235 réponses à ce sujet

[Rhifox]

I loved it. it was supposed to represent the Great Game, and to me it did a pretty good job. Sure the timer was a bit fast, but you are a significant dignitary at a court function, like the game says, people are going to notice if you're away for too long. What I think would have been a pretty cool mechanic is instead, have the Inquisitor with one group of allies attending to the party and racking up approval and whatnot, while another group is doing the actual investigating. Depending on who you took as your entourage and who is investigating could then affect how far you could go as opposed to the Halla statues.

 

That would have been a great way to handle it.

[Benman1964]

I hate the the rift and the boss of this quest, especially on Nightmare on lv12. DON'T BRING COLE!   I had to replay the whole quest because Cole couldn't cope. Second time i took Vivienne instead of Cole but in the end battle the boss tends to stand on elevated spots like stair-guardrails or elevated plant or flowerbeds. Try to use Spirit Blade on someone that standing elevated (like 1m higher) and you'll notice it doesn't hit.

[stephen_dedalus]

deleted by poster

[Brishon]

If it was dumb design, it'd be intuitive for you. It clearly isn't though, hence your whining.

Turn your nose up at the Grand Game if you like, shubnabub, but we play for the highest stakes, and to the death. - Leliana

 

Seriously though. Its a court, you're not popular if you're stupid... Try to be a bit more tactical, faster, and smarter... And maybe you won't suck so much.

When the sister of your enemy can walk up behind you in your own ball and stab you in the back, you may want to lay off the Game of Thrones Grand Game and focus on security.

[Z.Z]

If anything, it should be harder. I actually find the way the player outsmarts everyone a bit silly, but such is the nature of RPG. When the inquisitor is supposed to run around with three friends gathering herbs, controlling politicians through a few hours exploration and blackmailing isn't that strange.

[eyezonlyii]

If anything, it should be harder. I actually find the way the player outsmarts everyone a bit silly, but such is the nature of RPG. When the inquisitor is supposed to run around with three friends gathering herbs, controlling politicians through a few hours exploration and blackmailing isn't that strange.

That's my thing. Ive done it twice and never had to fight anyone other than the gardens and the rift, even as a qunari mage. 

[HozzMidnight]

Court approval is a shitty timer mechanic. It flips around when talking to people. It drops because of your race. It threatens to kill the mission altogether? It goes down while you're trying to solve the mission???? I'll kill the empress myself just to get this stupid mission over with. Where is that option? I have a bow...

Agree 100%. Timer mechanic is so shifty especially with a massive palace to explore.

[ApplesauceBandit]

I didn't realize how much i hated this mission until i started losing approval like crazy just for exploring and choosing dialogue options that fit my character, so i restarted. I don't like being punished for exploring, I was excited for this mission it seemed like it would be fun. ButI don't like feeling rushed, and that's exactly what i felt like this quest did, i enjoyed the eaves dropping, the snooping, "The Game" as Leliana puts it. But with the timer it felt like there wasn't any point in even doing it, i really wanted to do all the side quests lol.

I'm hoping my second playthrough will be a better experience since i know what to look for so maybe i will get more time to explore.

[tmp7704]

I got 99 by the end of it, had 100 before the dance, did not unlock the achievement..

The achievement seems to be tied to how you deal with the villain -- it triggered for me after taking the 'no further bloodshed' option but not the others, even though the court approval was identical (97 or so) in all the cases.

[tmp7704]

I hate the the rift and the boss of this quest, especially on Nightmare on lv12. DON'T BRING COLE!   I had to replay the whole quest because Cole couldn't cope. Second time i took Vivienne instead of Cole but in the end battle the boss tends to stand on elevated spots like stair-guardrails or elevated plant or flowerbeds. Try to use Spirit Blade on someone that standing elevated (like 1m higher) and you'll notice it doesn't hit.

You can skip the final boss battle altogether with high enough approval, and your inquisitor ability murders everything in a blink of eye if you use it on the rift mobs. So who you bring doesn't really matter all that much in the end.

[abearzi]

This quest seemed like the perfect opportunity for Vivienne to prove she wasn't just dead weight to the Inquisition. But no, none of the morons who play "the game" actually play it (i.e., Leliana, Josephine, Vivienne). They just sit around jacking off while the Inquisitor has to do all the stupid toadying to the inbred, inept, useless aristocracy. There is no ability to actually RP, since a "failure" just makes you restart, rather than actually having interesting consequences. This was certainly among the worst parts of the main quest.

[MrIsidor]

I'll add my voice to those hating the timer. Being a completionist and explorer it is obviously bad when I get restricted in completing and exploring.

I don't mind the rest, just the timer punishing me for exploring. I got about halfway on the gossip gathering, found only 3 coins and maybe 5-6 Halla + 1 Halla I just couldn't reach and had to stop trying to reach because that damned timer was ticking away.  

 

With that said, even with some screwups in dialogue choises I learned quickly and ended up at around 80 court approval, mostly thanks to all the approval I got during the dance. In my next playthrough I have no doubt I will be able to get the approval achievement, unless I decide to screw it and go for completing the sidequests instead...

 

Again, I'll repeat that the timer ruins the exploration. I can delay everything else in the game how much I want. I can explore every zone available on the world map and go back and forth across Orlais and Ferelden several times before going to this ball. Same thing with "rushing" to the temple with that pool (sorry, the name escapes me) to get there before Coryphy-spit. But both the start of the ball and Corphy kindly waits for me, for years if need be, but exploring during a few minutes extra during this quest is a big no-no with punishment.

 

It's a single player game that supposedly will let us play the way we want. We got 4 different difficulty settings for combat (times two if counting friendly fire on/off). Why not offer the same choice for this type of content too?

[Aurok]

I enjoyed the conversation aspect, but the fact they built 3 ping hunt fetch quests right into it (one of them integral to the outcome of the mission and on a timer) is ridiculous. At no point did I imagine that 'The Game' would be won or lost based on your ability to find some arbitrarily placed statues.

You should have been co-ordinating with your gang to have all of that behind the scenes stuff carried out for you by your companions/agents on your behalf, while you just QB the whole thing and keep up appearances at the party. Leliana could have been whispering in your ear all night. If it had worked like the ME2 suicide mission where you assign different companions to different tasks it could have been amazing.

[Kantr]

The servants quarters were the most annoying as its easy to get stuck finding the way out. Luckily the dancing got me up to 100 from the 55.

 

In the royal wing I blasted through and didnt explore but I planned it all. The way it was done in DA2 where if you got caught, it reset you was better. It does however make sense.

[Spectre Impersonator]

Extremely lame how the game ends if some snooty Orlesian b*tches don't like what you say. Hated it.

[eyezonlyii]

Maybe this just goes to show that you can't always do everything in a game? I mean, even if you did get all the Halla statues, you can't open every door with them, so it really is an espionage mission: complete the objective (stop the assassination) as quickly as possible without drawing attention to yourself. I liked the timer as it makes the whole thing seem more pressing; pretty much the only mission in the game that raises the stakes like that. On an aside though, failing should have had a unique consequence instead of just having a game over. 

[shubnabub]

Everyone is talking like you lose approval for behaving badly. I lost a massive amount of approval for choosing questions. Half the damn game is probing characters with questions and yet the dance murdered my approval because I spent it probing for info. I think people who claim mastery just lucked out and because of that had more fun because their approval wasn't in the shitter. I ran the last segment outside the party with 11 approval, counting down as I fought assassins and venetori.

 

I specifically avoid this timed mission garbage. That's why I play RPGs. Because they let you explore and USUALLY don't punish you for it. Next time I'll be using Cheat Engine to lock approval so I can explore the people and environment without feeling under the gun. 

 

Also, apparently I missed the dialogue about the bells because I had no clue what the bells signified (was having some hard freezes, whee and had to rush a couple conversations the second time). When the third bell hit and I took about a 30 or 40 approval hit I almost uninstalled the game it was so annoying.

 

I don't play games to deal with deadlines and timers. I play them to have fun. This was not fun and I will be metagaming or modding the crap out of this mission in the future.

 

I profoundly hate being rushed in games. ****'s for the birds.

[Das Tentakel]

BioWare actually did better than I expected, to be honest.
All in all, it did feel as a significant social occasion at a ruling court, with some intrigue, dancing etc. It’s the first time BioWare did something like this and they did a pretty decent job.
I’m saying this as someone who actually did a bit of a study of these social occasions and ran /run events like these a lot of times in my Cthulhu campaign at the Austro-Hungarian court in the Vienna of the 1880’s and 1890’s. I wouldn’t say they did it perfectly, but it’s clear what they were trying to do and they were able to get it across.

The real fundamental ‘problem’ I see is that what should have been a pure ‘roleplaying scene’ with society and political stuff was mixed with exploration and combat. In my opinion that was totally unnecessary, except perhaps at the very end. Every effort should have been put into the actual scene: multiple dances, plenty of discussions with lots of innuendo, maybe even some covert hanky-panky with a willing Comte / Comtesse or two in the bushes. Maybe a challenge to a duel a couple of times. A Tevinter ambassador making a fuss about precedence vis á vis the Nevarran one etc. People insulting each other while being impeccably polite; there is such a thing as the art of the subtle insult…

Mechanically the ‘approval timer’ was simply a way of creating tension by getting you to hurry up. If you’re a human noble and give sensible / ambiguous answers, that tension isn’t particularly great and you have plenty of time.
This actually struck me as somewhat odd. The Inquisitor being a Marcher noble (of not any real distinction) doesn’t feel as something that should have given you an approval bonus – at best, maybe it should have prevented an immediate loss of favour. I got the impression that the Orlesian court, at best, considered foreign aristocrats as jumped-up monkeys with a golden ring through the nose. They just about get through the front door, but that’s it.
At the same time, the fact that the Inquisitor is a major power holder in his / her own right means that court favour actually shouldn’t matter. Who’s in and who’s out is normally decided by the ruler or rulers and their immediate circle. At worst, most of the Orlesian aristocrats would openly disapprove of you, but in the end Realpolitik should demand its due.

So all in all, the ‘court approval’ mechanic felt rather contrived. I feel it should have been something that opened up or closed dialogue options, or unlocked certain cutscenes, rather than a kind of timer.

[DarkKnightHolmes]

The fetch quest in this mission were so boring. 30 whispering conversations? 10 hallas? 10 coins? Oh so much fetching. The halla's are the only one's worth bothering with.

[ColGali]

This quest was seriously the most enjoyable part of the game. After killing 10000000000 red templar and 2000000000 darkspawn, finally we had some roleplaying. The execution could be better but the atmosphere and the idea is really refreshing in an otherwise boring game.

 

Young fellas, there are still some of us who actually played rpgs when they were not only hack n slash. I admit you won. We surrender. Can not really do anything else cause developers create games for you. Pls let us enjoy this piece of gem among the bloodshed the game is all about.

 

Thank you.

[FaWa]

I loved this quest.

 

The whole point is that if you're going to be able to make the Orlesians like you, you have to "play the game". What your character would actually say in this situations may not be what wins the game. This is when you have to be fake to get what you want. It's not that hard to understand. 

[Kantr]

You need to be ambiguous (middle option when talking with everyone in the court) and turning in the secrets. The only time the court dissaproves of questions is if you ask can two women dance

[abearzi]

This quest was seriously the most enjoyable part of the game. After killing 10000000000 red templar and 2000000000 darkspawn, finally we had some roleplaying. The execution could be better but the atmosphere and the idea is really refreshing in an otherwise boring game.

 

Young fellas, there are still some of us who actually played rpgs when they were not only hack n slash. I admit you won. We surrender. Can not really do anything else cause developers create games for you. Pls let us enjoy this piece of gem among the bloodshed the game is all about.

 

Thank you.

 

If there actually were any role playing, I would agree. But since the consequence for not "rping" the right way is to get a game-over and have to restart, this isn't really rping. 

[eyezonlyii]

If there actually were any role playing, I would agree. But since the consequence for not "rping" the right way is to get a game-over and have to restart, this isn't really rping. 

except as someone just said, you're supposed to be playing the Great Game, where looks and words can kill. If your quizzie sucks at the Game, then that's not the fault of the Game, just people for not playing by the rules. 

[luism]

I despise this quest. I hate every second of it. I'm on it right now on my qunari reaver play through and it's just too dumb I can't do it. Just last night I was on a part where you are introduced to Celine and you're slow walking up the center. Everyone is standing there posing like statues I walk up to them they should shriek with fear at my qunari but instead it's like the twilight zone. Just a bunch of wooden Indians.