DA:Inquisition - Patch 5 Notes Posted

BioWare has posted the new patch notes for Patch #5 on the company's Blog. In-case you all forgot they are also doing another Beta test for patch six this month.

The upcoming Patch 5 for Dragon Age: Inquisition contains a number of improvements to gameplay and stability, as well as some new features. We’ve added party storage to the Undercroft at Skyhold and the ability to adjust the size of subtitles.

Below you will find a full list of changes and additions for all systems.

PC Specific: While we’ve added the ability to toggle mouse look, this feature is still under development and does not act optimally under all conditions. We are continuing to work on this feature to improve it for future releases.

For patch notes in other languages, click here.

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Dragon Age™: Inquisition 1.06
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• Fixed an issue that allowed characters to take damage while using the Counterstrike ability.
• Updated abilities to function correctly with front armor rating.
• Fixed the Charging Bull ability so that AI-controlled characters no longer overshoot their target.
• Removed the initial barrier that spellbinders receive when spawned.
• Added an option to control the font size of subtitles.
• Improved archer AI so that they choose to enter melee combat less often.
• Fixed the save game card image for elf mages.
• Fixed an issue that caused certain operations to disappear from the war table without direct player interaction.
• Fixed a crash after use of a Tactician’s Renewal amulet in Skyhold.
• Fixed a conversation where Leliana references being with the Warden to face the Archdemon when she was set to have died in the imported Dragon Age Keep world state.
• Fixed a case where movement audio was muted after a level transition.
• Fixed a case where music unintentionally played after a level transition.
• Fixed a loot exploit.
• Fixed a case where the Quarry Quandry quest could be prevented from being completed.
• Added party storage to the Undercroft in Skyhold.
• Improved stability.
• Fixed the True Grit perk to apply to all party members.
• Fixed the issue where Qunari Inquisitors were able to equip the Inquisition Battlemage armor.
• Fixed an exploit where certain abilities could be used multiple times before the cooldown was started.
• Fixed an exploit with Explosive Shot where indirect hits were not causing the ability to cool down and reduce stamina.
• Fixed cases of the new-item icon appearing on old items after salvaging in multiplayer.

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More information.

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/545808-patch-5-6-ft-the-black-emporium-currently-beta/?p=18718704

So noone gets too excited:

Mike Laidlaw ‏@Mike_Laidlaw

Black Emporium is separate from Patch 5. We beta tested them together, however as BE depends on added Patch 5 functionality.

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So will it be free or cost $5 then? Damn you EA and BioWare.

So was that correct as I rarely write negative replies anymore.

Update 5 is live.
If your Origin doesn't download it automatically, just rightclick on DA3 pic inside origin then choose "check for update".

Oddly, or perhaps not, I don't see bears mentioned in the changelog.

Wow, not only does Bioware let us Beta test their buggy games after they're release, but they let us beta test their patches as well.
On the bright side, EA is saving sh!tloads of cash on QA personnel.

LOL
Let's be optimistic - I don't think they wanted the same QA who tested DA2 to work on this game too.

There was a QA team for DA?

On the bright side, a storage chest is now available in patch 5.

And some say Skyrim is a bug-fest. Look at this one. Can't even imagine what would happen if they employ a real open-world and/or add mod support.

6 patches later, some quests are still stuck for my main's save. Don't tell me to start a brand new game.

And talk about re-spawns: oh hey look a bandit just materializes in front of me to take an arrow in the knee~~

I never really had an issue with it, though I still can't accept the excessive respawning that happens here and there is part of the design. Seemed more like an unintended side-effect of logic in the code somewhere.

Thrasher said:

On the bright side, a storage chest is now available in patch 5.

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IMO it's unnecessary addition, but some people wanted to get flowerpicking perks over wider inventory perks so…

LordKane said:

And some say Skyrim is a bug-fest. Look at this one. Can't even imagine what would happen if they employ a real open-world and/or add mod support.

6 patches later, some quests are still stuck for my main's save. Don't tell me to start a brand new game.

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LOL
Compared to Skyrim, DA3 release version felt like almost bugfree game. Sure it had quite a few quirks, but not nearly as Skyrim where every miniarea contains as many bugs as the whole DA3. Besides, in DA3 there is nothing that would stop or destroy your mainstory progress.

And why are you still on the same save? Finish that game already and replay with different choices. Patch can't fix stuff you collected and won't reopen closed rifts that were supposed to open another quest/wt mission or something upon their destruction.

LordKane said:

And talk about re-spawns: oh hey look a bandit just materializes in front of me to take an arrow in the knee~~

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That's not a bug. That's a design crime.
Since it's not a bug but lead designer's choice, don't expect Bioware to patch it. All you (and me even more) can hope for is if some modder makes a norespawn mod.

Well combats a bit better and I think I can actually stomach it now. The auto attack in 3rd person view is a good thing.

Not sure why they only gave you the ability to zoom in closer with tactical cam and not 3rd person cam also. I still find myself getting my view blocked in 3rd person. It doesn't help that you can zoom in close when exploring but once you enter combat the camera zooms out a bit and your not able to zoom back in until combats over.

Not sure why the cameras such an issue as I didn't feel it was in the first 2 games. No need to reinvent the wheel.

I think it's playable for me now though. We'll see what else patch 6 adds. I will say howeve that in my 2 hours yesterday respawns were getting on my nerves. ( and I'm a guy who loves dark souls) no bears though, just a ton of mages, Templars and bandits.

As a matter of fact in 7 hours of messing around in the game I've never seen a bear.

I'll probably give it a go after I finish a replay of lords of the fallen with the DLC.

joxer said:

IMO it's unnecessary addition, but some people wanted to get flowerpicking perks over wider inventory perks so…

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According to whom??? Define necessity. Probably the stronghold isn't necessary too, the same goes for the crafting, inventory, stats, talents, or graphics…you know text-based used to be hot, too.

joxer said:

LOL
Compared to Skyrim, DA3 release version felt like almost bugfree game. Sure it had quite a few quirks, but not nearly as Skyrim where every miniarea contains as many bugs as the whole DA3. Besides, in DA3 there is nothing that would stop or destroy your mainstory progress.

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LOL, are you playing the same game as mine? Or perhaps EA gifted a reviewer build to you as their fanclub volunteer manager. Good for EA, bad for paid customers like me

I never encountered any game breaking issue on my initial Skyrim run, no CTD, no stuck main OR side quest. Finished the game on 1.3 (a little bit over a month into release), with main/college/companion/thieves/daedric lines complete. Even today with 200+ mods and ENB enabled I still haven't run into too many crashes or bugs (OK some annoying stalking dragon skeletons and herb regrowth issues, and a few CTD during character creation w/ way too many skin/hair mods installed). The game is open-world, with mod support right off the bat. Any seasoned gamer wouldn't expect to walk around during some scripted NPC conversations (no cut-scene is their tradition, immersion or not it's up to you), stab a few guards, summon some modded dragons and still not break the quests. But you do have the freedom, that's what the game is about. OK, I am aware that the out-of-box product contains plenty of quest-breaking bugs under various circumstances, and this shouldn't have happened from a quality assurance point of view.

But let's be fair. Have you ever seen the patch notes of the unofficial patches of Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Arcanum, etc.? They go on pages after pages of fixes and workarounds. Does it bother you? Shouldn't the developer release a pristine product? I mean the more ambitious a game becomes, the more gamers should expect defects and idiosyncrasies to be present. And that's OK. They don't tarnish our memory of the games if the games themselves are engaging enough.

I was infuriated by DA:I's bugs once in a while, a forever disabled Leliana in "a gift for Bianca" quest (oh yeah it doesn't break the main quest—all of the sudden it's acceptable for games if you can still do main quests), companion quests that never initiated even though they should have according to every guide out there on the Internet. But you know what, at the end of the day I'm OK with DAI's general quality. They listened to the fans, and studied other successful games/works and revisited DAO and did a marvelous job with the Frostbite Engine. DAI turned out to be alright, some content and features feel heavy-handed, but Bioware may still be redeemed after all. It's just that DAI is never the Dragon Age epic that it deserves to be.

Because it's the game design choices that matters, not the number of bugs (of course within certain threshold). DAI and Skyrim and likely many other triple-A these days all bare the greatest sin of being a watered-down RPG experience and rushed (relatively)
products in terms of gameplay. They are missed opportunities! Don't get me started on Skyrim's civil war, factions, embassy quest, etc. If you dig into the code you will find where epic quest-lines and mechanisms were castrated. You can say the same for DAI's war table, strongholds, agents and even some of its zones.

joxer said:

And why are you still on the same save? Finish that game already and replay with different choices. Patch can't fix stuff you collected and won't reopen closed rifts that were supposed to open another quest/wt mission or something upon their destruction.

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5 saves for each class, all hit 30 hr mark, main is 110 hr into it, finished the main quest on Christmas LAST YEAR so thank you very much for your generous advice. I was only after 100% completion (mentally, the game doesn't have a counter) but well, "go start a new game" they say.

joxer said:

That's not a bug. That's a design crime.
Since it's not a bug but lead designer's choice, don't expect Bioware to patch it. All you (and me even more) can hope for is if some modder makes a norespawn mod.

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I never said it was a bug. Needless to say its a design decision. I brought it up to once again show your double-standard. For every other post people can see you advertising what an atrocity Skyrim has committed by having respawn. But that game doesn't even have traditional sense of respawns like DA:I and JRPGs: in the wilderness only critters respawn now and then, and cleared out dungeons respawn IN 2 MONTHS of in-game time. Is it not logical to have some other denizens move into an abandoned castle months after its original occupants were massacred by you? Why do you need an entire world with all its inhabitants but you slain leaving a province vacant?

OK you apparently resent respawning, and DA:I comes out to respawn people IN YOUR FACE. If your response is scalable, you should assassinate some Bioware/EA executives. But apparently you are OK with that and started multiple play-thoughs.

OK once again I'm not a troll. I've been getting my RPG news from this sites for years and I enjoy reading posts from people like joxer too. It's just comments like "Skyrim has a story???" make me chuckle once in a while =D

Back to the topic, I do like what they are doing with DAI with incremental patches, and I do like how they have listened to the fans, revisited the original and what they did with this title.

It's just all these still wouldn't be enough to make one of the best RPGs in history. And I doubt Bioware will ever do, as long as it remains a division of EA. Well, on the bright side, EA did help introduce DICE's Frostbite Engine to realize some of the original vision of Dragon Age visually.