My Dragon Age Inquisition character card embroideries all together! Each is 11.5x19.5 cm. Dorian took 73 hours, Cassandra took 89 hours, and Sera took 75 hours.
I wonder which character I'll do next...
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[Image descriptions: Embroidered versions of the Dorian, Cassandra and Sera character selection card from Dragon Age Inquisition.
Dorian holds a book under his left arm while casting magic with his right. There are white glyphs in the air and a white snake running under his cloak and under his arm.
Cassandra sits atop a war horse with Inquisition soldiers behind her. She wears black armour with a gold-trimmed cloak, and the Seeker flag and he cloak stream behind her.
Sera stands atop a slanted tree trunk with her bow held suggestively between her legs, looking at the Skyhold tower in the distance, where the tiny figure of the inquisitor is present in the window. Mountains and turrets make up the background behind her.]
EuroGamer: 'BioWare knew the deepest secrets of Dragon Age lore 20 years ago, and locked it away in an uber-plot doc'
Original creator David Gaider on how "some of the big mysteries are being solved".
Rest of post under a cut due to length and possible spoilers.
"As I write about the secrets hidden in Dragon Age's mysterious Fade, and as I uncover some of them playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard, one question keeps rising up in my mind.
How much did BioWare know about future events when first developing the series more than 20 years ago? That's a long time, and back then BioWare didn't know there would be a second game, which is why Dragon Age: Origins has an elaborate and far-reaching epilogue. Why lay so much lore-track ahead of yourself if you don't think you'll ever get there?
But look more closely at Origins and there are big clues suggesting BioWare did know about future Dragon Age events. There are obvious signs in the original game, such as establishing recurring themes like Old Gods and the Blight and Archdemons. But there's also Flemeth, Morrigan's witchy mother, who's intimately linked to events in the series now - more specifically: intimately linked to Solas. Does her existence mean Solas was known about back then too?
There's only one person I can think of to answer this and it's David Gaider, the original creator of Dragon Age's world and lore. We've talked before, once in a podcast and once for a piece on the magic of fantasy maps, where we discussed the creation of Dragon Age's world. And much to my surprise, when I ask him what he and the BioWare team knew back then, he says they knew it all.
"By the time we released Dragon Age: Origins, we were basically sure that it was one and done, but there was, back when we made the world, an overarching plan," he says. "The way I created the world was to seed plots in various parts of the world that could be part of a game, a single game, and then there was the overall uber-plot, which I didn't know for certain that we would ever get to but I had an understanding of how it all worked together.
"A lot of that was in my head until we were starting Inquisition and the writers got a little bit impatient with my memory or lack thereof, so they pinned me down and dragged the uber-plot out of me. I'd talked about it, I'd hinted at it, but never really spelled out how it all connected, so they dragged it out of me, we put it into a master lore doc, the secret lore, which we had to hide from most of the team.""
"This uber-plot document was only viewable on a need-to-know basis, he says, and only around 20 people on the team had access to it - other senior writers mostly. And even though Gaider left the Dragon Age team after Inquisition, and then eight years ago BioWare altogether, meaning he didn't work on The Veilguard at all, he believes - by looking at the events in the new game - his uber-plot lore "has more or less held up". That's impressive.
What's even more impressive, or exciting, is that back then he also envisaged a potential end state for the entire Dragon Age series - a point at which it would make no sense for the series to carry on. "I always had this dream of where it would all end, the very last plot," he says, "which I won't say because who knows, we could still end up there. But the idea that this uber-plot was this sort of biggest, finite... That the final thing you could do in this world that would break it was there as a 'maybe we would get to do that one day'... There was just the idea of certain big, world-shaking things that were seeded in that arc, some of which have already come to pass, like the return of Fen'Harel."
You've read that correctly: the idea to have Fen'Harel, also known as the Dread Wolf, reappear, was seeded all the way back then, way before Inquisition - the game in which he does actually reappear. But the concept for Solas, as a character who was Fen'Harel in disguise, was a newer idea. "That spawned from a conversation I had with Patrick [Weekes] and a number of other writers," Gaider says, "as an idea of 'what if you had a villain that spent an entire game where he's actually in the party and you get to know him?' Now, the god version and his larger role in the plot, yes that was known, but not that he would be presented as a character named Solas."
Fen'Harel being known about means the other elven gods were known about, which means all of that stuff Solas reveals about his godly siblings - that they're not gods at all but evil elven mages he locked away behind the Veil - was known about back then too. "Oh yeah," Gaider says. "Everything that Solas tells you [at the end of Inquisition DLC, Trespasser]: it's all part of that original uber-lore - that was all in our mind."
But why have so much lore if you're not certain you'll get to ever realise it? Well, to create a believable illusion. By creating an "excess" of lore, as Gaider describes it, Origins made Thedas feel like an old and believable place. A place with history, rather than a Western set that was all facade and no substance."
"BioWare also did something canny with the lore it did relay then, too: it shared it through the voices of characters living in the world, making it inherently fallible. In doing this, Dragon Age veiled its truths behind biases. The church-like organisation of the Chantry proclaims one truth, while the elves and dwarves proclaim another. Sidenote: you can experience this yourself through different racial origin stories in Dragon Age: Origins. This way, there's no one, objective, irrefutable, truth.
"To get the truth, you kind of have to pick between the lines," Gaider says. So even though elven legends are coming true through the existence of Solas and The Veilguard's antagonist gods, it doesn't mean that's the one and only truth. There's truth in what the Chantry teaches and what the dwarves say, he tells me, which ignites my curiosity intensely.
BioWare has also been tricksy in how it's rubbed out the lore the further back in time you go. "In general, the further the history goes back, we always would purposefully obfuscate it more and more," Gaider says - "make it more biased and more untrue no matter who was talking, just so that the absolute truth was rarely knowable. I like that idea from a world standpoint, that the player always has to wonder and bring their own beliefs to it."
It leads into a founding principle of Dragon Age, which is doubt - because without it, you can't have faith, a particularly important concept in the series. It's where the whole idea of the Chantry's Maker comes from and with it, the legend about the fabled Golden City - now the Black City - at the heart of the Fade. This is the very centre of the lore web, and, I imagine, it's close to the series endpoint Gaider imagined long ago. All secrets end there.
Did Gaider know what was in the Black City when he laid down Origins' lore? That's the question - and it startles me how casually he answers this. "Oh, yeah," he says. "What was in the Black City: that's the uber-plot. I knew exactly.
"Was it as detailed in the first draft of the world?" he goes on. "No. I had an idea of the early history because that's where I started making the world. So the things that were true early-early: I knew exactly what the Black City was and the idea of what the elves believed, and what humans believed vis-a-vis the Chantry - that was all settled on really early. Then I expanded the world and the uber-plot bubbled out of that.""
"Gaider shows me the original cosmology design document for Dragon Age: Origins as if to prove this - or rather for the game that would become DAO. The world was known as Peldea back then. I can't share this with you because I see it via a shared screen on a video call, and because Gaider doesn't want me to, mostly because the ideas are so old they're almost unrecognisable from what's in the series now. But I can tell you it's a document that's just over a page in length, and that there's a circular diagram at the top showing the world in the middle and the spirit realm ringed around it. And on that document is reference to the Chantry's beliefs about a God located in a citadel that can be found there.
Gaider says BioWare knew about Fen'Harel (the Dread Wolf) 20 years ago when it was developing Dragon Age: Origins, and that he'd one day reappear.
The Fade wasn't known as the Fade back then, either, but as the Dreaming, because it's the place people go when they dream - an idea that lives on still. And if that sounds familiar to any fans of The Sandman among you, it should. "I'd say The Sandman series was probably fairly prominently in my head," says Gaider. "I liked that amorphous geography that was born from the psyche of collective humanity. I'd say yes, if I was to point at something specifically, that's probably where the very first inspiration of it took root."
It's a lot to take in, but it reinforces the admiration I have for Dragon Age. Just as I have when hearing about the creation of my other favourite fantasy worlds, such as A Song of Ice and Fire, I begin to understand the magnitude - and the deliberateness - of the plotting that went on.
I wonder if one day the Dragon Age series will end in the way Gaider first imagined, albeit slightly altered by the many other pairs of hands shepherding it along now. What a curious feeling it must be to know, so many years in advance, where things might go.
Where that end is, I don't know, but I do know we'll take a significant step towards it in The Veilguard. After all, we're coming into contact with gods who were there at the recorded beginning of it all. "Yeah - we have access to people who can tell us the truth from first-hand experience," Gaider says, "although again, it depends on what the writers did with it. But if they continued the tradition of Dragon Age, you never know for sure if Solas is telling you everything, or what you're learning is the entire truth.
"But yes, some of the big mysteries are being solved. I mean, will they one day definitively tell you about the Maker? Will we crack the big mysteries of the world and just make them answered finally? And does that ruin one of the central precepts that Dragon Age is founded upon? Maybe," he says.
"Ultimately, that lore, when you make it big and you hint at it and hint at it and hint at it, it becomes a Chekhov's Gun of sorts. Eventually you got to pony up.""
The collection is complete!!! This series of portraits took so long đ but I am happy with how they turned out đ„Čđ
These will all be available as prints when my shop launches on Friday! And, if youâre interested in a giveaway for the whole set, check out my instagram (same username!) where weâre celebrating 15k đ„°
Cliff notes on the new info on Dragon Age: The Veilguard from the print issue of Game Informer (DA:TV spoiler warning for link) that came out the other day (magazine hub link) that contained story spoilers - spoiler free version. This post is a version of this post (DA:TV spoiler warning for link), only with story-related information of note removed.
In CC you can customize things like shoulder width, chest size, glute size, hip width, how bloodshot your eyes are, nose crookedness, and more
There are hundreds of sliders for body proportions
CC detail: âFeatures like skin hue, tone, melaninâ
There is nudity in DA:TV, âwhich I learned firsthand while customizing my Rookâ in CC
Rookâs backstory also affects âreputation standingâ, along with the other previously-known things like in-game dialogue etc
Lords of Fortune are pirate-themed, âpiraticâ
Rook ascends because of competency, not because of a magical McGuffin, contrasting with the âdestiny-has-chosen youâ angle DA:I has for the Inquisitor
Rook is here because they chose to be, âand that speaks to the kind of character that weâve built. Someone needs to stop this, and Rook says, âI guess thatâs me'â
The 4 voices we can choose for Rook each have a pitch shifter in CC
The game starts inside the bar (as previously detailed in other coverage)
In some dialogue wheels there is a âromantically inclined âemotionalâ responseâ option. These are the replies that will build relationships with characters, romantic and platonic alike, but you can ignore them if you want to. Giving a companion the cold shoulder might nudge them into another companionâs embrace however
Bellaraâs surname is Lutara
In the streets of Minrathous (in the opening segment of the game), there is a wide, winding pathway with a pub which has a dozen NPCs in it (is this The Swan tavern?)
The devs used the DA:TV CC to make each in-world NPC, except for specific characters like companions
There is smart use of verticality, scaling and wayfinding in the gameplay
If you play as e.g. a qunari Rook, the camera adjusts to ensure larger characters like them loom over those below. The camera also adjusts appropriately for dwarves to demonstrate their smaller stature
Neve Gallus is described as being capable
Demons are fully redesigned in this game, on their original premise as creatures of feeling that live and die off the emotions around them. âAs such, they are just a floating nervous system, pushed into this world from the Fade, rapidly assembled into bodies out of whatever scraps they findâ
Our base in this game is the place where the team bonds, grows, and prepares for its adventures
Clock symbols over dialogue icons signal optional dialogue options
If you are playing, e.g., a qunari, and you encounter elfy stuff, you might be missing unique dialogue options and an elf Rook would have more to say at that point
âThereâs a heavy emphasis on storytelling and dialogue, and it feels deep and meaty, like a good fantasy novel. BioWare doesnât shy away from minutes-long cutscenesâ
For Rook, this story is about what does it mean to be a leader? We define their leadership style with our choices. âFrom the sound of it, my team will react to my chosen leadership style in how my relationships play out.â This is demonstrated within the gameâs dialogue and a special relationship meter on each characterâs companion screen
In gameplay/combat, players complete every swing in real time. Special care was taken in development for animation swing-through and cancelling. We can dash, parry, charge moves, and a completely revamped healing system that allows us to use potions at our discretion by hitting right on the d-pad. You can combo attacks and even âbookmarkâ combos with a quick dash, which means that you can pause a comboâs status with a dash to safety and continue the rest of the combo afterward
Abilities can be used to customize your kit. They can be used on the fly as long as you account for cooldowns
When you pause and pull up the ability Wheel, it highlights you and your companionsâ skills. There you can choose abilities, queue them, target specific enemies, and strategize with synergies and combos
Each character plays the same in that you execute light and heavy attacks with the same buttons, use abilities with the same buttons, and interact with the combo wheel in the same way, regardless of which class you select
Sword and shield warriors can hip-fire or aim their shield and throw it like Captain America
Warriors can parry incoming attacks which can stagger enemies. Rogues have a larger parry window. The mage the writer played couldnât parry at all. Instead they throw up a shield that blocks incoming attacks automatically, so long as you have the mana to maintain it
On the start/pause screen: it has the map, journal, character sheets, skill tree, and a library for lore information. You can use it to cross-compare equipment and equip new gear for Rook and their companions, build weapon loadouts for quick change-ups mid-combat, and customize you and your partyâs abilities and builds via an easy-to-understand skill tree. There arenât in-depth minutiae, just "real numbersâ. For example, an unlocked trait might increase damage by 25 percent against armor, but thatâs as in-depth as the numbers get. Passive abilities unlock jump attacks and guarantee critical hit opportunities, while abilities add moves like a Wall of Fire to your arsenal if youâre a mage. As you spec out this skill tree, which is 100 percent bespoke to each class, youâll work closer to unlocking a spec, complete with a unique ultimate ability
Combat is flashy and quick, with different types of health bars. Greenish-blue represents a barrier, which is taken down most effectively with ranged attacks
The game is gorgeous, with sprinkles, droplets, and splashes of magic in each attack a mage unleashes
The game looks amazing on consoles both in fidelity and performance modes
Bellara is bubbly, witty, and charming. She is spunky and effervescent, a sweetheart and a nerd for ancient elven artifacts, which is why sheâs dressed more like an academic than a combatant
While Neve uses ice magic and can slow time with a special ability, Bellara specializes in electricity, and she can also use magic to heal you. electricity magic is effective against a certain mob type. âHowever, without Bellara, we could also equip a rune that converts my ice magic, for a brief duration, into electricity to counter the [enemies]â
If you donât direct your companions in combat, they are fully independent and will attack on their own
The style of the game is more high fantasy than anything in the series thus far and almost reminiscent of the whimsy of Fable. Matt Rhodes says that this is the result of the gameâs newfound dose of magic: âThe use of magic has been an evolution as the series has gone on. In the past, you could hint at cooler magical things in the corner because you couldnât actually go there, but now we actually can, and itâs fun to showcase that.â however, areas of whimsy will starkly contrast to the gameâs other areas. The devs promise some grim locations and even grimmer story moments because, without that contrast, everything falls flat. Corinne says itâs like a âthread of optimismâ pulled through otherworldly chaos ravaging Thedas.
We can advance our bonds with our companions on their own personal quests and by including them in our party on main quests. Every Relationship Level you rank up, shown on their character sheet, nets you a skill point to spend on them. âThe choices you make, what you say to companions, how you help them, and more all matter to their development as characters and party membersâ. Each companion has access to 5 abilities.
Each companion has issues, problems, and personal quests to complete.
You can create Arcane Bombs on enemies. It does high damage after being hit by a heavy attack
It sounds like mage characters can charge heavy attacks on their magical staffs. âthen switch to magical daggers in a second loadout accessed with a quick tap of down on the d-pad to unleash some quick attacksâ
Some enemies are âFrenziedâ, meaning that they hit harder, move faster, and have more health
re: an arena-like boss fight "[it] attacks, hitting hard with unblockable, red-coded attacks and a massive shield that you need to take down first. It is weak to fire"
The design of the game is not open world. The devs describe it as a âhub-and-spokeâ design where the needs of the story are served by the level design. it is not a connected open world. locations include Minrathous, tropical beaches, Arlathan Forest, âto grim and gothic areas and elsewhereâ. Some of these areas are large and full of secrets and treasures. Others are smaller and more focused on linear storytelling.
Each location has a minimap, though linear levels wonât have the 'fog of warâ that disappears as you explore like in some of the gameâs bigger locations
The game has the largest number of diverse biomes in DA history
The Thedas of DA:TV âlives in the uncertaintyâ. âthe mystery of its narrativeâ, âthe implications of its loreâ
The writer is surprised by BioWareâs command over the notoriously difficult Frostbite engine, and by how much narrative thought the dev team poured into these characters, even for BioWare.
â
[source: the Game Informer pages from Issue 367 - the cover story from June 18th (link), two] <- DA:TV spoiler warning for links
Dragon Age: The Veilguard info compilation Post 4
[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [another post]
Post is under a cut due to length.
There is a lot of information coming out right now about DA:TV from many different sources. This post is just an effort to compile as much as I can in one place, in case that helps anyone. Sources for where the information came from have been included. Where I am linking to a social media userâs post, the person is either a dev, a Dragon Age community council member or other person who has had a sneak peek at and played the game. nb, this post is more of a âinfo that came out in snippets from articles and social media postsâ collection rather than a âregurgitating the information on the official website or writing out what happened in the trailer/gameplay revealâ post. The post is broken down into headings on various topics. A few points are repeated under multiple headings where relevant. Where I am speculating without a source, I have clearly demarcated this. if you notice any mistakes in this post, please tell me.
Character Creation
BioWare confirmed that even if you make your Rook a short king, the team has done work to ensure animations fit any character build [source]
"Dragon Age's character creator has seen a massive glow-up" [source]. "The volume of choices you get here are frankly insane. As Epler noted, âyou could spend forever here,â and heâs not kidding." [source] The art and graphics teams spent a lot of time trying to make hair look amazing [source: the Discord]
In CC we can customise our "bulge size" [source]
Some more detail on the new lighting options to see how Rook looks like in CC when you make them: you can view them in "blazing forest sunshine versus the glare of an underground temple" [source]
"newly mobile, extra-hairy hair" [source]
Faction choice has statistical boons. For example, Shadow Dragon Rook deals extra damage to Venatori blood cultists [source]
Faction choice basically determines why Rook has been called to help in the fight against Solas [source]
All pre-determined character models in CC can be adjusted [source]
You can make a really tall dwarf if you want [source]
"Setting your previous world state is fully integrated into the character creator for Veilguard" [source: the Discord]
Inquisitor appearance will be re-created, there is no way to carry their appearance from DA:I into the game [source: the Discord]
Classes for Rook are not restricted in the sense that you can play any almost class, lineage and faction combination that you want. For example, a mage Rook can be a Crow [source: the Discord] (Fel note: it sounded like Rook cannot be a magic-wielding dwarf, even though the exception of Harding now exists) (Fel note: there is a mage Crow in one of the books)
Story and lore
Here is another article which refers to Rook as "the Rook" [source]
The story is set "9-10 years from DA:I and about 8 years from Trespasser" [source: the Discord]
They have been tracking Solas for "a while. Something else youâre gonna learn aboutâŠ" [source]
The game does not use the Keep [source]
Shadow Dragon is the faction background with the most in-game reactivity (e.g. from other characters' dialogue) during the prologue section of the game, due to the fact that the prologue is in Minrathous and the Shadow Dragons are a Tevinter-based faction [source]
"I also saw a big moment after the gameplay trailer ends that I can't talk about" [source]
During the more narrative-heavy dialogue choices, "the game will also give a bit of context on what you're about to choose, but doesn't go as far as explaining the exact consequences or precisely what will happen thereafter" [source] "the game shows you how youâll go about the choice, but it doesnât tell you the consequence of that choice". [source]
"The game is bringing back Dragon Age 2s dialogue system, which was tone-based and resulted in its protagonist Hawke falling into one of three different personality states. You have three general tones in a conversation: kind, humorous, or aggressive, with slight variations depending on the situation" [source]
"Venatori blood cultists" [source]
"The whole game has the makings of another Suicide Mission [ME2], given that you are up against a god with the ability to collapse dimensions" [source]
"Choices and consequences". "Now, it seems you can see the effects of your choices like never before, and this time, they marry that choice with incredible visuals" [source]
In the bar when you're trying to get information in the opening, if you choose to fight it out and the barbrawl ensues, you then have to run from the pursuers in the bar [source]
A key concern of the developers when creating the environments was to make âa world worth saving" [source]
The prologue is quite linear but there are additional paths you can follow to find additional loot [source]
In the opening section of the game there is a dock which has been attacked and the soldiers that were there have been killed, "but rather than seeing this passively, we walked through the aftermath and had to interact with the scene to piece it all together" [source]
The tone of the gameplay video is a good indicator of the tone of the rest of the game [source]. On the tone: "dark fantasy" [source]. horror & gore is back along with DA's classic dark elements [source]
Tevinter Nights is a better tone indicator for the game than the original reveal/character trailer. Ghil Dirthalen: "Tevinter Nights has felt the most 'DAV' to me" [source]. The gameplay reveal video is the best indicator for the tone of the game (vs the character one) [source]. there is still messy dark shit in the game [source]
Tonally the game is closest to Tevinter Nights and DA:O [source]
Ghil Dirthalen: "[as] one of those unfortunate souls who has latched onto a media world so hard: This game is for me. For the hardcore DA lore nerds, I've been secretly screaming about things I saw for MONTHS now" [source]
The game is true to the DA stories we know and love [source]
Characters, companions, romance
You can choose to engage in companions' own storylines as you progress or ignore them entirely [source]
You will often have to make dialogue choices that will affect how your various companions treat you [source]
Neve is quick-witted [source], measured and elegant [source]
In the opening, you interact with the companions as you move through Minrathous. "your choices during these interactions will determine who goes on portions of the mission with you, along with how âpleasedâ they are with the answers." [source]
On Varric and Harding: "Instantly the two felt like theyâd never been away and avoided the trap of being parodies or fanfiction versions of themselves" [source]
Solas' eyes were always purple hh [source] (yes!)
Gameplay, presentation, performance etc
Some enemies have additional shields that are weak to ranged attacks [source]
When asked about if the war table from DA:I returned, John Epler said "There is a table. Now, whether it works the same way as the table in the previous game..." [source]
Once you get passed a certain point in the game, it opens up dramatically, however it is not an openworld game and they wanted to make sure that all the content mattered and was a more structured, sculpted experience for the player. There is some exploration, some opportunities to get off the beaten path, and some spaces that are fairly wide [source]
The button to press to bring up the skill wheel is RB or R1 (depending on what controller you're using)Â [source]
"You'll also have access to two skills or spells for each of your two companions that you can command. For a more seamless, uninterrupted combat experience, you can also assign these skills to shortcuts (such as holding the left trigger and hitting the X button) to quickly use them" [source]
"The game is bringing back Dragon Age 2s dialogue system, which was tone-based and resulted in its protagonist Hawke falling into one of three different personality states. You have three general tones in a conversation: kind, humorous, or aggressive, with slight variations depending on the situation" [source]
"booting Fade demons into pits" [source]
"BioWare have revised Dragon Age's art direction to make character models a little more consistent with the series' lovely Tarot-inspired menu art. Flesh is ruddy to the point of painterly; facial features and bodily proportions are thicker and more striking, as though the characters had been cut from clay" [source]
The 3 specs for Warrior are Reaper (has lifesteal/stealing health from enemies, and other freaky powers, does big damage), Slayer (can wield the biggest blade, big swords, big damage) or Champion, which is tanky, shield-using and Paladin like [source] [source]
There are quick-recover prompts [source]
You can roll through puddles of incoming AOE [source]
There are ziplines between some levels levels [source] (Fel note: just like in As We Fly... )
There are also slidey hills to slide down between some sections [source]
There are still some Hinterland-type areas designed for exploration [source]
We can do some home base management to our home base [source] (Fel note: this refers to The Lighthouse, detail in a previous post)
Camera placement is quite zoomed out [source]
Where Rogues have 'momentum', Warriors have 'rage' and Mages 'mana'. When a warrior spends rage in the ability wheel it triggers more powerful attacks. this has been referred to as a build-and-spend mechanic. this system resource gates your use of more powerful skills and is built by getting stuck in [source]. Momentum for Rogues is built by landing hits without taking any [source]
There are big glowing environmental cues for picking up loot or replenishing health potions [source]
"Epler noted that The Veilguard will not be an open-world experience like Inquisition, and instead will have large spaces to explore with quests littered throughout. This allayed my early concerns that they would course correct too hard from the oft-maligned open areas of Inquisition" [source]
Melee and ranged attacks can be charged up [source]
It sounds like there is an option to have greater guidance on when enemies are attacking [source]
The community council gave a lot of notes on the game's art direction to BioWare (gave feedback to the devs) that they were told and shown were changed from the first reveal/character trailer, these made it into the gameplay trailer [source]
The community council asked about having an arachnophobia mode, though they can't guarantee this was implemented [source]
"Youâre encouraged to explore and grind for stronger weapons and gear, so your stats and cosmetics improve the further you get into the game" (in the sense that youâll be rewarded for hard work) [source, two]
Follower information such as cooldowns and health will be visible on the HUD [source: the Discord]
There is a "quick cast" option if you prefer not to use the wheel, should be a chorded action using a controller [source: the Discord]
On PC you can play with keyboard and mouse or controller [source: the Discord]
An accessibility option is the ability to make auto-targeting stronger or weaker depending on your preference [source: the Discord]
The game will have DLSS support at launch [source: the Discord]
Re: hard drives, the game can be played using an HDD, they would recommend an SSD though for the optimal experience [source: the Discord]
There are lots of different interface options you can play with, e.g. combat text size, opacity, when to display health bars [source: the Discord]
Other
The leak from last year or whenever it was (the one that leaked screenshots and a gif from the game) was mainly a lot of outdated stuff and didn't really represent even the early version some community council members had played [source, two]. It was not leaked by a member of the community council, but by a member of another focus group [source]
The community council were given the chance to play the game twice, once in Fall 2022 and a year later in 2023 [source]
There is no information as yet regarding when pre-orders will be open [source: the Discord]
BioWare are hoping to at the very least have the very "best of" the Discord dev Q&A featured on social media and potentially in a blog [source: the Discord]
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