Dragon Age Origins discussion...

Well I'm curious is there another world map, or the one you see at the beginning is the only one?
 
There are mini maps for a few areas like Denerim and Orzzamar.
I think they're saving more world maps for sequels. There's still plenty of room on the main map for DLC.
 
hmm interesting, well I have most of all the places explored on the map, but i've only played like 12 hours total.
 
More locations will pop up as you go. Plus, some will show up as random encounters, too.
The main thing is that some levels are just plain massive. Orzammar has its own map and comprized of 7-8 dozen mini-levels. Denerim and the Mage's tower, too.
While it doesn't have its own map, the Brecilian forest is also pretty big and it ends up having several "level within a level" moments.
The game's definitely big.
At first I was thinking that it's so tiny compared to Morrowind, but that's mainly because of the pacing. There aren't thousands of mini-quests to do, but things take longer and tend to require multiple attempts.
 
Domingo said:
More locations will pop up as you go. Plus, some will show up as random encounters, too.
The main thing is that some levels are just plain massive. Orzammar has its own map and comprized of 7-8 dozen mini-levels. Denerim and the Mage's tower, too.
While it doesn't have its own map, the Brecilian forest is also pretty big and it ends up having several "level within a level" moments.
The game's definitely big.
At first I was thinking that it's so tiny compared to Morrowind, but that's mainly because of the pacing. There aren't thousands of mini-quests to do, but things take longer and tend to require multiple attempts.
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I totally agree..

The game is pretty huge, especially some mission or quest that take you hours to finish.

There is one level that I hate the most due to that problem, that is "Fade".

I hate that delusional type of setting where things have wave around them. it hurts my eye.... :mad:
 
Lol yea I just got out of the fade and the game all the sudden went from a pretty good game, to awesome now that I have a healer in my group and I can play the game without pasusing ever second. Cant wait to go home and play! DRAAAGGOOONNNNN AGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
 
They just released the 1.02 patch, here is the link and the notes.

http://files.bioware.com/dragonage/patch/1.02/DragonAge1.02.exe

Balance

*Daggers now apply 0.5 points of damage per additional point in dexterity and 0.5 points of damage per additional point in strength, as originally intended. This increases dagger damage for high-dexterity characters.
*During combat, mana or stamina reserves now correctly regenerate more quickly when reserves are low. This allows players to occasionally use an talent or spell in the later stages of lengthy fights.
*When exploring, mana and stamina now regenerate more quickly at higher character levels. This reduces downtime between fights.
*The spells Force Field, Crushing Prison, Cone of Cold, and Blizzard now have shorter durations and/or longer cooldowns. This ensures that combatants can no longer stun-lock each other by repeatedly casting the same spell.
*The cooldowns for several low-level sustained abilities are now shorter. This ensures that players are not penalized for accidentally deactivating them.
*Certain battles were not scaling properly, resulting in excessively difficult fights. They now scale as intended.
*Enemy corpses now drop health poultices and money more appropriately, resulting in less clutter in the player's inventory.


Gameplay

*In rare cases, enemy corpses were selectable when they contained no loot. This no longer occurs.
*Party members whose combat tactics were set to defensive behavior no longer stop attacking after using a spell or talent.
*In rare cases, combat tactics conditions could fail to determine whether a character had enough mana or stamina to use an ability. This no longer occurs.
*The Rally talent no longer repeats its audio effect if it is active during certain conversations.
*The Rally talent no longer deactivates upon area transitions or conversations.
*The Shimmering Shield spell now deactivates when the character is out of mana.


Plot *Spoiler Warning*

*Promotional downloadable content items now remain in the player's inventory when standard items are removed at the end of the dwarf noble origin.
*Repeatedly talking to Duncan after gathering the vials in the Korcari Wilds but not the treaties no longer provides duplicate experience.
*Leliana's personal plot can now be completed if the player substantially increased her approval (through gifts) before talking to her.
*During the siege of Redcliffe, enemies are no longer able to spawn in locations that would break the plot.
*Bann Teagan no longer disappears when he is supposed to be accessible during Urn of Sacred Ashes.


PC Specific

*Controlling a summoned creature (like a ranger's pets) during certain special area transitions no longer results in odd behavior.
*Creating a character in a custom module did not create a folder for saves. This could result in corruption of main campaign saves. This no longer occurs.
*In some cases, the class icon was set incorrectly for characters imported from the downloadable Character Creator. This no longer occurs.
*The options menu now includes a setting to automatically download previously purchased content that is not currently installed.
*After installing new downloadable content, the game now always reminds the user to restart the game.
*The icons for some promotional downloadable content items were missing. They now appear correctly.
*The screenshot upload GUI would stop working from time to time on the client. There was a memory override that was fixed. It is a client fix. It doesn't affect the other problems we have seen on the server.
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oh also found a broken quest, the last of the Blackstone irregular one here you gotta kill the old guy or his son, the old guy is no where to be found, some other ppl online seem to have this problem also, of course I never bother to patch DA once I got far into it so maybe this is already fixed.
 
How do you get her quest? I have had her in my party the entire game so far since I got her and she's at 70+% approval, but she has no quest or anything new to say to me in teh camp or anywhere.
 
kledar586 said:
oh also found a broken quest, the last of the Blackstone irregular one here you gotta kill the old guy or his son, the old guy is no where to be found, some other ppl online seem to have this problem also, of course I never bother to patch DA once I got far into it so maybe this is already fixed.
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I believe this problem occurs if you do not get the quest at the tavern in Denerim and get it elsewhere. I had it succeed when getting it there, and I had it fail when getting it at Redcliffe.
 
Plus there's still the lands across the ocean to the East, and the rumored lands to the south of the Korcari Wilds :D
 
Stiler said:
How do you get her quest? I have had her in my party the entire game so far since I got her and she's at 70+% approval, but she has no quest or anything new to say to me in teh camp or anywhere.
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PM'd you some info that should help.
 
just finished my first play thru, is it just me or was the last fight a little on the easy side?
 
kledar586 said:
just finished my first play thru, is it just me or was the last fight a little on the easy side?
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With werewolves in your army, EVERY fight is easy. :D

Those buggers really tear up the enemy something fierce.
 
Limahl said:
You don't get to play on all of it, but here is the entire world map that's known at the moment. Ferelden is only a small part of it, so there is plenty of room for places to go in future expansions or DLC.

http://na.llnet.bioware.cdn.ea.com/...s/downloads/thedasmap_wallpaper_1920x1200.jpg
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That looks like a rhinoceros. Also, my first playthrough really pulled the wool from my eyes. With all the mentions of foreign lands (especially Orlais and Tevinter) I thought some point the story would take me to them, so when I hit 40+ hours and I was still in Fereldan, I was all, "Oh shit, I'm never going to get done with this game."
 
Limahl said:
With werewolves in your army, EVERY fight is easy. :D

Those buggers really tear up the enemy something fierce.
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lol unfortunately I saved them so I had the elves instead who were also very useful. The normal soldier were plain useless however, the human ones from redcliff. I use the mages for the final fight, flames were a flying for mister big bad archdemon
 
I dont know if any of you guys grabbed the "dex hotfix" a few weeks ago. Well, turns out it totally borks Shales crystals permanently. You cant remove the fix and "reset" shale. If you had the hotfix in when you meet shale, the stats are set there and that is where the problem occurs. Unfortunately for me, that was 30 hours ago.

Check out all the comments:

http://dragonage.gulbsoft.org/doku.php/hotfix/dexterity_hotfix_101

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/9/index/299744/1



I think I am going to take a break from the game and see what develops. Ughhhhh :mad: :( All I wanted to do was fix my daggers back in my first play through. I have since beat it and started a new mage with the fix in place and the rest is history. lol oh well, thats what you get for using unofficial hotfixes.

Yes I have 1.02 and I have also tried the other directories mentioned in the threads. The weapon crystal is still messed up.
 
While my dagger damage went up only a point or two with the dex fix, the money change pisses me off. Money is everywhere now ... Unless I'm wrong and Howe guards just carry a lot of cash ....1. I struggled for so long with money up to this point that I've only bought 2 100 gold piece items from merchants. 2 I thought this game was cool and made you save unlike BG where you had 500k gold and every good merchant item in the game. Guess I was wrong. It said this 'fix' was all along in the console version.

The game is already too easy on normal difficulty, let alone now being able to easily buy all the best items in the game with the buckets of money they are throwing at me.
 
bigdogchris said:
While my dagger damage went up only a point or two with the dex fix, the money change pisses me off. Money is everywhere now ... Unless I'm wrong and Howe guards just carry a lot of cash ....1. I struggled for so long with money up to this point that I've only bought 2 100 gold piece items from merchants. 2 I thought this game was cool and made you save unlike BG where you had 500k gold and every good merchant item in the game. Guess I was wrong. It said this 'fix' was all along in the console version.

The game is already too easy on normal difficulty, let alone now being able to easily buy all the best items in the game with the buckets of money they are throwing at me.
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really i hoarded my gold and use it for pots ingredients and didn't really buy anything expensive, didn't touch a single one of those 100 gold items. besides you find a lot of good loot if you're thorough anyway.
 
kledar586 said:
lol unfortunately I saved them so I had the elves instead who were also very useful. The normal soldier were plain useless however, the human ones from redcliff. I use the mages for the final fight, flames were a flying for mister big bad archdemon
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I always kill the Dalish because they annoy me, and because the werewolves kick so much ass in the final battles.

The Dalish leader caused the whole curse anyway, so he deserves to die, and it makes Swiftrunner happy as a puppy with a new chew toy.
 
Where are you guys getting all your money? I cleared the game and couldn't even come close to a 50 gold item.

DW rogue level 21-22 when I finished.
 
Riftsaw said:
Where are you guys getting all your money? I cleared the game and couldn't even come close to a 50 gold item.

DW rogue level 21-22 when I finished.
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I don't remember how much gold I had at the end but you'll pretty much need to loot and sell everything that isn't nailed down, and not blow a ton on potions and consumables.
 
It might depend alot on the class and party make up. Like I said before, the first time through the game I had Alistair, Morrigan, Wynne and myself as a mage. The only type of pots I used were lyrium, and those were very few, so I never spent much money on consumables. On this second run through, (almost done now), with a rogue, I use tons of pots, poisons, grenades, etc. The first time through with three mages, I had literally tons of money, probably like 700+ gold at the end of the game. Right now entering the final battle in denerim with my rogue, I'm at like 32g and I consider that alot for this toon...
 
So I don't know if it was a coincidence or what, but after 1.02 the game started crashing on me, including after I killed the archdemon!

It did the "epilogue" save, and showed the video of the crowning, but that was it. Did I miss something? I was kind of expecting a long video epilogue showing what happened to my char and others in the party, including perhaps a final resolution of the love interest thing, kind of like in the NWN series.

Over all, not a bad final boss battle, but I was a little underwhelmed at the way the ending played out.
 
Spectrum17 said:
So I don't know if it was a coincidence or what, but after 1.02 the game started crashing on me,
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I noticed some alt-tab issues that were not there before. Once I flipped back to the game and the screen was completely black after then it had some big 'swoosh' like an ability fired off and the screen came back. :confused:
 
bigdogchris said:
While my dagger damage went up only a point or two with the dex fix, the money change pisses me off. Money is everywhere now ... Unless I'm wrong and Howe guards just carry a lot of cash ....1. I struggled for so long with money up to this point that I've only bought 2 100 gold piece items from merchants. 2 I thought this game was cool and made you save unlike BG where you had 500k gold and every good merchant item in the game. Guess I was wrong. It said this 'fix' was all along in the console version.

The game is already too easy on normal difficulty, let alone now being able to easily buy all the best items in the game with the buckets of money they are throwing at me.
Click to expand...

Yeah, DAO was the only RPG I've played where money and leveling were so balanced that by the end of the game neither was trivial.

The sheer amount of junk is ridiculous though. That's probably the biggest thing I hate about Bioware games. They just inundate me with useless shit AND put a fairly strict cap on inventory.

I don't think I had nearly as much money problems as everyone else though. During my playthroughs I had earned a total of usually 300-400g from quests + vendoring junk. Ironically I would only spend maybe 100-200 of it because, since money was never that trivial, I could deck out one character really well with the best bought items but not two or three characters, so I was always hesitant to invest everything on one guy for fear that I'd find something equally useful for that one guy in that slot.

Four tricks to collecting a lot of money:

First is to collect and sell everything, of course. Make sure you sell useless stuff and unused stuff as much as possible, because you never know when Dragon Age will throw a two hour dungeon with ridiculous amounts of junk at you. If you have to get rid of stuff, get rid of chest armor last; they always sell the most.

Second is to pick up every chanter/blackstone/magi quest you get. Even if you don't plan to go out of your way to do them, a great deal of them will be completed just through your normal playthrough. This is probably where most money comes from.

Third is to have enough money to do the lyrium smuggling sidequest in Orzimmar. You can net (NET not gross) 86g and a decent dagger through this one very short quest with no combat involved.

Four: ALWAYS press for more money in conversations. I think there's only one or two that will get you in trouble if you do, but all other times the NPC will be like, "Oh you're an asshole, here's 20g extra, I totally forgot what I just said, you're the nicest guy ever, thanks for saving me." You can get a relatively ridiculous amount of gold before you get your first army/ally this way (like 15-20g prior to finishing the first town after Ostagar). There are a few instances where it will net you a TON of gold, like rescuing the nobleman from the dungeon and talking to his father at the bar, you can convince him to give you 60g in just that one conversation.

Also, I almost never bought consumables. By the end of my last playthrough I had something like 80+ lesser health poultices, 50+ health, 30+ greater, a dozen or so potent. Didn't use a single one. I used probably under 10 lyrium pots of various qualities. I had my mages be blood + whatever. Their tactic was when mana < 25% -> activate mode: Blood Magic. When health < 50% -> Use ability: Blood Sacrifice. When mana > 50% -> Deactivate mode: Blood Magic. So basically I had infinite mana engines and I didn't even have to micromanage them. The only time when this was an issue is if an enemy mage really bombarded us with lightning magic and I didn't interrupt as it will make them both low on mana and HP (lightning drains both).

Spectrum17 said:
So I don't know if it was a coincidence or what, but after 1.02 the game started crashing on me, including after I killed the archdemon!

It did the "epilogue" save, and showed the video of the crowning, but that was it. Did I miss something? I was kind of expecting a long video epilogue showing what happened to my char and others in the party, including perhaps a final resolution of the love interest thing, kind of like in the NWN series.

Over all, not a bad final boss battle, but I was a little underwhelmed at the way the ending played out.
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Uh yes... you definitely missed something. There is a resolution to just about everything you've done in the game, including some of the more prominent side quests. Like if you help Dagna get into the Circle, there is a resolution for that (spoiler: she becomes a respected author in enchanting).

There is a resolution for every single character in your party, partially decided upon with epilogue dialog you have with each of them.
 
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Excellent post, Neurofreeze. Pretty much sums up how to get a ton of money. The only other thing I can add is that if you're OCD, use one of your NPC rogues like Lel to pickpocket everyone everywhere. As you get higher level, it's like 7-25 silver per white name and there might be 20 NPCs per city. Not a whole lot but it adds a little more.

The side quests on the boards in general will be in the 2-6 gold range for each one, which is not bad. The only other NPC to give a ton of gold is one of the nobles for the Landsmeet. You save his son and then tell him you want cash as your reward. If you meet the persuade check, you get 50 gold from him. If you fail, you get 40 gold. He'll still support you at the Landsmeet even if you extort him for 50 gold.

Pretty much the biggest savings is being a blood mage. I think the other classes have to actually chug pots, which can really add up. As a blood mage, towards the end I was selling 20+ lesser health poultices at a time to the vendors because they kept on building up in my inventory and I figured a stack of 99 was more than enough. I ended up beating the game with a stack of 99 lesser and normal health since I never used any. I also didn't have to use any poisons or grenades or even the balms so those can be sold also.

Holy nerf on Cone of Cold, haha. Completely expected but it went from 10s cooldown, 10s freeze to 15s cooldown, 7s freeze. FF also went down from ~30s to closer to ~15s.
 
Hey can you guys help me out I'm suppose to get this magical Urn from some dude in the big city starting with D, to help the king recover or some shit. (lol sorry for vague details at work and cant remember)

Do you know where I find the dude in denerium or whatever.
thanks
 
Blubikins said:
Hey can you guys help me out I'm suppose to get this magical Urn from some dude in the big city starting with D, to help the king recover or some shit. (lol sorry for vague details at work and cant remember)

Do you know where I find the dude in denerium or whatever.
thanks
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*spoiler*

Are you just starting the quest? If so, you're supposed to visit Brother Gen-something in Denerim. The door to his place is across from the tavern in the market district.
 
Thanks I was looking for him last night but gave up and went to bed, I'll try it out when I get home.




enchantment????


ENNNNNCCCCHHHAAANNNTTTMMENNNTTT
 
I just started playing DA and I love it, so far a couple of questions.

is XP universal across your members?

eg. When i earn XP do all of my team members earn the same XP , even if they are in Camp? in games like KoToR and ME it seemed i could take who ever I wanted to without fear of them not leveling up. Not sure how this works in DA. I am worried i will have to stick with the same 3 party members throughout the game for fear of my other members being to low level.


Party member Skills.

If one of my party members has the "Coersion" skill, will that work on dialog my main character is using?


last question, i'm finding traveling to be very difficult. I am just leaving Lothering, and finding I am getting jumped by Dark Spawn and they are just taking me to the cleaners. I am playing on the highest diffuculty (I find its the only way to play and learn games) but no matter what tactic i use the 8 or 9 dark spawn ambush always overwelms me by quite a bit.

Getting ambushed by the Wolves, bandits, or spiders isn't an issue. Does this represent the way i shouldn't be traveling?
 
I didn't have to many problems with cash but it's absolutely ridiculous now. 2/3 of the guards/npc's in Denerim drops 20-60 silver after the 1.02 patch. Before it felt really balanced!

I didn't know the smuggling quest was such a large profit. I didn't do it because I didn't want to get in trouble with the Circle. Oh well. There's always second playthroughs for evil characters.
 
you can always do what I did, and just fight using only your party and never use your party. it's a good test. definately will need some health pots. the hardest fight is the one before the arch demon getting into the castle, that was an ungodly battle, 4 against the world, totally bas ass on hard.
 
ikarinokami said:
you can always do what I did, and just fight using only your party and never use your party. it's a good test. definately will need some health pots. the hardest fight is the one before the arch demon getting into the castle, that was an ungodly battle, 4 against the world, totally bas ass on hard.
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Wut. :confused:
 
^ lol thats what I was thinkin.... wuuuttttttt?!?!


Oh and to H-street, I started the game on hard as well. It really is difficult in the begginning of the game on hard, I had to put it on medium until I got a healer in my party. And I believe there is no wrong or right way to go when you travel, it all falls together in the end.
 
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