Having just finished the game, I absolutely consider your first open-world experiment a success. Congratulations! My only significant suggestion would be this:
Despite picking up early on that Solas' room with the paintings was a way to track how much main plot was left, I still lived in mortal fear of advancing the plot. For all the content in the game, the main plot moved very quickly and I was paranoid about advancing the story w/ regions undone or operations not completed. This left me with many hours between story beats, which didn't dilute their impact per se but just added a layer of stress that detracted a bit.
My suggestion then for content going forward would be to add a few more beats/missions to any main story arc, along with appropriately structuring how regions/operations/etc. unlock as you go along. Having the freedom to go hither and yon was nice, but it felt at times like a compulsion lest I not have some critical something for the next story mission.
Retour en haut
