I'd like to pore over all the stuff I like in the (single-player) game. That's one part of the "feedback" process after all, since this section is intended as more or less prep for future DAs, no? And I do want to mention what (I think) was done brilliantly in DAI and should continue. But I think I'll start with my grievances instead and see how it goes, adding my raves here and there or at the end perhaps. Mostly I have raves, been beaming while playing and very surprised at just how ambitious the leap from DAO/DA2 to DAI was, but I need to vent, so I'm being constructive about it by offering feedback as if it will make a difference...
1. Convoluted menus
Nearly everything- almost all- that you need to access in the game requires superfluous, redundant, and unnecessarily extra steps to complete. Not sure if it's useful to describe everywhere it happens (it's nearly everything), but I'll go at it until you get my drift. The main issue: it wastes one's time. Often it's an extra 1-10 sec here and there, but it adds up, and at no point feels like it was the "right" choice for the game designers. It's a pointless frustration.
A. Party selection screen.
Not sure what possible advantage there was to make the "tarot card look" be the new standard, but, well, the old version was far easier. We had a great screen full of all the companions we'd brought on surrounding our Warden or Champion (rather than 2D representative images) filling up the "room" as we went- or emptying even- and reacting when we'd select or deselect them- coolio stuff. But the main advantage was practical- a click to get to that screen, a click directly on each character to select them, then click to go. Simple. Now we click into the screen, then have to click however many times to get through the one-by-one each of the "tarot cards" to get to the one we want, then click on it, then click more times to get to the next one, repeat ad nauseum, then finally get to click to go... And the more companions you get to choose from, the more extra clicking you have to do. And it's not as if the result of clicking through the "tarot cards" is instant. You click and have to time the clicking with the animation shifting the cards over... to add to the bother. This was an innovation? I can only assume there was some design issue with the original full-party screen that wouldn't translate properly to the new DAI format, but I'd rather have 2D figures in a single room than cards to have to select through.
And if you haven't got a full party, a confirmation popup in center screen that you have to click to tell it that you're a big boy now and can handle it.
B. Maps.
The local/world map setup- i.e., which gets called up when- makes sense. You click to get to the map. Then when you get there... On the local screen if you click on, say, a camp symbol ('cause you want to go there) the first thing it does is center the screen to it. Why? What point is there to centering on it? When would we ever be looking at the map, seeing exactly the thing we want, fully able to click on it, and think, "But if only the icon for the location were first in the center of the screen before I can do anything with it..." So it centers it. Now you have to move the cursor from wherever the camp symbol was previously on the screen to the center. Because. One click is not enough. Double click it- OK- or click once, then click the "Travel" button on the bottom of the screen. Either way you get a popup asking you if the thing you just told it to do is what you want it to do. Why, yes, in fact, I do. Why not let centering be as easy as it already is: left-click and shift the screen? The full map is not that large, and even if it were, I'd rather make travel easier to click (which we need to do) than centering the location on the map (which we don't need to do). And eliminate the confirmation popups. Damn, that would be faster and easier...
The world map is the same but adds even more bother. First you get the map. But it will center you on one location or another, and the entire right half of the screen will be blocked by a huge message about one single thing regarding that location... every single time we get the world map. If it was EVER useful to see that not-useful mention of something we could know by simply tool-tipping the location icon, why show it every single time for the entire game as if we'd somehow forgotten or needed to know? Yes, I get it, Varric's red lyrium quest that I can't even access yet is the biggest thing about the Storm Coast (bigger than a dragon, rifts, picking up The Iron Bull, etc...) OK, no, I don't get it. And if you click on another location on the map- once again first it centers the location on the screen... but then it raises the half-screen tip message about the newly-centered location. You REALLY NEED TO READ THIS. Except we don't. And the worst aspect to the half-screen message is that it often covers up the location we want to get to. This means that if I want to go from Haven to Hinterlands, first I have to left click the map and shift it so I can even SEE the Hinterlands location icon (or anything east of Haven). Then yet again you double-click or click the location, then say, "Yeah, I clicked it because, uh, I wanted to travel there," then respond to another box to say, "Yes, in fact, I not only clicked it to travel there, I actually do want to travel there now. Thank you so much." Really? Why?
I understand building in a safety call, mind you, in case someone accidentally clicks (or double-clicks) a location and wants to back out. But that's going to be a minority of the time. The majority of the time is getting subjected to needless bother for that minority. And really, who cares if one travels to a location on accident? There is no time expenditure issue in DA- never has been. No costs to the travel. You can just pick up the map again and go (if it were that easy to navigate, that is). And DA is mostly save-anywhere, so it's not like you have to forfeit anything. So save before you travel if the oopses are so important to avoid. In fact, I think DAO used to auto-save before you'd travel so there was always that safety net anyway. Not sure if DAI is the same. At least gimme an option to stop the nonsense...
C. Inventory.
The DAO/DAI inventory was usually presented in a large lot (relatively speaking given how few one's inventory items can be), so perhaps there was a sense from the devs that it would be better to categorize inventory to route things more specifically. Want to equip armor? Here's all the armor here. Oh, no, a weapon too? Well, here are all the weapons you've got available. So be it. For sure there's no need to show us every craft item, "valuable," schematic, etc., that we've got. I believe DAO/DA2 had an inventory setup so that you could sort according to categories also... but there was also an "all." I used "all" pretty much always, particularly in Stores. In DAI there is no "all" at all. You must do more clicking to get to the items you want. In Stores you can at least switch between inventory categories with a single click from the top left menu. In the Inventory screen you can sort out axes from swords with a click from that same menu bar, but if you want to go from swords to helms, you have to click the "Back" button at the bottom of the screen to get back to the main Inventory screen, then click "Armor", then click helms... I understand that with DAI allowing us to name our crafted equipment (why? but ok), there was some need to provide a way of letting the player separate out their The Slicer (dagger) from their The Slicer (greatsword). Because it gets convoluted... But the solution chosen as always is to create more steps, here requiring a "Back" button each time. ("Back... and to the left... back... and to the left....") Is there no way to at least keep the stuff we equip- armor, weapons, accessories- in one section together? Is that too much?
A side-note on this one is how the equipped items show up. If this new format is supposed to make specification more precise, it fails regarding worn equipment. Instead of a top position (or side position or some kind of emphasized, highlighted, or "special" position) in the list for equipped stuff- i.e., so you can always just quick-easy check that spot to see what you have on- instead you have to sort through every Accessory (once you've clicked to that screen) to see which ones have the not-so-identifiable thin gray border to their icon (and try to determine if that little icon is a ring or amulet or what.) I could even do without the ragdoll just to get the worn items displayed constantly in one fixed screen location- if it were necessary to make such a sacrifice. Inventory is wrangling. It is always a game mechanic with some measure of bother. Just let me get the bother over with in the least number of moves. The game screen is where the fun character interactions and adventuring happen. (OK, I do like seeing how new armor would look... even armor I can't even wear for my class... which I need to see because...? But I don't care.)
A related note is how DAO/DA2 used to have a tool-tip that would let you determine whether a given item you're picking up is worth swapping to prior to going to inventory in order to swap to it. In DAI there is no such tooltip in the "Picking up" window. You can see the item's stats, but you don't know if it's any better than the related item in the "picking up" character's worn equipment. So you have to take the extra step of going to inventory... then getting to that category's screen, then finding it in inventory... which is made harder if you have a lot of things in inventory that you haven't checked on yet and thus have the orange star next to them. And there's no "de-star everything" click to be made, so every single new item must be found in Inventory, and highlighted. But you have to wait for a moment after highlighting for it to recognize that... hmm... yes, now the player has seen it so we can remove the star. More time, more bother.
And a further note is a scrolling issue. If you hover the cursor over an item within one of the Inventory screens, you do get the comparison. But if you then use the mouse scroll (I'm on PC) to get to the next item, the text boxes for the original comparison don't change despite scrolling just fine and being highlighted on a new item. In order to see the new comparison you have to move the cursor far enough away to get the comparison boxes to blink out, then bring the cursor back to get the new comparison boxes. So scrolling means not just moving down the list to get to the item you're looking for, but moving the cursor off and back on every time. More extra steps.
Wait, sorry, just retested. That last bother as described happens only in the Store screen, not Inventory. As a result I will end up double-clicking to sell an item, then scrolling down one, seeing the same comparison boxes since they don't change unless I move the cursor off them first and back, making me think, "Huh, same lesser stats," and selling that item too, until I've sold off plenty of things I'd intended to save because the comparison windows didn't change. (I noticed this because it ultimately made me think, "How did I pick up six of the same type of dagger?") In Inventory, on the other hand, if you've got the comparison boxes up and you scroll, the comparison boxes disappear, but despite the cursor now over a new item, new boxes won't show. You have to move the cursor sufficiently far away first, then back again. So both the Store and Inventory still require that extra step regardless.
And a last note on the Inventory is the mechanic of highlighting items during the scrolling (and enlarging the item icon). What is the highlighting supposed to do? When you scroll through DAI Inventory lists, the cursor is free to move anywhere while you scroll. So the item you're getting compare boxes for is not necessarily the highlighted one. If the cursor were always centered over the highlighted item- or there were no cursor- then it would be a simple matter of always seeing a comparison of the highlighted item- and, yes, convenient. But instead you have to move the cursor to the highlighted one in order to make sure you're seeing it. And because of the issues mentioned above, first you have to scroll to highlight the one you want, and THEN you can use the cursor to tool-tip comparison boxes. Just make highlighting be connected to cursor position- if it's positioned over an item- or get rid of it as unnecessary and make the icons generally larger so we can always see them. (What? I have poor vision. Leeme alone.)
(Incidentally I would like a way to swap to equip an item while I'm on the Store screen rather than having to leave the Store, go to Inventory, click and click, equip it, Back out, then back to the Store. Just wishful wishing...)
D. Crafting.
Similar issues to Inventory which I won't belabor (OK, maybe I will a bit), but the issue specific to crafting is when you're in the Modification screen. You want to add a grip to Bianca. OK. You have the new grip. You open the Weapon Modification table screen. First you have to click in the upper right through every companion one-by-one (which has some issues because the change of ragdoll per character causes a drag on PC resources) rather than seeing a list of companions to click on directly. I didn't mention this, but it's obviously part of the Inventory nuisances as well. You finally get to Varric who was near the back of the list (taking longer because you didn't go from the back to front). I understand that you need a specific character up because the equipped items will be different for each character, and the player shouldn't have to remove equipped items from one character in order to add modifications for the items using their Herald. (Bianca single-handedly makes this inevitable anyway.)
Now you have to scroll through a rounded list to get to Bianca and click it. Again- equipped items are just tossed in the list, only identifiable, once found, due to the thin gray outline on their icon... And icons are small when not highlighted, so the gray outline is thinner... Anyway... We click on Bianca. Now there are three slots- aiming, grip, arms... except that they don't show the Weapon Mod category unless they're empty, in which case there's a gray box. Otherwise you get a Weapon Mod with a name that hopefully includes the word "aiming," "grip," or "arms." Say the Grip slot is filled already and we're swapping in a new grip. We click the right "category" slot (the slot which we think is for Grip) and then either have to double-click or then go to the bottom to click "Select..." because clicking once isn't enough to Select... It opens up a new screen with slots for "Empty", the icon-altered equipped grip, and the new grip. So long as we move the cursor away from the slot we want first, then move it back to be over the grip we want to select, a single click makes the selection of what will be in the Grip slot, and it returns us to the Bianca Weapon Mod slots screen. THAT'S what I'm talking about. Assuming we clicked because we wanted to, getting us where we're intending with a single click. Who'da thunk it? But it's jarring simply because it's unlike any other clicking we do in the entire process... But, OK.
By the way, why... why did the Weapon Modification table get placed next to the Armor Creation table while the Armor Modification table got placed on the Weapon Creation table side? For variety? This is one of those things that makes an actual factory production floor less productive. See, we move similar operations near each other. 'Cause we're squares, I guess. Just make an Armor side of the shop and a Weapon side of the shop. Why not? Looks more realistic as well. Again- not seeing the game designers' incentive for counter-intuitiveness. Why make us walk extra steps to add legs and arms to our new coat? We need more exercise? Then we shouldn't be playing video games...
And tell that guy to stop telling me, "Good" or "Next time then," EVERY TIME I go to the craft table. Nosy parker. Does he have to watch over my shoulder whenever I work? I'm quite productive without constant supervision... Or let me punch him at some point.
E. Abilities.
At level up the issue occurs worst, but the general format is already convoluted. Once again things are made available with the same click-through selection process rather than laying out all options on one screen. As unadorned as DA2 was, I sure liked that abilities screen, able to check out everything all at once, see spells or abilities from different specializations to see if they might be worth it without changing screens. I had no idea how nice I had it. Now it's more corralled. You don't just click on the ability/spell you want. First you click on the selection bar and click however many times to get to the specialization you want in order to look through that Specialization branch. Once you click into that Specialization you can scroll down and look through the different abilities/spells. Already more clicks to get there. But, oops, you clicked on one you thought was good before you were done looking at everything. So to look over abilities/spells in other Specializations, you then clicked back to the top selection slider, then clicked over however many times to get to the other Specialization you wanted to check out, and then clicked on that Specialization to look over those options. Wow, look, and you see one you think is better than the one you first selected. Happens. So you click it. Nope, you're locked into that other one. And there's no Undo. So now you have to click back to the main selection bar again, back over to the first Specialization, back down into that Specialization, click the ability/spell you'd oops clicked to deselect it, then click back to the main selection bar, back over however many times to the Specialization you wanted, back down into that Specialization, and finally... at last... you can click the new ability/spell. Wait, what about that other- FORGET IT! *clicks "Accept"* In DA2 the entire process is potentially a few clicks. DAI is in a romance with Click.
Again, what was the selling point to the game designers? "Just sending this idea up the flagpole, seeing if anyone salutes it. We add a lot more, let's call it, 'interactivity' to the ability selection screen." Because when I have to click a lot more to get to the ability I want, I'll appreciate the ability more? No... no, wrong.
F. Conclusion.
There's more, but you get the idea. Streamline. All I'm saying. Nothing I've described is game-breaking. Everyone who loves the game like I do just rolls with it. But game convolution does not equal game complexity. The former just adds tedium and irritation. The latter adds coolness factor. Reduce the former, enhance the latter. And, putting aside user friendliness as a virtue ('cause who needs it, amiright?)... is it not easier (and less costly) to design a simpler system? How much extra dev time went into structuring those subpar "tarot cards" and extra inventory screens when there was already a very competent (and coolio) system in place? OK, maybe costs were minimal, the problem being that today's game tech tools make convoluting a game's mechanics far easier to do...
2. Tactics options
After all I just said about extra steps, this ironically is an inverse issue. The extensive tactics options for DAO were wonderful. They did exactly what I needed them to do. I ended up playing Nightmare for nearly all 7 or so of the games I went through because I had excellent micromanagement- not of every decision, but of every decision I needed to control and monitor. And if you're going to have a game that can't really be beat on higher difficulties without employing the "Tactical Cam," why scale down the Tactics options, right? But DAI did. The best I can do now is tell them NOT to cast certain spells or use certain talents. I can't tell them to just hold still if they sight a foe in range or combat starts- i.e., Instruction Time. I can't tell them to always do such and such or only do such and such when so and so happens. All I can say is, "Don't use your Dispel," and then, when the first wave of Rift critters is down, hope Solas hasn't used all his mana on other spells so I can Dispel away at least one 2nd wave critter. No more shame on me for not coordinating actions properly. That's AI's job now. As soon as I'm off "possessing" another character, they're implementing AI tactical genius by blowing their stamina/mana wad on whatever or running into melee range to shoot them even harder with Bianca. The best I can manage at present is lower the difficulty and watch the AI blunder about, hoping for the best with the most powerful gear I can acquire.
I suppose I could switch off every single spell and skill individually- for every single character- which would then ensure that I'm the only one that makes them do anything other than move and auto-attack. But with them deciding to do other things when I'm not possessing them, it makes coordination, well, less precise than it was in DAO... which sorta says something. And Tactics options have been one of the shining unique elements to DA gameplay. Now I'm just lucky if Solas gives Barrier to the right person...
Although this isn't part of the Options issue, while I'm on it... With all the Tactical Cam issues of DAO and DA2, DAI's is far worse- at times. Sometimes it's great, just as good as DAO/DA2- but then you get that huge new innovation of DAI: verticality. During TC mode the cursor seems to have to proceed at the same vertical level as the character you start with... and moves as if it's a creature trying to traverse the territory. So it can't even move to where the character can clearly see. Not to mention that often you can't left-click or zoom to shift the angle you're looking at. This was the hallmark of epic screenshots of which I used to take ridiculously many in DAO. Dragon-riding wouldn't have been the same without it. No such option in DAI. In the flat Fallow Mire the TC mostly works fine every time- does what it needs to anyway. In the steep hillsides and ravines of the Storm Coast- yeah, no. I'm sure this failing was known before product release, however... whatever could be said of that...
3. Encounters need more character
This is admittedly an aesthetic criticism. To be honest I'm getting what I might call "BG1 willies" traversing the back areas and wilderness of DAI's extensive and beautifully detailed territories. (This is high praise, if that wasn't recognizable otherwise. I have very fond memories of my BG1 explorations.) There is that feeling of vast untamed openness, of real geographical challenges that will require estimations of traversal possibilities, that dread-plus-awestruck-anticipation of not quite knowing what might be around that bend- and then like in BG1 you get encounters that just spring on you as you make some turn or uncover something- encounters which aren't necessarily part of the primary campaign. The Hinterlands is better on this with so many little things- like the "Turn around the pillar 3 times" encounter or the "Thief" encounter in the southwest where you "complete the ritual" and get a Rage Demon. Good stuff... but not great. And it feels like such a wasted opportunity in such a fantastic game.
In DAI there are rather long periods of simple trekking through the Storm Coast's steep embankments with nothing happening but the ambient noises, occasional (repeating) party interactions, and more or less frequent traveling hostiles. In BG1 such encounters would be preceded by force-dialog... which is a bit... forced. But it was memorable! The colorful characters you'd meet with fun voiced dialog and usually a dialog choice or so- even though you were going to end up in battle regardless. It's generally nothing particularly involved- just a sort of intro experience. When the dialog ended and battle immediately started, you'd have a much more meaningful sense of what you're doing in the fight and what you're up against. Oh, these are a quirky band of dwarf mercenaries out looking for the hero who can boast up quite a lot of skill- or some oddball skeletal wizard who wants to eat my brains- or a band of raucous fellow "adventurers" who consider my party a bunch of amateurs... whatever, but then the fight you have after has some character to it. By contrast after turning 3 times round the Hinterlands pillar, a corpse gets up... and we kill it. We complete the "Thief" encounter, get a Rage Demon... and kill it. And the final battle in the Storm Coast at the fortress... We hear "Kill them!" And we kill them. Bout it. It's a little anticlimactic. We've likely been killing loads of stuff up to then. The "crazy mage" in the Storm Coast is most disappointing. Why was he "crazy?" Why did we need to kill him? We read his journal and he doesn't seem that off. But the encounter involves: we see him... and we kill him. Bout it. Oh, and loot him for the key.
Or you'll get to some really cool location to find... a chest. And loot containers in DAI are by far the most coolio-looking I've seen in any game- so fun to look at. But why can't the hidden treasure in some nooks- abandoned farm houses, concealed caves, alcoves behind some boulders- be a non-hostile encounter. BG1 used to use humor- a kind of self-lampooning encounter that wouldn't really work so well in the DA world of bitter controversy and super-seriousness... but still. Like DAO's mad hermit in the Brecilian Forest- except without the killing or treasure. Just some odd dude. Or cool dude. Or some curious graphic artwork- some curiously intricate, inexplicable mural on a boulder... Stuff that doesn't necessarily involve adding XP or gold or Power or Influence... just is a cool experience. In DAI it tends to always be either something-to-kill or something-to-loot. The only example I've seen so far has been the seller of the 10000g mystery item in Val Royeaux. But that's in a city. I mean during in the majority of our time: out there in those huge areas you've created... hiking... hiking... collect Serpentstone... hiking... But DAI had the luxuriously rich DA lore base to draw from, a wily sensibility to its content. Why can't it show up less gratuitously? Game designers are artists, not caterers, right?
Not that any game must be like BG1 to "get it right," but you see what I'm driving toward. Maybe force-dialog won't do- certainly not BG1 style (or Oblivion-like). Actually DAI seems to use it when you're near a talky NPC long enough, forcing you into a dialog even though it doesn't pause the rest of the environment, leaving you no way out but the "Leave Conversation" button or just navigating the dialog. Not sure if that could be used to make the Storm Coast fortress pre-battle a dialog. DA is normally cutscene heavy- the more "contemporary" version of force-dialog, though DAO was especially awful at using cutscenes to place your characters in the worst possible position for a fight before shouting "Go!" It was never a matter of discovering someone and dialog happening from there, as in BG1. But DAI seems to limit cutscenes to main story plot as it is- a major departure, it seems. I can live without the cutscenes. I just wish more would've been done with the encounter experience.
(I know Skyrim, other games, add encounters as I describe- in their own way. Don't care. The DA world is way more interesting to me. So I advocate these things for DA...)
OK, maybe I'll post more as the ideas come to me... want to get back to Thedas. There be's Rifts to close!
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