Dragon Age story/plot discussion

[alanschu]

I think the percentage complete has to do with achievements, so it's probably not actually possible to do it with one play through.

 

A quick test would be to start a new character, and see if you have a non-zero percent complete.

 

I didn't really play around with the heroic achievements, nor the achievement system itself, so I'm not 100% sure.

[Purkake]

Is there a level cap?

 

I feel like I need to put points into a dozen talents at once. They should have distributed the skill/talent thing better. Skill points are near-useless most of the time. Lockpicking and Stealth could easily go there and leave the talents for more action-oriented stuff.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Watched the ending.

 

... eh. Usually Bioware endings are fantastic. ME's ending was epic and still my favorite part of the game, KotOR's ending was pretty damn good too, but this one looks a bit dull. Maybe I just don't like the Archdemon being a dragon and haven't really looked into the backstory about it.

[alanschu]

Did you just watch the video itself? Or did you actually beat the game?

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Don't have 80 hours of free time, thus didn't play the game.

 

Of course there are certainly a lot of very interesting things before you get to the ending, I'm not denying that. This was just a sort of "first impressions".

[Hurlshort]

I somehow completely overlooked the bar in Redcliffe until I had finished the questline for it. Ah well.

[Cl_Flushentityhero]

oh no i wasnt talking about dragon age, i was talking generally about rpgs and classes. I'm old school and i like rogues who are NOT good at fighting but bring a bunch of useful skills to the table outside of combat, in dragon age, if the rogue is NOT super useful outside of combat then obviously he'd need to be better IN combat.

 

i just, in general, dont prefer rogues who fight like fighters in my rpgs. at the very least they should have half the hitpoints/survivability.

 

Oh, okay. That said, My experience with CRPGs (not counting scheduled NWN campaigns) is that combat tends to dominate the gameplay mechanics. As such, attempts to include a combat-light class usually fall pretty flat and just end up being crappy fighters for all intents and purposes. I appreciate DA for somewhat acknowledging that focus and at least attempting to balance accordingly.

 

In a well-run PnP-style campaign though, I could potentially see the use for non-combat classes. At the same time, they are usually about adventure and danger, so it's not like I believe we should have clerk and weaver classes.

[Monte Carlo]

That said, My experience with CRPGs (not counting scheduled NWN campaigns) is that combat tends to dominate the gameplay mechanics. As such, attempts to include a combat-light class usually fall pretty flat and just end up being crappy fighters for all intents and purposes. I appreciate DA for somewhat acknowledging that focus and at least attempting to balance accordingly.

 

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

[Tigranes]

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.

 

A quip - there are certainly more than that. I'm level 8 myself and I've encountered at least five, closer to ten, though that includes a couple from a random encounter. I do agree that in general the game isn't 'thief-y' enough to justify the rogue being an essentially 'extra-combat' class.

[Monte Carlo]

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.

[alanschu]

Don't have 80 hours of free time, thus didn't play the game.

 

Of course there are certainly a lot of very interesting things before you get to the ending, I'm not denying that. This was just a sort of "first impressions".

 

 

Do you have a link you can PM me for the video? I'm curious what they constituted as "the ending."

[alanschu]

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.

 

There's some trap heavy places at times. At the same time, if you've become a Grey Warden, you've passed at least 4.

 

Level 2 stealth was invaluable at times as it let me go around and disarm the traps in some annoying places, allowing me to fight without accidentally blowing myself to smithereens.

Edited November 8, 2009 by alanschu

[Niten_Ryu]

I've seen some traps but generally they are not worth disarming (unless you want the expo). This is because it's suicide to run into room full of enemies, with or without traps. So you end up pulling mobs away from room and after combat is over, who cares if trap goes off or not. Especially when you see 'em just before you're about to step on 'em (at normal running speed).

[Purkake]

So is there a level cap?

[Tigranes]

Going about in the ruins in the forest, the ones with

werewolves

, and it's pretty hard. The enemies have some interesting abilities that require you to adjust your tactics (like the

Revenant pulling your mages in, and that teleporting Arcane Horror

). I've never figured out where you get hold of injury kits so my characters are lugging around several broken limbs each, and all in all Hard really does punish you. Great fun.

 

edit: I'm level 9-10, monty, so coming back a little later might be sensible, yes.

[Monte Carlo]

Going about in the ruins in the forest, the ones with

werewolves

, and it's pretty hard. The enemies have some interesting abilities that require you to adjust your tactics (like the

Revenant pulling your mages in, and that teleporting Arcane Horror

). I've never figured out where you get hold of injury kits so my characters are lugging around several broken limbs each, and all in all Hard really does punish you. Great fun.

 

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

[Majek]

Oh the horror. I can't even cheat in Bioware game anymore. Damn them :DD

[Morgoth]

Anyone want to share some pros/cons over the Human or Dwarf noble Origin respectively? I'm undecided which one I should play first.

Edited November 8, 2009 by Morgoth

[HoonDing]

I wasn't sure where to go first after Lothering, so I went to fetch Shale instead. Pretty cool quest.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Don't have 80 hours of free time, thus didn't play the game.

 

Of course there are certainly a lot of very interesting things before you get to the ending, I'm not denying that. This was just a sort of "first impressions".

 

 

Do you have a link you can PM me for the video? I'm curious what they constituted as "the ending."

 

Edited November 8, 2009 by WILL THE ALMIGHTY

[Oner]

Alan, is there a way to influence the approve-yness of gifts? The worth of gifts degrade the more you give an NPC, but is there a technique to increase it?

[Purkake]

Bioware really outdid themselves on the snarky people quota. Between Alistair, Morrigan and

Zevran

, you'd think I had a sign up or something. Not really a bad thing, but kind of funny.

[HoonDing]

When I toggle Shield Wall or Indomitable, shouldn't I be completely immune to knockdown effects? According to the descriptions of the talents I should be, but I find that wolves (lulz) still manage their knockdown with the Overwhelm ability and when that happens, the knocked down character is usually toast.

[Gromnir]

inventory annoyance.

 

...

 

have run into 4 different levels o' each potion type (mana & health). have two types o' healing kits for persistent injuries following "death" (mabari crunch makes 3... as we now use dog more often). is seeming more than a dozen different protective balms, stones and crystals. is always deathroot and elfroot in our inventory, and typical we got a few flasks. have also discovered a bunch o' items tagged as possible gifts that we not wanna deal with til we finish current quest portion and return to camp... 'cause giving the french trollop flowers not seem appropriate when you is 'bout to fight a dragon. before even considering special ammo, armour and weapons, a high % of our total inventory is filled with... stuff.

 

...

 

we bought the immediate backpack upgrade at a store and now have 80 inventory slots, and that ain't nowhere near 'nuff. is getting annoying having to make numerous trips back to merchant X to sell stuff... and in certain portions o' game we has had to resort to destroying stuff. am recalling that there were a merchant we met that had an additional upgrade, but we couldn't afford at the time, and we believe that the merchant in question is now... toast.

 

is Gromnir missing something? is there a place we can store extra 1007? you cannot possibly be telling us that the item limit never were questioned during QA.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited November 8, 2009 by Gromnir

[Oner]

The dwarf merchant in your camp sells a backpack (5 gold pieces ), there's one in Lothering too, and I bought one in Ostagar too I think.

The mage tower almost made me go mad with me being constantly overloaded. OTOH I backtracked a few times and discovered a crapload of notes and some quests.