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[Relix]

This games autosave sucks. Just played about 3 hours, thought I was perfectly save, when suddenly I get overpowered in Denerim by thugs. All of my people die and I lose 3 hours of playtime FML

Really?
If you are on PC just press F5 (i hate that NWN doesn't have this).
I saved after every battle on the Xbox version. Even if it was just two guys. =P

Having an autosave being made every 30 minutes wouldn't be too hard, now would it?

The game saves before every major event.

 

[randomlyrossy]

Having an autosave being made every 30 minutes wouldn't be too hard, now would it?

Like I said dude, I have no idea what you were doing for 3 hours that you didn't hit any save points. Honestly I've occasionally got annoyed at how many times the game saves on 360 if only because it has to pause for a few seconds to do so.

 

[ethelred]

Having an autosave being made every 30 minutes wouldn't be too hard, now would it?

Autosave shouldn't be a replacement for exercising common sense. It's a handy feature, but did you not notice you went three hours without saving? It should be pretty clear to you when the game is saving, since it's indicated when that's taking place. It isn't the game's fault you lost that progress.

Honestly I've occasionally got annoyed at how many times the game saves on 360 if only because it has to pause for a few seconds to do so.

And that is presumably why it is set up so as not to autosave excessively, like every five minutes. Instead, it saves on entering major areas and after key events or quest completion.

If someone is a cautious enough player that this isn't frequent enough, or if you find that you've gone an extreme amount of time without completing any of the above conditions, that's what manual save is for.

 

[Walshicus]

Spoiler

You can get templars instead of mages, and you can get golems if you use the Anvil of the Void.

Thanks!

Also, how do you get to the

Spoiler

Civil War, Refugees and Battlefield

locations on the world map?

 

[Draft]

This games autosave sucks. Just played about 3 hours, thought I was perfectly save, when suddenly I get overpowered in Denerim by thugs. All of my people die and I lose 3 hours of playtime FML

Yeah, it's kind of bullshit. Especially since the game has broken combat due to mages, battles can be very spikey. You'll roll through a dozen groups of guys, but then OOPS, you just got soul caged/curse of mortality/fireballed, and now you're about to wipe.

Games have gotten so ridiculous the last few years with checkpoints and autosaves, I had to train myself to get in the habit of manually saving every few minutes, or before I start certain fights.

 

[edgefusion]

Yep I'm basically boned on the last fight as I've run out of health potions and the game decided to autosave during the fight instead of before it. Who's idea was that?

 

[dimb]

Yep I'm basically boned on the last fight as I've run out of health potions and the game decided to autosave during the fight instead of before it. Who's idea was that?

The end is fairly apparent. Ideally, you should have created a save by the dwarf vendor outside of the door to the last boss, but how could you buy nothing from him?

I mean come on, his purpose as being your last chance to stock up on items before the last boss is fairly obvious.

 

[ethelred]

So we have one guy who goes for three hours before saving and another who doesn't make a single save before progressing to the final boss fight.

I'm now even more convinced that the problem isn't so much with autosave as it is a fundamental lack of common sense.

 

[Won]

Well, I enjoy my autosaves, quicksaves and normal saves.

 

[kyo_daikun]

Thanks!

Also, how do you get to the

Spoiler

Civil War, Refugees and Battlefield

locations on the world map?

I beleive at least one of those is from the chanters board in Redcliffe

 

[Pancakes]

So we have one guy who goes for three hours before saving and another who doesn't make a single save before progressing to the final boss fight.

I'm now even more convinced that the problem isn't so much with autosave as it is a fundamental lack of common sense.

Once you start playing more and more Bioware games you develop a 6th sense to save frequently.

 

[Outtrigger888]

Can someone please answer my question, when I set a side quest as active, the main quest icon is the only one that always shows up on the map. Do I have to venture around and hopefully finally come across where the side quest is or is this a glitch? I find it pretty difficult to do side quests.

 

[Fredescu]

The arrows show up whether the quest is active or not. If the arrow isn't showing up, could it be that it doesn't take place in that location? The arrows won't guide you to the location if you need to travel to it.

 

[notworksafe]

Hey does anyone know where I can grab a copy of the dex hotfix? The site that it was hosted on seems to be down.

 

[Fredescu]

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

I just downloaded it from there. Looks ok.

 

[Tony Redgrave]

I got Shale bugged in the PC version (
I think I have to take the quest AGAIN and then maybe it'll be ok, but I am not even sure if it'll work, did anyone have the same problem?
I've been looking all around the Bioware social network's help and faq sections and it seems the problem ain't fixed as of now.

 

[Fredescu]

I did the quest twice and didn't have any problems. What's bugged?

 

[54-46!]

Can someone tell me what's going on here? :lol Some bug I assume..

 

[dimb]

I did the quest twice and didn't have any problems. What's bugged?

Everytime you try to talk to Shale the screen goes black, you often get transported into the skybox outside of the game world, and it acts like he is still unactivated.

I pretty much just finished out the game without talking to him after that. But I'd already went through all the dialogue options with him.

 

[Tony Redgrave]

When I talk to Shale, the screen goes mostly black and I'm just given the initial options of using the rod of leaving the golem alone, after I choose one the screen goes completely black and only the map shows, even though I can walk.
There's been some people with the same problem around but it seems there's no definitive solution to the bug, dunno why it happened although I suspect it was because some problem I had with the server which didn't recognize the stone prisoner dl content although it had been working just fine for my last walktrough and I've had no problem with the blood dragon armor whatsover.

 

[Fredescu]

That sucks then. I assume redownloading the DLC doesn't fix it?

Yeah, it's kind of bullshit. Especially since the game has broken combat due to mages, battles can be very spikey. You'll roll through a dozen groups of guys, but then OOPS, you just got soul caged/curse of mortality/fireballed, and now you're about to wipe.

I missed this. Pretty funny. Warriors and Mages both get dispell which deal with curse of mortality and crushing prison and whatever else easily enough. I went through my normal playthrough without dispell, but this time on nightmare it's pretty essential. Mana Clash pretty much destroys enemy mages too. I think I might stop using it actually since it makes the game a little too easy. Fireball, just deal. It has a cast time so you should be interrupting any mage you see casting a long spell. If you're not treating a mage as a primary threat, you're not doing it right.

 

[Erudite]

For anyone playing with the Nightmare Plus mod, 2.4 has been released. Seems like the Lyrium Addiction System has been added.

Link.

 

[Des0lar]

Autosave shouldn't be a replacement for exercising common sense. It's a handy feature, but did you not notice you went three hours without saving? It should be pretty clear to you when the game is saving, since it's indicated when that's taking place. It isn't the game's fault you lost that progress.

Well I thought entering Denerim and doing about 5 quests there would be major enough for the game to save... :/

 

[I'm an expert]

This raises a unique question. I would expect a game like this to have a pretty frequent auto-saving system since it's clearly a game where a lot of progress can be lost. Using Demon's Souls as an example, that game saves after EVERYTHING you do. Open your inventory or change your equipment and it saves. It's so precise with it's saving that if you accidentally hit a friendly NPC it'll begin saving immediately so that you can't take it back, that npc is lost forever for that run. On one hand, I love that I can't lose progress in DS, on the other hand there are a lot of very precise things that DS requires and if you screw up and accidentally trigger an autosave, the end.

So which system is better..the old school system where the player always saves, or the new one where the game saves for you?

(note: Dragon Age coming for me this week so I haven't played it, but as an old school RPGer I'm pretty crazy about saving as well as multiple files)

 

[jcm]

Can someone tell me what's going on here? :lol Some bug I assume..

[IMGx]http://i45.tinypic.com/vy2lnk.jpg[/IMG]

If you can get the Cat Army to stand in formation for more than 1 minute, you get the "Herded Cats" trophy/achievement. It's really tricky.

 

[theMrCravens]

Just got my 1050/1050 achievements using a single playthrough. (no Warden DLC)

I needed over 8 save slots to get them all (saved before every major decisions).

The origin stories takes like 10 min each if you rush them, and as said in this thread you can glitch to 20 for each class early on.

The most annoying thing has to be fighting the last boss multiple times for the endings achievement.

I'm done with DA. I want ME 2 now.

 

[Hero]

Alright so after putting a bit more time into the game I have some updated impressions.

I just

Spoiler

defeated the Sloth demon via the Fade in the Tower of Magi and sided with the mages so that I could enter the Fade to deal with the demon that was possessing the boy in Redcliffe.

Combat is pretty fun now that I have a wider range of magical spells to use. One of the loading tip screens mentioned combining magic? How does this work?

Also what is a Combat Tactics slot and how does one use it?

Things are a bit more fun now that I have a full party to choose from. If anything I actually really enjoy waiting for the party dialogue between the members. Alistair and Morrigan are especially amusing.

However past that, the game hasn't gotten noticeably more difficult. A few times I have died due to some horrible luck with breaking out of paralysis or being nuked by a handful of mages at once. The toughest enemy I fought was a Revenant in the Tower from breaking a phial in there.

Speaking of which, what are tough enemies in this game? Nothing seems to have any sort of tricks or strategies.

The story is mediocre though. Not bad, not great, just something stereotypical.

Also is the loot supposed to be this bad? Over 10 hours in and I'm still using a staff I acquired during the introduction part of the game.

No quests have really stuck out for me though.

Solid game still, but still not seeing all the GOTY material in here.

 

[Chinner]

Just got my 1050/1050 achievements using a single playthrough. (no Warden DLC)

I needed over 8 save slots to get them all (saved before every major decisions).

The origin stories takes like 10 min each if you rush them, and as said in this thread you can glitch to 20 for each class early on.

The most annoying thing has to be fighting the last boss multiple times for the endings achievement.

I'm done with DA. I want ME 2 now.

oh you poor thing ruining the game experience for yourself just because of achievements : (

 

[markot]

Achievement whores >.>

 

[DimmuBurgerKing]

Just got my 1050/1050 achievements using a single playthrough. (no Warden DLC)

I needed over 8 save slots to get them all (saved before every major decisions).

The origin stories takes like 10 min each if you rush them, and as said in this thread you can glitch to 20 for each class early on.

The most annoying thing has to be fighting the last boss multiple times for the endings achievement.

I'm done with DA. I want ME 2 now.

Wow. Just.. wow.

 

[Doytch]

I played for a bit today using the Nightmare Plus mod after realising that two warriors and two mages just annihilate Nightmare. I did the Mages' Tower barely ever pausing, just using some minor tweaks to the Tactics. That mod makes it much more entertaining. Interested to see how the mod develops also.

 

[Pancakes]

Achievement whores >.>

Seriously, why ruin the experience just for achievement points?

 

[theMrCravens]

Seriously, why ruin the experience just for achievement points?

Don't see how I ruined it. My actual playthrough was pretty legit, and I got to see almost every options without having to start over.

 

[markot]

Don't see how I ruined it. My actual playthrough was pretty legit, and I got to see almost every options without having to start over.

I dont see how you could do the origin quests in 10 minutes without skipping all the conversations and everything...

 

[LoganKnight4949]

Just got my 1050/1050 achievements using a single playthrough. (no Warden DLC)

I needed over 8 save slots to get them all (saved before every major decisions).

The origin stories takes like 10 min each if you rush them, and as said in this thread you can glitch to 20 for each class early on.

The most annoying thing has to be fighting the last boss multiple times for the endings achievement.

I'm done with DA. I want ME 2 now.

Wow.

I never thought I'd say this to anybody, but you are playing this game all wrong.

smh.

 

[gotee12]

So which system is better..the old school system where the player always saves, or the new one where the game saves for you?

I don't think DS' save system (which borders on obsessive compulsive) would lend itself to many other games. DS' save system is just one part of what gives the game it's personality. DS is supposed to be relentless. And the game does everything but have an "abandon hope all ye who enter here" welcome mat when you first walk into the Nexus. When I play DS, I expect the game to work against me eventually beating it. Hence a save system that will instantly save when I accidentally hit Blacksmith Boldwin (not that he doesn't deserve it) and royally screw the rest of my playthrough for that character.

I look to other RPGs not for a relentless playthrough, but to experience an epic story. DA:O not only has that epic story, but really allows me to feel like I'm writing it. And so I have multiple manual game saves that I use so that if I don't like the way the story is going, I can go back and take a different path.

But that's just me...

 

[Pancakes]

Don't see how I ruined it. My actual playthrough was pretty legit, and I got to see almost every options without having to start over.

You said you glitched to level 20, how's that legit?

Anyway congrats on your 1050/1050, but once my exams are done I'll take my sweet time finishing this game up.

 

[ethelred]

Don't see how I ruined it. My actual playthrough was pretty legit, and I got to see almost every options without having to start over.

If you used a glitch to get three different classes to level 20 "early on" in a single playthrough, then no, your actual playthrough was not "pretty legit" and you didn't really earn shit. And a big part of the fun of making different decisions in the game is then running with those decisions and seeing how they effect the rest of the game. So it's pretty unfortunate (dare I say: pathetic?) that someone would play the game in this manner.

I've earned the achievement for a level 20 mage main character and a level 20 rogue main character. I did that over the course of two full playthroughs. I'm sure when I do a third (as a warrior, as I indicated earlier I've been jonesing to do once Return to Ostagar comes out) I'll get the last of those. That's kind of how you get those "legit."

 

[Duane Cunningham]

Okay, so I'm just a little bit into the game:

Spoiler

just killed the ogre in the top of the tower, the woke up in Morrigan's room

Prior to the spoilered event, I had a random, nameless circle mage in my party. I had equipped him with my DA:Journeys downloadable War Mage Amulet. He's gone now. Is it gone forever?

I think I manually saved not too long ago, do I need to load it back up?

(That's what the newest Penny Arcade seems to imply, come to think of it...)

 

[DimmuBurgerKing]

Okay, so I'm just a little bit into the game:

Spoiler

just killed the ogre in the top of the tower, the woke up in Morrigan's room

Prior to the spoilered event, I had a random, nameless circle mage in my party. I had equipped him with my DA:Journeys downloadable War Mage Amulet. He's gone now. Is it gone forever?

I think I manually saved not too long ago, do I need to load it back up?

(That's what the newest Penny Arcade seems to imply, come to think of it...)

Any items you equipped on random NPCs should have ended up in your inventory after the event.

 

[Prax]

I think it's funny that the default difficulty level after I installed it was "Hard".
I was getting creamed left and right by everything.

this is mostly because I don't play WRPGs properly most of the time anyway (I'm slow to react, but at the same time, I don't like pausing the game to micromanage myself and other party members... and I put stats wherever I feel like suits the character instead of suiting the character class).

It's interesting and I don't deeply hate any of the companions just yet, so that's always a plus!

My biggest gripe is how limiting the character creation is. Well, mainly because of the limited hair and I can't make a decent-looking Asian-looking person.

 

[Fredescu]

If it's not in your inventory for whatever reason, you could try unticking it from the DLC menu, loading into the game and saving, then exiting out and reticking it. The Penny Arcade comic is referring to a choice during the endgame.

 

[Pancakes]

My biggest gripe is how limiting the character creation is. Well, mainly because of the limited hair and I can't make a decent-looking Asian-looking person.

Agreed, I tried to make a decent looking black person but ended up making a tan Jon Stewart :lol.

 

[Wallach]

I played for a bit today using the Nightmare Plus mod after realising that two warriors and two mages just annihilate Nightmare. I did the Mages' Tower barely ever pausing, just using some minor tweaks to the Tactics. That mod makes it much more entertaining. Interested to see how the mod develops also.

You using DW or 2H for your damage War?

 

[Doytch]

You using DW or 2H for your damage War?

DW. Currently has a couple points in Zerk also, and I'll give him the Reaver spec when I get it this runthrough.

 

[Wallach]

DW. Currently has a couple points in Zerk also, and I'll give him the Reaver spec when I get it this runthrough.

I like the damage output of DW (and DW Rogues for that matter) but I really hate having them when it comes to some of the real pain "boss" fights. Indomitable is such a big advantage in some of those fights.

 

[bathala]

Anyone actually excited for the DLC that was announced >.>?

Seems so stupid...

no not really.

Seeing their ME DLC. not very promising.

I still thing Bethesda is the best when it comes to DLC (minus the horse armor)

 

[Fredescu]

Seeing their ME DLC. not very promising.

I don't know why you'd do that. The existing DA DLC is a much better indication.

 

[markot]

Stone Prisoner is great, although not really 'dlc'.

Wardens keep is lame and not worth the cost, and the planned one sounds just stupid.

And you cant compare a story driven game to a game like dungeon crawler diablo and co that are all about loots >.>

Its like the story in wardens keep is ok, but so short, and when its finished, what do you get? A small camp outside of the actual keep. Not the keep itself! (Crazy!) and its so out of the way.

Its sad the first community mod pretty much, a chest in camp, is better and more useful than the dlc!

I want dlc like GTA or what not, not just some stupid little quest for some armour or sword...

 

[Stumpokapow]

Wow the sex scene is so... awful.