Aaryn Flynn says: We Have Learned From The Mistakes of Inquistion....

The Director's Cut of DXHR made changes to the boss fights so you aren't forced to do a straight up slugging match anymore. I forgot what they did to the others, but the first boss fight now features tunnels to hide in and turrets to hack and such.

EDIT: on topic - I never know whether to worry or be happy when BioWare claims to have learned from previous mis-steps. What they took away from the DA2 criticisms was apparently "no recycled levels please" (which was good) and "we want a more epic story!" - and I have no idea where they got that from. Consequently we got huge maps... but lacking in content quality, and a story where demons rained from the sky. Given what was criticized about DAI, are we going to get smaller maps without any side quests now?

Doesn't take split second timing, does take a quick response, but split second seems like it's a fraction of a second and it's not.

You're rewarded by not having to stock up. The annoyance of stocking up is a cost. Avoiding that cost is a reward.

If we assume the player derives no benefit from a feature, then obviously that feature will create no incentives.

We could apply that reasoning to every feature. Shall we?

That's not something I find annoying considering how quick and easy it is to restock.



I said assuming the player derives no joy, not that they derive no benefit. The reason I said that is because that's entirely subjective and not actually an incentive that a game can build into a feature.

Origins actually encourages better management of resources better because potions aren't free and mana/stamina doesn't regenerate as quickly, so if you do burn everything in the opening seconds of a fight you're going to have to start chugging potions. Those potions have an in-game currency cost attached to them, while Inquisition's potions are free once you've crafted one of them.

The abilities being ready when needed would hold more weight if they had longer cooldowns. World of Warcraft makes my most impactful spells have cooldowns upwards of 3-5 minutes, meaning I really do have to consider when the best use of them would be. If I burn my big AoE heal to handle some minor raid wide damage, there's a very good chance I wont have it in an emergency situation.

On top of that I only regenerate 0.8% of my max mana per second, so I'm rewarded by managing my mana properly with being able to cast my healing spells for longer periods of time and keep more people alive(raid fights in WoW can last upwards of 10 minutes). Outside of my base regeneration, the only way I have of getting mana back is a potion I can use once per combat that restores ~15% of my max mana.

Inquisition however really has only minor rewards for properly managing your resources and cooldowns. Any resource or ability I use up is going to be back within a matter of seconds.

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LOL..
Hawke, magic Cullen and Demons...... wasn't that a riot?
Come to think about it, how come Hawke, the"wild" magic user was tolerated by the Templars?

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Mass Effect Andromeda will be "massive" and "open world", from what I gather. Open world games is the "in-thing" now.

Let's hope that Flynn eliminated the trash in DA:I from polluting ME:A.

 

DAO's regenerating health largely eliminates the need for potions. Outside of a couple of boss fights (only one - Caridin - immediately springs to mind), they're just not necessary. Plus, since there's no limit to how many you can carry, there's no need to manage consumption.

That said, I dislike the artificially low limit on potions that appeared in DA2 and DAI. But I can't agree with the claim that DAO encouraged resource management (despite being a far more difficult game than DAI).

After a few seconds might be too late. Stun or knockdown abilities are great for stopping enemy attacks (though admittedly DAO was even better at this with the terrific Overwhelm ability possesed by all wolves and spiders), and Dispel is basically an "I WIN" button when closing rifts, but only for a brief moment and then the opportunity passes.

And the more things change the more they stay the same.
 Who has the popcorn?

While Origins allowed you to carry effectively unlimited potions every potion actually cost you an in-game resource, meaning you could save on money and crafting materials by not using up a ton of them. That right there is the reward for managing your consumables, which doesn't really need to be a big one because Inquisition offers nothing for not being wasteful with your potions.

On top of that the fights were designed around you taking a lot more damage. Health is a resource you have to manage a lot more within each fight itself by having a healer, which is a build they removed from Inquisition. The design that they didn't like is the one that actually forced you to manage health in combat: A character could die in a couple of seconds from high burst enemies.

Plus character KO in Origins provided a stacking penalty with injuries(that could be removed with a consumable item), which Inquisition removed.

I actually can't recall a single fight in Inquisition where I struggled. Even being "wasteful" with my potions as I was, I almost never actually ran out of them because almost nothing could hurt my tank. This was even playing on a higher difficulty.



I've never had a situation in Inquisition where a few seconds would have given me issues, largely because of the immortal tank I mentioned above as well as Barrier from my Mage negating large amounts of damage for the whole party(and being able to get it back before it wears off with the right talents).

It seems like BioWare wanted to create a game a lot like you're talking about here, but they provided me with so many ways to negate damage that none of it really mattered.

What Inquisition really rewards you for doing is learning how to properly build a tank that can shrug off most of the damage they'll be taking.

I'll give you dispel, but that's pretty situational.

Checking statistics in WoW, I have over 20k quests completed there, most of them 'go fetch/kill', some so annoying it made me scream at walls (get 20 items from mobs, there's 5 of them with 10 min respawn and 25% droprate).

So bring your worst BioWare, my body questlog is ready.

I think I just like how I can play a character who can be mercenary but also do good deeds. Though I definitely agree that the engaging supporting cast is more important to keeping me with the game. Both aspects were rather weak in the first game and that's where I would think that Mary Sue label applies most.

Ahh I dunno about that. I am definitely happy that they stopped bitching out on nudity when they write it into stuff. I'm not like woo tittehs evrywur yeeaaah! I like boobs as much as the next guy but I feel like it needs to make sense, you know? But that goes in reverse, if your in an area or in some conversation/encounter where it blindly was written as there being nudity and it's convinently covered up by magic hair placement or something its just - I dunno. Feels like they just didn't want there mommies to catch them.

Like Jack in ME2, you write her as topless, your concept art is all topless. But then they slapped a leather strap just to cover up the nips. But then ALL of the dialog is based around her being topless still. Just give her a fucking tank-top and don't write her topless if that's how your gonna handle it.

I do think between the Witchers success and them taking that 'first step' as it where with DAI they've gotten over that hurtle in there brains where they feel like they're actually allowed to do the stuff there writing for a damn change. I'm sure stuff like Game of Thrones has had a bit hand in that too.

Anyway my whole point of this is - they've already 'learned' that as of DAI, so it's been years (game wasn't made in a day). If there is anything they take away from W3 it wont be something they've already figured out for them selves. So heres hoping it's consistency and level of content and that side quest do 'not' have to be so absurdly tied into the main narrative. Hell, I'd say most side stuff shouldn't be tied in narratively to the main quest, not directly. It gets old quick when everything seems to be the same damn thing.