Dragon Age

[Riggswolfe]

Did you load 1.02 during a new play through or towards the end of one? If it's the latter, that's always been happening.

Honestly, I don't even remember the timing of when I loaded it. I think it was about the middle of my second playthrough. My first playthrough I had extremely quick load times through the entire game. Some of them were a bit longer than others but we're talking 15 seconds instead of nearly instant.

[Riggswolfe]

After a couple of hours of play they go to several minutes and I have to stop the game, let my computer recover...

 

Yes you little cockweasel. I have to let my computer recover because a fucking memory leak will eventually slow your machine down. Because the program isn't releasing ram and eventually it fills too much of it up. The first symptom is the game itself takes a long fucking time to load scenes. Do you need me to paint this for you in crayon or something?

[Rasix]

You need to stop being an idiot and a dickhead at the same time.  Pronto.

[Riggswolfe]

You need to stop being an idiot and a dickhead at the same time.  Pronto.

K

[Sky]

A lot of the lore in the game is pretty well done and you get it in short snippets. Actually, there are several points in the game they tailored dialog to people not reading the lore. I remember a few times wishing I had different dialog options because I had info from the codex that could have been used in the conversation.

Don't like to read, don't play rpgs imo.

[Riggswolfe]

A lot of the lore in the game is pretty well done and you get it in short snippets. Actually, there are several points in the game they tailored dialog to people not reading the lore. I remember a few times wishing I had different dialog options because I had info from the codex that could have been used in the conversation.

Don't like to read, don't play rpgs imo.

I have to admit I often wonder how many people read the codex information. It's a ton of information that really rounds out the world. I've read snippets of it but not the entire thing. A woman on another forum has hand copied the entire codex into a pdf and it's roughly 70 pages. I'm pretty sure she is OCD.

[stray]

I read maybe half of it. By the time I got to the dwarf lands, that was the last city and I didn't care to bother anymore. I don't really think it's necessary to have to read to play an RPG though. There's all kinds of ways to do things.

[gryeyes]

Id let them build up a little then when it was time to refresh my stoned read them all. It was glorious.

[Sky]

I don't really think it's necessary to have to read to play an RPG though. There's all kinds of ways to do things.

Too bad a game couldn't adjust to that. You don't read stuff, you get to swing a sword. Read up on the lore, storm of the centuries, bitches! Too bad any tangible benefit to reading the ingame lore would be nullified by some cheat site somewhere in seconds.

I've read every entry, I also read the unique items and find myself wishing there were better spell descriptions/histories. But I like to read. Part of why I still prefer 1st ed AD&D is that it was fun to read.

[Riggswolfe]

I've read every entry, I also read the unique items and find myself wishing there were better spell descriptions/histories. But I like to read. Part of why I still prefer 1st ed AD&D is that it was fun to read.

Have you checked out Green Ronin's Dragon Age pnp yet? It's modeled after red box d&d in some ways, with the first box they've released going to level 5. It was for this game that the woman compiled the codex stuff into a PDF since the first box has minimal setting info in it.

[Sky]

No group for pnp, though maybe I could bring it to the library's board game night. I do have both the novels in my amazon list.

[Venkman]

I have to admit I often wonder how many people read the codex information. It's a ton of information that really rounds out the world. I've read snippets of it but not the entire thing.

I've read most of it, but keep falling behind. Most of it has helped at least flesh out the why behind something a bit. And some of it has been downright helpful even though it wasn't delivered anywhere near where I needed the knowledge. But yea, it's a lot of info.

As to PC problems, I haven't had a single problem at all. Maybe it's because I haven't patched it after the one they released right around launch. Or maybe it's because the only thing beyond WinXP and required drivers that I have running is Steam. No idea. Typical PC game as far as I'm concerned. They're like antique cars. You want half the fun being tinkering

Anyway, runs like a dream, everything's maxed, looks awesome and there's no way I could see playing this on a controller. I pause a lot as it is to micromanage the battles. With a controller I'd be playing a turn-taking game at best

Fake edit: I used to get annoyed by the over proliferation of spoiler tags in a thread so deep, but am really appreciating it now. Johnny come lately strikes again!

[Sky]

You'll never steal my title, DQ. I'm still not done with DA:O, heh (I blame a sudden urge to play FFH2).

My favorite entry is still "I burn for you. And because of you. Please use the enclosed tincture."

[Riggswolfe]

As to PC problems, I haven't had a single problem at all. Maybe it's because I haven't patched it after the one they released right around launch. Or maybe it's because the only thing beyond WinXP and required drivers that I have running is Steam. No idea. Typical PC game as far as I'm concerned. They're like antique cars. You want half the fun being tinkering

I shouldn't have. I did the latest patch because it had some tweaks to melee combat that I thought would be helpful. And they are, rogues no longer get totally shafted!

I just installed 1.02a and I'm hoping it helps a little but we'll see I suppose. I'd love to be able to roll patches back short of a reinstall. My fresh game with the first patch on it ran like a dream.

Edit:

The consensus over on the DA:O tech forums seems to be that my kind of issues has something to do with how DA:O interacts with quad or dual processors after the patch. The workaround seems to be changing the affinities in the task manager. Odd....

[Riggswolfe]

No group for pnp, though maybe I could bring it to the library's board game night. I do have both the novels in my amazon list.

Actually, I think they are up to 3 novels now. I've been tempted to read them because I am wondering if it would give more insight into Loghain.

[Merusk]

My favorite entry is still "I burn for you. And because of you. Please use the enclosed tincture."

Yep that's my favorite as well.

I enjoy reading a lot of the codex in chunks.. unless I pick up a unique weapon or armor.  I read the histories of those right away.  I think the female knight's 2h sword had the best entry.

[Merusk]

Radial menu on your PC version of Dragon Age? That explains the problems you're having. You installed the PS3 version on your PC  

Are you talking about something different, or are you using an apple mouse?

Ahh, that's the only radial menu the PC has, though. I also use it so infrequently I'd forgotten it was a radial.  I thought Stray was talking about combat and dialogue menus.

[Tmon]

No group for pnp, though maybe I could bring it to the library's board game night. I do have both the novels in my amazon list.

Actually, I think they are up to 3 novels now. I've been tempted to read them because I am wondering if it would give more insight into Loghain.

I downloaded a sample (first 30 pages or so) and found it an extremely painful read, I think they were shooting for an exciting drop you in the middle of the action thing, but mostly it just seemed like endless poorly executed exposition.

[Viin]

I just started playing this today - wtf is up with the sheer white hands? My dude is almost black, but his hands are white as snow! get me some gloves, stat!

[stray]

Huh didn't even notice that. I know the design of the black noses are atrocious though. You're better off with a white nose.

The hands in general are just way too big.

[tmp]

The hands in general are just way too big.

They're so big because they're having arms race with the weapons.

... ok this was awful. sorry.

[stray]

Don't feel bad. I'm pretty dense and don't even get it. Your poor attempt at humor has gone unnoticed.  

But seriously.. It's pretty noticable especially in cutscenes. Not only big hands, but long arms too.

[tmp]

I think it has something to do with all models sharing the same skeleton/animations, the lenght of the arms at least and also why female postures can be rather funny.

Out of curiosity i scaled down the models for 1h weapons to ~80% of original sizes and it looks quite better imo, and without any animation issues i could notice. No idea why they made them so large.

[Malakili]

My patience has paid off! My girlfriend just got me this for christmas, so I'll finally be able to read this thread! (I've been trying to avoid spoilers)

[rk47]

Hmm. My rogue seem to tear shit up if I don't use skills and just turn on Momentum. I mean, wtf even the Tower of Ishal Ogre went 50% HP in just 5 seconds of backstabs.

At first, I thought Skill-Attacks should be more effective at dishing out the damage for my dual wielding rogue, but I find that this is not the case. Why?
1.Skill-atacks don't get bonus damage from slotted elemental nor poisons.
I observed that Flurry (3 hit combo skill) didn't get orange damage from Fire enchantment as well as Deathroot poison. :( Considering that the Edge (goody dagger) was already at 6 + 5 Base damage weapon, good armor penetration and can be slotted with 2 gems (each +5 elemental dmg plz) AND poisoned (1-3 damage). Wow. Auto attack >>>> Skill attack indeed.

2.Quite disappointed really, you don't even gain back-stab bonuses, and often non-crit by default. So when flanking, just left click. Don't waste stamina till they went face to face. THEN you toss dirt on their face to stun, following it with auto-crits.

3.This made me ignore active dual wielding skills and went for rogues active ones instead. Dirty Fighting, Deadly strikes are some of nice moves to use especially once I've unlocked the 'Auto-Crit on Stunned target' passive. Fuck, even feign death is awesome, allowing me to clear aggro and just tear bosses liberally.

4. Minor detail: If you've got Armor Penetration bonus from magical weapon, it'll also boost up the penetration of the other when dual wielding - Every lil' bit helps for your pair of little human chainsaws.

[tmp]

Hmm. My rogue seem to tear shit up if I don't use skills and just turn on Momentum. I mean, wtf even the Tower of Ishal Ogre went 50% HP in just 5 seconds of backstabs.

Momentum means 30% extra damage so, yeah.

the skills can do decent damage but they're situational. Flurry means fast triple crits when utilized from flanking position, and dual weapon sweep is nice in thick group of foes. But other than that if you enchant! the shit out of your stuff and roll with those more crazy ones attributes-wise to begin with then yup, regular attacks are more than good enough.

[Ironwood]

Um.

So, I got this for Christmas and it's kinda cool.

Can someone condense down the past 62 pages ?

[stray]

Condense.. Hmm.. Basically what you said. It's kinda cool. ;)

Oh,and mages are the most powerful. Not necessarily the most interesting though. Everything's got plus and minuses.

I don't know much about PC versions, but it seems like some people would rather avoid patches.

That's about it. Other than me posting 6 or 7 times on how I think the faces look like shit.

[Ironwood]

That first boss ogre is a pain in the arse.

Killed him after multiple attempts.  Went on to 30 minutes of excrutiating Claudia/Janeway dialogue only for it to crash.

The autosave threw me back to right before the fight.

Sigh.

Can we never learn that autosave should work before AND after a boss fight ?

Fuck me.

[Slyfeind]

Too bad a game couldn't adjust to that. You don't read stuff, you get to swing a sword. Read up on the lore, storm of the centuries, bitches! Too bad any tangible benefit to reading the ingame lore would be nullified by some cheat site somewhere in seconds.

Reading during a game just breaks up the flow for me. There's no natural progression between mashing keys, or studying strategy, or meditatively bumping into things...and then immediately reading three paragraphs of history. That said, Dragon Age is just about right for me. The passages could stand to be maybe a tiny bit shorter, but overall, they're not gut-wrenching to get through.

I've read every entry, I also read the unique items and find myself wishing there were better spell descriptions/histories. But I like to read. Part of why I still prefer 1st ed AD&D is that it was fun to read.

Heh. Gygax always had a unique way of putting things.

[rk47]

Wow that sucks Ironwood.  I'm not sure why. D.Age crashed less than twice on me after 2-3 playthroughs.

Re: Boring items.

I agree wholeheartedly. Whatever happened to Vampiric weapons? Weapons of life stealing / Stamina stealing would certainly be awesome or a weapon that gave a buff of +5% attack speed per hit to a max of 25%? Or even a Giant Hammer that has passive chance to knock down / Vorpal Swords?

Fuck, I'm just making shit up and hopefully some mods will put that in. If they're really going for Baldur's Gate spiritual successor all they need to do is examine a lot of artifacts in Baldur's Gate 2 for inspiration. Even a mundane item like a crossbow had 2-3 paragraphs of fluff attached.

I got Shale & other DLCs for Xmas. My goodness, Shale's rubbing me the right way with Transformer voice. Come to think of it, I like Shale more than HK47. Much more. Too bad Shale's combat modes require so much microing while I was busy flanking with my rogue.

[Trippy]

Is there anyway to strafe/sidestep in this game? Fucking console ports...

[rk47]

Is there anyway to strafe/sidestep in this game? Fucking console ports...

Q & E is the default key. Ala WoW.  

Also, the key to winning boss fights is usage of explosive flasks that comes in different flavors. Usage of flask grenades require one rank on poisoning. Game might give poisoning to rogues by default but that's NOT RECOMMENDED to do in early game, where once your rogue pick up aggro he's pretty much fucked. Give a rank to your warrior instead to dish out burst damage and pick up aggros / wipe out cluster of archers in 2-3 throws. The elemental damage from the flasks are also boosted from resistance debuff that Morrigan can cast (around 20% more). At around 100 dmg per 30 silver worth of craft materials, it's not a bad clutch to have.

[Calantus]

Hmm. My rogue seem to tear shit up if I don't use skills and just turn on Momentum. I mean, wtf even the Tower of Ishal Ogre went 50% HP in just 5 seconds of backstabs.

At first, I thought Skill-Attacks should be more effective at dishing out the damage for my dual wielding rogue, but I find that this is not the case. Why?

The animations on the skills make it so that they hit slower than momentumed daggers apparently. So yeah, no attack abilities are worth anything for a dagger rogue unless you want to stun your target.

[Trippy]

Is there anyway to strafe/sidestep in this game? Fucking console ports...

Q & E is the default key. Ala WoW.  

Oh thank you. For some reason I read that control section wrong. I guess I'm so used to WASD being movement instead of AD being camera controls.

Next n00b question: Is there a way to change your character's appearance post-creation? My skin looked fine in the character creation but now outside it's this pale sickly yellow color.

Edit: Hmm I guess it's just the fucked up lighting in the zone. Oh well...