[Traveller]

That sounds useful... I'm interested in those 'rare materials' shipments too.

Gone are the days of sitting all day playing new games.. I'm waiting for eve so I can have another go!

[Ceda Cicero]

First post in this thread, been playing for a while now though and about 60 hours in. Wanted to chime in on the Knight Enchanter class mentioned in the last page. That's the class I'm running on my inquisitor and holy God is it overpowered. I had to jam up the difficulty from hard-->nightmare after I hit level 15 and it's still almost hilariously easy. So far it's a blast, but I've also seen a lot of folks griping about how gameplay with KE is boring as hell after a while and I can see their point now.

On a completely separate note, this is my first DA game and I'm quite enjoying it on most all levels. World-building and lore are top notch even if the writing itself isn't, say, Erikson quality at all times (though in places, hot damn, is it spectacular.) Question for the vets here: any thoughts on going back and playing the first two games after Inquisition, namely for the story and the lore? Bear in mind I've already wrecked a lot of the plot points of those games for myself by doing a heady deep dive into all the content to get myself context for Inquisition. I'm torn mainly because I just got a new console (my first in a loooong while because RL seriously curbed my gaming for many years) and my to-play list is pretty deep.

EDIT: Also, finally hit 1000 posts after six fucking years. I'll just be over here grooving quietly to myself.

This post has been edited by Ceda Cicero: 05 January 2015 - 07:14 PM

[Maark Abbott]

DA:O doesn't tie into Origins much (although it will give you a background for Leliana and one other character who 'tis not for me to name 'cause spoilers).

DA2 will explain the Mage/Templar war, what sparked it, and it has MOAR VARRIC.

[Garak]

I'm currently replaying Dragon Age Origins (playing the whole series because why not, I did the same with Mass Effect a few months ago). Personally I recommend checking out the previus games.

[Rictus]

I'm surprised most of you are impressed by this game. From what I've seen, Bioware mixed all the negatives of the previous game and Kingdoms of Amalur. The result: a quasi-open world filled with baddies that pop into existence when you're not looking, NPCs whose husband's ring was stolen (evil fucking templars, yeah? who cares the man's dead, she wants the precious), and inane side quests (about 80%) in scattered-letter form. Oh, the countryside is pretty enough, but then you notice the Hinterland horse-master's people waltzing a hundred paces from mage-templar warzone, all carefree but slightly bothered by the fact there's no watchtowers around these parts. Who will build them, I wonder?


Now let's not forget to mention the lack of weapon switching in combat, the fixed-length toolbar, the limited potions, the useless tactical view and the simplified tactics system. The war table could have been done well, except as far as I've seen the quests end in much the same way regardless of chosen adviser. More, you now have to do some of these dull Fed-ex quests if you are to advance the storyline: you have to gather power points or the new region won't open. Inquisition Perks are nothing earth-shattering either, barring a few that open up new dialogue options.


As for the companions, Varric is alright. That's about it. What I've noticed is that it's extremely easy to please everyone; you'll never have a few of them feeling left out or pissed. (Cassandra disapproves) Also, the Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus can't seem to kill any of these companions. I've tried it with that crazy elf woman with the speech disorder, but, alas, she will only flee your stronghold. A shame, that, because I remember what I was allowed to do in Knights of the Old Republic, and Origins. Just take Leliana, for instance. I seem to recall a certain finale in a frozen temple in Ferelden... And yet she's got the gall show up in my war council and my Inquisition. I guess she got better, but that would mean that Leliana should be New Jesus, not me. That's choice and consequence for you, i suppose.

Excuse me while I grieve for the time I wasted on this, the game of the year.

[Maark Abbott]

If enemies are popping into existence when you're not looking, I don't think you're paying proper attention to the landscape - you can see mobs from a long, LONG way away. If you're getting multiple pulls, I can only attribute it to not paying attention to the area around you.

At the core of it, it's a solid and enjoyable game with a fun save-the-world story. I also seem to recall that KOTR was lacking any sort of fun factor (I played it maybe ten hours and then left it because it was just interminably dull).

[Traveller]

I'm just having fun exploring, picking up new skills and completing side quests.

There's not much more to it really, it doesn't require a lot of strategy, and the choices don't make a big impact on the story, it's just meant as a role play. I don't think I really need to upgrade armour and stuff, I'm just making things I like the look of that my character would wear.

I don't think it's meant to be a deep strategy game or anything, and at the moment I'm enjoying it for what it is.

I re-specced my abilities to bow skills, as they flow far more nicely than the blades - I can backflip, roll and dive around while sending arrows into everything which is fun - also sniping from high up works well.

I've now got 3 warriors to choose from though, and I only really need one - at the moment I'm rotating them just for the conversation possibilities.

I do wish I didn't spend so much time emptying inventory items instead of playing though.

[Ceda Cicero]

Rictus, on 05 January 2015 - 09:56 PM, said:

I'm surprised most of you are impressed by this game. From what I've seen, Bioware mixed all the negatives of the previous game and Kingdoms of Amalur. The result: a quasi-open world filled with baddies that pop into existence when you're not looking, NPCs whose husband's ring was stolen (evil fucking templars, yeah? who cares the man's dead, she wants the precious), and inane side quests (about 80%) in scattered-letter form. Oh, the countryside is pretty enough, but then you notice the Hinterland horse-master's people waltzing a hundred paces from mage-templar warzone, all carefree but slightly bothered by the fact there's no watchtowers around these parts. Who will build them, I wonder?


Now let's not forget to mention the lack of weapon switching in combat, the fixed-length toolbar, the limited potions, the useless tactical view and the simplified tactics system. The war table could have been done well, except as far as I've seen the quests end in much the same way regardless of chosen adviser. More, you now have to do some of these dull Fed-ex quests if you are to advance the storyline: you have to gather power points or the new region won't open. Inquisition Perks are nothing earth-shattering either, barring a few that open up new dialogue options.

As for the companions, Varric is alright. That's about it. What I've noticed is that it's extremely easy to please everyone; you'll never have a few of them feeling left out or pissed. (Cassandra disapproves) Also, the Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus can't seem to kill any of these companions. I've tried it with that crazy elf woman with the speech disorder, but, alas, she will only flee your stronghold. A shame, that, because I remember what I was allowed to do in Knights of the Old Republic, and Origins. Just take Leliana, for instance. I seem to recall a certain finale in a frozen temple in Ferelden... And yet she's got the gall show up in my war council and my Inquisition. I guess she got better, but that would mean that Leliana should be New Jesus, not me. That's choice and consequence for you, i suppose.

Excuse me while I grieve for the time I wasted on this, the game of the year.

Where are you that enemies are randomly spawning on you in fights? I don't think this has happened to me even once that I can recall, save for MAYBE the portions of dragon fights where dragons summon dragonlings to help out--which, yanno, that's sort of how it's supposed to play, and even then you see them coming on your radar.

As to some of the other gripes I guess I can't really speak to them, but I do sort of struggle with people who I've heard complaining about side quests. To my mind the game seems to have a pretty nice spread of side quests that carry gravitas and side quests that are more mundane/inane. I sort of tend to think the inane side quests are just part of this genre and exist to flesh out the world a bit more and make the experience a bit more immersive for folks who find attraction in such things. Even though I DO think it's a little ridiculous that my world-saving Inquisitor would take the time to fetch herbs for a village healer rather than delegate the task to an underling I like having those little tasks on my quest map between major story quests. I can see how they might get tiresome and that's why--if I ever do another playthrough--I'll probably skip them.

One place where I will agree with a point you alluded to is on the whole "approval" ratings among party members. Thus far I haven't really seen approval ratings carry much consequence or have any real bearing on gameplay or story progression.

[Rictus]

Ceda Cicero, on 06 January 2015 - 04:10 PM, said:

Where are you that enemies are randomly spawning on you in fights? I don't think this has happened to me even once that I can recall, save for MAYBE the portions of dragon fights where dragons summon dragonlings to help out--which, yanno, that's sort of how it's supposed to play, and even then you see them coming on your radar.

As to some of the other gripes I guess I can't really speak to them, but I do sort of struggle with people who I've heard complaining about side quests. To my mind the game seems to have a pretty nice spread of side quests that carry gravitas and side quests that are more mundane/inane. I sort of tend to think the inane side quests are just part of this genre and exist to flesh out the world a bit more and make the experience a bit more immersive for folks who find attraction in such things. Even though I DO think it's a little ridiculous that my world-saving Inquisitor would take the time to fetch herbs for a village healer rather than delegate the task to an underling I like having those little tasks on my quest map between major story quests. I can see how they might get tiresome and that's why--if I ever do another playthrough--I'll probably skip them.

One place where I will agree with a point you alluded to is on the whole "approval" ratings among party members. Thus far I haven't really seen approval ratings carry much consequence or have any real bearing on gameplay or story progression.

I was referring to the Hinterlands area. Maybe I should've been clearer because I didn't mean enemies spawned in the middle of battle DA2-style. I was strolling in the Hinterlands, somewhere near those rebel strongholds (because I was hoping to curb the filler mobs), and I was sweeping through the hills. That place is full of these bloody hills, and so I killed a bunch of rebels ahead of me, turned back for some stupid reason and rounded a hill I'd previously passed by -- and bless me if those tactical genius mages weren't having a picnic in exactly the same spot I'd killed the others. There was also the zombie swamp, but I'm fairly certain the respawns are intentional there until you secure the stone thingies. Oh yeah, and there's the map where you first meet the Warden contact in the cave; I had these lyrium templars respawning on the roads. I don't know how much of the game I've completed, probably about half, so I know nothing about the end-game. But sorry, I'm probably just allergic/oversensitive to respawning mobs and it's no matter to everyone else..


And granted, it does have a number of interesting side-quests, but I was mainly pissed off at the way they thought it was plausible that people left all these scattered notes and letters everywhere. It's probably easier to just introduce the quests that way, but come on now... They even ditched the dialogue cutscenes from Origins for all but the important story bits.

@Maark. I never said KotOR was good (the second one+restoration mod is, however, divine). I merely wanted to point out that there was a bit more interaction with companion characters there. Like, you could wipe out a bunch of them at the end because they resisted your turn to the dark side, or not pick them up at all and slaughter them. A better example would have been Baldur's Gate (the second one probably gives companions more "life") where your henchmen pursue their own agendas and leave if you don't help, or kill another companion (or even you!) in a squabble.

[Maark Abbott]

...What do you mean you didn't find my armour? We are NOT blowing this facility up, Shepard.

[champ]

Finally got around to starting this - Human, two-handed warrior - any tips/pointers/don't do's?

My first Dragon Age game, a couple of hours in and glad I picked it up!

[Traveller]

All I can say to start with, is watch your inventory, it fills up quickly. You can ditch items at a research desk in the room next to the war room in Haven, the rest you can sell.

I'm still enjoying this. Just got sucked into a time rift and had to escape a future reality. Didn't want to stop before ending that section so another late night before work...

[Maark Abbott]

Do - spec points into Vanguard so that you have three or four ways to generate Guard (I recommend war cry and charging bull - taunt is only useful if you want to off-tank, which 2-H isn't really equipped to deal with). Combat roll would be useful to take as well as certain attacks (dragons, guys with two-handed hammers) can take off most or all of your Guard bar.

Don't - think heavy armour makes you invincible. Until you have ways to generate guard you're only a little less squishy than a rogue.

[Ceda Cicero]

champ, on 08 January 2015 - 01:00 PM, said:

Finally got around to starting this - Human, two-handed warrior - any tips/pointers/don't do's?

My first Dragon Age game, a couple of hours in and glad I picked it up!

Ditto above about inventory. 90% of the items that fall in the "Valuable" category (the random necklaces and toy soldiers and stuff) you can just sell or destroy to save space, unless they're creature-research items OR Fereldan Locks (Hinterlands) or (in the Hissing Wastes) dwarven relics (and you really only need those for requisitions, which... who cares.)

2H warrior should definitely run with at least one mage--clearly Solas for the early game; invest points in the Spirit tree, get the Barrier upgrade, then go into the Tactics screen for that character and set Barrier from "Enabled" to "Preferred" so that character will spam Barrier for your party as much as possible. Dispel is another fantastic spell to snag; with it mages can make short work of rifts (dispel basically stops demons from spawning altogether for that second wave.)

Maark is also right. A warrior's best friend is Guard (esp 2H.) When you find any Fade-Touched Obsidian HOLD ONTO IT TIGHTLY because you can use it in crafting your endgame equipment so that each hit generates 3 guard.

Also, unrelated, but since someone mentioned Charging Bull... It's a great skill to have on your inquisitor but man do I hate that skill on AI. AI Cassandra used to charge right through ranks of enemies BACK into my mages and archer and lead the baddies straight back to them.

This post has been edited by Ceda Cicero: 08 January 2015 - 02:04 PM

[Maark Abbott]

It's also a very good skill when used in conjunction with combat roll because if for whatever reason your charging bull misses, your combat roll can get you back into things (also charging bull doubles as a secondary emergency movement skill).

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Ceda Cicero, on 05 January 2015 - 07:13 PM, said:

First post in this thread, been playing for a while now though and about 60 hours in. Wanted to chime in on the Knight Enchanter class mentioned in the last page. That's the class I'm running on my inquisitor and holy God is it overpowered. I had to jam up the difficulty from hard-->nightmare after I hit level 15 and it's still almost hilariously easy. So far it's a blast, but I've also seen a lot of folks griping about how gameplay with KE is boring as hell after a while and I can see their point now.

On a completely separate note, this is my first DA game and I'm quite enjoying it on most all levels. World-building and lore are top notch even if the writing itself isn't, say, Erikson quality at all times (though in places, hot damn, is it spectacular.) Question for the vets here: any thoughts on going back and playing the first two games after Inquisition, namely for the story and the lore? Bear in mind I've already wrecked a lot of the plot points of those games for myself by doing a heady deep dive into all the content to get myself context for Inquisition. I'm torn mainly because I just got a new console (my first in a loooong while because RL seriously curbed my gaming for many years) and my to-play list is pretty deep.

EDIT: Also, finally hit 1000 posts after six fucking years. I'll just be over here grooving quietly to myself.

Definitely recommend Origins - I'm just finishing my first replay of it.

Also, I might have replayed it because my poor old PC can't handle Inquisition....

[Maark Abbott]

Unpopular opinion: Preferred 2 to Origins.

[Loki]

DA2 is my favourite of the three as well. The gameplay was better (it's the only one where it's fun to play as a mage imo) and I really enjoyed watching Kirkwall descend into chaos. Especially all the small touches like the number of people out at night becoming fewer over the acts, the increase of city guards, the change in ambient dialogue etc. It portrayed the downfall of a city state really well.
Though I preferred the companions in Origin to DA2.

[Ceda Cicero]

Finished this game last week after a completionist playthrough that took me foreeeeeever (and even then I gave up on the damn mosaic pieces.)

My takeaways are pretty much the same as many I've seen elsewhere online.

-Endgame was far too easy, even on nightmare. After ~lvl 14 as the Knight Enchanter, most all of the content was trivialized in terms of difficulty. Didn't ruin the game for me, but definitely changed my attitude towards it. I know this is a particular truth for the knight enchanter class, but I've read similar reports on other classes too.

-

Spoiler

Corypheus

had so much potential as a villain, especially considering how he fits into the broader mythology of Thedas, but they only ever actualized maybe a fraction of that potential and gave him a few too many cheesed up lines. This wasn't helped by (as to point 1) the fact that the final showdown with him was a cakewalk.

-The number of choices you're making throughout the game relative to the actual impact of those choices on the overall story arc and ultimately the ending is pretty sparse, IMO.

-Romancing Josephine is a snoozefest. I guess part of me likes the appeal of a storybook romance that doesn't involve sex or high, high drama and is overall pretty PG. A part of me also wants to see bewbs.

[Loki]

There is basically only one decision that you make that has any obvious effect and even then it's mostly foreshadowing of what might happen in the next game.

I guess every game can't be Mass Effect