110 réponses à ce sujet

[Caja]

Before I start, let me point out that English isn't my first langue, so bear with me. Also, this thread will also most likely contain spoilers, so consider yourself warned.

 

After the release of Dragon Age II we had a "constructive criticism" thread. The thread got rather long but as I recall it, it was a very productive one. I've seen other "constructive criticism" threads coming up after DAI but sadly they seem to drown under a lot of "complain threads." Now, I'll be the first to admit that feedback is important. But it also matters how you give it. If it's done properly, the recipient (in this case BioWare) will hopefully take it positively and something productive might come out of it. In this sense I would like to make a constructive feedback thread in which we collect feedback - "constructive" is the operative word here. So, let me start by laying out some...

 

...ground rules.

I strongly believe that nothing good can come out of a feedback session if the person who gives feedback is harsh and offensive, no matter how frustrated someone is. Please stay polite. Moreover, I am convinced that you should always give some positive feedback, too. So, here's the deal: For everything negative that you write you have to write something positive as well. If you disliked three things about DAI, try to come up with three things that you actually liked. What worked well for you, what didn't and why?

 

 

Here are my two cents:

 

Level design

I absolutely loved it. It felt like such a major improvement for me, compared with the linear levels of the previous game. The levels of DA II felt very repetitive but DAI gave me a feeling of variety and the different areas really felt, well, different. I liked to explore them. The dungeons worked really well for me, too. They were not too long and not too short.

 

That's why I don't quite understand the desire for so many "collect item X" quests. If I wanted to explore the area, I could just do that. Why did there have to be 114 shards, mosaic pieces, wine bottles, herbs, metals and Maker-knows-what. Exploring the area would have worked with less collectibles. As much as I loved my Inquisitor's environment, collecting items became boring quickly.

 

Weather

We had different weather! This was awesome. I loved it and the weather changes worked really well for me. They helped to influence my mood. Could you imagine that the Fallow Mire would still be such an unpleasant place if it was warm and sunny? What about a dynamic day and night change in the next game? Just a thought.

 

Skyhold

I adore this castle. I swear, the first few times my Inquisitor got lost in there, that's how big it is. The rooms are so beautiful. I therefore believe that it's a pity not to use some of them more often, e.g. the library in the basement  or the private quarters. For me there was just one scene at the very end of the game that took place in the latter. That's such a wasted opportunity.

 

Dialogue Wheel

Something that personally bothered me in DA II were the icons on the dialogue wheel. As if the game really had to rub my face in it: Here, you can choose a sarcastic answer now, player! And while I still prefer the dialogue tree over the dialogue wheel, the neutral arrows that appear most of the time now worked so much better for me. Also, there were not so many re-loads as in DA 2. The text on the wheel matched better with what my Inquisitor had to say. Overall, I think the DAI dialogue wheel has improved.

 

 

 

World states, decisions & companions

I only had one playthrough so far. But the implementation of my previous decisions felt right. I could ask Cullen or Leliana about the Hero of Ferelden, I could ask Varric about Hawke. King Alistair was back and so was Morrigan (yeah!). There were other, smaller things that influenced my world state, too, and all of this created a great feeling of immersion.

 

However, decisions that I made in this game didn't always seem to have such a great impact, e.g. how does it matter if I side with Celene or Gaspard? In the end, I always have my ally. I told Cullen not to take lyrium anymore and besides having some nightmares he was fine and the topic was never brought up again. That must have been the quickest withdrawal ever. Why couldn't I see that my war table missions changed something in the world? Yes, I got more power points because of them but, er, that was it? If my decicions in DAI had caused different outcomes in-game, the feeling of immersion would have been even better.

 

One kick ass item

Remember Kangaxx from Baldur's Gate 2? This was a side quest in which you had to restore the body of a lich. The different body parts were hidden in different town districts. Once you had them all together, you were in for hard and very long fight against the lich. But if you defeated him, he dropped one of the most powerful items in the whole game. I missed something like that in DAI. The crafting was great fun but I really wish there had been some kind of kick ass reward that you really have to fight for or that you have to make an effort in order to get it. Maybe there is one and I didn't find it?

 

What are your thoughts?

[TheOgre]

I don't think that you touched on it yet, but one thing that I would have really enjoyed for immersion is a full day and night cycle. Weather and day/night cycles would be so wonderful for places like Crestwood.

I personally feel like skyhold could have been more unique in design. Some of the banner choices and what have you were attained too far in the game to get to explore.

Combat ai/tactical camera.. Why are my companions so.. Well.. Odd? I tell them to hold.. And the second they attack after a hold, they move about unchecked. It is a thorn in my side. Isometric view is something I'd love to have a comeback on as well. I like giving out orders in a more bg feel.

[Jeffry]

I don't think that you touched on it yet, but one thing that I would have really enjoyed for immersion is a full day and night cycle. Weather and day/night cycles would be so wonderful for places like Crestwood.

 

I agree it would be awesome, but I think that will never happen in BW games. It was explained why, when people heavily requested it for SWTOR, since it is present in many other MMOs. It is because of cut scenes, they have to get the light just right and that would be absolutely impossible with full day / night cycle.

[Caja]

I agree it would be awesome, but I think that will never happen in BW games. It was explained why, when people heavily requested it for SWTOR, since it is present in many other MMOs. It is because of cut scenes, they have to get the light just right and that would be absolutely impossible with full day / night cycle.

Well, that explains it. A full day and night cycle would be really nice but I can see the problem here.

[TheOgre]

I maintain its possible for future fb3 games, then being new, probably not so much..

[ThreeF]

However, decisions that I made in this game didn't always seem to have such a great impact, e.g. how does it matter if I side with Celene or Gaspard? In the end, I always have my ally. I told Cullen not to take lyrium anymore and besides having some nightmares he was fine and the topic was never brought up again. That must have been the quickest withdrawal ever. Why couldn't I see that my war table missions changed something in the world? Yes, I got more power points because of them but, er, that was it? If my decicions in DAI had caused different outcomes in-game, the feeling of immersion would have been even better.

 

I agree about the in-game decision not having enough impact. But in the case of Cullen.... you kind of get a rather different person depending that decision (and one of the routes can have a rather strong result), maybe you didn't saw all this because you didn't romanced him?

 

 

I agree it would be awesome, but I think that will never happen in BW games. It was explained why, when people heavily requested it for SWTOR, since it is present in many other MMOs. It is because of cut scenes, they have to get the light just right and that would be absolutely impossible with full day / night cycle.

 

Yeah there is already at least one cut scene like this in the game and it looks odd.

 

 

I think the Choice between Celene and Gaspard was a bit awkward. If you didn't kill Celene and didn't want them all to cooperate you were pretty much locked into accusing Gaspard of things that might not be true and in one case you end up not knowing what will happen to Briala until after you end up in Skyhold and talk about it as if you knew all along.

 

I also have a problem with how the dialogue in Mages and Wardens allying/not allying was handled. You had only two very extreme options, voice acted in a very extreme way. Very odd considering that for the most of the game you can at least choose to be neutral, or have some additional reasoning.

[Caja]

I agree about the in-game decision not having enough impact. But in the case of Cullen.... you kind of get a rather different person depending that decision (and one of the routes can have a rather strong result), maybe you didn't saw all this because you didn't romanced him?

 

Cullen was just an example. I believe that if you haul out the big guns (such as withdrawal) it should be dealt with more thoroughly. It strikes me ass odd that he doesn't struggle more with his withdrawal when you talk him out of taking lyrium. And my Quizzie romanced the hell out of him . However, it might very well be that I haven't seen it all. As I said, my feedback is based on just one playthrough. 

[ThreeF]

Cullen was just an example. I believe that if you haul out the big guns (such as withdrawal) it should be dealt with more thoroughly. It strikes me ass odd that he doesn't struggle more with his withdrawal when you talk him out of taking lyrium. And my Quizzie romanced the hell out of him . However, it might very well be that I haven't seen it all. As I said, my feedback is based on just one playthrough. 

Yeah I get it I might also see it this way because I feel that he has just enough drama to make things interesting without going the usual angsty path, which is something I really appreciate (I can't stress enough how much).

 

He probably had the most difficult time before the events of the story. He is also the type who would probably bleed to death and not tell anyone that he is wounded, so it kind of fits his character that you don't realize anything. The way i see it the only reason you catch up with it is because he is having a really bad day (he sort of mentions it himself) and you practically walked onto him. But yes you do get three outcomes out of lyrium plot line if you romance him and none of them is exactly cosy,

 

When you romance him,

Spoiler

he has a nightmare and if you told him to not take lyrium he says "it's worse without lyrium", so it's kind of "crap i did this to you" moment.  If you tell him to take lyrium (and never get off it) he will dump you, because you basically tell him to focus on his duty, and to him where is duty there is no room for personal feeling. After in a prayer he blames himself for not being strong enough. It's all kind of depressing

 

But even non-romanced you basically make him choose between duty and his resolve, it changes him.

 

 

Character writing and character's interaction in this game is the strongest point of DAI, imo.

[Jeffry]

And to OP's original post:

 

Yeah, the choice during the Winter Palace quest was not represented well in the rest of the game. I forced them all to cooperate directly under me (de facto making Orlais my puppet state), yet everytime the civil war was discussed only Celene was ever mentioned - like she won the civil war hands down, Gaspard was defeated (though he was promoted to her cabinet) and Brialla didn't even exist (well I guess she is a very good spymaster after all).

 

The collectibles were often too much. I don't know why BioWare had to repeat the Ubisoft's formula of filling their open world with tons of junk. Truth to be told, I am not much for exploring, I like smaller areas that you can fully explore fast, like in DAO. But boy did I enjoy Hissing Wastes, what an excellent and really different location compared to most others. I could finally use my mount and didn't have to stop every 10 seconds to pick something up or fight bloody hyenas or bears.

 

For me unfortunately, the world state was sometimes bugged - Connor placed the wrong monarchs on the throne and Morrigan insisted my Warden was her lover and her son to be his, even though the Warden romanced hardened Leliana, married Anora, talked Alistair into doing the ritual and then stabbed her in the DLC. But otherwise it seems the imported world state was ok, though BioWare did not have to punish me for not putting Alistair on the throne by forcing me to decide between him and Hawke Also I didn't really get why there were so many unimportant decisions in the Keep. What different effect did it have if I killed the prisoner in Ostagar or not or how I got the food for him?

 

Oh Kangaxx probably the toughest fight in any of BW's RPGs, my god that damn prison spell. Fight like that with appropriate reward would be great, but I fear it would diminish the final boss even more. Even tho dragons were awesome and finally challenging in a fun way, they soon became kinda easy to kill.

[C0uncil0rTev0s]

Just saying, why do I have to find an exact match of things I liked for all things I didn't?..

 

Seriously, the things I liked can be straightened to three points: eye-candy graphics, FB3 physics (which is flawed itself in DA:I) and vast (yet empty) landscapes. As for the things I didn't like... Well, that's quite a list!

[mutantspicy]

I agree it would be awesome, but I think that will never happen in BW games. It was explained why, when people heavily requested it for SWTOR, since it is present in many other MMOs. It is because of cut scenes, they have to get the light just right and that would be absolutely impossible with full day / night cycle.

While this may have been the response.  I say this is a lazy answer.  How do other games with day night cycles do cutscenes?  think witcher.  Its completely doable, I've seen it done.  But yeah this would have been a nice addition.

[Caja]

 

[...]

 Also I didn't really get why there were so many unimportant decisions in the Keep. What different effect did it have if I killed the prisoner in Ostagar or not or how I got the food for him?

 

[...]

I believe that choices like this were added based on the feedback that the Keep beta tester gave.

 

Just saying, why do I have to find an exact match of things I liked for all things I didn't?..

 

Seriously, the things I liked can be straightened to three points: eye-candy graphics, FB3 physics (which is flawed itself in DA:I) and vast (yet empty) landscapes. As for the things I didn't like... Well, that's quite a list!

 

Well, I'm trying to achive a balanced feedback but other posters here haven't exactly followed the rule either. I just didn't want to make another thread that deals with negative points entirely. And as I tried to stress out above, I believe that feedback is constructive if you talk about positive and negative aspects. Why don't you pick three things from your list? 

[Jeffry]

While this may have been the response.  I say this is a lazy answer.  How do other games with day night cycles do cutscenes?  think witcher.  Its completely doable, I've seen it done.  But yeah this would have been a nice addition.

 

Maybe their engine back then couldn't handle it well enough to their satisfaction. Honestly I completely forgot about the new possibilities with FB3 now. I'd like to believe something like this would be possible for the next game, when the devs will be more experienced with the engine. At least moving clouds would be great.

[C0uncil0rTev0s]

I believe that choices like this were added based on the feedback that the Keep beta tester gave.

 

 

Well, I'm trying to achive a balanced feedback but other posters here haven't exactly followed the rule either. I just didn't want to make another thread that entirely deals with negative points entirely. And as I tried to stress out above, I believe that feedback is constructive if you talk about positive and negative aspects. Why don't you pick three things from your list? 

Nice for you to believe in those things, I'm happy you can. I really am.

 

But the list of devastating (at least) things, that ruin most part of the fun from the game - that list is very long. And you can't just rip three things out of it... specially when two positives come with negatives of their own.

 

Okay, please, tell me your opinion on my review here
 

[Caja]

As far as feedback is concerned, yep, it works better if you come up with negative and positive points IMHO. I don't know in how many situations you have been IRL where feedback was given to you, but it is fairer if it isn't centered around negative aspects alone. I'm sorry that your fun was ruined for most parts of the game (haven't read your review yet but I will). I agree that the game has flaws and one of the reasons why I made this thread is to recapitulate them. But to stay fair, other users - such as myself - still enjoyed the game despite its flaws. The good things about DAI shouldn't be swept under the rug and that was what I meant. I'm off to read your review now . 

[mutantspicy]

Three things I liked.

 

1) I like the action oriented combat and like that Xbox 360 control scheme is native to the game.  I know its not a popular view, and many others prefer the auto lock / auto attack mechanic.  I like the challenge of having to move and position myself to hit my target. 

 

2) The voice acting and dialog choices are very well done.  They continue to give us more and I hope this direction continues.  There is still not enough dialog to have all the choices we use to have in the old text based games, but its moving in the right direction.

 

3)The environments -  The lighting in this game is stellar, the music is fantastic, the details in the vegetation and rocks, Water effects.  Outstanding job.

 

Three things I didn't like

 

1) They changed the magic schools.  It seems unfathomable to me that suddenly all the mages of Thedas forgot about Creation and Entropy.   And suddenly only know how to cast Spirit and Primal elemental spells.

 

2) Corypheus was basically a non factor throughout the game, except Haven and End Game.  Which would have been ok if my inquisition was more actively being threatened by his Red Templars and corrupt Wardens.  And the character dialog just wasn't done to my liking.

 

3)While I really like the crafting, I really dislike most of the armor models.  And there is a lot glitches, mesh mismatches that I've caught.  Gaps between arms and chest plates, etc.  In general there are a lot of model issues in the game.  Enemy hit boxes, awful arm and hand animations.  Weird color choices. shiny hair. 

[C0uncil0rTev0s]

As far as feedback is concerned, yep, it works better if you come up with negative and positive points IMHO. I don't know in how many situations you have been IRL where feedback was given to you, but it is fairer if it isn't centered around negative aspects alone. I'm sorry that your fun was ruined for most parts of the game (haven't read your review yet but I will). I agree that the game has flaws and one of the reasons why I made this thread is to recapitulate them. But to stay fair, other users - such as myself - still enjoyed the game despite its flaws. The good things about DAI shouldn't be swept under the rug and that was what I meant. I'm off to read your review now . 

I'm a teacher. Guess how much of a feedback do I deal everyday.

And judging from my experience feedback needs to be: full, accurate, creative and constructive. In that order.

 

Because, you know, feedback used to be used for solving problems.

If the person who gets feedback feels offended - it's his/her right to be.

If the feedback is inaccurate there could be wrong suggestions based on it.

It the feedback is not full and describes isolated case resources might be wasted on a secondary objective.

 

Shorter version - effectiveness over hippiness 100% of a time.

[Helmetto]

I've already stated my piece in a thread here in the Feedback session (link in my signature, even); basically, what I'd honestly like is for things to simply matter more and to help the people we're suppose to be recruiting/getting on our side. None of the choices really have consequences taken to their logical conclusion. I'd enjoyed being fucked over because of some stupid **** my Inquisitor pulled earlier in the game (intentionally or unintentionally).

[ThreeF]

I'd enjoyed being fucked over because of some stupid **** my Inquisitor pulled earlier in the game (intentionally or unintentionally).

 

I think in a way many got this already.

[Helmetto]

I think in a way many got this already.

 

I mean in the way where it's technically my fault -

 

...Um.

[Rawgrim]

Fire the ones that designs the gameplay.

 

Keep the writers.

 

Keep the one that designed the gorgeous areas in the game.

 

What really hurt this game was the questionable game-design decisions. Nothing else.

[C0uncil0rTev0s]

Fire the ones that designs the gameplay.

 

Keep the writers.

 

Keep the one that designed the gorgeous areas in the game.

 

What really hurt this game was the questionable game-design decisions. Nothing else.

 

I'd reconsider keeping writers. Those guys failed more than enough to ruin the plot.

[Caja]

Fire the ones that designs the gameplay.

 

Keep the writers.

 

Keep the one that designed the gorgeous areas in the game.

 

What really hurt this game was the questionable game-design decisions. Nothing else.

 

Feedback like this - and to be honest this isn't even proper feedback - is exactly what this thread is not about. I ask you politely to do it properly if you want to contribute something. Would you care to elaborate: What didn't you like about the gameplay? What was it that you liked about the story? Why do you think the game-design decisions were wrong?

[Elsariel]

Three things I liked:

1) The large maps. Exploration is something I really enjoy and I got the feeling that these maps were carefully and lovingly created. It's full of little nooks with fun things like corpses and cheese wheels and notes. Or some hard-to-get-to spot where someone set up camp for an inexplicable reason. I love that stuff. These little things make the world feel richer.

2) The Winter Palace. Wicked Eyes, Wicked Hearts was my favorite part of the game. I absolutely loved going to a ball and investigating court intrigue. Digging up all dirt on what those three were up to was a lot of fun. Sometimes, a game doesn't always need to be about combat. I thought this quest was really well done (aside from some minor nitpicking) and I'd love to see more of it in the future.

3) Romances. What can I say? Romances are a huge part of why I play Dragon Age. I've only experienced Cullen and Solas (partly) so far and they've really been outstanding. From what I can tell, the other romances are also quite fantastic in very different ways. A small thing: can we bring back friendship/rivalry romances? I loved that in DA2.

Three things I didn't like:

1) The crafting. Don't get me wrong, I love customizing the look and performance of my gear. But.... I wish you automatically had the schematic for gear you already have. Having to find armor and weapon schematics was really tedious. Having to craft even more things (grips, blades, greaves, etc) is mind numbing. Honestly, I wish you could just upgrade the gear you had instead of having to find the schematic and craft from scratch. It made finding armor and weapon loot rather meaningless and I LOVE finding awesome loot.

2)The UI is not intuitive. At least, not on PC. I felt like it was way too clunky and it could have been much better. Examples:
-The little head icon in the bottom right should bring up your character stats and their armor right away. Not the skill tree. This has confused me so many times. I don't think of clicking the bag icon when I want to change armor.
-When choosing to create armor for someone, it would be really be nice to see a tooltip of what they're already wearing.
-tactics should have its own icon on the navigation bar in addition to being accessible from the character skill screen.

3) My biggest complaint: The main story length is way too short. It really could have been lengthened by making the various zones much more story centric. As it is, I could really skip a lot of those zones and it still would have no impact to the story at all. I think that's a real shame. This game really could have been so much more epic. It's an opportunity lost.

Other pluses and minuses:

(+) Judgements were really cool. Some funny, some sad.
(-) Holes and cobwebs in Skyhold at the end of the game? What gives?
(+) Character creation is the best!
(-) Hairstyles are the worst!
(-) Not a fan of the American female voice. Way too deep and rather expressionless, IMO.
(+) All the characters are fantastic. Even the ones I hate.
(-) Tactics needs to be better. Lots better.
(+) I like how zones become safer after you clean up the riff-raff.

There is so much more....

[AppalachianApex]

I agree. Constructive criticism is the best (and only) way to be heard. So bravo for making that a rule in this thread.

I continue to love Inquisition, but here are some issues which irked me, and many others, that I feel could be addressed without 'too' much effort on Bioware's part. Here goes.

 

-More and better hair options. The Character Creator in Inquisition is AMAZING. It stands out all the more, then, that the hairstyles we are offered are lackluster. To say the least. Over half are male-pattern baldness or buzz cuts. The others look... odd. As if they;d be more at home on, say, David Bowie than on a Thedosian 

We know Bioware had some pretty excellent hair models ready to show off more than a year ago, these:

These look AMAZING! What happened to them?

Players everywhere are clamoring for more and better, let us say more realistic looking, hairstyles.

 

-Ability to alter appearance during the game. Another heavily requested feature. The Character Creator is, as I said, just great (sans hair). But we all know what it's like to create a character and then notice we added 'just' too much eye shadow or made the lips 'just' too thin after a few hours seeing them in action. The ability to alter our appearance (as we could in DA2) would be vastly appreciated. And if I might add, the inclusion of such a feature might just be the perfect opportunity to introduce more hairs to the CC

 

-More, unique, armors. I adore the crafting system in Inquisition. However, as far as customizable looks, we are rather limited. We have three fully craftable sets we can mix and match: The Trench Coat, The Scout Coat, and the Armor (those are not their real names, but I'm using shorthand here).

That's it. 

Oh there are other armors, and some very neat looking ones. But they are all either race locked, class locked, or both. My Qunari Mage would look absolutely gnarly in a Warden Mage outfit, but no dice. We need more options for what our Inquisitors can wear please!

 

-Speaking of options for what our Inquisitor can wear, please Bioware, for the love of the Maker, let us out of the dreaded Pajamas! We need more variety in our casual wear around Skyhold. We need options! Some would like a more militaristic uniform in line with our get-up at the Orlesian Ball, some would like more elegant attire, more still would like to see something a tad bit more regal. If people still like to wear the PJ's, that's fine. But I don't think anyone would argue the some different options in the choices of our casual attire (a-la Mass Effect) would be greatly appreciated.

 

-I think we'd all like to see a handful of additional options for our customizing the look of Skyhold. I know a small part of me was crushed when I had the option for Tevinter decor, but not Elven. I could have a Chasind throne, but not a Dalish one. 

 

-Finally, my sole issue that is not restricted to 'More customization options please!" I think we are all slightly baffled my the restriction to only 8 ability slots. I spent a good half hour fiddling with the radial menu, certain I was missing something, before I realized I could no longer have access to all my abilities as I did in prior games. Once I each my 8-ability limit, there is little to no point in leveling up. Why earn new, cool abilities if I cannot use them?

 

 

Those are my constructive bit of feedback! It can basically be boiled down to: "More options!" More hair options, more CC options, more armor/clothing options, and more Skyhold Options.

 

People have been voicing feedback left and right on these forums, but not often in a manner than would merit a look from Bioware. Hopefully this can stay civil and they'll hear what we have to say and address it.