Dragon Age

[Sjofn]

I mostly feel it's a shame the two ladies to choose from are both horrible in the same game is all. Although, straight dudes usually get the better romancing options, so I suppose I shouldn't waste time feeling bad for them. So I'll  just feel bad for lesbians!

[tmp]

I just don't feel the choices are "boring-ass Carth" and "fucking insane" and that's it. Neither Zevran nor Alistair were boring, but neither one made me fear for my dog's life if I decided to break up with them either.

Alistair totally seems like the type who calls you in the middle of the night out of alcohol-induced rage month after you broke up with him and moved on. Zevran... doesn't he gift you with an earring he took from a dead guy years ago and just kept in his pocket, blood smears still on it and all?

[Sjofn]

Yes, and yet he still seems WAY LESS LIKELY to murder my dog in a jealous rage than Morrigan or Leliana.

[Lantyssa]

I mostly feel it's a shame the two ladies to choose from are both horrible in the same game is all. Although, straight dudes usually get the better romancing options, so I suppose I shouldn't waste time feeling bad for them. So I'll  just feel bad for lesbians!

Thanks!

[stu]

Is the Warden's Keep DLC worth the purchase? I was a bit shocked just now after finding that I have to use a merchant within a merchant to complete a quest. On the other hand, I like shiny new armor.

PS. Thanks to Velorath for that PAX code.

[rk47]

Is the Warden's Keep DLC worth the purchase? I was a bit shocked just now after finding that I have to use a merchant within a merchant to complete a quest. On the other hand, I like shiny new armor.

PS. Thanks to Velorath for that PAX code.

One Armor Set. Best Sword or Greatsword in game, and best Ice Mage Staff.

[stu]

Good enough for me! I'm in.

[Register]

Good enough for me! I'm in.

Beware.... I read somewhere that DLC equipment cannot be imported into the Awakening expansion.....

[taolurker]

Well, for people going back to DA for Awakenings here's a mod for the biggest complaint in the thread:

Skip the Fade

Only thing you do when the Sloth demon puts you to sleep is see Duncan in the Fade, then rescue your party members and fight the demon at the end. Also gives all the Attribute pluses as if you found all the fonts for points.

[Ollie]

Ooo, sweet! 

The Fade is the single most jarring and stupidly worn-out time sink in the whole game. The last time I slugged through I felt like gnawing my chair in frustration.

With this I'll get a lot of mileage out of the game yet.

[Ingmar]

Good enough for me! I'm in.

Beware.... I read somewhere that DLC equipment cannot be imported into the Awakening expansion.....

Only the Warden's Keep stuff, for some reason - everything else works fine.

[stu]

The Keep has been entertaining enough that I'm not bothered, although I probly should be. Been in a good mood lately. WTF.

[Sjofn]

I didn't hate the Fade part but after the third time I felt I really didn't need to do it ever again. Skip the Fade is a delightful mod. 

[eldaec]

The one thing that would stop me skipping the fade on another playthrough is the parts where you rescue each party member. I haven't seen them all and they are pretty cool.

[Ingmar]

The one thing that would stop me skipping the fade on another playthrough is the parts where you rescue each party member. I haven't seen them all and they are pretty cool.

I think you still do each of those with skip the fade.

[rk47]

Just finished the game 2nd time with Dwarf Rogue. It's great, with more understanding of the mechanics and all I managed to power build Alistair through the game.

10% Dodge on Heavy armor chest piece 100G++ from Wade's armor shop
20% Dodge on Boots from Return to Ostagar DLC

In addition to Lifegiver and other assorted goodies, he managed to solo Flemeth with explosive flasks and health poultices. It's not like I didn't try taking her on 4-man but she just chew Sten & my rogue up before Alistair can build aggro, and then Whynne got burned.

I'm trying to port him over to Awakening but I feel inclined to replay the game one more time as a complete douche Human Noble, with aim to be the King of Ferelden.

Re: Creepy Girlfriends.
Honestly I didn't like that French Chick, Morrigan wasn't that great, felt too sinister and that demon baby sex deal was the kicker, but despite having non lover status, I managed to get her to 90 approval with jewelry. Near the end of the game she'll confess her surprise at our friendship and considered my rogue as her first true male friend. Which is quite pleasant. No hard feelings at all since I'm fuck-buddies with Zevran.

[Sjofn]

The one thing that would stop me skipping the fade on another playthrough is the parts where you rescue each party member. I haven't seen them all and they are pretty cool.

I think you still do each of those with skip the fade.

You do. You teleport to each dream and then teleport to the boss fight.


EDIT: And yeah, my elf dude wound up getting the friend speech from Morrigan too, which I liked. She was a huge bitch about me dumping her, but got over it I guess. Probably because I dumped Leliana too. 

[Mosesandstick]

Just finished for the first time last night with an arcane warrior. Romanced Morrigan, and somehow got to romance Leliana despite telling her nooooooooooo a long time before, and maybe because it was the end of the game neither seemed to mind!

I enjoyed the game, but am not going to replay it. The AI seriously annoyed me at points, and I'm the kind of player who has no desire in micro-managing his whole team. Though it usually happens inevitably around the same time Morrigan Cone of Colds my tank. Some of the party dialogue is golden, which is a pity because none of them seem to really talk to each other enough. Game also felt a bit drawn out at points, and the item system blew. How the hell did they not ship this game with a storage chest? And what's the point in having items with fire resistances when you can just use a greater warmth balm?

Anyways, the only game I've spent around 80 hours (I reload and check missed dialogue a lot) on in a long time! Good fun 

[Mosesandstick]

I just found this very, very, old thread about languages in DA, with lots of posts by the guy who did them (in 2004!) whilst googling info on the soundtrack. It's a bit nonsensical at first but very quickly becomes worth it.

http://forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=399925&forum=84&sp=0

[Ingmar]

That was pretty interesting (though I have a vague memory of reading it a long time ago.) If I had it to do all over again I think I'd major in linguistics.

[tmp]

Kind of funny how in the end all that remained from that work was a song and few elf words sprinkled around the game. It didn't even occur to me that either i was magically gifted in a language i've never ever heard, or every single dwarf in Orzammar fluently speaks whatever it is that people in Ferelden speak, and nothing else.

[Ingmar]

There's some qunari too.

[Mosesandstick]

I think there is the odd conversation between people of the same race, but everybody seems to like speaking Ferelden. Now that I remember, I think that is one of the reasons why Lelianna's song sticks out. Game's definitely better for having the different languages though.

[rk47]

Big thank you for the Fade Skipper mod. It made my replays less likely to be abandoned.

[stu]

I'm on my first play through of DA and just finished the Fade/Sloth Demon side track. It took me by surprise when the quest line started. Although I enjoyed all the permanent attribute bonuses scattered about, I felt like they were placed there because that entire part of the game is a pain in the ass. I'm playing on PS3, so the constant switching between forms didn't exemplify fun times.

On the other hand, that part of the game felt like a self contained four-issue story arc in a larger series, which isn't so bad, I guess.

[Ingmar]

I suspect the stat boosts were placed there mostly because otherwise there'd be no loot for that entire section, since you can't take it with you back out of dream land.

[Mosesandstick]

It also gave you an actual incentive to explore...

[stu]

The attribute bonuses are permanent though, right? I haven't been playing close enough attention to see if they stuck after I completed that part.

[Sjofn]

They are!

[eldaec]

It also gave you an actual incentive to explore...

You mean to explore the empty room you had to walk through anyway, and you mean to explore the giant glowy object in the centre of that room that might as well be screaming "CLICK ME 4 TEH STATZ!!1!"?

[Mosesandstick]

Sure, apart from all the ones that are hidden away and that you have to backtrack to get. Duh.

[Sjofn]

I totally let the ones I would've had to backtrack for go fuck themselves.

[stu]

Since updating my PS3, I am unable to play without the game freezing on me. 

[Sjofn]

I am trying SO HARD to get into the mage class and I just fucking can't. I hate it. Hate hate hate hate. What's extra stupid is I am perfectly happy to micromanage Wynne or Morrigan like crazy, but I hate playing a mage as my main character worse than I hate Hitler. Apparently I can happily finish the game as a goddamn archer (which sucks ass for a while, by the way) but not be able to claw my way through as a mage. It's just so boring. I prefer stabbing people, I guess.

[caladein]

I feel the same way on both the Mage and Archer counts.  That said, I think archery as a main character is a lot better than left to the Tactics system on a party member because I could never get to a set-up I was happy with it.  Manually controlling an archer does feel really good late in the game.

I also hated the Mage origin story to boot.