Monte Carlo

***SPOILER*** . . . . . . . . . . . Anybody care to share dragon-slaying tactics, level 7/8 party, werewolf ruins?

^ You're just teasing me, aren't you?

Trying that with level 7 & 8 party - got my arse handed to me, I'm coming back later!

How does the stealthed-up rogue avoid triggering the rambling, exposition-laden cutscenes? I can see that being a nightmare. Rogue is my favourite class, and in DA I wouldn't touch one with a bargepole. Apart from not being able to bash up locked containers, I'm not missing being a rogue. In fact, if you made DA classless and allowed people mix and match skill trees it would be an even better game for me.

Sorry to repeat myself (esp. to Slowtrain because we mentioned this recently)... Tales of the Sword Coast was locked down when BG1 went Gold. There was the mystery space for disk 7 when the game was released. TotSC was announced as indecently fast as a guy bedding a widow at the wake. It wasn't a scandal, it was an XP. The delivery method has changed, that game was released during the Reign of Dial-Up internet connection. As Hurlie says, it's the way you present the product, not the method. And, yeah, Bio and EA are being pretty in-your-face about it. But I always said that about Bio. It just doesn't really bother me, but understand why it would others. Cheers MC

OK, a question. What does "120 Fatigue" (40 in reserve) mean? Anyway, am kicking the snot out of werewolves, hit level 7 and couldn't unlock any specialist classes, I want to be a Reaver. How do I do that? Spoils plz. Cheers MC

Heh, just found myself back in agreement with Hurlie again. Which was a relief.

Good point. I've got to level 7 in Dragon Age and encountered one trap. And I'm not even sure a rogue would have spotted it or even been able to disarm it. In a combat RPG the rogue should be a 'light fighter' / scout / archer / commando type. Almost a ranger but without the nature schtick. DA, so far, doesn't provide enough opportunity for the rogue to shine. I'm hoping by the time I pick up the elf assassin bloke I'll have a tough enough party to explore the classes usefulness in this game. As it is, at low levels, the rogue is the DA version of the vanilla 2E AD&D mage. Hopeless. OTOH my fighters absolutely rock and even the mages are life-savers (that frost spell Morrigan has is brilliantly overpowered for the level / cooldown time). Cheers MC

^ Although I couldn't disagree with you more regarding combat in this game, I take your point. The new patch makes it a smidge easier on normal, much easier on easy. Think about it - in so many games over the past 10 years grinding and speed-bump combat encounters have been screensavers. You could go and make a cup of tea, chat with the postman, answer the phone. Come back and your party is standing there surrounded by corpses. Now those same encounters in DA are difficult and the learning curve for atrophied combatants (i.e. most of us) is steep. DA combat hinges on (1) having a melee meatshield, with stacks of armour, to draw the majority of the bad guys (hell there are even skills that allow you to play duty target for the rest of your party), (2) another melee dude to dish out more punishment, a spellcaster for riot control / healing and either (a) another tank or (b) another healer or © just the dog for chrissakes, he's excellent dump all his stats in STR and watch him charge people. Tactics also involves a fair bit of kiting and, yes, running away. And it does take a while to get back into it, personally kudos to Bio for risking it. Given you like so much else about DA why not just turn the game difficulty down to Casual for the grinding / speedbump encounters and then whack it back up when you start finding it too easy. It's your game, why not? Look at it from my POV: I love the combat to bits but find the dialogue and cutscenes really, really painful. You've done better out of this game than me Cheers MC

About 70% of the long conversation cutscenes are as dreadfully oppressive, long and occasionally tedious as I feared. They are getting in the way of the game.

I hope rogues are fixed in either a patch or modded. They don't need to be tank fighters, but a bit more ooomph wouldn't go amiss. Was planning on dwarven commoner rogue but the class is so gimped am giving it a miss.

OK, of course I restarted bit with the same origin. I rushed through to the Tower of Ishtar just to get a grip on the game then realised I wanted to do it again more thoroughly. I'm getting to grips with tactics - and rogues aren't really coming into it. Two sword and shield fighters, a two-handed lunatic hiding behind them but stepping forward to lay on some serious smackdown and a mage on buffing and crowd control will kick the snot out of most combat scenarios. Rogue? Hmmm. Poisons are nice, archery is very average. Dirty fighting? Hmmm yet to be impressed when compared with the ownage of shield bashing (etc). Most annoying feature? You can't bash chests. I'm guessing it was the only way of tempting people to take the totally underwhelming rogue class. Cheers MC

It is a bit in your face, I agree. And, yeah, all of this stuff will be bundled into a bonus edition by Easter for a lot less. Hmmm, should I be forgiving and suggest this might be a learning curve for them? OTOH, nah, just quit being so Starbucks about it Bioware. I'm still sort of enjoying online shopping in-game, I know, it's weird but I kinda like it.

I got the patch from a third party site which installed no problems. Still wondering why there isn't an in-game updater a la NWN series.

If I downloaded that, on top of DA and CoH, I'd be getting a divorce.

^ Dunno what that is, but looked around some BG2 modding forums afterwards and discovered that some other folks had found them too. BTW, no disrespect to Wes, he's a modding uber-god and has provided me with many hours of free and pleasurable gaming.

^ There were about a dozen trojans in various (older) Weimer mods for BG2 that AVG picked up on a deep scan last week. Minor issue about DLC, and a question for Bio: why is there are nifty in game DLC updater but not one for automatically updating the game with patches, eh? It's small things like this that make them look like Starbucks.

^ The single most effective measure of a good game As for rogues, it's not that they're gimped, it's just that their combat role is perhaps too discrete for the fast'n'furious mob nature of the melee combat in DA. In the Wilds I tried using the rogue Grey Warden recruit to (a) flank (he was OK); (b) backstab (too much going on - he was taking lots of damage);

Posted in wrong thread, sorry guys. BTW, I usually agree with hurlie, but for some reason I'm quite taken with the whole DLC thing, it's like I can expand a game I'm enjoying without having to download a Trojan-laden mod (found that last week) or traipse down to the shops. Can I burn DLC to disc in case I transfer everything to a new puter?

I think when you're getting used to the game Sword & Shield is the safest, most effective option. I'm about to head out into the wilds with the other GW recruits and suspect that my character (very high STR and heavy investment in Sword & Shield) and Alistair will be doing most of the butt-kicking for goodness.

Already I can see so much in this game to like... and a few things that are like tiny stones in your sock - they might be small but they're really irritating. The regenerating health is one thing - it's like "Hey, everybody rests after every combat, let's do it for them." Well I don't. I'm not a console twitch gamer, I like planning resources and a challenge. I'm cranking it up to hard. The cutscenes are another. The blood animations are so bad that I hope when they de-brief the game somebody does a walk of shame. Some of the dialogue responses were written for a sulky kid and so much for dark fantasy - the NPCs in castle Cousland all dress like Liberace. *MINOR SPOILER* OTOH going to war with your [Oedipus complex]rather attractive[/Oedipus complex] and heavily armed mother is fun. The combat is so very nearly there - love the camera views, the graphics are absolutely fine and the blend of RTwP and Diablo-style special attacks with cool-downs works remarkably well. It's the most fun combat I've played in a CRPG for several years, although it's early days. My character is a Human Noble Warrior, he looks like Tom Selleck. I've gone for sword and shield, which is good fun. The dog is cool, the GUI is a labour of love, am going to completely dig the tactics options when I get into it all. In fact, once some genius has modded some of the Stuff I Hate out of this game, which are minor things, then this will be a very good game. Cheers MC

^ This was my concern with the rogue, am wondering if they're any better via the archery route as back-up characters?

Obviously.

Hmmm, Shale is taking forever to download although I guess the servers are trembling like the USS Enterprise's shields under Klingon attack at the moment. Anybody want to join an Obsidz Forum-Users DA Group? It will be the coolest.

Oh dear, I have decided that I like online game shopping and spent four quid on Bio points to buy the Keep DLC because I know I'll play it. Unfashionable View of The Year - I like in-game microtransactions. I am being sucked into Bio's Starbucks vibe. Help.