Dragon Age How to Enjoy Dragon Age: Origins

[Heroic Liberator]

Why can't we all just get along.

 

[Oberon]

Stop taking your cues on forum culture from 4chan. You're not going to blend in acting like that.

Didn't ask your opinion either, cunt.

YOU CAN'T SPEAK TO AN OLD FAG LIKE THAT ):<
APOLOGIZE NOW

 

[Nano]

Why can't we all just get along.

To be fair, he started it.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Why can't we all just get along.

To be fair, he started it.

Two wrongs don't make a right, bruv.

 

[Absinthe]

AKHCTUALLY it was KOTOR, then I found out they are making a fantasy KOTOR and I was like BRUH

Parts of this concept actually have better decorations than the final version of the Temple of Andraste. And the Avvar Barbarian origin got cut since then. I think this concept art was from way back when Bioware was still bragging about how you could "enslave nations with necromancy" and how they had genuine linguists working on creating fully functional fantasy languages for elves and whatnot (they didn't).

Also, I'm pretty sure the idea wasn't to do another KotOR but to do another fantasy RPG sorta like Baldur's Gate, except completely as their own IP because fuck licenses and their fees. Mass Effect was similarly basically Star Wars without lightsabers.

Key Dragon Age Features

• Cinematic story-driven single-player campaign
• Separate campaign designed specifically for a multi-player experience
• Mod tools for great custom content
• Set in a new fantasy world created by BioWare for fans of its past titles
• Participate in massive battles
• Party-based gameplay for outstanding tactical combat and immersive character interaction

Always remember what EA took from you

Eh a lot of those cuts were obviously Bioware's own doing. The game had been in production for something like 7+ years and it basically got bounced around and changed until they slapped a finished label on it.

When Bioware started "upgrading" the NWN engine they basically gave up on multiplayer, and they also fucked the mods hard, not by design, but simply by making modding stuff in DAO an unnecessarily laborious process compared to NWN because of how many layers of work it could now take to make a map look decent and doing annoying things like using a shiny proprietary lightmapper that wasn't available to the mod community, ensuring that all the custom modules looked like really dated shit. This laboriousness led to shit like the level reuse in DAO DLC and in DA2 as well, because it negatively impacted Bioware's ability to create content quickly too. They just threw more man-hours at the self-inflicted productivity problem, which obviously didn't work out nearly as well when they were rushed to put out content. It also didn't help that they switched from strings to integers to ID content (this somehow amounted to an incredible software speedup, which says something about how bad things were under the hood) without even using separate namespaces for different mods/content packages, ensuring that it was trivially easy for mods to clash because your mods accidentally used the same ID numbers for some of their shit. Just to hammer in the dubious incompetence, Dragon Age: Awakening had ID collisions with Bioware's own DLC, which is why you can't transfer stuff like Warden's Keep items into Awakening.

And that's why DAO's mod scene never really took off for any serious modding, sea's custom campaign (Thirst) excepted, and he just put in a lot of effort and also went out of his way to plant tons of custom light sources to try to make up for the shitty lightmapper.

A lot of the code in Dragon Age: Origins was basically garbage.

To be fair, he started it.

1. Nobody gives a fuck.
2. As a matter of fact, you started by giving someone shit, and I told you off for acting like a tool. You then proceeded to rebut me by... acting like an even bigger tool.

Stop being a defensive little bitch. Go ahead and stew in your anger if it makes you feel any better, but let the rest of us know when you move past your angry 13-year-old phase.

 

[Nano]

As a matter of fact, you started by giving someone shit

Oh, yeah.

 

[Cael]

Again, it's a great game. These utter faggots just want to be edgy fucks. I'm surprised anyone gives a fuck that it's so "cool on the Codex" to hate DA: O. Those are the faggots that are sad right there. It's already written in stone that this is a top 100 greatest RPG of all time. That's not something that can be changed.

Seriously man, why do you give so much of a fuck? You sound like a man who feels threatened by the fact that there are other people who dislike the things you like.

That isn't so surprising. In current year, we have an entire portion of the political spectrum dedicated to that kind of butthurt and subsequent cancel culture.

 

[Mexi]

Again, it's a great game. These utter faggots just want to be edgy fucks. I'm surprised anyone gives a fuck that it's so "cool on the Codex" to hate DA: O. Those are the faggots that are sad right there. It's already written in stone that this is a top 100 greatest RPG of all time. That's not something that can be changed.

Seriously man, why do you give so much of a fuck? You sound like a man who feels threatened by the fact that there are other people who dislike the things you like.

That isn't so surprising. In current year, we have an entire portion of the political spectrum dedicated to that kind of butthurt and subsequent cancel culture.

Seriously, you're going to bring your faggot ass "muh DGRUMPH" shit here? Is that all you can think about? Get a life, (((Cael))), you big bitch.

 

[Cael]

Again, it's a great game. These utter faggots just want to be edgy fucks. I'm surprised anyone gives a fuck that it's so "cool on the Codex" to hate DA: O. Those are the faggots that are sad right there. It's already written in stone that this is a top 100 greatest RPG of all time. That's not something that can be changed.

Seriously man, why do you give so much of a fuck? You sound like a man who feels threatened by the fact that there are other people who dislike the things you like.

That isn't so surprising. In current year, we have an entire portion of the political spectrum dedicated to that kind of butthurt and subsequent cancel culture.

Seriously, you're going to bring your faggot ass "muh DGRUMPH" shit here? Is that all you can think about? Get a life, (((Cael))), you big bitch.

Hey, you're the one who keep popping up replying to me in the exact butthurt manner you are now all over the forums. Typical blm antifa greenie cuntboi can't take a little heat back? Poor baby. What'cha gonna do? Cancel me? Bwahahahahaha!

 

[Semiurge]

https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/4927

Remember how cracked versions of Barbarian II had that cheat, press a button and enemies die instantly.

Playing the game without Qwinn's restoration mod is a sin. There's just so much cut/non-working dialogue it's shocking. My personal experience of the Mandela Effect was related to Dragon Age: Origins, where once, just once, I managed to trigger a broken (without the mod) dialogue path with Sweeney in the Circle Tower, and then thought, for years, that I've either imagined it or dreamed about it, since neither I nor other people who played the game could recreate it.

DA:O's dialogue is notoriously buggy, when talking to party members at camp (yeah, gay I know) about 25% of the time their dialogue is interrupted by another unrelated line, mid sentence. It's a miracle that they haven't started speaking other characters' lines. So far.

Anyways, I really liked Loghain. It's very tough to choose him because his daughter is a total fucking bitch (unless you are a human noble).

I don't recall your status making any difference during the few conversations you can have with her.

Maybe be an emo and enjoy masochism? What I most remember is being an abused elf mage that is forced to save a world that mistreats her constantly with a party of transparent companions that won't shut up and demand gifts. Then at the end my character wanted to be queen but couldn't because she was an elf I think, so her lover, that annoying Alistair, goes sleep with the witch emo girl for some forced fucked up reason worthy of Game of thrones cheap writing. That's the only things I remember so... Ah yes and my eyes rolling at the mention that it was BG soul successor.

DA:O's strictly-for-heteros romances are cursed. Morrigan begs you to dump her when she becomes aware of her feelings for you, and Alistair will be forced to have sex with her or he dies during endgame. Happiest romance outcome is with Zevran, Leliana's is buggy.

 

[Mexi]

Anyways, I really liked Loghain. It's very tough to choose him because his daughter is a total fucking bitch (unless you are a human noble).

I don't recall your status making any difference during the few conversations you can have with her.

I mean that

Spoiler

the human noble can marry her and become a ruler

, so it works out in the end if you pick Loghain. She's still a total bitch, but at least she's on a leash.

I always play an elf Arcane Warrior, though, so it's never an option.

 

[Semiurge]

so it works out in the end if you pick Loghain. She's still a total bitch, but at least she's on a leash.

I always play an elf Arcane Warrior, though, so it's never an option.

Was there some specific ending slide where if left in charge alone as queen regent, she fucks up Ferelden somehow?

 

[Mexi]

so it works out in the end if you pick Loghain. She's still a total bitch, but at least she's on a leash.

I always play an elf Arcane Warrior, though, so it's never an option.

Was there some specific ending slide where if left in charge alone as queen regent, she fucks up Ferelden somehow?

I don't think either fuck up Ferelden,

Spoiler

even an unhardened Alistair,

but again, my point is that women shouldn't be in charge. Sadly,

Spoiler

Loghain gets the axe in all my main playthroughs

because of this. I do agree with him in the end that Ferelden shouldn't cozy up to Orlaise, but he was an idiot to almost sacrifice the entire country to keep them at bay.

 

[Semiurge]

but again, my point is that women shouldn't be in charge. Sadly,

Imagine being intimidated by video game wymyn.



For the record, she was well loved by Fereldans and the real power behind the boy-ruler Cailan. But, strong wymyn behind a weak man is the definition of a "dragon lady", isn't it?

 

[Mexi]

but again, my point is that women shouldn't be in charge. Sadly,

Imagine being intimidated by video game wymyn.



For the record, she was well loved by Fereldans and the real power behind the boy-ruler Cailan.

Imagine white knighting for a video game wymyn.

For the record... fuck off.

 

[Semiurge]

but again, my point is that women shouldn't be in charge. Sadly,

Imagine being intimidated by video game wymyn.



For the record, she was well loved by Fereldans and the real power behind the boy-ruler Cailan.

Imagine white knighting for a video game wymyn.

For the record... fuck off.

I don't "whiteknight" anyone, you should already know that. Still, your reaction to the way she's written smacks of certain expectations from the female gender. This one's supposed to be an experienced politician and a well liked public figure, who does more than just smiling and hand waving in public. Yet it seems like you expected her to lavish special attention to your warden and suck your pixel cock as soon as you meet her, like some tavern wench. Characters treating yours like shit is realistic and a welcome break from game cliches, but when it's done by a female character it somehow becomes wrong?

 

[Sarathiour]

I'll disagree. They're pretty one-dimensional with a token attempt at hidden depths or twists.

Emphasis on "for an rpg", token attempt still represent peak character development in big production. Your average rpg party lowest common denominator is probably that none of them are functioning member of society.

Loghain as we actually got him was basically a mustache-twirling villain who decided that in the midst of a highly important battle between Fereldan and the darkspawn he was going to throw the battle, get his own king killed, screw over Fereldan by opening it up to darkspawn hordes, and start usurping power, just because.

The whole way the blight is treated is retarted. Loghain become a sociopath with an horrible sense of timing, but he doesn't even matter that they loose the battle, you build an army from scratch while the blight is on his way toward the capital. Said army who also amount to nothing because they're late for the battle .

In addition, it's worth noting that while DAO tried to be more of a "dark" and "mature" fantasy, Bioware was extremely "good vs evil" in the way they handled things so their usual solution to make things gray is that shitty decisions can have some good consequences and good decisions can have shitty consequences.

Yes.

The bigger problem with the overarching plot vs the subplot (same one Inquisition has) is that it tries to establish narrative time pressure to race against doomsday but in reality you can just fuck around as long as you like doing all kinds of ludicrously menial and unnecessary sidequests. Other than that the main quest isn't really anything to sing home about and is mostly just a narrative device to funnel players through the four main points of the quest. Integration of narrative goals between the overarching story (you're in a race to stop the darkspawn) and subquests is weak and the integration of the overarching story with the actual game as the player experiences it (you never suffer for taking your time and you never really lead any efforts to check the darkspawn's advance) is much worse.

I don't think anyone here would deny that.

 

[alyvain]

The way the Qunari treat their mages is such a BDSM aesthetic.

And that's only one of the things perfected in DA2 !!!!!!

 

[Harthwain]

Loghain as we actually got him was basically a mustache-twirling villain who decided that in the midst of a highly important battle between Fereldan and the darkspawn he was going to throw the battle, get his own king killed, screw over Fereldan by opening it up to darkspawn hordes, and start usurping power, just because.

That's one way to look at it. Another story is that the fire is lit too late, by which point Loghain decides to cut the losses and retreat from the battle, rather than risking losing everything. You can hear it in the banter between him and Wynne:

Spoiler

Similarly, he justifies all of his acts as necessary "for the good of Ferelden" when you confront him at the Landsmeet, because above all his duty is to Ferelden:

Spoiler

It's not perfect, but all in all I find Loghain to be a decent villain.

 

[Cael]

Loghain as we actually got him was basically a mustache-twirling villain who decided that in the midst of a highly important battle between Fereldan and the darkspawn he was going to throw the battle, get his own king killed, screw over Fereldan by opening it up to darkspawn hordes, and start usurping power, just because.

That's one way to look at it. Another story is that the fire is lit too late, by which point Loghain decides to cut the losses and retreat from the battle, rather than risking losing everything. You can hear it in the banter between him and Wynne:

Spoiler

Similarly, he justifies all of his acts as necessary "for the good of Ferelden" when you confront him at the Landsmeet, because above all his duty is to Ferelden:

Spoiler

It's not perfect, but all in all I find Loghain to be a decent villain.

There are several reasons why Loghain is good at being a bad villain, and there are compelling reasons why he can be forgiven his actions.

On retiring from the field at Ostegar:
1. If you look at the map of the battlefield in the scene right before the big fight, you can see that the plan was for the darkspawn to charge into the King's entrenched troops and be entangled there. The conversation in that scene pretty much sums it up as such (i.e., Cailan's forces draw out the darkspawn and Loghain charge into their flanks and split the horde). Note: entrenched.
2. What did we see in the cutscene before we started our run to the tower? Cailan ordering his troops to charge out of position. You can see that if you look down from the bridge as you cross over to the Tower of Ishaal the fight was already spread out into the valley. This means 2 things:
- You were already too late to light the signal before you even got to the tower.
- Out of their fortifications, the Ferelden troops were cut down at a rate that made them virtually ineffective as a combat force. They are no longer the anvil to Loghain's hammer.
3. In fact, it got so bad that by the time you light the fire, the king and his bodyguards were involved in the fight. That meant the darkspawn had basically broken the entire Ferelden army and gotten through to the commanding officers. That army was lost. Loghain charging in then is just adding more bodies to the pyre for no reason.
4. Cailan fucked up everything with his dreams of glory.

On betraying Cailan:
1. Return to Ostegar hinted at Cailan courting Orlais. I can't remember if there were hints of abandoning Anora for Celene, but either way, that would have set Loghain off.
2. Loghain did not trust the Grey Wardens and definitely has an enduring hatred for Orlais. One consequence of this is his refusal to believe that it is a real Blight.
3. If the hint of Cailan looking to abandon Anora for Celene, you can add the papa bear syndrome to the mix (which is confirmed that he has in spades if you chose to execute him during the Landsmeet).

On the various atrocities attributed to Loghain's rein:
1. How much of it was actually Loghain and how much was Howe? We actually have several examples of Howe committing atrocities, not the least of which was Sergeant Kylon telling you outright that Howe's men were people he had to arrest.
2. How much of it was actual malice and not just incompetence? Remember that Loghain is a great general. He was never a ruler. If the indication of the cutscene where Zevran was introduced was any indication, Loghain looked more like a tired, defeated man with a nasty advisor who did things of his own initiative. Loghain is not completely innocent, of course. He didn't stop it, but he didn't order it either. He just shrugged and waved it away.

On the whole, Loghain came across as a man who was completely out of his depth and desperately trying to keep his head above water. He was led down the wrong path by a truly Evil advisor who did much else besides without Loghain knowing.

Loghain wasn't a moustache twirling villain. Howe was.

 

[alyvain]

1. How much of it was actually Loghain and how much was Howe? We actually have several examples of Howe committing atrocities, not the least of which was Sergeant Kylon telling you outright that Howe's men were people he had to arrest.

Right, now I know there is a Stalinist intepretation of DA:O.

 

[Cael]

1. How much of it was actually Loghain and how much was Howe? We actually have several examples of Howe committing atrocities, not the least of which was Sergeant Kylon telling you outright that Howe's men were people he had to arrest.

Right, now I know there is a Stalinist intepretation of DA:O.

Right, because real Evil villains tell their bosses hat they want to do and wait for permission to do so.

 

[alyvain]

Right, because real Evil villains tell their bosses hat they want to do and wait for permission to do so.

You miss the point.

And at the very least the Tevinter slavers operated with Loghain's permission.

 

[Cael]

Right, because real Evil villains tell their bosses hat they want to do and wait for permission to do so.

You miss the point.

And at the very least the Tevinter slavers operated with Loghain's permission.

You missed the point: Cautherein said outright that Loghain was trying to keep his head above water by that point, a situation brought about by Howe's corruption and the Warden kicking the asses of his agents. Desperate men do desperate things.

The point was that Loghain is not a moustache twirling villain. He is a guy out of his depth, forced by circumstance and an Evil adviser to do bad things. Which I explicitly said in my post.

It takes a twisted mind to somehow equate that with commiecuntism, but then again this is the Codex.

 

[Darkman]

The combat is a boring slog if you aren't playing a nuker mage, it is easily the weakest aspect of the game.


Meat of the game is the strong role playing which stems from the diverse and numerous dialogue options. There's no dumbed down diagloue wheel with a paragon, rengade and funny option. There is no karma meter with light side or dark side points.


You can be a mage who is generally an affable person who hates templars with a passion

You can be violent person who has a soft spot for the oppressed and downtrodden elves

You can be a selfless, but also pragmatic person who makes hard decisions for the greater good

Bottom line is there is a lot depth in how you can play your character and there are not many games like this.