14 DAY TRIAL // BioWare has decided to shed the first light onto Skyhold, the main base of operations in Dragon Age: Inquisition, its upcoming open world role-playing game, and how players can decorate it and see the fortress evolve during their adventures.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is set to debut later this fall around the world. The studio has already emphasized that players take on the role of the Inquisitor, the leader of the aforementioned Inquisition, which is trying to stop a cataclysmic event from happening by gathering allies and uniting the many factions that inhabit the world of Thedas.
While at first the Inquisition will be a small movement led by the Inquisitor and a few close allies, the movement evolves and requires a major base of operations. Enter Skyhold, an old castle that's taken over by the Inquisition despite being almost wrecked.
However, throughout the campaign, players will see the castle return to its former glory and they'll be able to see just how their Inquisition is starting to take shape in and around its grounds.
"When you first reach Skyhold, it’s not in good shape," BioWare's Mike Laidlaw tells GameInformer. "There are holes in the roofs, it’s wrecked, you can’t even go to the entire castle because they haven’t cleared out the rubble yet."
"Over time, as you progress through the story, you get to see it rebuilt and more areas open up. It goes from ‘kind of wrecked castle’ to ‘your castle.’ The walls are fixed. Your soldiers are patrolling. You see your support staff growing in number. Merchants come to set up station. You get that feeling of it becoming a grand, central hub."
Players will also be able to choose how they want to decorate the castle as well as what factions should occupy which spaces throughout its premises. However, these choices won't impact gameplay or the statistics of the playable character, as BioWare only wants to satisfy the need to customization without tying it to gameplay and forcing players to make the best choices to get the desired bonuses.
"The problem with going too heavy with game mechanics on that is, suddenly, you’re min-maxing your base," the developer explains. "If we did a system where ‘this outfit does this, and it’s the best outfit,’ well, now I have to wear that outfit or sacrifice my gameplay."
"So, something like what banner or carpentry I use, to me, doesn’t have to have a gameplay effect. If you’re into it, I don’t want you to feel like you’re being penalized."
The base customization system is something that players can engage in while they aren't roaming Thedas in search of adventures, and won't require that much of their time.
