Dragon Age: Origins - Anyone playing?

[donners22]

Actually, I find the mage's test to be ripped straight out of Dragonlance.

There's some good mods around, with one in particular that lowers Normal difficulty, doesn't auto level up new party members and, most importantly, silences Shale's footsteps! Of course, it's mostly lost in the sea of nude patches...

 

[John Clark]

Just finished my first run through over the weekend. (Human noble Shield warrior). Got a reasonably happy ending on it. I'm going to try going through with a different origin and different choices to see if I can get one of the darker endings

 

[donners22]

Yeah, I think it would be interesting to play an evil character. I've gone through with all the nice stuff, and haven't tried any reloading to test the other choices. Should make for a very different game.

 

[Blamo]

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.

Doh, having played both games I should have realised that. Thanks for the info.

 

[donners22]

New patch out. Hope it doesn't break my mods - or vice versa.

 

[Sheep]

Is it just my character build (human warrior with focus on wielding two weapons) or is this game's difficulty all over the map? I like the narrative, but the insane roller coaster of difficulty going from trivial to literally impossible is really getting on my nerves.

I'm playing on normal (mostly). I can breeze through 66% of the battles, have a hard time with 25% of the battles but still pass them after a few tries (which is fine--I'm not a fan of games being too easy) but get absolutely destroyed without any hope of passing on the remaining ones. No matter what I do, I get nuked by mages or demons in about 10 or 15 seconds. I have to turn down the game's difficulty to actually proceed, which makes these battles WAY too easy. My parties vary a lot, but I'm not about to backtrack 2 or 3 hours to get an archer or a tank to make the battle easier.

I wish Bioware had paid a little more attention to balancing the difficulty levels a bit more.

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

It's not just you. Some of the bosses/big bad guy crews spike difficulty hugely. You'll be tooling along, enjoying yourself, kicking ass, taking names, pulling out tough wins and then BAM! up pops an unbeatable on anything but easy difficulty demon or a band of merry men with the firepower to drop the whole party in seconds.

I think they were aware of the difficulty spikes and that's why there is no achievement for beating the game on a certain difficulty. Easier than going back and rebalancing all of the encounters for every difficulty level.

Matter of fact, I prefer games where there is only one set difficulty and every encounter is balanced to scale with your characters' abilities. Especially when most games with level of difficulty are really just levels of how much the baddies are given +/- damge dealt/hit points. They never get any smarter or use better, more complex tactics.

 

[Sheep]

Thanks for the input. Glad to see it's not just a bad character build or something else I wasn't getting about the game.

Difficulty issues aside, I got totally hooked on the game playing through all six origin stories before starting the main story. It's fantastic how they all come into play in the main story (that I've seen so far). I'm also liking the fact that you can kill/piss off/exile/do whatever else to your party members with actual consequences.

Spoiler: Beheading...fun until it happens to you

I just about fell over when I unintentionally got into a fight with Wynne and accidentally beheaded her, taking away the only healing character I've run into so far. Currently in the process of giving Morrigan some healing abilities.

 

[The Evil Dead]

^
Hah, yeah. Wynne and Leliana both turned on me during one quest in particular, so after I'd killed them with the help of Shale I opted to reload my game and make a different decision...Wynne was my healer and I was trying to romance Leliana, I didn't want to lose either.

I also lost Zevran at one point but barely used him anyway so it was no big loss.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I only lost Zevran on my first playthrough, but from what I understand it's impossible to not lose him if you never bother to raise his approval rating. I never used him anyways. I'm just concerned about possibly losing Wynne on my second playthrough since I intend to side with the templars this time.

 

[Skywalker]

I only lost Zevran on my first playthrough, but from what I understand it's impossible to not lose him if you never bother to raise his approval rating. I never used him anyways. I'm just concerned about possibly losing Wynne on my second playthrough since I intend to side with the templars this time.

You can "side with" the Templars and still keep Wynne.

Spoiler: Broken Circle quest

Just don't use the Litany of Adralla during the final battle with Uldred. All the mages, including Irving, will end up becoming Abominations, so the Templars will join your army instead of the Mages, and you still get to keep Wynne in your party.

 

[Sheep]

You can "side with" the Templars and still keep Wynne.

Spoiler: Broken Circle quest

Just don't use the Litany of Adralla during the final battle with Uldred. All the mages, including Irving, will end up becoming Abominations, so the Templars will join your army instead of the Mages, and you still get to keep Wynne in your party.

Eh? I sided with the mages and still lost Wynne.

 

[Skywalker]

You can "side with" the Templars and still keep Wynne.

Spoiler: Broken Circle quest

Just don't use the Litany of Adralla during the final battle with Uldred. All the mages, including Irving, will end up becoming Abominations, so the Templars will join your army instead of the Mages, and you still get to keep Wynne in your party.

Eh? I sided with the mages and still lost Wynne.

Really? Whoops. I must have read some bad information then. That's what I get for passing along info without actually testing it out for myself.

 

[Niorah]

I'm on my third play and I never lost anyone, nor I've had to kill any of my companions. Is it really that complicated to keep everyone happy? I don't see it.

This is definitely one of my favourite games ever, I'm glad to see someone still takes time to put together a story that, even if not -really- original, at least is immersive and well told.

After trying my hand at every possible character combination and playing through every Origin story I completed the game as a Human Warrior first, and then a Human Rogue, now I'm playing a Human Mage (Arcane Warrior).

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Well, there's certain game events that will cause characters to turn on you if completed in a certain way. The Sacred Ashes quest is a good example. Also, Zevran will always leave your party at a certain point in the game if you have never raised his approval high enough.

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

I did the Tower last before the final battle and so when Wynne threatens to leave, if I don't side with her, after only playing with her for about an hour or two, I felt obligated to tell her to fuck off and side with the Templars. Who does she think she is? Being forced on me doesn't help, either. I had to drop my romance option char (Liliana) to keep my tank (Alistair) and useful AOE mage (Morrigan).

I don't really want to use her (Wynne) but how exactly can you keep her with you and side with the Templars again? I didn't use the Litany until the final battle, but that happens AFTER she forces you to choose, so what gives? I call shenanigans.

 

[AdAstra]

I never had any problems with Wynne...

And Shen turned on me in Haven, but I fought him and he was happier than before. So far, everyone is happy and smitten with me. =)

 

[John Clark]

The only one I had any issue with was Zev. Morrigan is the main one who seemed to disapprove much of the time, but otherwise didn't seem to bother too much.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

The only one I had any issue with was Zev. Morrigan is the main one who seemed to disapprove much of the time, but otherwise didn't seem to bother too much.

Morrigan drove me nuts. At first I wanted to keep her around simply because it was Claudia Black voicing her. But she was so scornful of practically every action I took, that she was just left at camp as soon as I got Wynne.

 

[Niorah]

^ That's just because you're playing like a Goody-Two-Shoes. Try to be a bit naughty now and then and she'll be as happy as a rabbit in a carrot field.

Well, there's certain game events that will cause characters to turn on you if completed in a certain way. The Sacred Ashes quest is a good example. Also, Zevran will always leave your party at a certain point in the game if you have never raised his approval high enough.

I had Leliana with me for the Sacred Ashes quest, I decided to go the "bad" way and yes, she didn't approve, but she didn't cause a scene either.
It doesn't take long to find a couple of trinkets to give to each one of them and keep 'em happy, really. Or to take the time to pay them a couple of compliments every now and again.
Yes, even Shale.