Dragon Age

[Phildo]

I recently moved Steam to a new hard drive and now Dragon Age is telling me that I haven't validated my DLC, even though I'm logged into the same account I validated it with.  Does anyone know what I can do to fix this?

[tmp]

I do try and kill the mages first, because they have nasty spells that AoE the entire group down to 1/4 health.  But they tend to run away, so unless I make everyone use a bow (and get nuked from afar) the mage runs away into a group of 4-5 other mobs and then it goes to hell from there.  I think the first mage battle took 8 retries to get it done.

At least a few initial fights involving the mages are set like that, yeah. It helps to take your surroundings into account and do the opposite of what they wish for -- run back if possible and hide behind any obstacle/corner you can find that'll force at least some of enemies to come towards you from their spots. Also keep in mind the AoE tends to hit both sides, so sometimes it can be to your advantage to have a mage blow up bunch of their own guy while trying to nail one of yours.

[Phildo]

Solved my own problem, and managed to do it without mutilating my PC settings!

[Ironwood]

You get Morrigan... like, 2 hours into the game. If that. Don't need to reroll for a mage.

I don't know what kind of warrior you are, but you're mostly fine as the main. I think 2handers are a little lame compared to other shit though.

What surprises me now that I'm almost at the end is how much of a killing machine Sten has become.  Gear and the higher level powers matter a hell of a lot.  Fighters are weakass at the start, but the guy can now shatter lines of enemies before I've even decided what comes after Cone of Cold.

What's also annoying is that I have the full whack of Arcane Warrior and, frankly, it's easier wading in with a sword and a dagger than spells.  The Magic bonus means I'm smacking them for massive damage at a time.  Couple that with the buffs on the weapons and the mage shield, shimmer and rock skin, I'm pretty much untouchable.

Which is kinda silly.

[Venkman]

For now, I'd concentrate on using your Mage as a primary healer.

So re-start as a mage? 

Nah. Without spoilering it, if you can get past that beacon, you'll be all set in short order.

My recommendation was based on the NPC Mage you just got in your party. If it's got Heal, use him as a healer.

[Strazos]

I inadvertently ended up kiting in that final battle. Oh well.

[Engels]

That first battle is surprisingly hard. Some scaling issues there I think.

[Koyasha]

I inadvertently ended up kiting in that final battle. Oh well.

Kiting seems to be the most natural strategy for that battle, as far as that's concerned.  A big ogre that does lots of damage is coming after you?  Run away!  Of course he can only come after one guy, so everyone else spread out and shoot him, when he switches targets, that guy runs away.

We may consider it 'cheesy' from a gameplay standpoint to do this, but as far as the characters are concerned, it's a perfectly reasonable and logical means of resolving the problem, since only one enemy can't chase all four of your guys at the same time.  It is more cheesy when there's multiple enemies involved, since that feels more like taking advantage of the fact that they don't split up, harass all your people, and cut off your flight path(s).

[Ivanneth]

I have the hold position, but it seems like some of the characters tend to ignore it. 

Hold position just makes everyone except the character you're controlling stand in one spot. They'll still use whatever tactics they have assigned - melee will attack enemies that are in melee range of where they're standing, mages will autoattack and/or cast spells based on tactical contingencies. Archers will still shoot. If you want to be certain that your characters do nothing when you tell them to hold position, clear all of their tactics and set them to Passive or Default. (Default will allow them to return fire if they're being attacked)

[sidereal]

A big ogre that does lots of damage is coming after you?  Run away!  Of course he can only come after one guy, so everyone else spread out and shoot him, when he switches targets, that guy runs away. We may consider it 'cheesy' from a gameplay standpoint to do this

It's amusing that the most plausibly 'realistic' behavior is considered cheese.  I'm pretty sure the main target running away from an ogre while everyone else shoots him is pretty plausible.  Invulnerable tanking with Force Field is, on the other hand, very cheesy.

[Khaldun]

I really took my time finishing my first run. I'm really impressed at how little I felt like "gaming" some of the conversations--I had some pretty honest in-the-character reactions to things.

[Slyfeind]

All the dialog choices felt equally rewarding to me (or in some cases, equally useless). The only thing I gamed was scoring with Leilana. Other than that, I was happy with whatever happened.

[Xurtan]

My only major issue with the dialog was, as a Mage, I couldn't really be nice to Jowan. I always had to come off as a hypocritical pompous jackass, being a Blood Mage myself and all. My only options seemed to be "Blood Magic is evil!", "Jowan, how could you?" and "Die, traitor!".

[Reg]

I found it a little strange that Wynn never said a word to me about using blood magic once I picked up that specialty. I'd have expected her to throw as big a tantrum over that as she would about corrupting the ashes.

[Flatfoot]

I'm sorry if this has been covered before in the thread, but it's already 70 pages long and there's only so much time I can spend reading shit on the internet before I start feeling bad about ripping off my employer.

I'm playing the game on a rather old computer (GeForce 6600 and 3 gigs memory f.ex.) and it seems to have an annoying tendency to CTD after about 1-2 hours of play. Has this happened to others or is it just because of my crappy computer? I.e. can I fix it or am I just fucked? Granted I haven't played a huge amount, but I'd like to know in advance if this is something I can expect more of.

Apart from this I've enjoyed the game, but I've got to learn more about how to program the party members. When playing ME I mainly ignored them and wailed on the mobs myself, but after the Ogre fight in the tower I realized that the party is probably more important DA. The idea of pausing every two seconds doesn't appeal all that much so I'll probably try to figure out the templates.

[BitWarrior]

I found it a little strange that Wynn never said a word to me about using blood magic once I picked up that specialty. I'd have expected her to throw as big a tantrum over that as she would about corrupting the ashes.

Make her second specialization Blood Magic for the lulz

[stray]

Apart from this I've enjoyed the game, but I've got to learn more about how to program the party members. When playing ME I mainly ignored them and wailed on the mobs myself, but after the Ogre fight in the tower I realized that the party is probably more important DA. The idea of pausing every two seconds doesn't appeal all that much so I'll probably try to figure out the templates.

 For the most part, the default "templates" (Damager, etc) provide a guideline on what skills are useful. With mages, it's probably a good idea to only set up your immobilizing/control skills targer Elite or higher. Also, remember to set up Leliana as "Ranged". She's an Archer, but her "behavior" isn't Ranged by default.. the tactics have her pulling out her daggers a lot. Setting her behavior to Ranged keeps the bow in hand.

[Ingmar]

I may have linked this before but towards the bottom of the page, this explains what all the 'behaviors' (ranged, defensive, etc.) do since it isn't really obvious in game:

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

[taolurker]

In the PC version, I'm pretty sure the mouseover gives those exact descriptions of tactics.

[gryeyes]

Yep, it does.

[Ingmar]

TMP, you're absolutely correct.  My bias did make me see more in OT's die-rolls than DA's; however, OT did have pixel collision.  But if die-roll combat is all that's on the entree menu, then I'll stick to pen & paper.

If you don't like RPGs, why did you buy one?

I like RPGs just fine, but I'm curious as to why you so enjoy this one?  Is it in your top ten gaming experiences because of the visceral MMO combat, or the equally visceral pause menu?   If it's because of voice acting, side-boob, or setting's detail, then you should list DA as one of your top ten viewing experiences.

I managed to miss this post yesterday.

Every criticism you leveled in your prior post can be leveled at any RPG with more than a semblance of a narrative. I don't find the combat particularly MMO-like, any more than say BG2 was MMO-like. Did you play this on a console? Maybe it sucks on a console, I have no idea. If you object to pausable combat for giving orders then I *really* don't know where the MMO comparison comes from.

EDIT: And I am going to have to assume you're full of it when you say you like RPGs (assuming CRPGs anyway) and then go on to complain about die-roll combat. They all have die roll combat. Which I don't really understand the objection to, by the way, you're going to have to elaborate on why that's bad. Did you also hate all the Civ games? Blood Bowl? Every Paradox game ever? Every other RPG known to man that isn't secretly an FPS with levels?

[Sky]

FPS is just a rhythm game you can move around in.

[NiX]

FPS is just a rhythm game you can move around in.

[Morat20]

This has probably already been voiced, but it's pissing me off:

Ranger pets dismissing themselves when you zone.

Oh wait, I'm sorry -- that's just an annoyance. The cock-stabby part is the fact that the power's cooldown starts when the fucking pet is dismissed.

Which means "Enter Zone, summon spider, finish zone, go to next zone, have to summon fucking bear because spider is on two or three minute cooldown".

It's annoying as SHIT. I don't know what the game designers are thinking. Why does the pet go away, but not any other upkeep power? Why, if you're going to dismiss by damn pet by zoning, do you not place an exemption in the cooldown for it? (I can understand putting a cooldown in place so you don't basically spam spider-attacks on distant enemies, letting them die and creating a new one, but exempt zoning or something).

Other than that, I am enjoying the game.

[CmdrSlack]

Same thing happens with powers like combat magic -- they turn off when you zone.

[taolurker]

There is a mod that solves not only the cooldown, but the dismissing when zoning too.

[Sky]

There is a mod that solves not only the cooldown, but the dismissing when zoning too.

Mods: the next step of devolution after patching.

[caladein]

I for one like to be able to fix problems myself (or have smarter people do it for me), even "problems" that not everyone agrees are such.

That said, they fixed the same issue with Rally in 1.02 so not sure what's going on with those abilities.

[Morat20]

There is a mod that solves not only the cooldown, but the dismissing when zoning too.

My shameful secret is that I'm playing on an Xbox.

[Phildo]

Is there a mod that kills the cooldown timer on pickpocket?

[Ingmar]

Is there a mod that kills the cooldown timer on pickpocket?

Yep, several I think.

[Raguel]

There is a mod that solves not only the cooldown, but the dismissing when zoning too.

My shameful secret is that I'm playing on an Xbox.

I'm playing on the PS3. lesson learned. Never buy a game for the console that I can buy for the PC. 

[Ingmar]

There is a mod that solves not only the cooldown, but the dismissing when zoning too.

My shameful secret is that I'm playing on an Xbox.

I'm playing on the PS3. lesson learned. Never buy a game for the console that I can buy for the PC. 

Well, I dunno if that is always true, but it is certainly true of games that have mod toolsets that are advertised as a feature ahead of time. 

[CmdrSlack]

Heh, some of us didn't have computers that would run DA until after our wives bought us the game for Xmas.

At least, that's my excuse for playing it on the Xbox.

[Riggswolfe]

There is a mod that solves not only the cooldown, but the dismissing when zoning too.

My shameful secret is that I'm playing on an Xbox.

I'm playing on the PS3. lesson learned. Never buy a game for the console that I can buy for the PC. 

I learned that lesson on Fallout 3.