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[Bayonet Hipshot]

I wish to discuss the gameplay and combat changes to this game and its overall balance. 

 

I am of the opinion that all the combat and gameplay changes we have experienced in DAI  is fundamentally pointless and worthless. 

 

Allow me to explain. 

 

In DAI, this is what you have

• De-leveled world 
• 8 skill restriction in combat
• Limited healing
• Focus on Gear.

Apparently, all this was done in the name of "easier balancing", "giving the players a unique challenge", "planning", "strategy", "tactics" and other host of PR nonsense such as "8 skills x 4 party members = 32 skills and that is more than enough"

 

However, I posit the notion that these changes have done nothing of the sort. They have not posed a challenge, they destroyed the balancing and they have little to do with strategy or tactics. 

 

De-Leveled World

 

In theory, this is great. Enemies are on their own and do not level with you. They are their own characters. Sounds good right ? Sounds interesting and challenging, yes ?

 

Well, except it doesn't in the game. They implemented a de-leveled world in a game with large open zones and tons of fetch quests. 

 

Which then meant that leveling was easy. This then negated the whole point of de-leveled world.

Consider Corypheus. We have faced him as a foe in DA2 and in DA2. He was a much more challenging opponent in DA2 than he is in DAI, despite the fact that DA2 is not de-leveled. 

 

Why ? Because his level is so low, level 18 I believe and most Inquisitors are level 20 which allowed them to walk all over him.

 

I mean what they essentially tried to do with DAI is combine the open world feel of Skyrim with a de-leveled world. Except in Skyrim, the world is not de-leveled and enemies scale with you since you have tons of quests you can do get your level up anyway. 

 

Instead of de-leveling enemies, it would be better for enemies to have unique spells and abilities. Corypheus in DA2 literally created an elemental maelstrom of sorts which forced us to play wisely. Corypheus in DAI, well, did nothing much in combat by comparison.

 

8 Skill Restriction

 

In theory, again, this sounds interesting if not divisive. Divisive in the sense that it will be something a player hates or loves. However, the game makes the 8 ability restriction rather pointless. 

 

Most encounters in this game can be in fact handled by spamming one or two abilities over and over again. We have passives to reduce cooldown. 

 

Where is the strategy and tactics in that ? Where is the strategy in using Spirit Blade + Fade Cloak over and over again ? Where is this tactic in using Pull of the Abyss + Fire Mine over and over again ?

 

The notion that we limit the abilities on the skill bar to promote tactics and strategy is nonsense. For the simple reason the game is designed with ability spam in mind, not strategy or tactics. 

 

Which makes 8 ability restriction pointless. 

 

Limited Healing

 

Like the previous two gameplay mechanic, this one sounds good in theory but terrible in execution. Limited healing can allow for micromanagement and planning and all the other good stuff right ?

 

Wrong.

 

In DAO, we had Heal Spam.

In DA2, we had Spirit Healer party member a must.

In DAI, we have Barrier Spam and Camp Fast Travel Spam. 

 

Bioware did not solve the problem of "healing being overpowered or gamebreaking" by severely limiting it. They just changed the problem's name into something else.

 

Sure Healing heals you permanently and Barrier decays but we can spam Barrier like we spam Heal. What's more, we can always fast travel back to camp, rest and done, problem solved !

 

Perhaps in DA4, we will see Bioware nerf Barrier and come up with a fancy new name for the "damage mitigation & healing spam" issue.

 

This issue could have been solved easily.

1. Introduce healing spells as spells that heal over time and require channeling as opposed to a simple and quick animation. 
2. Introduce toxicity as part of the alchemy system to prevent people from spamming healing potions.
3. Introduce a timer of some form for Resting to prevent Camp Resting spam. For example, if you spam resting, your XP points will start going down because if you rest too much, your skills atrophy. 

Severe limitations are not the answer, in my opinion. 

 

Focus On Gear

 

The issue with this is more of a roleplay one. 

 

For one thing, this means that your character doesn't really matter. I mean, as long as they have godlike gear, they are good to go. Their innate willpower or magic or constitution or dexterity or cunning or strength...That does not matter....

 

Which takes away from the roleplaying greatly. 

 

Also, the fact that weapon damage determine ability damage as opposed to attributes...Again, it creates a roleplaying issue since if you have a godlike weapon, it doesn't actually matter how adept your character is, they will be powerful. 

 

General Balancing

 

How exactly is this game any different from DAO ? In DAO you had Arcane Warrior + Blood Mage who is nigh unstoppable. Add Battlemage to that for good measure. 

 

How is the Knight Enchanter any different ? At least the Arcane Warrior had to use potions for some battles. The Knight Enchanter, if played well, does not need to use anything except spamming 2-3 skills. How is this balance ?

 

How is having the Flask of Fire + Thousand Cuts combo balance ?

 

I have seen videos of High Dragons being killed in a very short amount of time, in a few minutes in some cases. How is this good balance ? 

 

Sigh...

 

All in all, I think that the gameplay elements for DAI are good in theory but bad in execution. Bad to the point of asking "Why did they do all this in the first place ?"

 

Thoughts and comments ? 

[rigron]

De-Leveled World

I love what you call "de-leveled" world, which means no auto-level for enemies. I think auto-level is one of the cancers of the RPG industry, if I level up my character until he becomes a a killing machine he should be a killing machine, the same way if he is a weakling he shouldn´t be able to take on High Dragons. I always have hated auto-level and I always will, and I love the fact that Dragon Age Inquisition at least has dropped enemy auto-level.

 

8 Skill Restriction

I completely agree with you on this one

 

Limited Healing

I don´t like limit healing either, I agree with you on that, but I don´t think there were any issues with healing in DA:O and DA:2. Both games got healing perfectly, and limiting healing in DA:I is one of the stupidest decisions ever in my opinion, but not as much as the 8 skill limit which is THE stupidest decision ever made for this game.

 

Focus On Gear

I am 50/50 on this one. We have to bear in mind that in Dragon Age, in yet another show of stupid decisions, Bioware decided to make auto-level up for atributes, which means that we can´t chose what attributes should be up when we level up any character and we can´t create our own builds because...eh...potato? On the other hand, the gear should be important when it comes to skills. To put an example with imaginary elements, my Super Slash shouldn´t do the same damage when done with Basic Sword and when done with Legendary Excalibur Vorpal + 10. But yes, attributes should definitely count too when it comes to damage input of skills, not only gear.

 

General Balancing

I don´t think a singleplayer RPG should be balanced. There always will be some classes/skills more powerful than others and I am perfectly fine with that. I am enjoying being a Knight Enchanter a lot, as a lot of other players are doing too as far as I have seen in the answers of the "buuuahhh nerf KE because I want to screw the rest of the players" threads.

[Steelcan]

I agree, much of what I see in the gameplay is rather pointless.  Instead of "heal spamming" we have barrier spamming, and annoyingly we have to stop exploring, go back to camp then trek back out to where we were.  Its pointless and just serves as an annoyance.

 

The leveling I have less of an issue with, with the sole exception that I think they didn't level certain things high enough.  Corypheus should be harder than a High dragon to fight.  Certain areas, such as the Emerald Graves, and the Exalted Plains, are too easy, the enemies aren't scaled high enough there.  The story missions are also particularly guilty of this.

 

And as for classes, some are just flat out broken.  Inferno + KE is just hilariously OP, I upped the difficulty to Nightmare and I still don't have any issues.

[Sartoz]

I agree, much of what I see in the gameplay is rather pointless.  Instead of "heal spamming" we have barrier spamming, and annoyingly we have to stop exploring, go back to camp then trek back out to where we were.  Its pointless and just serves as an annoyance.

 

The leveling I have less of an issue with, with the sole exception that I think they didn't level certain things high enough.  Corypheus should be harder than a High dragon to fight.  Certain areas, such as the Emerald Graves, and the Exalted Plains, are too easy, the enemies aren't scaled high enough there.  The story missions are also particularly guilty of this.

 

And as for classes, some are just flat out broken.  Inferno + KE is just hilariously OP, I upped the difficulty to Nightmare and I still don't have any issues.

 

Yes, user map markers for instant travel (once explored) would improve the exploration side of things.

[Jymm]

I like the lack of auto-leveled enemies, personally.  I agree it creates significant design challenge when there is a lot of optional content.  If you choose to strip mine the side content you'll be far more powerful than someone who just drives down the critical path.  And as a designer, I'm not sure how you really balance for that.  I think they have to assume that completionists will choose to play on a higher difficulty and crit-path players will go with something more casual?  Tough call, but I prefer it to an all-auto-leveled world.  Maybe there's a happy hybrid somewhere in there....

 

I haven't found the 8 skill limit to be too constricting yet, but I could see how it might become so.

 

And the limited potion healing is... an interesting design choice. I can live with it, but I don't love it.  Hopefully it was just an experiment and they'll try something else then next go-round.

[SBMWaugh]

De-Leveled World

I am torn.  From a roleplay aspect I understand why a De-leveled world makes sense and I like.  From a gameplay aspect going back through levels you have already visited when over leveled is kinda boring.  Or completely over-leveling certain areas before you get there is also boring.  So I am going to have to agree with the worlds stages being auto-leveled.  If you have to justify it, you can say that the enemy commanders have deployed stronger units to combat the threat that is the Inquisition.  Thus you now have a reason as to why there are high level units occupying a space were low level units once were.  And to a certain point they do do that.  When venturing back into the Hinterlands for some companion quests, the Vinatori and Red Templars are higher levels than the bandits and regular Templars/mages that once occupied the space.  But it would have been nice to see them redeploy more powerful units every once in a while.  Maybe to balance the mechanic, it wouldn't be every time you leave and return to areas but rather it happens slowly throughout the game, perhaps tied in with events of the story much like the Red Templars replacing the Templars.  It makes sense, to me at least.

 

8 Skill Restrictionr

This wasn't a problem for me for the longest time.  I never really had more abilities than I did slots until just recently in the game.  So I will leave this untouched until I am more familiar with high level battling.

 

Limited Healing

This one bothered me.  I enjoy playing a healer mage.  To a certain extent I can as a Knight Enchanter with the KE's focus ability but it definitely isn't a "healer" role.  And to be honest, I don't know why they did this.  If they were taking out the health regen after battle, that makes sense.  People don't just heal to full health after an intense battle where they have been injured.  But it is frustrating to have to go back to the camps if you run out of potions.  It would be much better if you could just heal your party with spells.  So like another said, I hope this was just a test and that they go back to having a healing class in future installments of the series or even possibly as soon as some DLC comes out.  But even if they don't, I don't mind the combat system all that much.  Its not what I was hoping for but it is still serviceable and even enjoyable at times.

 

Focus On Gear

This I hate.  Though I am not a fan of player allocated attribute points either.  I've never been good at stat optimizing and it feels dirty to have to look it up online.  I rather a simple system that is intuitive and requires no help from a community.  Part of the enjoyment in playing solo games is completing it by yourself.  That aside, I also hate gear based systems as well.  The one for Inquisition isn't quite as bad as some others, in that the crafting system is pretty interesting and rather accessible.  But to be forced to look a certain way because that is the best gear always was an issue for me in roleplaying games.  Inquisition needs easier access to a variety of schematics and a dye system so you aren't locked into specific colors based off of materials.  I don't know how they over looked that... 

 

General Balancing

Balancing, from what I've seen on other threads on the board, seems too much about people nerfing the classes they think are too powerful.  I don't want that.  I enjoy playing a totally badass Knight Enchanter.  But if we are just talking about beefing up the "weaker" classes then I am all for that.  I wouldn't mind switching it up for my next play through and having a class and specialization that is just as beastly as my KE xP

[Bayonet Hipshot]

As I stated, the DAI gameplay elements work great in theory but was poorly executed. I would not want them to be thrown apart but reworked.

 

1)When it comes to leveled world vs de-leveled world...

 

I am a big fan of de-leveled worlds. My favorite de-leveled game in recent memory is Skyrim's Requiem Mod. 

 

However, the de-leveling in this game was not done properly. The bosses, especially Corypheus, were not powerful enough or were not reflective of their power. 

 

I am of the opinion that Corypheus should have been in the mid-20s in terms of his level (Level 23-Level 25) and been able to summon elemental maelstrom like he did in DA2's Legacy.

 

Why Level 20s ? Because if you do most of the quests in the game, you will get up to level 22 or so. So Level 23 is a good level for him. Plus, it puts him as a more powerful boss than the high dragons in this game, which he should have been. 

 

I mean,I was expecting Corypheus' final boss fight to be a combination of the Harvester in Amgarrak and Corypheus in Legacy in terms of challenge and difficulty but the one in game is...not that impressive...

 

2)As for healing, they should bring it back....

 

In order to counter this magical heal spam which is a problem, as I said previously, make basic healing spells to be a heal-over-time spell and powerful healing spells to be channeling spells which can be interrupted. 

 

This way, healing can not only be interrupted but can also be negated. You negate a DoT element by burst damage or a more powerful DoT. 

 

As for alchemy healing spam, they should really take a book out of the Witcher games and introduce toxicity as a game mechanic. No one can just drink medicine over and over again without some bad side effects. 

 

Additionally, healing potions, like medicine in real life, should heal over time, not heal instantly. 

 

That is how I think Bioware should approach healing in future games. Bring it back and rework it. 
 

3)For the 8 ability lock...

 

The should leave the 8 skill slots there but allow us to quick slot extra abilities in combat. This is a single player game and we have pause & play which should allow us to do this. 

 

Currently in the game we cannot change the abilities we have during combat. That mechanic should be removed. I can understand the appeal of making the 8 ability UI because it looks clean and polished but players must have options. 

That way, those who want to limit ourselves to just 8 abilities can do so and those of us who want to have access to more than 8 abilities can do so.

 

That is after all, the actual point of an RPG game. Choices. 

 

4) Focus on Gear...

 

This should be 50-50. Gear should play a role but so must attributes. That is how it works in real life as well. We have our innate abilities + the gadgetry we have with us. 

 

DAI threw attributes into the trash which is not good. It should be brought back.

 

Again, making this 50-50 gives players options. In this game, there are no such options 

 

5)General Balancing...

 

They should bring fatigue back and make fatigue negating enchantments rare. That way, Mage-Warrior hybrids do not become overpowered because there is cost to having all those cool buffs. 

 

As for rogues, I am of the opinion that they should change the way Critical Hits work...I mean what is Critical Hits ? They are hits that focus on a vital part on an enemy's anatomy...

 

Here's the thing :- Since when undead or ghosts have vital body parts like humanoids or other living creatures do ? Dragons have tough armor so inflicting critical hits on them should not be a cakewalk....

 

IMO, some enemies should be, by their nature, really hard to inflict Critical Hits and some enemies should be downright immune to it...

 

Cheers...

 

 

[MiyoKit]

I like that some areas are 'too high level' for you, however I don't like that if you out level a zone all challenge is just gone. I would have preferred it if they made zones have a minimum level, but scale above that with yours. I'm level 19 and I'm in exalted plains right now, all the mobs are level 11 and its just silly.

 

I don't really have any problem with the other things you mentioned. I didn't really like being forced to bring a healer in DA:O, in DA:I you don't actually need barrier (even on hard / nightmare) if you bring the right class combinations / have healing grenades. For the first time in a DA game I DON'T have two mages in my party, it's brilliant. I can actually get to know the rogues in my companion pool...

 

The skill restriction is 'meh' for me. Given limitations on your character in stamina and mana, most abilities won't get used anyway. In DA:O, we had room for loads, but really I used maybe 1-2 activated ones and a couple sustained because they were just better. I honestly don't care if they increased it or not .

 

Last one - Gear. I LOVE the focus on gear in RPG games (yes, including stats etc:). If I just spent ages crafting the perfect weapon / armour, I expect it to make a difference.