Dragon Age is out

[Xon]

Dragon Age is actually quite awesome at the characters saying what they think is the truth and not having a direct pipeline to the truth.

[Vympel]

Dragon Age is actually quite awesome at the characters saying what they think is the truth and not having a direct pipeline to the truth.

A lesson I should've learned before making that damn decision, indeed.

Oh well. I fully plan to play through the game six times.

And fuck the game is hard even on easy. Or at least, doing Redcliffe first even on easy is - those fucking Drakes in the mountain! Unbelievable! Insane!

Did anyone manage to save Murdock, the Mayor, in the battle near the beginning of the quest line?

I'm trying to have a balanced party of two warriors, a rogue and a mage but the rogue - Leliana - she's a bit shit, not much there in the way of damage. Zevran isn't much use because he doesn't have any lockpicking.

One great touch is how even mundane armor sets give you a set bonus if you're wearing all of the same kind.

[Stofsk]

Supposedly the new patch makes Easy a little easier.

[Darth Quorthon]

Did anyone manage to save Murdock, the Mayor, in the battle near the beginning of the quest line?

No, he bit the dust when I did that battle. I thought I'd screwed up since the battle didn't seem to want to end; I went back up the hill to where the Knights were and the undead kept streaming down. I thought I was going to have to reload, but decided to sweep the village one more time before reloading. I found a lone undead just chilling out down by the docks and as soon as I offed him the battle ended.

Thus far I've gotten the Dalish, Mages, and Redcliffe on my side, and I think I'm pretty close to getting the Dwarves on my side. I found the options for completing the Dalish quest line to be interesting.

Also, Spoiler

I think I'm on the "evil" side of the Dwarf quest, helping Harrowmort, I was going to help the Prince, but when I found out I could crack some skulls in the Arena for Harrowmort, my mind was made up.

The fact that Soldier's Peak still isn't on my map is annoying me to no end. At this rate, I think I may have beat the game before a fix is issued. Well, I'll probably play through one more time, since in these types of games I always play through once as the goody-two-shoes and then again as the evil asshole.

[ChuckRac]

I too am having a band width problem with this, got to contact AT&T. Should have known better

[Acidburns]

I playing as an elf mage and I'm have a (literal) blast. Level 14 now, with Arcane Warrior and Spirit Healer specialisations. I've gathered the assistance of all the areas now except Orzamar. My preferred party mix at the moment is two warriors and two mages. Plenty of tank, plenty of healing an explosions. Arcane Warrior is great - being able to open with the lightning storm & fireballs then wade in with the equivalent of 44 strength is pretty fun. Even better, being able to trade in silly hat and robes for plate armour is wonderful. I thought the fatigue penalty would hit hard but wearing a complete set of armour that lowers ability costs in combination with +stamina armour (gets added to mana instead) it's not so bad.

those fucking Drakes in the mountain! Unbelievable! Insane!

Did anyone manage to save Murdock, the Mayor, in the battle near the beginning of the quest line?

I came to redcliff third, so I don't know if that makes it easier or not, but I still had a hard time in some of the rooms. There was one in particular with an elite cultist mage/leader fellow that triggers a huge spawn of drakes as you enter the room. Anyway, if you think the drakes are murder I don't recommend you blow the leaders horn on the mountain top! If you do kill the High Dragon however you can an awesome suit of armour from the scales. Just remember to pay the extra fee if you can, it's worth it.

Also, I think I did manage to save the mayor during the battle, I had to cast some heals on him.

[White Haven]

Difficulty is a bit wonky. I found the High Dragon to be several times easier than the fruitcake cultist leader and his cronies. Arcane Warrior sadly overlooks something crucial, as I don't think Magic scales your chance to hit at all. As a result, I hit like a truck when I manage to hit, but I miss a lot.

[Vanas]

I'm trying to avoid spoilers, so pardon me if I go over a few things others have said. I've just done Redcliffe after going there first and appear hell-bent on the Maximum Heresy route with my Elf Mage Shapeshifter (And I certainly did not make a deal with a demon for Blood Magic. Mainly because it's a few levels off.) Morrigan is being slowly encouraged to heal while I layer Walking Bombs, Virulent Walking Bombs, Shocks and Tempests on anyone silly enough to get somewhat close. Alastair's there to stand and be hit, while Crazy French Priest Lady has been hired to open chests for us and shoot things with arrows. (Seriously, I can make a man violently exsanguinate so hard he maims his counterparts and righteously level small areas of countryside, but a lock somehow foils me?)

Needless to say, on easy and with Friendly Fire off. God forbid I ever let my mage loose on anything above that.

Having fun at the moment though, some interesting choices thus far and hopefully many to come. I'm not really going for any particular moral stance or anything, just seeing what happens next. So far just picking the first thing that comes to mind had been amusing to say the least.

[Vendetta]

I'm playing a Dwarf Commoner. He's got a perpetual grumpy scowl, a huge bright red beard, and a hammer nearly as big as he is.

I've even found him a helmet with horns on.

This is called Roleplaying.

[Aaron]

Supposedly the new patch makes Easy a little easier.

When is this patch due? I'm at the Archdeamon and I can't get it down past 1/4 health before I get taken down by swarms of Darkspawn.

[Aeolus]

Has anyone chosen anything other than Human Noble Warrior? I am thinking of playing a Dalish Elf Rogue with Ranger in mind (I like bows).

How useful have people been finding skills? Especially ones like Coercion?

I have a city elf and a dalish elf but I play my human blood mage more. The City Elf start origin is a lot of fun.

[Darth Quorthon]

Supposedly the new patch makes Easy a little easier.

When is this patch due? I'm at the Archdeamon and I can't get it down past 1/4 health before I get taken down by swarms of Darkspawn.

I assume that it's patch 1.01, which was released a few days ago. I downloaded and ran it, and it promptly broke my game, I had to download some C++ security update or somesuch (don't remember the exact name) to get the game running again. You can find the information on the patch and its issues and fixes here.

Also, I just finished the Dwarven line and got them to support me against the Darkspawn, and all I can say is what an annoying series of boss fights.

[Manus Celer Dei]

I think I buggered up and missed the Blood Mage specialisation. Spoiler

The only mage I had in my party when I had to send someone into the Fade was Wynn; I wasn't expecting she'd scupper my chance to get the Blood Mage by being all FUCK YOU DEMON YOU'RE GONNA DIE. Should've expected it with her goody-two-shoesishness. Oh well.

With my Arcane Warrior, is their any particular weapon style that works well, or should I just go with whatevers most powerful, since mages don't get combat talents?

Also, can anyone figure out how to set a characters tactics up so they activate a sustained talent at the start of a fight and turn it off when there's no more enemies around? I want Shale set to automatically use his buff-everyone-else-but-can't-move power and then turn it off afterwards without having to manually cycle to him and switch it off.

[Coaan]

I would imagine it's similar to Wynne's power to raise the dead; there are no automatic ways to set her to resurrect someone that has died, that I can see.

It sounds like it'd be similar for Shale (though I wouldn't know personally, because the DLC is being an utter fucking pain.)

The individuals at bioware who thought that EA would be a good publisher to use should be killed. Seriously.

[Ford Prefect]

Also, Spoiler

I think I'm on the "evil" side of the Dwarf quest, helping Harrowmort, I was going to help the Prince, but when I found out I could crack some skulls in the Arena for Harrowmort, my mind was made up.

Read at your own risk:
Spoiler

I played through the dwarf noble origin this morning on a friend's computer, and suffice to say, Harrowment would have to be Stalin for the traitorous, lying, slimy little bastard Behlen to be the 'good' option. On the other hand, I imagine it wouldn't be impossible for Harrowment to be playing the 'game', given that being a dwarf noble pretty much entails being a backstabber as a matter of course: the number of times the option comes up to assassinate or conspire to assassinate other dwarves is staggering.

[Manus Celer Dei]

This is annoying. It seems the Death Syphon and Death Magic talents don't actually do anything when you're in combat; they only use corpses to restore your health/mana outside of combat. The normal health/mana regen outside of combat is fast enough to make these two talents close to useless. It would've been really nice if their descriptions had actually mentioned this.

The descriptions of quite a few talents are bit lacking actually; mostly just because there are some sustained abilities that don't work with other ones, but nothing to actually tell you this until you put a point into it and find out. Maybe if they had spent more time on writing the information related to gameplay rather than ten thousand codex entries about Andraste's left nostril this wouldn't have happened.

I've been getting an odd error about my DLC; every now and then when I start the game I get a message saying the Blood Dragon Armour DLC is corrupt and has to be re-downloaded, but quitting to the 360 dashboard and starting the game again fixes it. S'weird, but doesn't seem to have actually affected the game at all.

I would imagine it's similar to Wynne's power to raise the dead; there are no automatic ways to set her to resurrect someone that has died, that I can see.

It sounds like it'd be similar for Shale (though I wouldn't know personally, because the DLC is being an utter fucking pain.)

Bugger. The lack of a Target:Ally:Dead criteria is annoying also, but it's easy enough to quickly switch to her and cast it; it's not like you're not going to notice one of your party dieing.

[Tolya]

With my Arcane Warrior...

Damn, Im bent on getting Arcane Warrior specialization, I liked the Eldritch Knight class in NWN2. Can you drop a small spoiler on where to find a trainer for this?

[White Haven]

Spoiler

Head over to the Elven forest with the unmemorable name. Churn through the quests there until you end up in the dungeon area, and poke around. You learn it from what's left of an elf's mind who's solidly stuck inside a rock.

Fair warning, I do good damage, but I miss all the TIME. Magic scales damage, but doesn't do shit for your attack roll, which is an annoying oversight if you didn't pre-plan Arcane Warrior

[Tolya]

Fair warning, I do good damage, but I miss all the TIME. Magic scales damage, but doesn't do shit for your attack roll, which is an annoying oversight if you didn't pre-plan Arcane Warrior

Thanks, I found it a few hours after I posted this. Actually I DID pre-plan my Arcane Warrior (as best as I could with scarce knowledge of the finer points of the game mechanic) by investing into strength, dexterity and constitution.

By the way, how does it work exactly? It says in the description that it uses magic for strength. What determines chances of hitting tho?

[weemadando]

I stumbled across a FUCKING AWESOME glitch last night.

Return to Duncan with the 3 vials of tainted blood, but not the treaties and he'll give you the XP for that portion of hte quest, but the treaties part will stay open.

I then wanted to ask him more about the treaties and where they might be, but it went through the same scene of returning the blood. And then ended with the quest completion and XP award again.

And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.

You can do this pretty much until the cows come home it would seem. So if you wan to power-level early, here's a way to do it.

[Stofsk]

Cheater

[weemadando]

Cheater

It was unintentional the first time. The second time was to check that it was what I thought it was. The next two or three - yeah, that was probably a bit low.

I am however playing a goddamn rogue, so it's in character.

[Dralan]

Im having a blast playing a rogue duelist. Though some parts of this game is insanly hard when you have such a crappy NPC AI. I have lost count of the number of time that damn AI has fu*** up my perfecly layed plan.

Oh well, next level I will also gain the Assassin tree.. that will be helpful.

One thing that annoys me is the lack of sufficient funding. I have found tons of stuff in different stores that I want. but I cant afford 10% of it.

[Manus Celer Dei]

Haha, oh man, I just finished Shale's quest in the deep roads to find out more about his origin. Spoiler

He was a woman before he was turned into a golem. It's like Fawkes from Fallout 3 all over again. It's extra-hilarious if your player character is a woman.

"Ah yes. Female bonding and all that. Rah. Let us crush something and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?"

[charlemagne]

I'm having a blast with this game, too, despite it's mainly minor flaws. Playing as a human rogue right now going for mostly good options, but I'm already seeing a second playthrough as a greedy violent dwarfen bastard It's nice that there's no real "evil" options in most cases, just "and what would helping you profit me", which is more sane than the Sith route of "you dare asking for my help, DIE" (I've never played NWN nor BG, so KOTOR is what I compare this game to).

Using pause in combat a lot is a must for me, because while the whole "tactics" menu is nice, it doesn't work 100% in some cases. For example I'm using Alistair as tank and I've set him to attack enemies going for my healer Wynne as first priority, with going for lowest health as second, but it seems he NEVER breaks off attacking whatever he saw first, and even when that enemy goes down, he doesn't head to Wynne if she is in trouble. Everyone else in my party is set to "engage Alistair's target", but they won't do that sometimes either. And everybody going for different targets is death, so micromanaging it is. It's not that bad, because combat is still fun, it just means that playing in "realtime" is no option. You have to place rogues behind enemies and use many abilities/spells manually, anyways. Combat can still be rather hard on normal, like when with a bit of bad luck a pack of wolves slaughters you within seconds. What works well is luring enemies to your stationary party instead of running towards them.

I'm growing a bid tired of Carth Atton Alistair and his whining, though. I think I'll try HK47 Shale for a tank later, and I'm looking forward to replacing him entirely with my player character on a second playthrough. Although I'd also like to go for a dual-wield warrior killing things with axes to mirror my champion in LotRO, anyone played a dw warrior yet? How does damage hold up against rogues?


Oh yeah, the whole setting is one huge ugly bastard of stolen ideas, of course. There's some nice not-mainstream-fantasy ideas, like the Elves-are-buttmonkeys thing, and I really like the "men went to god's city" bit, but when I encountered those pseudo-Ents, I just thought "oh really?". Also, the whole story of "you're the last Jedi Grey Warden, go to those four planets cities to get four starmaps lost masters allies is getting a bit thin by now (although there's really a whole more depth to that story than it initially seemed). Just like with some of the carbon-copy companions, a bit more originality wouldn't hurt.