Dragon Age: Origins

[sabotai]

I started off with a Rogue, but like others have said, it's pretty underpowered. I did specialize in Ranger, and summoning a Wolf (then Bear, then Spider) was cool and added some power.

I decided to go with my Mage though. My evil, total bitch of an elf mage. Pretty fun answering every question with an attitude.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by sabotai

I decided to go with my Mage though. My evil, total bitch of an elf mage. Pretty fun answering every question with an attitude.

Assuming your elf mage is a female, sounds like you are playing the same character as me.

Bet mine is hotter though.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Assuming your elf mage is a female, sounds like you are playing the same character as me.

Bet mine is hotter though.

Probably. The lighting is kinda bad during character creation. I created a mega-red-headed-hottie, but once she was put into the world....oops a few details.

[KWhit]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Assuming your elf mage is a female, sounds like you are playing the same character as me.

Bet mine is hotter though.

She can't beat my Laura (female elf mage hotness).

[BrianD]

Interesting to see so many female elf mages. I almost always play these games as a mage, but rarely as an elf and almost never female. For some reason I chose female elf mage for this game. Apparently that was a popular pick.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Interesting to see so many female elf mages.

That is because deep down, we are all geeks that want to bang a female elf.

[Calis]

Weird, I also picked Female Elf Mage, and all three of those choices are unusual for me.

Who are people finding as their favorite NPC so far, either personality or combat-wise?

I'm liking Shale a fair amount although I'm not using him often. The problem is I only use 1 tank and that's defaulted to Alistair because he is basically the designated partymember. Shale is definitely evoking the personality of HK-47 and has some pretty great lines. He is also a wrecking machine. I mostly only use him when I'm doing sidequests and not advancing the story.

Alistair is growing on me a little. I've got him decked out in a full set of Dragon Armor and wielding this Meteor Sword I had made and he is working very well as a meatshield.

I don't like Morrigan. I keep using her to have a 2nd Mage but I'm not a fan.
Sten I basically haven't used. He just doesn't appeal to me. I will try him out more in a 2nd runthrough.

I have the two rogues as well and I usually bring one of them along, depending on the situation. They're both decent dialog and combat-wise.

Another thing I'm loving is the way the origin story keeps reappearing throughout. I'm not sure how much it will keep doing this, but I've had the mage origin pop back up several times. It is really well done and I'm impressed with how specific some of the dialog is. I can't imagine how much work and how many lines are in this game.

[BYU 14]

I like Alistair the most so far, though Morrigan has grown on me in the way a mongrel dog does. She is a royal bitch and negative about everything, but still fascinates me, mostly because I keep thinking I am going to break through and soften her up I guess.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Mustang

That is because deep down, we are all geeks that want to bang a female elf.

Wouldn't that be a reason to make a male elf? I've got a male elf mage who is morphing more into a lawful good character. My next character will probably be evil. I've never played a female character in RP games, but I might try one in this game eventually.

[Vince, Pt. II]

I'm not very far into the game, but I am really enjoying the interplay of Morrigan and Alistair. Alistair's one-liners are great - I particularly enjoyed the exchange between the two of them when talking to the young girl who's brother is lost in Redcliffe Village.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by KWhit

She can't beat my Laura (female elf mage hotness).

There must be some type of female elf mage handbook that says they must look similar

[BYU 14]

The Fade

Spoiler

Been on this area almost 3 hours now and I have to say the diverse combat options and their consequences shine through as strong as ever since you are on your own. Being a Rogue is very helpful as stealth allows me to scout each situation and decide which of the "powers" I have acquired is best suited to each situation. The Golem transformation is deadly and just when I thought I could walk through the rest of an area remaining in this form and crush everything I run into a situation that required finesse and skirmish tactics and got my ass kicked. Switching between the Burning Man and Spirit transformations I employed crowd control and ranged fire balls, before going back to Golem to finish the battle off. I love the fact that combat is as much mental in this game as it is hack and slash. I still have two of my party members to release from their nightmares and the final battle, so looking at least at another hour plus in here.

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

The Fade

Spoiler

Been on this area almost 3 hours now and I have to say the diverse combat options and their consequences shine through as strong as ever since you are on your own. Being a Rogue is very helpful as stealth allows me to scout each situation and decide which of the "powers" I have acquired is best suited to each situation. The Golem transformation is deadly and just when I thought I could walk through the rest of an area remaining in this form and crush everything I run into a situation that required finesse and skirmish tactics and got my ass kicked. Switching between the Burning Man and Spirit transformations I employed crowd control and ranged fire balls, before going back to Golem to finish the battle off. I love the fact that combat is as much mental in this game as it is hack and slash. I still have two of my party members to release from their nightmares and the final battle, so looking at least at another hour plus in here.

Spoiler

Once you get all four powers, this part is pretty much straightforward.

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Wouldn't that be a reason to make a male elf?

Male elves are still female elves.

[Peregrine]

Has anyone found enchanting useful at all? I have tons of exotic magical items but everytime I try to get something enchanted it tells me I have no items that can be enchanted. So I have to question the inclusion of the system when, it seems, no item in the game can actually be enchanted.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

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

This was the first/only time I've intentionally looked for a spoiler so far.

Spoiler

I looked up the block puzzle thingy for crossing the bridge. I'm sure I could have figured it out, but it just really felt kinda bleh compared to all the stuff going on and I lost patience.

However, the rest of the Gauntlet, the look back to a past decision(at least for me), and *especially* fighting a mirror copy of your group, that was my favorite thing I've done in the game so far.

And lastly, the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade vibe was kinda cool I thought.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Has anyone found enchanting useful at all? I have tons of exotic magical items but everytime I try to get something enchanted it tells me I have no items that can be enchanted. So I have to question the inclusion of the system when, it seems, no item in the game can actually be enchanted.

I've gotten a few drops that I could enchant. Look for empty squares at the bottom of a weapon's description popup, where it tells you its stats, etc. Think socketing in WoW.

I just stuck a "Master Paralysis" enchant on a badass 2h great axe I found for Sten, I haven't gone out and fought anything with it yet though.

[Celeval]

Is it safe to say that if you can run the character creator without issue, you'll be able to run the game without issue (in terms of graphics)?

[Calis]

I've enchanted several weapons and it can make a pretty massive difference. Alistair is using a sword forged out of Meteor(think this is specific to Warden's Keep) and it has 3 enchantment slots that I've filled with Master Lightning. Zevran has daggers filled with stun and slow enchants.

There aren't a ton of enchantable items, but I have 5 or 6. Like mentioned, just look for the empty squares.

As for the character creator I wouldn't think that would equate to the game at all. There's one model on the screen doing nothing, and fights can get pretty large and intensive. If you're asking in general if it will even start, then its probably a decent bet it will.

[Celeval]

Originally Posted by Calis

As for the character creator I wouldn't think that would equate to the game at all. There's one model on the screen doing nothing, and fights can get pretty large and intensive. If you're asking in general if it will even start, then its probably a decent bet it will.

That's basically it. The machine I'd be playing on if (when) I eventually pick this up is reasonably robust CPU/RAM wise, but it's essentially a business laptop so the video card leaves something to be desired.

[TargetPractice6]

Finally took some time to dive into the game tonight... oh man, I can already tell this is one is going to seriously eat away some time. Those who were saying the story is inspired by George RR Martin were obviously not joking.

Anyone playing the human noble origin story catch the Colbert "truthiness" reference? I got a chuckle out of it.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Female elves have that grapes of wrath 1000 yard stare and slightly withered look.

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

Female elves have that grapes of wrath 1000 yard stare and slightly withered look.

Considering that elves in this game are more or less Okies anyway...

[aran]

I started up a human mage. Wow is the game easier than it was with my elf archer. It's absolutely ridiculous. I went down the ice branch of the primal tree. Cone of Frost is so great. I open most battles with it to devastating effect.

Most of the time, i can stunlock enemies for the entire battle and maybe take 20 combined points of damage. If I have to heal, I can cast a quick heal spell. I have only used on lesser poultice when I was out of mana. Aside from that, it's been a bit easier. It's also more fun to play a mage. Much more tactical than just shooting a bow at stuff. Managing mana leads to some interesting spellcasting decisions.

[Qwikshot]

I beat it last night as an elf mage.

I told my fiance that I can't wait for this weekend to play it straight through again.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by Qwikshot

I beat it last night as an elf mage.

I told my fiance that I can't wait for this weekend to play it straight through again.

I see Rosie Palm and her five sisters in someones near future

[JPhillips]

Is there any purpose to gemstones, private documents and vellum or should I sell them?

[sabotai]

I just sell them. I have not found any way to actually use them. I'm thinking the devs put in "useless" stuff like that so that MOD makers could make use of them (but I have not seen much of the game yet so there might be some use for them at some point).

[Calis]

Well I can say at least with the gems I'd try to keep them if you can afford the space. It isn't game critical but there are quests involving some of them.

Of course I sold everything also. I'm not sure on the other items.

[tyketime]

Here was my unintentionally creative way to survive the onslaught at Redcliffe Village

Spoiler

I/We won the first half of the battle, and then we were called down to the barracks. The Undead kept coming and coming, eventually overwhelming my party. I was the last one left, so I started running back up the hill. The Knights were still engaged in battle, but were slowly dying out. Eventually, it was just me and about 7 Undead. I ran back down the hill and noticed they were following me in a straight line (lemming like). Every minute or so, my mana recharged enough that I could fire off my next spell to the closest enemy, so I Paused the Game and selected the spell. As soon as it triggered, I started running again. I circled around the docks again and again, repeating this same process. I eventually killed the remaining Undead near me. But when the battle music continued, I assumed I had to go back up the hill to face more. Imagine my shock when I passed my dead comrades that they revived (I thought this only happened after the battle was complete). I regenerated and healed them, and we continued up the hill to get my 4th party member. There was one last Undead to kill, which was now no problem with a full party of four. It probably took 20 - 30 minutes, but the Battle was won, dawn came, and we all lived to fight another day. What a crazy but inventive way to stay alive long enough to kill them all, huh?

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by tyketime

Here was my unintentionally creative way to survive the onslaught at Redcliffe Village

Spoiler

I/We won the first half of the battle, and then we were called down to the barracks. The Undead kept coming and coming, eventually overwhelming my party. I was the last one left, so I started running back up the hill. The Knights were still engaged in battle, but were slowly dying out. Eventually, it was just me and about 7 Undead. I ran back down the hill and noticed they were following me in a straight line (lemming like). Every minute or so, my mana recharged enough that I could fire off my next spell to the closest enemy, so I Paused the Game and selected the spell. As soon as it triggered, I started running again. I circled around the docks again and again, repeating this same process. I eventually killed the remaining Undead near me. But when the battle music continued, I assumed I had to go back up the hill to face more. Imagine my shock when I passed my dead comrades that they revived (I thought this only happened after the battle was complete). I regenerated and healed them, and we continued up the hill to get my 4th party member. There was one last Undead to kill, which was now no problem with a full party of four. It probably took 20 - 30 minutes, but the Battle was won, dawn came, and we all lived to fight another day. What a crazy but inventive way to stay alive long enough to kill them all, huh?

Spoiler

Did you find the oil in the warehouse to the southern docks? Informing the guard captain of this makes the undead pass through walls of fire before making it through the barrier.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

Considering that elves in this game are more or less Okies anyway...

I should have figured a Texan would say that..lol

[Apathetic Lurker]

So, for those who own it.. 2 gigs of ram with vista enough?

[Neon_Chaos]

I think the game has a memory leak somewhere. I'm far into the game and my CPU usage is constantly at 100%, threatening to overheat my CPU.

[ShaneTheMaster]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

So, for those who own it.. 2 gigs of ram with vista enough?

I don't think 2 gigs is enough to just run Vista

I have 8 gigs of RAM, so I honestly couldn't tell you.

[-apoc-]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

I think the game has a memory leak somewhere. I'm far into the game and my CPU usage is constantly at 100%, threatening to overheat my CPU.

I am pretty sure it does but I find that saving and closing the game to desktop after a few hours and then restarting helps. If you notice the loading screens take longer and longer a you go along but restarting the game worked well enough for me.

[Mustang]

Wish I was further along. Blah.

Morrigan really warms up to you when you do the rough stuff.. like when I threatened the Reverend Mother. Allistair's approval dropped 13 points while Morrigan went up.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

So, for those who own it.. 2 gigs of ram with vista enough?

I have 2 gigs of RAM and running Vista and it runs smoothly for me.

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by -apoc-

I am pretty sure it does but I find that saving and closing the game to desktop after a few hours and then restarting helps. If you notice the loading screens take longer and longer a you go along but restarting the game worked well enough for me.

I have resorted to allocating only one core for the game. Less heat.

[Eaglesfan27]

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.

Have you (or anyone) added these mods midway through the game and if so has it caused any issues with the campaign? I foolishly didn't buy the first backpack that was available for sale (which was relatively cheap) and am now facing a 7 gold 50 silver charge for the 2nd backpack available. That would eat most of my money and has me considering either the chest or backpack mod. Plus, I want to use the dagger/bow damage fix.

[Calis]

Yep. I've actually put in quite a few mods midway through my game. I'm using the backpack mod, the chest in party camp, the tactic slot upgrade, the str/dex fix, and I even used a respec mod so I could respect some of the NPC's who have some oddball skill selections defined when you get them.

I haven't ran into any issues yet. I think you have to be careful about removing them before patching the game again though. Some of the mods won't take effect until you level or some sort of trigger, but no problem using midway through.

[MizzouRah]

So the game runs on a normal pc ok? My video card is only a GeForce 8600 GTS 256 MB.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

So the game runs on a normal pc ok? My video card is only a GeForce 8600 GTS 256 MB.

That's what I have and I can run on medium settings fine. Only occasionally do I see any lag.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Calis

Yep. I've actually put in quite a few mods midway through my game. I'm using the backpack mod, the chest in party camp, the tactic slot upgrade, the str/dex fix, and I even used a respec mod so I could respect some of the NPC's who have some oddball skill selections defined when you get them.

I haven't ran into any issues yet. I think you have to be careful about removing them before patching the game again though. Some of the mods won't take effect until you level or some sort of trigger, but no problem using midway through.

Any chance you remember who created the backpack mod or where the mod is? I found one that says it give several backpack choices (20, 25, or more per backpack) but there doesn't seem to be an actual file attached to that thread.

[Calis]

http://dragonage.gulbsoft.org/doku.php/mods/easy_mod

This one is a little more complicated than just dropping a file in, you have to enable the console and type in a command but it's pretty straightforward and all explained on the site there. It basically just maxes out your backpack to 125 so buying any of the backpacks in-game will not increase the limit.

[Radii]

I just finished the game, I almost never replay games such as this, I'll probably read a bunch of spoiler site info on the various decision points. Some outstandingly tough decisions to make all the way to the end, and a great ending all around IMO. I'll have to let it sit awhile before declaring it the game of the decade, but it's got to be in contention.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

That's what I have and I can run on medium settings fine. Only occasionally do I see any lag.

Thanks!

[CleBrownsfan]

Originally Posted by Radii

I just finished the game, I almost never replay games such as this, I'll probably read a bunch of spoiler site info on the various decision points. Some outstandingly tough decisions to make all the way to the end, and a great ending all around IMO. I'll have to let it sit awhile before declaring it the game of the decade, but it's got to be in contention.

How many hours did it take you to beat it? Did you do a lot of the side quest? I have 17 hours in and I feel I'm just breaking the surface...

[Radii]

Originally Posted by CleBrownsfan

How many hours did it take you to beat it? Did you do a lot of the side quest? I have 17 hours in and I feel I'm just breaking the surface...

Steam says I played 63 hours. I didn't backtrack for many sidequests, so if I was in a zone I would spend as long as it took to do a sidequest but if a sidequest sent me to Redcliffe and I was already done in Redcliffe I didn't bother to go back.

I suspect I could have spent another 10-15 hours on sidequests.

[TargetPractice6]

Just finished the Redcliffe onsalught and I'm hard pressed to thing of an RPG battle that had me more on the edge of my seat. I'd already wiped once and it seemed like it was inevitable again, but with my mage down and only a few healing potions left I finally stemmed the tide. Loving this game.