Dragon Age 3

[Ingmar]

You can hold down R for autoattack as well, it's much less awkward for me than using the mouse for attacking. Still not what I'd prefer.

[Paelos]

You can hold down R for autoattack as well, it's much less awkward for me than using the mouse for attacking. Still not what I'd prefer.

Yeah that helps me zero, too. If I'm holding down a button, I'm just as easily activating a button. The difference is purely annoyance from the developers.

[Rasix]

Finally, a way to stop having a heart attack every time I get an achievement:

Here's how to disable it:
1. Go to the 'sounds' folder in your EA Origin installation directory: e.g. "C:\Program Files\Origin\sounds".
2. Delete or rename "Achievement.wav".
3. Be at peace.

[Ceryse]

Finally, a way to stop having a heart attack every time I get an achievement:

Here's how to disable it:
1. Go to the 'sounds' folder in your EA Origin installation directory: e.g. "C:\Program Files\Origin\sounds".
2. Delete or rename "Achievement.wav".
3. Be at peace.

Thank you.

Damn that thing was annoying.

[Comstar]

I cannot play the game for more than 20 minutes before it crashes with an DirectX error.

[rk47]

Huh, added an autoattack toggle by using AutoHotKey script.
This somehow fixes the annoyance of wasting a finger to continually swing attacks.

[Abelian75]

Yeah KB&M gets wonky at times, it's always wonky now. If they develop both (which they always do) I don't think you're allowed to complain about this anymore. We know this going in. We're the dinosaurs here. You either adapt, mod, or get a controller for your PC. Not getting a controller or complaining about having to use a controller is get off my lawn territory.

Eh, I actually feel like it's still not that awesome with a controller, though.  Both control styles manage to feel like you're playing it with the "wrong" input device, somehow.  It's an impressive trick.

I am really enjoying it other than that, though.

[Paelos]

See I think the underlying tone of this game is that for the most part people enjoy it a good bit. The complaints are that it feels weird in combat, or that elements the devs thought were spectacular in fact suck (which is usually the case).

I made a ranged character first to specifically avoid the melee control him-hams. This is actually the reverse of how I normally place, which is as a tank. Now I will likely do that in multiplayer where I'm not worried about tactical camera.

[Bunk]

I cannot play the game for more than 20 minutes before it crashes with an DirectX error.

There are a number of fixes posted in various places for this, and they do apparently work.

[rk47]

See I think the underlying tone of this game is that for the most part people enjoy it a good bit. The complaints are that it feels weird in combat, or that elements the devs thought were spectacular in fact suck (which is usually the case).

I made a ranged character first to specifically avoid the melee control him-hams. This is actually the reverse of how I normally place, which is as a tank. Now I will likely do that in multiplayer where I'm not worried about tactical camera.

I sincerely can't use the tactical camera.
Every time I want to switch to another party member, the camera re-centers on that party member for no reason, forcing me to renavigate the camera to the enemy's position again just to order an attack.
Next party member. Camera snaps on new member. Repeat.
ASdsadagb
Pisses me off.

[Khaldun]

It's not predictable for me, but I am getting a fair number of crashes.

[Signe]

I cannot play the game for more than 20 minutes before it crashes with an DirectX error.

I got this error a couple of times, too.  There was an Nvidia driver update the other day and I just dl'd it.  Hopefully this will fix it.  The one difference I noted after the dl was that I can now optimise the game through Nvidia where I couldn't before.  There's also some fixes posted on websites but they all seemed to be a pain so I didn't bother.  Some people claim they fixed it by playing in fake full screen and changing some setting but I'm pretty sure they're full of shit.   

[Paelos]

I think we can all agree the tactical camera is complete shit. I seriously wish I could cobble together all the gameplay videos where they lauded it as a feature. I would guarantee they spent at least 20 minutes combined talking about how great the camera was.

Devs have completely lost touch on shit like that when it comes to UI. I really really wish they would just stop trying to reinvent the wheel. There are reasons a classical UI in an RPG works.

[calapine]

Gameindustry.biz interview with Mark Darrah

Q: It's been a few years since the last Dragon Age, does it feel like the audience for this genre has changed?

Mark Darrah: Skyrim changed the landscape for role-playing games completely. I mean Oblivion probably sold six million units, basically that range, Skyrim sold 20 million. So that, to some degree, changes everything.

Surprisingly candid answer. I wonder how many design decisions can be traced back to that single sentence.  

Q: Was the change in audience one of the reasons for introducing multiplayer to the franchise?

Mark Darrah Weirdly we actually had a project code-named Blackfoot which was the first game we had that was looking at Frostbite. It was a Dragon Age game, multiplayer only, that was in development before Dragon Age II came out. That became the core of what became Dragon Age Inquisition, the techlines, more than any of the development, so we've actually been looking at this a long time.

Interesting. Blaming this for the elements of wow-ifcation some have noticed probably pushes it. But interesting not the less.

Q: There were a lot of strong reactions to Dragon Age II, how did you decide which to take into account for Inquisition?

Mark Darrah: It doesn't make it easier to take all the time but you have to be open, you have to be willing to at least listen. The problem is that people don't always know what they actually want, Henry Ford said that if you asked people what they wanted they would say a faster horse. I think that is true to a certain degree so you need to hear and incorporate it but not be enslaved by it.

Not the he is technically wrong, a game designed after the whims of the "official forum" game mob would be a monstrosity. But in the case of a Dragon Age Origin sequel a faster horse would have have been exactly what I wanted.

[Khaldun]

Started playing with a controller last night. A lot of my bad feelings went away. It's just not for k+m, basically. If I can forgive Dark Souls for not being workable with anything but a controller, I guess I can forgive this too.

[Paelos]

Q: There were a lot of strong reactions to Dragon Age II, how did you decide which to take into account for Inquisition?

Mark Darrah: It doesn't make it easier to take all the time but you have to be open, you have to be willing to at least listen. The problem is that people don't always know what they actually want, Henry Ford said that if you asked people what they wanted they would say a faster horse. I think that is true to a certain degree so you need to hear and incorporate it but not be enslaved by it.

That's a fucking knob answer I'd expect from a developer. Hur Hur Henry Ford said our customers are really morons, the poor dears.

The people don't know what they want if it's a completely brand new idea, since they've never seen it. People sure as fuck know if they don't like something they've seen or tried. Absolutely nothing they've done in this game is a brand new idea. At all.

[Polysorbate80]

I was a bit irked at having to go through the dragon age keep thing instead of importing a save game.  We'll see how it goes once I get home and actually install the game 

Here's hoping that Zevran finally stays dead, instead of wandering about Kirkwall after having previously been mercilessly executed by the Warden.

[tmp]

Q: There were a lot of strong reactions to Dragon Age II, how did you decide which to take into account for Inquisition?

Mark Darrah: It doesn't make it easier to take all the time but you have to be open, you have to be willing to at least listen. The problem is that people don't always know what they actually want, Henry Ford said that if you asked people what they wanted they would say a faster horse. I think that is true to a certain degree so you need to hear and incorporate it but not be enslaved by it.

Not the he is technically wrong, a game designed after the whims of the "official forum" game mob would be a monstrosity. But in the case of a Dragon Age Origin sequel a faster horse would have have been exactly what I wanted.

Delivering a car instead of faster horse is fine, too. The problem is when instead of a car you deliver a wheelbarrow.

[Samprimary]

"The problem is that people don't really know what they actually want," says the guy whose second entry in the vehicular analogy franchise was an Edsel with cinderblocks for wheels and had a clown in the back seat whose job was to go "ha ha, fuck you!" and slap you in the face every time you pressed the gas pedal

"you all would have just asked for a faster horse."

philistines

[Signe]

FYI:  Since downloading the latest Nvidia driver update, I haven't had that Directx error.  I hope posting this doesn't jinx me.

[Venkman]

Not getting a controller or complaining about having to use a controller is get off my lawn territory.

Ha, no.

100% of PC gamers have a KB+M. Less than 100% of PC gamers have a controller. 100% of PC games are developed by developers developing on KB+M. Shit, most of any PC and console game development process is via KB+M.

Another way to say it:

How many totally awesome video games have come to PC with their only problem being crappy KB+M support?

tl;dr: DA:O and DA2 showed it wasn't hard. Most recently, Shadows of Mordor showed it wasn't hard.

[Khaldun]

Again, Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2. Unplayable w/out controllers. I didn't see too many people here or elsewhere saying, "Don't buy, don't play, get your money back" for that sin.

[Trippy]

Which is understandable if the game was created for console-only originally and then horribly ported to the PC. That's not the case with DA3.

[Khaldun]

I'm not sure I care, per se. It's like ye olden debate about MMOs trying to split the difference between PvP and PvE as a basic design paradigm. You get fucked the worst when you try to make everybody happy.

[Rasix]

This Sera character is a hoot. Couldn't understand a damn thing she said at first, however.

I suggest people don't just try to 100% Hinterlands right away. You get 2 characters if you advance the plot a smidge.

[Paelos]

I found the first area that is completely not fun in the game. The desert area with the shards. The designer of that level deserves to be kicked in the jimmy.

[Quinton]

This Sera character is a hoot. Couldn't understand a damn thing she said at first, however.

I suggest people don't just try to 100% Hinterlands right away. You get 2 characters if you advance the plot a smidge.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/2mw0iz/psa_leave_the_fucking_hinterlands/

Definitely by level 5 or 6 you should not have problems doing the first plot mission and yes it opens up a bunch of new stuff including a number of interesting folks you can recruit.  Sera is indeed a riot.  Sadly my character is a rogue and I also really enjoy having Varric around, so I am awash with rogues at the moment.

[Trippy]

This Sera character is a hoot. Couldn't understand a damn thing she said at first, however.

I suggest people don't just try to 100% Hinterlands right away. You get 2 characters if you advance the plot a smidge.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/2mw0iz/psa_leave_the_fucking_hinterlands/

Definitely by level 5 or 6 you should not have problems doing the first plot mission and yes it opens up a bunch of new stuff including a number of interesting folks you can recruit.  Sera is indeed a riot.  Sadly my character is a rogue and I also really enjoy having Varric around, so I am awash with rogues at the moment.

You actually unlock 4 if you advance the plot a smidge. I got the strat guide so that was one of the first thing I looked up

[Ceryse]

I think I was.. level 8 or so when I left the Hinterlands, with almost everything completed (three rifts, dragon and some minor map exploring to do), at least side-quest wise. I should have left earlier, but there was stuff to do! That and I'm very paranoid about missing things like character cut-scenes.

Finally got Skyhold unlocked.. and holy shit. Totally overwhelmed me. Spent.. 5 hours? just mucking about there talking to people, running around, talk to more people.. kept unlocking more and more conversations, which meant going around to everyone talkable again.. unlocking more shit, which meant going around again.. is there any kind of gating mechanism for some of these things? Something to get an anal OCD completionist to stop and to go out and kill shit?

Also.. so many war table missions where the ambassador is the best choice (at least time wise? I don't know if there are benefits or penalties for who you send to these things other than the amount of time it will take, so I've always just been going with whomever can do it in the fastest time, as it seems tailored to them). Need more shit where Cullen is the more advantageous. Also overwhelmed at the number of options of where to go. I farted about a bit in the Stormy area for a bit (before getting Skyhold), and haven't even unlocked any other areas and now I got something like four or five seemingly major, important quests.

It's actually a bit refreshing from the standard 'go here, then here.. now here.. and here..' that is so common.

And yeah.. Sera is amusing. Actually, Sera is the love interest of my female qunari mage.. largely because I figured it would be hilarious.

Anyone using Blackwall in their parties? He seems.. dull, and I actually like Cassandra (especially a certain book related quest involving her), and was wondering if it was worth using him as a tank over her for dialogue reasons, for my other playthroughs (I just started an archer to piddle with now and then and am debating whether or not to just stick with Cassandra as the tank again).

[murdoc]

The Iron Bull >> everyone else

[Trippy]

Mayhem!

[Comstar]

I got this error a couple of times, too.  There was an Nvidia driver update the other day and I just dl'd it.  Hopefully this will fix it.  The one difference I noted after the dl was that I can now optimise the game through Nvidia where I couldn't before.  There's also some fixes posted on websites but they all seemed to be a pain so I didn't bother.  Some people claim they fixed it by playing in fake full screen and changing some setting but I'm pretty sure they're full of shit.   

Latest update allowed Nvidia to set the graphics settings fixed it. Now everyone has VERY plastic hair though :(

[Phildo]

I've been taking Blackwall along whenever there's a Grey Warden-related quest, and picking Cassandra back up for everything else.  The game's grown on me, but it still feels like they could've streamlined the massive amount of resource gathering you need to do.  Also, not being able to reliably heal my characters up between battles is driving me insane.

[murdoc]

Hey neat, my voice just suddenly switched on all cutscenes!

[tmp]

Latest update allowed Nvidia to set the graphics settings fixed it. Now everyone has VERY plastic hair though :(

Very plastic as in, very shiny? Set the mesh quality in game settings to high or better, that should fix it. It still will be rather fake looking but less like an accident in grease factory.

(unless you mean some update published after the official drivers they had on 18th; I didn't check for any beta drivers, sorry)