I have noticed that my companion only banter about once in every area. I've heard from others that they banter far more often, approximately every 10 minutes.I tried to vary where I take my companions, roads, through the wilderness, a bit of both -as banter in DAO and DA2 was dependend on location triggers. Did not change anything.Could they be bugged or is the banter rate down?

Hi, littlebrightp. This appears to be a far more widespread problem than it may originally have appeared. People on the official forums are oftentimes not reporting it because they're making the assumption, given what they've experienced after (in some cases) completing the entire game, that there simply is not practically any "banter" in Dragon Age: Inquisition at all. This is (thankfully) quite erroneous, as I have discovered via written accounts of copious volumes of companion banter whilst other players have explored the field, as well as user-uploaded gameplay videos expressly detailing all those myriad encounters which many fans such as myself are missing out on entirely.This is the thread I started on BioWare's forums this morning:http://forum.bioware.com/topic/525267-as-suggested-posting-this-topic-here-many-players-are-reporting-a-bug-in-which-party-banter-is-incredibly-rare-no-matter-who-we-bring-along/Note the number of people not only to have confirmed they're having this issue but also to have stated that they didn't know what they were missing out on and were prepared to deem the lack of banter a flaw of the game as opposed to its misfired coding. Ultimately I am certainly glad to hear that some players are wandering around with chatty companions, but nothing on my end has changed the fact that in 51 hours, spanning all party members across at least six regions of the game's world, I've had perhaps six or seven instances of party members conversing with one-another. The same can be said for many other players, although some have reported the scripting error "seemingly fixing itself" eventually. None such luck here. The bug appears to span multiple platforms.A quick recap for BioWare employees: "party banter" -- AKA companions conversing with one-another in the field -- is exceptionally rare for an apparently-considerable number of players across all platforms, regardless of where we are, what we're doing, how far into the game we are, who we're with, or any other quickly discernible variable. This is confirmed not to be our personal objective opinions on how much is "a lot" because we have seen videos of other players whose levels of party interaction have been magnitudes far, far greater than what we've experienced. I have decided to halt my progress on what is otherwise a fantastic game because this element of the Dragon Age series is a personal favorite of mine. I play BioWare's games (and indeed, most games I dabble in at large) for the rich storytelling that is made possible by talented authors coming together to weave exceptional stories into terrific characters. This bug disallows me from hearing much of that content and is essentially a game-breaker for me until it's resolved.Thanks for your consideration and congratulations on a stellar Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Apologies for the copy-paste formatting, and for the incredibly, incredibly long post. Enchant_m3nt on the BSN Feedback thread had success with cycling/changing the audio settings to trigger banter and fix music/combat dialogue. I'd sadly had no luck with the mount/camp rest/teleport combo, and to my absolute astonishment - Houston, we have music and banter! (For those having trouble with the glitch, try the mount/dismount-rest, or trying the audio settings cycle to trigger banter/music. It'd be interesting to see what works for people, if it hopefully works at all.) At first I ran around in the Hinterlands for awhile, trying out mount/rest. Dorian/Sera/Bull wouldn't talk, so I changed from (Home Theatre - TV), get into combat, get combat noise, and 1min later, Dorian/Sera have a banter. Stumble into more combat with correct combat noise, 1 min later, get another banter between them. Run all the way to Redcliffe Village, Dorian makes an ambient comment (I have gotten ambient comments before, though), but then everyone stopped talking. I teleport to the Lake Luthias camp, no banter, BUT there is music playing at the camp. Run around for a bit, banter has stopped, I changed the settings from TV - Night. About a minute later I can hear Dorian saying something in the background - it has to be him, as there's no one else around, and the voice is deep/British. The combat/voice icon bizarrely doesn't trigger though, and his voice is extremely muffled. Get into combat, once again get combat dialogue, a moment later Sera/Bull have a banter. There's also accompanying music. The banter stops again, and Dorian repeats his ambient banter from earlier (complaining about the cold). I've never had ambient banter repeat before, but it may be intentional since he's talking about the weather. I've spent 6hrs in the Storm Coast (predominantly with Blackwall/Viv/Varric) in my 32hrs, for both longer periods of time/shorter periods of time. I've never gotten any banter from any party members, let alone with those three in any other area. I took them again, spent about 15 minutes in silence, and in desperation changed the sound settings again. I fought some baby dragons, and voila, for the first time in my entire bloody game, Blackwall/Viv have banter. About a minute later Varric/Blackwall have banter. Four minutes later, Blackwall/Varric banter again. I heard some new music I've never heard from the Storm Coast. (There's a definite increase in musical cues too, I don't think I've noticed so many in a short period of time.) They stopped talking again after awhile, I became impatient again, changed the settings - 2 mins later, another Varric/Blackwall. All the while, I'm hearing combat dialogue from them, which I've heard very little of before. Whatever is wrong with Val Royeux and Forbidden Oasis in my game is completely blocking all banter - no matter what I try, no matter what party combinations/settings, nothing will trigger. Playing with the sound settings in Forbidden Oasis at least made the music/combat dialogue consistent, which was something I've never had before. (Val Royeux now plays music on loading/entry, which it didn't used to do. Didn't realise Val Royeux had music until recently!) Before changing the sound settings/menu, I'd previously have 30 mins/1hr before I'd hear a musical cue - they now seem to happen every one to two minutes. (I had three cues trigger in about a minute and a half.) It makes such an impressive difference to the Hinterlands and the Storm Coast, wow. Far more alive. I'm baffled at what exactly is resetting the banter/music issue - going into the menu would make sense, but I always spend a lot of time in the menu during game play. Even though Val Royeux/Forbidden Oasis are still not working correctly, by changing the sound settings, I've gotten seven instances of banter overall in about 50 mins - that's an incredible (and fairly consistent) amount in comparison to what I'd been getting before. I've never had anything like it. Banter seems much more likely to trigger after combat, too, so as Efvie mentioned over on the Feedback thread, combat could definitely be involved in the issue. I was really surprised that this worked at all! Vivienne and Blackwall talked! Blackwall and Varric had multiple conversations! I never thought I'd see the day. For those with the glitch, keep an ear out as you're playing for music and combat dialogue - if they're both working, there should be a higher probability you'll get banter to trigger, too.

I just finished an 80+ hour playthrough. While I did hear some banter, it was VERY rare. I certainly noticed that my companions were dead silent for hours on end. When they did decide to banter, it was like a christmas present. I literally would stop what I was doing so that I could listen to it as it was as rare as finding the Loch Ness monster.I figured that was "just the way it was". Now I am beginning to think that there is a problem with triggering. I wonder how often the companions are supposed to banter. For me it was probably once every few hours of gameplay. I also thought it had to do with the companions I ran with, so I tried switching things up but banter frequency was still very rare. Such a shame since a lot of work was done in writing and voice acting these things that some of us will not see/hear.

I am jealous rlacorne. It's sad because I feel like, outside of my Skyhold talks, I really didn't get to know my companions very well as they were all too shy during the gameplay to talk to each other.It makes the game feel very sterile and dereft of personality. I might as well have been playing Skyrim solo.

Thanks Mordecai, it's helpful for those of us with the bug to know what we should be experiencing. 🙂 Sadly that's a far, far cry from what we're getting!

Companions aren't bantering? | EA Forums

387 Replies

Anonymous
11 years ago
Until I saw this thread I didn't even know this was an issue. I just assumed it was rare or event triggered. Now, thinking back I realize that really only one party member has done any sort of banter and that's Solas. I am 20 something hours in, and I have overheard maybe a dozen banters, and they all have either been initiated by him or directed towards him. I've yet to encounter any banter without him in the party, or other party members talking to each other. While he is a staple in my A-team, I do take the others out for air now and then.
I doubt that's much help in finding a solution. Another thing to hope gets fixed...
Anonymous
11 years ago
Wow I didn't even know this was a glitch until I saw a thread on Reddit but I hardly ever get any party banter, I just thought It was not a thing that happened that often. Now I come to think of I actually rarely get background music too, I noticed it once or twice but that was because after having none for hours and having it pop up for 5 minutes or so really made it noticeable. I've played over 30 hours with no background music and extremely limited party banter ☹️
Playing on PC btw.
Anonymous
11 years ago
PS4, Deluxe, physical disc - only other game glitches seem to be the dialogue wheel, otherwise game runs smoothly. 30 hrs+ with only 15-ish instances of banter, most of them have only started in the last two hours of gameplay since Dorian was introduced. (It had been completely silent, regardless of the region, for about 10hrs beforehand.) Bull will only talk to Dorian/Sera, Blackwall will only talk to Sera. Varric/Cass/Solas had three banters in the beginning, but they won't talk to each other or anyone else, and Viv/Cole have only had one banter each. Everyone is at good approval.
Fallow Mire: x2 (would only fire for Sera/Blackwall) - 3hrs there?
Storm Coast: 0 (have tried multiple party combinations.) 4hrs?
Forbidden Oasis: 0 - 1hr.
Hinterlands: x? - 16 hrs? I'd had no banter in the Hinterlands for ten hours (tried many different party combinations, and took them out for long periods of time) until I took Dorian out for the first time post-Skyhold - he triggered some with Sera, and then had some with Bull, and then Sera/Bull again.
Emerald Graves: x3 - 40 mins. The only semi-normal banter fire I've had in the entire game. Again Dorian and Sera, with Dorian continuing the banter with Bull on from the Hinterlands. Like in the Hinterlands, it seemed to be normally timed banter, with a few minutes between each comment.
Crestwood: x0 - 30mins, no banter. Hoped my game was fixed after the Emerald Graves, but no - Dorian wouldn't trigger Blackwall or Varric.
I think it's also really important to emphasise how little music seems to be triggering as well, I don't know if it's related to banter glitch. 97% of my time exploring the areas would be in silence, with only ambient noise for company - a very lonely experience. My first two vists to Val Royeux were completely silent, but at my next visit Val Royeux is filled with constant music. I'm not sure what's the default? Emerald Graves had some as well, but I had to go out into the middle of the desert in the Forbidden Oasis to trigger any music. None in the Storm Coast, a little in the Fallow Mire, and only about three minutes worth in total for the 16hrs I've spent in the Hinterlands. I'm not sure what is intented?
Anonymous
11 years ago
I'm really sad to hear this is is a bug. I'm on PS4 and have finished the game at 60 hours and I heard maybe five or six incidents of party banter that I can remember. All of them included Dorian or Cole, even though I switch my party out pretty frequently. I'm really sad.... I feel like I missed out on a huge part of the game...
Anonymous
11 years ago
Is there supposed to be background music while in the open world? 'Cause I'm getting absolutely nothing in that respect.

I get banter occasionally, but there are sometimes hour-long periods or longer where my party is completely silent.
Edgey342
11 years ago
I too have this bug, but its seemed to have slightly gotten better (gone from no banter to banter every few hours) as I progressed.
I vary party members, places, etc, regularly, in hopes to hear more.
As a rough guess I got maybe 6 in the Hinterlands, 4 in the Storm Coast, and then it picked up again (maybe 5?) way into the Exalted Plains (with none in the Western Approach, Crestwood, Fallow Mire, Emerald Graves). Way less than the "every 10 minutes", more like 1 every 4 or 5 hours. I'm about 60 hours in.
Hoping for a fix soon! The banter was may favorite part of Dragon Age!
fadetongue
11 years ago
Just chiming in I've also had this problem.

I think I've played about 50+ hours spread between a human female and a couple male elves. Banter was rare for all characters.

I am playing on an Asus laptop.
Anonymous
11 years ago
PS4 hard copy. Played 19 hours, heard maybe 5 conversations. This is awful. I feel like I'm missing a huge part of the experience.
heliorad
11 years ago
I played about 60 hours of DA: Inquisition, and finished the main story. Party banter was rare, and I didn't realize it wasn't supposed to be. I want to say maybe once or twice per zone they bantered. I changed my party pretty frequently.
PC, male human mage Inquisitor. I pre-loaded digitally the day it was available.
I did start a new playthrough a few days ago and was startled when Varric spoke very early on to my Inquisitor, asking something he didn't at the same spot on the previous playthrough, so I wonder if it's tied to some variable in my first Inquisitor's set up. That said, I'm not very far so it could be chance and still bugged.
burnhaus
11 years ago
Wow, I have been googling ways to get my companions to talk with each other. I'd read about all these great banter lines but will go hours without hearing anything at all. In DA:2 I'd just port around towns with various companions to trigger conversation, but obviously that doesn't work in DA:I. I almost don't want to finish the game until I hear if this is getting patched.
I'm playing on PC.

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Companions aren't bantering?

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