Dragon Age: Origins - Anyone playing?

[AdAstra]

I'm playing as an Elvish Mage, currently doing the Dalish quest. I'm in a dungeon and I'm running low on health packs, and I don't have anymore flasks to create more! Tough game, but I'm enjoying it very much. Yay for Claudia Black and Kate Mulgrew appearing!

You havn't meet Tim Russ yet? You soon will, he is the Dalish Keeper who blah, blah, blah spoilers you probably may already know, but anyway....

I'm currently in dream land and its got to be the most annoying place "on earth". Not overly hard, but the walkthrough I read doesn't make me too happy to come to the end of it.

I wasn't 100% sure, but I thought it was him! Thanks

Dream land in the Mage's Tower? I was so glad to be "near the end" of that quest when suddenly, bam! At the start of a new one. It's not so bad, but not something I'd want to replay too often.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

Still playing (and loving it) and am in Denerim at the moment.

I have noticed one or two issues though. I'm having a slight graphical issue ever since I did the ashes quest. (The player character is sort of glowy).

If I play too long, the area load times seem to significantly increase too. That's on an Dual Core 3Ghz processor with an Nvidia GTX9800 (1Gb on card), 3Gb other memory. Like I say though, that only seems to occur after I've been playing too long. I don't have any slowdown when actually in the game itself.

I've got almost exactly the same setup except with a quad core, I even have th same model video card and I'm not gettin ghte gloe that you're talking about. The load times though, that is something I'm getting, and yeah it seems to be tied to how long you play.

 

[Skywalker]

I hated the Fade. After my first playthrough I always go to the Circle Tower before anyplace else so I can get that whole section done with ASAP.

I have noticed one or two issues though. I'm having a slight graphical issue ever since I did the ashes quest. (The player character is sort of glowy).

I agree. I have a purple aura around my guy and I can't explain where that came from.

Do you guys have Wynne in your parties? That's probably from a sustained spell she has running. You can tell if her mana bar isn't completely full. It's the same if you're a Warrior and you're glowing red, which probably means you have Threaten running. Spells and talents like that are on constantly unless you turn them off yourself (for the most part).

 

[CommodoreKong]

I did like how the Fade had items that let you permanently increase your stats. Some of the objects looked pretty cool, like the warped bookcases.

Other then that I though the fade could of been better.

 

[Skywalker]

Looks like I was mistaken about the source of the glow. If you have Leliana in your parties, I think it's an effect of her "Song of Valor" talent.

 

[donners22]

Yes, I noticed the glow after Leliana joined up.

Only had the game for a few days (had to get it shipped from Asia), but I'm already hooked. A few little annoyances (DLC and profile issues, and the blood splatter is just ludicrous), but it's the best-written and most involving game I've played in a long time.

 

[The Evil Dead]

^
Yeah, I agree. The story is what puts this game over the top for me...Played lots of great games this year, but Dragon Age takes the cake as my personal game of the year.

I even picked up a Dragon Age novel I saw on the weekend!

 

[CommodoreKong]

Yes, I noticed the glow after Leliana joined up.

I missed Leliana. I was wondering why I couldn't find a rogue for unlock chests and to use ranged weapons and I looked up the characters on the Dragon Age wiki and couldn't believe i missed her. Sadly the town had long since been destroyed by that point.

I even tried to use to the console command to spawn her into my party but she only had 50 hp at level 11.

Not to long after that I got the other rogue to join my party but of course he didn't have any skills in picking locks.

 

[Skywalker]

You're playing on the PC? At least you can respec Zevran. I'm playing on Xbox and have no choice but to accept his uselessness.

 

[firehawk12]

It's mostly because the AI doesn't seem to know how to use the stealth to do backstabs galore.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

- I wonder how long it will take them to make a mod that allows you to skip the fade like you could skip the purification in the Dark Brotherhood questline in Oblivion.

- I was able to get in a romantic relationship and court Alister to my tent, I spent a good two hours trying to get him and lilena into my tent, but something went wrong with that so I had to leave lilena and then do it with Alistar so I got both at two differnet times but not at once... yes i know I'm a sleez.

- I have completed Morrgin, Alister, and lilena's personal quest lines, they are my group as I had to kill Wynn because shes a punk who is closed minded to reality.

- I'm starting down the Dwarf quest line and everything i've read makes this quest line make the fade look like a wlak in the park. I think I'll stop by the circle of Magi to see if someone who i sent there will be there.

- I have been kicked out of Wade's Emporium, too bad I really liked those two.

 

[John Clark]

Looks like I was mistaken about the source of the glow. If you have Leliana in your parties, I think it's an effect of her "Song of Valor" talent.

Ah, I was wondering if it was to do with my drivers. I do have to upgrade them, but things tend to go funny as my motherboard also has an onboard Nvidia chip and they don't seem to like me messing with the drivers too much

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

Anyone manage to pickpocket anything interesting? I started my rogue campaign and the pickpocketing hasn't yielded anything of use yet. So far as I can tell all pickpocketing does is turn npc's in to treasure chests.

 

[firehawk12]

No. I think the only use it really has are the thief specific missions you can get in Denerim.

 

[donners22]

For all the fuss over the tactics system, they could have at least put a bit of common sense into the party AI. I'm so sick of having to restart the battle at Redcliff because my idiot party members run straight through the fire. The only other option is to micromanage all four, which is quite tedious.

 

[Trubinator]

I usually find that switching over to Morrigan (or similar healer) during large battles works the best. If you're playing as a warrior, have him or her tank stuff and send everyone else in to do damage. Then just spam heal the tank until the battle is over. It's OK if the others drop too (and they will) because it just works out.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

One thing I hate about this game is friendly fire. Considering how hard it is to control your party, having to worry about friendly fire is just too much. It pretty much makes any friendly fire power useless. Also there seems to be too much stunning in this game. spending most of the battle chain stunned is not my idea of fun. Even if you increase your resistances you have at best a 50/50 chance of getting stunned. You get stunned even more often if you have mages doing cone of cold.

 

[Trubinator]

One thing I hate about this game is friendly fire. Considering how hard it is to control your party, having to worry about friendly fire is just too much. It pretty much makes any friendly fire power useless. Also there seems to be too much stunning in this game. spending most of the battle chain stunned is not my idea of fun. Even if you increase your resistances you have at best a 50/50 chance of getting stunned. You get stunned even more often if you have mages doing cone of cold.

Friendly fire is usually very avoidable if you strategize properly. The enemy AI will usually only target one person at a time, so you can send in a secondary tank as a distraction and then use area of effect spells at a distance. I've used the tactic to such an effect before that I obliterated 10-15 enemies at once by stacking 2-3 AOE effects. You just have to resign yourself to losing one expendable party member and reviving him or her later.

Regarding stunning, it is annoying. I recommend spamming the herbalism ability to get enough potions to last a major stun during battle.

 

[Blamo]

Recently got it and I'm really enjoying it. I'm finding it very hard to stop playing.

My only issue* is that the plot can sometimes feel a bit LOTR.

Just out of interest do the enemies level up along with you?

*Apart from the medival fantasy setting, I've never been a fan of those.

 

[The Evil Dead]

Just out of interest do the enemies level up along with you?

It uses the same scaling level system of KOTOR and Mass Effect. No matter what order you do the areas in you'll always encounter bad guys appropriate to your level and you'll never out level the content.