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Haha. I've switched so many characters faces and hair for different placethroughs just to see what looks good in game. I'm a sucker for mods like that.
I'm using an alternate Anders. It made him less annoying somehow. I still asked him to leave my party in Act 2 though.
What do people not like about the waves? They aren't at all difficult, you just have to play differently, don't blow your load all over the first wave and then have nothing for the next wave.
I'm late to the party/thread, but I'll chime in on this.
I don't like the way the waves were handled because it means the "strategy" for beating an encounter on Hard/Nightmare is to pull back away from the room/area. It's the only way to avoid enemies truly teleporting right in the middle of your protected ranged characters.
And I can deal with ninjas climbing down ropes... but seriously, when Mabari hounds start dropping from the guy and landing on your healer's jugular... there's a problem.
What I do it keep my ranged DPS back, have my tank take the first wave while I focus down the adds with the lowest HP with everyone else, when the adds come in I get my tank to get what they can, if I need to run my ranged guys away I run them to me, I take the weaker ones, focus them all down and disable the stronger guys, kill mages right away and then work from there. This works very well.
You missed my point or chose to ignore it. I'm not saying a player can't cope with it.
In a room with a low ceiling and the exits blocked by melee, an enemy in fullplate can mysteriously materialize right behind my mage and off him, even if he's backed into a corner and there's no WAY anyone can get to him. There's no "watch the exits for reinforcements!" Sometimes they just get beamed in from the Enterprise.
That's what people "don't like about it." It doesn't make the game unplayable. I've said numerous times, out loud, in an empty apartment, "bullshit" when that happens. There's no scoping out an area and planning ahead. Your only recourse if you get caught off guard is to reload and memorize where they're going to fade in.
No...like, it really isn't ever a problem. If the enemy spawns ONTOP of your ranged guys run them away, they can't be hit while running, focus down the new wave and continue. Like I have never had a problem with it, I don't know if you have figured this out yet but enemies usually spawn in the corners or behind, there is a delay when they spawn in before they do anything giving you plenty of time to react.
Fizban140 on
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GoodKingJayIIIThey wanna get mygold on the ceilingRegistered Userregular
Nathaniel Hawk (who I think kinda looks like Clark from Smallville with stubble), a sarcastic Rogue who says silly things at wildly inappropriate times
Vanessa Hawk, a generally nice but sometimes hardass 2h Warrior
Sorry for the quality, I'm on the 360 so no beautiful screen caps for me :x
Vee on
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
To add to the wave conversation:
Thing that bothered me about the waves was that at a certain point I found myself asking "holy crap, how many people are in this little gang?"
I am pretty sure by the end of the game I killed maybe 1/4 of all of the free marches with how many mobs I was killing at a time.
That coat looks great. I wish that the mage armors from Bioware would look like that instead of "ye olde bathrobe/dress" that Mages usually get in games like these.
who are you to talk to me like that, you bloody peasant
Feels Good Man on
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ZarathustraEckUbermenschnow with stripes!Registered Userregular
edited March 2011
Act 2 End:
Just did it for the second time, this time with my Sarcastic Rogue Hawke. Managed to get the Arishok's respect earlier and I was braced for a tough fight.
...wow, that was easy.
The one-on-one duel was either bugged, or trivialized by my character. There was a bit of running and gunning, but for the most part I had the Arishok firmly nailed to the floor. My rogue's using the bow with a 25% chance to decrease move & attack speed and I've not really noticed it proc in the past. Now I could definitely see a difference, but here's where it gets wonky.
Pinning Shot. Works. Every. Time.
Okay, maybe not every time, but more often than not I'd hit him with Pinning Shot and he'd sit there for 30 seconds without moving at all.
Bug? "Clever use of game mechanics" with the stacking of the weapon ability and Pinning Shot? I doubt I'm the only one who ran into this during the duel.
Heh, I was actually a little bummed, as I showed up at the Viscount's Keep packing some combustion grenades and plenty of potions.
ZarathustraEck on
See you in Town,
-Z
0
ZarathustraEckUbermenschnow with stripes!Registered Userregular
What do people not like about the waves? They aren't at all difficult, you just have to play differently, don't blow your load all over the first wave and then have nothing for the next wave.
I'm late to the party/thread, but I'll chime in on this.
I don't like the way the waves were handled because it means the "strategy" for beating an encounter on Hard/Nightmare is to pull back away from the room/area. It's the only way to avoid enemies truly teleporting right in the middle of your protected ranged characters.
And I can deal with ninjas climbing down ropes... but seriously, when Mabari hounds start dropping from the guy and landing on your healer's jugular... there's a problem.
What I do it keep my ranged DPS back, have my tank take the first wave while I focus down the adds with the lowest HP with everyone else, when the adds come in I get my tank to get what they can, if I need to run my ranged guys away I run them to me, I take the weaker ones, focus them all down and disable the stronger guys, kill mages right away and then work from there. This works very well.
You missed my point or chose to ignore it. I'm not saying a player can't cope with it.
In a room with a low ceiling and the exits blocked by melee, an enemy in fullplate can mysteriously materialize right behind my mage and off him, even if he's backed into a corner and there's no WAY anyone can get to him. There's no "watch the exits for reinforcements!" Sometimes they just get beamed in from the Enterprise.
That's what people "don't like about it." It doesn't make the game unplayable. I've said numerous times, out loud, in an empty apartment, "bullshit" when that happens. There's no scoping out an area and planning ahead. Your only recourse if you get caught off guard is to reload and memorize where they're going to fade in.
No...like, it really isn't ever a problem. If the enemy spawns ONTOP of your ranged guys run them away, they can't be hit while running, focus down the new wave and continue. Like I have never had a problem with it, I don't know if you have figured this out yet but enemies usually spawn in the corners or behind, there is a delay when they spawn in before they do anything giving you plenty of time to react.
Disconnect identified.
You're saying it doesn't adversely affect the difficulty. I don't disagree. I'm saying I don't care for that design choice and it takes me out of the game.
There is no male version of the mage one. I prefer the male armor myself, but it's comparing apples and oranges because it really comes down to whether you prefer dude Hawke or lady Hawke.
Finally cleared it. Gonna be honest, I was not feeling that last battle.
So Orsino wusses out and turns himself into a giant monster no matter who you side with, Meredith just happened to end up with the evil artifact found way back in the deep roads, and every statue in the gallows comes alive to fight.
It just got kinda goofy, I couldn't take it seriously. The Arishok was a much better opponent.
Finally cleared it. Gonna be honest, I was not feeling that last battle.
So Orsino wusses out and turns himself into a giant monster no matter who you side with, Meredith just happened to end up with the evil artifact found way back in the deep roads, and every statue in the gallows comes alive to fight.
It just got kinda goofy, I couldn't take it seriously. The Arishok was a much better opponent.
So it's fine that you're fighting giant dragons and crazy wizards who slit their wrists to become super powerful... but a magical sword that make statues come to life, that's the moment when it all becomes too goofy and implausible? That's when they go over the line and it turns to silly nonsense?
I thought the evil artifact was a great example of Chekhov's gun. It's introduced, we're aware of it, and at the end of the story it goes off. All the while, we were wondering exactly why Meredith was such a crazy bitch, and it all makes sense when they reveal the sword.
I totally agree with this. It's why I always use all ranged DPS companions, so I can set them to Hold Position and they'll stay out of danger. If I want to have some variety in my party and introduce a melee DPS like Isabela or Fenris, however, then I can't have Hold Position on. But then the ranged companions coming charging into the fray for some reason (Yes, their behavior is set to Ranged, I'm not an idiot) and get melee'd all the time.
I know this was from WAY back in the thread, but dear god do NOT used Ranged if you want your people to stay out of melee. Use CAUTIOUS, then they run like bitches whenever an enemy gets anywhere close.
Just make sure you add a rule at the end of your tactics to make them attack the lowest health enemy (or whatever) so they don't just stand around, since Cautious doesn't use basic attacks by default.
I totally agree with this. It's why I always use all ranged DPS companions, so I can set them to Hold Position and they'll stay out of danger. If I want to have some variety in my party and introduce a melee DPS like Isabela or Fenris, however, then I can't have Hold Position on. But then the ranged companions coming charging into the fray for some reason (Yes, their behavior is set to Ranged, I'm not an idiot) and get melee'd all the time.
I know this was from WAY back in the thread, but dear god do NOT used Ranged if you want your people to stay out of melee. Use CAUTIOUS, then they run like bitches whenever an enemy gets anywhere close.
Just make sure you add a rule at the end of your tactics to make them attack the lowest health enemy (or whatever) so they don't just stand around, since Cautious doesn't use basic attacks by default.
That's weird.
I figured Ranged would be the correct behavior for Ranged companions. Who'd have thunk it.
Finally cleared it. Gonna be honest, I was not feeling that last battle.
So Orsino wusses out and turns himself into a giant monster no matter who you side with, Meredith just happened to end up with the evil artifact found way back in the deep roads, and every statue in the gallows comes alive to fight.
It just got kinda goofy, I couldn't take it seriously. The Arishok was a much better opponent.
Apart from annoyances with re used dungeons that is my biggest issue with DA2 really. Bioware, and I've had tis issue with pretty much all their games apart from ME1 and 2, always make writing decisions that keeps their stories always one notch below Troika and Obsidian in my book.
Spoliers for the end and some other parts as well.
For example the final boss fights. Why force you to do two fights, regardless of what side you picked. The Orsino fight in particular makes no fucking sense if you sided with the mages. Up until then I loved the slow buildup towards the inevitable clash with Anders chantry bombing as a great holy shit moment.. It's Bioware's best, most innovative andt interesting narrative until that point, IMO. And then they spoil a large part of the climax.
The same goes for the act 2 storyline where your mother gets killed. That whole part, up until you have killed the murderer is really successful in building suspense and a sense of real dread. The part where you hunt a bloodtrail while Hawke keeps making panicked comments was brilliant. And then they, again IMO, sort of ruin it by letting your mother speak to you and have a heartfelt goodbye. That just baffled me. Having her just be dead or an empty shell that Hawke had to destroy had been much more effective. Now they just ended a really great setup with a big dose of cheese. Why, Bioware? Why?
I just had to get that off my chest. Overall I loved the game and thought it was a really good step in the right direction, story wise, away from the standard "only you can save the world" plot. Maybe DA 3 will deliver all the way, without reusing too many dungeons.:)
Finally cleared it. Gonna be honest, I was not feeling that last battle.
So Orsino wusses out and turns himself into a giant monster no matter who you side with, Meredith just happened to end up with the evil artifact found way back in the deep roads, and every statue in the gallows comes alive to fight.
It just got kinda goofy, I couldn't take it seriously. The Arishok was a much better opponent.
Apart from annoyances with re used dungeons that is my biggest issue with DA2 really. Bioware, and I've had tis issue with pretty much all their games apart from ME1 and 2, always make writing decisions that keeps their stories always one notch below Troika and Obsidian in my book.
Spoliers for the end and some other parts as well.
For example the final boss fights. Why force you to do two fights, regardless of what side you picked. The Orsino fight in particular makes no fucking sense if you sided with the mages. Up until then I loved the slow buildup towards the inevitable clash with Anders chantry bombing as a great holy shit moment.. It's Bioware's best, most innovative andt interesting narrative until that point, IMO. And then they spoil a large part of the climax.
The same goes for the act 2 storyline where your mother gets killed. That whole part, up until you have killed the murderer is really successful in building suspense and a sense of real dread. The part where you hunt a bloodtrail while Hawke keeps making panicked comments was brilliant. And then they, again IMO, sort of ruin it by letting your mother speak to you and have a heartfelt goodbye. That just baffled me. Having her just be dead or an empty shell that Hawke had to destroy had been much more effective. Now they just ended a really great setup with a big dose of cheese. Why, Bioware? Why?
I just had to get that off my chest. Overall I loved the game and thought it was a really good step in the right direction, story wise, away from the standard "only you can save the world" plot. Maybe DA 3 will deliver all the way, without reusing too many dungeons.:)
That's a really good point about the mother's death. I think you're right, it would've been more moving if Hawke had just wordlessly executed her.
And having her speak to you to say goodbye... that part actually doesn't make any sense if you think about it. Because that's not your mother at that point, your mother's been dead for a while now. The thing speaking to you is an assembly of different women's body parts all connected together and animated with some unspeakably fucked up dark magic. So really, there shouldn't have been a goodbye from your mother, but just some mindless mumbling from the zombie creation.
Finally cleared it. Gonna be honest, I was not feeling that last battle.
So Orsino wusses out and turns himself into a giant monster no matter who you side with, Meredith just happened to end up with the evil artifact found way back in the deep roads, and every statue in the gallows comes alive to fight.
It just got kinda goofy, I couldn't take it seriously. The Arishok was a much better opponent.
So it's fine that you're fighting giant dragons and crazy wizards who slit their wrists to become super powerful... but a magical sword that make statues come to life, that's the moment when it all becomes too goofy and implausible? That's when they go over the line and it turns to silly nonsense?
I thought the evil artifact was a great example of Chekhov's gun. It's introduced, we're aware of it, and at the end of the story it goes off. All the while, we were wondering exactly why Meredith was such a crazy bitch, and it all makes sense when they reveal the sword.
Well, fantasy can still be internally consistent, and we've been introduced to various flavors of dragon and blood mage before. My grief with Orsino is that no matter who you side with, it ends the same way.
As for Meredith, the artifact made people crazy and summoned a lot of shades and stuff, it didn't give them superpowers. If we're allowing that it could and nobody had used it for such yet, fine, but that's rather close to making things up as we go. And how did she end up with it, anyway? I doubt she just saw it on sale and picked it up. It arguably undermines the whole conflict to say it was just some magic doohikey making her crazy, when the basis is supposed to be that the system isn't working.
I'll grant that I may be missing something, but for me it crossed the line from dramatic to surreal, too much to really take seriously.
I f the game overall had been less well written it probably have bugged me less. I played a bit of KotOR lately and compared to newer BIO games, ME2 and DA2 in particular, the dialouge and writing felt a lot more stilted and unnatural in KotOR. I really think Bioware have improved a lot when it comes to such things as writing natural sounding dialouge, so it sticks out a bit more when they stumble these days.
I totally agree with this. It's why I always use all ranged DPS companions, so I can set them to Hold Position and they'll stay out of danger. If I want to have some variety in my party and introduce a melee DPS like Isabela or Fenris, however, then I can't have Hold Position on. But then the ranged companions coming charging into the fray for some reason (Yes, their behavior is set to Ranged, I'm not an idiot) and get melee'd all the time.
I know this was from WAY back in the thread, but dear god do NOT used Ranged if you want your people to stay out of melee. Use CAUTIOUS, then they run like bitches whenever an enemy gets anywhere close.
Just make sure you add a rule at the end of your tactics to make them attack the lowest health enemy (or whatever) so they don't just stand around, since Cautious doesn't use basic attacks by default.
That's weird.
I figured Ranged would be the correct behavior for Ranged companions. Who'd have thunk it.
I was in the same mindset until somebody suggested using Cautious in the previous thread. Once I tried it, and watched my little Merrill realize that melee was not the proper place to be casting her magics, I was in love.
Posts
I need to post my manhawk. He ended up looking like Tom Welling (Clark from Smallville) with stubble. Which was unintentional but I was very pleased!
My femhawk aint to shabby either
I'm using an alternate Anders. It made him less annoying somehow. I still asked him to leave my party in Act 2 though.
Decoy, your mage Hawke. :shock: That is one scary looking lady.
But anyway, you are basically playing the game exactly the way I am playing it. First, snarky female mage. Then asshole warrior. Now nice guy rogue.
My warrior looks like Avery Brooks, which is pretty awesome.
And my rogue just looks like a tattooed asian guy with silver eyes. Should get some of those screenshots up.
Hah, "Ben Affleck" is just another way of saying "Generic Overly Handsome White Male".
To quote Ronnie from the movie Role Models: "You white, then you Ben Affleck…"
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Nathaniel Hawk (who I think kinda looks like Clark from Smallville with stubble), a sarcastic Rogue who says silly things at wildly inappropriate times
Vanessa Hawk, a generally nice but sometimes hardass 2h Warrior
Sorry for the quality, I'm on the 360 so no beautiful screen caps for me :x
inappropriate hawke is the best
I bet by the end of Act 2 snarky lady Hawke regretted that comment.
Thing that bothered me about the waves was that at a certain point I found myself asking "holy crap, how many people are in this little gang?"
I am pretty sure by the end of the game I killed maybe 1/4 of all of the free marches with how many mobs I was killing at a time.
I, uh, think he's out.
Not sure how the Nigerian Scam can happen in a single player RPG??
If you count the rebels on the coast I'm pretty sure he had maybe 4 at the end of act 2.
...wow, that was easy.
The one-on-one duel was either bugged, or trivialized by my character. There was a bit of running and gunning, but for the most part I had the Arishok firmly nailed to the floor. My rogue's using the bow with a 25% chance to decrease move & attack speed and I've not really noticed it proc in the past. Now I could definitely see a difference, but here's where it gets wonky.
Pinning Shot. Works. Every. Time.
Okay, maybe not every time, but more often than not I'd hit him with Pinning Shot and he'd sit there for 30 seconds without moving at all.
Bug? "Clever use of game mechanics" with the stacking of the weapon ability and Pinning Shot? I doubt I'm the only one who ran into this during the duel.
Heh, I was actually a little bummed, as I showed up at the Viscount's Keep packing some combustion grenades and plenty of potions.
-Z
Disconnect identified.
You're saying it doesn't adversely affect the difficulty. I don't disagree. I'm saying I don't care for that design choice and it takes me out of the game.
-Z
Man....
The mage version is better.
Or am I too jaded and cynical?
It just got kinda goofy, I couldn't take it seriously. The Arishok was a much better opponent.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
It's probably because they're gender and sort of class exclusive and you're not a Grey Warden.
I thought the evil artifact was a great example of Chekhov's gun. It's introduced, we're aware of it, and at the end of the story it goes off. All the while, we were wondering exactly why Meredith was such a crazy bitch, and it all makes sense when they reveal the sword.
I know this was from WAY back in the thread, but dear god do NOT used Ranged if you want your people to stay out of melee. Use CAUTIOUS, then they run like bitches whenever an enemy gets anywhere close.
Just make sure you add a rule at the end of your tactics to make them attack the lowest health enemy (or whatever) so they don't just stand around, since Cautious doesn't use basic attacks by default.
That's weird.
I figured Ranged would be the correct behavior for Ranged companions. Who'd have thunk it.
Apart from annoyances with re used dungeons that is my biggest issue with DA2 really. Bioware, and I've had tis issue with pretty much all their games apart from ME1 and 2, always make writing decisions that keeps their stories always one notch below Troika and Obsidian in my book.
Spoliers for the end and some other parts as well.
The same goes for the act 2 storyline where your mother gets killed. That whole part, up until you have killed the murderer is really successful in building suspense and a sense of real dread. The part where you hunt a bloodtrail while Hawke keeps making panicked comments was brilliant. And then they, again IMO, sort of ruin it by letting your mother speak to you and have a heartfelt goodbye. That just baffled me. Having her just be dead or an empty shell that Hawke had to destroy had been much more effective. Now they just ended a really great setup with a big dose of cheese. Why, Bioware? Why?
I just had to get that off my chest. Overall I loved the game and thought it was a really good step in the right direction, story wise, away from the standard "only you can save the world" plot. Maybe DA 3 will deliver all the way, without reusing too many dungeons.:)
And having her speak to you to say goodbye... that part actually doesn't make any sense if you think about it. Because that's not your mother at that point, your mother's been dead for a while now. The thing speaking to you is an assembly of different women's body parts all connected together and animated with some unspeakably fucked up dark magic. So really, there shouldn't have been a goodbye from your mother, but just some mindless mumbling from the zombie creation.
As for Meredith, the artifact made people crazy and summoned a lot of shades and stuff, it didn't give them superpowers. If we're allowing that it could and nobody had used it for such yet, fine, but that's rather close to making things up as we go. And how did she end up with it, anyway? I doubt she just saw it on sale and picked it up. It arguably undermines the whole conflict to say it was just some magic doohikey making her crazy, when the basis is supposed to be that the system isn't working.
I'll grant that I may be missing something, but for me it crossed the line from dramatic to surreal, too much to really take seriously.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
I was in the same mindset until somebody suggested using Cautious in the previous thread. Once I tried it, and watched my little Merrill realize that melee was not the proper place to be casting her magics, I was in love.