Monte's Dragon Age Thread

[Aristes]

So, does Morrigan hate the dog or what? Anyhow, I don't really care about becomeing a shapeshifter and blood magic looks like a massive pain in the ass, but the other two aren't so bad. If I can get them all, I will probably get all of them except the Blood Magic.

[alanschu]

Blood magic is arguably the most powerful specialization to have, according to most people I have spoken to at work. Though I think it requires some metaknowledge at the start of the game for how you wish to grow your mages.

 

It's a difficult specialization to unlock though.

[Monte Carlo]

***SPOILER***

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

[HoonDing]

***SPOILER***

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

I hear the +9 Sword of Dragon Slaying helps.

[Volourn]

Yes. Make sure you have some helaing pots, and at least one big damage dealer. Try your best to get a knockdown/freeze on the creature. If a characetr is about to die, retreat with it. Most importantly, micromanage your characters if you want them to do stuff other than basic attacks.

 

btw, If you ar ehaving trouble with it, what come snext is MUCH harder. It took me 3 tries to beat him (b/c first two times I was lazy and just went in 'guns blazing'). What come snext, is EVILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

[Monte Carlo]

^ @ virumor. honestly, you kill me.

Edited November 8, 2009 by Monte Carlo

[Purkake]

So, does Morrigan hate the dog or what? Anyhow, I don't really care about becomeing a shapeshifter and blood magic looks like a massive pain in the ass, but the other two aren't so bad. If I can get them all, I will probably get all of them except the Blood Magic.

 

Morrigan hates everyone.

[Volourn]

Except me.

[Monte Carlo]

*** OK Soldier's Peak spoiler ***

 

I'll be general. In SP, there is an item that you can use which opens up a pretty cool new skill tree for your character. Hint - your achievement is called 'Diabolist' (obviously a homage to the game )

 

OK, there's a DLC debate going on elsewhere, but at this stage I'm in possession of one set of uber-cool armour (looks cool, is cool), a sword, a mage's staff and a boatload of experience. The combat to win this stuff wasn't particularly challenging, although I've not yet completed the boss-fight.

 

There's no getting away from it - buying DLC means your game pans out differently - I have skills and items that will impact on the wider game to my advantage.

 

Cheers

MC

[Volourn]

Well.. You pay for soemthing, you should get something... right?

 

If you got nothing wortwhile from purchasing DLC why would you buy it in the first place?

[Monte Carlo]

^ Vol, try to look at it this way... extra content, encounters and items? Cool. Unique and (frankly) twinky skill tree unique to that product? You can see why some people might freak.

[Volourn]

Sure, I can. But, those are likely the same people who are freaking out, anyways. And, it's basically them wanting more content but not having to pay for it.

 

btw, I have not bought Warden's Keep. Therefore, I do not deserve, nor expect to get the things you bought.

 

ie. We are both apartment searching.

 

Stuff is being advertised as just rent, inclusive of hydro, and inclusive of everything (hydro, phone,c able, and internet). The last will cost extra, but in the long run likely save you money.

 

I get the apartment with just rent. You get the one with inclusive of everything. It costs you, say, $75 more. But, you get more. I have no right to complain.

[HoonDing]

I'm getting so annoyed with that Dryden (sp?) dude standing around in my camp with the puppy-eyed look that I'll probably feel compelled to purchase Soldier's Keep sooner or later... darn clever in-game marketing.

 

Stone Prisoner was totally worth it, btw. Shale cracks me up everytime I talk to him.

[Monte Carlo]

^ Soldier's Keep isn't particularly long, but the story is interesting, you get to make some meaningful choices and there's some moral ambiguity around the history of the Grey Wardens. Plus did I mention how nice my new armour looks? And there's about 3/4 of a level's worth of experience in it.

 

The skill tree reminds me of the Slayer in BG2. It would complement the Reaver warrior sub-class I'm considering.

[aries101]

*** OK Soldier's Peak spoiler ***

 

I'll be general. In SP, there is an item that you can use which opens up a pretty cool new skill tree for your character. Hint - your achievement is called 'Diabolist' (obviously a homage to the game )

 

OK, there's a DLC debate going on elsewhere, but at this stage I'm in possession of one set of uber-cool armour (looks cool, is cool), a sword, a mage's staff and a boatload of experience. The combat to win this stuff wasn't particularly challenging, although I've not yet completed the boss-fight.

 

There's no getting away from it - buying DLC means your game pans out differently - I have skills and items that will impact on the wider game to my advantage.

 

Cheers

MC

 

Monte

 

How long i.e. for how many minutes or hours did you play Soldier's Peak - 45 minutes-90 minutes as have been said on the BIoware forums? Or longer.

 

I remember Watcher's Keep from BG2. It took me several hours to do all 6 levels, probably between 6-12 hours, I think, but at least 45 minutes pr. level, I'd

say.

 

And you having armour, a mage staff, and a sword will alter the experience just how? [ Is it uber-good loot then? ]

 

I can understand about the skill tree, not having Soldier's Peak (aka Warden's Keep) won't open up these skills for you. But are they any good?

Are they usefull?

[Monte Carlo]

It took me just over an hour, it's two-and-a-bit (small) dungeons, two interesting characters with lots of dialogue which I more or less went through.

 

The loot is good - especially the armour for your tank fighter.

 

The special abilties are neat, would suit a rogue very nicely, augmenting melee combat abilities. They have a sort of nasty supernatural theme.

 

All in all, yeah it could have been a bit longer but then again the vanilla game is massive and the guys who put this together did a pretty good job, they should make more modules. Bottom line? This cost me the same as a pint-and-a-half of beer in a pub. So it's perfectly good value for money IMO.

 

Cheers

MC

[alanschu]

^ Vol, try to look at it this way... extra content, encounters and items? Cool. Unique and (frankly) twinky skill tree unique to that product? You can see why some people might freak.

 

 

Is this unlike an expansion? Because I see DLC as being pretty similar to expansions (I don't care for the Horse Armor type stuff).

Edited November 9, 2009 by alanschu

[Monte Carlo]

Alan, I think you'll agree I've been pretty positive about the quality of the DLC and I'm not that bothered about the rather outre marketing of it within the game. All in all, for me, I've been a model of fairness.

 

I'm just trying to see it from the other guy's POV. XPs used to come out after the main game (TotSC is an excellent example, even if it was made at the same time as the main product - look how it bashed down the fourth wall by taking you back before you completed the main game!). Everybody was on the same page and had done broadly the same things. Of course, this is only noticeable in gaming communities like this, if I chose not to go online to discuss games I'd not be bothered by what anyone else was doing.

 

These people are the mainstream majority.

 

So this is new and there are birth pains. In a couple of years time everyone will be wondering what the fuss is about.

 

Cheers

MC

[Aristes]

I haven't had as much time to play as I'd like, but I did finally get to a merchant. Of course, that one ended up leaving town. The rat bastard. He could have let me pawn my loot first. Anyhow, I found the other merchant. At first I was irritated that they did the typical "anyone making money is terrible" routine. It was a bit more nuanced than that, but still pretty basic. Still, there are war profiteers in war ravaged areas. I think it would be interesting to see a game show some poor merchant trying to work with folks and having an angry mob loot and pillage, which is also what happens in war ravaged areas. What Dragon Age did was show that driving off the merchant probably didn't serve the interests of the refugees. Maybe not as well as I'd like, but at least it wasn't the typical "all profit is evil" line that we get in so many games.

 

Frankly, the best thing that can happen for everyone is to destroy the blight. I'm not much of an ends justifying the means sort of guy, but I think getting involved in these sorts of disputes really would not serve to help the situation at all. I mean, this wasn't a clear cut case of banditry or some other obvious crime. Unfortunately, you screw yourself out of a lot of content if you don't go sticking your nose into other folks business in these games.

[Monte Carlo]

^ Hmmm, I followed the dialogue option that allowed him to stay, I just asked him very nicely at swordpoint to moderate his prices.

 

The lack of merchants is a bit of a problem, am buying hundreds of flasks to make potions!

[HoonDing]

During large battles my mages always run out of lyrium potions and have to resort to their staffs of pew-pew. Pretty annoying. Haven't found a merchant that sells tons of lyrium dust so far.

[Aristes]

I tried to get him to lower his prices and when he didn't I told him to leave if he didn't want to play fair. So he told me to piss off and left town. Frankly, I think the local authorities would probably have stepped in and told him to moderate his prices because they couldn't afford to let him leave with vital goods. On the other hand, I don't know how high his prices were. If he were being completely crazy, folks wouldn't be able to buy his good anyhow. He didn't have any muscle with him, otherwise he wouldn't have offered to pay me to save his sorry ass. So, all things considered, I think the whole scenario fits into a 'fantasy' game very well. Far more likely, since the local authorities weren't even able to see this situation escalating, is that some armed faction would have taken his stuff and then gouged the citizens. If that were the case, then they would be brigands and I could have stepped into intimidate or dispatch them without any qualms. As it was, it's the typical sort of simplistic nonsense. To be fair, it's probably quite hard to treat these situations properly within the confines of a computer game.

[tripleRRR]

During large battles my mages always run out of lyrium potions and have to resort to their staffs of pew-pew. Pretty annoying. Haven't found a merchant that sells tons of lyrium dust so far.

 

The quartermaster in the mage tower sells a huge amount of it.

 

 

I think you have to have already saved the tower before you can talk to him though.

 

[Monte Carlo]

OK about twenty hours in and some more pros and cons as well as general thoughts:

 

Pros:

 

* Combat is fun, it's not geeky TB greatness like TOEE but it gets the balance between classic RTwP and Diablo-ish twitching just right.

 

* It's a 2AM game, haven't played one of those for ages.

 

* The NPC approval thing isn't quite as annoying as I thought it was and there are even a couple of non-annoying ones, Sten is my favourite.

 

* Spellcasters, for the first time in MC-land, are fun to play and add lots to the tactical mix.

 

* The game is huge. I mean really big. This is one thing Bio weren't talking hype for the sake of it about.

 

* Crafting is fun for the first time, too.

 

* I've found it easy to avoid soppy romance crap.

 

Cons:

 

* The areas are quite linear, more dungeons please.

 

* It's about as dark as the end of "White Christmas", some cleavage and betrayal does not 'dark' make.

 

* Containers & inventory - you dropped the ball Bio, sometimes the small things are the big things. Wake up QA.

 

* CUTSCENES OMFG PLEASE STOP!

 

General Points

 

DLC is no big deal.

 

The VO? Heck, I'm English why the plaudits? They all sound like anedoidal Estuary English southerners to me.

 

Final Score:

 

A very solid 8/10. If it was a bit less, well, Bioware, then it would get 9 or even 9.5.

[Pope]

A very solid 8/10. If it was a bit less, well, Bioware, then it would get 9 or even 9.5.