Dragon Age: Inquistion

[HoonDing]

The India rape frenzy the media stirred up is epitome of bombastic and misleading journalistic work. The rate of rape in the US is 28 to 100000 individuals. The worst indian city has a rate of 10 at same sample size. Even with severe under-reporting it is questionable whether the rate of rapes in India is higher than the US. The UK has 23 at same sample. Sweden has 53.

I didn't know Sweden had such a big Indian community.

[Drowsy Emperor]

 

 

Wow how can a lawyer fail to understand the difference between strategy and tactics?

 

The decision to make / buy potions in the first place, and their suite of effects, might be strategic. As might be the choice of skill 'a' to create a more effective synergy with potion 'b'. The decision to take them will be tactical.

 

1) I drink strength potions vs. Demogorgon. Tactics.

2) I have 3 strenth potions. I can't get more. I have to kill Demogorgon, Bahomet and Monte Carlo. I allocate my limited resources between the three battles. Strategy.

 

While this is relevant from a theoretical standpoint, in my experience, in practice it's not. In all party-based games I've played since the IE came out, after a short, unforgiving and frustrating start, I was consistently swimming in potions, scrolls, wands etc, rendering the strategic element of resource allocation meaningless. This is partly due to the fact that most of the cookie-cutter encounters (filler, to tie in with my previous post) don't require that you expend any of your non-renewable resources and the instances where the difference would be noticeable are few and far between. And even then, it's not a requirement, but simply something that will increase your chances of avoiding a reload. Last time I went to grab the Ring of Gaxx, I didn't even have to use my valuable Protection from Magic scrolls because I got lucky with the Mace of Disruption. So much facepalm.

 

 

 

 

Actually what ruined IE games somewhat was the ability to spam "rest to full health" in most situations which in all honesty is little different from regenerating health. Basically you get something for nothing and everything but the worst mistakes are forgiven. With regeneration they just removed the necessity of hitting a button outside of combat and replaced it with the game doing it for you.

If you had to rely only on the potions and such, or resting only in few pre-defined areas, it would be much harder. 

 

To be honest, I've never seen an RPG with a good loot economy, meaning that you have to strategically allocate your resource use. Its always an upward curve that leaves the character overpowered in relation to his enemies even in level scaling systems. 

Edited April 25, 2014 by Drowsy Emperor

[Volourn]

The problem with rape reporting in modern countries is that much of it isn't actually rape.  A 17 year having consentual sex with his 15 year old girlfriend can be considered rape. Slapping someone's butt  can be considered rape. Two drunks having sex, one of them regretting it the next morning and reporting it also can be considered rape. these kind of things spit in the face of true rape victims. Plus, as some of the posts above suggests, men can't be rape only women. Disgusting. A teen taking a nude selfie sends it to their boyfriend/girlfriend who shares with friends is considered rape. WTH!?!

 

 

Now, back on actual topic, potions can add to the game. Taking away potions only hurts strategy/tatics. It doesn't help. Having too many potions makes the tatics/strategy less meaningful which is also bad. 'Nough said.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

"'Nough said."

 

No.

[Meshugger]

 

 

And I think this comment was fairly tasteless.

 

 

Nah, tasteless would be making a joke on South Africa and one of the kinds of crime it's known for. 

 

 

They should make up and kiss.

[tajerio]

Plus, as some of the posts above suggests, men can't be rape only women.

 

That definition actually just changed about a year ago in the US, so there's a step forward.

 

 

Now, back on actual topic, potions can add to the game. Taking away potions only hurts strategy/tatics. It doesn't help. Having too many potions makes the tatics/strategy less meaningful which is also bad. 'Nough said.

 

Of course they can add to the game.  But not putting them in can make a game more strategically and tactically challenging than it might otherwise have been, since potions are basically a strictly positive option without downsides in most games (one of the few things I found tactically interesting about the Witcher series is their spin on that).  

[Volourn]

 "But not putting them in can make a game more strategically and tactically challenging than it might otherwise have been, since potions are basically a strictly positive option without downsides in most games (one of the few things I found tactically interesting about the Witcher series is their spin on that). "

 

1. So are most options in games.

 

2. They don't have to be. Your example of Twitcher while I hate the game overall is example of how to fix that. A % chance of being poisoned or limited on how many potions youc ran drink. DA2 did this. You couldn't guzzle a potion every second. I know there were a few times I badly needed a potion and I simply had to wait. Talk about torture. L0L

[tajerio]

 "But not putting them in can make a game more strategically and tactically challenging than it might otherwise have been, since potions are basically a strictly positive option without downsides in most games (one of the few things I found tactically interesting about the Witcher series is their spin on that). "

 

1. So are most options in games.

 

2. They don't have to be. Your example of Twitcher while I hate the game overall is example of how to fix that. A % chance of being poisoned or limited on how many potions youc ran drink. DA2 did this. You couldn't guzzle a potion every second. I know there were a few times I badly needed a potion and I simply had to wait. Talk about torture. L0L

 

My point is more that when I choose to take a potion, the only consequence is that I lose one second to drink it.  At least with a lot of other choices there's something else I can't do--not so much with potions.

 

I do agree that there are ways around it.  I thought the DA2 way was clunky--what do you mean I can't drink another potion?  Why not?--but it did kinda work.

[Zoraptor]

Even so, without a statistic of some sort there is no argument other than "CNN said so" or "Indian media said so" and the discussion goes back to what you or I "believe" which is totally irrelevant in the long run.

 

While I generally try to avoid most of the SJW trollbaiting stuff on principle bad statistics are without any doubt far far worse than no statistics at all. No statistics give no authority whatsoever so people can make their own minds up, right or wrong, bad statistics give the wrong impression and give that wrong impression a sense of authority it does not deserve.

[TheChris92]

Gonna have to say this though, just to avoid having the thread be entirely dedicated to taking jabs at BioWare's flaws -- it is nice that they actually decided to incorporate racial choice, thus delaying the game a year to pave way for improvement and polishing. The gameplay actually looks promising if it can at least be on par with something like  Dark Souls or Dragon's Dogma. My dream is seeing a BioWare game with Dragon's Dogma gameplay -- mounting dragons as your stamina depletes while hanging on to dear life as they leap of into the air was always intense. Dogma knows its boss fights. Pure unadulterated fun. Taking inspiration from other titles, like Skyrim, doesn't sound too bad either as long as it isn't shameless copy-pasting, like the ridiculous implementation of Batman's Detective Vision in every stealth game as of late. More sprawly levels would be preferable as opposed to pure sandbox otherwise I feel the game will lose its sense of flow, and ultimate the story tends to suffer for it in my experience. There's promise in Inquisition for certain. It can probably keep my attention sharp until Persona 5 releases along with some other titles from older generations I still need to play.

Edited April 26, 2014 by TheChris92

[Bos_hybrid]

God damn it, they've scrapped the blood mage specification. I guess having characters react to it was too much trouble for bioware.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

God damn it, they've scrapped the blood mage specification. I guess having characters react to it was too much trouble for bioware.

You mean they scrapped the mage specialization that is the most fleshed out in the lore? Seems a bit strange.

[Bryy]

Gonna have to say this though, just to avoid having the thread be entirely dedicated to taking jabs at BioWare's flaws

This is a BioWare thread.

 

It's inevitable.

[Bos_hybrid]

On the plus side there is now a necromancy class.

 

But wasn't necromancy blood magic in previous games?

[licketysplit]

On the plus side there is now a necromancy class.

 

But wasn't necromancy blood magic in previous games?

 

The series has zero consistency, be it characters, lore or gameplay. I can't take any of it seriously when BioWare will just negate or demean this aspect or that in the next iteration. i feel DA2, ME2 and ME3 speak volumes on how little they care about consistency.

[ShadySands]

On the plus side there is now a necromancy class.

 

Does this mean we can finally enslave nations?

[Drowsy Emperor]

Bioware is good at necromancy, they've been bringing back Carth Onasi in one form or another for more than a decade.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Drowsy Emperor

[Bos_hybrid]

 

On the plus side there is now a necromancy class.

Does this mean we can finally enslave nations?

 

[Bryy]

 

On the plus side there is now a necromancy class.

 

But wasn't necromancy blood magic in previous games?

 

The series has zero consistency, be it characters, lore or gameplay. I can't take any of it seriously when BioWare will just negate or demean this aspect or that in the next iteration. i feel DA2, ME2 and ME3 speak volumes on how little they care about consistency.

 

As much as I love BioWare, this.

[Malekith]

 

God damn it, they've scrapped the blood mage specification. I guess having characters react to it was too much trouble for bioware.

You mean they scrapped the mage specialization that is the most fleshed out in the lore? Seems a bit strange.

 

Not realy. Blood magic was fleshed out in the lore, but the mechanics never supported that. Playing a blood mage never felt important, let alone evil and dangerous. So no loss here.

If they truly wanted to make it matter, the final power of blood magic (mind control) should be available to the Player through dialogue. The power to dominate minds and force them to sex  do his binding. Something similar with what Bloodlines did with the use of blood powers in the dialogue. This way the Player can feel the power he has over others, but at the same time he knows that what he is doing is wrong and amoral. You could even use this power to turn your teamates to slaves.

But this is Bioware we are talking about so adding something cool in their game is out of the question

[NOK222]

On the plus side there is now a necromancy class.

 

But wasn't necromancy blood magic in previous games?

 

I don't know. Entropy in the first game had the ability to summon zombies, and it certaintly wasn't part of the blood magic. 

 

But who knows. 

[Bos_hybrid]

 

On the plus side there is now a necromancy class.

 

But wasn't necromancy blood magic in previous games?

 

I don't know. Entropy in the first game had the ability to summon zombies, and it certaintly wasn't part of the blood magic. 

 

But who knows. 

 

Forgot about that. But weren't the blood mages in DA2 summing undead on mass?

 

Also this is mage gear in DA:I?

 

[NOK222]

Yeah, it looks silly. 

 

 

 

Forgot about that. But weren't the blood mages in DA2 summing undead on mass?

 

Yeah, so necromancy may very well be "blood magic" just focused on getting more adds to your side. 

[TheChris92]

God damn it, they've scrapped the blood mage specification. I guess having characters react to it was too much trouble for bioware.

Now that's disappointing. I'd actually would have loved for some internal moral struggles, in relation to blood magic, to happen in the game. Origins had something like that going but it was ultimately cut, bah.

[TheChris92]

 

 

On the plus side there is now a necromancy class.

 

But wasn't necromancy blood magic in previous games?

 

I don't know. Entropy in the first game had the ability to summon zombies, and it certaintly wasn't part of the blood magic. 

 

But who knows. 

 

Forgot about that. But weren't the blood mages in DA2 summing undead on mass?

 

Also this is mage gear in DA:I?

 

 

I personally think it looks badass but then again I am a sucker for wide proportioned collars -- Although I would say it fits a Rogue more than a Mage but it's a step up from your average ballerina skirts of Dragon Age Origins.

Edited April 27, 2014 by TheChris92