What would you accept for a "better" DA4?

I'll have to give this one some thought but I do think it quite curious while I kind of agree with you on companion count, in theory, my two favorite BioWare games...and really two of my favorite games of all time...have their largest casts of companions and advisers. Honestly when you count BOTH the two games really have almost the same numbers.

I chose smaller world, fewer voice actors for the player character and fewer companions/advisors. And a thing that wasn't in the poll.

Smaller world is a complete no-brainer because that wouldn't even be a tradeoff, it would be a win-win. BioWare obviously struggled to fill DAI's large game world with interesting content, so making the world smaller overall both saves resources and makes the game better.

(In a similar logic, it makes no sense to pick fetch quests - these cost resources and make the game worse, especially if they are of the soulless kind that DAI came with. Unless you meant "fewer meaningful side quests and more fetch quests", but meaningful side quests are their own option, so...)

I would be totally fine with fewer companions - 6 would be a-okay. Also makes it less tedious to "make the rounds" after advancing the main story to check everyone for new dialogue.

And the thing not in the poll: a smaller home base for the protagonist. Skyhold was amazing as a sightseeing tour, but way too big as an effective home base. I got tired of jogging around in it to check 9 companions and 3 advisors for more dialogue. I would be fine with something just about the size of its main building.

In return I want a longer main story and more meaningful side quests. I can take or leave the romances.

Does fewer voice actor choices mean less choices or just 1 male and 1 female voice actor rather than the 2 dai had?

to be fair smaller world is an easy choice for me. I’m sick of the notion that these big open worlds, too often just there as dull time sinks to delay getting to the actual story.

So...I have made my decisions.

First up...fewer voice actors for the Protagonist character: This is the BIG ONE. I honestly think this was perhaps BioWare's, in general...ugh this is hard because I kind of have complained about other vague structural problems with DAI...but this is the more I think about it the more I think this was genuinely one of the worse legitimate mistakes Bio made with DAI. Its nice to have choices and it was a neat gimmick...but I feel its created more problems long term for the franchise from a resource management perspective. Because of two reasons...1. because obviously data budgets and time budgets and money budgets are effected by this choice and its too gimmicky to justify doing it...ever again. And 2. because it pigenholds them into things long term. Just look at the choice they have to face because they did it in Inquisition. No matter what role the Inquisitor has in DA 4 they now have to record all the lines they will have twice...they will have to program them in twice...and they will have to make sure all four voice actors are up for it and they can sign them. Sure I would take only Henry Haydon Patton and AWR...but I know people who prefer Sumalee. And it would be really weird to hear Sumalee's voice out of Kara's mouth. So..yeah. BioWare, don't do this.

Smaller World...so this one comes with the HUGE caveat because I tend to like larger worlds because I have come to associate...because I have played some really AMAZING 'Open World' games recently...that bigger world= more content. But really this is not entirely true because I also have noticed that my PTs usually balance out at about 80 hours...so between 80-100 hours. So what I would want is a balanced world. Because DAIs world size was...pretty descent...but maybe worth a little trimming to make sure we get QUALITY content...up to modern day standards anyways.

And the idiot forgot to put it on...limited CC. Again this one comes with the caveat where it depends on what protagonist they are going to do for 4...but in general I felt DA Is CC was far too complicated for my liking and really while I get that...in theory...its a great CC, I didn't like it. I much preferred Andromeda's and think that one was one of Bio's best. And while I like CCs in general and recognize how important they are to role play and even mine...on the one hand if the choice was to 'have a robust CC' or 'remove like ten meaningful side quests and one main story quest'...the CC would have to get trimmed down in my view because...I'm just not good at the complicated ones. So I would accept a CC as dumbed down as Andromeda's...and I would even tolerate a CC like Anthem's or Breakpoint's...if they had to make sure to have things I value more.

Smaller world, fewer voiceactors for PC (silent PC would be fine as well) and for my "idiot poll creator" choice I'll go with fewer races for PC.

Good point - to mitigate that, they should've been in a fairly centralised area (although you could argue Cassandra was training, not sleeping in the yard), other than Cole or Sera who seemed well suited for spots in the tavern. These were the Inquisitors top people. Blackwall especially - would the Inquisition allow an honoured Grey Warden to sleep in the stables?

I assumed it meant 1 male and 1 female, as opposed to the two of each we got in DAI.

Smaller world - Yes, inject that into my veins
Cut down the voice actors from 4 to 2 again
Cut down race options - honestly I would be happy with human only but I understand a lot of people wouldn't. It's best then to cut it down to the two most relevant - humans and elves
Cut down side quests - if they're just there to function as bloat then don't have them in

Where is the "No Live Service elements" option?

I pick that.

A background in the CC that is set in the actual game world not in the Fade with no wind or crap floating around, also no color wheels, or complicated UI in the CC, just a lot more options that are made through a simple and easy to understand UI.

Better combat animations DAI has the best combat animations in DA series to date which considering that DAO is slow and boring, and DA2 is way over-the-top, that might a low bar but I do think some of the some of the mage combat in DA2 like where you see Anders/Merrill/Bethany smacking foes with their staves made them look bad ass, just have the mages use their staves has staves (or spears and lances) to give them a more attacks than just spells.
More dragons like those in DAI the dragons are more like real creatures and outside of the Dragonheart films these are some of the best looking dragons I've ever seen and I would like to see more than the just babies and High Dragons, more Drakes, Young female dragons, and etc.
If you're going to have open world make content that actually fits the story. Like the Hissing Wastes I mean if you want a night time desert how making it like this is the place where most the rifts so that the Elder One and minions can use the location to create a demon army away from prying eyes this would also make a combat rich region where you have to close a LOT of rifts, and fight a lot of the Elder One's forces. No shards, or looking for notes, or dwarven ruins, just an area where there plenty of foes and you have to close to all the rifts and defeat a powerful boss. This makes the region feel more important because if you don't do it before you go to the Wilds then you have to content with more powerful forces than you would if you don't shut down the Hissing Wastes.
Fewer squad mates 9 companions and 3 mentors are a lot. Now granted the Inquisitor is running a massive international organization so it makes sense to split the army, the diplomacy, and the spies/assassins under 3 different leaders and recruit agents for them but what about the other 6 companions that I'm not using on any mission can't I assign them some tasks or put 3 of them on guard duty around Haven or Skyhold. Fewer companions 6-8 with one mentor would might make sense.


USE THE WAR TABLE LIKE THE ONE FROM MEA, BECAUSE I HATE THE WAR TABLE IN DAI! The War Table is an awesome idea but the insane amount of real world real time and having to use it for several quests, both major and minor, make it IMHO nothing but a pain a major pain in ass! MEA uses a similar War Table gimmick but it's basically allowing me to send up to six strike teams with their own strengths and weaknesses and the teams can level up and I get money and/or points to unlock better gear for my teams when they're successful as well as items from successful missions that Ryder and company can use. The MEA is basically allowing me to play the MP without having to actually play the MP and it makes me feel more like a general whereas the War Table in DAI is like a good point to stop playing the game and take a break.


If you want me to fetch a bunch of shards then make the prize worth my time and effort and not just a bunch of stat buffs and some gold. Because by the time I have all of those damn things my stats are pretty buff and I'm usually already rich. Make the treasure worth my time and effort one for collecting something like the shards, notes, maps, bottles, and etc. Maybe less collecting things like the bottles and the mugs in Decent.

I'd also happily return to a more stylized look, similar to DA2.