Dragon Age: Origins Catch-All

Thurgrim wrote:

I will admit that the most difficult part of this has been not reloading to see how a different conversation choice would play out, which I only did twice in the game. While doing that often would certainly sate my curiosity, I fear it would also serve to spoil future campaigns for me if I already knew where every decision led. The same was especially true with the ending, where I'm dying to reload and see the different ones but am holding off for now.

One reload I did wasn't a conversation, but an event.

Just out of the ruined temple, up near the gauntlet.

"Hey, what happens if I blow this here horn ...."

*blows horn*

F9! F9! F9!

Jeff-66 wrote:
Thurgrim wrote:

I will admit that the most difficult part of this has been not reloading to see how a different conversation choice would play out, which I only did twice in the game. While doing that often would certainly sate my curiosity, I fear it would also serve to spoil future campaigns for me if I already knew where every decision led. The same was especially true with the ending, where I'm dying to reload and see the different ones but am holding off for now.

One reload I did wasn't a conversation, but an event.

Just out of the ruined temple, up near the gauntlet.

"Hey, what happens if I blow this here horn ...."

*blows horn*

F9! F9! F9!

Ahhh, that takes me back about 20 hours.

hahaha. yea. you at least need to head back to camp first to empty out your bags.

Grenn wrote:
Jeff-66 wrote:
Thurgrim wrote:

I will admit that the most difficult part of this has been not reloading to see how a different conversation choice would play out, which I only did twice in the game. While doing that often would certainly sate my curiosity, I fear it would also serve to spoil future campaigns for me if I already knew where every decision led. The same was especially true with the ending, where I'm dying to reload and see the different ones but am holding off for now.

One reload I did wasn't a conversation, but an event.

Just out of the ruined temple, up near the gauntlet.

"Hey, what happens if I blow this here horn ...."

*blows horn*

F9! F9! F9!

Ahhh, that takes me back about 20 hours.

Ha! I blew it purely out of hubris. Then watched as everyone in my party died except Wynne, who both kept herself alive and killed the beast (with my hand at the controls of course).

imbiginjapan wrote:

When it comes to RPGs it takes me ages to finish because I constantly restart game after game, even after investing hours into a character. I've been running a mage lately and while I kind of enjoy the spells, it seems to be almost too easy to smack down everything I see.

Even with just the fairly easy to acquire combos like Fireball/Grease and Sleep/Horror along with Heal to keep the melee guys up I've been breezing through fights without ever resorting to potions, salves, traps or other rigamarole. While it certainly has eliminated some frustrating moments, I'm also finding very few tense moments as I tear through everything. I got the "kill 250 enemies while taking no damage" achievement in no time flat.
Has anyone else had this experience?

Are you playing on PC or console?
What difficulty?
If PC, any mods?

Area of effect spells are very powerful. I never used a salve either, actually, but I also didn't use a lot of AOE. I used a lot of crowd control instead, and that made things nearly as easy. I'm playing through on Nightmare now, and once you get past Lothering, it seems quite a bit more challenging. Seems like there are more enemies, and they don't dribble at you one at a time, either.

I thought shapeshifting would be cool so I blew a bunch of points on it...now I don't even put Morrigan in the group.

Still my first play-through, though...I'm thinking more and more that, oddly enough for a long game, the first play through is a "practice run" and the real game comes after that.

Just picked it up on steam, i have never played a traditional RPG. I enjoyed the little I was able to keep stable of KOTOR from the steam sale. Wish me luck.

See you in a couple of months

WiredAsylum wrote:

Just picked it up on steam, i have never played a traditional RPG.

You are in for a real treat. This is a damn good RPG, in a year with quite a few damn good RPGs that have come out.

The Shapeshifts are actually useful - but they are rather specialized talents, not the "I win" buttons that some other spells are. For instance, if you're having trouble with melee banging on Morrigan, shift to Swarm mode.

LarryC wrote:

The Shapeshifts are actually useful - but they are rather specialized talents, not the "I win" buttons that some other spells are. For instance, if you're having trouble with melee banging on Morrigan, shift to Swarm mode.

If they were instant-cast with a long universal cooldown I'd consider that a viable option. As is I'd have to pump four points into combat-casting in order for her to actually get it off while being wailed on by Melee versus her coming with Mind Blast or using cone of cold/prison on him.

If it's only one Melee, sure CC the crap out of him. If it's a bunch of melee, doing Swarm after a Mind Blast is easier. Bear Form is actually also kind of useful, albeit somewhat lackluster.

If Morrigan is ever being mobbed by melee my tanking characters is obviously doing something wrong.

Mod list update, just one update this time.

A mod for those of us who want to know the nitty gritty of our games:

[color=purple]Detailed Tooltips[/color] - (Mod description) Modified entries in the core_en-us.tlk file for ability tooltips to display more detailed information, derived straight from the game's scripting. Information such as base damage and scaling factors, effect durations, attack/defense buffs/penalties etc. will be shown in ability tooltip.

TCWatson wrote:

After listening to 161 I have a bit of a quandry.

Are the differences between the PC version and the 360 enough to warrant waiting until I can get my system upgraded?

I could be playing on the 360 tomorrow, but PC upgrades have to wait until after the holidays.

I'll second what trueheart78 says: DA:O is a fantastic game on the 360. I'm playing it on that for now, but whenever I get around to upgrading my PC I'll also buy it for that, since it really is a different experience.

Is rental a possibility TCWatson? You'd probably want it for 2 weeks of serious play on the 360 to beat it. It's an option if you want to hold yourself over until the PC.

Bullion Cube wrote:

Is rental a possibility TCWatson? You'd probably want it for 2 weeks of serious play on the 360 to beat it. It's an option if you want to hold yourself over until the PC.

I'm playing on 360 and a few of the console issues bug me but PC version wasn't a real possibility since my desktop is out of commission.

Some of the console issues that bug me:
Perspective is a bit too close in
Pausing combat to issue order is not as intuitive as it is on most PC games
No respec mod (this is really irritating to me)

It's still an enjoyable game, but if all things were equal I'd have gone with the PC version. They're rarely equal however.
My advice would be: If you have a block of free time now and you want the game, play it where it's available. If you don't have a lot of time right now, and your PC will be up to it by the time you have the free time to really sink your teeth in, I'd probably wait.

After just doing the mage's tower and a bit of character management, I've just got to Denerim and found out exactly how much there is to do (an awful lot). While I can't fault the game (it works well enough), I can't help thinking that there could be another format for a RPG present quests and the overall story in that makes it a bit less 'gamey'.

Scratched wrote:

After just doing the mage's tower and a bit of character management, I've just got to Denerim and found out exactly how much there is to do (an awful lot). While I can't fault the game (it works well enough), I can't help thinking that there could be another format for a RPG present quests and the overall story in that makes it a bit less 'gamey'.

Woosh. That went right over my head. What do you mean? I thought the presentation was great, and the gradual unveiling of the story across several areas worked well. If you are referring to the lists of side quests on job boards, yeah, that was a little odd.

Damn, I spent way too long in the Fade, but finally made it out. Once it clicked, it turned out to be a decent combat primer for someone not too familiar with these kind of games, particularly with my rogue... stealth, scope out the situation, stun the most dangerous adversary, two-handed backstab 'til dead, run around and use my surroundings until stun recharges, and so on. Once I had all the shape-shifting forms it was an enjoyable romp. Glad to be out, though. I'd gotten so used to that horrible haze filter, the whole world looks new again.

Slumberland wrote:

Once I had all the shape-shifting forms it was an enjoyable romp. Glad to be out, though. I'd gotten so used to that horrible haze filter, the whole world looks new again.

There's a mod now, that will disable that Fade haze filter. Just an FYI for the next playthrough. Personally, it didn't bother me, as it distinguished the event from 'reality'.

I enjoyed the Fade too, though it did run a tad long. It's worth it though, as you are well-rewarded in bonus attribute points.

While usually it's the beginning of Bioware games that have the ugly slog that make replaying a chore, I predict that the Fade will be considered the slog this time. I guess it's avoidable if you don't want to do it, though? (By giving up on the attribute points, of course...)

So this game has made me terribly ashamed I have never played one like it before. What the hell have I missed out on. This is a blast and terribly addicting.

Deadron wrote:

While usually it's the beginning of Bioware games that have the ugly slog that make replaying a chore, I predict that the Fade will be considered the slog this time. I guess it's avoidable if you don't want to do it, though? (By giving up on the attribute points, of course...)

So far I've totally disagreed. I always look forward to the Broken Circle section. Redcliffe and Orzammar are the slogs to me, though not bad anough to stop me from replaying.

I've been messing with a new mage, and while she does extremely impressive damage, I'm having a very hard time keeping her or the other party members alive consistently. That party is level 8-9, and I'm quite sure they've used more injury kits than my level 13 Warrior crew. I'm not sure if this is because I've been using two mages, or because it's the first time I've tried Shale as a tank.

Just started my true second play through - a human female noble rogue. I've played a few different origin stories, and after completing the game as a duel wielding elven warrior, I'm thinking the female human noble is going to be fun. And I did try and put it down after I beat it the first time, but it's just too darn good!

Blind_Evil:

I think it's because your main is a Mage. Your Hero is the most powerful unit in your entire team. If your main is squishy, the entire team is bound to be squishy. Also, Shale sucks as a tank. Why are you using her?

LarryC wrote:

Also, Shale sucks as a tank. Why are you using her?

I don't know what you're talking about, Shale did quite well as a tank by me. It had like three or four different AoE ways of getting enemies attention, very good armor, and dished out the damage at a pretty good rate. Pretty much every time enemies would be wailing on Shale so I'd just go in and start killing with my two-handed warrior, easy peasy.

As far as squishibility, I found as a Mage I had to plan out encounters a lot more and relied on spells to kill the small minions rather than have my tank manage them. Virulent Living Bomb was a particular favorite but Sleep and Waking Horror (I think that's the name, two after sleep) are wonderful as well since they ignore allies in the area of effect. I also always made sure one of my other party members was a healer so that I could focus on killing the enemies rather than healing my allies, but that's personal preference.

At level 8, my Main had an armor of like 30+. Shale had 18. No contest.

LarryC wrote:

Blind_Evil:

I think it's because your main is a Mage. Your Hero is the most powerful unit in your entire team. If your main is squishy, the entire team is bound to be squishy. Also, Shale sucks as a tank. Why are you using her?

Everyone else has told me otherwise.

Shale's fantastic as a damage dealer - her Slam and Quake power easily trumps Fireball. As a tank? Not so good, even on Stoneheart.