Dragon age discussion

[Gorth]

Just for clarification:

 

Was Flemeth's plan to

get Morrigan impregnated with spermtastic Grey Warden baby so that she could come along and body-snatch Morrigan, and have her very own Dragon-God mama's boy

?

No,

it was to possess Morrigan and live longer.

 

That goes without saying. However, the fact that she

instructed Morrigan to perform the ritual implies that she wanted Morrigan to be impregnated.

. So the inference drawn from that is

that she must have wanted to have the baby as her own after possessing Morrigan as a means to extend her life

.

 

Maybe she wanted to possess the unborn baby and be reborn with an extra set of old god powers?

 

[jaguars4ever]

Just for clarification:

 

Was Flemeth's plan to

get Morrigan impregnated with spermtastic Grey Warden baby so that she could come along and body-snatch Morrigan, and have her very own Dragon-God mama's boy

?

No,

it was to possess Morrigan and live longer.

 

That goes without saying. However, the fact that she

instructed Morrigan to perform the ritual implies that she wanted Morrigan to be impregnated.

. So the inference drawn from that is

that she must have wanted to have the baby as her own after possessing Morrigan as a means to extend her life

.

 

Maybe she wanted to possess the unborn baby and be reborn with an extra set of old god powers?

 

Hawt diggidy - I think you're right!

[Bos_hybrid]

Maybe she wanted to possess the unborn baby and be reborn with an extra set of old god powers?

 

 

Doesn't possesing the body destroy the original essence/soul? Which is what would have the power, not the body.

 

[Volourn]

"So for him to just dump his duty and stomp out at such a crucial moment goes against everything he supposedly stands for. Bad move on Bio's part. Very bad move."

 

Nope. Good move. It shows he is human, and is effect by human hatred, and need for revenge. I don't enccessarily agree with Alistair, but understand and respect his decision. Then again, I had no problem punishing that certains cumbag for his evil misdeeds.

 

 

"Rubbish. I got to the point that I wouldn't take her into towns where I might get side quests because I couldn't afford to keep buying her jewelry to get her to like me again."

 

*shrug* I did a lot of 'good' deeds that Morrigan approved of, and wasn't worried. You don't seem like you are into role-playing since your choice to not bring Morri with you on trips was a gameplay decision not role-playing one. If you didn't like Morrigan's attitude you could simply ask her to leave. As a good character who did pretty much all things the perceived good way when I could, I had no problem keeping Morri's approval pretty much perfect. Negative hits were very low when she did dissaprove (unless you got them from trashing her personally).

 

 

"In fact I would say Morrigan is Bio's best written female character by a long way and Alistair their best leading male character."

 

Better than that. She's their best character ever. Period. And, I hope they don't ruin it in DA2 by doing aq certain a certain way just to spite the fact that she is not evil.

 

I posted that the big thing with Morri is actually a GOOD thing to do, and nothing i've read changes my mind.

 

GO MORRIGAN GO!

[newc0253]

are Alistair & Morrigan's decisions in the final act childish and petulant/selfish and whatever?

 

sure, whatever.

 

seems to me that that's an entirely separate issue from whether i can dissuade them in-game, though.

 

 

yes, i completely agree Alistair's tantrum about Loghain is petulant and utterly foolish. But i don't have any problem with it as a dealbreaker for a character who ain't that wise to begin with. I too was surprised that the game didn't give me much opportunity to talk him down, but i don't find it unrealistic that i couldn't (even with high persuade or whatever it's called). maybe Gromnir has never had a foolish or irrational client that he couldn't advise against a bone-headed course of action, but he's gotta admit: the phenomenon is hardly unknown to lawyers...

.

 

as for Morrigan's final deal:

yes, it's selfish but - as Gromnir says - she's a selfish character. Like Grom, my bigger problem is that there no build-up or back story to her offer/ultimatum and it's as left field as it gets. No sooner have you discovered that killing the archdemon is an automatic death sentence but that the way to commute it is to knock up Morrigan. Uh ... huh, sure baby, whatever. Sure, she warned me that getting involved with me was a mistake, but it might have helped to have a little more build-up to such a strange end-game. Also, as a prospective dad to an old god, i'd have liked a wee bit more info on what i was bringing into the world. Will i have to pay child support? Will i have to drive it to soccer practice?

 

 

I think part of my problem with Morrigan's proposal was Bio's failure to

make the archdemon any kind of character, but just a cipher for the pinnacle of the Blight. Bio did such an effective job of making the Blight itself this strange mystery, it's a shame that here i am, a grey warden about to resurrect an old god and i don't really have much more of a sense of what it's all about than when i started...

 

[Oner]

I just hope the

have-a-kid

ending isn't forced into the story of DA 2. I didn't play a noble, selfless character just so

s/he suddenly turns 180

[Monte Carlo]

^ Good point from newc, for a game so rich in lore and so meticulously planned, those elements are a bit of an ambush and unexplained.

 

As for Morrigan, hell she tells you enough times what she's like, what her agenda is and that she can't be trusted. She tells you.

 

Bio are figuring, however that:

 

1. People will like her spiky personality and cool persona

2. She's a hot goth chick with a smokin' leather get-up

3. You can sleep with her

4. (MOST important) there are only two mages - unless you are playing one yourself Morrigan is the only viable offensive spellcaster. This is straight out of the BG2 school of NPC manipulation - of course you'll take Yoshimo, he's a smooth-talking high STR single classed thief you can dual to fighter! Imoen's just left, you need a thief...

 

Cheers

MC

[HoonDing]

3. You can sleep with her

Wait, has the first Female Morrigan Romance mod finally arrived?

 

*checks Bio social site*

[newc0253]

I just hope the

have-a-kid

ending isn't forced into the story of DA 2. I didn't play a noble, selfless character just so

s/he suddenly turns 180

Edited December 10, 2009 by newc0253

[jaguars4ever]

Which makes me wonder btw:

i'm curious what happens at the end of DA if you choose to sacrifice yourself instead of having the kid? I assume there's no denounment, just straight to the end sequence???

It's awesome. Especially since I was playing Human Noble. You get your own

funeral

and mine was given by

Alistair since he was King

with important people from the game being there. I also romanced Leliana, so her

ending was totally bittersweet & awesome: staying at Alistair's court for a while grieving, writing a ballad for the ages in your memory before being reunited with you in DA heaven

. Also,

Alistair gives Cousland brother back Highever & Howe's land, which Cousland donates to the Wardens. And of course, they carry your coffin back to the epic Grey Warden mausoleum.

 

[HoonDing]

I also romanced Leliana, so her

ending was totally bittersweet & awesome: staying at Alistair's court for a while grieving, writing a ballad for the ages in your memory before being reunited with you in DA heaven

.

 

Problem with heaven is the Grey Warden's soul was destroyed along with the Old God's... Leliana's ending actually convinced me the poor girl was completely bonkers with her 'visions'.

 

[Bos_hybrid]

I just hope the

have-a-kid

ending isn't forced into the story of DA 2. I didn't play a noble, selfless character just so

s/he suddenly turns 180

[SeanM]

I think the Morrigan thing is best handled in a large DLC. Because they know that everyone has the base game and end game saves.

 

A sequel could take 3+ years to make. And they have to market it to as wide an audience as possible. I don't think it will rely too much on knowing Morrigan's backstory and what happened at the end of DA 1.

 

They will have some new compelling story hook. If it is set in a new nation, I don't think they have to make many specific references to what happened in Ferelden. Apart from there being a Blight, civil war, chaos and political upheaval.

 

Though maybe Morrigan is interesting to the writers and popular with the fans, that they want to use her again in a full game. Rather than ending her story in a brief DLC.

[Monte Carlo]

The ending was great, in my humble, but for me the clue is in the word 'ending.'

 

It's the end. Finished. Over.

 

Epic Level DA? Hmmm. No thanks, let's have a new story set after the funeral of King Alistair (who died in the bath aged 85 staring at his navel) and just crack on as a level one whatever you are. Preferably elsewhere in Ferelden.

 

DA is nothing like, say Baldur's Gate where at the end it was pretty clear that your story as a child of Bhaal was incomplete. One of the good things about DA is the closure. Don't spoil it.

[jaguars4ever]

I also romanced Leliana, so her

ending was totally bittersweet & awesome: staying at Alistair's court for a while grieving, writing a ballad for the ages in your memory before being reunited with you in DA heaven

.

 

Problem with heaven is the Grey Warden's soul was destroyed along with the Old God's... Leliana's ending actually convinced me the poor girl was completely bonkers with her 'visions'.

 

Crazy in the head means crazy in the sack.

[Niten_Ryu]

I think the Morrigan thing is best handled in a large DLC. Because they know that everyone has the base game and end game saves.

 

A sequel could take 3+ years to make. And they have to market it to as wide an audience as possible. I don't think it will rely too much on knowing Morrigan's backstory and what happened at the end of DA 1.

 

Sequel could take 3 years but I'm not sure if EA is willing to wait that long. Dragon Age engine is more or less done and we shouldn't expect any major changes on it. Most likely they try to target 2 year schedule like they did with Mass Effect (+- few months).

[Monte Carlo]

^ I agree, polish / optimize the engine and go for it. EA will want to build on momentum in fact I'd be amazed if milestones weren't established a long time ago for DLC > XP > Sequel.

 

I don't know the figures, but in my local gaming store this morning it was number 3 in the (PC) gaming chart a month after release. How's it doing on console?

 

Anyhow, I'm pleased, it shows the still impressive market for single-player CRPGs.

[Bos_hybrid]

DA is nothing like, say Baldur's Gate where at the end it was pretty clear that your story as a child of Bhaal was incomplete. One of the good things about DA is the closure. Don't spoil it.

 

Yes because saying at the very end, this is not the last you would hear of the warden(

when you survive

) is because they have no intial plans(plans change)to continue the story.....

 

DLC doesn't count because the save is before the final battle.

[SeanM]

That seems to be the trend in the industry. (Mass Effect, Modern Warfare, Bioshock, Assassins Creed.) They reuse the engine and make the sequel in two years. It is a blockbuster release with a lot of anticipation and hype.

 

I think they make more money with a quick sequel. Than releasing a few expansion packs and then releasing a sequel 5+ years later.

 

 

I think DA 2 could be closer to three years. DA 1 was a huge game with a long development cycle and the PC version needed a few months delay. It is the first Bioware game simultaneously released on three platforms. I think they might take a break, do a post-mortem and monitor the feedback.

 

It could take a while to plan out the storyline, gameplay and make it more optimised for the console versions. Though I was surprised that Bioware finished Mass Effect 2 in two years. Maybe it helped already knowing the storyline and that they were making a trilogy.

[newc0253]

hmm, I dislike 'epic level' games on principle. And given how easy it was to kill hurlocks footsoldiers and even ogres by the end of DA, it'd be kinda dull to start out that powerful in a second game.

 

That said, BG2 did a great job of building a sequel on top of an already moderately strong character. And ToB was an exception to the 'epic level' rule: a game that your near-godlike status its central theme.

 

I think ME2 will probably answer most of our questions about if and how DA2 would continue the story of DA1. I don't think the DA story is over by any stretch: for a start, it would be decidedly odd if the 'spiritual successor' to BG played out as a series of standalones (i know they say that about every game that they do but i think they meant it with DA). secondly, there's too much left hanging at the end of DA (

in at least one ending, your ex-girlfiend is knocked up with a reincarnated god

). obviously they intend to make more games set in Thedas: regardless of whether your PC lives or dies at the end of DA, obviously most folk buying the game are going to want some recognition of how their actions changed the face of Thedas...

[Enoch]

This is probably a dumb coincidence, but it occurred to me last night: Thedas. The Das. The The.

[deganawida]

This is probably a dumb coincidence, but it occurred to me last night: Thedas. The Das. The The.

 

From what I understand, it's simply "THE Dragon Age Setting" abbreviated, which was originally done by posters in the old discussion boards, and was eventually adopted by Bioware after they found themselves calling it that.

[Enoch]

This is probably a dumb coincidence, but it occurred to me last night: Thedas. The Das. The The.

 

From what I understand, it's simply "THE Dragon Age Setting" abbreviated, which was originally done by posters in the old discussion boards, and was eventually adopted by Bioware after they found themselves calling it that.

Wow. That's even dumber.

[SeanM]

I agree. I liked that Dragon Age had a reasonably conclusive ending. It is not like some new crisis happens. And then you have to track down your buddies and save the world again.

 

They said two years of DLC. I am curious what the larger DLC will be like. Whether it will be mainly add-in mid game locations with quests and loot. Like larger versions of "Warden's Keep".

 

Or there will be a standalone medium sized adventure with a new character and companions. Either set in a another Thedas location. Or set in post epilogue reconstruction Ferelden with some reference to how your choices affected the country.

 

 

 

I don't think the sequel will have as much continuation of the story as Mass Effect. They always said Mass Effect is a trilogy. Keep your saves. DA2 might have to use the "ask the player questions" method.

 

Morrigan ending spoilers

 

To know whether the player did the god baby ritual with Morrigan. There could be a conversation about who ended the Blight in Ferelden and whether they died or not. And that could affect how the DA2 world is generated.

 

 

If it is set in Orlais. There could be occasional conversations where you answer who is King of Ferelden? Does Ferelden have a Mage tower? What is the condition of the Elves/Dwarves? Hopefully that would lead to slight variations in the game. Rather than just being flavour text.

Edited December 10, 2009 by SeanM

[newc0253]

I agree. I liked that Dragon Age had a reasonably conclusive ending. It is not like some new crisis happens

 

a new crisis? You mean, like another blight?

 

what do you suppose would be the odds of that happening?