Dragon Age impressions

[Scruffy]

so i see vault dweller is hoping to become a part of the PHANTASTIC game review world, and probably has already received money from someone...

 

[Jaime Lannister]

so i see vault dweller is hoping to become a part of the PHANTASTIC game review world, and probably has already received money from someone...

liking a game = being bribed

codex, putting the smart back in rpg

 

[Scruffy]

i'm pretty sure i'm right, and not just drunk

 

[Jaime Lannister]

pretty sure you're drunk, who could possibly think that bribing VD is a good use of money

 

[Scruffy]

what?

 

[Annonchinil]

Just did the night time Redcliff part. I ended up using maybe 5X minor healing potions and 1X normal one just to be safe, wasted 2X minor mana potions too and a bunch of poisons and 4X stamina food. One problem I had in the battle was that Allistar's aggro ability did not seem to work properly so the undead either attacked the militia or other party members.

The combat is fun, while there are some parts I liked more in IE, there were not many encounters were the enemy just kept on coming or would surprise you from the flank or side. The fight against all the poor refugees was fun too. However by now I am missing the mage battles. Are there any later on?

My Rogue is all right, I am bumping up my stealth since I have no more stamina for more abilities. Can't tell if he is better or worse since I find it difficult to follow total damage output. The combat and the character system should provide you more information on the under the system math so better decision can be made.

The characters are better than I expected. I liked finding out that Allistar is a virgin and Morrigan's Mirror story. Definitely interesting and something that is not often done in games. Trying to raise approval with Stan is also something very different that I can't really describe. Ill try; in the past you gain approval by being accepting or being a dick but with Stan its something else entirely, its as if you have to match his character. Same with some of the other characters, like being funny with Allistar.

I am not sure if I like it more than BG, its missing the loot and the unique encounters.

The plot and the writing is not amazing, not ok and not bad. I would say there are parts I like (which is between amazing and ok) and there are a lot of these parts crammed into each hour. It may not be the deepest game but it certainly has breadth.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

made it about halfway through before starting a second character (mage)

combat: 8/10 (10 would be ToEE)
story: 6/10 (10 would be Torment)
c&c: 4/10 (10 would be Arcanum)

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Mages don't seem nearly as powerful as BG2, probably because DA is more balanced than D&D. Fighters remain useful as they level (Arguably the most useful) and while mages can be powerful, they don't seem to have any abilities to save themselves if they're getting focused on.

For instance, instead of having a mage-on-mage spellflinging battle with dispels and such, when I encounter a mage I charge at it with my fighters and use all my knockover abilities to keep the mage from casting spells. Usually finishes them off before they can do much. Admittedly while this is going on any other enemies have free access to my back, but I have less trouble with that than letting a mage sit there unmolested.

Pretty much agree that it's the best Bioware game in ages though it's still not perfect, best RPG since Bloodlines easily. Still, if they do an honest to god expansion (Which they won't when they can sell 45 minutes of content for $7 via DLC, but I can dream) I'll definitely buy it.

 

[relootz]

How does the weapon upgrading work? I have stones to upgrade but no weapons? Do you need special weapons that are specifically upgradable.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

I couldn't see how you can tell that a weapon is upgradable other than giving it to that dwarf retard savant in the camp that does the enchanting, then it shows up in the list. So far I only had a couple of named swords that could be upgraded at all.

 

[made]

They have an explanation of the difficulty scaling over here:
http://dragonage.gulbsoft.org/doku.php/ ... ge_scaling

Looks sensible to me. I went to the forest after I finished Orzammar and it was noticeably easier than the endless orc infested tunnels.

 

[Fat Dragon]

Do you need special weapons that are specifically upgradable.

Yes. Unique weapons like the Green Blade or Starfang have 1 or more rune slots you can use to customize. Common weapons don't have them tho.

 

[relootz]

They have an explanation of the difficulty scaling over here:
http://dragonage.gulbsoft.org/doku.php/ ... ge_scaling

Looks sensible to me. I went to the forest after I finished Orzammar and it was noticeably easier than the endless orc infested tunnels.

Very interesting. It's level scaling done the right way. A range that lock the first time and stays the same for you to return when higher level if it is too difficult.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

They have an explanation of the difficulty scaling over here:
http://dragonage.gulbsoft.org/doku.php/ ... ge_scaling

Looks sensible to me. I went to the forest after I finished Orzammar and it was noticeably easier than the endless orc infested tunnels.

Hahaha, shit. I thought Orzammar was putting up a hell of a fight. Just was in a non-stop battle against like 30-40 darkspawn and survived by the skin of my teeth. Getting some ridiculous equipment and experience down here but definitely hitting some tough fights.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Also, yeah, that many darkspawn. The level scaling seems to mean more darkspawn, not more powerful darkspawn necessarily. I can two-shot a genlock if I roll high. Have hit some ogres, ogre alphas, and a new sneaky type of darkspawn though.

 

[relootz]

Also, yeah, that many darkspawn. The level scaling seems to mean more darkspawn, not more powerful darkspawn necessarily. I can two-shot a genlock if I roll high. Have hit some ogres, ogre alphas, and a new sneaky type of darkspawn though.

I think that that map is only indicative of the start of the area. It started out very easy for me in the forest which is situated at around level 7 but when i went further i think its probably higher level. The skeletons got better anyway.

 

[hiver]

After all, Bio didn't tell what the Reapers' motivations in ME were, saving them for the sequel instead.

Yes they did. Its just hard to believe its all there is to it because it sucks ass.

 

[made]

Also, yeah, that many darkspawn. The level scaling seems to mean more darkspawn, not more powerful darkspawn necessarily. I can two-shot a genlock if I roll high. Have hit some ogres, ogre alphas, and a new sneaky type of darkspawn though.

I think that that map is only indicative of the start of the area. It started out very easy for me in the forest which is situated at around level 7 but when i went further i think its probably higher level. The skeletons got better anyway.

Yeah, but when you do the forest ruin at lvl 15 it's a walk in the park compared to the deep roads before. The link mentions an upper bound for most creatures but no specifics.

 

[1eyedking]

"Why have challenge scaling? asks the D&D purist forgetting that minor entity called 'The Dungeon Master' that probably did a great job of designing encounters on the go for their party.

But Baldur's Gate didn't have them states the BG veteran, forgetting that challenge in Baldur's and NWN gate was controlled by customized AI scripts and encounter trigger scaling creature numbers to the player party capabilities or CR.

If the game was completely statics as some people demand, it would be completely linear as there would be only a single path through it. With Dragon Age's open world portion offering significant freedom to the player in terms of where to go next, this would be counter productive."

Just when I said I wanted insidious double-talk in my games.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

I don't think the level sclaing is the problem. The problem here is that pretty much every opponent has a knockdown/stun type of talent so when you are facing 6+, yopu pretty much gonna have one of your characters constantly stunned/being useless. There's no way that I know off that you can constantly repeatly resist these special attacks.

Forcefield spell, available to mages, I think it's level 2. Shuts down movement but grants complete invincibility.

As for the challenge scaling: Enemy levels keep up with yours to a degree, but you also get better equipment and a leg up in skills, talents and spells in the form of tomes while they... don't. Hell, enemies don't even use skills, so the fact that you gain them at all puts you at an advantage. And if you know or figure out which spells are good, that's another advantage over the enemy mages who spend their scaled up levels on crap.

So yes there's level scaling for enemies but your progression leaves it choking on dust. When the open ended part starts, whichever area you do first will be the hardest and they get progressively easier, just as if there were no scaling at all.

 

[Worm]

Ser Cauthrien is a fucking retarded boss battle. j/s

 

[Gay-Lussac]

They have an explanation of the difficulty scaling over here:
http://dragonage.gulbsoft.org/doku.php/ ... ge_scaling

Looks sensible to me. I went to the forest after I finished Orzammar and it was noticeably easier than the endless orc infested tunnels.

Honest question about the deep roads (the tunnels you mentioned), when I go in them a map appears but there's only one location in it (and I've explored it extensively) and still haven't found the kid that supposedly got lost there. What gives, did I miss an entrance to another level or something? By the way do monsters respawn?

 

[Worm]

Lavoisier, basically you need to go through the motions with either Harrowmont or Bhelen until they tell you to go into the deep roads, which allows you access to parts of the deep roads which let you complete the various deep roads quests you've already taken.

edit: and yeah, we all thought that was fucking gay

 

[Surphy]

Players should NOT try to play on Nightmare the first time they play the game, it is guaranteed to be not fun that way.

Funny they should say that, since I am playing on nightmare and although at times it gets assrapingly hard, I am still enjoying the shit out of it.

Hardest battle as of yet was against Gaxkang the Unbound.

 

[Nael]

Hell, enemies don't even use skills, so the fact that you gain them at all puts you at an advantage.

They most certainly do. What difficulty level are you playing on?