#me:a blogging

[felassan]

Some thoughts on the recent article on DA:D from Tom Henderson / Insider Gaming, under a cut due to potential spoilers for DA:D -

first, the usual set of disclaimers that accompany all leaks: might not be real, unable to verify at present, sometimes leakers think they're right about things but are unintentionally incorrect or got some wires crossed, games change a fair bit between development phases and final release, take with grain of salt etc

Tom Henderson is the one that leaked the game's title, 'Dreadwolf', ahead of time, along with Jeff Grubb.

all the stuff about the possible/speculated release window doesn't feel like new information really? for a while now rumors and guesses etc have been saying like 'late 2023 or 2024', sorta thing

The game still lacking features and completed character lines etc doesn't sound odd or surprising either. DA:D is currently playable from beginning to end, but not finished, as BioWare said themselves in the milestone announcement blog post a few months ago. iirc, at that stage in development there can still be placeholder assets, stuff without textures yet, 'robot-voiced' or still-silent lines, placeholder text and textures, etc.

I wonder who the sources are? playtesters? going by yesterday's Reddit leaks (DA:D spoilers at link), that wouldn't be outside the realms of possibility. I also wonder how familiar with the franchise said sources are. some bits of or language in the article make it sound like either they and/or the writer aren't super familiar.

There are 'central hubs' in previous DA and ME games, which were of course singleplayer: Party Camp, Skyhold, the Normandy etc. the PC goes to those locations between story missions and between side quests to regroup, talk to companions etc before heading out again. I'm curious what form the hub/base in DA:D will take - a camp, home, fort/castle, ship, secret base, a pocket somewhere 'in-between' worlds etc?

Recruiting and growing companions, completing missions, companions being found in the hub (or their own mini-hubs as in DAII), giving them equipment/modifications & so on - all things found to some extent in previous games. I guess it does confirm these features will return in DA:D.

Re: combat and FF15, emphasis on "the game's combat wheel" as being what's similar

also not really surprised by the description of the combat. DA changes significantly game to game and the rough trajectory since DA:O has been away from the tactics style of game towards more of an action-y RPG. it also lines up with the feel of the little snippet of combat we saw in a trailer (remember the footage of the character in Grey Warden armor doing Shield Wall?) and some comments that cropped up on ResetEra from possible playtesters in October 2022 (they mentioned God of War 2018 as a comparison point for example).

Re: controlling party members, it says "currently". that said, the playtester who was the source of the leaked screenshots and gif on Reddit also reported that they could not control the party. iirc this was also among the comments on ResetEra. this will vary from person to person, but personally for me I'm not bothered by the premise of being mostly unable to control squadmates. it's kinda like that in ME and ME:A and that was fine (for me I mean).

I'm curious about what other details they were provided with, and will be keeping an eye out for future reports. seems like quite a few leaks have been going on lately.

sometimes companies 'leak' stuff on purpose or want certain stuff to leak, in order to gather feedback, see peoples' reactions to it, as a marketing tactic etc. Mark Darrah said that wrt quantitative focus testing at least, there's a high chance of leaks and they know it. on his game development YouTube channel, on this he advised "Be careful that anything you put in there has a high probability of leaking, but that's potentially an opportunity. If you have information that you kind of want to be leaked out into the greater sphere of the internet, including it in a quant test, knowing that in all likelihood it's going to leak, might be a way to test the waters. It gives you plausible deniability if it does end up leaking. A good example of a leak like this was the concept picture of Dorian for Dragon Age: Inquisition. The concept piece includes a monkey. We never really had any intention of having a monkey for Dorian, but it was just what was drawn in the concept piece. And so we got to watch the internet react to this character, with a monkey, on the internet." I'm sure I've read or heard somewhere that the Dragon Age: Inquisition character concept feedback survey was leaked intentionally and that the devs kind of wanted the Crestwood demo to leak (and were surprised when it didn't result in many videos online).

"It’s understood that you’ll be able to move from your hub to missions by passing through a mirrored portal." - this is the most interesting snippet in this article to me. the obvious question is, eluvians? In Trespasser, Solas tells us he controls the eluvian network now, after over-riding the magic personally. So: have we gained control of part of the network (Briala controlled part of it for a time)? taken control of it or part of it from Solas? is there more than one network? have we built some eluvians of our own? In Trespasser banter Dorian was wondering about building eluvians of our own. there are some folks with eluvian knowledge kicking around like Merrill and Morrigan, and there are glassworks of note in Serault..

moving from a hub to missions through eluvians was exactly what we did in Trespasser from the Winter Palace, and it worked really well. Trespasser's setup was really enjoyable. it was a fun mechanic that helped explain fast travel and apparent teleportation. it also allowed for travelling to places all over, from the Deep Roads to ancient elven ruins to places in-between the waking world and the Fade - a variety of handcrafted places to explore still but with a tighter storyline threading through them, as opposed to open-world that felt like it was probably mandatory to include during development because of other games on the market like Skyrim and AC, but which then struggled to be filled with meaningful content to fill the space and in which that struggle was apparent. I'd be down for that. I'm just daydreaming and speculating wildly now for real (bc it's fun) but we could travel all over Thedas that way. We did that in DAI I know but you know what I mean? also what if the hub is in a pocket dimension, reachable only via eluvian? eluvian secret base..

[c-rowlesdraws]

I tried searching your blog to see if you've already been asked, but have you played Andromeda? Or maybe read ME:A Annihilation? I love picturing your designs of Quarians and Volus beneath the suits when I listen to the audiobook myself!

aw thank you so much! And YES I have played Andromeda! Well... I can't play it myself, so technically a friend of mine played it and streamed it for me, but I shouted at the screen a lot so I felt like I was participating. We romanced Jaal with a soft-yet-thrillseeking male Ryder and it was fun! I wish there had been more game in the game, but I liked most of what we got.

I've also read Annihilation! I've heard the audiobook is really good too, but I haven't listened to it yet. I'm disappointed but not surprised tumblr blog search isn't displaying the posts I've made about it, because I definitely made at least one-- and that one was specifically to post this very important meme I made about the main cast:

this is still to date my only piece of Annihilation fanart. It really deserves more.

[ezrisdax-archive]

Did that blog post just say Shepard's essentially returning and they're forgetting about Andromeda?

the "who really died" thing is pushing that so hm. but they did just have another post up and:

I'm trying not to get myself too hopeful they haven't abandoned ME:A completely but man am I worried this will be like DA:I for Hawke where Ryder only shows up briefly and maybe gets killed.

[seaofbeachystars]

Extremely low-activity multi-muse, featuring muses from Greedfall, Mass Effect, BG3, and more. Adored by: Beck!

Sideblog and follow back by: @seeasunset (Main blog)

Other blogs: @sailingtempest (ME:A muses)

Muse list & Info┊ Mun's info & Guidelines

*Temporary additional muses (needs to properly be set up in the docs):

Cordelia (Lollipop Chainsaw / Shipping open)

[keeping-tabs]

me starting up Andromeda to romance Jaal again and play in the exact same vanguard style I’ve played a million times before

[johnnys-silver-cock]

*slides 20$ to Bioware* soo...how about that patch smooching our li whenever we want?

[deimcs]

jay ryder › the human pathfinder from arc hyperion.

[lesbianvioladewynter-moved]

this is the funniest shit ive ever read

[sleppyuki]

Please. You’re not really going out there on your own.

[adragonismypartonus]

THE FACT THAT I CANNOT ROMANCE DR. LEXI T'PERRO ANNOYS ME SO MUCH

[stxrlightmuses]

The Archon from Mass Effect: Andromeda roleplay blog! (ง ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ)ง This is a multi-muse blog, however. Related to fandom characters or OC’s specifically made for fandom universes!

Follows the game & diverts from the game, too. See the verses page for more details!

Roleplays with just about anyone, mutuals or not. Fellow fandom characters or originals are welcome! We love OC’s here. :)

Primarily a multi-para blog but I can do anything from one-liners to novella.

Please read the Rules page. Mun and muse are 25+

Let’s have some fun!

[biobae]

I love the relationship between Vetra and Drack.

[togoanywhere]

[huanglanlovers]

I can't believe I almost missed these two! Love how they added these in!

[schnabelcopter]

Anyone watch Scott Pilgrim?