260 réponses à ce sujet

[Valrethmor]

Here we go:

So why not our character BE the child of morrigan? Since this character's soul would have old god attributes, and the attributes of Morrigan and the Warden Commander. You would be hated by the Chantry, have possible ties with witch covens, and a descendant of the hero of Ferelden. This would allow great opportunities for the story. You could decide the fate of the Chantry, a possible war with mages vs. chantry? Or possible you may have the ability to manipulate darkspawn and destroy the Chantry; or what I'd do is turn the darkspawn on eachother. Possible apostate mages hunting for your god-like soul, possibly interested by the Tevinter Imperium (become their new God?), or maybe the Maker wishing to annihilate you? And having to perfect your dark curse over the game period, slowly growing in power.  With this scenario we would have more opportunities to be grand heros (by using your curse for the cause of good),  those who wish to destroy Thedas (for evil), or an outcast by society and wishing prove oneself despite his/her curse. And maybe going on epic quest to find your father's armor?

[L33TDAWG]

ArcanistLibram wrote...

1- Magewear that doesn't look like someone patched together a bunch of random fabrics.

2- A war. An actual war. One single battle at the end of the game is not a war. A Song of Ice and Fire is what a war should look like. It should be a grueling, seemingless endless ordeal. This is something Bioware needs to address before Mass Effect 3 comes out.

It should be an all out war that pushes the brink of fps with a ****load of darkspawn and you having your own army and leading them into battle... and being able to do small raids on darkspawn camps if you wish, or have a messenger stop you to tell you of an ally or one of your places being attacked and if you want you can go or send some of your own party members. I'd certainly ****in my pants at how awesome the ending battle would be knowing what bioware could do with it. Like the very beginning of DA:O. If you woulda fought in that huge battle at Ostagar, I bet people woulda raged at how ****ing awesome that woulda been.

[MarkyBoy147]

holy war!!!

[franco8706]

Valrethmor wrote...

So why not our character BE the child of morrigan?

Wow, that is an amazing idea. I didn't even think about that. But now that you mentioned it, it would make for an awesome set-up with great story potential.

[Narmontas]

1. The bows could have a strings...



2. The mages robes are all the same (make some texture improvements for robes + add cloaks)



3. There could be some improved armor textures. Like Orlesian , Black March or Antivan style of armor. I mean the armors could have some crests or look some kind different. YOu could look at Elder Scrolls IV for example. There are lots of ways how to make different textures for Light/Heavy/Massive armors...



4. Romance like an old way with conversations.



5. The weaponry could add such an items like Pike , Polearm , Spear. (also with it could ad some messy finishing skills like stabing with spear to a head or 2 times to the chest.



6.class based armors with unique paintings (example Templars armors) They look cool and only templars could use them. Then there could be the same with spirit warrior or a Reaver...



7. Add unique quest with griffons. For example Someone found new poppulation of the griffons that are wild and attacking ppl. And one side of the quest would be to tame griffons for a gray wardens order and etc. Because the Griffons are vanquished It is said... Also like about the dragons. But I see the Dragons here so there could be the same with griffons.

[Valrethmor]

franco8706 wrote...

Valrethmor wrote...

So why not our character BE the child of morrigan?

Wow, that is an amazing idea. I didn't even think about that. But now that you mentioned it, it would make for an awesome set-up with great story potential.

Thanks hehe.

[Hahren]

Wish list for what I would like in DA2 in no particular order of importance:



1) Take the fight to Orlais, or lets us travel from there to the Tevinter Imperium! So much about Origins hints that Orlais will be the next stomping ground. I'd be disappointed if I didn't get to visit.



2) Returning members; Leliana to return as a playable party member. She's a romance option for either sex. She would fight by your side romance or not as long as her approval was high. If setting is Orlais it makes even more sense. This would assume decisions carry over from Origins as it should be possible that she doesn't return. hehe. I would like to have my Mabari as well.



3) Cameos I would like to see; Oghren, Zevran, Wynne, Shale (maybe from one of the epilogue versions!). Due to how these characters play out in epilogues it makes less sense they return as companions. Only exception may be Zevran as he is similar to Leliana in a desire to fight by the warden to avoid boredom. Awakenings gave me enough Oghren. I could see Sten as a cameo, but if the Arishok gives him a new quest I could see him as a companion. If Sten returns I would hope he gets as many specialization points as the other members.



4) So for the most part I want a new cast of characters to adventure with. I don't mention Morrigan as it seems pretty obvious that she will be a focus for a sequel. If she does return as a companion that's great! If not I am not surprised. Same goes for Alistair. Both of their fates seem locked.



5) Like someone suggested... combine party camp with world exploration conversation. I liked how interactive the world was in Awakenings, but missed not being able to talk with my companions personally in the Keep.



6) I really liked the Awakenings weapon talents. I do think that area attacks went a bit overboard to a degree though. I'll point out some specific things I would love to see continue for game play...



- In the warrior's generic talent tree I think that there should be a line designed around threat management, auxiliary damage, and longevity (stamina, health, armor etc...). I loved the new generic warrior talents in Awakenings. I didn't like how "Air of Insolence" all but makes Threaten/Taunt obsolete. Maybe expand the warrior's base toolbox to a couple lines similar to a rogue.



- Ditto for mages. The arcane school in Origins was lackluster. The additional high level spells in Awakenings are excellent additions! They felt less like spells and more like talents. I've really enjoyed that rogues had 4 (5 with awakening) branches of talents that sort of defined the class. I'd like to see similar treatment return in DA2 much like what Awakening did for Mages/Warriors. Give them more class specific talents, and let diversity come via specializations, weapon, and spell school focuses.



7) Another long campaign like Origins with fun side quests. Herren, and Wade also need to make an appearance!



I could probably go on, and on too. I'll stop for now. hehe

[SirOccam]

Karmianna wrote...

SirOccam wrote...

One minor, rather specific request:
When we are granted an item by an NPC (in other words, we didn't buy it or loot it), instead of just saying "item(s) received," say the name of the item(s).
This might just affect consoles, I'm not sure, or maybe even only XBox 360, but if something is new, it has the yellow outline. That's fine and all, but if it's down far enough that it doesn't show when you first open up your inventory, there's no way to scroll down without actually moving the "cursor" down. That means as soon as an item is visible, the cursor's on it, meaning the outline is gone.
So you basically have to have your entire inventory memorized, and it's even worse if the NPC doesn't narrow it down a bit (like saying, "here, take this sword" instead of just "here's a cool item for you").
The same problem sort of exists with the codex.

I agree, but you know you can change your sort function to sort by newest.

I did not know this. But last night I looked around and didn't see any sort of option for any such thing. Is it possibly a PC-only thing? I'm playing on XBox 360.

[Nhadalie]

Valrethmor wrote...

franco8706 wrote...

Valrethmor wrote...

So why not our character BE the child of morrigan?

Wow, that is an amazing idea. I didn't even think about that. But now that you mentioned it, it would make for an awesome set-up with great story potential.

Thanks hehe.

The only issue is that it would severely limit what type of character you could play race wise. You'd have to play a human, because anything else would technically be impossible.

Assuming that the Grey Warden PC is the father, regardless of what race your PC was, the child will always be human. Why? Because Morrigan is human. And a human + anything else = human according to Dragon age lore.

Personally, I think it's more likely that Morrigan's child will be a companion to your PC. Possibly even a love interest. And for some reason I think it might be male. But that's just what I'm hoping for.

[arolas6622]

 romances, old convosation method (going to camp exploring differant characters' backstories), more places to go, open ending (once finished are able to go back and finish side quests)
Ide like to see the return of Liliana, ogrhen for the laughs and maybe my golem as a dwarf again? lol
oh and i want more dwarves. i want a full party of dwarves!!

lol but really what ide like is if u continue your character that npcs recognise (on my dwarf) that i am now a paragon, im heir to house aeducan as well as lord of my own house (paragons get their own house). and that they recognise things that youve done or achieved in DA:O and awakening

[wwwwowwww]

roundcrow wrote...

This sounds piddly when I write it down, but I have a toddler and the only time I have to play is when she's gone to bed, so I can't have the sound on. It took me...probably fifteen hours to realize that the other characters in my party were having conversations, because they're behind me. Is there any way to have something pop up when they're talking? I don't think it would break immersion much, there are icons popping up all over the place. You could even turn it off from the options menu if you didn't want it.

Ever tried headphones?

[wwwwowwww]

I'd like to see some sort of travelling, not just 10 places you go back and forth between.



I mean start at point A in the south and work your way to point Z far north across an ocean or something not going back and forth between points. It allows a lot of diversity to the game, and points can change depending on choices you make.



Daggers that look like daggers and shortswords



More armor options for rogues



Better hats, cloaks



More choices for party members, not the standard 2 of ea. that seems to have become the norm.

[SphereofSilence]

Change the underlying philosophy of cinematic storytelling to that of Mass Effect's.



Much more style choices for armor, weapons and mage robes, instead of reskinning or recoloring the same thing. Add cloaks and better hats for mages.



At the higher art conceptual level, have more distinct look that reflects the various cultures, races and factions.



Add much more variety of faces in the game. Expand the functionality of the character creation in this regard.



Add much more fluid and seamless movement and combat animations.



More elaborate and higher quality cutscenes/gameplay/story pacing across the board, like in Mass Effect.



Much DEEPER gameplay than it is, which is too simple when every mage can have easy and quick access to numerous spammable 'I win' spells.



Much DEEPER and EXPANSIVE class system. Ability to create truly unique classes.



Longer and better story.



classes and specializations that are deeply embedded in the lore/story of DA, rather than tacked onto the game.

[Livemmo]

Duncan. That is all.

[casinoqueen0]

I concur on hats, romances, companions, in camp conversation, Morrigan's Dark Ritual and war

I also liked the little pop culture jokes in Origins (Superman, Spiderman, Star Wars, Princess Bride, Wayne's World etc etc) - love to see more of that in DA2.

Modifié par casinoqueen0, 24 mars 2010 - 09:31 .

[ztemplarz]

Hmmm, well, here goes.



1.) Armor that is size-specific. It is ridiculous that I can find plate mail that works on Sten AND irritating dwarven berserker- I realize there is a suspense from reality, but unless it's "Magic Size Adjusting Armor", a dwarf shouldn't be able to wear Qunari armor. Arcanum did this and it worked fine- and the reality is, you should only find certain types of armor in certain locales. If I'm in an elven city/camp, I shouldn't find dwarven armor unless it's some trophy or keepsake from some adventurers earlier days...



2.) On the issue of armor, why can't I color it? Baldur's Gate let you do it, and it isn't that hard to paint armor for real- maybe I want to have violet greaves!



3.) Currency exchange. There is something drastically wrong with collecting coin in DA. While I am not a big fan of fetch quests in general, perhaps there should be more of them, since it is pretty freaking hard to come by coin following the main quest and even many of the side quests. I know SOME people were ROLLING in dough, largely on account of referencing a "prima guide", which told them how to best amass a fortune- that is BS. I should not have to meta-game and essentially cheat to be able to gather at least a fairly respectable sum of money- for the sake of the Creator, I'm working on saving the realm from a Blight! (or whatever the future threat is)



It always irritated me when I completed one of the main ally gathering quests, only to receive NO REWARD. So I just cleared the Tower of abominations AND saved the Circle, and I... get... nothing? Whatever happened to, "Here is this might set of enchanted items" or "Potions will be 50% off their normal price for you" or "Here's a large sum of gold"? When a legendary item costs 100gp, it is kinda shysty when THE KING (or other similarly powerful/important person) gives me a 10gp reward... Is that truly as much as my efforts are appreciated for having decimated HORDES of darkspawn? It's either that or prices need to get revised downward, because they are completely unbalanced.



4.) On the issue of money- whatever happened to having a barter or negotiating skill? It was a pretty standard feature of most RPGs for quite a long time and made merchant interactions much more interesting, because your skill, or lack thereof, changed the replay value. Perhaps it should be based off your intimidate/convince skill?



5.) I want the old dialogue system back! I don't want the designer to tell me when I can talk to my companion- I want to do it when if feel like. Whether that is "in camp" (or whatever the equivalent is) or after having just put down some enemy troops. I want to have meaningless conversations about their love of butterflies, even if it has no bearing on the story. I understand it is more time consuming and energy intensive, but it is also more immersive. Real people talk about random things, not just monumental, important things.



6.) I want more Origins. Don't know what the plan is for the follow up, but like others have said before: I want to play as a Chasind, or Tevinter mage, or Qunari rebel or some such thing. But I want it to have REAL significance- as in, if I play as a Tevinter mage, people from the Chantry will be downright rude and hostile towards me, perhaps some even attacking on sight (Lyrium riddled Templars). I don't want to go up to the Templar commander and have him be like, "Oh- ello chap! How are you doing? Would you like some tea?"



7.) GAMBLING! How can this be set in some medieval type of realm, and no one is playing dice or cards or charades or something?? What, does the Chantry prohibit it? Mini-games are not ultra important, but going back to an earlier point, they also provide alternative means to raise money.



8.) Purchasable pets- why can't I BUY a Marburi hound? Does no one sell them? They must, otherwise no one would have them. What about one of those rhinoceras things? Or a bear? Maybe make it so they will permi-die, and they become more of an investment.



9.) On that note, a dead horse. By that I mean at least the permi-death OPTION. I just can't feel as concerned about one of my companions when they just hop right up after having their brains dashed out on the floor by an ogre... Cause then I say, "Well, I guess they're okay now that I've put a bandage on them!"



Or at least make the injuries more permanent or difficult to heal- as in, you have to perform a costly procedure or secure the help of an elusive NPC which requires you do such and such for them to perform said procedure. Not, "Fractured skull?! No problem!! Just apply the same thing that you use on ruptured spleen and you'll be like new in no time! What? You say you're just a simple warrior and don't know how to suture wounds?!? Don't worry, it's soo simple a caveman could do it!"



You should HAVE to be a spirit healer or have one with you for those types of injuries. And if you get bashed on the ground by an ogre, when you get treated, it shouldn't just be for a crushed hand- you should have multiple injuries based on the rank of your opponent (ie. a common soldier fells you with 1 significant injury, whereas a dragon causing you several).



10.) No Grey Warden central story line!! I don't want to be a Grey Warden, and my character didn't either, but was forced to. I really don't want to do it all over again... And preferably, won't be forced into a particular role PERIOD. What type of reaver would allow himself to be forced to conform to any rules period, much less rules which made him and advocate of the greater good? How about there are one of several paths you can take in terms of alliances which will strongly impact the results of the endgame (like in the Witcher)?



11.) Normal clothing! I shouldn't ALWAYS have to walk around wearing armor- people didn't put it on until they expected to go to battle. Likewise, I should actually suffer a slightly more negative reaction depending on where I am FOR wearing it, since it indicates distrust and or hostility on my part.



12.) Less linear!! I don't like parts of my map that are grayed out until I get to a specific place in the story and then all of a sudden they open up- do like in BG- don't let me see them until I'm allowed to go!



13.) On a similar note, I want bigger, more expansive areas!! Or at least more of them. Am I really to believe that in all of Fereldon, that there is only 2-3 inns? That's crazy! In BG (and most other RPGs), there were often numerous inns in one area- in Athlatka (or however it's spelled), there must have been at least a dozen (and most of them had some sort of quest connected to them). Same goes for merchants, even if the merchants often sold the same goods.



14.) Thievery!!! What happened to trying to steal specific items?? I know it was in Fallout, BG, Morrowind, and Arcanum... What's the point in having/being a thief if the only thing you can do is attempt to knick a few coins from someone's pocket? What's the point if you can't plant something on someone? Why can I only pick-pocket someone ONE TIME? What, they never replace the money that was stolen from them? I just forced them to permanent bankruptcy?



15.) Day and night cycles!! I can't think of a good RPG that DIDN'T have them: Morrowind, Fallout, Arcanum, BG, The Witcher all did. How am to even begin to believe I'm in an alternate world where no one sleeps, no one moves anywhere, and it's ALWAYS the same looking outside- in other words, completely STATIC? No increase of guards at night, no decrease in people walking about. No increased opportunities for stealing, no increased chances to run into nefarious types up to no good... There needs to be day and night!



16.) Guilds. Morrowind did it, if not perfectly and * did it okay (drew a blank- the German game). If you are a warrior, there should be several groups or guilds you are eligible to join/work for- but NOT if you're a mage!! I don't want to be running errands for "The Mage's Collective" when I'm obviously not familiar with the arcane arts, unless the storyline supports it- ie. "We have heard you aided ___, and were wondering if you could assist us in _(specific matter)_" It promotes a greater sense of identity with whatever class you chose, and creates more opportunities for gameplay and quests.



There is more, but that is all I can think of for now.

[SphereofSilence]

After playing tons of DA, something about the game emerged to me that felt…unnatural about many of the characters in-game:
- Same body and face proportions
- Faces being too clean and bland
- Same facial features used again and again like beards, moustache, tattoos, hairstyles, mouths, eyes, foreheads, cheeks, etc
- Facial look that does not reflect personality, culture, race, or the emotions of story area
- Identical clothing, robes and armor sets
- Every weapon/staff, holstered in the exact similar fashion by everyone
- Woman wearing heavy armor seems out of sorts, especially when she has a thin frame and neck
- Repeating POVs of camera during dialogs
- Too much ‘shiny’ effects from enchantments, spells, sustained abilities
- Awkward running animations in combat
- Limited pool of animations, facial expressions and body postures, ridiculously shared by everyone
- Holstered weapons during combat cutscenes, which doesn’t make sense
- Elves that doesn’t look like elves besides having pointy ears
- Dwarven woman’s face that doesn’t look…well, dwarven

All these in combination really took away the immersion of the experience, at least for me.

It’s as if the tools of DA have hard-coded these recurring patterns and there’s nothing can be done to reverse them short of building a brand new engine. Some of these clearly can be improved should enough attention be put into them. The following mod being a great example of such: http://social.biowar...index/1773337/1

Here’s hoping DA2 does not repeat them.

Modifié par SphereofSilence, 27 mars 2010 - 05:52 .

[eterna2]

1. Less bugs!!!



2. More info on tooltips!!! At least sufficient for me to do a comparison between skills to choose/use



3. Ingredient bag and potion belt (for me to store the junks!!)



And as for the plot!! I hope to see some resource management rp!!



For example, the plot can be an expedition to the Deep roads in search of "something", So with u comes several wagons, guards, etc etc...



And as part of the storyline, u have to manage resources... aka, melt down old weapons to craft new better weapons (learn from ruins during teh exploration),,, food & water .... and interactions with "lost" tribes, etc etc... Also general resources, like metal, gold, wood, etc ... which will influence the equipments available, and how will defended ur expedition is... etc...

[MelodicCure]

dawnbennett wrote...

romances, the old method of converstaion, and new hair styles

Yea,  some furniture and a shopping mall would be nice also. 

[Frank the Running Bugzepel]

Improved dialog between party members in camp, different camp locations based on area and more movement in the camp by NPC. That is all

[Big Mikey Mike]

1) A more exciting story

My main gripe with DA:O was how the story was fully mapped out from the very start. You knew you were going to gather your armies, go to the landsmeet, then face the dragon. I'd like the story to set off in one direction and then have plot elements happen that totally change what you have to do. It's probably the main reason I still think Baldur's Gate 2 is the best RPG ever made.

2) More varied enemies

After 60 hours in DA:O and another 15 in DA:A of facing almost entirely Archers, Fighters, and the odd mage (who are made trivial with mana clash, and often godlike without it), it gets very dull.

Also most of the boss encounters have been very unimaginative. Off the top of my head I can think of The Broodmother, The Archdemon, and the Electric Dragon who were interesting fights. Most others were either "here have some extra archers, fighters, and mages" or just "here's a general, he's like a normal fighter but with more health and he hits harder".

3) Difficulty

Nightmare mode is in no way a nightmare, especially in Awakening. People shouldn't be able to solo nightmare mode. It should be a damn tough challenge for a full group of min-maxed characters.

4) Logic in stat choices

I still think that making Dexterity the stat of choice for tanks feels wrong. It makes constitution a completely worthless stat. Hell, the fact that dumping one stat is more effective than a balance is a problem itself. Maybe some sort of diminishing returns after a certain point would make taking multiple stats more attractive (so, say, after a certain amount of spellpower, or attack/defence rating, the stat becomes only 75% as effective, then 50%, then 25%). Or maybe putting multiple requirements on certain gear (so tanking gear requires X strength and Y constitution). Or more of a carrot, where you get a bonus for each stat over a certain amount (for rogues maybe you get more backstab damage when a stat reaches, say, 50 points, so your character is made more powerful dumping both dexterity and cunning).

I would just prefer to have a character with more balanced stats be more effective than one with points dumped into a single stat.

5) Better talents

I understand that this was Bioware's first foray into creating their own talents and combat system, but take a lesson from other companies who have done this. Talent choices should be logical, and higher tier talents should be unequivicably better than lower tier talents. Taunt and Disengage on the same line of talents makes no sense. Cleansing Aura and Arcane Mastery are awful for tier-4 talents. Mighty Blow is better than Critical Strike, yet is a tier-1 talent instead of tier-4.

6) Test the game before you release it

I honestly don't believe that the expansion was properly quality-tested. I and many others have had many problems with crashes. This is unacceptable from a company such as Bioware.  Also my mages constantly cast mana clash on non-mages, and party members attack enemies that my tactics don't have them set up to attack (I have them all on 'target of controlled party member).  It means that they pull aggro from armored ogres and die.  Things like this should have shown up in testing.

7) Carry on the good work

It might sound like I don't like the game, but I do. I think it's one of the best games I've played in years. I just think that Bioware can do better. I have a lot of faith in their ability to pump out quality titles. DA:O is definitely among those, but a sequel could be even better if they put their minds to it.

Modifié par Big Mikey Mike, 27 mars 2010 - 10:46 .

[Living The Nightmare]

 Since this is a wish list, i will give ALL my wishes:

1. How about introducing a more advanced indepth feature of charector creation, like for example you can customize the height and the body type of your charector , or how about shoulder width and height, kinda similar to AION would be quiet nice since it would allow alot of creativity to players.

2. A whole new set of variety of weapons such as, Spears,Halberds,Tridents,Scimitars,Sticks/wands/staffs or what ever they call a long blunt stick, sythes and much more would be good.

3. Shields, they should make shileds rather big like the shield of SPARTANS which would look really cool for 1 hand sword and shield users.

4. Instead of armors just being different designed and colored, offer a much more completely different armor sets and dragon age seriously sucks when it comes to mage's robes.
The mages current robes all look so shiny and tight and it just looks so noble or posh, offer a new evil looking robes and maybe some new unique designs instead of just changing the color which is completely lame.

5. Maybe have the feature of adding the slot to equip capes, whicih would look really cool and long and if capes were added, try to add long/short ones smooth/ones with holes and much more would be nice

6. The companions are limited since some times you really want guy 1 but instead you choose guy 2 because his personality is better, give the ability to change how their personality is depending on what you do to them or their activities and definetely add alot more companions so that your pc users feels more wanted and alive in the game rather then just fight a whole army of 1000 dark spawns with 3 companions.

7. Add new ways to attack enemies instead of just 3-5 ways to attack an enemy using melee weapons which after a while gets a little bit boring to see.

8.Maybe, and only maybe you can add mounts like horses, or griffons and the ability to equip armors to the horses to make them look cooler or something like that

9. It would be nice if dragon age 2 starts of when you are the owner of a castle and you can build upgrades,place guards in the castle, have new technology invested so that your guards can look and are much stronger. You can go home from time to time to see your family or to check your castle.
Also you could have like an ability to recruit armies' and that the races of your recruits does not have to be of your current race, also the ability design inside and out what your castle looks like, e.g you can add 3 great oak trees beside your main government or something like that. this would really add a more realism feeling to the game.

10. Add more finishing moves to melee weapons that would look really cool and , really perfect the animation and the angle of all finishing moves so that it would look awseome, instead of stabbing a revenant to the left in a finishing move when the revenant is on the right, which looks completely lame.

I am not a dragon age hater, dont get me wrong i love the game completely and just love everything about it but i just expect more from bioware to include completely new features to the game and really perfect everything before launching it just for the sakes of people demanding them to come out before a certain date.

Dragon age 2 should be a complete mind blast when its out no doubt about that.

Modifié par Living The Nightmare, 27 mars 2010 - 01:11 .

[Flamesz]

BrotherShepherd wrote...

1: Being given a choise in the matter of being a gray warden or not (Whats that duncan? submit myself to the taint? Oh how about i shove that challice where the sun dont shine)



3: a better combat system! This is not an MMO! No more auto attacking!

Being a Grey Warden is part of the story, get over it. And the combat system is traditional CRPG style, traditional old Bioware. They aren't gonna change it, atleast for DA.

[Feraele]

Evewyn wrote...

I say that if we have someone around like Wade to make us customized armor, then why not let it actually be customizable?  Let us be able to choose the color, weight, design, etc.
Romance!
Nathaniel brought back as a companion.
Have our PC show more emotion, cutscenes, show their reactions to conversations more than just looking over their shoulder all the time. 
I agree that "Item received" should say what item you have actually received.

Yes..to Nate, and yes to that item received thing....its frustrating to try to figure what da heck you received, and looking through several highlit objects in your inventory, doesn't clue you into..what it was exactly..

Also note that when doing certain quests in Awakening, there doesn't seem to be any kind of reward...exp maybe?  But thats not easily discernible either.