As a big fan of DA series, I took time and made a list of what future instalment of Dragon age should include too increase overall experience.
Since my list of ideas is even longer than this thread I just pointed out a few things that should change, come back or be introduced in new game.
I would like to see, if some of other fans, that will take time to read this, agree or disagree with my ideas and I do hope if one or more developers get a chance to read this, they may get some ideas of their own, or may think about putting some things on their board of ideas/thoughts and maybe even use it in future.
I did saw a bunch of threads like this already existing and some of them had great ideas, while a lot were just not good for the future of this franchise, maybe for some other role playing game projects, just not for DA series.
I know some ideas can or may be great, but it can be too hard or nearly impossible to bring them to life, even though they could make game experience much better and unique, but that doesn’t mean you should limit yourself. So when it comes to the next game you (Bioware) shouldn’t be limited and you should definitely think out of the box, try to expand and bring new ideas to life and make the best product you made so far and maybe even the best one out there, because hopefully you have gained experience and you saw what RPG-market and DA fans want and demand. So I hope you have learned from good and bad things over last 7 years and 3 ½ games you created in this series and will be able to use it in future.
Before I list the things for the future, let me conclude some overall thoughts on DA: Inquisition.
I liked many things but I also missed some stuff from previous games and there are some things I disliked. As I know there will be at least few more DLCs with story content, which have been probably in works since DA:I was released. That is why I just wish to say, there is nothing I would add to DLCs currently in development for DA:I, as I know it would be hard, if not impossible to implement majority of things which I plan to suggest here. So I just hope they do a great job with the story in these DLCs and that it will have a good impact on future games and whole franchise.
1. Approach to next game;
Here I would suggest you make a longer project for next game, because fans of DA develop some kind of emotional bound for their characters and that is why I think everyone would like to see a longer story from main protagonist and his companions. So the next project should be longer than one year of DLCs after release. I am not saying a 10 year project like MMOs but a couple of years of adding story, new companions, new areas and new developments shaking the world of Thedas.
But this could only work if you use some of the things that I will mention below and of course only if you create a great protagonist, an amazing story, and an awesome game.
So I will skip the entire game here and go right to games ending. One big change should be seen at the end, where you should leave gameplay more open to explorations and continue story that you did in DA:I, so you can create feeling that people in Thedas are living on while waiting for new adventure, which would come along later on with new DLCs, “When you finish DA:I you can feel it is over, until you start JoH DLC, after finishing that it brings that feeling again.”
So as I said try to find a way to be innovative and create something new, some way to bring the feeling that world is living on not just standing still and waiting with us for new content. This makes an option to continue and expend story with multiple DLCs and expansions over course of 2-3 years after release, just adding to story and making the main protagonist, his companions and the world around them grow even deeper than anything before. This long term model would force you to focus and invest a lot of time, energy and resources in one project and it would only truly work, if the main game was better than great from the start, because you would need people not just to buy it but be happy and satisfied with it, so they would want to play it after they finish it and that they would crave for more story and content.
2. World map/Environment
a. World map
Way you opened the world in Inquisition was good and I would not made many changes here. I personally like how you broke the world of South Thedas in a lot of smaller maps, which you can visit and explore, rather than one big map as the regions are totally different and this gives a chance to make them more unique. Plus this makes it easier to add new quality areas in future over time.
Also I know bigger is not always better, especially if you don’t know how to fill that space with quests and things worth exploring. But the demand from gamers will always aim towards bigger open areas, as it makes world feel more real and it gives us a chance to explore and grow in our own way, while creating our own unique experience. With that said I think that some open areas should be bigger in the future specially high populated ones. I was disappointed that there were no big cities in DA:I as you made only main market square for Val Royal and a few streets which you couldn’t revisit. Have to say in that regard, I was expecting something big, but sadly it was small and limited. I am not saying it should be one big map forming a city, it could be more areas put together in districts and this districts could be broken in more pieces like Denerim in DA:O or Kirkwall in DA:2, as long as there was normal loading time between them I think people would not mind that, because that would make a better chance to create vast and populated areas that are worth exploring and interacting with and would feel more alive. I was also disappointed when I entered Redcliff as I was expecting it would grow and get bigger since DA:O (for me Redcliff in DA:O looked better) but it felt like it got smaller over 11 years that passed, even though you could see there where houses in the back.
I also think people wouldn’t mind if there is a big map and it had connection to a few bigger dungeons to explore with loading time between them, like there are the dwarven ruins in Hinterlands.
So don’t be afraid to re-create full Denerim, Val Royal , Kirkwall or create new cities like Minrathous or Antiva City or any other bigger city in Teadas. I personally would like to see Denerim, Kirkwall and all this places again and would specially like to see Orzammar in all its glory and more deep roads since I find them really interesting and would like to see them restored, as well as I enjoy killing darkspawn which live in them.
I would like to see some areas a lot bigger, but only if you will give us something extraordinary to explore in them.
b. Environment.
When it comes to environment there is one thing you have to give us in next game and that is real time day/night change and weather change in the maps and its effects on people, animals, demons and monsters in game. From passive and active effects of their daily work and activity, too positive and negative effects of their nature.
Some examples:
- Like throughout the day people work and at night they sleep or hangout in taverns,
- If it is sunny farmers work in fields, if it rains/snows they work in stables or barn,
- If its sunny the entire market is opened and fully populated if it rains only some shops are opened and there is a lot less people in streets
- Population in area of specific animals and monsters differs depending of the day time and weather,
- Some animals and monsters are stronger and faster or have special abilities at night, some at day, some when, it is sunny, some when it rains and some when it snows.
- Day/Night
- Sun/Clouds/Raining/Snowing
- Heavy Rain/Snow/Sand Storm
Also environment effected through out our gameplay, should change over time with or without help of protagonist.
- If part of city or village is destroyed and we save it can be rebuild over time or even get new houses
- Sometimes we can be a part of this rebuild as it is in our interest to restore and sometimes people just wish to rebuild their life or some parts should just stayed destroyed
- The way we finish quests can have different outcomes on how things are rebuild/build or if they are rebuild/build at all
- This process would not be instant, but there would be more stages of buildings growing that would progress with our story over time and would be also visible as different stages over time if we returned.
- After things would be build/rebuild we could see new or old people move there, some would open new shops, some would contribute to our cause with work (lumber/metals/materials/food), some would join our cause and some would just move back/there to have a place to live again
It would be nice, if we could swim and use the boats to travel. I personally think we don’t have to swim underwater, although that would be great to be able to discover all new expect of this wonderful world, but it would be enough just on surface to get from one area to another. Here you could play and make a lot of innovative stuff, like penalty for heavy armored warriors and bonus for lighter armored rouges and mages, or even go so far that some companion can’t swim and you would be forced to take someone else to discover some areas and it could trigger interesting dialogs.
As it was discovered in last book that griffons didn’t go extinct, you can use them as flying mounts for gray wardens.
3. Story/quests
a. Main story
Here I will step back a little, since I think, writers should definitely sit down and do a good job, because everyone who played previous games knows and can see that story in DA:I was originally written for Hawke, but the pressure of DA fans and other gamers, to bring back more races, made developers give us a new protagonist that didn’t feel totally as the right hero, meant to be part of this world changing events, even though he had the biggest impact and brought the biggest change to the world so far.
For example Hero of Ferelden and Hawke felt as they were the right characters for those events at that time, They gave you feeling that they grew and developed with the world around them, specially Hawke, as we saw almost a decade of his life.
(All though if you mixed Hawkes dialog choices a lot, it could give impression like he is a little schizophrenic)
Overall story was not bad and there where parts which were really good, full of great lore “specially elven lore towards the end” and there were parts with some great action scenes, but it felt short and you had a feeling it was written for someone else. I think that is one of the reasons why some old fans didn’t feel the appeal of the story over the course of the game.
Anyhow when it comes to main story for next game I think the writers have to sit down and create something big something to outdo all the work so far, because as I suggested next game and story should be a longer project. That is why this is a part where I shouldn’t give much desired direction because in the end it would not matter. So I will just suggest I would like to see more new parts of Thedas as well as old places from all 3 games, I would like to see how environments and people who still live changed and grew over last 12 years since DA:O.
Reading forums I did noticed that people would like to kill more darkspawn again. They also liked conflict between Mages and Templars and were disappointed there was no big war and battles between them in game, because DA:I entered the time period right at the end of Mage/Templar war.
I do have a feeling there will be some kind of war between races in the future and old gods, darkspawns and demons will be mixed somewhere in between. Few of the conflicts I see somewhere in the future are war between all the nations of Thedas, elven uprising and a big war between Qunari and all other nations.
b. Main quests
In next game there should definitely be more main story quests or they should be a bit longer than they were in DA:I, because even though it is long and longer than previous games, the main story felt really short. As far the content goes I can say I just hope it will be good, dark and unique as Origins full of sad, dark, real moments as Dragon Age 2 and hope and light for better future like in Dragon Age Inquisition.
I really liked the story in first game because it felt so dark (you can say it was because of the Blight), the second game because it still felt dark but at the same time real and so sad (being part of a family and losing it) and the story in the third game did brought changes as Flemeth predicted, but not as big as I expected .
c. Side quests
In DA:I there were some good side quests, but a lot of them were just, fetch this and do that without any impact on world. I don’t mind having a fetch quest, as long as it has some story behind it, it makes me wish to explore and result of finishing it has some impact and consequences for the world.
In DA:I most of side quest in general don’t feel and don’t have any impact on main story or on the world around them, except companion quests. So in future you should try to focus more on that,
For example just as simple as hunting down and bringing some meat and pelt to someone, or chose not to bring it, should have impact on story and world around it (they starve or freeze to death, or revolt against you, or they are happy you look out for them and are ready to help and join, or support your cause).
Some side quest should also be discovered more randomly while exploring and make you explore even further, they should lead to explore and discover the region or story/lore behind it. You need to create such a quest that could make our characters grow with them. Also some quests should grow, as their impact can have positive or negative consequences on main story and the world, and finishing them can open a new side or parts of main quest, or a totally new story you wish to explore, or close a chance to finish a different story/quest, as the impact of them could clash with interests of different people.
Also it would be nice if there would be more puzzle quest in elven and dwarven ruins which make you think a little and use your brain to solve them (or take time to read a codex).
d. Conquering fortress and strongholds
I did like this in DA:I but I think there so much more potential and stuff you could do here by adding different approaches how to conquer and do it more often.
e. Companions/Protagonist personal quests
I personally would also like to see more companion quests, as I really enjoy them. I would love to see more of their background/history and how changes in the world and your choices are affecting them throughout the course of game. Main protagonist should also have a few personal side/quests so we have a chance to learn more about him, his history and see how he is affected from changes in the world around him, as this is something that was lacking in DA:I and you really didn’t had much inside on who Inquisitor really was.
f. Mini games
It would be a great if you would add Wicked grace and some other mini games, which you could enjoy playing with your companions and other people in the world. Maybe you could even make tournaments in different cities. If you plan to make a multiplayer again, you could use this as well in multiplayer, where players could play each other and would be able to earn some special equipment/schematics/materials or just money.
4. Protagonist
First of all I think you should bring back a chance to choose all the races that were in DA:I, because that is something what fans want and it makes you see how world grows and treats you if you are different race. He/She should have more background and history which you can discover over the course of game. He/She should have important impact on the world. This part is really tied to the main story, so you need to build him/her along with the writing. But he/she should be written from scratch and be more unique and interesting than Inquisitor.
5. Companions
As I already said I really like this aspect of Bioware games and it is a part I never get enough, because in majority you know how to create really good companions. I would like to see even more story, personal quests and conversations based around them. One of my favorite parts in this game is getting to know them, building friendship with them, or making them my rivals (usually mages since I don’t like magic). Also would like to see more interaction between all companions as one of my favorite moments in all 3 games was conversation with Varric and cut scene that followed playing Wicked grace. Also thinking a little out of the box here, companions could become friends/foes/rivals with each other based on protagonist influence and choices which would trigger different dialogs. I think they should be more active in camp/stronghold/home, not just in one place doing two different things. They should be in a few different places doing bigger variety of things which depend on day/night, weather mood or story and they should interact with other companions at home base.
6. Organization/Army/Guild
I don’t know what kind of adventure future will bring, but it would be nice to be part of some bigger organization again. It does not have to be big as Inquisition, but it would be definitely better if it was bigger than just a group of friends saving a city (DA:2) or group of wanderers saving a country and region (DA:O). It would be nice to be able to build a small army again. Be able to choose how you build it:
- with or without mages
- what kind of warriors or scouts and how much of each kind you recruit
examples: shield and weapon, single or dual wielding weapons, two handed weapons, daggers, bows or magic
- based on that you would have to approach different tactics when using them
- bring back some kind of agents/generals who control them and lead them on war table and real time quests: This agents/generals can be your companions and you choose to assign them and that makes them interact with each other and protagonist differently, as well it makes you chose your tactics differently for quests
7. Stronghold/Fortress/Home/Camp;
This has been a part of DA through all games, a place to regroup, talk to companions and discuss your next move. Let it be a camp or stronghold from DA:O and DA:A, house in a city from DA:2 or village and Stronghold from DA:I, it is a place that makes you feel like you are home where you can stop to rest and reorganize. Here I have more ideas and I will list only a few, as it really does depend on story in the game. If I find time I will make a separate thread later for this part as there is so much you could offer here
- There should definitely be more than 3 things you can upgrade, and those upgrades should have a meaning like they had in DA:A. Stronger walls, more space for army and their equipment, better space for troops and mounts… I could go on and on here
- Also there should be more cosmetic customization so you can make it more suitable for your character
- If story will allow it, you should live in totally different place depending on your protagonist race
If Elf in trees as old elves or in camp as Dallish, if Dwarf in newly established or some old remote dwarven thaig, Humans in fortress/stronghold or a small fortress in district or part of bigger city, Qunari in Dock/port unique Fortress with access to sea.
This could also be used as prologue to start in one in this unique fortresses/areas based on race you chose, exploring and discovering it, than fighting of the enemy being pushed out or leaving it behind because you are needed somewhere else and afterwards creating a new or taking over already existing fortress. But if you choose this you should be able to come back to see the changes.
- You should be able to conquer fortress in the world to establish bases like in DA:I (small wooden or stone fortresses but less camps)
- You should be able to defend the main base and this smaller bases over the world map and the upgrades you did on them and upgrades of your armies should have influence on difficulty, tactics used and outcome of battles
8. War table/war table quests/requisitions;
One of the new things I really liked was war table and quests that came along. I think you should bring something similar back in new game as it gives extra depth to story if you actually read the missions. But in future I would inflict a few changes or improvements. I would made the quest have bigger impact on world and its changes, the different people you send to do quest would have more different outcomes that would affect the main story and so you would be forced to actually read the content and choose carefully who to send on what mission or quest. Also depending/based on your structure of army and upgrades you would have to choose tactics carefully. You gave me an idea over course of DA:I that you should have quests in which you would be able to rebuild bridges, watch towers, keeps, houses even parts of cities and villages and with that change the world.
9. Combat In DA:I and changes needed for future
DA:I did had positive and negative parts of combat. Here I will again write only a few things as it is too many things that are good and things that need to be fix.
When it comes to weapons, I think you should look back on DA:O as there where some really unique stuff, how you could use different weapons no matter the class and carry 2 weapons at the time. Also I would like to see you bring back dual wielding swords/weapons for warriors and rouges.
(off topic also similar armor restriction as in DA:O where you could wear anything no matter the class but you had to be strong enough and it did effect your stamina/mana)
You had some good stuff in original game which you changed and took away, as well you added some good stuff over years but you went away from that uniqueness which DA:O had. I know that bringing back things from DA:O/DA:A would significantly complicated the code for game but it would be worth looking back at some stuff.
Skill trees in last game lacked some uniqueness and limited skills/spells did lower the enjoyment. I did like how everyone in DA:2 had one totally unique skill tree and you as Hawke could not have theirs but you had a chance to choose from 3 totally different unique skill trees by yourself.
a. Real time/animation/usefulness
I like how everything felt more realistic (slower combat than DA:2 and faster than DA:O).
I like that you can use auto attack or manual attack for your basic attack
I do miss more space for spells because when you get to level 20+ u need to drop out a few useful ones.
There were spells I loved and enjoyed, there were spells I missed and there where the ones that I just didn’t find useful for any situation.
b. Tactical combat and companions combat settings:
This also had some new positive things but it also had a lot of broken parts.
I like how you can move and see more space than before and how you can pause or play in tactics mode
I finished the main game and DLC on Nightmare difficulty and have to say it was not a real challenge (although DLC was a lot more difficult and needed you not turn your back against enemies)
I did miss bigger importance of tactics like in original game
Companions setting and AI has more problems than DA:O had, as they stop obeying your commands and lack some crucial settings that were already in older games.
As I played all 3 games on PC with mouse and keyboard, I can’t say anything about consoles, so here I think you need to gather a lot of feedback from all platforms, than build-on, change and repair broken parts.
10. Crafting/Gear/Items/Currency
I would like to see game go back to original currency with copper (bronze), silver and gold, because I think it was a great idea to do it that way in first 2 games.
Crafting from schematics is a great new feature in DA series that had some great properties and should definitely be brought back, to give as a chance to craft gear (armor and weapons) we want, with better materials for better stats later in game, so we can customize our heroes as we wish. But in future this part still needs some work done to make it better, more functional, efficient and unique to use.
Gear in last game has ups and downs from stats to appearance. Some of the gear and armor sets for inquisitor and his companions look amazing, a lot of it looks just not that awesome or special. I do miss some old looks like Templar helmets from previous 2 games or awesome heavy dwarven helmets from previous games.
Gray wardens armor in DA:I does look really good and a lot better than in first game, also the Free marches armor looks pretty nice but overall I do not think there is a big variety to choose from.
As I like to play sword and shield in last 2 games I did missed something I liked in DA:A DLC where you could put your own heraldry on shields. I think in future some armor sets should be plane and you should also be able to put your own heraldry on them so you can have a good looking armor as Gray wardens from DA:I with Inquisition heraldry instead of wardens.
If I will find time, I will also write a separate thread sometime in the future, on topic of weapons, armor and items, since there are some good ideas and pieces used in all 3 Dragon Age games but there is still a lot missing and some things should be changed or brought back.
I know it was a lot to read, but those who got through it, I hope you like some ideas and agree on some aspects if not I would like to see what you think of them.
I do have many more ideas that would improve current ones but it would take even more space and time to write them here.
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