Dragon Age: Awakening Expansion

[Rake]

Well they posted the FAQ a few days back and some of the things that irked me:

1) No new romances and past romances not continued in expansion

2) DLC items and promotional items won't import into Awakenings

3) If you used any mods, your character may not import

[stoffe]

3) If you used any mods, your character may not import

 

Stupid, but not unexpected. Bioware does seem to have the very weird "Here are the modding tools, but please don't use them to mod the game" policy when it comes to Ðragon Age modding. Doesn't make much sense to me.

 

Unless the expansion has the same irritating protection scheme as the DLC someone will probably release a mod to fix that problem eventually.

[Taak Farst]

2) DLC items and promotional items won't import into Awakenings

3) If you used any mods, your character may not import

dude wtf?!? as for the mods - they had a huge thing about the moddin tool, made little showoff vids for it and everythin - then they say if u use it ur not playin their expansion?? what the hell??

and the DLC thing is just plain dumb.

[Sabretooth]

Kind of makes sense - if you had a hair mod for your character, or used some bizarre mod to give you all skills or something, it might confuse the game into insanity unless you specifically tweak it to support all those changes.

[Mav]

^^

but some of the hair mods are epically better than the standard hair offerings

[DarthParametric]

Actually hair mods should pose no problem at all. The problem will be with things that require 2DA files because of the retarded way they have dealt with them. They should have just bought TSLPatcher off stoffe and bundled a revised version of it into the toolset.

[Rake]

Darth, think HDtextures and a dexterity hotfix will cause any problems?

[Sabretooth]

^^

but some of the hair mods are epically better than the standard hair offerings

 

Couldn't agree more, but I honestly find myself ignoring the hair in favour of... other great things the DA mod community has created.

[DarthParametric]

Darth, think HDtextures and a dexterity hotfix will cause any problems?

Texture mods should be fine. The dexterity fix may well end up broken, but I was under the impression that it was already superseded by the last official patch anyway.

[Rake]

Texture mods should be fine. The dexterity fix may well end up broken, but I was under the impression that it was already superseded by the last official patch anyway.

 

Hmmm... well I just started a new character and I want to make sure this guy is importable. The only mod that I really want to use is character respecialization, think that one would render the character invalid come Awakenings?

[DarthParametric]

Doubt it. Respecing shouldn't actually change anything, it just lets you redistribute all your points/skills/talents.

[Kyvios]

I liked Origins, but I may hold off on getting Awakening or at least hold off on playing it until the Return to Ostagar dlc is released on the PS3.

 

I liked the story mostly, but then again i'm a sucker for anything that thrusts your character and a small group of friends in to odds that they surely can't win against only to come out victorious in the long run.

[Liverandbacon]

lol dwarfs

 

I really do hope that those levels aren't similar to the deep roads. I found the deep roads portion of the game horrifically boring. I loved most of the game though.

 

Although I suppose it makes sense depending on the extent of the mods used, it's a pity you won't be able to import a character from a modded game. SpaceAlex's improved atmosphere mod, for instance, makes the game even greater than it already was. I guess I'll either have to do another vanilla run, or perhaps just use the new Orlesian guy.

[rebel5555]

I just got DA Origins Awakening, and I must say I'm pretty impressed with it so far.

[Revan 411]

The Expansion Pack is released!

 

I actually finished Vigil's Keep last night. And now, I'm at the Amaranthine city. Its a good expansion pack so far, but one thing that bugs me is the lack of companion talk. In Dragon Age, (the original) you had the choice of talking to your companions; both in the party camp and outside of it. In Awakening, you can barely talk to them at all. Even at the Keep. They only speak to you if a important event (such as their personal quest) happens.

 

I understand the Dark-Spawn insurgent being serious and all, but come on, you can't stop for a tiny minute to speak with your companions? I'd just like know them a little better, that's all.

 

Anyway, the game is well done considering the fact that its an expansion pack. I haven't played the original game in about three months (been busy with Mass Effect 2) but I can tell that Awakening will keep me busy until the Hover-tank DLC for Mass Effect 2 is out.

 

To summarize this post; If you haven't played Awakening yet, now is the time to do so.

[stoffe]

To summarize this post; If you haven't played Awakening yet, now is the time to do so.

 

I would if I could (got it pre-ordered), but as usual the developers seem to need an extra 3 days to translate the game from American to English. It's not released in Europe until on Thursday.

 

Everyone please remember to use [noparse][hidden][/noparse] or [noparse]

[/noparse] tags on anything in this thread concerning the story for now.

[SW01]

I would if I could (got it pre-ordered), but as usual the developers seem to need an extra 3 days to translate the game from American to English. It's not released in Europe until on Thursday.

 

Yes...very irritating. Looks like we'll have to stay away from the official forums for a few days yet!

[Liverandbacon]

one thing that bugs me is the lack of companion talk. In Dragon Age, (the original) you had the choice of talking to your companions; both in the party camp and outside of it. In Awakening, you can barely talk to them at all. Even at the Keep. They only speak to you if a important event (such as their personal quest) happens.

 

I understand the Dark-Spawn insurgent being serious and all, but come on, you can't stop for a tiny minute to speak with your companions? I'd just like know them a little better, that's all.

 

So it's like an entire party of Zaeeds? That's a pity. I'd have preferred fewer, but better realized, party members to non-interactive ones.

[Rake]

So it's like an entire party of Zaeeds? That's a pity. I'd have preferred fewer, but better realized, party members to non-interactive ones.

 

Anyone have some non-spoilery impressions? I'm holding off on purchasing it because of some hearsay that the game feels rushed and disjointed; the change in companion philosophy doesn't help much either.

[Web Rider]

The companions are certainly, quieter, especially when you should be able to get some info out of them. However, there is some more intractability with them and landscapes, which is nice, all those "landmark tree"s are finally useful for something. If you speed through the game, you're liable to miss some neat tidbits.

 

However, the characters haven't proven to be very deep, and considering that I accomplished two personal quests in the span of 3 hours? It's lending me to the impression that the game is very small. Sure, lots of side-quests, but that really makes it feel like Stage III of Neverwinter Nights 2.

 

So far it's been enjoyable, and talking darkspawn is a HELLAVA lot more fun than endless hordes.

 

 

 

And yes, I too would love to have a desire demon for a companion....thank goodness for cheats!

[The Betrayer]

I'm playing Awakening now, exported my previous character. It's bloody good fun.

[stoffe]

Been playing Awakening for a couple of days now and it's been overall fun so far with lots of new skills and abilities to play around with. But it seems like it could have done with a few weeks more quality assurance before being released.

 

Anyone else experiencing problems with their player rogue being utterly unable to detect any traps in ÐA:Awakening? My character has better stats, more trap skills and abilities than Nathaniel and is still unable to detect a single trap, while he can detect them as normal.

 

The game also seems a lot more unstable and prone to crashing that it was with just Origins installed.

[Revan 411]

I haven't had any crashing problems with Awakening so far. And as for your Rogue thing, I can't say much seeing how I haven't imported my Rogue character yet. (Only imported my warrior dude.)

 

But Awakening does feel a bit... disjointed. The companions have the potential to be interesting folks, but the potential isn't executed properly and the companion members suffer from it. Thus, causing them to be uninteresting to say the least. Also, the environments in Awakening are simply rehashes of the original game. And when I say ''rehash'' I mean that the environments doesn't present anything new or anything we haven't really seen before. But there are a few detailed scenery and a couple of interesting dungeons.

 

My biggest gripe, however, is not the less interesting companions, but the Dwarven city of Kal'Hirol. Its exactly the same as the Deep Roads. Meaning that it continues the tradition of repetitive Dark-Spawn killing with no ends or breaks. The only difference now is that it contains more cut-scenes and is a whole lot shorter. Which is the only good part when you think about it.

 

Overall though, the Expansion Pack has flaws, but is enjoyable nonetheless. I haven't finished the Blackmarsh yet, but as Awakening continues, it gets better and hopefully the ending will be as exciting as the original Dragon Age.

[SW01]

It's crashed four times on me today...

 

And yeah stoffe, I've noticed the Rogue trap thing. Annoying.

 

It's a fun enough expansion, so far, but in my opinion it all seems to come to a head a bit abrubtly. Or maybe I was unconsciously rushing it.

[Revan 411]

Just finished Awakening.

 

Show spoiler

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Yeah, so basically your fighting this big Dark-Spawn that has 20 nipples and is called ''The Mother.'' After you defeat her, a bunch of text appears, detailing on what you did and what happens after-wards and the consequences of your actions in Amaranthine. I don't know about you guys, but I chose to burn down the Amaranthine city in the end.

In my opinion, the ending was disappointing. Some aspects of the expansion pack were good, and even enjoyable, but some weren't. The ending was definitely a ''weren't'' one. Its a huge let-down and its completely anti-climatic. I'll even go as far as to say that it ruined half the experience for me.

 

Lets hope future Dragon Age installments are better and worth the time investment.