Dragon Age

Schlerf left a few months ago. The news is that he's now with Bungie.

Gaider was assigned to Bioware's unannounced game. AFAIK he never worked on Andromeda.

Also Jennifer Hepler, DA 2 Anders' writer, probably left because BW's fandom is full of shitheads who take their dislike for a video game to personal, venomous levels.

The DA 2 hatedom was rather fraught with sickening Unfortunate Implications.

Actually, I don't know why I'm replying to this.

edited 16th Feb '16 12:56:14 PM by VeryMelon

Out of characters I'd like to see...

Well, I already discussed a Tevinter!Templar and Tevinter!Mage married couple as companions. It'd be interesting to get some exposition on exactly how Templars are over there and having one as a companion would be great.

I want Maeveris as a companion. Hands down. I want her and I'd kill to have her as a love interest if just because I want to see Bioware take a step further than Inquisition did. The ending of Trespasser all but states she'll be involved anyway.

And I did have a cool idea for a Qunari Mage companion. Basically, I was curious as to what Tevinter might do with a Qunari/Tal-Vashoth in their lands and thus I got the idea for a Qunari Mage who was abandoned in Tevinter and he was raised in the Grand Chantry in the capitol city 'out of the goodness of their hearts' but he's treated rather poorly and considered an abomination for how he looks. Such a character would teach us lots about Tevinter society.

Then I thought, why not go full Hunchback of Notre Dame? So, he's forced to be the bell ringer for the cathedral and he's deaf. Having a companion that communicates differently than everyone else has interesting implications for how dialogue options might work and it'd be a great opportunity for Bioware to up their animation abilities (after doing a frankly amazing job in many scenes of Inquisition).

It might not work perfectly, but I always want to see Bioware try new things and that might be a really fun character to have around.

I was going to suggest the return of Dog but then I remembered that at this point he's almost certainly died of old age.

As a contrast to Oghren, Sigrun, and Varric I was thinking a of a dwarf who hated the surface (including the beer) and just wanted to go back underground.

I'd also have a nerdgasm if you could recruit the Messenger if he was still alive; but then again you know how I am about party members being part of the plot and he'd have issues with that given his potential deadness. And there's his other problem....

It would also be cool to have a "hedge mage" unaware of his power.

The tranquil idea I talked about a while back was more of a thought experiment than an actual request.

edited 16th Feb '16 2:46:06 PM by Novis

S/He should carry around a grappling hook or something that s/he can use to anchor him or herself in case s/he begins to fall into the sky.

edited 16th Feb '16 2:55:58 PM by TobiasDrake

That's just begging to have a part where a veil rip appear in the sky and suck everyone in.

"See? I told you" >:(.

I would like a Templar party member simply because we haven't had one yet. Alistair and Cass are only kinda sorta not really Templars and the closest you get in DA 2 is Carver. But he's not actually a Templar while with the party so....

Of course, a Tevinter Templar would be nothing like any other we've seen but that just gives me more reason to support the suggestion.

Speaking of Templars though - a poster once said Viscount Dumar is one of the great underrated characters of DA 2. Indeed, I had never even heard of him before I played the game, while I already knew the names Anders and Meredith pretty well. Anyway, DA 2 had several pretty sorry ends for good people.. I like Emeric and I like that the whole Quentin thing is foreshadowed back in Act I. I totally missed this my first run through the game. Emeric and Thrask were interesting secondary characters and they both got pretty sad deaths. No one cares or mentions them again.

edited 16th Feb '16 10:25:18 PM by Nikkolas

How often can you mention the deaths of minor characters, though, especially when there are much bigger things going on?

Considering it's pretty standard to have at least two companions of each class (which has been pretty standard for every Bioware game, anyway), it's highly likely we're gonna get a very diverse group once again, similar to Inquisition's very diverse group. Honestly I'm hoping for something like Fallout 4's companions, where you can potentially get a companion from just about every possible faction, since while the primary concern for DA4 is going to be Fen'Harel's remove-the-Veil-and-potentially-kill-almost-everyone plan, stopping a potential civil war within the Emperium, as well as all-out war between Tevinter and Par Vollen, is likely going to take a large role as well.

Well Emeric at least was trying to capture the bastard who eventually murders your mother. I'd remember him for that. He was the only person trying to stop that madman and he paid for it with his life.

I want a qunari convert party member. Given how alien qunari society is to the rest of Thedas, and indeed most of the real world, I feel there are all sorts of intriguing possibilities there with the companion struggling to adapt to such a different way of life.

It's one reason I liked Tallis. She's the only qunari party member we've had who wasn't born into it.

I would suggest a pair of slaves representing two different ideas. One who is Pro-Tevinter and the other who would side with anyone to bring down the magisters. Unfortunately, I don't foresee BW trying to sell slavery as even a half-decent thing. Dorian did it but Dorian is not a slave. Having a slave his or herself saying "I love master!" might cause issues. Even though I'm certain many Imperial slaves live infinitely better than the "free" city elves of Fereldan or whatever.

edited 16th Feb '16 10:47:42 PM by Nikkolas

Honestly I want both a Tal-Vashoth and a Viddathari. It'd be interesting to see the conflicting views between someone who left the Qun, and one who converted into it. Bonus points if the Tal-Vashoth is a Saarebas who still has his mouth stitchings, for extra Body Horror.

"Unfortunately, I don't foresee BW trying to sell slavery as even a half-decent thing."

Because it isn't?

It can be, as Dorian pointed out. Many Tevinter slaves live very comfortably, certainly better than anyone in the Denerim alienage.

An oppressed, poor minority shunted off into slums where they can be raped or murdered at will are no more "free" than slaves.

Slavery is not nice but look at Fenris' sister. Fenris traded his body for his family's freedom and his sister went running back to her owner because freedom is fucking worthless. Freedom can't feed you or anyone else. Slavery, where you are taken care of and fed > freedom where you starve and die.

This is theperspective a pro-Imperim slave companion would take I imagine. He could be from a very good, caring family, like Dorian's.

The "whatever it takes to kill them all and destroy the empire" slave could be from one of the more typical mustahce-twirling evil magisters.

edit;

Huh, never crossed; my mint till now but maybe we could run into Fenris' sister in DA 4, assuming you didn't let him kill her.

edited 16th Feb '16 11:35:11 PM by Nikkolas

If Bioware was willing to have a pro-slavery companion in Dorian, I'm not sure why anyone here would think they couldn't make another one for the 4th game.

Roleplaying wise, anyway.

edited 17th Feb '16 10:54:41 AM by VeryMelon

I'd like to point out that there are a number of people who HATED Dorian purely for that. Even if Dorian semi had character development to get him out of it.

If they have another 'Pro Slavery' companion, they'd need to expand dialogue on the topic a lot and probably develop the character to the point that they don't support slavery any longer and make that point very clear.

My point was, Bioware was willing to make a pro-slavery companion anyway. There's no real reason to doubt that they'd be against it again, especially because of how popular Dorian turned out to be.

Well, there are a number of people that hated any character for any reason whatsoever. :P

The groundwork to treat Tevinter slavery as an actual moral problem and not as a random encounter generator is there. Even if everybody is against slavery, there's the question of "if we just abolish it the whole society crumbles violently and we kill more people than slavery itself".

It wouldn't even prevent the developers from using slavers as disposable minor enemies, as those slavers are using violence to kidnap people from nations that are not at war with Tevinter.

Anyone read the new comic issue that came out today?

Just finished reading it.

Summary:

The chapter starts with Tessa musing about her past. She was a daughter of the large and powerful Forsythia noble family in Nevarra, but she never like obeying the rules. Tessa was a kleptomaniac and after she had a harsh argument with her mother after Tessa's latest theft, Tessa realized that she couldn't stand Neverra's obsession with death and left so she could celebrate life.

The story resumes a few months after the Breach opens. Marius and Tessa had the misfortune to come across a rift. Tessa summarizes the state of the world post-Breach opening to the readers while Marius fights off a fuckload of demons. Tessa saves a wagon of peasants who wandered too close to the rift, and the peasants help her rescue Marius.

Tessa and Marius are hailed as heroes of the peasants' village and are given free room and board at the inn. A hooded figure watches them enter the village. Tessa teases Marius over how the village woman will be all over him, but Marius has no idea what she's talking about (presumably he only has eyes for Calpernia). Tessa reads the injured Marius Varric's Swords and Shields to help him go to sleep (while snarking at Marius's shitty taste in literature). When Marius falls asleep, Tessa kisses him on the forehead.

Tessa decides to chill out at the bar when she notices the hooded figure. Tessa assumes that hooded figure is one of Radonis's assassins, but the figure drops her hood and reveals that she is Charter (Leliana's second in command and the commander of the Crestwood fort). Charter wants to hire the Magekillers to work for the Inquisition.

A bit of a slow chapter, which is odd since this I think that this is supposed to be only four issues. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a multipart series like the previous three comics were. I think that Charter is going to be important in DA4. Aside from this, she's namedropped several times in Trespasser, where she is also seen at the Winter Palace despite not playing any real role in the DLC and the World of Thedas 2 has a blurb about her revealing that she has a Mysterious Past.

Maybe Charter will be a party member in 4?

Actually, was she working for Solas? The way things played out, I thought she might have been. Solas said that the Inquisition guard who attacked the Qunari spy was working for him. Was that Charter, or someone else?

Solas' spy was just an unnamed elf woman.

All elves look alike to me.

Racist.