Dragon Age The Veilguard Wishlist (Official Thread)

Old ones, i really hope they ditch FB if it's too much a fucking nightmare to deal with.

Pretty sure it will be on Steam, since it doesn't make sense not to be on EA Access especially with the partnership with Gamepass.  However there has been no official word and since its at least 18 months away I doubt there will be any kind of confirmation one way or another until at least 2023.

I Andromeda and Anthem are the bigger kick for BioWare to be as bug free as possible, but with the complexity of modern games it won't be bug free instead major bug free I think is a better way to look at it.  Going by the commentary from Jeff Grubb the other day it sounds like BioWare is in a good place with Dragon Age 4.  Now I wonder if that is because of the new leadership which everyone decried it being the "death of BioWare".

I don't see a beta, but there is that two week time limited early access from EA Access that everyone used to test Andromeda in the past.

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EA is about pushing EA Access over anything else at the moment just like Microsoft is with Gamepass.  You could say the exact same thing after any EA Access game after Andromeda which probably killed a lot of interest in that game as well for the low price of $10 and its the same with Anthem too.  For the "my face is tired" and other memes came out of that exact same initiative.  The thing is how many people paid for the early access they might not have bought the game in the first place.  Its a gamble for they might see an uptick in subscriptions for every major release that can counter for some of the lost sales.  With refund policies now especially with digital releases being as popular they are I don't see it being that much of a loss even if people don't buy the game for they would just refund it anyway.

Yep, aside from the one NPC looked pretty much identical to me.

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I already post my list in this thread, and I probably already mentioned this here, but I'm going to be completely destroyed if Dorian is dead in DA4.

His character opened up so many doors for gay characters- gay characters who look, sound, act and well, are gay. This is what queer coding is, and I'm so glad Bioware didn't try to subvert stereotypes with him like they did with Cora, Cassandra and Gil.

Please keep him alive and happy with my inqy, and give me a new bae 

- Spear/Lance type weapons

- Longer hairstyle options and more color options (such as an elf with bright green hair)

- Bring back Isabela, just because

- Would prefer a named character similar to Hawke rather than a title like Inquisitor

- Character creation code

- More classes similar to how Mass Effect has the three base classes of biotic, combat and tech, but then a mix of two, like some sort of revamped Arcane Warrior as the mage/warrior mix. But also add a rogue/mage mix and a warrior/rogue mix

Just a couple of things that annoy me in DA and I'd like to see solved or gone in DA4:

- If we do have huge maps to explore, they need to be more than just repetitive missions such as gather herbs/metals, set camp or random quests that in the end serve only to earn a few war table points. Remove the different landscapes and every map felt literally the same in Inquisition. Or DA2, take your pick.

- I wish the nobility wasn't ridiculed all the time. Alright, I get the Orlesians are funny and smell of cheese joke. Can we move on now? Why not create characters that are dignified, knowledgeable about the law, the land and its culture and able to help the PC with their many resources? I really wish the Inquisition could have benefitted from a trade agreement with a noble house famous for, shall we say, their private navy and have a couple of missions where we get beautiful cutscenes showing Inquisition forces moving about thanks to their help. Or goods coming from different countries thanks to our new noble friend. Or even reinforcements from the sea in a particular mission on the Storm Coast. Instead, we get things like Lord Abernache getting shot in the head in a ridiculous fashion. Or lady whatever-her-name-is threatening the templar at the entrance of Therinfal Redoubt in a funny voice. I want to feel admiration for the nobility, some dialogue cleverly written (we had plenty of them in Origins), memorable characters and quests with them, not have them be the butt of every joke.

- No more masked Orlesians. We get it. Orlesians are pros at masking their true thoughts and feelings. But sporting a social mask doesn't mean wearing a physical one. Subtlety, where are you?

- Next time I send my forces to gather herbs and metals, I hope they don't spend ten whole minutes JUST to bring me 6 elfroots. Let's have at least 30 of them, shall we?

- How about we actually EARN resources as time passes rather than the PC having to collect EVERYTHING by themselves since, you know, our troops are on the field and they should be increasing our available resources in real time?

- No more showdowns like the one with Corypheus. If we fight the bad guy, we should be commanding the army we built in an epic war, with our final showdown happening after we've defeated their army or at least breached their defenses. That makes more sense.

And finally,

- An explanation that brings some closure to the franchise. We've learned NOTHING about the Black City, the taint, ancient elves etc since Origins. Only hints here and there, but not enough info to have the whole picture. If DA4 comes out, it better solve all the mysteries that are left pending.

How would that work in practice, though? Like in DAO during the archdemon's attack in Denerim? That is the closest thing I can imagine.

As for the nobles... I think there a few dignified ones like Fairbanks, Dorian or Anora, but I can understand if you feel like we need more of those. I completely agree about Orlesians, though. They are walking stereotypes in every game. Maybe the books are a little better at exploring them.

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OMG so many good ideas! Lets hope they will see this or at least consider this themselves. (a proper dwarven and human city would be very much appreciated btw don’t have to be many cities but better ones - also cool elven ruin places and proper deep road stuff - so much potential here.
(I also REALLY hope they overhaul old enemy designs especially demons could use a proper face lift but also dark spawn and deep road creatures. I mean just look at the high dragon design of inquisition it’s SO GOOD)

So probably been planning this post probably since 2018 or so ever since we first started to hear about the initial trailer way back. But I was hesitant to put this list together without a title reveal because, for me, this is when we would get a big indication that the game was actually going to come out and be in production and be released. We have such a title now so I wanted to finally get together kind of a master list of everything I want in DA:D up till this point. While I am dubious about my own need for doing this or the ultimate point of it, well this is kind of fun and who knows…maybe I will get lucky?

This being said, this is not exactly going to be a comprehensive list per se. Just most of where my main thoughts are for the game and probably won’t include everything I have posted to this point…nor will it include any future things I want as I continue to play new games. Furthermore for purposes of making this a little easier I figure on organizing my thoughts into three categories: High Priority- things I really want regardless and would greatly add to my potential enjoyment for DA:D. Things that would be nice-Things that I still would like in the game but yet think there could be some issues with BioWare being able to implement them. And Things that would be interesting- Things that I typically do not like in my games but am curious to see if BioWare can incorporate them into DA:D in interesting ways. Or things that I am not sure how they will implement at all.

High Priority:

Stealth-Always my biggest combat bugaboo I really have disliked out DA has handled stealth in this game as being largely unrealistic though understandable given the circumstances. The ability to purely disappear, if it should be included at all, should be a high level or high cost skill or even a specialization skill that takes a lot to do. Stealth should be handled by almost any of the other games to do it. You don’t disappear, you hide. You stick to the shadows…and maybe use passive skills to help aid you in this regard.
Dialogue- My two favorite dialogue systems that BioWare has done to this point have been for DA 2 and MEA. I don’t know exactly how this will work for DA:D maybe give the protagonist the option of being more aggressive but the general idea is to have more focus on actual emotional dialogue and character building rather then some weird decision meter or just a series of decisions which we saw run into a lot of problems within the trilogy. As a reference, burrowing from MEAs dialogue idea unless they do something like Inquisition’s and just flip it…the spectrums will be ‘professional’ to ‘casual’ and ‘peaceful/conciliatory’ to ‘aggressive.’ Maybe add a sarcastic button just because I heard the complaint for Andromeda that people didn’t like the sarcastic lines being roped into the casual lines since it led to confusion.
Inventory- my main bugaboo in a lot of RPG games of all time. Now inventory tends to fall into one of two camps either the ‘very large backup to where you just keep on collecting gear and stuffing it down your trousers’ or the camp that basically only lets you carry what you have on your person and go on your merry way or a hybrid system like Andromeda’s. Now DA has always fallen into the former camp and I hate the former camp. To me there are two obvious solutions, either just transition the game to the second style like ME2 and 3, the Ghost Recon games, etc, or make it where every single item of the game is just available to be looted once…ala Vahalla. You can still loot junk like you can in Inquisition, mementos from the battlefield you can then sell for coin, but actual gear should be unique in terms of stats if nothing else. But the actual gear is unique, no looting longswords from every person you run into. Or, it's possible that you get schematics for stuff throughout the world but that leads us to…
Crafting-My favorite crafting system is that of Dragon Age Inquisition’s. I loved it. I loved how it allowed you to build gear to your specifications. Now it did have some issues but I did love this basic idea. But I would make two improvements to it: 1. Ditch the thing where you have gear which would boost your attributes…weapon stats yes…but a bow shouldn’t make you more dexterous. 2. Just add more. While this could be controversial I want more realistic crafting materials…wood for hilts, arrows, and bows, or staffs, maybe feathers for the same. And also crafting more things like arrows or special arrows similar to how AC Odyssey did it, just with choice.
Character Creator- Didn’t particularly like Inquisition’s but this is a system that could easily be improved, get rid of the grid and then add character codes, all I ask.

Would be nice:

Combat Strategic- Simpler would be better here. I don’t want long and complicated sheets to stare at to determine every little thing these characters do. I don’t think it truly works that way. Just generalized behaviors who they target, and from where, generally speaking which will allow them to then make their own decisions on how to execute those orders.
Combat tactical- Now I heard recently that this may have resulted from engine limitations and what not but one of the big problems with Inquisition was the tactical camera felt too constrained which didn’t really make it work. I do not know how Bio can achieve this but unlimbered controls similar to Ghost Recon Breakpoint would certainly be welcomed which allow us to actually plan out ambushes, distractions, or maybe even fully splitting up the squad over a battlefield. Maybe some fog of war system could work as well.
Combat action- More or less everything on the button mashing level. Combat should be fast, fluid, and brutal.
Learning skills- Not a big problem but it did occur to me that the whole skill tree system for RPGs isn’t entirely realistic. And then Vahalla came up and gave us skill books we could find out in the world in place of skill trees which could give you your abilities. This was a welcome addition and something which might work for DA. The biggest problem is in a game like DA there might be too many skills or ‘build’s are so important. You might be waiting to find that perfect skill and then not be able to fully level up or exploit the build because you are missing something.
Skill evolution- In an effort perhaps to limit the number of active skills, and thus avoid problems from previous games, I would wonder if different levels of skill evolutions would work, like with ME. You have a base ability and then you get to choose which version of it you want to invest in the future.
Dress up with Companions- While I do typically enjoy equipping companion armor and weapons for all of my squad and continuing to customize things that way there is something to be said for the DA 2 and MEA way of just leaving your companions to make their own decisions. Especially if they follow my advice and give me the crafting system I want. It does get really tedious having to craft and gather all that material for everyone. Though there are ways of limiting the resources per crafting to.
Multiple Quest Rewards- I think the quest rewards for Inquisition may have been a little on the weak side at times, though in this case this might be distinction without a difference, but I am hoping for a little bit more and a little bit more varied quest rewards and maybe options of what you do. Gear, crafting supplies, crafting schematics, if they do the suggestion on learning then include that in there, if they include live service elements or have an eye to that kind of gear system maybe have this be another randomized pipeline where we can either earn those things directly or the in game currency equivalent used to buy them (like Oricalchum). Also it would be maybe wise to add choice to this aspect too.
Wider Armory- While not important I would greatly appreciate a wider variety of weapons to be able to equip your characters. These run into the obvious issues when it comes to skill trees in DA, at least for Warriors/ Rogues, often being tied directly to the type of weapons you use, and the general issue of programming all that extra stuff that comes with adding new weapons comes to mind. However if they can do it it might add more spice, build variety, replay value, whatever you have. My main desire is to see Staffs or spears added but any weapons like maces, crossbows, different kinds of axes…etc. Maybe they can keep this in the already same system.
Two classes- While I would certainly be curious to see them go entirely classless I also recognize that the lore and support from the fandom may not be entirely there. So alas. Instead I would like it to go down to two classes and styles of gameplay. Meld Warriors/ Rogues into one and then have mages. While this system could have its issues too I also feel like they should definitely have an eye of making each class or play style feel distinct from the others. In this regard, of all games, maybe take a look at the Avengers game. Iron Man felt distinct from Black Widow….all the heroes did. Even Kate Bishop and Hawkeye, two characters which could have been very easy to copy and paste given the nature of live service and they were both bow users…had their own distinction. Hawkeye was more of a sniper and denial for area expert, while Bishop was a brawler and more of a single target specialist.

Would be Interesting:

Survival mechanics- Not the biggest fan of hard core survival mechanics in order to ‘eat food or you will die a miserable painful horrible death’ sort of thing. However there is a way I think it could be done probably because games like Ghost Recon Breakpoint, HFW, and RDR 2 has included food which often grants you temporary buffs, this is something I would approve of for DA as making a lot of sense. But for those who want a ‘survival mode’ in the game this could be a backdoor way of including that and that might be interesting as long as it were kept entirely optional like FO 4s survival mode.
Exploration Mode- Another thing that I do not typically like considering I get lost easily and like knowing exactly where I am going but an exploration mode…or a mode in which you have limited guidance on where quests are and have to figure it out based on context clues…might be worth it for DA considering I will probably spend a lot of time with the game anyways so if any game might lead me to turing this on, it could be DA:D. Though it is a bit annoying to always hear ‘yeah the quest is in this area past Luke’s farm’. Double points where quest locations or guides can serve as quest rewards or random encounters.
Attributes- Now this is something i have been a little torn on because I kind of like assigning attribute points in previous games….but I think this is something where BioWare has been painfully inconsistent across the three games and the one area that their inconsistency has sort of caused issues for me. In the way that each attribute tends to do different things across games. So I have advocated for just getting rid of them. Unless they have the ability to make them even more important. Like Fallout. Have them matter in gameplay but also in dialogue..maybe…if they do it. Or for alternative ways of solving quests and manipulating the map, like DAI had the system where you could bash down doors…well update it to where ‘Rogues’ can now do it if they have invested enough in their strength stat.
Special Dialogue- This is something that can work out and even DAI did it but it often feels kind of clunky and there is this weird war in me sometimes about cutting out dialogue options if you do not meet certain criteria and content, but also in doing so increases the appreciation for role play. I guess my biggest complaint is while one could learn about history and the underworld which could justify how they did it…it did feel at times kind of clunky in Inquisition. The best thing they can do, I feel, is maybe return to how Origins did it, maybe, with special dialog options that can affect things based on what you have done or how intelligent or dexterous you are.
Multiple ways of going about diaog- Again something I am torn on because while this is appreciated and has been missing in BioWare games of late I do also still really like what they have done. I am talking about the one area where ME 1 did do good with having different ways of going about solving quests…with the renegade and paragon special options…which would then itself open up different dialogue options in how to solve them. So like you could be all intimidating to a terrorist, which would then lead to you having additional new dialogue options.
Specializations- While at first glance this is against my dreams of a more fluid class system for DA D which things will be easy to get and mix and match and just mold the character you want…still I often wonder how specializations can fit into this. Maybe through just passives or something of that nature…who knows.
Origin Stories- Only down here because this seems like such a pipe dream for it to come about and so many different things they could do and who knows if it's possible or doable. So yeah. It's down here.
Live Service- Well another element that I have often expressed some desire to see in some form. But there is a lot of debate on here about what this even is, if they can do it, maybe the leak awhile back says they aren’t doing it so again much like with Origin Stories there is just too much vagueness here for me to include it higher in the list and have a reasonable expectation of getting it. However, I am at the least hoping for more after the fact DLC to expand on the story in some capacity. But bottom line I do want the world to feel ‘alive’ this is what I think about when I hear ‘live service’. Adding little updates and stuff throughout the entire game with missions and stories and challenges that will keep me coming back for a long time giving me new things to do.