Oh don't give people ideas. We're going to start hearing an idea to have the Inquisitor get a golem arm and then lose their memory, allowing us to start at level one again and have to relearn everything
Oh don't give people ideas. We're going to start hearing an idea to have the Inquisitor get a golem arm and then lose their memory, allowing us to start at level one again and have to relearn everything
Along with dealing with said arm trying to possess them 
No, haven't played it, but the last time we got mail/email from love intetests it was bad. Very bad (glares at daa and me2)
The problem is, if they'd go the return of IQ route, people will want their live interest back completely. Not in mail, but face to face.
You've seen what the accomplished bitchers here can do to the smallest nitpick. You really think they'd stay quiet if all they had were letters and no face time? People got upset about not being able to kiss their li whenever in DA2 like the did in DAO.
Honestly, trying to come up with ways around the objects has given me a headache, so I can't imagine what it does to the poor developers. Now barring Ras Al Ghul er Solas dumping the IQ in a pit of primordial goo, the arm is going to be a problem too, since we've got no mechanism for the kind of replacement people are talking about.
The closest is golems, but that's infusing a soul into stone or metal, not connecting a limb to a mind. We don't know if lyrium can do so, and remember it can play hell on the memories. Fenris' tattoos come to mind.
LOL right, which is why you avoid using the crappy mail system they used before and just use the Diologue system they already have to help facilitate it. 
As for the arm thing ... with the setting the way it is, just because it doesn't exist yet, there are plenty of things that allow for its creation. vbibbi saw my big ramble as to how the darned thing "should" function in a game-play sense , but as for what it actually is I find it hard to believe that the Inquisitor with all their resources and access to people couldn't create some sort of functional prototype by combining enchantment, magic and mechanics (heck, Bianca's mechanical expertise with Dagna's Anarchist skills would go a long way). It doesn't need to be perfect (in fact I'd prefer it be dysfunctional and painful to use to begin) it just needs to work. As for basing it off Golems ... you are right, that is a very, very, dumb idea.
My preferred thoughts is that it not be Iron Man, FMA Automail, Highly Magical or even Made of Stone ... but something closer to a prototype "Furiosa" might be possible and it does need to have in-combat (and out-of-combat) side effects.
The anti-inquisitor as protagonist backlash is unusually strong compared to the backlash against a lot of other far fetched ideas, almost as though they believe it's possible for the inquisitor to be the protagonist of DA4 
Let the propaganda fly!
Along with dealing with said arm trying to possess them
Cue the plot of Idle Hands
LOL right, which is why you avoid using the crappy mail system they used before and just use the Diologue system they already have to help facilitate it.
As for the arm thing ... with the setting the way it is, just because it doesn't exist yet, there are plenty of things that allow for its creation. vbibbi saw my big ramble as to how the darned thing "should" function in a game-play sense
My preferred thoughts is that it not be Iron Man, or even FMA Automail ... but something closer to a prototype "Furiosa" might be possible and it does need to have in combat (and out of combat) side effects.
I'm really not opposed to a prosthetic, if it's done right and not as cheesy as I found the lyrium machine guns. I would rather the Inquisitor, in whatever role, appear with a prosthetic so that they can wear any outfit, rather than being stuck with the nutcracker getup they use when we're on screen with only one arm.
The anti-inquisitor as protagonist backlash is unusually strong compared to the backlash against a lot of other far fetched ideas, almost as though they believe it's possible for the inquisitor to be the protagonist of DA4
Let the propaganda fly!
We're a backlash now?
Yes, I have the stripes to prove it!
The war table was supposed to tie in more but...
Consider how large the li cast was sans Solas.
That's seven characters? And unless they have short cameos that's going to eat into voice actor budget, and potentially limit new characters.
If they show up, people are going to want more relationship, but with seven possibilities then however many new companions. That's a large cast of actors.
They can still do it, and kind of will have to with a few characters even if they bring in a new protag. Since they've said that Solas will be dealt with in Da4 that kind of involves any character that appears in the end at haven when the inquisitor stabs a knife into tevinters location. Those are the ones who're obviously looking to stop Solas, so having them appear is likely even if brief. So, just like in Da2 and DaI, there'll be returning characters.
Honestly, trying to come up with ways around the objects has given me a headache, so I can't imagine what it does to the poor developers. Now barring Ras Al Ghul er Solas dumping the IQ in a pit of primordial goo, the arm is going to be a problem too, since we've got no mechanism for the kind of replacement people are talking about.
The closest is golems, but that's infusing a soul into stone or metal, not connecting a limb to a mind. We don't know if lyrium can do so, and remember it can play hell on the memories. Fenris' tattoos come to mind.
You don't need any magical mechanism. We in our own history have had fully functional prosthetics for centuries, including the time equivalent to Dragon Age. So it would not be out of place for such a prosthetic to exist in Thedas. Immediately jumping to Superspecialawesome Magic Golem Hand is a hyperbole.
Besides, when asked about it Patrick Weekes said anything is possible.
My honest belief was they really wanted to get this right by the fans, and in doing so bit off more than they could really chew. But if they would have just resolved the war, we would have heard screaming they were just recycling what they were going to do with EM, which would have been true to an extent, but it would have had the virtue of not having to try and build a bridge from both ends, hoping it meets in the middle.
How this connects to the race select, if course, is in the priorities they thought they needed vs player feedback. If they'd had them from the outset, I think we would have had much greater interaction (ex. A dwarf might get a bonus quest with Varric to deal with Merchant Guild stuff. Guild being worried about the whole Herald thing.) I don't think they should try to do origins anymore, at least not like in DAO, but have quests etc that come up because you are so and so background.
From what I've seen, the open world is one of their biggest complaints regarding DaI. So hopefully they won't bring it back. Because I agree, without those sandboxes we'd have had a better game. More could have gone towards the story, a lot more.
From what I've seen, the open world is one of their biggest complaints regarding DaI. So hopefully they won't bring it back. Because I agree, without those sandboxes we'd have had a better game. More could have gone towards the story, a lot more.
And now we're back to this 
Clearly the devs went an extra mile to try and give the fans what they wanted, and should be commended for that, but it clearly came at a cost and we, as fans, should be careful about what we ask for because every extra thing we ask for that they add likely means something else has to be cut or scaled back to accommodate it. I'm sure that if there had only been the human inquisitor, there would have been more backstory interaction that what we got in the final game, but it had to go to accommodate the race options. It would also explain why the level of interactivity with race choice has minimal bearing on the actual story.
While I would personally like "Origins", or at least some sort of character introduction prologue, I also think they could take a cue from Mass Effect by allowing the player to select a couple of key background points to flesh out the character's backstory (like the Earthborn, Sole Survivor, etc.) and then have those tie back into dialogue and into some side quests later on, to give further opportunity to fill in the background. The problem with the Inquisitor was that you started with minimal background context (one sentence about why your character was at the Conclave doesn't really cut it), and barring a couple of lines of dialogue, it is never really addressed again and you are just left to headcanon something (or not). I really wish Inquisition started with showing how your character came to be in attendance at the Conclave, had you encounter other characters your character was with at the conclave, and then had it all blow up on you. As it was, everything blows up and everyone dies, but you don't really know anything about anyone who died so it gives you no reason to care. If we had met some characters as part of the backstory, it would have given the explosion a bit more weight.
As for DAI's plotlines, i would have been fine if DAI had simply resolved the Mage/Templar War and Orlesian Civil War without any Corypheus or rifts or whatever. I felt fairly let down at how perfunctory the resolution of both conflicts, which were so well set up by DA2 and the books, was and the lack of ties to those books (no Rhys and Evangeline on screen, minimal Michel de Chevin for example).
In some ways, these problems sort of encapsulate my main issues with Inquisition overall; the ideas are all there, but the execution is just a bit lacking and many elements feel like major missed opportunities. I really feel that if they had spent a bit less time making sandboxes for people to potter around in and spent more time fleshing out the main story, it could have been amazing rather than just pretty good.
yap they tried to bring a few plot lines together but since the quisitor / cory conflict (the least interesting one) is the focal point and lens through which all other conflicts were filtered it made everything else a bit lackluster. I would have to saw that the next central conflict should be less "abstract" (high fantasy" and more concrete to give the game cohesion and realistic weight. It would be a much stronger DA4 if the whole end of the world Solas plotline remained something abstract in the background and is more involved in realistic down to earth conflicts like the qun tevinter war and slave rebellion. That is not to say abstract existential high fantasy cannot work (it did in trespasser to an extent and in Buldar's Gate and Mask of the Betrayer) but there the hero was physically effected and in actual danger of the special power bestowed upon them.
From what I've seen, the open world is one of their biggest complaints regarding DaI. So hopefully they won't bring it back. Because I agree, without those sandboxes we'd have had a better game. More could have gone towards the story, a lot more.
And now we're back to this
Everyone here knows I'd prefer the inquisitor to be the sole protagonist should Solas return, but that's an interesting alternative, Heimdall. I could see it working if the story is sufficiently well-written to justify the constant back-and-forth between PCs.
I imagine the inquisitor's segments would be similar to Telltale games: extremely story-centric and packed full of difficult decisions that impact the adventures of the Tevinter PC, who may or may not be the inquisitor's number-one agent in the hunt for Solas.
(Slightly late reply)
I'm a bit torn myself. I do see why the personal connection with the Inquisitor could make them a better choice where Solas is involved, but part of what I love about DA games in the first place is the chance to build up a new character with new histories in a situation with each installment, knowing that they inhabit the same world as my previous characters.
I think this sort of split would be the best of both worlds. People still get to play with their Inquisitor's development and pursue that connection to Solas, while still allowing the new PC enough screen time to build them up as characters.
From what I've seen, the open world is one of their biggest complaints regarding DaI. So hopefully they won't bring it back. Because I agree, without those sandboxes we'd have had a better game. More could have gone towards the story, a lot more.
It was less the open world and more the cost that came with it. Many of the zones didn't have terribly interesting stories (And some stories only interesting to those deeply interested in the lore), many of the sidequests felt bare bones and very few ares actually had interesting characters to engage with.
What I would expect from DA4 would be the return of these large areas, but fewer of them with more depth added to each area. And of course a fully realized Minrathous, I hope (Maybe that could be our hub).
This wasn't anywhere close to a sandbox. Sandbox is freeform. It's not even a true open world as you still transit between areas. But rather than having a number of small sub areas make up a full one, they made things more organic and larger. Which is what people were demanding after DA2. Varied landscape and larger areas. This was ALWAYS intended, unlike race selection, and thus budgeted for. Removing it would not have changed anything, except the budget would have been smaller, or, more likely would have gone into making the numerous smaller areas needed to tell the story.
Pretty much.
My bad. But whatever you want to call it, it was terrible. It was probably one of those things BW should have ignored from their fans, I thought this even when they announced it as something they were doing for the game. And the budget wouldn't have necessarily been smaller, might have started out that way but, if its approved, more can be added. Not just with budget but also with time. For all we know BW could have scrapped the idea and come up with ideas that needed the same budget. So it could've gone either way.
I felt like Jaws of Hakkon was an improvement as far as it goes. But trespasser was by far the best and that partially because we were focused on the story and though we didn't have as much to run around in we still got to explore an awesome area while progressing the story. This is just my opinion anyways.
I felt like Jaws of Hakkon was an improvement as far as it goes. But trespasser was by far the best and that partially because we were focused on the story and though we didn't have as much to run around in we still got to explore an awesome area while progressing the story. This is just my opinion anyways.
I agree, and I think we'll probably see more of those smaller but more intensive plot areas than we saw in inquisition. It think they realize that the areas in Inquisition people liked best were those with stronger plots and more to do, not those with the most space to run around in.
So we'll probably still see a few larger areas, just not as aimless and with fewer collectibles (I've only gathered all the shards once and i probably will never bother again). So more JoH. Inquisition was their first try at building areas like that, which I think is partly why the areas tended to have diverse designs and sizes, so they could see what worked best.
So I don't see them making the same mistakes.
agh... the shards! I hated scrambling up their hills only to find out that I'm on the wrong hill. When I gathered them I thought something awesome would happen at the temple, once I got the last door open, but nope. It was like when you go through that snowy area with the red templar's and run into that desire demon and the whole time you were expecting something awesome to happen and nothing did. Also that haunted house in the emerald graves. A lot of their quests were anti-climatic.
A case of them spreading themselves too thin across so many areas, I think (That goes for a lot of things in Inquisition actually). That's why so many plots and quests only had codex texts with unexciting payoff. Not all of them were bad, and I don't have a problem with reading, but something is lost when most of the quests are handled that way. Unfortunately there was some of that in JoH, but generally the payoff was a bit better.
This wasn't anywhere close to a sandbox. Sandbox is freeform. It's not even a true open world as you still transit between areas. But rather than having a number of small sub areas make up a full one, they made things more organic and larger. Which is what people were demanding after DA2. Varied landscape and larger areas. This was ALWAYS intended, unlike race selection, and thus budgeted for. Removing it would not have changed anything, except the budget would have been smaller, or, more likely would have gone into making the numerous smaller areas needed to tell the story.
I wish they hadn't taken it to the extreme at the cost of more interesting side quests with choices, cinematics, dialogue options, and different ways to end the quest. I feel like BioWare always throws the baby out with the bathwater and swings waaay to the other side of the spectrum when they get critique on something. I wish there had been fewer maps with more of those kind of side quests and that every large area in the game tied directly into the plot rather than having plot areas completely segregated from the rest of the world and never reachable again. I also wish there had been a lot more city and less wilderness. I can't help but think back fondly on the JRPGs I used to play as a kid and a teenager and how in those games each region would have at least one fully developed town with NPCs to talk to and quests to do. I know that level of detail wouldn't be practical in a fully voiced rpg but Val Royeaux was such a disappointment, it was so tiny and there was no one to talk to and nothing to do outside of companion quests you started elsewhere. 
I wish they hadn't taken it to the extreme at the cost of more interesting side quests with choices, cinematics, dialogue options, and different ways to end the quest. I feel like BioWare always throws the baby out with the bathwater and swings waaay to the other side of the spectrum when they get critique on something. I wish there had been fewer maps with more of those kind of side quests and that every large area in the game tied directly into the plot rather than having plot areas completely segregated from the rest of the world and never reachable again. I also wish there had been a lot more city and less wilderness. I can't help but think back fondly on the JRPGs I used to play as a kid and a teenager and how in those games each region would have at least one fully developed town with NPCs to talk to and quests to do. I know that level of detail wouldn't be practical in a fully voiced rpg but Val Royeaux was such a disappointment, it was so tiny and there was no one to talk to and nothing to do outside of companion quests you started elsewhere.
In fairness, there was a lot of pressure on Bioware to open up the world after DA2, especially with the concurrent success of Skyrim. So I understand why they wanted to give that direction a try. It wasn't a bad idea, they just tried to do too much, losing some of the things they actually did better than Skyrim.
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