Apparently a new patch full of fixes is coming tomorrow for Dragon Age. Improving various bugs/glitches and hopefully improving overall stability. Well, at least on all platforms except Xbox One. Here is the overview as seen on the Bioware Blog:

Patch 2 is 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. 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.

I wanted to call out a few specific topics as well, as 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. Keep an eye on this thread by Mark Darrah for more updates.

• Some people have reported problems with party banter firing. To find out more about how the Banter System works please go here. We have also 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.

Guess it's a good thing my copy is still lost in the mail system then.

I pretty much finished all I intend to do for the time being a few days ago, but hopefully by the time I get around to replaying it they'll have fixed the most glaring issues.

Good stuff. I ended up putting this down shortly after reaching Skyhold because I wanted to wait for the patch, so I'm eager to pick it up again tomorrow.

Hmmm hopefully it doesn't break anything in the process...

glad to see KB&M fixes enroute though!

Also I know @golguin was concerned about the party banter not playing which seems that they are also addressing.

Apart from fixing the godawful PC tactical-view controls, I would like an option to increase the size of the cursor. It's too small, and the colour means that I easily lose track of it. I haven't run into too many bugs myself - I do hope that they learn to freeze your companion characters and move them off screen when you have a conversation. There's nothing more immersion breaking than having an indepth discussion with an NPC about mages and the Tevinter empire, and seeing varric constantly bumping into a barrel over and over and over and over again, or seeing Solas jerikly trying to walk over a table, or seeing Cassandra turning round and round and round on the spot. Immersion breaking, guys. Immersion breaking.

Why no Xbox One update? I've had all kinds of issues such as those Jeff mentioned on podcast; dropped sounds randomly and also conversations with no audio.

I managed to use one of the various fixes that forced the dialogue to trigger and haven't really had any issues since, but it will be great to have party banter happen more often than it already does.

I had no clue there was even such a thing.

Sweet, Improved Mantle performance. Maybe they'll improve the loading times with Mantle.

Probably a cert issue?

Good. The game crashed so much on me in DirectX mode that I had to switch to Mantle which runs worse. I'm happy for bugs being fixed. better mouse and keyboard controls seems nice for the future but I am already used to the controller now anyway.

@korolev: while you are at it make an option for bigger text aswell.

How can it be that after 3 generations on the consoles Bioware still doesnt know how to make text big enough for a tv screen?

Since I finished the game already ... not really interesting for me unless they patch the behaviour-system back in ... that would actually make me play the game again.

I could be totally wrong here but I have audio drop for games All the time on Xbox One, the way I fixed it is to just hit the Glowing Xbox button(Do we have term for that?) once to go the dashboard and then just go back to the game. It is worth a shot but may be a completely different issue.

@rethla: The text size seemed fine to me, and my eyesight isn't even that good.

I do not however like their subtitle placement. Subtitles do not go at the top of the screen. It's just wrong.

I wonder if they fixed the romance scene with Cassandra, that was a real anti-climax. (boom)

My eyesight is good, but I'm finding myself having trouble reading some of the text on the PS4 version on my 42" TV from a couch that's a few meters away. The font sizes and the contrast of gray and black on some of those black lore text boxes really strains my eyes.

Sucks it's not on XBONE, as I've run into a lot of the issues listed. I hope it's just a cert issue and it comes soon.

Given the size of the game I'm a bit scared that applying the patch will cause more issues than it solves.

Still nothing on the PS4 end

So the patch is supposed to be online now... at least on Origin but i cant download anything on the PS4. Im right at a quest where the conversation hicks up so i guess i will wait until tomorrow and see if the patch fixed it.

Singleplayer

• Fixed case where game would incorrectly think the player has more than one race/class/gender
• Fixed case where users who changed their voice off of default, would have their voice set back to default when interacting with Hawke’s chargen settings.
• Increased duration that search highlights things, and added highlighted items to radar while they are highlighted.
• Fixed several conversation lines which would take a very long time to advance to the next line unless they were manually skipped.
• Fixed case where followers could float above the ground after extended periods of play
• [PC] Fixed some hitching in conversations.
• [PC] Pressing the interact key (default “F”) will take everything from containers.
• [PC] Hair should be less shiny on lower quality settings.
• [PC] Improved push-to-talk functionality when using keyboard and mouse
• [PC] Added ability to rotate character models with the mouse in UI’s that show character models
• [PC] Added an option to enable / disable tactical camera on mouse wheel scroll out.
• [PC] Hiding the HUD on the PC will now hide all UI elements
• [PC] Fixed being able to drag abilities from a tree that was not selected onto the quickbar
• [PC] Fixed being able to toggle UI state for the tactical camera on the quickbar when the tactical camera is unusable
• [PC] Fixed case where clicking quickbar elements in Eyefinity would trigger attacks
• [PC] fixed case where extra mouse-up events were triggering in UIs
• [PC] Fixed issue where mouse-up events were missed when dragging off of UI elements and then releasing the mouse button
• [PC] Fixed loading Icon not animating while Mantle creates shaders during load screens.
• [PC] Fixed mouse cursor flashing while targeting AOEs
• [PC] Fixed situation that could result in a hang on the start menu.
• [PC] Fixed situation where war table could become non-interactive until users right clicked on it.
• [PC] Fixed situation which could cause mouse-look to snap to a facing rather than turning smoothly
• [PC] Holding right click and pressing the camera turn buttons in tactical camera will cause the cursor to strafe in the same manner the camera behaves outside tactical camera
• [PC] Made some changes that should improve Mantle performance
• [PC] quickbar indicator for pause state should no longer remain highlighted when game is not paused
• [PS3] Increased number of save slots to 30
• [PS4] Improved conversation performance during fast install
• [PS4] Increased number of save slots to 50
• [360] Fixed case where movies sometimes decoded incorrectly
• [360] Fixed Crash when selecting storage device when select storage device warning is present
• [360] Fixed the online connection error being displayed twice when attempting to login to Origin with no Xbox live connection.
• Assorted stability improvements
• Fixed crash that could occur after some conversations
• Certain boss creatures are now immune to Disruption Field
• Creatures in rag doll will now pause when the game is paused
• Fix to Spirit Blade so it longer triggers combos
• Fixed a couple focus abilities to be weapon agnostic
• Fixed a few DA Keep world state import reactivity checks.
• Fixed a few situations that could result in there being no conversation selection indicator during conversations
• Fixed an issue caused by changing characters at the same as targeting an AOE ability
• Fixed Audio cutting out when using AOE abilities while radial menu is open.
• Fixed being unable to finish quest “Safe Keeping” if the user places key fragments in the forger, then leaves the zone without getting the finished key.
• Fixed camera shaking when making small camera adjustments during character creation
• Fixed case where blizzard would pause the game when it turns off
• Fixed case where controller rumble would get permanently disabled
• Fixed case where Imshael could end up in a location where players could not fight him.
• Fixed case where interaction text would not update in tactical camera
• Fixed case where mana or stamina was incorrectly displayed on mounted character’s portraits
• Fixed case where users could get stuck loading a save in a certain dragon combat area
• Fixed case where users could get stuck on an infinite “Connecting to Dragon Age Servers”
• Fixed Crippling Blows to have a 15% damage bonus instead of .15%
• Fixed Cullen’s hair having some strange shadows during cinematics
• Fixed exploit that would allow bypassing ability cool-downs in certain circumstances
• Fixed exploit that would allow users to take no damage.
• Fixed issue where orders to interact with trebuchets made in tactical mode were un-interruptable.
• Fixed issue where user loses control of the party if he enters tactical camera at the same time as a cinematic triggers
• Fixed issue which could cause potion counts to be reset due to party member changes.
• Fixed issue which could result in an infinite “Connecting to Dragon Age Servers” on the main menu.
• Fixed issue which could result in the Radial menu not staying open
• Fixed issue which could result in the screen re-sizing UI to stop working until exiting and re-entering the screen re-sizing UI.
• Fixed scripted autosave in the western approach which was made which if loaded could result in certain NPCs to not show up until after leaving the area and coming back.
• Fixed situation where followers could get stuck while pathfinding to the player.
• Fixed some of the collectible books being non-interactive in Skyhold
• Fixed slot types on several crafted items
• Fixed some item names getting cut off in stores
• Fixed weapon type on several crafted weapon parts.
• Ground rings scale on Dragons in Tactical Camera
• Radar will be shown during radar tutorial, even if the UI is set to be hidden
• Radar will show way points immediately after coming out of UIs, no longer requires player to move first.
• Target lock is cleared when entering tactical mode.
• Unified sort order for stat listings during item modification

Multiplayer

• Fixed issue which could result in negative XP being granted in some multiplayer matches

• Fixed crash that could occur while switching characters in some multiplayer menus

• Cursed chests in multiplayer no longer look different from un-cursed ones

• Fixed some missing information on end of match screens when servers are slow in Multiplayer.

• Fixed Players losing their ability to target when dying while recovering object in multiplayer

• Fixed situation where host migration after end of match would fail to show end of match details for the remaining players

• Fixed issue with players being interrupted while interacting with objects in Multiplayer

• Fixed issue where host can be returned to an empty lobby after quitting out of a match while in the operation failed state

• Improved appearance of ledge drop-downs in multiplayer.

• Fixed case which could cause keys to not drop in Multiplayer

• Fixed case in Multiplayer where players could attempt to use abilities while dead.

@honkalot: Just wait and see what people say. It looks to fix a lot glitches that are irritating.

Can they fix the glitch where my game crashes every time my Inquisitor tries to get it on with Dorian? It's the most pressing issue outside of the conversation lock ups.

Great patch. My character now looks 2000 years old. And everyones hair and beards are shiny. Good job.

@jfunkhouser: Performance has Improved a bit with mantle. But now even On ultra I get "Shiny Hair". The grass textures seem to have gotten worse and Ice is no longer shiny and looks like a flat texture.

@tuxfool: Wait, it gets shiny even on mesh settings >high?

@gaspower: yup, they royally screwed up. Everything looks worse you get shiny hair on all settings, mesh detail seems to have dropped off, textures are now a bit crappy and Shaders in world seem to have disappeared.

I don't get how such obvious issues got past QA...

Early reports are that it's a trainwreck on PC. Might be worth setting Origin not to update automatically (which is probably good practice anyway).

the shiny hair is so ghetto and bad looking they should just turn the specularity off

I was hoping this would be a big enough sweep that I could start another playthrough, I might just wait for the first expansion at this point.

@jimbo: Amusingly I have that already. Just forgot to check the forum before installing it. I didn't expect it to break things in such a spectacular fashion, given that they have been working on it for 3 weeks.

Origin was nice enough to autopatch it for me and yeah.....shiny! Everything!

Framerate feels a little better, getting 60 in dungeons. But boy that hair is distracting. Knocked some stuff up to ultra to see if that fixes anything.

I read the patchlist and got excited and downloaded and installed the patch earlier today. Not even gonna bother loading it up until the fix the shit they broke with the fix. Forget the stuff they wanted to do with this patch, just roll everything back.

Apparently characters are changing visually beyond shiny hair. Some dude's character turned into an aged version of what it was. Facial hair and scars are disappearing, Harding lost her freckles, characters are floating, ice looks like construction paper. It's madness I tell you!!

@evilsbane: I've never noticed that specifically I 've found with Dragon Age it is often resolved by hitting pause and then unpausing.

This patch made the game run better and make it about 30% more garish. Kind of a give and take, your homies are a bit uglier now but they move a little smoother and talk a bit more (presumably)

@tuxfool: Obviously this didn't show up in QA. Do you think they just like gave up after three weeks and said "lol, whatever, goty amirite guys"?

One of the devs just posted a workaround for some of the graphics issues on the Bioware forums:

Hey Everyone,

We're working on getting a hot fix out for the PC graphics issue as soon as possible. In the meantime, here is a workaround you can try:

To start, make sure the quality setting you choose is equal to the setting set for Mesh Quality inside Options>Graphics

You will need to add a new command line parameter. To do this:

Through Origin:

1. Right click on the Dragon Age Inquisition title
2. Go to game properties
3. Type the command line parameter in the Command Line Properties box.

Through shortcut:

1. Right Click Shortcut
2. Go to Properties
3. Under target go to the end of the field and type the command line parameter into the box

Once there, add the following command line parameter: -ShaderSystem.ShaderQualityLevel <quality setting>

In this instance, <quality setting> should be one of the following:

• Ultra
• High
• Medium
• Low

An example of how to set your quality to high would be: -ShaderSystem.ShaderQualityLevel High

Please note that once the hot fix is out, you will need to go back in and remove this workaround from your command line.

It’s also important to note that pre-patch 2, all users on PC were being forced to use the Ultra shader quality. This means that those of you playing on lower settings will notice a decrease in quality, particularly players using low or medium settings.

To achieve the same visuals as pre-patch, users on lower settings will need to change their settings to Ultra, which should likewise be used in conjunction with Ultra mesh quality. Mismatching the mesh and shader settings will result in other visual artifacts like overly shiny hair.

Please be aware that changing settings to Ultra may impact performance on some machines.

Sorry about any frustration this may have caused.

Performance is bound to increase if they break the game to the point where it just stops using the high quality assets.

@mctaters: Weird, by all accounts these issues are extremely prevalent. It seems it is just like the PC controls, anybody testing it properly would immediately say "this is crap".

Hopefully they have addressed the glitched 'Gift for Bianca' quest. It's been ongoing since launch day for me! Bianca ain't getting anything!

Lol @ that ^^ being Bioware's response. Starting to think they might actually be trolling now.

Hoping they eventually patch in a way to just make loot visible all the time like in DA II. An option to turn off the loot animation would be amazing as well. They will never patch in either of these things, will they?

I'm playing on XBONE and I just hit the Inquisitor voice swap bug, so I guess I'm waiting on that patch now because I want my posh British qunari mage back.

@steadying said:

They increased the loot ping radius and added map icons for pinged loot, so they are listening. I think it's unlikely that they'll completely revamp things, but it is slowly getting better.

FWIW, I tried the suggested workaround and the material shaders are still super fucked. Guess I'll wait for the hotfix.

@tuxfool: I can live with the graphics "downgrade", even though I recently bought a new graphics card. What I can't live with is that the patch smacked the wrinkliest fucking complexion on my characters perfectly good face, which make her look 2000 years old. It's so distracting I won't touch the game until I can modify appearance. Jesus fucking christ.

Well, the cutscenes seem to be a lot smoother at the very least.