Dragon Age News Thread

Talking about "normal things" is just as important as using banter to build the world.

ugly cackle

I've never heard much banter until yesterday when I was in the Hissing Wastes. Blackwall talking about his time in a different desert, Cassandra teasing Dorian about his happiness at being with Quizzy. Dorian offering to draw Blackwall diagrams to show what he and the Inquisitor get up to  (Oh, those I'd love to see, LOL!) Dorian teasing Cassandra about her image on a painting. Dorian and Blackwall bickering and an option for the Inquisitor to say something. It's the most banter I've ever had.

I don't think banter loses immersion. It gives the characters some background that isn't necessarily to do with your main character and shows they have interactions without you. It makes the world seem more real to me, so I hope they don't lose banter for the next games.

Was that Sam Sykes the fantasy author? He does have banter in his books and it is really fun.

There's also this one... but I'm not sure if I want to know what this is referring to.

Cole: Dorian, I really wish you would tell me.
Dorian: I drew you a diagram. Isn't that enough?
Cole: No.
Dorian: Good. Because the thought of you trying that frightens me more than a little.

I can just imagine...

Inquisitor: Do I even want to know?
Dorian: Probably not!
Cole: I asked Dor--
Dorian: Shh!

Here I am thinking that Laidlaw can't be too common a name, than I learn that there is another Laidlaw, Marc Laidlaw, who is also a game dev.

They realize that was a major nono in DAI. They originally had it set to hear all of it after playing 100ish hours. But most folks didn't play that much and also I don't think it accounted for mounts/combat encounters, etc. 


They were testing out something new in Trespasser with those glowing trigger points. 

Okay, that CE trigger (when it worked) was handy...

I've added a mod recently that's supposed to trigger the banter more regularly, I'm gonna see how that goes.

From what I understand the banter button actually triggers the chance to trigger the banter - hence it doesn't always work when we click it. But clicking button 3 times and getting a piece of banter is still better than waiting 30 mins to get characters to talk. And obviously, with BW making the game, I'm fairly sure they can program this thing to work more reliably than external program

Alternatively (or alongside the button) we can get an option in menu to increase or decrease chance of banter, so we can modify it accordingly.

That's a fair point. I was fine with it in Trespasser, maybe simply due to it being different, but yeah... having a whole game with glowing chat points? Maybe not.

It definitely needs to be more reliable/regular somehow... I get that they want to pace it out enough that you don't have chatty companions for 2 hours, then 6 hours of silence.

I wouldn't mind seeing one of the banter triggers being when you idle for say... 2 full minutes or so (non-paused). Right now the banter is supposed to trigger every 15-20 min. IIRC. Combat and other interruptions can mess with that though.

I don't see this as being a great solution! How many times have I been distracted by a phone call or a person wanting to talk to me while I'm playing, or even just a bio break? I'd hate for the banter to trigger right when I am afk for stuff.

I know there was a way to pause the game in combat, but I don't recall there being a way to pause it while I was just exploring - other than by opening the journal or world map or something like that. When something needs my attention right away - like a person or a phone call - I don't think to open the journal before removing my attention from the game. I think I would miss a lot of banters if they set them to go off when you idle for two minutes!  

I find it so weird when people have PTs with less then 100 hours. 
*she says with her at least 225 hours per PT* 

You can always just hit Ctrl to pause the game. Be it in combat, or otherwise, no need to go to the Inventory/Journal. I do it all the time.