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Dragon Age: Inquisition - Who will your Inquisitor be? New webpage, info & screens

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I'm still a human Mage after 2 games and an expansion. I don't know if I should change it up on my first play through. It looks great. It has some very nice tones, which I'm glad to see they brought back. There were some things I had hoped they'd flesh out after DA2. One of them was the art.
 
The player character is different, but you'll get a lot (A LOT) more out of DAI if you play the first two games. DAI comes out in November, so you still have time!

I own the first one, and I've heard good things I just haven't gotten around to playing it yet.
But I've only heard bad things about 2
 

DMiz

Member
I found this on YT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdIpSpJyWSY

Side-by-side IGN did.

Going from that, it seems like the typical downgrades we expect are probably in play:

1) worse textures;
2) worse aliasing;
3) reduced lighting;
4) seemingly removed elements of cloth physics.

So yeah. It won't like as 'shiny new'. Granted, it also all hinges on how much of the new tech that the game is depending on to achieve the look that it's managed to have up 'til now. From memory, most of the gameplay trailers don't show anything too extraneous - probably just expect either a lower frame-rate with the minuses I'm guessing at.
 

Ralemont

not me
I own the first one, and I've heard good things I just haven't gotten around to playing it yet.
But I've only heard bad things about 2

I really enjoyed Dragon Age 2, even if it wasn't as good as Origins. Then again, I'm easy to please. I also played on console, and DA2's combat system works a lot better there.
 

roytheone

Member
I created a human warrior in DA:O, however, I played 90 % of the combat as Morrigan, because playing an attack mage turned out to be 100x more fun. So now I will probably create a mage. Haven't decided on the race yet.
 

Ralemont

not me
Someone leaked the keep screenshots. This will tide you over until the app release.
https://imgur.com/a/TjvcA

Very interesting: "Was Hawke's appearance accurate when first speaking to Cassandra?" The Keep is asking you whether you used the default Hawke model or a custom one. This pretty much confirms (as if it needed confirmation) that you'll be able to customize Hawke's appearance, otherwise the question wouldn't be there. Since they said the Keep won't have a CC, then it'll be in-game somehow...?

Edit: There also is an option to choose Hawke's dominant tone, which makes sense.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
I created a human warrior in DA:O, however, I played 90 % of the combat as Morrigan, because playing an attack mage turned out to be 100x more fun. So now I will probably create a mage. Haven't decided on the race yet.

Gotta go Qunari for the taboo nature of it. If we ever have battles with Qunari forces for some reason I would totally pissed if they don't include some dialog in battle with them freaking out that there is one of their own kind lobbing fireballs and shooting lighting like it ain't no thing and not all chained covered up with some master holding the reigns like some rabid dog.
 

pelican

Member
Very interesting: "Was Hawke's appearance accurate when first speaking to Cassandra?" The Keep is asking you whether you used the default Hawke model or a custom one. This pretty much confirms (as if it needed confirmation) that you'll be able to customize Hawke's appearance, otherwise the question wouldn't be there. Since they said the Keep won't have a CC, then it'll be in-game somehow...?

Edit: There also is an option to choose Hawke's dominant tone, which makes sense.

I applied for the Keep beta ages ago, but no joy.

It appears to be a nice way to transfer our DA and DA2 decision over to the third game on the new batch of consoles.
 

Stuart444

Member
Very cool. This answered a question I had. Looks like DLC, at least Witch Hunt will have some choices.

Come out already =\

Yeah, I was surprised when I saw the Shale stuff there. And then the Witch Hunt.

I was never that hyped for DA2 even before we found out how it came out (though I did eventually play through it all and like it after the original mehness with it) but I am so so hyped for this one. This and then the Witcher 3 early next year (and I still have to complete the Witcher 2), two looks-to-be great fantasy RPGs.

Can't wait for this!
 
I will have a group of four, right? Can they all be dwarves? I want them all to be dwarfs.

Varric is the only dwarf companion. Sorry.

One Qunari. (Iron Bull)
One Dwarf. (Varric)
Two Elves. (Solas, Sera)
Five Humans. (Cassandra, Blackwall, Vivienne, Dorian, Cole)
 

SerRodrik

Member
I'm really fond of the idea of playing a big, burly qunari that turns out to be soft spoken, polite, and intelligent. If they let me play that character, they'll already be one up on DA2.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Varric is the only dwarf companion. Sorry.

One Qunari. (Iron Bull)
One Dwarf. (Varric)
Two Elves. (Solas, Sera)
Five Humans. (Cassandra, Blackwall, Vivienne, Dorian, Cole)

Before we got the official confirmation on Cole I was really hoping for a female Dwarf rogue or warrior again like Sigrun. She was the best in Awakening. And while Iron Bull looks pretty great, I would also have liked to see a female Qunari represented. The current roster isn't what I would have liked in terms of demographics, but the characters themselves all interest me more or less. Iron Bull, Cole and Solas are my bottom 3, but the other 6 definitely have my interest piqued quite a bit.
 
Before we got the official confirmation on Cole I was really hoping for a female Dwarf rogue or warrior again like Sigrun. She was the best in Awakening. And while Iron Bull looks pretty great, I would also have liked to see a female Qunari represented. The current roster isn't what I would have liked in terms of demographics, but the characters themselves all interest me more or less. Iron Bull, Cole and Solas are my bottom 3, but the other 6 definitely have my interest piqued quite a bit.

I was hoping for another dwarf. Their personalities tend to be humorous.
 

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
I feel like I always play as Elven Mages in these games.

And then I always try to pick the hybrid class that let's me wear armor and use swords and enchant them anyway.

Just seems like you have more diverse options in combat, and humans never seem to have enough of an interesting backstory to me.
 

Ridesh

Banned
At this point I'm only worried about console performance.

I want my PS4 version at 1080p / rock solid 30fps goddammit!
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
At this point I'm only worried about console performance.

I want my PS4 version at 1080p / rock solid 30fps goddammit!

Shouldn't they be able to hit 60 fps since BF4 mostly achieved that with some slight slowdown during massive explosions building collapses. 30 should be easy.
 

luxarific

Nork unification denier
I own the first one, and I've heard good things I just haven't gotten around to playing it yet.
But I've only heard bad things about 2

Two is still worth a playthrough, imo, since the events and characters in it are at least going to be mentioned (and I say at least, but my guess is that several events at a minimum will be heavily referenced throughout DAI, because they're pretty darn significant). Heck, DA2 is where we first meet Varric and Cassandra, who will be companions in DAI.

And honestly, seeing characters from the first game show up in DA2 was awesome, like seeing old friends again (do I love this universe? yes, yes I do).

Or you could just get this book and read through it - it covers the world, characters, and lore extensively.

(Volume two comes out next year, excite!)

A really big part (for me at least) of why the Dragon Age games are fun is that Bioware really pulled out all the stops when they created this world - just really extensive work on the peoples, religion, culture, everything. The detail just blew me away in DA1 and DA2 (which, though it had Significant Issues, was still not a waste of time if you enjoy the universe of DA as much as I do). If you skip the first two games, I just feel the third game will be less of an experience than it otherwise could be.
 
I'm going male Qunari mage specced as a Knight Enchanter for my first playthrough. Hopefully they follow up on their pledge to make the specializations more story-relevant; it'd hugely expand the replayability.
 
I'm going male Qunari mage specced as a Knight Enchanter for my first playthrough. Hopefully they follow up on their pledge to make the specializations more story-relevant; it'd hugely expand the replayability.

I'm rolling with a Knight Enchanter as well. Mostly because they look like Jedi. At least in this artwork they do.


da_i___the_bog_by_mattrhodesart-d7h8fmk.jpg
 

DMiz

Member
I'm really fond of the idea of playing a big, burly qunari that turns out to be soft spoken, polite, and intelligent. If they let me play that character, they'll already be one up on DA2.

Really hope that this type of style is in the game, but seeing as how they're still going with the DA2/ME style conversation wheel, I'm afraid they're likely going to go with the same 3 major 'types' of tone:

1) "Paragon" - nice guy who makes big, idealistic speeches and is ethically good to a fault; the 'lawful good' D&D archetype;
2) "Snarky" - the one everyone picks, because, let's face it, the dialogue can sometimes be hilarious and being a dick while helpful at the same time is fun;
3) "Renegade" - 'chaotic good' at its finest: accomplish what you need to do and look badass doin' it.

It's part of why I'm sad they aren't returning to the DA:O dialogue choice system, which felt a bit more balanced in the type of people you could be. I guess that's what happens when you have voiced protagonists... hell, technically, FOUR voiced protagonists (since they brought on two different voice actors for each gender).
 
Really hope that this type of style is in the game, but seeing as how they're still going with the DA2/ME style conversation wheel, I'm afraid they're likely going to go with the same 3 major 'types' of tone:

1) "Paragon" - nice guy who makes big, idealistic speeches and is ethically good to a fault; the 'lawful good' D&D archetype;
2) "Snarky" - the one everyone picks, because, let's face it, the dialogue can sometimes be hilarious and being a dick while helpful at the same time is fun;
3) "Renegade" - 'chaotic good' at its finest: accomplish what you need to do and look badass doin' it.

It's part of why I'm sad they aren't returning to the DA:O dialogue choice system, which felt a bit more balanced in the type of people you could be. I guess that's what happens when you have voiced protagonists... hell, technically, FOUR voiced protagonists (since they brought on two different voice actors for each gender).

Technically speaking, DA2 had 6 tones, though they did tend to follow the groupings you described: Diplomatic, Helpful, Humorous, Charming, Aggressive, and Direct. If they vary the groupings up a little (so you'll sometimes be presented with both an Aggressive and a Direct choice, for instance), he may be able to hit his desired tone.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
They've also changed the dialog a bit from what we've seen in DA2 and ME3. They talked about it a while ago I think during the spring and this was some highlights:

  • Similarly to Dragon Age II, dialogue options are picked from paraphrases on a wheel interface, and are written with a voiced protagonist in mind.
  • There is no longer a dominant tone the protagonist will use during "auto-dialogue" segments.
  • There will be less "auto-dialogue" than in Dragon Age II, as it will only be heard when the Inquisitor says something such as "Go on." or "What is that?"
  • The diplomatic, humorous and aggressive tones used by Hawke are gone, replaced by noble, clever and direct. This is an initiative to bridge the gap between the three tones.
  • Similarly to how the "investigate" branch of the dialogue wheel broke off in Dragon Age II, there will now be a branch dealing with "special" dialogue choices or actions to be taken. This is dependent on things such as having a certain companion present, romance options, previous choices etc., and will be greyed out if the requirement is not met in order to show the player the choice they could have made.
 

SerRodrik

Member
Really hope that this type of style is in the game, but seeing as how they're still going with the DA2/ME style conversation wheel, I'm afraid they're likely going to go with the same 3 major 'types' of tone:

1) "Paragon" - nice guy who makes big, idealistic speeches and is ethically good to a fault; the 'lawful good' D&D archetype;
2) "Snarky" - the one everyone picks, because, let's face it, the dialogue can sometimes be hilarious and being a dick while helpful at the same time is fun;
3) "Renegade" - 'chaotic good' at its finest: accomplish what you need to do and look badass doin' it.

It's part of why I'm sad they aren't returning to the DA:O dialogue choice system, which felt a bit more balanced in the type of people you could be. I guess that's what happens when you have voiced protagonists... hell, technically, FOUR voiced protagonists (since they brought on two different voice actors for each gender).

God I hated the tone wheel. Being limited to more or less the same three emotional responses for every single line of dialogue made Hawke feel incredibly shallow. Plus the old issue of never knowing exactly what your character was going to say because of the paraphrasing. I really wish Bioware would just do away with the system, but I don't see that happening in the near future.

I'm probably weird, but I wasn't very fond of Snarky Hawke. Most of those responses struck me as, well, how someone who tried to be snarky in every conversation would end up being in real life: mostly smug and smarmy, and not actually very funny most of the time. I ended up going "Paragon," because while those options were kind of boring some of the time, at least I wasn't being actively irritated.

Here's hoping Inqusition is at least a little better on the dialogue front.
 

Sanctuary

Member
If the ranged defense and magic defense are actually percentage based such as a flat damage reduction, or they are additive to whatever you get from armor (i.e. 10% is base, so they get 35% or +25% to whatever you get from gear) that makes them a lot better on paper compared to the Qunari bonus on the difficulties above normal.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Well, no reason to play as a Qunari for the stat bonus. It's arguably the worst or tied for worst if you play on higher than normal settings.

Yeah I don't know why it's a hard 50 points of health. We've seen in the gameplay demos characters are in the high hundreds so 50 points is a drop in the bucket. It would make sense if it was a % great like 5-10%, but just 50 points, by like level 4 or 5 that will be meaningless.
 
I own the first one, and I've heard good things I just haven't gotten around to playing it yet.
But I've only heard bad things about 2

There are aspects of DA2 that are better than DAO and certainly some worst, but I don't agree with the prevalent opinion that it's a horrible game. DA2's biggest flaw is reused assets and the story, but the companions and the interaction with them are so much better. The combat is a mixed bag as well, DAO had some wonky class balance, Mages ended up being gods and friendly fire was hardly an issue to negate that power. DA2 has better synergy between the classes, but some odd choices like continuous wave spawning + fodder enemies made it feel like a power fantasy.
 

DMiz

Member
They've also changed the dialog a bit from what we've seen in DA2 and ME3. They talked about it a while ago I think during the spring and this was some highlights:

  • The diplomatic, humorous and aggressive tones used by Hawke are gone, replaced by noble, clever and direct. This is an initiative to bridge the gap between the three tones.

I get what they're trying to go with, here, but they really could have used very different names for those styles, ha ha. Right now, they just read as synonyms and don't really inspire me that they're doing anything different other than perhaps homogenizing the styles a bit so they're less disparate and more harmonious.

I'm probably weird, but I wasn't very fond of Snarky Hawke. Most of those responses struck me as, well, how someone who tried to be snarky in every conversation would end up being in real life: mostly smug and smarmy, and not actually very funny most of the time. I ended up going "Paragon," because while those options were kind of boring some of the time, at least I wasn't being actively irritated.

Here's hoping Inqusition is at least a little better on the dialogue front.

I agree. The other major problem I had with the tone wheel in DA2 was that, knowing the player had only 3 effective 'ways' to communicate, designers went hog-wild on tying character approvals to particular lines.

This basically made it impossible for me to reach any significant endings with all party members, since, on first play-throughs, I typically choose dialogue options as I like them rather than trying to maintain consistency. So, as someone who was half snarky, half paragon, and occasionally mean-spirited, all of my decisions were cancelling out approvals from party members left, right, and center, since I wasn't operating under the designer's assumption that I would try to funnel my personal Hawke into one of three shoe-horned archetypes.

Again, this is where I felt DA:O's non-voiced choices much stronger, since there were several options that did not necessarily instigate a character response and I was fine with that. It meant I could choose more dialogue choices that did not necessarily place me in a particular tone 'camp', and I was able to still pursue character quests since characters didn't necessarily react to everything I was saying all the time.
 

Metroidvania

People called Romanes they go the house?
Nice to see, wasn't expecting the leaked keep screens.

Rolled a Human Two-hander, Elf dual-wield rogue, then an human mage in DA:O.

Tried Warrior first in DA2, but the stupid Isabela glitch made my weapon swing like molasses. By the time I finished the game, I wasn't going to bother playing again as anyone else.

Torn Between Qunari/Human mage, and rogue dual-wield again, lol.

Can't wait for the Keep to come out, though I hope it includes more details than what is shown in the pictures, lol.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
I get what they're trying to go with, here, but they really could have used very different names for those styles, ha ha. Right now, they just read as synonyms and don't really inspire me that they're doing anything different other than perhaps homogenizing the styles a bit so they're less disparate and more harmonious.

I vaguely remember David Gaider or one of the writers commented on the names and that they're just approximations, not drastically different tones or characterizations. They want to let players more freely choose between the various dialogue options and not feel like they're playing a totally different character when they choose a direct response when they often choose noble. They tried to do this in ME3 to an extent with how they modified the Renegade and Paragon system which worked out pretty well, though that game had extensive auto dialogue as well, but you weren't really ever punished for not sticking to one throughout the game.

As well the game has 3 distinct dialogue wheels. There is the tone wheel, as already discussed with Noble, Direct and Clever responses. Then there is the Choice Wheel where you make major choices, this is the wheel where hovering over an option will give you an expanded explanation of what it means and what will happen so people are confused as to what they're doing. Then there is the Reaction Wheel which will be for reacting to thing and situations... This will be populated with various options ranging from Stoic, Sad, Confused, Enraged, or Surprised depending on the situation.

So while I can understand people feeling like there aren't that as many options as the old list style, which I don't fully agree with, but they are definitely making strides to try and provide more variety and options to the dialogue system.
 

SerRodrik

Member
I vaguely remember David Gaider or one of the writers commented on the names and that they're just approximations, not drastically different tones or characterizations. They want to let players more freely choose between the various dialogue options and not feel like they're playing a totally different character when they choose a direct response when they often choose noble. They tried to do this in ME3 to an extent with how they modified the Renegade and Paragon system which worked out pretty well, though that game had extensive auto dialogue as well, but you weren't really ever punished for not sticking to one throughout the game.

As well the game has 3 distinct dialogue wheels. There is the tone wheel, as already discussed with Noble, Direct and Clever responses. Then there is the Choice Wheel where you make major choices, this is the wheel where hovering over an option will give you an expanded explanation of what it means and what will happen so people are confused as to what they're doing. Then there is the Reaction Wheel which will be for reacting to thing and situations... This will be populated with various options ranging from Stoic, Sad, Confused, Enraged, or Surprised depending on the situation.

So while I can understand people feeling like there aren't that as many options as the old list style, which I don't fully agree with, but they are definitely making strides to try and provide more variety and options to the dialogue system.

If I remember right, that popup explanation is only for actions you will take (i.e. explaining that if you pick a specific option in conversation, your character is going to stab a guy). It doesn't really address the problem of not knowing what your character is going to say. Assuming they even need a voiced protagonist, and Bioware seems pretty set on that, I would prefer if they went with Human Revolution style conversations where it just pops up the full text of what the character is going to say. Solves a lot more problems. It sounds like there's going to be more variety in your characters responses, at least. That does away with one of my complaints, but I think their implementation of the dialogue wheel is still fundamentally flawed.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
If I remember right, that popup explanation is only for actions you will take (i.e. explaining that if you pick a specific option in conversation, your character is going to stab a guy). It doesn't really address the problem of not knowing what your character is going to say. Assuming they even need a voiced protagonist, and Bioware seems pretty set on that, I would prefer if they went with Human Revolution style conversations where it just pops up the full text of what the character is going to say. Solves a lot more problems. It sounds like there's going to be more variety in your characters responses, at least. That does away with one of my complaints, but I think their implementation of the dialogue wheel is still fundamentally flawed.

Correct, it's only present for choices like choosing to defend a village or a keep and explaining the general outcome of that choice, not the specific wording of the dialogue. It won't be present in normal conversation or reactions. I've never had a problem with knowing what my character was going to say in ME or DA2. The little blurbs were always more than enough for me. Alpha Protocol on the other hand felt like a mine field half the time due to it's extreme lack of context to dialogue choices.

I also had more trouble in older games where the tone of a line was wildly different from what I interpreted it as. Something that sounded sarcastic was actually dead serious or something that sounded conciliatory was sarcastic. So I don't really feel the need, nor have the desire, to see the full text, but if people want that option, like in DE:HR, I don't see the problem outside the fact that sometimes exchanges aren't limited to just the first line your speak but they did say they've cut back on that since DA2.
 
Very interesting: "Was Hawke's appearance accurate when first speaking to Cassandra?" The Keep is asking you whether you used the default Hawke model or a custom one. This pretty much confirms (as if it needed confirmation) that you'll be able to customize Hawke's appearance, otherwise the question wouldn't be there. Since they said the Keep won't have a CC, then it'll be in-game somehow...?

I am afraid that they'd just give customized Hawke a helmet.
 
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