35 réponses à ce sujet

[pablosplinter]

Capital of Orlais. Like many before release, I was looking forward to exploring this place that seemed really interesting.

 

I am genuinely intrigued as to what happened here...I mean, it is little more than a small courtyard with a few NPCs and stalls. The whole area just seems odd to me. There are like 4 or 5 fast travel points right next to each other for some reason, an upper courtyard with barely anything there, loads of unopenable doors, no interiors, barely any side quests.

 

So what do we think happened with Val Royeaux? Did they have more content but cut it out? Surely it wasn't always planned like this?...the whole thing just seems really bizarrely designed to me.

 

PS. Related to a similar issue I have, that I think the game badly needs a big city to explore imo.

 

Cheers

[Chadness]

I was hoping for a bit more, as well. At least they give you a reason to go back after Skyhold, since many of the furnishing options are purchased there. But, given the amount of other content in the game, I can't really complain too much.

[pablosplinter]

But, given the amount of other content in the game, I can't really complain too much.

That is actually one of the weird things about it...So much detail and content in the game, and what you would expect to be one of the showpieces seems to be a complete afterthought.

[Tinu]

They probably had to focus on either one of the zones or Val Royeaux. Having put a lot of effort in all the zones makes it understandable, they had to cut down on the city. Also since DA2 was mainly in one city, they wanted to shift the focus as much as possible. Besides Skyhold is almost like a city! 

[Yuoaman]

I definitely would have liked to explore more of Val Royeaux, but honestly it's probably only a little smaller than Denerim was in DAO. I suspect that it may eventually be populated with DLC quests, but who knows what Bioware has planned on that front.

[herkles]

I understand that the part we are seeing is basically the courtyard for nobles/visiting digintaries, which is what we deal with there. That said I really wished that we had a full zone for the city. Hopefully there is a DLC that shows the true extent of the city.

[Fladnag the Fab]

That is actually one of the weird things about it...So much detail and content in the game, and what you would expect to be one of the showpieces seems to be a complete afterthought.

 

Well that is the thing, it is much easier to create detailed wilderness areas because you can reuse a lot of assets without people really noticing and you can pre-generate a lot of it, throw in a few different lighting and weather effects and the area looks totally different, sprawling cities on the other hand are a bit harder as to create as to create unique looking areas you do need more unique assets that you might have a hard time reusing in other areas, plus creating a good looking city requires more hand placed detail so it is a bit more work than creating sprawling wilderness areas.

[Mission]

I was hoping to explore the grand cathedral....

[Nash Latkje]

Smaller than even Kirkwall? Rather unbecoming of an imperial capital.

[Fladnag the Fab]

I was hoping to explore the grand cathedral....

 

Me too, was really hoping to see the Mad Hermit there, he always did want to see it.

[pablosplinter]

Well that is the thing, it is much easier to create detailed wilderness areas because you can reuse a lot of assets without people really noticing and you can pre-generate a lot of it, throw in a few different lighting and weather effects and the area looks totally different, sprawling cities on the other hand are a bit harder as to create as to create unique looking areas you do need more unique assets that you might have a hard time reusing in other areas, plus creating a good looking city requires more hand placed detail so it is a bit more work than creating sprawling wilderness areas.

That is a fair point, even if I'm not entirely convinced... You got to admit it is still strangely designed though. The fast travel points all next to each other for a start.

[Rogerpenna]

I would accept Val Royeaux better if it was a small area, but made to look as if INSIDE a much larger city.

 

However, that is not what happens and thus I agree this city was a complete afterthought, which is a shame considering it´s importance in Thedas and how beautiful the art direction for the city is.

 

 

Why it doesn´t look like the area you can visit is inside a much larger city?

 

For a start, there is that small corridor with statues where you start, and looking outside, what you see? A bridge with water around and wilderness in the distance.

 

Then across the small square, what do you have? DOCKS. WIth only water after them. Which means that it doesn´t look like there is a city before the statues corridor nor after the docks. Well, maybe up and down (on the map)?

 

Then you use the fast travel points and go to the terraces of the city.

 

What do you see? The city capital you are at is NOTHING MORE than that little thing you see. Beyond it, there is only water (a square of water) and mountains very close by (they are faked to look farther away).

 

REALLY?

 

Bioware could have easily created created a big fake low poly city extending over hills on the other side of the lake (connected by bridges to the area you are. You see that in plenty of games... fake cities that are little more than the roofs and towers extending to the distance. Yeah, it´s still a bummer than you wouldn´t be able to explore it, but at least it wouldn´t be such an IMMERSION BREAKER that it is to see the whole of Val Royeaux from the terraces and realize it´s ONLY that little public square and surrounding buildings.

 

Might sound strange, but it would be imperative to me that one of the first things Bioware should patch is this... but really, to me at least, it´s a big big immersion breaker. I think Bioware could create graphical assets to make Val Royeaux to look bigger in less than 1 week.... and just add them in a patch and make the mountains look more distant. 

[Abaddon_86]

Yeah, first I was like: Wow, Val Royeaux, must be huge, maybe even Athkatla-style big or that city in Witcher 1.

When I finally got there, imagine my face.

[yummysoap]

Was disappointed myself. I was really hopeful that one of the advertised huge explorable regions would be a massive city environment, and I was hoping that would be Val Royeaux. Oh well, maybe next game.

[Rogerpenna]

and to think I once thought no capital city in the history of RPGs could put me down more than the village considered to be the Imperial City of Tamriel, lol

 

examples of what I was talking above: (are we allowed to post photos on the forum? If yes, then instead of a link I might post the image itself)

 

 

Thief. Look at this image. A sprawling city stretching to the hilly horizon. However, you can actually only explore those detailed buildings you see. Beyond the detailed buildings, you see the buildings are somewhat blurry. That´s scenery only. But still, it gives you the impression of being a massive city.

http://assets.vg247....-city-hub-3.jpg

 

Mirror's Edge: skyscrapers extending as far as you can see. But the explorable area in each level is actually only composed of a few blocks/highrises at a time. The rest is low detailed scenery

http://images.bit-te...-review/b10.jpg

 

The examples are endless... Dunwall in Dishonored, City 17 in Half Life 2... all of those cities LOOK much bigger than any level you explore really is. The levels confine you to a small part of the city but they still make you think you are in a huge city.

[LordOfScorn]

It did kind of have an odd layout. It looks like they set it up to contain more, but either had to cut it out or use it for placeholding later content. However, if you actually go to the top balcony and look out across the water, you can see more of the city building tops in the distance, indicating it is a much bigger place than what it initially seems.

[Rogerpenna]

ok... maybe they DID try to make what I was talking above. But what the hell?

 

 

in blue: are those supposed to be hillside favelas or just low resolution rocky faces on the hills?

 

in orange: why the hell are the towers from the rest of the city SO LOW?? It looks like this litlle lake we are on is some 100 meters (at least) above the rest city, if we can only see a few spires of the tallest cathedrals and towers!

[Kerrija]

Damn you! Now everytime I visit this place I will have to look at the background and be disappointed. Up till now I was just fine with looking exclusively at the presented area of the market and just imagined larger masses of people.

 

Thanks alot

[wildkeny]

I cannot agree more. Val Royearux is a huge disappointment. It's even smaller than Redcliff Village. And even in the area that we can explore, it looks not as detailed as other maps.

[Heimdall]

I'm guessing they realized that making the whole massive city would be much more resource intensive and require more art assets than the wilderness areas. Then they realized that very little of the plot they planned would actually be taking place there, so they prioritized.
Would like an expansion of it though.

[Han Shot First]

I was a little disappointed in Val Royeux as well. The part we saw looked great, it was just far too small. The Inquisitor only visits one small section of the city. I would have rather Bioware cut one or two of those optional side quest maps in the wilderness and instead used those resources to expand Val Royeux into a large and vibrant place, with many side quests of its own.

 

Hopefully one of the DLCs will expand the city map and provide more to do there.

[Ozzy]

Yeah, it was pretty underwhelming. I was sure we weren't going to get a repeat of DAO's Denerim but lo and behold....

[Elfyoth]

It is small becouse it is only one area of the city, the summer bazzar

[hwlrmnky]

It's just one teeny section of the city, right?

[RepHope]

Yeah I was very unimpressed with what was shown. Would rather they'd cut one of the more useless zones and work on Val Roy.