2797 réponses à ce sujet

[Ariella]

Just a quick one: auto attack breaking on Knockback or target moving. Happens on both 360 and PC. It'd be nice to have the character stay with target unless direct otherwise rather than having to reacquire every time I knock one back,

It's especially annoying when you've almost killed the target and get KB so you have to slow down to finish it off.

[erynnar]

Please, stop with the third person narrative, where I am not the character but a puppet handler, wrangling a marionette occasionally in between movies. If I wanted to play with dolls, I would have played with them when I was little. I never did, and I prefer to be the character so I can interface with the world you create. I find the third person almost completely keeps me from immersion or what little I do manage gets every thirty buggering seconds. I hope that makes sense...bring back the first person narrative (sorry been a buggering long day and I am pooped).

[Ariella]

erynnar wrote...

Please, stop with the third person narrative, where I am not the character but a puppet handler, wrangling a marionette occasionally in between movies. If I wanted to play with dolls, I would have played with them when I was little. I never did, and I prefer to be the character so I can interface with the world you create. I find the third person almost completely keeps me from immersion or what little I do manage gets every thirty buggering seconds. I hope that makes sense...bring back the first person narrative (sorry been a buggering long day and I am pooped).

Do you mean the framed narrative since it is first person as long you're inside one of the acts (with minor exception) as you have complete control over the character's actions and attitude, and know only what Hawke knows.

I'm asking because I'm very curious if it would have been as bothersome if it'd been Hawke telling the story rather than Varric, would that have changed the immediacy for you?

Sorry it's been a long day, hope you have a better night.

[erynnar]

Ariella wrote...

erynnar wrote...

Please, stop with the third person narrative, where I am not the character but a puppet handler, wrangling a marionette occasionally in between movies. If I wanted to play with dolls, I would have played with them when I was little. I never did, and I prefer to be the character so I can interface with the world you create. I find the third person almost completely keeps me from immersion or what little I do manage gets every thirty buggering seconds. I hope that makes sense...bring back the first person narrative (sorry been a buggering long day and I am pooped).

Do you mean the framed narrative since it is first person as long you're inside one of the acts (with minor exception) as you have complete control over the character's actions and attitude, and know only what Hawke knows.

I'm asking because I'm very curious if it would have been as bothersome if it'd been Hawke telling the story rather than Varric, would that have changed the immediacy for you?

Sorry it's been a long day, hope you have a better night.

That's what I meant! *facepalms before slapping the back of my own head* Sorry I am so knackered. Been a long day at work. I want to be the hero, not some puppet master. I found it immersion breaking constantly, with the fade to black time skips, the Varric story telling (which was cool, but it needed something).  And I never connected with Hawke because I  was driving a car on rails. UGH, so tired I sound like an idiot I know.  Sorry. Maybe I can edit later and make myself more clear.

And thanks sweetie! You are a love! *HUGS* Thanks for trying to sort the crazy person out...don't mind me, I'll be in that corner drooling on myself.

[Statulos]

Basically the problem you´re pointing out with inmerssion is the problem I have with not caring at all.

I mean, I am supposed to be willing to take sides, to care about Kirkwall, about the fate of my family and friends (companions), and well, it does not mater if I care or not because nothing will basicaly change anything and that´s considering that Hawke has "risen to power". What power? The one to have a chair in the first line right in front of the play?

[Ariella]

erynnar wrote...

Ariella wrote...

erynnar wrote...

Please, stop with the third person narrative, where I am not the character but a puppet handler, wrangling a marionette occasionally in between movies. If I wanted to play with dolls, I would have played with them when I was little. I never did, and I prefer to be the character so I can interface with the world you create. I find the third person almost completely keeps me from immersion or what little I do manage gets every thirty buggering seconds. I hope that makes sense...bring back the first person narrative (sorry been a buggering long day and I am pooped).

Do you mean the framed narrative since it is first person as long you're inside one of the acts (with minor exception) as you have complete control over the character's actions and attitude, and know only what Hawke knows.

I'm asking because I'm very curious if it would have been as bothersome if it'd been Hawke telling the story rather than Varric, would that have changed the immediacy for you?

Sorry it's been a long day, hope you have a better night.

That's what I meant! *facepalms before slapping the back of my own head* Sorry I am so knackered. Been a long day at work. I want to be the hero, not some puppet master. I found it immersion breaking constantly, with the fade to black time skips, the Varric story telling (which was cool, but it needed something).  And I never connected with Hawke because I  was driving a car on rails. UGH, so tired I sound like an idiot I know.  Sorry. Maybe I can edit later and make myself more clear.

And thanks sweetie! You are a love! *HUGS* Thanks for trying to sort the crazy person out...don't mind me, I'll be in that corner drooling on myself.

Not an idiot, just tired. I can understand your feelings becausse I had similar at first when playing Alpha Protocol which used a similar framed set up where the PC and the main villian both knew what happened already, but I sure didn't!

My own acceptance of Varric is that he's just so darn likable and I was willing to accept that fact, but I can understand that frustration of the idea that you are following a path that's set rather than one that feels you've forged it yourself. Makes perfect sense, and you're welcome.

[Jack Devlish]

Hey guys.

Just wanted to once again reinforce that we are reading
this. Everyone's a little busy, so I'm back at around page 60 in terms
of being caught up, but I'm slowly making my way through. It's a lot
slower when you're taking notes at the same time.

So please keep it up!


    Glad to hear we are not just spitting in the wind, I still have a great deal of respect for the developers of the Dragon Age 2 franchaise and if they are taking notes then they have gotten a ear full. Dragon Age 2 is a somewhat good game that could have been great and can still be better. The comments on this board have been detailed and well thought out, the people at Bioware are a smart group and should get the message, next time do it right, do it better, and take the time to polish the apple! We all want it sooner, but we would rather wait if thats what it takes to have it right.

[rayvioletta]

I'd just like to add another small but important criticism I forgot in my initial reply
several quest titles contain spoilers for what happens further into the quests, which not only lessens immersion but also negates any impact that otherwise surprising turns would have
for example: Tranquility, Anders Act 1 recruitment quest. He first tells you that he wants to rescue his friend Karl, a mage, from the Circle. we meet him at the Chantry, go inside and find... Karl has been made tranquil. well of course he has, the quest is named Tranquility!

but I'd also like to thank the BioWare staff for reading these and hopefully taking them into account for future content

[Charliea1234]

Everwarden wrote...

-The third act. The entire third act needed to be scrapped and completely reworked from the ground up. Working for Meredith after denouncing her was just moronic, and having to fight both big bads regardless of choice was perhaps the crowning moment of stupid in a really stupid game.

Wouldn't go quite as far as this, I did enjoy the game mostly, but this bugged the hell out of me too!  And why a Harvester that made no sense to me whatsoever!

[Zeevico]

djwyattwood wrote...

JohnEpler wrote...

Hey guys.

Just wanted to once again reinforce that we are reading this. Everyone's a little busy, so I'm back at around page 60 in terms of being caught up, but I'm slowly making my way through. It's a lot slower when you're taking notes at the same time.

So please keep it up!

I'm glad to hear you are taking notes, now you'll have something to ignore when making DA3! Woohoo! I can't believe for a second that the constructive criticism in this thread is going to get weight in DA3. I want to see proof that the developement team is looking at the criticism. A series of videos sounds like a good start where you sit down and talk about the criticism, uncensored. This would go a long way to appease the dissapointed fanbase.

Bioware isn't staffed by automatons. Treat people with respect. That's something much more important than a game.

[magicwins]

One of the reasons Bioware gave for shortening DA2 was that stats say that most people who played DAO never finished it. I think that's a very simplistic approach to the problem.

While DAO's main plot was admittedly straightforward and cliche, to me it's appeal lay in the intricacy of how it constructed a believable fantasy world, that had tons of sh*t going on besides you traipsing about. You played an notably powerful part in the story, but were only making a tiny impact on history itself. Gmaeplay-wise, while some insanely long repetitive dungeons could have been cut *COUGH*deeproads*COUGH*, to significantly shortening the story, you could have sped through those by taking the shortest possible path and saved time. Otherwise though, I believe its length is important, because, as Gaider put it, you can instantly tell when a world is designed to only be 'so much', and when it's only showing you a tiny part of what it could be. DAO definitely conveyed that feel through its length, and the way it used it to establish a sense of a powerful believable, fantasy realm.

As a result, when people played through the game, whatever they played of it was consistent and powerful, and that's what I think matters. Aside from the fact that your limited experience left you happy, you knew you could always go back and get more if you wanted to. It'd be interesting to me to know why people were not able to finish DAO. I assume they just didn't have the time to spare, which is perfectly understandable. If that's the case, people who finished would be happy to gush about the game and spoil it if you weren't willing to go further than a certain point. I understand the desire to have people experience the entirety of your game, but this sounds like a pretty decent compromise.

This is something that I feel DA2 lacked - a connection to the world. Sure, you had UpTown and DownTown*, but I never felt any sense of 'world'. There's not much point finishing the game if you didn't really feel a sense of connection to the world you just spent so much time in. Prior association with the same environment was rendered irrelevant to me by the art style, I just could not connect the two gameworlds with each other. If a longer game would have helped further flesh out the gameworld, I believe it would have been very worthwhile. At the risk of, once again, less people finishing the game due to time constraints, delivering a more consistent, connected, enjoyable gameworld experience while you're still in it would make up the difference.

So, this is a theory on which works better: Longer or shorter RPGs? I believe a better understanding of why people couldn't finish DAO would help, but this is my assessment.

Also, I had MUCH more difficulty finishing DA2 than I did DAO, but that's another argument entirely.


* I'm kidding, I know they're Hightown, Lowtown and Darktown.

[Statulos]

Sareth Cousland wrote...

I think the main problem with DA2 can be defined very precisely, so here's my view on things:

The issue with DA2 is that it alienates the core target of DA:O players - mature players of western RPGs. The cartoony style and arcade combat of DA2, coupled with several other problems like a sub-par dialogue wheel, re-used maps and enemy waves, made the game so unappealing to many who liked the original.

Look at the Witcher or Skyrim, for example - those are visuals that would have fit the Dragon Age universe and its rich lore very well. I think Bioware took the "too generic" criticism too much to heart - the belief systems in Thedas, as well as how the races were handled, were not at all generic. That criticism was superficial and aimed at how the races look. Still, the DA:O universe felt very different from Lord of the Rings due to the different lore and story. If you take out all stereotypes that give orientation, you create something else entirely - and that was the core problem of DA2: It left behind what made the original so good and gave it identity.

Completely agree.

"Acrobatics" in The Witcher are a good example of how combat may look great and not need to show flashy manga-style moves.

Simply because mages can cast fireballs, it does not mean that warrior have to be flashy too. When the supernatural is rubbed in your face again and again it stops having its narrative value.

[JaegerBane]

Everwarden wrote...

-The third act. The entire third act needed to be scrapped and completely reworked from the ground up. Working for Meredith after denouncing her was just moronic, and having to fight both big bads regardless of choice was perhaps the crowning moment of stupid in a really stupid game.

Damn straight. Act 3 was completely absurd.

To be honest, I think one area they need to work out is to give the game an overall narrative. It doesn't necessarily need to be 'save the world from the ancient evil', but it would be good to actually have an underlying theme running throughout. Having a 'Crisis of the Week' just made the game feel meandering and pointless. Look at how Mask of the Betrayer did it. *That* is how to do a 'personal', non-save-the-world RPG.

And it's been said before, but in the interests of the developer's comments, I'll add my vote for GET A GRIP ON RECYCLED AREAS. I don't necessarily mind some re-use so long as it makes sense, but when you enter your 50th identical cave complete with stock map showing areas this particular cave won't allow you to go, it just gets monotonous.

I remember some rebuttal from the developers along the lines of 'Dragon age is not about one person, it's about the world'. Fine. Show us the world. Don't show us this boring damn city, a beach, a mountain and a cave 99999 times.

[ProneToGlory]

Something I wanted to mention about combat, Even though it was fast paced it seemed unrealistic. Which I know alot of people have already stated, but still someone shouldnt explode when they are stabbed in the back, make them drop to their knees then faceplant, or bring back the beheadings with the sword and board. Or when turn the blade is active, I've never seen a parry, instead make them parry the blade then shield bash them, or if you have shield defense on actually have your guy make blocks, when someone dies frozen have them hit the ground frozen or make them shatter when they hit. Or with electricity make them spas out, maybe even explode. I wanna see some real combat, make when you use scythe instead of them exploding make them get cut in half, with archery make the final shot in the head or in throat. Make it cool though!

[Cybermortis]

magicwins wrote...

It'd be interesting to me to know why people were not able to finish DAO. I assume they just didn't have the time to spare, which is perfectly understandable. If that's the case, people who finished would be happy to gush about the game and spoil it if you weren't willing to go further than a certain point. I understand the desire to have people experience the entirety of your game, but this sounds like a pretty decent compromise.
 

I think the argument was that many were giving up before finishing Ostagar.

It seems at this point that someone came to the wrong conclusions at this point, assuming that people gave up because there was something wrong with the game. Rather than asking if the people who gave up would normally buy and play games like DAO in the first place.

Speaking for myself here, I didn't initally finish the game. In fact I didn't finish it until a few months after I'd bought it. A large part of this was in going back to try all classes and races - in effect burning myself out somewhat. But having considered this a little more I think that DAO suffered slightly from feeling a little aimless at times after Lothering, especially considering that up until that point events had driven the story along at a good pace.

DA2 in comparision doesn't, for me, have the same inital drive - and its attempts to create one are ham-fisted at best. The difference is that DAO had an underlying story, which to some extent helped offset some of the 'aimless' quality of the middle sections.

I *Think* what might work would be to have a mixture of the two - a large overall plot (which doesn't have to be 'save the world. It just needs to be a direction everything is heading in) with a number of main quests you can take in what order you want. However after a certain number of these quests the main story kicks back in, with a required quest-line having to be done which reminds us of the overall plot. Think something akin to the way the quests worked in ME2.

[Sussurus]

After a long battle or boss challenge, not having an interlude to save before cutscenes start.
It bugs me, sometimes in haste I click wrongly or rush through, hit F9 instead of screen print, miss items.
Once or twice a crash or stutter in cutscene occurred, wish to see what every response does.
Instead of an auto scene allow the player a break to catch up, save and then initiate dialogue.
Rather than be forced to refight the same long grudge duel again.

In the above post, every game has that factor now, take FO:NV most on PC stopped after the intro quest.
Most companies seem to add elements in that are not required to their core consumers to broaden appeal.
However in this a lot is added that people ask for, just sometimes it's not as good as they championed it to be.

Modifié par Sussurus, 20 avril 2011 - 08:37 .

[Melca36]

Please bring back finishing moves...

They are much more fun than a cutscene...and it was fun to see of the companions get them as well.

[Big_Chief]

 I have a couple more in-depth thoughts as well as a minor complaint about the mechanics. Hopefully you'll bear with me, I believe this is my third time posting in this thread over the last month or so, but as time goes on my thoughts on DA2 evolve.

Starting with the minor gameplay quibble, traps are handled in an annoying way this time around. Unless you're actively playing as a rogue all the time, you rarely have enough warning to disarm the traps before planting your foot in one. I wouldn't ordinarily mind, but disarming traps = more experience, so I feel compelled to just reload and try again. It's sort of a hassle. I'd prefer it if a rogue would spot a trap far enough ahead of time that I could stop, switch to my rogue party member, and disable them. Considering that there is more or less a limited amount of XP in the game, any chance to propell my character further ahead must be seized.

A bigger issue I have is with the amount of dialogue you get with companions, particularly noticable with romance options. I've already touched on this, I think, but it probably warrents more detail. I actually like the characters themselves more than the Origins ones, but I felt the opportunities to interact with them was a large step down. For instance, in Origins, you get several unique conversations with a love interest, both before and after the actual romance scene, that helps develop the relationship. I'll be talking about the Merrill romance specifically, as I don't yet have a lot of knowledge about the others. In DA2, most of it is in flirt options that are tied to conversations that everyone gets. They aren't unique, and as a result probably feel a bit more shallow. There's one unique scene for the actual love scene, and her act 3 "catching up" conversation probably plays very differently than it would otherwise (even that is just a variant of a convesation that everyone still gets, though).

There was a lot I thought you did correctly, mind. The love scenes themselves seemed to be very well done, I thought. You don't get to see as much as Origins, but that's really an improvement. Origins' underwear clad, blank faced model posing was just awkward. Although I do wonder why Hawke and Merrill put clothing back on in order to cuddle. Still, an improvement, and the lead up was very touching. Another scene I remember being impressed by was a bit where I was flirting with Merrill, and she got embarrased and looked away, but very clearly glanced back out of the corner of her eye at Hawke to see how he was reacting. It was a nice touch, did a good job of conveying both her character and the tone of the conversation, and was leagues above any of the interactions and expressions in Origins.

My second issue is with the general separation of story and gameplay. Much has been made about playing as a mage without templars noticing or caring, and that is a problem. It's more than just Hawke, though, since Cullen also didn't notice Merrill blatantly using blood magic in a fight directly in front of him. But it's more than that, and I hope to demonstrate why, though it might take a bit of talking to do so. DA2 as a story seems entirely devoted to making Hawke feel helpless and not particularly important. *SPOILERS* Varric and Cassandra even point it out in the ending summation. What happened wasn't really Hawke's doing at all. It was more a combination of Anders, Meredith, and the lyrium idol's influence, with Hawke being at the most a catalyst and at the least a helpless bystandard swept up into the storm, who had to flee the city when things got out of hand. That seems to be the entire point and result of the framed narrative, getting Cassandra to the point where she realizes that. And it's not just there, either. Hawke seems powerless all the time. His entire family either dies or leaves over the course of the game, with the possible exception of your remaining sibling if you've played your cards right. Horrible things happen to your companions or NPCs that you can't do anything about. Several times, and in increasingly story-important ways, events will turn out the same way no matter what decision you make.

None of that is a bad thing really. I felt that, with some exceptions, this worked. It was a very interesting story, and I identified with my version of Hawke, who I imagine felt just as powerless and swept along as I as a player did. It's not particularly uplifting, but not all stories have to be. I wish that I got to make more decisions, and that the decisions I make would have more impact, but overall I enjoyed the story.

This all, however, seemed very disconnected with the gameplay and marketing of DA2, which is all about empowering the player beyond the ordinary, and far beyond Origins' combat. Everything's over the top, with absurd and flashy combat moves, and making entire armies of enemies explode into showers of blood and body parts just by hitting them particularly hard with a sword. Likewise, the marketing trumpeted your "rise to power" and "become the most important man in Thedas!" and "see all of your decisions play out over the course of ten years, rather than in an ending slide." None of these things really happened at all, at least in my opinion. I didn't feel like I rose to power, since being The Champion didn't really amount to much. I didn't feel like the most important man in Thedas, since I wasn't the instigator of anything. *Again, SPOILERS* As the characters themselves point out at the end, it was Anders, Meredith, and the lyrium idol. I didn't feel the effects of my choices, becauce there were very few major choices, and a lot of them, such as what to do with Grace, or choosing between Meredith or Orsino, amounted to the same exact results in the end.

Again, my problem isn't that I'd prefer that game, necessarily (although it might have been interesting). My problem is that the marketing department was writing checks they couldn't cash. It feels absurdly out of step with the game we actually got. Admittedly, "Feel depressed and powerless as horrible things keep happening to your poor character as he just tries to live out his life," wouldn't necessarily be good marketing hype, even if it might make for an interesting tone for the story. Likewise, the story and gameplay felt switched from Origins, where the storyline was very epic and high level, but the combat was very slow paced and basic.

Oh, and I'm not fond of the Darkspawn redesign. I don't know if I've mentioned it before hand, but it probably bears repeating. I still much prefer the the Disciples from Awakening, which I felt were amazingly designed, and struck a great balance between intimidating, diseased and gross, and recognizable as corrupted people.

Soooo, anyway, that was very long and ranty, but I believe I'm finished. Again, I really enjoyed the game, these are just some things I've noticed over my playthroughs or by listening to others' feedback. Hopefully someone finds all that helpful or at least enlightening. 

[Lord_Montymoore]

Dear EA & Bioware
WHY?!?!?!
I'm sure by now you've recieved numerous emails on how bad DAII is... and they're all right...

To be fair, i did enjoy the protagonist voicing, the subtle references to my Origins save file, and the combat engine... but theres a hitch with the last one...

After playing through DAII and deeming it a rushed out cash cow that lacked any immersion, i decided to go back to playing Origins. Unfortunately I had grown so fond of the action based combat system of DAII that getting in even a small skirmish with a few Darkspawn felt like reading Anne Franks diary backward, effectively ruining Origins for me.

It feels like the developers forgot that making games is about satisfying their respective taget market and not figuring out ways to bung everything up. IF SOMETHING ISN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!

A few suggestions for the third, in hopes that you don't rush that one out the door before it's had a chance to put on underwear.

-Keep combat engine from DAII
-Keep storyline style from Origins with a few sidequests for entertainment/filler, not a chopped up reenacting of the main characters life. One antagonist, One ultimate goal.
- Keep NPC relationship (i.e. gifting, romances etc..) it helps a great deal with immersion
-Keep map layout from Origins.. again, helps with immersion.
-Make more than 6 or 7 dungeon maps... i dont care if you render caves in the same grey stone, just make something that doesnt feel like i'm being teleported to the "universal cave" dimesion every time i enter a quest.
- Keep skill/spell trees from DAII.
I honestly hope these threads are looked over and passed to the proper people, I would like to believe that this is a company who cares about pleasing the people who play their games.
I have also included a link to a review that i believe every one of the developers on this project should watch and take to heart. It is a little more harsh than this email, but its funny as all hell!
http://www.escapistm...8-Dragon-Age-II

[Matdeception]

Much of what I'd like to say has already been said. There is however on aspect I'd like to toss in.

Subtitles: There are currently three settings; None, Conversation Only, Conversation and Ambient Dialogue.

All well and good, but some players, such as I, want an option for Ambient Dialogue only. Conversations are up there, in your face, you don't particularly need it unless you are hearing impaired. Also, and this may be just me, but I become irritated if the subtitles are on in conversations as I find my eyes less and less focused on the characters themselves but instead the text above the screen.

Ambient dialogue however, is off to the side, over there, at the mercy of taking place far far away to where you normally wouldn't even see it taking place. So you'd need to have Conversation and Ambient Dialogue on in order to see it.

To the point; Please consider an Ambient Dialogue Only option for subtitles in future games/installements.

Thank you.

[Sevuz]

HawXV2 wrote...

NOTICE: THIS  POST IS NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF ALL FEEDBACK. PLEASE READ USERS POSTS IN THIS THREAD FOR MORE SPECIFIC FEEDBACK. THIS IS SIMPLY A GENERALIZATION.


 Ok, now that we who own the game have a forum to post in, let's do BioWare a favor and post what is really wrong with a great game without being trolled.



Re-used maps

...Really nothing to say here.


Enemy encounters

Why do they randomly appear? In Origins, you guys had it perfectly. Behind a door they would come streaming, or when you turn the corner, bam! Darkspawn! Now, they just...apear. Literally. I've defeated many a wave quickly, just to see a warrior phase through like Star Trek! Very immersion breaking.


Rogue-type enemies


They're so overpowered! They'll disappear and one shot my healer, or if they don't, they'll half my tank's health! And there seems to be no CD. Tsk Tsk!

Linearernessed...uh...Linearreerrr...It feels too one-track minded

Don't get me wrong, the style of story telling was very good, and the story itself was superior to Origins in my opinion, but it just felt...pushed along. In Origins, it felt like you could do anything at anytime. In this one, I just felt like I had to everything in this order. 

The feel

It didn't feel as big as Origins, which is sort of a give-in. It's only based in Kirikwall, which is a setting that looks simply stunning, but it just has to have more places to go to. It loses it's epic feeling when you stay in one place. Expand upon it!

Enemy deaths

Some of these are just ludicrous. I stab a guy in the back and he explodes? What? This does feel a bit childish, and only leads to more immersion breaking. 

Junk

It's...junk? Yay? I just killed a dragon and I get...junk? This has potential, such as possible lore, backstories and stuff. You can even make it a sidequest. Rebuild an ancient Elven weapon or dwarven armor. The way it is now, it's just taking up disc space and has to go.

Auto-Attack

Nothing much to say, just need a toggle for some of us. I like both ways, though.

Companions

What's that, Alistair? You're a bastard?! Oh noes! Leliana, that lady will KILL YOU! Add in some LI dialogue, BioWare! I really would've fallen in love with Isabella if she would've told me about life at sea, or Fenris if he would've explained about his Lyrium skin, or life in Tevinter. I think you guys did wonderful with the romance dialouge itself, but I would like to personally know them.

Armor

We need more of it! Give us armor sets. Origins had a ton. In this game, it's 3. Although this does add to the legendary feel of it, we just want more choices. Also, ditch the colorful basic plate armor. It doesn't feel warrior like at all. The kind from Origins was perfect, it had a great color. It's not the armor style, it's the color.

Friendly Fire toggle

Some of us want FF on levels like hard, where combat isn't as tough as NM, or as easy as normal. Personally, I hate it, but the people want what they want!

Darkspawn

I'm sort of sleepy while putting this, but these designs are horrible. The original were much better, and a lot scarier. What happened to Genlock and Shurlock? Did Hurlocks get jealous and slaughter them all? Just bring back the old designs and put back in Genlocks and Shurlocks.

2 stat requirements

See Dave of Canada's post on page 12. He summed it up far better than I can.

Interface

A lot of people don't like the new interface. It just doesn't scream RPG. It seems a bit too modern. The look of Origins was fantastic. Let's go back to it.

Would like to be seen:

CPU interactions

Nothing really intricate, but if I run into somebody, I want to see them stumble and grunt angrily, maybe even curse at me. If I get into a fight, I want civilians running away, or guards helping out.

 Weather

Does it ever rain or snow in Thedas? I want to see this. It would help greatly with the RPG experience.

Change log:
3/15/11: Added Exploding enemies
3/15/11: Added Inventory Junk
3/15/11: Added Auto-Attack 
3/15/11: Added Dialogue (for companions)
3/15/11: Added Armor color
3/15/11: Added FF toggle for Hard
3/15/11: Added Arcane Warrior
3/15/11: Added Darkspawn Designs
3/15/11: Removed Arcane Warrior. It was decided that not having it made a lot of sense lore wise, and just shows BioWare's intelligence in lore design.
3/16/11: Added 2 stat requirements
3/16/11: Added Interface design
3/16/11: Added CPU interactions
3/16/11: Added Weather
3/16/11: New section! What would like to be seen.
( I'm going to find a more effecient way for this log soon)


I'm sure there are other gripes from other people. If you post them, I'll add them here, as I'm sure these aren't the only problems people don't like. But most people need to agree with it, as what you may find fault with, many others may like.

Ok, constructively complain away, guys.

I agree 95%

[BluGirl1968]

Okay, I have tried to be good about this but......in the cut scene in Hawke's house after Hadriana and subsequent events.....When Fenris is apologising - take his hand out from in front of his face please and lower it beneath his chin. The "hand in front of the face" is body language for "I am lying". Given context and after pushing Fenris' character through all sorts of relationships - he does not lie. I am sorry to bring this little thing up. >.<

[WoodyWoodrow]

Reposted from a thread of mine that sank:

*****Minor Origins Spoilers*****

While listening to dorky history podcasts about siege warfare I came up with an idea. One of my favorite parts of Origins was in the final battle how you could use the different armies of Ferelden as "call-in" powers. Why not try and implement this on a larger scale? The Dragon Age series already has a political element to it, and a tactical element, why not expand on both of these and the idea of choice at the same time?

How about a part near the end of the game where the player must besiege a city, but must position their troops in a way that takes the cities with the fewest casualties? Then have the outcome of the battle affect your standing with different factions? For example: You send a cadre of dwarves to the main gate and they get massacred, so later on the dwarves hold your character responsible and either withdraw support or outright turn on you? Or maybe you could be the one moving troops around your city and the areas destroyed have to be rebuilt by you after the battle? I thought Fable 3 approached this idea with a good concept, but it shouldn't be so easy to rebuild a city from your own personal coffer. Should this be a series of decisions like the suicide mission in ME 2 or a fully developed minigame where the player moves groups of units around like the would party members in regular combat?

I am not a game designer and do not claim to be one either. I really think the guys and gals at Bioware did a great job with expanding on ME 2 mini-game/diversions (hunting pyjaks) and I would love to see what the community has for ideas on expanding this as a change of pace. Feel free to chime in. All ideas are welcome, but please be mature and respectful towards others ideas.

[BeefoTheBold]

After 81 pages of posts I'm guessing most of the game specific constructive criticism has already been said. I think I'll focus on some more general criticism.

First, a quote from someone who was pretty good at writing stories and creating atmospheres.

The true genius shudders at incompleteness - and
usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it
should be.

-Edgar Allan Poe

I'm sure that a million people have said this already, but no matter what design decisions you choose, no matter what game you make, FINISH IT before releasing it. Bioware has developed a truly alarming tendency of late to put up buggy, unfinished and underdeveloped products.

But beyond that, my biggest suggestion to Bioware would be to figure out who your target audience is, because right now it honestly seems like you don't know the answer to that question. In previous years, the answer was very obvious. Bioware wanted to be the gold-standard RPG maker. They catered to the demographic that had the following characteristics in general:

1. Strongly preferred singleplayer gaming
2. Prioritized lengthy immersive storylines over everything else, be it exciting combat or flashy graphics.
3. Were willing to wait as long as it took for a game to be polished before release and did not mind if release dates slipped as a consequence.
4. Loved character realism more than "oh snap" experiences. Ideally, one would lead to the other.
5. Wanted their choices to matter and have significant and real consequences. 
6. Preferred tactical, slower paced but intelligent combat to faster paced "exciting" combat.
7. More or less do the majority of their gaming by themselves. (Sorry to anyone offended, but I think this is a true statement. RPG gamers are, I think, a little more introverted by nature.)
8. LIKED large amounts of customization options. Having them doesn't "slow down the action". It's a part of the action.

I could go on, but you get the idea. It was very clear what type of gamer Bioware wanted. Since the EA acquisition, there have been a host of developments that have moved away from this.

1. Decision to make the next Knights of the Old Republic an MMO instead of a true RPG sequel.
2. Seriously...a FACEBOOK Dragon Age game?
3. Mass Effect 2 was significantly "streamlined", read "stripped of RPG elements" compared to its predecessor. it was a shooter masquerading as an RPG.
4. Awakenings was short and extremely buggy, and carried over very little from your choices in DAO.
5. Witch Hunt was an abomination. One long, gigantic **** tease.
6. And so was The Arrival...and buggy to boot.
7. Dragon Age 2 was specifically changed to appeal to a different gaming demographic

Once again, I could go on, but the point is that Bioware's identity seems to have changed and the gamer they are targeting has DEFINITELY changed. So, if I had one piece of advice to offer Bioware it would be this:

Choose your target audience.

If it's no longer gamers like me, then that's fine. I understand. Gamers like the one I described above are not the mass market. At one time, Bioware seemed to prefer absolutely owning a niche market to being another "also ran" in a larger market. If that's no longer the case, be it for financial or other reasons, then this is understandable. Bioware is, above all, a company out to make a profit.

But quit with the half measures. If you're truly intending to "dump" your longstanding significant other (your original audience) then do it.

Alternatively, if you ARE going to try and date two people at once (which I admit I have to say is something of the Bioware way given how many times it has been possible in the past with Bioware's games!) then separate it out. Instead of making two hybrid games where you can't decide which audience to target, make one game for each audience but DECLARE IT.

Don't lie to your customers by marketing Dragon Age 2 as, DRAGON AGE 2. Call it something else. Make it abundantly clear that you're not making an RPG like DAO.

I know many people in this forum will question how anyone could be surprised by this. Well, for me, in the past I had such trust in Bioware that I deliberately tried to avoid details, previews, etc. of upcoming Bioware releases because I didn't want ANYTHING to spoil my surprises.

It was not unreasonable to expect that a game with the same name as one that I loved would be the same TYPE of game as the one I loved. And that's where I think you're seeing so much of the rage that is being vented on this forum. You gave an action game button masher an RPG game's name. I swear there were times when I was playing DA2 that I thought I was playing Dynasty Warriors or something.

So, to summarize:

1. Pick your target audience. Don't try and cut the calf in half.
2. If you're going to target a different audience, do it with a new IP. Don't leverage an existing IP and bamboozle people.
3. If you're going to try and do two audiences at once, don't do it in the exact same game.