake up from having a "vivid nightmare" about the archdemon and the Blight due to your "Joining". This simple yet effective detail really gave me insight into what it feels like to be a Grey Warden and the different sacrifices and trials they must endure.

I would like to see things like this for your chosen class. How come my created mage never deals with the trials of the temptations of the Fade like seemingly every other mage must endure with the seductions of power from the entities within? I would like to see a more intimate and personal struggle with my character and their gradual triumph over or yielding to their offerings of power in the fade first-hand.

If you were a rogue i would like to see something with maybe an assassin's guild or...anyone remember the Antivian Crows? Once you're in you never get out. Possibly some type of establishment like that.

Possibly for a warrior you could go through the quite literally "mind-numbing" process of becoming an Ash Warrior. Or, some other trial for some sect that is not previously present in the DA universe.

I would like to see these implementations and have them be unique story features to your specific class. This would make replay value much higher with content that was never seen before because on a previous play-through you chose a different class. It would also give those moments that "wow factor". I am always very impressed when games go to the extent of having environments, characters, dialogue, and material that may not even be seen in a game depending on your specific actions or the uniqueness of your style of interaction through character customizations or dialogue choices.

Modifié par TerraMantis, 19 août 2011 - 05:05 .

[STiAT]

Okay, I decided to put my feedback here, what I enjoyed, what I did not enjoy.

Combat System and Battles
I had some fun in the combats, especially at the beginning. That DA2 felt faster than DA:O, I can't say so. It felt a lot of slower. You had like a bunch of burst damage, and a long time to wait for cooldowns. You had to plan the situations right, which was partly fun and partly painful. I think having a more arcade-game style, the cooldowns should be short.

The worst thing about the battles was, that they never changed throughout the game. I felt like I was always fighting the same group of monsters over and over again - besides huge dragons or similar. I can not say I really enjoyed that, to be true, it bored me out of my mind.

The staff-handling could have been done better if it was for me, but I'm not sure if that bug was fixed already. Anyway, the staff shooting animation was really nice!

Equipment and Loot
I did not enjoy not being able to customize my party and myself to my likings. Also, playing a mage usually, I did not enjoy not wearing plate :-). The idea with the "unique style" is nice, but I rather like to dress them as I want it, not as some system tells me to.
Also, the loot icons were boring, and looked all the same. This gave it some kind of beta-flair, and took me a little of the fun looting.
I could not find any positive part to the new equipment system besides that I knew what you would like me to dress my companions with.

The Game - Story
Well, the story was - to put it straigt - short and one-sided (short: it took me 6 hours for the first playthrough).

What I did enjoy in DA:O is that I could take different pathes at different times, having little effect, but having effect on the story, as doing the mage tower before redcliff gave you the option to save the child, and this is partly what kept me playing DA:O for 400 hours ("what else could I do"). It also gave me the feeling of being able to choose what I do, even if that's not really what it does.

I felt as if I was not given many choices, which change a little bit of the game, which not necessarily was important to the ending of the game, but probably was important to me, since it changed the story and picture of the character I played to my liking.
Especially choices as having a child with Morrigan or not (or having alistair do that), and afterwards bringing her - or don't bringing her to the fight. Also the "who should be king" question (two times, at dwarfs and close to end-game) and similar.

Overall, DA2 felt flat, and it had like no effect what ever decision I make. Maybe it had, but it did not give me the feeling as if, and I just pressed anything, since I did stop caring.

The story did not feel epic. It felt like running errands for either one or the other side. Once a decision made - that's it, basically (I'm probably a bit hard on this, but that's a feeling I got when playing).

Characters / Companions
They were not epic at all, and also there was never a good, deeper talk to them, no personal stories involved, which made them flat characters just running next to you - I didn't really care for one of them.
That was really a great part in DA:O, getting to know your party members, their specials, who they are, and what's their past. It took some time to get them there, earn their trust and do some stuff for them. In DA2 it was "pop-up, another personal mission, go for it". Straight, but not that funny.

Skill System
Wow, that part was a good one. I enjoyed leaving out some skills to get faster to other skills, or just not skill them because I don't want them. That really made skilling better, and more fun.
What I was missing is, that I could not customize my mages to what kind of mage I wanted them to be. Why can't some mages be healers, or not even cast basic healings? 
I usually set up two mage-classes: One for healing/buffs, one for damaging. But the damaging character always had some support-heals to be activated if needed. I often even brought three mages in the old DA:O (morrigan, me, wynne), but later exchanged morrigan for a rogue (archer or melee, depending on the situation).
Having all possible skill trees for all your mages was great. I also did not really enjoy that certain skill trees only unlock at a certain level.
Overall, it had a lot of less flaws than the old one, and if it's for me, it can stay even the way it is.

Zones and Areas
Well, that's what bored most players I think. The areas were all the same, the dungeons didn't even change for a little bit. If you were lucky, they had different monsters in them, but most likely that wasn't the point either.

What could have been better?
I think fine-tuning here and there. Overall, it were the small parts missing are giving it the feeling of being a beta product. I can see the concept and goal you want to achieve, but I think you missed it.

• More RPG-Parts in the story, more decisions to be made, little effects on the story
• Not so linear story, give us back what to do at which time, even in the main quest series
• More RPG-Parts at the characters, giving them a "deep" personality
• Battles which are more fun, giving more opportunities for controlling battles, not only the stack-buffs and debuffs.
• More varieties in the battles, probably more different types of monsters.
• Different looking areas, re-use of components is fine to me, but not whole areas. There were similar areas in DA:O as well, but they were not that obvious.
• Bring back the loot and customization fun, maybe at least to a certain degree.

Modifié par STiAT, 19 août 2011 - 01:10 .

[Night Dreams]

I wrote the bulk of my constructive criticism here a good while ago now, but I realised there is something else that I've been sorely missing in DA2.
The spell combinations. I know that there are still cross-class combos, which may I add, I love, but that is only across the classes. Being able to throw down oil then light it on fire was one of the coolest things for me, and it'd be great to see this worked on even further for the future. Dragon Age works amazingly as a game of tactics, and I think it can only move forward from here.