Blair Brown @thefiddzz What was your favorite thing to do in the @dragonage #Inquisition regions? Reply if you loved something I didn't list!
Dragon Fights Astrariums Fade Rifts Dungeons
Really, Astrariumsand Fade Rifts? While they're not very good I enjoyed doing the main plots of the regions and dragon fights. It is a shame he gave the fetch quests as an option. Dungeons are good but there are so few of them.
Looks like I missed one from a couple o' days ago...
Red @dangerousalley Hey @biomarkdarrah , now that I have your attention; if DA4 were a "thing", what are my chances of seeing Advanced Tactics returning?
Mark Darrah @biomarkdarrah Possible but unlikely. We are more likely to take party control in a different direction
- Hmm...
As long as there is some sort of "control."
I'm torn on this, really. One of the reasons I like MEA combat is because I didn't have to worry about party members and could just do my own thing. I more or less played DAI like that as well, BUT I would prefer to have tactics set up so I can control for various events -- player health < 50%, cast shield; enemy health > 75%, use some debuff; and so on. In the DA games with tactics, they were very much a "set it and forget it" type of play for me, but I still had that degree of control and customization, which I prefer to have. I do also like being able to test drive certain specs and such before making a character with them. I never would have bothered with DA2 rogue if I hadn't been able to play Isabela for a bit.
DAO is probably my favorite Bioware game in terms of party control (disclaimer: I haven't played any of the ME games). Party members were mostly self-sufficient, but there were still lots of options for customization, from abilities to when to use potions. DAI seemed like it tried to simplify things, but that ultimately made it more confusing for me as I was never sure when the tactics I set were actually impacting their actions.
I'm currently replaying Neverwinter Nights: HotU right now, and for those of you unfamiliar with that series, there was ZERO party control. You can't control how they level up, you can't control what spells they memorize, and you can't control which enemies they target. You couldn't even access your party members' inventories until the first expansion, and there's no guarantee they'll use any weapons/items you give them. The community AI mod is the only thing that makes that game bearable for me now, mainly because I can actually tell my spellcasters to buff the party before a battle (this was a much more important concept in the D&D games than in Dragon Age, but think of it as seeing a high dragon off in the distance and your mages just twiddling their thumbs instead of getting some preemptive Barriers ready). I really don't want DA to go more towards that style of party control.
I suppose it's always possible that by "different direction" they mean more of a Baldur's Gate complete companion control, but I feel like a lot of players nowadays don't want to be responsible for micromanaging all of their party members' actions. It takes a bit of adjustment for me when I go back to that series after playing DA or NWN; sometimes I love the intricacies and challenges BG combat brings, and other times I wish Aerie would actually cast Magic Missle on her own instead of just slinging bullets all the time.
Long story short, Bioware has gone to both extremes in its fantasy game history. I think Dragon Age represents a good middle ground between control and autonomy, and I'm hesitant to see them change things too much.
Post by therevanchist25 on Aug 15, 2017 19:21:52 GMT
On a more serious note. I just want QUESTS Bioware. REAL QUESTS. I liked the Crestwood quest, The Fallow Mire quest, hell I even liked the Emprise Du Lion quest! but ofc, those were the only 3 regions that HAD AN ACTUAL QUEST!
Heh, funny, that's the only thing to actually DO in each region, because fetch quests don't count.
Yes, because it's not like all zones have multi-stage main quests and quests linked with it in those...
Hissing Wastes is a scavenger hunt, not a quest. The Exalted Plains has no overarching quest either, because clearing out areas of enemies that you would have likely done anyway, is not a quest. Storm Coast also does not have a quest, because collecting journal entries with your radar is not a real quest. The Western Approach like-wise, does not have an overarching quest, you get a quest that unlocks a Dungeon after you've basically already cleared out the entire area and established your presence, and collecting pieces of dead animals for a scholar from Orlais, is a fetch quest. Emerald Graves is a maybe, but is overall still just like Exalted Plains, clearing out areas of enemies that you likely would have done anyways.
Yes, because it's not like all zones have multi-stage main quests and quests linked with it in those...
Hissing Wastes is a scavenger hunt, not a quest. The Exalted Plains has no overarching quest either, because clearing out areas of enemies that you would have likely done anyway, is not a quest. Storm Coast also does not have a quest, because collecting journal entries with your radar is not a real quest. The Western Approach like-wise, does not have an overarching quest, you get a quest that unlocks a Dungeon after you've basically already cleared out the entire area and established your presence, and collecting pieces of dead animals for a scholar from Orlais, is a fetch quest. Emerald Graves is a maybe, but is overall still just like Exalted Plains, clearing out areas of enemies that you likely would have done anyways.
Either DA4 needs to be more like DA2 or DA4 needs to be more like MEA--in terms of quest design. Less bottle and song collecting and more quests like Kararda and Havaral. I think I would rather have a DA2 story then have the majority of the content be "side quests" like in DAI. It's saving grace is that the companion archs were good for the most part.
Yes, because it's not like all zones have multi-stage main quests and quests linked with it in those...
Hissing Wastes is a scavenger hunt, not a quest. The Exalted Plains has no overarching quest either, because clearing out areas of enemies that you would have likely done anyway, is not a quest. Storm Coast also does not have a quest, because collecting journal entries with your radar is not a real quest. The Western Approach like-wise, does not have an overarching quest, you get a quest that unlocks a Dungeon after you've basically already cleared out the entire area and established your presence, and collecting pieces of dead animals for a scholar from Orlais, is a fetch quest. Emerald Graves is a maybe, but is overall still just like Exalted Plains, clearing out areas of enemies that you likely would have done anyways.
Hissing Wastes - finding Venatori camp, stopping them and finding dwarven treasure. This is hardly a "scavenger hunt". Emerald Graves - aiding Fairbanks and his peasants. There's a whole storyline where you get red of Freemen of the Dales and they move into their base, aside from learning that peasants are sent to Emprise for experiments with red lyrium. Storm Coast - search for Wardens, which is actually very close to main quest. Also, gaining alliance or destruction of with Blades Of Hessarian.
Th Western Approach HAS overarching quest - it's learning what Venatori do (they want to catch another dragon - the fetch quest you're talking about is a lure for it to fight it in the first place), grabbing the Keep and making it livable, only to discover the source of darkspawn as well as to why they showed up on the desert in the first place.
Exalted plains - there's a whole storyline about Freemen of the Dales and them being responsible for the place being overran by undead. We help Imperial army regain foothold on the region.
Last Edit: Aug 16, 2017 0:52:51 GMT by midnight tea
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect Andromeda Origin: nimlowyn Prime Posts: 1814 Prime Likes: 2820 Posts: 891 Likes: 2,950
Blair Brown @thefiddzz What was your favorite thing to do in the @dragonage #Inquisition regions? Reply if you loved something I didn't list!
Dragon Fights Astrariums Fade Rifts Dungeons
Ahhh, I enjoyed all of those things!
Hnnnnnnggggggggg....
I love the dragon fights, but I'm gonna say dungeons with a big beastie (dragon!) at the end. There's just something about going into the abyss, conquering the beast, and returning victorious.
Blair Brown @thefiddzz What was your favorite thing to do in the @dragonage #Inquisition regions? Reply if you loved something I didn't list!
Dragon Fights Astrariums Fade Rifts Dungeons
I loved the Astrariums
Still wouldn't want to miss the other things though.
I liked the Astrariums too, but dragon fights were my fave. The Astrariums were cool for the lore and treasure. The Fade rifts provided some fun fights too, and that sense of satisfaction after closing them was pretty sweet.
Hissing Wastes is a scavenger hunt, not a quest. The Exalted Plains has no overarching quest either, because clearing out areas of enemies that you would have likely done anyway, is not a quest. Storm Coast also does not have a quest, because collecting journal entries with your radar is not a real quest. The Western Approach like-wise, does not have an overarching quest, you get a quest that unlocks a Dungeon after you've basically already cleared out the entire area and established your presence, and collecting pieces of dead animals for a scholar from Orlais, is a fetch quest. Emerald Graves is a maybe, but is overall still just like Exalted Plains, clearing out areas of enemies that you likely would have done anyways.
Hissing Wastes - finding Venatori camp, stopping them and finding dwarven treasure. This is hardly a "scavenger hunt". Emerald Graves - aiding Fairbanks and his peasants. There's a whole storyline where you get red of Freemen of the Dales and they move into their base, aside from learning that peasants are sent to Emprise for experiments with red lyrium. Storm Coast - search for Wardens, which is actually very close to main quest.
Th Western Approach HAS overarching quest - it's learning what Venatori do (they want to catch another dragon - the fetch quest you're talking about is a lure for it to fight it in the first place), grabbing the Keep and making it livable, only to discover the source of darkspawn as well as to why they showed up on the desert in the first place.
Exalted plains - there's a whole storyline about Freemen of the Dales and them being responsible for the place being overran by undead. We help Imperial army regain foothold on the region.
Those are all very generous descriptions of what you actually do in those regions. It is a scavenger hunt, yet another generic "camp" of venatori is hardly worthy of being called a "quest", and the "treasure" in question, is just a shitty Rune. Again, Aiding Fairbanks, yes, you are technically aiding him, by doing something anyone would have done going through the region anyways regardless. A REAL quest is not something you can do in your free time, without the quest having been activated and with almost no conversations. Again, Notes entries and generic camps are not freaking quests, and the lure quest, is nothing more than a fetch quest that is mandatory if you want to kill the Dragon. Every one of these things you described are comprised entirely of Notes you find on corpses or on the ground, that lead to clearing generic standard locations you could have cleared regardless of said "quest" ever being there. These are not Quests, they are "Tasks" which are vastly different from what defines a Quest. A Quest involves cinematic conversations with close up shots, interesting writing in the form of said conversions, and not entirely dependent on lazily strewn about "notes" that you come across. A Quest involves more than simply clearing out areas of enemies that you would be doing anyways as your walking by. Quests involve choices, decisions and consequences.
if you want to go on believing these are "Quests", then by all means go ahead. I however will continue to advocate for REAL quests, not lazily constructed "Tasks" that replace them.
Hissing Wastes - finding Venatori camp, stopping them and finding dwarven treasure. This is hardly a "scavenger hunt". Emerald Graves - aiding Fairbanks and his peasants. There's a whole storyline where you get red of Freemen of the Dales and they move into their base, aside from learning that peasants are sent to Emprise for experiments with red lyrium. Storm Coast - search for Wardens, which is actually very close to main quest.
Th Western Approach HAS overarching quest - it's learning what Venatori do (they want to catch another dragon - the fetch quest you're talking about is a lure for it to fight it in the first place), grabbing the Keep and making it livable, only to discover the source of darkspawn as well as to why they showed up on the desert in the first place.
Exalted plains - there's a whole storyline about Freemen of the Dales and them being responsible for the place being overran by undead. We help Imperial army regain foothold on the region.
Those are all very generous descriptions of what you actually do in those regions.
No, what you're doing is trying to downplay the amount of content there is.
It is a scavenger hunt, yet another generic "camp" of venatori is hardly worthy of being called a "quest", and the "treasure" in question, is just a shitty Rune.
ONE generic camp? I am going to have to ask whether you played the game or remember it well - not only there were at least 3 Venatori camps, each bigger than the previous, as well as excavations sites, we end up in a big fortified camp where we're having a boss fight.
Also - finding and learning about history of mysterious dwarven ruins on the surface, with individual comments for many companions and whole storyline emerging out of us chasing the clues, finished with us being led to a tomb which also serves as a lair for a dragon is hardly a 'scavenger hunt'.
Again, Aiding Fairbanks, yes, you are technically aiding him, by doing something anyone would have done going through the region anyways regardless.
A REAL quest is not something you can do in your free time, without the quest having been activated and with almost no conversations.
Well then - good luck finishing the quest of aiding Fairbanks without taking the quest. You can't do that. The fact that you can do things that connect with the main quest (as you can do in many other open-world games) doesn't change the fact that you can't just arrive at Fairbanks' hideout and get stuff form him or finish/move storyline without talking to him and progressing with the quest.
Again, Notes entries and generic camps are not freaking quests, and the lure quest, is nothing more than a fetch quest that is mandatory if you want to kill the Dragon.
A generic "fetch quest" is a quest that starts and ends with us fetching an item and it serving no other purpose, maybe aside from some reward. You can't call every quest that has a segment where we have to hunt/bring/kill something, to progress with quest, a "fetch quest". If you do so 80-90% of all quests in RPGs are fetch quests, plain and simple.
Every one of these things you described are comprised entirely of Notes you find on corpses or on the ground, that lead to clearing generic standard locations you could have cleared regardless of said "quest" ever being there.
I have to question your memory of those, because no - all the quests I've mentioned have different stages that often time require doing something more than just following a paper trail. Interacting with multiple PCs, comments from companions, making choices, going back to war table in order to delegate forces to clear areas or build bridges, having to get an entire keep to progress with quest, figuring out puzzles - heck, after we're done, there are even changes to environment. Finishing some quests means dispatching patrols on roads and no demons on them, clearing paths for merchants, getting rids of darkspawn in the region, people commenting on deeds of Inquisition and so on.
These are not Quests, they are "Tasks" which are vastly different from what defines a Quest. A Quest involves cinematic conversations with close up shots, interesting writing in the form of said conversions, and not entirely dependent on lazily strewn about "notes" that you come across. A Quest involves more than simply clearing out areas of enemies that you would be doing anyways as your walking by. Quests involve choices, decisions and consequences.
if you want to go on believing these are "Quests", then by all means go ahead. I however will continue to advocate for REAL quests, not lazily constructed "Tasks" that replace them.
No, what you're demanding for the game is to provide YOUR version of what "Quest" is, while at the same time downplaying what you're very determined to see as 'tasks', no matter how elaborate they are and no matter how often they're providing what you've detailed here (with the exception of close up shots, except for our meetings with Harding), but choose to ignore.
And I'm not even saying that what DAI did was gold everywhere. I'll welcome improvements on the questing field. But I'm tired of people dismissing what we do in zones as "fetch quests" that are devoid of narrative or disconnected from main story, because they're clearly not that.
Last Edit: Aug 16, 2017 4:31:40 GMT by midnight tea
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
Those are all very generous descriptions of what you actually do in those regions.
No, what you're doing is trying to downplay the amount of content there is.
It is a scavenger hunt, yet another generic "camp" of venatori is hardly worthy of being called a "quest", and the "treasure" in question, is just a shitty Rune.
ONE generic camp? I am going to have to ask whether you played the game or remember it well - not only there were at least 3 Venatori camps, each bigger than the previous, as well as excavations sites, we end up in a big fortified camp where we're having a boss fight.
Also - finding and learning about history of mysterious dwarven ruins on the surface, with individual comments for many companions and whole storyline emerging out of us chasing the clues, finished with us being led to a tomb which also serves as a lair for a dragon is hardly a 'scavenger hunt'.
Again, Aiding Fairbanks, yes, you are technically aiding him, by doing something anyone would have done going through the region anyways regardless.
A REAL quest is not something you can do in your free time, without the quest having been activated and with almost no conversations.
Well then - good luck finishing the quest of aiding Fairbanks without taking the quest. You can't do that. The fact that you can do things that connect with the main quest (as you can do in many other open-world games) doesn't change the fact that you can't just arrive at Fairbanks' hideout and get stuff form him or finish/move storyline without talking to him and progressing with the quest.
Again, Notes entries and generic camps are not freaking quests, and the lure quest, is nothing more than a fetch quest that is mandatory if you want to kill the Dragon.
A generic "fetch quest" is a quest that starts and ends with us fetching an item and it serving no other purpose, maybe aside from some reward. You can't call every quest that has a segment where we have to hunt/bring/kill something, to progress with quest, a "fetch quest". If you do so 80-90% of all quests in RPGs are fetch quests, plain and simple.
Every one of these things you described are comprised entirely of Notes you find on corpses or on the ground, that lead to clearing generic standard locations you could have cleared regardless of said "quest" ever being there.
I have to question your memory of those, because no - all the quests I've mentioned have different stages that often time require doing something more than just following a paper trail. Interacting with multiple PCs, comments from companions, making choices, going back to war table in order to delegate forces to clear areas or build bridges, having to get an entire keep to progress with quest, figuring out puzzles - heck, after we're done, there are even changes to environment. Finishing some quests means dispatching patrols on roads and no demons on them, clearing paths for merchants, getting rids of darkspawn in the region, people commenting on deeds of Inquisition and so on.
These are not Quests, they are "Tasks" which are vastly different from what defines a Quest. A Quest involves cinematic conversations with close up shots, interesting writing in the form of said conversions, and not entirely dependent on lazily strewn about "notes" that you come across. A Quest involves more than simply clearing out areas of enemies that you would be doing anyways as your walking by. Quests involve choices, decisions and consequences.
if you want to go on believing these are "Quests", then by all means go ahead. I however will continue to advocate for REAL quests, not lazily constructed "Tasks" that replace them.
No, what you're demanding for the game is to provide YOUR version of what "Quest" is, while at the same time downplaying what you're very determined to see as 'tasks', no matter how elaborate they are and no matter how often they're providing what you've detailed here (with the exception of close up shots, except for our meetings with Harding), but choose to ignore.
And I'm not even saying that what DAI did was gold everywhere. I'll welcome improvements on the questing field. But I'm tired of people dismissing what we do in zones as "fetch quests" that are devoid of narrative or disconnected from main story, because they're clearly not that.
In The Witcher 3, I agreed to kill a ghost near a lighthouse. Just a standard bounty. This led to a tavern brawl, dead villagers, Geralt’s imprisonment, a deal with a noble and then a quest in a cave that forced Geralt to face his fears and failings. It was entirely optional. This is a Quest, not running around a zone mowing down packs of enemies at various copy and paste camps after having one conversation with an NPC who asked you to do it for them.
in Knights of the Old Republic II, I made almost all of my companions Sith. I remember watching Atton Rand break down, almost crying, as he confessed his greatest sin to me, and I remember rebuilding him into a heartless killer. I’d never felt so evil in a game before. It disturbed me. It was entirely optional.
Games that get side quests right have one key ingredient: the designers recognize that a side quest can be just as important as the main quest. In many ways, they are even more important. They allow us to develop our characters in a thousand tiny ways that can impact the direction we choose to go down when we start walking along the main road again. And they can change the world around us. These so called "quests" you describe achieve none of this, and carry none of this impact or variety.
No, what you're doing is trying to downplay the amount of content there is. ONE generic camp? I am going to have to ask whether you played the game or remember it well - not only there were at least 3 Venatori camps, each bigger than the previous, as well as excavations sites, we end up in a big fortified camp where we're having a boss fight.
Also - finding and learning about history of mysterious dwarven ruins on the surface, with individual comments for many companions and whole storyline emerging out of us chasing the clues, finished with us being led to a tomb which also serves as a lair for a dragon is hardly a 'scavenger hunt'. Well then - good luck finishing the quest of aiding Fairbanks without taking the quest. You can't do that. The fact that you can do things that connect with the main quest (as you can do in many other open-world games) doesn't change the fact that you can't just arrive at Fairbanks' hideout and get stuff form him or finish/move storyline without talking to him and progressing with the quest.
A generic "fetch quest" is a quest that starts and ends with us fetching an item and it serving no other purpose, maybe aside from some reward. You can't call every quest that has a segment where we have to hunt/bring/kill something, to progress with quest, a "fetch quest". If you do so 80-90% of all quests in RPGs are fetch quests, plain and simple.
I have to question your memory of those, because no - all the quests I've mentioned have different stages that often time require doing something more than just following a paper trail. Interacting with multiple PCs, comments from companions, making choices, going back to war table in order to delegate forces to clear areas or build bridges, having to get an entire keep to progress with quest, figuring out puzzles - heck, after we're done, there are even changes to environment. Finishing some quests means dispatching patrols on roads and no demons on them, clearing paths for merchants, getting rids of darkspawn in the region, people commenting on deeds of Inquisition and so on.
No, what you're demanding for the game is to provide YOUR version of what "Quest" is, while at the same time downplaying what you're very determined to see as 'tasks', no matter how elaborate they are and no matter how often they're providing what you've detailed here (with the exception of close up shots, except for our meetings with Harding), but choose to ignore.
And I'm not even saying that what DAI did was gold everywhere. I'll welcome improvements on the questing field. But I'm tired of people dismissing what we do in zones as "fetch quests" that are devoid of narrative or disconnected from main story, because they're clearly not that.
In The Witcher 3, I agreed to kill a ghost near a lighthouse. Just a standard bounty. This led to a tavern brawl, dead villagers, Geralt’s imprisonment, a deal with a noble and then a quest in a cave that forced Geralt to face his fears and failings. It was entirely optional. This is a Quest, not running around a zone mowing down packs of enemies at various copy and paste camps after having one conversation with an NPC who asked you to do it for them.
in Knights of the Old Republic II, I made almost all of my companions Sith. I remember watching Atton Rand break down, almost crying, as he confessed his greatest sin to me, and I remember rebuilding him into a heartless killer. I’d never felt so evil in a game before. It disturbed me. It was entirely optional.
Games that get side quests right have one key ingredient: the designers recognize that a side quest can be just as important as the main quest. In many ways, they are even more important. They allow us to develop our characters in a thousand tiny ways that can impact the direction we choose to go down when we start walking along the main road again. And they can change the world around us. These so called "quests" you describe achieve none of this, and carry none of this impact or variety.
Mike has acknowledged criticism of excessive fetch quests in DAI, so hopefully we will see some improvement in the next game.
In The Witcher 3, I agreed to kill a ghost near a lighthouse. Just a standard bounty. This led to a tavern brawl, dead villagers, Geralt’s imprisonment, a deal with a noble and then a quest in a cave that forced Geralt to face his fears and failings. It was entirely optional. This is a Quest, not running around a zone mowing down packs of enemies at various copy and paste camps after having one conversation with an NPC who asked you to do it for them.
in Knights of the Old Republic II, I made almost all of my companions Sith. I remember watching Atton Rand break down, almost crying, as he confessed his greatest sin to me, and I remember rebuilding him into a heartless killer. I’d never felt so evil in a game before. It disturbed me. It was entirely optional.
Games that get side quests right have one key ingredient: the designers recognize that a side quest can be just as important as the main quest. In many ways, they are even more important. They allow us to develop our characters in a thousand tiny ways that can impact the direction we choose to go down when we start walking along the main road again. And they can change the world around us. These so called "quests" you describe achieve none of this, and carry none of this impact or variety.
Mike has acknowledged criticism of excessive fetch quests in DAI, so hopefully we will see some improvement in the next game.
Aye, I was already fully aware of that. Mike explained that basically, all that stuff was there, because they didn't expect players to be so OCD about wanting to do everything. To which I have to question how a developer that has made RPGs for 20 years hadn't yet realized that.
Mike has acknowledged criticism of excessive fetch quests in DAI, so hopefully we will see some improvement in the next game.
Aye, I was already fully aware of that. Mike explained that basically, all that stuff was there, because they didn't expect players to be so OCD about wanting to do everything. To which I have to question how a developer that has made RPGs for 20 years hadn't yet realized that.
It is a lot easier to criticize something than it is to create it.
In The Witcher 3, I agreed to kill a ghost near a lighthouse. Just a standard bounty. This led to a tavern brawl, dead villagers, Geralt’s imprisonment, a deal with a noble and then a quest in a cave that forced Geralt to face his fears and failings. It was entirely optional. This is a Quest, not running around a zone mowing down packs of enemies at various copy and paste camps after having one conversation with an NPC who asked you to do it for them.
Aaaaand you still keep ignoring all the things that aren't "running around zone mowing down pack of enemies at various copy and paste caps" even though I've pointed them out already.
Also - what you're failing to mention that quests like that didn't happen all that often in case of Geralt. Most of the bounty quests were just that - "fetch quests". Go and kill this, get a reward, end. I've played Witcher 3 too, you know.
And the fact that Geralt had emergent bigger quests like that is because he didn't have content surrounding companions or advisers. Sure, some if his friends had surrounding quests, but not entire, choice and emotion-ladden quests we have with 9 companions once we earn enough of their trust. It just doesn't happen. Witcher 3 simply doesn't have such big emphasis on companions or them being permanent, so the resources for an occasional bigger quest are available to put elsewhere.
Also - good luck making the same kind of quests you mentioned in DAI when it Witcher 3 it relied ENTIRELY on Witcher being a fixed character with two games and a whole book series of history behind him.
In Knights of the Old Republic II, I made almost all of my companions Sith. I remember watching Atton Rand break down, almost crying, as he confessed his greatest sin to me, and I remember rebuilding him into a heartless killer. I’d never felt so evil in a game before. It disturbed me. It was entirely optional.
Yes, because people didn't say that they weren't emotionally touched when they've finished companion quests in DAI or impacted by revelations in storyline...
Games that get side quests right have one key ingredient: the designers recognize that a side quest can be just as important as the main quest. In many ways, they are even more important. They allow us to develop our characters in a thousand tiny ways that can impact the direction we choose to go down when we start walking along the main road again. And they can change the world around us.
And they ARE. Companion quests, among others, are 'sice-quests' that are entirely optional as well. But try and treat EVERY side quest as as important as main quest and you get yourself a recipe for a game that will never see a light of day (and ain't necessarily better because of that). Side-quests have varying levels of detail and impact - that is true in DAI as it is true in Witcher 3.
These so called "quests" you describe achieve none of this, and carry none of this impact or variety.
Of course they do - in all the big or small ways you mentioned. But in case of Inquisitor we can't just think about ourselves or our immediate surrounding - all we do impacts the strength of Inquisition - the influence we have, the power we hold, the allies we have or their reach. Majority of quests we can play through, including many smaller ones across the zones, have direct impact on that or how Inquisition is perceived by the world OR what we know about the world. That you refuse to see that... well, whatever floats your boat. You may not like what and how the game handled certain elements - that doesn't entitle you to ferevrishly denying content that is there.
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
