Dragon Age: Origins gameplay and discussion thread.

**Krusader** · 11-06-2009, 23:34

Originally Posted by Monk

YIKES! That was worth $15? I got the DDE off of Impulse with a coupon, so I really didn't pay much over the original edition's price for all my bonus content. I agree, there's no way WK is worth that sort of money. At the very most it should be priced at $5.

I've found Sten is a bit of a "glass cannon" he can hit pretty hard, especially after you do his companion quest, but he and the other damage focused warriors are surprisingly squishy. After i got Shale I swapped Sten for him and haven't looked back. A follower made out of stone is durable as it sounds.

I bought the DDE of Steam so I got Warden's Keep

But my bad, its actually 7 $.

Stone Prisoner is 15 $. I'll edit my post and rectify that.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Monk** · 11-06-2009, 23:40

Ah, i was about to say that's just plain robbery!

Originally Posted by Krusader

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Sten companion tips.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

27 hours into this game. I need a vacaion.

**FactionHeir** · 11-07-2009, 01:51

Just finished the village, made extensive use of Lelianna's rogue skills

Regarding gifts, thanks for the pointers, I noticed those give like +9 rather than +5, so quite notable.
Companions convos are fine for the most part. I find Morrigan's the most difficult, but they change the most too (usually +-6 or 7), while others go for around 1-4 each time.

Just entered camp for the first time too. So far I haven't died in the origin story and ostagar. Died twice in this section but reloaded each time since I think main dying should be game over.

**Monk** · 11-07-2009, 03:29

Figured out the problem of sustained "auras" in conversations. As FactionHeir pointed out is a tactics problem that can be easily remedied. Go to your tactics menu and set: Condition: Self-> Surrounded by no enemies. Then set the action to: Self-> Deactivate mode: (aura) and then save your preset. This will solve the problem of being sparkly in conversations but will take up a tactics slot.

Its hard to believe a game I enjoy this much can be so backwards in its design.

**frogbeastegg** · 11-07-2009, 10:19

Weirdness. I played several more hours last night and my party AI and influence was working in a sane manner again. In fact I redid one conversation where I got negative influence, picked exactly the same choices, and this time got positive influence! With a smattering of gifts and some functional conversation I have Alistair deeply fond of me, and Morrigan and Leliana to slightly friendly. They didn't have much dialogue for me to work through, and Sten had none so he still hates me.

Leliana is spotting traps all over the place and they appear visually on the game world, and by walking near them I am given the option to disarm them.

Maybe dragon age is a night game? Play it in the morning and it's half asleep?

Regardless of the reason I enjoyed my time immensely.

I haven't done the Shale DLC yet; the achievements are broken on it and I don't want to bork my profile. The wardens keep DLC costs 560 points and I admit I am tempted, if only for the item storage. My inventory fills up with runes and ingredients so quickly. Again, the achievements are broken so I can't play it without needing to recover my profile later.

Setting and plot wise I'm still not seeing the dark fantasy, and definitely not seeing any trace of the song of ice and fire inspiration that the developers were talking about. It's basically a standard fantasy novel, which means it's less twee than your usual fantasy game and isn't in technicolour graphics and that's about it. It's very Tad Williams with added blood so far.

**Beskar** · 11-07-2009, 11:49

I own the DLC, but the problem is, can't even download it to play it.

It is quite annoying.

Even worse, I heard you cannot even play games with the DLC content, offline.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**FactionHeir** · 11-07-2009, 13:19

Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

Weirdness. I played several more hours last night and my party AI and influence was working in a sane manner again. In fact I redid one conversation where I got negative influence, picked exactly the same choices, and this time got positive influence! With a smattering of gifts and some functional conversation I have Alistair deeply fond of me, and Morrigan and Leliana to slightly friendly. They didn't have much dialogue for me to work through, and Sten had none so he still hates me.

I thought that was only on my end. Did some convos to just look at what the henchie would reply with for giggles and then went back to pick a mod-high path that would fit with the RP. Thing is, sometimes a path seems to give you a boost once, but after a load, that path never gives anything, which is weird. I.e. the convo with Lelianna about the people in the convent and picking a certain option the first time got me +4 but each time thereafter 0.

Re Achieves, are they broken just for the xbox or also the PC?

Originally Posted by Beskar

Even worse, I heard you cannot even play games with the DLC content, offline.

That's true. My connection went down for a while yesterday and when I went to resume my game it told me that due to the DLC I can only play it logged into an account that has them.

**Xiahou** · 11-07-2009, 14:15

Originally Posted by FactionHeir

That's true. My connection went down for a while yesterday and when I went to resume my game it told me that due to the DLC I can only play it logged into an account that has them.

Is this the PC version? I haven't logged in since I downloaded the DLC and I've had no problems using it.

**Monk** · 11-07-2009, 19:42

33.5 hours in. Thinking of taking my foot off the gas today and getting some real work done. This game can be very hard to put down at times.

Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

Setting and plot wise I'm still not seeing the dark fantasy, and definitely not seeing any trace of the song of ice and fire inspiration that the developers were talking about. It's basically a standard fantasy novel, which means it's less twee than your usual fantasy game and isn't in technicolour graphics and that's about it. It's very Tad Williams with added blood so far.

I'm starting to wonder if Bioware has the "Big book of fantasy cliches" tucked away in their writers' office. The story isn't bad per say, it's just nothing special or revolutionary. Fun? Oh absolutely! Highly original? I really don't think so.

Originally Posted by Xiahou

Is this the PC version? I haven't logged in since I downloaded the DLC and I've had no problems using it.

Yeah same here, I haven't had any trouble logged in or out in playing.

**Beskar** · 11-07-2009, 20:51

Something is bugging me and there are no answers anywhere.

Do the allied supply crates do anything?

Edit: yes, I realised they are for donating, but does that result in anything tangible or affect anything in the game, other than make you poor?

**frogbeastegg** · 11-08-2009, 00:05

Did anyone else notice that the sound effect for changing heavy armour is the same one used for moving plate armour about in your inventory in Baldur's Gate? I got some new gear for Alistair and Sten today and had to equip/remove the chest portion a few times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

I do like Alistair.

Originally Posted by FactionHeir

I thought that was only on my end. Did some convos to just look at what the henchie would reply with for giggles and then went back to pick a mod-high path that would fit with the RP. Thing is, sometimes a path seems to give you a boost once, but after a load, that path never gives anything, which is weird. I.e. the convo with Lelianna about the people in the convent and picking a certain option the first time got me +4 but each time thereafter 0.

No, I haven't seen a lack of points. I saw it hand out negative points for a conversation I did before quitting without saving yesterday, and then hand out positive points this morning when I chose exactly the same lines. To use your example, yesterday Lelianna would have given me -4 for the choice whereas today (and logically) she'd have given me +4.

Getting logical results based on what I'd chosen is a massive difference to my party and to my enjoyment of the game. Yesterday my party hated me, today I'm high enough in the esteem of all 3 romanceable characters that they're madly in love with me and the non-romanceable characters who have offered dialogue have recovered their opinion decently. Sten is stubbornly disliking me though; he's not offered any more conversation so I suspect ~~bribery~~ gifts are the only hope. Consequentally I'm half convinced he doesn't have a personality ...

Re Achieves, are they broken just for the xbox or also the PC?

Xbox only, and it was fixed this afternoon.

It's a semi common problem with DLC around release time, common enough that I always check to make sure they're working properly before I play new content. The central microsoft server hadn't been updated with them so obtaining the achievements added them to your profile list but did not award any points. The only way to fix that is to wait for the server to be updated, recover your profile to remove the problematic achievements and then go collect them again. If you're lucky then the achievement will pop correctly and all's well. If not it won't pop because the game thinks you already have it, at which point you're rather stuck.

Originally Posted by Monk

I'm starting to wonder if Bioware has the "Big book of fantasy cliches" tucked away in their writers' office. The story isn't bad per say, it's just nothing special or revolutionary. Fun? Oh absolutely! Highly original? I really don't think so.

Definitely. It's what I'd call fluff fantasy, the sort of thing I'd read in 3 hours because there's nothing worth thinking or slowing down for. Dragon Age is only different if you compare it to the stereotypical Terry Brooks or Raymond Feist style stuff, and that's a style of fantasy that's been heavily out of fashion for a decade or more,, and which wasn't omnipresent in the genre even before that.

The lore and notes sections of the journal are good to read. The material in there is a bit stronger than what is handed out in the course of the story. One or two of Lelianna's bardic stories are good too.

Doesn't help that some of the cliches are gleefully turned on their heads in a predictable way, such as (spoilers for the bit after the beacon lighting near the beginning)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: