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[Maleficence]

Playing this on PC atm, main character is a mage, been playing for ages and still got to finish Orzamarr and Denerim. Crazy addictive game, absolutely excellent as well.

 

[knitoe]

Hey wtf .. I went through the exact same dialogue with him just yesterday and only got a +1.

You probably choose something different or continue to talk about other matters before selecting "I'm not here to impress you." I got +6 too.

 

[markatisu]

Whats the best armor for Alistair? I have Sten and myself outfitted very well but I cant seem to find a combination I like for him

 

[Pancakes]

Don't understand the complaints at all. Was awesome. People were complaining about not knowing where to go? What? It's insanely straight forward...

It's not so much that I didn't know where to go.

The problem was that it was a very dull area. Also, in my experience I kept dying in certain sections and had to start over alot (When I say alot I mean 2/3 of my saves were in the fade alone). Sometimes it would be because I barely cleared an entire room->and rushed through a door only to have a

Spoiler

cheap ass fire

kill me, and other annoying shit like that.

That was my first playthrough. Now that I know where to go and what to prepare for, it's much easier. But I still argue that it goes on for too long.

 

[Dizzy-4U]

Hey guys, does the PC version really looks like this? (kinda NSFW and spoiler-ish). I need to build a new PC pronto. My notebook can't handle that stuff =(

 

[Fredescu]

Yes. Does that scene look a lot worse on consoles? That shot is far from the nicest this game looks on PC. In isometric view it looks fantastic most of the time. I'm sure the reason it looks average on consoles is because the graphics were designed with the isometric view in mind, and it was too late to change years of work when they decided to port to consoles fairly late in the piece.

 

[Tokubetsu]

Hey guys, does the PC version really looks like this? (kinda NSFW and spoiler-ish). I need to build a new PC pronto. My notebook can't handle that stuff =(

Yeah. They cranked it up a shit ton with constrast and saturation but detail etc. is spot on. I play on very high with 4x AA and it looks about right.

 

[MirageDwarf]

Reason I was kinda stuck in Fade is there is this part where all doors are portals. I was going in circles. May be I missed something because I was tired of Fade, it was 3 am and wanted to finish it fast.

 

[Fredescu]

Saw this on the official forums and thought it was interesting enough to repost here. A bit of a technical history of Shale.

The initial post by a forum goer:

Indeed, its quite clear that Shale was intended to be part of the game.
And although i quite enjoy having him around, i think its a bit silly they make people believe that their getting something for free.
Same goes for the wardens keep thing, if they had time to make that and bring it out at the same date as the game. Why then dint they just released it with the game, instead of making us pay for or "giving" it for free?

Dev Response:

I can speak to this a little. Shale was originally designed to be part of the main game that the player would stumble across in Redcliffe. A lot of the banter and interjection lines were written with that in mind and a number of NPCs went as far as having those lines recorded.

Shale posed some serious issues, however, and the project was on a very tight timeline. The existing golem models were too large to fit through doorways, for instance, and posed some problems when party-controlled in combat. The large size was also extremely difficult for our cutscene designers to work around and pretty much every cutscene in the game would be affected. Meanwhile, the golem models also didn't have the full range of animations that a party member requires and their facial structure was poorly-suited to lip-synching. Between that and a variety of other issues (a complex custom inventory proposal, no clear design for custom abilities, etc), the team made the correct decision to cut Shale from the core game.

I was brought onto the Dragon Age PRC team after that decision was made (previously, I had been heading up the NWN PRC team and working on another unannounced project that had recently been canceled). Shale was recommended as a piece of content that could potentially be salvaged for use as PRC. Looking at the scope of the problems surrounding Shale, I actually made the recommendation that we not proceed. In the end, Shale's humor and story and inherent value won the day and we decided to gamble everything and go ahead.

Emergency meetings were held and the artists and animators burned a ridiculous amount of midnight oil (after just coming off crunch time to finish their work on the main game) to shrink Shale down to Qunari size, sink the head so that its eye level matched that of a human, apply the Dwarven overlay animations to account for a slightly stockier body, and merge the Qunari and golem animation rigs. Programming went the extra mile to provide the animators with a means of excluding some of the more emotive or "human" animations that just didn't look right for Shale (no on likes a bum-scratching golem). The cutscene designers still had to make a pass through every cutscene in the game but these changes brought the required fixes down to a manageable level.

Meanwhile, Design simplified the inventory GUI plans down to leverage the existing interface already being used by Dog. Shale's talent tree was designed and redesigned multiple times to minimize the impact on core scripts, which were already under a tight lockdown. The VFX for Shale's crystals piggybacked on an unexpected node inheritance bug that we decided to approach as a feature (if you want to see the bug/feature in action, try casting Flame Weapon on Dog /images/forum/emoticons/angel.png). Shale's dialog (which fortunately hadn't been recorded yet) was rewritten to account for his removal from Redcliffe and the changes to his character art and inventory systems. The level artists went to town creating Honnleath, the Cellars, and Cadash Thaig.

The vast majority of this took place after the PC version had entered a tight lockdown and the core DA:O team had moved onto the console versions or over to Mass Effect 2. It wouldn't have been possible without the additional manpower made available as a result of our very difficult decision to cancel the project I had formerly been on. Even with that additional manpower, there's no way that content would have made it fully onto the disc rather than via download (some aspects did make it onto the disc but most of those were the elements that had already been created as part of Shale's initial design). In the end, it was an extremely high risk gamble and, right until the very end, emerging problems and unexpected issues threatened to derail the Shale project entirely. Fortunately, it all worked out (by the skin of our teeth!) and we were able to have Shale available for download at the time of launch.

Knowing that Shale had previously been announced as being a part of the main game and knowing that there was the potential for a community backlash if we asked all of you to pay cold hard cash for it at launch, the decision was made to include the redemption code in all new copies of the game. In essence, we're choosing to provide Shale as a "lost leader" and a demonstration in good faith of what's to come with future PRC. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into making Shale happen - the fact that the content blends so seamlessly with the rest of the game and looks so effortless is a sign that we did our job right.

Full disclosure: I made a couple of minor changes to keep it spoiler free.

 

[Basileus777]

Dev Response

Link?

 

[dionysus]

Need help:

Spoiler

How do I find the entrance to the carta to confront the mafia boss? Talking to the NPCs I am apparently just supposed to wait for something to happen in Dust town, but nothing is freaking happening.

Correct phrase is "loss leader", it is a marketing term used to describe selling an item below cost so you can get people in the store.

 

[Fredescu]

Link?

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/9/index/226103/3

Need help:

Spoiler

How do I find the entrance to the carta to confront the mafia boss? Talking to the NPCs I am apparently just supposed to wait for something to happen in Dust town, but nothing is freaking happening.

Spoiler

I just tried all the doors. I think that's how you're supposed to interpret what the merchant tells you, that the entrance changes. I don't know if it does actually change in the game. There are a lot of unclickable doors in that area. For me it ended up being opposite the little hovel that you can go in towards the dead end at the end of the level.

 

[K.Jack]

Hey guys, does the PC version really looks like this? (kinda NSFW and spoiler-ish). I need to build a new PC pronto. My notebook can't handle that stuff =(

You'll really like the HD texture mod. I just started running it, and it's a nice improvement.

 

[∀ Narayan]

You'll really like the HD texture mod. I just started running it, and it's a nice improvement.

Where?

 

[Dizzy-4U]

I'll be buying a new pc then. Thanks for the info guys.

Where?

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/

 

[randomlyrossy]

From BioWares twitter:

If I was a fan of Dragon Age: Origins, I'd be keeping my eyes on the Dragon Age website tomorrow. Just saying. - Evil Chris

http://twitter.com/biofeed/status/5841704092

 

[hypostatic]

I have yet to get that one, one hour sounds pretty short.. I know its 7$, but dunno.

Wish we could get something like shivering isles, but I doubt it. I have lvl20 templar/reaver, and a 14 assassin/duelist

Shivering Isles is still probably the finest example of DLC, in terms of both quality and length, IMO.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

From BioWares twitter:

http://twitter.com/biofeed/status/5841704092

I wish it was DLC

 

[K.Jack]

Where?

Right here, to be exact.

 

[Anso]

The Arcane Warrior + Blood Mage build is certainly one of the tastiest in game and well worth replaying just to tailor your team around. Go for really high willpower and magic, a dash of dexterity and put all your points in sustainables. Max out the blood magic and arcane warrior tree, add some utility (first frost spell, the mage tree, heal and the Crushing Prison tree). It's the most fun I've had with this game just running in, tanking and dishing out silly ammounts of damage.

 

[mattiewheels]

that was such a blast in the fade, being able to

Spoiler

shift into golem form. it was just such another level of awesome, crushing and smashing, haha. i was hoping that there was a way to get a mage to shapeshift into one at a high enough level,

but i see that the DLC takes care of my want.

 

[NewLib]

So what is the opinions on the best spells of the game?

I like Cone of Cold out of the Primal class. Actually I like the Ice branch in general though I think Primal is the weakest school of spells.

With Creation, Heal is good but the rest of the line is basically "Just get Spirit Healer stuff instead". I like the Buff Line especially Haste. I have never used Glyph of Neutralization, how effective is it?

Spirit School is extremely useful. Mana Clash is a mage killer pure and simple. Walking Bomb is maybe the best AOE spell (outside of Sleep) when used effectively. Animate Dead has its uses. Mind Blast Line is probably the best line of the game. Mind Blast, Force Field,Telekinetic Weapons, and Crushing Prison are all some of the most useful spells in the game. Anti-Magic Burst is alright but a Templar can duplicate the effect.

Entropy is as useful as Spirit and where I spend most of my points. The Paralysis Line is useful, but I dont get it much. Mass Paralysis is better than Sleep, but Sleep is in a better line and most times the difference is marginal as Im focusing one at a time. Plus Sleep you get the Nightmare Combo. The Hex Line has three useful spells: Vulnerability Hex/Affliction Hex (especially with Runes) and Death Hex. Sleep Line is probably the second best line in the game behind Mind Blast. Disorient is useful, Sleep/Horror are useful separate and deadly together and Walking Nightmare is a good crowd control spell. With Draining Spells, I like Drain Life and Curse of Mortality and will use Death Magic usually.

 

[demosthenes]

I've played a few bioware games in the past, what does this most resemble?

 

[Fragamemnon]

I've played a few bioware games in the past, what does this most resemble?

On the PC, Baldur's Gate 2. On consoles, KotOR.

Regarding spells:

I thought that Rejuvenation was actually a really darn good spell. It's an efficient heal over time, perfect for keeping tanks alive.

Mind Blast, Force Field,Telekinetic Weapons, and Crushing Prison is the single best line in the game. I thought Mana Clash was absurdly overpowered and is IMO the most broken spell in the game when you make the restriction that spells must be used as they were intended.

 

[DY_nasty]

I've played a few bioware games in the past, what does this most resemble?

Kotor

 

[Fredescu]

With Creation, Heal is good but the rest of the line is basically "Just get Spirit Healer stuff instead". I like the Buff Line especially Haste. I have never used Glyph of Neutralization, how effective is it?

I went full creation on my main the first time around, just because. The heal over time in the heal line is good too, and not replicated in the Spirit Healer line.

Glyph of Neutralization does what it says on the tin. The glyph sticks on the target, so it's a handy mage CC tool. It seems to have a low resist rate, at least on normal/hard. I don't have it on my nightmare run yet. It has a bit of an oval shape unlike the other glyphs, which means that if your tank is standing over it, you can't heal him. It's more of a CC tool than something to disable the spells of a single target encounter.

I thought that Rejuvenation was actually a really darn good spell. It's an efficient heal over time, perfect for keeping tanks alive.

Do you mean Regeneration? Rejuv is the stamina/mana regen spell.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Well after reading this thread for a while I respecced my rogue to be a melee powerhouse and made Leliana my ranged rogue. The difference is night and day. Her bard buffs are awesome, and now that she has scattershot my healer spends more time DPS-ing than healing so we're tearing through stuff.

Do you mean Regeneration? Rejuv is the stamina/mana regen spell.

I always make that mistake too, probably because the corresponding Druid HOT in World of Warcraft is called Rejuvenation.

 

[Minsc]

That hotfix might have strengthened bows and daggers, but now I'm tempted to use my old strategies of just equipping everyone in the party with a bow and raining arrows down on all my enemies from a distance (esp w/ free unlimited ammo). I don't have any characters spec'd for archery and it doesn't seem to matter much. 3 rounds of 4 arrows (~5 seconds) is taking down monsters, though I'm still pretty early on in the game (level 4).

The knockdown from fireball is a bitch though. My first mage fight was significantly closer than I expected, normally mages fall long before looking like a pin cushion.

 

[erpg]

My girlfriend bought this one last night, said she loved it, but for some reason, I wasn't following any hype train. Even with all her praise, I was totally unconvinced until I sat down on her PC, exited her elf rogue and spent 4 and a half hours straight on a dwarf warrior noble. I'm sold.

I thought the lack of player voice acting and dated graphics would diminish the experience, but damn, was I ever wrong. The script is fantastic, and so oddly hilarious. I had to submit defeat to her, and now, I'm picking it up tomorrow!

 

[AstroLad]

You'll really like the HD texture mod. I just started running it, and it's a nice improvement.

So this is pretty good? Is everyone using this?

 

[JayDubya]

Woah. Just encountered the hardest thing in the game so far, and the thing with the most bad guys on screen (console anyway).

Spoiler

Right after killing Howe and rescuing the Queen...

Not sure how to tackle that many guards simultaneously - the arrows they rain down slaughter Oghren, Wynne, and Lei too fast to react; Shield Cover and shittons of defense, armor, and hitpoints still only go so far.

War Cry gives me a little bit of time; taunt only helps my protagonist to fall down first.

I guess I'm just supposed to lose. :lol Too stubborn not to keep trying, though.

 

[TheHeretic]

Woah. Just encountered the hardest thing in the game so far, and the thing with the most badguys on screen (console anyway).

Spoiler

Right after killing Howe and rescuing the Queen...

Not sure how to tackle that many guards simultaneously - the arrows they rain down slaughter Oghren, Wynne, and Lei; Shield Cover and shittons of defense, armor, and hitpoints still only go so far.

I guess I'm just supposed to lose. :lol Too stubborn not to keep trying, though.

Retreat into the hallways to avoid the archers.

 

[JayDubya]

Retreat into the hallways to avoid the archers.

Oh yeah, the ol' exploit the enemy pathfinding trick. Really, I think if I weren't on Nightmare this would be a non-issue.

Also,

Spoiler

losing here doesn't seem to be a bad thing; I'd bet you get more xp from failing and then escaping from prison

.

 

[Fragamemnon]

never mind, had the wrong fight. On Nightmare run away at the start-you might be able to (I was ) decouple of the boss character if you run away right from the start.

 

[knitoe]

Oh yeah, the ol' exploit the enemy pathfinding trick. Really, I think if I weren't on Nightmare this would be a non-issue.

Also,

Spoiler

losing here doesn't seem to be a bad thing; I'd bet you get more xp from failing and then escaping from prison

.

Go with the FORCE. Chugging down potion after potion also helps.

 

[TheHeretic]

I finished the game last night. My thoughts are the Arcane Warrior class is probably the most overpowered in the game. Shimmering Shield leaves you constantly at no mana but it never turns off either, which means by the end of the game I had 100 physical resistance, 100 mental resistance, and 75% resistance to all elements constantly with Arcane Shield and Rock Armor going. No tank is going to approach that.

It makes sense though considering without a guide finding the trainer is exceptionally difficult.

As for the game itself (massive spoilers)

Spoiler

I sided with Blanka to get the Golem army, but as Shale was with me I had to kill her to get there. It was a waste though, I thought the ending would play out in one epic battle with you throwing everything you've got at the enemy but it didn't happen. The "Unstoppable Golem Army" was 4 fucking Golems and they all died far too quickly. The best armies just consist of the most units, so I was just using the Dwarves (Legion of the Dead) I convinced and the Knights of Redcliffe.

The Dwarven questline really isn't that well done. With the way its set up you can't properly decide who would make a better leader as you don't hear both parties stories and political ideologies. I went with Harrowmont and it turns out he a Castless hating pro royalty douche.

I used Morrigan's plan as a way out, but her plan was a total Dues Ex Machina. When you first get Morrigan she's surprised to be ordered to travel with you. When you talk about the ritual at the end Morrigan claims the ritual was the reason she was going with you all along, it doesn't add up. Unless of course Flemeth possessed her and plans to eventually inhabit the God baby, I don't know. That aspect of the story came out of nowhere and made no sense to me. Why would the Archdemon seek out the baby over the person Grey Warden standing on top of its corpse?

It also blows no matter what you do Morrigan winds up leaving. Even if she's 100% percent in love with you she's going to leave forever for a purpose I can only imagine will play into the sequel.

The ending does a good job of piecing together the implications of your actions. The Werewolf population went out of control until the Lady of the Forest took them even deeper was interesting, but it could have been done with cutscenes instead of text.

As with all RPG's I find most endings pretty unsatisfying. Dragon Age's was decent but nothing overly memorable.

 

[KaYotiX]

Hey guys, does the PC version really looks like this? (kinda NSFW and spoiler-ish). I need to build a new PC pronto. My notebook can't handle that stuff =(

Yup, i play with maxxed out settings and its beautiful in alot of areas

 

[lorddarkflare]

Saw this on the official forums and thought it was interesting enough to repost here. A bit of a technical history of Shale.

The initial post by a forum goer:



Dev Response:



Full disclosure: I made a couple of minor changes to keep it spoiler free.

*gets teary*

 

[bengraven]

Can't wait for more DLC.

And mods.

Or just one or the other.

 

[LiK]

LOL, i just learned two things:

Shale is

Spoiler

a WOMAN!

Alister is

Spoiler

a VIRGIN!

man, i love these revelations :lol

 

[Dipper145]

I've tried loading up a couple of times, trying different things, to fix my game issues, but nothing seems to be working. It's a shame I'll have to start from the beginning to see the ending, but oh well.

I'm going to cry if I start again and get all the way only to have the same thing happen again.

I think I'm going to try my hand at a Dwarf Noble rogue since I hear that origin is one of, if not the best origin stories. Going to attempt to do it on whatever the hardest difficulty is.

Also,

Spoiler

losing here doesn't seem to be a bad thing; I'd bet you get more xp from failing and then escaping from prison

.

Wow, I didn't even know this was an option. That battle for me just took a long time because there were so many enemies and that one character was so strong. I would have just done this had I known.

 

[JayDubya]

Well, fifth time's the charm; all but the knight are dead, all bodies looted, lots of xp, going to go ahead and let her knock me out, though.

Wynne Earthquaked the back archers, War Cry knocked down everyone else, had the MT Templar / Champion protagonist rush and kill the mage and hide behind the wall so most of the archers couldn't target him, ran Wynne and Lei back down the hallway (Oghren just fell over - wish I'd used Alistair for this part).

I believe I've done everything I can in the game up to this point. Other than the fact that I'm missing a love letter or two, I've probably milked every last bit of xp I can out of the game. I doubt I'll get to L22, but not from lack of trying.

I hope that there's more content unlocked after this part, but I'm doubting it... I mean, besides the endgame scenario. I don't really get the impression that I've hit a point of no return yet.

 

[Tokubetsu]

I've tried loading up a couple of times, trying different things, to fix my game issues, but nothing seems to be working. It's a shame I'll have to start from the beginning to see the ending, but oh well.

I'm going to cry if I start again and get all the way only to have the same thing happen again.

I think I'm going to try my hand at a Dwarf Noble rogue since I hear that origin is one of, if not the best origin stories. Going to attempt to do it on whatever the hardest difficulty is.


Wow, I didn't even know this was an option. That battle for me just took a long time because there were so many enemies and that one character was so strong. I would have just done this had I known.

Were you playing that battle with the dexterity patch (PC)? If so then that battle pretty much becomes impossible. Archers do way too much damage on TOP having to deal with a ridiculous warrior and some tanks.

 

[Mindlog]

Need help:

Spoiler

How do I find the entrance to the carta to confront the mafia boss? Talking to the NPCs I am apparently just supposed to wait for something to happen in Dust town, but nothing is freaking happening.

The way I got through that section. !(The following refers to an Orzammar quest)

Spoiler

There is a beggar in Dust named Neveria or something along those lines. I threw some silver her way the first time I saw her and she was thankful. When I had to chase down Jarvia I gave her some more silver and she told me how to get into the hideout. I just had to kill intimidate some thugs in a different hovel first.

!(The following refers to an Orzammar quest and its potential END GAME impact.)

Spoiler

The Dwarven questline really isn't that well done. With the way its set up you can't properly decide who would make a better leader as you don't hear both parties stories and political ideologies. I went with Harrowmont and it turns out he a Castless hating pro royalty douche.

I actually enjoyed that part of the quest. There was no perfect obvious line. You just had to do the best you could. It also made completing the dwarven noble origin later more interesting.

 

[rass]

I need to stay the hell out of this thread, I just spoiled 2 more things for myself.
At least I can't blame you this time Fredescu haha :'(

 

[dimb]

Spoiler

The Dwarven questline really isn't that well done. With the way its set up you can't properly decide who would make a better leader as you don't hear both parties stories and political ideologies. I went with Harrowmont and it turns out he a Castless hating pro royalty douche.

It's pretty obvious that the Dwarf questline was one of the first to reach its "completed" state. A lot of iffy textures in the Deep Roads.

Spoiler

The story makes much more sense if you're a Dwarf, especially a Dwarf Noble. For some reason Harrowmont was depicted as a good king when I did it, but this could be because of your relationship with the other candidate as a Dwarf Noble.

 

[mattiewheels]

Yeah...i really need to stop highlighting spoilers in here. 'oh, it's probably just something i know alread...jesus christ no!'

 

[Sober]

Holy crap, finally finished the game. After exams I'll probably play a mage (though I'll probably play all the origins then leave the rest of the game for later).

Also, during your back-and-forths across the world map, did anyone bump into

Spoiler

that meteroite with the ore? I swear I kept forgetting to bring it to Wade, but did anyone notice the obvious Superman reference? :lol

 

[peacemountain]

I just got my Collectors Edition of the game. PS3 Version in Switzerland. All PS3 owners on the fence to buy this massive game, be warned. If you plan to play the game on more then one PS3 system, don't buy it: You can't copy the your savegame!

What a bad design desicion made by Bioware or/and EA. Shame on you!

My toughts about those issues on the NeoGAF thread: Sony, let me backup my saves

 

[Peronthious]

Holy crap, finally finished the game. After exams I'll probably play a mage (though I'll probably play all the origins then leave the rest of the game for later).

Also, during your back-and-forths across the world map, did anyone bump into

Spoiler

that meteroite with the ore? I swear I kept forgetting to bring it to Wade, but did anyone notice the obvious Superman reference? :lol

Spoiler

Oh, so that's who you take it to :lol Wade's shop was cracking me up too much to think about doing anything useful there