It makes sense. You are killing a ton of people that can be expected to have valuable loot on them. If they actually wanted to make it not pay well, they would make it so that you couldn't carry the ten tons of armor you find. If they wanted to be evil, they would make it so killing a person with certain attacks like magic flames destroyed a lot of the loot.
Couscous on
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Mostlyjoe13Evil, Evil, Jump for joy!Registered Userregular
edited September 2010
Well, I'm getting Origins and Awakenings for the PS3 (Played the 360 for one playthrough on Origins). Any advice with the PS3 version, or is just the same?
It makes sense. You are killing a ton of people that can be expected to have valuable loot on them. If they actually wanted to make it not pay well, they would make it so that you couldn't carry the ten tons of armor you find. If they wanted to be evil, they would make it so killing a person with certain attacks like magic flames destroyed a lot of the loot.
Fortunately, in the Dragon Age world that's not the case. An enemy's loot is never destroyed because of your attacks.
This actually fits into the lore, too. It takes a lot to destroy an Elfroot, you see.
That was an awful long way to go for a "DA:O has shitty loots" joke, so I hope someone appreciates it.
Well, I'm getting Origins and Awakenings for the PS3 (Played the 360 for one playthrough on Origins). Any advice with the PS3 version, or is just the same?
I couldn't say for sure, but I believe they're both the same. Only difference is your controller.
And to add to my previous comment: Adventurers are basically government sanctioned pillagers. You get to rob every house you enter, loot sacred burial grounds, kill and take the possessions of everyone you meet with little to no negative consequences, not to mention the fact that every single menial task a real job might be expected to do is relegated to either adventurers or bumbling incompetents, in which case it is relegated to adventurers after the other guys screw up. There isn't even the downside of death because of plot.
The mod is definitely hard but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's designed for min/max players and certain party combinations only. I'm still not using Traps and Poison Making as much as I probably should, which would greatly increase the utility of non-mage characters.
With the random encounters beefed up though I find myself almost always traveling with at least one mage as you don't get the opportunity to scout and set up strategies when you get ambushed, which makes perfectly logical sense.
I do find that the mod is forcing me to take advantage of the environment and utilize much more strategy than before, which is a good thing. I'm no longer just plowing through Darkspawn - they're an actual, more realistic threat to my party - I mean I'm going up against a horde here.
One thing's for sure, with the increased number of enemies on the field, I no longer feel like I'm cheating by bringing Dog along as a 5th party member.
I had such high hopes for that one, after all the speculation RE: Godbaby.
Sad to hear it wasn't that great, but on the other hand I haven't really gotten much out of any of the DLC I did purchase, so I guess it isn't a surprise.
When they say DLC is done, does that include item packs? I was hoping they'd at least make those respec tomes available as DLC for Origins so the 360 version wouldn't be quite as crappy compared to the PC version.
And it's kind of bullshit that they had all those preorder items available at like ten different stores so it was impossible to get them all. Most other games (including Mass Effect 2) eventually release the preorder items for everyone.
The mod is definitely hard but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's designed for min/max players and certain party combinations only. I'm still not using Traps and Poison Making as much as I probably should, which would greatly increase the utility of non-mage characters.
With the random encounters beefed up though I find myself almost always traveling with at least one mage as you don't get the opportunity to scout and set up strategies when you get ambushed, which makes perfectly logical sense.
I do find that the mod is forcing me to take advantage of the environment and utilize much more strategy than before, which is a good thing. I'm no longer just plowing through Darkspawn - they're an actual, more realistic threat to my party - I mean I'm going up against a horde here.
One thing's for sure, with the increased number of enemies on the field, I no longer feel like I'm cheating by bringing Dog along as a 5th party member.
The most hilarious part of that mod so far was when it spawned two elite and two normal skeletons at the last fight in the fade where one of your mages goes in to save the boy. Had it not been possible to draw them out and fight them one by one before actually triggering the boss that quest would have been done for. So in my opinion the mod might have been better if they had actually played through the game with it once before uploading it. I do still love the random loot though.
What is annoying me at the moment is that it seems I have lost my chance to romance Leiana. While I did not mess up any of the conversations I failed to talk to her about why she entered the chantry, as apparently that conversation options disappears once she goes above 25 approval. I actually installed the toolset just to alter one of my savegames to possibly fix this, but of course the toolset did not work and the dozens of pages of troubleshooting on that thing are absolutely indecipherable to me.
Alas our love was not meant to be, unless there is some other kind of savegame editor out there.
Vic on
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-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
When they say DLC is done, does that include item packs? I was hoping they'd at least make those respec tomes available as DLC for Origins so the 360 version wouldn't be quite as crappy compared to the PC version.
Believe me, the respec mod isn't even close to being what makes the PC version superior.
Makes me sad that the PC version of DA 2 won't have mod support.
What is annoying me at the moment is that it seems I have lost my chance to romance Leiana. While I did not mess up any of the conversations I failed to talk to her about why she entered the chantry, as apparently that conversation options disappears once she goes above 25 approval. I actually installed the toolset just to alter one of my savegames to possibly fix this, but of course the toolset did not work and the dozens of pages of troubleshooting on that thing are absolutely indecipherable to me.
Alas our love was not meant to be, unless there is some other kind of savegame editor out there.
Take her to the Pearl. Get busy. When her approval drops (don't drop it too much, just to about 20), you can use gifts to bring it back up enough to trigger the conversation again.
That seems like a good plan except for the fact that there are not enough gifts left to give her to get her approval up again if I do that.
How late in the game are you?
Have you grabbed the 3 Andrastes Graces (Brecilian Forest, Orzammar and Redcliff)? They're Leliana plot gifts, and each one is a +5, and then there's the Nug in Orzammar which I'm pretty sure is a +10, and is another plot gift.
So I just got dragon age for the oxbox super cheap (25$ aus), any tips before I start? Ive heard that its possible to stat urself into a corner or something? Im a warrior kinda dude btw. Also any achievements for playing it on hard? Or should I stick to normal?
Prohass on
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-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
any tips before I start? Ive heard that its possible to stat urself into a corner or something? Im a warrior kinda dude btw. Also any achievements for playing it on hard? Or should I stick to normal?
You can't really stat yourself into a corner unless you try to. If you go warrior, just remember to focus on strength and dexterity. For all classes, ignore constitution. More health sounds appealing, but you want the damage mitigation from dexterity, so you take less damage for your mage to heal, not a bigger pool, which just means your mage will run out of energy healing lots of high damage hits.
So I just got dragon age for the oxbox super cheap (25$ aus), any tips before I start? Ive heard that its possible to stat urself into a corner or something? Im a warrior kinda dude btw. Also any achievements for playing it on hard? Or should I stick to normal?
The only achievements for difficulty are in the Golems DLC.
When they say DLC is done, does that include item packs? I was hoping they'd at least make those respec tomes available as DLC for Origins so the 360 version wouldn't be quite as crappy compared to the PC version.
Believe me, the respec mod isn't even close to being what makes the PC version superior.
Makes me sad that the PC version of DA 2 won't have mod support.
Excuse me? They've said straight out no mods for part 2?
Xeddicus on
"For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men. Not women. Not beasts...this you can trust."
They may or may not make the modifications to allow the toolkit to work with the changes they made. Certainly won't have week one mods like the respec potions though
Again, the only reason we even got a toolset as close to release with DA:O as we did was because of the delay the game had.
Blackjack on
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
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TIFunkaliciousKicking back inNebraskaRegistered Userregular
edited September 2010
was pretty sure i wasn't going to pick up awakening and then I see my local furniture mart having a sale on PC games. Among ME2 for $15 and Arkham Asylum for $12 DA:O-A was only ten bucks.
Is there alot of replay value? I'm starting to like the insanity mage I started quite a bit, and haven't decided if i want to take him or my normal-level shield warrior through it
TIFunkalicious on
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Alfred J. Kwakis it because you were insultedwhen I insulted your hair?Registered Userregular
edited September 2010
I really liked it, but I don't think it has any replay value at all. But I feel the same way about ME2 and DA:O so whatever (minus the liking part for the latter).
I just realised I was going to ask for advice when I made a post rather than just bitch about the difficulty. I just picked up Leiana, and remembered that archery is fairly lackluster in this game. Would you guys recommend making her a dual wielding rogue rather than an archer, taking into account that I already have two melee fighters (me and hopefully soon Shale)? I seem to recall there being a respecc potion to buy somewhere.
I maxed out her Bard skills first which were pretty good CC and buffing.
I can't see them not ever releasing a toolkit or some kind of updater for the existing one to allow mod support. That'd be insane, considering how substantial the mod community is.
Or perhaps BioWare saw one too many tasteless armor and nude mods, they're taking their ball and going home.
Or perhaps BioWare saw one too many tasteless armor and nude mods, they're taking their ball and going home.
Considering all the horrible and retarded shit they allow on their own forums I sincerely doubt that a few nude mods would affect them.
Silpheed on
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-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
edited September 2010
Okay, I misunderstood it when they said DA 2 wouldn't be released with a toolkit. Here's what they've had to say about it.
"The tools we're using to make Dragon Age 2 are very, very close to the tools you guys have used to make your mods for DA:O. They're not identical, as we've made a few in-house improvements, but they're almost identical. As such, there isn't a new toolset to release, per se...While we won't be releasing a toolset update in tandem with Dragon Age 2, we ARE investigating what it would take to update the community toolset to match ours, along with providing DA2 content in the future."
So, basically... we already have the toolkit. They're just looking at ways to update it so it works with DA 2.
-Loki- on
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Alfred J. Kwakis it because you were insultedwhen I insulted your hair?Registered Userregular
edited September 2010
Awesome, I guess I should go learning the DA toolset now to be prepared.
Note he didn't say they were going to update it. He said they weren't releasing it with the game and are looking into what it would take to update it. They may decide it's not worth the cost and it won't happen. So it's a wait and see situation.
Xeddicus on
"For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men. Not women. Not beasts...this you can trust."
Is the toolset really that valuable? I mean there aren't any super amazing mods or "must haves" for the game.
It was nice that when the game was first released we could add a respec potion or a camp chest, a quick fix for the daggers was nice too, and now a difficulty mod, but the rest of the shit I see is just nude patches and other useless things.
No real content was created, no extra quests, no fun little side adventures. Only little things that could've been hacked in with a trainer. (Except the difficulty mod of course).
I haven't seen anyone make anything really worthwhile for the game.
And that's the kind of thinking I'm afraid they'll have/listen to to cut costs. All that little stuff that was released quickly for the game vastly improved it and let you tailor stuff to how you wanted it. That's not a requirement for any game, but it be like if New Vegas didn't include the GECK. Unacceptable in this specific situation for some people.
Xeddicus on
"For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men. Not women. Not beasts...this you can trust."
It would be absolutely absurd for them not to release a toolset update eventually. That would be the ultimate act of betrayal on BioWare's part towards the PC community that has supported them for years. I can't see them doing something like that.
Then again, they did release Witch Hunt.
I wish I could get some developer insight on what they were thinking with that DLC, or what their reaction is to it being almost(?) universally panned.
Alfred J. Kwakis it because you were insultedwhen I insulted your hair?Registered Userregular
edited September 2010
I'm still kinda hope DA developes a mod community similar to NWN, though I don't really know why it never took off with the first game. And working with a proper toolset is where the real fun is at for me.
So, playing through again I get to Redcliffe village and have an sudden burst of inspiration:
If the village is being attacked on two fronts, why not have two parties?
Using the console to add more party members than the normally allowed 4, I set up two groups:
Warden, Alistair, Shale and Roland(Ser Gilmore) will defend the entrance with Ser Perth, Dwyn, Berwick and his men.
Ser Barksalot, Morrigan, Sten and Leliana will defend the Chantry along with Murdock, Lloyd and the Redcliffe militia.
This is mostly accomplished by using Hold Position and ranged attacks, as well as pre-set tactics, but it is also easy to micro both groups, using Dog as a link to the second group. I use the Dog as 5th party member mod, which keeps him as a summon and his character icon right next to the Warden's, so I'm able to toggle between both groups easily.
Really, really fun by the way. Also a suitable tactic considering I'm playing on Random Age difficulty 5 and Nightmare mode.
Finished the Redcliffe scene and let me tell you, rolling around with my full entourage was amazing. I was so jazzed I thought to myself, 'Why not just play through the rest of the game like this?'
Unfortunately it was too good to be true. When I entered into a conversation with Kaitlyn in the Chantry, the dialogue got to the point where Morrigan and Sten wanted to add their two cents. Since they were outside of the selected 4 party members, the game did recognize their presence, but shifted the scene under the floor and muted their intended dialogue. Once their moment passed, the conversation continued normally, and when it completed, I got a full approval response from everyone that cared about that particular moment, even if they weren't in the "main" party.(Alistair and Leliana approved, Morrigan disapproved)
I made a request on the Dragon Nexus forums for someone to somehow cook up a fix for this. It'd be awesome to get to run around with everyone and have their dialogue scenes play.
A user by the name of Vim on the Dragon Age Wikia had some interesting things to say about this issue as well - can be read here. At least it's sounding like it could be resolved with a mod, but one has yet to be made.
Edit: I also apparently ran into a rather nasty bug where the Mage's Bag, Chantry Board and Blackstone Box and their respective attendees won't spawn after the Redcliffe battle. There doesn't appear to be anything in particular that triggers it, and it's just completely random. Good thing I kept multiple save states this time around, so I get to do that battle all over again. Fun!
Oh yeah, that was the start of the demo before that Dwarf gets interrupted by the Chantry chick. Really felt like I was playing some smash my face across the controller brawler until you get pulled out of the fantasy and put into the reality.
After a short cut scene there's a dialog tree, a bit of exploring, and a couple bouts of 'real' combat, where you are controlling several characters and fighting a handful a Darkspawn, not an army. Quite a big change from the first couple minutes but that seems to be the point.
Absolutely retarded place to cut off the video but maybe the booth attendant saw him and made him stop. Oh well doom & gloom incoming.
Posts
This actually fits into the lore, too. It takes a lot to destroy an Elfroot, you see.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
I couldn't say for sure, but I believe they're both the same. Only difference is your controller.
And to add to my previous comment: Adventurers are basically government sanctioned pillagers. You get to rob every house you enter, loot sacred burial grounds, kill and take the possessions of everyone you meet with little to no negative consequences, not to mention the fact that every single menial task a real job might be expected to do is relegated to either adventurers or bumbling incompetents, in which case it is relegated to adventurers after the other guys screw up. There isn't even the downside of death because of plot.
With the random encounters beefed up though I find myself almost always traveling with at least one mage as you don't get the opportunity to scout and set up strategies when you get ambushed, which makes perfectly logical sense.
I do find that the mod is forcing me to take advantage of the environment and utilize much more strategy than before, which is a good thing. I'm no longer just plowing through Darkspawn - they're an actual, more realistic threat to my party - I mean I'm going up against a horde here.
One thing's for sure, with the increased number of enemies on the field, I no longer feel like I'm cheating by bringing Dog along as a 5th party member.
It's almost making me want to load up Dragon Age for another go; I've been waiting on another play-through until some good DLC comes out.
I'm still waiting.
Sad to hear it wasn't that great, but on the other hand I haven't really gotten much out of any of the DLC I did purchase, so I guess it isn't a surprise.
And it's kind of bullshit that they had all those preorder items available at like ten different stores so it was impossible to get them all. Most other games (including Mass Effect 2) eventually release the preorder items for everyone.
The most hilarious part of that mod so far was when it spawned two elite and two normal skeletons at the last fight in the fade where one of your mages goes in to save the boy. Had it not been possible to draw them out and fight them one by one before actually triggering the boss that quest would have been done for. So in my opinion the mod might have been better if they had actually played through the game with it once before uploading it. I do still love the random loot though.
What is annoying me at the moment is that it seems I have lost my chance to romance Leiana. While I did not mess up any of the conversations I failed to talk to her about why she entered the chantry, as apparently that conversation options disappears once she goes above 25 approval. I actually installed the toolset just to alter one of my savegames to possibly fix this, but of course the toolset did not work and the dozens of pages of troubleshooting on that thing are absolutely indecipherable to me.
Alas our love was not meant to be, unless there is some other kind of savegame editor out there.
Believe me, the respec mod isn't even close to being what makes the PC version superior.
Makes me sad that the PC version of DA 2 won't have mod support.
Take her to the Pearl. Get busy. When her approval drops (don't drop it too much, just to about 20), you can use gifts to bring it back up enough to trigger the conversation again.
If you have the feastday gifts dlc you can buy a bunch of the generics. I think they raise rep by five or ten no matter who you give them to.
How late in the game are you?
Have you grabbed the 3 Andrastes Graces (Brecilian Forest, Orzammar and Redcliff)? They're Leliana plot gifts, and each one is a +5, and then there's the Nug in Orzammar which I'm pretty sure is a +10, and is another plot gift.
Woah
You can't really stat yourself into a corner unless you try to. If you go warrior, just remember to focus on strength and dexterity. For all classes, ignore constitution. More health sounds appealing, but you want the damage mitigation from dexterity, so you take less damage for your mage to heal, not a bigger pool, which just means your mage will run out of energy healing lots of high damage hits.
The only achievements for difficulty are in the Golems DLC.
NNID: Glenn565
Excuse me? They've said straight out no mods for part 2?
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Is there alot of replay value? I'm starting to like the insanity mage I started quite a bit, and haven't decided if i want to take him or my normal-level shield warrior through it
I maxed out her Bard skills first which were pretty good CC and buffing.
Or perhaps BioWare saw one too many tasteless armor and nude mods, they're taking their ball and going home.
So, basically... we already have the toolkit. They're just looking at ways to update it so it works with DA 2.
It was nice that when the game was first released we could add a respec potion or a camp chest, a quick fix for the daggers was nice too, and now a difficulty mod, but the rest of the shit I see is just nude patches and other useless things.
No real content was created, no extra quests, no fun little side adventures. Only little things that could've been hacked in with a trainer. (Except the difficulty mod of course).
I haven't seen anyone make anything really worthwhile for the game.
Then again, they did release Witch Hunt.
I wish I could get some developer insight on what they were thinking with that DLC, or what their reaction is to it being almost(?) universally panned.
If the village is being attacked on two fronts, why not have two parties?
Using the console to add more party members than the normally allowed 4, I set up two groups:
Warden, Alistair, Shale and Roland(Ser Gilmore) will defend the entrance with Ser Perth, Dwyn, Berwick and his men.
Ser Barksalot, Morrigan, Sten and Leliana will defend the Chantry along with Murdock, Lloyd and the Redcliffe militia.
This is mostly accomplished by using Hold Position and ranged attacks, as well as pre-set tactics, but it is also easy to micro both groups, using Dog as a link to the second group. I use the Dog as 5th party member mod, which keeps him as a summon and his character icon right next to the Warden's, so I'm able to toggle between both groups easily.
Really, really fun by the way. Also a suitable tactic considering I'm playing on Random Age difficulty 5 and Nightmare mode.
FF6 flashbacks!
Unfortunately it was too good to be true. When I entered into a conversation with Kaitlyn in the Chantry, the dialogue got to the point where Morrigan and Sten wanted to add their two cents. Since they were outside of the selected 4 party members, the game did recognize their presence, but shifted the scene under the floor and muted their intended dialogue. Once their moment passed, the conversation continued normally, and when it completed, I got a full approval response from everyone that cared about that particular moment, even if they weren't in the "main" party.(Alistair and Leliana approved, Morrigan disapproved)
I made a request on the Dragon Nexus forums for someone to somehow cook up a fix for this. It'd be awesome to get to run around with everyone and have their dialogue scenes play.
A user by the name of Vim on the Dragon Age Wikia had some interesting things to say about this issue as well - can be read here. At least it's sounding like it could be resolved with a mod, but one has yet to be made.
Edit: I also apparently ran into a rather nasty bug where the Mage's Bag, Chantry Board and Blackstone Box and their respective attendees won't spawn after the Redcliffe battle. There doesn't appear to be anything in particular that triggers it, and it's just completely random. Good thing I kept multiple save states this time around, so I get to do that battle all over again. Fun!
http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/dragon-age-2-gameplay/350241
Oh yeah, that was the start of the demo before that Dwarf gets interrupted by the Chantry chick. Really felt like I was playing some smash my face across the controller brawler until you get pulled out of the fantasy and put into the reality.
After a short cut scene there's a dialog tree, a bit of exploring, and a couple bouts of 'real' combat, where you are controlling several characters and fighting a handful a Darkspawn, not an army. Quite a big change from the first couple minutes but that seems to be the point.
Absolutely retarded place to cut off the video but maybe the booth attendant saw him and made him stop. Oh well doom & gloom incoming.