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extrapenguinFirst of all, the horses are actually pretty decently animated! They look like horses, trot like horses, and canter like horses. Sure, they do weird shit when left alone, but at least they look like horses, not camels (oh, Assassin's Creed II, what did you think you were doing?). One quibble: when you get the intro horse (pictured), Horsemaster Dennet says "take that chestnut for starters", whereas the horse is clearly bay. Bad Bioware, gettin horse colors all wrong!
The reason I call the horse "she" is that I have extensively looked at the model and not spotted a dick, thus making the horse a mare (yes geldings have dicks, it's the balls that get chopped off).
List from here. (Scroll to bottom for visual reference)
Fereldan Forder: Dark bay.
Taslin Strider: Flaxen chestnut
Green Dales Feral: Some sort of chestnut-based Appaloosa pattern; most likely snowcap but could be blanket.
Dalish All-Bred: A flaxen liver chestnut tobiano
Orlesian Courser: Perhaps another Appaloosa? Could be a grulla (black dun) based snowcap.
Amaranthine Charger: Black.
Free Marches Ranger: Another Theodosian Appaloosa! Probably a palomino-based blanket; could just be a very light flaxen chestnut base.
Anderfel Courser: A chestnut tobiano.
Imperial Warmblood: A nice gray. Old enough not to have any remnants of the base coat. No fleabites or dapples.
Missed opportunities: A buckskin would've been nice, as would have a dapple gray or a fleabitten gray. A solid palomino (no Appaloosa, no Paint markings) would've been nice, especially using the "color of a newly minted gold coin" specification. If they wanted differences in patterning, one of the tobiano horses could've been made overo.
Second, I kind of resent that the party is only 1/3 female. You can travel with 3 party members, and get to choose from 9: 3 of each class (Warrior, Rogue, Mage). There is one female party member in each class. Sure, you have three advisors (Connections, Secrets, Forces) that you can send out on missions and 2 of them are female, but it's kind of a bummer that so few of your party are women.
How I'd Fix This: I'd make Blackwall female! Now, in his current iteration he's one of the Love Interests that's female only (along with Sera), so I'd upgrade Cullen (Forces advisor, limited to female human and elven Inquisitors) to female-only LI, not race-locked. (Then I'd make Solas bi, so instead of him only being available to female elven Inquisitors, he'd be available to all elven Inquisitors [given lore re: elves in Thedas and spoilers, I'd say it's fair that he's only really interested in elves].) (Or perhaps make Solas female?)
Now, Blackwall in his current iteration is boring. I'm aware that he's actually a criminal who was conscripted by the original Blackwall, and when original!Blackwall then died, current!Blackwall decided he couldn't let a good man die and went along recruiting people in his name. Unfortunately, this is locked behind getting approval from one of the most boring characters in a Bioware game I've played. A similar complaint could be made of the Iron Bull, though his could be subverted by giving him more meaty stuff to say towards the start of the game.
Though if you're looking for a Fantasy Murder Hobo Simulator RPG, Dragon Age: Inquisition is an amazing example, since women can wear reasonable armor (unless they're Vivienne, in which case they have boob windows) and do loads of badass stuff like the men. I like the whole mage thing, but would warn you away from the archer spec.
The reason I call the horse "she" is that I have extensively looked at the model and not spotted a dick, thus making the horse a mare (yes geldings have dicks, it's the balls that get chopped off).
List from here. (Scroll to bottom for visual reference)
Fereldan Forder: Dark bay.
Taslin Strider: Flaxen chestnut
Green Dales Feral: Some sort of chestnut-based Appaloosa pattern; most likely snowcap but could be blanket.
Dalish All-Bred: A flaxen liver chestnut tobiano
Orlesian Courser: Perhaps another Appaloosa? Could be a grulla (black dun) based snowcap.
Amaranthine Charger: Black.
Free Marches Ranger: Another Theodosian Appaloosa! Probably a palomino-based blanket; could just be a very light flaxen chestnut base.
Anderfel Courser: A chestnut tobiano.
Imperial Warmblood: A nice gray. Old enough not to have any remnants of the base coat. No fleabites or dapples.
Missed opportunities: A buckskin would've been nice, as would have a dapple gray or a fleabitten gray. A solid palomino (no Appaloosa, no Paint markings) would've been nice, especially using the "color of a newly minted gold coin" specification. If they wanted differences in patterning, one of the tobiano horses could've been made overo.
Second, I kind of resent that the party is only 1/3 female. You can travel with 3 party members, and get to choose from 9: 3 of each class (Warrior, Rogue, Mage). There is one female party member in each class. Sure, you have three advisors (Connections, Secrets, Forces) that you can send out on missions and 2 of them are female, but it's kind of a bummer that so few of your party are women.
How I'd Fix This: I'd make Blackwall female! Now, in his current iteration he's one of the Love Interests that's female only (along with Sera), so I'd upgrade Cullen (Forces advisor, limited to female human and elven Inquisitors) to female-only LI, not race-locked. (Then I'd make Solas bi, so instead of him only being available to female elven Inquisitors, he'd be available to all elven Inquisitors [given lore re: elves in Thedas and spoilers, I'd say it's fair that he's only really interested in elves].) (Or perhaps make Solas female?)
Now, Blackwall in his current iteration is boring. I'm aware that he's actually a criminal who was conscripted by the original Blackwall, and when original!Blackwall then died, current!Blackwall decided he couldn't let a good man die and went along recruiting people in his name. Unfortunately, this is locked behind getting approval from one of the most boring characters in a Bioware game I've played. A similar complaint could be made of the Iron Bull, though his could be subverted by giving him more meaty stuff to say towards the start of the game.
Though if you're looking for a Fantasy Murder Hobo Simulator RPG, Dragon Age: Inquisition is an amazing example, since women can wear reasonable armor (unless they're Vivienne, in which case they have boob windows) and do loads of badass stuff like the men. I like the whole mage thing, but would warn you away from the archer spec.