[Dragon Age: Inquisition] - Jaws Of Hakkon DLC out now for PC, XONE - others in May

PreciousBodilyFluids

Consoles have games like GTA and Assassin's Creed with huge cities full of people.

I'm sure especially the old consoles offer some limitations, but they're not the reason Val Royeux is so completely underwhelming.

Dragkonias

Eh. I doubt its that simple.

DA:I is a lot more resource intensive than the previous entries were. So its more than possible that had a hand in it.

Bassguy

Also, performance isn't exactly fantastic on current gen platforms. There is a non-trivial amount of slow down and pop-in in spots. I doubt the engine could take it without some serious overhauls (or completely new hardware).

Elendil

surely a larger val royeaux wouldn't present more difficulty than the huge ass wilderness areas that are in the game

Spoit

Elendil wrote: »

surely a larger val royeaux wouldn't present more difficulty than the huge ass wilderness areas that are in the game

Density issues probably. Also, probably easier to reuse tree and rock assets than buildings, without people whining like they did in DA2

Sirialis

Does anyone know how to obtain Lazurite without ever setting foot in any areas outside Hinterlands, Val Royeaux and Haven?

I know its possible since my first character had 11+ Lazurite and got Knight Enchanter, but my 2nd dude didnt get any Lazurite up until that point at all.

My first bet was Rifts, but I havent really noticed any tier 2 materials dropping from them

Bassguy

Sirialis wrote: »

Does anyone know how to obtain Lazurite without ever setting foot in any areas outside Hinterlands, Val Royeaux and Haven?

I know its possible since my first character had 11+ Lazurite and got Knight Enchanter, but my 2nd dude didnt get any Lazurite up until that point at all.

My first bet was Rifts, but I havent really noticed any tier 2 materials dropping from them

War table? I think you just have to unlock the location — not actually go there yourself.

Sirialis

Bassguy wrote: »

Sirialis wrote: »

Does anyone know how to obtain Lazurite without ever setting foot in any areas outside Hinterlands, Val Royeaux and Haven?

I know its possible since my first character had 11+ Lazurite and got Knight Enchanter, but my 2nd dude didnt get any Lazurite up until that point at all.

My first bet was Rifts, but I havent really noticed any tier 2 materials dropping from them

War table? I'm think you just have to unlock the location — not actually go there yourself.

I just got 13 Lazurite a second ago while not even having done "In Hushed Whispers" yet on that character, I got them from the Rift in Dwarfson Pass, the harder one with the Rage Demon.

Finally, I hate having materials I need and an OCD about how to progress in RPG's.

BRIAN BLESSED

Given the amount of stuff actually available to do in the game in many other regions in Inquisition, if they'd set out to aim for having a large city hub they could have pulled it off in some capacity, regardless of hardware limitations. Given the nature of allocating resources to development, it would probably have been at the (indirect) expense of some other region being smaller, lesser, pared down or whatever, but they could have done it.
It probably wouldn't have been seamless and would require extensive loading between areas (lord knows some of the regions have that anyway), but they could have pulled it off - if they wanted to dedicate the time and space in for it, and my guess is that they simply didn't. To me, the Val Royeaux hub doesn't feel feel incomplete or unused, compared to, say, Skyhold. There are a bunch of quests that take place in that area and it's relatively well-populated with people and vendors that matter.

Spoit wrote: »

It's absolutely because of console limitations. Compare the citadel in ME1 vs ME2. They cut it down because the engine changes meant that they went above the system's threshold. I've been blaming them for years now, not just because of the cross generational gap

And then compare it with Mass Effect 3, where the Citadel has a ton of features as a merchant/quest hub, is chock-a-block full of involvement (and atmosphere), and still uses Unreal Engine 3. It's quite literally not a matter of whether or not it can be done, it's whether or not they want to.

Bassguy

BRIAN BLESSED wrote: »

And then compare it with Mass Effect 3, where the Citadel has a ton of features as a merchant/quest hub, is chock-a-block full of involvement (and atmosphere), and still uses Unreal Engine 3. It's quite literally not a matter of whether or not it can be done, it's whether or not they want to.

There are all sorts of things possible with unlimited time, money, and energy. EA/BioWare doesn't have that. I'd argue it isn't a "want to" issue.

If BioWare had a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars in which to pay employees, I'm sure they could expand everything and make it run well on the hardware. But they don't. Resources are limited, and so we got what we got.

Spoit

BRIAN BLESSED wrote: »

Given the amount of stuff actually available to do in the game in many other regions in Inquisition, if they'd set out to aim for having a large city hub they could have pulled it off in some capacity, regardless of hardware limitations. Given the nature of allocating resources to development, it would probably have been at the (indirect) expense of some other region being smaller, lesser, pared down or whatever, but they could have done it.
It probably wouldn't have been seamless and would require extensive loading between areas (lord knows some of the regions have that anyway), but they could have pulled it off - if they wanted to dedicate the time and space in for it, and my guess is that they simply didn't. To me, the Val Royeaux hub doesn't feel feel incomplete or unused, compared to, say, Skyhold. There are a bunch of quests that take place in that area and it's relatively well-populated with people and vendors that matter.

Spoit wrote: »

It's absolutely because of console limitations. Compare the citadel in ME1 vs ME2. They cut it down because the engine changes meant that they went above the system's threshold. I've been blaming them for years now, not just because of the cross generational gap

And then compare it with Mass Effect 3, where the Citadel has a ton of features as a merchant/quest hub, is chock-a-block full of involvement (and atmosphere), and still uses Unreal Engine 3. It's quite literally not a matter of whether or not it can be done, it's whether or not they want to.

Which are still like a block long each. And distinctly lacking in non-combat quests (or really anything other than pick up->go to another planet to fight some dudes and get the macguffin-> return for a single line of dialogue quests)

BRIAN BLESSED

You do realise that the areas in the original Mass Effect were sort of bigger, but not *massive* either, right? The elevators and doors simply hid most of the loading transitions to give the illusion of persistence. Plus, I can think of a lot of areas in that Citadel that were functionally empty spaces or used for the sole purpose of one quest.

Bassguy wrote: »

BRIAN BLESSED wrote: »

And then compare it with Mass Effect 3, where the Citadel has a ton of features as a merchant/quest hub, is chock-a-block full of involvement (and atmosphere), and still uses Unreal Engine 3. It's quite literally not a matter of whether or not it can be done, it's whether or not they want to.

There are all sorts of things possible with unlimited time, money, and energy. EA/BioWare doesn't have that. I'd argue it isn't a "want to" issue.

If BioWare had a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars in which to pay employees, I'm sure they could expand everything and make it run well on the hardware. But they don't. Resources are limited, and so we got what we got.

Well, yes, that's my general gist of the issue - it's BioWare prioritising what they deem to be the features they want in the game. Cities just weren't it for Inquisition, I guess.
And don't get me wrong, either, I fully agree that a big, highly-interactable city hub would be sickass. Unity managed to do it, but then again, Paris was the only area in the game so they dumped the vast majority of their work into it.

Dracomicron

Spoit wrote: »

BRIAN BLESSED wrote: »

Given the amount of stuff actually available to do in the game in many other regions in Inquisition, if they'd set out to aim for having a large city hub they could have pulled it off in some capacity, regardless of hardware limitations. Given the nature of allocating resources to development, it would probably have been at the (indirect) expense of some other region being smaller, lesser, pared down or whatever, but they could have done it.
It probably wouldn't have been seamless and would require extensive loading between areas (lord knows some of the regions have that anyway), but they could have pulled it off - if they wanted to dedicate the time and space in for it, and my guess is that they simply didn't. To me, the Val Royeaux hub doesn't feel feel incomplete or unused, compared to, say, Skyhold. There are a bunch of quests that take place in that area and it's relatively well-populated with people and vendors that matter.

Spoit wrote: »

It's absolutely because of console limitations. Compare the citadel in ME1 vs ME2. They cut it down because the engine changes meant that they went above the system's threshold. I've been blaming them for years now, not just because of the cross generational gap

And then compare it with Mass Effect 3, where the Citadel has a ton of features as a merchant/quest hub, is chock-a-block full of involvement (and atmosphere), and still uses Unreal Engine 3. It's quite literally not a matter of whether or not it can be done, it's whether or not they want to.

Which are still like a block long each. And distinctly lacking in non-combat quests (or really anything other than pick up->go to another planet to fight some dudes and get the macguffin-> return for a single line of dialogue quests)

Sometimes it's an amazing line of dialogue.

"Not... Enough..."