Dragon Age

[Kerech]

I had been playing a Dwarf commoner, so last night I decided to try a different starting line. Tried out an Elf mage and wow, that's certainly different. I'm used to MMO's where I target the mob and then click a spell. Getting used to clicking the spell first and then the target is taking some getting used to

I love the Elf mage starting line though, the "harrowing" quest is just a wonderful way to start off a new character.

I've downloaded the toolset and plan on tinkering with making my own mods for this game, but I'm too hooked on playing it right now

[Frith-Rae]

If you're having issues in the fights - I suggest pausing each wave/set/whatever and just handprogram all the AI guys as well as your own. You can literally do this every single action - if its a particular hard area.

Also yea, under your parties character pictures there are two little buttons - if you hit one it highlights your WHOLE party, causing them to all attack whatever your target is. Of course, make sure your "Tactics" are listed for each character in such a way that they WILL try to attack something - as oppose to just sit there/run away if hit.

I'm just now getting to the initial "big battle - go light the gong in the tower thingy" at the grey warden camp right after the tutorial (cuz I played through a couple of the starter plots just to see the variety).

So far my biggest gripe is all the frickin invisible walls!! I've not played an RPG that is supposedly so "grand in scale", with so many invisible walls!! I can't even jump down off a log or cut a corner on a hill..much less go down/around in areas that are off the path. Nope - not allowed.

Kinda odd - seems counterintuitive to everything else the game is trying to do. Something calling itself so "huge" shouldn't have so many frickin invisible walls dictating how you get somewhere.

So, that's an annoyance for me - somethign I noticed immediately in my first venture into the "wilds". Perhaps the maps open up a bit the more sub-quests you get (cuz right nowt he only one was to get the pup).

[Shian]

I believe I may have been misunderstood.... yes I was getting stuck at the "light the tower" stage. And of course I wasn't all that far into the game. Just how far had you expected me to get in an afternoon? :P

I'm having a much easier time defeating enemies now that the rooms are smaller.

I'm now out in the open with my Daelish Female and I've lost three days of my soul to this game...

My current goal in the game is consisting of finding all the Easter Eggs or otherwise 'amusing' things.

-At the Mage tower docks, behind a fence, two NPCs argue whether a "great power" has just made everything up for it's amusement.

-And who could forget the younger and elder Enchanter in the main city where the older one keeps botching chantras and preaching about bacon instead of the maker. (<3)

-Two random encounters out in the wild:
One where a mob of people ask you to take an axe out of a stump and declare you king of thier village
Another were you're standing over a gaping crater of a meteorite landing. A man and a woman (who's name is a slight variant on the Superman story) find a baby in the meteorite and take is home.

-In the Warden's Keep there is a whole list of names of wardens. Included among the references is Jason sans Argonauts.

I also can't help but put Morrigan and Alistar in EVERY party I make while out and about. Their banter makes me laugh each and every time. They're so precious together.

[Vaz]

I also can't help but put Morrigan and Alistar in EVERY party I make while out and about. Their banter makes me laugh each and every time. They're so precious together.

One of my male characters has Morrigan "Interested" and Alistair bantered with her about it. It was a priceless exchange but I hadn't the presence of mind to pause and write it down at the time; can't find it on Google or the DA:O Wikia, either.

[Shian]

I had Morrigan start out with:
"So, I wonder what would happen if two Grey Wardens... how do I put it?"

then I walked right into some other stupid NPCs arguing and it cut her off! I never got to hear the entire exchange, nor have I heard her say it since.

I found Alistar getting pestered by Wayne:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnXwMjXIHGs
I hate you.. you're a bad person lol.

[Kerech]

I found Alistar getting pestered by Wayne:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnXwMjXIHGs
I hate you.. you're a bad person lol.

LOL, that is awesome!

I haven't run into anything like that yet, but this game is incredibly deep. I love it!

[Shian]

One of my male characters has Morrigan "Interested" and Alistair bantered with her about it. It was a priceless exchange but I hadn't the presence of mind to pause and write it down at the time; can't find it on Google or the DA:O Wikia, either.

Was this it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkyI4v4cxc0

^^

[Tcei]

Hehe! I Finaly broke down and bought the game a few days ago. I get a big kick out of listening to the npcs. My female city elf gets alot of comments about her race and gender (Whats this? Refugees being led by an elf? I didnt know they let women be grey wardens... ect)

Edit: ZOMG! Those vids are presious!

[Nia]

Hi, all! Well as some of you know, I have been moving house and have no ISP at home... and I miss Horizons terrribly. So, I have to confess - I went out and bought DragonAge.

Now I was never a real bigtime gamer - I watched from the sidelines while my partner and my son played MechWarrior, Diablo, Unreal and UnrealTournament, etc., etc. and never felt any compunction to play although I was a webmistress on the popular OzUnreal website.

That was until 2004 when Horizons came out and I was an instant fan and one of the original members of the Mutiny on the Bounty Guild on Bounty shard. How I loved my little Nia and my plots and friends and other chars!!! Until *ta dum* the fateful consolidating of the servers... (the less said the better).

Fast forward to 2009 and I think more and more often re Horizons and *bingo* find it (as "Istaria") available for Vista and I sign up for gifteds in April as fast as Demetrious can resurrect my chars! Yay!

But {{{sniff}}} currently no ISP at home and no Horizons!!! What's a gnome to do??? ...go out and buy DragonAge, of course!

...

So here is Nia's take on DragonAge: starts out with a splash screen that doesn't seem to bear any resemblance to the game once you get into it (that woman *really* needs to get some sleep); you get treated to a Flash-like animation of the EA/Bioware logos straight out of 300 then the backstory: gorgeous! You're going: "effin' awesome, am I at the cinema or what?". So far, so good.

OK, char creation time... only 3 races and limited scenarios from there but graphics awesome. You can spend a week pissfarting around with mouth height, width, lipstick colour, density, etc. if you want or (in desperation) just go with the generic one. Phew! (Careful here with the portrait - can't change it once you pick it and move on... maybe the snarl wasn't such a good idea.)

Animation featuring Grey Warden Duncan (hey, does this guy have an older brother??? ) again has nice graphics and in-game, too. I am finding the choice from around four quotes very irritating (and if Jory says "Indeed!" one more time there will be PvP) and always the last one is totally lame (put in there I guess for the 13 y.o. audience). Limited inventory [oh, btw - I am currently playing as fem city elf in Ostegar (original Daelish elf didn't last too long) and this is on *easy* level]. The maps make me crazy. Liked the bit with the dogs. English accents go down well.

So, all in all for me it just feels like... like... like... Diablo in a party dress. No one has said yet "I have no womb" [LOL! - Diablo players will understand] and I seriously doubt that there will be a cow level. Pooh!

For me it's just a pretty-faced ho that I am admiring until I can play Horizons again. I am aware that it is a limitation of a PC-based game -v- an MMO but Horizons has me sucked in on just about all levels: the chars, the fellow chars and the RL people behind them, the plots, the crafting... and if the graphics are just a little too 2004 that's just too Goddamned bad... I'm in love.

Horizons, ur stuck with me!

Love and hugs -

Nia : Blight Shard : Chronicles of the Twisted Guild

[Vaz]

Was this it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkyI4v4cxc0

^^

Yes, thank you~

[Shian]

Okay, I played this game through on easy because the AI in this game is absolutely horrid on medium!

I have no idea why the game does this on Medium and not on easy. BF is insisting on playing the game on medium despite what I tell him and gets the following problems:

Aggro is also quite broken. Enemies will regularly go for Wynne when Alistar is using all of his aggro builders.

The other characters will also just stand around doing nothing despite what tactics you have set. Then when you give them a command, they ignore that command and do what their tactics tell them to. Ugh.

[RuneDragoon]

When I do play, one thing that I absolutely love listening to is your party speak to one another as you casually move round town. Sometimes you can get a few that catch you off guard and just are hilarious beyond reason... I find a lot of the great ones for me usually are with allister (allister admittedly is a favorite character), or the running joke that everyone but you can understand what the dog is saying when it barks and whines like... a dog. Heck, the dog got me into a max security prison without a fight by uh bluffing. Lol.

[Velea]

I just get frustrated with it sometimes because I feel like I know what I should be doing, but I can't figure out how to do it. For example, I feel like there should be a way into the Elven Alienage in Denerim, but I've yet to figure out how. Guess I need to delve deeper into the designers' heads.

[Vaz]

The Stone Prisoner DLC is quite worthwhile, by the way. Shale has surpassed Alistair as my favourite character.

[Velea]

I've got a new all time favorite "conversation". Oghen and Wynne talking about the pike twirling. Man, I wish I could figure out how to just get these conversations to play as audio files... that one would make me laugh every time.

[Spirit]

I've got a new all time favorite "conversation". Oghen and Wynne talking about the pike twirling. Man, I wish I could figure out how to just get these conversations to play as audio files... that one would make me laugh every time.

Perhaps try fraps with a very low capture fps and grab audio. You could then grab the sound from the video.

I've yet to try this game. Is it worth it?

Rakku

[Shian]

Hmm... there was a program to rip the sound files from NWN2 mmm.... Nolaloth... wait what? Oh yeah, I'm sure... given enough time, there will be a delicious program for DAO as well.

Barring that, yeah, Fraps to youtube then run it through a converter that'll pluck the audio into an MP3 or wav.

[Jared Darkwind]

Hey! Good news. The expansion to this game is coming out very soon. I loved this game, it is the best RPG I have ever played to date. I hope the expansion is just as immersive.

[AmonGwareth]

Its not really an expansion like you would traditionally think of it. Its simply some additional content, sort of like the Warden's Keep. Not sure why they are calling it an expansion... well, the http://dragonage.bioware.com/addon/ site never actually refers to it as an expansion so maybe someone else added that.

[Dhalin]

I finished DL'ing this game (legally of course) just yesterday and tried it last night.

A good game so far, though... I wish I knew why Alistair keeps dying so fast in the "Light the Tower Fire" quest... Honestly.

He wears better armor than my warrior started out with, but yet his HP goes down to about half within the first 5 seconds of battle and I'm clicking him and telling him to run away lol. I had to even reload a save once, because he got killed. Thank God I had some Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale experience, and knew how to handle situations similar, but Honestly...

For a Warrior, he seems like a wimp to me. That last levelup he gained, I pumped all 3 points into his Constitution, hoping that will help.....

Otherwise, the game seems fine, and fun.

Edit: He reminds me of Khalid from Baldur's Gate. Khalid is the #1 reason I refused to recruit the druid girl, whos name starts with a J and I cannot remember. Jaheira or something like that? A big wimp (he was a fighter) who'd rush in, but he had like one of THE lowest CON scores of any other person in the game and he'd die. Fast.

Edit2: That's the reason I so loved Icewind Dale 1. You pre-made your ENTIRE party. No wimps there. It was fun to steam-roll dungeons with an optimal group setup, lol. Even if it did lack the exchanges between peeps.