Environment Ideas for a Future Game

Anyway, I want to join up with the aversion to deserts, unless it's something like the Hundred Pillars.

Underwater is a pretty neat idea as either a Tevinter Magister's aquarium or some ancient elven construct. I kinda like the first idea though.

I would also like to see a battlefield, not just a few burning houses like in the Hinterlands, I want to see a place that's been torn up by the exchange of magic and Qunari artillery.

A verdant forest? Not new, but a well done forest is always nice.

Of course I want to see a fully realized Minrathous. That is really what excites me the most.

This... a thousand times this.

+1 fog with reduced visibility. Wandering around, can't see a thing, bump into a wall ... THAT'S NOT A WALL, THAT'S A BERESAAD BRUISER !!!!!!

Though they'd have to turn off the red circles, health bars and mini map markers for enemies, or else there won't be any suspense or surprise ambushes.

I want to see:

The betrayal of Mafarath and the burning of Andraste. One of these is IN Minranthous- they could show a part of the city that is now mostly in ruin in the present, show us what Minranthous used to look like in full splendor while showing the scene. Bear witness to one of the most formative events in history, maybe even take the place of that one guy that spears her (be the sword of mercy) OR remain stoic on the sidelines. 

The landing of humans on the shores of northern Thedas- first contact with elves.  Perhaps be part of the landing party, ghosts referencing what they'r eleaving, enjoy the hpe of finding a new world. 

The height of the Elven civiliization, with the crystal spires. Enjoy an academic discussion in the beautiful world. about physical vs spiritual only to exit and witness the cold cruelty these same academics submit their slaves to.  We should be able to choose to fly in this one. 

The height of the Dwarven civilzation falling to Darkspawn- I see being part of the circle of dwarves that died to a man surrounding that child, like solas spoke of. Battling as best as you can, but wave after wave come, there is no healing potions, and the scene goes dark with the cries of the child dwarf ringing in your ears. 

I see all these things as something similar to what they did in TW3 when Geralt kept traveling through different worlds but also that scene with Duncan in DAO, where we could play along in all the scenes like Duncan-demon wanted us to play along. 

Griffons. I don't know, the starting of the Grey Warden Order. Griffons. and um...griffons. 

Do it. Do it. DO IT.

YES. And Solas talked about the nebulous nature of the Fade - Loghain being a good strategist in one scenario, a power-hungry villain in another - so it would be really cool if we could stumble upon different versions of these events. Just whose history are we looking at, anyway?

I don't mind desert, I just want things to actually be there. Diablo 2 desert, there were underground ruins everywhere.

I don't know so much about underwater levels, just levels where swimming through the grates to infiltrate a castle were a thing.

Boat battle would also be nice, and could involve falling over board, or intentionally going overboard to get to the other boat for infiltration.

Maybe I just want infiltration options that don't involve a dry well.

Ever since they teased the idea of seasonal changes in the Secret IP, I wondered if the idea might make it into the next DA. Photogrammetry would really help here.

It would be interesting to revisit regions at different times of the year, seeing how things have changed. Perhaps certain areas open up for exploration in certain seasons, different wildlife, seasonal colours, weather changes (rainy seasons/drought seasons/snow/severe weather - hurricanes/tornados?), etc.. Perhaps we build things in these regions and can watch them grow in stages over time.

3. Verticality - but unexpectedly down.



- You could see, especially in the later DLCs, there was a greater emphasis put on vertical level design. And this shot reminded me that we could use some more surprises in the environment. Imagine pushing your way through some dense foliage only to whoa... surprise giant hole in the ground. Or say as you're wandering through a region when suddenly a huge area of the landscape, like 100' across, just starts dropping. And it's an enormous dwarven lift descending to a lost Thaig. Surprise!


4. Beach houses



- No reason really, other than houses on stilts in the water are just kinda neat.

I really hope we get to see Minrathous or some other major settlement in Tevinter and for it to be distinctly different from anything we have encountered before but look as though it has been around for a very long time (as Dorian maintained). If we do go to Minrathous then I want to see the green triangular prism that is the proving grounds if only from a distance (did you notice how no matter where you looked on the skyline in Val Royeaux there was no Grand Cathedral and no White Spire?) but even better if we can actually walk inside of it. I'd also like to visit the Circle of Magi that is the re-purposed Temple of Razikale and allegedly the second oldest building in the Imperium. (Does anyone recall which is said to be the oldest?). I also want the buildings to be exotic and colourful as befits their location and their antiquity. I must admit I found black as the main colour of the typical Tevinter fashion among the nobility to be very clichéd and boring. Why wouldn't the vain and self important Altus want their clothing to be as colourful as their magic? (Luckily the comics give me some hope in this direction).

If we can't have a proper rendering of Minrathous or colour in Tevinter, then perhaps save that for Seheron. Give us steamy jungles and ancient ruins that are still colourful, at least on the inside. Whilst the Fog People probably wear misty grey clothing to blend with the fog when they are out in the open, perhaps their traditional garb could be colourful when they are in their strongholds.

As for an Underwater environment, I can think of two very old fantasy games where we had to go underwater for a time. In one we had the fantasy equivalent of diving suits that we had to wear, in the other we utilised a magic spell that had a time limit on it, which certainly focussed the mind on the task at hand (searching for some important item I seem to recall) as if we took too long we drowned. I'd also remind you of that line in Maryden's Mercy for the Elves: "Arlathan fell, so deep beneath the ocean floor." Why was that line in the song when there has never been any intimation before that Arlathan sank beneath the sea? So could that be a location in DA4? If so we could have some interesting underwater critters and possibly end up battling a Cetus that is guarding whatever we have gone there for.

Thanks for bringing this thread to my attention, Hrungr; had I known about it, I would have posted here earlier. 😊

Because we've previously had temple pools which are more or less level with their surroundings in places like the temples of Dirthamen and Mythal, I would be interested in seeing how Dragon Age games would implement stepwells (= wells or ponds which are reached by descending a flight of stairs), particularly ones that are several stories below the surface. 


A while back I came across pictures of the reed dwellings of Marsh Arabs who live in the Mesopotamian Marshes, historically the largest wetland area in Western Eurasia. They cultivate rice, raise water buffaloes and fish. The pictures made me wonder if there could be groups of people in Thedas which would live in similar conditions - imagine living somewhere where it's just reeds as far as the eye can see. In addition to that, the pictures also made me rethink about what flood myths originating from that area must have meant for the inhabitants.


In Denerim and Kirkwall, elven alienages were depicted as being a separate, walled off district of their respective cities, but we also learned from the codex Alienage Culture that Val Royeaux alienage had ten thousand elves living in an area the size of Denerim's market. Given the limited space and a large number of elves in need of housing that would mean the buildings in this alienage would need to have several stories. If Bioware ever decides to let us visit an alienage as large and as crowded as the the one in Val Royeaux, I think one that was built like the enclosed   tulou buildings found in Fujian, China could be a nice alternative.


Bonus: Bigar waterfall (Romania)

Minor architectural features


(click to enlarge to better see the features)

- Ignoring the modern-day setting for a moment, I like the design of a few elements in here that could be incorporated into a major city like Minrathous. One being the ramp (used by a train here) that runs from street level, then up and around. A lot of curved corners in this in this scene. I also like the tall, narrow windows on the top left, and being lit from inside. There's also an elevated train running horizontally across the image, which in a DA city might make for an interesting elevated roadway.