Dragon Age

[rk47]

I added poisons to my 2-handed warrior. Because it's not enough I have a giant fuck you axe with flame and lightning runes, plus whatever weapon buff the mage puts on. I have to throw a poison on there just to screw with you.

  Another reason why I feel sad for my warrior is that I can basically do more damage by just tossing any flask attack. Instant AOE.
1 Rank in poisoning will suffice. 30-75 dmg to all in radius. Neato!

[Morat20]

Another reason why I feel sad for my warrior is that I can basically do more damage by just tossing any flask attack. Instant AOE.
1 Rank in poisoning will suffice. 30-75 dmg to all in radius. Neato!

Yeah, you just swap Zevron in long enough to brew up a bunch more flasks and higher level poisons.

Heck, my 2h warrior, Alastair, Wynne and Leliana managed to -- for the first freakin' time -- beat that damn desire demon and her pet templar on the first try. I really hate that fight.

[MournelitheCalix]

I just replayed that game due to wanting to have a save to import into DA2.  Most of the game on Nightmare was a piece of cake.  The last parts were just amazingly difficult.  I couldn't believe just how difficult the encounter outside of the jail was this time around.  I can't count the number of times That I was ripped to shreds.  This was an encounter that I had little trouble with in the past.  Kudos to the devs for that change, it was actually very difficult this time.

[Azazel]

Has anyone seen/picked up the Ultimate Edition?

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdragonage.bioware.com%2Fdao%2Fgame%2Forder-ultimate%2F&ei=PPGHTZ_EPIagvgOkyLjhDg&usg=AFQjCNGs8cO-QZdHrD3yZke35j0BLW1INw

It seems to have all the DLC included, but is it on the discs? Considering it for either PC or 360, and if one has all the DLC on the discs as opposed to needing to download it, I'd prefer that one.

[Deadguy2322]

I added poisons to my 2-handed warrior. Because it's not enough I have a giant fuck you axe with flame and lightning runes, plus whatever weapon buff the mage puts on. I have to throw a poison on there just to screw with you.

Now THAT is style, man!

[Polysorbate80]

Has anyone seen/picked up the Ultimate Edition?

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdragonage.bioware.com%2Fdao%2Fgame%2Forder-ultimate%2F&ei=PPGHTZ_EPIagvgOkyLjhDg&usg=AFQjCNGs8cO-QZdHrD3yZke35j0BLW1INw

It seems to have all the DLC included, but is it on the discs? Considering it for either PC or 360, and if one has all the DLC on the discs as opposed to needing to download it, I'd prefer that one.

I picked this up on Saturday, since I can't find my original DA discs and I don't have my savefile anymore due to hard drive corruption.

All the DLC is supposed to be on the discs, although "The Edge" still had to download--but it's just a weapon.  I don't know if it wasn't included on the disc or just a bug.

Speaking of bugs, though--it took me almost three hours to get it installed and fully functional.  First, the installer kept crashing at 22.3% through the first disc.  It would hit that point and then thrash endlessly until cancelled.  I did a manual copy of the file it was failing on, and the drive stutters for a couple seconds but then reads it properly, so I'm not sure wherre the issue is.  I wound up mapping the blu-ray drive on my laptop as a network drive and installing it from there (that one read it flawlessly.)

Next, getting the DLC to recognize as installed and authorized took much forum-searching.  At first, the DA update service wasn't firing up, so nothing appeared anywhere in the DLC screens.  After getting that started, everything showed up as installed but not authorized.  Then, for whatever reason, it kept attempting (and failing) to re-download the already-installed DLC.  At some point during all that it sorted itself out and recognized all the DLC as present & authorized, but I still don't know how or what did it, and it still tells me erroneously that everything failed to download. 

Still, I was able to recreate my angry elf mage with an undying hatred for humans and the chantry.  My only gripe now is that I have to re-unlock Arcane Warrior, but that's not the game's fault that I lost my old saves.

[caladein]

My only gripe now is that I have to re-unlock Arcane Warrior, but that's not the game's fault that I lost my old saves.

Unlock Specializations

[Polysorbate80]

Nifty, thanks.  I'd downloaded the character respec mod before even playing, I suppose I shoulda looked for something like that.

[Sheepherder]

Speaking of bugs, though--it took me almost three hours to get it installed and fully functional.  First, the installer kept crashing at 22.3% through the first disc.  It would hit that point and then thrash endlessly until cancelled.  I did a manual copy of the file it was failing on, and the drive stutters for a couple seconds but then reads it properly, so I'm not sure wherre the issue is.  I wound up mapping the blu-ray drive on my laptop as a network drive and installing it from there (that one read it flawlessly.)

I would almost guarantee that your drive is beginning to fail and thus the copy protection on the disc is fucking it up.

[Azazel]

Hm. Is the PC version especially superior to the 360 version in any ways? It seems to be a bit A-RPG focussed, and designed heavily for console, so I'm leaning towards 360..

[Ingmar]

Go with the PC version. You can't mod the 360 one, first of all, and there are a ton of useful mods and such. You also don't get the full pause-and-issue-commands thing with the 360, it unpauses every time you switch characters or so I am told. The harder difficulty is harder on PC allegedly, if you care about that.

Really ability to mod is the biggest thing.

[Paelos]

Skipping the Fade is huge.

[Sjofn]

DA:O is for PCs, imo. Mods aside (which are a huge draw for me, personally), I hated playing it on my brother's 360, because I like being able to pause and consider, which was a lot more annoying to do on the 360, plus it just gets annoying and fiddly the more shit you can do. It just ... wasn't pleasant at all. That said, Lum liked it better on the 360 for some reason.

DA2 is more actiony and clearly had the consoles more in mind. I don't know how it plays on a console, but I suspect it sucks less than DA:O did. But again, mods are lovely.

[Azazel]

Skipping the Fade is huge.

Que?


I actually have it for 360, as well as Awakenings. The version I got also came with Shale and 2 other bits of free DLC as well. The thing is, the Ultimate Edition (containing pretty much everything) costs less that it would cost me to buy the DLC that I lack a la carte.

Hence my back-and-forth on the whole thing, and my wondering if the stuff is on the discs and whether you can just use it or if you have to go through a rigamorole of EA accounts and unlocking and all that other shit.

[Ingmar]

"Skip the Fade" is a mod that lets you skip a particular section of the game that gets pretty tedious to repeat on later playthroughs of the game.

[Paelos]

"Skip the Fade" is a mod that lets you skip a particular section of the game that gets pretty tedious to repeat on later playthroughs of the game.

Yep, first playthrough it's awesome.
Second playthrough you go out of your way to find everything.
Third playthrough you're jonesing for the mod.

[rk47]

1. Run DAO.
2. Discover you have 60 backpack space
3. Quit.
4. Install Mods Tool
5. Set it 600
6. Laugh.

[Morat20]

Hence my back-and-forth on the whole thing, and my wondering if the stuff is on the discs and whether you can just use it or if you have to go through a rigamorole of EA accounts and unlocking and all that other shit.

I picked up the ultimate edition. The second disk is basically "All the DLC's". Run the game the first time just to set up your DA account, then slip the second disk in and tell it to "install the DLC's".

Did just fine on my 360.

I finally played Awakenings (Mage remains easy mode!) which means I unlocked blood mage just to give to Wynne. Now I'm trying to figure out what tactics to give her to exploit blood mage. I love the Battlemage class -- Hand of Winter and Elemental Chaos were fun little spells. Also finally did Leliana's Song (fun for a playthrough, but not much else. Kinda dug the laughter-music background and the way she did the story).

Witch Hunt, Golems, and Darkspawn Chronicles are on my "to-do" list. I don't think I can import my awakenings "saved" character to Golems or Witch Hunt.

[Mazakiel]

I know you can import the Awakenings character into Witch Hunt, as I did for my play-through leading up to DA2, and I'm fairly certain Golems works the same way, though I skipped that DLC.  Witch Hunt takes place after the events of Awakening chronologically by probably a year or two, if not more.  It also serves as a bit of a foreshadowing for DA2. 

Both those DLCs are also supposed to have things that are pulled for a save import of your DA:O character into DA2, such as how Witch Hunt ends up playing out, but at least last I checked, it doesn't work correctly.  Awakenings itself didn't import all the way as well.  I had to use the Save Generator linked in the Dragon Age 2 thread to get a save that would have all the choices I made carry over.  And DA2 still messed some stuff up, even though my import summary had the right choices listed. 

[Ingmar]

The reason the Witch Hunt one doesn't work right is because that DLC doesn't actually create a post-game save so you don't have anything you can import that has the actual ending details. You can use this to create 'fake' save games with all the variables set properly to import to your DA2 game, seems to work great:

http://social.bioware.com/project/4242/&v=discussions

[Sheepherder]

I wound up mapping the blu-ray drive on my laptop as a network drive and installing it from there (that one read it flawlessly.)

I would almost guarantee that your drive is beginning to fail and thus the copy protection on the disc is fucking it up.

Apparently there is no copy protection.  I still suspect your drive is going to need replacing.

[Polysorbate80]

The disc tray is getting sluggish at opening/closing as well, it's apparently just getting shitty all 'round.

[Sjofn]

"Skip the Fade" is a mod that lets you skip a particular section of the game that gets pretty tedious to repeat on later playthroughs of the game.

Yep, first playthrough it's awesome.
Second playthrough you go out of your way to find everything.
Third playthrough you're jonesing for the mod.

That was pretty much my experience, yeah.

[Morat20]

That was pretty much my experience, yeah.

No mods on Xbox, sadly. Does the mod on the PC give you all the stat boosts?

[Ingmar]

That was pretty much my experience, yeah.

No mods on Xbox, sadly. Does the mod on the PC give you all the stat boosts?

Yep. You also still do the 3 visits and the big fight at the end, it just skips all the stuff in between.

[Sjofn]

It'll also open all the codexes for you.

[Koyasha]

Witch Hunt, Golems, and Darkspawn Chronicles are on my "to-do" list. I don't think I can import my awakenings "saved" character to Golems or Witch Hunt.

You can, you can't do it the other way around.  In my recent playthrough to set everything up just right I did DAO > Awakening > Golems > Witch Hunt.

Awakening and Golems do have the problem of not creating a 'final save'.  They just end.  I don't know if Golems even has anything to export though.  In Awakening, all the choices are made before the final battle, so the save from just before the final battle worked fine for my imports.  The dialogue with the final boss is purely expository and as far as I'm aware, can only end in fighting.  Witch Hunt does give a post-final-conversation save to take into account the choices made in that conversation.

My DA2 import got most things right according to the little summary it gives.  The only problems were back in Origins, in fact, where it recorded Connor as having been saved (I made a deal with the demon) and if I remember right, it screwed up the Ashes of Andraste thing (don't corrupt the ashes AND kill the High Dragon, I think that causes the screwup, and then it thinks the ashes are fine).

[Azazel]

I picked this up on Saturday, since I can't find my original DA discs and I don't have my savefile anymore due to hard drive corruption.

All the DLC is supposed to be on the discs, although "The Edge" still had to download--but it's just a weapon.  I don't know if it wasn't included on the disc or just a bug.

Speaking of bugs, though--it took me almost three hours to get it installed and fully functional.  First, the installer kept crashing at 22.3% through the first disc.  It would hit that point and then thrash endlessly until cancelled.  I did a manual copy of the file it was failing on, and the drive stutters for a couple seconds but then reads it properly, so I'm not sure wherre the issue is.  I wound up mapping the blu-ray drive on my laptop as a network drive and installing it from there (that one read it flawlessly.)

Next, getting the DLC to recognize as installed and authorized took much forum-searching.  At first, the DA update service wasn't firing up, so nothing appeared anywhere in the DLC screens.  After getting that started, everything showed up as installed but not authorized.  Then, for whatever reason, it kept attempting (and failing) to re-download the already-installed DLC.  At some point during all that it sorted itself out and recognized all the DLC as present & authorized, but I still don't know how or what did it, and it still tells me erroneously that everything failed to download. 

Did you need to make up an EA account and link it to that and so forth?

[Sjofn]

Witch Hunt, Golems, and Darkspawn Chronicles are on my "to-do" list. I don't think I can import my awakenings "saved" character to Golems or Witch Hunt.

You can, you can't do it the other way around.  In my recent playthrough to set everything up just right I did DAO > Awakening > Golems > Witch Hunt.

Awakening and Golems do have the problem of not creating a 'final save'.  They just end.  I don't know if Golems even has anything to export though.  In Awakening, all the choices are made before the final battle, so the save from just before the final battle worked fine for my imports.  The dialogue with the final boss is purely expository and as far as I'm aware, can only end in fighting.  Witch Hunt does give a post-final-conversation save to take into account the choices made in that conversation.

My DA2 import got most things right according to the little summary it gives.  The only problems were back in Origins, in fact, where it recorded Connor as having been saved (I made a deal with the demon) and if I remember right, it screwed up the Ashes of Andraste thing (don't corrupt the ashes AND kill the High Dragon, I think that causes the screwup, and then it thinks the ashes are fine).

There's a flag for completing Golems in there, but I haven't finished a playthrough with that flagged as a "yes" yet, so I dunno if anything changes. I sort of doubt it. There might be a throwaway line about it at a certain point, but I doubt it's anything to lose sleep over.

[Polysorbate80]

Did you need to make up an EA account and link it to that and so forth?

The set comes with a code you'll need to be able to log in to enter to unlock the DLC, so you'll need an account.  I already had an EA/bioware account from installing DA and downloading Mass Effect 2 DLC, didn't need to make a new one or anything.

[Azazel]

kk thanks!

[HaemishM]

NECRO!

Rather than shitting up the "So, What Are You Playing" thread with DA talk, I figured I'd necro this and ask here. Is there anyway to "respec" what my main character in DA does? I'm beginning to think my insistence on two-handers is really causing me to dislike the combat. I don't feel like I can do shit. If I use a skill like "Indomitable" I'm left using 1 or 2 abilities then being stuck without stamina to do anything else but wait for it to build back up. I don't feel like I'm doing any damage.

Can I repsec? I really don't feel like playing through the 10 hours or so again.

[Reg]

Here's the one I used : http://social.bioware.com/project/469/

The respec potions can be used by any character. I'd always change Morrigan's specialty to Healer from the useless Shapechanger.

[HaemishM]

Danke. I am trying hard to like this game but the combat is really grating on me.

[Reg]

I never liked warrior combat either. My favourite character was a dual wielding rogue. I haven't tried a dual wielding warrior though. Ir might be OK.