Dragon Age Inquisition

[Inkidu]

Not quite immediate but kind of just dorking around, but still, now that I know how the story missions spread out it'll make for a less cramped game.

As fun as it was, the who game just was terrible in terms of design/pacing.

There are generally two ways to do open world games, and Bioware has always been the champions of the crafted-patchwork-of-areas style, but they tried to the continuous, open-ended Skyrim/Bethesda approach and it didn't work.

[Valaesin]

Not quite immediate but kind of just dorking around, but still, now that I know how the story missions spread out it'll make for a less cramped game.

As fun as it was, the who game just was terrible in terms of design/pacing.

There are generally two ways to do open world games, and Bioware has always been the champions of the crafted-patchwork-of-areas style, but they tried to the continuous, open-ended Skyrim/Bethesda approach and it didn't work.

Funny you mentioned Skyrim... I'm reinstalling it and will be modding the hell out of it.  But I think you hit the nail on the head - it tried to play both worlds and somehow fell flatter than it would have otherwise.

[LaLu]

I'm ok with the game. I'm one of those people in love with side quests. What was driving me the craziest though was all the glitches I was having. Just glad a lot of them seem gone.

[Nadir]

Apparently you and remove class restrictions from armour with the right craftable in the primary slot

like

what

I went through over 150 of that game wearing the ugliest shit and I didn't have to

[Inkidu]

Apparently you and remove class restrictions from armour with the right craftable in the primary slot

like

what

I went through over 150 of that game wearing the ugliest shit and I didn't have to

Yeah, like what. I knew masterworks let you override color, but style?

Can you imagine a warrior in some of those rogue longcoats? *Hhng*

I'll be in my bunk.

EDIT: Relevant video on open-world design:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udF7XX_vTUE&list=UUCODtTcd5M1JavPCOr_Uydg

[Nadir]

How is it relevant? DA isn't open world and the devs made that clear it wasn't years before it was released

[Inkidu]

How is it relevant? DA isn't open world and the devs made that clear it wasn't years before it was released

It is actually an open world game. You can generally go anywhere you want at nearly any time. It's just broken up into areas rather than continuous like Skyrim or Morrowind. Open-world does not equal sandbox.

Though if the devs don't consider it that then that probably explains a lot.

[consortium11]

"Open world" is one of those nebulous terms that means a lot of things to a lot of different people.

The extra-credits pieces describes Baldur's Gate as a open world game and I guess it technically is; there are lots of locations one can go to, you can keep going back and forth to them and if you don't touch the map button you can walk between most of them on the "normal screen" (much like Fallout). But does anyone really think of it as an "open world" game? It's basically a number of completely separate maps that you can travel back and forth to but are largely separated and I doubt there's many (if any) people who actually traveled between all the various hubs without using the fast-travel option... put simply there was nothing there to keep the player interested.

And that's the issue that confronts open world games. How do you make traveling through the open world interesting?

My own preference is generally the skip the "open world" aspect in favour of having specific well-crafted and often fairly large individual areas; Baldur's Gate, Fallout or Arcanum are the classic examples of this but one could also look to either of the Witcher games or the first Dragon Age for pretty good examples. Hell, even Dragon Age 2 to an extent (although the less reused warehouses/caves the better). That said there are some elements of the open world that do work.

I'm not great fan of the more recent Bethesda games but, as much as it's used as a disparaging term, the "hiking simulator" aspect of it is arguably the best part of the game; there is undoubtedly something rewarding about finding shortcuts up mountains, seeing a location pop up on your HUD and getting there or simply going for a walk and seeing what happens; more than once when I've got 20 minutes free or so I'll pop in Skyrim, load a game, give my destination and simply walk there.

Inquisition sits in a fairly awkward position in that it's sort of open-world and sort of not. It's not a full open-world in the way Skyrim is but the areas are large enough that they touch on being open world. And not always particularly well. I hate to pick on the Hinterlands again but it's the best example; it's a huge area and thus Bioware were confronted with how to fill it. And their decision was endless MMO-like fetch and collect quests. And that's not a good way to do it. Skyrim had its "radiant quests" but I don't think anyone particularly liked or enjoyed them; they were something people did because they could rather than something you were hit over the head with.

It's arguably my biggest concern about the Witcher 3. Both the Witcher 1 and 2 featured well, crafted, engaging large areas which functioned as hubs and were actually fairly linear (one generally couldn't travel back and forth between all of them at a given moment). If the open world aspect of the third simply gives a way to travel between such hubs without using fast travel but without putting much content in there then what's the point? And thus they have to fill it with content... but find a way to do it that isn't just repetitive fetch/kill/collect quests.

[SinXAzgard21]

Sorry Inkidu, Bioware has said it is multi-region not open world.

[Inkidu]

Sorry Inkidu, Bioware has said it is multi-region not open world.

I love the smell of semantics in the morning, smells like... the ME3 ending.

[Outsider]

This game has eaten my soul.
I am obsessed with vanity, and this game literally had me stuck for hours in character creation screen, and in the end abandon a 40 hour playthrough just because I thought Dragon Rage looked like crap. Then I tried Knight Enchanter and finished the game on nightmare, and had to force myself to do so because it had gotten so stale and easy.
Friendly advice: don't play Knight Enchanter if you're looking for remotely challenging combat. You're literally invincible and kill everything by yourself because all the important endgame mobs have spirit vulnerability and armor up. Ugh.

Still a pretty fucking sweet game though. Wish I hadn't burnt myself out on Knight Enchanter, might have given it a third go on a rogue specialization.

One thing I hated was the lack of quicksave opportunity before really important choices. Exile some dudes or keep 'em after some epic battle with a Nightmare aspect? Yep, have to replay the entire fight just to see the reactions to other choices. God damn it.

[LaLu]

Finding out Krem is transgender made my day!

Dorian being strickly for men makes me wanna make a male warrior.

[Nadir]

I adore Krem, I wish he was romancable! And Dorian is totally worth it

[mia h]

I thought flirting with the scout was kinda fun, but alas goes nowhere.

[LaLu]

I adore Krem, I wish he was romancable! And Dorian is totally worth it

I wanna ride the bull. >.>

Threesome with Dorian, Bull and Male Inquis would be epic.

I loved the one with Zev and Isabela* in the earlier one.

[Nadir]

Oh, that... thank you for that mental image <3

[LaLu]

Oh, that... thank you for that mental image <3

I just keep seeing Dorian and Male Inquis trying tame the bull. All the while he's laying back chains all over and just towards the end he gets free and tames their asses. Literally. With that sexy laugh ringing out the Inquisitors open window LOL

[Nadir]

Oh fuck yes! I bet Bull would just lay back and let them think they have him after a token struggle *cackles*

I love it <3

[LaLu]

Oh fuck yes! I bet Bull would just lay back and let them think they have him after a token struggle *cackles*

I love it <3

Not gonna mention the sexual tension I get from Cassandra and Bull cause ...yeah....bunnies.


.....this game makes me wanna do a Dragon Age style roleplay. LOL

[zemo8801]

What class did you choose?

[LaLu]

What class did you choose?

Me? Right now I'm a human mage. (I usually go Elven..but I stayed human this time)

I wanna go for a Qunari Rogue next time around. Maybe romance Bull

[Nadir]

Not gonna mention the sexual tension I get from Cassandra and Bull cause ...yeah....bunnies.


.....this game makes me wanna do a Dragon Age style roleplay. LOL

Ha! Yes. It's delicious~

And me too! I'm doing a Solas/Cole one with Kho at the moment, but there are so many delicious characters and I am so greedy

What class did you choose?

Elf Dagger-rogue ^_^

[LaLu]

Ha! Yes. It's delicious~

And me too! I'm doing a Solas/Cole one with Kho at the moment, but there are so many delicious characters and I am so greedy

Elf Dagger-rogue ^_^

I'm a dagger sort of rogue every time!!!!

I want a Solas one but someone spoiled the ending for me and now I wanna do it later.....when I'm done being pissy at a ruined ending

[Nadir]

Aaaaaw, so sorry it got spoiled! Someone spoiled it for me, too.

[zemo8801]

Oh okay I plan to see how things unfold with the races.

Right now I'm going as a Roque archer