Dragon Age 3

[Venkman]

Feh who gives a shit about the thin client crap? Just don't launch it unless you're playing the game and then quit out of it when you're done. I barely keep Steam running, much less that bullshit Origin or uPlay crap. They barely factor for more than a month every eighteen.

[Lantyssa]

I just go to the website and add it to my account.  That way it's in my name, but as long as I don't get the itch to play, I don't have to worry about to Origin or not to Origin.

[jakonovski]

Ok, so they have decided to remove healing spells for the game. I'm all for experimenting with gameplay systems, but shouldn't the game's tone be established by the third game? Sounds like another case of not knowing what they want, just like DA2. Hopefully without the terrible repetition though.



http://forum.bioware.com/topic/515339-health-and-healing-a-view-from-the-outside/

[veredus]

So basically what he is saying is I can skip this until the modding community adds a healing line of spells. 

[tmp]

Frostbite is apparently really not friendly when it comes to mods so you can likely pretty much forget about such option.

I'm not sure why it'd mean you have to skip the game, though. He makes it pretty clear that he had no problems with going through the content even though he's pretty shit at the game, and it wasn't even on the easiest difficulty.

[Goreschach]

Instant heals are pretty much a terrible mechanic to begin with.

[lamaros]

I think healing is one of the more silly and unnecessary standards of RPGs, so I'm happy to say goodbye to it.

[jakonovski]

Nobody's bothered by the retconning of the lore, with all the spirit healers and shit? It's not like the gameplay alone can keep the game afloat, you kinda need the lorelol.  

edit: also someone somewhere pointed out that since the game has multiplayer like ME3, it can't have healing as a major element because grouping would become an issue. So we get big single player gameplay changes so EA can sell treasure chest microtransactions to skinner machine addicts. Although I'm sure you fuckers will love it.

[veredus]

Because instead of heals I have to juggle wards, including a ward you have to cast before every fight. It's just heals in a different form and not in a way that sounds fun to me.

[jakonovski]

It's true, wards and such are a prefight ritual which I for one do find bothersome and try to play so that I don't need to do it except before bosses. Would suck if I had to do them every time or run out of potions before a boss. Not good design, far worse than reactive healing.

[lamaros]

Nobody's bothered by the retconning of the lore, with all the spirit healers and shit? It's not like the gameplay alone can keep the game afloat, you kinda need the lorelol.

Am I bothered by reconning of Dragon Age lore? Is this a trick question?

No.

[Velorath]

Nobody's bothered by the retconning of the lore, with all the spirit healers and shit?

Not really. I've always found healing to be a bit shit in regards to story in RPG's because it's one of those things writers have to handwave away whenever they need a character to be mortally wounded. Healing is in large part a throwback to D&D where death is potentially a lot more permanent and needs to be avoided a lot more than a game where you can just reload your last quick save if things go wrong. Not really sad to see it go so long as combat is properly balanced.

[Paelos]

It's true, wards and such are a prefight ritual which I for one do find bothersome and try to play so that I don't need to do it except before bosses. Would suck if I had to do them every time or run out of potions before a boss. Not good design, far worse than reactive healing.

Makes way more sense though. Planning for a fight ahead of time is actually tactical in my mind. Spamming heals isn't.

[veredus]

To me it's not really tactical planning when you just cast the same spell before every fight. It's just an extra step before every fight. Having to juggle different moves to keep my wards up doesn't sound fun to me either but I know that's just personal preference. Snarky comment aside I'll probably get it anyway despite not being the healing mechanics I prefer.

[Ingmar]

This sounds like a vast improvement to me, much like the ME3 barrier/shield system.

[Rasix]

Nobody's bothered by the retconning of the lore, with all the spirit healers and shit? It's not like the gameplay alone can keep the game afloat, you kinda need the lorelol.  

edit: also someone somewhere pointed out that since the game has multiplayer like ME3, it can't have healing as a major element because grouping would become an issue. So we get big single player gameplay changes so EA can sell treasure chest microtransactions to skinner machine addicts. Although I'm sure you fuckers will love it.

Check out all the fucks I give:

[Venkman]

Damn you, I must have clicked that three times. 

Given how different DA2 was from DA:O, that Divinity is a better DA:O, and that Skyrim is a better DA2, I literally have no preconceived notion of what to expect from DA3. I don't care if I do/don't see any of the characters from the prior two. There's no game mechanic I'm wedded to. I'll check it out if people it's worth it, but otherwise this isn't on my list.

[Megrim]

So is DA:O actually worth the time to download the 25 gigs for free? Is there an actual game under there, or is it just waifu simulator 101?

[Evildrider]

I don't know, I thought it was a good game. 

[lamaros]

Perfectly playable. Nothing special, but fun enough.

[tmp]

Nobody's bothered by the retconning of the lore, with all the spirit healers and shit? It's not like the gameplay alone can keep the game afloat, you kinda need the lorelol.  

I don't know if there's any retconning needed here really -- the spirit healers were supposed to be a rare thing to begin with, to the point where Wynne being one getting extra mileage out of her spirit was actually part of her backstory/companion arc. Uh, spoiler I guess. Anyway, I guess it's not implausible if none of the mage companions you get in DAI happens to be one.

Worst case they could always say spirits aren't taking the healers' calls anymore because of that torn veil raining demons business or smth and call it a day.

[tmp]

So is DA:O actually worth the time to download the 25 gigs for free? Is there an actual game under there, or is it just waifu simulator 101?

There's a large and relatively old school RPG in there, with pretty stock plot but it's probably the biggest you'll see from them as I doubt EA will ever let BW spend this many years on crafting just one game. The romance stuff is at best small and completely optional sideshow that the codex neckbeards like to obsess over in desperate attempts to show how far above it all they are.

[Rasix]

I enjoyed DA:O enough to play it twice through upon purchase, and it's a fairly long game. I wouldn't say it's any sort of perfect masterpiece, but it was a sight for sore eyes when it was released.  It's a Bioware game, with all of the pros and cons that come with it.  

As for DA2, it was pretty easy to run a healing-light group, where at best you had one heal per fight outside of potions. I'm guessing the lack of active healing won't amount to much here.  

[rk47]

Hopefully the MP saves the SP boredom like it did for me in ME3

[jakonovski]

Nobody's bothered by the retconning of the lore, with all the spirit healers and shit? It's not like the gameplay alone can keep the game afloat, you kinda need the lorelol.  

I don't know if there's any retconning needed here really -- the spirit healers were supposed to be a rare thing to begin with, to the point where Wynne being one getting extra mileage out of her spirit was actually part of her backstory/companion arc. Uh, spoiler I guess. Anyway, I guess it's not implausible if none of the mage companions you get in DAI happens to be one.

Worst case they could always say spirits aren't taking the healers' calls anymore because of that torn veil raining demons business or smth and call it a day.

Could be, but I'm not trusting Bioware to handle it properly. My guess is that they'll not acknowledge it in any way, as the combat system will be in service of the multiplayer and single player will just get what's there. Like ME3.

edit: I mean listen to this crap

Restocking Options: Most large dungeons and missions give you the chance to replenish your potions before particularly difficult fights. If you're going through a dungeon and you see a potion-restock table sitting beside an imposing door covered with ancient runes, this is our friendly level designers saying, "We love you, players. Have some more potions. Also, maybe consider saving your game here."

Soda fountains before bosses because there's no healers.


  

[rk47]

They shd've just circumvent it with vampiric weapons etc.
Makes no goddamn sense. Give the guys heal over time instead of insta-heal and the difficulty spike is nicely covered.

[Velorath]

Nobody's bothered by the retconning of the lore, with all the spirit healers and shit? It's not like the gameplay alone can keep the game afloat, you kinda need the lorelol.  

edit: also someone somewhere pointed out that since the game has multiplayer like ME3, it can't have healing as a major element because grouping would become an issue. So we get big single player gameplay changes so EA can sell treasure chest microtransactions to skinner machine addicts. Although I'm sure you fuckers will love it.

Well I think a lot of us here like ME3's multiplayer, and I'd be surprised if anybody here actually spent money on it since you got stuff at a decent rate just by playing. So yeah, if it's as good as ME3's multiplayer, I'll love it and not give a shit about Spirit Healer lore. Actually when it comes to lore, I didn't remember much in the way of detail about the first two games until I logged into .

[Merusk]

Heals, meh.  Seems odd taking them out now but I'm not overly concerned as I rarely used them anyway.  Heals and potions are both anathema to me in non-action RPGs and neither make any sense when looking at it from a Drama standpoint.  (Replace, "cast a heal spell, fucker." with "Drink a potion, fucker.") 

The whole healing system we've had in RPGs is because of bad mechanics and lazy developers that became standards. Mana and chain heals are, and always have been, bullshit.  When it was a few spells that took up limited slots in D&D it made a bit of sense.  You could only cast it so many times per 'day' meaning you were careful and used it only in dire need. When it became "You're a heal bitch, all your mana (horrible system) must go towards keeping <damage dealer> alive, despite being able to deal an equal amount of damage shit was sideways. 

I'm glad to see it go.

[Paelos]

They shd've just circumvent it with vampiric weapons etc.
Makes no goddamn sense. Give the guys heal over time instead of insta-heal and the difficulty spike is nicely covered.

I agree, I prefer inherent heal over time mechanics to instant heals. It also provides a better gating mechanic to the content, making players who aren't strong tactical players seek out other missions to boost their levels before trying bosses.

[jakonovski]

The healing mechanic is going to be potions and to have enough of them, you have to cast barriers and shields at every cooldown (on harder difficulties obv). I don't see how that is any better than healers. It's not necessarily worse either, but it does cheapen the setting for those who care about it. Personally, if I didn't like the lore, I wouldn't even consider playing anything past DAO. Especially not the terrible multiplayer that has no redeeming qualities.





  

[tmp]

The healing mechanic is going to be potions and to have enough of them, you have to cast barriers and shields at every cooldown (on harder difficulties obv). I don't see how that is any better than healers.

It is, theoretically, more punishing if you make mistake who to shield and when, and what enemies you cc out etc, as you don't have unlimited ability to just heal back to full, after each fight -- you're capped by the amount of pots you have with you, which unlike the mana don't regenerate.

I say "theoretically" though, because these restocking checkpoints pretty much bring it back to the 'unlimited heals' state that was supposed to be the problem they're addressing in the first place

[Merusk]

Saying quantities of potions are going to be a problem/ hinderance is probably going to turn out just like "watch your gold" is a problem in RPGs..  It never is after the first 1/4 of the game. You're killing enough people that you're rolling in funds.

Even Skyrim, where the vendors only have a max. amount of gold/ week (day?) you still wound up with far more of it than you'd ever need.  Consumable management is a joke in RPGs and has been for as long as I can remember playing them.

[jakonovski]

The issue is that they don't want to make it possible to end up in an unwinnable situation. Which is a games design thing, they want the enemy to "lose entertainingly" instead of trying to beat the player.

It is, theoretically, more punishing if you make mistake who to shield and when, and what enemies you cc out etc, as you don't have unlimited ability to just heal back to full, after each fight -- you're capped by the amount of pots you have with you, which unlike the mana don't regenerate.

I say "theoretically" though, because these restocking checkpoints pretty much bring it back to the 'unlimited heals' state that was supposed to be the problem they're addressing in the first place

Shielding the tank is pretty straightforward since they haven't got rid of that part of the trinity, and I feel cc is an independent mechanic. But yeah, the dispensers likely make it all about potion scumming.

[rk47]

Here, have a consumable

[Ingmar]

Nobody's bothered by the retconning of the lore, with all the spirit healers and shit? It's not like the gameplay alone can keep the game afloat, you kinda need the lorelol.  

edit: also someone somewhere pointed out that since the game has multiplayer like ME3, it can't have healing as a major element because grouping would become an issue. So we get big single player gameplay changes so EA can sell treasure chest microtransactions to skinner machine addicts. Although I'm sure you fuckers will love it.

Well I think a lot of us here like ME3's multiplayer, and I'd be surprised if anybody here actually spent money on it since you got stuff at a decent rate just by playing. So yeah, if it's as good as ME3's multiplayer, I'll love it and not give a shit about Spirit Healer lore. Actually when it comes to lore, I didn't remember much in the way of detail about the first two games until I logged into .

I don't think the Keep is NDA'ed to the point of not being able to say you're in it? I don't remember clicking anything like that, anyway.