Dragon Age: Inquisition Pre-Release Thread

[eremita]

You guys obviously understand it wrong... But worry not! I came to tell you how I think it is.

Tone Wheel: Role-playing here probably means attitude, your Inquisitor's general personality. It's like DA2; you set your personality by picking a tone early in the game, which leads to: a) some determined variations in dialogues (because you're a sarcastic ass, you have this special option in this particular part of the quest) b) Inquisitor's general reactions in situations which are not controlled by the player (you might be a good guy, but there's a difference between reactions of a funny/sarcastic good guy and gay nice good guy). All of it is, of course, for better immersion...

Reaction Wheel: First, I thought that this is already included in the Tone Wheel. Well, Shit... I dunno. Maybe it's an advanced variation for the same choices? You know, like when some bisexual transgender companion wants to fuck you and you can refuse him either sensitively or by being an ass...

Choice Wheel: Well, this is quite self-explanatory; stuff like siding with templars or mages, picking waifu...

 

[Trash]

Fuck off Bioware.

What surprises me is that this has a splendid and proven engine but looks markedly worse than Skyrim.

 

[kris]

What surprises me is that this has a splendid and proven engine but looks markedly worse than Skyrim.

i don't agree. I can't see why skyrim is better than what I saw here. They both have some nice looking and some bland pieces, graphical quality look the same.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

It's like Bioware tries to make a Star Wars game because they know they can't make a proper fantasy setting.

 

[Aeschylus]

Fuck off Bioware.

What surprises me is that this has a splendid and proven engine but looks markedly worse than Skyrim.

Have to admit, I don't see that much difference between that trailer and Skyrim screenshots graphics quality-wise. If anything the water effects and such in the trailer look better, and grimdark art design polygons are grimdark art design polygons wherever they may be found.

 

[Trash]

The way the waves hit the beach really stands out like a sore thumb. For a trailer that's supposed to be displaying the world it also looks remarkably bland. Too generic. This showcase of art and area design just disappoints me.

 

[eremita]

It's like Bioware tries to make a Star Wars game because they know they can't make a proper fantasy setting.

Dragon Age setting is much better than every single DnD setting besides Planescape. Forgotten Realms for example is stupid and banal as fuck. Pillars of Eternity looks like it's gonna be decent but other that? Hm, maybe Tamriel (even with Bethesda's horrible writing).

 

[Infinitron]

It's like Bioware tries to make a Star Wars game because they know they can't make a proper fantasy setting.

Dragon Age setting is much better than every single DnD setting besides Planescape. Forgotten Realms for example is stupid and banal as fuck. Pillars of Eternity looks like it's gonna be decent but other that? Hm, maybe Tamriel (even with Bethesda's horrible writing).

Allow me to Brolapse you in the name of every Dark Sun fan on this forum

 

[Trash]

It's like Bioware tries to make a Star Wars game because they know they can't make a proper fantasy setting.

Dragon Age setting is much better than every single DnD setting besides Planescape. Forgotten Realms for example is stupid and banal as fuck. Pillars of Eternity looks like it's gonna be decent but other that? Hm, maybe Tamriel (even with Bethesda's horrible writing).

Allow me to Brolapse you in the name of every Dark Sun fan on this forum

Wish someone would make a new crpg set in that world. Shattered Lands was and remains one of my favourite crpg games for good reason. Fight your way out of slavery, start out as gladiators in an arene with a mocking announcer, forment a rebellion, fight evil god-mage templars, explore the barren wastes. Amazing setting that is sadly underused.

 

[Tribal Sarah]

this is going to look so great on my xbox 360

 

[Cyberarmy]

Wish someone would make a new crpg set in that world. Shattered Lands was and remains one of my favourite crpg games for good reason. Fight your way out of slavery, start out as gladiators in an arene with a mocking announcer, forment a rebellion, fight evil god-mage templars, explore the barren wastes. Amazing setting that is sadly underused.

I'm ready to sell any body part of mine for a game in Dark Sun setting...

 

[eremita]

It's like Bioware tries to make a Star Wars game because they know they can't make a proper fantasy setting.

Dragon Age setting is much better than every single DnD setting besides Planescape. Forgotten Realms for example is stupid and banal as fuck. Pillars of Eternity looks like it's gonna be decent but other that? Hm, maybe Tamriel (even with Bethesda's horrible writing).

Allow me to Brolapse you in the name of every Dark Sun fan on this forum

You are allowed. Unofrtunately, I have no experience with the campaign and I rage quit the first one of CRPG series, but from the brief reading on Wikipedia I say it looks rather interesting.

Although I was speaking more about the general laws of the universe (how magic works, gods etc.). Lore of the Dragon Age is just more interesting to me...

 

[cvv]

The Dragon Age lore and universe is not as bsb as it looks at first sight. It's not particularly original or noteworthy in the general concept, but the details about various races, factions and the world are very well crafted and achieve quite a bit of immershun. It's certainly an order of magnitude better, more interesting and more mature than Tamriel.

If DA:I does away with the idiotic disjointed world full of hubs and tunnels and adopts Blehtesda's open world design I'll be interested in playing this.

 

[Storyfag]

Although I was speaking more about the general laws of the universe (how magic works, gods etc.). Lore of the Dragon Age is just more interesting to me...

Ah, so you see DAO as superior because EAware ripped off GW's Warhammer cosmology?

 

[Cynic]

Dragon Age setting is much better than every single DnD setting...

Dragon Age better than Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Dark Sun and even Dragonlance? Forgotten Realms is the worst one and it shits all over Dragon Age. Bioware couldn't dream of making a world that deep and varied.

You actually just claimed that the setting for Dragon Age is better than Baldur's Gate.

What a fucking retard.

 

[Rake]

Dragon Age setting is much better than every single DnD setting...

Dragon Age better than Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Dark Sun and even Dragonlance? Forgotten Realms is the worst one and it shits all over Dragon Age. Bioware couldn't dream of making a world that deep and varied.

You actually just claimed that the setting for Dragon Age is better than Baldur's Gate.

What a fucking retard.

^ That. And Forgotten Realms isn't so bad as it's incoherent. I mean, how can you give a blanket definition to a setting with such "and the kitchen sink" approach, when the various areas of the setting have almost nothing in common with each other?
DA universe is better than Sword Coast and that's it.

 

[SuicideBunny]

It's like Bioware tries to make a Star Wars game because they know they can't make a proper fantasy setting.

Dragon Age setting is much better than every single DnD setting besides Planescape. Forgotten Realms for example is stupid and banal as fuck. Pillars of Eternity looks like it's gonna be decent but other that? Hm, maybe Tamriel (even with Bethesda's horrible writing).

planescape, dark sun, ravenloft, fuck, even forgotten realms which is the most generic shit there is has its exotic corners that shit all over bioware, as showcased in motb.

 

[Decado]

6. Customization:

• Armour weights are no longer class specific. Meaning a rogue can wear a mage's robes, and a mage can wear a warrior's armour. The magazine speculates the penalties will be similar to the fatigue penalties used in DA: Origins

Seems like they are doing a lot of soul-searching and looking at how they did things way back when.

7. Other information:

• There will be a jar of bees, which can be used as a combat item which according to Bioware: "You throw it, the jar breaks open, and little bees fly around stinging your opponents."

 

[eremita]

Dragon Age setting is much better than every single DnD setting...

Dragon Age better than Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Dark Sun and even Dragonlance? Forgotten Realms is the worst one and it shits all over Dragon Age. Bioware couldn't dream of making a world that deep and varied.

You actually just claimed that the setting for Dragon Age is better than Baldur's Gate.

What a fucking retard.

Yep, I guess I did.

Forgotten Realms is a fucking shit and I'll wear my "Retard" sign proudly for saying that. Greyhawk is probably even worse. 16 years old literate could come up with those... vast majority of those settings are just hints and ideas and as a whole don't make much sense... And that's probably my biggest complaint - It's hard to find something coherent, something with inetersting and well thought lore/cosmology. DA isn't necessarily deep, but at least it's well thought out.

 

[Utgard-Loki]

It's not particularly original or noteworthy in the general concept, but the details about various races, factions and the world are very well crafted and achieve quite a bit of immershun. It's certainly an order of magnitude better, more interesting and more mature than Tamriel.

oh i wanna hear more about this. this is good.

 

[Decado]

Dragon Age setting is much better than every single DnD setting...

Dragon Age better than Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Dark Sun and even Dragonlance? Forgotten Realms is the worst one and it shits all over Dragon Age. Bioware couldn't dream of making a world that deep and varied.

You actually just claimed that the setting for Dragon Age is better than Baldur's Gate.

What a fucking retard.

Yep, I guess I did.

Forgotten Realms is a fucking shit and I'll wear my "Retard" sign proudly for saying that. Greyhawk is probably even worse. 16 years old literate could come up with those... vast majority of those settings are just hints and ideas and as a whole don't make much sense... And that's probably my biggest complaint - It's hard to find something coherent, something with inetersting and well thought lore/cosmology. DA isn't necessarily deep, but at least it's well thought out.

Dragon Age was the most uninspired fantasy setting you could ask for. Orcs -- I mean Darkspawn, sorry! -- and direct correlations to European nations at the time (Orlais=France, Antiva = Spain, etc) combined with the Bioware approach to writing dialog that makes everyone a socially-conscious Joss Whedon-esque fast-talker produced one of the most ridiculous fantasy settings in a long time. They tried superhard to be GRIMDARK. It didn't work.

 

[Morality Games]

Dragon Age setting is much better than every single DnD setting...

Dragon Age better than Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Dark Sun and even Dragonlance? Forgotten Realms is the worst one and it shits all over Dragon Age. Bioware couldn't dream of making a world that deep and varied.

You actually just claimed that the setting for Dragon Age is better than Baldur's Gate.

What a fucking retard.

Yep, I guess I did.

Forgotten Realms is a fucking shit and I'll wear my "Retard" sign proudly for saying that. Greyhawk is probably even worse. 16 years old literate could come up with those... vast majority of those settings are just hints and ideas and as a whole don't make much sense... And that's probably my biggest complaint - It's hard to find something coherent, something with inetersting and well thought lore/cosmology. DA isn't necessarily deep, but at least it's well thought out.

One problem with that is that the other D&D settings plug into (and get elevated by) Planescape. Thedas plugs into the Fade. It was an effective "Alien Other Place" in the Mage origin, but its ultimately its way too one note to compete with Mask of the Betrayer or Hordes of the Underdark and at best draws even with the rest. Forgotten Realms also possesses a lot more variation in cultural context, and there is an actual set of Lore skills to explore and get mileage out of the setting.

 

[Kleptocratic debt serf]

Also, it's been a while since I posted stuff from BioWare forums. They've had a new redesign and they're basically just like the Obsidian forums now, but white (check your privilege, BioWare).

-Snip-

n.b. The thread has been up for two and a half weeks in the "scuttlebutt" rumours/general discussion DA:I board and is eighty two pages long. So there's plenty more. Haven't even stepped into one of the character mega-threads yet.

For shits and giggles I wandered on over to the Bioware forums after reading your post, and WTF... These Biowarian cRPG players have, by and large, lost the plot. The following excerpts are taken from the "Romances" and "What drew you to DA" threads:

The single most important thing that drew me to DA games was the Romance option. I rarely actually played video games until I read that about Dragon Age Orgins included romanced but I had NO IDEA when I first started playing that there was a F/F possibility.

I am not lying when I say this, but when I played DAO and my Warden kissed Leliana for the first time (remember I had no idea it could actually happen (f/f)) I cried in happiness in real life. It was the first time that I had ever felt that my feelings and life situations were included in an RPG video game. I remember sitting in my chair and my hands were shaking, it was one of those moments when the clouds parted and the sun came down on me. It was a wonderful moment in time.

Ever since then I have been a fiercely loyal fan and actually was so inspired by it I have written two, 200 page fan-fiction novellas.

The only problem is, it literally ruined ALL other RPG games for me (ME withstanding).

First, is there such a thing as a LGBT or possibly straight dating SIM? Clearly, most these people would be better served if such a genre existed... Secondly, why the fuck would anyone seek any form of validation in a computer game? Thirdly, why cater to an emotionally unhinged group? They tend to be hard to satisfy and in this case a small sample of the target demo.

If, and i say IF they go the playersexual route (i'd prefer that tbh), i'd like the romanced characters to react differently to a female and male inquisitor and not having the exact same lines and actions. Like someone else said, the partner giving a flower to femInquisitor and not to manInquisitor and etc.

I know it probably requires a lot of work, I was just throwing out an idea. It would be v nice.

I will admit, I do not necessarily hate all romance options in games, just 99+% of them. They're most often cheesy, a form of instant gratification for a sexually starved/repressed degenerate gamer base and just plain old ill-conceived. Just to stick with DA, I will concede that the Morrigan romance(while bland, boring and unconvincing) at a minimum had it's origin in the motivations(Ie not pc centric) of a party character. Thus the design impetus was more than jacking off the PC on the devs part. Unfortunately, they failed in the potential characterization and delivery therin. But points for trying...

That guy's/gal's/cousin it's comment is possibly the natural evolution of Biowarian romance now that such trite garbage is their bread n butter. Ignoring the endemic sense of revulsion most codexers are invariably experiencing as you digest that thought, my question, is the aforementioned bioware forumite correct? In other words will player-sexual characters be the new norm for Bioware? I'm inclined to say yes, because it translates to easy/lazy game design and that is the Biowarian way. DA2 in it's entirety was an affirmation of that design prinicple and a first term abortion of a city adventure.

Where I keep stumbling, in so far as the desire to experience in game romances, is the why? Is the real thing not better, I mean I don't really do romance IRL, mostly bar flies and other easy women. But I digress, what is the underlying draw to experience a contrived in-game abstraction of an entirely obtainable real life experience?

 

[Morality Games]

Where I keep stumbling, in so far as the desire to experience in game romances, is the why? Is the real thing not better, I mean I don't really do romance IRL, mostly bar flies and other easy women. But I digress, what is the underlying draw to experience a contrived in-game abstraction of an entirely obtainable real life experience?

Well, technically you can go crawling through ancient ruins and viscerally compelling landscapes in real life. You can also camp out, find wild animals to hunt (some of which are quite monstrous) and go fight in arenas (Thailand). Few do so.

People are interested in romance because the human mind evolved to be interested in the doings of other beings because establishing relationships with them is an effective way to lengthen and better our lives. "Love" is one aspect of that more generalized interest. Due to our lively imagination and its role in helping us contextualize the various happenings of reality, we also developed a capacity to appreciate the idea of things as much as the reality. Therein is the origin of our capacity to enjoy fictional storytelling.

The Greek nobles and Viking thanes enjoyed the Iliad/Odyssey and sagas like Beowulf respectively because the stories displayed the sorts of actions and virtues that were likely to excite them. They weren't real, but the idea of fighting huge monsters and being an all round badass was exactly the sort of thing they like to hear about in their idle, relaxed hours, inasmuch most partisans prefer to read news stories that seem to confirm the validity of their political ideology. Even if the presentation and excess editing makes it borderline fake, it's still what they like to hear, because the story outlines and reinforces the logic of their personal identity. Its a cathartic experience.

Same principle is applicable to romance hounds. That's one reason why Titanic and Twilight became so popular, or why stories like Tristam and Isolde exist in the historical record.

 

[Decado]

For shits and giggles I wandered on over to the Bioware forums after reading your post, and WTF... These Biowarian cRPG players have, by and large, lost the plot. The following excerpts are taken from the "Romances" and "What drew you to DA" threads:

The single most important thing that drew me to DA games was the Romance option. I rarely actually played video games until I read that about Dragon Age Orgins included romanced but I had NO IDEA when I first started playing that there was a F/F possibility.

I am not lying when I say this, but when I played DAO and my Warden kissed Leliana for the first time (remember I had no idea it could actually happen (f/f)) I cried in happiness in real life. It was the first time that I had ever felt that my feelings and life situations were included in an RPG video game. I remember sitting in my chair and my hands were shaking, it was one of those moments when the clouds parted and the sun came down on me. It was a wonderful moment in time.

Ever since then I have been a fiercely loyal fan and actually was so inspired by it I have written two, 200 page fan-fiction novellas.

The only problem is, it literally ruined ALL other RPG games for me (ME withstanding).