Dragon Age impressions

[Armacalypse]

Every large group of bandits needs to be handled like a freaking final boss fight

I really like this. There are no filler kobold encounters or pointless attrition. I'm playing a mage on hard and have taken healing and crowd control spells. Sometimes I feel like I could really use an area effect spell, but otherwise it's going pretty well.

 

[Volourn]

"there were no dark and gritty mature stuff (not mentioning regens and certainly there was no info that it was just a Sword Coast ripoff)"

This is bullshit. DA was always hyped up as 'dark, gritty, and mature'. And, regen crap has been know about FOREVER - certainly mroe than 2.5 years. You, dinkalink, either have a horrible memory or are just a horrible liar.


" It's nothing to the strategic combat of Baldur's Gate "

Bullshit.

 

[Worm]

I'd like to thank everyone for the advice here. I really do like picking locks and persuading people, so I think I'm going to stick with that. I just need to bounce from the first few enemies at a few places to get my guys figured out.

Speaking of which http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/11/06/dragon-age-patch-out-targets-difficulty-issue/ cue screaming, hooting, and hollering.

Remember how awesomely gory Soldier of Fortune 2 was? It was all realistic looking and shit. Why can't they do that for modern games?Have people's intestines and still beating heart fly out. That was awesome gore. It was over the top and that's what made it cool.

totally agreed.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Bullshit.

Yes, you are quite full of it now a days.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Every large group of bandits needs to be handled like a freaking final boss fight

I really like this. There are no filler kobold encounters or pointless attrition. I'm playing a mage on hard and have taken healing and crowd control spells. Sometimes I feel like I could really use an area effect spell, but otherwise it's going pretty well.

Yes, I agree. I'm impartial to auto-regen after battle as long as its balanced correctly so that each battle is lengthy, requiring a minimum 75% of available mana/stamina. The penalties for dieing are also a good implementation so that doing poorly on one battle still hurts you later on, though on higher difficulties I would rather they be a bit more severe.

Speaking of which http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/11/06/dragon-age-patch-out-targets-difficulty-issue/ cue screaming, hooting, and hollering.

Bioware shows their balls already: none. Though from a business standpoint, you knew this was coming when 9/10 reviewers said the only thing wrong about the game was that they died on easy.

 

[Nael]

Playing an elven mage on Nightmare difficulty, finished everything up to the part where you get access to the world map. Anyone who bitches about this game being hard should be ashamed, I haven't used a single potion or manually commanded anyone other then myself (except to stop them from running off like retards halfway across the map). Its possible that my strategy of "take a disabling spell and a nuke" shows a tactical ability far beyond most players.

It gets harder. Trust me.

I really like this. There are no filler kobold encounters or pointless attrition. I'm playing a mage on hard and have taken healing and crowd control spells. Sometimes I feel like I could really use an area effect spell, but otherwise it's going pretty well.

If you're in the Creation line, try taking the Glyph line of spells. Glyph of Replusion + Glyph of Paralysis combines to create a huge AOE paralyze spell.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

X-TREEM rats, obviously.

rats for a very mature audience.

 

[bonch]

I hear things like "Years ago, the codex would have ripped this game a new one". Shame I wasn't here by the time, because nowadays all I see is you people managing a weak "It's shit, X game was better, next gen, buzzwords", over and over

Trolls turned this place into RPGChan, where they post image memes and gimmick posts to vent built-up nerdrage at strangers and reinforce their untreated mental illnesses. Anything that's mass-marketed is immediately suspect and should be discarded. If there's a decline, it's because of those folks.

 

[Trash]

I hear things like "Years ago, the codex would have ripped this game a new one". Shame I wasn't here by the time, because nowadays all I see is you people managing a weak "It's shit, X game was better, next gen, buzzwords", over and over

Trolls turned this place into RPGChan, where they post image memes and gimmick posts to vent built-up nerdrage at strangers and reinforce their untreated mental illnesses. Anything that's mass-marketed is immediately suspect and should be discarded. If there's a decline, it's because of those folks.

Bingo.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

Started with a female mage named Leia (because they offer a hairstyle that looks like two bagels stuck to the head). Loving it so far, the writing isn't nearly as bad as I thought and the lore is actually kinda interesting*. I'm playing on Nightmare difficulty, but so far there were basically only weak trash mobs thrown against me in this tutorial.

* I keep thinking of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series and a bit of MOTB because there's lots of "dream" stuff.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Just finished, game is pretty awesome.

Well that is distressingly quick. How many hours does it say it took you?

 

[Gay-Lussac]

So how many spell combos are there?

 

[Annonchinil]

Anybody here playing as a Rogue? I have a dual weapon spec with a focus on Dexterity, Cunning and a secondary focus on strength. So far I am mostly focusing on stunning and disabling abilities with stealth. The problem seems that so far the back stab ability does not seem very useful while many of the disabling abilities exist in other classes, so I am just wondering as to what is the point of playing a rogue?

 

[ChristofferC]

Anybody here playing as a Rogue? I have a dual weapon spec with a focus on Dexterity, Cunning and a secondary focus on strength. So far I am mostly focusing on stunning and disabling abilities with stealth. The problem seems that so far the back stab ability does not seem very useful while many of the disabling abilities exist in other classes, so I am just wondering as to what is the point of playing a rogue?

The rogue is the worst class, I'd say. Stealth is not very useful. You don't really need lockpicking and don't want to sacrifice other talents to get lockpicking anyway. The dex damage bonus for daggers is bugged so you don't get any bonus damage.

The optimal party is probably one warrior and three mages. Taunt the enemies with your warrior. Use the force field spell on him. Fire off all your aoe nukes at him. Wait one minute.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Well, if I ever get around to playing this one, I'll know what to do :D

 

[Overweight Manatee]

The optimal party is probably one warrior and three mages. Taunt the enemies with your warrior. Use the force field spell on him. Fire off all your aoe nukes at him. Wait one minute.

I agree, mages are great while rogues seem weak. Keep in mind that you can switch people in and out of your party at any time, so all you need is lockpicking on any character that's joined to open chests. That said, as I mentioned I've seen fought enemies that went after my mage and no amount of taunting by any number of characters could redirect them. 3 mages should have enough disabling power to stop them though.

 

[Worm]

Every large group of bandits needs to be handled like a freaking final boss fight

I really like this. There are no filler kobold encounters or pointless attrition. I'm playing a mage on hard and have taken healing and crowd control spells. Sometimes I feel like I could really use an area effect spell, but otherwise it's going pretty well.

I'm sure the game is fucking easy when you can stun lock entire parties of enemies by trading cone of frost cool downs with two mages. However that is not an INTELLIGENT or TACTICAL solution, nor does it excuse the problems with the game, which every fucking reviewer has seemed to neglect.

Also people who are barely scratching the surface of the game and declaring it easy(not the guy I'm replying to) should have their fucking teeth knocked out. I mean holy shit, go do the abandoned building in the human city, it's probably the most obscene thing in the entire game I've experience so far. The game gets incredibly difficult, and it's pretty annoying to see apologists who barely have gotten to the world map trying to spin this. I'm additionally miffed that having such fundamentally fucked difficulty is considered by most reviewers to be a single point, as if game balance is like sound or how well the game antialiases.

I agree, mages are great while rogues seem weak. Keep in mind that you can switch people in and out of your party at any time

No. You can't.

 

[Jaesun]

I hear things like "Years ago, the codex would have ripped this game a new one". Shame I wasn't here by the time, because nowadays all I see is you people managing a weak "It's shit, X game was better, next gen, buzzwords", over and over

Trolls turned this place into RPGChan, where they post image memes and gimmick posts to vent built-up nerdrage at strangers and reinforce their untreated mental illnesses. Anything that's mass-marketed is immediately suspect and should be discarded. If there's a decline, it's because of those folks.

w0rd

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Also people who are barely scratching the surface of the game and declaring it easy(not the guy I'm replying to) should have their fucking teeth knocked out.

I didn't say it was easy, I said it felt well balanced. Hard is decently hard, easy seemed piss easy. I was merely remarking that the endless stream of reviewers who cry that easy isn't easy enough should, as you say, have their fucking teeth knocked out. I remember people crying that the tutorial was too hard on easy. Ridiculous.

I agree, mages are great while rogues seem weak. Keep in mind that you can switch people in and out of your party at any time

No. You can't.

I haven't encountered a section yet in which I can't swap out party members instantly. Granted I haven't played too far, I'm hunting werewolves in the Brecilian forest currently. Where are you?

That said, I haven't been finding much of worth in chests anyway. Anyone getting good stuff that makes it worth bringing chest openers?

 

[Korgan]

I hear things like "Years ago, the codex would have ripped this game a new one". Shame I wasn't here by the time, because nowadays all I see is you people managing a weak "It's shit, X game was better, next gen, buzzwords", over and over

Trolls turned this place into RPGChan, where they post image memes and gimmick posts to vent built-up nerdrage at strangers and reinforce their untreated mental illnesses. Anything that's mass-marketed is immediately suspect and should be discarded. If there's a decline, it's because of those folks.

w0rd

I'm all of those...
and I like the game. A lot.
Well, I never trolled anyone successfully, so I probably don't count.

 

[Ch1ef]

What's the first symptom of coprophilia?
















You like Dragon Age

 

[mediocrepoet]

Keep in mind that you can switch people in and out of your party at any time, so all you need is lockpicking on any character that's joined to open chests.

This isn't exactly true. You can swap party members in most places but can't while in certain dungeons/combat areas like the Circle Tower or the castle at Redcliff. There're chests in these areas too so if you don't want to backtrack to pick them up later, you might want a rogue.

On another note, I've been playing with a tank warrior, Alistair (sometimes Sten), Morrigan (swapped for Wynne who's a lot better 'off the shelf' for this setup) and Leiliana using her for archery, lockpicking and the occasional backstab while the two warriors use shield bashes and their stuns to keep things mostly locked down. I find that having a rogue when things are tanked sufficiently isn't too bad and getting backstabs in is pretty nice and I've been having fun messing with positioning since it matters a bit more in that sort of group than one that can have everyone stand back and just aoe all the time. In certain cases where there's a lot of room and things that hit quite hard, having 3 or all of them stand back and use ranged attacks is still pretty good as well.

I suppose maybe having 3 mages back spamming cone of colds might be overpowered, but that doesn't strike me as terribly interesting or fun. If you want to do things like that, go nuts, but if you think it makes the game too easy, you'd probably be better off trying a more conventional party and then see if it's interesting rather than whining about how your game is now EZmode. Of course, a lot of people would rather play forum bitchfest than any RPG that does or ever will exist.

 

[Mangoose]

Huh? How do you switch party members without camping?

There are 10 spell combos.

 

[HanoverF]

but that doesn't strike me as terribly interesting or fun.

I would guess the majority here would never accuse DA of being either of those things.

 

[Nael]

Huh? How do you switch party members without camping?

If you're in a town you can click on one of the buttons at the top of the screen and it will open up the party selection screen.