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[Unpleasant Implications]

And by this I mean, would you have wanted an Origin like sequence in the conclave that differs based on race/class? I think that this would've been an interesting way to introduce the player to the world and to allow for characterization/foreshadowing. I'll give some examples of what I mean.

Human Warrior/Rogue:
-Mingle with nobles, maybe even establish(or injure) a relationship for the Empress plot.
-Maybe have enough clout to get a moment of conversation with the Divine
-I heard once that Free March nobles were related to the Amell/Hawke bloodline. Maybe you could give an opinion on crazy cousin Hawke's stance on the Mage/Templar issue.

Human Mage:
-As a Mage, you'd take a step back from the main floor, be more of an observer.
-Perhaps you notice an Elf spy wandering about somewhere they shouldn't, and your heroic/bored enough to investigate
-Or not, and you just observe the proceedings, maybe even observe a brawl that breaks out away from the main proceedings

Elf Warrior/Rogue:
-You've been snuck in as a servant, and keep a watch for your compatriots.
-Maybe cause an incident by getting indignant with a noble(doesn't matter, they'll die before it's a problem, just a matter of characterization).

Elf Mage:
-You represent a group of mages who came to the conclave
-Maybe debate, receive info you otherwise wouldn't that's relevant to a future quest

I could come up with more for others, but I'm tired. What do you think?

Edit: in my ideal world, there would be a default version of one race doing things, throughout the conclave that you might see/run into.

[Donk]

And by this I mean, would you have wanted an Origin like sequence in the conclave that differs based on race/class? I think that this would've been an interesting way to introduce the player to the world and to allow for characterization/foreshadowing. I'll give some examples of what I mean.

Human Warrior/Rogue:
-Mingle with nobles, maybe even establish(or injure) a relationship for the Empress plot.
-Maybe have enough clout to get a moment of conversation with the Divine
-I heard once that Free March nobles were related to the Amell/Hawke bloodline. Maybe you could give an opinion on crazy cousin Hawke's stance on the Mage/Templar issue.

Human Mage:
-As a Mage, you'd take a step back from the main floor, be more of an observer.
-Perhaps you notice an Elf spy wandering about somewhere they shouldn't, and your heroic/bored enough to investigate
-Or not, and you just observe the proceedings, maybe even observe a brawl that breaks out away from the main proceedings

Elf Warrior/Rogue:
-You've been snuck in as a servant, and keep a watch for your compatriots.
-Maybe cause an incident by getting indignant with a noble(doesn't matter, they'll die before it's a problem, just a matter of characterization).

Elf Mage:
-You represent a group of mages who came to the conclave
-Maybe debate, receive info you otherwise wouldn't that's relevant to a future quest

I could come up with more for others, but I'm tired. What do you think?

Edit: in my ideal world, there would be a default version of one race doing things, throughout the conclave that you might see/run into.

 

Hell yeah. That would have been a great idea, it would definitely make a much more explanatory beginning to the game, and would flesh out the protag a lot more.

 

Only problem is, I think the start I believe, was intentional for the direction of the story, in that regard. You weren't supposed to know what was going on. All you remember is an explosion, things chasing you.. and a woman.

[Unpleasant Implications]

Only problem is, I think the start I believe, was intentional for the direction of the story, in that regard. You weren't supposed to know what was going on. All you remember is an explosion, things chasing you.. and a woman.

Why does it have to be that way though? You can still have the same amount of intrigue with the dream/fade sequence without having the player character and player fumbling around with absolutely no idea of what's going on around them. Context and characterization.

[nightscrawl]

No. At this point I have RP stuff that I figured out for (some) Conclave events that I'm happy with. I'm glad they left it up to the player.

 

That said... I think the reasons for some of the origins being there are a bit weak -- actually I tend to feel that the human mage has the best reason (note that my canon is a non-mage, so I'm not saying this out of bias). Considering that, it might have been nice to show something along those lines to give the other origins a bit of help.

 

 

Related... I've always thought Vivienne's first Haven conversation after you recruit her was odd. She starts out with "Tell me, why were you at the Conclave?" and all of the answers relate to your opinion of the mage/templar conflict. Now, I've ONLY played a human mage and warrior, so I don't know if the answer options vary, but it seems like those choices would be odd, particularly for a Qunari or a dwarf PC. Both of those are there for business reasons, having nothing to do with the mage rebellion itself or concern over it.

 

But it seems like for any of the races that the choices offered don't actually answer her question. She might as well have said, "Why were you in Orlais?" with your answer being, "I think The Game is disgusting," for all the relevance the answers have to the question asked.

[nightscrawl]

Why does it have to be that way though? You can still have the same amount of intrigue with the dream/fade sequence without having the player character and player fumbling around with absolutely no idea of what's going on around them. Context and characterization.

 

But... I think they (the devs) wanted "the player character and player fumbling around with absolutely no idea of what's going on around them." That is not sarcasm. I think they intentionally wanted to create an atmosphere of confusion to really thrust that feeling onto your character. I think it worked pretty well... for me at least.

[KaiserShep]

No, not really. Considering that BioWare was going for the demon-induced amnesia angle, we wouldn't see anything remotely interesting at the Conclave, as far as the main plot is concerned. Anything and everything that alludes to the Cory plot in the slightest would be absent. So what would we be doing? Chatting with random NPC's about what they think of the mage/Templar conflict is kind of meaningless. We can get that sort of dialogue anytime throughout the game before In Hushed Whispers and the Divine election.

[Melbella]

Related... I've always thought Vivienne's first Haven conversation after you recruit her was odd. She starts out with "Tell me, why were you at the Conclave?" and all of the answers relate to your opinion of the mage/templar conflict. Now, I've ONLY played a human mage and warrior, so I don't know if the answer options vary, but it seems like those choices would be odd, particularly for a Qunari or a dwarf PC. Both of those are there for business reasons, having nothing to do with the mage rebellion itself or concern over it.
 
But it seems like for any of the races that the choices offered don't actually answer her question. She might as well have said, "Why were you in Orlais?" with your answer being, "I think The Game is disgusting," for all the relevance the answers have to the question asked.

I just had that convo with my elf mage; I think the options are always the same. I would have liked to be able to answer the actual question as well, from a RP standpoint, but considering Viv nevers actually answers the questions you ask her, the non-answer is somewhat appropriate.

[Wulfram]

I'd have liked an opportunity to show the Inquisitor's personality before the whole "Herald" thing happened.

[TheExtreamH]

Only if they were serving Tea and Cake. :3 

[Cz-99]

I'd have liked an opportunity to show the Inquisitor's personality before the whole "Herald" thing happened.

 

This.

 

Or better yet, play an Inquisitor with an actual personality after the whole "Herald" thing happened.

 

A man can dream.
 

[Broganisity]

I was there. It was a blast, I really enjoyed myself.

 

I do no regret that joke.

 

But seriously, I'm on the fence on this. I liked the element of confusion but I think I'd have liked an introductory cutscene of going to the conclave and maybe being their for a time, but then running to the door hearing the screams, not recognizing much of what's going on (nor being shown with camera angles) then there's a bright flash and you wake up in the Fade running for your life.

[The Oracle]

I'm happy with the lack of a pre-quest before the explosion. The original opening is fine with me. I do wish that there had been a city elf and a human servant/trader background. I always enjoyed playing the more humble or common origins and have always been a little annoyed at how Bioware always chose to make the humans of Noble birth, for the most part. It can all be a bit too "special snowflake" for me. A city elf stumbling on Coryfish while going out to do some laundry, or a farmer delivering some produce for the Conclave. These are also more plausible reasons for the Herald being where they are at the time. Hopefully next time we can be your ordinary Joe who rises up to help.

[rapscallioness]

I would have liked that, OP. But I think it was probably tricky for BW. For one, they wanted to keep Cory a surprise until Haven. So, they did not want the player seeing him.

 

They also needed to come up with how the Inquisitor had this ability to close rifts. So, they needed that interaction to happen, but they still did not want you to see Cory.

 

If you had been at the Conclave, the player would have seen everything. And you would have known about the Warden's involvement, about Cory, about the Divine, about the orb. It would have been too spoilerific for the player to have been at the Conclave.

[rapscallioness]

I was there. It was a blast, I really enjoyed myself.

 

I do no regret that joke.

 

But seriously, I'm on the fence on this. I liked the element of confusion but I think I'd have liked an introductory cutscene of going to the conclave and maybe being their for a time, but then running to the door hearing the screams, not recognizing much of what's going on (nor being shown with camera angles) then there's a bright flash and you wake up in the Fade running for your life.

 

Or this could have worked..

[ElementalFury106]

Damn right I would've. I've pictured what it could've been like a thousand times...

 

Human Noble mingling with his family/other prominent members of the Chantry hierarchy.

 

Human Mage sticking close to their fellow Mages. A possible scuffle with Templars.

 

Dalish Elf either sticking to the shadows or masquerading as an Elven servant. Who would know?

 

Dwarf associating with other Dwarves involved in the lyrium trade, appearing to be on business when you're actually spying for the Carta.

 

Qunari (this one's my favorite) attempting to keep distance between Templars and Mages, putting down scuffles before they get out of hand.

 

 

And after that, you hear the faint noises of the Divine being assaulted by Corypheus and the Wardens (which you don't yet know). Just as you open the door the explosion occurs.

[zestalyn]

For stories like this, who you are is ultimately irrelevant. You're not going to resolve global political problems in any realistic way, so the hero themselves doesn't matter much. They solve everything by transcending all of it. They become symbols instead, touched by fate, or some other mysterious method.

 

I think what that person meant is he/she would've liked the opportunity to bond with the kind of person their IQ was before they became this holy symbol, a point that I agree with. IMO, Shepard and Hawke were much more compelling protagonists to me because we got to experience their humble origins and rise to glory before they were handed some high and mighty status symbol that let them have far reaching power and autonomy. The juxtaposition of their identities made me appreciate and reflect on their new found statuses much more.

As the IQ, you're essentially given power 10 minutes into the game, with everyone enforcing their religious views on to you, and when you have no previous narrative experiences to compare this Messiah-like status quo to, the experience doesn't come off as something so special, mysterious, and overwhelming to me, when it should have given the circumstances. This is because the narrative did not give me the burden of sacrificing my IQ's previous identity and view of the world for the sake of serving the Inquisition and becoming this enormous religious and political figure. Taking on the Herald title and its related burdens becomes convenient, because as the player, you know nothing else. IMO this undermines the immersive experience and the game's reoccuring themes of questioning faith and making compromises with those of different world views from your own.

Since its technically a "RPG", you can argue that the player is responsible for making up these things about the protagonists' personality and life in their head the moment the game starts, but for me this isn't the strongest excuse given the high bar Bioware has managed to raise for itself when its comes to compelling storytelling and game narrative. This is also too much to ask of players who never played a DA game before DA:I and therefore have  a minimal understanding of basically everything, regardless of whatever research they might've done.

As for the OP, I agree that I would've liked to have seen something regarding events prior the Conclave, mainly for the reasons I have just explained, but I understand it would've been tricky to accomplish given how they wanted you to mysteriously end up with the mark. But I don't think it was impossible. The only things they had to hide from us in the beginning were Corypheus apprehending Justinia, which could've been done with creative cinematography i.e. stumbling into scene of the crime, blinding blackout, segue into the vanilla opening sequence with you waking up in the Fade, etc.

[Balek-Vriege]

As others have said and suggested, the total blackout of anything pre-conclave explosion was mainly for the mystery as to why the Inquisitor was "truly" there in the first place.

 

The way they did it left us very open to the possibility that our characters were indeed an antagonist at the Conclave as Cassandra expected initially.  If we had pre-explosion play this still could have been accomplished, but to a far lesser extent as we would have built up an idea of how our characters were before the explosion, ruining the total mystery/amnesia plot.

 

If I was handling it and the decision was made to have pre-explosion play, I would have made it a nightmare sequence, as the Inquistor's mind tries to make sense of the events erased while in their coma before waking up.

 

Keep the conclave explosion effect at the main screen upon selecting a new game.  Character creation still looks like you're in the Fade. Then after finishing the fade turns into the Conclave.  Essentially pre-explosion play is the Inquisitior reliving the events he/she remembers, while in a coma, with much of it already taken by Nightmare.

 

So the player experiences weird blackouts and screen dizziness effects as they progress through the Conclave.  Over time it gets worse with the Inquisitor jumping from one moment to the next artificially (erased memory that would give hints to Corypheus' conspiracy) .  As you talk to more people and get closer to Corypheus' location, the fabric of the dream completely breaks down and bang an explosion noise.  Queue the starting cinematic we get in the actual game and continue on as normal.

 

The only problem is that the Inquisitor would remember "something" about the Conclave when as it is now, he/she seems to remember absolutely nothing if I remember correctly.  Only remembering the important events after they're restored in the Fade.

[andy6915]

Related... I've always thought Vivienne's first Haven conversation after you recruit her was odd. She starts out with "Tell me, why were you at the Conclave?" and all of the answers relate to your opinion of the mage/templar conflict. Now, I've ONLY played a human mage and warrior, so I don't know if the answer options vary, but it seems like those choices would be odd, particularly for a Qunari or a dwarf PC. Both of those are there for business reasons, having nothing to do with the mage rebellion itself or concern over it.

 

But it seems like for any of the races that the choices offered don't actually answer her question. She might as well have said, "Why were you in Orlais?" with your answer being, "I think The Game is disgusting," for all the relevance the answers have to the question asked.

 

That bugged me too. A lot. I was a vashoth mercenary, I wasn't there for my own personal politics. Where was the "I was there to keep the peace, pick both mages and templars up by the scruff of their shirts and give them a time out if they got uppity" option?

 

Or the "I was there to make sure that no matter what, lyrium trade would continue. And if it wouldn't, tell my bosses that the illegal lyrium trade market just got a lot worse."

[Akkos]

That bugged me too. A lot. I was a vashoth mercenary, I wasn't there for my own personal politics. Where was the "I was there to keep the peace, pick both mages and templars up by the scruff of their shirts and give them a time out if they got uppity" option?

 

Or the "I was there to make sure that no matter what, lyrium trade would continue. And if it wouldn't, tell my bosses that the illegal lyrium trade market just got a lot worse."

 

So you want to roleplay "A spy who was in the conclave to solve the conflict between mages and templars?" You'd be the first target of Corypheus, if there was a chance.

 

 And it also doesn't fit the "Thief, being in the wrong place at the wrong time".

[andy6915]

So you want to roleplay "A spy who was in the conclave to solve the conflict between mages and templars?" You'd be the first target of Corypheus, if there was a chance.

And it also doesn't fit the "Thief, being in the wrong place at the wrong time".

Um... That's canon. Period. Those are basically the given reasons right in the background info when selecting race.

[Sah291]

Well what they did was basically skip an act 1 and start the story off in what would normally be the middle part/act 2. I'm fine with that approach. A lot of games do that, and with good reason, so they can drop the player into the action without a big long exposition.

I think I would have liked more scenes later in the game when the IQ gets their memories back, showing more of what actually happened there. I know they wanted to keep a sense of mystery. But I was expecting them to trickle in some more dreams or flashbacks along the way. Maybe a short playable side quest like in ME where you meet someone from your past.

And who knows, maybe they would have liked to put something like that in, but couldn't or decided not to for whatever reason. Maybe it was a design choice to allow the player to come up with their own backstory. I usually like a character to start off less of a blank slate, personally, but I know others feel differently. As I was playing my first playthrough I wasn't sure how much of a backstory my character was supposed to actually remember, considering they had amnesia.