Dragon Age Dragon Age: Origins is ten years old today

[Roguey]

I can't remember if the game allowed you mechanically to leave the Deep Roads once you went some way in. Of course narratively it makes no sense to just "leave it for later" when you realize its too hard, and meta-gaming it feels like shit to have such a realization, but even just mechanically, not sure you could leave.

Yep, you could leave. Also there's a tough-for-low-levels combat encounter at the entrance of Orzammar that's supposed to be your indication of whether or not you have what it takes to complete the area. Georg Zoeller wrote a post about their goals http://web.archive.org/web/20100808015654/http://dragonage.gulbsoft.org/doku.php/challenge_scaling

In simple terms, there are three types of areas.

Areas that are really easy (such as maybe a cave filled with rats).
Areas that feel 'just right'.
Areas that feel very dangerous'.

Gating Encounters

We tend to put so called 'gating encounters' at the start of many areas to allow the player to get a sense of how dangerous the area is. In theory, a player having trouble or being defeated a number of times in an areas should trigger a 'maybe I should come back later' reaction from them (it does in MMOs, doesn't it?), in practice, well, there are too few games to that give you the freedom of doing this, so many non veteran RPG players are not trained for this mechanic.

The High Dragon is a great example for that. Nobody needs to fight him right there, yet there are dozens of posts on the forums of people that think they are stuck because there is a dragon sleeping nearby on the rock…

Comes across as a jerk in some parts, but that's a Bioware dev for ya.

My one comment is why in the hell BioWare kept those paddle shaped swords and thick weapons in general. When you swords look like nerf props, you've got problems.

Confirmed dev explanation: so you can see the weapons when you zoom out to pseudo-iso mode.

 

[BrotherFrank]

It's interesting how skub inducing DA:O is, particularly the combat.

Also whilst I'm a weirdo who did enjoy the deep roads for its atmosphere and seeing it as the last true challenge before the finale where it's just you and the party you chose at the start (undermined by the new found knowledge from this thread that apparently you can leave the deep roads after all, boo!) dungeon crawling through the heart of darkness itself, but not even I will defend the fade. Fade mod might aswell come included with the base game at this point.

Are there any good mods for replaying this? It's been a while.

Depends what you mean by "good", modding games is an individual affair imo.
https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage Nowhere near nwn levels as I said, but tons of stuff so shop around, found it relatively painless to have plenty of mods working.
In my own game I had mostly graphical overhauls and immersion mods, lots more weapons and armor, also a class unlocker because I liked to make silly broken combos to make combat more enjoyable for my tastes. Finally some QoL stuff like no backpack limit, the perma dog companion mod and of course the no fade mod.

There's quite a few companion mods that I've been meaning to try but never got around to it so can't vouch for those.

 

[fantadomat]

- gift-giving

I never got why people are butthurt with this thing. Fuck in real life it is exactly the same. When your woman catches you fucking some hooker,you just go and buy her some expensive shit so she could shut up. The only unrealistic thing about that was you can't just hit F9 if you fucked up your choice of words or gifted her a biscuit when she likes expensive golden jewellery.

 

[DayofBlow]

I liked the part where you have sex in a medieval diaper.

 

[Reever]

I may be the only person that didn't absolutely hate the Fade. It was a nice break of pace and if you felt like exploring you got rewarded with some nice stat increases.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I may be the only person that didn't absolutely hate the Fade. It was a nice break of pace and if you felt like exploring you got rewarded with some nice stat increases.

Might be a neat gimmick on a first playthrough, but it's dreadful on subsequent ones.

 

[laclongquan]

- gift-giving

I never got why people are butthurt with this thing. Fuck in real life it is exactly the same.

Because gamers are cheap and they are used to free stuffs for a long time~

 

[Gibson]

I may be the only person that didn't absolutely hate the Fade. It was a nice break of pace and if you felt like exploring you got rewarded with some nice stat increases.

I also didn't mind the fade; it wass far from being the highlight of the game but it really wasn't that terrible to me.

a 10 years anniversary is a good excuse to replay it after a loooong while. it's a decent game (7,5/10) and a good game to recommend to people that wanted to try crpgs but don't know where to start - char creation is very streamlined, combat is OK, story is generic but if you're new to rpgs it's actually not that bad, setting is good, it's not too long so it doesn't overstay its welcome...all in all it's a really decent game.

 

[Lilura]

I may be the only person that didn't absolutely hate the Fade. It was a nice break of pace and if you felt like exploring you got rewarded with some nice stat increases.

I also didn't mind the fade; it wass far from being the highlight of the game but it really wasn't that terrible to me.

The Fade is like the magma chamber in IWD2: it's inventive and good to go through the first time, but is not so fun on subsequent runs because there is no variation whatsoever. When tackling Deep Roads, your build and party composition at least play a part; not in the Fade.

Another thing about DA:O is that it's a slog to go through, way more than any IE game including PS:T. DA:O is huge, slow and exhausting even when speedhacked. If 10 people in this thread started a rerun, I think 9 would lose interest a few hours in, and drop it.

This is why I've never written a retrospective for the game; fuck that. It's too big and boring.

 

[Lilura]

A bit more: In my last run (2016), I went on a DA:O binge for 3 weeks. I played nothing but DA:O because I was trying to reabsorb myself in it, without admixture.

The game was speedmodded and decked out as per in order to make it more interesting and less tedious, yet I stopped from exhaustion and boredom just as I was reaching the midpoint of the expansion (which is huge in itself).

I just couldn't find it within myself to cap the fucker off, and looking back, I'm amazed I had the stamina to get as far as I did.

I could play though all the IE games in the time it takes to go through DA:O once.

 

[fantadomat]

A bit more: In my last run (2016), I went on a DA:O binge for 3 weeks. I played nothing but DA:O because I was trying to reabsorb myself in it, without admixture.

The game was speedmodded and decked out as per in order to make it more interesting and less tedious, yet I stopped from exhaustion and boredom just as I was reaching the midpoint of the expansion (which is huge in itself).

I just couldn't find it within myself to cap the fucker off, and looking back, I'm amazed I had the stamina to get as far as I did.

I could play though all the IE games in the time it takes to go through DA:O once.

Did you play 20 minutes per day?! You could finish the game in 20-40 hours. Also using mods do skip content defeats the point of replaying lol. If you hate the game that much,then just don't play it. I finish it the whole last year and it was still fine ten years later. The expansion was also pretty good.

 

[Roguey]

A bit more: In my last run (2016), I went on a DA:O binge for 3 weeks. I played nothing but DA:O because I was trying to reabsorb myself in it, without admixture.

The game was speedmodded and decked out as per in order to make it more interesting and less tedious, yet I stopped from exhaustion and boredom just as I was reaching the midpoint of the expansion (which is huge in itself).

I just couldn't find it within myself to cap the fucker off, and looking back, I'm amazed I had the stamina to get as far as I did.

I could play though all the IE games in the time it takes to go through DA:O once.

People were surprised at me when I showed them it took me this long to complete it on a replay. My first time was over 90.

(as I've said before, DA:O would be far more palatable if they removed half the encounters across the board)

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I'm surprised that, as far as I'm aware, no mod attempted to do that already, Roguey.

 

[fantadomat]

A bit more: In my last run (2016), I went on a DA:O binge for 3 weeks. I played nothing but DA:O because I was trying to reabsorb myself in it, without admixture.

The game was speedmodded and decked out as per in order to make it more interesting and less tedious, yet I stopped from exhaustion and boredom just as I was reaching the midpoint of the expansion (which is huge in itself).

I just couldn't find it within myself to cap the fucker off, and looking back, I'm amazed I had the stamina to get as far as I did.

I could play though all the IE games in the time it takes to go through DA:O once.

People were surprised at me when I showed them it took me this long to complete it on a replay. My first time was over 90.

(as I've said before, DA:O would be far more palatable if they removed half the encounters across the board)

Ahhh no,you are just slow mate. Fuck you spend like 40 hours crafting . I spend them on thieving shit,so to each their own. Also why only 95% exploration?

 

[Roguey]

Ahhh no,you are just slow mate. Fuck you spend like 40 hours crafting . I spend them on thieving shit,so to each their own. Also why only 95% exploration?

The 1.02 patch adds an area that just has a NPC with a "Buy our Return to Ostagar DLC!" message. I refused to enter it.

I also refuse to use any patch greater than 1.02 because the newer patches just increased instability.

 

[CrustyBot]

This Is The New Shit, I remember that. Does Codex have a boomer emote? I suddenly feel older knowing that DA:O is 10 years old. The amount of reactivity in the game was pretty impressive, probably BioWare's best work in that regard. It was great because there was a combination of in-quest short term reactivity in addition to the obligatory end of quest choice that may impact the ending kind of choices that are common in BioWare games. I've been considering a replay in recent times but the amount of trash encounters is a bit daunting. Do any mods exist that help delete some of them?

 

[fantadomat]

Ahhh no,you are just slow mate. Fuck you spend like 40 hours crafting . I spend them on thieving shit,so to each their own. Also why only 95% exploration?

The 1.02 patch adds an area that just has a NPC with a "Buy our Return to Ostagar DLC!" message. I refused to enter it.

I also refuse to use any patch greater than 1.02 because the newer patches just increased instability.

Nigga just pirate that shit lol. What instability? I played the newast version and was no different from the older ones.

 

[Roguey]

Nigga just pirate that shit lol. What instability? I played the newast version and was no different from the older ones.

Why would I want to go through even more combat in a game that already has more than enough? I don't have Watcher's Keep either. Shale's worth it though.

I understand it's far more crash-prone. Oh right, and they also changed it so that Lieutenant-ranked enemies can't be shattered because Muh Balance. Dumb MMO distinction I don't approve of.

 

[fantadomat]

Nigga just pirate that shit lol. What instability? I played the newast version and was no different from the older ones.

Why would I want to go through even more combat in a game that already has more than enough? I don't have Watcher's Keep either. Shale's worth it though.

I understand it's far more crash-prone. Oh right, and they also changed it so that Lieutenant-ranked enemies can't be shattered because Muh Balance. Dumb MMO distinction I don't approve of.

Then play different class,don't be a "one skill is different,the game is shit now".. Also i didn't have any crashing,even if it crash the game loads fast.

Why would I want to go through even more combat in a game that already has more than enough? I don't have Watcher's Keep either. Shale's worth it though.

Ahh then why bother even playing it? Combat is fun part of this game,if you don't like it then just don't waste your time playing the game.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

On a different note, which origin is your favorite, lads?

For me, it's Dwarven Noble without a doubt.

 

[Space Satan]

But such lovely memes DA demise gave birth to...so much biodrone despair and sweet sufferings were cherished

 

[MajorMace]

People unironically thinking this game is better than deadfire belong to the same species as you, dear lurker !

 

[fantadomat]

On a different note, which origin is your favorite, lads?

For me, it's Dwarven Noble without a doubt.

I played only Human Noble and nothing else

 

[Space Satan]

A series that cemented the demise of biowhores. The moment Witcher 3 came after Inquisition it became so clear that all dreams about "Good Old BioWare" were just dreams and wishful thinking and that in reality they are a bunch of talentless incapable SJW shit.

 

[Dodo1610]

Dragon Age will always be important for me since it was my first Party based CRPG. So I played through it at least 6 times usually taking about 50-70h + 15h for Awakening. The modding scene for it is really good adding tons of stuff and improving gameplay.

The best Origins are Dwarf noble and Dalish Elf in my opinion, though human noble has the most effect on the game's endings.