-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Dragon Age II |OT| The Revenge of Shit Mountain
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
Basileus777
Member
Enemies magically appearing mid battle is really destroying usefulness of tactical party placement. Better to just zerg rush enemies using basic tactics, rather than waste time positioning. :/
I don't remember this happening in origins to a same extent?
I think tessellation is destroying my fps but there is no option to disable it
Other dx11 options don't seem to have much of an effect on fps so i guess tessellation is at fault.
I don't remember this happening in origins to a same extent?
I think tessellation is destroying my fps but there is no option to disable it
Other dx11 options don't seem to have much of an effect on fps so i guess tessellation is at fault.Darkkn said:Enemies magically appearing mid battle is really destroying usefulness of tactical party placement. Better to just zerg rush enemies using basic tactics, rather than waste time positioning. :/
I don't remember this happening in origins to a same extent?
I think tessellation is destroying my fps but there is no option to disable it
Are you on Very High settings?
I bumped myself down from Very High to High and my FPS went from 28-60 to a mostly solid 60.
Sir Garbageman
Member
_tetsuo_ said:
Yea played the first one on hard, found it moderately difficult. The beginning was difficult but after the first 10 hours or so it got easier. Played Awakenings on Nightmare cause the advanced abilities were so OP.
It's not a 100% fair comparison because I haven't beaten DA2 yet, but right now it's more difficult imo.
Blue Ninja
Member
Something I'm really starting to miss is the opportunity to outfit all of your team members at the party camp. I have a lot of extra weapons for some squadmates, but keep them stored in my Chest at home because I never use those particular squadmates. :/
Rahxephon91
Banned
And? The level design of Dragon Age 2 is pretty embarrassing. Did they even attempt to create unique environments? It just seems the clicked copy and paste for most of them. But the thing is RoF actually has good gameplay so it can get away with some of the flaws it has. DA2's gamplay, well that's up to you if it's good. No one's encouraging things like crappy level desgin. I don't think anyone said RoF was fantastic or something because of that. I don't understand why you felt the need to bring up that game.Nose Master said:
Basileus777
Member
Some of the importing is bugged. The game thinks I let the architect live even though I killed him.
-tetsuo-
Unlimited Capacity
Sir Garbageman said:
I don't understand how this is possible lol. DA2 hard mode doesn't even have friendly fire. I droped it down to hard a couple encounters and it was like very easy or something. Hawke and Fenris would scythe through like 4 and 5 enemies at once, cast a bunch of AoE speels and just not press anything else. That almost never happened in Origins.
If anyone is interested, I wrote a small user script to hide all the PS3 and 360 DLC from the entitlements page.
Sir Garbageman
Member
I think it's the long cool downs on health potions and healing spells mostly. In DA:O you could spam the hell out of potions / spells. Either that or my current squad doesn't do enough damage so longer boss fights end up low on health / mana waiting for the cooldowns to reset.
Or maybe I just suck
Basileus777
Member
Someone on the Bioware forums has made a mod to low the heal cooldown.
30 second version
20 second version
10 second version
30 second version
20 second version
10 second version
Basileus777
Member
Gvaz said:
I'd rather have a 40s cooldown with a less effective upgraded heal. Lower cooldowns would be crazy with how much health% heal restores now.
wayward archer
Member
Basileus777 said:
Why not just lower the difficulty to easy, it would accomplish the exact same thing.
Most of the battles even on Hard can be beaten without having to rely heavily on healing. That's one of the things I like about this game is it's de-emphasis on healing in general. It's impossible to keep a mage or rogue alive on hard or nightmare with healing if a bunch of enemies gang up on them and you do nothing else about it.
Basileus777
Member
wayward archer said:
I agree that it's those cooldowns are too low, but a bunch of people here have complained about it...
Personally I'd rather have the option to use heal more often, but have each heal restore less HP.
I play on hard and basically if your character was surrounded or focus fired, your other party members are not doing their job and healing will not get around this.
That being said, there are times where, especially if avaline doesn't have the reduce crit ability, or if a bunch of archers are on here while a boss is wailing on her, or if it isn't a tank and spank and you can't turn on Immovable, that extra healing does come in handy in a pinch.
When I fought the mature dragon, I just turned on immovable and the fight was easy as shit. At one point she had a 21% damage reduction when I checked the character panel.
Speaking of which, I believe immovable's stacking buff is too low. It should be something like 8 seconds, not 5.
That being said, there are times where, especially if avaline doesn't have the reduce crit ability, or if a bunch of archers are on here while a boss is wailing on her, or if it isn't a tank and spank and you can't turn on Immovable, that extra healing does come in handy in a pinch.
When I fought the mature dragon, I just turned on immovable and the fight was easy as shit. At one point she had a 21% damage reduction when I checked the character panel.
Speaking of which, I believe immovable's stacking buff is too low. It should be something like 8 seconds, not 5.
SneakyStephan
Banned
Welp 8 hours in and I'm done with it (not as in finished the story, just bored out of my mind).
I'm doing nothing but random side quests, and getting tired of looking at the same tiny city and same few dungeons over and over.
It took me a lot less time than in the previous game, but this one has pretty much all of the same problems that made me get bored of the first.
The story isn't properly paced, combat is fun for a while when you unlock new things, then you just fall into a pattern in NO time (especially if you have experience with other rpgs), can't say I care about any of the characters.
It's a huge chore to play, just like the first.
After my last hour of play I thought back on why I had been playing for the last 2-3 hours and concluded that it had only been to level up and clear my quest log.
If a game can't grab me with the story and gameplay then it failed as a game imo.
I'm doing nothing but random side quests, and getting tired of looking at the same tiny city and same few dungeons over and over.
It took me a lot less time than in the previous game, but this one has pretty much all of the same problems that made me get bored of the first.
The story isn't properly paced, combat is fun for a while when you unlock new things, then you just fall into a pattern in NO time (especially if you have experience with other rpgs), can't say I care about any of the characters.
It's a huge chore to play, just like the first.
After my last hour of play I thought back on why I had been playing for the last 2-3 hours and concluded that it had only been to level up and clear my quest log.
If a game can't grab me with the story and gameplay then it failed as a game imo.
Blue Ninja
Member
Fuckin' hell, just spent ten minutes fine-tuning Isabela's tactics, only to get killed in the next battle. Now it turns out the game doesn't save tactics seperately, and I need to do it all over again.
GhostRidah
Member
I guess I missed out on her, they didn't mention her at all in game and the only reason I knew her name was from this thread, I guess next play through I will get her.
Haunted said:
Well it did effectively stop my DA:O routine of putting my mage into a corner with two warriors in front of her. Now I actually have to monitor what the mage is doing and move it as needed. I like the reinforcements.
One hand wants it harder, the other wants it easier. Oh GAF.
its not a matter of easy vs hard. Enemies spawning on top of you removes all position strategies from the game and instead makes you resort to clumping together just so any spawns are a sword swing or taunt away from getting warrior aggro.kamspy said:
If they wanted to give us spawns, they shouldve set it so they would spawn in the distance and give us a few seconds to prepare.
Its bs when I have to waste a potion or heal on my mage because he got smacked around by coterie that I had no way to prepare for.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Archie said:
Yeah, the combat in this game is pure bullshit. I've completely given up on it and just set the game to normal where it practically plays itself. It's still kind of entertaining to watch in the same way that mindless shit like Dynasty Warriors is, but they completely ruined the combat system from DA:O instead of improving it, and Hard and Nightmare are just frustrating in this. This mid-combat spawning crap is awful.
Spawning enemies in tactical RPG = worst idea ever
It completely disembowels the whole point of planning a strategy because you have no idea when suddenly 3 enemies spawn will on top of your strategically placed mage fucking everything up.
And everyone moves at the speed of light. On Nightmare you carefully aim a fireball to avoid hitting your own guys just for them to shift position 110 meters in random direction after you unpause.
It completely disembowels the whole point of planning a strategy because you have no idea when suddenly 3 enemies spawn will on top of your strategically placed mage fucking everything up.
And everyone moves at the speed of light. On Nightmare you carefully aim a fireball to avoid hitting your own guys just for them to shift position 110 meters in random direction after you unpause.
-tetsuo-
Unlimited Capacity
Yea, the spawn waves are stupid. Been a few times I get to fight, and the 2nd wave messes me up. After a couple more tries I finally get the encounter pretty much perfect so that I get through the first wave unscathed. This lets me go kinda all out for the 2nd wave. Get them down and , you guessed it, third wave :-/. On nightmare it makes me want to pull my hair out. Couple that with the restrictive ass camera and bad party AI...... ughh.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
DennisK4 said:
This is also annoying as hell. The enemies just zip around the field. No point in even having a big fighting area since distance doesn't matter at all. I get depressed more and more about this game just thinking about the battle system. It's such a huge downgrade from the first one, which wasn't even that amazing in the first place.
_tetsuo_ said:
That's why I just gave up on the harder difficulties. It's not like any of your abilities really even allow for strategic battles, anyway. They are almost all just different ways to deal damage. Then again I'm still only around 5 hours in at lvl 7.
lastplayed
Member
The micro(macro?)transactions have started: http://yfrog.com/gygvwloj
Holy hell the High Dragon fight was hard for me. (hope that's not a spoiler..) Considering i havent been using a Sword and Shield tank because enemies seem tankable with a Two hander. Me,two other mages and a 2 handed warrior took it on without spoilers certain things it does made the fight a bit harder much more so when taunt was on cooldown heh. First hard fight of the game for me.
Diatribe1974
Member
Delio said:
Is that:
The one that's in the Bone Pit?
I said it a few pages back but Nightmare is a lost cause. It's just pure frustration with none of the feeling of accomplishment for playing at a higher difficulty.DennisK4 said:
The companion stuff is implemented in a terrible way as well. It all feels totally random in regards to when you get a chance to talk to them in your house. I show up for a letter and hey look random person is there to talk to. The party camp stuff from the first one was silly in it's own way, but at least you had the choice to talk to who you wanted.
subversus said:
The first Mass Effect was already very far removed from a CRPG. Second one simply took it further in its appropriately logical direction - that is, as the sci-fi action game it was clearly always meant to be. It trimmed the shit out.
DA2, meanwhile, took away almost everything that was actually good about the first game. ME2 didn't do at all, generally taking out what was shitty about the first game.
DA:O was also introduced as Bioware's foray back into CRPGs and famously as Baldur's Gate's spiritual successor - as such, PC and consoles had separate developments and it showed in the final products. With DA2, Bioware allowed consoles to dictate how the PC version would turn out, and so what we ended up is something not only far removed from DA:O (a game which already had enough problems), but inferior in almost every category.
Due to this and many other reasons, Mass Effect 2 is a much, much, much better game than Dragon Age 2. If you're going to give PC gamers a console action game disguised as an RPG, then at least make it fun to play. DA2 is a chore.
Zefah said:
Theres definitely reasons and ways to be tactical in this game, it just a great deal different from DAO. Ive found mobility and flexibility to be key since very few fights allow you to take a defensive position and funnel your enemies towards you.
I love and hate the enemy waves at the same time, it keeps the battles interesting but can totally fucking end you if youre not careful. Poisons and bombs I have found are super important, especially later in the game to help deal with groups, as are rogue skills like stealth, chameleons breath, evade, armistice, back-to-back and others that help move your weaker characters away from mobs, reduce aggro and so on. Mage skills like Barrier are even more important to keep holstered for an important time and Merril's Stone's Throw ability is great for getting her out of an unwanted scuffle.
I find myself conserving my abilities a lot more, where as in DAO it was pretty easy even on Nightmare to just set up your group right and just unleash everything you had in an orchestrated barrage and the battle would be over in seconds. Now though I have to hold out a lot more to try and do the most I can without using my big guns and Im far more conscious of my cool down times in order to plan out what I can use now and how soon I can use it again for the next likely wave of enemies.
I havent tried nightmare yet, probably will on the second playthrough, I imagine that will be a great deal more difficult than hard because of FF, but Im interested in seeing how I will fair and if I can keep my group alive.
The re-spec potion in the Black Emporium's bugged. I let my mage drink it and a few minutes later he's running around with the spells he had on his previous spec plus the new ones... ugh. He's so overpowered now it's not even funny.
Only had one save file, too. I knew it would bite me in the ass.
Only had one save file, too. I knew it would bite me in the ass.
Warnen
Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
Just finished the 2nd act, so far I'm loving it but it really isn't much like the 1st one. Much more like Mass effect 2 and thats not really a bad thing but sure it pisses people off. 2 things that get to me are 1) the reuse of the same maps, talk about lazy and 2) its impossible to loot shit while fighting on the xbox, I'm sure I missed some stuff at the end of act 2 because of this (I know there was a codex thing in the chantry you can only get during 1 fight).
Basileus777
Member
Enduin said:
I pretty much agree with this. The mid-battle spawns are a pain, but it actually introduces more challenge and a greater need for tactics than the original. Even on nightmare, all you needed to do in DAO was have your tanks hold aggro (much much easier then) and have your mages use broken spell combos and constantly spam heals, there was no real need to do anything interesting with tactics.
I actually find myself having to micromanage more in DA2 in order to manage aggro and keep people alive. A lot of this is because of cheap things like how they handle spawns...but in some ways it makes the gameplay more interesting than unmodded DAO's stale combat.
I have a bunch of problems with DA2, but I don't think the combat is universally worse than the first game or such.
Ceebs said:
I can believe that but at the same time Im curious as to how much torture I can take. Im only just now 35+ hours into the game really hitting my stride when it comes to tactics and managing my party. There definitely needs to be some balancing tweaks here and there but I think if you manage your abilities well and create a balanced party you can do quite well in this game. I cannot say how much combustion grenade is. I know some people will cry foul because now everyone can use grenades regardless of talents or attributes but combat for me has been way more engaging, even if at times its been a bit unforgiving.
Blue Ninja
Member
Yeah, BioWare got me to care about the characters.
Well played, BioWare, well played.
I genuinely felt bad when Hawke's mother died, and now I'm wondering if I could've prevented it by making different choices earlier on in the game.