The Blanketfort (crying and throwing up) - The Official Solas Thread [Spoilers]

That's exactly what I mean though. In the base game he's relaxed and mostly just a bit curious and a bit intrigued and a bit encouraged by what's going on, like a professor pretending to be fully engaged in his students' assignments when they're asking him for help, only actually affected when something goes horrendously right or wrong. In Tresspasser he's positively exploding with tension, sarcastic, full of blame, easily annoyed and offended, and touching you and acknowledging your points almost brings him to his knees.

Meh. If he's really spent the last part of his life fighting a bitter revolutionary war with everything that entails and eventually destroying the world as he knew it, I don't think that the stress of simply keeping some secrets would touch him a whole lot. And the romance itself is short on actual promises or declarations or anything along those lines. It's a serious but completely noncommittal affair, and he never gives you the impression of anything else. 

I think he's more likely to feel guilty for, in his eyes, essentially having robbed Lavellan of her birthright as an elf, and her people by extension, rather than simply not being completely forthright with her. He may even accept the added pain of lying to her and not being able to have a real relationship as some sort of small twisted penance. Forcing himself to face the consequences of his actions fully and intimately.

(Speculating as someone who has definitely fouled an otherwise promising relationship or two by being dishonest and trying to keep important things from my partner. The secret-keeping would have gotten a bit harder on him during a full-time romantic entanglement while living together, but Solas and Lavellan just don't get to that point over the course of the game before he leaves at the end.)

I find it hard to imagine Ghilain'nan as a tyrant. The tales make her look as non-threatening as possible.

Indeed. Ghilan'nain was a monster.

Yeah, Ghilly currently has my vote for "worst evanuris" from what we know of their activities, with Falon'Din or Andruil a close second. On a personal level, I may end up disliking Andruil more, but we'll see.

All we have against June, that I know of, is that his staffing abilities leave a little to be desired. But that seemed more likely to be simple neglect to me, given what we know of him. I'm expecting June to be an objects > people(except maybe Sylaise) kinda guy, who just didn't care much about the slaves/nobles under him or how they resolved things, so long as they carried out his creative vision properly when he assigned it to them.

When it comes to Elgar'nan, one main thing I want to know is what the dynamic was between the Evanuris, specifically if they really were family or if that was some bit of story/metaphor/misinterpretation that's been handed down. Like, if Elgar'nan really had the relationship he seems to have had with Mythal in the myths, then I have a hard time believing he killed her for power. And regardless I have a hard time believing he'd team up with other people to do it instead of just acting on his own.

I've seen nothing indicating Patrick is leaving.

You're free to do so, but I'd take information from article that is this speculative and vague on details with a grain of salt as well. I think it's safe to say that we know little more than we've known yesterday...

Elessara Emily Taylor (a game designer at BioWare; she was on Anthem but I suspect will be on DA now since she's at the Edmonton studio) did an informal poll on Twitter in February. It was out of personal interest, not work-related, and not sponsored by BioWare at all. She asked what it is about multiplayer games that people dislike.

The top thing that people disliked was having to deal with other people - and the abuse that frequently entails for certain players.





It was, as I say, an informal survey, but I hope that game companies pay attention, and that researchers who study video games might do a proper study along similar lines that might have an impact on how multiplayer spaces are moderated, so as to improve player experience in the future.

If that's the same Domino, then she was also a dev for EQ2.  She was much beloved as the tradeskill developer.

Player toxicity is one of the main reasons I avoid any pvp like the plague.  I have tried it in various MMOs but overwhelmingly the people I encounter are rude and abusive.

However, when I say I often prefer single player games because I don't have to "worry" about other people it's not just player toxicity - although it is partially that.  When I play a single player game I don't have to worry about waiting for friends to be online to do things.  I don't have to worry about whether or not my friends and I will be able to handle the content as the three of us prefer to play together and it's hard to find content that's scaled for 3 people.  I don't have to worry about whether my friends are enjoying themselves or are just playing a particular game to humor me.

Also, traditionally single player rpgs have less gear grind than multiplayer games and player choices can generally have more impact on the world at large.

The Elder Scrolls did not exclusively go online though.  Yes, there is one game that is an MMO but that doesn't mean they're going to stop making single player ES games and ESO was designed to be an MMO from the start.  Also, the ES games have little in the way of story continuity.  They're all basically separate games set in the same world.  The concern for many I think is they would take DA4 and suddenly make it an MMO or even a co-op.  Ok, I seriously doubt they'd do an actual MMO.  Personally though I'm even opposed to co-op.  

I mean, say they turn DA4 into a live service with constant story updates.  Does that mean no DA5?  No conclusion to the story that we currently have?  And if that fails would they even continue with DA as a series?

I also played ESO.  I didn't do the beta but I was there from day 1.  It was ... ok.  When I played however, end game was pvp.  Ew.  Then they came out with end game non-pvp content but it was all scaled around a group of 4 players or a raid (which I forget how many that was .. 8?  16?).  At the time that sucked because we basically had 5 of us who wanted to play together which was too much for the group content.  Then two people stopped playing which meant we had not enough for the group content.  Also, the way they initially handled quests and phasing sucked ass.  I understand they've made changes to that though.  Then there's the cash shop; they tend to get out of control.

I play a number of online/multiplayer/co-op games.  Not every game needs to be that or have that.  And let's be honest, when EA says "live service" it means they want some form of online, multiplayer/co-op thing going on which is why ME3 and DAI and MEA all had the multiplayer parts tacked on.

The last SP ES game was in 2011. We can't rule out that the next TES game will not be online or have online components - although given that this is a general trend, it seems likely. They didn't just push into their engine and experimented with online tools for Fallout 76...
Who said that there will be no conclusion to the story we currently have, especially that we already have overt hints via teaser that DA4 will continue the story of DAI? I mean, look at Anthem - it's designed specifically to continue and expand the story *within* one game, with content planned to arrive more regularly over months and years, rather than a single big chapter every 3 to 6 years. If things go well, then however the story will conclude, it will conclude within 1st Anthem.

That doesn't mean at all that this is what will happen with Dragon Age - but since we're already waiting 5th year on next DA chapter, I personally wouldn't mind getting live service content for at least 3 of those, instead of merely 1. They can think of stuff that doesn't conclude the overarching story, but give us something to chew on in the meantime, I'm sure.

I certainly wouldn't mind *playing* Deception, not just reading it, for example. Solas's story during times of Elvenhan? If enough people want it they'd have less technical hurdles and more incentives to create it. You want a kissy scene that they didn't manage to include during main game's production? Hey, if enough people want it, they may patch it in as a live service.

I mean, the live services wouldn't have to fail for the game to not continue - there's no reason to assume that even if they've made DA4 the 'old-fashioned way' that it will actually conclude DAI's story or guarantee a sequel. In fact, live services are there to try and make it happen in ever-changing realities of the gaming market.
That was 5 years ago. The current game is basically entirely different. You don't want endgame consisting of group content or PVP? OK - there are elaborate, oftentimes multi-chapter fully narrative-driven, entirely soloable stories, each lasting from 10ish to over 30 hours long. Recurring characters and choices that have consequences included, and that's aside from a lot of that being some of the best RPG stories around. I don't mind cash shop if it continuously gives us high quality content each year, especially that most of it is cosmetic or just plain convenience.

Is this also the reason why the very first Bioware game had multiplayer? Or Baldur's Gate? Or Neverwinter Nights? Didn't BW fans make a stink when KOTOR did not have multiplayer?

Bioware has been adding multiplayer where it could when it wasn't even a big thing in the industry. In fact, DAI began its life as a solely multiplayer, codenamed Blackfoot - and it's that game that later became the core of Inquisition, as the project pivoted to single player. So the multiplayer isn't 'tacked on' - it's actually what the game is built around. I think it's fair to say that Bioware simply likes multiplayer and co-op and will try to add it wherever it's possible, EA mandate or no.

It is the same Domino.

I agree with you about not having to coordinate a time to play with friends, etc. My friends are in multiple time zones, have children, etc. so it's not really easy to find a time we all can play. Then there's also the fact that many of my closest friends aren't into the same type of video games as I am. Those were other reasons people gave, and they also made it onto Emily/Domino's graph, but they weren't cited as frequently as reasons why people don't like MP games. Ideally, game companies would consider all of those reasons.

That guy, yup...

Recent art by Nipuni...

This was based on some of her followers' sketch ideas.


She calls this one "Foolish love".


And here's her "mini-Solas".


I love that she is still drawing him, 4-5 years on.