Dragon age discussion

[Monte Carlo]

I can't find all this exciting evil blood magic stuff anywhere, I'm feel like the guy in the adult movies section who can only find Mister Bean DVDs.

 

Do you have to be a mage or something?

[Wrath of Dagon]

Redcliffe moral choice would be tough if you didn't have the obviously good option, which I suppose you could miss accidentally. Also there is a way to trigger the bad option without meaning to, which I did and then reloaded.

[TheHarlequin]

I have to say the animation is quite substandard. Maybe you don't notice that as much when you get a full party and is more zoomed out to see the whole picture. The voice acting is quite laughable at times. I have restarted 3 times so far not clearing the tutorial level with either;

The elf city person, the dwarf commoner, and human noble.

 

I think I'll restart again as dwarf noble, as the commoner forced some undesirable skill choices like dual wielding. What does dwarf noble start with, shield skill or two hander ?

 

just use the respec mod... issue resolved.

[TheHarlequin]

There were no tough moral choices in DA ...

That's just you being stubborn and not facing the facts. There were several tough moral choices in DA, maybe they the story wasn't good enough for you to actually feel anything for the characters but saying those choices weren't there is just a lie.

 

As an example:

On my first play through I went to Redcliffe before clearing the Circle of Magi tower, and when presented with the option to either:

kill a child who's possessed with a demon, sacrifice his mother to enter the fade and battle the demon, or visit a far away land to clear tower full of blood magi not knowing if the solution was even viable

, I definitely felt like facing a tough moral choice.

 

Or at the end, before facing the Archdemon,

Morrigan asked if I should impregnate her and have our unborn child consume the spirit in Archdemon when it was slain, not knowing if it would kill him/her as it would kill me

, that definitely felt like a very tough moral choice to make.

 

Redcliffe was clear choice both times for my characters.

 

First run on the good guy, all mobs are dead in castle, except the child. Thus it was relatively safe option to get help from the mages. I expected to see Woman and the Alistairs other relative possessed (again) or killed but to use blood magic just wasn't option for my character. Bioware didn't make any negative choices for this option. Wynne went into fade and killed the demon. Like I said, I didn't even expect it to be this easy

 

Second run I left Redcliffe, but killed Smith and Dwarf first so they couldn't help defending the town. I also killed Elf spy and told bartender not to sell beer to the men. They have to fight scared. After while I came back and saw all town dead, except the plot critical character. Killed all towns people (who were undead by now), tried to set Blood mage free (bastard wouldn't leave). Chose option to use blood magic, thus killed the woman and then got ability to spec my char to blood magic. Unfortunate choice for the child. End credits tell that he got sick one day in the near future and disappeared. Again, all choices were clear as day, even without metagaming.

 

 

So the 2nd char was a insane serial murderer you were playing then?

[Monte Carlo]

I think the whole Grey Warden thing is interesting - after all it's like a really cool special class... with no special abilities whatsoever. Save one notional story-driven power at the end that I shan't reveal.

 

I'm torn between thinking (a) this is actually rather clever - a story-driven 'class' that let's you identify with a role without any tangible in-game powers -- or -- (b) really lame - I like tangible in-game powers. It seems to me that the Grey Wardens are basically like the Foreign Legion: desperate men who can tolerate drinking nasty substances during the hazing ceremony. Anyway, a real moral choice would have been to become a nihilistic, demon-tainted, blood-magic junkie who becomes a Dark Warden, becomes one with the Archdemon and helps The Blight spread even further afield. A bit like NWN2 in fact.

 

It's no biggie, am really quite comfortable with the people-doing-bad-things-to-achieve-noble-aims schtick, hey the Mage Tower is obviously a simile for Guantanamo Bay (chuckles).

 

Cheers

MC

[HoonDing]

Anyway, a real moral choice would have been to become a nihilistic, demon-tainted, blood-magic junkie who becomes a Dark Warden, becomes one with the Archdemon and helps The Blight spread even further afield. A bit like NWN2 in fact.

That would've worked if the Blight & Uber Bad Guy had been more like in Morrowind. That choice was even offered to the PC during the course of the game, and before the end.

 

But the way BioWare typically handles their Evil & UBG, of course that wouldn't work out.

Edited December 4, 2009 by virumor

[Niten_Ryu]

So the 2nd char was a insane serial murderer you were playing then?

 

Yeah, this time around (or disgrunted and disfigured elven mage who want to take revenge on everything and everyone). I usually try to play Chaotic Stupid

[Volourn]

"a real moral choice would have been to become a nihilistic, demon-tainted, blood-magic junkie who becomes a Dark Warden, becomes one with the Archdemon and helps The Blight spread even further afield."

 

Wouldn't work 'cause it be just like FO1. You would no longer be yourself, and it be game over much like when you are dumped in the vats.

 

Anyone, btw, who tries to claim that the Dwarven Politics choice isn't a shades of gray, they ar ejust making things up, and have some weird defintion of shades of gray to be sure.

Edited December 4, 2009 by Volourn

[Gorgon]

So far at least stealth is useless, whenever a stealthed scout moves ahead and sees something even moderately interesting a cut-scene triggers where the whole party wades in like they own the place. This is a particular annoyance NWN2 wasn't free of either. Just because NPCs have lines doesn't mean I have to listen to them. Leave a bloody journal on the corpse or something FFS.

[Oner]

I think the whole Grey Warden thing is interesting - after all it's like a really cool special class... with no special abilities whatsoever. Save one notional story-driven power at the end that I shan't reveal.

 

I'm torn between thinking (a) this is actually rather clever - a story-driven 'class' that let's you identify with a role without any tangible in-game powers -- or -- (b) really lame - I like tangible in-game powers.

At least you could hand wave this with not having time for a formal training. And Alistair being a crap teacher.

 

 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/v...148-Dragon-Aged

I thought it's funny how reducing texture detail suddenly turns her into the hottest of the 4 girls.

Edited December 4, 2009 by Oner

[~Di]

enoch and di,

 

haven't played the mage origin, so am not sure what you reference, but is good to know that there is more genuine moral ambiguity than there would seem to be... even if it were only a small addition.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

You should run through the mage origin. Overall, I really enjoyed it. It gives quite a bit of insight that I never got playing my human rogue, and since you meet all the people who will be involved... or gone... during the Circle Tower quest, I'm sure I'll find it more gutwrenching this time. It only took a couple of hours, max, to do the entire origin.

 

I don't know if the scenario I spoke of will meet your criteria of moral ambiguity. I just know that I was put in a position where I was forced to choose between two completely unpleasant choices. Abstaining was not an option. And both choices made me feel really guilty, but for different reasons. (Then again, I tend to emotionally identify with my characters, lol )

[Tigranes]

Awesome, Shale broke again. That's 3 out of 4 playthroughs for a free DLC - getting right up screwed by Bio on this one. This time it's the more common issue where you talk to him and it resets to his first dialogue - common, but by no means fixed and nobody has a clue.

 

Well I'm not wasting more time on fixing bugs, I'll just never talk to him and see how that works out - though that probably means he will disappear. Maybe I won't take him to the Circle Fade...

[Gorth]

Well finished the part of the game (human noble warrior) after the landsmeet for the first time. How it ended:

 

 

Since I couldn't trust Loghain, his career met an end that was worthy of McLeod and Ramirez, his daughter bricked up in a tower for good and poor Alistair stuck on the throne he didn't want. I have bastard children somewhere that I'll probably never see and my shooty girlfriend and I will probably travel with Sten to see his people

 

 

As for that last battle...

too much of it. Almost as boring as the Starforge. At least the big baddie was easy enough. My big bad tank guy with all the sword and shild skills all maxed out decided to slowly and steadily pepper it with arrows while sacrificing all the canon fodder I could get my hands on. At least they died for a noble cause (keeping my hide safe).

 

 

I might try a mage or a rogue next... probably a mage since both Zevran and Lelianna makes for pleasant party members.

[Gorgon]

Anyone know what tactical slots are for ?. I noticed that they allowed more target priorities to be put in the AI script, pretty useless. They don't even allow you to queue spells or stills.

[Gorgon]

I played the elf mage origins, and I didn't bother picking any of the mage tower loot up simply because I thought having your possessions robbed or ending up in a dungeon was a common theme. lols. It was actually pretty good.

 

I gave up on my dwarf fighter. Somehow he always ended up with massive injuries and was a level below everyone else from always being dead. When I tried to solo him a bit to catch up with the party XP wise he proved completely useless.

[Monte Carlo]

^ Step into the Tactics thread and we will discuss this at your leisure

[Gorgon]

Go away, topic Nazi.

[Monte Carlo]

^ Then you can work it out for yourself, I'm sure.

[Gorgon]

Lovely

[Gorgon]

I'm sorry that should have been, 'since the initial large number of posts has dwindled considerably there does not seem to be any pressing need for numerous dragon age threads, in fact having less might help keep them more active.'

[Monte Carlo]

Sure, fiar enough. It's just that we already locked the last tactics thread at 34-odd pages and the current one is lively. I also like to think that other folks might use that thread if they're stuck so I like to keep all the stuff in one place. Not being a Nazi, just helpful to other forumites... this thread is a smorgasbjord of DA trivia rather than crunchy advice.

[Gorgon]

It's surprisingly easy to be snooty on the internet, I don't even notice half the time. Knee-jerk thing.

[Oner]

Sure, fiar enough.

Admiral Fiar.

[Enoch]

Finished Orzammar. The grinding through the tunnels was indeed overlong, but it did have a nice payoff-- the area had the best "boss" battles in the game thus far (

Spider queen, Broodmother, and Branka, although I suspect that the Caridin fight is also entertaining

). I doubt they'd be equally fun on a second playthrough, as figuring out how to deal with their little surprises is a good part of the fun, but I felt it was on the whole a worthwhile experience for a first-timer.

[Volourn]

Orzammer Deep Roads are underrated. To me, it's the easily the best dungeon in the game. But, it is definitely a long, tough, lonely road. But, that should be expected. DR are a sad, dark place after all.