Dragon Age 4 - now The Veilguard

[Ruin Explorer]

Good news @Whizbang Dustyboots - dwarves are in fact playable in Veilguard.

Here's a collection of non-spoiler information that has been revealed about it. All four races are playable. Four voice choices (2 British, 2 American, once more).


Also I just want to say it being non-open-world really gives me some hope for Mass Effect 5, because ironically the only way to portray worlds and spaces as utterly vast as the ones in ME is to avoid open-world (at least with current technology). And the areas in ME Andromeda which were non-open-world, i.e. the actual one-off missions/levels were drastically better than the rest of MEA, and even pretty good at times.

EDIT - Also they confirmed you can have more than three skills set - but you associate skills with a weapon, and then can change weapons (I'd guess between two, though maybe more) to change to a different set of skills.

 

[pukunui]

Can one of you give me the brief on the revelation about elven gods in spoiler tags? I did not watch the DLCs but IIRC there was something like

Spoiler: Eleven gods

the gods of Elvenhan being just immortal tyrant mages linked to the old magister/gods of Tevinter? Or something like this?

Yes, that's more or less it.

The biggest mechanical change from DAO to DA2/DAI is one you didn't mention - Mages - in DAO, Mages are ludicrously, joke levels of overpowered. It's not even hard to solo the entire game as a Mage, and if you have 2 or more Mages in the party, the game is an absolute push-over, even on higher difficulty settings. Rogues and Warriors are jokes compared to them in DAO. Some people like that, but it made the game feel absolutely terrible if you didn't pick Mage (esp. if you'd played a Mage), so probably should have forced a Mage PC if they wanted to stick with it being OP. DA2 and DAI didn't go that way - instead Warrior and Rogue are brought up to be as dangerous and effective as Mages (by and large) in actual gameplay. I never heard anyone, not a single person, claim "Rogues could do more in DAO", because they couldn't.

No kidding! My first ever DAO playthrough was as an arcane warrior mage. When I went to play as warriors and rogues in other playthroughs, it was actually pretty dreadful in comparison. Whereas playing Hawke as a rogue so I could have Bethany in my party was fine. I enjoyed that. I did switch back to playing as a mage in DAI, though.

 

[wicked cool]

I mean, that's not really disagreeing lol, that's just stating an opinion that is kind of counter-factual.

The "99% of interesting NPCs" is just obviously not true. The idea that the shopkeepers in DAO were the only interesting NPCs is truly wild and out there.

The elf racism stuff was specific certain regions and origins, and obviously isn't going to be a major deal everywhere, and especially when the player can't even play an elf as (per DA2).

"Finishing moves" were an extremely minor and forgettable visual flourish which had no real mechanics attached (indeed the minor mechanics which were supposed to be attached literally didn't work!). You might as well complain that in DA2/DAI when you got covered in blood you no longer had blood on your teeth!

Rogues could do more is just a lie - it's not a reasonable opinion or position - it's simply not true. Rogues are, in DAO, by far the weakest class, it's not even close. In DA2 and DAI Rogues are drastically more capable and dangerous.

"Items gone" is vague nonsense and has absolutely nothing to do with the tone.

Your position was that the tone changed - it didn't - and it's weird that you've gone with random-ass mechanics changes instead of actual tonal ones, because it doesn't support your argument.

The biggest mechanical change from DAO to DA2/DAI is one you didn't mention - Mages - in DAO, Mages are ludicrously, joke levels of overpowered. It's not even hard to solo the entire game as a Mage, and if you have 2 or more Mages in the party, the game is an absolute push-over, even on higher difficulty settings. Rogues and Warriors are jokes compared to them in DAO. Some people like that, but it made the game feel absolutely terrible if you didn't pick Mage (esp. if you'd played a Mage), so probably should have forced a Mage PC if they wanted to stick with it being OP. DA2 and DAI didn't go that way - instead Warrior and Rogue are brought up to be as dangerous and effective as Mages (by and large) in actual gameplay. I never heard anyone, not a single person, claim "Rogues could do more in DAO", because they couldn't.

Well they could

In dao they could
Pickpocket and set traps

Well yes the shopkeepers along with tons of npc were way more interesting in dao
Examples of the top of my head
Almost every dwarf in Dustin and the proving were way more interesting than almost all in dai
The dalish in dao especially the werewolf controller (Star Trek Vulcan voice) way more interesting than 99% of all enemies in dai

I never said mages were underpowered but I enjoyed combat much more in dao and da2 than dai. Dai trying killing was be interesting f those Buffalo or even a bear. Early on it’s just button mashing

The final battles were much more fulfilling in dao. Glad it was a cakewalk for you but the deep fake at the final battle where you left your weaker people and they had to fight was great

Getting specialized in dao was awesome especially the trapped spirit for the mages

I’m sorry but once again your wrong on items
Releasing dogs to fight
Using giant ballista
Setting traps
Robbing dead for actual items-me I robbed the 2 warden wannabes for decent armor early on
How about killing the thief in the cage for his key

Maybe your game was different

I remember haven. Yes poor graphically but 1000 times more interesting than dai version. Saving haven and helping people like the bartender was way more satisfying than the entire hinterlands

 

[pukunui]

Almost every dwarf in Dustin and the proving were way more interesting than almost all in dai

The only memorable shopkeeper from DAO for me is that dwarf in Orzammar who wants you to find his little lost nug. And I only remember that because I frequently use it as an example of "Why on Earth would I go chasing after a lost pig when I'm here to sort out your succession problem so I can get you to come fight the darkspawn with me?"

Like, say what you want about DAO being the "best" but it has plenty of stupid little side quests that honestly make no sense in the grand scheme of "stop the Blight!"

The other one that bugged me was that dwarf girl who wants to study magic even though she can't use it. Like, cool, maybe I'll help you after I've sorted out this more pressing matter? I'm not running all the way from Orzammar to the mage tower and back just to get you permission to go study there ~ especially since the mages are dealing with their own problems!

(In the context of the game, I know it doesn't matter, and you can run around doing these "slice of life" side missions without the Blight advancing in your absence, but that's not the point. The point is that these feel like time wasters when the main plot has such a huge sense of urgency about it.)

It wasn't much of an issue in DA2 because the whole thing takes place in such a small geographical area, but DAI made the problem bigger, on the one hand, by expanding the geographical area to cover two nations, while also mitigating it a bit, on the other hand, by making it feel like you're just teleporting from one place to another instead of traveling between them on foot.

 

[wicked cool]

The only memorable shopkeeper from DAO for me is that dwarf in Orzammar who wants you to find his little lost nug. And I only remember that because I frequently use it as an example of "Why on Earth would I go chasing after a lost pig when I'm here to sort out your succession problem so I can get you to come fight the darkspawn with me?"

Like, say what you want about DAO being the "best" but it has plenty of stupid little side quests that honestly make no sense in the grand scheme of "stop the Blight!"

The other one that bugged me was that dwarf girl who wants to study magic even though she can't use it. Like, cool, maybe I'll help you after I've sorted out this more pressing matter? I'm not running all the way from Orzammar to the mage tower and back just to get you permission to go study there ~ especially since the mages are dealing with their own problems!

(In the context of the game, I know it doesn't matter, and you can run around doing these "slice of life" side missions without the Blight advancing in your absence, but that's not the point. The point is that these feel like time wasters when the main plot has such a huge sense of urgency about it.)

It wasn't much of an issue in DA2 because the whole thing takes place in such a small geographical area, but DAI made the problem bigger, on the one hand, by expanding the geographical area to cover two nations, while also mitigating it a bit, on the other hand, by making it feel like you're just teleporting from one place to another instead of traveling between them on foot.

Isn’t that dwarf girl the same one from dai? Dagna

 

[pukunui]

Isn’t that dwarf girl the same one from dai? Dagna

Yes, and it was cool to see her again. Don't get me wrong about that. I do like Dagna. It was just an example of "Why would I do that when I'm busy doing this more urgent thing?" that is rather prevalent in DAO.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

in DAO, Mages are ludicrously, joke levels of overpowered

While doing a completely non-mage playthrough is hilarious amounts of harder. But, you could still make 3 warriors + Shale work on Nightmare. It just clearly was not intended as an equally viable playstyle.

...playing Inquisition now, does make me badly miss Origins' AI settings that still made that play possible...

Thanks for linking to the non-spoiler Game Informer post! I didn't even try to keep an eye on info on that because I knew it was going to be full of spoilers. I'm actually excited for CC sliders (an area where BG3 fails).

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I'll continue this thread, because Reddit is too full of negativity for me, which is a first.

I wish the skill trees were just one step more complex (for the fun of figuring out weird paths to take), but still, it looks nice.

Now, why is Reddit so negative? Because they're hung up on only having 3 active abilities at once. I'm just glad it lets us order our companions Mass Effect-style.

I think it's a silly marketing decision to not communicate the systems better to people (you can switch between your two weapon types and each has its own 3 abilities, all abilities are not their own buttons but are instead triggered by jumping/tapping/holding down/combination of light+heavy attacks), because you should know how people are going to be if you just let them draw their own conclusions. And then you only show a lv1 gameplay video, too.

I'm someone who had completely written this game off originally, but... it got me to restart Inquisition to try and finish it in time for DAVE's release, just in case. I mean, I haven't seen anything negative so far (except for qunari design still not going back to DA2 days).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Another spoiler-free FAQ:

A thread with questions and answers about Dragon Age: The Veilguard from the BioWare Discord. by @andarateia(Andy 🌿)

A thread with questions and answers about Dragon Age: The Veilguard from the BioWare Discord. Rook and Character Creator - Part 1 https://t.co/20HtIKVr7H

twitter-thread.com

Confirms a few things including that companions do have health.

I notice DAI is the top-selling discounted game on Steam right now! Given it's by revenue and it's only £3.49 (quite a steal!) that means it must be moving quite a lot of units!

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

In a shocking next-gen development, Veilguard will offer you body tattoos? What's this, I thought only face tattoos, that most normal of things, existed in games with a character creator.

As a gripe, I just cannot believe that after having people call us Warden, Hawke, Herald, Inquisitor... now they will say Rook. That's not a title, that just sounds like the rookie of the team, or an illiterate orc.