Intheflorsh
Banned
The tactics menu in the old games were cool but gave you a lot of rope to hang yourself with. I always just stuck them on a preset.
Dragon Age: Inquisition Review Thread
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With some dedication and know-how you can basically make DAO play itself without need for player input during combat. It's scary what that tactics system can do in that game. Same time I'm also glad that they have toned it down, maybe tad too much tho, because it can be extremely daunting thing in DAO and turn people away from game.
There are less tactics.
In DA:O and DA2 there were more requirements like "If ally is being attacked" or "If i'm being surrounded" but from the image posted on the previous page, it's being reduced to only 4 half of which is related to potions; I always just chugged potions manually anyway so to me it's really being reduced to 2.
Every race except dwarves can be born a mage (dwarves can't because they live so close to lyrium underground {lyrium is a natural resource that when processed can be used to replenish mana} which has over time annihilated their magical abilities). Templars are an ancient order established by the Chantry* of primarily humans tasked with keeping mages in line. They have anti-magic abilities.
* The Chantry is like Rome, central monotheistic religion in the world of DA. It preaches that magic must be subservient to man, so it established Circles of Magi (prisons with okay living conditions) to isolate mages from the regular world. Templars were put into the place of prison guards to keep the mages in line and from escaping.
Mages are feared because they can communicate with demons in the Fade and, if seduced, become demon-inhabited abominations that kill people.
The Fade is a dream-world inhabited by demons and spirits that is usually separate from our world.
At the end of Dragon Age 2 a mage destroys a regional capital of the Chantry, killing everyone inside. This causes the templars to invoke the Rite of Annulment which allows them to legally kill every mage they see in their jurisdiction. This incites a revolt of the local Circle of Magi. This eventually leads to a world-wide revolt of the Circles, and mages and templars are now at war.
At the beginning of Inquisition the fabric of reality is torn and the Fade becomes corporeally connected to our world allowing demons and such to pour through. This is a Very Bad Thing, hence the Inquisition being formed to close the breaches.
I'm torn between choosing to roll either an Archer or Mage 
I'd go with the Rogue class solely because I have the impression they get more cool looking armors…
(I can't be the only one having this issue, do I?). Until now I haven't been very impressed with the Mages' clothes… Dawg please halp!
I'd go with the Rogue class solely because I have the impression they get more cool looking armors…
(I can't be the only one having this issue, do I?). Until now I haven't been very impressed with the Mages' clothes… Dawg please halp!
Ploid 3.0
Member
You could also combo rows of commands to make things even more interesting.
That said, even though you could auto kill small battles, big battles could always throw a wrench in your carefully plotted tactics. It's just there to keep your AI in your control when you aren't controlling them. You still have to respond to things yourself.
Seems like you're picking and choosing some fo my statements while ignoring the rest.
If you look back I did say that there are some games in which it wouldn't matter as much, it just so happens that those types of games tend to be the ones that are super easy to run at 60 fPS, LIKE Civ, LIKE Europa Universalis.
And eve then, yes 60 FPS > 30 FPS. Even with somethign as mundane as navigating menus and scrolling a map, 60 FPS makes a difference. It wouldn't be my top 1 priority, but I'm happy those games run at 60+ FPS on my machine.
I know console gamers get angry when anyone points out somethign the consoles can't do is any good. So I'll stop now, don't want to get people all upset, and we're derailing the thread.
I've been absolutely loving Inquisition's opening few hours, and I'm someone that was bored to tears by Origins. I've tried to play DA: O several times over the years and never make it more than ~10 hours in max.
Inquisition, on the other hand, has its claws into me pretty deep. It's gorgeous, it's massive, the combat is relatively challenging even on Normal (I've never been in any real danger but you can't just mindlessly spam - if you try that your squishy characters WILL go down).
I never played DA2, but this sounds like an absolutely insane over-correction of that game's mistakes. I think people are going to be shocked at how big it is. It feels Baldur's Gate II big.
My only negative, so far, is that the game truly does lean super heavily on having an understanding of past events. I can't hold it against the game, since it is a direct sequel, but I would definitely say it is not a friendly story experience for DA newbies at all.
Inquisition, on the other hand, has its claws into me pretty deep. It's gorgeous, it's massive, the combat is relatively challenging even on Normal (I've never been in any real danger but you can't just mindlessly spam - if you try that your squishy characters WILL go down).
I never played DA2, but this sounds like an absolutely insane over-correction of that game's mistakes. I think people are going to be shocked at how big it is. It feels Baldur's Gate II big.
My only negative, so far, is that the game truly does lean super heavily on having an understanding of past events. I can't hold it against the game, since it is a direct sequel, but I would definitely say it is not a friendly story experience for DA newbies at all.
I'm torn between choosing to roll either an Archer or Mage
I'd go with the Rogue class solely because I have the impression they get more cool looking armors
(I can't be the only one having this issue, do I?). Until now I haven't been very impressed with the Mages' clothes Dawg please halp!
Same here :/ You can go Rogue and heavily upgrade one of your companion mages.
You could also combo rows of commands to make things even more interesting.
That said even though you could auto kill small battles, big battles could always throw a wrench in your carefully plotted tactics. It's just there to keep your AI in your control when you aren't controlling them. You still have to respond to things yourself.
Man, I always turned off tactics in both games. Theya re useless in the harder difficulties because you can't time evertying correctly.
Everytime I would try to use a special ability because tactically it was the most opportune time to execute it, I realized the stupid AI already used it and it's on cooldown.
Trying to combien effects like Grease and fireball, was also very difficult. So I basically just had my companions auto attack with either ranged or melee weapons, and I handled everything else directly.
I7 3930K OC @ 4+Ghz
32GB RAM
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It's all about is the multiplayer worth it and if it is then I really must get the Xbox version or PS4.
Can anyone post some screen shots of all the class abilities? How comes there are still some missing, when so many people could play already.
Did you dig into The Keep before jumping into DAI? Just curious to know because if you did use The Keep [recap + choices is there] and still feel very lost I would think that maybe The Keep isn't doing its intended job that well after all.
I haven't heard a single reviewer say more than meh, so far. The other comment I heard was "not as good as ME3's".
And 2 GTX 670's means flawless 60 + FPS pretty much maxed....
I find this very regrettable and it's the first real downgrade in my eyes over the previous titles, but I'm not too miffed by it because I don't really use Tactics at all since I prefer direct control of my entire party in every battle so I normally disable AI altogether.
I'm guessing it was cut down due to the new engine. They created the Eclipse engine for DAO and everything that game needed, so that kind of "If X then Y" type tactics system was built right in, where as Frostbite was not built for any of this meaning they'd have to recreate it from scratch and I doubt it's a simple or easy task, especially with all the other changes they've made to the core game and how things work. I do hope they attempt to bring it back in the future though because it was a great tool for those who liked it. You could really set some amazing profiles for your party that worked surprisingly well.
Have you been reading the codex? Not that I expect you to, just curious how in-depth it is.
Vincent Grayson
Member
I got the impression from a few videos that the AI is a lot better about using abilities intelligently without those tactics options being necessary, including making combos trigger.
I mean, I'd prefer they have more options, but it sounds like they might've done a good job of making up for their removal/trimming.
Ploid 3.0
Member
I set up things for damage and healing. If I staggered something I know the mage is set up to use abilities that benefit from attacking staggered enemies, increasing damage done to them by a lot. Same for all of the other team synergy stuff. I looked at it as controlling two or so party members with one attack. I'd only stagger when I want her to cast the thunder.
Edit: Loaded up DA2
Same, I'm mostly in shock and it's something to discuss.
The Keep is also not especially friendly to DA newbies. Picking characters to live or die you've never met, determining a king from a set of characters you don't know, and so-on. Did I poison the urn? Who knows...?
I haven't poked around the Codex much.
Tactics were nice for tedious chains of abilities. For example, on Merrill she would automatically: put Blood Magic up and use it until her HP was depleted. She would then turn it off and use a health potion, then a mana potion to use spells until BM was ready again, then when her health was >90% she turned it back on. All automatically.
CrichtonKicks
Member
I thought that was just the Behaviours screen? Tactics is the first picture of the two. It lists a lot of different powers but it isn't clear to me how many options you can set for each power.
Cyber Caesar
Member
After you get a taste of all the game has to offer. I hope you give us some good impressions on the MP.
"Use It" "Prioritize It" and "Don't Use It" are the only settings (checkmark, star, x mark).
Didn't notice that. Maybe.
Admiral Woofington
Member
My tactics will be simple:
Cassandra- Go into crowd of enemies and distract them.
Varric- keep far away and shoot
Freddie Mercury- Start of battle give the overshield thing to everybody. When it can be cast again do so. Once he has necromancer powers use those like a mofo
Myself- ???? and cool fade sword
Profit
Cassandra- Go into crowd of enemies and distract them.
Varric- keep far away and shoot
Freddie Mercury- Start of battle give the overshield thing to everybody. When it can be cast again do so. Once he has necromancer powers use those like a mofo
Myself- ???? and cool fade sword
Profit
Intheflorsh
Banned
I'll always have: a tank, a stabby rogue, a mage, and Varric in my party. It was a winning strategy in the last game.
royox
Member
anexanhume
Member
Pretty much. You'll want your allies to prioritize buff/party abilities, and that should take care of a lot of it. What's not clear is if there's appropriate situational awareness control (clustered enemies, hp status, status of ally, etc.)
My plan is to essentially have a mage throw guard on everyone, Iron Bull charge in and do his reaver thing, my Champion to do war horn stuff to buff everyone and Sera/Varric to throw in a hail of arrows on the cluster Iron Bull and I create.
Once optimized party ideas come out, I'll tackle nightmare.
I like seeing other peoples reactions.
I want the game to release because there is so much to discuss.
K. Well I guess DA newcomers will have some extra reading to do but as a hardcore fan this makes me very happy, haha.
Admiral Woofington
Member
A tactic the guy from IGN was using with Iron Bull is to let his health drop a decent amount then cast guard. Reavers do more damage with low health.
The Guard mechanic really does make the risk/reward playstyle of Reaver more viable.
Naughty_Doge
Member
CrichtonKicks
Member
If the prioritization is smart like you said then I'm happy with these options. And the "Use It" solves the problem of having to manually engage buffs all the time which is what a lot of my Tactics slots in DA:O and DA2 are used for.
Admiral Woofington
Member
This is only strengthening the argument that somebody should make a thread to gather necessary background info for those that may want the game. With the OT not being posted until this upcoming Monday at the earliest there could be loads of people not getting it first thing
I really liked how Fade Cloak/Decloaking Blast allowed you to basically blow people up from the inside if you rematerialize on top of them. I may go KE just for that.
Yes just 4 trees, plus a specialization tree. I don't have the figures on me but the total number of selectable abilities, passives and upgrades is comparable to DA2 and I believe greater than DAO.
Deified Data
Banned
It's a real shame to see them go. I always enjoyed fiddling with each character's if/then scenarios. It helped differentiate between different characters of the same class. Any word on why they removed it? Did they think it'd scare away newcomers? That's what the premade tactics were for...
anexanhume
Member
I'll try that and see how often people end up dieing because of how high risk it is.
Yeah I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt here and assume that if enemies are clustered, of course you want your AoE stuff to go off, or of course you want your taunt to focus on the guy that has your ally near dead. We'll see. I felt like tactics just didn't plain work a lot in DA:O and I believe Mark Darrah or Cameron Lee on twitter said to me that it should be a lot more reliable this time around.
edit: it was Mike and Fernando. Mike shut down the convo
https://twitter.com/DiscoBabaloo/status/516654211917168640I have a sneaking suspicion that the Codex may help with the newbie experience a tad.
Ah well. I'll be reading what Codex entries are available for newly created character tomorrow and judge for myself.
100% separate entities.
Deified Data
Banned
I'd love to participate in this. It'd be nice to have a DA lore thread in general.
You could also combo rows of commands to make things even more interesting.
That said, even though you could auto kill small battles, big battles could always throw a wrench in your carefully plotted tactics. It's just there to keep your AI in your control when you aren't controlling them. You still have to respond to things yourself.
I like tactics and too bad they tooned it down.
I hope the IA didn't became too stupid.
I'll make it when I get home tonight and have my World of Thedas book in front of me if no one else does by then.
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