Honest discussion: What does the fate of Anthem mean for DA4

I am not talking about if DA4 will be made or not, I mean are the lessons learned from Anthem?

The biggest lesson they can learn from Anthem is to not make a title as complex as a shared-world looter shooter on an engine that's already known for giving you problems.

Will it still have live service aspects?

Mike Gamble already confirmed this, and has mentioned they'll like try to have small story quests that will be added over time. How they choose to integrate it is important. Will this be the only way in which we get story content in Dragon Age, or will they handle it the AC:Odyssey route where add some small stories added every month or two, then drop traditional DLC 6+ months down the line. They could also add in recurrent activities to the world that includes new items, bosses, activities, and features to flesh out the game; like the golden nug statue (DA:I) that let you transfer your schematics to other saved characters. This would probably be the best compromise for fans, but with everything in game development, execution matters most.

Will it be more SP heavy?

Probably, though I imagine they'll try to include NPC's from the multiplayer aspect of the game into the main campaign. Andromeda did this with their Strike Force system (or whatever it was called). It had a Turian who was the liaison between the two modes, and doing multiplayer would give you bonuses in singleplayer; like weapons and crafting materials.

How will the writing, especially of NPCs change?

Cathleen Rootsaert ain't doin' the story, so that's already means a better story. As soon as she took over as lead writer for Anthem and Andromeda, you could see immediate changes to BioWare's writing style. Whether DA:I reaches the heights of BioWare's previous titles, or their competitors, is up in the air. Me personally, I just want a coherent, functional story and at least some memorable moments and characters at this point.

What about the open world aspects and how lively it is and not another Fort Tarsis vibes for its hubs?

I'm torn on this because DA:I was such a mixed bag when it came to level design and open world engagement. There was definitely a lack of immersion to the open world, side quests in these areas were often mere fetch/kill quests, and the only real dynamic elements that inspired any awe were the Dragons. Then I think about how aesthestically diverse the environments were in that game. There's also how they did the Crestwood story arc. Here's an example of a story quest that irrevocably changed the open world based on the players actions, and blended action and world building together in a pretty solid way. It's a two part problem BioWare's going to have to solve. 1) How do you create more Crestwood like experiences in the open world, but 2) also ensure that the world itself (not matter what state its in) is engrossing for the player?

Will it come out sooner than expected in order to quickly get the bad Anthem taste out of everyone's mouth? Could E3 2019 feature more DA4 than what was previously planned?

I've still got the game panned for late 2021/early 2022. By then, there will have been a 6-7 year difference in between it and DA:I. They've technically got a foundation with DA:I that they can work off of, but that doesn't ensure that them possibly wanting to expand out the environments is going to be easy either. What concerns me most is that Anthem had to have likely pulled devs - who were working on DA4 - away in order to get it into a shippable state. How much development time was lost because of that? Even then, will 6-7 years even matter in the end if BioWare just doesn't have what it takes to make a great game from the get-go anyhow? Anthem was a 6 year project with - as BioWare claims - no EA interference. Biggest problem that could tank DA4 could just be BioWare being too ambitious and mismanaging the game.