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Dragon Age II |OT| The Revenge of Shit Mountain
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
Basileus777
Member
Reluctant-Hero said:
Unlike Awakenings, it keeps track of bonus attributes and talents, though there is a bug where you can still use talents you respec out of if you don't wipe your custom tactics.
Reluctant-Hero
Member
Awesome! Thanks for the info. I picked a few dumb abilities for Aveline (main tank), Hawke ( off tank and DPS with S&S), and MerrillBasileus777 said:
(need to buff her CON so she'll be a lean mean blood mage machine)
Nose Master
Member
Just realized that crafting resources don't deplete. I was wondering why they made such a big deal out of finding them after the initial discovery of that type.
Reluctant-Hero
Member
Yup, I really prefer this crafting system to DA:O's system. I had to run to the circle tower for lyrium, go to Bodain in camp fir done other stuff. Then I had to go out of camp with my party to do the actual crafting since I never specced my Warden with any crafting skills.Nose Master said:
Tedious. DA2 handles it much better.
Salaadin said:
There are excellent summaries of the material already available in various free online game guides for BG.
The game manual was fairly good at covering all of the relevant material as well. It's not a perfect realization of 2nd Ed D&D, but it's considerably more accurate than NWN was for 3.0, or KotOR was for d20 Star Wars.
Confidence Man
Member
Reluctant-Hero said:
Finding resources along the paths just so you can buy potions or whatever isn't a crafting system.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Reluctant-Hero said:
Having to do something to get something? Tedious. Please streamline it to the point where, if I want an item, I should be able to press a single button to get that item! Also, while you're at it, please streamline travel so I can just click on a list of locations at any time and travel there instantly. The actual act of walking any kind of distance is just so tedious. More press button for awesome, please!
Basileus777
Member
Zefah said:
Are people seriously bitching about fast travel in 2011, in a non-open world RPG to boot?
This game has enough issues, there's no need to make up imaginary ones.
I want to play this again as a Warrior or Rogue (beat it as a Mage) but looking at the 2 mages they do not have full access to all the spells I want. I loved the Force tree my mage had (for control of the field) and liked the healing tree and Hexes of Entropy. Guess what, Merril does not heal, and Anders does not have Entropy and neither has Force. Bummer.
Beat the game last night. Took 32 hours and did all the quests I could (sadly some were bugged). My final impression is that it's a B game with a "big" budget that was rushed.
The plot is extremly disjointed and only told through around 5 plot missions. 90% of the game is doing fetch quests in the 5 reused dungeons over and over again. Near the end I was tired of going through the same area and being stuck in Kirkwall. It's a big downgrade from DAO. I loved some characters while I loathed some. The cast is really uneven on characterization. Some character's quest fall extremly flat and don't provide much closure. The only one that had closure was Fenris.
Characters I loved
Anders
Fenris
Isabela
Characters I didn't care for
Aveline
Carver
Varrick
Characters I loathe
Merril
Sebastian
I absolutely hated Merril and Sebastian. Sebastian is basically boring and a reverse of Morrigan personality. He complains all the time and talk about religion. Merril well I hated her mostly for her character quest I won't spoil here but it made me hate her even more.
In the end no one left me except Sebastian. I really liked the final fight its probably the only amazing part of the game. The motive of the last boss was kinda dumb though.
ENDING SPOILERS
My party for the whole game was Hawke (male mage), Anders, Fenris and Isabela. Game was really easy on normal. The final boss is really a joke compared to the one of DAO. It's only a boring and long fight and I was barely taking any damage. Everyone armor were upgraded to the max and filled with the best runes that increase armor.
I learned to love the fast paced battle but hated the reinforcement system. Enemies call reinforcement in every fight and new enemies appear from nowhere. It pretty much made the game a spam AoE magic all the time.
Overall its a 7/10.
The plot is extremly disjointed and only told through around 5 plot missions. 90% of the game is doing fetch quests in the 5 reused dungeons over and over again. Near the end I was tired of going through the same area and being stuck in Kirkwall. It's a big downgrade from DAO. I loved some characters while I loathed some. The cast is really uneven on characterization. Some character's quest fall extremly flat and don't provide much closure. The only one that had closure was Fenris.
Characters I loved
Anders
Fenris
Isabela
Characters I didn't care for
Aveline
Carver
Varrick
Characters I loathe
Merril
Sebastian
I absolutely hated Merril and Sebastian. Sebastian is basically boring and a reverse of Morrigan personality. He complains all the time and talk about religion. Merril well I hated her mostly for her character quest I won't spoil here but it made me hate her even more.
In the end no one left me except Sebastian. I really liked the final fight its probably the only amazing part of the game. The motive of the last boss was kinda dumb though.
ENDING SPOILERS
I was disappointed I couldn't kill Sebastian. I loved the fact that Anders blew up the chantry. I even told him he should have said so beforehand because I would have helped him. Sebastian was all offended and threatened me. He sais he would send his army after me and Anders because the old cleric is dead. Too bad there was no option to murder him. I hated him so much. Really bold to have an ending like that. I hated the chantry and the templars since DAO and I was glad that the mages finally rebelled. Meredith being corrupted by the idol from the first act was a bit weak story wise though. It seems the Warden and Hawke are going to be important in DA III according to the ending.
My party for the whole game was Hawke (male mage), Anders, Fenris and Isabela. Game was really easy on normal. The final boss is really a joke compared to the one of DAO. It's only a boring and long fight and I was barely taking any damage. Everyone armor were upgraded to the max and filled with the best runes that increase armor.
I learned to love the fast paced battle but hated the reinforcement system. Enemies call reinforcement in every fight and new enemies appear from nowhere. It pretty much made the game a spam AoE magic all the time.
Overall its a 7/10.
Having nothing but fast travel from one concentrated area to the next does no favors for Kirkwall, the supposedly great city that basically the entire game takes place in. Locations feel disjointed, there's no sense of scale or layout. Maybe they should have looked closer at fully designing the city if it was to be so central to DA2's experience, open world game or not. I do find it to be an issue, or at least a thought that pops up often while playing the game for me.Basileus777 said:
Basileus777
Member
megalowho said:
That's a valid point, but I don't necessarily think the reason the city fails to feel more alive is because of fast travel. There have been plenty of RPGs to develop a city more effectively while still using the standard leave area, click icon on map to travel there method. Hell, BG2 used it. I don't think anyone should have expected the city to be some sort of open world environment.
I really wanted to hate it, but the game is still great. And if you love those type of games, there isn't any alternative. It doesn't have as much content as DA:O had and it lacks its level of detail. But DA:O had 5 years of development, not with full manpower, but sometimes you need just time to deliver great content, you can't cover that up with pure manpower.
DA2 isn't an untypical bioware game and it's not a bad game.
But I don't understand why they didn't give us some fan service, as they knew the change of direction will piss some people of. Why not include some of the best mods of DA:O into DA2. Some new hairmodels would have been cool.
I think the CnP dungeons aren't as bad as those in ME. And some unique maps in DA:O just sucked and weren't better than those CnP dungeons in DA2. DA:O had this too - the backalleys of Denerim, but there was so much content that nobody cared.
I like the Albert-Speer-Nazi-Look of Kirkwall, though.
But if they can't build some maps with an engine that already provides a map editor for everyone, why can other smal european studios that aim at 200-300k sales do that? This is beyond me.
DA2 isn't an untypical bioware game and it's not a bad game.
But I don't understand why they didn't give us some fan service, as they knew the change of direction will piss some people of. Why not include some of the best mods of DA:O into DA2. Some new hairmodels would have been cool.
I think the CnP dungeons aren't as bad as those in ME. And some unique maps in DA:O just sucked and weren't better than those CnP dungeons in DA2. DA:O had this too - the backalleys of Denerim, but there was so much content that nobody cared.
I like the Albert-Speer-Nazi-Look of Kirkwall, though.
But if they can't build some maps with an engine that already provides a map editor for everyone, why can other smal european studios that aim at 200-300k sales do that? This is beyond me.
webrunner said:
Neverwinter is using 4th but really not much is known at this point.
5 classes to start with (the big four + ranger). Last I heard, online co-op RPG, but not an MMO. I'm not sure yet if you get to pick race and appearance and all that or if there are just 5 premade characters and you customize them. Not enough info, no screenshots, no official release date, just Q4 2011, and I'm wondering about that given the rest.
Chaz Ashley
Member
If anyone's interested on our take on the whole "dumbing down"-issue: In the new episode of "PLAY!" Bioware had to answer the accusations in court and none other than Phoenix Wright took the case.
http://win.gs/ifkZ5u
http://win.gs/ifkZ5u
TSAGoodness
Member
So I haven't played much of the first one, only a few hours, but a free copy of 2 just landed in my lap, anything in particular I need to know before diving in?
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Basileus777 said:
I was attempting sarcasm. I'm one of those oldschool types who favors immersion over convenience. I hate fast travel, and I hate how Dragon Age II handles "crafting". I just think it's ridiculous how some people seem to think anything that isn't combat or a story sequence is "tedious".
TSAGoodness said:
Play the first one after you finish Dragon Age II and you'll feel like you're playing a much improved sequel!
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Chaz Ashley said:
Wow, that was some obnoxious shit. Not a single piece of evidence was given on Bioware's side (that wasn't really someone from Bioware, was it?), and all they said was a bunch of hollow PR speak.
I have a question regarding the "Bad Dreams" quest:
Does it matter who I take into this quest? Two of the people I took (the elf mage and the human tank) both got taken over by a demon. First the tank, then the mage... and it made fighting the demon that took over the elf mage impossible to win. Is there something I'm missing in this quest?
Reluctant-Hero
Member
Wow. You're seriously ripping into me on this? Crafting in DA:O basically boiled down to running around to two or three different vendors to buy your materails,e then opening said crafting menu and mass creating them. When you were late in the game, post Warden Treaties, it wasn't about going from location to location and exploring. You've already seen what was there to be seen. It was about getting the crap you needed to be properly supplied for the end game.Zefah said:
I wasn't even getting into how the rest of DA2 is streamlined to hell and back, which I hate, or the stupid David Silverman marketing bullshit with "A for Awesome".
I'm all for immersion too, but crafting is improved in DA2, IMHO. But across both DA games, it's a joke compared to The Witcher's crafting system which was essential to that game.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Reluctant-Hero said:
I disagree that it's better. Just because it wasn't great in the previous game doesn't mean that dumbing it down to the point that it is merely another shop type that uses a different currency is an improvement. They could have expanded on the previous concept and made it a lot better. Instead, they decided to just say "fuck it" and dumb it down completely. Honestly, if they decided this was the way to go, they should have just removed crafting completely and sold the crafted items in normal stores.
Reluctant-Hero
Member
Now this I agree with. But if they had done that, DA2 would have an even larger shit storm of negativity surrounding it than it has now. If that's even possible...Zefah said:
But from what I've seen so far, 16 hours into act one, crafted items are sold in stores. Albeit in limited quantities. Obtaining the recipes allows for unlimited production, just as in DA:O.
I'm slowly warming up to this game.
First, the plot is much better. Characters are better written and voiced. I liked some dialogues in DAO because they were written out of some personal experience to which I could relate but the rest of the game was a standart boring fantasy stuff. I don't think that you need MAJOR STUFF HAPPENING to keep the plot going.
Also I'm starting to like combat. I'm playing on hard and use the same degree of pause-tactic gameplay which I used on normal in DAO.
So far it's pretty good.
Also while art isn't good enough, the technical side is very good. The game looks almost supersampled with 4xAA and most textures are very clear and crisp. And yes, lighting adds to the scene. Spell effects were improved. I like rock armor.
First, the plot is much better. Characters are better written and voiced. I liked some dialogues in DAO because they were written out of some personal experience to which I could relate but the rest of the game was a standart boring fantasy stuff. I don't think that you need MAJOR STUFF HAPPENING to keep the plot going.
Also I'm starting to like combat. I'm playing on hard and use the same degree of pause-tactic gameplay which I used on normal in DAO.
So far it's pretty good.
Also while art isn't good enough, the technical side is very good. The game looks almost supersampled with 4xAA and most textures are very clear and crisp. And yes, lighting adds to the scene. Spell effects were improved. I like rock armor.
If non-combat, non-story elements are done in a way that isn't tedious, then they're not tedious. If they are done in a way that's tedious, they're tedious. That's a dumb way to say it, but it's still basically true. Nobody thinks that crafting and travel are inherently bad things; only that implementations to date have been more detrimental than helpful to the overall quality of the game. I don't think I've ever seen anyone go, "Why are JRPGs removing random battles? Yeah, they sucked, but improve them, don't remove them", you know?Zefah said:
If something isn't good, and you can't think of a way to make it better, you remove it. That's just good editing practice. Considering how incredibly, ridiculously infrequently you find a crafting system that isn't a pile of shit, I find it hard to argue against paring it down to the good parts (ie: Basic functionality).
Basileus777
Member
Reluctant-Hero said:
The Witcher is one of the few single player games to do crafting right. In DAO crafting was tedious and rather pointless, I rarely even bothered with it. I can't fault Bioware for implementing a system that people will actually use now. I do think it becomes a little too easy to craft things like runes later on though.
Ickman3400
Banned
subversus said:
I don't think strength affects rogues damage wise anymore. I just looked at my stats and it says it increases damage and attack value for warriors, and dexterity increases damage and attack value for rogues. They all have bonuses for each class though like you said, like Fortitude.
Basileus777
Member
subversus said:
Strength only helps prevent knockdowns for Rogues. Dex raises melee damage for them.
TheUsual
Gold Member
I barely messed with strength. I finished my playthrough at level 23 with Strength only at 17. Dexterity was 39, Cunning and at 30. Do note these are the attribute numbers when I have Hawke completely unequipped. (no weapons, armor, rings, and so on).subversus said:
EDIT
The rune of valiance doesnt stack right? If I put it on different types of armor, I won't get double the amount? At least that's what I'm noticing.
HadesGigas
Member
subversus said:
All of them do SOMETHING for each class, but some aren't that important of things. And of course there's armor that requires certain strength or whatever that are meant for other classes but you could use if you really felt like it. It's not like anyone other than Hawke can wear them!
I found that non-primary attributes were a lot more important in DA2 than DAO; all of my characters had a decent number of points put into Constitution for the HP increase, and most characters had a few in Willpower and Strength too just so they didn't run out of Stamina twenty seconds into a fight or get stunlocked to death by every group of thugs on the street. My Warriors had around ten points in Dexterity for the increased Critical rate, too.
Magic was useless for anyone who wasn't a Mage, Dexterity was useless for Mages, and Cunning was a waste for any character who wasn't a melee rogue or the designated lockpicker. I don't think that's too bad of a balance; it's a pretty big step up from the first game, or any D&D derivative, for that rate.
Magic was useless for anyone who wasn't a Mage, Dexterity was useless for Mages, and Cunning was a waste for any character who wasn't a melee rogue or the designated lockpicker. I don't think that's too bad of a balance; it's a pretty big step up from the first game, or any D&D derivative, for that rate.
TheUsual
Gold Member
Yeah, that caught me off guard at first, but I realized you get plenty of opportunities for great armor for your specific class throughout the game (plus the Champion Armor). And I like the fact that game told what each attribute was doing when you leveled up.HadesGigas said:
Reluctant-Hero
Member
Yes, armor. My largest gripe with DA2. You get so much class specific armor that just becomes trash because it's geared for X class and your Hawke doesn't meet the requirements for them.HadesGigas said:
"Sweet! I just got the Robes of Xanthor that give + 100% fire damage and + 20% mana regen rate! But, oh wait... my Hawke is a warrior and I can't equip this to anyone else IN THE ENTIRE GAME. Guess I'll just sell this epic gear for 20 silver."
I still can't believe that this game is really as bad as I feared it would be. The enemy waves ruin combat, and the lack of skills takes a toll on everything else. And that's not getting into the ridiculous level of asset reuse. Or no armor for companions. Or the ultra-annoying aiming of AoE spells with the limited camera.
There are just two reasons I keep playing: there is nothing else like it and some of the characters and their banter are really great. That also seems to be the only area where there isn't a marked step back from the first game.
There are just two reasons I keep playing: there is nothing else like it and some of the characters and their banter are really great. That also seems to be the only area where there isn't a marked step back from the first game.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Then stop?Gvaz said:I'm almost at the end of the game, I can't wait to be finished with this stupid game.
The more I play it the more I hate it
So, it seems that shitty Royal Mail lost my Signature Edition that I pre ordered since last year.
I was talking to Amazon.co.uk's customer service and they said if there is no package by the end of business day March 18 they will give me a replacement copy.
Is there any chance that I will get the Signature Edition since I heard they gone completely by now.
I was talking to Amazon.co.uk's customer service and they said if there is no package by the end of business day March 18 they will give me a replacement copy.
Is there any chance that I will get the Signature Edition since I heard they gone completely by now.