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[terrdactycalsrock]

This game feels so massive, intimidatingly so. I just made it to the forest area how much more of the game is left? Also, how do you get new potions? I still only have healing potions. And I haven't been crafting anything, is it to early for me to be finding good schematics and materials?

 

[leng jai]

The best way to play DA:I is to explore at your own free will and just do whatever you come across outside of the mandatory stuff. I pretty much did the story missions as soon as I had enough power to access them. I'm near the end and approaching 35 hours and I still feel like I've wasted too much time on inconsequential side quests.

 

[hlhbk]

The best way to play DA:I is to explore at your own free will and just do whatever you come across outside of the mandatory stuff. I pretty much did the story missions as soon as I had enough power to access them. I'm near the end and approaching 35 hours and I still feel like I've wasted too much time on inconsequential side quests.

Only 35 hours for the main quest?

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

Sorry but that's utterly untrue. Have you left the hinterlands yet?

Not only do you have several character specific quests for each party member, but each zone has a main quest outside of the main storyline plus other additional excellent neat quests. Be it Crestwoods storyline to restore the zone to normal, Gravewoods haunted house, Westen Approaches time frozen prison or any of the other zone quests (undead in empyrean planes, freeman leaders in the Gravewoods, barbarian tribe in Felmarsh), each zone has numerous interesting side quests - and even more impressively, the zone will change as you do some to reflect your actions (the refugees moving camp in Gravewoods confused the hell out of me!).

Yes, there are a number of boring MMO quests which are just FedEx missions, but just like in MMOs they exist only to lead you to new areas. They are breadcrumb quests - not filler, just something to get you to explore. Ignore them if you want - there's enough 'meaty' quests in the game to finish it just on that if you want.

(I do agree the hinterlands is too big and too full of those style quests. This year seems to be the year of games selling themselves short in the first couple of hours. Be it shadows of Mordor, dragon age or Suset overdrive it's a common theme!)

Eh... Granted I feel like I still have a ways to go before completing my first run through the the game but having really scoured Crestwood, Exiled Plains, the Hinterlands, Fallow Marsh, Forbidden Oasis, and the Western Approach so far and there is a distinct lack of memorable side quests or just side quests that have some element of choice tied to them.

I'm just thinking what kinds of quests/choices would show up in the DA Keep for Inquisition and for me so far, I have a hard time thinking of many at all. Sure, you've got cool quests/locations like the Still Ruins or the Crestwood one (rehash of Redcliffe) but even those really don't have many memorable characters just interesting locales. And even the companion quests are pretty shallow, at least in how the game forces you to grind out a bunch of "Go here and kill X enemies for X Companion" or Find X books for Companion" before you can advance them. It ends up feeling like bloat. Why not just kill one or 2 rogue Tempars for Cassandra that are actually given some characterization and personality, instead of 5 spread out all over? Why not just 1 book of some specific importance for Vivienne?

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

And even the companion quests are pretty shallow, at least in how the game forces you to grind out a bunch of "Go here and kill X enemies for X Companion" or Find X books for Companion" before you can advance them. It ends up feeling like bloat. Why not just kill one or 2 rogue Tempars for Cassandra that are actually given some characterization and personality, instead of 5 spread out all over? Why not just 1 book of some specific importance for Vivienne?

You don't actually have to do those to advance the companion quest. They're there merely to boost your Approval if it's too low. I've finished Cassandra's personal quest without killing a single rogue Templar.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Whereas with Inquisition, half of the time you're talking to someone its in that bland over the shoulder view that glitches out most of the time and it just kills my interest in those conversations when you have either your party members running around like idiots stuck on the geometry in the background or the NPC you're talking to is facing the wrong way. It makes it feel like a really cheap MMO, not a proper modern BioWare game.

It really does glitch out a lot, doesn't it? Seems like almost half of the time that something goes wrong with the generic conversations.

I wonder if they had to go that route due to some limitation with the tools or something.

Sorry but that's utterly untrue. Have you left the hinterlands yet?

Not only do you have several character specific quests for each party member, but each zone has a main quest outside of the main storyline plus other additional excellent neat quests. Be it Crestwoods storyline to restore the zone to normal, Gravewoods haunted house, Westen Approaches time frozen prison or any of the other zone quests (undead in empyrean planes, freeman leaders in the Gravewoods, barbarian tribe in Felmarsh), each zone has numerous interesting side quests - and even more impressively, the zone will change as you do some to reflect your actions (the refugees moving camp in Gravewoods confused the hell out of me!).

I said it earlier in the thread, but I think the problem is in the execution and presentation rather than the story idea.

Your "time frozen prison" is a good example. Sounds like an awesome bit of content, but it's not presented or set up with any kind of gravity that it becomes simply to wander through it unknowing of your objective and end up completing it. The actual moment-to-moment progression of it feels exactly the same as when you're wandering around the world maps systematically eliminating diamonds like in an Assassin's Creed game or something.

The side content just isn't given enough attention or proper presentation for it to feel meaningful. That's how I felt at least. Everything but the main quest and character friendship missions just felt like random MMORPG busywork.

Why not just kill one or 2 rogue Tempars for Cassandra that are actually given some characterization and personality, instead of 5 spread out all over? Why not just 1 book of some specific importance for Vivienne?

Yep, even the character quests could be pretty damn bland. Going to specific locations and hunting down those rogue Templars for Cassandra could have been cool missions. Even if it were just two Templars. Instead, you just bumble upon them while you're running through the environments doing busywork anyway and the encounter is pretty much the same as any of the random Templar enemy groups you face. The only difference being that you get a quip from Cassandra (if she's in your party) after they're dead and a quest update sound.

Only 35 hours for the main quest?

Honestly, I doubt there's much more than 10 hours of content across all of the main quest missions. If it weren't for the Power/Level requirement, the game could be completed very quickly, I think.

man this

Spoiler

empress mission

is so boring. the worst mission in the entire game so far.

You mean the great ball at the winter palace? That was probably my favorite mission in the whole game... The mage one was really good, too, though.

 

[Lumination]

Hey everyone, I've just got to Haven and had to restart my game. Had a question I was hoping someone could answer. How do you trigger the Butler scene with Leliana? It happened right after I talked to her in camp the first time, but it's not happening in my new game.

 

[DTKT]

It definitely feels like the "main" story got the least amount of work. I can't believe I'm near the end with while I'm about to finish the Ball mission.

Most of the zones were interesting but had very little to actually make you care beyond the mindless fetch quests.

 

[bearythebear]

I'm finishing up the Grey Warden stuff, about level 16, and have 15k gold. I wanna get the 10k mount. Should I go ahead, or is there something I should save money for? Just playing on Normal.

 

[Deified Data]

I'm finishing up the Grey Warden stuff, about level 16, and have 15k gold. I wanna get the 10k mount. Should I go ahead, or is there something I should save money for? Just playing on Normal.

Do it. It's the only thing in the game worth spending money on.

 

[Xeteh]

I'm finishing up the Grey Warden stuff, about level 16, and have 15k gold. I wanna get the 10k mount. Should I go ahead, or is there something I should save money for? Just playing on Normal.

The only stuff that costs a lot of gold are the high level armor/weapon schematics so if you're not concerned about that then have at it.

 

[leng jai]

Where do you buy mounts from? Think I've still only got the default one.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Where do you buy mounts from? Think I've still only got the default one.

There's a fellow you can recruit in the Hinterlands that will sell them. More will be unlocked over time in his store. There's also a war table mission or two awards them. Beyond that, I'm not sure.

I didn't explore a couple areas at all, I imagine there's another vendor or two that sells the rest. It probably explains why I never encountered any exotic mounts in my playthrough.

 

[texhnolyze]

I finally beat all of the dragons at level 22, and I haven't even finished the main story yet. Beat the first one at level 17 or so, and the last 3 dragons at Emprise du Lion at level 21-22. Dragon hunting party is Reaver Inquisitor, Blackwall, Sera, and Vivienne. Not even a single dragon-killer rune attached to the weapons. All done in nightmare. I hope I beat some of them earlier when I'm not over-leveled though.

 

[Xeteh]

Hey everyone, I've just got to Haven and had to restart my game. Had a question I was hoping someone could answer. How do you trigger the Butler scene with Leliana? It happened right after I talked to her in camp the first time, but it's not happening in my new game.

Was Butler the traitor? I can't quite remember, if so after the first time you talk to her you should be able to just wait until a scout comes running up to deliver her the message and then talk to her again.

 

[Lumination]

Was Butler the traitor? I can't quite remember, if so after the first time you talk to her you should be able to just wait until a scout comes running up to deliver her the message and then talk to her again.

Yup, that's the one. That's what happened in my first playthrough, but it's not happening in this one...

 

[Xeteh]

Yup, that's the one. That's what happened in my first playthrough, but it's not happening in this one...

That is strange. Have you left Haven and come back to try again? I don't think I've ever had issue getting it to trigger. The scout does need to be near her for it to happen but other than that I don't know.

 

[SuperSonic1305]

To each his own but I love the smaller quests and the world building that it provides. Using these small quests to add context to the war and the state of the world is great. I never feel like i'm wasting time because everything I do adds to my own story and experience in this world. Not everything needs to be about world changing choices and consequences. Piecing together the details and lore around an area is immensely satisfying to me. I appreciate the attention to detail that Bioware has put it. Following the trail of the Carta smuggling ring in the hinterlands and all their little camps and what not. Finding the notes scattered around and learning about their motivations and how they kept people from discovering them. Eventually finding the key to their base and taking out their leader. That by itself was like a mini quest line and story that adds a lot to the overall experience. To some that may just boil down to "fetch quests" but those people can go play mobile games because it's clear they don't appreciate the work that went into this game.

 

[Lumination]

That is strange. Have you left Haven and come back to try again? I don't think I've ever had issue getting it to trigger. The scout does need to be near her for it to happen but other than that I don't know.

I'll try rezoning, thanks.

Is the scout an actual special NPC that walks around? Maybe I'm just not there at the right time?

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

It really does glitch out a lot, doesn't it? Seems like almost half of the time that something goes wrong with the generic conversations.

I wonder if they had to go that route due to some limitation with the tools or something.

I had a couple great ones. One time I was chatting with some NPC and Dorian was freaking out spinning in circles like a top. Then some other time Dorian was standing on top of a tent in a Captain Morgan type pose, except his leg had glitched out so it was about 6 feet tall. Or Cassandra just charged in between my Inquisitor and the NPC I was talking to and just stood there staring at the NPC.

Then I had a bunch of wolves start randomly attacking my party during Solas' personal quest, while locked in a conversation. With the best part being Solas was apparently attacking the wolves, yet he was locked into his stationary pose while fireballs were blowing up out of no where:

I'm guessing BioWare cheaped out on most of the conversations just as a cost savings measure, but even if they just had them at the back and forth behind the shoulder level of zoom you had in most conversations in Origins, I'd have been happy.

 

[Xeteh]

I'll try rezoning, thanks.

Is the scout an actual special NPC that walks around? Maybe I'm just not there at the right time?

No, not at all. Every time I've seen him come running to Leliana it is from that bonfire her tent is next to. I believe he just spawns as soon as she's ready for that conversation. Which means she's leaning on that table to the side of her tent... I've restarted the game so many times.

 

[Brian Fellows]

man this

Spoiler

empress mission

is so boring. the worst mission in the entire game so far.

That has been my favorite mission in the game so far.

 

[Ivory Samoan]

Dragon Hunting is my new favourite thing in gaming, well... equal with Vanguard Charge+Shotgun+Melee to face adventures.

 

[MuggerMD]

Seems like generating guard is a huge part of tanking. Does AI do a better job at generating guard then a player can?

 

[Grisby]

Just got past the Winter Palace.

Spoiler

Morrigan's aged pretty well. God, her voice is lovely. Was neat seeing the demon kid. Although, I was hoping for some bitchy banter between her and Leliana.

Oh, and does anyone know what happens if you

Spoiler

stabbed Morrgan back in the Witch Hunt dlc?

Super curious what would play out.

 

[Xeteh]

Just got past the Winter Palace.

Spoiler

Morrigan's aged pretty well. God, her voice is lovely. Was neat seeing the demon kid. Although, I was hoping for some bitchy banter between her and Leliana.

Oh, and does anyone know what happens if you

Spoiler

stabbed Morrgan back in the Witch Hunt dlc?

Super curious what would play out.

For your first part there is a bit if you make the right choices coming up.

Second... Not sure. Can't say I've tried playing through with that choice in the keep.

 

[Grisby]

For your first part there is a bit if you make the right choices coming up.

Second... Not sure. Can't say I've tried playing through with that choice in the keep.

Cool, lets hope I make the right choices then.

Yeah, I hope someone gets it up on youtube or something.

 

[Xeteh]

Cool, lets hope I make the right choices then.

Yeah, I hope someone gets it up on youtube or something.

Same, apparently there is a way to get

Spoiler

Alistair and Morrigan

to have a conversation but I'm not sure if people have figured it out yet. All this does is make me want to play Origins for the 92355th time.

 

[Tony Redgrave]

To each his own but I love the smaller quests and the world building that it provides. Using these small quests to add context to the war and the state of the world is great. I never feel like i'm wasting time because everything I do adds to my own story and experience in this world. Not everything needs to be about world changing choices and consequences. Piecing together the details and lore around an area is immensely satisfying to me. I appreciate the attention to detail that Bioware has put it. Following the trail of the Carta smuggling ring in the hinterlands and all their little camps and what not. Finding the notes scattered around and learning about their motivations and how they kept people from discovering them. Eventually finding the key to their base and taking out their leader. That by itself was like a mini quest line and story that adds a lot to the overall experience. To some that may just boil down to "fetch quests" but those people can go play mobile games because it's clear they don't appreciate the work that went into this game.

I don't think anyone thinks those are fetch quests, as long as there is some lore or story bit behind them they are worthwhile. Fetch quests are stuff like shards, requisitions, rifts after a certain point etc.

I loved landmarks for example, they encourage exploration and give you an actual little reward for those who like the lore of the series. As you said, not everything has to be about big decisions and these missions do flesh the world in a very nuanced way but, as someone said a above the main story amounts to what? 10-15 hours of total content? This sidequests should be a complement to the main story, not almost eclipse it, specially when they lack any sort of cinematic presentation.

 

[Lord starti]

Hey guys,

I'm seriously struggling with gearing up and skilling my mage and followers. I've started the game on hard and now I'm down to the lowest difficulty.

My mage is nearly level 10 and he feels so weak. His main ability (R2 button) does about 30 damage and his other abilities are making between 30 and 100 damage. I've mixed some of the fire and cold skills.

I find it very hard to get appropriate gear and crafting is giving me a serious headache. I've already read guides on kotaku and eurogamer but their tipps are very generic and not helpful at all.

Spoiler

I've have mostly done the Hinterlands and just finished the quest where the Mages join my Inquisition.

How can I gear up/find better gear? How should I skill my mage?

The game is a blast but feeling so extremely weak is a bit of let a down.

 

[Tony Redgrave]

Hey guys,

I'm seriously struggling with gearing up and skilling my mage and followers. I've started the game on hard and now I'm down to the lowest difficulty.

My mage is nearly level 10 and he feels so weak. His main ability (R2 button) does about 30 damage and his other abilities are making between 30 and 100 damage. I've mixed some of the fire and cold skills.

I find it very hard to get appropriate gear and crafting is giving me a serious headache. I've already read guides on kotaku and eurogamer but their tipps are very generic and not helpful at all.

Spoiler

I've have mostly done the Hinterlands and just finished the quest where the Mages join my Inquisition.

How can I gear up/find better gear? How should I skill my mage?

The game is a blast but feeling so extremely weak is a bit of let a down.

As far as I know base mage is not much of a dps class, it's more about controlling the battle field (freezing, stunning etc.). You say you mixed fire and cold skills, obviously what skills and how you mixed them is important but I think you might want to commit to a certain tree and instead of unlocking many active abilities at once, strengthen the ones you already have and get some passives for underlying benefits. Just my two cents.

About crafting, you need schematics and materials, since you've pretty much only been in the Hinterlands it's logical you don't have much to craft. There's a Dwarf bookseller in Redcliff's harbor who sells schematics for all classes, there is also a schematics only shop in Val Royeaux near a little park, try getting some schematics from those places and see what you can craft.

You should also definitely unlock the Storm Coast and the Fallow Mire and do at least the main sidequests in those areas for some better equipment. Once you get an specialization later in the game your mage will feel much powerful (Knight Enchanter specially) so don't worry too much.

 

[Laughing Banana]

Hey guys,

I'm seriously struggling with gearing up and skilling my mage and followers. I've started the game on hard and now I'm down to the lowest difficulty.

My mage is nearly level 10 and he feels so weak. His main ability (R2 button) does about 30 damage and his other abilities are making between 30 and 100 damage. I've mixed some of the fire and cold skills.

I find it very hard to get appropriate gear and crafting is giving me a serious headache. I've already read guides on kotaku and eurogamer but their tipps are very generic and not helpful at all.

Spoiler

I've have mostly done the Hinterlands and just finished the quest where the Mages join my Inquisition.

How can I gear up/find better gear? How should I skill my mage?

The game is a blast but feeling so extremely weak is a bit of let a down.

Well... depending on your setup. What is your setup? Barrier is a must, as is Fade Step. Winter Stillness is also great, but you don't really need it if you're choosing to play Rift Mage. Oh, and Dispel is exceptionally useful in many situations, especially when dealing with Rifts as you can immediately kill demons before they even spawn with it.

Generally speaking, don't pick ice beyond Winter Stillness. In fact, I'd recommend Fade Step and Winter Stillness as the only one that you pick from Ice.

Fire is amazing, *especially* Fire Mine--the highest burst damage for Mage. If you are aiming for damage, I'd recommend Immolate all the way down to Fire Mine. Combine it on the right side of the Lightning tree: Energy Barrage, all the way down to Lightning Cage with its upgrade.

The general flow of battle is cast barrier, cast Lightning Cage, pop up Fire Mine, and use Fade Step to evade attacks.

For specializations, you can generally ignore Necromancer, since they suck. If you pick Rift Mage, respec Lightning points to all of your Rift Mage skills, since Lightning Cage and Pull of the Abyss basically serve as the same function.

Knight Enchanter................. well, it's really hard to screw with this either way.

Also, general rule is: crafting can *obscenely* trumps anything found in the field or bought in shops.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Oh, and does anyone know what happens if you

Spoiler

stabbed Morrgan back in the Witch Hunt dlc?

Super curious what would play out.

There's dialogue hinting at it, but nothing as expansive as talking to Leiliana, if she died in the first game, about how she died and came back to life.

Spoiler

There's dialogue about how it didn't end well.

 

[His Majesty]

Sorry but that's utterly untrue. Have you left the hinterlands yet?

Not only do you have several character specific quests for each party member, but each zone has a main quest outside of the main storyline plus other additional excellent neat quests. Be it Crestwoods storyline to restore the zone to normal, Gravewoods haunted house, Westen Approaches time frozen prison or any of the other zone quests (undead in empyrean planes, freeman leaders in the Gravewoods, barbarian tribe in Felmarsh), each zone has numerous interesting side quests - and even more impressively, the zone will change as you do some to reflect your actions (the refugees moving camp in Gravewoods confused the hell out of me!).

Yes, there are a number of boring MMO quests which are just FedEx missions, but just like in MMOs they exist only to lead you to new areas. They are breadcrumb quests - not filler, just something to get you to explore. Ignore them if you want - there's enough 'meaty' quests in the game to finish it just on that if you want.

(I do agree the hinterlands is too big and too full of those style quests. This year seems to be the year of games selling themselves short in the first couple of hours. Be it shadows of Mordor, dragon age or Suset overdrive it's a common theme!)

I have completed the game after 60 hours or so. None of the quests you mentioned have C&C. I enjoyed the atmosphere in the Crestwood quest but it has no interactivity at all. Neither does the frozen time temple.

 

[Koppa]

I'm feeling rather lost with my playthrough.

i understand whats going on etc but i cant help feeling like i'm missing something. spoiler tagged just incase

Spoiler

i've just gone to visit the mages and done the whole time travel thing with Dorian and the mages are now chilling with me. Now the only areas i have unlocked (scouted) are Hinterlands and Storm coast. There are no ther "scoutable" areas on the war room map and the current inquisition story quest is to close the breach once and for all.... have i got to the end of the main quest or something? i cant help feeling this mission will be a "close the breach for good but OH NO SOMETHING HAPPENS and you go back to square one" it's confused the piss out of me.......somebody... ENLIGHTEN ME

/confusion

 

[Redmethod18]

I'm feeling rather lost with my playthrough.

i understand whats going on etc but i cant help feeling like i'm missing something. spoiler tagged just incase

Spoiler

i've just gone to visit the mages and done the whole time travel thing with Dorian and the mages are now chilling with me. Now the only areas i have unlocked (scouted) are Hinterlands and Storm coast. There are no ther "scoutable" areas on the war room map and the current inquisition story quest is to close the breach once and for all.... have i got to the end of the main quest or something? i cant help feeling this mission will be a "close the breach for good but OH NO SOMETHING HAPPENS and you go back to square one" it's confused the piss out of me.......somebody... ENLIGHTEN ME

/confusion

Don't worry that isn't the last story quest. The game opens up a good bit more after that quest. Also are you sure you only have Hinterlands and Storm Coast? You should be able to scout at least two more zones.

Spoiler

The Fallow Mire and The Forbidden Oasis.

 

[whatsinaname]

It really does glitch out a lot, doesn't it? Seems like almost half of the time that something goes wrong with the generic conversations.

I wonder if they had to go that route due to some limitation with the tools or something.



I said it earlier in the thread, but I think the problem is in the execution and presentation rather than the story idea.

Your "time frozen prison" is a good example. Sounds like an awesome bit of content, but it's not presented or set up with any kind of gravity that it becomes simply to wander through it unknowing of your objective and end up completing it. The actual moment-to-moment progression of it feels exactly the same as when you're wandering around the world maps systematically eliminating diamonds like in an Assassin's Creed game or something.

The side content just isn't given enough attention or proper presentation for it to feel meaningful. That's how I felt at least. Everything but the main quest and character friendship missions just felt like random MMORPG busywork.



Yep, even the character quests could be pretty damn bland. Going to specific locations and hunting down those rogue Templars for Cassandra could have been cool missions. Even if it were just two Templars. Instead, you just bumble upon them while you're running through the environments doing busywork anyway and the encounter is pretty much the same as any of the random Templar enemy groups you face. The only difference being that you get a quip from Cassandra (if she's in your party) after they're dead and a quest update sound.



Honestly, I doubt there's much more than 10 hours of content across all of the main quest missions. If it weren't for the Power/Level requirement, the game could be completed very quickly, I think.



You mean the great ball at the winter palace? That was probably my favorite mission in the whole game... The mage one was really good, too, though.

I'll have to agree about the conversations and the side quests. There are times I have to go into my Journal to figure out if the quest was actually completed or not.

 

[Noaloha]

Girlfriend bought me the game this morning as an early Xmas gift, woo! Gonna sit down with her tonight and start a New Game. Got a few questions to ask before setting everything up.

I'm going into the game pretty much blind, haven't watched any gameplay footage or read up on good/bad gameplay choices / strategies. Picked up a few things here and there about complaints though, which is informing my doubts about how best to approach the game.

I'd like to play it as a tactical combat game, ideally; a game where the combat is an engaging feature to look forward to and 'beat', rather than to merely push through to get where I'm going. I've seen that Normal is fairly lacking in challenge, but is Hard an actual improvement on combat 'fun' or does it just accentuate its issues? Similarly, I'd like to play with friendly fire on, but only if that's something which is designed specifically to complement the combat (rather than it just providing frustration, and only being included to pacify certain vocal parts of the community). Does friendly fire feel like something the combat is designed around?

In case it matters, I'll be playing on PC with a controller and I'll be rolling a female Elf... Rogue, I think? (I don't really like the Mage auto-attack animations and, for roleplay purposes, I don't think Elf fits with tank too much.)

If the combat is one of the weaker parts of the game (seen this mentioned a few times) then I guess I'm okay with engaging with it as such. I'm not looking to up the difficulty for bragging points or anything, I only want to go the Hard difficulty route if the combat (the game!) genuinely benefits from it, as opposed to suffering further.

EDIT: oh, and if there are any general QoL / hassle-saving tips, I'm all ears. (Yes, yes, I should leave Hinterlands sooner rather than later!)

 

[Ralemont]

I'd like to play it as a tactical combat game, ideally; a game where the combat is an engaging feature to look forward to and 'beat', rather than to merely push through to get where I'm going. I've seen that Normal is fairly lacking in challenge, but is Hard an actual improvement on combat 'fun' or does it just accentuate its issues? Similarly, I'd like to play with friendly fire on, but only if that's something which is designed specifically to complement the combat (rather than it just providing frustration, and only being included to pacify certain vocal parts of the community). Does friendly fire feel like something the combat is designed around?

No, FF is more of a headache than a strategic challenge. The proper method for doing a Nightmare FF playthrough is to simply not take AOE abilities, which just reduces the depth of the game instead of improving it.

My rec is to play on Nightmare with FF off. Yes, playing on the harder difficulties is more rewarding, thanks to the ability to pause and see the battlefield with tac cam. Enemies on Nightmare aren't nearly as damage-spongy as they were in DA2.

As for QoL stuff, have at least one mage with barrier + passives, crafted armor and weapons are very powerful (masterwork crafting can get really cool since fade-touched materials do unique things like generating guard for rogues and mages or letting rogues/mages wear heavy armor), take some defensive moves for rogue as well as offensive (such as stealth or evade...something to get pressure off you),

 

[Tabby]

Save's corruped... guess I have to start all over again.
3rd time's the charm eh?

 

[spekkeh]

I don't think anyone thinks those are fetch quests, as long as there is some lore or story bit behind them they are worthwhile. Fetch quests are stuff like shards, requisitions, rifts after a certain point etc.

I don't consider them worthwhile, I'm not really interested reading yet another piece of fanfiction from 4 meters away on my television. The quests in this game feel like they were all made by an intern at the speed of three a day, after which he went home, in time to pick his kids from school, watch a bit of Oprah and cook dinner for his wife who comes home early from her civil servant job. If Bioware's not going to put any effort in creating compelling quests, I do not feel compelled to put effort in their quests.

After fifty hours of play, there are so far two or three main quests that were fun (Haven/Skyhold, Abyss, Ballroom) and one or two of the companion quests (Cassandra's is okay, though I don't like the kill 10 templars trite stuff). That's it. There are a few areas such as the Hissing Wastes, which have a bit of environmental storytelling that I like, though no meaningful gameplay.

Also only two quests had any meaningful decisionmaking that however doesn't really impact the story.

This game has nice filling bars and looks pretty so you keep playing, but for the tens of intricate systems they loaded on top of each other, it feels surprisingly shallow.

 

[Ralemont]

This game has nice filling bars and looks pretty so you keep playing, but for the tens of intricate systems they loaded on top of each other, it feels surprisingly shallow.

I kept playing for more than that, and my experience was anything but shallow. I can't say you're wrong about how tedious reading a bunch of letters and codices for sidequests is, especially on a large TV, but whenever I did I was rewarded for doing so. A good example is the quest in the Emerald Graves where you find a body at the bottom 0f a cliff. There's no cinematic scenes but your opinion of the quest will change drastically depending on your willingness to read the letters you pick up along the way to completing it. Ditto with the haunted mansion in the Graves.

With that being said, I think the main quest in each zone needed to be fleshed out with more pizazz. In retrospect it's obvious the main quest for the Graves is the Fairbanks plot, but since you end up picking up so many letters and codex entries across these big, expansive zones it can be easy to lose track of what you're doing. If they continue in Inquisition's vein, I'd ask that at the very least the zone quest is given the attention it deserves. That's one of two big problems I have, with the other being shitty AI.

 

[shingonation]

Save's corruped... guess I have to start all over again.
3rd time's the charm eh?

Change characters in the load menu! That will show your saves correctly.

 

[flatearthpandas]

Played for a couple hours last night. I'm thinking I should have read these threads more closely, but I'm going to hold onto the game for a bit and give the old college try.

But I was pretty shocked to see the first next-gen RPG is a dead world full of NPCs standing around doing nothing that the PC is completely incapable of interacting with. They can't be moved; they are just walls if you run into them, and they have nothing to say. Shocking and disappointing, when even the laziest JRPGs feel like their worlds have more life.

 

[Deified Data]

Just realized we've been put out to pasture in community...

 

[Tony Redgrave]

Well, I finally finished it. For all my earlier complaining I have to say that the final battle was badass and I though the

Spoiler

party

was more or less a proper send off.

The post credits scene was most interesting! I'm heading to the spoilers thread.

 

[Dsyndrome]

Just realized we've been put out to pasture in community...

How long do the mods usually wait for when a game comes out, like a month?

 

[Koppa]

Don't worry that isn't the last story quest. The game opens up a good bit more after that quest. Also are you sure you only have Hinterlands and Storm Coast? You should be able to scout at least two more zones.

Spoiler

The Fallow Mire and The Forbidden Oasis.

Ahh nice one thanks i was getting worried for a second.

I couldnt see any other areas to scout when i was on last night but it may have just been me being blind.

Also those astrarium puzzles... one of the Storm Coast ones, yea that particular one can suck a fat one... took me 40 minutes ¬¬

 

[KorrZ]

How long do the mods usually wait for when a game comes out, like a month?

The rule is actually exactly 1 month. So they're pretty much right on queue.

 

[Noaloha]

No, FF is more of a headache than a strategic challenge. The proper method for doing a Nightmare FF playthrough is to simply not take AOE abilities, which just reduces the depth of the game instead of improving it.

My rec is to play on Nightmare with FF off. Yes, playing on the harder difficulties is more rewarding, thanks to the ability to pause and see the battlefield with tac cam. Enemies on Nightmare aren't nearly as damage-spongy as they were in DA2.

As for QoL stuff, have at least one mage with barrier + passives, crafted armor and weapons are very powerful (masterwork crafting can get really cool since fade-touched materials do unique things like generating guard for rogues and mages or letting rogues/mages wear heavy armor), take some defensive moves for rogue as well as offensive (such as stealth or evade...something to get pressure off you),

Noted. I had a gut feeling that friendly fire might be an iffy decision. It's the kind of (imo fun, interesting) gameplay choice that demands a robust enough combat engine to handle it with finesse. In that sense, and only taking from the impressions I've seen of this game, it seems like one of those things where, in its more actiony direction, DA:I leans just enough away from DA:O to make friendly fire (and managing a party around it) less engaging, more hindrance.