Dragon Age 2 - Here be spoilers.

[Tebonas]

It definitely cements my feeling that this is a crapsack world.

[tmp]

Justice was quite a bit of a stuffed shirt and preachy spirit to my elf so i'm getting some schadenfreude out of this.

[Strazos]

I didn't play Awakenings, and I'm not letting any of you ruin this upcoming release. I actually rather liked the first DA.

[Paelos]

I didn't play Awakenings, and I'm not letting any of you ruin this upcoming release. I actually rather liked the first DA.

I'm not sure we know enough about any of it to ruin it. Other than the fact it's going to be played by Commander Shepard with a sword.

[Sjofn]

Depends on what you mean by "ruin" it. There's certainly stuff out that could be considered spoilers, depending on how fanatic you are about it. But if you just mean "I'm not going to let your POOR ATTITUDES ruin my glee!" then I am totally with you, Strazos!

[Paelos]

I just hope they improve default AI.

I want to select "Ranged DPS" or "Healer" or "Tank" for my minions and then fucking forget about them.

I don't want my tank chasing down the furthest thing in the room while getting pounded into dust.

[Ingmar]

I just hope they improve default AI.

I want to select "Ranged DPS" or "Healer" or "Tank" for my minions and then fucking forget about them.

I don't want my tank chasing down the furthest thing in the room while getting pounded into dust.

You can pretty much do that already? Set skill use to archer and behavior to ranged, done.

[Sjofn]

The only tactics set I found lacking was healer, I always had to tweak that one. But tank/melee dps/ranged dps/any other mage set all seemed to work A-OK for me, even on the harder difficulties. I roll with an "all tactics slots unlocked" mod, though, so it might be shittier when you have limited slots.

But yeah, DA2 still has tactics. Which makes me happy.

[Lantyssa]

You can pretty much do that already? Set skill use to archer and behavior to ranged, done.

Won't be much of a tank then, will it?

[tmp]

DA2 main theme if you're into that fancy "music" thing.

[Sjofn]

You can pretty much do that already? Set skill use to archer and behavior to ranged, done.

Won't be much of a tank then, will it?

There is a tank setting too. :P

[Lantyssa]

His complaint was setting the character to tank and it chasing after far away mobs instead of the ones next to it.

[Rasix]

I don't remember mine doing that.  You could also set your "tank" to attack the nearest enemy in a tactic. 

[Sjofn]

Yeah my party was generally well behaved too. Tanks in particular!

[Ingmar]

His complaint was setting the character to tank and it chasing after far away mobs instead of the ones next to it.

His complaint in the second line, anyway, which I was not responding to and just forgot to cut out.

[Paelos]

You ppl never really listen to me! 

[Tebonas]

So I was the only one giving orders to every partymember by hand?

[caladein]

So I was the only one giving orders to every partymember by hand?

I would micromanage my Archer (because the AI had no support for one of their main attacks) and occasionally a Mage, but for the most part I'd set the scripts up and let them run.  I much prefer that when it's available (hello to you, FF12) but I also never played it at a high difficulty.

[tmp]

So I was the only one giving orders to every partymember by hand?

I stop the action and micromanage every few seconds, pretty much.

[Bunk]

Yea, I micro'd too. The only way I could get the AI control of the Archer to not constantly switch to melee weapons (even though she had the archery at melee range talent) was to actualy take all melee weapons away from her. 

You could set the tank to attack nearest, but it generally made him inefficient, compared to say ganging up on the most injured (which would send him running across the battlefield after whoever the archer shot). What they really needed was an attck the most injured within a certain radius setting.

[Koyasha]

I want there to be a difficulty setting difficult enough that constant micromanagement is pretty much required.  Without having to resort to self-gimping like 'don't play a mage' considering if you take out mage-type tools, then constant micromanagement isn't fun anymore.

[Lantyssa]

You ppl never really listen to me! 

Damn humans.  They just want to pet us or laugh at our hats while we dance around.

[Lucas]

So I was the only one giving orders to every partymember by hand?

Nope, me too: I micro-managed back in the Infinity Engine games days, used puppet mode in NWN2 so it came quite natural to turn off tactics in DA as well.

[Ingmar]

I want there to be a difficulty setting difficult enough that constant micromanagement is pretty much required.  Without having to resort to self-gimping like 'don't play a mage' considering if you take out mage-type tools, then constant micromanagement isn't fun anymore.

That appears to be their goal with the difficulty levels for DA2 from what I've read/seen, we'll see.

[Sjofn]

So I was the only one giving orders to every partymember by hand?

Oh, I would, but not all the time. Nightmare/no mage/attempting to get the I'm Kind of a Big Deal achievement at the same time was a micromanagement fiesta (I eventually succeeded, I have problems), but by and large I didn't NEED to, and I was perfectly happy with that. I like being able to micromanage when I feel like it, but I also like to just merrily do my own character's thing. I don't think I paused much in Awakenings, my party just facerolled the entire expansion.

Supposedly the hard settings are harder this time around but we'll see. Friendly Fire is only on nightmare. :(

[Fordel]

Stop fireballing your team Sjofn!

[Sjofn]

I can't help it, it's the one thing about playing a mage I enjoy. 

[Tebonas]

I just remembered something regarding Anders and  JusticeVengeance. A big plot point in Part 1 was that you could save Connor from the demon because he got possessed willingly. That could mean that we could go into the fade and kick Vengeance out of Anders, no? (Still tragic but I smell a side quest, with the flip side being able to break Anders will if you are evil).

[tmp]

livestream recording of gameplay with Mike Laidlaw's narration. Featuring Ladyhawke.

looks companions have learnt how to walk when suitable rather than run around everywhere.

[Merusk]

I wonder, did they take Friendly Fire out entirely or did he just have it turned off.  I noticed him tossing AoE spells and abilities down in the middle of his party without thought.

[Ingmar]

I wonder, did they take Friendly Fire out entirely or did he just have it turned off.  I noticed him tossing AoE spells and abilities down in the middle of his party without thought.

FF only happens at the highest difficulty level.

[tmp]

edit: yeah what Ingmar said.

[Sjofn]

I wonder, did they take Friendly Fire out entirely or did he just have it turned off.  I noticed him tossing AoE spells and abilities down in the middle of his party without thought.

Man, I totally said FF was only on nightmare five posts before yours. Now I'm in the "No one listens to me!" club!

Yeah, only just now.

Shut up.

 


That said he was probably playing on some lame-o level, I think I remember him saying he always picks casual if he has to play and talk at the same time.

[Merusk]

I see it now.  Sometimes when I come into threads it doesn't put me at the first post since the last time I visited and I miss things.  /Sadf. 

Yeah, he said he was "only playing on Normal" when he wanted to illustrate how tough the boss fight was.  

 Anywho, I'm totally with you on fireballing your team is half the fun.  Though, it was even more fun when your team got badass enough you could just toss on some fire resist potions and send them wading into your fire storm to finish off survivors.

[Sophismata]

You had to micromanage the party. DA's gambit / tactic system was a piece of shit. This became brutally apparent at any of the higher difficulties, where it was impossible to assign your party logical, tactical actions.

The biggest reason for this was the tactics system using a condition-action response without allowing control of targetting.