| Archive for Rebels A Star Wars Roleplaying Community |
| Dakoth |
Dragon Tales: OriginsErr age. Yes thats it, I wanted to talk about Dragon age, I swear!I don't watch dragon tales.. I've never even hard of it... Uh, did anyone see this super cool trailer that I found when I was searching the internets for dragon tales? http://dragonage.bioware.com/gallery I can't wait for this game to come out. |
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| Rive Caedo |
Is this thread about Dragon Tails? Finally!
Oh, wait. Nevermind. There's one (professional) early review out for this so far: they liked it. I have very mixed feels about the fact that they're going to have paid bonus content available for download on day 1. I have even more mixed feelings about the fact that you're going to need to download a character using your retail code CD key - and if you buy it second hand you'll need to pay $15 if you want that character. That's a pretty tricky/nasty way to try to kill the second hand market. Due to these factors, I might forgo buying it when it comes out and wait for "Dragon Age: Origins, Game of the Year Gold Edition Deluxe Complete" in a year or two. |
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| Dakoth |
Well what else could you expect from EA's evil empire? | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
Thus why I'll be holding off until they release it under a system I consider fair. Even if it is a Bioware game.
Capitalism(ish): Vote with your wallet 
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| Scion |
Finally, after Jade Empire, KOTOR, and Mass Effect, they are doing a true RPG once again.
And I'll be voting with my wallet... for more games like this, even ignoringEA's total idiotic behavior towards PC gaming. On a related note, the EA downlaoder Service (Which I have solely for Crysis and BF2142, and soon, Dragon Age) is by far the worst downlading service in the history of games. I can't even begin to explain how poor it is. |
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| Dakoth |
Ok so you just managed to hate on Kotor and Mass effect in the same sentence, you might just be dead to me Scion. | ||||||||
| Scion |
What? I love and own both of those games, but you cannot say that Mass Effect is a RPG, and KOTOR is not a true RPG when you compare it to games like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Fallout, Planescape, and Neverwinter Nights. Hell, The Witcher is more of an RPG than either of those games. | ||||||||
| Dakoth |
?!?! Why can't I?! | ||||||||
| Scion |
Well, to be fair, I guess you could.
But you would be wrong. |
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| Dakoth |
You play a role, and its a game! Roleplaying game! You've got your stat based combat system, you make a party of miscreants and the like, you level up and make storyline choices, I don't know what else you could possibly want?! | ||||||||
| Darth Splinter |
Yep. Dragon Tales.
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| Scion |
So Spiderman is an RPG too? Fantastic!!!! And SW: Episode III the Game!!!! Wait, Infamous and Crackdown and Saint's Row are RPG's too? I had no idea this genre was so LARGE!!! Lucky Mass Effect is such a great RPG though. All 4 of the biotic powers and and about 5 areas for general damage and defense improvement really feel like a branching skill trees. 
I spent nearly 30 minutes customizing my character in NWN 2, not including his physical appearance. I spent about 5 minutes in MAss Effects and KOTOR's character creation screens. I loved both games, but MAss Effect was nothing more than 3rd person shooter with RPG elements and a great story with conversations. |
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| Dakoth |
Now you're just trying to get fresh with me mr! Theres plenty of different abilities and whatnot for a Kotor character! And there were 5 biotic powers! 5! | ||||||||
| Scion |
Yes, KOTOR did have many feats and force powers to choose from, certainly more so than Mass Effects meager offering. However, the actual story was incredibly limited in respects to the above titles (Ignoring NWN, because that was designed for multiplayer, not story). | ||||||||
| Dakoth |
Well as things get more graphically intense it gets harder to make more endings, I'd like to see you go through 5 distinct fully voiced main plot paths, each with thier own distinct cg ending! | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
I'll agree that Mass Effect is more of an Action/RPG hybrid, similar to Fallout 3.
KOTOR though? That's totally an RPG. An RPG with less extensive character customization options and a more linear storyline than some, granted - but it's totally an RPG. |
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| Dakoth |
Hah! Shove it scion! | ||||||||
| Scion |
Than get rid of the main character talking, because he/she doesn't say what I want them to say and having yourself voiced is unnecessary. As for KOTOR, yes it is much more of an RPG than Mass Effect, but it does have much less options and the difficulty is simple as pie. I hear Dragon Age will have a much harder difficulty. (I blame this mostly on the limited development you can put on consoles, actualy battles will be changed for the PS3/360 version because the systems couldn't handle it). |
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| Dakoth |
Try playing Kotor on difficult with blasters mr poopyface. And if the main character in mass effect didn't talk, it would be cinematically ridiculous looking, and the game was built around the purpose of being cinematic. | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
I never have gone back and tried to play KOTOR-1 as a blasters character. Should try that someday.
Anyway, back on topic: Alright, I'm being swayed a bit more towards purchasing this. Steam just put up their "Digital Deluxe Edition" for the game for pre-order (game unlocks in 2 weeks, 4 days and 14 hours). Price: $55 (opposed to the $50 of regular edition). The breakdown: You get 3 exclusive items, a helm, a staff, and - more importantly - +3 to all your stats by reading a tome. These are the same 3 items you get from the boxed Collector's Edition. More importantly than that, you get the extra DLC campaign I had mixed feelings about. For $5 though? That's not toooooo bad. It (currently) appears that the boxed Collector's Edition does NOT come with this. So you'd need to pony up $7 on top of whatever the boxed edition will cost ($60 I'll bet - Amazon doesn't have a price yet). You also get this bonus item (we're up to 4 now) for pre-ordering.
And this one - which is exclusive to Steam pre-orders -
Amazon.com also has a pre-order bonus, but it appears less interesting than the Steam ring, to me.
It IS worth noting that Amazon.com's boxed REGULAR edition has this though:
So take Amazon.com's $47 price, then - if you're going to buy Mass Effect 2 from them next year, you can consider it to be $37. That's actually probably the best way to go I've seen so far. Add on the $7 for "Warden's Keep" and you can get everything for $44 - only losing out on the pre-order/collector's edition items (which may be replaced by other items anyway). Though, it's also worth noting you won't need to wait for shipping for the Steam version and there's no DVD to lose 
Any way you go - Steam or Amazon - you'll get the "Blood Dragon Armor" (which will also be usable in Mass Effect 2) and "The Stone Prisoner" for buying a retail copy. |
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| Dakoth |
Stupid Warden's keep! Dakoth mad! Dragon age is like the perfect sandwich, but some jerk won't give you your drink with it. | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
Frak it all!
Well, you know how I was saying the Steam Digital Deluxe Edition was such an awesome deal? Yeah, apparently it was a pricing error. Now it's $65 instead of $55. Really makes me which I'd just gone ahead and ordered it last night. Since presumably they'll have to honor that price for people who bought it for that during brief window it was up. Oh well, it's Bioware's loss I suppose - since now I've dropped back to "Yeah, I'll probably wait a year or two for this to be on sale for $25" from "Yeah, I'll probably buy this via Steam for $55" |
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| Rive Caedo |
Double posting just because I think this is more amusing as two posts separated by a very small time difference 
Okay, so here's the new deal I found: If you're willing to use the Impulse Digital Download system - you can buy it from them for the $64.99 Steam is charging BUUUUT - if you enter the coupon code "SURVEY-2009" after you add it to your cart, it'll slice $13 off the price. Getting you the Digital Deluxe Collectors edition for $51.99 In other words, for a mere 2 dollars more than the regular edition, you'll get the 3 collector's edition items and Warden's Keep. The only thing you lose out on is the Steam-exclusive Ring or Amazon-exclusive boots. But personally I don't think it's worth a 20% price hike to get a ring that might be replaced anyway
http://www.impulsedriven.com/dragonagece |
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| Dakoth |
This is all such a convulted moneygrabbing scheme >.> I think I'll just rob a truck delivering copies of the game. | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
Will you sell a copy to me for $50.99? Gotta beat Impulse 
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| Dakoth |
I'll do you one better! I'll let you name your own price! Just uh... Please.. don't give me a penny... | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
Fine, I'll upgrade you from a metal Lincoln to a paper Jefferson
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| Scion |
I love Impulse, but I highly doubt I'd buy anything other than an RTS or 4x game there. Did just finish a 7 hour sins game last night though, that was fun. | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
Why's that? I've never used it. But I don't see any real advantage/disadvantage to using one digital download service over another. For a single player game, that is (as Dragon Age is) ... Unless Impulse doesn't let you redownload games (like Steam does). But it looks like it does. |
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| Rive Caedo |
Here's my attempts to create two of my characters from here in Dragon Age.
Sure, Armia's ponytail should be about 3 or 4 times bigger and Rive's hair should be scruffier and a bit grayer -- but I'm still decently impressed. The character creation options are pretty darn similar to Mass Effect's -- maybe a bit more extensive. But I think the characters end up looking much more human than Mass Effect's -- which sometimes ended up looking a bit "plastic"-like. Also a few kudo points for having the female character's armor look actually--- armored. We'll see if that carries through the game or if starting at level 5 I start getting chainmail bikinis and such
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| Dakoth |
ooh look at me I'm rive and I get to use the character creater early because i'm going to be buying the PC version! Everyone laugh at Dakoth and his 360!
/envy |
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| Xander Vos |
Don't worry Daky, just run off and amuse yourself with your Halo-thingy on the Xbox 3-whatnot. | ||||||||
| Dakoth |
I suppose I can go mongoose around for a few hours. But I'm still sad.. | ||||||||
| Xander Vos |
Ahh, I miss those days.
The closest I've gotten to Halo was playing my sister in Warlock the other night. Suffice to say I had to silently impose on myself a one trigger tap per two seconds to give her a chance to kill me.
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| Dakoth |
Ah I miss good ol' warlock, twas a solid map. Luckily the community forgers managed to offer up a solid remake on Sandbox, but it isn't in matchmaking, so alas. | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
Bwhaha. Although there's nothing stopping you from using it for fun, even if you wouldn't be able to transfer your characters. Anyway, it also reveals an interesting partial solution to a problem we mentioned in the Old Republic thread: 
It also shows you the various abilities the 3 character classes can use. Personally, I'll probably use the mage class for my "main" game - since it comes with versions of some of my old KOTOR favorites like Stasis Field. |
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| Dakoth |
That probably would work quite well actually. I mean honestly, theres nothing like a sultry hk-51 to get me into a star warsy mood!
And yeah, I did consider picking it up "for teh lulz" But that would only bring me pain.. |
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| Scion |
Well, voice options have been around for awhile, at least in NWN, but there still is probably only around, say 20 voices? Once thousands of people get together it's not going to make much of a difference. | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
Still, if you're duoing a mission - quest - thing (whatever they decide to call them) like the one they showed in the gameplay preview and you're cutting between your Bounty Hunter and someone else's Bounty Hunter - it'd be nice if there's high odds that you don't have precisely identical voices
I mean for conversations (since multi-player conversations were shown), not so much for just general battlecries - that's not a big issue. |
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| Dakoth |
Theres always the theory that the voice you hear will be different for every person playing. For example, everyone playing a bounty hunter hears thier voice as generic fett A, and they hear other PC's bounty hunters as generic fett B-Z.
That way you're never hearing the same voice since voices are chose based on the individual. |
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| Rive Caedo |
Ah! That'd work pretty well. Or even "let them use their chosen voice - UNLESS it's the one you chose - then set them back to some default" | ||||||||
| Dakoth |
That would work as well, anything that keeps everyone from being monotone civillan #4 rates well in my book. | ||||||||
| Scion |
I built my character too, but it didn't take that long. I'd complain about the 3 classes, but at least the mage has about 6 schools worth of spells (Still a step backwords, but better than most games nowadays). | ||||||||
| Dakoth |
Well thats due to the fact that overly in depth customization is a turn off for mainstream gamers. And you don't get rich selling to just the hardcore demographic, as the wii showed. | ||||||||
| Scion |
Tell that to the Witcher, which sold nearly a million on PC alone. Bad argument, but what the hey. | ||||||||
| Dakoth |
Did you just post Pro witcher sentiments?! | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
There's a certain point between the two that gives you a nice balanced game I think.
On one end you have a game that you only have a level. When you hit level 5 you'll automatically learn how to do "jump slash". On the other hand you have something with 15 different panels for different types of items/abilities, tons of skills (many of which are useless in practical value), etc. etc. Let's compare KOTOR, Mass Effect, and now Dragon's Age (I've never played Baldur's Gate, I'm afraid - so I can't include it). Mass Effect is pretty far to the "simple" - you gain a level and you're probably going to spend it on a combat skill. You get some measure of choice in play style (snipers versus bionics are completely different, for instance) - but that's the only real choice. The exception is if you want to put points into persuasion, but that's the only real option. KOTOR was similar, but gave a little bit more customization imo. Dragon's Age - from the skill listing in the character creator - appears to push it a bit further towards customization. It's difficult to tell precisely how much, but it appears obvious that - at least early on - a rogue will have a choice of being stealthy or stabby. A mage will have a choice between control, damage, or support. A warrior will... Well, maybe the warrior will be a bit more KOTORish
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| Dakoth |
Warrior: Letting stupid people play RPGs for 20 years!
I see my WoW hatred is still fully intact. |
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| Scion |
I guess when I think of customization, I think of not be a god at everything in the game. Thanks to Mass Effects New Game+ modes, you can do exactly that, albiet missing one of 3 things (Skills, Biotics, Guns).
KOTOR is better, because I actually NEEDED someone with a high skill level, because my Jedi Gaurdian gets 2 skill points a level for Healing and Demolition. Games like DA and BG are even deeper than that, in which different class variants offer different means to an end. In NWN 2, I had a sorcerer that focused on melee gained from his multi-classing with the Red Dragon Disciple class, despite his below average health. You can't really do stuff like that in Mass Effect and KOTOR (And from the look of it, Dragon's Age), but of course that doesn't make them bad games. In the end, I'm sure I'll fun with DA, so I don't really mind. I do mind the day one DLC though. |
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| Dakoth |
The one dlc is criminal, thats granted. I didn't really think the new game+ mode was that insane though, Getting barrier on my infiltrator wasn't exactly ground breaking. | ||||||||
| Scion |
It's the problem I have with games like Elder Scrolls: You re good at everything by the end, so it becomes a cakewalk. | ||||||||
| Dakoth |
Fable 2 was a prime example of that. It hardly mattered where you put your points by the end, because you would be op with everything. | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
The main trouble wasn't having an extra skill - it was that every time you restarted your game you'd get an extra persuasion/intimidation point. Combine that with the fact that maxing out your renegade/paragon points would give you an extra 2 or 3 intimidation/persuasion points (respectively). A determined person could max out their persuasion/intimidation without spending a single point in them by blasting through the game 4 or 5 times. So you'd have max persuade/intimidate without spending a single point - that gives you enough points to max out pretty much everything else available to you. |
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| Sirak Sazen |
Saw this in my subscription box on Youtube, thought it might interest you.
I'm generally not a fan of Japanese (ex: Final Fantasy) or Ancient/Dragon RPG's, which is why Jade Empire, Mass Effect, and Tabula Rasa (why must you shut it down? why?) were jewels to behold as far as I'm concerned. |
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| Rive Caedo |
That actually sounds really cool. It reminds me of the Warcraft III editor - which I really enjoyed messing around with (I wouldn't be surprised if I spent nearly equal hours in that as I did in the actual game).
It also makes me feel a bit better about BiowareEA. The day 1 DLC is terrible, but at least EA is still letting them release this. There's been a lot of bad things coming out of cross-system gaming companies (read: not Valve and Blizzard) "dumbing down" and hindering PC versions (read: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 not supporting dedicated servers). So this - apparently - extensive editor is a nice sign that Dragonage (and hopefully The New Bioware going forward) will continue to be PC-friendly. |
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| Dakoth |
Warcraft 3 world editor is possibly the best part of the game. It gave it just so much replayability, especially when I was making a rebels map where you were tasked with hunting down and killing Vikro. | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
The combination of Sirak posting that editor tool video and IGN UK's rather rave review finally swayed me over to going ahead an grabbing Dragon's Age now (on the final night that the pre-order bonuses apply).
IGN UK gave the PC version an overall score of 9.2/10 IGN AU gave the 360 version an overall score of 8.4/10 Both reviews seemed less than impressed with the graphics (which suits me fine), but were impressed with the gameplay and scope of it (UK giving it a "10" for the PC version's lasting appeal). AU only gave it a 9 for lasting appeal, but they were reviewing the XBox version - which is sure to have less or no mod support. Conclusion: Buy the PC version if your computer can handle it. |
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| Dakoth |
Yup, rub it in more. | ||||||||
| Darth Samuel |
All versions are going to get a bunch of dlc, so meh. | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
The DLC will obviously still be desirable due be being professional quality and scope. But there will still be plenty of player-made mod content to enjoy if one wishes to forgo the paid content. | ||||||||
| Darth Samuel |
I don't forgo paid content. | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
Hrum. The decryption for DA:O is taking a really long time.
But, I actually came here to note that there's a little official flash game for Dragon Age - and you can unlock some items for the real game in it (this works for PC, 360, and PS3 provided you have a Bioware account). http://www.dragonagejourneys.com/ |
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| Scion |
Uh, this game was going to be better on PC since day 1. (You know, back when the console versions didn't exist).
I just happened to pick up the LE today, mostly because I felt I wasn't getting the entire game otherwise (I loathe Day 1 DLC). And the PC version is going to get all available DLC plus user created content (Which is often times better than what developers make, if NWN 2 is any indication). So, yay. |
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| Darth Samuel |
my pc isn't a custom made work of amazingness, so the pc version would be useless for me. | ||||||||
| Scion |
This is were I'd say something about putting the money you spent towards a 360/PS3 into upgrading a PC so it is decent, but that would be really douchebaggy of me.
Oh, wait... |
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| Rive Caedo |
Is it wrong that it's Day 1 and my DLC screen already needs a scroll bar? 
Breakdown: Amulet of the War Mage (+5% magic damage neck) - Beat the Flash Dragon's Age Game on Hard. Embri's Many Pockets (+5% magic resist belt) - Finish the first quest of the Flash Dragon's Age Game. The Lucky Stone (+1 all stats ring) - Import a character from the Character Creator Demo. Collector's Edition: 3 exclusive items. +3 all stats for one character permanent bonus, high armor helm, fire damage staff. The Wicked Oath (+crit damage ring) - Steam exclusive. Memory Band (+1% exp gain) - Preorder bonus Blood Dragon Armor (cool looking 4 piece armor set) - Retail bonus. Warden's Keep - DLC (free with digital collector's edition) The Stone Prisoner - DLC (free with retail copies) Helm of the Deep - Beat the Dragon Age Flash Game with a mage, warrior, and rogue. Yikes, that's a lot of stuff. In any case, it's good to finally be done with Dragon's Age: Gotta Catch 'Em All. ... For now. |
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| Dakoth |
Dang Rive.. you don't play around. | ||||||||
| Sirak Sazen |
I can see him being one of those Asian kids that die from overplaying WoW. It's happened - seriously | ||||||||
| Scion |
To answer your question:
Yes, it is sad. |
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| Rive Caedo |
Thus, far. Unlike KOTOR (and Mass Effect to a slightly lesser degree) - your character doesn't have many chances to be outright and needlessly evil, but they do have dozens upon dozens of chances to be a complete jerk
"I... I can't believe (spoiler) is dead." Responses: 1. I'm so sorry. 2. Do you want to talk about it? 3. Well, now we have to honor (spoiler's) memory and press on. 4. Oh no. Don't tell me you're going to cry again? Thus far, I haven't generally used the "jerk" options - but I'd sort of like to do a playthrough choosing only those options and seeing how many things I can mess up
On a second note: The companion characters - at least the first two - seem a good deal deeper in terms of character background and development than KOTOR and Mass Effect. I haven't even reached the second town and I already feel that the female companion character I have has been more fleshed out than any KOTOR/ME character. |
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| Scion |
I'm pissed off now, because I bought a retail copy I don't get Warden's Keep free.
Can I at least still get the items from the flash game>? |
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| Rive Caedo |
Long post incoming!
At least you got Stone Prisoner - which is the more expensive of the two to buy separately. And yes, the Dragon Age Journeys items will even work for XBox/PS3 copies. You just need to make sure you log into the flash game with your Bioware account while playing (which is a good idea anyway since it lets you save your game - and they're making a second and third chapter for the flash game). If you wanted all 3 items my recommended route is: Finish the game on Hard mode. I recommend playing as a mage or shield-specced warrior. If you're using the mage, pick up "mind blast" and focus your points into Willpower/Magic. Mind blast costs a moderate amount of mana and will stun your target for the round. The mage companion should probably be specced the same way. When you pick up the bard companion, spec him into "mesmerization" (I think that's what it was). This allows you to prevent an ememy target from attacking you for usually 5+ rounds of combat and is pretty essential. Using this, you can use this combination that I found rather essential for taking out the boss characters at the end: Mind blast with a mage until you're almost out of mana. Mez with your bard Drink a mana potion with your mage (don't attack with anyone this round, you'll break the mez!) Resume mind blasting If you manage to beat Hard mode, you'll unlock two of the items (the magic boosting necklace and the magic resist belt). To unlock the final item - the helm, you just need finish the game with the two other characters you didn't play. Do this on easy and it should only take you an hour or two. All 3 items are quite nice at the beginning of the game. For instance, the belt (beat the first quest) gives "+5% magic resist" for all schools of magic. Some of the belts I've found so far are like: "+1% spirit magic resist". The necklace (hard mode completion) gives +5% damage to all schools of magic. This is obviously extremely useful for mage characters/companions and I haven't found an item anywhere even close to comparable to it yet. The helm is extremely potent for warrior characters/companions at the start of the game - and it's even useful for mages at the very beginning. So I'd say it's worth the extra effort to get. Because I decided to play on Nightmare mode (hardest difficulty available - unless beating it unlocks new difficulties like Mass Effect did), I'm find all these little boosts to be highly useful. Some of the fights in the game so far have been rather difficult on Nightmare!
Taking a lesson from Dragon Age Journeys (the flash game), I'm playing as a Mage focused on control. She has skills like "Paralyze" "Sleep" and a trap version of Paralyze (glyph of paralysis - I think?). And, from the flash game, "Mind Blast" "Sleep" is extremely, extremely useful and I highly recommend it
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| Scion |
I guess I feel slightly better if you didn't get Stone Prisoner free then, I thought you did. 
And yeah, I started playing it, on hard the first time (I do with most games, it's too easy otherwise) and it isn't too difficult, the bard and killing 2 guys at once look like the hardest parts. |
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| Rive Caedo |
I actually did get Stone Prisoner for free. All I meant was that it would have been a much larger annoyance if you bought it and it basically said:
"Look! You get a box! Good for you! Now pay $22 if you want to get the extra content that the digital-download people got!" Instead, you just need to pay $7 to be equal with digital (plus you have a box! )
"Convincing" the bard isn't difficult at all - I dare say it shouldn't even be an achievement. Just talk to him after you talk to the dwarf near him in the natural course of the storyline and he'll ask to join you. Killing two enemies at once wasn't hard, but it was probably the most annoying part. I did it on my rogue character playing on easy. I found a group with 3 enemies, brought them all below 10 HP using weak attacks - then waited for two of them to be right next to each other (annoying - they kept moving away from each other) and then used the rogue's 3 square two-weapon cone attack. It'd have been easier to do with the mage's fire based attacks or cone-based lightning attack, I suppose. |
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| Scion |
See, you got it for free, because you bought DD. Screw Steam, I have had nothing but anger for Valve these past few weeks. | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
I still likes my Valve - even if they do occasionally slip up
In related news: Bioware's own small slip up has now been fixed. Due to some problems, the Dragon Age Toolset didn't ship with the PC version of the game and wasn't available for download. But now it is: http://social.bioware.com/toolset.php Not many people really minded since everyone is still busy playing the official campaign
I'm particularly interested in this feature:
Even Blizzard - with their extensive and friendly editors - hasn't (to my knowledge) released their story maps for editing! Kudos to Bioware for that. Could lead to some interesting things. I also saw this post on the forums which brought me a laugh. Someone asked if you could add a "romance" option for a character like Shale. The response was:
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| Scion |
Yes, I just started my mage last night and now I don't really want to do anything else but play that game. | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
I suggest doing The Stone Prisoner immediately after you're able to access the world map and go there (it's the one on the left side of the map).
He's the HK-47 of Dragon Age (in terms of characterization/dialog) PLUS he's a far, far, far better tank than your other warrior character(s).  = 
After switching to him as tank, nightmare mode became far easier since my mages are getting attacked far less often. |
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| Scion |
Thanks for the advice, Alistair is an awful tank (Threaten does absolutely nothing, at least when he uses it.)
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| Rive Caedo |
Ha!
Also, I'm glad I did buy the digital deluxe version with Warden's Keep. Because apparently this (although in a less humorous fashion, obviously) actually happens in the game if you don't own it? Wow. Spoilered for strong language.
I played through (what seemed to be) most of Warden's Keep. But I failed a persuasion check in a conversation (I only have 3 out of 4 persuasion points right now) that I wanted to pass - so I left until I get my final point. |
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| Scion |
I can personally attest that actually happens, the first time after Lotheran you enter the party camp. I got ticked off.
I do however love Shale. He is absolutely adorable. |
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| Rive Caedo |
Gah, it turns out that persuasion check I failed in Warden's Keep was unpassable (or, requires over 25 cunning on top of Persuasion Rank 4, which I doubt). But I still got the outcome I wanted.
Spoilers for Warden's Keep:
Also, I had to use a bunch of a potions to do so. But I managed to kill my first dragon
They - at least the one I killed - drop a ton of loot. |
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| Rive Caedo |
*posts after self*
You can make a set of armor that's pretty comparable to Blood Dragon Armor DLC from Dragon Scales
Anyway, also, I ran into a pretty suspension of disbelief breaking game incident yesterday: (Keeping names out so I don't need to put this in a spoiler box): So I've been keeping two party members pretty happy. Telling them the right things in conversations, giving them gifts that are aligned with their likings, etc. etc. So I open up a conversation with Character A, who basically says "Hey. What's up? Why are you hanging around and romancing Character B so much? I thought we had something going?!" Alright, that's cool and makes sense. I say, basically, "Fine. I'll go call it off with Character B." So I go talk to Character B. B opens up pretty much the same way: "Hey, why are you romancing Character A? I thought we had something special." I tell Character B we're just friends. Character B is hurt and asks to be alone for awhile. Alright, cool. ... Then I open up another conversation with Character B. "Sooooo, you and Character A seem to be getting along pretty well. How are they in bed? Heehee." WHAT?! What happened to you being upset?! Now you want to hear about the dirty little details of my relationship of the person I left you for less than 15 seconds later?!?! Game logic fail 
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| Scion |
THat or you just don't understand Gender A. | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
Actually, I reloaded and did the reverse just to see what would happen (called it off with Character A to continue with Character B).
Same thing occurred. Though Character A was a bit more bashful about asking about my relationship with Character B --- 15 seconds after I dumped them for B and nearly cried about it. I remain steadfast: Game logic fail
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| Scion |
So you have to treat one person better than the other the entire game? Good to know.
That being said, I am disappiontingly stuck. Not even the combined forces of Shale and Alistair both with Stoneheart and THreaten active consistently Taunting cannot keep the stupid undead things in Redcliffe of myself and Morrigan. |
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| Rive Caedo |
No no, it's just that if you treat two people well - eventually one of them will say "Uh... what's going on?" and you'll be forced to pursue your romantic relationship with only one of them. After that, everyone accept the person you chose will be flagged as uh... "non-romantic" I guess, and you can continue getting relation points with them - but they'll never turn into "love" (or its pre-programmed virtual equivalent ). It's still useful though since you get nice stat bonuses to them the higher relation score you have with them.
In the actual castle or the village night battle? If it's the village night battle, make sure you investigated the general store for the barrels of oil - then told the Knight Commander about them. The fires help quite a bit with the first stage. If it's the actual castle: Hm... You might try seeing if you can draw one or two of them away from the main group and finish them off? I didn't have any particular trouble with that section. Also: both with Stoneheart active? How'd you turn Alistair into a golem?
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| Scion |
I meant just Shale had Stoneheart, but I did everything to assist, and the oil did help, but once I got in front of the Chantry building I get overwhelmed. Shale will hold about 3-5, Alistair will hold one, and whatever is left over will go for me, maybe one on Morrigan. And I'd say there is consistently at least 6 or 7. (The NPC's are long dead by now). | ||||||||
| Rive Caedo |
Hm... I think only 3 of my NPCs died.
Did you recruit the barman and the elf? I think they help with the chantry fight. Could help some if you missed them. Beyond that, not sure what else might help. I used Morrigran (mostly dealing damage and doing a bit of CC), myself (mostly dealing damage - and tanking a few sometimes), Shale (mostly tanking), and Leliana (mostly waiting to pick locks after the fight). So maybe dropping Alistair for another damage dealer or CCer might help. Or, you could *shudder* drop it down from Nightmare to Easy, temporarily (the scandal!) |
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| Scion |
I got the elf, not the barman. Hmmm, I'd feel a little guilty changing difficulties, but if it prevents me from enjoying the game...
Oh the moral dilemma's this game presents. |
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| Dakoth |
I've been avoiding this thread like a plauge since I bought the game for fear of spoilers, but now that I"m on my second playthrough as a mage I think its fair game to come here and lol at scion for getting stuck. The first time I played on Hard as a rogue and it had to be twice as hard as nightmare mage >.>
Perhaps thats just because of the OP spell combos I've stumbled upon though. As for the redcliff town part, I kinda steamrolled it so I'm not sure what your problem is. I haven't done it on nightmare yet though so I cannot say for sure. Try using many grenades? |
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| Rive Caedo |
Yeah, I only played through a rogue origin, but it was significantly more difficult than the Mage origin.
I'll probably do a rogue playthrough on Easy - just since I think it'd be more fun to backstab things and actually have them drop
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| Scion |
Playing 360 version... Though that's moot since Rive agrees. But I finally did pass that part, yay for me. |
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| Dakoth |
I know someone with the computer version, and its pretty much the same thing except you have an action bar and can zoom all the way out. Oh and it looks prettier and theres fencepost romance sidequests. If anything thats easier! | ||||||||
| Scion |
Enemy encounters work different, were PC has to fight up to about 12 at a time, PS3 and 360 get enemies in waves.
Also PC version plays more like Baldur's Gate, PS3/360 plays like KOTOR. |
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| Rive Caedo |
I think I had a group of 15+ in a semi-random event in Denerim's city crossings (occurs if you pick-pocket people, I think). It caused some strange occurrences. My framerate stayed fine, but it was taking a long time for my AOE spells (and single target abilities, to a lesser degree) to take effect. As in, I'd cast "sleep" or such --- and the animation would go off --- but no one would fall asleep for 5 or 6 seconds. Made for a very annoying fight. I've noticed it in the 10+ encounters too, but then it's been a more manageable 1-2 second delay. |
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| Dakoth |
I could see how 12 at a time could be a problem in redcliff. I would suggest simply standing on a glyph of repulsion though
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| Rive Caedo |
Does the glyph of repulsion persist after repelling people once? That's pretty neat - if so. I didn't pick it up since I figured it disappeared after it triggered once like glyph of paralysis.
I'm quite tempted to play back through the game as a more offensively bred blood mage (as opposed to this playthrough, which was a CC-based Mage that then turned into an Arcane Warrior buff-based Mage). But, of course, I'd probably be better off doing Rogue or Warrior for a completely - rather than just mostly - different play experience. |
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| Scion |
I am currently trying the Offensive Blood Mage get up and I believe it is the current cause of all my woes. That and I didn't spec Morrigran into healing. | ||||||||
| Dakoth |
Glyphs are probably the bestest spells there are. The repulsion one persists, so you can stand in it and freecast. But the real glory comes in if you cross a repulsion glyph atop a paralysis glyph. Viola, free mass paralysis. | ||||||||
