cire992 Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 It is just a matter of a difference in opinion and taste. I lol'd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimartin Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 I lol'd. here to amuse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jae Onasi Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 The system worked fine for everyone else. Because everyone else was interesting, this guy just spouted out blunt, emotionless 1 liners. Never left me particularly curious about him. Its like a page straight out of the 'how not to develop characters' book. I guess Vulcans don't appeal to you then, either? I find Sten's mode of thinking and behavior fascinating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cire992 Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 ^ I'm pretty sure Spok is supposed to be boring so that's kind of a bad example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rake Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 ^ I'm pretty sure Spok is supposed to be boring so that's kind of a bad example. Sten's silence and bluntness add a lot more variety to the game; if every character had 500 lines of dialogue and poured their personal problems on you, they'd all feel somewhat similar. Plus it gives us a look at the different cultures of Ferelden, the Qunari are a people of few words, the Orlesians fancy certain oddities and seem "chivalrous," etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cire992 Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Sten's silence and bluntness add a lot more variety to the game; if every character had 500 lines of dialogue and poured their personal problems on you, they'd all feel somewhat similar. If you had a party of characters in the game that stared blankly at the player and didn't say anything other than "yes" "no" or "okay" you wouldn't play the game in the first place. I mean I'd just assume writers for a game like this would want to steer away from making characters, let alone entire cultures, who have almost nothing to say, and even if they do, won't 70% of the time. It's counter-intuitive. Especially when Jae has to come in and cite something as egregious as Star Trek to justify a bad design choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rake Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 That's why one character out of nine has that type of personality... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cire992 Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Not a personality, its a gimmick. Ah well, I'll let y'all off the hook from my whining. My favorite character was Zevran by the way. He was sorta hard to understand sometimes, but he was hilarious. Some of the random stuff he says when you're running around had me loling heartily. Actually that was something that worked well in the game, characters have random conversations with each other. All be it you have to walk into certain areas for that to happen, but the dialogue between some of the characters is brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JediAthos Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 I just finished my first play through. (I didn't get the game until last week) I didn't really use Sten all that much, but I think I'll try to on my second time around. My party typically consisted of PC(dual wield warrior) Allistair, Wynne, and either Morrigan or Leliana depending on the situation. I used Morrigan a lot toward the end as she got access to more powerful spells and aoe stuff. There quite a few quests I didn't really take the time to finish, and I didn't do any of the dragons except the archdemon. I also didn't really take time to develop romances except with Leliana. All in all I enjoyed the game, and I want to make sure I hit the stuff I missed on my next time through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrisG Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 Loved some parts of the game design, the locations and the landscapes but way too tracked and controlled for my taste and i got totally bored with fighting countless identical foes... and the spiders, yuck. I put the game back in the box and will give the game overall a B minus as a grade. Too bad as i had hopes for this, but really it just does not engage or draw one in enough when one has read really good epic tales or played better RPGs. I hope Mass Effect 2 will be better. Too many aspects of the Dragon Age story just dont make sense, like what the Dragons are about, and how they relate in any way to the hordes of blood spawn, or how this world got attacked by these evil things at all. And too much unexplained treachery used as plot motifs, a weak tool at best. Makes one not trust anyone. And the character models are way too similar, basically one handsome bearded man and one rather ugly woman. Not enough variety in them to make sense either. If one looks carefully and knows 3D figure modeling, you can see they used only a few basic protypes and that gets old fast. I was impressed by the use of vids and the way they can talor them for the plot direction and the party you have. But, that is not enough ot make this anymore than a game of some large scrpted areas used over and over...and a rather boring plot and parts taken from Oblivion, The Lord of the Rings and many other tales. This all is, i hasten to add, just my opinion, ....and yours may differ. I just dont enjoy having to slog thru on going violence over and over and over with no real relief or freedom to make the world worth exploring or caring about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cire992 Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 ^ To their credit, the face morphing tools they have in the toolset are some of the best I've seen, though they do allow a lot of shortcuts that would result in samey looking chars. http://www.dragonagenexus.com Lots of mods starting to go up. I do like seeing a thriving modding community, yes I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mur'phon Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 Currently played probably half way through (have done Redclife and the Circle +shale and the keep), and am positively surprised at how good this game is, especially in two areas. The gameplay is the best I have seen in this sort of game since Icewind dale 2, and is about how I wanted NWN2 to be. Though it's a wee bit too easy if you play a mage (or bring one or two with you), Alistar and Leliana are by far the least useful members of my regular party, they spend most of their time either beating up defenceless pinatas or running from my own AOE spells. Companions too are a nice improvement from past Bioware games, especially Allistar. Allistar is something as unusual as a likable good guy, probably because he's the only one of his kind with a working survival instinct and sence of humor. He is a bit naive though, despite never having licked frozen metal in winter. I also find myself for the first time in the position of not being able to fit all the guys I want into my regular party (I go with Allistar, Morrigan and Leliana, but I'd really like to fit Zhevran and Shale into it). Of course some things aren't exactly great, like the story so far and the screwed influence system. Example: in my game: Morrigan and Dog at around 100, Sten close behind, and Wynne, Leliana and Allistar at around 50, and Zhevran only at around 20 despite me acting very, eh, pragmatic. Edit: and unlike Chris I like all the treachery, it fits the world, and makes you suitably pragmatic/paranoid in a world with A: a civil war in the making, B: demons/magic capable of possessing/mind controlling and C: enough ethnicities/factions with competing interest to make Belgium look like a unified country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Lion54 Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 Of course some things aren't exactly great, like the story so far and the screwed influence system. Example: in my game: Morrigan and Dog at around 100, Sten close behind, and Wynne, Leliana and Allistar at around 50, and Zhevran only at around 20 despite me acting very, eh, pragmatic. Actually, I liked the way the influence system works. The key is understanding your companions' personalities. Dog will always be 100%. Morrigan and Sten are the pragmatic ones with little conscience. While not "evil" exactly, they tend to not like it if you go out of your way to help someone or even act too friendly with certain NPCs. Though if they think someone or something might be helpful, they have no problems with you using that item or person. Sten in particular dislikes weakness. Morrigan is more likely to just think helping someone is a waste of time and beneath you. Wynne, Leliana and Alistair are you basic "good guys." Zevran is the hardest to read. It seems he would be the most pragmatic, but really, he just doesn't care. (Which, if you think about it, is more pragmatic that Sten or Morrigan.) Zevran might act the most pragmatic, but that's how he has learned to get by. If you are a heartless killer or an angel in disguise, it doesn't affect him, so he doesn't care. What he does care about is how you treat him. If you are kind and understanding when you talk to him, he'll like you. If you shower him with gifts he'll like you. If you are rude to him, he won't like you. Everything else doesn't matter to him. Side note of Dog and gifts: Dog is always 100%, so it would seem gifts are useless for him. But they do have an apparent purpose. While it's hard to know for sure, it seems like giving him a gift then sending him to find anything interesting will net you a better reward than just sending him out without a recent gift. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceAlex Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 Loved some parts of the game design, the locations and the landscapes but way too tracked and controlled for my taste and i got totally bored with fighting countless identical foes... and the spiders, yuck. I agree there's too much fighting, but it doesn't bother me that much, as there is also a lot of talking. It's not like Fallout 3 where you could spend hours doing nothing but shoot things (damn you, mutants). To make matters worse, the combat system was also awful. At least DA is more tactical, which makes combat less boring. Too many aspects of the Dragon Age story just dont make sense, like what the Dragons are about, and how they relate in anyway to the hordes of blood spawn, or how this world got attacked by these evil things at all. Obviously, nobody your PC met actually knew about those things. They have to leave something open for the sequel, no? Anyway, I actually liked this, as it relates to our own world. When people have no proof, they make up their own stories about how something came to be. In DA's universe, it was all the Maker's doing, which may seem like lazy writing, but if you take our own universe into consideration, it might occur to you that people are far likely to accept the quick and easy explanation (a higher power did it!) than the actual truth. And too much unexplained treachery used as plot motifs, a weak tool at best. Makes one not trust anyone. Hmm, to whom are you referring to exactly? I thought their reasons for the so called treachery were plausible enough. And the character models are way too similar, basically one handsome bearded man and one rather ugly woman. Not enough variety in them to make sense either. If one looks carefully and knows 3D figure modeling, you can see they used only a few basic protypes and that gets old fast. Yes, but is any other game (RPG's in particular) different? Name me one RPG with a huge character model variety. AFAIK, most feature merely one or two body models for each sex. The one game that did this right was probably Vampire: Bloodlines, but only for major NPC's. Still, it remains my champion. I was impressed by the use of vids and the way they can talor them for the plot direction and the party you have. But, that is not enough ot make this anymore than a game of some large scrpted areas used over and over...and a rather boring plot and parts taken from Oblivion, The Lord of the Rings and many other tales. I assume you're referring to Denerim? I agree that was easily the worst part of the game, and one I could do without. Still, it was a small portion of the game, so it didn't ruin the fun for me that much. I simply won't do those Denerim quests next time. As for the plot, I thought it was rather original... or as original as a fantasy world featuring elves and dwarves can get. Frankly, it borrows more from the Witcher than Oblivion. Oblivion's universe was far more "generic" and boring, IMO. Also, I love Sten, and nothing anyone says will make me change my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mur'phon Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 Actually, I liked the way the influence system works. The key is understanding your companions' personalities. I don't mind being able to gain innfluence through understanding them (Sten, Wynne and Zevran have almost never been in my party), what I do mind is how they don't care about major decisions they did not see. Me helping Jovan and using bloodmagic in Redcliffe should have ticked off Wynne a fair bit, even while in camp. Morrigan and Sten are the pragmatic ones with little conscience. Not really, Morrigan comes close but she sometimes dislike "good" actions with obvious benefit. Sten has his honor getting in the way of sence often enough (no, giving a magical sword back because the owners need money is not pragmatic when there are darkspawn about). All in all though I don't have a problem with those liking me much given how I play, however... Wynne, Leliana and Alistair are you basic "good guys." Theese guys should definitely not like me as much as they do. Wynne in particular shouldn't be best friends with a bloodmage who have used blood magic, helped maleficarum, made deals with demons, and sleeps with an apostate. Edit: by the way, does anyone know how enemies levels are set? I accidentally went to frostback mountains before I wanted to, and now I wonder if it will have set the level of the creatures in Orzamar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 Edit: by the way, does anyone know how enemies levels are set? I accidentally went to frostback mountains before I wanted to, and now I wonder if it will have set the level of the creatures in Orzamar As far as I can tell (from having a maxed out Survival skill) enemies levels get set when you get close to them. With maxed Survival enemies appear as level 0 when they show up on the edge of the radar at max detection range, and once they get inside radar range they get bumped up to their proper level depending on the level of your character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthParametric Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 It's a mix of scaling for basic enemies with a smattering of set levels for some boss encounters from what I understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 It's a mix of scaling for basic enemies with a smattering of set levels for some boss encounters from what I understand. From what I can see most white/normal enemies are at least 2 levels below the main character, yellow/lieutenant are usually the same level as the PC, while orange/boss enemies are 1-2 levels higher. I haven't observed and all enemies and kept track of the info, but that seems to be the overall trend from those I've checked. (Though some enemies seem to have a level cap since the large groups of darkspawn seem to never go above level 13 for common genlocks and level 15 for hurlocks no matter what level the PC is.) The Survival skill is pretty handy if you're curious about the opponents. If you mouse over the red dots on the radar or area map it will say what level that enemy is, if you have 4 ranks in Survival. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimartin Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 Here I thought Survival Skill was only good for diagnosing a sick Halla and seeing where those about to die are. Too bad I don’t have a mouse on the 360. One of the things I have to give up to play the game from the couch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthParametric Posted December 28, 2009 Share Posted December 28, 2009 This may be of interest to some of you: [youtube=hd]0uT4PaEPntc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jae Onasi Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 If you are kind and understanding when you talk to him, he'll like you. If you shower him with gifts he'll like you. And he'll gaze luridly at you, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 This may be of interest to some of you: [youtube=hd]0uT4PaEPntc It is, and the arrangement of the rooms is familiar even though it is in 3D and "unpainted". Just a friendly warning, here, but as you well know, BG2 is vast, and such a project will take forfreakingever. I wish you the best of luck, though, in this venture, and if you finish I'd definitely play it, even though I'm quite satisfied playing BG2 as it is with the widescreen mod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthParametric Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 The aim at this point is just to release the Irenicus Dungeon. If that gets done it will probably be a minor miracle, but if it does then we'll go from there. EDIT: A second video is now available showcasing the latest rooms added. The isometric viewpoint is given a whirl this time as well. Rather than embedding it I'll just give a link to the HD version - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taak Farst Posted February 27, 2010 Share Posted February 27, 2010 finished this game today and think its nothing short of amazing. This is the first in a long line of RPG's where I have really felt the impact of choices and what goes on. I grew to care a lot about my companions and raising an army and using it in the final battle was very good and well thought out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Betrayer Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 Anyone know if Zevran will automatically just betray the player when his companion shows up? Or is there a way to have him not turn over you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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