Yeah…that seems like needless busy-work to find your loot.
The only time it makes sense and is fun is when you are near some hidden treasure and sort of ping your way into range and then revealing the prize when you are right on top of it.
Skipped this thread to the end… has the discussion to this point contained plot spoilers?
No spoilers yet beyond people giving some impressions of certain areas.
Ok so I’m kind of lost story wise now, maybe someone can help me.
The spoilers below are about the early game, specifically what happens in Red Cliff.
So I went to Val Royeaux and saw the Templars abandon the City and the Chantry. It’s strange that the templar leader was acting out of character as mentioned by Cassandra, since as I leave the city the the leader of the mage rebels, also acting strangely, not to mention being out in the open in Orlais invites me for a sit down in Red Cliff.
This is where I’m not sure I understand what the hell is going on. I go to red cliff and find out that I was never invited, and that the mages have now pledged their allegiance to some Tavinter Mage. So I’m thinking that it’s not beyond the scope of possibility that some Tavinter mage, with the power to make himself look like someone else invited me to Redcliff, I suspect that perhaps the same might even be true of the Templar leader.
So I’m slipped a note and asked to meet Dorian at the CHantry, and this part I really don’t understand. Apparently the Tavinter mage is part of a cult with an interest in ME. And he time traveled? I never quite got this, he used time travel magic to get to Redvliff in time to meet with me and kick out the Earl?
Can someone explain this to me? I just don’t get it. Why time travel? How far back in time did he travel? Is this time travel causing the rifts?
I’m almost ten hours in and haven’t even visited Redcliffe yet, let alone Val Royeaux. There’s still an absurd amount of stuff left to do in the Hinterlands. I’m beginning to think I should just move alone and leave some content behind for a second runthrough when I play a mage instead of a sword 'n board fighter.
You can alway come back later in your current play through. There are definitely areas/encounters that you won’t be able to handle until you’re higher level anyway.
Yeah, I’ve run across a few of those already. One of them is clearly a “get the hell out of this area” deal while the others just made me wonder if I needed to gain just another level or two.
I’m running through the Hinterlands, and a bit confused as well.
I’m trying to get a sense of how often they are expecting you to go back to home base. With the research lady, the crafting stations, the req table, and the war room I find myself kind of wanting to go there every 15 minutes or so it seems. And with fast travel it isn’t that hard to do, but it does break immersion to imagine popping a couple hundred miles home and back constantly while semi urgent stuff is going on around me. Or has the MMORPG world permanently changed the RPG standard to constant travel without thought or consequence. After Origin had serious consequences for dicking around too much.
#1 is my biggest pet peeve so far, especially after Origins and DAII where you could click on a lootable object from anywhere on the screen and the game would just walk you over to it. I keep hearing my party members talking about me behind my back. <bad Cassandra accent> Vhy does ze herald keep walkink into ze chests instead of just openink zem like a normal person? </bad Cassandra accent>
#2 is why I’m glad I’m playing a mage, because I can just mash R and blast away from a distance. Dual-wielding rogue is my other favorite character type but I’m not going to try playing a melee until I get a lot better at the new combat system.
Those aside, I’m pleased with the game so far, although I’ve only gotten as far as Haven. It’s nice to have the pretty scenery back after Kirkwall, Kirkwall, Kirkwall, Kirkwall, 57 identical caverns, and Kirkwall. I’m really REALLY glad they redesigned the elves for this one.
He realized you are coming to talk to the mages and that he’d never make it there in time so he had to travel in time to get to Redcliff before you. The meeting with Fiona happened before he altered the time line. Once he did, Fiona was already allied with Tevinter when in the original time line she would’ve invited you - no idea why the time travel magic and resulting changes didn’t wipe out your memory of the meeting, but then time travel stories tend to have huge loop holes in them every time.
Also time travel is not the original cause of for the rifts but it is making the problem worse, both increasing the frequency of them and making the rifts bend time in peculiar ways.
That’s how I figure, anyways. I’ve a bit past that point, more will be explained a bit later … at least if you side with the mages as I did.
Forgot to put this in my first post, sorry.
Is anyone else having trouble with their characters and records loading into Dragon Age Keep? It picked up my DAO achievements and DLC, but only one warden, and none of my DAII stuff.
It only picked up my first warden and got half of her history incorrect so I had to manually check/set everything anyway. I think it’s just glitchy.
I don’t think the keep actually imports most of your choices. Just your character names and achievements. You still have to go through and set things the way you want them.
Well, I think it was supposed to, it just does an exceptionally poor job of it.
I’m still kicking it in the Hinterlands at level 5 or 6 but I think tonight I’ll move to Val Royalex (or however its spelled). My little bit of advice for new players is to explore and embrace the crafting system early on as the stuff you can make with minimal effort is better than most drops you’ll see – at least in the early game, dunno about later on.
Crafting is also one additional way to customize your character since different ores, leathers and cloths provide different bonuses (and colors!) so you can deliberate over using Canine leather trim for a +2.5% flanking bonus or Ram leather trim for +1% critical hit chance.
Mind = blown!
I didn’t realize that that was Fiona in another timeline. Hmmmm… I think I’m still not clear on the actual order of events though.
So, Justinia invites the templars and mages for a peace talk. They both send negotiators in their stead, in case it’s some sort of trap.
The rift open and the Temple of Ashes blows up, killing Justinia and the mages/templars in attendance. I appear out of the rift and within a few days wake up and help stabilize the rift near in the Temple of Sacred Ashes.
It’s within that time that rumors about me spread, apparently all the way to Tevinter?? At which time some cult there takes a creepy interest in me. One of those cultists decides he’s going to make contact, possibly try to abduct me, I’m guessing. He figures I’m going to talk to the mages, and for some reason, maybe it doesn’t fit in his plans, he needs to prevent me from doing so. So he time travels and changes the timeline so that he takes over the mages BEFORE I have chance to speak with them.
Does that sound right? I guess I don’t mind being a bit wrong, so long as things are clarified later on at some point 
Also, We need a magic mirror item in this game!
Didn’t realize I gave my character Hamster cheeks until it’s too late. Now those darn cheeks are killing me!!!
Yeah, that’s about right. You should be getting a bit more illumination into the plot very soon now … whether you want it or not.
Yeah, I ended up going through the tapestry and just setting everything manually, plus I got to fudge on Awakening and the other DLC I don’t have.
I saw somewhere that you might be able to upload saves directly to the keep eventually so I’ll just keep my fingers crossed.
When I read that I thought maybe you were being overly critical and picky.
Boy was I wrong. I was amazed at how lifeless and spartan Val Royeaux was. I was really trying to like it and be ok with it but I just couldn’t get over how disappointing it was.
I think what cinched it for me is the audio is that of the hubbub background white noise of a busy city. I was hearing all this hustle and bustle but it was nowhere to be seen. It seriously yanked me out of my immersion big time. Really not happy with that. It is not game breaking for me but it is a big disappointment.
I have found that audio not matching in other places too. I found my first “dungeon” by accident. It wasn’t much of a dungeon really…just like three big rooms on three levels. I loved, loved, loved that the dungeon was dark as one would expect it to be and not somehow lit despite being old.
It was very creepy walking around with only my lantern in my hand. The audio was suggesting some action going on elsewhere. Like up ahead in the dark somethings were moving and running about. Turns out there was never anything there…nothing whatsoever. Was disappointing to learn it was just atmospheric sound that had nothing to do with anything.
Ah well…nothing’s perfect I guess. I’m still having fun and overall enjoying it very much.
When I saw that you can now put makeup on male characters, I had way too much fun making a male qunari who looked like Twisted Sister era Dee Snyder with horns 
And at least I found the lip shine control. so my scarred and tattooed elf doesn’t look like he overdid the Chapstick.