Dragon Age

@Inkdagger: The agent I was talking about is an abomination that wants to join the Inquisition. I killed him, since he was clearly another Anders.

Also, something interesting about the Keep: the tile for fighting Calpernia doesn't have the usual skeleton effect for dead characters. My guess is that we'll be seeing her again. Hopefully as a companion in DA4.

Okay, hrrm, fuck the second to last boss fight of the DLC. Why does the some goat fucker in a cave get unlimited mooks during the fight, but me, the leader of one of the most powerful army in thedas, have 3 guys? Why is my army staying in fucking skyhold with their thumbs so far up their asses it might count as a new form of self-fisting?

Seriously, making a boss that hides behind a million minions (who just spawn out of buttfuck nowhere) only serves to remind me of the Gameplay and Story Segregation that the inquisition doesn't fucking exists. It's like 12 people. Not an army.

edited 27th Mar '15 1:37:46 AM by Ghilz

I just want the Hide Helmets option to be party-member-specific. I want to be able to have Cole's hat visible at all times, because that's a very specific piece of his look. He feels naked without his hat.

Same with Vivienne. She looks perfect with it and looks incomplete without it. ESPECIALLY at the party.

Yeah, it's weird seeing her shaved head in her little parlor at Skyhold.

Exactly. It just not her. She's about fashion. If she has an accessory, she'd wear it. I also HATE what she wears to the Ball. I know 'Uniformity and etc', but she looks awful in that suit and it doesn't complement her at all. She needs something that fits the Inquisition's color scheme, but is her own unique thing.

Wonder if there's a mod for that...

Yeah that irked me too. Vivienne is far, far to stylish for that dumbass suit.

Hell, no one except Cullen or a male Inquisitor should be wearing that suit. It looks out of place on anyone else.

Dorian looked decent in it, I found.

Yeah, but that's Dorian. He looks fabulous in anything. Qunari or dwarves it would probably just look awkward on.

Why just a male Inquisitor? it works, and looks fine on female Inquisitors as well.

Eh, It depends on the Inquisitor. I have a fem Inquisitor that is a hardass military type that would totally wear that. But, I also have another Fem!Inquisitor in mind that would probably prefer to wear something a bit more flattering and... idk, elegant?

I think Cullen, Blackwell, some Inquisitors, and MAYBE Cassandra should wear that. Everyone else should have some character specific version that reflects who they are. And I wish masks could be incorporated too.

• Josephine and Leliana used to be Bards and play this game; they should be showing us EXACTLY how its done.
• Vivienne is a Court Enchanter and wears and elegant set complete with a mask when we first meet her; Give her a black coat that goes to her ankles and a red sash around the shoulder and one around her waist. She might look good with some fur too.
• Dorian should wear something Tevinter. A mockery of their Orlesian Court. I've seen some fan designs that include a mask on a small stick that looked AMAZING. I also think there should be some translucent scarves and fabrics involved.
• Cole wouldn't dress up. Plain and simple.
• Iron Bull... I don't know what he's wear but he needs something that's ill fitting in both size and out of place in the court.
• I feel like Sera would take whatever Josephine ordered made in her size and make her own changes for practicality. Once a REALLY expensive and elegant gown; the dress has been shortened to almost a skirt above the knees and the poofy sleeves have been ripped off and the rips hastily sewn together.
• Varic would probably have the most dashing of the groups. I could see a white tunic with a red vest and black pants. He'd look so handsome.
• Solas... I honestly think he looks fine as he is, but there might be better ideas out there.

Solas really needs to lose that dumb hat. I can't believe anyone could sit and watch the balcony scene with him and not laugh their ass off.

So Aaron Flynn (head of Bioware), Mark Darrah (head of the DA team), and Mark Laidlaw (DA executive producer) had a Q&A session on Kotaku here. Highlights:

• Bioware has considered having multiple player characters in one game. Unfortunately, there are some logistical issues with doing so, but they do find the idea interesting.
• Jaws of Hakkon will be available on all platforms. Details will probably be announced next week. They can't disclose whether future DLC will be timed exclusives.
• There are no plans to take the DA Keep offline. "The plan is for the Keep to be a permanent solution."
• "Can't get into too much detail on future DLC but we will be looking at more story heavy stuff." Darrah and Laidlaw implied that Solas's arc will be furthered in the DLC.
• No plans for the Hero of Ferelden to show up in future DLC, because their personality is more player-defined than Hawke and the devs don't want to mess up players's images of their player characters.
• It's "possible" that the Architect will show up in future DLC.
• There are no plans to increase the maximum party size from four in future games. Bioware finds that four is a good number for performance and controllability. Maybe in spinoffs.
• Laidlaw agrees that Cory needed another victory after Haven to be an effective villain.
• Still no plans for a Jade Empire sequel, but the idea of revisiting that universe comes up regularly. (there were a lot of questions asking about this).
• They hinted that another multiplayer DLC is on the horizon.
• We probably won't be leaving Orlais and Ferelden in DAI DLC.
• Flynn hinted that Dark Horse will be making more DA content.
• They are looking to add more ways to use power.
• There were never any plans for a Skyhold under siege sequence. It would have created too many performance issues.
• Apparently, one of the devs hinted that a future DLC would involve darkspawn and deep roads, but I can't find that comment thread.

edited 27th Mar '15 9:19:08 PM by lrrose

I actually think they sort of wrote themselves into a corner after Haven. Literally every main quest would have horrific, world-ending consequences if Corypheus were to succeed. His victory needed to be major enough to be a good setback for the Inquisition but not major enough that we couldn't get back from it without a major Deus ex Machina.

You give them too much credit. Corypheus first needs more screen time. He has at most twenty minutes in 150+ hour game. They didn't write themselves into anything, they hardly wrote at all.

And let's be honest, Haven didn't seem that devastating. You don't see scores of Inquisition soldiers fall, everyone important gets out alive, and you can save everyone in immediate danger. The "Dawn will Come" scene lacks any punch in hindsight because the Inquisition barely suffered a tangible setback.

edited 27th Mar '15 9:21:12 PM by CrimsonZephyr

You give them too much credit. Corypheus first needs more screen time. He has at most twenty minutes in 150+ hour game. They didn't write themselves into anything, they hardly wrote at all. [

I agree with your sentiment, but I think you're overinflating the value. Sure, the game is 150+ hours. But the PLOT - the part where Corypheus matters, isn't. It's 6, maybe 10 hours long. The rest of the game is padding that has no bearing on the Corypheus plot. The rest is finding shards, killing dragons, looting dwarven tombs, and other crap of no consequence. The only reason you can't do the game in 6 hours is because of the power mechanic, and the level requirement for some of the missions.

I think the inquisition gets back on their feet TOO EASILY after Heaven. The moment we are at Skyhold, EVERYONE talks about how life is better. Supply problems we had before? Gone. We're now drowning in supplies according to everyone. Defenses? Fuck, Skyhold is so pristine it barely needs more than a coat of paint. Soldiers? Who cares, we never used them anyway, 4 guys do everything.

Really, in hindsight, Corypheus attacking Haven is the single greatest thing that was ever done for the inquisition. It gave them a base, a real enemy, and eliminated all supply and shortages they had. It's not even a minor setback, Haven's destruction was a boon.

edited 27th Mar '15 9:38:55 PM by Ghilz

I wasn't really talking about unique content. My point was that in a playthrough of the game lasting more than a hundred hours, you only see the Big Bad in three scenes, that last maybe a half hour.

You mean like most Bio Ware villains? Sarevok, Saren, Sovereign, Harbinger, Malik... None of them really have that much screentime. Not even Loghain has significantly more if you kill him.

Saren and Loghain's influence is at least felt more strongly than Corypheus's. After sacking Haven, the guy literally vanishes. It's not until the Arbor Wilds that actually does anything. His base, interacting with his minions, none of that really features. And Harbinger appears plenty of times, in every Collector mission after Horizon.

edited 28th Mar '15 6:36:08 AM by CrimsonZephyr

Corypheus's minions are everywhere, though. You can't go ten feet without running into a red templar or venatori.

But they're doing nothing. Just wandering around the countryside and you have to kill five mobs of them. Most of the plot- or lore-heavy missions are in the War Table, like preventing the Red Templars from turning Wycome into Red Lyrium city, or preventing the Venatori from burning Denerim.

I actually liked the dress uniforms for the Ball.

I liked them because that's what they were: dress uniforms. If Vivienne were here to represent herself, she'd probably have something more outlandish and wild like her fasion sense typically dictates, but she's not. She's representing a military faction and should be uniformed appropriately. Vivienne loves fashion, but she's also a savvy political mind: she, of all people, would understand that premise better than anyone else in the party would.

None of your party members are at the ball as themselves. They're there as "X of the Inquisition". Uniformity creates the image of a well-oiled machine in the assembled nobility; disarray in their attire creates the idea that the Inquisition is a ragtag militia held together with glue and sticks, and nobody should be impressed by them.

That's why even Sera is wearing the uniform; this is kind of a big deal, and if she's not willing to at least look the part, then she can miss the Ball instead.

I wouldn't have minded the uniforms if they looked more medieval. Everyone in the setting looks like they're dressed vaguely like late Medieval, early Renaissance, and here comes the Inquisition dressed like redcoats. It clashes with everything, and looks out of place.

edited 28th Mar '15 6:54:19 AM by CrimsonZephyr

I can agree with that.

But any change made to the uniforms has to be made to all of them, not to appease Vivienne's specific style or because Solas should have something more earthy. The immediate visual impression from looking at any member of the group should be that they are soldiers; their manner of dress putting the objectives of the Inquisition as a whole above their own personal preference.