[Claire Vaux]

Oh. Great

And a patch just hit. It's about time.

[Cheville Thompson]

Patch notes: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/12/09/dragon-age-inquisition-patch-2-hits-today-bioware-talks-party-banter

@craig1405^D

http://blog.bioware.com/2014/12/08/upcoming-patches-and-features-for-dragon-age/

Raed Features and content.

[Jordan Fletcher]

How did you manage that?

I started out with 30 points and instantly lost 10 due to simply being an elf. I gained back 5 by helping a woman find her ring. So 25 points. I lost points talking to people. I lost points while leaving the ballroom in search if evidence. I lost points dancing. It was a nightmare... I thought they were going to kick me out.

[Bigze Stacks]

It should be pretty easy to be 100+ (that is, to be at 100 and still have some coins or options left). I have no idea what the payoff is for having a high score, or if you just need to stay above the threshold.

• When you explore outside the area, be quick and efficient. You do not want to be a thorough completionist here.
• You usually want to be indirect with your speech options, in the sense that you don't want to bring up topics related to the quest/scenario. Joke or choose other "chatting at a party" options, and important info will be provided. It's a socialite ball, not an interrogation. Also, only a few NPCs will ding you, and the game usually gives some context about who to be careful with.
• There are 15-ish coins spread around that can be dropped into the fountain for 1 point each. Most of them are easy to find if you're using the ping search button.

[Sebrina Johnstone]

This is pretty much exactly what I did. I also found "secrets" and gave them to Leliana, which I swear also boosted my score. I'm not exactly sure of what getting 100/100 entails beyond getting an Xbox achievement.

[A Dardzz]

Thanks for the link. That all sounds good, glad they will be adding new content even though I'm nowhere near finished on my 1st playthrough. I've racked up about 70 hours so far and enjoyed every minute of it, great game!

[Tai Scott]

I am glad you like the game. !!!

[Nomee]

That is discouraging. By far the biggest draw to DA:O (PC version) for me was the tactical combat. That said, I didn't find the combat in DA2 to be "button-mashy." I played on the highest difficulty, however, so there were quite a lot of battles that required pausing and tactics to win. Button mashing would have resulted in being killed rather quickly. I will say that I found the combat difficulty in DA2 to be pretty inconsistent, though, and I hated the way new waves of enemies would "teleport" in after finishing off the first. It took the fun out of budgeting health, mana, and consumables. I also didn't enjoy the way characters could charge/leap/roll/etc. to close distance. That certainly did remove a tactical element.

Anyway, is the combat in DA:I really that lacking in tactical elements? If it is I probably won't bother playing it at all, unfortunately.

[Dj Matty P]

Combat in DA:I is just MMO combat, if you've played Elder Scrolls Online it's more or less exactly the same.

[I’m my own]

In DA:I I started on hard, then went to normal, then casual. I eventually restarted the game and played all the way through on normal. I couldn't tell the difference between hard and casual (in terms of danger/challenge), but I was hoping that fights were ending faster on casual. I just had to sit and click the buttons a lot, and wait for combat to end so I could move on. Fighting got better around level 10 or so, but that meant less painful rather than good. That game was with a mage PC, and I'm finding that dual-wielding is more fun, and ends fights much faster, but I'd still call it sub-par.

There are some features in DA:I that are theoretically interesting, like flanking damage, bonus damage from height, etc., but ultimately it all comes down to combos and a few special abilities. As usual, you use a tank to draw aggro, a mage or two to control the fight, and archers for massive burst damage. There are some slight variations, such as using a dual-wielder for burst damage (which means constant attention, because the AI can't handle it), but it's just too simplistic and repetitive to be interesting. I've seen posts on BSN that say things like "I mastered Nightmare once I got my rotations down", which sums up the combat perfectly. You hotkey a few abilities for synergy between a couple of classes, then wait for the game to end.

It's not that there's no strategy at all, it's that the strategy is more tic-tac-toe than chess, and if you've played similar games you barely have to think about what you're doing. I enjoyed Nightmare on DA:O for a while, but was gritting my teeth by the end, because it started to feel grindy and repetitive. DA:I is like that, but the feeling sets in quickly, and is amplified because of the huge amounts of HP that enemies have.

IMO, if you're an RPG fan, or you liked the story and NPC interaction of previous Bioware games, you'll probably enjoy the game. Just keep your expectations low for the combat.

[daniel royle]

Well what would have helped me out greatly but it came out with today's patch was the ping causing a blip to appear on your radar. I could have used that yesterday! I spent so much time searching and never finding anything all the while losing points.

The pay off to having a higher then 85 with the court is peacefully talking down Florience(sp) or what ever her name is and then judging her at Skyhold. Also sort of proving you know how to play "the game" which honestly my elf has no desire to and would rather just put an arrow into her problems LOL. However I will say the response to the judgment of florience(or what ever her name is) is rather entertaining if you killed her. Her corpse is delivered to Skyhold for you to pass judgment, and some people remark about "the smell" heh

Well I don't know how close I am to the end of the game and I don't want to know. But I have an old friend from DAO hanging about Skyhold and its a delight to see her again. I'm putting off any major quests for now until I have all the war table tasks completed. but dang some of them are 4hr+ war table missions.

I'm going to replay DAO when I finish my first DAI play through. I want to play through as a male grey warden (something I haven't done) and have him be the father of Morrigan's child. I'm curious to see how that plays out heh.

[Jenna Fields]

I really don't get the 'leave the damn hinterlands' meme.

All the regions in the game follow the same design - there will always be shards, rifts star puzzles, bottles of Thedas, MMO side quests, stuff to collect for crafting, location spots to 'claim', and bigger quests which affect monster respawns in that area.

If you don't like what you find in the hinterlands, I don't know if you'll like what comes later.

--

And they still didn't address the tactical camera in the patch. Okay. I guess the next time I play this game I'll have to use a script to mess with the camera zoom.

[Britney Lopez]

I agree entirely, the Hinterlands is just a taste of what is to come. I will say though that some regions are much more beautiful and have better quests (inner circle). Although I love the scale of the game, there are still plenty of improvements to be made in terms of consequences, seeing a visual impact and what not. Ultimately I love the role of Inquisitor and hope the next main will fill a similar role (or at least maintain some of the mechanics).

I AM thankful they never show the Hero of Ferelden: I don't think they would have done that character any justice. Anyways, I hope they will maintain the grand scale of things and the customization for the next game, but further improve the customization of the characters main base as well as come a little bit closer to Origins.

[Stephanie I]

The game opens up more after you leave. All new companions require leaving the Hinterlands (even Blackwall, because you have to leave, do certain quests, then go back). And Bioware gated a lot of content based on main quest progress, especially before and after Val Royeaux. I also think that you need some additional story hooks to keep interested, which you won't get until you leave the Hinterlands. Plus the Hinterlands are huge, and have 20-ish hours of content. It helps to break that up into smaller sections, by visiting the Storm Coast, the Fallow Mire, and Val Royeaux.

The design also encourages leaving and going back to finish it, because the dragon and a couple of the Rifts in the western section are meant for slightly higher level characters.

[Brian Newman]

I am an RPG fan, but in party-based games one of the big draws for me is tactical combat. Even if the rest of the game is great I'll probably hold off on playing it until it's cheaper out of disappointment.

[NIloufar Emporio]

I probably spent about 20hrs in the Hinterlands myself. But I did take a break from the area to do some of the Storm Coast (to get Iron Bull) and Fallow Mire. And as mentioned there are a couple of Rifts (and a dragon) in the Hinterlands that is not for beginner characters. So I had to come back.

Yeah the Hinterlands is beautiful but its got nothing on the Emerald Graves. That place had me in awe. Not to mention frightened when the swooshing of wings is heard and the sun shining between the leaves on the trees gets blotted out by a circling dragon.

I didn't know my hero of Ferelden was not going to make an appearance. After my lady Hawke showed up I was kinda hopeful. And I think I managed to recreate my lady Hawke pretty close to how she looked in DA2. But yeah DAI has come a long way in character creation from DAO. I will say I enjoyed DAO's character stats and tactics much better then DA2 and DAI. I had such a great set up with my followers that I never really had to worry about them. They just did their own thing and stayed alive. DAI is sort of dumbed down in that department.

I do kinda wish I could interact more with some of the war table missions. Example my elf just found out her clan is being blamed for the death of a nobleman and most of them have been wiped out. I wish I could go there with my Inquisitor and burn that village that is hunting her clan to the ground. Instead I just get to learn of these things.

[Soph]

Why dont the graphics on da3 look as good as skyrim graphics on old gen.

Is da3 that much more demanding on old gen or did bethesda do something different that on the surface appears they got better pixel quality

[Dark Mogul]

DAI looks better on my PS3 then Skyrim does. However on my PC, not even my Skyrim with a great enb can touch how DAI looks. So many breath taking locations. On the PS3 the textures are kind of flat and lifeless but on the PC its very highly detailed.

damn Solas just broke my Inquisitor's heart.

[Cedric Pearson]

Wowwee, I'm getting to the point in the story where things are coming together and mind[censored]s are being dropped left and right.

Spoiler

For instance, the Seekers knowing for a long damn time that the Rite of Tranquility is reversible.

[joannARRGH]

For even greater graphical enhancement, download Patch 2.

[Céline Rémy]

is that the latest patch? because Origin auto downloaded and installed 2 patches in the last few days?

For me what got me was

Spoiler

how all the dalish elves have face tattoos while alienage elves do not. my dalish elf characters since DAO always wore these markings with a sense of pride in who they were. Then Solas drops the bomb on my dalish inquisitor that those marking are actually makes of slavery and that the dalish elves got it wrong. WTF? And then he dumped her and left her standing there alone in the moonlight.

[Rachel Cafferty]

I wish, I wish, I wish armor had the breadth and variety of weapons in the game.

I also wish Orlesian Battlemage Armor came with a T3 version.

[Jordan Moreno]

No, Patch 2 was released earlier this week, the recent one was a hotfix for it because it caused characters' hairs and armor become very shiny Which i believe is what LordBhaal was referring to

[Javaun Thompson]

Did the new patch sort out any of the issues you were experiencing with the game?

[Ricky Meehan]

No, still crashing at cutscenes :shurg: Though i think it isn't quite as common now.