Dragon Age Origins discussion...

WabeWalker said:
I want to get my hands on the 360 version, because I've read that it's actually easier to play than the PC version.

With no way to pause the game at the end of every round, or to queue up orders, it's obvious that Bioware really wants us to play this game in real time - hence the so-called 'tactics' menu.

That fucking tactics menu has actually destroyed this game.

It's obvious that Bioware said to themselves: "Look, console gamers aren't going to be very happy about pausing the game every thirty seconds, so we need to come up with a way to get around that?" And apparently their solution was to create the 'tactics' menu, which of course scripts the A.I. of your party members, allowing for real time play.

On the console version, which appears to be easier, yes, maybe that does work. On the PC version it doesn't. I've been trying to figure out why this game isn't working for me, and I think that this might be why.

It's almost like the developer was conflicted: they wanted Dragon Age to be a game that would represent Bioware's 'return to its pc roots' - and yet at the same time they were trying desperately to please the console crowd?

Ah well, it's just a game. No need to get too upset about this fucking thing, which has turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the year for me personally.
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Jeez Wabe, just quit playin the damn game then if it's so painful for you ......:rolleyes:
You keep saying it's a good game but then immediately follow that with how disappointed you are with it, how it just doesn't work for you etc etc.....
 
WabeWalker said:
With no way to pause the game at the end of every round, or to queue up orders, it's obvious that Bioware really wants us to play this game in real time - hence the so-called 'tactics' menu.
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I certainly didn't play in real time.

I don't see how tactics makes the game *harder* when you're supposed to use it to play in real time... which is harder than pausing... what? A lot of contradictory statements that just boil down to: turn it to easy.
 
The only thing I'd like to see with Tactics is more options and more powerful options. Such as if 2 or more party members are < 33% health, then GROUP HEAL. If SPELL is on COOLDOWN, then use other SPELL (i.e. HEAL is charging so use GROUP HEAL or REJUVENATE instead or FORCE FIELD is charging so use TELEKINETIC PRISON instead). The option for unconscious is also missing so you can't script REVIVE. There also seems to be a few bugs.

There need to be more slots available, and they need to decouple tactics from skills. Tactics should be as long as the player wants them to be.
 
ROFLMAO this was good.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1096-Dragon-Age-Origins

The line at 3:59 almost made me shoot Cherry Coke out my nose.

The visual alone is priceless.

For all his complaints about it, he does say he likes it. :D

Also gotta love this.....

20091012.jpg
 
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Definitely makes a few good points, though. Basically his video sums it up as "Yep, just another RPG, where you got 3 classes, Elves use bows, Dwarves drink ale, and Humans are emotional scumbags, but in the end, there's a bit of fun to be had" :p


Ryom said:
The only thing I'd like to see with Tactics is more options and more powerful options. Such as if 2 or more party members are < 33% health, then GROUP HEAL. If SPELL is on COOLDOWN, then use other SPELL (i.e. HEAL is charging so use GROUP HEAL or REJUVENATE instead or FORCE FIELD is charging so use TELEKINETIC PRISON instead). The option for unconscious is also missing so you can't script REVIVE. There also seems to be a few bugs.

There need to be more slots available, and they need to decouple tactics from skills. Tactics should be as long as the player wants them to be.
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There is a point, I believe, where tactics can get a little too hand holding. They're good in the background to take away some of the boring micro-management, but If you're finding that you can play the game with tactics alone, then you should probably up the difficulty level :)
 
Intel_Hydralisk said:
I killed them all as well. My brother did not... I think all you do is become imprisoned then your buddies bust you out. You then do some mini mission to escape I suppose. I'm not sure what happens after that.
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The escape mission can be pretty entertaining, depending on which characters you choose to do it. Try Sten + Oghren.

The obvious choice was Morrigan and Lelianna but it wasn't as entertaining as I'd have hoped.

Beating that boss was fun purely because she hits harder than any other boss in the game (which is weird, especially since she rates fairly low on the "most powerful mob killed" ranking in Heroic achievements, behind the final boss, all big dragons, and Graxang, and I find her far harder than any of those), but I'm not that big a fan of the Summer Sword. I prefer Ageless just for style or Starfang if I really want to min/max. It's unfortunate that all the really cool weapons are 2-handers, as I find 2-hand weapon warriors the most lacking class and spec in the game. Even with dex not contributing to dagger damage, even a dagger rogue will outdamage a 2-hander warrior.
 
MisterSparkle said:
Definitely makes a few good points, though. Basically his video sums it up as "Yep, just another RPG, where you got 3 classes, Elves use bows, Dwarves drink ale, and Humans are emotional scumbags, but in the end, there's a bit of fun to be had" :p
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Yeah I'm really surprised at Dragon Age. If you look at it objectively, it is incredibly unoriginal in every aspect, yet I still find it utterly engrossing and easily my favorite single player game this year, probably of this generation so far.

My biggest gripe though is that every single Player Character voice over is ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. The cast is great and their dialog well-written yet your persona is so utterly annoying.

They should've just went the Mass Effect route and had only two voice actors; one male, one female, and made them both very good ones.
 
Parmenides said:
Yeah, don't do the "attack selected leader's target" or however it's stated. That will give them attacking ADHD. Instead do it by name, like "attack Joe's target" or some such.

I've just been micro-ing it myself with lots of pausing. Kind of hard to preset attacks when my main character is a bloodmage/arcane warrior. I do a lot of random things, depending upon the battlefield. I might run in with the sword, or I might go with AOE. Next playthrough, I'm going to try to keep my hands off the micromanagement.


Did anyone find that the first half of the game, the average joe enemy has 3-4 times the hitpoints of your companions? (not even counting the bosses) I'm playing on normal skill.
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&
Monkey God said:
You have multiple tactics profiles. Its super easy to set them to just attack your target and do nothing else.
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I ended up disabling tactics for everyone in the party and the game plays exactly like I want. If I target someone to attack, they attack and stay attacking until it's either dead or I use an ability or change targets. It allows me to on the fly change targets or move characters between targets as the battle progresses w/o having to change tactics. I can even select my mage w/o them going back to default whatever tactic as soon as they're deselected. The game is so much easier now!

Weiser_Cain said:
I hate Zero Punctuation.
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You have to remember. He admits that he does not usually say good things about games, even ones he likes, because that's what all other review sites do. He has a very unique review method. Even games he likes he still bashes most of the bad stuff about them and talks up the good stuff very little. Who needs to read "This game rocks!" 10x over? He has a different slant and it's funny; at least to most. The people in RL i've shown ZP to they didn't like him either but they only like positive reviews so I understand.
 
kledar586 said:
heard they drop the price? guess that means the game isn't selling well?
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Meanwhile back in the real world:

Code: 
"Steam Top Ten (by Revenue): 11/8 - 11/14
   1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward
   2. Dragon Age: Origins - BioWare
   3. Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe Edition - BioWare"
[...]

Direct2Drive Top Ten: 11/8 - 11/14

   1. Dragon Age: Origins - BioWare
   2. Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe Edition - BioWare
   3. Borderlands - Gearbox
   4. Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe Edition with Prima Guide - BioWare 
[...]
 
Started over as a mage...man I cant believe I skipped the 'virulent exploding plague' line of spells on my first playthrough. I took that line from the start this time, right up to Raise Dead. The shower of gore when someone explodes is just awesome.

And the excessive team damage, oh my. Most every battle my front-line guys are falling over, and it doesnt even matter, they are just there to group up the enemies for the explosions. Even have force shield so I can plague two guys (different timers!) and I stay safe while they count down to doom. Fun stuff :)
 
Took a mean slash on my mousing wrist at hockey last night and I can't seem to play DA:O without being in a substantial amount of pain. Came here to do some relaxed mousing instead and I can't even look at this thread any more because of all the spoilers! lol

Bastardos!
 
KenG10 said:
:confused: Dude, the voice acting is on par with blockbuster animated movies! What are you smoking?! I would love to hear what you think is acceptable. :rolleyes:
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QFT.

Although sometimes there are odd pauses between the audio that make it less fluid than your typical blockbuster animated movie.
 
I just encountered a strange bug!!!


After doing the Magi tower, I tried to talk to shale and the camera clips into nothingness. I select (nevermind) from the menu and my party and I are transported into... idk the skybox?? I can run around but im stuck there unless I reload. Also when I try to talk to him just running around now it does that. wtf
 
KenG10 said:
:confused: Dude, the voice acting is on par with blockbuster animated movies! What are you smoking?! I would love to hear what you think is acceptable. :rolleyes:
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The Player Character not the party members like Lelianna, Alistar, etc. As I said in that post, the cast is excellent, but the person you are personally has six choices per sex and all six range from annoying to ear-grating.

Again, they should've just done like Mass Effect and only have two; one male, one female, and focus on making those two really good, instead of having 12 really shitty ones to choose from.
 
Dont worry, its only a matter of time until someone mods Arnold's voice for the main character. "Get to da choppa!" "Come with me if you want to live!"

Already saw an add-on to give 25 tactics slots to each character. And retexturing mods...
 
Krieger91 said:
I just encountered a strange bug!!!


After doing the Magi tower, I tried to talk to shale and the camera clips into nothingness. I select (nevermind) from the menu and my party and I are transported into... idk the skybox?? I can run around but im stuck there unless I reload. Also when I try to talk to him just running around now it does that. wtf
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I had this happen in my game as well near the end. I couldn't really fix it. But as i was near the end i just made sure i never talked to him. It is like the save state for his quest got reset and it thinks you are clicking on him when he was frozen.
 
WabeWalker said:
I want to get my hands on the 360 version, because I've read that it's actually easier to play than the PC version.

With no way to pause the game at the end of every round, or to queue up orders, it's obvious that Bioware really wants us to play this game in real time - hence the so-called 'tactics' menu.

That fucking tactics menu has actually destroyed this game.

It's obvious that Bioware said to themselves: "Look, console gamers aren't going to be very happy about pausing the game every thirty seconds, so we need to come up with a way to get around that?" And apparently their solution was to create the 'tactics' menu, which of course scripts the A.I. of your party members, allowing for real time play.

On the console version, which appears to be easier, yes, maybe that does work. On the PC version it doesn't. I've been trying to figure out why this game isn't working for me, and I think that this might be why.

It's almost like the developer was conflicted: they wanted Dragon Age to be a game that would represent Bioware's 'return to its pc roots' - and yet at the same time they were trying desperately to please the console crowd?

Ah well, it's just a game. No need to get too upset about this fucking thing, which has turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the year for me personally.
Click to expand...

Wabe, are you this dramatic in real life?
 
WabeWalker said:
I want to get my hands on the 360 version, because I've read that it's actually easier to play than the PC version.
Click to expand...

This is sad, man.

You obviously don't like the game. Playing a handicapped version of it isn't going to make you like it more.

If you've turned down the difficulty as much as you can and that's still not good enough, there's always .ini tweaks or even trainers.

I suspect you just don't like the game. That's ok. Not a crime. :)

I have a few personal preference issues with the game myself but those are my things, not "quality of the game itself" issue.

This is definitely a HIGH quality game.

I never was very good at these kinds of RPGs. Boy, I sure am not now!
 
xenios said:
I had this happen in my game as well near the end. I couldn't really fix it. But as i was near the end i just made sure i never talked to him. It is like the save state for his quest got reset and it thinks you are clicking on him when he was frozen.
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Extactly.. I can use a different character in my party if I need to. I dont think I need to talk to him though.
 
Neurofreeze said:
The Player Character not the party members like Lelianna, Alistar, etc. As I said in that post, the cast is excellent, but the person you are personally has six choices per sex and all six range from annoying to ear-grating.

Again, they should've just done like Mass Effect and only have two; one male, one female, and focus on making those two really good, instead of having 12 really shitty ones to choose from.
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Ohhhh, you're bagging on the little one liners that your character says when you click on something? "Yes" "Going" "On my way" ?? Alrighty then...
 
Q-BZ said:
This is sad, man.

You obviously don't like the game. Playing a handicapped version of it isn't going to make you like it more.

If you've turned down the difficulty as much as you can and that's still not good enough, there's always .ini tweaks or even trainers.

I suspect you just don't like the game. That's ok. Not a crime. :)

I have a few personal preference issues with the game myself but those are my things, not "quality of the game itself" issue.

This is definitely a HIGH quality game.

I never was very good at these kinds of RPGs. Boy, I sure am not now!
Click to expand...

The game isn't difficult at all - I'm not sure where you got the idea that I'm having a tough time in the battles?

What I meant was that the game is clearly designed, at least partially, with the console crowd in mind. That's what the 'tactics' are all about. As I've repeatedly said, the tactics are just Bioware's way of allowing for console gamers to play in real time without having to pause the game.

In the PC version there should have been a pause-at-the-end-of-every-round feature, or at least an orders queue. Clearly, Bioware would prefer that we play this game without pausing. Okay, might as well play the console version then.

To me, Bioware was conflicted with this game. They were trying to please two different sets of gamers instead of just one. Is this game really Bioware's 'return to its pc roots'? I don't think it is.
 
WabeWalker said:
The game isn't difficult at all - I'm not sure where you got the idea that I'm having a tough time in the battles?

What I meant was that the game is clearly designed, at least partially, with the console crowd in mind. That's what the 'tactics' are all about. As I've repeatedly said, the tactics are just Bioware's way of allowing for console gamers to play in real time without having to pause the game.

In the PC version there should have been a pause-at-the-end-of-every-round feature, or at least an orders queue. Clearly, Bioware would prefer that we play this game without pausing. Okay, might as well play the console version then.

To me, Bioware was conflicted with this game. They were trying to please two different sets of gamers instead of just one. Is this game really Bioware's 'return to its pc roots'? I don't think it is.
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Thats just, like, your opinion man..
 
I agree with WabeWalker on somethings such as the queue. However i was not surprised at the pause at every round since they dropped it for NWN and Obsidian doing the same for NWN2. But i have no problems at all hitting [space] key.

I quite like the tactics, as such things that i do constantly could be handled by that.
 
Well I got it from an alternate source, but that was the link provided.
I'd upload it somewhere but it'd take me hours...
 
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