Dragon Age

[mimartin]

Originally Posted by Drunkside

I smell greed....

A business trying to make profits.

YouTube Video

[Darth333]

Originally Posted by DarthParametric

Anime announcement

Not only it seems like half broken/finished games have become the norm nowadays but it looks like someone here is really making efforts to ruin it all...

[DarthParametric]

It seems to me that anime is a better option than live action. And there's plenty of stuff they could do besides the storyline from Origins. I would think it stands a better chance of turning out at least half-decent than the ME movie.

[DarthParametric]

A new patch is due to hit in the next few hours apparently - http://social.bioware.com/forum/Drag...3149645-1.html

Figures that they'd wait until just after I started a new playthrough.....

EDIT: Released - http://social.bioware.com/page/da-patches

Plenty of people are bitching that it creates as many problems as it fixes though, so it might be worth holding off for a while.

[Tysyacha]

*frustrated*

Should I go Warrior or Rogue? The only reason I want to go Rogue is for the Duelist/Legionnaire Scout combo. Anybody ever done it? Otherwise, I want to go Warrior for the pure survivability aspect. Thanks for the advice!

[DarthParametric]

Legionnaire isn't that flash as I recall, other than the constitution bonus of the Mark of the Legion talent (the strength bonus is kind of useless for a rogue though). To be honest it makes no sense that Legionnaire is a rogue specialisation - it should have been a warrior specialisation. Unfortunately the only other Awakening rogue specialisation Shadow isn't much chop either (although to be fair, all the Awakening specialisations are crap).

Assassin would be my preferred Origins specialisation for a rogue. The only talent from Duelist I think is worthwhile is the 4th one, Pinpoint Strike. As long as you don't mind having either Leliana or Zevran in the party at all times to handle traps and locks, I'd go with a warrior over a rogue. For a warrior, I always take Templar first for the second talent Cleanse Area which is very useful with all those damn Misdirection Hexes you get spammed with.

[stoffe]

Originally Posted by DarthParametric

EDIT: Released - http://social.bioware.com/page/da-patches

I thought the game was abandoned at this point.

Originally Posted by DarthParametric

Plenty of people are bitching that it creates as many problems as it fixes though, so it might be worth holding off for a while.

Indeed, and it looks like they haven't actually fixed some of the most pressing issues introduced with v1.03 (random crashes whenever using a talent with visuals) or the game-breaking bugs in ÐA:Awakening. So no faith in Bioware restored at this point.

[DarthParametric]

Originally Posted by stoffe

I thought the game was abandoned at this point.

Yes, that was certainly my feeling as well, especially when DA2 was announced.

The amusing thing is that they said there are things that they are unable to fix due to technical limitations. $5 says someone releases a mod eventually that fixes it.

[igyman]

Technical limitations is a relatively vague term, it can mean anything from "we couldn't extend the deadline", or "not enough people were working on the patch" to "the code was too complicated to alter".

[DarthParametric]

My guess is that the issue concerns fixing it on the consoles and that they don't want to patch it on the PC if they can't apply the same fix across all platforms.

[Tysyacha]

OK, so I'm a warrior and I LOVE IT!!! For Rogue, do you usually go with Zevran or Leliana?

I'm also looking for romance advice. Which pathway is the more interesting, especially for a Dwarven Female (Lady Aeducan), IYHO?

[DarthParametric]

I've only ever gone with Zevran (as a dual wielder) as an active party member in a single playthrough. I invariably go with Leliana (as an archer), more out of aesthetics than anything else. I use a party member de-levelling mod, so I could use either one in a ranged or melee capacity if I so desired. As such, I can't really offer much advice for which is better in their vanilla guises. Just for a change, in my current playthrough I slit Zevran's throat after the ambush.

I can't offer any advice for female romance options as I always play as a male.

[stoffe]

Originally Posted by DarthParametric

EDIT: Released - http://social.bioware.com/page/da-patches

Plenty of people are bitching that it creates as many problems as it fixes though, so it might be worth holding off for a while.

Has anyone here installed the new patch and played for a while with it? If so, is it a noticeable improvement over v1.03, and does it create any serious problems on its own?

After the whole 1.03 patch debacle I'm a bit wary of just applying the patch not knowing what I'll get.

Originally Posted by Tysyacha

OK, so I'm a warrior and I LOVE IT!!! For Rogue, do you usually go with Zevran or Leliana?

Or you could try option C, Both of the above.

It actually worked surprisingly well to bring both rogues as regular party members in my most recent playthrough. Very few opponents aside from elite bosses survive a simultaneous backstab from two stealthed rogues as a combat opener. Might require slightly more micromanagement during combat to make use of them effectively, but it was fun to try something other than Autopilot Combat for once.

[mimartin]

Originally Posted by stoffe

Has anyone here installed the new patch and played for a while with it? If so, is it a noticeable improvement over v1.03, and does it create any serious problems on its own?

After installing v1.03, I could not start a new game and get past “Your Own Mabari Hound” playing anything but a human noble. I get stuck in the dog pen with the Kennel Master after talking to him. The new patch did fix that issue. Also played around with Awakening a little after installing the patch to see if my Rogue could spot traps, she could. Beyond that I haven’t noticed any issues with the patch, which I consider a good thing. Although don’t have a large enough sample to evaluate it just yet. Just got to Lothering last night.

[Tysyacha]

Does anyone know how to do mods for Dragon Age: Origins?

Like...make a certain Grey Warden replace Dairren in the beginning of the Cousland story?

Or maybe Sten or Bann Teagan?

Tysyacha is weird. This is a given. Alistair and Zev just seem so...hmmm...much less!

[DarthParametric]

Yeah that's not an overly difficult mod. You can swap out the head morph for whatever one you want very easily (as long as they are the same sex/race - so no Sten). A clothes/armour swap is a little more involved, but again it's fairly straight forward.

Edit: Is this the sort of thing you were talking about?



Available for download here.

[Rake]

I've gone through the entire Orzammar portion of the game with patch 1.4 and haven't had any problems so far. I've also noticed the game loads more quickly and that I don't have to quit every 45 minutes or so because of lengthy loading screens. So far so good.

[DarthParametric]

Seems there's yet more DLC on the way - http://www.joystiq.com/2010/07/27/pr...-amgarrak-dlc/

[Tysyacha]

Parametric,

Those screens are amazing, and yes, that was the kind of thing I was talking about.

Questions for Warriors:

How do you keep your mental resistance check from being the crappiest in Craptown?
If you're a DPS Warrior instead of a tank, what's the best weapon set to go with?
With no Stealth, what's the best strategy for keeping yourself safer in battle?

Questions for Rogues:

Are you guys really hard to micromanage, with all the backstabs you do, or is it easy?
If you put your points into DEX/CUN instead of STR, what's the best armor you can wear?
Have you ever done a playthrough as a "Rogue Party"! with you/Leliana/Zevran/X?

Questions for Mages:

How do you keep those annoying enemies from going after you while you're healing ppl?
Is Time Spiral really all that awesome?
Are Mages easy to manage, or do they require a lot of micromanagement and tactics?

Thanks!

[Miltiades]

Originally Posted by Tysyacha

If you put your points into DEX/CUN instead of STR, what's the best armor you can wear?

I don't think I could wear anything else than light armor with my Rogue Archer. Didn't really matter to me, though, the Drakeskin Armor and the Blackblade Tunic in Awakening did a good enough job.

Originally Posted by Tysyacha

Have you ever done a playthrough as a "Rogue Party"! with you/Leliana/Zevran/X?!

I've never went through the game using a "Rogue Party". I, personally, found playing as a Rogue to be pretty hard, especially early on in the game when I realized I didn't have any healer in my party (Morrigan not being optimized for healing - okay, so probably beginner's mistake). A memorable scene comes to mind in Lothering where I'm trying to escape a pack of wolves, crossing the whole village. I did have some small encounters later on in the game where my party consisted of Rogues only, which went difficult but were successful in the end, but they were minor encounters only. It must be a challenge to do it throughout the whole game, I'm sure. But then again, I'm not the best gamer out there, and I don't micromanage.

[stoffe]

Originally Posted by Tysyacha

How do you keep your mental resistance check from being the crappiest in Craptown?

There are some magic items that boost mental resistance, if I remember correctly. You can also pick the Templar specialization for a sizable boost to your resistance. But mental resist will still be the achilles heel of a warrior. Bring Dispel Magic on your mage (or the templar dispel ability) to get rid of any nasty mental effects that get slapped on you.

Originally Posted by Tysyacha

If you're a DPS Warrior instead of a tank, what's the best weapon set to go with?
With no Stealth, what's the best strategy for keeping yourself safer in battle?

Dual-wielding swords seem to be the type that produces the highest damage output for a warrior. Shield and Sword offers more disabling in the form of stuns and knockdowns, and while two-handed is powerful it swings terribly slowly which leaves you wide open to get interrupted. dual-wielding swings quickly and causes a lot of damage.

Originally Posted by Tysyacha

Questions for Rogues:
Are you guys really hard to micromanage, with all the backstabs you do, or is it easy?

Depends on the style. Playing as an archer is pretty straight-forward where you mostly have to worry about positioning so arrows can hit your targets. Playing as a backstabbing dagger-wielder requires slightly more finesse. I usually max out the stealth ability for my dagger rogues and open bigger fights with sneaking them in unseen and backstabbing enemy spellcasters as the combat opener. Can be quite potent to take out mages before they can cast a single spell.

Originally Posted by Tysyacha

If you put your points into DEX/CUN instead of STR, what's the best armor you can wear?

Wade's Superior Drakeskin armor (craftable by Wade in Denerim if you bring him drake scales) is probably the best available in Origins. Provides decent armor, high fire resistance and reduces your fatigue.

Originally Posted by Tysyacha

Have you ever done a playthrough as a "Rogue Party"! with you/Leliana/Zevran/X?

I've done that. Worked pretty well with my Warden and Zevran as backstabbers and Leliana as a long range sniper picking off targets with Arrow of Slaying or stun-locking whole groups with Scattershot before they even knew she's there.

Originally Posted by Tysyacha

How do you keep those annoying enemies from going after you while you're healing ppl?

Glyph of Repulsion works pretty well for keeping enemy melee off you, and there are various defensive spells that can increase your survivability. You can also try wearing armor on your mage to make her more durable. Aforementioned Wade's Superior Drakeskin Armor works very well on a mage. The fatigue reduction it provides actually makes spells cost less mana than when wearing robes.

(You can also try making a D&D Cleric styled mage. Spirit Healer + Arcane Warrior wearing plate armor. Makes you very durable, though you'll go through lyrium potions at a furious pace with all the extra fatigue from wearing full plate.)

[Taak Farst]

Originally Posted by Tysyacha

Questions for Mages:

How do you keep those annoying enemies from going after you while you're healing ppl?
Is Time Spiral really all that awesome?
Are Mages easy to manage, or do they require a lot of micromanagement and tactics?

Thanks!

a) its never much of a problem, in my experience healer mages get very little threat, because shale, or dog if you dont have stone prisoner are both great tanks. the only thing i noticed was that with the flemeth fight and the fight with the urn of sacred ashes dragon, they both seem to pay attention more to you and they use a power that pulls you towards them, which you just have to deal with and move back away.
b) I don't remember ever using Time Spiral so I wouldn't know.
c) Mages, unless you have a good squad, was the hardest class for me to level, they die pretty easy. I am referring to my mage playthrough, but which was also my very first playthrough so I was a noob. but yeah, quite difficult. But sayin all this, the Arcane Warrior Specialization is bloody amazin.

For a mage, i had both the arcane warrior specialization and the spirrit healer. fantastic combination. I could heal the group as well as even be a tank for the group. honestly, the mage is pretty versatile. with the arcane warrior your magic skill is effectively used as a strength skill too so say you need 38 strength to wield juggernaught armor, you can wield it with 38 magic instead. that, combined with the Spellweaver sword. great class.

[DarthParametric]

Originally Posted by Tysyacha

Parametric,

Those screens are amazing, and yes, that was the kind of thing I was talking about.

Bit late I guess, given that you are no doubt well past the Origin story, but it's available here.

[Taak Farst]

Tip for all you completionists and achievement hunters - don't..
I finally got the platinum trophy for dragon age today, and it completely ruins the experience. I have played through it 6 times to get the platinum, and now, except for future DLC, I don't want to touch another dragon age playthrough. I've seen enough of it until DA 2..

[Arcesious]

I played through it and beat it as a mage. Then I got awakening and beat that. Pretty fun, but I never liked the influence/approval system. I was kind of sad to see that the graphics weren't as good as modern 360 games usually are. Characters, creatures, most effects and areas in the game are good, but at least in the case of the Brecilian forest, I was very disappointed to find it so under-grown. It would have been great if they had done a masterpeice of a forest like what I've witnessed is possible in Halo 3 (Arrival mission) and Fable 2 (Brightwood Forest). I'm just saying, a lot of areas in the game seemed kind of plain and devoid of scenery.

I hope to now challenge myself to beat the game as a solo rogue on nightmare. I heard its possible, but not easy.

[DarthParametric]

Originally Posted by Arcesious

I'm just saying, a lot of areas in the game seemed kind of plain and devoid of scenery.

I would think that is down to two reasons. The first being an attempt to limit object and poly count for low-end PCs and consoles, the second being the limitations and poor optimisation of the engine. These, in turn, would have dictated the relatively small size of individual game areas/levels. I suspect this design philosophy is partially a holdover from the Aurora/Odyssey days and partially a lack of ability. It's certainly feasible to build completely open world engines that handle massive areas that stream in detailed content and yet manage to run well on consoles and mid-range PCs - e.g. Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (GTA4, Red Dead Redemption), Gamebryo (Oblivion, Fallout 3) and the upcoming idTech 5 (Rage). Replicating that just seems beyond Bioware's means.

[mimartin]

Credit goes to Jeff for pointing this out.

Morrigan lovers and haters rejoice. BioWare is releasing more DLC September 7th entitled "Witch Hunt- Never Follow Me" which will allows the PC to finally confront Morrigan.

It takes place a year after the Archdemon was killed as Morrigan has returned to Ferelden

[Taak Farst]

Originally Posted by mimartin

Credit goes to Jeff for pointing this out.

Morrigan lovers and haters rejoice. BioWare is releasing more DLC September 7th entitled "Witch Hunt- Never Follow Me" which will allow the PC to finally confront Morrigan.

It takes place a year after the Archdemon was killed as Morrigan has returned to Ferelden

ah...well..im very happy theres no more dlc to pay for after this, but after so long of playing dragon age, it's a shame that the story of my grey warden is coming to a close.. and tbh I don't think ive ever connected to any other RPG PC more than i have with my grey warden. shephard is all well and good but i felt more involved with the grey warden


but note, it's the last dlc, still with 6 months between witch hunt release and DA2 release..i swear..their must be an expansion happening or something..bioware dont leave their games without dlc that long :P..better yet..EA dont...they just dont.

[Liverandbacon]

From DLC description: "dramatic conclusion to the Origins storyline"

I'm interpreting this as meaning "Yeah, your player-defined character isn't ever coming back after this. Dragon Age is going to be a Hawke-only zone now."

Maybe I'm just being negative, but I suspect that Dragon Age is going to stick with the more Mass Effect-ish direction it seems to be going for, and the first game will become almost irrelevant.

Although I don't generally buy Bioware's DLC because from what I've seen value for money has been low, I might need to get this one, if only for some sort of closure to my Warden's story.

[GeneralPloKoon]

I still haven't played Dragon Age....*begins to cry*

[Laar_Dha]

While I'm looking forward to this DLC story, I am most unhappy that it is supposed to be the last. I've enjoyed every one of them - though I still have to finish that last dang battle in Amgorrak (hopefully will manage on my 3rd attempt) I thought all were well worth the very modest cost. (Heck, going to a movie matinee costs $7.50 and that's only good for one viewing.)

Ah, well. I guess it couldn't last forever.

[DarthParametric]

It will be interesting if it is indeed the last DLC, as when everyone got up in arms about DA2 not carrying over the warden from DA1, Chris Priestly said something along the lines of there being lots more DLC for DA1 to come.

[Thanatos9t]

According to Chris Priestly it is:

Originally Posted by Chris Priestly

Yes, Witch Hunt is the final DLC for Dragon Age: Origins, and imo a great send off to an awesome game.

What happened to "2 years..."? Dragon Age 2.

[DarthParametric]

Ah found the quotes. Both are from a month ago, so straight after the official announcement of DA2:

Originally Posted by Chris Priestly

I'll give you 100% we are still going to release more DLC for Dragon Age: Origins before we release Dragon Age 2. And I have said as much repeatedly now.

Originally Posted by Chris Priestly

We still have patching and DLC planned for DA:O before the launch of DA2. Stay tuned.

I thought he said "lots" more somewhere but I guess that I was mistaken. Not that I particularly care much. DLC to my mind is a mostly just a scam (like all those ME2 weapon DLCs). I'd much prefer more traditional expansions, but they seem doomed to go the way of the dinosaur.

[Taak Farst]

Originally Posted by Thanatos9t

According to Chris Priestly it is:

He angered a LOT of people with that post, and he enjoys doing it, which irritates the hell outta me.

We were promised regular patches to both DA:O and toolset
we were promised 2 years of DLC

We didn't get either. And what about the piece of paper with the date on in the awakening expansion? Probably scrapped too. You don't have to look further than BioWare's forum to see how bad their marketting scheme is. Provoking anger into loyal fans is a stupid move

[DarthParametric]

The piece of paper in Awakening was the (premature) announcement of DA2.

As I said, I'm not that fussed on the 2 years of DLC thing, but I definitely agree with you on the toolset patches. Bioware really reneged on a lot of their promised support for the toolset and modding in general. As someone involved in a fairly hefty DA mod project, that's certainly something I am pissed about.

[Rake]

I'm satisfied with the DLC ending now, most of the DLC wasn't that great anyway; I'd rather they devote more resources to making DA2 better than making 1 hour snippets with 1 minute of dialogue. I'm also happy the Warden is finally put to rest, I like each game to have a new hero and a new adventure.

Does DAO really need that much patching though? I've downloaded all the patches since they were released, and never had any issues.

[DarthParametric]

The game still runs terribly and there are a host of recognised issues that have not been fixed. Some of these have been addressed in mods, but there are still plenty of outstanding issues.

[Thanatos9t]

Originally Posted by Rake

I'm satisfied with the DLC ending now, most of the DLC wasn't that great anyway; I'd rather they devote more resources to making DA2 better than making 1 hour snippets with 1 minute of dialogue. I'm also happy the Warden is finally put to rest, I like each game to have a new hero and a new adventure.

Does DAO really need that much patching though? I've downloaded all the patches since they were released, and never had any issues.

Have you played Awakening?

[Tysyacha]

Is there any way you can switch your Warden's voice to Leliana's voiceset?