Dragon Age: Origins

[Ashlander]

Just curious anyone else planning on picking it up?

[Androidpk]

I am definitely.

[Drinin]

Yup. Preordered off Steam.

[Androidpk]

I don't know what version to get. I'd rather not get the 360 version but I'm not sure if I'm going to be getting a new desktop soon or a laptop instead.

[Ashlander]

Got mine off d2d they're doing preload starting on the 1st not sure if steam is or not yet.

[Geijon Khyree]

Looking forward to the reviews myself. Heard good things about Demon Soul, Uncharted 2, few other games.

Been trying to ween myself off buying games since I've accumulated so many I've not even opened or beaten in a lot of cases.

[Kuyuk]

looks like a good game.

I'll let one of you buy it for me.

[Loyrl]

Gonna get the PC version.

[Vimp]

Pre-ordered the pc digital download version yesterday :)

Incidently, not sure if this works for you guys the otherside of the pond, but I got 25% off by using the following code (from the EA Store online):- VoucherCodes.com25%

I just checked the code again now and it still works as of time of posting this message, at least for UK purchases.

[Ashliana]

Debating the 360 or PC versions, but yes--absolutely getting it.

[Guarrin]

Definitely picking it up when it hits retail. Its damn good.

[Vimp]

... early access for digital version, mid download now and dang it's taking forever!..

[Jace Solo]

Definitely picking it up when it hits retail. Its damn good.

gamefly -- so worth it for these.
I activate to get games like Assasins Creed and Dragon Age and then when I'm done I send them back and deactiviate until there's another game I really wanna play.


Works well for me.

[Guarrin]

gamefly -- so worth it for these.
I activate to get games like Assasins Creed and Dragon Age and then when I'm done I send them back and deactiviate until there's another game I really wanna play.

I'd rather spend the cash and support the developers. Especially if I know I will enjoy the game and would like to see a sequel.

[Drinin]

Pre-loaded on Steam and yet it says the game is still un-released. This sucks.

[Ashlander]

Hope it unlocked for you. I played the hell out of it yesterday and it's sweet.

[Kuyuk]

post some game play screenshots

[Bobmuhthol]

Downloaded it on Sunday, still haven't installed it.

Just downloaded the Prima guide and now I want to play. No LAN support kind of sucks though.

[Ashliana]

I've been playing it as an elven mage (PC)--really liking it so far. I was going to get the 360 version, but heard it was the worst of the three. <3 Bioware.

I wish the UI would scale--at 1920x1200, the text options for dialogue become tiiiiiny.

[Loyrl]

Hope it unlocked for you. I played the hell out of it yesterday and it's sweet.

Yeahhhhhhh its fun! Reminds me of BG1 which is great.

[Drinin]

Human rogue here, and having tons of fun.

[Numbers]

Planning on picking it up. I'm just not sure if I'm ready to invest 100+ hours in a video game.

[Bobmuhthol]

It's doing a fabulous job of crashing every time I get to the character creator. Guess I won't be playing after all.

[Bobmuhthol]

I just changed a lot of shit at once but it might have been an immediate heating issue. The crashes occurred literally within seconds of starting the character creator, so I pushed my video card back to factory default (it came with a +25 MHz core overclock, not a big deal) and kept the fan at 100% before running the game, changed resolution to 1280x800 windowed vs. 1680x1050 full screen, it seems stable so far.

Just sitting in the character creator raised the temperature +5 C and that's with 100% fan speed the entire time.

[Ashliana]

Weird. Driver problem? Mine's fine. Granted, I'm using an 8800GT, which runs hot all the time anyway.

[Kuyuk]

someone buy it for me so I Can test it on my graphics card please.

:)

[Bobmuhthol]

9600GT, latest drivers, 7 Pro x64, there shouldn't be an issue. It seems to artifact at around 60 C which is low considering it's still running at 53 C at a constant 100% fan speed.

[Kuyuk]

bob, be so kind and post pics of what the graphics look like on your rig.

I'm semi interested in the game

[Bobmuhthol]

http://i36.tinypic.com/ih2m4o.jpg

[Kuyuk]

nice.

much nicer than the youtube videos of it.

[Bobmuhthol]

Turned my air conditioner on and now I'm running 1680x1050 full screen @ 36 C. No idea what was causing the problems before.

[Ashlander]

Loving that damn near everything is voiced in the game. Hell even my party members were bickering back and forth.

[Loyrl]

Loving that damn near everything is voiced in the game. Hell even my party members were bickering back and forth.

Same, dwarf warrior, wish i didnt pick a warrior though, seems like a lot of npcs are warriors. But its a great game so far.

[Bobmuhthol]

I'm fucking awful at this game.

[Androidpk]

I'm fucking awful at this game.

The difficulty is higher then average.

[Kuyuk]

it's good to have a game that's diffucult for once.

[Loyrl]

I'm playing it on Hard (might as well take my time with the game, its only SP), and I have to constantly save the game (f5). I'm surprised at how fast it saves, but the loading times aren't to great when zoning into new zones, which so far is my only minor complaint.

Edit: Looked at the screenshot and it looks exactly like my char! Dual wield dwarven warrior?

[Bobmuhthol]

Dwarf rogue, dual wielding.

[Kuyuk]

you could clearly tell it was a rogue from the buttons on bottom.

newb, and I dont even have this awesome looking game.

[Ashliana]

I'm playing an elven magi, and having a blast--especially once I got out of the class-specific story beginning. I wouldn't call it "hard," per se, but combat actually requires thought and some planning: it's not just a "okay, grind through these random mobs" sort of thing like it's slightly-MMOish presentation might otherwise suggest.

I find myself sniping at mobs, ducking around a corner.. then having my group ambush them one at a time as they stream in. Or setting up glyphs to paralyze/etc. I also like sneaking up behind them and casting my large AoE (tier 3 electric spell) on the archers, who will continue to fire at us from inside it. I generally quick-save a lot, and load if something disastrous happens.

I'm really enjoying the universe so far. Kate Mulgrew (Janeway from Voyager) has a pretty big part early on in the story, and I love her as a voice actress. The other characters are interesting and have depth to their backstories. It's well-made. I'm hoping I can either finish it before Modern Warfare 2 comes out, or I can juggle time between them (something I'm not usually good at doing).

[Ashlander]

My only complaint is unless you start as a rogue you won't get anyone who can unlock boxes until after ostagar.

[Drinin]

Made the mistake of just trying to grind through fights early on, not a good idea. I'm having a blast, it's refreshing to have to think while fighting instead of just letting the AI handle everything.

[g++]

Yeahhhhhhh its fun! Reminds me of BG1 which is great.

That sold me. Downloading now.

[g++]

heh so I buy it thinking..man I should really study tonight but ill do it later...then the verdict from steam....4 hours...looks like I will be studying after all heh.

[Bobmuhthol]

Usenet. Unless your download speed absolutely blows.

[Loyrl]

Doing the Radcliffe area right now, and this undead army is beating the shit out of me on hard mode.

[g++]

It does kind of blow right now for some reason. Its usually quite good. I do have 90gigs of shit copying from my hard drive to an external drive, plus iTunes building a library, youtube playing a video and 5 putty connections open at the moment though so Im not gonna be too hard on my computer.

[Kuyuk]

can you play this game outside of steam?

i.e. can I just torrent it and go?

[Bobmuhthol]

Yes. It's not a Steam game.

[Kuyuk]

awesome. torrenting it now.

[g++]

It only took an hour and a half...the download calculator on steam is just wildly inaccurate.

[g++]

Game is awsome. It has some of the same quirks alot of bioware games have though...like rediculously over powered strategies...I made an elf mage and have done nothing but level up magic and went straight to death cloud then picked up healing...i seriously just send my warrior in to taunt cast death cloud on him and heal him. I have yet to see a situation short of a boss where this doesnt short circuit the encounter.

[radamanthys]

Game is awsome. It has some of the same quirks alot of bioware games have though...like rediculously over powered strategies...I made an elf mage and have done nothing but level up magic and went straight to death cloud then picked up healing...i seriously just send my warrior in to taunt cast death cloud on him and heal him. I have yet to see a situation short of a boss where this doesnt short circuit the encounter.

In the essence of realism, there will always be 'hacks'.

For example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DzcOCyHDqc

[Guarrin]

Doing the Radcliffe area right now, and this undead army is beating the shit out of me on hard mode.

I just beat that area last night. If you do some exploring you can find some help for the invasion.

[Loyrl]

What mode are you guys playing on? Playing it on hard and I have to save it after every battle lol I die so freakin much its not funny. I passed the stupid invasion after a few hours! I got every option I could for npc help, flames, drunk militia, black smith help, and the dwarf and his buddies, I forget which else. I think I said something wrong to the elf in the bar because I could not find him after I talked to him once, he said he was going to the church but he wasn't there. I had to train the guys that came up from the water up to the guys at the top of the camp. I didn't think they would ever stop coming. I am now just wandering around and doing random quests before doin the main line. Lvl 8 now.

[Kuyuk]

I'm playing it on hard. just in the beginning though

[g++]

I never play on hard the first run through. Playing on normal...I can tell already Im going to beat this game at least 5 times.

[Drinin]

I'm on normal. I beat Redcliffe on the first try, seemed pretty easy. My group is Morrigan, Sten, Alistair, and myself (human rogue). As an aside, has anyone found anyone who can train duelist or assassin? Haven't come across anyone yet and I'd like to spend my specialization point.

[Kuyuk]

I just started redcliffe, group is the same, except instead of being a human rogue, I'm an elf mage..

Playing on hard, and the 2nd part of the fighting off the undead is nuts. I must be pitted against like 35 of the fuckers.

Only tried once and failed so far, will try again later - I gotsta cook for some super cute czech chicks tomorrow, so preppin today

[NocturnalRob]

super cute
you are gay

[Kuyuk]

well they are.

they're not hot.

they're not ugly.

they're more than cute.

they. are. SUPER! and cute?

[Hips]

I'm on normal. I beat Redcliffe on the first try, seemed pretty easy. My group is Morrigan, Sten, Alistair, and myself (human rogue). As an aside, has anyone found anyone who can train duelist or assassin? Haven't come across anyone yet and I'd like to spend my specialization point.

You come across the assassin not long after dealing with the Circle Magi and their tower, or at least that's where he popped in for me. There will be a cut scene with Loghain and the assassin and it comes shortly after that, anyway.

I use Alistair for his taunts, Leliana (sp?) for archery and her bard songs, and Wynne as my heal bitch.

MY FAVORITE PART IS MAKING MY ROGUE BITCH MAKE OUT WITH ALISTAIR. <3

[Numbers]

I'm pretty bad at this game.

I'm a human rogue, still in the early game, I just got Morrigan added to my party. I don't like micromanaging my party, so I pretty much let my group do whatever they want while I try to get in backstab position. But Alistair and my dog pretty much almost die in each fight. I've leveled up their constitution, not sure what else to do. Anyone have any good tips?

And I hate hate hate almost running out of inventory space. That's gotta be my least favorite part of RPG's. I like to loot everything, and I sell when I can, but I'm still at around 50/80. I need a magic backpack or something.

[ElvenFury]

I'm thinking about picking this up tonight. Consensus on it being worth buying?

[Bobmuhthol]

I might have imagined this but you can buy backpacks at merchants and every backpack is +10 inventory space. I have only seen one so far though.

It's worth buying if you are in the business of buying games.

[Guarrin]

I'm pretty bad at this game.

I'm a human rogue, still in the early game, I just got Morrigan added to my party. I don't like micromanaging my party, so I pretty much let my group do whatever they want while I try to get in backstab position. But Alistair and my dog pretty much almost die in each fight. I've leveled up their constitution, not sure what else to do. Anyone have any good tips?

And I hate hate hate almost running out of inventory space. That's gotta be my least favorite part of RPG's. I like to loot everything, and I sell when I can, but I'm still at around 50/80. I need a magic backpack or something.

Did you change Morrigan from damage type to healer spec? That way she'll prioritize heals over doing any sort of damage. Right now I have her set to heal ally: HP<75% then self: HP<50% and then one of the buffs.

I had the same problem, and this seems to help a bit.

[Bobmuhthol]

Wait, what? Morrigan can heal? Why didn't I fucking notice this?!

[Drinin]

You have to train a heal spell first. I have her set up to heal at 50%, otherwise she lobs fireballs.

[Drinin]

Also, enemies in this game get huge flanking bonuses. When it's like 5 melee on my 3, we're fine. Double that and I get wrecked. There's a talent that you can get as sword/board that reduces enemy flanking bonuses. It requires like 26 dex so or something stupid like that. I had Alistair train that and he's a beast at keeping enemies occupied.

[g++]

God the fade sucks. I cant get a second party member back and everytime an emissary casts a no-heal curse on my guy it kills him...laaaaame

[g++]

Nevermind second i posted this i ran into another form

[Kuyuk]

I'm currently the party healer, works out well, but I draw a fuckton of aggro, and die a lot.

[Kuyuk]

Anyone find a use for the vellum and scroll paper?

I was hoping to be able to make scrolls or some shit, but so far I havent seen anything leading to it.

[Loyrl]

Wait, what? Morrigan can heal? Why didn't I fucking notice this?!

Haha me too until i saw it yesterday, I really need to read the spells / skills before I train. Doing the mage tower now, finished up the werewolves last night. I need to find someone that will train berserker, I saw ranger & shape shifter at an NPC after I finished the forest :hippie:. I have only used a guide once so far for a puzzle =| I dislike using guides unless I am really stuck on something.

[Kuyuk]

Anyone else find that animate dead doesnt work?

I was pumped to get it, but have yet to make it work. :(

[The Lost Player]

Has anyone picked this up on the 360?

[Guarrin]

Grrr. The fade section in the mage tower is pissing me off. Anyone clear this yet?

[Androidpk]

Has anyone picked this up on the 360?

I considered it but I hear the control scheme is horrendous.

[Guarrin]

I have it on 360, and the control scheme isn't that bad.

[Numbers]

Apparently there's a bug in the game where the damage done by dual-wielding rogues doesn't take Dexterity into account -- only Strength. So, basically, warriors make better dual-wielders than rogues. Not sure if there's a patch out for it yet. Kind of a game-breaking bug. And apparently archers suck horribly in the game, which is a shame, cause I wanted to try one.

So I switched to mage, which seems to pwn everything.

[Kuyuk]

archers dont seem to suck for me.. you have to make sure they're within the range of your bow... your guys will fire even if it's outside the range listed on your weapon, but the chance to hit goes waaayyyy down.

So, make sure you're semi close, and you should kick their ass, specially with fire or ice arrows... although I havent found a use for bolts yet.

[Bobmuhthol]

There are crossbows, just not as common as bows.

[Makkah]

So what all races/classes are in the game? Worth buying for the PS3?

[Celephais]

It's pretty fun so far, if you liked nwn you'll like this. I'm just afraid that I'm going to get a spell or raise the wrong stat and find out later it was a mistake.

Makkah there are humans, dwarfs and elfs, and warriors, rogues, and mages (dwarfs can't be mages though). These are all pretty greatly split up... mages have access to 4 sets of 4 trees w/ 4 spells in each tree... the sets are generally: priests, druids, necromancers and elementalists, and then further you can pick a specialization like blood mage or arcane warrior ... saying there are 8 race/class combinations is shortchanging it.

[g++]

Everyones been largely positive about the game but theres some stuff about it that pisses me off too. Every spell school is more or less the same, fighting monsters pretty much costs money. The money you do have seems to come from pointless messanger quests and then you have to use it to buy health and mana potions. After level 10 every encounter is pretty much this : Your in an alley you have to get through...theres 2 high level melee monsters and 2^50th level 1 archers who kill you the second you walk into range.

The AI is awful and frequently bugs out. If I had a gold piece for every time my archer for no reason just walked *through the enemy line* to the other side of them to get at maximum range for her bow and got herself killed forcing me to reload I could actually buy something in the game other than a poltice. The gear upgrades are confusing and few and far between. Im at level 14 now in the game and the encounters get worse and worse. At this point I would seriously rather fight a boss than bandits on the road, its literally 10-20 archers who just kill you the second you step into range.

[Kuyuk]

I play on hard, and I was having a difficult time keeping up buying healing/mana potions, but when I got to the mage circle, I was able to finally buy lyrium dust for mana potions, so I got ~75 of them. Solved that problem.

Herbalism ftw for potions.

Fights are fine for me, but I'm ~9/10ish. I like how I can basically kill everyone instead of giving them help/having them offer to join me.

[g++]

Im inclined to believe hard mode is impossible. Im playing on normal, I have Alistair in full tank mode, wearing juggernaught armor with a missile deflection shield, going in shield walled and he literally dies before my mage who is a spirit healer can cast a spell on some of these archer encounters...the thing is those awsome special abilities you get like scattershot? Yah all the fucking enemies get them too.

edit: maybe not impossible, I mean I eventually get through with insane kiting strategies by the skin of my teeth, but If it were any harder I would probarbly just give up rather than reload 20 times.

[Izzy]

I love the shatter effect you get with petrification/freeze spells, especially when it lands on a semi-boss. "Zomg boss! Oh, I just 1-shotted him, nvm."

[Loyrl]

Im inclined to believe hard mode is impossible. Im playing on normal, I have Alistair in full tank mode, wearing juggernaught armor with a missile deflection shield, going in shield walled and he literally dies before my mage who is a spirit healer can cast a spell on some of these archer encounters...the thing is those awsome special abilities you get like scattershot? Yah all the fucking enemies get them too.

edit: maybe not impossible, I mean I eventually get through with insane kiting strategies by the skin of my teeth, but If it were any harder I would probarbly just give up rather than reload 20 times.

I have no idea how many times I hit save, or reload, or die in hard mode. Maybe things will be easier now that I have a healer. Finished the mage tower, invasion, and the forest, along with some of the sign quests that you get after the invasion.

I did it (the mage tower) was hard, and annoying, I went and got all the forms and then finished the bosses in each, it helps having golem, fire man, mouse, and spirit man. Get all the +stats there because you can't go back with your other toons. What parts are you having trouble with? It took me a few trys to kill the last boss in the middle.

[g++]

I have no idea how many times I hit save, or reload, or die in hard mode. Maybe things will be easier now that I have a healer. Finished the mage tower, invasion, and the forest, along with some of the sign quests that you get after the invasion.

I did it (the mage tower) was hard, and annoying, I went and got all the forms and then finished the bosses in each, it helps having golem, fire man, mouse, and spirit man. Get all the +stats there because you can't go back with your other toons. What parts are you having trouble with? It took me a few trys to kill the last boss in the middle.


Im done all that, Im not really having trouble with the quest, its the frigging bandits and mercenaries and everything else you run into inbetween. Especially in the city when you do the thug mission. They just completely overload the encounters with archer who use scattershot to keep you locked down. Im just wandering around mopping up side quests but at this point seeing that little sword thing pop up makes me want to cry it literally takes me over and hour to do each random encounter. One encounter they gave me NPC elves as allies and they were literally dead before I could hit the space bar. Thats how insane these archers get.

[Loyrl]

Hah, yeah when I got stopped by a ton of archers at a small little camp that had a few npc's the npcs died before I could kill one archer. I was using thunder storm and it worked pretty well. I spend so much on potions and potion ingredients I don't have any gold to buy stuff I will need (tomes and skill ups) or want (maybe some armor or a weapons). Oh and arrows are so damn expensive. I dont bother with special ones except for bosses now.

[Ashliana]

I haven't had a huge amount of trouble with the game or AI--I'm playing a mage, basically acting as a healer/electricity nuker. Alistair is tanking (I brought him up to 38 strength right away to use the red dragon plate), Wynne is healing while I nuke, until she runs low, then I mass rejuv, take over healing while she regenerates mana, and have Lecilia as an archer (mostly so I can pick boxes).

I haven't tinkered with the tactics menu much, since the AI's been pretty good, but like you guys, I've noticed my archer doing some fucking stupid things, running off into the distance for some reason only to get owned. It's rare, though. And I can't seem to find a way to use tactics to tell Wynne to automatically use Revival on downed party members since there's no "Deceased" or "Unconscious" state in the tactics menu.

A few battles were pretty hard--I've had to cast Tempest (huge AoE) before the fight, talk to the NPC and start the battle with my mana already regenerated. Before-the-fact knowledge for the win.

Boss battles haven't been extremely hard--the hardest fights have been the Revenants, for me.

Small spoilers: I've noticed some familiar and welcome voice actors: Zathrian, leader of the Dalish elves is Tim Russ (Tuvok from Star Trek: Voyager) and Flemeth is Kate Mulgrew (Janeway, also from Voyager), Leghain is Simon Templeman (Kain from Legacy of Kain).

The character from the DLC, Shale, is awesome. He is Dragon Age's "HK47."

Also, I've never spent a copper on potions, but I've come close a few times. Abusing the hell out of Rejuvenate swapping on Wynne/main char. mage keeps us good on mana.

[Kuyuk]

3 mages +1 tank pwns

[Drinin]

[QUOTE=g++;1020813]Im done all that, Im not really having trouble with the quest, its the frigging bandits and mercenaries and everything else you run into inbetween. Especially in the city when you do the thug mission. They just completely overload the encounters with archer who use scattershot to keep you locked down. Im just wandering around mopping up side quests but at this point seeing that little sword thing pop up makes me want to cry it literally takes me over and hour to do each random encounter. One encounter they gave me NPC elves as allies and they were literally dead before I could hit the space bar. Thats how insane these archers get.[/QUOT

Yeah, those thugs were brutal. I fell in love with mind blast and it's aoe stun for dispersing crowds. I play on normal, but after 5-10 loads after getting wiped I'll drop it to easy if need be. I've had to do that on like 3 fights so far. Done most of Denerlin, Redcliffe, and almost done with the Dalish. Still have to grab the mages and dwarves.

[g++]

I haven't tinkered with the tactics menu much, since the AI's been pretty good, but like you guys, I've noticed my archer doing some fucking stupid things, running off into the distance for some reason only to get owned. It's rare, though.

It depends on your tactic. If your like me and your getting creamed by archers all night you start to find line of sight corners to stack your troops. The AI for an archer probarbly looks something like this.

If a monster is near you get x yards away where x is your bows range
else fire

Well if your stacked into a corner fighting 20 monsters the AI is going to try to run away over and over again and the only way to get 20 yards away from the monsters, as counter intuitive as it is, it makes perfect sense to the computer to run directly passed them to a spot behind them where your 20 yards away. Unfortunately since every single encounter involves stacking your troops and positioning people at high levels it makes the ranged AI's completely useless because it should be written as

if a monster is near you get x yard away where x is your bows range and x is a positive vector from the location of the monster.
else fire

but they were too lazy for that so my archer is basically suicidal most of the time till I turn its AI off and take full control.

[Izzy]

I have no idea how many times I hit save, or reload, or die in hard mode. Maybe things will be easier now that I have a healer. Finished the mage tower, invasion, and the forest, along with some of the sign quests that you get after the invasion.

I did it (the mage tower) was hard, and annoying, I went and got all the forms and then finished the bosses in each, it helps having golem, fire man, mouse, and spirit man. Get all the +stats there because you can't go back with your other toons. What parts are you having trouble with? It took me a few trys to kill the last boss in the middle.

I had 3 mages for my fight on the last demon, Wynne who is already heal specced, and Morigain with a few heals as well. Alistair with some tank gear. EZ.


3 mages +1 tank pwns

Just saw this. QFT.

[Bobmuhthol]

Sloth demon? I controlled Wynne and kept everyone alive with heals with my rogue, Alistair, and Sten left completely to the AI.

[Hips]

***** SPOILER ALERT *****








Sooo, when doing the Landsmeet, if you decide things a certain way, Alistair leaves the party. Since Alistair is my character's romantic interest (and he's an awesome tank) I had to reload my save and make sure I made him king instead of Anora being queen... and of course I said I would rule beside him.

AND THEN YOU GET ENGAGED!! AND TALK ABOUT HAVING HEIRS TOGETHER!!


Eeeeeee (<--- that's an excited/happy girly noise) I'm so glad Bioware gave this story a GOOD romantic subplot, unlike NWN2 with Casavir or whatever his name was.

[Renian]

I'm a little late to the party but...

Why does everyone seem to hate the Fade? The fade was awesome; you get 4 levels worth of stat bonuses there. Also, GOLEM FORM SMAAAAASH!

Dual-wielding not taking dex into account kind of blows, true. But you could just get Lethality and get the damage to take into account cunning instead.

I'm a dual-wielding rogue/assassin. Momentum is badass. But then you get Wynne haste and it doesn't stack with it; it cancels it out, which makes me sad.

[g++]

***** SPOILER ALERT *****








Sooo, when doing the Landsmeet, if you decide things a certain way, Alistair leaves the party. Since Alistair is my character's romantic interest (and he's an awesome tank) I had to reload my save and make sure I made him king instead of Anora being queen... and of course I said I would rule beside him.

AND THEN YOU GET ENGAGED!! AND TALK ABOUT HAVING HEIRS TOGETHER!!


Eeeeeee (<--- that's an excited/happy girly noise) I'm so glad Bioware gave this story a GOOD romantic subplot, unlike NWN2 with Casavir or whatever his name was.

Alistairs a virgin, he told me after I had sex with the witch. Good luck with that.

[Ashliana]

I liked the Fade section, personally. Too bad Alistair isn't a same-sex interest. Would've been much more interesting than Zevron/Lecilia. :P

[Hips]

Alistairs a virgin, he told me after I had sex with the witch. Good luck with that.

He told me that too, before my chick banged him. Several times. In camp. Before we even got engaged. HEEHEE.

[Loyrl]

I guess there's a patch that makes normal easier or it might be easy easier. But its on their site.

[Hips]

MORRIGAN IS A HUSSY.

If any of you have the female romance going with Alistair, you'll see why. Cutscene before you go to Denerim to fight the Blight. Grrr!

[Drinin]

Slept with Morrigan, now she wants to break it off. Maybe I'll try nailing that bard chick.

[Kuyuk]

I just uber pwned the brood mother with my main guy.


tempest + fireball, had everyone grouped on me so all the little adds would be taken care of while I just kept the two spells on her and her tentacles. pwned, 1st try, beotch!


Off to job interview!

[Hips]

I thought the showing of boobs in this game was pretty awesome, until I got to the brood mother. UGH.


Anyway, on my second playthrough now. I decided to go with a dwarf chick this time and I'm really enjoying the noble beginning storyline.

[g++]

I definately cant wait to play this one again now that I know what I am doing.

[ElvenFury]

I picked this game up at lunch. Looking forward to playing it tonight. Any starting tips?

[Hips]

If you're not against cheating and have the pc version, "hack" yourself some money.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/code/920668.html

[Stanley Burrell]

Do you have to do teh seckz? Edit: And if not, is there a fap option? That would heinously awesome *squint*

IN OTHER NEWS: Should I buy DA:O before CoD:MW I and II?

Peace.

[ElvenFury]

If you're not against cheating and have the pc version, "hack" yourself some money.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/code/920668.html

360, and I don't cheat on the first play through. I wish I had a decent PC, though, because I used to love to mod things on replays.

[Hips]

360, and I don't cheat on the first play through.

I don't either, but ACTUALLY HAVING MONEY in the beginning of this second play through is awesome. <3


How is the xbox version? I heard on various forums that it's buggy.

[ElvenFury]

I don't either, but ACTUALLY HAVING MONEY in the beginning of this second play through is awesome. <3


How is the xbox version? I heard on various forums that it's buggy.

I hope to find out tonight. My box is online though, so I can download any patches if they bother to release them for 360.

[Kuyuk]

fuck hacking - just use TAB to see everything you can click on

I didnt learn it until I was like level 7 :(

[Ashlander]

fuck hacking - just use TAB to see everything you can click on

I didnt learn it until I was like level 7 :(

Did the same damn thing so I started over for the codex unlocks I probably missed.

[Loyrl]

I dont play FPS much, but I have read a ton of people bitching about the new cod.

No dedicated servers
No lean (cant lean your character to peer around a wall)
No chance of picking who hosts a game
No maps above 9vs9
No Custom maps
No command prompt editing
Not able to kick / report people for cheating / afk or anything like that


I think there was more but that's what I could come up with off the top of my head.

[Bobmuhthol]

I just installed 1.01 and the DLC, gave Alistair the dragon plate set, and I came instantly. I do so much better now (plus I took Zevran out of my group, 2 rogues was a huge mistake).

[Ashlander]

1.01 worked fine for you? I've heard some people have been having trouble with it so I've held off installing it.

[kookiegod]

I bought the x360 version, started on it yesterday and addicted...

Playing a dwarf noble warrior.

Just fun!!!!


~Paul

[ElvenFury]

I've got an elven mage going. I barely got out of the starting mage place before I went to bed. I'm considering redoing it, as I'm not sure I like how the story played out. This is going to take for-EVAR.

[Kuyuk]

i dont use alastair

I use either sven or the dwarf as my tank - also, I found the wardog is very good at lvl 13, hah.


oh - I have found absolutely no specialties. I am level 14 with two slots to use, but have yet to unlock a fucking specialization.

[Bobmuhthol]

You use a twohanded warrior as a tank over a shield warrior? I use Sten for DPS.



1.01 worked fine for you? I've heard some people have been having trouble with it so I've held off installing it.

I was a little hesitant to install it after my trouble with 1.0 but I didn't have any problems. I don't know what to attribute doing a lot better in combat to but I'm figuring the adjusted attack/defense/damage numbers are not negligible.

[Kuyuk]

yeah, my two hander has uber strength, so can wear the heavier armor, alistair has shitty strength, so he cant wear the same armor.

and alistair hates me for killing the kid

so fuck him

[Bobmuhthol]

You can redistribute stats, which is definitely a bug, but whatever, I just took some points from Alistair's dex/cunning/magic to bring him up to the 38 strength for blood dragon plate. I don't know the combat mechanics at all in this game but I feel like having a shield is a huge advantage for a tank.

I think I also have a preference for Alistair because he's like +40 with me and Sten is -20. Fucking guy hates doing anything but killing darkspawn.

[Loyrl]

1.01 worked fine for me, but I don't think it changes anything on hard mode. I use my dual wielding berserker, morrigan with 1 heal, wynn as the main healer, and the chick rogue archer that i got also because its annoying not seeing traps and not able to open boxes.

You can learn duelist and berserker and I think a few others in Denerim, and the merchant in your camp sells two things, I think shape shifter and something else.

I started Denerim but I got annoyed with back ally bandits and went to do the dwarven town insted, I'm currently in the back roads. Berserk is pretty good, I just wish it had a passive to resist stuns, maybe it does on the 4th talent, I need to read the last two.

[Bobmuhthol]

The merchant in my camp sells ranger and templar IIRC.

[Kuyuk]

you can redistribute stats? I didnt notice this!

Must check out.

Sven is like +20 for me - just give him beer and ale and shit for gifts.


edit: it wont let me redistrubute stats :(

[Bobmuhthol]

You have to do it with at least 1 stat point left to assign.

Add x points to the stat you want to actually remove points from, then click reset, for as many times as you have to in order to get the number you want (e.g., if you want to remove 5 points from cunning and you have 3 points from just leveling up, add 3 to cunning, click reset, add 2 to cunning, click reset). Then you can subtract that amount from the stat you were working on and add it to another stat.

I don't really consider that cheating because I ultimately took away points that I added to him in the first place so I could move them around, but you can go (artificially?) negative. I took a ton of points from magic on my rogue to test and ended up with over 100 dexterity.

[Kuyuk]

lol, nice, I'll have to try it to see if it works for me.

I just killed the dragon in the werewolf lair, totally kicked its ass, though it did eat my healer.

19g + a shitload of items, too bad I dont have a rogue to pick the chests.

For playing on hard, I'm doing well methinks

[ElvenFury]

So when do I get to the boobies part?

[Celephais]

lol, nice, I'll have to try it to see if it works for me.

I just killed the dragon in the werewolf lair, totally kicked its ass, though it did eat my healer.

19g + a shitload of items, too bad I dont have a rogue to pick the chests.

For playing on hard, I'm doing well methinks
I just killed him too, my rogue has only 2 out of 4 ranks of pick locks and that wasn't enough for them.

As for the crazy guy right before there, did you kill the tree, kill the hermit, or trade for the acorn? I wanted to trade for the helmet but ultimately ended up trading for the acorn, I'm hoping I can look through and find something else to trade him for the helmet (+25% nature resistence).

... Also revants suck. I was able to force field him and kill all his minions so it was just vs him... and he massacred me. (Level 7... guess I'll have to come back).

[Kuyuk]

I think the level of the mobs goes up accordingly with your level, so they're always going to be a certain toughness against you.. example being when I was like lvl 4 I activated a revenant and it was red, and I was able to kill it, but now as lvl 13, I activate them again, they're still red, and they enjoy putting a whoop ass on me.

i stole the acorn, and killed the hermit, after I traded for a worthless fucking book, which I was hoping was of ULTIMATE MAGE POWER!!!!1

[Celephais]

I've been avoiding doing any saving/loading for decisions, but I couldn't help myself with the hermit... first time I took the helmet and had to kill him for the acorn, decided to load and saw the book was worthless, loaded again and traded for the acorn (with intentions of looking for other crap to trade, no clue when I got the scarf if I even had it, and if I can't find it, going back and killing him).

[Ashlander]

So when do I get to the boobies part?

Best part is when morrigan makes you fuck her in spiderform.

[ElvenFury]

Best part is when morrigan makes you fuck her in spiderform.

Mmmn, bondage!

[Hips]

Best part is when morrigan makes you fuck her in spiderform.

Please tell me you're joking.

If not, maybe I should start a MALE character, hahaha.

[Izzy]

oh - I have found absolutely no specialties. I am level 14 with two slots to use, but have yet to unlock a fucking specialization.

Any idea where to get specializations? I haven't found a single mage one, except blood mage from the demon in the fade.

[ElvenFury]

Please tell me you're joking.

If not, maybe I should start a MALE character, hahaha.

I hear that Leliana swings both ways.

[Hips]

Any idea where to get specializations? I haven't found a single mage one, except blood mage from the demon in the fade.

Depending on how much your party members like you, they can teach you their specialization.

For those who haven't beaten the game, be aware that the WARRIOR part below has spoiler stuff.






Rogues: Zevran teaches assassin, Isabella in the Pearl brothel teaches duelist, ranger you get from a book, bard you get from Leliana (or from a book).

Mage: arcane warrior is found in the Brecilian/werewolf ruins, blood mage comes from the desire demon possessing Connor, Morrigan teaches you shapeshifter (or you can get it from a book), Wynne teaches you spirit healer (or you can get it from a book).

Warrior: Ohgren teaches you berserker (or you can get it from a book), Loghain teaches you champion and you also learn it from Arl Eamon after you heal him with the Ashes, reaver you learn by siding with the cult in the ruined temple for the Andraste's ashes quest, and Alistair teaches champion (or you can learn it from a book).

[Kuyuk]

I just learned arcane warrior, so my main char is an elven mage decked out in dragonbane armor- pimpin. I havent taken him into battle with it yet though.

edit: my defense is 67, while my main tank is only 50. hah

edit 2: zomg, just did a combat with him, he was gettin beat on by a bunch of skellies, and was taking 1-4 damage per hit. hahaha. casting time seems a bit slower though.

[ElvenFury]

Is there a stat cap? I'm not sure what to do for a stat growth gameplan.

[Kuyuk]

not that I know of..

warriors need 42 strength for uber armor

mages need at least 34-36 magic for tier 4 spells

thats about all I know.

I dont play with sissy rogues

[Loyrl]

The game says that the person with the highest armor attracts the most attnetion, yet my berserker always gets agro. I ditched the tank and added another ranged. Yes I had skills going and everything blah blah blah just didn't seem worth it.

[Bobmuhthol]

All else equal, higher armor attracts attention likely because it is a threat factor. However, if you are doing damage or you are the first noticed, you have the most threat already.

[Ashlander]

I hear that Leliana swings both ways.

I had to stop playing for a bit when she and morrigan did 2 girls 1 cup though...

[Izzy]

Depending on how much your party members like you, they can teach you their specialization.

For those who haven't beaten the game, be aware that the WARRIOR part below has spoiler stuff.






Rogues: Zevran teaches assassin, Isabella in the Pearl brothel teaches duelist, ranger you get from a book, bard you get from Leliana (or from a book).

Mage: arcane warrior is found in the Brecilian/werewolf ruins, blood mage comes from the desire demon possessing Connor, Morrigan teaches you shapeshifter (or you can get it from a book), Wynne teaches you spirit healer (or you can get it from a book).

Warrior: Ohgren teaches you berserker (or you can get it from a book), Loghain teaches you champion and you also learn it from Arl Eamon after you heal him with the Ashes, reaver you learn by siding with the cult in the ruined temple for the Andraste's ashes quest, and Alistair teaches champion (or you can learn it from a book).

Awesome. Exactly what I needed.

[Makkah]

How good is character customization in regards to looks? Can I make a little black, bald dwarf?

[Danical]

How good is character customization in regards to looks? Can I make a little black, bald dwarf?

DAAAA KREEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guarrin]

I take back every positive thing I've ever said about this game.

AI is absolutely horrible. I rolled a warrior, but I'm forced to play the healer because the tactics just do NOT work.

Even with 2 mages set to healing in my group, they can't keep either of the two warriors alive.

[Bobmuhthol]

I think that means your warrior is doing something wrong. Granted, my healer kind of pisses me off in most fights and I can think a lot more rationally than she can, but my warrior (Alistair) doesn't die unless we wipe, and he always outlasts every other party member substantially. Everyone died instantly when I fought Jarvia except Alistair, who proceeded to kill Jarvia and everyone else in the room singlehandedly.

Don't forget that behavior affects things, and tactics are top-down priority. Make sure your healer cares about your tank's health above all else and takes potions when necessary.

[AestheticDeath]

Might buy it for the PC, but haven't been to a store recently. How much does the game cost? How much is the Collector's Edition? Anyone buy it and think it is worth it?

edit: found the price i think, $40 and $60?

Wow, already found cheat codes for it, xp, gold, immortality, infinite health, add members, abilities, spell and talents etc..

Do people hack the game to figure these out or what?

And most importantly, can you play a 100% evil guy, and not get wtf owned by local militia as soon as you enter town and whatnot? (Thinking of Baldurs gate here, where evil was impossible without hacks, and then it was just annoying)

[Bobmuhthol]

Most cheats are documented and not at all kept secret. You can't attack non-hostile NPCs but you can definitely make evil choices -- pretty much anyone you encounter that is not a main quest character has a "kill this person" dialog option.

[Rimalon]

I love my motherfucking Arcane Warrior.

Gave him the Warden Armor set from the DLC and the starmetal two-handed sword. HE PWNS! See archers and mages in back, launch fireball, hit arcane combat mode, proceed to fuck shit up.

Leliana as a properly equipped archer also kicks ass (with the bow from her quest, a rapid aim/+crit helmet and a bunch of dex stuff).

Stacking spell resistance on Alistair is also hilarious. I think I've got close to 50% on him at the moment, most of it from the Templar Armor.

Enchantment? ENCHANTMENT! Fucking great game.

[Malvadere]

Sweet I downloaded it off Steam and it wont launch

[g++]

Evil was possible in baldurs gate. You just had to be ready for a boss fight ever time you loaded the screen.

[Kuyuk]

After I finish I think I'm gonna replay and be a complete cock to everyone.

I kinda was at times, I killed damn near everyone I could for fun - the assassin, the child, etc.

I might play on hardcore mode too. Hard was only hard at times.

[Celephais]

I'm looking forward to replaying, mostly so I can spec myself out better, I'm all over the place w/ my spells ... now I understand what spells are worthwhile. (There is no reason all mages shouldn't have at least heal and force-field, and Ice is WAY better than fire).

[ElvenFury]

x2 on the spells. I had no idea what I was doing.

[Ashliana]

Party AI is painfully incompetent at healing--I just never noticed because I spend most of the time as my healer/nuker, and let Wynne off-heal.

I like that the really valuable stuff is always in unlocked chests, but it drives me crazy not being able to pick them and wondering what's inside. But my PC can't pick, and my preferred party is: Alistair (tank), Shale (dps) and Wynne (heals). I could do without Shale, but her banter (especially with Wynne) is hilarious.

[Kuyuk]

I dont have a problem with party healing - set it up in the tactics.

my PC has all the major crowd control spells - fireball/firestorm/chain lightning and tempest

Morrigan has death cloud and blizzard

Wynne has stone fist, petrify and earthquake

I dont really need a tank, so I just throw people in there for shits, sometimes its the dog, sometimes it's the dwarf because he's fun to listen to.

Dont even know who Shale is.

Both my PC and Wynne are spirit healer spec (my PC just has rank 1) for mass group heals.

The only thing I had to chance was Wynne wasting ALL her mana on stupid buff spells. I nixxed that, and now she just heals and regens

[ElvenFury]

Where is the arcane mage skill learned?

[Hips]

Where is the arcane mage skill learned?

Do you mean arcane warrior? It's in the Brecilian/werewolf ruins.

[Hips]

I could do without Shale, but her banter (especially with Wynne) is hilarious.

Shale's a she?! When do you find that out?

Oghren's dialog with Wynne is hilarious. He talks about fucking her all the time. XD

[ElvenFury]

Do you mean arcane warrior? It's in the Brecilian/werewolf ruins.

Yeah, that. I'm not that far along but I'm saving my first spec slot for it AND I WANT IT NOW! :ranting:

[Celephais]

I'm really tempted to use the console command to reset my skills/stats so I can replace them... doesn't seem like that big a deal because I could just start over, knowing what I know now. Have any of you done this? Any problems with doing it (Do I get some black mark on my steam achievments or something?)

[Kuyuk]

havent tried, but on my next run through I might give myself gold to buy the uber gear sets for shits.

havent cheated this run through!

I was just doing the rescue anora quest in denerim and was facing that room of 12+ guards on the way out, holy fuck was it impossible, I tried like 5 times, each time making that room a living hell (blizzard/tempest/deathcloud/earthquake/etc). I got it down to like 3 people + the main boss, but the main boss was too uber, and would kill me each time.

after like five tries, I let it load and it loaded into the next quest, instead of dying. oops, I shouldnt have been so hasty on the reloads

[Celephais]

I haven't cheated yet and don't plan on it, but I don't really think of re-allocates as cheating. It's not like GS3 where you had to "work hard early to be powerful later" or anything.

I did run into a similar bug, except the other way around (not based on saving/loading either), I fought the boss for the brazillian forest (yes, in Brazil, east of new Orleans) and after I killed him it just kind hung in combat, him not dead... and then eventually it just took me back into the cutscene at the start of the fight, and then restarted combat, killed him, and then it moved on. I also ran into a bug where the first wave of enemies out of redcliffe castle didn't come, I had to send a guy through the fire to the other side to kite them into attacking me.

[Ashliana]

Shale's a she?! When do you find that out?

Oghren's dialog with Wynne is hilarious. He talks about fucking her all the time. XD

Sorry, bit of an unintentional spoiler. You find out more of Shale's background when you do her companion quest.

[Kuyuk]

Something crazy happened!

For the first time, I'm playing my arcane mage, just finished denerim, at redcliffe fighting the masses - I'm killing an ogre, and then I do the killing blow... and this happens:

it goes into slow-mo, my guy slices the ogre like three times, jumps on his neck, jams the sword into its head and rides it to the ground before pulling the sword out.

never had a slow-mo kill in the game until just then. I am in awe. I pwn it seems.

[Rimalon]

Something crazy happened!

For the first time, I'm playing my arcane mage, just finished denerim, at redcliffe fighting the masses - I'm killing an ogre, and then I do the killing blow... and this happens:

it goes into slow-mo, my guy slices the ogre like three times, jumps on his neck, jams the sword into its head and rides it to the ground before pulling the sword out.

never had a slow-mo kill in the game until just then. I am in awe. I pwn it seems.

Hells yeah man, Alistair got that for me at the first ogre boss fight. I was like... FUCKING YEEEEEAH! That shit is matrix.

I get pretty many "slow-mo" kills on normal mobs with a normal socketable battleaxe and starmetal sword. Dunno if it's dependent on weapon or what, but my boys are posing all over the place.

[Bobmuhthol]

I took a look at the code with the developer toolset and from what I remember the special kills are dependent on the fraction of the mob's health at the time of the attack and a random chance. I looked at it briefly but I think it was structured something like "if the mob is within a special death health range, attempt special death, else attack normally."

[Parkbandit]

I was hoping I could download this game onto my work laptop and play it....

Um... yea, not happening. I guess when I bought my laptop, I should have worried less about being able to take a hit or two and more about speed and entertainment...

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e6/belike53/IMG_0388.jpg

[GS4Khistian]

So I just got this. What class\builds should I not even bother with?

[Hips]

I wouldn't bother with shapechanger for mage, ranger for rogue, or templar for warrior.

That's just my opinion though.

[ElvenFury]

Shapeshifter seems pretty useless to me. If you want a mage to fight on the front lines, you're better off with an arcane warrior.

Unrelated; Sten is an ungrateful fuck. I hauled his ass out of prison and certain death, and now all he does is bitch about how he could run things better. Go fuck yourself, Sten.

[GS4Khistian]

Arcane warrior looks pretty cool. Guess i'll try it out.

[Kuyuk]

I liked shapeshifter.

Morrigan ate up people when she mastered it.

[ElvenFury]

My main just became an arcane warrior. Any build probably works fine as long as you have complimentary party members.

I don't have a healer in my group at the moment, which makes things interesting, but basically my main nukes with inferno, then uses forcefield to tie up the biggest enemy. As long as I survive the initial aggro from the nuke, Alastair seems to take over the aggro pretty well with all of his tauntish skills, and Morrigan and Lelyana do damage from afar while Alistair tries not to die. Morrigan does a good job of stunning everyone with mental blast, but if the numbers are too huge I have Lelyana use her captivating song. Also, I buy a lot of potions.

[Kuyuk]

I didnt get forcefield until almost the last scenario, so I never used it.

My group was usually 3 magic users and 1 warrior. I never used Lalyana, so I dont know shit about rogues.

mage 1 (main) was AoE, mage 2 (morrigan), was CC with winters grasp/cone of cold/stun/etc, and could off-tank with Bear shape, or fuck up archers with her bee form. mage 3 was wynne with heals, and stone fist/petrify to shatter bosses ;)

[Fallen]

Can you play this with local multiplayer?

[Hips]

No multiplayer at all that I've seen.

[Fallen]

blech.

[Kuyuk]

I think it'd be impossible to pay multiplayer with the pause button... think about how fucked that'd be?

[Drinin]

I wouldn't bother with shapechanger for mage, ranger for rogue, or templar for warrior.

That's just my opinion though.

Agree on shifter, I've found it worthless. Ranger is badass though. The summons can tank shit for quite a bit while my rogue sneaks around and backstabs the holy hell out of enemies. Templar is so/so. I've found cleanse area pretty useful, but other than that I didn't get much out of it on Alistair.

I'm almost done with my first play-through using Alistair (Templar/Crusader), Sten (Crusader), Morrigan (Shifter/Blood-mage) and my rogue (duelist/assassin). Next run through the game I'm going to give a mage w/arcane warrior a try. Probably take Shale to tank, Leliana as my lockpicking bitch, and Wynne. Things will probably be easier with a dedicated healer.

[Celephais]

Forcefield and Crushing prison are game-changers. Have Allistar do the AOE taunt so everything is fighting him, then force-field him. It's pally bubble without the de-agro, everything will keep fighting him, you can then AOE him (Cone of Cold, etc) with no worries, crushing prison can then be used to completely kill one of the lower level guys attacking, or you can take a chance at it working on the higher level guys (if it does, as it does on occasion, it's amazing).

[ElvenFury]

Also, I haven't messed with tactics at all, other than to try to shut of "death magic" on Morrigan, which is a totally worthless spell, imo.

[Kuyuk]

I tried to use animate dead about 500 times, HOPING that it would work at least once. it never did.

Maybe it's a bug, but it NEVER, EVER worked. :(

[Guarrin]

I'm almost done with my first play-through using Alistair (Templar/Crusader), Sten (Crusader), Morrigan (Shifter/Blood-mage)

Ok, where did you unlock blood mage and what did you think of it? I'm going through my second play through now, as a mage, and I wanted to give it a shot.

[Kuyuk]

I didnt unlock it in my playthrough - I guess it was in the very beginning in the Fade sequence.

I'm doing my 2nd playthrough as a noble dwarven rogue. basically going to kill as many people as I can for fun.

[AestheticDeath]

The manual says there is no level cap, yet there is a level 25 cap. I'm sad. And I couldn't find the collectors edition, and I had to pay friggin $50 for the normal. Was sure i saw it was supposed to only be $40..

[Hips]

Ok, where did you unlock blood mage and what did you think of it? I'm going through my second play through now, as a mage, and I wanted to give it a shot.

Blood mage you get from the desire demon possessing Connor (Redcliffe Castle storyline).

[Ashlander]

I think it's the $50 version that comes with one of the dlc's the $40 version you have to pay for both.

[Drinin]

Ok, where did you unlock blood mage and what did you think of it? I'm going through my second play through now, as a mage, and I wanted to give it a shot.

What Hips said. It was alright. I never really used the abilities. I just maxed out magic and had Morrigan lob fireballs and infernos. If you're playing on hard or nightmare I can see the crowd control/extra mana from blood mage abilities being very useful. I played on normal.

[Androidpk]

Just picked up a copy for the 360. :D

[Kuyuk]

what spells does blood mage have?

[Guarrin]

http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Blood_Mage

They don't look that great...aside from blood wound and blood control.

[Kuyuk]

so 50% of their spells look good...?

[Guarrin]

Maybe less...I'm probably still going to try it though. This doesn't look great, although I'm not certain which creatures don't have blood (golems?)


Creatures without blood are immune.

[Ashlander]

some undead too I'm thinking

[Bobmuhthol]

I have to assume that elementals like rage demons wouldn't.

[Celephais]

I just killed my first "High Dragon" ... I was a little disappointed in how I was able to just outsmart it. Alistar ran in, taunted, got nearly WTFPWNT by the ensueing first attack, then Morrigan force fielded Alistar, everyone attacks from a distance, as force field is about to wear off my main (mage) force fields alistar... rince/repeat. The entirety of the fight involved the high dragon attacking Alistar and getting a "no effect" message, while I very slowly wittled away at the dragon. Something tells me I wasn't supposed to fight the dragon either, but hell I had to give it a shot.

[Rimalon]

Force field is the most broken spell in the game, yep!

And moar brokenness fun: earthquake and then tempest/inferno/blizzard without line of sight. Yes plz.

[Kuyuk]

Dragons are pretty tough without forcefield - as I never had the spell.


The AI on them is pretty awesome. if you're behind it, it'll hit you with its tail, or kick you, it's pretty cool how it knows.

[Ashliana]

I didn't have forcefield when I beat it. But the AI was fucking up.. every time my party would run for it, it would leap up into the sky, fly behind us and land. Then my mage would nuke it. Then as my party ran towards it, it would leap up again to the other side, I'd run to where it was before, nuke it as it landed, and it'd take off again.

Proceeded for about 10 minutes. Pop!

[Kuyuk]

which fight? I killed three dragons when I played - sounds like you're talking about the final boss?

[Ashliana]

I was talking about the High Dragon, the one being worshipped by the evil cultists near the Indiana Jones rip-off ashes vault.

[Numbers]

So I finally had more time to play this, and just got to the first camp after Lothering.

And someone at my camp is trying to sell me downloadable content!!

WTF!? Talk about jarring me out of the game...

[Malvadere]

Can you have more than one character at a time, or will making another char. make previous saves/resume games go away? Ex. I have been playing a mage and am halfway through; will making a new game of a warrior or rogue make the progress of my mage go away?

[Kuyuk]

you can have multiple chars, just switch chars when trying to load games

[Rimalon]

Speaking of Dragons, their "executions" are fucking awesome. Has anyone else seen them??

I've seen my dual-wielder jump up on their neck for a ride and just stabby stabby stabby until they're dead...

And then my two-hander jumps up, takes the dragon to the ground, and fucking decapitates it with a MASSIVE SWING.

I LOVE IT!

[Ashlander]

you can have multiple chars, just switch chars when trying to load games

any idea if they can be the same name? been wondering that but haven't felt like trying.

[Kuyuk]

no idea, not sure why one would name two characters the same thing.

[Celephais]

Anyone buy any of the DLC? A friend of mine did both and was like "You get some new abilities and some items", but otherwise said the quests were short. This frustrated me, at least in Fallout the DLC actually had some solid content, watching some of the tower DLC my friend played it didn't look like anything special as far as content (and he blew through it in a few hours at best), and he blew through the 2nd DLC (with the golem) in very short order too.

Sounds disappointing

... wait now I'm reading somewhere that all the DLC but the warden's keep are free, I talked to the golem dlc in game vendor guy and when the dialog popped up to buy it just said "not enough points" and quickly disappeared. Am I doing something wrong?

Okay figured out how to get the stone prisoner DLC for free (well free w/ original purchase). It's frictionless! Just click DLC from the main menu, then click redeem code, this will launch a website outside of the game, then register on the website that opens, once logged into the site you need to go back into the game and click redeem code again to go to the redemption page, then you'll realize you need to go back into the game and shift-tab to see steam's cd key codes, copy this code to pen and paper because the clipboard won't work on the popup, back to the webpage enter the 16 character alphanumeric code, reenter it because your handwriting makes 2s and Zs look the same, then go back into the game, click the refresh wallet, wonder why the stone prisoner just disappeared of the list for no reason, check the currently downloading tab, and both the dragon armor and stone prisoner will download and simply disappear again, and will be in your downloaded content tab. Easy as pie.

[Kuyuk]

dunno, maybe you get points for achievements unlocked?

[Ashliana]

Anyone buy any of the DLC? A friend of mine did both and was like "You get some new abilities and some items", but otherwise said the quests were short. This frustrated me, at least in Fallout the DLC actually had some solid content, watching some of the tower DLC my friend played it didn't look like anything special as far as content (and he blew through it in a few hours at best), and he blew through the 2nd DLC (with the golem) in very short order too.

Sounds disappointing

... wait now I'm reading somewhere that all the DLC but the warden's keep are free, I talked to the golem dlc in game vendor guy and when the dialog popped up to buy it just said "not enough points" and quickly disappeared. Am I doing something wrong?

I bought Steam's "Digital Deluxe" version, so it came with all the DLC, and I haven't seen any of the NPCs hawking it (I would've liked to).

The Stone Prisoner (featuring Shale, the Golem) isn't really DLC so much as it is a part of the game unlockable with a code that comes with every new copy of the game. It's a reward for people who bought the game first-hand, rather than a used copy from GameStop/etc. Those people can buy The Stone Prisoner for $15.

Shale is awesome, though, and has a lot of voiceacting/input throughout the entire story.

As for The Warden's Keep.. Hm. It's a fairly short quest, but it gives you access to 6 new abilities (2 for each class). I found the mage ones very useful (blood magic: sacrifice a little HP for a big mana boost, and sacrifice a little HP for a decent damage attack), a set of armor you won't use for very long, but it also gives you a chest to store crap in so you don't have to carry it all around with you, and it adds a random encounter when traveling to find a meteor. If you get the metal from the meteor and bring it back to someone in The Warden's Keep, they'll forge a sword called Starfang for you, that is (arguably) the best sword in the game.

[Kuyuk]

innerestin

[ElvenFury]

...and it adds a random encounter when traveling to find a meteor. If you get the metal from the meteor and bring it back to someone in The Warden's Keep, they'll forge a sword called Starfang for you, that is (arguably) the best sword in the game.

I think I had this meteor thing happen to me, although I don't remember downloading any extra content. I was going from Denerim to Redcliffe at the time. It seemed like a random Superman reference, to be honest.

POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD
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An older couple were standing by a crater, and the guy says something about how atleast the kid has ten fingers and ten toes, and that they should bring him back to the farm to raise him. IIRC, he also calls the woman Martha. They left before I walked in, and then I got some metal from the meteorite. Is this the warden's keep encounter?

[Celephais]

There seem to be a whole lot of vague pop culture references throughout the game, there are some random ones I haven't been able to put my finger on what they point to but just made me think "this is out of place... what are they getting at?"

... I don't particuarly like it. It seems to be the cool thing to do lately, riddle your game universe with references that geeks would like... if I want to think about another game/genre's IP I'll go to them, if I'm dealing with the IP in your world, stick to that.

[Kuyuk]

I just liked the fact you can whore yourself out to transgenders, and dwarves

[ElvenFury]

I just liked the fact you can whore yourself out to transgenders, and dwarves

I couldn't see any benefit from the pearl, other than some quick gag jokes for 20 silver each. It would have been better if you could let your companions sleep with the hookers to boost moral.

[Kuyuk]

true.

I was getting ripped off at 30 silvers.

that bitch

[Ashlander]

As for The Warden's Keep.. a set of armor you won't use for very long

If you're talking about the warden commander's armor sell it to the weapon merchant and save and reload your game. Talk to the merchant and it should be upgraded to dragonbone which will make it one of the best sets of armor in the game. You'll have to buy it back but it's worth it.

[Stanley Burrell]

I am going to xerox all of my books and sell them earlier for a bigger sum to buy this (and leave me ~ enough money's worth to buy a small bottle of Absolut or an extra blueberry 'nug.) So I had better orgasm the second I push the 360's on button or I will come for you guys. With a knife.

Okay, I :love: you guys.

[Kuyuk]

well, we all said 360 sucks.

invest the $$ in a new computer that can handle this game!

[ElvenFury]

The 360 version has been working fine for me so far. I can't mod it or anything, but no major bugs. YMMV.

I was having an anxiety attack last night, because I'm doing the redcliffe quest and I can't decide which solution to try for. None of them sound like a good option. Damn you, Sophie's choice!!!!!

[Guarrin]

Oh, I don't think I posted the exploit yet. If I did, sorry about the double post. If you need to buy a manual from a merchant, do the following:

1. Save the game
2. Talk to the merchant, buy the manual, and use it
3. Reload your last save

The game caches off that you used the manual, so your stats will be improved, but you'll have the same amount of gold as you did from your save file.

[Jace Solo]

Only on PC or on XBox too?

[ElvenFury]

Only on PC or on XBox too?

Works on Xbox. I discovered in unintentionally. I bought a ranger manual, then changed my mind and loaded. Then I had both the ranger class unlocked and the gold. Weird.

[Jace Solo]

Ya, broken. I gotta stop reading this thread...it's gonn corrupt me

[Ashliana]

Works on Xbox. I discovered in unintentionally. I bought a ranger manual, then changed my mind and loaded. Then I had both the ranger class unlocked and the gold. Weird.

That's not a bug. When you unlock a class, it's unlocked for all future games.. so if you buy a book, then load.. you still have it unlocked, but kept your gold. Game mechanics abuse. I did it for all the classes.

Like.. siding with the cultists in order to get the Reaver class, then loading. =X

[Celephais]

That's not a bug. When you unlock a class, it's unlocked for all future games.. so if you buy a book, then load.. you still have it unlocked, but kept your gold. Game mechanics abuse. I did it for all the classes.

Like.. siding with the cultists in order to get the Reaver class, then loading. =X
Wish I did that :( I did it with the blood mage quest, but just because I wanted to see the dialog, only realized I kept the unlocked specialization when I next leveled.

It is indeed intended though, it's just stupid they bother putting books for gold in the game if they want you to unlock specializations with the storyline. They could easily have prevented this by requiring that you have acted evil previously for the blood mage option to even show up... basically if they did "If you played evil up till you save the arl, you get blood mage, if you played good, you get champion", for example.

[Stanley Burrell]

well, we all said 360 sucks.

invest the $$ in a new computer that can handle this game!

...

Bastard :(

[GS4Khistian]

Can you get the blood mage unlocked with Morrigan?

The option never popped up for me when she was kicking the demons ass.

[Drinin]

Blood mage requires the hero to be a mage.

[Ashliana]

Beat it this weekend. There's a .. well, not really "plot-twist," but development at the end that was well thought-out, and I enjoyed. Character endings and wrap-up were satisfying, and the ending cutscenes of the battle were similarly enjoyable/satisfying, but I was surprised it wasn't drawn out more. Can't wait for the future DLC coming out fairly soon.

[Androidpk]

Wasn't very fond of the ending, it felt very rushed.

[Ashliana]

Wasn't very fond of the ending, it felt very rushed.

Trying not to spoil anything, but did you choose a path of sacrifice? If you do, you don't get to (obviously) talk to your party or take part of the celebration afterwards.

[Androidpk]

I didn't. The main storyline seems to be about the blight yet for the majority of the game you're off doing other things.

[Bobmuhthol]

lol, for anyone with a dark background that just sticks out even more.

[Ashliana]

I didn't. The main storyline seems to be about the blight yet for the majority of the game you're off doing other things.

That did bother me. I ended up with like twice as many humans killed as darkspawn, and I almost always chose words over fighting. Did everything I possibly could (I think), ended up at level 21 on my main, 20 everyone else.

[Trouble]

Just got the game. One question: I noticed it has a key code, does it only install once or can you install it on two different PCs? I only have my laptop with me ATM. I don't want to install it here if I will be unable to put it on my main rig once I get home from Turkey Day festivities.

Thanks!

[Hips]

Two of the voice actors in Uncharted 2 are also voice actors in Dragon Age: Origins... Claudia Black (Morrigan) and Steve Valentine (Alistair).

Upon hearing their voices, I decided to wikipedia them to check out what other voice acting they've done... and came to the conclusion that ALISTAIR'S VOICE ACTOR IS FUCKING UGLY.

I QQ'd.

[Hips]

Also, they're releasing a new expansion sometime during the 2009 "holiday season," EXCITEMENT!

[ElvenFury]

I beat this game last weekend, and I'm a little disappointed. Does it bother anybody else that you can't even make a Maximus style character that they have in the trailer? They don't have any hair length between balding and Alistair's metro-whatever look. And even though I want to play all the beginnings to see the different storylines, I have very little motivation to replay the entire game, since it doesn't seem to change much at all.

ETA:And when I tried a female main to get some girl on girl with Leliana, I couldn't actually trigger a sex scene. Lesbo-FAIL.

[Ashliana]

Two of the voice actors in Uncharted 2 are also voice actors in Dragon Age: Origins... Claudia Black (Morrigan) and Steve Valentine (Alistair).

Upon hearing their voices, I decided to wikipedia them to check out what other voice acting they've done... and came to the conclusion that ALISTAIR'S VOICE ACTOR IS FUCKING UGLY.

I QQ'd.

I know! I like his voice, and thought the character was cute. Voice actor is really not attractive, though.

[Fallen]

So, in terms of the most fun, what type of character should I be, what specialty class, and what type of support party? Magic or Weapon build doesn't really matter to me, as so long as I would have the tools to beat every situation, even if some are harder than others. Will likely be picking up this game next week.

[ElvenFury]

So, in terms of the most fun, what type of character should I be, what specialty class, and what type of support party? Magic or Weapon build doesn't really matter to me, as so long as I would have the tools to beat every situation, even if some are harder than others. Will likely be picking up this game next week.

There's enough support characters in the game to supplement any kind of main that you want to make. You really only need one rogue in the party to disarm traps and pop locks. I'd suggest having two mages (for awesome healing) and one tank. The tank could be an arcane warrior (mage specialization) if you build them right. I also like the Ranger spec for rogues, since they can summon animal companions, which make good supplementary tanks.

Personally, I liked my arcane warrior the best. Whatever you pick, though, I'd suggest getting your cunning stat up to 14 asap and getting the coercion skill up to rank 3. It can make things go a lot smoother.

[Celephais]

For mages, it's a no brainer to take at least the first healing spell (the rest of the tree kinda sucks), and then the entire crushing prison tree.

Crowd control spells seem to be king, Mind Blast, Force Field, Crushing Prison, Sleep, Waking Nightmare are all pretty amazingly effective.

I played an arcane warrior myself and loved it, I think my next playthrough I'd play a dual weilding rogue, as I found leliana's archery spec to be a bit weak (and Zeveran comes in too late, and is just an annoying character, so F him, but you need a rogue so next time that's my main).

The first NPC you pick up is a Sword/Board tank, I see no reason to make your main a tank. Offtanking is better accomplished with mage crowd control.

[Hips]

I dislike Zhevran because he's not even TRAINED in the lockpicking tree. What the hell is that about??