Dragon Age: Inquisition

[Amentep]

 

If a magician does a trick, then certainly he knows how it is done (whether you do or not). Does that knowledge make it any less magic?

Well yeah, that's why many of them prefer to be called "illusionists" now.

 

The only people going around calling themselves magicians are those crappy ones who can't perform without a group of actors pretending to be amazed for the cameras for their TV series.

 

Err, I might be too opinionated on this.

 

They can't all be Doug Henning:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7U_oHL_vzg

[majestic]

 

If a magician does a trick, then certainly he knows how it is done (whether you do or not). Does that knowledge make it any less magic?

Well yeah, that's why many of them prefer to be called "illusionists" now.

 

The only people going around calling themselves magicians are those crappy ones who can't perform without a group of actors pretending to be amazed for the cameras for their TV series.

 

Err, I might be too opinionated on this.

 

 

I thought those people called themselves psychic and starred on The Next Uri Geller.

 

Ah, who am I kidding. Uri Geller makes clocks tick again, he's awesome. Certainly not like those magicians who only do make believe.

[Qistina]

 

i. If God created everything, then God's creation is scientific fact.

 

ii. Midichlorians don't prove that the force is something that is in every living creature (we know only that it is in humanoids based on the check), we don't know that it binds the universe together. We don't undertand why or how it works. The Jedi belief system is not challenged by the existence of midichlorians.

 

iii. And after science nothing is? If science proved the existence of God, would God no longer be mystical?

 

I'm sorry you feel I'm being argumentative; I'm trying to understand your perspective but it doesn't make much sense to me.

 

 

i. God create everything is faith, not scientific fact. To argue either God create everything or not scientifically for me is stupid, because we cannot argue what being believed as faith using empirical method. But what you see today in religion/creationist vs science/atheism debates are just competition between the two faction, i don't bother want to involved in it, because it just plain stupid for me. God is neither proven or disproven via science, because you just need to believe God existed, that is why it is called faith. If you need evidence that God exist then you are not faithful, you need a ground to make you believe, you have doubt until it is proven. If you want to discredit God existence using science then you are using wrong method to disproven God existence, how come you want to against something based on faith, on what people believe, by using facts? If people believe there is a flyring spaghetti, it doesn't matter it is true or not scientifically, because people believe that no matter what.

 

ii. Midichlorian justify the existence of the Force claimed by Jedi because midichlorian is the thing that allow Jedis to use the Force, automatically "the Force does exist as they claim", and it is not something to argue about it's existence. Without midichlorian we can argue that their powers maybe something else and not "the Force" as they claim , it maybe magic, it maybe psychokinetic whatever things we can come out. Meaning what they claim as "the Force" could be not "the Force" without midichlorian, it just something mysterious...maybe God, maybe spirits, maybe Satan...who know?

 

iii. if science prove the existence of God, then it is no longer a matter of faith, it become factual

Edited May 23, 2015 by Qistina

[Qistina]

 

 

It is the same with Shaolin monk claim we all have "Chi" and they learned to use the "Chi", then it is no longer mystic when someone become sceptic explaining how Shaolin monk can walk on fire brimstones

 

Firewalking has been explained by science 80 years ago. Sorry, I guess I now ruined shaolin monks for you. And for themselves. Because, obviously.

 

 

That is what i mean...now you understand my argument? They ruin the mystical value of the Force in Star Wars and Templar ability in Dragon Age by scepticism

 

So I do have a question here:

 

What do you think of D&D's divine magic system? In case you don't know anything about it, in D&D there are many gods, they are real for as long as there are people worshipping them and in return for said worship they gain access to what's called divine magic (as opposed to arcane magic which is either trained or innate, depending on your class).

 

There's an explained way how this power transfer works, the existence of everything involved is a proven fact, however it still requires faith to work (both ways). Are D&D priests scientists? Or sceptics?

 

Your entire point about something mystical not having any explanaition, cause OR effect is a little strange. Sure, it's true for God and concepts like qi in our real world because those are not observable, have no apparent cause (how could they, without being observable) and also aren't measurable. A sceptic now would say those don't exist, someone having faith would argue it is of no consequence because it is faith.

 

But how can you take that concept and apply it into worlds where the mystic has real, factual effects? Templars have anti-magic powers. Force users have abilities. Those are real, and according to your definition that alone makes it science, not faith? How can that be true?

 

In any pantheism religion, there are many gods, demigods, goddesses...in their story and myth these gods are real in sense of realism as we know and understand about what is real. In Greek there is Hercules son of Zeus and Zeus can give lightning strike and so on, in India there is Rama and Shiva and so on, these characters existed in real sense in their stories

 

D&D and games are like that, no difference, it is a story where divine beings existed in real sense, their existence is something not to argue about because they existed in such state. There is no problem.

 

But Dragon Age isn't like D&D or mythology, the religion in DA is closer to real world religion where you can doubt the existence of God or you can be faithful believing in God existence. By adding scepticism in DA it destroy mystical value of what it should be remain mysterous as in real world. Why put in religion in the first place if you intend to destroy the belief system by justifying why things happen scientifically in the game other than to send message to players that religion is crap?

Edited May 23, 2015 by Qistina

[BruceVC]

 

 

 

It is the same with Shaolin monk claim we all have "Chi" and they learned to use the "Chi", then it is no longer mystic when someone become sceptic explaining how Shaolin monk can walk on fire brimstones

 

Firewalking has been explained by science 80 years ago. Sorry, I guess I now ruined shaolin monks for you. And for themselves. Because, obviously.

 

 

That is what i mean...now you understand my argument? They ruin the mystical value of the Force in Star Wars and Templar ability in Dragon Age by scepticism

 

So I do have a question here:

 

What do you think of D&D's divine magic system? In case you don't know anything about it, in D&D there are many gods, they are real for as long as there are people worshipping them and in return for said worship they gain access to what's called divine magic (as opposed to arcane magic which is either trained or innate, depending on your class).

 

There's an explained way how this power transfer works, the existence of everything involved is a proven fact, however it still requires faith to work (both ways). Are D&D priests scientists? Or sceptics?

 

Your entire point about something mystical not having any explanaition, cause OR effect is a little strange. Sure, it's true for God and concepts like qi in our real world because those are not observable, have no apparent cause (how could they, without being observable) and also aren't measurable. A sceptic now would say those don't exist, someone having faith would argue it is of no consequence because it is faith.

 

But how can you take that concept and apply it into worlds where the mystic has real, factual effects? Templars have anti-magic powers. Force users have abilities. Those are real, and according to your definition that alone makes it science, not faith? How can that be true?

 

In any pantheism religion, there are many gods, demigods, goddesses...in their story and myth these gods are real in sense of realism as we know and understand about what is real. In Greek there is Hercules son of Zeus and Zeus can give lightning strike and so on, in India there is Rama and Shiva and so on, these characters existed in real sense in their stories

 

D&D and games are like that, no difference, it is a story where divine beings existed in real sense, their existence is something not to argue about because they existed in such state. There is no problem.

 

But Dragon Age isn't like D&D or mythology, the religion in DA is closer to real world religion where you can doubt the existence of God or you can be faithful believing in God existence. By adding scepticism in DA it destroy mystical value of what it should be remain mysterous as in real world. Why put in religion in the first place if you intend to destroy the belief system by justifying why things happen scientifically in the game other than to send message to players that religion is crap?

 

 

Lets say you right and they are attacking real world religions. Why does it matter, so Bioware are atheists ...so what?

 

Is it wrong to be an atheist ...atheists get attacked all the time and in some parts of the world this can be punished by death or imprisonment if you say " I am now an atheist "

[Qistina]

 

Lets say you right and they are attacking real world religions. Why does it matter, so Bioware are atheists ...so what?

 

Is it wrong to be an atheist ...atheists get attacked all the time and in some parts of the world this can be punished by death or imprisonment if you say " I am now an atheist "

 

 

No, they are not atheists, they are satanists, Illuminati. That's why they use eye symbol.

 

People always confuse, of course atheists attack religion, but atheists are just tools, behind them are satanists, these people, the Illuminati, are not atheists, they are very "religious"...

 

As i mention, they give you doubt about God, but they show demons existed. Demons in this game are not solely bad and evil. You may become friends with demons, sex with demons, working with demons, ect. They are beings of another realms want to be in this world just because they want to be in this world. In this game, demons is not your enemy.

 

In this game, they try hard to destroy the very basis of religiuon, that is faith to God, in other way they show you making deal with demons could lead to something either good or bad, but you can make deal with demons, and demons can give you anything you wanted

 

In this game, you may deny the existence of God, but you can't deny the existence of demons...Bioware is not atheist, but satanist, Illuminati.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Qistina

[mute688]

 

 

No, they are not atheists, they are satanists, Illuminati. That's why they use eye symbol.

People always confuse, of course atheists attack religion, but atheists are just tools, behind them are satanists, these people, the Illuminati, are not atheists, they are very "religious"...

 

 

 

lol, as an atheist myself, you can take it from me that the vast majority of us have no desire to attack religion, any more than we feel a need to attack Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian or Aztec mythology.  Besides, believers do a far better job of discrediting religion than any atheist could possibly achieve.

[Qistina]

 

lol, as an atheist myself, you can take it from me that the vast majority of us have no desire to attack religion, any more than we feel a need to attack Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian or Aztec mythology.  Besides, believers do a far better job of discrediting religion than any atheist could possibly achieve.

 

 

Says the tool...

[mute688]

 

 

lol, as an atheist myself, you can take it from me that the vast majority of us have no desire to attack religion, any more than we feel a need to attack Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian or Aztec mythology.  Besides, believers do a far better job of discrediting religion than any atheist could possibly achieve.

 

 

Says the tool...

 

 

 

That's funny.      I'll now leave this conversation and allow you to continue with your outstanding effort at representing theism in all it's glory  .

[Humanoid]

Are you saying you're not a tool of the Illuminati?

[mute688]

Of course not!  I'm a fully paid up member.  

[JadedWolf]

 

 

 

it makes it doesn't even magic

Do you even magic bro?

 

Sorry.

 

 

I am not even bro....

 

 

We are all bro here.

 

 

I'm not. I'm Spartacus.

[Darkpriest]

Of course not! I'm a fully paid up member.

It comes with booze and booty, right?

 

Sometimes you just have to set a kitten on fire or worse watch an older guy having it with some nice lass during the circle gathering, but who would really care in this day. Teens in highschools are more perv than that. I guess turning all those music tv channels into glorification of stupid brought the desired fruits. #Illuminati #Kappa

[majestic]

But Dragon Age isn't like D&D or mythology, the religion in DA is closer to real world religion where you can doubt the existence of God or you can be faithful believing in God existence. By adding scepticism in DA it destroy mystical value of what it should be remain mysterous as in real world. Why put in religion in the first place if you intend to destroy the belief system by justifying why things happen scientifically in the game other than to send message to players that religion is crap?

 

Well, I'll come out and say it: That is wrong. Whether the Templars really need to use lyrium or not doesn't matter because there are Seekers having those powers who gain them by training and faith alone. You're drawing up a huge anti-religious conspiracy from a silly retcon that was retconned again by adding Seekers into the game.

 

There's no organized conspiracy here, just two or more writers taking liberty with established lore. That's unfortunate to be sure, but not really unexpected, especially not from Bioware. The only other more retcon happy bunch is working at Blizzard, and oh boy, compared to them Bioware is especially tame in comparison.

 

 

 

Lets say you right and they are attacking real world religions. Why does it matter, so Bioware are atheists ...so what?

 

Is it wrong to be an atheist ...atheists get attacked all the time and in some parts of the world this can be punished by death or imprisonment if you say " I am now an atheist "

 

 

No, they are not atheists, they are satanists, Illuminati. That's why they use eye symbol.

 

People always confuse, of course atheists attack religion, but atheists are just tools, behind them are satanists, these people, the Illuminati, are not atheists, they are very "religious"...

 

As i mention, they give you doubt about God, but they show demons existed. Demons in this game are not solely bad and evil. You may become friends with demons, sex with demons, working with demons, ect. They are beings of another realms want to be in this world just because they want to be in this world. In this game, demons is not your enemy.

 

In this game, they try hard to destroy the very basis of religiuon, that is faith to God, in other way they show you making deal with demons could lead to something either good or bad, but you can make deal with demons, and demons can give you anything you wanted

 

In this game, you may deny the existence of God, but you can't deny the existence of demons...Bioware is not atheist, but satanist, Illuminati.

 

Except that demons simply being a name mortals gave spirits who embody negative (mortal) traits and emotions. Like everything in the Fade they are a reflection of the real world and exist only because there's both good and evil in everyone. The bad things also happen to spirits of positive traits should they ever join with mortals, like Justice joining Anders and becoming Vengeance in the process.

 

Oh and by the way, where is the good that comes from dealing with demons in Dragon Age?

 

It comes with booze and booty, right?

 

Sometimes you just have to set a kitten on fire or worse watch an older guy having it with some nice lass during the circle gathering, but who would really care in this day. Teens in highschools are more perv than that. I guess turning all those music tv channels into glorification of stupid brought the desired fruits. #Illuminati #Kappa

 

 

That's silly. While I'm not a satanist I have to work closely with many of them on the HAARP base and some of our chemtrails subconctractors often demand satanic rituals before we're proceeding at meetings. Can't be too careful these days, look at that terrible Snowden business. Not once ever did they burn a kitten in their proceedings, that's just propaganda. In fact they never burn anything in the first place, that's just for TV - kittens are far too delicious to simply burn.

[Qistina]

 

But Dragon Age isn't like D&D or mythology, the religion in DA is closer to real world religion where you can doubt the existence of God or you can be faithful believing in God existence. By adding scepticism in DA it destroy mystical value of what it should be remain mysterous as in real world. Why put in religion in the first place if you intend to destroy the belief system by justifying why things happen scientifically in the game other than to send message to players that religion is crap?

 

Well, I'll come out and say it: That is wrong. Whether the Templars really need to use lyrium or not doesn't matter because there are Seekers having those powers who gain them by training and faith alone. You're drawing up a huge anti-religious conspiracy from a silly retcon that was retconned again by adding Seekers into the game.

 

There's no organized conspiracy here, just two or more writers taking liberty with established lore. That's unfortunate to be sure, but not really unexpected, especially not from Bioware. The only other more retcon happy bunch is working at Blizzard, and oh boy, compared to them Bioware is especially tame in comparison.

 

 

No, we don't know the nature of Seeker ability yet. You claim they gain ability through faith and training but i don't see any proof for that. Maybe they consume lyrium secretly, who know? Templar do need lyrium, if Seekers also have the same ability without using lyrium, i can say it just a bad writing, overlook and lazyness

 

They retconed Templar ability in DA2, they also making Templar specialization need you to consume lyrium in DA:I, but then Seekers having the same ability withot lyrium. That's the writers are messing with their own lore. Well, as at any places, Illuminati are only one or two person in any organizations, they who messed up the writing then making it inconsistent wth other writers....

 

 

 

Except that demons simply being a name mortals gave spirits who embody negative (mortal) traits and emotions. Like everything in the Fade they are a reflection of the real world and exist only because there's both good and evil in everyone. The bad things also happen to spirits of positive traits should they ever join with mortals, like Justice joining Anders and becoming Vengeance in the process.

 

Oh and by the way, where is the good that comes from dealing with demons in Dragon Age?

 

It doesn't matter, they show you demons or spirits as a real thing that cannot be denied, but the existence of God is always doubtful. That is my point. Spirit turn bad and becoming demon or vice versa is not important, the point is these being is undoubtfully existed and you can make deal with them. Anything that could be related to God is doubtful in nature, but with these things are not. Andraste Ash miracle could be contested, but demons reward is demons reward

 

There is no bad things happen to you dealing with demons, bad things only happen to others, it is because you are the hero and a badass, meaning if you are a badass you can deal with demons without any risk. In DA:O you may get rewards and cast away demon possessing Conor or let her possessed the child, you may learn Blood Magic and let demon possesed the child, in anyway nothing bad happen to you when you make deal with demons because you are the badas.

 

This is true in all the series, bad things only happen to other people, not to you when you make deal with demons. Meaning, "you may sacrifice others for your own gain when deal with demons"

Edited May 23, 2015 by Qistina

[GhostofAnakin]

So are any other story-based DLC planned?  Or is Jaws of Hakkon (sp) the only one?

[majestic]

snip

 

So that's it then. Just like every other conspiracy nut on this planet when faced with evidence to the contrary you just retreat further into your world of self-delusion and make-believe. It's funny how you dismiss the Seekers as proof to the contrary saying "there is no proof that they don't secretly do lyrium" when all you do is talking about how faith-based abilities SHOULD REQUIRE NO PROOF as to not turn them into science.

 

So are any other story-based DLC planned?  Or is Jaws of Hakkon (sp) the only one?

 

I'd bet my ass that if Bioware had a lot of story DLCs lined up or even planned they'd sell a season pass right now like all the other good boys do, so that doesn't look too good. Personally I was hoping  for a Leliana's Song type of DLC about what happend with Solas before Inquisition retelling how Corypheus got his orb.

[marelooke]

So I sided with the mages (I'm a Dalish Mage, so seemed kinda like the logical thing to do, the fact that the templar-chief* was acting like a total jerk when I met him didn't really help their cause any).
 
(Spoilers about the questline where you choose mages/templars follow.The fact that you have to choose between them shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has played the previous DA games so I don't consider that a spoiler)

So then we get teleported to the future and basically get told who the enemies are. I though that was a bit of a bummer, I had hoped to have to go through greater lengths to figure out who we were up against. Being a big organization and having to use that to "smoke out" the opposition would have been a nice change from it being the other way around, alas not this time.

 
(Spoilers about the questchain leading up to Skyhold)

It's kind of funny that after making fun of "sounding like cliched villains" in the Mage quests the actual villain comes knocking at your doorstep and starts explaining big chunks of his plot to conquer the heavens like the worst cliche ever. I thought it was very ironic. It always seems very "gamey" when a villain that only needs you to be dead wouldn't just kill you and be done with it instead of talking for 15minutes and kicking you all over the place. I'm aware he first tried to get his Anchor back, but once it was clear that wasn't going to work he took entirely too much time talking and way too little time killing
 
I found it a bit cheap that all the people that could possibly die during this part when you fail to save them get replaced by others even if they survive. Not sure if they'll ever play any role worth mentioning again (I suspect not), which is a bummer, I sort of liked Minaeve (and the Haven barkeep).

 

Barring all the loading screens I kind of like Skyhold, next up is meeting Hawke again (if it turns out it's not Hawke after all I'll be very surprised indeed).

 

I hope there's a few twists to the story though and preferably not super obvious ones as right now the end goal seems a little bit too clear.

 

 

The war table quests related to my character's Dalish clan are also a very nice touch as is the fact that people now actually seem to care about the fact that I'm an elf (and a Dalish elf at that, oh and a mage, two reasons to be shunned for the price of one!), I always found it rather jarring when you could play as a Drow or Half-Orc or some other "weird" race and nobody seems to give a damn.

 

A few other things I've been noticing so far:

 

• Leliana doesn't mention any of the events in DA:O, like ever, it's like she was trained, got betrayed and then ended up working for the Divine. Was her involvement with the Hero of Ferelden retconned away (or is it because I'm using the "default world state"?)?
  Because otherwise you'd expect her to be able to tell whether that dragon thing is an Archdemon or not...

   

• Both of the rogues I have so far (dunno what class Cole is yet) are Archers (well, you could spec them differently of course but that'd lead to some weird conversations).

   

• Needing inquisition perks to be able to open certain locked doors is annoying, especially given how slowly they come (maybe that speeds up somewhat now that I'm at Skyhold?) and how slow loading times are.

   

• There doesn't seem to be much in the way of variation when it comes to armor designs. Given the rather different physiques of the various races I guess that'd have been quite a bit of work, but it's a shame nonetheless. As is the fact thatwearing  different armors seems to have rather little (visual) effect on some characters (Blackwall and Cassandra come to mind)

   

• It appears we're not being force to pick each and every romance option if we want to romance a companion, this is nice as I like to get to know people before trying to get into their pants. So far there also hasn't been an Anders-ism where you lose reputation with a character for not going the romance route, this is obviously a good thing.

   

• Some war table missions seem to be lost if you don't do them before progressing the main plot, since they're counted in real time this can get annoying if you have a bunch left that are most efficiently solved by the same advisor.

   

• It seems that most reputation changing events change reputations of all characters, regardless of whether they are in your party or not, this is good as it somewhat alleviates annoyance the reputation minigame used to cause in previous DA/MEs (and other games that use such a system, of course)

   

• I'm starting to really dislike the dialogue wheel, the amount of times I've been annoyed at what my character said with the option I picked seems to have been higher than I can remember it being in previous "wheel-games" or at the very least there have been some dialogues where this issue cropped up multiple times in quick succession leading to quite some frustration

 
* please don't hurt me for not remembering or caring what his actual title (or name, for that matter) is.

Edited May 23, 2015 by marelooke

[babaganoosh13]

 

 

If a magician does a trick, then certainly he knows how it is done (whether you do or not). Does that knowledge make it any less magic?

Well yeah, that's why many of them prefer to be called "illusionists" now.

 

The only people going around calling themselves magicians are those crappy ones who can't perform without a group of actors pretending to be amazed for the cameras for their TV series.

 

Err, I might be too opinionated on this.

 

They can't all be Doug Henning:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7U_oHL_vzg

 

It's too bad the Natural Law Party didn't win it in '93. We could have had the GST disappear just like this elephant. Instead we got Chretien.

 

That would have been better if I could find the actual ad Henning used during that election. That had to have been the most famous tv ad during that election. This is as close as it's gonna get:

 

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Digital+Archives/Politics/Elections/Small+Parties+in+Federal+Politics/ID/1864772481/

[Qistina]

 

snip

 

So that's it then. Just like every other conspiracy nut on this planet when faced with evidence to the contrary you just retreat further into your world of self-delusion and make-believe. It's funny how you dismiss the Seekers as proof to the contrary saying "there is no proof that they don't secretly do lyrium" when all you do is talking about how faith-based abilities SHOULD REQUIRE NO PROOF as to not turn them into science.

 

 

You just give an assumption, not evidence. I give evidence, you don't. Seekers ability is Templar ability and according to the retconed lore they must consume lyrium. There is no evidence that Seekers gain their Templar ability by faith and training. So i make a speculation that "they consume lyrium secretly", but you in other hand have no basis at all for your claim. What you claim as evidence is not even evidence, but my my claim supported by evidence, no matter if it just make believe

[MrBrown]

A few other things I've been noticing so far:

 

Leliana doesn't mention any of the events in DA:O, like ever, it's like she was trained, got betrayed and then ended up working for the Divine. Was her involvement with the Hero of Ferelden retconned away (or is it because I'm using the "default world state"?)?

Because otherwise you'd expect her to be able to tell whether that dragon thing is an Archdemon or not...

 

 

Both of the rogues I have so far (dunno what class Cole is yet) are Archers (well, you could spec them differently of course but that'd lead to some weird conversations).

 

Some war table missions seem to be lost if you don't do them before progressing the main plot, since they're counted in real time this can get annoying if you have a bunch left that are most efficiently solved by the same advisor

 

- Leliana does mention some stuff from DA:O, especially early on in the game. Most you have to ask her yourself, IIRC.

- There's 3 NPCs for each class.

- Some War Table missions can only be completed before going to Skyhold. A few are mutually exclusive. Other than that, they never go away with time or anything. None of them are really biggies, though.

[Hurlshort]

Cole is a rogue with two daggers, and is quite effective.

[GhostofAnakin]

I never brought Cole along in my party.  I found him rather useless.  Maybe it's because my main character was a duel-wielding rogue, himself, so Cole was kind of redundant to have in the party.  The big floppy hat looked silly, too.  Half the time I talked to him in the tavern, the hat would glitch and cover half the screen.

[AGX-17]

I never brought Cole along in my party.  I found him rather useless.  Maybe it's because my main character was a duel-wielding rogue, himself, so Cole was kind of redundant to have in the party.  The big floppy hat looked silly, too.  Half the time I talked to him in the tavern, the hat would glitch and cover half the screen.

I never found any value to dual-wield rogues in the game, sort of like in reality. Cole's just a buzzkill, anyway.

[marelooke]

 

A few other things I've been noticing so far:

 

Leliana doesn't mention any of the events in DA:O, like ever, it's like she was trained, got betrayed and then ended up working for the Divine. Was her involvement with the Hero of Ferelden retconned away (or is it because I'm using the "default world state"?)?

Because otherwise you'd expect her to be able to tell whether that dragon thing is an Archdemon or not...

 

 

Both of the rogues I have so far (dunno what class Cole is yet) are Archers (well, you could spec them differently of course but that'd lead to some weird conversations).

 

Some war table missions seem to be lost if you don't do them before progressing the main plot, since they're counted in real time this can get annoying if you have a bunch left that are most efficiently solved by the same advisor

 

- Leliana does mention some stuff from DA:O, especially early on in the game. Most you have to ask her yourself, IIRC.

- There's 3 NPCs for each class.

- Some War Table missions can only be completed before going to Skyhold. A few are mutually exclusive. Other than that, they never go away with time or anything. None of them are really biggies, though.

 

 

- Weird, I've exhausted all her dialogue options and she never mentions much about DA:O, well, aside ending up there until the Divine called upon her. No mention of the Hero of Ferelden, the Wardens, the Blight or anything though. She did mention that she ran into mages that were better people than her though (referring to Wynne I presume)

 

- Think I've got all NPCs now and indeed all bases seem to be covered, my go-to party is me (mage), Solas (more mages!), Varric and Blackwall/Cassandra so far though.

 

- OK, knowing that they won't go away anymore now that I'm at Skyhold makes me less reluctant to push the main story forward, which would be a good idea right about now before I get burnt out on all the similar side areas...

 

I've gone through the Exalted Plains now, always nice to see more Elven lore (bummer Solas doesn't give more exposition though, but that's mostly my own interst speaking here ). Other than that it pretty much felt like another Hinterlands. In fact, the three areas I've completed to far feel very similar, gameplay wise. Bethesda clearly does a better job in creating interesting quests (if we ignore the repeatable "kill the bandit leader" style thing).

 

The shard collectible minigame is also starting to get on my nerves, I often pass them but before I use an Ocular I can't see them or pick them up, that's just annoying (even more so since there's sound playing to rub it in that you're near one you can't see).

I also ran into one that I could see from miles away but took me a looong time to get to, turned out I was actually on the right track, but the jump I had to made was a matter of luck (at least, that's what I concluded when I saw a guy that knew where it was struggle to make the jump for quite a while). If there's one thing I remember from Tomb Raider (the first) it's how un-fun it was to spend 30minutes to an hour getting to a secret in plain sight just because the way to get there was made horrifyingly annoying. If a jump you try doesn't work you generally go look for other approaches, it's rather grating when there are none and that first thing you tried actually should have worked, but didn't...

Edited May 26, 2015 by marelooke