‘Dragon Age: Inquisition’ Developer Discusses How In-Game Banter And Music Are Intended To Work

While gamers wait on Bioware to fix a series of audio bugs that are currently forcing some users to play Dragon Age: Inquisition in relative silence, the developer has released a detailed description for how party banter and music are designed to function in the game. Posting on the official Bioware Blog, the team provided an in-depth analysis of how often fans should be hearing the various sound files of Dragon Age: Inquisition when everything is functioning properly.

Bioware wanted to be as transparent as possible about how party banter and music works within Dragon Age: Inquisition because there seems to be confusion amongst fans about whether they are experiencing the bug or simply witnessing the game as intended. For example, the developer believes that many who think that they are affected by the well-documented party banter bug are actually confused about the issue and how the game is meant to work.

Those that can still hear music and banter while playing Dragon Age: Inquisition probably aren’t actually victims of the bug. The issue generally completely silences these audio events from ever happening. Players who simply feel that they are hearing random conversations too infrequently are likely just expecting the sound files to trigger more than what was originally intended by the developer.

According to Bioware, players should only hear a single piece of companion banter once every 10-15 minutes while playing Dragon Age: Inquisition. The developer also revealed that hearing a member of their party speak out is also like rolling the dice to see if can happen since the ambient conversations aren’t a guaranteed occurrence. Furthermore, several in-game activities can actually suppress banter from firing, which can make fans have to wait even longer before hearing the NPC followers of Dragon Age: Inquisition speak.

Players will never hear party banter while on a mount or in a cinematic conversation. Additionally, engaging in combat, or even being near hostile enemies, will also suppress companion speech. Dragon Age: Inquisition users won’t experience random banter under any of these conditions. So those who stay in combat for extended periods of time will naturally go long periods without ever hearing party banter.

Music works similarly to how banter triggers — but has its own separate chance to fire. When working as intended, players will hear a background sound file approximately every three minutes. These ambient noises only last between 10-30 seconds and feature a variety of sounds in addition to just musical score. This includes the nature sounds and weather events that are littered throughout Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Hub areas like Val Royeaux or Skyhold, on the other hand, aren’t ever supposed to have music. Bioware wanted the clamor of the people to be the only sound that fills the urban spaces of Dragon Age: Inquisition. In fact, the developer revealed that hearing music in these areas is actually a bug that they are currently investigating.

Bioware decided to detail how the ambient sound systems work in Dragon Age: Inquisition at the same time that the title’s second patch was released. The developer has now listed the full patch notes for this week’s update that was primarily intended to improve stability. The patch should lower the frequency of crashes and freezes while playing Dragon Age: Inquisition.

The in-depth description of party banter is likely meant to help fans know if they are experiencing an actual bug or not since the audio issue with in-game conversations wasn’t fixed in the latest update. As the Inquisitr previously reported, Bioware already made it clear that Dragon Age: Inquisition‘s banter and music bug wouldn’t be addressed until a future update since the team hasn’t been able to find a proper solution to the issue at this time.

[Image via Dragon Age]