28 réponses à ce sujet

[CosmicGnosis]

I'm trying to figure out the timing of Here Lies the Abyss and Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts.

 

Given the fact that Hawke goes to Crestwood shortly after your arrival at Skyhold, the game really seems to want you to go there first, and then the Western Approach after that. Thus, Here Lies the Abyss should probably come first. Then the Civil War "arc" can unfold in the form of Exalted Plains -> Emerald Graves -> Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts.

 

I think this makes the most sense for the story. However, is there any compelling reason why Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts should happen before Here Lies the Abyss?

[Ashaantha]

Not really. I usually do here lies the abyss first then as you said the civil war stuff ending with the Ball. I guess do Wicked hearts first if you really want it over and done with, ut to me Adamant then the Ball makes a tad more sense for the story.

[katerinafm]

The earliest you do the ball, the more time you have with Morrigan.

[zambingo]

If Warden Alistair is Kieran's father then doing Wicked Hearts prior to Crestwood is a good choice. If Daddy-Alistair and Morrigan/Kieran are in Skyhold together there is a scene for them. This scene, which reportedly is glitchy in triggering, would be the only indicator that Wicked Hearts may have been intended to be done first, because otherwise the scene is voided.

[CosmicGnosis]

The earliest you do the ball, the more time you have with Morrigan.

Crap, I forgot about that. And I suppose that it would be good to let her meet with Alistair, if that's possible in your world state (not possible in my canon). 

[fighterchick]

The earliest you do the ball, the more time you have with Morrigan.

 

Aside from possibly having a line or two with Loghain/Alistair, I don't think she provides much else though.  At the war table, I don't think she adds anything to the dialogue.  Someone please correct me if I'm wrong though, because the play through I did Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts first was my very first one.

[ElementalFury106]

The extra time with Morrigan isn't worth much. She may have one or two lines for either Alistair/Loghain, but that's it. No real significance.

 

What you described is exactly what I do in most of my playthroughs. 

 

Crestwood --> Western Approach --> Here Lies the Abyss --> Exalted Plains --> Emerald Graves --> Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts --> Emprise du Lion --> What Pride Had Wrought --> Hissing Wastes --> Doom Upon All the World

[Fearsome1]

I wish that I had an answer for you.

 

What I've found surprising is that there is quite a bit of the game that you can just skip over without even visiting some of the areas to advance the main story. That should not have ever been the case?

 

I know that kind of scenario is a personal choice, but still there should be something important that requires gamers to venture into all these areas; and not doing so should have a substantive impact on how the end result plays out; otherwise what was the point of building this huge game in the first place??

 

High Dragons may be considered optional fights, but skipping half of the ten areas not so much!!

[JeffZero]

It's a similar design philosophy as the one seen in other games. Build huge environments that are totally optional and players will go there feeling merrily "nonlinear" about the whole affair. I don't care for it, but it is quite prevalent in modern WRPGs.

[duckley]

I detest the Wicked Hearts one - hate the stupid masks. the inane, snobby conversations, the accents, the timed  searches (I always feel so stressed and  rushed) and although I promised not to complain further about it (LOL) the  Inquisition uniform on my female Quizzy.  I also hate looking a Floriane,s hairdo (so incongruous with her pretty dress) and ewww - having to dance with her - so creepy.

 

Do you think maybe I am not a fan of Orlesian culture????

 

I try to get that one done first.... get the pain over with. The only good thing is my dance with Cully-Wully.

[Yggdrasil]

I have the exact same thinking as you do, OP.  In my head, I tell myself that the Inquisitor has to wait until the date of the ball arrives as the reason why s/he is out exploring instead of taking care of the next mission.  Same with the delay until the Temple of Mythal.  I imagine that the logistics of the assault takes some time to set up.  Seems weird to me to have much space between the Temple and the rest of the main story, however.

[Legion of 1337]

The order the game guides you towards os Crestwood > Western Approach > Here Lies The Abyss > Exhalted Plains > Emerald Graves > Wicked Eyes Wicked Hearts > Emprise du Lion > Hissing Wastes > Finish the Game.

[Patchwork]

This time I'm switching up my quest order from warden stuff then civil war stuff simply because I fancy a change and because I headcanon Solas/Quizzy doing the deed after the ball. The other thing is even though she's knee deep in figuring out what's going on with the Wardens the date of the ball can't be changed so the Inquisition would have to drop everything so they could go save Celene's life (or not). 

 

I like the layer of annoyance that adds to my Inquisitor's dealings with the Orlesian court.  

[Dabrikishaw]

The order the game guides you towards os Crestwood > Western Approach > Here Lies The Abyss > Exhalted Plains > Emerald Graves > Wicked Eyes Wicked Hearts > Emprise du Lion > Hissing Wastes > Finish the Game.

I've never done it in this exact order, but it sounds interesting.

[nightscrawl]

I shouldn't have to say this, but there are SPOILERS in this list.

 

I'll just list my play order and you can decide whether it works for you. This includes ALL zones and likely WILL leave you out-leveled for a portion of the game. However, my primary goal is for story progression, not difficulty. To determine the story order I relied on NPC dialog as well as Codex entries available within the zones (such as those regarding the Freemen or Red Templar activity).
 
DISCLAIMER: I play on Casual, so you might need to be a higher level to do some of the missions than my recommendation if you play on a higher difficulty. I've also never completed a templar play, so I don't know if some of the content of the Hissing Wastes (or Emprise du Lion) changes based on that due to the concentration of Venatori activity.

 

NOTE: The term 'urgency' is used to describe the level of urgency given to certain events due to NPC dialog or other factors. Yes, you CAN leave the events for a later time, or never complete them at all, but that would require you to completely ignore NPC pleas for help and such, which I feel takes away from the immersion if you just expect the game to wait for you to take your sweet old time. (My comments regarding Hawke below do take this into consideration, in addition to the urgency created by talking to him/her in the first place. IMO it's a balance and you have to decide what feels right to you.)

 

If, like me, you are concerned about being too over-leveled for some of this content (but still want to complete everything), you can certainly avoid turning in most of the quests (particularly in the Hinterlands) until the end of the game. I typically complete everything, but leave finished quests sitting in the log until I'm ready to turn them in.

 
1 Hinterlands
----- In Hushed Whispers / Champions of the Just - I strongly recommend doing either of these as soon as possible. You can get the required Power Points by setting up camps, closing low-level rifts, recruiting companions, and doing some miscellaneous Haven quests, thereby leaving most of the Hinterlands untouched for later exploration with the full party of your choice (including Dorian + Cole), which is not available until after you arrive at Skyhold.
2 Storm Coast
----- In Your Heart Shall burn - Again, I do recommend doing this early so you can stay within the level range of some of the zones. After arriving at Skyhold I avoiding talking to Hawke at all because that simply sets the urgency ball rolling. I wait until I'm ready to head to Crestwood and begin the whole sequence of events leading to Adamant.
3 Fallow Mire
4 Exalted Plains (civil war, part 1) - Do NOTE that if you leave all of the civil war stuff until after the Winter Palace some of the dialog with NPCs is (can be) different.
5 Forbidden Oasis - This zone can really be done at any time, or never if you don't care for shard collecting. I place this here for personal RP reasons.
6 Crestwood - Due to urgency, I recommend taking Caer Bronach, draining the lake, and closing that rift before leaving the zone, even if you don't do anything else there.
7 Western Approach - I suggest taking Griffon Wing Keep before leaving the zone.
----- Here Lies the Abyss
8 Emerald Graves (civil war, part 2) - I recommend resolving the final Freemen of the Dales conflict there before moving on.
----- Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts
9 Emprise du Lion - Be sure to clear out the mine, take Suledin Keep, AND talk to Mistress Poulin again before leaving the zone. Because of Codex entries found in the mine, I recommend completing Red Water area after clearing it out.
10 Hissing Wastes - This can be done before or after What Pride Had Wrought. Because of the structure of some of the dialog I recommend after, leaving the final missions to be done in succession.

----- What Pride Had Wrought

----- The Final Piece

----- Doom Upon All the World

EPILOG - Enjoy the party + optional boy/girlfriend time .

11 Jaws of Hakkon DLC - Due to the level requirement, and it just making sense that you would undertake this search after the world is saved, I recommend this for post-game play.

END (until the next DLC is released).

[evelynwarden]

The flow of the game is best going from Crestwood to Halamshiral. What Morrigan has to offer in terms of extra content if you go the opposite route is extremely limited, and the rest of the dialogues with other characters, interactions on the war table, gossip in the game world, etc. flow... oddly. Not that they don't work, and that the things they all have to say don't all end up in the same place, because they do.

 

I would strongly recommend going through crestwood first. Besides, the ball is a nice break from all of the side questing and fetch quests. It's a unique area of the game, a second favorite only to the Temple of Mythal (and only because I enjoy reading the Dalish lore).

[Orian Tabris]

*snip*

 

I would say it makes more sense to do the Hissing Wastes after Emprise du Lion due to the amount and levels of the high dragons in both. The first one in Emprise du Lion is 19, but the other two are 21 and 23 (as opposed to the one in the Hissing Wastes, which is 20). Having said that, I've never actually gone to the Hissing Wastes first.

 

I prefer to do the Fallow Mire before the Storm Coast, even though it's harder, because of the capture of Inquisition soldiers and the fact that you can connect the area to the very first area of the game.

 

I don't really get why people do the Emerald Graves before Wicked Eyes, because the Emerald Graves enemies are level 17-19, while the enemies in that main quest are at most level 15. On top of that, I don't see how the Emerald Graves actually affects the civil war in any way, because both sides don't want anything to do with it. The Inquisition hasn't got a reason to make what's happening in the Emerald Graves its focus.

 

I think the order should be:

Hinterlands > The Threat Remains > Fallow Mire/Storm Coast > Storm Coast/Fallow Mire > In Hushed Whispers/The Champions of the Just > Forbidden Oasis > In Your Heart Shall Burn > Skyhold > Crestwood > Western Approach >

Here Lies The Abyss > Exalted Plains > Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts > Emerald Graves > What Pride Had Wrought > The Final Piece > Hissing Wastes > Emprise du Lion > Doom Upon All The World > Jaws of Hakkon.

[nightscrawl]

As I said, I focused on story content only, so being a good enough level to kill some dragons wasn't a consideration. To me, Hissing Wastes (although I like it) is basically a leftover zone, whereas Emprise du Lion is directly connected to the whole Red Templar issue. There is also the urgency factor of saving the people being forced to work in the mines, wereas Hissing Wastes only involves the Venatori searching for some indeterminate dwarven boon.

 

For Fallow Mire, I have two reasons for my choice. One is to allow myself to be as low as possible when heading into In Your Heart Shall Burn and moving onto Skyhold. Also, when you judge Movran the Under Josephine says, "After you returned from the bog, we found this man attacking the building... with a goat." I tend to feel that it makes a bit more sense if you are already at Skyhold when this happens.

 

As far as Emerald Graves is concerned, the Freemen storyline in that zone is connected to the same Freemen in Exalted Plains; there are Codex entries talking about the war. Even though it's not a battleground of the civil war, as Exalted Plains is, it still has a part to play in the story involving those groups.

[caradoc2000]

You can wait for the ball to drop.

[Ravenfeeder]

I mix it up between Here Lies the Abyss and Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts. I tend to do Crestwood first, but then switch to the Exalted Plains/Emerald Graves. Only then do I do either Western Approach or Halamshiral depending on mood. Might even visit Hissing Wastes before doing them. Emprise du Lion comes afterwards.

[Gervaise]

I suppose it also depends on how realistic you want to make it.    You discover that there is an important reason you need to attend the ball.   This would seem to lend a certain sort of urgency to dealing with this before heading off into the wilds of western Orlais.     So doing Crestwood, to find out what is going on with the Wardens, while waiting for Josephine to set up your invite, makes a lot of sense.   Also dealing with any unresolved issues (other than dragons) in Ferelden and then going to the ball to resolve matters before heading off into the beyond.   Of course you keep returning to Skyhold in between so that sort of reduces the logic there.    To be honest it doesn't make a lot of difference which you do first, except the higher you get in levels, the less useful the stuff is you pick up at the ball.   I also realised that leaving the dragons until later meant that some dragons were way below my current level.    So this run I've been doing them pretty much in the order I do the various regions.       I don't think there really is a correct order since both Wicked Hearts and Into the Abyss require the same level.   It's the other regions that aren't essential to the story that are more of a conundrum.  

[PsychoBlonde]

It's a similar design philosophy as the one seen in other games. Build huge environments that are totally optional and players will go there feeling merrily "nonlinear" about the whole affair. I don't care for it, but it is quite prevalent in modern WRPGs.

 

I don't mind it as long as there's SOME reason to do the side content.  I just don't understand who the heck this is supposed to be CATERING to?  Is there actually a substantial group of players that WON'T BUY A GAME  unless they can GET IT OVER WITH AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE?!

[JeffZero]

I don't mind it as long as there's SOME reason to do the side content. I just don't understand who the heck this is supposed to be CATERING to? Is there actually a substantial group of players that WON'T BUY A GAME unless they can GET IT OVER WITH AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE?!

Haha, maybe.

What I do know is that developers are frequently looking for ways to improve the typically-surprisingly-paltry story completion percentage in their games, and as much as I despair in thinking about it, ensuring that critical paths are relatively short could be something used precisely to that effect.