1898 réponses à ce sujet

[Grieving Natashina]

And some have less 10 banters in 100 hours.  That would average out to once every 10-12 hours of game play.   That sound right to you?

 

There is a recorded twitch stream provided by one of the posters that clearly shows the hours and hours of no banter between companions.  I can provide the link for you if you wish, but it's in this thread.

 

Oh and as far as not expecting banter to repeat, if you care to read Conal's post, he even said flat out that banter is not supposed to repeat, and that you're not supposed to hear the same line more than once during the course of that game.

 

It's not happening to you.  Awesome, I'm honestly glad to hear it.   I'm not being sarcastic when I say that.  It sucks, to be honest and it takes away from a lot of the enjoyment of the game.  I wouldn't wish this on anyone.  

 

However, next time please take a few minutes to read this and the other thread.  Also, considering that a lot of news sites are reporting this, and the players keep coming in here; the Feedback thread; and on the EA Answers forum, there is a lot of folks experiencing this.  

[Chewbacca99]

Half the "bugs" reported aren't.
They're just individuals that think a game should do X, and when it doesn't it's a bug.
 
Someone may expect party banter to be near continuous, some may expect to never hear the same banter repeated even once, some may expect banter every 30 seconds, etc. etc etc.

Urm... Sorry, did you read any of the other posts? This comment is distinctly unhelpful. People are reporting hours without a single banter. That is definitely not expected behavior.

[Grieving Natashina]

This just came in from the other thread:

 

I had some luck in the Forbidden Oasis last night, had five party banters during the span of three hours exploring. I don't know what have 'fixed' the game for me, I think I looked through the journal/codex so I wouldn't have any unread texts. Still no combat music.

 

After looking at some playthrough videos that were silent I started to wonder if there was supposed to be any combat music at all. For example, VGFAQ's video is silent. To be fair, it's possible that they have turned the volume of the music down completely. But other videos have background music and combat music, and wow. It really brings another dimension to the fights. I haven't experienced music like that, at least.

 

I've put the silent video and the one with sound back to back, comparing the early Hinterlands quest Templars to the West.

 

https://www.youtube....Z4mZleKjg#t=498

(kudos)

 

https://www.youtube....82IRnRSaM#t=726

 

[Stendard9]

 

This just came in from the other thread:

 

In 25 hours I've never heard of this combat theme. Never. 

[SomberXIII]

This topic is going to go bats.

My thought exactly.

[Suhiira]

However, next time please take a few minutes to read this and the other thread.

 

Urm... Sorry, did you read any of the other posts? This comment is distinctly unhelpful. People are reporting hours without a single banter. That is definitely not expected behavior.

 

I take it you failed to read my post ... please note the word "half".

I am not, and did not say some people aren't having problems.

[SomberXIII]

Party banter bugs never happened to me. That's a lucky thing. I got over 60 conversations, just in 70 hours playthrough.

[Milan92]

 

This just came in from the other thread:

 

 

I keep reading people saying that they have no combat music. I guess I'm one of those lucky ones that do?

[WilhelmFolland]

In the interest of providing some of the more helpful user reports in a way that's easier to find I'm going to be quoting some choice posts from the other thread so you don't have to read 70+ pages.

 

Detailed player gameplay notes

 

Spoiler

Sister Goldring

Spoiler

So here's what I have from the silent companions this morning.

 

9.50 - I tried out Val Royeaux.  There was no music and no banter at all.  I was there for 1/2 an hour-ish.

 

So then back to the Hinterlands to wander around pointlessly.

 

10.23 - Fast travel to camp.  No music.

10.27 - Combat no music, no companion combat speech.

10.28 - Combat no music, no companion combat speech.

10.29 - Exploration  - no music.

10.31 - Music cut in and plays in combat.

10.32 - Cassandra and Solas comment about plot point

10.33 - Music cuts out

10.34 - Weird audio noises heard like mumbling venatori but no-one present or nearby.

10.35 - Music starts while idle

10.45 - Combat music cuts out.

10.51 - Music starts in exploration

10.52 - Varric and Solas plot point discussion

10.53 - Music cuts out in exploration

10.59 - Music start in exploration

 

End of session.

 

Ok, so my remarkably silent companions were as expected silent.  Two conversations relating to major plot point recently finalised and nothing that could be considered casual banter at all.  That's pretty consistent with my remembered experiences earlier in the game.  They have next to nothing to say to each other.

 

Later on I'll try the horse/rest fix with the same party and see if it loosens anyone's tongue but to be honest it's just too boring to do at the moment again.  I'll kill something a work my way back around to it.   

 

 

Merchant2006 1

Spoiler

 

6 Hour Test [PC]

 

• Hinterlands: 1 hour, no music. No commentary between Blackwall, Solas & Varric.
• Western Approach for 4 hours, minimal to little music. Only music that played was during Dragon Battle. No conversations at all. Some ambient music but it vanishes. After 30 mins, music had completely stopped. Battle music played during Griffons Keep Assault.
• Added Cole to party (who I have never used before) and only spoke during the quest inside Time-Frozen Venatori Base (commented on surroundings).
• Cole commented during battle with Dragon in Western Approach and said "it's very close!" or something along those lines.
• No Val Royaux music. Hopped around for 1 hour. Quick Travelled back and forth between all regions (and returning to VR). Again, no Music. Pure Silence.
• Blackwall, Solas & Cole have not spoken to one another for almost 3 hours now. It's depressing.  

 

Possible Fixes that.. didn't fix:

• Changed audio volume for all sliders - Yielded no results.
• Post-60 hours, tried volume sliders again, no change.
• Post-60 hours, changed audio from speakers to headset - No discernable and noteworthy changes in companion dialogue. Ambient Music in Western Approach plays more than Hinterlands, unknown if related to settings being changed. ValRo is still silent, no music plays when arriving or idling.
• Repairing Game (via Origin Client) - No Results.
• Disabling Origin Ingame - My origin ingame has been disabled since the start due to Xsplit incompatability, but apparently this helps music play. Alas, perhaps thats why I'm having music play too.
• Disabling Anti-Virus - Unknown.
• Disabling settings under "Account" i.e. Disable Share Data / Upload Data / Auto Login - Unknown, but others have noted this causes the music & party banter to play.
• Reinstalling - Didn't work.

 

Current playthrough time: 65 hours 45 minutes. 

 

I'm going to reinstall the game and run another test to see if a fresh install fixes the party banter issue. Will run test over a 2 hour period and note down times of when companions speak. To avoid companions running out of conversations I'm going to use Cole, Solas & Blackwall (as I have only heard Blackwall speak to Solas TWICE). 

 

I will post here again with my results. 

 

Download time ETA: 45 minutes.

 

During 2 hours I'll spend 20 mins in ValRo, 40 mins Hinterlands, 1 hr Western Approach. Also will note down loading times too, just for the sake of it not adding space between gameplay as... loading screens shouldn't count. If I have more time, I'll run a test for up to 4 hours!

 

If reinstall fails (which judging by several people who have posted earlier, it shouldn't) I'll test out:

 

- Disabling Anti-Virus

- Disabling all under Settings -> Account.

- Disabling Origin in-game.

 

------------------------------------------------
System Specs:

Intel i7 4790K OC'd @ 4.7GHz

8GB Corsair Vengeance Pro 2133MHz

2GB EVGA GTX 770 SC

Asus Z97-K CrossFireX MB

--------------------------------------------------

 

UPDATE: Check this post http://forum.bioware...ews/?p=17901815for more information on my 1 hour Western Approach test, which... yeilded nothing. It's detailed, but it didn't work. 

 

 

Merchant2006 2

Spoiler

 

[1 Hour Western Approach Test - PC]

 

http://forum.bioware...ews/?p=17900038

 

^ Please Visit there to see my earlier post [bottom of page 51 of this thread]

 

I'm doing as many tests as possible, please beware... this post is going to detail everything I did over a 1 hour period and note down when music chimed in and when companions spoke, and what settings I was running at the time.

 

Test started at 17:06 GMT and ended 18:15 GMT approximately (69 minutes... heh... 69, heh heh).

 

Settings: Graphics all set on Max. 

Audio: Headphones, Volume 100%, Subtitles for Conversation & Ambient.

 

GAME TIME: 68 hours 54 Minutes

 

Reinstalled Game (fresh install)!

 

System Specs:

Intel i7 4790K OC'd @ 4.7GHz

8GB Corsair Vengeance Pro 2133MHz

2GB EVGA GTX 770 SC

Asus Z97-K CrossFireX MB

Driver: 344.75

 

 

VAL ROYEAUX 

 

17:06:00 Loading Val Royeaux (10 Seconds)

Companions: Solas, Blackwall, Cole.

17:06:10 - 17:12:00 Running around - No Music 

17:12:34 - Leaving Val Royeaux, Heading to Western Approach [Total Time Spent 6 minutes, no companion conversations]

 

WESTERN APPROACH

 

17:13:00 - Music (10 seconds)

17:16:15 - Music (15 seconds)

17:18:00 - Music (10 seconds)

17:18:50 - Exit Cave, Music played (35 seconds)

17:23:10 - Music (10 seconds)

17:24:00 - Went into Settings -> Account | Disabled all 3 options and changed Audio to HOME THEATER.

17:24:20 - Music (40 seconds)

17:26:20 - Music (50 seconds)

17:28:00 - Music (30 seconds, whats going on)

17:29:00 - Hopped onto Horse Mount and jumped off 22 seconds later.

17:29:57 - Music (18 seconds)

17:31:30 - Changed Audio to TV and music played for 30 seconds

17:33:31 - Music (42 seconds)

17:34:30 - Swapped Team to Iron Bull, Dorian & Blackwall

17:35:50 - Music (10 seconds)

17:36:40 - Fought NPCs

17:38:10 - Music (10 seconds post fight)

17:42:47 - Music (15 seconds)

17:44:00 - Changed Audio to HOME THEATER & volume at 80%

17:45:00 - Attacked Darkspawn outside of Griffons Keep - Companion Dialogue [Inquisitor: Where did they come from? | Iron Bull: We can find out.]

17:49:00 - No Music or dialogue for 4 minutes.

17:49:35 - Entered Cave below Griffons Keep, Music played for 40 seconds.

17:51:00 - Hide Helmet (I'm really getting desperate here hahaha)

17:51:54 - Still in Cave, spotted Well rope and climbed up into Keep, Music Chime for 4 seconds.

17:52:20 - Quick Travel to Lost Camp

17:52:36 - Music (24 seconds)

17:53:35 - Changed team to Cassandra, Varric and Solas.

17:54:00 - Changed Audio to NIGHT.

17:54:22 - Music (52 seconds)

 

I've noticed that... changing the audio settings somehow makes the music play longer? And then the time the ambient music plays reduces significantly over time. I don't know why. But I'm seeing a pattern here. Or maybe I'm picking at straws.

 

17:56:16 - Music (12 seconds) yeah something is definitely wrong here.

17:57:23 - Music (27 seconds) oookay.

17:58:48 - Music (57 seconds) a new RECORD!!!

17:59:50 - Disabled Anti-Virus for 20 minutes and restarted game.

18:00:50 - Loaded Game

18:01:00 - Changed Audio to HOME THEATER and volume at 90%

18:02:25 - Entered Griffons Keep via Metal Doors (main entrance), Music plays for 34 seconds.

18:03:25 - Picked up Book (codex) on top floor of Griffons Keep near Potions Table, DIALOGUE! Inquisitor says "We should be prepared, a cornered beast is dangerous" or something like that.

18:04:15 - Game Saved

18:05:28 - Music (30 seconds)

18:07:09 - Approaching Darkspawn Fume Cloud area north of Griffons Keep, music plays for 35 seconds.

18:08:30 - Music (22 seconds)

18:09:30 - Found Shard Skull Scanner North of Griffons Keep, post-scan music plays for 19 seconds.

18:11:35 - Changed Audio to TV and volume back at 100%

18:12:19 - Music plays for 44 seconds, but around 18:12:50 music crackles and pops, strange audio skip sound while I'm running back to Griffons Keep

18:13:50 - QT back to camp, music plays at 18:14:24 for 27 seconds.

18:15:35 - Travel to Hinterlands, cry to myself for wasting my time and go off to eat dinner.

 

Overall Game Time: 70 hours 11 minutes

 

So, there you have it. The ambient music plays intermittently as you explore through the region, but none of my companions, none of them whatsoever decide to speak to one another. There is no dialogue between anybody. I also noticed I do NOT get any "full tracks" playing, music cuts off after 20 - 40 seconds depending on what track it is, and there are several. I also heard one particularly lengthy track which did not repeat in the 1 hour I was mindlessly exploring Western Approach.

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

So here is a summary of what I did in the 69 minutes which didn't work.

 

1) Disabled Antivirus

2) Changed Audio settings

3) Disabled Origin Ingame

4) Disabled Account settings which upload data / feedback / login

5) Changed party members and idled for long periods of time

6) Constantly entered caves, structures to trigger dialogue.

7) Reinstalled the game

8) Rode on mount & dismounted. Manually hopped off horse, and then ran into bandits who shot me off horse. 

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

Things I have not attempted:

 

1) Suicide (Ha Ha notfunny)

2) Changing my mount in Skyhold which I shall do before I run my 1 hour Hinterlands test.

 

The reason I did all of this was to find out whether all these other things people have done actually will work for me. They didn't. Unfortunately.

 

Back in another 2 hours or so! Wish me... luck.

 

Update: Running Tests in Hinterlands - Will Change my mount and will swap party members every 25 minutes. test will run for approximately 1 hour. 

 

Update 2: I have suspicions that party banter is higher in Crestwood / Storm Coast and others have suggested I go there. I'll prioritise Storm Coast and get back to you all in the next 2 hours. 

 

 

Merchant2006 3

Spoiler

 

[Storm Coast Banter Test] - Appx 3 hours

 

Okay guys, I did a major test on the Storm Coast which lasted... a long time... and it yielded some interesting results. I'm pretty damn tired right now but... here we go!

 

Party: Cole, Blackwall, Solas

 

19:27 - Enter Storm Coast

19:27:55 - Music (30 seconds)

19:29:30 - Dialogue! Cole: "One by one..." Blackwall Response.

19:32 - Music (18s)

19:34:22 - Fought undead, music plays after (15s)

19:35:48 - Music (44s)

19:39:00 - Enter Mountain Cave SE of Blades of Hess Camp | Dialogue! Cole & Solas discuss, Blackwall says he doesn't understand.

19:39:50 - Music (24s)

19:41:00 - Audio Settings changed to HEADPHONES, 80% Master/SFX, 100% Music/Dialogue

19:41:20 - Music (10s)

19:42:00 - Exit Mountain Cave SE of Hess Camp.

19:42:50 - Music (28s)

19:44:55 - Music (22s)

19:46:00 - Toilet Break, hey I'm human! (120s)

19:49:40 - Approaching Coast near Sea, music (20s)

19:51:00 - Blackwall says "Everyone alright?" No response, I assume this is a combat phrase.. odd.

19:51:10 - Music (8s)

19:53:40 - Fought enemies inside cave, battled for 50s

19:55:00 - Music (20s)

19:55:45 - Heading to "Morrins Outlook"

19:57:07 - Music (5s)

19:57:21 - Dialogue! Solas doesn't seem like a Soldier according to Blackwall, they discuss soldier stuff.

19:58:08 - Music (28s) 

19:59:50 - Music (35s)

20:02:06 - Music (10s)

20:03:05 - Heading towards Great Cove area

20:03:25 - Music (39s)

20:05:20 - Music (37s)

20:06:13 - Music (7s)

20:07:58 - Music (17s)

20:09:10 - Music (19s)

20:11:10 - Avoiding Combat and gathering items

20:14:40 - Kill Bear 

20:15:10 - Music (25s)

20:16:40 - Enter Great Cove

20:17:00 - Music (30s)

20:17:45 - Paused (1 minute)

20:19:06 - Music (10s)

20:19:40 - Enter Long River

20:20:20 - Manually Rest at Small Grove Camp 

20:20:35 - Wow, rest music finally played!

20:20:45 - Music (20s)

20:21:20 - Companions changed to Cassandra, Varric & Solas 

20:22:00 - Cassandra says "It's done", I think this is a random combat phrase, same as Blackwall before. Very odd as no enemies near, nor any combat initiated.

20:24:11 - Attacking Hurlock & x2 Ghouls, Cassandra says "Hurlock will put up fight, stand ready!"

20:26:00 - Hurlock defeated

20:28:00 - Approaching Driftwood Margin Camp

20:28:15 - Music (41s)

20:28:55 - QT to Storm Solitude Camp

20:29:40 - Music (20s)

20:30:30 - Dialogue! Cassandra apologises to Varric for the "table" incident.

20:31:15 - Making way to Mountain Cave on SE of Blade Hess Camp (to possibly trigger dialogue)

20:32:30 - Great Cove entered

20:33:30 - QT Storm Solitude Camp

20:34:00 - Companions changed to Cassandra, Dorian & Iron Bull.

20:36:50 - Made it to Mountain Cave, no dialogue triggered. 

20:37:30 - Music (20s)

20:41:05 - Resting at Camp

20:47:50 - Loading Val Royeaux 

20:48:20 - Val Royeaux No Music 

20:49:00 - Back to Storm Coast

20:50:00 - Opened Journal, selected all of the Completed quests which had a yellow * next to it. Did the same with Current Quests & Collectables.

20:50:36 - Cassandra shouts "we are victorious", again, strange dialogue considering how I'm not in combat at all. 

20:51:30 - Music (30s)

20:52:22 - DIALOGUE! Same area as 19:29:30 (West of Storm Solitude Camp) between Iron Bull & Dorian.

20:53:20 - Dorian complains about being too close to the Sea Coast, making him seasick.

20:55:00 - Another odd dialogue shout by Cassandra (Victorious, as in 20:50:36)

20:56:08 - Reached Morning Outlook

20:58:00 - Music (80s) A super new record for ambient music!

21:00:45 - Companions changed to Sera, Solas & Viv

21:01:00 - Rest 

21:02:00 - Sera says "good on us, yeah?" another strange combat call.

21:03:30 - Kill some Darkspawn

21:04:10 - IDLE TEST TIME! [Wears Lazy Hat]

 

Note: At this point I know that the music works, I'm purely waiting around for Dialogue to begin and note down the times while I stay still. There are no "full themes" that play in the Storm Coast, however. Just small snippets of music during this period, which I can't be bothered to note down anymore haha 

 

21:12:00 - Companions swapped to Dorian, Viv & Cole - Please Note, I have NEVER used this party combination before, ever!

21:17:15 - Journal, Codex and Items all checked.

21:26:30 - Dialogue between Cole & Viv

21:33:00 - Dialogue between Cole & Viv

21:45:30 APPROXIMATE! - Dialogue between Cole & Viv

 

I decided to run around and do things for about 20 minutes and then stopped moving again, and then all hell broke loose.

 

22:03:00 - Dialogue between Cole & Dorian 

22:05:00 - Dialogue 2 minutes after between all 3 party members, ridiculous!

22:07:00 - Dorian & Viv dialogue, oh my god something is happening to my game, suddenly everyone is talking with each other!!!

22:13:00 - No dialogue so far. It's just music every 2 minutes or so. 

 

I really can't tell how or why everyone is suddenly talkative with one another but on average the dialogue happened every 20 minutes.

 

On the other hand, I think at this point in time I have exhausted most of Varric, Cassandra & Solas' dialogue. I am assuming that I must progress more in the story before they speak to each other. 

 

Well, that's as much as I can do for today. I'll use the same settings I have just now tomorrow when I go to the Hinterlands. I think Western Approach has no dialogue, perhaps some sort of script in that area prevents actual discussions from happening. Anyhow, hope this helps. 

 

For reference, a nutshell of what I did to achieve these results:

 

1) Audio - Headphones (volume level is irrelevant)

2) Origin Ingame Disabled

3) No Launch Commands have been entered (60fps, debugs etc)

4) Ran around killing enemies, idling, no questing.

5) Checked all of my Journal & Codex to make them "marked as read" so to speak.

6) Swapped companions when I felt that I had not had a particular group used before (Viv, Cole & Dorian is something I've never done). 

7) Game repaired on Origin

8) Latest Video Drivers. 

 

TOTAL GAME TIME AT THIS POINT: 73 HOURS AND 7 MINUTES

 

Tomorrow when I am in the Hinterlands, I will use the following groups:

 

1) Cassandra, Blackwall, Cole (30 mins)

2) Iron Bull, Varric, Vivienne (30 mins) and simply idle as much as possible to test out two things: Dialogue & Music only. I shall use the same settings as I did for the Storm Coast.

 

Till then everyone, keep testing and figuring stuff out. I'd like to think this might be helping people. 

Also, please refer to this for previous test results and outcomes:

 

First Test http://forum.bioware...ame/?p=17900038

 

Second Test (Western Approach Region) http://forum.bioware...ame/?p=17901815

 

 

Ceratius

Spoiler

 

alright. i have returned with some interesting results.

 

first of all, i have a recurring problem with the main menu of dragon age inquisition, which is to say: about half of the time, it lags horrendously, to the point where sometimes i have to kill it with task manager. thus, the easiest way for me to get into the game is to click the continue button and go from there -- i'll be the first to admit my computer isn't very powerful, but it runs in game with only a little lag at 30-40 fps. not sure if this is important, but w/e, there it is.

 

so this time i had to click the continue button. i loaded into my 40+ hr save in the exalted plains, which is where it gets a bit weird. i loaded into what appeared to be an ongoing varric/cassandra conversation about hawke -- and last time i loaded into the exalted plains i ended up in the midst of a dorian/cassandra convo. but continuing on, here are my results; i checked all the entries in the journal off last time i booted the game, not this time.

 

bear in mind through this whole thing i'm getting pretty regular combat music in fights, and a good amount of combat taunts from my companions.

 

8:53 - Loaded 40+ hour Exalted Plains save with male Qunari mage Inquisitor in the middle of Varric and Cassandra banter. Cassandra comments on the environment as soon as it's over.

8:54 - Loaded 4+ hour Hinterlands save with a different male Qunari mage Inquisitor.

8:59 - Music plays.

9:00 - Cassandra and Solas banter.

9:01 - Advanced to Inquisiton rank 2 after finishing the "Safeguards Against Looters" quest. Checked the journal, and I didn't get another 'quest completed' popup afterwards.

9:02 - Music plays.

9:04 - Music plays.

9:05 - Cassandra and Solas banter.

9:06 - Finished the "Trouble With Wolves" quest. Checked the journal, it popped up as completed again.

9:08 - Saved.

9:09 - Completed the "Failed to Deliver" quest. No additional completion popup when I checked the journal.

9:10 - Music plays.

9:11 - Cassandra comments "People here should leave the area, it's too dangerous." I found this particularly odd because she said much the same thing before and Varric responded, but this time he didn't.

9:12 - Music plays.

9:14 - Music plays.

9:20 - Music plays. I closed a fade rift at this point, which finished the "Rifts on the Outskirts" quest, and when I checked the journal I didn't get another quest completed popup.

9:23 - Music plays.

9:26 - Music plays.

 

--

 

9:27 - Loaded Exalted Plains save into Cassandra and Dorian banter that seemed to be already going by the time it was loaded, just as it had done the last two times. Immediately after, I got Varric and Cassandra banter.

9:28 - Music plays.

9:30 - Music plays.

9:33 - Music plays.

9:36 - Dorian and Cassandra banter. Very clearly a continuation of their banter at 9:27.

9:37 - Traveled to Val Royeaux. Still no music there, unfortunately.

 

this is going exclusively on the journal fix, and from what i remember before i was getting maybe one banter every two hours on average. this feels a lot more right to me -- i think the fact that i didn't have another banter with solas/cassandra/varric may be because i hadn't even done the main quest you're assigned right before heading into the hinterlands.

 

so this is two hours it's worked for me. just my two cents for right now 

 

 

 

"Fixed" Gameplay Info

Spoiler

 

Newest round of testing: All online settings are disabled, I loaded my second character, who just arrived in the Hinterlands. The save started in camp, I didn't fast-travel or rest. Then I clicked on every codex and journal entry.

While playing I ran around in circles, collected iron and elfroot, fought enemies when the respawned.

 

Shortly after the start I got a banter between Varric and Solas, unfortunately I didn't check my watch.

20:23 Banter Solas - Cass

20:24 Cass comments on the environement

20:25 music

20:28 music

20:31 music

20:34 music

20:36 music

20:36 Banter Varric - Solas

20:38 Solas comments after a fight

20:39 music

20:42 music

20:44 music

20:48 music

20:49 Banter Varric - Solas - Cass

 

So the music starts approximately every three minutes, the banter every 13? Is that how it should be? There still isn't any combat music, should there be any? Has it been confirmed? There weren't many combat comments, but more than I had before.

 

 

Spoiler

This afternoon's playthrough saw four bits of banter in a bit over two and a half hours, one of which appears to have been from a contextual trigger.  Two of the remaining three pieces of banter took place immediately after each other.  Finally, at one stage, Cass began what I think was going to be another piece of banter, but the audio cut off after the first word. 

There were also five pieces of contextual commentary provided by companions, two of which appeared to be bugged and probaby shouldn't have occured.  Characters occasionally speak during battle (and quite commonly declare it's over) including the inquisitor. 
 
I traveled across three zones and never used a mount, though I did indulge in fast travel.  I have subtitles on, but they never appear when companions banter or comment.  Worth nothing is that I don't usually bring Varric along (as a dwarf rogue, I find another rogue in a party to be too micro-manage-y).  I do, however, usually roll with Cass and Bull - in large part because the devs at PAX AUS talked up their banter.  Their sole  banter to date was when Bull has told Cass he liked hitting things, and she agreed that it was good 

 

One thing I am wondering about is my tendency to spam the search key as I run to flag resources.  When Cass's (possible) banter bugged, I had just hit the search button.  I might try later on restraining myself from being quite so spamy and see if that helps.

Exact timings are below.  May contain slight spoilers for Hinterlands/Storm Coast/Crestwood

Spoiler

• 14:09 - Fast travel from Skyhold to Hinterlands Dusklight camp.  Party comprises of Cass, Viv and Varric.
• 14:09-14:17ish: Collecting shards in the dragon's vally.  Regular comabt with dragonlings.  Leave for Upper Lake camp.
• 14:21 - Arrive at Upper Lake camp to do more shard collecting.
• 14:28 - FT to Crossroads.
• 14:29 - Finish shard collecting, complete Hinterlands shard collection quest.  Short musical cue.
• 14:33 - FT to Redcliffe
• 14:34 - Run to Redcliffe Windmill.  Claim Windmill, complete landmarks quest.  Varric comments on the windmill.
• 14:36 - FT to Storm Coast Sollitude camp.
• 14:37 - Reach the shore.  Varric and Cassandra discuss traveling across the sea.
• 14:41 - Short music cue.
• 14:42 - Combat with spiders and darkspawn in northermost cave.  Cass comments on Hurlocks.
• 14:49 - Reach Apostates Landing.  Varric randomly comments on darkspawn.
• 14:51 - Complete glowing key quest
• 14:52 - Combat.
• 14:57 - Kill a bear on my way to the next darkspawn near westridge
• 14:59 - Cass and Viv talk about rebuilding the Seekers.
• 15:00 - Combat with Darkspawn
• 15:01 - Varric and Viv talk about court intrigue
• 15:05 - Kill more darkspawn
• 15:07 - Kill other darkspawn.  Cass declares combat over.
• 15:08 - Attacked by bear
• 15:09 - Short musical cue
• 15:10 - Attacked by another bear.  Kill it and eats its heart to gain its strength
• 15:21 - Cass begins to say something but stops after one word ("That"). I hit the search key at this moment
• 15:22 - Cass declares combat done.
• 15:24 - FT to Crestwood trout farm.  Change party to Viv, Cass and Bull.
• 15:27 - Full save after equipping party for dragon hunting
• 15:30 - Detour to Glennmorgan Mine. 
• 15:33 - Get caught with my pants down; party wiped by red templars
• 15:34 - Load auotsave, kick templar's collective ass.
• 15:41 - Find wyvern
• 15:43 - Kill wyvern
• 15:44 - Finish looting, FT back to the trout farm
• 14:47 - Kill some bandits heading to the Forester homestead to hand in the wyvern quest
• 14:48 - Kill more bandits
• 14:52 - Kill more of the endless supply of suicidal bandits.  You think they'd run when they saw me coming.  Or at least Bull.
• 14:54 - FT to Caer Bronach
• 16:01 - Bull calls Viv 'Viv''.  Viv objects.
• 16:02-16:44 - Get bored with taking notes.  Stuff around the Caer, kill some spiders, close some rifts, avoid killing bandits in favour of slaughtering a helpless dragon to the South.  Bull sees the dragon and remarks he prefers killing them to killing demons.  No other banter or remarks in this period

 

 

Spoiler

 

okay.

 

having mentioned the journal thing, i just did a bit of investigation with about 45 minutes of gameplay. i loaded up my 4+ hour save in the hinterlands, with a male qunari mage inquisitor and cassandra/solas/varric as the team, and i'm listing my events.

 

2:45 - Hinterlands loaded, checked the journal. Music played.

2:50 - Banter between Cassandra and Varric, I think. Not sure if it is plot related: "This place is too dangerous for refugees." "This is their home, Seeker."

2:53 - Solas mentions an elven artifact while doing his Measuring the Veil quest -- I only put it here because I've never heard him say that during the quest before, though I've heard it in other places.

2:54 - Finished Measuring the Veil. It showed as completed. I checked my completed quests in the journal and it showed as completed again when I exited.

2:56 - Had some static / noise stutter in combat.

2:59 - Set up a camp, but I didn't rest afterward.

3:00 - Solas and Cassandra banter.

3:01 - Music plays.

3:02 - Cassandra and Varric banter.

3:04 - Checked the journal again to clear the 'new' notification on collection quests I'd forgotten about. Music played.

3:06 - Finished 'Blood Brothers' quest, which marked as completed. Checked it in the journal, exited, and it was marked as completed again.

3:08 - Solas and Varric banter. Music plays.

3:14 - Music plays.

3:15 - Checked journal. Nothing new or completed inside.

3:19 - Fighting some Templars I got the first combat shouts I can remember -- Varric and Cassandra said "That had to hurt" and "Maker take you" respectively when they killed enemies.

3:21 - Music plays.

3:22 - Another weird static stutter / cut out with the sound.

3:23 - Completed the "Templars to the West" quest, which showed as completed. Checked it in the journal, exited and -- you guessed it -- marked as completed again. Music plays.

3:25 - Music plays.

3:27 - Level up -- not sure if that's important but thought I would add. Cassandra and Varric banter. Music plays.

 

this corresponds to about once every 10 minutes so...that's the frequency it's supposed to be coming? couldn't really enjoy it because i was too busy desperately hoping it would work. and for me, this is a lot more banter than i usually get. perhaps the fact that the quests keep completing more than once does mean something? if anyone else investigated it would be cool to hear about it 

 

the developers are now saying we've exhausted the banter? i'm...pretty sure they'd have more than two things to say every five hours even just starting the game? i mean come on -- that up there is more banter than i've had in seven hours playtime before.

 

 

Attempted "Fixes"

Spoiler

 

 

I think this is the list of things we've tried.  If we can nail this down, we can have Jeff put it into the OP.

 

• Switching party members
• Staying on foot
• Exploring new areas
• Doing different quests 
• Progressing with the plot
• Talking to everyone while at Haven/Skyhold
• Waiting to get the mount quest done
• Reinstalling
• Repairing
• Disabling Auto-save
• Disabling Origin overlay
• Disabling cloud saves
• Changing audio settings (like TV to Night)
• Turning on subtitles
• Avoiding combat, just staying at camp
• Playing the game normally (i.e no being idle)
• Created a new world state for import (I did that and you can guess how well that worked.)
• Using the depressing default world state
• Zoning in and out of an area (like Haven to Hinterlands back to Haven back to the Hinterlands)
• Using the quicksave as little as possible
• Not having many characters
• Have the latest drivers/updates for those of us that are PC
• Avoiding some quests (some folks have reported losing banter after smashing the first red lyrium crystal, for instance)
• Making sure that the voice sound was all the way up
• Had our save files tested, either by folks like Murloc Knight or by Allan
• Unchecking our journal/codex entries.  Basically, marking everything as read.  There has been some success with this, but posters are currently monitoring to see if will slip back into silence like it did with the other "fixes."
• For PC users, changing our installation drives from regular to SSD or vice versa.  A very few have reported results, but that won't help the console folks.
• Fast travel to camp, mount, dismount and rest.  There has been some reporting limited success.  Two-three banters at the most before slipping back into literally 3 or more hours of total silence and barely looping music.

 

 

I think that's the entire list, unless I've missing something.

 

Twitch streamers

http://www.twitch.tv/vikarus

 

http://www.twitch.tv/spiritmuse

 

http://www.twitch.tv/willgoblin(myself)

 

I'll try to keep editing more useful quotes into this post as they come.

Keep on keeping on, you're all doing Andraste's work

Modifié par WilhelmFolland, 29 novembre 2014 - 10:28 .

[xhaydenx]

Those comparison videos pretty much sum up this whole miserable experience. The one without music just lacks all life and feels dead. Thats what I get.

[Grieving Natashina]

In the interest of providing some of the more helpful user reports in a way that's easier to find I'm going to be quoting some choice posts from the other thread so you don't have to read 70+ pages.

 

 

I'll try to keep editing more useful quotes into this post as they come.

Keep on keeping on, you're all doing Andraste's work

Missed one

 

http://www.twitch.tv/spiritmuse

[WilhelmFolland]

 

Missed one

 

http://www.twitch.tv/spiritmuse

 

Ahh I knew there was another one out there! Thanks =D

[Grieving Natashina]

Ahh I knew there was another one out there! Thanks =D

No problem!  This report just came in as well.

 

http://forum.bioware...1#entry17908969

[babylon]

Please also note that banter does not recycle, so you will only hear a set of lines once. The rate at which it occurs is also random, which is why sometimes you will encounter it more frequently, and sometimes less so.
 

I haven't had issues with banter not appearing, however I have had banter recycle - have heard Varric and Dorian place bets on my odds of winning about 5 times now. I remember this particular banter because the game makes me have to interact with that set of banter and respond.

[InterrogationBear]

I just discovered that there is ambient music. The volume is just so low, you can barely hear it at normal settings.

[Swanea]

Surprisingly I get banter quite often and always seem to have music going.  I love my music and if it's not playing, it's a HUGE strike against a game.  I usually have varic in my party because he is awesome too.

[Joeydk]

Thanks for this update! Much less concerned about my NPC chatter being bugged now. 
I actually played for a few hours a few days ago, with no party banter at all, but then during the next session they wouldn't shut up.

Found that switching party members a big more often, helped a lot!

[Hobbes]

Hey! Do you get music walking around Val Royeaux and do you get music when you have a combat encounter? I don't get music in Val R. but I don't get combat music with open world encounter fights either, just wonder if that's normal. I know Val R has music for some people.

I've only had music at Val R once and every other time before and after it is dead silent except for the ambient sounds like foots steps etc.  I don't get much in the way of other music either, I can't recall if I get combat music as I keep focusing on the fight, I'll try and remember for my next fight and see.

[MorriganPet]

I wonder what's the quality of the banter?

 

Those of you who've heard plenty of it...

 

In DAO dialogue was written by a genius...

 

Is the same person in here?

 

Another thing from DAO: there were

 

banter "hotspots": bridges mostly

 

and Hall of Heroes in Orzamar.

[VilhoDog13]

A "hot spot" for me was far North in the Emerald graves. I got 3 banter dialogues in roughly 40 minutes or so.

It was around the area where there were Giants. There was also a rift. And an owl statue where Bull said something like "Owl you doing?"

Maybe others could go there to try and get something working? I suggest the location since there might have been a lot of triggers in the area.

[satunnainen]

I am hearing partybanter, sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes in wrong places just when I decide to charge some enemy (they start just before the combat). I also hear music in various places. Maybe there is some sound hardware issue or something that prevents people hearing the partybanter or music.

 

I on the other hand have sound issues in the videos (cutscenes or whatever those are). The recorded voices keep clipping or are a bit "jumpy". Sometimes the sound is also really loud (combat sounds for example). but soon it returns to normal. Cutscenes also have the video problem. 

[Karnegal]

Bioware is poised to earn back a bunch of the good will they've lost over the past 3 years with this game, but it's going to turn right back to bad will if you tell people that the very obviously documented problems are in their heads.  Ignoring all the video evidence of the issue is just insulting.

[finc.loki]

Party banter bugs never happened to me. That's a lucky thing. I got over 60 conversations, just in 70 hours playthrough.

I would say that is pretty low, considering. That is less than ONE banter per hour.

 

As for me I am lucky to get a banter every 2 hours.

I never get ANY music at all, combat music, don't make me laugh never heard it. Only time I hear music is when I have fast traveled to any place and even that just dies off.

 

This was posted just a few posts above. This video sums up how it is for me. Dead silence, no music, no banter, no combat music. I have heard a combat shout on occasion, but very seldom too.

 

https://www.youtube....Z4mZleKjg#t=498

 

So clearly it is a  GIANT bug that prevents music, banter, and combat music/shouts from happening. It's like something doesn't kick in or it kills it.

Not exactly immersive to feel like I am all alone. I am not even playing in the hopes of a patch to fix this OBVIOUS BUG. Now that hope is all but crushed with the announcement of this thread. It sounds like they borderline gave up or at the very least NOTHING will happen for a long time. I feel maybe in six months there will be a fix.

Mind you Bioware sees it working perfectly and as "intended" on their end. Bioware has had bugs in other games they never bothered to fix. So I have no great optimism here.

 

 

It just REALLY aggravates me, that they seemingly cannot grasp how obvious of a bug this is when there is VIDEO evidence of how "dead" the game is. Are they telling us there is no exploration music? Are they saying all of us that wonder why we never get music, combat music and very seldom any banter and the times we do get it, it isn't really banter but a comment on a quest or event.

 

They released the game with the horrible 30 FPS stuttering cutscenes on PC. WE the community found a fix, Bioware couldn't be bothered. That fix solved the cutscene issue for me totally. It is butter smooth and 60fps.

I wish some studious community member can solve this too. This is par for the course in ALL games now.

[StElmo]

I keep reading people saying that they have no combat music. I guess I'm one of those lucky ones that do?

 

Got a video of this?

[finc.loki]

The thing is this game is done with Frostbite 3 engine, same as in BF4.

 

BF4 was notorious for having audio cut out for a LOT of players (me included) on some of their multiplayer maps. The audio just die and you only hear your footsteps and gun shooting, nothing else.

There was also Z-fighting on some of these maps, Z-fighting is the texture flickering, two textures of different value one usually  LOD texture. And they both are "fighting" to be shown. A lod texture is a texture of lesser quality shown at distance to lower requirements and heft of the textures.

That is what the flickering is. the game cannot decide which texture to show. Something like that.

 

I digress.

 

My point is that this game has or have some of the same issues. It is not hard at all for me to think this is what is happening here in some form. Some kind of audio bug for music and banter.

Perhaps it is time for Bioware to contact BF4 team at DICE that finally fixed the "no audio" bug etc. Maybe there is a solution somewhere in there. A tweak.