Monte Carlo

Er, bags of holding hold more than ten items. Alan, go on admit it, it was a bit of a mistake.

--- Rucksacks in Dragon Age --- LOL, this is easily the most obtuse decision I've ever seen in a CRPG. Inventory and loot is basics in a game like this, it's like gimping healing potions or crafting. It's not entirely ruining it for me, I've become like one of those TV style gurus who implore us to throw away any item of clothing I haven't worn for six months. No, the bit that gets me is the cost of rucksacks. It can't be one of those hilarious, paranoid anti-DLC arguments where they will eventually charge you RW money for them - heck the modders will probably sort this or the developers could have made rucksacks dirt cheap. If indeed there is some sort of technical reason (ha ha ha) why they didn't work then double the argument to make them dirt cheap. As it is, I can buy a beautifully crafted suit of armour more cheaply than a bag made out of hide with some straps on it. For chrissakes, I'm not precious about immersion but sheesh...

^ I found the Knight-Commander's helm for the first time, tucked away in a crate in the courtyard in front of the Tower of Ishal. Too late for the backpacks, sadly.

Er, isn't there only one merchant in Ostagar? He's never had backpacks in stock when I've played that part of the game.

The holy grail of decent CRPG goodness, and what makes BG1 & BG2 so awesome.

How many times will you ask that? *** DW Warrior (builds used / what worked / progression?)

^ You have to deploy units for mutual support - StuG is great for blowing up bloody great holes in defences and area effect damage / supression... but they are very vulnerable to infantry with sticky bombs, PIAT or bazooka. Try building a couple of halftracks and putting some infantry with MG42s in the back - this is a cheap and mobile supression platform against enemy infantry (you can also reinforce from the half-track, an under-used but very handy ability). Alternatively, flakpanzers are good for this, they shred infantry. Lastly, always have a sneaky Goliath lurking to the rear. When you see enemy infantry, rush forward with your StuG to draw fire (it will last longer), of course if you are playing with a team-mate using panzer elite you will have a Tiger recovery vehicle right behind it repairing it in the field... when the inf take the bait flank with your halftracks and suppress or storm in with your flakpanzer. The StuG can then blast the area with those slow moving high explosive rounds. If a fresh AT blob appears, especially rangers, and whilst they scent blood... zip the Goliath in - by this point, even if they see it and shoot it, it will explode and take out 3/4 of the blob, which can be mopped up with your halftracks. This sort of gameplay is where CoH shines, especially in MP when you have team mates putting the pressure on, allowing you to develop tactics that might be too fiddly in a 1V1 game.

Hmmm, I think the final shapeshifting power turns you into a swarm of crazy insects doesn't it? Am unhappy that you have to have a point in shields as human noble.

OK, how do we feel about the following? *** DW Warrior (builds used / what worked / progression) *** 2H Warrior builds (ditto) - I found them so sloooow *** Archer Warrior build - possibly the most contentious given the melee heavy nature of this game - is there any point, at all, in having a warrior go down the archer route and what party would best support him? *** Jack-of-all-trades warrior build - has anyone experimented with a warrior who has taken melee and ranged skill trees? What worked, and was the character slightly gimped? Cheers MC

How do you unlock blood mage?

There is, although it is tricky. i had maxed out Coercion, by the way... Here's how: SPOILER

^ Ha ha quite correct, am thinking of re-gimping her and taking full shapechanger route for a bit more of a challenge!

Er, re-specced Morrigan just before she hit the modest level 8, pumped magic to 35 and took the full fire magic route. Ahem. It's sick. No wonder people are finishing the game with 1 x mage & 1 x rogue! And it's not as if I've made the game 'easier' as I only ever have one spellcaster in my party (it would be too easy with two) and that could have been a built-from-scratch PC mage. Cheers MC

^ Yeah, the devs on the Bio forums are manifestly refusing to rule out traditional XPs when asked straight out... there's probably a "Big Squadron" approach to this game - DLC and expansions, in fact any vehicle to build up a head of steam for the sequel (and why not - the reception the game has had so far suggests this is a major hit for Bio / EA). Because I'm not a console gamer, can I ask how big an expansion can you D/L onto a PS3 / Xbox 360? Cheers MC

SoZ = I know it's a controversial position, but it's true.

50% - either neutral or supportive, about 15% being kamikaze Bio-shills who'd buy anything Bio make anyway 25% - thoughtfully upset 25% - serious acceptance of reality issues Anyhow, 78.9% of all statistics are completely made up.

I've had three: Fido, Rover and Spot. I'm going for FanTAsY immersion, big time.

^ Yep, it's not paper / scissors / stone like most games... it's more like tissue / small piece of tin / 10 ton boulder.

^ Because they are so fragile, you have to plan which appeals to me. I like wading in as a DPS tank, but I also like sneaking about. I'm looking forward to tier 4 stealth, I think it might be fun. Where rogues struggle is in proper mob combat, but I'm already at the point (level 4) where two or three hurlocks are no problem at all. And, because I understand the game a bit better now, I entered the tower with 20+ health poultices.

Am playing tower of Ishar as a commando mission, trying to use all stealth opportunities with my rogue. Most fun moment so far was using Dog as bait for the darkspawn, then my stealhed character letting rip with the ballistae on the second floor. Dog, having passed basic training, is capable of ballista gunnery and we took out the hurlock infantry before closing in on the archers for the kill. Good fun, OK you are playing the game much more slowly and filling up your inventory insanely fast, but that seems to be the rogue way in this game.

^ Agreed, and it's only right that as a homage to BG2 they have a munchkin Kensai / Mage build in the mix. Shame there's nothing similar for the poor, unloved rogue

Squeezed in a quick (well, 2 hour) 3 v 3 multiplayer game this weekend, Wehrmacht x 3 versus 2 x Brits and 1 x USA. The enemy obviously planned a defensive battle (British strength) with the perfectly viable tactic of the US player making nothing but rangers. Just pumping points into blobs until the pop cap was reached. I built a small force of 2 x stormtroopers, 2 x StuG, a MG team and a sniper and did a recce in depth. Ranger Blobs! went up the cry on the chat-room function. I immediately sent in my two Goliaths I have in reserve at all times for this eventuality and ruined their day a little bit. I then held the line with infantry and a couple of Mark IVs and returned the serve with the only polite response to ranger blobs. Werfers. Yep, I just went werfer spam (6 werfers in pairs, each firing volleys of 12 almost continually) on their HQ. When my stealthed sniper saw that their HQ was FUBAR and they couldn't make rangers for a bit I rolled in the panthers, StuG x2 and a Tiger. With the ranger spam out of the picture my team mates rolled over the second-rarte Brit armour and we won. If they'd been more aggressive with the ranger blobs we might even have lost, they don't play as well defensively. At last, I gained another wehrmacht level. Cheers MC

The Bioware Dragon Age social networking place forum is interesting. Usually the place is packed with Bio shills who would thank the developers if every game came with an OS-shredding virus ("but it's a Bioware virus, is there DLC for it?"). This is why I only post there occasionally under a nomme de guerre and only ask questions if I'm stuck and need a mentat to help me who isn't here (rare). Anyway, there is probably a 50/50 split on the DLC issue, unusual for over there and indicative of the depth of feeling. Of the fifty percent who are miffed with DLC, 25% of those who I'd describe as not-very-credible whiners with entitlement issues. They would have whined anyway. The other 25% are more thoughtful and realise that the current DLC model is potentially bad news for PC gamers (i.e. everything has to be cross-platform, a big traditional XP looks unlikely) or have legitimate suspicions about EA and the length of DLC. OTOH I've seen some pretty fair arguments by some of the developers there about the economic realities of DLC - at the end of the day they need to pay salaries and turn a profit. One thing that keeps cropping up is the cost of VO (see my argument about this on the other DA thread)... so why not half partially voiced DLC and make it longer and cheaper? There's also this quality versus length argument - they're saying "do you really want a big dungeon full of darkspawn and not too much plot?" Er, yes, sparky, I do. Your writers are OK, but the Tolstoy estate ain't trembling in their boots just yet. There's room for all sorts of DLC - this is why come the March of the Modders (OK, in about 6-8 months) I'll be able to download a big Deep Roads, monty haul dungeon hack for free and some of the DLC argument will be moot. Bio need to do well what the modders struggle with (or can't turn around quickly) - professionally balanced classes and skills (although with the mage they struggled on the vanilla game ) NPCs, a proper expansion / alternative plotline... or dammit just crack on with DA2. In fact, will DA2 be announced with indecent haste? So, for me, I'm still split on DLC. I like the ease of just hitting a dialogue option in game and buying something. I'm realisitc about what that something might cost. But I'm not convinced that an hour of fully voiced micro-game is the way forward. I'd rather pay the same money for two hours of blissful dungeoneering with good dialogue and 15% of it voiced, y'know, the important bits not a peasant telling me what he had for breakfast. Cheers MC

Am now playing a rogue and getting to grips with the build - to make it enjoyable you have to be sooooo discriminating with skill choices. This isn't the case with the warrior (choose a weapon style, armour up, go kill things) or mage (choose spells, glug lyrium potions, go kill things). I'm going dual wielding with poison for now. I'm going to start throwing in stealth and I like coercion to make things go my way. I have also noticed new (non-persuade) dialogue trees which must be my high Cunning score coming into play, which is nice to see. Am pumping Strength (will stop when I can wield best melee weapons), Dex (will stop at 36) and Cunning (which I am going to pump, along with Willpower - my skills burn stamina very quickly). Thoughts: * Dual sweep is a great early game tactic for two weapons, I didn't realise it was a crowd control skill * Terrain... I've found that in the overland maps there are more possibilities for choke-points / height advantage than in dungeons. Shields to the fore to suck it up and I lurk about finishing bad guys off * Is there, for the love of god, anything worth actually stealing in a locked chest in the whole of Ferelden? * Solo-ing this game with a rogue on normal would be a massive challenge, don't think I could be bothered * Bombs - I've said it before but bombs are under-used and are really cool early game life savers - backstab, bomb, dual weapon sweep = crowd control win on minor darkspawn, wolves, spiders etc. Anyhow, I now don't need Imoen Chick or Zorro Elf so I can hire two good warriors and a mage and do the game properly this time, and yes I am re-speccing all the NPCs to suit my style. Cheers MC

Has anybody played with a DW warrior build, how did it work out?