Dragon Age: Inquisition - New Location

Couchpotato · May 18, 2014

Bioware released a new screenshot of the Adamant Fortress on Twitter.

coyote · May 18, 2014

Well, those black spikes certainly look interesting. A graphics bug, misplaced nodes in the polygon mesh, an as of yet unfinished work of 3D art comes to mind.

As far as the fiction is concerned: who would build them? They are almost as long as the highest tower, probably cost a fortune to set up — magically or otherwise — but have no apparent function whatsoever aside from looking weird. Of course cost might not be a factor if they are the result of some weird magic accident, but if any accidents were involved in their creation, they probably happened in the Bioware art department.

Edit: I am probably the only one who thinks so, considering twitter feeds like these: "I would write something but I'm too busy drooling" ;-)

Couchpotato · May 18, 2014

Well I guess they serve some purpose, but only Bioware knows. A simple Google search gives the following information about the Adamant Fortress.

Adamant fortress is an Orlesian fortress constructed by dwarves in the Western Approach that stands on the very edge of the Abyssal Rift - a deep chasm that is believed it spans run as far down as the Deep Roads.

The fortress appears to be small, but is sturdy, with tall walls made of dark jetstone and metal ramparts. In fact it is built into the side of the chasm with vast halls down below. Once, it belonged to the Grey Wardens who beat back the darkspawn that rose from the chasm during the Second Blight, a symbol of their impossible achievement. Then, it housed more than a thousand men and griffons - with weyrs opened onto the chasm.

With passing years, the Western Approach became a wasteland and maintaining the keep became more and more expensive in the eyes of the visiting Warden-Commanders. The sacrifices of the order became a distant memory to the locals, who despite demon attacks on the area's population considered only the Grey Wardens themselves to truly be in danger from the thin Veil and the darkspawn crawling out of the Abyssal Rift. As personnel dwindled and the griffons no longer helped surveil the badlands, the Wardens ultimately pulled back in disgrace to Montsimmard. At the dawning of the Blessed Age, Adamant fortress was abandoned, having become a symbol of the Wardens' decline in the region

As for Twitter replies I find it's easier to just ignore them.

coyote · May 18, 2014

Couchpotato said:
As for Twitter replies I find it's easier to just ignore them.

Good point ;-)

Thank you for quoting the lore! That part, at least, seems to be a strength of Bioware. I am looking forward to the Dragon Age game where one can control griffons -- surely some survived on a distant island ;-)

Couchpotato · May 18, 2014

Here are some more screenshots from another site for the fortress.

Link - http://www.lightninggamingnews.com/dragon-age-inquisition-new-screenshots-showcase-adamant-fortress/

As for griffons maybe after all we have unicorns & dragons now.

azarhal · May 18, 2014

coyote said:
As far as the fiction is concerned: who would build them? They are almost as long as the highest tower, probably cost a fortune to set up — magically or otherwise — but have no apparent function whatsoever aside from looking weird. Of course cost might not be a factor if they are the result of some weird magic accident, but if any accidents were involved in their creation, they probably happened in the Bioware art department.

You are not the only one wondering about those thing, but they probably have a function, there are some concept art of Tevinter's building that has them as well (from World of Thedas).

I think it's just something to keep dragons away from the walls and landing in certain places (the long spear-like ones).

Fluffyhotep · May 18, 2014

Kinda spiky. It looks as if it's basically the same fortress that was shown in Game Informer, back in september 2013:

Edit:

'The fortress appears to be small, but is sturdy, with tall walls made of dark jetstone and metal ramparts'

I just realized, after comparing this description to the pictures, that BioWare's dedication to their own lore never ceases to amaze me. :biggrin:

And a semi-related edit:

'Then, it housed more than a thousand men and griffons - with weyrs opened onto the chasm.'

Something was nagging me about the term 'weyr'. Then I remembered: It's a term invented by Anne McCaffrey in her 'Dragonriders of Pern' series (see here: http://pern.wikia.com/wiki/Weyrs). Seems she didn't copyright or adequately protect the term, apparently. At least, judging from the fact that 'weyr' has been used a couple of times outside her 'Pern' books.

Couchpotato · May 18, 2014

Looks different to me.

It was probably a prototype for the Fortress as the game was in alpha at that time.

ChaosTheory · May 18, 2014

azarhal said:
You are not the only one wondering about those thing, but they probably have a function, there are some concept art of Tevinter's building that has them as well (from World of Thedas).

I think it's just something to keep dragons away from the walls and landing in certain places (the long spear-like ones).

This would be my guess as well. Dragon, or other big-ass creature.

coyote · May 18, 2014

azarhal said:
You are not the only one wondering about those thing, but they probably have a function, there are some concept art of Tevinter's building that has them as well (from World of Thedas).

I think it's just something to keep dragons away from the walls and landing in certain places (the long spear-like ones).

The concept art you linked looks great! As far as the large spikes pushing out of the ground in the painting are concerned, there they basically convey the message that some semi mad sorcerer who spend too much time in the Fade and also build a castle covered in spikes just wanted to give his castle ground a more dramatic flair as well. Seems perfectly reasonable to me ;-)

coyote · May 18, 2014

ChaosTheory said:
This would be my guess as well. Dragon, or other big-ass creature.

Given their length and the large empty spaces in between, the creature deterred by them would have to be about castle sized as well ;-)

Farflame · May 18, 2014

azarhal said:
they probably have a function, there are some concept art of Tevinter's building that has them as well (from World of Thedas).

I think it's just something to keep dragons away from the walls and landing in certain places (the long spear-like ones).

It doesnt make sense. Dragons could easily land ON these spikes given their size and angle (spikes on first picture are big enough). Also why should dragons need to land on walls? They are more likely to just fly over and breath fire or land on courtyard (or on towers). IMHO fortress built for protection against dragons would be designed very differently (at least partially underground or under rocks). But I admit that after DA2 its hard to guess if Bioware designers are able to think over such things.

I think its just arty thing. The whole fortress looks more like fancy fantasy building than real castle.

Alistair · May 18, 2014

The art design for DA3 hasn't been impressive at all IMO. The other DAs weren't great in that regard and I'm not sure they have the talent in-house to compete, compared to Bethesda or CDP. They might be able to take Piranha Bytes

Fluffyhotep · May 18, 2014

Farflame said:
It doesnt make sense. Dragons could easily land ON these spikes given their size and angle (spikes on first picture are big enough). Also why should dragons need to land on walls? They are more likely to just fly over and breath fire or land on courtyard (or on towers). IMHO fortress built for protection against dragons would be designed very differently (at least partially underground or under rocks). But I admit that after DA2 its hard to guess if Bioware designers are able to think over such things.

I think its just arty thing. The whole fortress looks more like fancy fantasy building than real castle.

That´s probably basically it, but it´s still possible, maybe even likely, that the spikes are some ´handwave´ in the direction of anti-dragon defensive architecture.
That many fortifications in fantasy videogames don't 'work' as fortresses is, alas, a given. I can forgive it to some extent when the result looks pleasing enough.

Having said that, I'm fine with the fortress' basic style, but the spikes and a few other things sort of ruin the look for me. But there's no arguing taste, and there are probably lots of people who will like it.

Anyway, architecture in DA:O was sometimes pretty awful, but that did not keep me from liking the game.

azarhal · May 18, 2014

Farflame said:
It doesnt make sense. Dragons could easily land ON these spikes given their size and angle (spikes on first picture are big enough). Also why should dragons need to land on walls? They are more likely to just fly over and breath fire or land on courtyard (or on towers). IMHO fortress built for protection against dragons would be designed very differently (at least partially underground or under rocks). But I admit that after DA2 its hard to guess if Bioware designers are able to think over such things.

I think its just arty thing. The whole fortress looks more like fancy fantasy building than real castle.

There are straight spikes inside the fortress (you can see them in another screenshot).

The point of the fortress is to watch over darkspawns surface invasion, it would be totally useless underground.

And I'm not sure if the trailer dragon can stand on one of those spike considering it barely fit on top of one of those towers (it's at 1:30).

Fluffyhotep · May 18, 2014

azarhal said:
There are straight spikes inside the fortress (you can see them in another screenshot).

The point of the fortress is to watch over darkspawns surface invasion, it would be totally useless underground.

And I'm not sure if the trailer dragon can stand on one of those spike considering it barely fit on top of one of those towers (it's at 1:30).

I don't think that's inside the fort, though, rather another building in a similar style. The 'spikes' you mention appear to be more like decorative stone pillars.

Anyway, if the spikes had been applied consistently as an anti-dragon defense, the towers and walls should be bristling with them.

purpleblob · May 19, 2014

Those spikes are used for indoctrination

wissenschaft · May 19, 2014

LOL, you guys over think things, as always. The black spikes exist for a very simple reason. They are meant to look cool, thats it.

rossrjensen · May 19, 2014

wissenschaft said:
LOL, you guys over think things, as always. The black spikes exist for a very simple reason. They are meant to look cool, thats it.

First rule of fortress design: Look good.

You can pretty much substitute "fortress design" for anything else and it still holds true.

rjshae · May 19, 2014

That would be true if they actually looked good. What they look like is an expensive waste of good metal. I guess they may be there to ward off the giant exploding space bulls.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - New Location

Part-Time News-bot

Sentinel

Part-Time News-bot

Sentinel

Part-Time News-bot

SasqWatch

Watchdog

Part-Time News-bot

Virtual Reality Hero

Sentinel

Sentinel

SasqWatch

Sentinel

Watchdog

SasqWatch

Watchdog

purpleblob

Guest

Traveler

Keeper of the Watch

Periapt vs Paronomasia