Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition Origin: melbella Prime Posts: 2186 Prime Likes: 5778 Posts: 8,413 Likes: 26,103
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I'm confused when you say you never heard Morris' music in DAI? How is that possible? It plays all the time as soon as you load up the game.
You hear it loads in the game. Don't know what this guy is on about. My only complaint was you didn't hear enough of it whilst exploring...
What bothered me was hearing the Orlais theme whilst exploring the elven ruins in Emerald Graves. Nothing like rubbing salt in that wound, game.
The only other issue I had was regurgitating "Siege of Adamant" to raid the fortress in Jaws of Hakkon. I love "Siege of Adamant" and don't like it being used elsewhere (even if I could hear it better in JoH).
Mark Darrah @biomarkdarrah Occasionally my work account gets locked out IS has never found anything Likely a zombie process on a work box with old password Or haxxorz
Now is such a time. Annoying
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes /casually opens PowerPoint deck for "Bacchus Protocol"
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.
It's BioWare. They never listen or acknowledge criticism. They just whip up another tedious DA game like Andromeda. Look how that turned out......
Just found out about an event called The Game Development Conference for Eastern Europe taking place today and tomorrow in Bucharest. From what I see, a lot of devs from companies around Eastern Europe plus companies that have subsidiaries over here (like Ubisoft), will be attending. Maybe that's another thing Mike will be attending? Dev.Play Conference
And, no, Romanian architecture does not mess around. Thanks for the publicity, Mike.
Rapscalioness mentioned she gets a Dracula vibe from Tevinter but I would disagree. Tevinter is modeled more after the Roman Empire. While there is Roman inspired architecture around (because the Romans were here for a long while), the Dracula icon, Bran Castle, is not it. This is Bran Castle, the actual "Dracula's" Castle. It bears more of a resemblance to German castles.
Yeah, and this is what don't want. Tbh. I'd rather not have German castles. I want something different. When I refer to the Dracula vibe, I really mean the fictional dracula movie type settings. Even though there are still alot of German type castles in the movies. What I would like to see is a more Eastern European feel.
And when I say Dracula I'm not really referring to Vlad the Impaler. That's why I threw in the Vincent Price reference for Dracula movie connoisseurs. Also when I say Dracula vibe, I'm not referring to architecture so much as...ambiance. The spookiness of it. Different lighting. Probably raining 80% of the time. It's always a thunderstorm going on in dracula movies. The color palette used. Darker hues. Greys. The feeling of skulduggery being afoot. And everybody knows, but no one will come clean about it. That sort of thing. This is how I imagine Tevinter.
And while I'm not entirely persuaded that Vlad was the origin of the concept of vampires, and our fear of them, his history is a textbook example of how to turn a child into a sado-masochistic adult. I shudder to think what was done to this child as he was a hostage of the Ottoman Turks for so many years. But everything he did upon his return speaks to some ...horrific experiences he must have endured. I mean, you can see it in how he chose to torture and kill his victims. Or he was loony the whole time. But I think it's pretty clear what shaped this person because it was not just revenge, but something on a whole 'nother level he was playing out.
I should have been more specific because it was not so much about Romania exclusively. Rather about the mental associations I have with the idea of Romania. Though I am conscious that they are not truth about the real Romania.
As far architecture, tbh, for Tevinter I like the more old time Russian architecture. More domes. Less squares.
I get what you're saying but I don't really think we're gonna get anything too gothic in nature (both for architecture and atmosphere) around Tevinter. I love the Milan Duomo but it doesn't really look like something out of the Roman Empire, you know?
In terms of architecture, maybe a lot of columns and arches and (for some visual variety and to keep things from looking too Greek) some Renaissance-type domes and halls (like the Florence Duomo, Saint Peter's Basilica or San Marco Basilica). The onion domes you mentioned from Russia, those are predominant in orthodox churches around Eastern Europe, but not really any other type of building.
Maybe if there's something really sinister going on at one point there will be a level of great tension but I don't know if the atmosphere will be that Dracula-esque sense of foreboding and wrongness.
Since, iirc, the Anderfels were more modeled after Germany and we know something fishy and sinister is going on over there, we could get something to this effect there, if we get to visit the place in the game.
I get the sense you've your heart set on seeing this in Tevinter so I'm sorry to be disagreeing with you. I hope, whatever we get, will be great visually and atmospherically, and we'll all like it.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust Life's a b***h and beer's a must
I get what you're saying but I don't really think we're gonna get anything too gothic in nature (both for architecture and atmosphere) around Tevinter. I love the Milan Duomo but it doesn't really look like something out of the Roman Empire, you know?
We've already seen Teviter architecture in DAI and I don't think it's going to be significantly redesigned - and it's inspired by elvhen architecture, which in itself is based on gothic style, though there are differences. Tevinter architecture is more 'blocky' and some of the buildings seem to be inspired by pagodas.
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda Posts: 1,840 Likes: 7,993
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It's BioWare. They never listen or acknowledge criticism. They just whip up another tedious DA game like Andromeda. Look how that turned out......
Going on previous evidence, the Dragon Age team is more likely to over-correct and end up with different problems than they are to ignore criticism altogether. I mean, look at DAI vs. DA2 and how it handles areas for a glaring example of 'yes, we wanted more than one cave, but maybe not that many caves?'
It's BioWare. They never listen or acknowledge criticism. They just whip up another tedious DA game like Andromeda. Look how that turned out......
Going on previous evidence, the Dragon Age team is more likely to over-correct and end up with different problems than they are to ignore criticism altogether. I mean, look at DAI vs. DA2 and how it handles areas for a glaring example of 'yes, we wanted more than one cave, but maybe not that many caves?'
So your saying DA4 will be all about fabulous hair? Every single quest will be hair related.
Going on previous evidence, the Dragon Age team is more likely to over-correct and end up with different problems than they are to ignore criticism altogether. I mean, look at DAI vs. DA2 and how it handles areas for a glaring example of 'yes, we wanted more than one cave, but maybe not that many caves?'
So your saying DA4 will be all about fabulous hair?
... What if DA4 will be about us trying to prevent Solas from growing fabulous hair? Like Biblical Samson, only then he'll regain his full power!
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
It's BioWare. They never listen or acknowledge criticism. They just whip up another tedious DA game like Andromeda. Look how that turned out......
Going on previous evidence, the Dragon Age team is more likely to over-correct and end up with different problems than they are to ignore criticism altogether. I mean, look at DAI vs. DA2 and how it handles areas for a glaring example of 'yes, we wanted more than one cave, but maybe not that many caves?'
Not that it didn't have merit, but Dragon Age 2 was itself an over-correction based on the complaint that people were "tired of saving the world." It was a narrative quite different from many fantasy stories, which naturally spurred complaints.
Yeah, the tedious game I loved so much I bought the other 2 DA games right away, then the Mass effects, then KOTOR . . .
Sounds like a real failure there. hm.
Well, I've played DA3 after playing every other BioWare game since Baldur's Gate 1 in 1999, and I found it tedious. It is the most tedious game I have finished, as I have abandoned NWN1, FO4 and Prey due to tedium. Andromeda imo was a huge improvement on the number and layout of areas, mount being awesome, quest distribution, ability to not do side quests including the Vaults, no power points lockouts for the main story progression, upgraded operations mechanics, more conversations and VAs, and introduction of NG+ compared to DA3.
All of these features imo addressed concerns I did have with DA3 problems. If DA4 deals with the issues the same way Andromeda did, I will consider it as responding to feedback adequately. It is really unfair to say imo that BioWare did not try to relieve the sidequest tedium from DA3 when making Andromeda. A lot of those very same features were added to DA3 by popular mods. If BioWare does so in vanilla set up in the next game, I would like that.
People might not like Andromeda, but BioWare did try.
*snip* I get the sense you've your heart set on seeing this in Tevinter so I'm sorry to be disagreeing with you. I hope, whatever we get, will be great visually and atmospherically, and we'll all like it.
No need to be sorry for disagreeing. I enjoyed your feedback. It was intelligent and kind. There are things I would like to see, sure, but I know that doesn't translate to getting what I want. Life doesn't work that way, amirite? But no harm in throwing some spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.
BioWare @bioware For #VideoGamesDay, we present some biased suggestions for how to spend your day.
You know, this is actually a great idea for today. Seeing as how I somehow managed to catch a cold in the middle of the night. And am currently sitting up here with a box of tissues, a red nose, my favorite housecoat and fuzzy slippers, and a giant mug of tea with lemon, honey and a dash..or two.. of Jack Daniels (for the soul, you understand), playing some DAO would be like having comfort food.
Yeesss. I'm coming, Alistair! Hold on, I gotta blow my nose, *Honk!* Alright, now I'm ready. Those darkspawn don't stand a chance. *sniff*.
Every single quest will be hair related.
