Mark Darrah back on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf as a consultant!

There have been multiple BioWare blog posts describing Dreadwolf as a single-player experience. The most recent one I could find that referenced SP was Jan 6th 2022 and it was also stated in the DA Day 2021 blog post. Interestingly, on the Dreadwolf alpha announcement they talk about the next Mass Effect being a single-player game, so it seems to be their focus for both series.

Sure! But while I am aware of the 'leak', I don't put much care towards it, I was primarily responding to Mark's comments and my broader worry about how a franchise might change after what will be basically a decade(!). 

I want Dreadwolf to be the best RPG it can be. Things like choosing what your companions wear or programming their tactics, while maybe fun, is ancillary to those goals.

I agree with you on this one. In fact programming my companions tactics is something I often don't bother with as I like the sense that they are independent people rather than robots controlled by me. So I just stick to giving orders as the situation demands, which they invariably ignore. I definitely preferred DAO with the pause, issued command and play version rather than the tactical camera of DAI. Also the fact that if I told them to stand somewhere, whilst I sneaked forward to set up a trap and then entice our enemies into it, they didn't move until I revoked the order. My companions in DAI drove me up the wall in dragon fights by constantly dashing forward for close combat (Bull, and Varric for some reason - doesn't he know he is using a ranged weapon?), standing round stupidly whilst the dragon fires on them from higher ground, and chugging the potions that I wanted to hold in reserve (I seem to recall I did reprogram Bull on that one).   So invariably I would do some micro management by getting them all under my control and then following me into cover until it was at least worth making themselves targets.   However, my Knight Enchanter was so awesome (and over powered) that after they invariably got knocked out,  I just left them lying around unconscious whilst I finished the beast off.

As for clothes, I do like to be able to give my companions the best equipment possible and it was rather disappointing in DA2 to get armour that I couldn't use because I was the wrong class but my companions couldn't use either, so I hope we don't go back to that system in DA:D. I have to admit that I also got heavily into crafting after my first run on DAI. It made for a bit of variety and my team did look rather swish all kitted out in matching white and gold but it wouldn't be a deal breaker if this was no longer possible.

Yeah... I'm torn. 

On the one hand I just don't like to 'menu crawl' as I call it. Aside from levelling I want to spend the least amount of time in menus that I can get away with. And I also like combat to be as real time as possible to, though I will tolerate pause and play. I want to be able to give orders to my companions in real time and have their AI be able to figure things out in terms of being able to use their powers, protect me, protect themselves. 

On the other hand while all this is true and while I think BioWare can create smart enough companion AI to make it work (Andromeda was getting there) I also get how it might behoove one to have some sort of tactic system still in place so people can have an expectation of 'if A happens do B' sort of thing. So for me somewhere between Inquisition and DAO/ 2. More streamlined but Inquisition took it a hair too far. 

And that too is kind of the thing lol. Like I loved Inquisition's crafting system but it did get a little tedious having to do it for myself and all my compnaions and the crafting system was pretty much the only way to get the best gear (which honestly makes sense)...and I really don't miss it when games like DA 2 or Andromeda. The thing is you do raise a point since Dreadwolf will inevitably have classes in it that means they will likely still have those class restrictions for armor which means that you could be looting a lot of stuff that you don
't need. Now I would greatly streamline it to where you aren't just getting random loot off of every tom, dick, and harry, you run across in the world...all loot and gear is unique...but that would leave us with a choice of basically having to still end up with useless gear or probably have to wait and grind a little longer while we get good gear for our companions.

If DAD flops it's most likely the end of Bioware so I'm going in with very low expectations and just happy that there is at least 1 more single-player Bioware game I get to play

I do not agree with that. Everyone has their own definition of flop. With how well DAI did, I would not be surprised if a lot of those players get the game to see how Solas is dealt with whether they like the character or not. I'm in that boat, but I'm also looking forward to other things from the game. If for some reason the game does not do well, I believe Bioware will still continue. EA will look towards the next ME game. If that game does poorly, then I might believe Bioware will meet it's end. I don't see it happening. ME is a very popular franchise. The remaster received good reviews, a lot of positive feedback, and it did better than expected.

I remember Bioware Doomsdays since I think... before ME2? I wasn't around in the start of the original official BSN.

But I do think that if DAD is a disappointment to EA, I'm uncertain we'll even get the next Mass Effect, and if that one happens but is also a disappointment, I have zero faith we'll have a Bioware. For what little its worth, I didn't think this in the DAI-MEA-AN (even ANthem) string, and certainly didn't think this before DAI.

My wild guess is that he posted because this is a forum, and because skepticism is not against forum rules.

I'm mostly relying upon memory, we're going back well over a decade here and the original Bioware forums are long-gone.