57 réponses à ce sujet

[robmokron]

as much as i find this game awesome and amazing

 

I find myself right after skyhold (been playing 10-15 hours post skyhold) I havent been doing any main storylines/major side quests after this, just running around doing side quest, companion minor quests and talking to residence in skyhold.

 

I'm at the point now where i want to level up a bit more before i continue the main story, but after an hour or 2 of gaming i get "bored" of running around aimlessly. I kick off the boredom easily by doing other task and being distracted, but there are times where I feel like the enemies are too tough so i got exploring somehwere else.

 

Example, i wanted to clear hinterlands before i did any other major exploring of other areas, but there are mobs that are high level.

[DanAxe]

That seems to be the design philosophy when it comes to side quests.  They could do away with about 60% of them and make the remaining ones better.

 

 

Also, to whatever dev thought a whole bunch of collection quests was a good idea....your idea is bad and you should feel bad.

 

Same goes to whomever thought requisition quests were a good idea.

 

Oh...you too loot sonar guy...

 

 

/rant

 

I agree about requisition quests, but then again, you dont have to do them and its good they are there in case you need a bit of help getting more power to unlock missions. But they are completely skipable you can get power in other ways.

 

As for the collections, im enjoying it actually. Not the mosaic, i dont think i have finished any mosaic collection. As for the shards, i like it. Its not exciting or thrilling to do, but you can pretty much get them just as you go around regions doing other more important quests, and they end up unlocking some nice goodies in Solasan. And you dont need to get ALL the shards to unlock everything in Solasan. You need 108 shards to unlock all doors, and theres much more shards around the world, so you dont have to be exhausting every region looking for them. Just get the easier ones and avoid the Mario jumping ones

(unless there's another place with shard-locked doors like Solasan that I am not aware of...)

[Aurok]

Does a better alternative to loot sonar really need to be spelled out? How about the bog standard and vastly superior way which has been standard practice for years?

Also, not making the outline the same colour as most of the terrain would be smart. Again, not really something which should need to be spelled out.

[- Archangel -]

Does a better alternative to loot sonar really need to be spelled out? How about the bog standard and vastly superior way which has been standard practice for years?

Also, not making the outline the same colour as most of the terrain would be smart. Again, not really something which should need to be spelled out.

 

Apparently sparklies are immersion breaking but playing Ecco the dolphin isn't.

[Il Divo]

How many of the bad fetch quests would you have to cut to free enough resources to do one good one, though? The whole point of doing the cheap quests is that they're, um, cheap.

 

Good point. I'm not a huge fan behind the design philosophy for many of these side quests, but I suspect the amount mileage we'd get from converting them to "good" side quests wouldn't be very much. 

[Natureguy85]

Good point. I'm not a huge fan behind the design philosophy for many of these side quests, but I suspect the amount mileage we'd get from converting them to "good" side quests wouldn't be very much. 

 

But that's the whole point of this discussion; is more content worthwhile even if it's empty? Or is less content an acceptable price to improve quality? And where do you draw the line? At what point is there actually too little content?

[tmp7704]

A perfect example can be found in Dragon Age Origins. The trip into the Wilds is a fetch quest. Get the treaties and get the vials of Darkspawn blood. However, not only is the trip used to meet Morrigan and Flemeth, but the Treaties and darkspawn blood are both essential plot items. Because of this, the mission itself was important, not just that you happened to bump into Morrigan.

If we're going to provide DA:O as example of things done right, let's not forget that for every "get the Grey Warden treaties" quest that mattered there was a dozen or more "get stuff that doesn't matter" fetch and kill quests plastered all over the Chantry boards and from the NPC dispensers.

If DA:I has more of these it's pretty much because it's much larger but tries to fill these areas with various kinds of content, to appeal to different types of players.

[Natureguy85]

If we're going to provide DA:O as example of things done right, let's not forget that for every "get the Grey Warden treaties" quest that mattered there was a dozen or more "get stuff that doesn't matter" fetch and kill quests plastered all over the Chantry boards and from the NPC dispensers.

If DA:I has more of these it's pretty much because it's much larger but tries to fill these areas with various kinds of content, to appeal to different types of players.

 

Oh, for sure, but I was just highlighting a particular example of one done well. However, the chantry boards could be a good example of how subtle differences can make all the difference in how something feels. Having a job board where people post requests seems more real to me than if I had to walk up to NPCs individually for the same quests. It made it feel more like my Warden was taking a job that he/she sought out rather than "Hey, that NPC has an exclamation point over his head".

[Draining Dragon]

Actually, I think the requistion stuff works out great, and i'm having a great time exploring and just doing the quests that appeal. 
 
You don't want to do them, don't do them.  *shrug*
 
Make a constructive suggestion, why don't you?  Pissing on someone else's work without suggesting how to make it better is bad.  And you should feel bad.
 
See how that works?

He did make a constructive suggestion. Or are you one of those people who defines "constructive feedback" as "feedback that I personally agree with"?

[tmp7704]

Oh, for sure, but I was just highlighting a particular example of one done well. However, the chantry boards could be a good example of how subtle differences can make all the difference in how something feels. Having a job board where people post requests seems more real to me than if I had to walk up to NPCs individually for the same quests. It made it feel more like my Warden was taking a job that he/she sought out rather than "Hey, that NPC has an exclamation point over his head".

To me this is more of example how different people view things differently Having NPC ask me to do something for them never felt any less real than the job board. Maybe because in my game there wasn't exclamation marks over people's heads (there was a toggle for that in the game settings, no?) so I was approaching the ones it'd make sense for my character to chat with, and ignoring others.

[Bishamonten]

That seems to be the design philosophy when it comes to side quests.  They could do away with about 60% of them and make the remaining ones better.

 

 

Also, to whatever dev thought a whole bunch of collection quests was a good idea....your idea is bad and you should feel bad.

 

Same goes to whomever thought requisition quests were a good idea.

 

Oh...you too loot sonar guy...

 

 

/rant

I'm sorry OP, but I like the direction DAI is going, and I absolutely hated the on-rails approach DA2, ME2, ME3 was going for.  Now, I do agree that a lot of the side quests could be improved, but as a whole, it doesn't seem to have affected the main story, it's still really great, so in my position I appreciate the fact that Bioware is taking an approach to their roots again, open world.

What I'm saying is, they have room for improvement, but I'm not going to ask them to tear it all down, that's just ridiculous.  The side-quests in my opinion are not cringe-worthy horrible, just needs substance, but keep the framework, keep the formula.  Main idea: DON'T REMOVE ANYTHING, IMPROVE WHAT YOU HAVE IN ADDITION INSTEAD.

[Bishamonten]

Well, I see this forum has now been taken over by the Bioware Defense Force.

Heh, that's how I felt back in the ME2 days, but not so with the Dragon Age 2 forums.  There was always an interest of expanding the scope of the game rather than destroying features without even giving them a chance to stay for improvement instead.

What I don't understand about people like you op(ooh things getting feisty here, insert appropriate Neil Degrasse Tyson meme here), is that you believe any feature that comes off as annoying to you should just be ripped out of the game, how it's all run black-and-white like that.

Why don't you consider how Bioware could instead make these existing features better?  I mean, why not?  Why remove them entirely for everyone else?

[Greetsme]

+1

At the moment 50% of the game is trash mobs and time filers.  If they used that programming time plus money polishing the main part of the game, then it wouldn't be in the sorry state that it is.  If you want 'fetch me 100 cow-pats quests' then wow is better at it.

[- Archangel -]

I'm sorry OP, but I like the direction DAI is going, and I absolutely hated the on-rails approach DA2, ME2, ME3 was going for.  Now, I do agree that a lot of the side quests could be improved, but as a whole, it doesn't seem to have affected the main story, it's still really great, so in my position I appreciate the fact that Bioware is taking an approach to their roots again, open world.

What I'm saying is, they have room for improvement, but I'm not going to ask them to tear it all down, that's just ridiculous.  The side-quests in my opinion are not cringe-worthy horrible, just needs substance, but keep the framework, keep the formula.  Main idea: DON'T REMOVE ANYTHING, IMPROVE WHAT YOU HAVE IN ADDITION INSTEAD.

OK...now run along and..

 

Kill your 10 rams

 

Collect your shards

 

Collect your songs

 

Do your requisitions

 

close your 50th rift

 

etc...

[SadisticChunkyDwarf]

I think I understand what's going on here. Instead of using resources to make all 100+ hours of content in the game the same quality of action/drama, Bioware is using those resources to come to peoples houses, hold a gun to their head, and force them to play an entirely optional portion of the game.

 

If this is the case, the complaints are entirely justified. If by any chance this is just a vicious rumor, it's just silly. But I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and assume Bioware has resorted to these deplorable thuggish tactics, and take the opportunity to publicly condemn them post haste.

[Lebanese Dude]

*sigh*

 

 

No really... I think people need to get over themselves and quit complaining about the optional content when there is 60+ hours of storyline to play, 12 dragons to slay, and multiple playthroughs with different characters and world states to experience.

 

The Quantity over Quality adage is pretty senseless to use, given that the optional content has an insignificant negative affect on the rest of the game for those who hate it and a pretty significant positive affect on those who enjoy it.

 

Do you honestly believe the side quests consumed as much resources as the actually significant parts of the game? Pretty certain that removing all the side quests would grant the equivalent of two or so cinematic quest lines, while completely demolishing any aspect of exploration that DAI is all about.

 

But feel free to keep crying about how having to POSSIBLY MAYBE SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE have to kill 10 rams is destroying your game experience.

Frankly it's getting grating.

[Travie]

I'd make the argument that you don't necessarily even need quests to make an area feel full of life. Just little conversations with the NPCs are enough in an open world. 

 

If not everyone likes conversations it would be easy to throw in rewards for talking to people. 

 

"Thanks for stopping, It's good to know people like you are here to protect us. By the way, have you heard of CAVE X? CAVE X might have some good loot. Good luck!"

[Lebanese Dude]

I'd make the argument that you don't necessarily even need quests to make an area feel full of life. Just little conversations with the NPCs are enough in an open world. 

 

If not everyone likes conversations it would be easy to throw in rewards for talking to people. 

 

"Hey, that was a nice chat. It's good to know people like you are here to protect us. By the way, have you heard of CAVE X? CAVE X might have some good loot. Good luck!"

 

So, ME3 side-quests but the NPCs are creepy rather than the player?

 

 

I'd personally prefer the pokemon approach. Just have the NPCs forcefully stop you, say a random cliche sentence, then give you a quest. 

 

just kidding  

 

[Itkovian]

as much as i find this game awesome and amazing

 

I find myself right after skyhold (been playing 10-15 hours post skyhold) I havent been doing any main storylines/major side quests after this, just running around doing side quest, companion minor quests and talking to residence in skyhold.

 

I'm at the point now where i want to level up a bit more before i continue the main story, but after an hour or 2 of gaming i get "bored" of running around aimlessly. I kick off the boredom easily by doing other task and being distracted, but there are times where I feel like the enemies are too tough so i got exploring somehwere else.

 

Example, i wanted to clear hinterlands before i did any other major exploring of other areas, but there are mobs that are high level.

 

That's intentional. You're actually meant to leave the Hinterlands and go and explore another area, which have their own series of significant quests. At your level, you should check out the Storm Coast and Fallow Mire, at least. Don't try to clear the maps completely, that way lies madness (heck, in some maps areas are even gated by war table missions to prevent that).

 

And that's the thing, going back to the OP: outside the story quests there are still a ton of significant quests in each of the areas, with an ongoing storyline pertaining to the area. They're just handled through non-cinematic conversations and the environment. The Hinterlands are a good example of how your actions will change the land.

 

Even the most obvious collection quest (the shards) have an actual purpose in the game, unlocking some pretty cool stuff. As for the requisition quests, I'm not sure what the complaint is all about. This is obviously meant to be a crafting alternative to gaining power, and obviously quite optional. I stopped doing those long ago (I'd rather keep the mats for actual crafting, and power points aren't in short supply).

[Kantr]

All the side quests are good. It's the requsition quests that arent so good.

[- Archangel -]

I see the Bioware Defense Force came out during the night.

[The Loyal Nub]

I was kind of grinding yesterday cause I wanted to try and hit lvl 12 before taking on In Your Heart Shall Burn. Went back to the Hinterlands which I hadn't been to in a while to do some of the so-called filler material. Ended up taking on a quest to get three bear claws. Simple thing really. Took the best party I had with the best gear and took on the first three bears I spotted (yeah I got cocky and took on three at once). Killed one after a ferocious fight. Two to go. Easy right? Over a rise comes another bear (oh dear we're down to 4 potions already). Newcomer bear piles on. Ok well that just made things interesting. But lo and behold here come 5 Mabari who decide to join the bears.

 

Solas goes down, Varric goes down, Cassandra finally succumbs. I could have used disengage but decided to see how far they'd pursue. Ended up running for what seems like miles in game with bears and dogs at my heels. Great fun! Some of the best fun in the game and from some supposedly unnecessary filler quest! I vote they stay in if for nothing else than for moments like that. 

[The Loyal Nub]

I see the Bioware Defense Force came out during the night.

 

I am missing my paycheck from BioWare. 

[MagisterMaximus]

I am missing my paycheck from BioWare. 

And cookies....don't forget the cookies.

[The Loyal Nub]

And cookies....don't forget the cookies.

 

Damn how could forget the cookies!