Dragon Age: Inquisition Patch 2 rolls out today on PS4, PS3, PC & Xbox 360; Xbox One soon

BioWare has outlined its update plans for Dragon Age: Inquisition, a game the studio considers a “live service”.

A blog post by producer Scylla Costa details two initiatives the studio is working on, listed in order of priority.

Priority 1 – Patches

“We’re committed to providing long-term gameplay and stability improvements,” wrote Costa. “We have already released a Day 1 Patch, and in December we will release our second patch. We expect the patch to roll out on PC, PS3, PS4, and Xbox 360 on December 9, 2014. We are working hard to get Patch 2 out on Xbox One as soon as possible.”

Patch 2

Focused on stability, but does include numerous improvements and fixes across the board. Full patch notes will be available soon, but generally Patch 2 includes fixes to:

• Stability – Various crashes, freezes, audio/voice glitches, and many stability improvements.
• Gameplay – Conversations, quests, plot states, combat, UI, camera, controls, follower/enemy AI and path finding, exploits, radar, and search.
• Multiplayer – In addition to some of the gameplay improvements listed above, multiplayer fixes also cover areas such as animations, game mode bugs, stat reporting, and stability/crash fixes.
• PC – Numerous control & UI fixes, fixes to some hitching, improved Mantle performance, graphical glitches.

“Beyond Patch 2 we’ll continue to release patches that focus on gameplay improvements,” added Costa. “We’ve already lined up a number of improvements and fixes we’d like to include in Patch 3, and of course we’ll continue listening to you to make sure we’re addressing your concerns.”

Costa also detailed some specific changes and how they relate to patches:

Keyboard & Mouse controls – Patch 2 includes the first range of fixes towards addressing the feedback we’ve received on the PC controls; it cleans things up so you’ll see fewer problems with the current layout. This gives us a more stable base upon which to work. After Patch 2 goes out, our next priority is to improve the PC mouse/keyboard controls further. We’re investigating how to expand on PC usability and functionality to address specific requests from the community.

Problems with party banter firing – We have identified that in some edge scenarios, banter isn’t firing as often as we’d like, so we’ll be increasing the percentage chance of it happening. This increase will come after Patch 2.

Priority 2 – Features and content

“As massive as Dragon Age: Inquisition already is, there were some things the team wanted to get in at launch, but we just ran out of time,” continues Costa. “We’ll be creating these new features and content and adding them into your game over time because we love our DAI players. Multiplayer will also be receiving regular content updates.

“In closing, I’d like to thank you for your patience. We appreciate your feedback, so keep it coming! We’re going to keep working on these patches and content while you’re off adventuring in the world of Dragon Age.”

Our own Chris Bratt rather enjoyed his time with Dragon Age: Inquisition, as you’ll find out by reading his review.