Says the guy who comes from a Big Bird.Quote:
Originally Posted by LeftEyeNine
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Says the guy who comes from a Big Bird.Quote:
Originally Posted by LeftEyeNine
Yeah, I agree. The increased accessibility doesn't immediately look like it offers the same degree of specialisation and variety in spells or tactics as in say BG. Happy to be set right by someone who is playing as a mage and feels differently though.Quote:
Originally Posted by TinCow
Camp Storage mod, released by one of the Bioware lot for free -
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/8/index/132134
Download here -
http://social.bioware.com/project/463/#details
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yaseikhaan
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I picked that one and I'm stomping things to death with boots of stomping +4. I could have built a far stronger version of the character too; I made a lot of mistakes with point allocation and spell choices.Quote:
Originally Posted by TinCow
The ability which places a high drain on your mana and boosts your combat rating is a toggle off/on jobby so you can stand back with your staff and fling spells until matters require you to get closer, then turn it on and swap your weapon set to your sword (or whatever). Until you turn that ability on the only difference compared to a standard mage is your ability to equip heavy weapons and armour thanks to subbing your magic stat for strength.
The final ability in the skill tree is a bit good too. Boosted mana rengen plus better chance to dodge attacks! The tier 3 spell is a high powered defensive model that will keep you alive through nearly anything - for a short time, as it burns through mana like there's no tomorrow. Perfect for those battles where things go badly wrong and you need to scramble ASAP for anything that might keep you alive long enough to pull things back.
Note: You don't want to load up in heavy armour if you go this route. The heavier your armour the more enemy attention your character gets. High level weapons, that's another matter. I use the best quality light leather armour and a high end long sword. When it comes to close combat I can kill faster with a blade than Alistair or Sten, and toss in close range flame and lightning bursts as and when they recharge. However I reckon I spend 75% of my time at a range playing traditional mage.
I picked up healer as my second specialisation. Meh. Powerful healing spells and resurrection. If you use Wynne it's useless, if not then it's a lot more valuable.
Be wary of blood mages. From the way the world treats them I expect choosing that option will put you in for a lot of pain. It's hard to see good party members sticking with you for a start.
Better yet, save before you buy the tome and then reload. That way you get the specialisation and keep the gold. Same applies for places where you need to make a decision you don't want in order to get it as a reward; save, make the choice and wait for the pop up box, reload.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
I'm only missing two warrior specialisations now. I got all of the mage ones a while ago, and picked up the final rouge one last night.
I was going to test that, but I wasn't sure if you had to have it saved somewhere to be able to do it.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Nope. I found it out the hard way. :mutters about the lack of autosave when you leave the camp to travel to a new area:Quote:
Originally Posted by Beskar
Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I picked it for my first specialization as a mage, and I've not run into anything nearing a serious complication yet. Now that its later, I've combined it with a healing spec, and the two work very nicely together. Blood magic really is meant for control- neutralizing a large group of people into nothing, switching allegiances, and generally allowing for your party to beat on one person at a time, while still inflicting damage during the control process.Quote:
Be wary of blood mages. From the way the world treats them I expect choosing that option will put you in for a lot of pain. It's hard to see good party members sticking with you for a start.
Plus, there's little that is more humorous than sending the ogre leading a group of enemies crashing into his own frontlines. :2thumbsup:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yaseikhaan
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That's disappointing. Considering the number of quests to hunt blood mages down, and the world's hatred for them, I'd expected it to be a flavoured option.Quote:
I picked it for my first specialization as a mage, and I've not run into anything nearing a serious complication yet.
Indeed, I'll check it out.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Well, there's one issue, as far as I know, and its to do with how you get access to blood magic.Quote:
That's disappointing. Considering the number of quests to hunt blood mages down, and the world's hatred for them, I'd expected it to be a flavoured option.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
It does seem very odd, however, that nobody seems to notice me actually use it all the times I have. :juggle2:
Well, it is what is. Everything in this game is streamlined down to fewer options than we had in D&D-based games, but they're still pretty good. Arcane Warrior and Shapeshifter doesn't have any appeal for me because I'd rather go just straight Warrior or Rogue if I'm going for a melee-based character, and armor attracts aggro. But I can see where it's in the game for people who like those styles.Quote:
Originally Posted by TinCow
I chose Blood Mage because it does seem to be the one "pure damage-dealing mage" category, although there's still some crowd control on that line. As party leader I wanted to be the main AOE and ranged damage specialist, with another mage for crowd control and DPS support (Morrigan), or else doing the priest/healer thing (Wynn). I'm currently using Morrigan because I don't like Wynn's personality that much, and we're doing okay with healing pots and the occasional spot heal from Morrigan or me.
I haven't been using it long, but Blood Magic doesn't have as bad an effect on the caster as the description sounds, especially if you've been adding a few extra points into constitution like I've been doing. Being able to throw a few extra spells without tapping mana is a powerful option, since I'm often standing at the back of the room with full health and drained mana. The one big drawback is that it only works on organic creatures, but it's still nice to have those extra offensive and CC spells available for many of the fights.
That was my one hesitation, but I'm throwing blood mage spells right and left, with no change in how NPC's or party members treat me. Even with Wynn in the party, which is really an immersion-breaker. Maybe the idea here is that the only real evidence for a Blood Mage is what happens when the spells are actually used in combat, and everyone else is too distracted while fighting to notice what I'm doing. :laugh4: Or maybe some negative reactions will kick in if I follow the entire spell tree, but so far... nothing.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
It also feels odd to go down dialogue trees that involve denouncing Blood Mages (for the sake of plot advancement) while actually being one. I'm playing a fence-sitter/neutral character that isn't pure good or evil. Maybe it would feel better if I was role-playing a more evil character and enjoyed hiding the path I went down.
It had been quite some time since someone had made teh epic "turkey" joke. I was quite worried actually, thought of the probability that the matrix had shifted was depriving me of sleep. Thank you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Beskar
Oh, the last joke was Wayne Rooney's.
No problem, its handy that you are already next to the Greece.Quote:
Originally Posted by LeftEyeNine
Stop it. You guys are making me Hungary.Quote:
Originally Posted by Beskar
Oh-kay, now that one insulted me. Let's move on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Beskar
:laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by Vladimir
As for LeftNine, it shouldn't insult you as there was no insult in the comment (as Turkey is geographically neighbours to Greece) though, it was a pun on the word Greece to mean Grease, as in basting your Turkey.
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Anyway, it is amazing to see there are so many mods out already, like unofficial fixs for the dagger bug, and other things.
Addendum to that last post about Blood Mages. I just remembered, last night a certain NPC said that the Grey Wardens have no prohibition on blood magic, and (spoiler only if you haven't if you haven't finished the Ostagar sequence near the beginning of the game):
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
So apparently it's just the Circle of Mages and the Templars that have a problem with it, and not the entire good-aligned game world. It does seem to fit the "whatever it takes to get the job done" alignment of the Wardens.
Also, (spoiler if you have, or are planning to get the Warden's Keep DLC and haven't played it yet):
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Oh was it so ? Enjoyable.Quote:
Originally Posted by Beskar
I got my DA:O shipped yesterday. I give around 2 weeks for it to arrive and I can taste that awesomeness at last.
Just finished Arl Eamon questline and started on Circle of Magi.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Krusader
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Question-
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And I don't know if this is the right place, but my DAUpdater isn't working. The game's working smoothly, but the updater, each time I try to start it, gives me a message saying that the application failed to initialize properly....I tried reinstalling .NET Framework, but now, it says that Windows can't find a runtime of the application........:wall:
Going from bad to worse....
Answer:Quote:
Originally Posted by india
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Question for those who are very far in the game:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Krusader
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Anyways... Finally got the game re-installed following my clean reboot to win 7, ported the save over, and... finished. :dizzy2: I was able to finally figure out the arcane warrior dealio, many thanks to those who helped out.
I was a bit disappointed, overall, by the epilogue. The end for gameplay wasn't really anything special either, to be frank.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Mountaintop battle
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Many thanks for the advice on specialization classes. After some further playing, I've decided to go with a combo of Blood Mage and Healer. :bow:
I would like also comment on how truly superb the AI scripting system is (represented by Combat Tactics). Every single time I go into that screen, I am amazed by just how versatile the system is. No matter what situation I can think of, I can create an accurate command trigger to adapt to it well. Playing as a mage, I find that I need to spend a lot of time controlling my own character, so having the others work on their own without my direct input is very useful. The DA:O system is so good that I'm heavily inclined to add more points to Combat Tactics for the NPCs to make them even more versatile as they get stronger.
This is one area in which Bioware have definitely surpassed both the Infinity Engine and the Aurora Engine. Overall, I'm very pleased with the Eclipse Engine. I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes one of the classics of RPG gaming. :2thumbsup:
Tactics can be quite useful but could significant work:
1. You cannot use AoE spells properly with tactics. For instance you can only target the nearest enemy with cone of cold, not use it when surrounded, as surrounded requires spells targetable to Self.
2. You cannot tell a caster via tactics to only cast a spell on a cahracter if that character doesn't already have that effect - Wynne used up all her mana in seconds mass casting Heroic Offense on my main.
3. Multi-condition tactics use the object in the last tactic condition as the target. Not exactly useful for your hostile target spells or buffs given certain situations - i.e. spell won't work.
4. No condition for character frozen/shatterable, so you can't use spells like stonefist properly via tactics.
5. You cannot select an ally who is surrounded by enemies, only allies bunched up with enemies (i.e. 2+ allies with 1+ enemy).
6. Nearest visible class is wonky. I want my mage only to cast a spell on a mage (or otherwise) and she casts spells on the nearest visible enemy regardless if mage or not.
I could go on...
Still, it has some good points, but overall it needs a lot of work.
Another thing they should have taken from NWN is that if your character kills an enemy, he should automatically target the next rather than stand around silly while controlled. In fact, the contolled char won't even fight back when attacked.
I see what you mean, and I suspect I haven't encountered most of those issues because I never let the AI control the main character who does all my mage work. Despite those limitations, though, it's still a massive improvement over previous games. Even with heavily modded scripting, the AI scripts in the IE were very limited, and in the AE they were extremely primative. The flexibility and ease of use of the EE scripting interface is itself a huge improvement, and it doesn't seem like it would be very difficult for the things you're asking for to be added into that system via patch or mod.
The DA:O system is very flexible OOB and allows us to create characters that can survive very well under AI control, even if they're not as good as they would be under human control. I never expected Bioware to devote a lot of attention to a new AI scripting system, so this is a genuine surprise for me.
I have another question-
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
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To continue the spoilered discussion between india and FactionHeir:
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Right I just tried the options myself.
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For my tank, I set him to have threaten on and to taunt anyone who comes after-me. Since it is usually him or me or has aggro, it works very well. I have my healer mainly healing my tank, if surrounded, for the Bard to sing stun them, etc.
These are a few elements, but yeah, they work very well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by india
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Hmm...
For whatever reason, DA is not liking the clean install I did. The game is still entirely playable, but there's far more frequent "tears" and so forth, graphically, while playing the game. Its a bit off putting, and I'm not sure how to fix it.
If you're using an nvidia card it might be the Physx drivers as DA doesn't like them very much. Try disabling it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yaseikhaan
I was having the exact same problem and this fixed it for me.
Using ATI, but I'll try it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
edit: I don't suppose you could tell me how to do that? :embarassed:
I think PhysX is an Nvidia only thing, i heard ATI has something similar but I don't know for sure and I wouldn't know how to turn it off. You might look in the video card's control panel that many of their drivers come bundled with. :shrug:Quote:
Originally Posted by Yaseikhaan
I found I need to run DA using Vsync to prevent tearing.
Finally got my main to do a paltry 253 damage in 1 hit using the berserker final strike, but while it registers online and in my char sheet, it didn't net me the achieve ~:(
Leliana on the other hand regularly does 700+ using her arrow of slaying...so jealous.
My PC is now level 25 too (highest you can get it seems) and is 2 talents short of arrow of slaying (got all templar, berserker, warrior and sword/shield talents already). Argh.
To get XP quickly:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Tried that, tried pretty much every setting to no avail. :no: I'm really hoping there's some kind of fix that can be released for this.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
I went a different route:Quote:
Originally Posted by india
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I want to critical-hit all of you while on a frost giant potion and gone berserk :bigcry:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemur
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I haven't been able to put this game down since i bought it. I've autoleveled up some of my NPC's but now I see I could really use a healer and the autolevel up didn't help in that area.
Indeed. Unfortunately if your PC isn't a mage, you really only have two options.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mailman653
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Invest in health potions at every store! :yes:
I find you swim in potions by the end of the game, I pretty much kept to using lesser ones where possible and ended up with some 20 potent, 50 greater and 70 something normal health poultrices :grin:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
On higher difficulties you get less potion drops and they heal you for far less per potion. :help:
Yeah I've noticed I'm spending serious money on potions and eventhough I've managed to level up Morrigan to healing just a bit, I think potions do a better job. That spoiler......interesting, I did not know that.
Is it just me or does Wynne go mana-dry pretty fast when set to Healer tactic set?
I tweaked it a bit, removing Rock Armor being cast, as my sword&shield character and Sten picks up most mobs pretty easily, plus the few who gets by are easily taken out by Leliana) and initially set her to drink a "least powerful lyrium potion". Before I had noticed, I only had two powerful Lyrium potions left.
Compared that both my own character and Sten are set to drink potions at 50% health, I have lots of healing potions.
She does, thanks to the Auras and Buffs she will use before she starts healing, in a fight she will spend around 40% of her overall mana just tossing support spells. In a standard fight with some minions it's nothing to worry about, but in a boss battle? :skull:Quote:
Originally Posted by Krusader
I deactivated most of her support tactics and have her focused solely on healing. I find that she's great in that regard and her mana lasts long when she's got a focused tactic set, if i need the support skills i'll just micro them. Wynne has also redeemed herself a bit in my eyes, thanks in part to the banter she provides when paired with Ohgren. Who knew the old bat had it in her? :laugh4:
Major spoilers on Shale, Orzammar and Shale's Companion quest.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I have some mixed feelings over item scaling. It just seems wrong that nearly everything you find post level 20 seems to be either dragonbone or the tier before that. I mean really, does every commoner have a dragonbone axe in their drawer? Of course those items are unenchanted and unsocketed, so they are good for nothing but gold.
And shameless plug/spoiler for my char's page
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Ah that was fun.
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38 hours now. I've got Shale, done some extreme lizard removal, and completed the "gather an army" quests. I'm now headed to the big city to have a polite chat with Mr Usurper.
Has anyone figured out where the game's title comes from? Dragon Age being the time period, and Origins being ...? The fact you can choose between 6 different character backgrounds? That would be dumb; might as well call it Dragon Age: Stat Distribution.
Does anyone else think that this game's going to be quite limiting on replay. I mean, the mage tower main quest offers such good rewards it's plainly best to do that first every time. Shale is such a good tank he makes the others a bit obsolete. If you're not the right class yourself and you want a healer you're practically forced to take Wynne, and if you want locks opening and traps disarming then it's Lelianna. Those characters then lock you out of certain plot choices. If you don't pick up the characters you want to use ASAP then the game will auto-level them and distribute their points in ways which might not fit in with your plans. I can see my 2 replays being spent going through in much the same order and with minor variations on the base party depending on my own class. The game's difficulty level makes it harder to take a sub-par group in order to hear the conversations.
In reply to Monk's Shale spoiler:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Well I found having Morrigan learn the simple heal spell enough for most of the fights in game. You really only need Wynne for the Dragons in the game. Leliana on the other hand did feel like a must and an added burden to the party. I did do some sections of the game without her, missing out on a lot of locked chests. Interestingly enough, almost none of the really good equipment is behind locked chests, so you can make do without a rogue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
As to party load-outs, i have to agree with AggonyDuck. I made it through the entire first play-through without Wynne, having given Morrigan the heal and heal over time spells and then focusing her on damage talents. It made the ffights with dragons tough, but they were certainly do-able. It also made the fight in the swamp (you know the one i mean!) very hard, but possible with clever tactics.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I have to admit I've been passing up locked chests quite often myself. In my first run I noticed they contain one of three things: Gifts, crafting reagents and potions. Gifts can be found in droves if you know the right Merchants to look for, crafting... does anyone actually craft in this game? Seriously. :dizzy2: And potions - well, those are the only things i really miss out on, but I can't be bothered to always keep Leliana/Zevron in my party.
EDIT:
Auto-leveling is completely optional for PC and is done on an individual basis. I have everyone use auto-leveling except PC, Morrigan (for healing purposes) and sometimes Shale who I all give points manually. The rest I let do as they please.Quote:
If you don't pick up the characters you want to use ASAP then the game will auto-level them and distribute their points in ways which might not fit in with your plans.
Making do without a rogue works until you enter one of those areas with enemy traps. I've had quite a few full party wipeouts when AI party members blundered onto traps in a battle. It's amazing how badly a few simple leghold traps can spoil your day. :blankg:
Maybe it's a console/PC difference but I've found that the basic healing spell isn't worth much when you are in a tough fight. My mage has a very high magic stat and the spell does around 1/5 to 1/4 of a healthbar. That's the same as the lowest level healing item. Most orange rated enemies do that much damage in a single hit. Group heal does far more and it covers everyone; I took spirit healer as a specialisation just to get group heal. Healing items would be a good alternative if only it were easier to control the entire party's actions on the console; the pre-set tactics don't quite get it right. Either they leave it too late or they use them when the fight's as good as over, meaning the item's wasted.
Out of curiosity what difficulty are you playing on?Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
One of the biggest differences I noticed when playing around with difficulty settings is how much life is refunded per heal. On Easy, a lesser health potion can refund near full life when you are around level 5. On Normal, that same level 5 might only get half that with the same type of potion
Opening locks is not just for the loot really. Its mainly for the XP until you can get "free" xp from donations to your troops.
Re crafting, I agree its not exactly useful. Maybe a few swift salves and things here and there, but those are more for fun than necessity. Haven't tried Nightmare though, so maybe there. Nightmare supposedley reduces effect durations even more than Hard though, so it might also be a waste of money.
Also, crafting stuff seems to overall cost more than outright buying the item, which defeats the point behind it.
Btw, noticed something really useful today. If your quickslot bar is unlocked, you can drag it horizontally for additional slots. Lifesaver for a mage.
I've completed the game several times (well for the endings mainly) with my warrior and will be starting anew. I'm thinking human or dwarven rogue, since I already made an elf last month but put her down as mage. Might go dwarven since I already played the human origin....still, I'm not a big fan of RPing dwarves...
Will be interesting to see how your choices reflect differently in the epilogue.
The characters seen more chatty than the ones in ME which is awesome, the downside is I wish I could hear everyone interact sometimes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
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The default one ... normal? Standard? There's casual below it, and two others above. I've had to drop to casual for some fights. I beat Mass Effect on Insanity and I'm no RPG softie, but I can't for the life of me imagine playing on the two harder levels.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
The difference in party viability must be down to the lack of effective full party control. The further I get the more I notice the shortcomings, omissions to the interface, and questionable decisions. You can take fragile characters like Zavran and babysit them into being useful. Me? Unless I control him all of the time he's a liability I can't afford.
You PC folk notice that your tank is down to 1/4 health and want him to use potion? You can pause the game, toggle control to him, select the potion and tell him to use it at leisure. You can then double check other party members status and the lay of the field, maybe give a few extra orders to help things along, and resume when you like.
Me? I have to toggle control while the game's still moving, hopping from one member to another until I reach the right one. With each hop I disrupt the tactics of the member I briefly control. If the character I want to reach is still alive by the time I get to him I can pause the game to pull up a menu and set a single command. I can't see anything much while doing this because the overlay fills most of the screen. The action only happens once I close the menu and it’s easy to cancel an action by accident if you attempt to do anything other than immediately exit. Theoretically I can pull up the command menu with any character and then toggle across to the one I want with the game paused .. in reality it's fiddly and tends to cause more AI troubles. Or I can set AI tactics and watch as it guzzles expensive health packs like there’s no limit on them, and also somehow manages to neglect to use them when it desperately needs to.
There's secondary issues as well which serve to inflate the difficulty. It's harder to me to effectively use AOE spells. The resurrection spell is so awkward to use it was a waste of my points - I can't target characters, I have to scan around to locate their unlabelled corpse from a camera angle that is not at all helpful. Consequentially once a character's down they're down for the duration. I can't do anything with formations, and my mage character has to lead from the front unless I care to play as someone else all the time. I have no way of sending my tanks into a room first unless I take control and lose the chance to send in a pre-emptive fireball with my mage. My AI party members will only start to engage once I use a normal attack (and why would a mage use normal attacks?) or the enemy start slashing me in the face. The more pro-active setting makes them sprint off across the field into all sorts of death traps. Despite setting decent tactics sets I notice my main tank standing around doing nothing in many battles, typically while I'm being used as a punch dummy. Because 3/4 of my party is AI controlled all of the time I need lots of tactics slots, and they only way I can get them is by buying the combat tactics skill. That means it takes me ages to get a full feature set, and I miss out on more useful skills as a consequence. I only have 6 quick slots for abilities and commands; anything not on that small list forces me to head off into the menus. Most of the time that's not a problem but it gets fiddly in heavy fights where I'm using a lot of spells and can't monitor the cooldown on most of them. It’s hard to tell when you can use a spell if the cooldown ‘clock’ is not in good contrast with the icon. That’s particularly an issue with dark icons. Traps in an area? The AI's drawn to them like moths to a flame and I can't quickly take control to steer them around.
Now I'm approaching the end game I need some pretty smart tactics to pull through battles in good order. Things like my archer plinking the enemy mage with arrows to stop them casting while my main tank draws in the melee hordes, my mage unleashes AOE pain on said horde, and my secondary melee dude wades in to break skulls where needed most. Unfortunately all I can manage is lobbing a fireball in at the start for splash damage and then hoping for the best.
They should have used a KOTOR style set up in addition to the tactics system. The ability to pause, hop to a character, queue up 3 commands, then hop to all of the others and do the same before unpausing would make a massive, massive difference. They should also hand out the tactics slots for free, perhaps 1 slot every 2 levels starting at level 2. When using a ranged AOE spell like fireball the camera should move to an aerial view. The resurrection spell should work by targeting the character portraits down the side of the screen.
I've been meaning to ask, do you see any report of XP gained on your screen when you donate items? Or does it appear silently? I donate items and don't see any XP related text so I think I am gaining nothing.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
Just as an interesting unrelated comment, I've been kitting out my main character, a Dwarven Warrior, with most of the attribute increasing equipment. He's got the Helm of Honnleath (+3 to all attributes), Starfang (+3 dexterity), Anduil's Blessing (+2 all attributes), Blood-Gorged Amulet (+12 Constitution, -3 strength and willpower), Key To The City (+2 all attributes) and Lifegiver (+10 Constitution). Having +29 on Constitution is pretty downright awesome as it has more or less doubled his hitpoints.
Needless to say, stacking all of the best attribute increasing on one of the characters really is a great option. My dual-wielding warrior is actually a stronger tank than Shale at the moment and is able to deal far greater damage as well. Its fun seeing a little mean dwarf take down hordes of enemies down by himself, even after the rest of the party has been out for the count for ages. :2thumbsup:
frog:
No, there's no mention of amount of XP gained throughout the game, but hvoering your mouse above your XP bar gives you an indication of how many poitns you currently have. The rest is down to math. Gave a few numbers on the last page regarding which items give most XP for cost.
Look at your amount before and after donation.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
I only found out because I donated a lot of herbs because I found stacks of 99 from Rucks to be dirt-cheap. I thought they were something inregards to the final battle, but when I leveled up after donating was when I realised you get xp for it. I posted about it earlier in the thread.
So thats what donating does.
You got it right. It's even explicitely stated in the small manual. You chose your origin, so it's Dragon Age: Origins. Woohoo.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
The 6 origins are completely different and also, if you only play an RPG for best stats, you are playing a roleplaying game wrong. The whole thing about roleplaying games is that you 'role play'.
In this way, you can be a Dwarf Casteless as you like and play the game in those shoes. You don't do things for the best stats, you do things for what you want.
For my Dwarf companion, I stuck me in that Legion of the Dead dwarf armour, not because it was the best, because I wanted him in the Dwarf Armour and sort of played it as if he joined them.
48 hours and done almost every quest I came across...missed one love letter.
And holding down TAB key often gives so much extra stuff as it highlights stuff you wouldn't think were there.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
@frogbeastegg:
Dragon Age is indeed the current Age. I think the Origins, is because its the first Dragon Age game in a planned series (but also because you have six origins to pick from too). Mass Effect 2 will look up your old savegames from ME1 will it not? Maybe Dragon Age 2 will do the same, so you pick up where you left off in DA:OSpoiler Alert, click show to read:
After all there are player profiles and whatnot on their social site.
Finished. At first the ending was rather good, then it blew itself to pieces in a most disappointing way.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
My point is that they apparently named the game after a character building mechanic. They should have named it after something related to the main plot since that's what the game's about. It took over 45 hours to finish ... and they apparently named it after the 1 hour long selectable intro. :dizzy2:Quote:
Originally Posted by Beskar
...
Speaking of origins, I'm going to give the mage origin a thumbs down. In addition to a tedious opening quest that recycled material from the main plot line I got a handful of extra dialogue lines in various conversations and a few more different lines in the main mage tower quest, and that was it. I was expecting some reaction to the fact I was a member of a group treated with fear and suspicion, the kind of person whom the influential church viewed as half damned by mere fact of being alive and whom the populace at large considered to be a walking timebomb. Over and over I was told how distrusted mages are, that parents would abandon or murder their children if they found they had magic, that I'd be killed if I so much as looked at anyone wrongly, and there was an entire segment of the main plot which demonstrated why this attitude existed and the lengths people would go to. none of that mattered; when I introduced myself as a mage people reacted in the same uncaring way I'd expect them to if I announced I was a turnip seller.
I suspect the mage origin might be the worst of the 6. I've heard snippets of what happens in the other 5 and yup, they sound miles more original. I'll play through the remaining origin stories tomorrow, and then decide if I want a city elf or a dwarf commoner for my rogue character.
For those who haven't played it, the mage origin in a nutshell is:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I rather liked the city elf origin(done with a female), mostly for one particular line that just made my day:Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I like the convo with the king, but I think it might be the same as the female one. However, I did it as a male.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yaseikhaan
I've played through the human and dwarf origins so far and one thing I disliked about the dwarf noble one is the inevitability of your character's fate. Even if you were gracious at the provings -> helmet. Other than that they were fairly alright, but human remains my favorite.
Signed, though City Elf comes a very close second. I found Dallish to be.. lacking, and I haven't done the dwarven ones yet. :no:Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
Jeez, my Steam page clocks me in at 113.9 hours of Dragon Age gameplay this week. I think I might be addicted. :juggle2:
So far, I've played an entire game with a City Elf and a Human Mage, and I'm extremely pleasant with how the origins all fit into the gameplay itself. If you play a City Elf, you will be treated much better in the Alienage once you return to Denerim, as well as getting access to the shop again.
As far as companions go, Sha(y)le is my absolute favorite. You learn of Shale's past during the Paragon Of Her Kind quest line (provided you have Shale in your party during that point), and it's pretty deep for a DLC character. Shale also has a LOT of dialogue, and I think the best part of the entire game was the cutscene after getting Shale when you leave the village. Shale stomps on a chicken, and when you turn back to look, Shale just shrugs in a comical manner. Easily one of the funniest cutscenes in the game, along with the Superman homage in the Warden's Keep DLC.
Afaik my human noble had access to the alienage shop too after completing that quest.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kekvit Irae
Actually, "too" is a misnomer here, so far in the city elf origin, I have not been able to use the shop at all.
Tbh the dwarf noble was quite lenghty too without getting overly boring. Commoner just seemed way too short.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
That's the 5 other origins completed. The two dwarven ones and the city elf origin do a lot to fill in background gaps in the main campaign.
I'd rank them from best to worst:
City elf
Dwarf noble
Dwarf commoner, very slightly behind dwarf noble.
Human noble
Dalish elf
A massive gap
Mage
I wish I hadn't done mage first. My city elf dual-wielding rogue is much more fun, both for gameplay and for storyline. Fits in perfectly with the character outline I had in mind to see the more selfish endings; why should I sacrifice anything for those humans? Hehe, the background specific introduction to Cailen was priceless.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Dwarf noble was damnably good fun, it's not often you get to be imperious and have people bow at you. I've found the background for my warrior playthrough. Can't wait to do the big Orzamar quest with that set up :evil grin:
I wish the game had some kind of crate in camp to put things in, it sucks having to lug around some armor or weapon waiting for the character you want to give it to levels up to use it. There is that wardens keep dlc though....I don't know, I don't want to shell out the MS points for it :no:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
In the Warven Noble one you lose your inventory, I was wondering if you actually ever get it back?
Reason is cuz I lose all the DLC that way :tongue2:
Yes, you lose everything. Bioware are looking into a fix.Quote:
Originally Posted by FactionHeir
there is a mod for it mailman. http://www.damods.com/forums/index.p...a=view;down=13
I'm not sure that's the only interpretation. As Bioware's first original (non-D&D) fantasy game, it introduces the world's lore, races, and magic system. I'm sure some modders will attempt total conversion mods, but I would assume that most upcoming expansions and mods will use this new fantasy world as a framework, like people used D&D for previous games. In that sense, I think "Origins" is a pretty good title for introducing a new (if somewhat un-original) fantasy world for gaming.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
That surprised me a little too, especially since I'm playing a blood mage ("Fear me!" "What, you're not fearing me?" "I have to pay full price for this flask?"). I guess it's just a typical resource allocation problem, where the devs couldn't afford (maybe for reasons of download time or disk space) to script and voice-act a separate dialog tree just for mages. Or any of the other classes, for that matter, since they would have to treat all classes equally.Quote:
Speaking of origins, I'm going to give the mage origin a thumbs down. In addition to a tedious opening quest that recycled material from the main plot line I got a handful of extra dialogue lines in various conversations and a few more different lines in the main mage tower quest, and that was it. I was expecting some reaction to the fact I was a member of a group treated with fear and suspicion, the kind of person whom the influential church viewed as half damned by mere fact of being alive and whom the populace at large considered to be a walking timebomb. Over and over I was told how distrusted mages are, that parents would abandon or murder their children if they found they had magic, that I'd be killed if I so much as looked at anyone wrongly, and there was an entire segment of the main plot which demonstrated why this attitude existed and the lengths people would go to. none of that mattered; when I introduced myself as a mage people reacted in the same uncaring way I'd expect them to if I announced I was a turnip seller.
Also true, but I think it's part of a larger problem with most RPG's. The game world and NPC interactions don't track your character's progress from a kid fresh off the farm, to a demigod by the end of the game.Quote:
when I introduced myself as a mage people reacted in the same uncaring way I'd expect them to if I announced I was a turnip seller.
Playing Fallout 3, I get the exact same reaction strolling into some dinky refugee town, whether I'm straight out of the vault wearing pajamas, or a walking death machine wearing power armor and carrying alien weaponry. Same dialog, same blase' reactions from the NPC's. It was like that in The Witcher too, or Mass Effect towards the ends of those games. People should be backing away quietly, if not running for their lives at the mere sight of you. Everyone except the most powerful opponents, that is. Just once, I'd like to play an RPG that worked this way, because it starts to look ridiculous when you get near the end of the game.
Thanks for the info frog, any information on whether they'll be fixing the effects staying on dead bodies? (i.e. ice, paralysis etc)
Reason being if you have a high magic mage (say 60+ like Morrigan in my game) and kill an enemy with ice/paralysis on, their corpse won't give loot until the spell wears off and if its a plot related body, the quest won't update/continue until that happens. Especially annoying in some sections where the next wave of enemies only appears after the current wave is dead.