Dragon age discussion

[Tigranes]

Huh. As a dwarf the guard won't let me back in Orzammar... what am I missing here?

I've already done everywhere else and Arl Eamon's woken up.

The gate guard just says surface dwarfs are goners.

[theslug]

Huh. As a dwarf the guard won't let me back in Orzammar... what am I missing here?

I've already done everywhere else and Arl Eamon's woken up.

The gate guard just says surface dwarfs are goners.

Your kind aint welcome round these parts.

 

I think im going to buy this game today! Yaaay.

[Volourn]

"does Dragon Age's dialogue and story ever make you emotional? Stop and think? Get caught in a dilemma?"

 

Yes. Majority of good RPGs do at one time, or another.

 

Tigranes: The situation you are describing isn't neccessarily the 'evil' option, anyways. It's a matter of perspective. There is one npc I do believe whop does react negatively but then again, he's a racist turd.

 

 

"Huh. As a dwarf the guard won't let me back in Orzammar... what am I missing here?"

 

You should be able to get fine. Just tell him you a Gray Warden and are there to see the king.

[HoonDing]

Well, I finished the game with a level 20 human noble warrior. Now to replay with my Elven mage.

 

 

I had initially persuaded Alistair to marry Princess Irulan (even though she had screwed me over with Ser Cauthrein, I liked her character after talking to her in the arl's estate) but when Irulan unmasked herself at the Landsmeet as a power-hungry ***** after her daddy was executed, I ended up making my PC the queen.

 

Morrigan impregnating herself with a Bhaalspawn in a dark ritual was a nice twist (even though it was ripped from Divine Divinity)... and I guess opens the way for future sequels. Though I was kinda forced to agree to Morrigan's terms, since she would probably have left my party if I had disagreed... and Wynne simply sucks compared to Morrigan.

 

Now I'll have to reload and see what happens if my character makes the ultimate sacrifice.

 

[Gromnir]

one aspect that is slight disappointing is fact that the difficulty o' the game seems to largely depend on how jnpcs is built. folks who use the available mod to change npc specializations, skills and talents is probable playing a far different game than is Gromnir. zevran, for instance, is a serious effective combatant, but 'cause he not got lockpicky and trap disarm skills, he is hardly an ideal party addition to other possible melee combatants. am suspecting that we could make the little french girl into a very effective rogue, but for much o' the game she were simply a tool for disarming locks... would drag her back through maps already cleared, but she were a liability in combat. allistar is probable the only character we got zero complaints regarding his build, and that is 'cause we had him in party from early on in process. heck, one character we acquired late in game had all 4 levels o' combat tactics skill. freaking combat tactics? what a waste.

 

for reasons we cannot discuss, our party configuration at end of game was something less than ideal... and since we plays straight first time through, we is also not exactly having all our best possible equipment neither. 'course the main factor making end portion o' the game a little difficult is fact that we got a mage who bio gave us gimped... and then we gimped more 'cause some spells that sounded okie dokie on paper were serious piles in practice. some o' the fun evaporates when you look at party and feels you is being hamstrung by the developers... for no good purpose. regardless, we refuse to consider observations 'bout game difficulty delivered by any player who has re-built their jnpcs... 'cause your game ain't gonna be as difficult as is ours. not even close. obvious there is some significant balance issues with the game, particularly concerning mages. is not game = easy, or game = hard 'less you know what build the pc and jpcs gots.

 

btw, any word when an official patch is becoming available? have seen hotfix stuff, which we tend to avoid, but no genuine patch is available. heck, am not even sure that the rogue fix personally improves the game 'cause the high cunning build we were considering playing for our second game not seem quite so viable no more.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps am not sure how people can claims to have completed just 'bout everything and be finishing game at level 20 or lower. Gromnir is near end (we suspect) and am just 'bout to reach level 23. no doubt if we had had a worthwhile rogue in party to disable traps rather than trip 'em, we would easily reached 23 by now. heck, we actual didn't finish at least 2 o' the mage collective quests... and at least one Denerim quest appears to be bugged, so it not show up as complete. didn't do the crow quests neither... just killed the master after he made his offer. no doubt we missed considerable other stuff 'cause we didn't get side-tracked achievement until just before the landsmeet.

Edited November 21, 2009 by Gromnir

[Volourn]

"one aspect that is slight disappointing is fact that the difficulty o' the game seems to largely depend on how jnpcs is built."

 

Nope. This isn't true. The game can be beaten with npcs as is. Their builds are fine. Don't be upset that npcs aren't min/maxed. The game is finely beatable if you play SMART with any jnpcs. Not like all the BG2 npcs were 'optimized' (and thank god for that).

 

 

Anyways,...

 

I just started the last portion of the game (Landsmeet), and I'm level 19. I've done most quests i could, and have played for 50ish hours (not counting reloads). Nice thing about this game is not every one will play the game the same way. That's a good thing, not a bad thing.

 

 

 

"obvious there is some significant balance issues with the game, particularly concerning mages"

 

Nope.

[Gromnir]

"Nope. This isn't true. The game can be beaten with npcs as is. "

 

strawman or stoopid? where we say you couldn't finish game with the npcs as is. Gromnir is playing on hard... is no question we could finish game with current jnpcs. what we said, and you failed to read, is that the difficulty ain't due to mechanics, strategy or tactics, but rather is based on ... other considerations. most notable consideration is fact that our jnpcs is having crummy builds.

 

"Nope"

 

whenever we see vol post "no" or "nope," we just mental replace with "I like pie." your posts is much more readable that way... more insightful too.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Volourn]

BTW, Mages are so 'overpowered' that people have completed the game with an all warrior party, and are going through with a solo rogue... *shrug*

[Gromnir]

BTW, Mages are so 'overpowered' that people have completed the game with an all warrior party, and are going through with a solo rogue... *shrug*

 

bad logic. fact that a game can be completed sans mages has 0 relevance regarding the relative power o' mages.

 

where did you go to school? really, is as if the part o' kanada you is from has internet connections but no schools. is that even possible?

 

and yeah, am seeing how people could solo with a rogue for much o' game... use traps and lure critters out one or two at a time. would be mind numbing tedious, but we could see it working... but again, that gots little to do with the relative power o' mages. is people that solo bg2 with bards for chrissakes... doesn't somehow make ranger/cleric or kensai/mage less powerful.

 

sheesh

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited November 21, 2009 by Gromnir

[HoonDing]

Those 'epic' battles near the end of the game are hilarious. Endless hordes of mooks that die in one hit, until the occasional yellow-marked super mook shows up.

 

Leliana practically ended the Blight on her own.

[Oner]

I liked that they didn't waste our time and gone for the unstoppable 'force impression'.

Aaaaand I was handed the Dervish achievement on a silver plate.

[~Di]

BTW, why the hell can't we change party members in Denerim??? We could in Lothering and Redcliff. Grrrrr.)

 

Di, whilst in the city the little 'Change Party' icon should glow gold at the top of the GUI, you can just access the 'Cast 'O NPCs' screen automatically. It doesn't work in other areas, you need to access camp.

 

That's my problem, I only have access to the market district, and my little icon is black. When you say the city, do you mean further inside the city, like in the castle areas? I can't go there yet, only to the Pearl and back allies.

[Enoch]

BTW, why the hell can't we change party members in Denerim??? We could in Lothering and Redcliff. Grrrrr.)

 

Di, whilst in the city the little 'Change Party' icon should glow gold at the top of the GUI, you can just access the 'Cast 'O NPCs' screen automatically. It doesn't work in other areas, you need to access camp.

 

That's my problem, I only have access to the market district, and my little icon is black. When you say the city, do you mean further inside the city, like in the castle areas? I can't go there yet, only to the Pearl and back allies.

The same is true in my game-- no insta-party-change in the city. I have to get to the travel map, hit the "camp" button, and leave again to change anyone out.

 

Waxed the

High Dragon near Haven

last night with a L13 party of my Mage, Shale, Sten, and Wynne. Sten was knocked out, but the rest of us got through-- Wynne at long range alternating magic attacks and heals, my PC at max-cone-of-cold range doing the same, and the bashers up front.

 

Also, Sten and Shale were hilarious in the area where you finally find the Ashes. ("Congratulations, you've found a wastebin.")

[Gromnir]

BTW, why the hell can't we change party members in Denerim??? We could in Lothering and Redcliff. Grrrrr.)

 

Di, whilst in the city the little 'Change Party' icon should glow gold at the top of the GUI, you can just access the 'Cast 'O NPCs' screen automatically. It doesn't work in other areas, you need to access camp.

 

That's my problem, I only have access to the market district, and my little icon is black. When you say the city, do you mean further inside the city, like in the castle areas? I can't go there yet, only to the Pearl and back allies.

 

oddly enough, the only portion of the city we can recall being able to change our party on-the-fly, were the alienage... and that didn't become available til... later. as enoch identifies, going to camp is a viable option, if far less convenient.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Volourn]

" is people that solo bg2 with bards for chrissakes... "

 

Yeah, but BG2 is a wussy game.

[Gromnir]

1) you complete missed the point

 

again, 'cause kids, developmentally disabled, and dumb animals need extreme repetition to learn: the ability to solo in any game with a particular class does not somehow reduce the relative power o' other remaining classes. ability to solo as a da rogue does not somehow weaken da mages... just as capacity to kill da dragons with iron weapons does not somehow reduce efficacy of enchanted & named weapons.

 

and

 

2) bg2 were very hard for folks unfamiliar with d&d rules

 

am imagining that mage combats, in particular, musta been particularly troubling for folks unfamiliar with d&d mechanics. well guess what? bio, for some ridiculous reason, hid the da rules and mechanics from player view. all of us, save for some folks that maybe spent 24/7 on the bio boards pre-release, is playing da much as d&d neophytes were playing bg2: ignorant. Gromnir finished da and we still not know how armour penetration works specific. counter-intuitive starting builds for jnpcs, combined with hidden rules makes the game far more difficult than it otherwise would be. second time through da is gonna be much easier than second time through bg2... 'cause is not so much meta knowledge that gives an edge the second time 'round, but rather through +60 hours o' trial and error, Gromnir now has at least a basic working knowledge o' what works and don't work in da. huzzah. *snort*

 

the difficulty o' da were largely contrived... is a function o' seemingly intentional obfuscation o' game mechanics coupled with inexplicably busted jnpc mage and rogue builds. am recognizing that da weren't near as difficult as we thought as we replay.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Tigranes]

You should be able to get fine. Just tell him you a Gray Warden and are there to see the king.

 

Usually yeah, but I don't have an option to say this. It's going to be a very annoying bug, I'll try again later and hopefully it's ok.

[Maria Caliban]

First, no one has yet soloed the game with a rogue. There's one person I know who's trying, and is uploading the results to youtube, but they haven't gotten their first ally yet.

 

Secondly, mages are powerful in the game. They're powerful in the lore and BioWare developers themselves have said that it's accepted around the office that mages are the most powerful class. (This was stated on a thread about increasing mage's power because they were too weak) Mages only need to pump two stats. Mages can take mana potions while melee classes do not get stamina potions. Mages have spells for crowd control, AOE damage, defense, single mob offense, etc, and a specialization that lets them wear the best armors in the game.

[Majek]

I finished today. The endgame portion was pretty underwhelming. Have no wish to play anymore, not even origin stories. Maybe next year.

 

edit: lol my rogue had l33t number of kills xD and i then i ruined everything i killed 110 more :/

Edited November 22, 2009 by Majek

[alanschu]

I heard about someone trying to solo as a rogue on Nightmare, but heavily utilizing the combat stealth to escape from combat.

[tripleRRR]

Well, you can eat plain old deep mushrooms for stamina on warriors and rogues. It's not alot of stamina but it is enough for 1 or 2 abilities.

[Volourn]

"First, no one has yet soloed the game with a rogue."

 

Who claimed this? Nobody in this thread.

 

 

"Secondly, mages are powerful in the game."

 

Yup. They are. And? They're mages> You would have to gimp mages beyond belief or makes supercharge rogues and warriors to ridiculous levels to baasically nullify the whole point of 'magic'. Still, as powerful as mages are, the other classes are very useful, and a well done warrior can handle a mage fine and/or do better than a mage in this game since a mage cna only take a few hits before dying - 2-3 against an actual tough foe.

[Fighter]

Full VO rarely adds anything for me because video games rarely give me moments good enough to savour. If they were all PS:T, or at least had quirk like Brutal Legend, it would be fine, but i mean, does Dragon Age's dialogue and story ever make you emotional? Stop and think? Get caught in a dilemma? There are some moments where the decisions presented to me makes me stop a little, but that's it. It's all written well enough to be a part of the game, but I'd be terribly bored if I had to sit and listen to it all.

 

I'm exactly the opposite. I cannot force myself to read anything unless it's really good. But I can listen and watch almost anything and if it is well presented that adds something for me.

[HoonDing]

Yup. They are. And? They're mages> You would have to gimp mages beyond belief or makes supercharge rogues and warriors to ridiculous levels to baasically nullify the whole point of 'magic'. Still, as powerful as mages are, the other classes are very useful, and a well done warrior can handle a mage fine and/or do better than a mage in this game since a mage cna only take a few hits before dying - 2-3 against an actual tough foe.

If your mage is taking hits, you're doing something wrong, no?

[Deraldin]

Yup. They are. And? They're mages> You would have to gimp mages beyond belief or makes supercharge rogues and warriors to ridiculous levels to baasically nullify the whole point of 'magic'. Still, as powerful as mages are, the other classes are very useful, and a well done warrior can handle a mage fine and/or do better than a mage in this game since a mage cna only take a few hits before dying - 2-3 against an actual tough foe.

If your mage is taking hits, you're doing something wrong, no?

Not if you're an arcane warrior. Grab as many sustained spell buffs as you can and wade in with the heaviest armour you can find.