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[FrankT]

The PS3 version of the Dragons Age Collectors Edition includes the redeem code for ME2??

Yea it does. Although Bioware has said it is tied to your EA account so you will only be able to use it on PC/360 version of ME2. Here are the two cards for each version;

 

[DodgerSan]

It's a crappy DVD. If the packaging was nice this would be alright, but it's a horrid little thing. Good job it's only £5 more - that's the cost of Warden's Keep, so if you were planning on buying it anyway it's alright.

Which would be fine, except it doesn't come with Warden's Keep, only Stone Prisoner.

Warden's Keep is additional cost on top of the POS CE :/

 

[Deleted member 17706]

They didn't. DLC NPCs don't actually exist in the base game (they're not on the disc). They get injected into the game when the updater service finds that there is new DLC available. It's supposed to give a (relatively) seamless way of accessing DLC. I love the idea, and the implementation.

Some people hate the idea of NPCs offering DLC (I've no idea why), so if you never want to see these NPCs, just disable the updater service.

I can confirm this. I played offline for the first 15 hours or so and never encountered the DLC quest merchant dude. As soon as I registered my CD keys and logged in he popped up in my camp, though. I still don't like how they have advertisements in the game, but oh well.

One thing that kind of annoyed me is that I found the guy in my camp, he told me about Warden's Keep and I agreed to help him out, but a few hours later I decide to go do the Stone Prisoner content and I run into the guy again and he introduced himself as if we had never met.

 

[water_wendi]

They didn't. DLC NPCs don't actually exist in the base game (they're not on the disc). They get injected into the game when the updater service finds that there is new DLC available. It's supposed to give a (relatively) seamless way of accessing DLC. I love the idea, and the implementation.

Some people hate the idea of NPCs offering DLC (I've no idea why), so if you never want to see these NPCs, just disable the updater service.

iirc they wanted to have Shale in the main game but ran out of time. Then they spent something like half a year working on the console ports while the game was technically done. During this time they finished Shales stuff and instead of putting it on the disc they used it as a DLC to prevent used game sales. This is my understanding and i might be wrong.

 

[DodgerSan]

In more positive news however, allegedly the toolset will be up for download later today, as long as there aren't any more last minute hitches.

 

[bengraven]

Human origin is straight up G. R. R. Martin.

 

[DietRob]

[IMGhttp://i37.tinypic.com/dmwqcx.png/IMG] [IMGhttp://i34.tinypic.com/14k89ac.jpg[/IMG]

I'd edit out that mass effect 2 code if i were you.

 

[jason10mm]

Quick question about the Human Noble (is there a non-noble one?) origin.

Spoiler

Who is the dead woman in the room next to the mother (not the sister-in-law and nephew)? Was it the traitor's wife or maid, or the priest chick? My wife was yammering away and I missed the mom's explanation.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Human origin is straight up G. R. R. Martin.

It really is. There are lots of ASOIAF "influences" throughout the game. For example, I just finished the Redcliffe Castle quest

Spoiler

and there was a cutscene where the corpses of the townsfolk who died during the battle were put into boats to be sent down the river at which point archers with flaming arrows would proceed to light the boats on fire as some kind of "sending off" ceremony.

It seemed like that part was completely lifted from Riverrun custom in ASOIAF. Then again, G. R. R. Martin may have been influenced by some other work that I am unaware of.

 

[benny_a]

Quick question about the Human Noble (is there a non-noble one?) origin.

There is the Human Magi origin. (Magi is shared across the races.)

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Quick question about the Human Noble (is there a non-noble one?) origin.

Spoiler

Who is the dead woman in the room next to the mother (not the sister-in-law and nephew)? Was it the traitor's wife or maid, or the priest chick? My wife was yammering away and I missed the mom's explanation.

It was just some visiting Lady of another house. You briefly talked to her and her two children earlier in the origin story and your mother said she planned on returning with her to keep her company for a while.

 

[water_wendi]

Quick question about the Human Noble (is there a non-noble one?) origin.

Spoiler

Who is the dead woman in the room next to the mother (not the sister-in-law and nephew)? Was it the traitor's wife or maid, or the priest chick? My wife was yammering away and I missed the mom's explanation.

Answer:

Spoiler

The other woman your mother is crying over is her friend that is visiting. You meet her briefly when you first encounter your mother the day before. Your mom blames herself for her friends death because her friend came to visit her.

 

[FrankT]

I'd edit out that mass effect 2 code if i were you.

Been used.

 

[bengraven]

 

[Castor Krieg]

CE in Poland was supposed to be in a tin case. Right now it seems there won't be any CE here, regular edition is out, nobody knows anything about CE, not even EA Poland. Epic fail I might say.

 

[bengraven]

It was just some visiting Lady of another house. You briefly talked to her and her two children earlier in the origin story and your mother said she planned on returning with her to keep her company for a while.

Yeah, I misunderstood while they were talking, as well. I was under the impression that the woman was Howe's wife. So when

Spoiler

she was crying over the body

, I finally understood.

Also, I was upset that the cutscene started at the end of the Noble origin and I wasn't waking up next to the elf maiden (as in the Origins videos I had watched). So I restarted the entire Noble campaign and spoke to her before my brother to ensure I got the full booty potential for my corn-rowed corn-holer.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Yeah, I misunderstood while they were talking, as well. I was under the impression that the woman was Howe's wife. So when

Spoiler

she was crying over the body

, I finally understood.

Also, I was upset that the cutscene started at the end of the Noble origin and I wasn't waking up next to the elf maiden (as in the Origins videos I had watched). So I restarted the entire Noble campaign and spoke to her before my brother to ensure I got the full booty potential for my corn-rowed corn-holer.

Wait... what? There was an elf maiden to take to bed? I missed that part!

 

[Willectro]

I wish morrigan (or whatever the mage chicks name is) would learn to heal.

I can't seem to get her tactics right. Basically needs:
If Spell = Heal
Then Cast(As needed)
Else DONT DO SHIT!!!!!

:lol

 

[Naeblish]

It's your fucking famliy, YOU buy the dlc. So true :lol .

 

[water_wendi]

I wish morrigan (or whatever the mage chicks name is) would learn to heal.

I can't seem to get her tactics right. Basically needs:
If Spell = Heal
Then Cast(As needed)
Else DONT DO SHIT!!!!!

:lol

Should be something in there like "If Party Member drops below 75%/50%/25% Health.. Cast Heal."

edit: if she already has the Heal spell.. and you want her to just be healing support.. you might want to pick the Support role thingie from the drop-down menu and fiddle with things from there.

 

[bengraven]

Wait... what? There was an elf maiden to take to bed? I missed that part!

Yeah, that blonde girl whom you meet when you first see your mother. The elderly guest mentions that she's got a crush on you. If you immediately go into the library and talk to her you can take her to bed.

It's your fucking famliy, YOU buy the dlc. So true :lol .

I lolled at that.

 

[Kintaro]

Must not have bought the Master race Steam Deluxe edition.

 

[Alex]

The tactics are set in a priority, top to bottom also, btw

 

[koji]

:lol @ that PA comic

exclusive abilities? WHERE DO I SIGN?!

 

[Ponn]

http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/704358679_ayGHY-L.jpg[/IMG]

Yea, seriously, fuck them for the DLC and fuck me for being such a consumer whore. I bought the damn Wardens Keep in XBL Marketplace before I even got the game today in the mail.

I'm just going to go ahead and lube up for Mass Effect 2 and get myself a 4000 XBL point card along with my copy of Mass Effect 2 CE.

Spoiler

I hate myself

 

[TheFreshPrince]

As someone who never played any of the BG games, or really any games in this style, I'm struggling with how much I should be micro-managing my party members.

I'd like to just focus on battling with my main character, but I also feel like I should be switching amongst characters...isn't that the whole point of the tactical system?

So, for all of you experts out there, how often do you switch between characters? Only for bosses? In regular encounters, is it okay to just control my own character?

Also, is low-level/early gameplay kind of....easy/dull?

4 hrs in and still trying to wrap my head around the whole battle system.....

Thanks!

 

[Yoboman]

Fan is normal, but I was getting 20-40 fps on the same settings on Vista 64.

I completely cleaned away all traces of drivers, and re-installed the latest nVidia ones. I then got 40-60, and a much smoother gameplay experience, because it used to chug when turning around the camera, even if the framerate was 30-40. That went away completely after I cleaned my system. I still think it slows down in busy areas, so it might be a 64-bit issue.

This helped I'm getting a v-synced 60 FPS now. Still drops a bit indoors with fancy lighting, hopefully a patch pulls it all up to speed but it's going well now

 

[slayn]

I just realized in my tactics I had alister set to (if health >= 25%, use a lesser healing potion) as his #1 priority. I was wondering all this time why I seemed to burn through lesser health potions so quickly...

 

[sendu]

iirc they wanted to have Shale in the main game but ran out of time. Then they spent something like half a year working on the console ports while the game was technically done. During this time they finished Shales stuff and instead of putting it on the disc they used it as a DLC to prevent used game sales. This is my understanding and i might be wrong.

Well, that last bit is conspiracy theory that may or may not be true. But essentially that's correct: they finished Shale before release, but he couldn't be added to the disc because the main game had long since been locked down and gone through testing and certification etc. You can't add new content (only important bugfixes) at that point. Just the way games are made.

 

[water_wendi]

As someone who never played any of the BG games, or really any games in this style, I'm struggling with how much I should be micro-managing my party members.

I'd like to just focus on battling with my main character, but I also feel like I should be switching amongst characters...isn't that the whole point of the tactical system?

You can set general AI behavior in the Tactics menu if you want to just focus on your main character.

So, for all of you experts out there, how often do you switch between characters? Only for bosses? In regular encounters, is it okay to just control my own character?

i change characters all the time. Generally how a standard melee-centric battle goes is i select all of my characters and have them focus-fire on one enemy. When the melee guys get in range, i pause and move the rogue to behind the character, un-pause for the half-second it takes for them to move then i re-issue the attack command. Then i change back to my ranged or mage.. usually mage.. and control the battle from there while my fighters do their attacks. If i see an enemy special ability pop up that looks bad.. say Web comes up over a spider.. i pause and move to a character that can disrupt that action.. such as a Shield Slam or Paralyze spell.

Depending on the difficulty of the immediate battle i can sit back with the caster and just let my fighters mop up while i manually cast the occasional spell (mana management seems to be very important) or i go into an "oh-shit," pause every half-second mode.

Also, is low-level/early gameplay kind of....easy/dull?

It can be if you dont have many combat skills to vary attacks or if the fights are too easy, i suppose.

4 hrs in and still trying to wrap my head around the whole battle system.....

What i would recommend is make a save before a battle. Load the save and try out different tactics a few times to help get a better feel for things.

 

[Zeliard]

I went through Stone Prisoner last night - short but sweet. Shale is a great character. I love his droll style and dry humor. He's a great tank companion to my mage as well.

But man, the fucking patch makes Normal notably easier, with the completely unnecessary boost in offense and defense for your entire party. It's silly, I don't know why they did that. Time to move up to Hard.

 

[slayn]

Does the patch effect hard mode as well?

Maybe I shouldn't update.

 

[Doytch]

So, another session last night that lasted way too long and had me forgetting what time it was (despite the clock on my keyboard's LCD). Here's my question: I've got me (archer), Morrigan, Sten (2h spec) and Alistair tanking in my party. Both my melee members die way too fast. I've been pumping up their CON, but I was just getting ripped apart. After Lothering, I spent a bunch of time doing stuff in Denerim, and the abandoned house with the blood mages just kept annihilating me on Normal. I didn't have enough pots stronger than the weakest ones (can't make them yet), and everyone kept dying. I had to back out once to camp just to heal the injuries since I was out of kits. Eventually I had to bump it down to easy since I could not keep Alistair/Sten alive for longer than five seconds. I dunno if I tried it too early or I'm just a baby, but god damn that was hard. Might try to do Redcliffe after I do something else since everyone says its really hard.

 

[dejan]

But man, the fucking patch makes Normal notably easier, with the completely unnecessary boost in offense and defense for your entire party. It's silly, I don't know why they did that. Time to move up to Hard.

Good to know that. I'm gonna start on hard then.

 

[TheHeretic]

Just to take this whole "DLC to curb piracy", its already cracked on the PC.

So yeah...

 

[Doytch]

Just to take this whole "DLC to curb piracy", its already cracked on the PC.

So yeah...

Is the Shale quest also cracked? At work so I don't really want to be browsing isohunt...

 

[Leckan]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but do you have to enable the DLC after you've started the game or is it ok anytime?

Don't tell me I have to start over now to get the items.

 

[water_wendi]

So, another session last night that lasted way too long and had me forgetting what time it was (despite the clock on my keyboard's LCD). Here's my question: I've got me (archer), Morrigan, Sten (2h spec) and Alistair tanking in my party. Both my melee members die way too fast. I've been pumping up their CON, but I was just getting ripped apart. After Lothering, I spent a bunch of time doing stuff in Denerim, and the abandoned house with the blood mages just kept annihilating me on Normal. I didn't have enough pots stronger than the weakest ones (can't make them yet), and everyone kept dying. I had to back out once to camp just to heal the injuries since I was out of kits. Eventually I had to bump it down to easy since I could not keep Alistair/Sten alive for longer than five seconds. I dunno if I tried it too early or I'm just a baby, but god damn that was hard. Might try to do Redcliffe after I do something else since everyone says its really hard.

Maybe try some hit and run guerrilla tactics? Going in solo with a rogue, firing a shot off and luring one or two out and running back to your other party members to set up an ambush. Or try sneaking ahead and laying traps at a choke point so you can kill melee from a distance?

 

[luxarific]

Yea, seriously, fuck them for the DLC and fuck me for being such a consumer whore. I bought the damn Wardens Keep in XBL Marketplace before I even got the game today in the mail.

I'm just going to go ahead and lube up for Mass Effect 2 and get myself a 4000 XBL point card along with my copy of Mass Effect 2 CE.

Spoiler

I hate myself

:lol :lol :lol at the PA comic.

I was going to try to be strong and hold out until the Keep DLC would go on sale (in the completely theoretical future), but then I started hitting the inventory cap and my resistance crumbled in nanoseconds.

The storage chest is the best thing about that DLC and is very much worth it if you hate discarding good gear.

 

[Yoboman]

The character creation tool is pretty good. What does everyone's characters look like?

 

[slayn]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but do you have to enable the DLC after you've started the game or is it ok anytime?

Don't tell me I have to start over now to get the items.

I was 8 hours in before I put in the items codes. They spawned in my inventory the next time I restarted and loaded my save file after they had been installed.

 

[Zeliard]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but do you have to enable the DLC after you've started the game or is it ok anytime?

Don't tell me I have to start over now to get the items.

You can enable it any time and you should get the DLC items in your inventory and DLC quests in your journal, under "Premium Content" in the quest section.

Does the patch effect hard mode as well?

Maybe I shouldn't update.

Patch notes don't say anything about hard, just easy and normal. Both of those have been made easier.

 

[Nif]

For some reason, after playing for too long, the game will start to take much much longer to load than usual (15-20 seconds). If I restart the game, the same areas will load in a 3-5 seconds.

 

[LocoMrPollock]

Almost done with all of the origin stories. Holy shit at the Dwarf Noble one, that was some good shit.

 

[GSG Flash]

:lol

That is so true, I was actually in disbelief the first time I talked to that guy. I can't believe they advertised the DLC in the game, which makes me wonder why it wasn't included on the disc in the first place, like it would've been before the age of DLCs

 

[water_wendi]

Almost done with all of the origin stories. Holy shit at the Dwarf Noble one, that was some good shit.

Definitely my favorite one. ive played it completely through twice and i love how it changes slightly depending on how you deal with things. Its also the longest one i think.. Mage is also about same length.

 

[Rad-]

I've played through 3 origins: Dwarf Noble and City Elf are great. Mage origin is really boring in comparison.

 

[LCfiner]

If the console gets a patch like the PC version just got and it makes it easier, then I'm certainly moving up to normal.

although I suppose it's possible that the PC patch adjusted the difficulty to match the consoles. hmm.

I'd prefer a bit more challenge than I get on easy now but I'm not too keen on hearing things like reloading fights 5 or 6 times on Normal cuz the team keeps getting wiped out. (I typically play Bioware RPGs for character and world interaction, not combat)

the moral decisions you have to make in the game aren't easy no matter what difficulty you play on :lol


edit: PA comic wins just for the name "Barkspawn". I named my hound "Krunk". it just seemed to fit.

 

[DietRob]

If the console gets a patch like the PC version just got and it makes it easier, then I'm certainly moving up to normal.

PC version got a patch? Didn't know that.

 

[Yoboman]

I'm so lazy with names I just called my dog dogmeat