Dragon Age: Origins

[tyketime]

Well I never played any of those earlier Bioware Games, so I'm sure that's part of my problem. Maybe until I get a better feel for the game I may also dial down difficulty from Normal to Easy. I'm getting a little more comfortable with the Tactics screen, but I haven't found the option to run the hell away from approaching Boss without specifically controlling that character...

[Crapshoot]

For someone like me who runs the hell away from traditional RPG's but adored KOTOR (and yet had issues with Mass Effect), is this a decent bet? Ie, is it more action-rpg, or RPG?

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by tyketime

Well I never played any of those earlier Bioware Games, so I'm sure that's part of my problem. Maybe until I get a better feel for the game I may also dial down difficulty from Normal to Easy. I'm getting a little more comfortable with the Tactics screen, but I haven't found the option to run the hell away from approaching Boss without specifically controlling that character...

Set the NPCs at ranged in tactics if you want them to use archery or spells and stat away from the boss.

[Neon_Chaos]

To those who have made it past Redcliff castle...

Spoiler

I knocked out the arlessa and gutted little Connor with a knife. Jeez, I feel bad about it too.

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by Calis

From what I've read the NPC cast is VERY Tank heavy. You still have options obviously if you go tank, but you'll be a lot more limited if say you can't stand one of the characters. I'm not sure on numbers though, but I believe Rogues are few and far between for instance. I'd say go with what you want, but if you're up in the air between two of the classes maybe steer clear of the fighter route.

Tonight I got the urge to see another one of the origins so I started over as an Elf Mage and man do Mages seem a helluva lot easier at least initially than Rogues. I built my Mage from the start to race for Fireball ASAP and was able to get it at I believe 3rd level, and that is a freaking wrecking ball. It's been smooth sailing with this guy and doing a little tweaking on tactics.

So far I have found two tanks (including Alistair), a rogue and two mages. I'm sure there will be more in time. As for Fireball, that would terrify me - with all the chaotic melees you see in this game I'd worry I would cook my own party as much as the enemy.

[Calis]

Yeah I should clarify that I use fireball only as a fight starter. You can usually time when a group aggros and lay down one in their path and do some pretty massive damage to start the fight. It also knocks them down which gives you a chance to get your other guys into the thick of it and finish them off before they get to your mage. It is pretty devastating but definitely not something you use constantly.

As for the NPCs I suppose this can be a mild spoiler(just on the number of npcs and classes, but ignore if you want)



I read that there are 5 or 6 fighter party members(Plus a dog depending on case), and two each of Mages and Rogues. So you have options but definitely tank heavy. In my opinion so far you really should have two mages in your party, one functioning as a cleric and the other as a traditional mage. This means not a lot of options if you don't go Mage, but that's not an issue unless you really dislike one of the party mages.

I fully intend to play as a Dwarf Warrior soon so I can see one of their origins as well. I'm curious about that one.

[Galaril]

I got out of Lothering and made a b-track straight for the elf lands the Breccelian Forest. I will not give any spoilers but it is off the beaten path from where most people have been going but cool. The story is very interesting to say the least and has me a wee bit anxious with what can happen to your character. I will leave it at that

Spoiler

the Breccelian Forest has werewolves for all the were beast lovers out there. And the elves are alot more bad ass then the pussy servants in the human areas.

[spleen1015]

Looks like the first PC patch is out.

hxxp://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/61158

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Looks like the first PC patch is out.

hxxp://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/61158

So for those who were worried about the difficultly in combat Bioware's patch addresses that:

As well as fixing several bugs, the patch--which has already been deployed to Steam players--tweaks the RPG's difficulty by slightly boosting the combat stats of all party members on the 'Normal' setting and making 'Easy' easier. The full changelog follows.

* Fixed potential corruption of character statistics.
* Fixed portrait appearance sliders when importing a character from the downloadable Character Creator.
* Fixed import for preset face settings from the downloadable Character Creator.
* Made Easy difficulty easier.
* Slightly increased attack, defense, and damage scores for all party members at Normal difficulty.
* Fixed video issues when running on a very wide screen display, including ATI Eyefinity displays.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by Calis

It wasn't David Gaider was it? Thatd fit as he is the lead writer on Dragon Age and has been there since I think the first Baldur's Gate, but definiteluy the 2nd.

Yep, that's the guy (and cool that he's the lead writer). He released some awesome mods for the expansion to BGII that improved some of the boss fights, some of which were originally supposed to be in the game but got toned down by the Powers That Be.

[Vince, Pt. II]

To clarify my statements about "combat is difficult..."

Combat isn't really all that crazy - you just have to be paying attention. If you are used to the whole "hold down the A button to have everyone auto-attack until everything is dead" strategy from most classic RPG's, you're not going to get very far in this game. I have grown incredibly fond of my Spacebar - pausing the game after every two seconds or so. The only real complaint I have so far about the gameplay during combat is that it's not very easy to keep an eye on your party's health AND what's going on all at the same time. I've taken to pausing constantly simply to make sure someone's not getting wrecked that I'm not paying attention to. As long as you are coordinating your party's attacks (the '=' key for selecting your whole party is very good for this), the enemies go down fairly quickly and a fight that seems overwhelming at first becomes much more manageable.

Basically, the combat is such that even a completely random encounter can kill you if you aren't paying attention - but as long as you're keeping an eye on things, it's not impossible.

I'm currently running a party of Warrior/Warrior/Mage/Dog (both Warriors with Sword and Shield and the Mage a damage dealer as opposed to a healer...I'm blowing through Healing Salves like you wouldn't believe) and I've found that even having two "tanks," my damage output is plenty.

A question about party composition...I managed to recruit someone into my party. I wasn't aware that the party was capped at 4, however, and I didn't want to sit any of the four I currently had, so I exited the party selection screen without adding her. I don't know if I missed it or what, but there was no Codex explanation for the party system, and no in-game context for what happened to the priestess. How do I access the group makeup screen to add this girl back in later if I want? Or is that even possible?

[aran]

I think the second button from the right at the top menu on the screen lets you change party members when you're in a town.

I've started up a mage--I have a feeling the games going to be a lot easier than it is with my Archer Rogue, who has I think is severely underpowered. He has high cunning so he's a great talker, but he doesn't do much aside from occasional debuffs and OK damage in combat. The mage is so much more useful and versatile.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by aran

I think the second button from the right at the top menu on the screen lets you change party members when you're in a town.

I've started up a mage--I have a feeling the games going to be a lot easier than it is with my Archer Rogue, who has I think is severely underpowered. He has high cunning so he's a great talker, but he doesn't do much aside from occasional debuffs and OK damage in combat. The mage is so much more useful and versatile.

Rogues are rather underpowered right now, especially when compared to mages. The lead dev stated today that class balance and a dagger damage buff are going to be coming in future patches.

[spleen1015]

DA:O is my first release day purchase from D2D. I assume I have to wait for D2D to make the patch available, right?

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

DA:O is my first release day purchase from D2D. I assume I have to wait for D2D to make the patch available, right?

No, the official patch will work.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Atocep

No, the official patch will work.

Awesome. Thanks.

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

A question about party composition...I managed to recruit someone into my party. I wasn't aware that the party was capped at 4, however, and I didn't want to sit any of the four I currently had, so I exited the party selection screen without adding her. I don't know if I missed it or what, but there was no Codex explanation for the party system, and no in-game context for what happened to the priestess. How do I access the group makeup screen to add this girl back in later if I want? Or is that even possible?

The easiest way I have seen is every time you leave your party camp it gives you the option to select whoever you want in your party.

[Scoobz0202]

Anybody on the 360 have trouble with the targeting?

Loving the game so far but I find in battles, when shit is really starting to hit the fan, I have trouble cycling through the targets and it gets really frustrating when I am dieing and just cant fucking target somebody.

[Calis]

I've been playing through as a Rogue and Mage, was more interested in playing Rogue but I'm finding the Mage to be a lot more fun to play and has loads of utility. Two mages in a party is definitely powerful stuff, especially running two different weapon buff auras.

Let me vent on one thing I hate design-wise. The fact that they made tactics tied to skill points use was a horrible idea. You put a real nice and useful AI scripting portion to your game and you make people not want to use it by making it cost skill points to level up.

The party AI in general is pretty horrific if you're not micromanaging. People stand around a lot, run back and forth, and when an enemy gets knocked down they seem completely at a loss and just wait for them to get back up.

Not a huge deal, but it's probably my biggest annoyance with the game so far. Apart from that I'm having a blast.

Toolset was released also, I'm having some issues getting that to start but anxious to look around in it.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by brassmonkey32

Does this game use the D & D rules?

No. It is a completely new rule set.

[Mustang]

Playing a female elf mage. They did a nice job with the dialogue with the character that you are talking to realizing that you are a female. (Use of the word she, her and some of the comments being female driven)

Definitely get a level of attachment (or disdain) for certain characters.

[Atocep]

One of the little things that really impresses me with this game is how the character's eyes move. They actually blink and the eyes will twitch a little. It makes the characters seem more human and less zombie like, which you see in most other games.

[Calis]

Creepy thing in the game is the gore and effects for cutscenes. You can get in a small skirmish and go to a cutscene and be drenched in blood. No one seems to mind either.

Which I'm ok with, but it reached another level of creepiness when you fight a boss or character that gives up and say you finish him with a fireball it will go directly into conversation mode and you will be talking to a guy enfulfed in flames the entire time.

Sorta amusing actually.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Atocep

One of the little things that really impresses me with this game is how the character's eyes move. They actually blink and the eyes will twitch a little. It makes the characters seem more human and less zombie like, which you see in most other games.

I noticed this as well, but with one notable exception. In the first camp after your origin story, there's a nurse/medic chick dealing with some guy who is raving. She looked downright creepy, and I think it was because of a lack of motion that most (all?) the other characters seem to have.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Sigh, I am getting DESTROYED in Redcliffe Village. So much for Combat isn't that hard

[terpkristin]

Alright, I've never played D&D and I've never played a game that gave this many options for me right from the get-go. I just got my copy for the 360, and I have to say, I'm completely overwhelmed. I don't even know where to start with character creation...I mean, I get the jist of how the attributes work and stuff, but...

Anybody have any tips? Any recommendations of if I should play on Casual or Normal?

/tk

[Peregrine]

I would recommend starting on normal - that way if something is too hard you can always move down to easier if you need to. As far as making characters - basically you have stats, which depending on your character type you will need different things, skills - these are things like crafting (traps, potions, poisons) as well as other important ones like combat training. You don't get as many chances to improve your skills so make sure you're comfortable with what you pick.

As far as powers - it depends a lot on your class. For rogues having the lockpicking/trap disarming skill is nice. For mages - getting the Heal spell I view as critical, and after that there are tons of options. If you have a warrior it may be best to choose one area and focus on it - like two handers, sword and shield, etc.

Not much here but I hope it helps.

[Peregrine]

Also, after playing a decent bit through the game with my rogue, I restarted with a mage - it's been like night and day so far. The mage just has so much more utility - heals, damage, buffs, crowd control - it has made a lot of the fights that were hard with my rogue a lot easier, and I'm having more fun.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Man, this is starting to get frustrating. I feel like I'm doing something wrong here...this battle is looking quite impossible.

Edit - I'm going to back out to a prior save and try to go somewhere else...this section of the game is just not working for me right now (Redcliffe Village).

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Man, this is starting to get frustrating. I feel like I'm doing something wrong here...this battle is looking quite impossible.

Edit - I'm going to back out to a prior save and try to go somewhere else...this section of the game is just not working for me right now (Redcliffe Village).

Spoiler

I lost my first time too, then changed strategy. I put my party on defense to keep them inside the barricades and forced the corpses to be funnelled to me, which made them easier to swarm and take down quicker before they built up a big force. If you get spread out you are screwed here. Also make sure your melee fighters have tactics set to use health potions under 50%. When I ran it this way the second time I lost no party members and only two town militia died.

[Edward64]

Anyone know if X1600 will work with this game? (even at lowest detail settings?)

Probably too much to ask if a notebook GMA950 will work also?

[Calis]

That Redcliff Village part was the first huge difficulty spike in the game imo. That was the first point I got a wipe and it wasn't even close. I was able to pass it the 2nd try though and managed to not even have anyone die.

I really do love the Mage though. When I focused a little more and managed my people the 2nd time I was pretty devastating teamed up with Morganna. There's great spell combos you can pull off, such as having Morrigan use Mind Blast on a huge group of them and then quickly moving my guys back enough that I can lay down a fireball and things end up going great. Still a lot of healing potions and mana potions, but it worked.

I just went veered off the main story and did the two DLC sidequests I got with the Deluxe edition and I enjoyed them. I really thought the Warden's Keep one was well done. I liked the story and there were 1 or 2 tough decisions. I think the game is doing a great job of not making everything so Good/Neutral/Evil. I really am not sure where some of my actions would land.

It was a good quest, but I could see people complaining it is a bit short for the price. I think it took me about 45 minutes to go through, maybe an hour. I enjoyed it though so no complaints.

The Shale quest wasn't as good, but that one does gain you a possible party member so that's the main thrust of it. Shale is a beast also, although I don't know how much I'll use him because I like having Alistair around for story purposes and I like to go Mage and Rogue with my other two slots. I'll toss him in occasionally though and am curious to see how much banter they put in for him.(I love the banter, great way to build the character personalities without stopping the game).

[BYU 14]

If you liked the spike in the Village difficulty wait until you get to a certain part of the Castle.

[Eaglesfan27]

While I'm generally against micro transactions, I'm considering getting Warden's keep. Anyone have it? Is it worth the extra money? My game game with codes for the other available "additional" material.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Spoiler

I lost my first time too, then changed strategy. I put my party on defense to keep them inside the barricades and forced the corpses to be funnelled to me, which made them easier to swarm and take down quicker before they built up a big force. If you get spread out you are screwed here. Also make sure your melee fighters have tactics set to use health potions under 50%. When I ran it this way the second time I lost no party members and only two town militia died.

Spoiler

I'll have to try that again, but I did that before and the NPC's just ran out and got wrecked, then we got overwhelmed. I've tried swarming out there to keep the NPC's alive as damage soakers, but eventually my mage gets targetted and I have to waste all my Healing Salves on her, and then once we go down to the barricades by the lake, we are screwed. I think what's killing me is I have absolutely NO AoE. Morrigan is my Mage, and she has gotten zero levels since I got her. I have no healing spells, and my only real "Oh Shit!" button is Mind Blast, which invariably draws all aggro to Morrigan, who then gets smushed, and I'm screwed.

I didn't get to attempt it, but I went over the the forest to the East and talked with a bunch of people then saved on a separate file. I'll have to see if this area is as difficult as Redcliffe.

[Galaril]

Someone has started to document alot of the tricks, tips and more hidden features of the game:
DAO Missing Manual:
http://dragonage.gulbsoft.org/doku.php

[MajikMan77]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Spoiler

I'll have to try that again, but I did that before and the NPC's just ran out and got wrecked, then we got overwhelmed. I've tried swarming out there to keep the NPC's alive as damage soakers, but eventually my mage gets targetted and I have to waste all my Healing Salves on her, and then once we go down to the barricades by the lake, we are screwed. I think what's killing me is I have absolutely NO AoE. Morrigan is my Mage, and she has gotten zero levels since I got her. I have no healing spells, and my only real "Oh Shit!" button is Mind Blast, which invariably draws all aggro to Morrigan, who then gets smushed, and I'm screwed.

I didn't get to attempt it, but I went over the the forest to the East and talked with a bunch of people then saved on a separate file. I'll have to see if this area is as difficult as Redcliffe.

I had alot of difficulty on this part of the game as well (yet to advance beyond the next part or venture to an alternative area either) but I just cheesed it once my party died.

Spoiler

Move back up the hill and pull the enemy into the Knights and slowly you will win the battle.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by MajikMan77

I had alot of difficulty on this part of the game as well (yet to advance beyond the next part or venture to an alternative area either) but I just cheesed it once my party died.

Spoiler

Move back up the hill and pull the enemy into the Knights and slowly you will win the battle.

Ah, I thought about that but had yet to implement. Seems pretty weak though

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm also loving this game. I'm playing an elf mage who I plan on roleplaying as being neutral good in alignment, and the choices you make even early in the origins story are some of the most interesting choices I've seen in a computer RPG. Just spent about 10 minutes thinking through one of the choices and I'm still second guessing myself on it.

[ShaneTheMaster]

I haven't played an RPG regularly since I was a kid, and I am having fun with this one. This may be the best one since the Ultima series in the 80's.

[Neon_Chaos]

Damn. Took me almost an hour to finish the "Gauntlet" puzzle. I feel so incompetent.

[Calis]

Starting to be some nice little mods popping out to change things a bit. The most important one imo is the one that fixes daggers to base damage 50/50 on Str/Dex rather than only strength as it does now. This will go a long ways towards making rogues less gimpy. It also mods shortbows to be dex-based as well so they're not completely useless.

The downside is this goes for enemies as well, so you can expect archer and rogue enemies to be significantly tougher. I'm ok with that though and think I will use this one.

I've also seen one that maxes out your inventory space if you're not a fan of the limit and the exorbitant costs of backpacks. Also one that adds a chest to store things in your camp.

Also one that gives you 25 tactics slots for characters which I'm contemplating. Be nice to set-up some more intricate AI.

As for difficulty I'm oddly finding it a little easier post-Redcliff. Might just be that the characters really start to come in their own when you hit level 10+. I can't drag myself away from a 2 Mage/1 Tank/1 Rogue party though, so I feel like I'm missing out on some good party interactions. I'm not particularly fond of Morrigan also so I hope to find another Mage soon.

The game almost seems like it would really benefit from a 5 person party. That would allow you a lot more room to customize your party and would alleviate most of the difficulty issues. Maybe make the dog a pet rather than a party member. Obviously that'd create a whole new set of balance issues, but I would have loved to see it. I'm not sure if something along those lines could be modded. Seems like that would break a lot of things, but these modders are crafty.

[Qwikshot]

Originally Posted by Calis

Starting to be some nice little mods popping out to change things a bit. The most important one imo is the one that fixes daggers to base damage 50/50 on Str/Dex rather than only strength as it does now. This will go a long ways towards making rogues less gimpy. It also mods shortbows to be dex-based as well so they're not completely useless.

The downside is this goes for enemies as well, so you can expect archer and rogue enemies to be significantly tougher. I'm ok with that though and think I will use this one.

I've also seen one that maxes out your inventory space if you're not a fan of the limit and the exorbitant costs of backpacks. Also one that adds a chest to store things in your camp.

Also one that gives you 25 tactics slots for characters which I'm contemplating. Be nice to set-up some more intricate AI.

As for difficulty I'm oddly finding it a little easier post-Redcliff. Might just be that the characters really start to come in their own when you hit level 10+. I can't drag myself away from a 2 Mage/1 Tank/1 Rogue party though, so I feel like I'm missing out on some good party interactions. I'm not particularly fond of Morrigan also so I hope to find another Mage soon.

The game almost seems like it would really benefit from a 5 person party. That would allow you a lot more room to customize your party and would alleviate most of the difficulty issues. Maybe make the dog a pet rather than a party member. Obviously that'd create a whole new set of balance issues, but I would have loved to see it. I'm not sure if something along those lines could be modded. Seems like that would break a lot of things, but these modders are crafty.

I agree on the chest at camp to dump things into.

For now I really use Alister, Morrigan, and Zervren which has been an interesting series of interaction. (I also like that sometimes all three interact with each other unlike say a conversation between the two; also interaction at camp with the dog is great - you'll talk to the dog and one of your other characters will be seen interacting with the dog, much better than say "pet the dog")

I did lower the difficulty level as I'm having a hard time grasping strategy (playing a mage). But I'm looking forward to replaying as this game has a bunch of option, so it's not much of a loss.

I did bring along Leliana, Sten and Morrigan to one location to check out the banter, and boy does Sten come off negatively to me.

I think the one change I would want is an open or knock spell to open chests, removes the need for a rogue though Zevren is at least decent in combat (to my recollection, not a stat cruncher). I'd much rather have two tanks and two mages, though I think I did remarkably well with Wynne, Morrigan, myself and Alister in some locations (buffer/healer, damager, damager, and defender).

I really like this game, I have to set the stove top to one hour intervals or I would be staying in front of the television all day.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I'm also loving this game. I'm playing an elf mage who I plan on roleplaying as being neutral good in alignment, and the choices you make even early in the origins story are some of the most interesting choices I've seen in a computer RPG. Just spent about 10 minutes thinking through one of the choices and I'm still second guessing myself on it.

I've just envisioned the type of character traits I wanted in my mind and I've been just been going with whatever response fits that the best. Seems the comments range from Nice to Assholish and some gray in between. Usually there is a comment in the gray area that matches how I've been playing the character so, I've stuck to those as opposed to trying to figure out which one will give me the most benefit. If my character is going to be cocky and funny, I'm going to pick cocky and funny...

Wish I could put more time into this game, but seems I'm only playing about an hour a night so, I've only logged around 6 hours so far (3% done.. yeesh!)

I'm not a big fan of these tactics though. I'm getting better at it, but is very frustrating to see NPC's just hanging around doing nothing while I'm fighting. As a lower level mage, cone of cold is pretty sweet and I just picked up fireball last night too.

[Qwikshot]

I don't have to worry about friendly fire, but I did notice that your cohorts do run out of the area if you set off tempest or inferno, I however stay right in the middle and this easily clears the room.

It stated last night that I had clocked in about 19:31 hours...

[Mustang]

Where have the mods been showing up?

[Calis]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Where have the mods been showing up?

Most of the ones I found just by browsing through the toolset forums on the social site.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/category/8/index

Not sure if there is a go to filesite yet for it, I think the Social Site is supposed to be but that thing is still a bit of a mess.

[Atocep]

For those with the DLC, I've found Shale to be a very entertaining and useful party member.

I don't think either DLC is worth the price really, but at least I get some laughs out of Shale.

[Eaglesfan27]

Playing this tonight, I find myself thinking how much more graphically advanced this is than Neverwinter Nights 2's various expansions, yet the camera is much smoother. I'm not very far into the game yet, but this seems like one of the most polished computer releases in a while.

[Radii]

I bought this through steam last night and spent most of the day today playing. Single player RPGs are very hit or miss with me, so I didn't really know what to expect. After a day's play I can say without a doubt that I've never been sucked into an RPG as much as I am with this game. I love it. I'm pretty tired, am finishing up some work and really ought to sleep but I can already tell there's a good chance I'll play for a few more hours instead :P

I'm playing a mage focused on healing and crowd control(glyphs/stuns, etc). I know its going to get a lot harder, but so far setting up tactics so that my party will focus fire the closest enemy while I sit back and heal and lay down a few stuns is working like a dream.