I didnt like that aspect of the war table, just to open areas. You needed power to open areas, it just seemed... Grindy.
It was like a stupid MMO: "Grind some power during x time to unlock this area which has no content whatsoever, just items".
I agree about the "power" system not really being necessary, all of the war table stuff could still work without it.
I agree about the "power" system not really being necessary, all of the war table stuff could still work without it.
Same thing with influence really. Grinding influence to get the perks felt really artificial. Instead, why not link the Inquisition perks to agents we can recruit? Recruiting each agent gives a perk. It makes a collection sidequest, but each item you collect has a great reward (the perks).
It's a bit like collecting the summons in Final Fantasy 6. It took a ridiculous amount of time, money, and a repetitive mini game to get the ultimate summon (knights of the round). That or beat a really hard optional boss. Was it necessary? No. Was it fun? Meh, at times. Is it worth it? Your mileage may vary on that. Is the summon awesome? Heck yeah!
There's also three types of perks that could have been handled better: get schematics (in forces), get herbs (secrets) and get metals (connections). The schematics one works that you can get mage, rogue and warrior schems. Instead, bundle all classes but make the perks give different tiers. For the herbs and metals, you get different tiers, but a limited amount and not all types. Why not make the various tiers available for sale at our Skyhold store instead?
Sure, they released Black Emporium to do that later, but it would have been a nice touch for us to get access to better stuff at our home base depending on who we recruit.
*more rambling. Sorry*
Personally I would overhaul the War Table and Power and Influence mechanic to merge them together. Instead of abstract power points that we get for doing just about anything, divide it into three categories. Forces, Secrets and Diplomacy.
Say we have a meter that measures the strength of each section, and the total represents our influence. The numbers on the meter would represent how many soldiers, spies and diplomats we have. We can boost these numbers through the various agents we recruit (instead of time reduction). Let's take this hypothetical scenario with the Hinterlands:
Get Vale's irregulars (+25 to Forces)
Get Speaker Anais and her cultists (+10 to Secrets or +10 to Diplomacy depending on choices)
Get Master Dennet (+5 to Forces)
Etc.
I put a high number on Vale's Irregulars because of the amount of work required to get them. All three numbers added up would determine our influence and unlock the story missions.
Next thing: instead of an advisor being locked to one mission for a given amount of time (feels artificial), the various War Table missions require an investment of points from whichever advisor we are dispatching. For example:
Deal with the Angry Varghest: Send scouts (-15 to Secrets) or send Soldiers (-15 to Forces) (no diplomacy option). Now, this subtraction is potentially temporary. In this particular mission, if we send scouts, the agents die but the threat is dealt with. If we send soldiers, the threat is dealt with with no losses according to the report. If scouts are picked in this case, the score subtraction is permanent (because, hey, they're dead). If soldiers are picked, we get our 15 points back (great success!). So we could send spies, soldiers, etc. on more than one mission at a time. (hello, resource collections)
Such a mechanic would allow us to feel the weight of our decisions as well as give us a clear visual of which of the three branches we favor. Imagine seeing your Forces score go way down if you got the Wardens killed in a War Table mission (-100. Ouch!) Instead of the influence reward we get from some missions, we would get a boost to one of our three departments.
Now, of course this would have the potential for min maxing (which is ok), but let's say on a first play through, you have a bunch of screw ups and you get almost all of your spies and soldiers killed. What do you do? Is it game over? Well no. You could get allies and boost your Diplomacy score. How? Well, the Dwarves of Orzammar would be willing to send aid if you helped them recover some artifacts for them (mosaics collection); A Nevarran Mortalitasi is curious about that strange temple in the Forbidden Oasis (shards collection); An Orlesian noble would pledge some of his forces to you if you cleared his land of rifts (self explanatory).
That way, all those pointless fetch quests could be tied into the plot as a way out of a hole if you screwed up at the War Table. You could still do them to boost your Diplomacy score anyway (min maxing), but they would remain largely optional.
Maybe throw in a cutscene or two with the advisors after a major loss or gain in their respective score, perhaps even some grumbling if one department is heavily favored, and that would add a good deal of flavor.
Enough rambling. Just ideas I'm toying with.
Great idea!
Yeah thats an awesome idea, more excited just reading about that than "playing" what was in the game.
Spoiler
This is what I expected before game release. We can't have all the power, we have decide what to pick, and can't see all stuff in same game.
The War Table is filled with tremendous wasted potential. The little blurbs that are supposed to help us choose which advisor to send are not really informative, so it's guess work. We can't go back to look at old reports, which would have been helpful. The timer mechanic is ridiculously arbitrary (13 hours to get an average staff? Really?) The gather resources missions give pitiful amounts and then there is the matter of the Lavellan clan quest chain.
I agree with all that, but I wanted to rant about resource collection. I wish it took more time and yielded more results, because as it stands, what happens is: I start the mission, then go exploring. 10-15 minutes into exploring, it's done and I'm urged to go back to Skyhold so I don't waste time. If it took an hour, I could actually do some exploring.
Also, you get pitiful rewards for the most part. Except for getting Leliana to get lots of Great Bear Hide, why do I need 6 iron or onyx or elfroot? I can literally get 6 elfroot by picking up one plant with the perk, and I can get 6 iron from one vein without a perk. Not only that, but what's with the "If you use the black market we might get nothing" deal? Because I've never failed when using Leliana, which usually just means better stuff.
I want the war table to stay but I want them to work on it. And I want more side quests from wartable decisions.
I'd like that too. A bit like how you use it to find the Cradle of Sulevin, but more fleshed out and story-based.
Don't even get me started on the Power mechanic... I end up with over 250 spare Power points at the end of my playthrough. It would be nice if we could spend them on resources, just as a minor suggestion.
Wait, there are choices and consequences in DAI?
Must have gotten lost in all that damned shard collecting.
I agree with all that, but I wanted to rant about resource collection. I wish it took more time and yielded more results, because as it stands, what happens is: I start the mission, then go exploring. 10-15 minutes into exploring, it's done and I'm urged to go back to Skyhold so I don't waste time. If it took an hour, I could actually do some exploring.
Also, you get pitiful rewards for the most part. Except for getting Leliana to get lots of Great Bear Hide, why do I need 6 iron or onyx or elfroot? I can literally get 6 elfroot by picking up one plant with the perk, and I can get 6 iron from one vein without a perk. Not only that, but what's with the "If you use the black market we might get nothing" deal? Because I've never failed when using Leliana, which usually just means better stuff.
I'd like that too. A bit like how you use it to find the Cradle of Sulevin, but more fleshed out and story-based.
Don't even get me started on the Power mechanic... I end up with over 250 spare Power points at the end of my playthrough. It would be nice if we could spend them on resources, just as a minor suggestion.
Yes, power to influence would be a cheap start but in the end the war table should be more like the world map in XCOM. That would on the other hand mean that the means of getting power could not be optional like it is now in many ways. And going that route they really have to flesh out the side quests more.
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