Dragon Age discussion

[Gorth]

Is the console supposed to be "visible"?

 

Read somewhere (while browsing around for mods), that the console isn't visible, so your typing better be good.

 

Playing around with my casteless rogue. Went for the ranger, some dual wielding, a bit of archery, especially arrow of slaying, summoning animal companions etc.

 

That ranger specialisation seems somewhat overpowered compared to the other rogue specialisations, those animal summons are not for the whimpy :shock:

 

Edit: Just tried it out. I can't see it, but it works. Just gave myself 1000 gold pieces (some absurdly large number of copper coins).

[Gorgon]

It's invisible, but if WASD moves your character after you open it it means it didn't work obviously.

[Gorth]

It's invisible, but if WASD moves your character after you open it it means it didn't work obviously.

Did you give your main game file the -enabledeveloperconsole option?

 

I.e. not the game launcher, but the main game file daorigins.exe. I needed to create a new desktop shortcut to the main file in order to give it the startup paramter.

[Gorgon]

Yeah, a shortcut to "C:\Program Files\Dragon Age\bin_ship"

[Gorgon]

Aha... progress. the game froze until i pressed enter. Now to get that sequence right.

[Gorgon]

It worked, but now I have to do that EVERY time I want to enter orzamar. Not good.

[Gorgon]

Also any unique dwarf noble dialogues seem to be gone. My char is asking questions about Balin as if she didn't know him.

[Gorth]

I'm playing as a dwarf and I can't seem to enter orzamar. I don't have the dialouge option about the ancient treaties, just that I was a dwarf and born in orzamar. Tried loading an earlier game byt that did nothing. Is there a special order I have to do this in or is the game just broken ?

Oh, thats what you needed the console for. I just got to that spot too. Not even provoking them by casting a few spells on them could convince them to open the &^%$# gates. Either you have to do something completely different (and non obvious) as a low born dwarf, or you are just screwed. I think I'll retire this game for now and dedicate myself to EUIII.

[Gorgon]

One of my earlier characters is also dwarf noble, I went back to orzamar as soon as I could and there were unique dialouge options at the gate which are just not there for this char.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Indeed. DA:O DLC doesn't impress. I'd wait for them to bundle it before picking anything up.

[~Di]

Gorgon, I had the same problem. Enable the cheat console (I think its just -enabledeveloperconsole in the shortcut, check google), then use:

 

~ to open console

"runscript zz_orz_debug" then enter

a dialogue menu will open. use Area Jump to get into Orzammar Entrance -> Hall of Heroes, things will be fine from there and the quests will update properly.

 

As for mods:

 

"Circles_Be_Gone" removes the big fat circles beneath everyone, it can be confusing at first but you get used to it quickly. Purely personal preference.

"ReduceStealCooldown" reducces cooldown on Steal to 1.5 seconds, which is useful if you just want to get it over with. I mean, it's not like there are penalties for multiple tries, except getting up a reputation as a thief.

"No_Helmet_Hack" makes helmets invisible in the world, which is great for mages with their idiotic condom hat designs.

"Bombs_Range_Extension" makes bombs throw longer; maybe a bit unbalanced, but I never understood why you could only throw something 0.5m ahead of you.

 

Uploaded them here as one zip, as they're all tiny.

 

Some of these may or may not be so happy with patches, though? These should be relatively innocuous, however.

 

Dragon_Age.zip

 

On my second game I decided to try the cheat console because I wanted instant riches! Alas, I couldn't get it to work. The shortcut sayes "E:\Dragon Age\bin_ship\daorigins.exe" (with quotations). When I added -enabledeveloperconsole inside the quotes or outside, I got an error message saying the target is not valid and it won't let me apply the change. What am I doing wrong, can you tell?

[Gorgon]

one space and outside the quotes like so

 

"C:\Program Files\Dragon Age\bin_ship\daorigins.exe" -enabledeveloperconsole

 

A shortcut you make of the game executable, not the game launcher. The game exe is found in

 

"C:\Program Files\Dragon Age\bin_ship"

[~Di]

OMG... it worked! My next character is going to be rich, I tell you, RICH! Bwahahahahah

 

Thanks so much, Gorgon.

[Tigranes]

Gorgon: yes, you'll need to dot hat every time to enter Orzammar. On the bright side, you can enter straight to the area you like without breaking the game most of the time, so it actually cuts down on loading.

 

Yes, I think there is a general bug where dwarf origins can't enter Orzammar, and even if they cheat in, most of the dwarf-specific dialogue is gone. The final word will have to wait until Bio's had a chance to get another patch out the door, but so far their work in fixing game-breaking bugs is nonexistent.

[Maria Caliban]

Remember to be careful as console commands can do bad things to your game.

[~Di]

Remember to be careful as console commands can do bad things to your game.

 

I hear you. I would just love to have one game where I can actually afford to buy some of that heart-stopping armor and weaponry instead of saving every coin to buy dust, flasks and potions! I'm 3/4 through my second game. I'll try it out when I start my third.

[Tigranes]

Yes. Money, XP and area jumps are usually fine (though area jumps should be used with care when you're in the middle of a questline) - any scripting changes are bad. Party-based console commands are known to break the game very easily, even bringing up the party selection screen.

[Volourn]

"The Ambassador from Logain is supposed to attack you but they don't activate"

 

Nope. He didn't attack me. Just whined like a little baby when I was allowed in, and he wasn't. Easy as pie.

[Aristes]

It's really weird. I thought hard had some pretty tough battles, but Nightmare is so easy I'm wondering if mabye they mixed something up in the patch. The only thing I can think is that being warned of the fights makes a huge difference. I mean, for example, the fights against the bandits in Denerim. Now, I know Gromnir and Vol have been fighting over the bandits for a while. I hit Denerim second in my first game. I also hit Denerim second in my current game. In my first game, the bandits were a lot tougher. Now, to be fair, maybe it's because I have Wynne in my party this time as opposed to Leliana. however, I know my PC mage dealt out a lot more damage than my PC rogue, so that doesn't make sense. My rogue is marginally more resilient, but not by much. Some of the situational tricks

such as the lever gate

don't work now, and I know how to handle my party's movement and use their abilities better. I'm really curious how it will work in the later areas, but I've had a much easier time of it, and that goes for the areas I did before I had Shale. There is no one thing that would lead me to believe that my party is somehow inherently better. Either the PC rogue is much better or I just learned the tricks well enough on hard to make nightmare not so bad. The only thing is, a lot of times the bad guys are virtually dead before my rogue gets to them and the rogue's share of damage, even with virtually the same party composition, is less than the mage's. I think Leliana did more damage on the balance than my current rogue, although he is getting to be more effective as I get more talents under his belt. This party even has the same healing tendencies that served me well during the latter half of the previous run.

 

...And before you think I'm bragging about how well I'm doing on Nightmare, let me be clear that I had my share of party wipes and ugly barely finished battles in the first run on hard. It's not like I really earned bragging rights. So I'm at a loss. I have a dirty little admission. I only decided to do a nightmare run because I thought maybe one of those hidden badges would be for completing a run on Nightmare difficulty the whole way. I'm a sucker for new badges, even for trivial things like using herbalism and the like. So I'm a wimpy sort of player who basically groaned and figured I'd try to do it for a potential badge and yet the difficulty seems less. I'm serious, someone should test the numbers to see if maybe they switched hard and nightmare or something. I originally thought control didn't last as long, but now I'm not so sure. Force field and crushing prison seem to last long enough. Crushing prison virtually assures that any white named person will die before the end of the spell. Only area effect stuns seem to be short, but I'm not even sure they're shorter than on hard.

[Spider]

Second playthough is much easier. I'm on my second now and it's a lot easier for me as well (played both on Nightmare). So I think knowledge of the system and the encounters helps a lot. Except with those damned wolves in Lothering. (although kiting with an archer did help, they aren't so tough when they attack one or two at a time).

 

Also, iirc I got no badge for finishing on Nightmare (which was a bit dissapointing truth be told).

[Aristes]

lol That's it! No badge, no nightmare! I'm a total sucker for alternate endings. That's the only reason I finished painkiller and the max payne games on the hardest setting. I wanted to see the 'good' ending. Sadly, couldn't do that with Dark Corners because the game had that glitch and I didn't want to muddle through it to get to the end.

 

In my second run, I'm wooing Morrigan. She's really terrible. I guess, with her background, it's to be expected, but I would avoid her like the plague in real life, hottie or not. Bad news you can see coming a mile away.

[Tigranes]

Dragon Age is built so that being forewarned and knowing how to take measures against threats really, significantly, greatly, makes things easier. The

lever gate trick

can be the difference between having half the party die in 5 seconds and getting it done with no sweat.

 

Morrigan was alright up to the part where she starts going Fre-ends? Why, I've never had friends. 'tis a most curious thing! Won't you be my friend? *Smile*

 

Gag.

[Aristes]

In fact, I have a comment or two about relationships in these games. I don't just mean the canned romances, but all the relationships. First of all, I used to like the relationships in games. Iolo the bard was a great buddy, and his dialogue was decidedly brief. As time went by, I grew more and more frustrated and impatient with the relationships. I'll freely admit that I've grown more and more impatient with dialogue in general. That's because the response that seems most natural to me is clearly meant to be insulting. I mean, if you want to be a 'good guy' in these games, you have a clear response, and it's usually both artless and shallow. For example:

 

"My father is being held captive two houses down the street!"

 

1. If he's too weak to defend himself, then why should I care?

2. You poor thing, I'll save you!

3. What do you want to do about that?

 

Now, I don't think the third option is 'less good,' but the NPC responses to such a choice are almost always as if it's a sign of indifference. It's not. I remember, somewhere a while back, Kaftan mentioned that choices that seemed like wry humor to him (not exactly his words, but to that effect) were taken as insulting or callous. I can see his point. I'm not really blaming game designers. They have to craft conversations that broadcast the tone of the choice so the player can make decisions. Fair enough. Nevertheless, as a result, I've read less and skimmed to the point more of all these dialogues. I just read to the gist and make the obvious choices.

 

So, that's dialogue and relationships in general. Bring in romances. If I'm largely disgusted with dialogue in general, romances must be far worse. Not because I hate the writers or think they're doing a bad job. It's just that I could never see myself saying any of the options in the dialogue. I can't imagine professing my love within such a short amount of time and I can't imaging professing it in the manner the designers invariably choose to present it. So, I've largely ignored romances as best I could.

 

Now comes Mask of the Betrayer. I thought the game rocked and I had a lot of fun. For a variety of reasons, I got far more into the romances in that game. I felt somewhat compelled to delve into the idiotic romances, and so I did. You might ask, why would I feel compelled to play a game a certain way? Good question. I've asked myself that since, but the point is, I did. Anyhow the romances still harshed my buzz. However, they did have a side effect. Special bennies for the player presented in game play. Now, I love exploiting games. Making love/sex into a minigame is disasteful, but giving me some advantage for winning that minigame all but ensures I'll play it. At last we have the cast of Dragon Age. If it were up to me in real life, I'd take up with Leliana. She's sweet. She's pretty. She sings well. In real life, I'd warm her tent. Of course, in real life, she might think I'm a fat trog and not give me the time of day, but you get my point. Still, her bennies (gameplay... get your mind out of the gutter) just aren't as good as Morrigan's. So, I'll give gifts to Leliana and try to get my influence as high as I can in order to try to find any side quests and the like, but Morrigan is my primary JNPC in this run, and I want every benefit I can get asap. So, I woo her and follow along with gifts to the Leliana.

 

Now, my point is this, romance, for a sap like me, isn't better because of any of this. It adds virtually nothing to the story. It's just one more metagame consideration, and that's pretty much all it will be. What's the point? I don't know. I just wish we could have a game like Planescape Torment where I really did feel engaged in the dialogue. Of course, my fear is that I would not think the same way of PS:T if I played it for the first time today as opposed to the game I bought the first day of release years ago.

[Gromnir]

please note that the denerim bandits were a topic raised initially in reference to scaling of enemies... resulting in counter intuitive results. meet denerim bandits near end of your game, when you got a firm grasp of tactics, does not go very far in making such battles easy. if you encounter the denerim bandits early in your game, they will be predictably weak... cupcakes. however, try a different approach and do not enter denerim until you is level 20. back alley bandits, armed with red steel weapons and armours, and 4-8 archers, all of whom has access to scattershot and who seem amazingly resilient to physical and mental resistance checks. is a bit of a surprise. sure, we didn't end up with party wipes, but we had to use potions and we lost a party member (and sometimes 2) in a couple o' those battles.

 

again, the issue, which vol never got, were scale. a bunch o' back alley thugs were managing to make Gromnir's level 20 party sweat. gather up denerim's back alley thugs (the ones you meet late in game) and send 'em against the blight at dawn. no more blight by noonish.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Aristes]

I don't know. The bandits at 11 or 12 were a tough bunch. I think I was just a tad higher level the last game, but not by more than a couple of levels. The hardest battles I had the last game were the

Revenants

in the Brecilian Forest, and I went there right out of Lothering. In fact, while I did end up beating them, I didn't even return until I was like level 14 to do so. The bandits, by the time I knew what I was doing, were fairly easy because you do line of sight pulls and whatnot. I mean, that's not even metagaming. Once I realized that I was going to have to run the gauntlet of archers if I fought the melee folks in the open, I started making them come to me. Also, once you get a handle on looking for traps everywhere, you get a leg up also.

 

The point is, the bandits were plenty tough in the first run. I don't care if Vol or some other tactical genius saw them and dispatched them out of hand without even a second's pause, I thought they presented some tough fights. I did fpw on the

lever, as a matter of fact, especially since somehow three of my party ended up on the wrong side.

That happened and even looking at it I knew something was up before hand. In the second run, they basically go down super fast.