Volourn

"JNPCs... hmm have not played Mass Effect but my understanding is that you are a military officer. Is a fact that in the military you often don't get much choice who you work with - so mandatory NPCs in that context is sorta explainable (like every war movie with the basic training scene... look at Gromnir's avatar for example )." Doesn't work in ME since some of the joinables have nothing to do with the military. "Wynne is a cleric in a game without clerics." Wynne is not a cleric. Not in any way, shape, or form. OMG She has heal spells. Big deal. So does Morrigan. Not a cleric. Lilianna was almost a cleric. D&D is dead. LONG LIVE DA! "A five or six character party in DA would have made her essential." Nope. No character or character type is essential.

"Shepard: "Tell me about Whatever." Mindless NPC:"Never ending, wooden encyclopedia entry on Whatever."" Sounds like something you see in every game with dialogue ever. "Also, apart from this, Earth's representative on Citadel acted like a ranting, spoiled teenager the whole time, instead of an experienced, hardened diplomat who's given the most important diplomatic position in humanity's history." he acts like a diplomatic. *shrug* And, gamers. We always hate on those who represent us.

Hehe. So true.

"Really, if due to cost reasons the end product turns out like Mass Effect" A really awesome product that's better than almost all of BIO's other games? *shrug* I cna live with that. "I like reading good dialogue a lot more than listening to bad dialogue." ME's dialogue is awesome. Over the top, and extreme at time yes, but awesome. Sure beats the blandness of the Bg series in comparison (minus a handful of characters).

"That Bio need to make certain NPCs virtually unavoidable, like Morrigan and Alistair is their key weakness as a developer when it comes to plot. I say either (a) make the NPC mandatory or (b) make a mechanic outside of deus ex machina game design to propel the story forward. (a) isn't may favourite but at least you can make good plot-related reasons for it and it's more... honest." Disagree. First off, you can pretty avoid Morrigan rather easily. You pretty much can give her the boot right away, and Allistarir cna be ignored. The fact they cna have npcs important to the plot yet still allow the PC the freedom to basically ignore them is one of their key strengths. Making npcs mandatory is lame. In fact, I find the fact you can't kick Alistair out of the party is lame. It's one of the main reasons why I find KOTOR as BIO weakest game because it's where BIO decided to go the JRPG way and force npcs on the player which of course Obsidian has had to copy. "Alistair is so vanilla, so... meh, that I find myself totally unconcerned about anything to do with him. Yet he's, for some reason, the Bio pin-up boy for Dragon Age. It's unfair on all the Bio forum chicks who like romances, the guys get foxy Morrigan and the girls get... the guy next door with the lame haircut. Maybe the Bio devs hate CRPG romances as much as I do. then again, Bio forumites have, orgasmically, discovered how to make elves have really big ears and weird eye tints... they are as happy as larry and deeply scary." I'm no Alistair fnaboy, but your assessment of him is illogical, becuase you are making it out like the BIO forum 'chick's dislike him which is ludicrous since theys seem to be more than happy with Alistarir. And, oh, Allistair is many things but 'vanilla' isn't one of them. Yeah, guys get 'foxy' Morrigan... you know the gal who will refuse to stop sleeping with you, and then literally runs away from you at the end of the game. LMAO Also, don't forget that guys also get the most boring DA character in Lilianna (or whatever her dumb name is) while the girls get the fraky elf. Of course, the last two are bisexual so *shrug*. It says a lot the two characters you hate on are the two most popular characters espicially Morrigan. And, when I say popualr I don't neccessarily mean 'most liked' as they - espicially Morrigan - have their share of detractors. That's fantastic writing. Sten, on the other hand, is a piece of crap. He's one note, boring, and a scumbag. "The 2H-guy is a bit like the rogue - needs lots of micro-managing in combat to get the best out of him" *shrug* I have Sten in my part whose 2 handed, and I simply don't have to babysit him minus the very rare poultrice useage. With tatics ai he gets to use all his special abilities and cna be left alone. He's also one of teh more sueful npcs with his 100ish damage hits striaght up which means he can kill most opponents in 2-3 hits unwatched.

The dog likes Morrigan. <> And, grom is wrong a susual. Nothing contradictary about it. I believe games should be played as theyw ere intended. By 'respeccing' the npcs, you cheapen the experience. Morrigna's focus should be on shapechaging (even if its one of the two most useless talents) and cold spells (no matter how awesome they are), Wynne shoudl always be about helaing, and it ruins Sten's character if he isn't weilding a huge 2 handed sword. R00fles! It doesn't matter hwo easy/hard the game, those characters got those set ups for a reason even if YOu dislike them. And, they are all useful as is. If you have trouble with sten, it's YOU that sucks NOT him. Then again, Grom is the guy who believes rogues are useless in DA. And, truly belives that npcs should eb dumbed down and agree with the PC 100% of the time. LMAO

"Imo it should've been possible to trade in a spell for another one each level up. This would've given the opportunity for the player to try out everything and discover what works and what doesn't." Horrible idea. It's as bad as all the silly respec mods that are out.

" I guess it was too much work and not enough payoff. " More likely they felt the payoff wans't worth the work. I seirously doubt they somehow feared the 'work'. Personally, the option should have been there to have him die then and you could could have an unnamed blood mage poison the earl, and he actually be killed therefoere you'd have a cosnequence of your choice. And, the other consequence would be the Templars being on your side when you return (more friendly, a discount at their store, etc.). You might even get the option to easily persaude them not to burn the tower to the ground and in fact they join you in the battle with the Big Boy Abom. But, shrug, you cna't get everything.

Well, I'm sure it be different if I wa sprofessional. Obviously, there'd be deadlines, and the like, and the game would eventually have to be released since people are getting paid and those salaries need to be covered. "Perhaps you should finish it Volo, or use a different engine to finish it... It would be interesting to see. Did you think of doing it in small episodic chunks?" Heh. It was a small episodic chunk. First mod was to be 2-4 hours, and was first of series. Oh gah, this is getting me nostalgic for it. I'm now currently reading the old thread for it, and if I was a crybaby I'd have a single tear rolling down my cheek now. Thanks a lot for bring back memoriez...

"The Chantry doesn't believe they do, but the Chantry isn't always right." I agree. Only problem is unless I missing something, was there any time in game that a Chantry 'fact' was proven wrong outright?

"If you're saying that Morrigan believes in 'the old gods' but doesn't believe they were gods, then I agree." I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Morrigan is connected to them somehow. Flemeth, too. Otherwise, like you said, it seems odd that someone who doens't believe in gods wnats to bring them back. Does not compute. That said, Morrigan not telling the player EVERYTHING (or lying if you prefer), isn't beyond the realm of possibility either, of course. *ignores the troll* MC: I wish I finished it. My major problem is I kept adding things, and my scripts got into huge messes since I kept adding stuff. I mean even the convo with the first character you met had 1000s of words in his dialogue. L0L Mods itself had 10s of thousands of words yet was maybe 10 areas long. I even added a few new areas after the copy I sent you. Heh. Silly me. I appreciate the kind words. In fact, pretty much anyone who tried it liked its potential (not that it was perfect or anything). Too bad I failed... like BIS and Troika. But, hey, at least i didn't lose publishers.

"She doesn't believe in any god. You have to have her and Leliana together to hear this conversation. " I got the dialogue, but again, this doesn't exclude her from believing that the old gods exist. Obviously, she believes in whatever they actually are. Afterall, the archdemon is created in the same way other darkspawn - other living creatures. Obviously, the 'old gods' were living creatures - of what nature who knows, but nothing in game suggests that morrigan doesn't believe in the 'old gods'.

Could be many reasons. 1. She doesn't believe in the Chantry's god. 2. Just because the 'old gods' are called that doesn't mean theya re actually old gods but something else - ie. powerful mortals who became immortal. 3. There's no reason not to believe Morrigan outside of personally hating her. *shrug* "Please, no. There is no proof of the divine in Thedas. It's one of the strengths of the setting." Should point out that just because there is no 'proof' doesn't mean the divine don't exist. Just because the maker/black city exists doesn't mean the maker (or the old gods) are actually gods. Maker could just be an extremely powerful wizard. I don't think there being no 'proof' that the divine doesn't exist doesn't mean it actually doesn't. Nor is it a strength. It's totally irrlevant and meaningless, actually. i feel thedas would be better off with the divine existing. I'd rather BIo stop the fakeness and stop trying to make it like our Earth. So so so boring. "No." Agree with you. PC should not under any circumstances be the bloodritualbaby. I'd rather the PC potentially have a hevay influence on the baby. And, my main hope is that the baby isn't pegionholded into either good or evil based on some story but based on player choice/action.

Play the City Elf origin. Espicially as a female. That's rather nasty. Of course, it will never be as 'realistic' as real life but that's simply impossible with video game avatars.

"Religion." Wrong. The answer is humans. It will always be humans. Good or evil acts, it is the human condition. Religion, money, power, love, hate, wahtever are just excuses.

Adelle has ALWAYS been an evil bitch. She runs a palce that brauinwashes people, has no problem with cold blooded murder, or pimping people out without permission. Sorry, Adelle has neverbeen a nice person. I love Super Echo. I really find Victor, and Sierra overrated. Espicially Seirra. She is just plain boring. At least Victor gets laughs out of me at times. But, yeah, the plot advancement is crazy. the 3 months advancement thing was nonsense. Soemthing liek that should only be done at the beginning or ending of an episode not after the first couple of scenes. L A M E

Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits are all just humans of different shapes and sizes. For them to be truly alien would have required their motives to be inscrutable and quite difficult for the author to convey. There's no real alieness with these "demi" humans." True, good point. "And weak in every sense of the word, as the issues facing the elves are not nearly so disgustingly terrible as the things facing many real life peoples world wide." Like what, for example? DA elevs seem to suffer everything that real life people have. Rape, mass murder, slavery, losing your identity, being booted out of your homes, being treated as 2nd/3rd/4th class citizens, poverty, torture, used as lab rats, etc., etc. "Gromnir criticism that orks=darkspawn" Riiighhhtt.... Must explain the ogres, shriekers, archdemon, and broodmothers. Which, btw, are all darkspawn. "Yeah, but a player without metaknowledge isn't necessarily going to know to go get Wynne early." Tower is likely to be hit 1st or 2nd of the four main areas. And, if someone doesn't hit it to later, that's their problem and I feel zero sympathy for them. That's what happen in a semi open game. *shrug* You win some, you lose some.

The exact way elves should be protrayed. The TRUE elf.

" Too bad that neither character is particularly likable. " That's a weird thing to say since those two eaisly have the most fans, and are the ones who are discussed the most. Espicially in the case of Morrigan. What they are are strong characters that either get major love or major hate. A sure sign of absolutely successful characters. Don't mistake your opinion as that as others. "With all the effort Bio seems to have put in creating a world with such detailed lore (as witnessed in the codex) an answer like "it's magic" is a bit of a cop-out, no?" Maybe, but many things are just it's 'magic'... ie. Exactly how does the taint turn people into darkspawn? Simple, magic. How do the darkspawn sense where a spirit of an old god lies dormant? Magic. Why does when an archdemon die does it seek out the nearest tainted body and then transforms said body into a form of a dragon? Magic. How does the fade work? Magic. How do the ashes work? Magic. How does lyrium power spells? Magic. The list goes on, and on. "Without the golem, Bio gave us only one natural melee tank NPC and only one natural crowd-control-focused mage NPC-- the two roles that, in the rule system they devised, are most crucial to success." *shrug* Wynn cna eaisly be used for crowd control since you can easily ger her early since the ideal way through the game is to hit the tower 1st or 2nd. And, i really hate the new definition of tank that people ar robbing for MMORPGs. To me and to TRUE sprg fans, Ogrhen, and Sten cna be considered tanks. Even Dog can. "Tolkien's Elves are very different from humans appearance wise. Golden/silver hair, starlight in their eyes, all beautiful beyond description, etc." They look like humans to me. Consideirng you cna simply put pointy ears on humans and they be lookin' like elves. That's what elves are. 'Beautiful beyond description' is beyond illogical and means nothing. It's horrible writing. LOTR movies proves this. The dwarves look different than humans, even the hobbits can be be seperated; but the elves were basically pointed eared humans.

"Please, prove me wrong that it's not worth discussing anything with you." Not worth it. The point isn't about 'proving you wrong' as it is imposisble since it is opinion so there is no 'wrong'. Bottom line is DA elves are fine the way are as it is the way elves should be. They did not fail with elves because elves are wussie, cowards, and emo. Deal with it. "Speaketh Volourn, spokesperson for the human race." And, you aren't? Are yous eriously suggesting that the typical 'human' doesn't think of Tokien/typical D&D elf when they think of elves? You must be delusional if you think otherwise.

Good episodes this week but not as good as last week's double header. Echo is DA awesome.

Yes, the Taliban, and AQ are evil. Don't need more proof to figure that out.

Many of those stars are small time actors which are barely on the radar. And, with some of them having minor parts I'm sure people are overestimating their costs. Only a couple of those are probably worth a decent amount.

"Of course, Morrigan is still a double barreled bitch to the other members." Sure, but most of the other party members aren't exactly nice to her. *cough* Alistiar and Wynne *cough* "'Lore' question regarding Emissaries:" Youa re question 'logic' of a fantasy game where a blight/curse can completely change the nature of beings that have the existence of a creature like the broodmother. Or magic? I think grom is right here. I'm sure BIO has soem sort of excuse.. err.. exaplnation. Some people will buy it, others won't. Either way, it doesn't matter. " Zevran is an elf, although DA elves are just slim humans with slightly pointy ears." Same with Tokien elves. And, your typical D&D elves. At least appearance wise. *shrug* Thankfully, Zevran isn't your typical DA Dalish elf.

" I know it's pointless discussing anything with Volourn, but where do his definition of vanilla fantasy tropes actually come from? Elves were, in many cultures, fairly sinister creatures. As were most fae or nature spirits. They could curse you, steal your young, poision the water... they were the original turnip ghost in many stories along with goblins and any other number of folktale critters." Doesn't matter. When people think fantasy elves, it's the Tokienish/typical D&D elves they think of. Heck, in some stories dwarvesa are just evil monsters. *shrugs* "They should have been extremely insular, maybe like an organised criminal group, demanded outrageous blood sacrifice for their support and dabbled in all sorts of forbidden stuff. Not sitting around in their caravans feeling sorry for themselves." D&D's been there, done that. D&D's been there done that for almost everything. *shrug*