Discuss the Dragon Age series here.

http://dragonage.bioware.com/home/ | http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Age_Wiki | http://social.bioware.com/page/da-toolset | http://www.dragonagenexus.com/

Well, I bought the game a few weeks ago despite army service, and it got me totally hooked. Besides my first "test" character I have a female City Elf warrior (2 handed) and a male Blood Mage.

So yeah.

Any news on who your companions could be in DA2 ?, I would like to see Morrigan return to DA2

From the last thread, discussion about defending the Redcliffe town


Ummm I was probably around level 5 or 6

Since my characters weren't having any problems with the enemies I was trying my best to get the enemies to attack my party. I had Alistair and Sten use taunt and threaten to try to get the enemies attention. I also had Leliana using pinning shot on the enemies that broke through and for my character I used AOE spells as well as paralysis and weakening spells.

Despite my best efforts, maxing out my mana use and stamina use, the villagers died

Oh well can't win them all

I've found it impossible to keep the villagers alive unless you have someone mainly focused on healing them. So maybe have yourself+Morrigan take over a healing role? Also, your AOE spells might be hurting the villagers as well.

I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel

My main beefs with DA:O, are a few trivial items (easily fixed).
disclaimer: these point refer to DA on the console (XB)

1) The splash/graphic that pops up when you pick up some codex/info books and such. It takes up half the screen and is unnecessarily thrown into your face.

2) Waiting for the corpses to "open" to get dat loot. Does it take that long for the game to register that npc/creature as dead?

3) Unable to continue exploring a few major sites in the epilogue/end-game. I don't understand the point of that design choice at all.

4) Lack of depth in the hot-key/button function (only 6 slots? doesn't cut it if I'm playing a mage). I find the left-trigger radial menu thing clunky and a detriment to the fun of the game.


But even if they don't fix those problems, chances are I can svck it up and still enjoy it.

my problem is that the game was designed specifically for the pause and cheat type of playstyle instead of real time combat. baldurs gate could be played on normal levels in real time but you had to have DOA on easy to play in real time. i tried normal level but that annoying knight guy kept dying. i also found out later on that they had goofy auto leveling. the auto leveling didnt bother to put any points into the knights endurance which explained why he died all the time. what good is a tank character that is made out of paper. the graphics were pretty bad but i blame that on development for the consoles and frankly i just got bored half way through.

to give a comparison im on my third playthrough of new vegas (ncr side this time) and im having a blast even though im doing some of the same missions again only with a different build. i had that same experience with baldurs gate 2 but i definitely didnt get it with DOA. im hoping that the real time combat is improved in DOA2.

Ironically enough, DA:O was developed as a pc only game in the beginning. Bioware was working on Mass Effect, that was a 360 exclusive, and an "un-named Bioware project" that was going to be their take on a Fantasy/D&D type world that was supposed to be for pc only. I paid a lot more attention to the project that would become Dragon Age: Origins than ME, because I wasn't planning on getting a 360 any time soon. It was after they were bought by EA that ME was announced for pc a month later, and when more information was brought out about Dragon Age, it was going to be multi-platform.

Never, ever, allow the game to autolevel a character you're going to depend on. You'll end up with a character that is super good at something you never use or need. One nice thing they included in Awakening was the item that allowed you to rebuild both your pc and the npcs in your party.

Super good at something you'll never use? If only - DA:O's auto-leveling system IS that bad. Nothing more frustrating than picking up Oghren late in the game only to discover you can't fill out his 2-handed talent line due to low strength. He'll have outstanding cunning, though! :facepalm: Thank God for the respec mod.

I'm also hoping that "real-time" combat is improved. Bioware is reportedly getting rid of the "shuffling" - so hopefully that means no more forced repositioning before launching an attack. I really HATE that.

She wont be back, especially after the last terrible dlc.

Can't imagine playing Baldur's Gate in complete real time, not with the number of spells/abilities you have divided over six characters. Then again its "Normal" mode is just a renamed "Easy" mode. And concerning auto-leveling, you have only yourself to blame for that, thinking a computer could do a human's work.

ive played plenty of rpgs that auto levelled characters just fine. its not rocket science. tanks get strenght and endurance, wizards get wisdom, etc. i dont even remember having any major issues with the NWN games outside of me having to pick spells cause i was aiming for a specific build. when you have a large party i just frankly have better things to do than sit around and tweak every character. team members that work in close units whether in sports or science or the military are expected to know their tasks and how to perform them. would anyone expect the current leader of a SEAL squad to have to tell his guys to make sure and keep in shape and to practice their tactics and clean their guns.

i realize its a game but like i said its not rocket science auto building a character and other games do it just fine. hell ive played rpgs on snes that had auto level and they did a fine job. if the developer hands you a wizard guy, why would they have it auto-level his strenght and stamina to the exclusion of his intelligence and wisdom. its exactly what they did with the paladin guy. when i finally checked his stats he had no increases in stamina/endurance i forgot what they used in that game.

as for the realtime combat i could play it on more than just one difficulty level in BG. DOA you can only do it on easy unless you like dying alot. i hate playing pause and cheat style for obvious reasons. "wait mr. monster.........you cant attack us just yet we still havent take our turn and im trying to decide which spell to cast.........so just sit there and do nothing"

Leveling a character is hardly rocket science, but if a computer was a person, it would be a severely mentally [censored] one. Ever hear the saying: "All programmers are playwrights, and all computers are lousy actors?" Same idea. Stop anthropomorphizing the game's programming, it can't predict how you want to build up your characters, especially when there are several "build paths" each class can go (i.e. though a mage will always want sufficient Magic, if they take the Blood Mage spec, they might want to invest in some Constitution as well, and if they take Arcane Warrior, they may want to put some points in dexterity). Only you can properly figure out what their tasks are going to be. Honestly, if you don't like developing your characters, why are you even playing RPGs?

And just to let you know, Constitution is a near worthless stat for tanks in DAO, anyway. Dexterity does a much better job at improving their defensive aptitude.


The pausing is meant to be an equalizer. Unlike you, the enemy AI does not need to worry about flipping through menus, remembering where on the toolbar it put its spells, making sure that it hits the right place for its AoE attacks, or where to decisively move its units; it can do it all instantaneously. A human doesn't have that luxury, he can't do everything in-game with a simple thought, he has to prompt the computer to do what he wants using the interface available to him. The pause simply allows him to "simulate" the AI's ability to act fast.

You made a good purchase; one of the best games I ever bought. Even though the concept of multiple origin stories hasn't been carried over to DA 2, it was one of the greatest strengths of the first game. I loved how starting as a mage gave your character a lot of baggage to carry in his background and future prospects, and double that for the city elves. I really liked details such as the older elven couple who talk to your character about your late mother. I think you will like the dwarven backgrounds too; make sure you play both as a noble and as the lower caste.

I agree that this easily one of the best rpg's I ever played. David Gaider said in the official forums that the reason why the origin stories have not been carried over to the sequel is partly because the Bioware server statistics demonstrated that the vast majority of the people who played the game picked either the human noble or the human mage backgrounds. The two elven origins were a very distant second and the two dwarven backgrounds were at the very bottom.

The problem is though that the game tends to focus on areas that may give you talents you don't want or need. In Awakenings, Anders is primarily a healer. That's fine. The game [or the devs] gave him enough healing talents/spells to be useful. He has some other spells that aren't exactly useful right off the bat; later in the spell trees there are good spells, but not at the start. What makes it even worse is in the all-powerful cut-scene when you find Anders, he's casting a flame spell. That's just great. An area or so later, if you take control of Anders to get the same flame spell you saw him casting in the cut-scene, you find out he doesn't have the spell. He has no flame based spells at all. Or like finding out you're going to have to hold off on adding talents to Oghren because you have to raise his strength first because the game didn't think a two handed warrior needed to be strong. Or how they spread the talents for Leliana around to where she isn't necessarily good at anything in particular. Not enough talents in bows, not enough in rogue. If you concentrate on one or the other it gets much better. That goes for Zevran too. He keeps offering to open locks for my pc; check his skills and he *can't*.

I usually don't end up pausing a lot; unless I want my mage to use a certain spell, I trust the tactics I've set up to work the way I wanted. Then all I have to do is make sure I have enough potions or poultices for my party.

That's unfortunate, because both the dwarven noble and commoner origins were well-written, I thought. The dwarven characters are good fighters even if they can't use magic in the DA universe. I wasn't crazy about the "wild elf" origin, but the City Elf origin was one of the best. The human noble origin was excellent too, and the most touching at the end of it.

I usually don't connect to their server. My games would probably have skewed their results. My first character was a female City elf. Second was female dwarf noble. Female Dalish. Female duster. Female City elf. Finally female human noble. Then a female mage. I started several other characters that I didn't take to the end, too. Very few of them were human nobles. My favorites were the City elves; followed by the dwarf duster, then the human noble.

I could deal with the human only thing for Hawke. Its the other changes that I don't like; the things they are changing or removing were the things that made my decision to buy DAO easy.

Well, that dashes my hopes for a future game where you play as only a Dwarf. It would have been funny to see the uproar that would have caused, especially from all the people previously in full support of the human-only background in DA2.

Didn't have any healing spells at the time and I made sure not to get the villagers in the crossfire of my spells

I think it's just the difficulty I have it on (Now normal rather than casual where I was able to save most of the villagers). Oh well though I've made peace with it (and so have the dead villagers) at least I was able to survive it myself

and yet games like dungeon siege operate just fine with multiple characters in real time. also you making the argument that the AI does all this for itself but for some mysterious reason its incapable of doing it for your allies. from a programing perspective there is no difference. how is letting my characters auto attack any different than fighting enemies.........which are auto attacking. your argument doesnt even make any sense. and as i have said i have played games where the auto-leveling and combat AI were good enough to get the job done. im not expecting perfection and the "ultimate build" what i am expecting and what other games have done just fine is an acceptable form of combat AI and auto-leveling. when i play rpgs im doing it to be immersed in a world. constantly switching out of menus all the time breaks that immersion and in combat is akin to cheating.

I never said the AI was proficient at combat; it's not, and the enemies get by more often than not by forcing you to fight outnumbered and/or against opponents more powerful than you'll ever be. This straight advantage means that if you want to win, you personally are going to have to go above and beyond what the computer is capable of, either by fighting with superior tactics (which is immensely difficult to do in real time, since you have to deal with an interface to control four bozos), or by, uh...using superior Tactics (as in, programming proper AI for your team using the Tactics menu to cut down on micromanaging). If you don't like the RTwP system, fine, but don't equate pausing to cheating, it's just allowing you to do what a computer is able to do innately.

That seems a pretty weak excuse. In pretty much every RPG made most people pick human first (hell, I pretty much always do). But after I found out how great the Dwarf Noble and Elf Commoner origins were I havent touched a human character since. The Origin's were a fanstastic part of DA:O that made it stand out a bit more amongst other RPGs.

Sounds more like EA being tightwads. <_<

i only played the human classes but from what i gathered outside of the initial setting there really wasnt that much of a difference between them. i didnt finish the game but up to the point o got too i never even encountered anyone from the beginning sequence anyways. it would have been nice to have a specific companion based on which starting point you had, the noble start could have a squire for example. some kind of story link would have been a nice addtion as well.

You meet your cousin and your father again as the City elf. You meet your brother again in the dwarf noble story. You meet your sister again in the dwarf duster story. You will meet some of the mages you know in the Mage's story.

You do have a companion as the human noble; your Mabari. The whole point of the human noble story is everyone in your family is killed. Howe kills the elves who work in the kitchen and the cook too. Why would a squire who could fight survive?

You missed an interesting story for the City elf; murder plots and family issues in the dwarf noble story, crime syndicates, rigged arena matches, and corrupt officials and family issues for the dwarf duster story.

What kind of story links do you want?