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[Deleted member 47027]

Spent 3 hours with it last night, enjoyed it immensely, then fell asleep. Dammit! I was wanting more time!

Tonight, we will consummate our love, Dragon Age. Tonight!

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

It comes with any every copy of the game, unless you get it used because the code will have probably already been used.

Wait whoa, even Standard Edition?!?!?!

 

[Kosma]

Game is hard

 

[Ricker]

:lol My dog's name in the inventory menu is the letters to a code like the "Shale" DLC...oh well.

Just noticed this now also(after about 7 hours hehe),when you use the "radial" menu,you can actually target and change targets,by looking and moving in the middle white part of the wheel...that makes it so much easier then using the awful D-Pad on the 360 controller...

 

[epmode]

I love this game. But for all the talk of DARK FANTASY, The Witcher beats it out for a "realistic" portrayal of racial politics. At least, that's my impression after first arriving in the Dalish wood. God I hate elves.

 

[LocoMrPollock]

I am also wondering about this ...

Spoiler

He shows up on your way to Lothering.

 

[water_wendi]

I am also wondering about this ...

About getting the warhound..

Spoiler

you get the dog shortly after the battle in the tower. There will be a cutscene when you choose your first destination on the world map and you have a run in with the mangy mutt.

i love running around as the dog. Named mine Dijonaise :lol

I love this game. But for all the talk of DARK FANTASY, The Witcher beats it out for a "realistic" portrayal of racial politics. At least, that's my impression after first arriving in the Dalish wood. God I hate elves.

The elf stuff isnt as impressive to me as the Dwarven culture. i mean, the racism to elves seems pretty harsh but thats nothing that the dwarves talk about their streetsweeping caste :lol

 

[LiK]

Game is hard

really? i'm playing Normal, seems pretty easy so far. haven't died once.

 

[Majima Everywhere System]

Wait whoa, even Standard Edition?!?!?!

Yep. I was surprised to see the Stone Prisoner stuff in there for free as well. I looked under the DLC menu in the game and saw it was $14.99, and I immediately got a day-1 DLC sad face. Then I went into the case and saw the codes for everything.

 

[mileS]

This game gives you plenty of options when it comes to being evil. I'm only 3 hours in and I'm loving the dialogue options that are like "Yea instead of doing that thing you asked I'll just take that item you have and murder you" *pulls out shiv from out of nowhere*

injured soldier on the ground.
1. We should aid him
2. We should bring him back to camp
3. We don't have time for this we have to leave him
4. He's already dead (KILL HIM)

:lol oh man this game is amazing.

 

[slayn]

I think I'm finally getting used to the camera. I end up exploring with over the shoulder and shift to iso for battle. Just use iso when I need it and not get frustrated with how quirky it can be when exploring.

Played up till getting Shale. I'm still waiting for the difficulty to kick in though. Playing on PC on Hard I haven't yet felt the need for a healer. The game also hasn't yet been giving the enemies more roles. I imagine combat will become a lot more interesting once there are more enemy casters.

 

[Relix]

Couldn't beat Kolgrim... decided to defile the ashes so I could get around him... I guess I can chose to not to later right? I fear I am underleveled. I am in Redcliff Quest (Urn one now of course), but I fear it was supposed to be of a higher level. I haven't had much trouble until that optional battle and I fear a boss ahead could kick my ass and leave me stuck =(. Will stop playing, gotta work =P

 

[firehawk12]

I'm glad there isn't the old style "morality system" (outside of persuade vs intimidate) but there doesn't seem to be any benefit to being an asshole... in fact, it usually hurts you with your party standing or cuts of quests.

 

[slayn]

Not having a morality system is definitely the way to go. Otherwise you stop making decisions based on what you want to do, and instead end up deciding early, "I'm going to play as good/evil" which is stupid.

I haven't yet seen any really long term consequences though so I doubt it will outshine the witcher in that regard. Morality in games is at its best when you don't know what the consequences will be, and the effect is long term enough that you can't just save/reload to see if you made the 'right' decision.

I especially like consequences where you think you are doing the good thing only to realize the evil it spawned and visa versa.

 

[Wiggum2007]

Most of the origin stories are pretty cool all in their own way.

But this game was just meant to be played as a badass dwarf!

 

[Jinjo]

really? i'm playing Normal, seems pretty easy so far. haven't died once.

PC or console? I am playing this on PC and even on easy I get beat up pretty badly sometimes. It's almost embarrassing. I have no clue what the hell I am doing wrong. Maybe I fundamentally went wrong with upgrading my characters or something. Playing as a mage btw.

I am at Redcliff castle and my party is around lv 7/8.

 

[Kaibutsu]

That is just how I pictured Brienne of Tarth from A Song of Fire and Ice. Good fucking job, man.

"Brienne is abnormally large and strong for a woman, and exceeds most men in size. She has large, very blue eyes that appear trusting and guileless, but they are her only attractive feature. She is extremely broad-shouldered, but has virtually no bust. Her face is broad and coarse, with a nose that has been broken several times. Her mouth is too wide, with prominent and crooked teeth and lips so plump they seem swollen. Her hair is the color of dirty straw and her face is mottled with freckles. "

hmmmm.... yep, seems about right :lol

 

[Minsc]

Game's ridiculously good so far (PC version for me), but the combat is really pushing the limits of what's possible with a real-time system, even with the pausability and tactics. Things are simply too chaotic, and that's exacerbated by the lack of transparency for the abilities (I have no idea how much damage most of my spells are supposed to do, or their durations, or lots of other key pieces of information).

I wish Bioware would've gone with turn-based combat instead; it's not like Pokemon, Final Fantasy, or Dragon Quest aren't successful.

Isn't it more or less a mix between the old Infinity engine and the game play of FFXII? The infinity engine was real time too, on top of a turn based system, much like Dragon Age is.

Do your weapons and spells not say their damage like in BG? 1-8, or something like 1-6 per level, etc?

 

[firehawk12]

Not having a morality system is definitely the way to go. Otherwise you stop making decisions based on what you want to do, and instead end up deciding early, "I'm going to play as good/evil" which is stupid.

I haven't yet seen any really long term consequences though so I doubt it will outshine the witcher in that regard. Morality in games is at its best when you don't know what the consequences will be, and the effect is long term enough that you can't just save/reload to see if you made the 'right' decision.

I especially like consequences where you think you are doing the good thing only to realize the evil it spawned and visa versa.

Hah, yeah, I kind of hope the game does that but I have a feeling the morality in the game doesn't have that much scope.

 

[slayn]

PC or console? I am playing this on PC and even on easy I get beat up pretty badly sometimes. It's almost embarrassing. I have no clue what the hell I am doing wrong. Maybe I fundamentally went wrong with upgrading my characters or something. Playing as a mage btw.

I am at Redcliff castle and my party is around lv 7/8.

At the most basic of strategies, you should be making sure that you focus fire so all your party members are attacking the same enemy, and you should be trying to position your melee guys into flanking positions. All melee characters, not just rogues, do much better damage if they are attacking an enemy from behind.

You want them attacking from any angle in the black arc you see around an enemy's red circle base.

 

[water_wendi]

Do your weapons and spells not say their damage like in BG? 1-8, or something like 1-6 per level, etc?

Weapons.. kind of. Spells, no. They just say "Moderate Damage" or "Stuns Enemy." The manual is no real helper either.

 

[Danne-Danger]

PC or console? I am playing this on PC and even on easy I get beat up pretty badly sometimes. It's almost embarrassing. I have no clue what the hell I am doing wrong. Maybe I fundamentally went wrong with upgrading my characters or something. Playing as a mage btw.

I am at Redcliff castle and my party is around lv 7/8.

Grab the healing spell, if you haven't already.

Radcliff castle is probably the most difficult area I've encountered so far though, a few encounters were damn near impossible on Hard. I guess AoE would help a lot, but since I didn't have it I'm not sure. Basically got by by clogging up doorways with my fighters, throwing quake at the back row of enemies (knocking a few down while still leaving something to attack) and went for petrify/rock throw on the strongest enemy.

Also having a melee weapon as a secondary for your mage will help since they're immune to your staff.

 

[Doytch]

Game's ridiculously good so far (PC version for me), but the combat is really pushing the limits of what's possible with a real-time system, even with the pausability and tactics. Things are simply too chaotic, and that's exacerbated by the lack of transparency for the abilities (I have no idea how much damage most of my spells are supposed to do, or their durations, or lots of other key pieces of information).

This is exactly what I'm so frustrated with. At least with spells you know that whatever you do isn't gonna harm you, but the sustained abilities for archer/warrior are even worse. They trade off one stat for another, and you have no clue if you're benefiting or not. Really irritating, and I've just assumed that shooting faster but no crits is better for low health mobs, and the opposite for bosses/tough mobs. Of course, I have no way of actually testing this.

Moderate damage is all you need to know. That means it does mid damage.

I totally disagree. Is it better to fire away using the pimpass staff/weapon you just got? No idea, cause it only says "moderate".

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

still no play

rig:
e6850
4gigs ddr2 800
gtx280
win7 64bitRC

error I get:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: DAOrigins.exe
Application Version: 1.0.9353.0
Application Timestamp: 4ab251ee
Fault Module Name: DAOrigins.exe
Fault Module Version: 1.0.9353.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4ab251ee
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00411584
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

thing i found so far


Problem #12 Game crashes when trying to launch (steam version)
error message
“Dragon Age: Origins has stopped working”
Solution No known workaround

 

[Woo-Fu]

What? Really? I wiped those guys out on my first try, no sweat.

I think a lot of the difference is what level you approach a certain encounter, since they level up alongside you. Fighting mages at low level is a lot easier than fighting them at higher levels. Figure he is lvl 12 or 13 to my party of lvl 10s, he has plenty of hard-hitting AoE and since he is higher level all of the control I'd normally pile on an enemy mage he resists or it wears off very quickly even when it hits.

 

[slayn]

Moderate damage is all you need to know. That means it does mid damage.

Stuns enemy is all the info you need to know. It stuns an enemy, that means you get more attacks in.

The one problem with the stuns, buffs, debuffs and the elemental spells (like Fire Weapons, Cold Weapons) is that the game doesn't tell you how long they're active. But in honesty, it doesn't really matter.

...no. I mean that is enough to know the basic premise of a spell. But if you want to compare two similar spells and guage which would be more useful that is nowhere near enough. Especially if you are trying decide before you even select the spell to learn.

For a spell like cone of cold, for example, I would like to know:
average damage
max damage
% chance of freezing (or some other attribute so I can guage how likely it is to happen)
angle
length

Having such information would let me make far better decisions in spell selection. As is I basically have to select blind and hope a spell ends up being useful.

 

[Zeliard]

Game's ridiculously good so far (PC version for me), but the combat is really pushing the limits of what's possible with a real-time system, even with the pausability and tactics. Things are simply too chaotic, and that's exacerbated by the lack of transparency for the abilities (I have no idea how much damage most of my spells are supposed to do, or their durations, or lots of other key pieces of information).

This is basically the only thing that bothers me about the game. It's also the only real weakness I find in Demon's Souls. I understand that they perhaps want the player to delve into it a bit and experiment with various things rather than put every number governing the system out there, but there's simply too much obscurity at times when it comes to the stats.

Otherwise, though, man I am enjoying the living fuck out of Dragon Age. Absolutely wonderful game. I've played all of Bioware's games, and I think this definitely their best since BG2.

This game gives you plenty of options when it comes to being evil. I'm only 3 hours in and I'm loving the dialogue options that are like "Yea instead of doing that thing you asked I'll just take that item you have and murder you" *pulls out shiv from out of nowhere*

injured soldier on the ground.
1. We should aid him
2. We should bring him back to camp
3. We don't have time for this we have to leave him
4. He's already dead (KILL HIM)

:lol oh man this game is amazing.

I liked the encounter with the Highway Men trying to toll you. I chose the option to

Spoiler

beat their ass, then I extorted them for the money they had been stealing, and then I killed them after that anyway and made several people in the village happy as a result (and others annoyed, since it meant more stragglers into town).

 

[Doytch]

Compare them, then?

Really? You want me to start averaging out the sustained rate of attack possible (taking into account mana/energy regen), and taking mean damage values? You really think this is the hallmark of a good combat system? Like I said, it's obfuscated to hell and back in some dumb attempt to not scare off someone who's too scared of seeing a 1d6 pop up in the description of an item/spell.

 

[Woo-Fu]

At least with spells you know that whatever you do isn't gonna harm you, but the sustained abilities for archer/warrior are even worse.

It isn't? If I had a sovereign for every time Morrigan's cone of cold hit one of my own team I'd be rich, rich I tell you!

 

[water_wendi]

Moderate damage is all you need to know. That means it does mid damage.

WTF is mid damage? The spell that does Moderate Damage does 30 damage. Thats maybe 1/10 an enemies life. Is high damage 2x that? 3x that? Its important to know these things so i can balance mana to damage.

Stuns enemy is all the info you need to know. It stuns an enemy, that means you get more attacks in.

Yes but for how long? Is it long enough to use as a getaway spell? Or is it just an interrupt type spell? All of this is stuff i need to discover by trial and error and since there are no respecs, that amounts to a ton of reloading.

The one problem with the stuns, buffs, debuffs and the elemental spells (like Fire Weapons, Cold Weapons) is that the game doesn't tell you how long they're active. But in honesty, it doesn't really matter.

:lol You are crazy or something. Those are the one type of spells that do say how long. As long as you keep the spell active. It sets aside a chunk of your mana for reserve. The only time they go away is if your mage dies or you toggle it off.

 

[Flib]

Moderate damage is all you need to know. That means it does mid damage.

Stuns enemy is all the info you need to know. It stuns an enemy, that means you get more attacks in.

The one problem with the stuns, buffs, debuffs and the elemental spells (like Fire Weapons, Cold Weapons) is that the game doesn't tell you how long they're active. But in honesty, it doesn't really matter.

That's because things like Fire Weapons stay on indefinitely. It's kind of cool, the passive abilities just lower your max mana/fatigue by a certain amount while active, instead of just constantly draining.

edit: beaten

 

[Doytch]

It isn't? If I had a sovereign for every time Morrigan's cone of cold hit one of my own team I'd be rich, rich I tell you!

Sorry, I didn't mean FF. I meant that if you cast some dmg spell, you aren't negatively affecting the amount of dmg you could be doing (with the exception of lost opportunity to cast another, stronger spell).

Also want to agree with the decision to make buffs use "reserved" mana rather than forcing you to rebuff every now and again.

 

[Chairman Yang]

Isn't it more or less a mix between the old Infinity engine and the game play of FFXII? The infinity engine was real time too, on top of a turn based system, much like Dragon Age is.

That's a fair description, although I wouldn't say there's any real FF12 influence, since BG1/2 did the Tactics thing already. Being chaotic wasn't as big an issue for the older Infinity Engine games since 1) most of the strategy came in the form of outfitting, buffing and preparing your characters correctly before battle rather than doing lots of strategizing during actual combat, and 2) the fighter-type characters mostly just attacked, rather than using lots of special abilities and careful positioning. Both of these meant that the old Bioware/Black Isle games' level of micromanagement was relatively easy to handle in comparison to Dragon Age.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Yep. I was surprised to see the Stone Prisoner stuff in there for free as well. I looked under the DLC menu in the game and saw it was $14.99, and I immediately got a day-1 DLC sad face. Then I went into the case and saw the codes for everything.

Wowsers!

 

[LiK]

PC or console? I am playing this on PC and even on easy I get beat up pretty badly sometimes. It's almost embarrassing. I have no clue what the hell I am doing wrong. Maybe I fundamentally went wrong with upgrading my characters or something. Playing as a mage btw.

I am at Redcliff castle and my party is around lv 7/8.

oh, i'm playing 360. but whenever my party's health goes down, i quickly scroll through them and do quick heals with potions. i guess i haven't figured out how to make them automatically use potions when their health is low. i'm sorta way more into the story stuff than the battles. i'm still early, i'm in Lothridge (sp?) talking to everyone.

 

[fanboi]

Anyone started on hard? I did on the PC and its a blast.

 

[Flib]

oh, i'm playing 360. but whenever my party's health goes down, i quickly scroll through them and do quick heals with potions. i guess i haven't figured out how to make them automatically use potions when their health is low. i'm sorta way more into the story stuff than the battles. i'm still early, i'm in Lothridge (sp?) talking to everyone.

The game is significantly more difficult on PC. The first boss

Spoiler

the ogre

hits way harder and requires a lot more positioning.

 

[Aedile]

Is freezing your enemies and then activating a skill with a guaranteed/likely crit for the shatter supposed to be this good? Ditto picking apart enemy spellcasters with bows from extreme range, since most of the best mage spells seem to be pretty short range and casters never close on you.

Feels a little gimmicky, but at least I've stopped pulling my hair out (and reloading) from all the 'monsters pop out of nowhere / you didn't notice yourself being surrounded' battles and the weird aggro radius. Nevertheless, I will persevere; I could never live with the stain of dishonor that comes from playing on Easy.

 

[Jinjo]

Ok, thanks for the tips guys. Most of those things I started doing already and it got a bit better. I definitely took my healing skill the second I was able too. But yeah did not know about those enemies being immune to my staff. No wonder. :lol
I was also kinda low on potions. Stores are really few and far between.

I had to tinker a bit with the tactics a bit too, after that it went a bit better. My mages kept casting that knock down spell/doing other spells and when I really needed them they both used 'em already.

oh, i'm playing 360. but whenever my party's health goes down, i quickly scroll through them and do quick heals with potions. i guess i haven't figured out how to make them automatically use potions when their health is low. i'm sorta way more into the story stuff than the battles. i'm still early, i'm in Lothridge (sp?) talking to everyone.

You can set this in tactics. Pick Self then Health < 50% (or any of the others) and set use potion as action and they will automatically use potions whenever their health goes below that mark. You have to set this for everyone individually though.

 

[Doytch]

I've never cared how long spells last. If the spell loses its magic, I cast it again. It's not like I'm counting,"1, 2, 3, 4 5 seconds! Now the spell is over, time to cast again!" I find I do most of this visually without the game telling me, so it's not a big deal to me.

*shrug*

The point isn't that you won't know when it stops, the point is whether or not it's worth the cast in the first place. If a spell does 10dps for 5s, vs 20 dps for 2s, how are they described in game: Small dmg for 5s, moderate dmg for 2s (assuming you do get spell lengths which I'm not sure about and can't check). Now, say you have a single boss mob, which do you cast for dps? No clue unless you start counting and averaging, which is stupid and has to be done for every type of mob because of varying resistances/armor.

If you just want to chuck spells around and not worry about it, that's cool, that's the experience you want. But it sure as hell isn't a D&D experience which is what this game is trying to evoke.

 

[poppabk]

I've never cared how long spells last. If the spell loses its magic, I cast it again. It's not like I'm counting,"1, 2, 3, 4 5 seconds! Now the spell is over, time to cast again!" I find I do most of this visually without the game telling me, so it's not a big deal to me.

*shrug*

For some people optimal tactics is a math problem to be solved, which goes back to the table top origins of RPG's where the exact rules had to be laid out before you, thus allowing you to know the mathematically best option to carry out in a particular situation.

 

[Dead Prince]

The game is significantly more difficult on PC. The first boss

Spoiler

the ogre

hits way harder and requires a lot more positioning.

idk. it was easy when i did first try (okay i died but i knew what to do lol).

Spoiler

Set 3 of your team outside and let them shoot arrows or magic at him. Whoever the ogre is chasing control that person and run around in circles. When the Ogre switch target set old target to a new position and shoot arrows or whatever and take control of new target. Keep doing this until he's dead.

This way usually doesn't allow getting damage.

 

[Doytch]

idk. it was easy when i did first try (okay i died but i knew what to do lol).

Spoiler

Set 3 of your team outside and let them shoot arrows or magic at him. Whoever the ogre is chasing control that person and run around in circles. When the Ogre switch target set old target to a new position and shoot arrows or whatever and take control of new target. Keep doing this until he's dead.

This way usually doesn't allow getting damage.

Heh...I just had Alistair tank him while Gromit (mah war dog) dps'd from the back, my archer fired away and my mage debuffed/dps'd. Alistair died from the punches after a grabbing, but the ogre was almost dead anyway.

 

[dollartaco]

That ogre fight was awesome. He wiped me a few times.

The animations bring a life to the encounters that is typically missing from these types of RPGs.

 

[epmode]

Heh...I just had Alistair tank him while Gromit (mah war dog) dps'd from the back, my archer fired away and my mage debuffed/dps'd. Alistair died from the punches after a grabbing, but the ogre was almost dead anyway.

My Alistair couldn't tank that guy for shit. The grab move dropped his HP too fast to heal with my mage.

I just ran away while pelting him with arrows and spells.

 

[Flib]

Oh, I'm not saying he's insanely hard or anything, but watching my roommate do the battle on 360, it's a ton easier. He didn't even have to kite like I did on the PC versions

Spoiler

though I only had one ranged with me, which made it a bit trickier...still only took me like two or three tries

 

[LiK]

ah ok, thanks for the tip guys. i'll need to set the potions tactic asap tonight. and yea, i was just listening to the Gamespot podcast and they confirmed that the PC version is way harder. that first boss was still pretty brutal, he killed/knocked out one of my NPC dudes. i was able to stun him with my Warrior Shield Pummel move so that made the battle much easier.

 

[Zeliard]

That ogre fight was awesome. He wiped me a few times.

The animations bring a life to the encounters that is typically missing from these types of RPGs.

Yeah, the combat looks terrific. Can't wait for a slow-mo mod.

 

[Tobor]

Do characters you leave out of your party catch up levels when you bring them back? I hate to have anyone underleveled in case I feel like using them.

 

[epmode]

Everyone gains full experience. This includes incapacitated characters as well as those not actually in your party.