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Dragon Age: Origins |OT| Letting The Fade fade out of memory

Durante

Member

Dizzy-4U

Member
You know, every second I spent in a certain cave doing the quest where you have to
collect the ashes
, I kept thinking of Indy and the Last Crusade.

Maybe it was because of
the immortal warrior or the "faith trials", but I kept saying "Goddamnit, they are gonna make me do the "step of faith"".

And whabam! There it was! It was not as I imagined though.
 
ArjanN said:
It's mostly the combat that's MMO-like.

MMO combat is PnP/CRPG like. These same sorts of strategies have been around since PnP got started, at least as far as using super strong 'tank' characters to draw attacks to protect world breaking, powerful, but paper thin mages. It wasn't until MMOs got massive that the terminology got standardized.
 

panda21

Member
possibly dumb ass question but i never played baldurs gate or anything like that, was wondering if since I really like Demon's souls, is it likely i will like this as well? i dont much care for western style fantasy but demon's souls does it so well..
 

Fredescu

Member
panda21 said:
possibly dumb ass question but i never played baldurs gate or anything like that, was wondering if since I really like Demon's souls, is it likely i will like this as well?
Both games are awesome, but really they're completely different games in almost every way. You might still like Dragon Age, but I'd say liking Demon's Souls isn't an indicator one way or the other. Have you played KOTOR or Mass Effect or anything like that?
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
ArjanN said:
It's mostly the combat that's MMO-like.

It would be more accurate to say that most MMO-combat can be traced back to earlier games, both PnP and computer/video. Old-timers like myself have seen all of this before there even was a 'net, much less an MMO. Even as an MMORPG WoW is more an amalgamation and refinement of what was in previous MMORPGs, for the most part.
 

panda21

Member
Fredescu said:
Both games are awesome, but really they're completely different games in almost every way. You might still like Dragon Age, but I'd say liking Demon's Souls isn't an indicator one way or the other. Have you played KOTOR or Mass Effect or anything like that?

it's like mass effect? I thought that was pretty good, but it didn't seem very deep, although I didn't get far
 
panda21 said:
it's like mass effect? I thought that was pretty good, but it didn't seem very deep, although I didn't get far
It's a fantasy Mass Effect If Shepard was mute, fought with faux D&D rules, and if the game was about 5x longer and deeper world wise

edit: oh yes and no boring ass mako sections. Fuck the mako
 

Fredescu

Member
panda21 said:
it's like mass effect?
It has more similarities to Mass Effect than to Demon's Souls. The story focus, the dialog trees, picking up party members as you progress, story based choices. The combat in Dragon Age is more focused on the tank/heal/dps/crowd control principles of party based RPGs than Mass Effect was, and therefore there's more micromanagement involved. The encounters are designed with this in mind, meaning you often fight a lot of enemies at once. Dragon Age is also larger in scope.
 
Durante said:
Well this is surprising, apparently the HD texture mod is "final" already, some 400 MB of it. Get it here.


K i tried it out, it is sharper, but it adds a ton of shimmering artifacts, load times seem to have quadrupled as well.
 

AeroGod

Member
The scene where Sten gave the ferry guard outside the Circle Tower cookies so we could get on was hilarious. Sometimes the humor in this game is just unmatched. I love it. makes me want to play through multiple times with different party make ups, there are some real gems.
 

markot

Banned
ElectricBlue187 said:
How do I feed the robbed elven family at the first town?
the town right after then big fight at the start >.>? You dont have to I dont think, I just killed those bandits at the bridge and they were happy with me ^_^
 

Dipper145

Member
Just finished the Dwarf Noble origin, and damn was it awesome.
I really didn't see that betrayal coming. I had read spoilers about how you get betrayed, and while I was playing I was like "How did no one see this coming?" That was a great moment

Now though I'm having another bug, at the beginning in Ostagar. Allistar doesn't follow me into the wilds, or anywhere. He's not even listed as a member of my party.

I don't know what I'm going to do now.
 

Tokubetsu

Member
AeroGod said:
The scene where Sten gave the ferry guard outside the Circle Tower cookies so we could get on was hilarious. Sometimes the humor in this game is just unmatched. I love it. makes me want to play through multiple times with different party make ups, there are some real gems.

Some of his party camp dialogue is great too. Like the one where he pretty much admits that the only thing he likes about Ferelden is that fact that they have cookies.
 

-tetsuo-

Unlimited Capacity
After trying so hard to get either Leliana or Morrigan to bed, I successfelly finally got Leliana. Then I walked over to Morrigan and got her as well. Confused, I walked back over to Leliana to see if she would be mad or something. Nope, sexed her up again. Now everyone in camp is all up in my business.
 

iam220

Member
Well I finally finished it.
sacrificed myself. Fucking morrigan can't believe she just waltzed out like that before the final showdown. I pretty much relied on her spells and thus had a harder time then usual getting through it all. The archdemon was surprisingly easy though with the cricle of magi mages at my side.

Great game overall, my favorite rpg since baldurs gate 2. For sure I'm going to do another play-through and probably a few more after that. Is it just me or has 2009 been a really good year for gaming?
 

Tokubetsu

Member
_tetsuo_ said:
After trying so hard to get either Leliana or Morrigan to bed, I successfelly finally got Leliana. Then I walked over to Morrigan and got her as well. Confused, I walked back over to Leliana to see if she would be mad or something. Nope, sexed her up again. Now everyone in camp is all up in my business.

Talk to Wynne. God I love Wynne. Like killing demons with my mother.
 

Tesseract

Banned
just started playing - ostagar is poorly optimized, but crowded. 15-30 fps is unacceptable.
(mass effect's god-awful performance is saying, 'hello'). fix this shit, bioware.

*edit* i'm using my pc, with:

phenom II x2 550 @ stock
ati 4890 @ stock
windows 7 64-bit
4 gigs of ram

performance aside, it's awesome. love the dialogue and combat; hate the world. (derivative) high fantasy role-playing at its best (worst?).
 
Getting a bit confused with the side quest (have a bunch) and the main quest, in the log the very top quest is the main, correct? Wish they did a better job with keeping things more clean in the log.
 

Fredescu

Member
Tesseract said:
just started playing - ostagar is poorly optimized, but crowded. 15-30 fps is unacceptable.
(mass effect's god-awful performance is saying, 'hello'). fix this shit, bioware.

*edit* i'm using my pc, with:

phenom II x2 550 @ stock
ati 4890 @ stock
windows 7 64-bit
4 gigs of ram
Your machine should be able to handle it much better than that. I have the same video card with a Q9550 and am always at 60fps in towns at 1920x1200 with everything at max (including 16xAF in the ini file). Your machine should have been able to handle Mass Effect PC well too. I had an e5300 and ati 4870 last time I played that and it ran very smoothly.
 

Tesseract

Banned
Fredescu said:
Your machine should be able to handle it much better than that. I have the same video card with a Q9550 and am always at 60fps in towns at 1920x1200 with everything at max (including 16xAF in the ini file). Your machine should have been able to handle Mass Effect PC well too. I had an e5300 and ati 4870 last time I played that and it ran very smoothly.

it's def. not my system. for perspective, shattered horizon (dx10 only) runs at 30-60fps @ max. farcry 2 runs at 60fps+ @ max (dx10). re5 (dx10) is 60fps+ @ max. all resolutions are 1680 x 1050.

dragon age runs well enough - locked at 60fps until ostagar, then it goes to shit. the camp is a complete mess.

mass effect is the same. everything's fine until you hit the citadel. it's bioware. their poor optimization is a huge turnoff (see: mass effect 360, an unplayable abortion of code).
 

Shinjitsu

Banned
Tesseract said:
it's def. not my system. for perspective, shattered horizon (dx10 only) runs at 30-60fps @ max. farcry 2 runs at 60fps+ @ max (dx10). re5 (dx10) is 60fps+ @ max. all resolutions are 1680 x 1050.

dragon age runs well enough - locked at 60fps until ostagar, then it goes to shit. the camp is a complete mess.

mass effect is the same. everything's fine until you hit the citadel. it's bioware. their poor optimization is a huge turnoff (see: mass effect 360, an unplayable abortion of code).


I've heard that people have been having issues with Catalyst Control Center 9.9 and Dragon Age. People have had some limited success by downgrading to 9.7.


And Mass Effect on 360 was far from "unplayable". =P
 

Fredescu

Member
Tesseract said:
dragon age runs well enough - locked at 60fps until ostagar, then it goes to shit. the camp is a complete mess.
A lot of people are reporting smooth performance on high settings with 8800gt era hardware. 15fps in a town is ridiculous and not the norm. I'll be interested to hear how it runs for you in combat when the spells effects start getting more intense.
 

koji

Member
Tesseract said:
dragon age runs well enough - locked at 60fps until ostagar, then it goes to shit. the camp is a complete mess.

Try this out, worked wonders for me on my rig, had similar issues on a Q9550 / GTX295 / 4gb ram / Win 7 x64. Started getting serious framedrops until I restarted my game, was fine again for about 15mins and it started again.

Anyway, try disabling windows error reporting, did the trick for me... Sounds "wack" but it worked.

Check this thread, it's in the google cache because the "old forums" are gone...
 
When I started, playing the Human opening story, the performance was atrocious. I had to turn AA off, textures and graphics down to Medium just to see 30FPS. Once I got to Ostagar, though, it was like the game was daring me to push it further. I played all the way through The Wilds with graphics on Very High and textures on High, 8x AA and it averages about 45FPS, and never once dropped below 30. I installed the 1.1b patch at some point, but I don't think a 15MB patch could have made such a difference.

My computer is hardly epic, either:
e8400
HD4850
4GB of RAM
 

DY_nasty

NeoGAF's official "was this shooting justified" consultant
UGH, this game's cheap shit is so fucking annoying. Between the firebombs from nowhere and the dragons' snatch-yo-bitch-ass-up-you-bout-to-owned move I'm ready to jump.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Tesseract said:
just started playing - ostagar is poorly optimized, but crowded. 15-30 fps is unacceptable.
(mass effect's god-awful performance is saying, 'hello'). fix this shit, bioware.

*edit* i'm using my pc, with:

phenom II x2 550 @ stock
ati 4890 @ stock
windows 7 64-bit
4 gigs of ram

performance aside, it's awesome. love the dialogue and combat; hate the world. (derivative) high fantasy role-playing at its best (worst?).

You must be either running in an insane resolution or your processor is probably overheating. I am running pretty much the same setup as you (Core 2 Duo E8500 @ stock and ATI 4870 1GB @ stock ) and I get much better performance in Ostagar at 1920x1200 with everything maxxed out, 2x AA and 16x AF.
 

Dipper145

Member
Finally I figured out my problem. I had installed the toolset and fooled around and must have broken something in there. Removing the toolset exported files fixed everything, and I was able to continue near the end where I was at.

Just beat it, was awesome.
 

Stratman

Neo Member
Zefah said:
You must be either running in an insane resolution or your processor is probably overheating. I am running pretty much the same setup as you (Core 2 Duo E8500 @ stock and ATI 4870 1GB @ stock ) and I get much better performance in Ostagar at 1920x1200 with everything maxxed out, 2x AA and 16x AF.

He may have the frame buffer on, that absolutely killed my framerate.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Peronthious said:
MMO combat is PnP/CRPG like. These same sorts of strategies have been around since PnP got started, at least as far as using super strong 'tank' characters to draw attacks to protect world breaking, powerful, but paper thin mages. It wasn't until MMOs got massive that the terminology got standardized.

What? The two things that make DA combat "MMO-like" are threat/aggro and cooldown abilities, both of which werent really part of PnP gaming that im familiar with. And i dont consider daily spell-like abilities cooldowns.. im talking Fireball is on CD so i used my Ice/Arcane/Nature spell until the other 10 seconds is up.
 

JudgeN

Member
Tesseract said:
just started playing - ostagar is poorly optimized, but crowded. 15-30 fps is unacceptable.
(mass effect's god-awful performance is saying, 'hello'). fix this shit, bioware.

*edit* i'm using my pc, with:

phenom II x2 550 @ stock
ati 4890 @ stock
windows 7 64-bit
4 gigs of ram

performance aside, it's awesome. love the dialogue and combat; hate the world. (derivative) high fantasy role-playing at its best (worst?).

System

Q6600 3.6ghz
HD 4870 512 mg 790/1100 clocks 9.10 drivers
Vista 64
4 Gig Ram
1680x1050 Max settings 2x AA, 16x AF

I tend to bounce from 60-35ish depending on action happening, I normally play 3rd person over the shoulder view. Id imagine you should get a slightly higher minimum framerate with your 4890.


Anyway just hit the tower of Magi, holy shit Wynne is a god send. I really really should have went here instead of going to DLC area/Redcliff first. And I have to say, I kind of like the FADE.
 
I've got a noob question... I just got my main, a Mage, to level 7. I have specialization point, but I can't spend it in any of the 4 specializations, they're all 'locked'. how do I unlock these?
 

JudgeN

Member
MrCompletely said:
I've got a noob question... I just got my main, a Mage, to level 7. I have specialization point, but I can't spend it in any of the 4 specializations, they're all 'locked'. how do I unlock these?

Some are learned though quests, some found after dungeon puzzles, most are found by taking other characters and getting their approval rating above +25 and asking them to teach you. O and some can be bought at shops in the form of books but most of the book ones you can learn for free though playable characters.
 
JudgeN said:
Some are learned though quests, some found after dungeon puzzles, most are found by taking other characters and getting their approval rating above +25 and asking them to teach you. O and some can be bought at shops in the form of books but most of the book ones you can learn for free though playable characters.

Thanks! Should I have found a specialization at this point (ie, did I miss something that I have to backtrack to)?

Also, can you switch specializations or put points into multiple specializations?
 
Dipper145 said:
Just finished the Dwarf Noble origin, and damn was it awesome.
I really didn't see that betrayal coming. I had read spoilers about how you get betrayed, and while I was playing I was like "How did no one see this coming?" That was a great moment

Extremely memorable moment!
 

54-46!

Member
I'm playing (going for) as a dual dagger wielding Rogue/Duelist. What ratio should I have between Strenght and Cunning?

Also, how do these two affect Coercion? do I need to put alot of points in to either to be able to persuade certain characters? or is it enough with Master Coercion in the skill tree?
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
MrCompletely said:
Thanks! Should I have found a specialization at this point (ie, did I miss something that I have to backtrack to)?

Also, can you switch specializations or put points into multiple specializations?
You get 2 specializations, one at 7 and one at 14.

I believe any of your companions that have a specialization can teach you theirs. That is the simplest way. Although as a mage, arcane warrior and blood mage are learned through more obscure ways that can be missed.

Blood Mage you get in
Redcliffe, when going inside Connor
and can be missed permanently.

Arcane Warrior you get from
the werewolf lair when doing the dalish elf stuff
and is easy to not find, but shouldn't be permanently missable.

edit: well actually I guess Arcane Warrior might be permanently missable if you find it but then decide not to take it.
 

koji

Member
54-46! said:
I'm playing (going for) as a dual dagger wielding Rogue/Duelist. What ratio should I have between Strenght and Cunning?

Also, how do these two affect Coercion? do I need to put alot of points in to either to be able to persuade certain characters? or is it enough with Master Coercion in the skill tree?

For a rogue coercion is based on cunning (persuade). There is some kind of cunning softcap in there, you definitely need Master coercion for the "harder" NPCs, but not sure how many cunning you exactly need.

Keep in mind that the dagger damage mod = 0.50DEX and 0.50STR, but that 0.50 from DEX is bugged atm so you're advised to install the DEX hotfix. (if you're on PC ffcourse, also keep in mind that that fix makes enemy archers hit harder, so if you run into an area with dozens of archers it might be wise to remove it for a while)

http://dragonage.gulbsoft.org/doku.php/hotfix/dexterity_hotfix_101

I'm playing a dagger rogue myself, might be worth it to check my char profile to give you an idea. (she's wielding longswords atm but my preference goes to daggers)

http://social.bioware.com/playerpro...splay=character&nid=2293806487&game=dragonage

Strength and Cunning are almost equal atm but I'm not sure how to invest my ability points further, think I'm going to stop at 32 STR (for the top tier longswords) and start boosting Cunning and DEX. (using Lethality to switch my STR mod with my Cunning mod)

Momentum + dualwielding daggers is great fun btw :lol
 

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
I find the number of enemies here hilarious:

DAOrigins2009-11-2011-26-56-50.jpg


I just wanted to share that before I get massacred.
 

orion434

Member
I have a quick question... is there any benefit to saving gems? Like Diamonds, Sapphires and such? Or are they there specifically to be sold to the vendors for Gold?
 

AndyD

aka andydumi
K.Jack said:
I find the number of enemies here hilarious:

giant pic

I just wanted to share that before I get massacred.

With those, I would run up the stairs, creating a bottleneck. Kill those three archers and set up a nice killing tunnel.

Or kite them around 1-2 at a time.
 

Ruuppa

Member
K.Jack said:
I find the number of enemies here hilarious:

giant pic

I just wanted to share that before I get massacred.

Or just rush up with Alistair or Shale, get everyone to attack him/it, and drop a Force Field there.

Then kill everyone with little to no hassle.

Edit: Force Field is, hands down, the cheesiest spell the game gives you.
 

Nif

Member
Tesseract said:
it's def. not my system. for perspective, shattered horizon (dx10 only) runs at 30-60fps @ max. farcry 2 runs at 60fps+ @ max (dx10). re5 (dx10) is 60fps+ @ max. all resolutions are 1680 x 1050.

dragon age runs well enough - locked at 60fps until ostagar, then it goes to shit. the camp is a complete mess.

mass effect is the same. everything's fine until you hit the citadel. it's bioware. their poor optimization is a huge turnoff (see: mass effect 360, an unplayable abortion of code).

I think there's a memory leak or something. I notice a lot of performance issues tied to how long I play. Also, try removing any mods you have. I've heard some of them cause performance problems.
 

Mindlog

Member
Ruuppa said:
Or just rush up with Alistair or Shale, get everyone to attack him/it, and drop a Force Field there.

Then kill everyone with little to no hassle.

Edit: Force Field is, hands down, the cheesiest spell the game gives you.

then get another mage to drop a force field on one of the enemies

spell combo
with a crushing prison
and boom goes the dynamite and whatnot
 
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