Dragon Age - Discussion Thread

[Reverend]

Well the point is that Bioware are flogging recycled assets (one of which makes very little sense as armour or even just for the sake of cosmetics) while CDPR are just giving stuff away for free.

In fairness they did give The Black Emporium away as a free update after charging for it in DA2. At least I think they did. I bought the signature edition so it came pre-bundled with a bunch of stuff. It's possible that it was one of those "activate with an online pass" type codes that's utterly pointless on PC since there's no second hand market to speak of.
Even so, I think if they were cheeky enough to charge for the mirror of transformation--AKA: the only thing in The Black Emporium anyone cares about (aside from Xenon's comic relief) There would have been some serious backlash.

I wouldn't be surprised if this item pack is just Bioware shoving *something* out to placate EA, even knowing the majority of fans probably aren't going to bother.

Still, it never ceases to amaze me how wonky Bioware's track record with DLC has been. On the one hand you have alt appearance packs, the DLC paywall right there in the DAO camp site, Pinnacle Station, Arrival and the DLC begging bowl that was the pre-patch post-credits message for ME3, while at the other end of the spectrum you have masterpieces like Shadow Broker, Mark of the Assassin, Overlord, Citadel and Legacy.

 

[SPCTRE]

Black Emporium for DA2 came free with all pre-orders , including but not limited to the SE. (It was part of EA's Project Ten Dollar initiative.)

Bio's DLC track record is incredibly hit-and-miss, I'll give you that.

 

[John Clark]

Apparently, there is some more single player DLC that has recently come out. I haven't got it yet, but for those who are interested there you go.

It's called "The Descent" and from what I've seen seems to be

Spoiler: Spoilers

a trip into the dark roads

 

[137th Gebirg]

Interesting! I was just on there a couple of days ago and didn't see anything new. Must have just come out - need to check ASAP! Thx for the update!

 

[ATimson]

I don't think it's a spoiler when the ad on the menu screen for it shows that.

 

[Evil Twin]

I bought it Tuesday and finished it last night. It's okay, basically just a 6-level dungeon crawl with fairly linear progression. Combat is just as tedious as it was in JoH since once again all the enemies have a gajillion hit points. The new armor is pretty fugly.

Oh, and long elevator rides are back, because Bioware remembered how much we all loved that in ME1.

 

[Reverend]

^I think the point of the elevator rides is just to give more of a sense of just how much deeper underground you're going each time. One of the problems that previous Deep Roads sections had in previous games was that you never had a good sense of immediate scale, nor how much further underground you were going. I think it works.

I do like how each area is visually distinct from each other. Gave a much better sense of progression.

For a second there I thought the new enemy was going to be a real challenge what with the unit with the crazy OP ranged attacks...then after the second wipe I remembered the new Aegis of the Rift ability I picked up in JoH and suddenly it's not such a challenge.

Not crazy about the story so much. Not spoiling anything, but while I liked the two new tag along characters, the conclusions felt a bit weak and left us with more questions than answers. Though the implications are fairly huge, for the most part it felt like only half a story.

P.S. Anyone have any clue who the "scaled ones" mentioned in the "forgotten war" codex entries might be? At first I thought they were just about pre-first blight darkspawn, but the descriptions of their behaviour didn't seem right.
I wonder if they're going to introduce a full on Conan style "lizard men" type race. Perhaps the Kossith race that predated/created the Qunari?

 

[Skywalker]

P.S. Anyone have any clue who the "scaled ones" mentioned in the "forgotten war" codex entries might be? At first I thought they were just about pre-first blight darkspawn, but the descriptions of their behaviour didn't seem right.
I wonder if they're going to introduce a full on Conan style "lizard men" type race. Perhaps the Kossith race that predated/created the Qunari?

That might make sense. I remember Iron Bull speculating several times that Qunari might be related to dragons for various reasons.

 

[ATimson]

Oh, and long elevator rides are back, because Bioware remembered how much we all loved that in ME1.

I did love the Citadel ones. Free banter, yes please! *hums the elevator music from ME1*

 

[John Clark]

I don't think it's a spoiler when the ad on the menu screen for it shows that.

Safe than sorry I guess.

Normally, I'd have known about this coming out sooner and bought it as soon as it was available. I haven't even finished the Jaws DLC yet and my second run through has only just arrived at Haven.

I should get back to it at some point.

 

[Reverend]

OK, just found the secret easter egg. That was so hilarious and bizarre, I think I need to go lie down.
It even seemed to explained the purpose of all the mysterious cheese wedges seen strewn in odd places throughout the three games...

 

[Evil Twin]

That was quick, the final DLC is already coming out on September 8th (my birthday!) Sounds really great!

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2015/08/29/dragon-age-inquisition-pax-2015.aspx

The other big feature – and I know this comes a little late – we finally added a wardrobe to you bedroom in Skyhold so you can choose from about a dozen different outfits for your casual wear as you make your way around the castle. There are some that are a leather look, some that are a lightly armored look. There’s a couple variations on the formal wear. Hopefully, people find something they like and are comfortable with. Certainly people have asked for it. I know people will probably miss the current outfit, so it’s still there for the people who are in love with it – all three of them.

ABOUT FUCKING TIME!

 

[Reverend]

Good to see the wardrobe thing will be included on a separate patch and not part of the Trespasser DLC. I do hate the DLCs add things like that (looking at you Warden's Keep chest!) since it excludes players who don't buy the extra content from feature that really should have been in the game from the start.

Anyway, here's the trailer (which, incidentally leaked on the Spanish EA channel a little early.)
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUQKGFMfXx0[/yt]

Random notes:
Our first look at a Tamassran in-game? About time!

Apparently it's confirmed the Fereldan rep that can be heard talking is indeed Teegan. I guess it was simpler to use proxy representatives from Orlais and Fereldan since voice acting all the possible rulers of those nations would have been too much of an extra cost for just the one scene.

This seems to imply that Solas my have now turned to the Qunari to achieve his ends (still not clear on what those even are) by giving them access to the. Given his open disdain for the Qun this would be a bit odd, but then he was also willing to make use of en elf enslaving, golden city trespassing magister-come darkspawn. (Side note: did I just stumble onto the meaning of the title?) No doubt this will back-fire too.

Lot's of elven ruins and what looks like the paths of eluvian. Funny, in the novel they were described as being difficult for non-elves to even look at. Guess gameplay mechanics won out over lore. Also, could that one eluvian overlooking the *massive* valley/lake/caldera be the former site of arlathan? I mean the paths must all lead there eventually, no? After all they were to the elves what the deep roads were to the dwarves.

Some new armour for the Inquisitor. Looks like what the mage antagonist was wearing (note to self, finish playing through the "sided with templars" save file.)

With all the new Qunari assets, here's hoping there will be some appropriate armour for the vashoth inquisitor.

 

[John Clark]

Haven't even got the last one yet, but I do like the look of this

 

[Evil Twin]

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/5614...ta-new-game-and-wardrobe-for-skyhold-updated/

Aaaand the wardrobe options look like shit. Non-humans STILL can't wear something race-appropriate. *sigh* Honestly, why couldn't they just add an enable/disable armor in Skyhold checkbox in the options menu? Hopefully this will be the final patch so I can finally feel comfortable using mods, since it's sounded like every patch release broke the mod tools.

I am really happy about the golden nug statue though. Having to recollect all the crafting schematics every time I did a new playthrough was a giant pain in the ass.

 

[Reverend]

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/5614...ta-new-game-and-wardrobe-for-skyhold-updated/

Aaaand the wardrobe options look like shit. Non-humans STILL can't wear something race-appropriate. *sigh* Honestly, why couldn't they just add an enable/disable armor in Skyhold checkbox in the options menu?

Am I missing something because all I see are three screen shots of the new wardrobe pieces. No not sure what you're basing that sweeping statement on.

Judging by the shot of the menu, it looks like there's about 16 options (assuming each of the four categories has four options.)

Granted it's likely that they're all just going to be existing assets recoloured, but so long as one of them is a black version of the leather pyjamas, I'll be happy.

[ETA] Not sure how I feel about the golden nug thing. On the one hand, introducing RNG into a crafting system is never a very good idea is it just encourages mindless grinding, so consolidating all of your schematics from all of your characters is certainly going to save some hassle on the later playthroughs. But on the other, I'm not sure I like the idea that the collectables for Skyhold and mounts will also carry over. Granted it's all just cosmetics anyway but it feels almost like a cheat.

Honestly I think I'd prefer a straight-up newgame+, but I think that would also require raising the level cap and an overhaul of the skill trees. One of the things that really bothers me about the limited number of active abilities is that if you're playing a mage, almost half of them are invariably taken up with utility spells (shield, fade-step, dispel etc) and then with the focus abilites andthe bonus ability from JoH, it leaves you with very little room for much in the way of variety. Particularly if like me you went with Archane Warrior.

Getting off topic a bit, but what I'd like to see instead is a return of something akin to the "skills" from DAO. Thing like fadestep could be moved over as a mobility upgrade, not activated as a spell, but as part of the movement controls (eg: double tapping sprint) same for things like hook & tackle, evade, combat roll etc. A similar approach could be used for defensive abilities like parry, block & slash, mindblast. All of this would free up space for more powerful abilities.

Granted, simply adding more quickbar space like in previous games would be even better, but I'm going on the assumption they're looking to maintain a degree of parity between platforms and the controllers are an inherently limiting factor. Plus of course they want to keep going for a balance between tactical play and in-the-moment action play, so relying of pausing to bring up large menus mid-combat is out.

 

[Evil Twin]

So with the latest patch fixing the Spoils of the Qunari issues, I'm on to my next character, a two-handed Qunari whose ultimate goal is, as much as possible, turn the Inquisition into the southern outpost of the Qun. Some plans are:

-Main party will be Bull, Sera (Qunari fan!) and Vivienne (pro-Circle + horn hat!)
-Pick all the bottom dialogue options
-Be as anti- mage/magic as I can
-Ally with the Qunari and sacrifice the Chargers (duh)
-Romance Bull
-Execute everyone I can
-Conscript, not ally with the Templars
-Banish the Wardens
-Decorate Skyhold up the wazoo with Qunari decor
-Make Vivienne Divine
-And most importantly, punch Solas in his smug face

Not sure yet how I should handle the Orlais business.

 

[Reverend]

Maybe I'm just cheap, but as much as I'd like it from an aesthetics POV, I just can't justify spending a fiver on a handful of cosmetics, especially the Avvar one which seems to be almost entirely recycled assets. Bit of a cheek really.

As for the patch, first thing I did was load up all three of my Inquisitors and changed them out of that damned beige thing. Finally!

Now to tryout the new Saarebas MP kit!

Not sure yet how I should handle the Orlais business.

I would install Gaspard with Briala holding his leash, like a good Tamassran.

 

[Reverend]

Finished 'Trespasser' today. Very good DLC and a much better ending to the one we got in the main game. Didn't quite rise to the heights of ME3's Citadel, but to be fair that had a *much* bigger cast and was rounding out three games, not just one. Plus DAI's cast never felt anywhere near as cohesive a group dynamic as ME's or even DA2's come to think of it.

Some random highlights in no particular order: -

Spoiler: Trespasser plot & trivia

Turns out, Leliana not only still keeps Nugs as pet, but breeds them in what is fast becoming less a hobby and more a serious side-business.

Took me a while to catch on, but it seems Sera has an off screen romance with Dagna (if you didn't romance her yourself obviously, but there may be other variables.) Not sure if the thought of those two together is adorable or utterly terrifying. Next thing you know they'll be conquering the world with pies filled with lyrium enchanted bees!

Some surprisingly solid answers regarding the nature and history of the ancient elves. Indeed, they way this all plays out in relation to the main game's plot, I can't help but wonder if the original idea was to kill off Corypheus early in the last third of the main game (in the Arbour Wilds) and have Solas turn around and become a surprise antagonist for the final third of the game. It'd certainly account for why Corypheus felt so absent and under developed after such a strong introduction.

On a similar note: I almost wish they hadn't done the Flemeth post credits thing now as it rather spoils the feel of the DLC since all the way though, the Qunari keeps talking about agents of The Dread Wolf, how the Inquisition are his pawns and all our main characters are clueless while of course we the players know exactly what's going on and have to just play along, with that sense of inevitability that slightly undercuts what should have been a HUGE reveal.

I was surprised to learn that there's more to this DLC then just the story missions. They've woven a bunch of new gear and schematics into the main game, mostly it seems as new rewards for existing war table ops. The staff that looks like a spirit blade crossed with a greatsword especially grabbed my attention and with a bit of old savefile loading, windows clock altering and a visit to the golden nug, basically allowed me to turn my Knight Enchanter into a duel sword wielder...sorta...

They've also added a new feature called "trials" which is similar to X-Com's "second wave" options. Basically toggles to make the game more difficult (slower XP progression, enemies that scale to your level, bears that are ridiculously lethal, switch off health potions, etc.) Which combined with the golden nug thing makes for a quasi-New Game Plus mode. Not sure why they didn't just add an actual new game + import feature and save us the hassle of recreating our Inquisitor's face...or at least implement facecodes come to that!

 

[intrinsical]

Origin is having an "action game" sale for many series, including Battlefield, Mass Effect and Dragon Age. I bought Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age II at a hefty 70% discount price. Should I get Dragon Age Awakening too?

I'm starting to play Origins, probably as a mage. Is there anything I should watch out for?