Aside from a couple of Brock's posts some time earlier, I've only read the dev posts, so pardon me for not taking any current discussion into account.
First of all I've got to say, Mike & co., the stuff you write reads well and all of it (content, tone, its sheer existence) is really appreciated. While I can't say that a couple of mere posts have managed to regain my trust, I'm surprised to say that after all this time it almost feels like the good old times again, at least in this particular thread. Now if only the girls would jump back in...
So, a couple of things that stood out to me in reading through this thread's dev posts:
Kirkwall. Yes, it's got some pretty landmarks, but that post raised some alarm flags for me. DA2's camera is worse than those of all those 3D platformers over a decade ago that kept getting flak for their cameras in close spaces. When not playing a melee char it's positively broken! And even if it weren't: I want my lucid top-view back. Frankly I haven't encountered a single area in DA2 that struck me as impossible with the tactical camera's "design restrictions".
Waves. I doubt I've ever felt as pissed in my gaming life as during the second half of the feelingly never-ending waves right before you meet Fenris. I've said it before, I'll say it again, waves aren't bad per se if used sparingly, when they make sense (most boss battles and a few other times) and as long as they don't parachute out of thin air.
Unexpectedly enough, if DA2 weren't uninstalled and my HDD space ever scarce, your description of Legacy would've actually made me give it a try. So, still no buy now, but it's rather likely now if I ever decide to re-install DA2 (or especially if you end up doing a DLC sale).
I've already had my say on party armor in that other thread, but it boils down to one thing: I remember your reasons for "becoming" armor instead of literally wearing it (memory, basically), but changing that would still get rid of most problems both DA:O's and DA2's extreme positions pose. The decision still kind of baffles me as it was clearly made when Dragon Age was still supposed to be a PC (first/only) game/series. I suspect what you really need is a new engine.
Speaking of wearing stuff: DA2's blink-and-you'll-miss-it clothed fumbling wasn't mature by any meaning of the word, it was prude and childish. I don't care if the unique models or fear from Fox or anything else was to blame, they were simply silly. DA:O's sex scenes were largely criticized for the underwear-wearing and the animations and models not looking real enough. The solution would have been either to work on it a lot (c.f. The Witcher 2, but I realize that'd most likely be deemed too explicit) or to work on it a bit and use clever camera angles (c.f. ME1 or even ME2), not to cut them altogether in all but name.
Which reminds me: Underwear double standards. Absolutely not cool. At all. (Same goes for female characters' dislocated hip.)
And the one huge thing yet to be addressed by you to be a discussion in-house: player character races. I'd already resigned myself to never being able to play anything but humans in (non-TOR) BioWare games ever again, but given what you've written so far, a tiny spark of hope has reignited, so: Please!! OTZ
And since it's related: a non-voiced protagonist that isn't a warning figure against botox would still be my ideal, but since the voiced protagonist and the wheel are here to stay: I know it isn't economical, but at least two voices each (one moderately high, one moderately low) for male and female PC's would go a long way to reduce role-playing disconnect. And please, for the love of the Maker, stop paraphrasing with expressions that aren't part of the complete text.
Also, different team and all, but I can't help but feel excited about TOR*, but the timing's likely to be bad for a subscription for me, so I won't be able to play it at release and waaaaaaahh~~~... (
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(*Although I would have preferred there to have been a KotOR3 to finish Revan and the Exile's story before that, and for KotOR2 to have all the game content it was supposed to have, and for IWD2 to have the game system it was supposed to have, and, and, and... but this way of thinking leads nowhere, so one's got to look forward.)
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the faces they make
