Melhisedek
Member
Is the "Blood Dragon" armor best in the game for the warrior? Can I find better ingame or at least similar?
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Dragon Age II |OT| The Revenge of Shit Mountain
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
Sir Garbageman
Member
I'm assuming I'm about halfway through Act II, specifically I'm
. Anyway. I've gotten all the companion quests except for Isabella's. Is there a specific trigger for it or does it just appear after progressing the main quest line after a certain point? I don't want to miss it.
about to head to the Hanged Man to question the guards about the missing qunari delegation
branny said:
Regardless of her agenda, it should have been fairly obvious to everybody in that situation that there is a massive disconnect from Meredith's actions and the fact that she did not proclaim any judgment against Anders what-so-ever when he was the closest, most dangerous representation of everything Meredith detested in a mage. Greater agenda is one thing, but this is like having the person who bombed your country's leaders right there, you rush off to gather your knights to declare war on the opposing country, but you just ignore the person who started it in the first place. The only believable scenario in the Chantry situation would have been "I'm going to exterminate every mage in Kirkwall, starting with this monster who killed the Chantry Grand Mother and might have single-handedly incited a global war."
And while the Mage/Templar dynamic should deserved quite a bit of careful writing, I don't think Bioware was up to snuff in this regard, and I think it goes much more beyond Meredith being portrayed as stock evil. Stuff like every mage being blood mages and summoning demons at the drop of a hat was a bit unbelievable (it would have helped if there was a few innocent mages here and there besides that boy that went off to Tevinter to try to swing the choice back to moral ambiguity), but the spear-heads of both sides were unlikable idiots that in the end, it didn't even matter who you really sided with as they both end up ruining themselves.
And while the Mage/Templar dynamic should deserved quite a bit of careful writing, I don't think Bioware was up to snuff in this regard, and I think it goes much more beyond Meredith being portrayed as stock evil. Stuff like every mage being blood mages and summoning demons at the drop of a hat was a bit unbelievable (it would have helped if there was a few innocent mages here and there besides that boy that went off to Tevinter to try to swing the choice back to moral ambiguity), but the spear-heads of both sides were unlikable idiots that in the end, it didn't even matter who you really sided with as they both end up ruining themselves.
Regarding armor designs...
I am now sporting the Fallen armor on my Warrior/Reaver, missing the gauntlets. That set looks pretty good, but I am sure there will be more awesome sets along soon.
What is the name of the armor that is worn in the prologue? The one that is also on the game cover? Do I get that again?
I suppose the rogue gets the best armor designs though. Gonna roll him for my next play.
I am now sporting the Fallen armor on my Warrior/Reaver, missing the gauntlets. That set looks pretty good, but I am sure there will be more awesome sets along soon.
What is the name of the armor that is worn in the prologue? The one that is also on the game cover? Do I get that again?
I suppose the rogue gets the best armor designs though. Gonna roll him for my next play.
Regarding Gifts: How do you give them? I've bought a few from stores, but I can't find them in my inventory. In the first DA, you could give them from your inventory and see the +10 or whatever right away. How do you do it now?
Regarding Armor: I don't understand how "The Fallen" set is the best stuff in the game. In fact, armor seems totally weird and broken. Nothing ever has any stars for me anymore (lvl 50) and the weird lower-level looking stuff often ends up having higher numbers than all the premium crap I got from Signature Edition in the Black Emporium and my chest in Gamlen's house. I don't get it.
Regarding Armor: I don't understand how "The Fallen" set is the best stuff in the game. In fact, armor seems totally weird and broken. Nothing ever has any stars for me anymore (lvl 50) and the weird lower-level looking stuff often ends up having higher numbers than all the premium crap I got from Signature Edition in the Black Emporium and my chest in Gamlen's house. I don't get it.
Ickman3400
Banned
glaurung said:
You get the ocassional decent item but 9/10 of the loot in the game is garbage and just for selling. Another thing in common this game shares with mass effect 1.
Gifts: the only gift item I have found so far for Bethany ended up as a "quest" - I had to locate her in Gamlen's house, she had a double-arrow above her head, I talked to her and that initiated the gift giving sequence. Got the friendship bonus too.Moofers said:
Armor: no idea.
Moofers said:
Talk to the relevant character at their home base. Your journal should update with it and mention it under the Companions section. Also, more of the gifts end up providing usable items, so don't forget to check your inventory after giving it to them.
As for the armor, I thought Champion armor was the best. I do think its the best looking, though Stonehammer armor is pretty good looking too.
bishopcruz
Member
Moofers said:
Gifts are given to your companions automatically in the form of a quest. Basically go visit them to chat as you usually do. That's it.
The reason that nothing gives you stars is that you glitched the XP to get to max level. The number of stars items give you is based on your level, and since you are higher than is normally possible, all the armor technically sucks for you.
Mister_Bubbles
Member
Jarlaxle said:
Good choice of words ¬_¬
Reluctant-Hero
Member
There is one unique armor set for each class in every Act. "... of the Fallen" is the warrior set for Act 1. I'm sure that each class gets the "Champion" set in Act 3.HixxSAFC said:
RPGCrazied
Member
Do runes not make your weapons glow or have effects on them? I have a fire one now, and its nothing. That would be sad if not.
Reluctant-Hero
Member
Sadly, runes don't seem to add any special visual effects to weapons anymore. Weak, I know.RPGCrazied said:
RPGCrazied
Member
I already posted my impressions, but man this game is a step backwards from Origins. I hope III will have a full development cycle and trash most of the ideas in the 2nd game. Its fun, sure, but there is a lot of things wrong with it.
Sir Garbageman
Member
JoeBoy101 said:
Cool, thanks. I assumed it had something to do with it, but I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss a trigger. Kind of like how with Fenris
his quest kicked off when I had him in my party and we left Kirkwall were ambushed by slavers
Anyone else have trouble pursuing the friendship path with Anders? In this first convo after recruiting him I shot down his advances, got like +15 rivalry points and that was the end of it. To be fair though I never use him in my party because my Hawke is a spirit healer.
BTW, are all the love interest characters bisexual? Playing male Hawke and there are heart options for practically everybody.
RPGCrazied
Member
How far am I? I have yet to do the deep road thing, even tho I now have the funds to go do it.
RPGCrazied
Member
Kyoufu said:
So I can expect to visit the Wounded Coast a few more times? ;\
Lostconfused
Member
Devil's in the details. That concept art has a much more human looking face and there are extra touches like wrinkles, sunken eyes, gaunt cheeks, a bit of hair sticking out. It looks more like a twisted caricature of a human being. Rather than in the game it just looks weird and ugly. Plus in the game it self darkspawn play a very minimal role and you don't usually get a good look at them. But yeah I agree that the concept art is great.Nirolak said:
It was part of ZBrush's tech interview on the game: http://www.pixologic.com/interview/dragon-age2/1/Darklord said:WTF I want that game!
I have a feeling that is what Bioware wanted, EA said "hurry the fuck up you've got 2 years, not 9 this time" and we get...well, yeah.
There are notable spoilers in the article as a warning.
Lostconfused
Member
A lot of that looks different from how it ended up in the game. As usual concept art is better than the final result. Kind of like how that Blur video for ME2 where Miranda looked so much better than the ingame model.Nirolak said:
I'm quite curious to see how close they can come with Dragon Age 3.Lostconfused said:
We know from a Darrah interview I can't find right now that DA2's development cycle was approximately 18 months, and in the same interview he implied that the gap between DA2 and DA3 would be a much more normal two years.
Given that Gaider was also implying that DA3 has been in development for at least a few months due to content lockdowns and that they wouldn't be throwing out lots of art assets due to an art style change this time around, we should be looking at a 26-30 month development cycle for the next game with almost all of it thrown into improvements and additions instead of reinventing the wheel.
Of course, they still have to deal with console memory limits though since I imagine the next game will still be on the current batch of systems, so that might hamper a lot of potential improvements.
Dr.Guru of Peru
played the long game
Why cant I use the bow with my warrior? WTF is this shit. Why does this game feel so much more limiting than the first one? Its the same crap that happened when we went from ME to ME2.
Lostconfused
Member
Being able to re use assets and having more development time is always a good thing, if used wisely of course. But that does nothing for my concerns about the core gameplay design. I hope that there has been enough of an outcry from gamers and journos about the combat that Bioware takes a second look at it.Nirolak said:
Edit: As for technological limitations? The polygon count of the models is probably the big one. The artists probably work with textures at higher resolutions than the ones that end up in the console version, that's why we got a texture pack for DA2. Bioware doesn't really make open world games so the hardware limitations probably aren't cramping their level design either. But those Zbrush models seem to be more detailed. At least the one for Hawke, so that does make you wonder if they only modeled him or do they have other more detailed models.
hamchan said:
Im clocking 36 hours which is really only 33 due to a time glitch and am a little ways through Act 3. I cant see how anyone can "do everything" this fast
I fast travel everywhere, from quest to quest. Finishing them all pretty quickly. i have about 9 side quests lined up in my journal now. Will probably hit 40 hours i should think.
No different to Dragon Age 1 or Mass effect 2 both finished in 40/41 hours. The only Bioware game i have played that was ridiculously short was mass effect in 25 hours.
John Harker
Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
hamchan said:
Woa, I'm about that long into it and I haven't completed Act I yet.
Beat the game last night. Did about 35 hours and here's my unasked for thoughts:
Things That Went Well:
- Companions: Better written, more nuanced and, on the whole, more interesting. Even for those character designs and personalities that I initially hated, they all grew on me. Also, I really liked the ideas of tying your companions to home bases and integrating them into the plot so that they matter not just for their combat abilities. The way their relationships between one another advanced over time was refreshing as well as old rivals slowly become close friends and so forth. Complaints I have are for not being able to advance their quests or really talk to them unless at their home base. Out of everything, your companions are probably the best part of the game. Final complaint:
should have been a companion.
- Skill Trees (Note: Separate from classes, see below): Honestly, I thought these were handled mostly well, making it interesting to customize individual characters around certain themes. There are complaints with the balancing and lack of certain trees (blood magic) for certain companions (
), but otherwise a good attempt.
- Qunari: Everything regarding the Qunari and the Qun was brilliant. Need MORE! I was worried from the marketing they would just turn them into Orcs, but instead they kept true to the standard set by The Sten in DA:O. The writing for the Arishok is particularly well done in providing a powerful antagonist that is subtly dangerous in that he's not entirely wrong morally in what he does, just his methods.
Things That Were Hit And Miss:
- Kirkwall: From an artist's conceptual standpoint, Kirkwall is boring, uninspired, and drab. I think this might have been because they were trying to save framerate on consoles, but that's Tinfoil Hat talking. In execution, there is very little to like about Kirkwall. From a game design standpoint, I thought it was nice to have the game focus on Kirkwall, with the player making it his home, becoming part of the city, along with his companions, and making the plotlines center on his adopted home. If the city had been conceptually stronger (and larger), the focus on it would have been fantastic. Sadly, Bioware treated it more like a hub and less like how it should have been: a companion with all the associated attention to detail.
- Main Plot: It was nice not having a big epic plot, but rather a grounded one of a man/woman just trying to make a name and fortune in a new land. The plot was at its best when it went back and forth with political maneuverings between parties trying to either defeat Hawke or get the upper hand on one another. Sadly, the plot lines, with the exception of one (
), all stumbled at the end in terms of impact and payoff.
- Hawke: I actually like the guy/gal, and found it easy to slip into their role. But, knowing what we gave up in DA:O (origin stories, racial choices) to get him/her makes it a solid neutral about whether it was a good move to make.
- Armor: Yeah, sucks we can't put armor on our companions. That said, I do like the conceptual armor on all of them, the upgrades, and how armor looks on Hawke. This drags it from Pear-Shaped to Hit and Miss.
Things That Went Pear-Shaped:
- Combat: ANOTHER WAVE! I can forgive the combat animations, as it doesn't affect the gameplay. I can forgive the ridiculous blood explosions and fall apart bodies, as it doesn't affect gameplay. But I cannot forgive the fucking teleporting in enemies. Further, they throw combat at you ALL THE TIME, even when it makes no sense, or has no purpose in terms of the quest/story. Time for ANOTHER WAVE! Poorly thought out, drawn up, and executed.
- Classes: I can't dual wield with a warrior now? That alone puts classes here, but the revamp of the classes to MMO style is criminal. Now a warrior is all crowd control and agro, EVEN for two-handed warriors. Nope, rogue does all the damage now, along with mages. The fact that the rogue outdamages my two-handed warrior, even in single combat, is insane.
- User Interface: ONE good thing came from this. Numbers. Now you can see what all your stats do and your skills. It lists percentages and applicable changes very nicely. Every single other aspect of the interface is a complete disaster, especially compared to DA:O. Think about that for a second. The UI for the sequel is a disaster compared to the original. All they had to do was keep it the same and it would have been much better. Can't cycle through inventory of all characters. Can't cycle through character sheets of all characters. Just one big mess.
- 'Inside' Jokes: This started in ME2 to a degree and has become rampant in DA2. You can't get any good original humor or anything else because the game is too busy recycling jokes and characters from the original game. From the bastardization of Sandal's character to
everything becomes trite and is handled very clumsily. Here's a tip Bioware: If the game is not a true sequel to DA:O than STOP trying to put DA:O characters into it. One or even two is one thing. But know how many characters (NPC or otherwise) show up in DA2 from DA:O? Nine. That's way too many.
- Copy Pasted Dungeons: What needs to be said. Only thing that shocked me more than their impressive ability to not make them painful until Act 2 is that they only had like 5 or 7 dungeon maps total.
- BUGS: Game locks up on me about once an hour and Merrill's quests in Act III are horribly bugged, with spoilers being shown. Easily the buggiest Bioware game I've played.
- Darkspawn: Look horrible and dance around like Power Ranger enemies. Seriously, everything about these guys, from the Troll to the removal of Genlocks was poor.
- Act I: This is one of my biggest complaints and biggest indicator of the rushed timeline. A ridiculous amount of reasonable gameplay is glossed over with exposition when it is crying out to be used. Roughly four story segments are jettisoned for story exposition by Varric. How more interesting would the game have been if we actually had a reasonable amount of time to get to know Hawke, his/her family, and the early companions before reaching Kirkwall? Instead, we get Shit Mountain, the Gallows for all of 10 minutes, and a handful of narrative cutscenes.
Bottom Line: Game was rushed and it shows. From the unoptimized DX11 and copy pasted maps, to the unfocused, incoherent plot movements and buggy engine and quests. Sad thing is that, overall, I actually liked the game. Despite side quests getting grinding towards the end of act 2 and the boring features of Kirkwall, it was an interesting change of pace from marching across the world and trying to stop the demon/blight/mad scientist threatening to eradicate/eat/transmorgrify everything. The companions are especially rich and I could even get suckered into DLC depending on how they are incorporated. Still, I can't help but think what another year could have done for this game, given its extremely short year and a half development time. WARNING: Meaningless score coming - 7/10
Things That Went Well:
- Companions: Better written, more nuanced and, on the whole, more interesting. Even for those character designs and personalities that I initially hated, they all grew on me. Also, I really liked the ideas of tying your companions to home bases and integrating them into the plot so that they matter not just for their combat abilities. The way their relationships between one another advanced over time was refreshing as well as old rivals slowly become close friends and so forth. Complaints I have are for not being able to advance their quests or really talk to them unless at their home base. Out of everything, your companions are probably the best part of the game. Final complaint:
Sarrebas (Qunari Mage)
- Skill Trees (Note: Separate from classes, see below): Honestly, I thought these were handled mostly well, making it interesting to customize individual characters around certain themes. There are complaints with the balancing and lack of certain trees (blood magic) for certain companions (
Merrill
- Qunari: Everything regarding the Qunari and the Qun was brilliant. Need MORE! I was worried from the marketing they would just turn them into Orcs, but instead they kept true to the standard set by The Sten in DA:O. The writing for the Arishok is particularly well done in providing a powerful antagonist that is subtly dangerous in that he's not entirely wrong morally in what he does, just his methods.
Things That Were Hit And Miss:
- Kirkwall: From an artist's conceptual standpoint, Kirkwall is boring, uninspired, and drab. I think this might have been because they were trying to save framerate on consoles, but that's Tinfoil Hat talking. In execution, there is very little to like about Kirkwall. From a game design standpoint, I thought it was nice to have the game focus on Kirkwall, with the player making it his home, becoming part of the city, along with his companions, and making the plotlines center on his adopted home. If the city had been conceptually stronger (and larger), the focus on it would have been fantastic. Sadly, Bioware treated it more like a hub and less like how it should have been: a companion with all the associated attention to detail.
- Main Plot: It was nice not having a big epic plot, but rather a grounded one of a man/woman just trying to make a name and fortune in a new land. The plot was at its best when it went back and forth with political maneuverings between parties trying to either defeat Hawke or get the upper hand on one another. Sadly, the plot lines, with the exception of one (
Qunari
- Hawke: I actually like the guy/gal, and found it easy to slip into their role. But, knowing what we gave up in DA:O (origin stories, racial choices) to get him/her makes it a solid neutral about whether it was a good move to make.
- Armor: Yeah, sucks we can't put armor on our companions. That said, I do like the conceptual armor on all of them, the upgrades, and how armor looks on Hawke. This drags it from Pear-Shaped to Hit and Miss.
Things That Went Pear-Shaped:
- Combat: ANOTHER WAVE! I can forgive the combat animations, as it doesn't affect the gameplay. I can forgive the ridiculous blood explosions and fall apart bodies, as it doesn't affect gameplay. But I cannot forgive the fucking teleporting in enemies. Further, they throw combat at you ALL THE TIME, even when it makes no sense, or has no purpose in terms of the quest/story. Time for ANOTHER WAVE! Poorly thought out, drawn up, and executed.
- Classes: I can't dual wield with a warrior now? That alone puts classes here, but the revamp of the classes to MMO style is criminal. Now a warrior is all crowd control and agro, EVEN for two-handed warriors. Nope, rogue does all the damage now, along with mages. The fact that the rogue outdamages my two-handed warrior, even in single combat, is insane.
- User Interface: ONE good thing came from this. Numbers. Now you can see what all your stats do and your skills. It lists percentages and applicable changes very nicely. Every single other aspect of the interface is a complete disaster, especially compared to DA:O. Think about that for a second. The UI for the sequel is a disaster compared to the original. All they had to do was keep it the same and it would have been much better. Can't cycle through inventory of all characters. Can't cycle through character sheets of all characters. Just one big mess.
- 'Inside' Jokes: This started in ME2 to a degree and has become rampant in DA2. You can't get any good original humor or anything else because the game is too busy recycling jokes and characters from the original game. From the bastardization of Sandal's character to
Alistar's 'swooping'
- Copy Pasted Dungeons: What needs to be said. Only thing that shocked me more than their impressive ability to not make them painful until Act 2 is that they only had like 5 or 7 dungeon maps total.
- BUGS: Game locks up on me about once an hour and Merrill's quests in Act III are horribly bugged, with spoilers being shown. Easily the buggiest Bioware game I've played.
- Darkspawn: Look horrible and dance around like Power Ranger enemies. Seriously, everything about these guys, from the Troll to the removal of Genlocks was poor.
- Act I: This is one of my biggest complaints and biggest indicator of the rushed timeline. A ridiculous amount of reasonable gameplay is glossed over with exposition when it is crying out to be used. Roughly four story segments are jettisoned for story exposition by Varric. How more interesting would the game have been if we actually had a reasonable amount of time to get to know Hawke, his/her family, and the early companions before reaching Kirkwall? Instead, we get Shit Mountain, the Gallows for all of 10 minutes, and a handful of narrative cutscenes.
Bottom Line: Game was rushed and it shows. From the unoptimized DX11 and copy pasted maps, to the unfocused, incoherent plot movements and buggy engine and quests. Sad thing is that, overall, I actually liked the game. Despite side quests getting grinding towards the end of act 2 and the boring features of Kirkwall, it was an interesting change of pace from marching across the world and trying to stop the demon/blight/mad scientist threatening to eradicate/eat/transmorgrify everything. The companions are especially rich and I could even get suckered into DLC depending on how they are incorporated. Still, I can't help but think what another year could have done for this game, given its extremely short year and a half development time. WARNING: Meaningless score coming - 7/10
fizzelopeguss
Banned
Nirolak said:
The putty monster animation doesn't help either.
As orc monsters go the darkspawn were pretty creepy. With the laugh from the alpha hurlock and race rape to make broodmothers.
