211 réponses à ce sujet

[Hair Serious Business]

Hehe...dwarf is my favorite race so it's more then worth it for me 

[leaguer of one]

Which is why I actually disliked my Dwarf's portrayal in DA:I; you aren't a dwarf.

 

Varric's a great companion don't get me wrong, but in no way except height is he a dwarf. He's is an Andrastian; nothing wrong with that for his character; but in terms of getting a take on dwarven culture we have been severely lacking since DA:O. You can count on one hand the number of times the game actually recognizes you are a dwarf, and you get even fewer instances where you can have your character say that he/she believes in dwarven things like the Stone and the Ancestors. 

 

If I am going to play as a Dwarf; or any race for that matter; I would like for that to mean something beyond an ascetic change and a few throwaway lines of dialog or a simple codex entry.

*FACEPALM.

 

You can't say someone is not of a race because of what they believe.

[leaguer of one]

Really? Could you watch this scene and say it again? 

 

 

I mean something like 'Sure, that scene makes sense and it was written with a dwarven female character in mind'?

I especially love the way her height changes from 'barely reaching the partner's bosom armpit' to 'visibly above the shoulder' (like at 1:20). Must be levitation.

I won't even say anything about rogue dwarves& tal-vashoths knowing the ballroom dances. 

Doing that as a Qunari was awesome by the way.

[Exalus]

Josie may have given you lessons prior.

[NRieh]

 

You can't say someone is not of a race because of what they believe.

That depends on whether a person is willing to RP a short human with a beard or a Dwarf, I think.

Varric was initially presented as a gorgeous anti-Dwarf, that does not want to have anything in common with his ancestors (remember his Darkest Fear?), and that's just what he is. 

 

As it is now - it's more like we have an option to play as a

1. short human

2. human with horns

3. human with ears

4. normal human

[Poison_Berrie]

Imagine if they did restrict it to one race and class how much more time and creative energy they could spend tailoring dialog and interactions to that specific character
Instead of wasting time creating 18 different dialog choices or just ignoring (which is the more likely case) the fact that your character is a qunari female. It depends on what you are looking for I suppose but the idea that more choice is always better is nonsense.

 

Absolutely not worth it, unless you're looking to get a Sims fix out of DA:I. 

 

It's painfully obvious that the game was made for a human inquisitor. It makes zero sense for Cassandra and the Co. to proclaim a non believing "heretic" as the leader of an Inquisition and a Herald of Andraste. I wish the visual resources for the races went toward a longer and better main story and something of an origin for the protagonist. 

I think both of you are severely overstating the drain of resources this has been. 

As far as I can see Dwarves and Qunari get very little extra in terms of dialogue. Elves may get some more, but even that is limited.

At most the extra resources went into art and animation for these characters. 

It seems to me that the "open world" design was a much greater drain on the main story, than extra races. If so you'd expect more racial content to be there.

[Raiil]

Absolutely not worth it, unless you're looking to get a Sims fix out of DA:I.

It's painfully obvious that the game was made for a human inquisitor. It makes zero sense for Cassandra and the Co. to proclaim a non believing "heretic" as the leader of an Inquisition and a Herald of Andraste. I wish the visual resources for the races went toward a longer and better main story and something of an origin for the protagonist.

Really? My first playthrough was my default human female mage. I'm currently doing a fem elf mage and the game feels so much more rewarding and richer- to the point that she's become my Canon Inquisitor.

[Versus Omnibus]

Yes, having Qunari is worth it. I'm going to main Qunari from here on out in future games (if race selection is possible).

[zambingo]

I wanted to be a dwarf until Bioware stuck to their guns about magic use. I had hope with Sandal's "Not enchantment!" comment and Dagna being involved in the game. Alas tis not to be. Maybe next game. If so then wands should be introduced too, maybe something Dagna develops, would be a neat alternative to staves.

[BloodyTalon]

Anything is better then humans, humans suck just look at rl

[In Exile]

Anything is better then humans, humans suck just look at rl

All the characters look like humans. Again, unless we're back to giant spider territory.

[Melca36]

Anything is better then humans, humans suck just look at rl

 

If it was trendy to hate on Elves or dwarves you'd join the bandwagon for that.

 

There is NOTHING wrong with humans. Its just a popular trend to hate on them

[MattH]

I'd be more inclined to play either if their races had bigger plot stories in the game. The humans the Orlesian civil war, mage rebellion, crazy wardens etc, and elves have some very interesting tidbits towards the end, but nothing ever really happens with the dwarves or qunari. It'd have been great to visit Orzammar, or hell, actually get to even see a qunari in game (other than The Iron Bull and that one that hangs out on the battlements).

[Hiemoth]

I think it is important to once again point out that while the racial options did without a doubt require resources to animate, it is not the reason for the lack of focus on the PC and their history. Bioware stated several times during production that they were going to have background options for the PC, which were incorporated in to the racial backgrounds in DAI. The mercenary became the Qunari background, the noble background became the Human Warrior/Rogue background, etc. So even if they had kept with just the human character, it still would have been a far cry from the focus given to Hawke in DA2.

 

Also, and this too bears repeating, in these discussions it is really important to understand that they have a limited amount of resources to use when creating a game. When these race discussions or background discussions come up, I often feel that a lot of people envision a hugely individual storyline for each choice with an expertly crafted story that ties their exact choices to the world. However, to do that, the resource requirements would through the roof. It wasn't by laziness they limited Hawke as only a human, despite what some commenters seem to imagine, but because they wanted to craft that deeply personal and character-fitting storyline, which basically limited them to one background. This is a case of either/or, and while I truly do hope they once again craft such a personal story akin to DA2 in the DA game, I will also say that if they have a racial choice, then it should include all the races.

[Todrazok]

Absolutely, My first playthrough is a Qunari and I loved playing as a tall giant towering over everyone. There is a very good chance he'll end up as my Canon Inqusitor

 

As for races in general, the more options the better, as it provides replay value. I've yet to create a dwarf or an elf, and if it were not for those options being there I'm not sure I'd be making many more Inquisitors in the future 

[sch1986]

Guess I'll be the odd man out and say no.

Didn't care for origin stories in origins. Don't care for the so called race differences in Inquisition.

If they were going to do this they should have committed and done it right. Why am I a Dalish elf asking humans about my history? Wtf? Some more care should have been taken in editing those lines out for Dalish inquisitor's. Give a Dalish the opportunity to make a statement that still informs the player of lore but doesn't make your supposed Dalish keepers first look like a total idiot.

Qunari don't get enough armors... Haven't played a dwarf but considering they likely have no more lore references then human or elf inquisitors and no dwarf to romance I can't see how the effort was worth it. Would have much preferred extra story missions, extra armor models, BETTER FEMALE HAIR, then the option to play a different race.

Was I disappointed about Hawke being only human? At first yes. Then I saw the difference between Hawke and the warden. Hawke has family and friends and a story. Warden and inquisitor have neither.

[Poison_Berrie]

Also, and this too bears repeating, in these discussions it is really important to understand that they have a limited amount of resources to use when creating a game. When these race discussions or background discussions come up, I often feel that a lot of people envision a hugely individual storyline for each choice with an expertly crafted story that ties their exact choices to the world. However, to do that, the resource requirements would through the roof. It wasn't by laziness they limited Hawke as only a human, despite what some commenters seem to imagine, but because they wanted to craft that deeply personal and character-fitting storyline, which basically limited them to one background. This is a case of either/or, and while I truly do hope they once again craft such a personal story akin to DA2 in the DA game, I will also say that if they have a racial choice, then it should include all the races.

I think there's a middle ground here, though. 

A meeting or an actual quest could have made the story slightly more personal for each background. Not to the level as DA2 did, but bit more than it feels now.

I'll say it again, it's not just the separate backgrounds that takes away resources from the story and I doubt it's far from the worst offender.

 

Was I disappointed about Hawke being only human? At first yes. Then I saw the difference between Hawke and the warden. Hawke has family and friends and a story. Warden and inquisitor have neither.

YMMV. Except for the surviving sybling his family could have been cardboard for me. And even he/she wasn't a big part in Hawke's life.
It definitely felt that you were on a more personal level with your companions, but that's more down to quest and interaction design plus there wasn't the whole leader of the Inquisition position that feels like it creates distance between you and your companions in DA:I.

[sch1986]

I think it is important to once again point out that while the racial options did without a doubt require resources to animate, it is not the reason for the lack of focus on the PC and their history. Bioware stated several times during production that they were going to have background options for the PC, which were incorporated in to the racial backgrounds in DAI. The mercenary became the Qunari background, the noble background became the Human Warrior/Rogue background, etc. So even if they had kept with just the human character, it still would have been a far cry from the focus given to Hawke in DA2.
 
Also, and this too bears repeating, in these discussions it is really important to understand that they have a limited amount of resources to use when creating a game. When these race discussions or background discussions come up, I often feel that a lot of people envision a hugely individual storyline for each choice with an expertly crafted story that ties their exact choices to the world. However, to do that, the resource requirements would through the roof. It wasn't by laziness they limited Hawke as only a human, despite what some commenters seem to imagine, but because they wanted to craft that deeply personal and character-fitting storyline, which basically limited them to one background. This is a case of either/or, and while I truly do hope they once again craft such a personal story akin to DA2 in the DA game, I will also say that if they have a racial choice, then it should include all the races.

I don't know whether to agree with you or disagree with you. On the one hand you say: the options aren't detracting from the main story ("just humans would have been a far cry from the focus on Hawke"). I guess neither of us can truly make this assumption but I'm guessing if they headed into the game knowing there would only be one race then the story would have been tailored to that race. While it seems you are guessing that the story would have remained the same just minus the dwarves elves and Qunari.

On the other hand you clearly point out that Hawkes story was much better crafted because they tailored the game to one race, one story, one Hawke. This I definitely agree with.

[rapscallioness]

I played all the races in both DAO and DAI. I loved it in DAO. Obviously, that must have been because of the origin story. The rest of the game did not pay too much attention to that..until you went back to your origins.

 

I loved playing different races in DAO--and this is from someone that is quite happy to play human only. But the origin stories just locked it in for me. They made me feel really connected to the character, their culture, and thier struggle. Human noble in DAO was great because it felt really tied in to the main story because of Howe and all that.

 

My very close second favorite was Lady Aeducan of the dwarf noble origin. It was so good. At one point I was just like forget the Blight, can I just play this story?

 

And then when you went back to your place of origin... the reaction was pretty fantastic.

 

DAI gave me more of a meh feeling when playing different races. There were a few lines here and there, but nothing really interesting. It was much like upgrading SkyHold. Yeah, you can change the look, but it doesn't really mean anything.

 

But BW does not want to do origin stories anymore. As a whole they seem like they don't even want to do prologues anymore.

 

I think Hawke worked even without an origin/prologue because Hawke essentially dragged their origin story with them, like a ball and chain. lol! The PC's in DAI--even the human one--felt to me like just a bit of flotsam on the wind.

 

So, I'm not sure if eliminating race selection would make the difference I'm looking for. Idk how resource intensive it actually was. Idk what the trade offs might have been.

 

However, if it turns out that they coulda-woulda-shoulda given a single PC more interactive background if they had not had so many races, then I'd be all for ditching it.....and playing human only.

[NRieh]

 

 

I think both of you are severely overstating the drain of resources this has been.
As far as I can see Dwarves and Qunari get very little extra in terms of dialogue.

That's not only about dialogues! That's making 8 bloody armor variations (instead of 2), calling for the extra 2 voice actors (thus doubling the amount of the most expensive VA roles), trying to make those cut-scenes look not that ridiculous etc etc.  

 

While I'm glad for those who'd gotten their options, I'm still not entirely convinced it was worth it. Not even for the elf (sorry, Solas!). Human makes most of sense story-wise and has the least amount of possible lore-related WTFs. 

[tmp7704]

All the characters look like humans. Again, unless we're back to giant spider territory.

I... might've kept Morrigan in the spider form more often than necessary in DAO.

[DeusGoddess5010]

Yes both dwarfs and espy qunari's was worth it. I say espy qunari since they are a new race entirely that's introduced to the series and hopefully we players will continue to pick from all 4 races in future games

[rapscallioness]

I'll be totally honest, though. If BW came up and said they were only doing one gender--male, because it was too resource intensive, I'd flip a friggin' table on them.

 

So, whereas I'm completely happy, and prefer in most cases, to play human only, I'm not convinced that would necessarily equate to a tighter narrative.

 

edit: so, before I'd say get rid of races in order to free up more resources to- hopefully- put towards a tighter narrative and background, I'd say look other places. for example, mounts, or even SkyHold itself. i mean, I liked SkyHold alot, but I'd be more than willing to ditch it. cut down on number of companions. cut out 1 or two maps.

 

i'd be willing to ditch all that if it meant we could keep race selection, make it meatier, and have an origin/prologue for our PC's.

 

*And all this really just because i'd hate to have something taken away that means so much to my fellow BS Innards.

[Poison_Berrie]

That's not only about dialogues! That's making 8 bloody armor variations (instead of 2), calling for the extra 2 voice actors (thus doubling the amount of the most expensive VA roles), trying to make those cut-scenes look not that ridiculous etc etc.  

Armor variations takes away from the art team, not those working on the story. I also don't know if the two voice sets are in response to the racial options or were always planned (just like some of the original back-stories got reworked for the expanded racial options).

 

I think the racial selection and their implementation issues, suffer more from this being decided late® in development rather than at the start.

[tmp7704]

Cassandra should have been the leader, you're just the rift closing guy, doesn't mean you're qualified to make decisions. Your choices would matter indirectly by influencing Cassandra's opinions, just like you could turn Dawn Star to the dark side closed fist. Bribe advisors that disagree with you. Leave people who agree with you in charge of taken keeps. etc.

This largely *is* how it works at the start. They're inviting you to the war table etc but any input and function you provide is more of a tie-breaker variety or acting as a magister bait, than some actual serious leading. This only changes after you save everyone's behinds when Haven gets the visit from the Plot Fairy.