I thought it was quite easy and entertaining. I am not sure why everyone else was having issues.
I was elf of course and hit 100 pretty easily and it stayed there.
Only thing I have to complain about is
How lazy were they with the ball clothes? Seriously..why cant i have a damn dress or a nice suit. Why the hell is everyone in my party wearing the same thing? They really made that look bad.
If Bioware are going to do more of these timed exploration quests, they need to make better maps. I had serious trouble working out how to get back to the hall.
Didn't enjoy having to run back every few minutes: it made the "find 11 halla/x coins/ x secrets" really tedious. And the map was really not helpful.
Most of their maps in general are fairly vague. They need more topography and symbols and a legend for interpreting it. Syle wise maps are hastily drawn on parchment it seems in DAI. It is decent art direction but with poor UI implementation. Or rather the two seem at odds and perhaps too much information would be immersion breaking? I dunno. I can see it from many perspectives. I am all for as much information density as possible.
Who did you ask questions of? Florianne?
Council of heralds guy likes questions
My first game, I asked questions of some of the council of herald guys and made the mistake being diplomatic and I lost lots of points. Second game, I figured out the game and wasn't diplomatic, so I only gained points. 
I love the quest, the area, the idea behind a bunch of powerful nobility needing to be handled carefully. You're still no one.
But the Approval counter makes no damn sense.
How the HELL does everyone simultaneously even know I'm not in the "correct" party areas? If you're in a giant palace, and you don't see someone you know is there, wouldn't 99.999999 (repeating) % of the universe just assume you were in ANOTHER part of the giant palace - IF they bothered to think of it at all? They have a class channel open? They're all using Facebook? They have a Vent server?
[TehCount] > lol that dumb inqwhatever just left
[ViCountMoreThanYou] > He did? I thought he was heading over there.
[TheDreadBaron] > I don't see him either. stupid elf rouge.
[Pepe le Pew] > His cheeks weren't red, dear.
[TheDreadBaron] > wat
[Pepe le Pew] > Never mind. /sigh
[TehCount] > Well, I'm glad we compared notes to discover none of us currently have eyes on him. Let's all decide we hate him now, despite all that cool stuff he did a minute ago that impressed us.
[ViCountMoreThanYou] > what if he's just taking a ******?
[TheDreadBaron] > SHUT IT. we hate him. lol
rouge 
laughing at the post above me
I love the quest, the area, the idea behind a bunch of powerful nobility needing to be handled carefully. You're still no one.
But the Approval counter makes no damn sense.
How the HELL does everyone simultaneously even know I'm not in the "correct" party areas? If you're in a giant palace, and you don't see someone you know is there, wouldn't 99.999999 (repeating) % of the universe just assume you were in ANOTHER part of the giant palace - IF they bothered to think of it at all? They have a class channel open? They're all using Facebook? They have a Vent server?
I dislike that you have to roleplay a more or less effective political mover and shaker, instead of a rough and tumble mercenary or former carta member for instance.
I dislike that you have to roleplay a more or less effective political mover and shaker, instead of a rough and tumble mercenary or former carta member for instance.
I've come to the conclusion that if I ever play a Qunquisitor, the main story basically ends here, because it's all bludgeon and no finesse for that guy.
I've come to the conclusion that if I ever play a Qunquisitor, the main story basically ends here, because it's all bludgeon and no finesse for that guy.
I dislike that you have to roleplay a more or less effective political mover and shaker, instead of a rough and tumble mercenary or former carta member for instance.
I haven't tried it yet, but I think you can proceed with the game just fine if you bollocks it all up. You might have a dead Empress, the undying hatred of every noble house in Orlais, and Josie hospitalized for stroke, but it sounds like you're going for that anyway.
The flip side of the whole "all your vast power and resources are a couple of numbers you don't even see 90% of the time" is that if you screw it all up, it doesn't matter either. Oh I have less power, influence and resources now? You don't see your forces outside scouts and campsites, you don't wield your power beyond clicking icons on a map, and you don't experience influence except maybe new things appearing on that map and I can carry 15 more items in inventory now thank BOG.
I strongly suspect you could burn the Winter Palace to the ground and your ability to save the world - and the events that it gets saved by - won't be impacted in the slightest.
This reminds me of the Fade in Origins.. Many people will want a skip option.. This had decent aspects, but felt more like a chore than anything.. Though, much of the game ends up feeling that way.. So..
But yea, i ended up doing something i despise, and thats load saving.. Reloading, to getthe "corrcet" answer.. Since the responses dont really come out the way you think they would.. Its almost like your supposed to be an A-hole for some of it, an dthen just know when to be the nice guy.. Very frusterating... None of it felt natural, and you ouldnt role play your character... I played a very nce, helpful, Inqisitor of the people, Qunari Mage, and i couldnt make his personailty "work" in the Palace..
It was cool in theory. In practice it took too long compared to other missions. I wish we could have swapped some of that time for extra content elsewhere. Everything worked out perfectly, but it was tiresome. My quiz meant it in the end when she said she was spent. So I think that's somewhat realistic for a mercenary who's tossed into the game and finds she'd rather be fighting demons than dealing with politics. Still, it would have been nice to have other race/origin specific option since Qunari and elves are treated differently.
After dealing with a bunch of racist snobs my quiz really wanted to pull a Julio
Liked some things and hated others -liked the palace and the plot in general. Mainly hated being forced to a manly uniform where the orlesian women and , grrrrr Morrigan, get dresses, hated getting lost exploring while the timer ran down, trying to find more halla statues... Then I cheated and looked up wiki to speedrun them hallas 
Had about 65 approval at end I think, as an elf.
And ay, feels a bit like the new fade for me too, mixed feelings if I want to do it every playthrough . Sometimes I`ve loved redoing the fade in Origins, sometimes hated it deeply.
This reminds me of the Fade in Origins.. Many people will want a skip option.. This had decent aspects, but felt more like a chore than anything.. Though, much of the game ends up feeling that way.. So..
But yea, i ended up doing something i despise, and thats load saving.. Reloading, to getthe "corrcet" answer.. Since the responses dont really come out the way you think they would.. Its almost like your supposed to be an A-hole for some of it, an dthen just know when to be the nice guy.. Very frusterating... None of it felt natural, and you ouldnt role play your character... I played a very nce, helpful, Inqisitor of the people, Qunari Mage, and i couldnt make his personailty "work" in the Palace..
Josephine told you at the start how you should behave at that event... You had to appear neutral and thus the answers you had to give were pretty much easy if you took your time to think a little bit. I agree that could've been done better but forme the Winter Palace was one of the best parts of the game. maybe if they hadn't decided to make that useless multiplayer, we would have had a nice polished game.
I enjoyed this mission a lot. They played off the medieval French court quite well, a story tried not to be cliché too much, Inquisition's unisex outfit was fabulous and humour was on the mark.
My thoughts exactly. Does the inquisitor have some kind of tracking device?
French court was strongly based on what people said about you. And the nobility discussed rumours about other people A LOT. The game hinted multiple times the ball's visitors were paying attention to who is missing, i.e. nobody sees them.
It is expected from you to be visible and entertain, especially if you are as high profile as a fresh new Inquisition can be. If you aren't visible in room 1, people start asking and meet people from room 2 and 3 and discover you aren't there too. It's the domino effect.
In the reality, the degradation progress wouldn't be as fast as it is in the game (1 min) but I assume they tried to implement the pressure you might feel in such event - which would also take longer than a length of the mission's parts (30 - 60 minutes).
It really is painful design, for me personally it is disjointed from the rest of the game.
I liked the Fade in Origins, this though its like a city full of Vivienne's.. (that's a bad thing)
I really enjoyed this quest. I loved seeing the effects of my race/class coming into play, and would honestly love to see more. I thought the way the dialog was done was actually well executed. If you read the codex in any of the previous games, you knew that dancing with the dowager was a smart move. And having specific dialog earn you points made sense - after all, by now the majority of us should be aware that The Game requires careful movements (this has been reiterated many, many times across games).
I also was not a fan of the timer. I understand the thought process behind it, but I thought it was silly that Bioware was presenting this idea that the entire court was aware that the Inquisitor was away, and not just say, for example, in another room. Not a great choice.
With the Halla, a warning label would be nice. There aren't enough Hallas to open every door. So saving them is a good idea. I looked at a guide after my second runthrough and saw that if I'd gone into a specific Halla room, I could've influenced the ending and made it quite different. That was a little irritating, but not too bad, considering that the whole point of Bioware games (for me, at least) is to replay them and try different things.
The achievement "Belle of the Ball' (gain the full approval of the court) is also misleading, but this is a minor complaint. You only need 85+ approval and one specific condition met to earn this. Just a heads up for anyone confused as to why they didn't receive the achievement after earning 100+ approval (as I was after my first playthrough)
Josephine told you at the start how you should behave at that event... You had to appear neutral and thus the answers you had to give were pretty much easy if you took your time to think a little bit. I agree that could've been done better but forme the Winter Palace was one of the best parts of the game. maybe if they hadn't decided to make that useless multiplayer, we would have had a nice polished game.
I think I have played this map seven times by now. And it will not be the last.
This is the very best map of the entire game. Real roleplaying as it should be.
Don't get me wrong, I like the rest of the game. It's extremely well made. The GOTY award is definetely deserved. By all means.
But 'Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts' is so different and intense. It's a relief to get rid of all the hack and slash in the other maps. Not to mention the never ending collecting herbs, metals and vise versa. In this map you are aware of who is who, what to say when, and what not to say.
You are very observant and notice what is being said, but maybe more important what is NOT being said.
I would have preferred that the end of this part of Dragon Age would have happened in these surroundings.
I also would very much like to see more of empress Celene. Maybe in a DLC?
I played this map twice. The first time I was 50/50, I like to explore and I didn't care much for the depreciating approval meter when in restricted areas, but it makes sense and creates an urgency that was in line with the quest. It also made me feel like James Bond, doing espionage while maintaining a good image and mingling with nobles. My biggest issue with this map is the fact that the side quests are way too easy to miss. The worst example is even if you find all 30 secrets, if you fail to present to Leliana before the final confrontation you dont finish the quest. So I played it a 2nd time with different companions (Sera!) and enjoyed it much more. I still haven't explored all the locked rooms because you only have enough shards to open a few of them, so without consulting a walkthrough it can be a bit of a nightmare for the completionist.
And now that it's over, and we go back to the real world of conflict and demon hunting, I really miss that map.
I played this map twice. The first time I was 50/50, I like to explore and I didn't care much for the depreciating approval meter when in restricted areas, but it makes sense and creates an urgency that was in line with the quest. It also made me feel like James Bond, doing espionage while maintaining a good image and mingling with nobles. My biggest issue with this map is the fact that the side quests are way too easy to miss. The worst example is even if you find all 30 secrets, if you fail to present to Leliana before the final confrontation you dont finish the quest. So I played it a 2nd time with different companions (Sera!) and enjoyed it much more. I still haven't explored all the locked rooms because you only have enough shards to open a few of them, so without consulting a walkthrough it can be a bit of a nightmare for the completionist.
And now that it's over, and we go back to the real world of conflict and demon hunting, I really miss that map.
.
There is only one bug in this quest.
If you succeed to arrange the perfect ending where Celene and Briala is united you will not get 'Mask of the Ambassador'.
But I can live with that.
.
There is only one bug in this quest.
If you succeed to arrange the perfect ending where Celene and Briala is united you will not get 'Mask of the Ambassador'.
But I can live with that.
Yes i got that bug
The first time I played this quest I hated it. Mostly because I hate any sort of timed events in games (usually I go at a snail's pace, exploring every possible corner). I reloaded so many, many times because of the halla statues and because I had no idea how long the quest would be and that made it difficult to estimate how much approval I needed. I wish the approval had been used for something else, like the ending of the quest maybe?
Other than that I actually liked the quest itself. In a way I understand people complain about not being able to "be themselves" without getting a game over but... Yeah maybe it shouldn't be a game over but there should be consequences for not playing the Game or playing the Game badly. If your Inquisitor does either of those it should be impossible to get the best ending for the quest. It's like the real world, there are some settings or places where you can't act however you like without being punished for it.
Maybe it would be easier for players if we hade the DA:O dialogue system. Then they could add "(lie)" after some choices so it would be clearer that the Inquisitor doesn't believe that, they're just playing the game.
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