Dragon Age

[stray]

Mage is the only way to go in this game.

Tell me about it!

Although I'm sorta committing my spec that might be Arcane Warrior still. So maybe I'll get the best of both worlds. Haven't played much.. But I'm dabbling with lightning and spirit tree for casting atm.

I just can't get a start with one char though. The only thing I haven't tried is Dwarf noble and I heard that's the best story..

[Nonentity]

omgomgomg


SCORE A POINT FOR DWARF FEMALES EVERYWHERE

[caladein]

[schild]

omgomgomg


SCORE A POINT FOR DWARF FEMALES EVERYWHERE

Are you saying dwarf girls are strong, respectable, fabulous lesbians?

[Reg]

I hated the mage tower Fade stuff too at first but it gets a lot more fun once you get all the shape changes.  Once you have your stone golem form you're almost unstoppable.

[tmp]

This. I went mage although I usually do rogues. The first ogre fight would have been horrid without my main PC as a mage.

You get a pimped out battle mage in your group for that part if you don't bring your own, so it's not really that difficult.

[squirrel]

omgomgomg


SCORE A POINT FOR DWARF FEMALES EVERYWHERE

Are you saying dwarf girls are strong, respectable, fabulous lesbians?

Sans beards.

[schild]

This. I went mage although I usually do rogues. The first ogre fight would have been horrid without my main PC as a mage.

You get a pimped out battle mage in your group for that part if you don't bring your own, so it's not really that difficult.

If by pimped out you mean totally mediocre and lacking Cone of Cold, then yes, you get a pimped out battle mage.

[squirrel]

This. I went mage although I usually do rogues. The first ogre fight would have been horrid without my main PC as a mage.

You get a pimped out battle mage in your group for that part if you don't bring your own, so it's not really that difficult.

Really? Perhaps it's different based on your choices, but as a mage PC I got an archer, a warrior and Allister. Morrigran doesn't show up until after that fight.

[caladein]

Really? Perhaps it's different based on your choices, but as a mage PC I got an archer, a warrior and Allister. Morrigran doesn't show up until after that fight.

They just fill out your party.  As a Warrior I got generic NPC Archer and Mage plus Allister.

[jakonovski]

This. I went mage although I usually do rogues. The first ogre fight would have been horrid without my main PC as a mage.

You get a pimped out battle mage in your group for that part if you don't bring your own, so it's not really that difficult.

Really? Perhaps it's different based on your choices, but as a mage PC I got an archer, a warrior and Allister. Morrigran doesn't show up until after that fight.

My human rogue got just a mage because the regular party included Alistair and the dog.

[GenVec]

Playing as a two handed reaver on normal (unpatched), and I can safely say that this is the most difficult Bioware game I've ever played. I'm no slouch; I blew through Mass Effect on Legendary (or whatever) without much of a bother, but every other encounter I find myself having to reload and try again. Currently stuck on that bitchy dwarf in Ozrammar.

The fantasy world is ok, though it really doesn't have the appeal of  the ME IP, or even the Witcher for that matter. I also disllike that they seem to have taken a page from Bethesda in their auto-leveling of monsters/bandits/what have you, which is sort of disappointing - coming back to fight Genlocks after gaining ten levels, I was looking forward to cutting through them like a hot knife through butter, only to find they're suddenly hardass monsters.

I also enjoyed their channeling of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for the Urn quest. Only a penitent man may pass!

  

[Tarami]

The scaling has advantages; it means you can do the any quest in any order you like and actually be able to finish each of the plot lines before you run into a cockblock. Due to the large span over which the plot takes place, making each branch level-fixed would mean making it more linear, since there would be a limited number of locations where you had a fighting chance at any given level. True, the game loses a bit of flavour due to it, but I can see why they did it this way.

In addition, ME also scaled. It wasn't quite as noticable though because you didn't turn every rock in search for loot the same way you do in DA.

[March]

Here's what happens with my character that I am trying to make be a pure archer.

She shoots a bunch of people at range. Someone runs into melee and slaps her. After finishing off whatever shot she is on, she switches out to her melee weapons.

I put a script in place to make her always swap to range weapon. But this happens every time, so every time a character gets into close range and hits her, she pulls out her melee weapons, then pulls out her bow again. It's super annoying, since I took the Melee Archer talent. You'd think they wouldn't do that after you have that talent.

I know you fiddled with the tactics menu, so you've probably already noticed this... but I found changing the Role to Archer and the "mood" to Cautious (iirc) in the drop-downs pretty much eliminated the melee factor.  Turned him into a simpering bitch that ran mobs around... so it felt a like like a PUG in WoW - felt right at home.

[gryeyes]

Auto-scaling is innocuous in a RPG of this type, unlike Oblivion where it partially ruined the game. The difficulty is so inconsistent I really didnt notice beyond the types of gear you find. Course im constantly fucking with the difficulty setting due to fights taking a needlessly long amount of time.

[Xilren's Twin]

Just finished the Dalish recruitment part last night; stll loving the game and have started finding some better gear finally.  Yes, many of the plot lines are standard RPG tropes that you can see coming a mile a way but i dont care, the combat is what I'm enjoying the most.  Being able to use tactics and think your way through a tough fight is something that i've been missing in most games forever.   Using nature chokepoints and moving to the best positions makes such a huge difference for me i wonder how differntly this would play on the console with the "only move one person at a time" thing.

Not having anyone fill in the typicall "cleric" role is nice too with a only a 4 person party.  I dont really ever find myself using my one heal spell in fights at all.  Crowd control is a must since you are outnumbered in most fights and ambushed a lot, which again lends battle a good feel.  You're 4 heros taking on 8, 10 or 12 foes at once rather than 4 on 1 fights.  Hell even the "one random encounter when you travel overland" part can give good fights.  Bandit amush last night with 3 archers on a hill at the back was tougher than some boss fights since they were pincushioning my mages with focused fire and no cover to get behind.

Too bad were only seem to get one of these RPG type games about every 2 years nowdays.

[Tannhauser]

Playing the 360 version I realize I am giving up some tactical options but the combat is still great.  Plus, I can lay on my couch and have random_guard01 tell me his fucking life story. :)

[tmp]

If by pimped out you mean totally mediocre and lacking Cone of Cold, then yes, you get a pimped out battle mage.

Well, the guy had fire enchant for the party weapons, nasty cone of fire, obscenely long lasting Paralyze, couple other long range attacks and attack debuff for the mobs. And personal shield though never really had to use that one. But compared to the toolset of the rest of my party at that stage he was only missing a fuzzy dice.

[tmp]

I also disllike that they seem to have taken a page from Bethesda in their auto-leveling of monsters/bandits/what have you, which is sort of disappointing - coming back to fight Genlocks after gaining ten levels, I was looking forward to cutting through them like a hot knife through butter, only to find they're suddenly hardass monsters.

That sounds like a bug; according to what they said, when you enter an area the system generally populates it with monsters suitable for your level and then leaves them locked at that level for the rest of the game. So returning to the same area after levelling up you should be finding the fights easier.

[Lucas]

Yes, the interface and all the pretty stuff is there for you to use it, but is any of you micro-managing the entire party without using the tactics screen, like it's Icewind Dale all over again? Because that's what I'm doing on "hard" difficulty.

Now, granted, I'm only at the beginning of the game, so I figure it willl become quite confusing as I add more abilities/spells  to each party member.

[Velorath]

I don't use the tactics stuff at all.  I tend to micro-manage the harder fights.

[Prospero]

I finally got started last night with my city elf rogue. It's a pretty intense start to the game. I really like how the web game UI was pretty much the same. It was nice to start playing and already know the UI and item/skill systems. My one nitpick so far is they to fucking learn how to animate mouths. I'm sure there's some reasonable sounding excuse for having crappy mouth animations, but the very first person I talked to in my game just kinda went from from a terse mouth to a grimace while speaking.

[ffc]

Has anyone played the PC version at 1920x1080 on a TV from a viewing distance of about 12ft?  I'm curious whether text and icons are hard to read on the PC at that distance so my eyes would appreciate the Xbox version instead.  I have looked at high resolution game play clips at 1920x1080 but the text in the clips is always blurry.  For reference I can play Diablo at its native resolution with no issues at this distance.

[Slyfeind]

Here's why I hate story-based RPGs so much. I was about to continue on my quest, but wanted to explore a bit more. (It was the castle, before going to the mage tower.) I crossed a doorway, and triggered a huge boss fight. Then much dialog ensued afterwards. Then a long loading screen, then a cut scene. Then another loading screen, then more dialog. This went on and on and on, and eventually I spammed the ESC key and clicked random dialog choices just so I could get to a point where I could reload my game.

Fortunately the game auto-saved right before this all happened. Still, annoying to the point I was screaming at my computer.

Another time, a huge story sequence (dialog, cut scenes, etc) triggered just as my brother was watching TV. He had the volume turned up, I had to turn up my volume so I didn't miss anything, he stopped watching, I wanted to save the game and let my brother watch TV, but then ANOTHER CUT SCENE started. At that point I just switched off my computer.

Gyah. GYAH!!!

[schild]

Sounds like a personal problem.

[Slyfeind]

I'd be much more forgiving if my computer loaded faster.

[Lucas]

Sounds like a personal problem.

ditto. But yes, I get what you mean Slyfeind.

Knowing Bioware's approach, infact, whenever I see something (be it a NPC, a suspicious set up in the environment, whatever) that only vaguely suggests "OMG cutscene/plot advancement incoming!!!1" I safely stay away from it, and get back to an area where maybe I still have some quests to undertake or other "mundane" dialogues with generic NPCs.

[Xilren's Twin]

Sounds like a personal problem.

ditto. But yes, I get what you mean Slyfeind.

Knowing Bioware's approach, infact, whenever I see something (be it a NPC, a suspicious set up in the environment, whatever) that only vaguely suggests "OMG cutscene/plot advancement incoming!!!1" I safely stay away from it, and get back to an area where maybe I still have some quests to undertake or other "mundane" dialogues with generic NPCs.

That would pretty much any time the game auto saves for no apparent reason 

I did enjoy the foreshadowing before my first dragon fight.  What's that roaring sound in the distance?  Hmmm...

I am curious to see how much the main plot changes based on the backstory.  Fer instance, my punk ass "friend" who grew up with me in the the mage tower shows up to play a role in one of the main quest lines.  Wonder happens if i had been a dwarf fighter instead?

[Lucas]

Sounds like a personal problem.

ditto. But yes, I get what you mean Slyfeind.

Knowing Bioware's approach, infact, whenever I see something (be it a NPC, a suspicious set up in the environment, whatever) that only vaguely suggests "OMG cutscene/plot advancement incoming!!!1" I safely stay away from it, and get back to an area where maybe I still have some quests to undertake or other "mundane" dialogues with generic NPCs.

That would pretty much any time the game auto saves for no apparent reason 

Tsk tsk. I disabled auto-saves. And plot helpers. And tactics. And gore. And loot shimmering. 

[schild]

Wonder happens if i had been a dwarf fighter instead?

As someone who wasn't a friend with him on my first character, I can safely say - keep your hopes low and your spirits high.

[stray]

hmm, i just noticed that the "preset" faces aren't just premade models, but set up distinct base parameters... So I guess you can get pretty detailed with the faces then?

Anyways, maybe old news..

[Slyfeind]

So detailed that I hate my nose! It's pointy and weird. But I met a templar who has a similar nose to mine, and now I don't feel so bad!

Liliana giggling when you give her flowers =     

[stray]

Wait, I might be wrong....? Weird. I just thought that some presets had a default 5 o clock shadow goin' on.. + some noses were larger by default, and harder to adjust. Maybe not.


Anyhow, I can only pull off one decent face... Some cross between Aragorn and Bruce Campbell's chin.


[edit] Seriously though, what the fuck is up with the noses here? Especially the black dudes. They look like Skeksis. The game may be good, but this is worst than Bethesda even.

[Reg]

Heh, my nose is stupidly pointy too. And about 3/4 of the NPCs have the exact same shade of red hair as me.

[Trippy]

Has anyone played the PC version at 1920x1080 on a TV from a viewing distance of about 12ft?  I'm curious whether text and icons are hard to read on the PC at that distance so my eyes would appreciate the Xbox version instead.  I have looked at high resolution game play clips at 1920x1080 but the text in the clips is always blurry.  For reference I can play Diablo at its native resolution with no issues at this distance.

It might help if you tell us what size your TV is. 1080P monitors range anywhere in size from around 20" diagonal to ~172 feet (the monitor at Cowboy stadium).

Also, using video clips on the Internet to judge text quality is a horrible idea even at "high resolution". Just like JPEG has a difficult time dealing with text so too do your standard video codecs.