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Old 04-06-2010, 04:56 AM   #1
CrimsonLion
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Default Dragon Age Detail

I know its unfair to compare 2 games especially when they were made so far apart. But it just bugged me more and more as I went through Dragon Age where items and armour that were picked up as I went along did not seem to change from place to place.

Apart from the basic types of weapons and armour (such as longsword, dagger. Or leather / chain armour) they all seem pretty generic to me. Even the supposed unique weapons have the same generic inventory icons with just a name and a few stats to go with it. It did not feel like you had aquired a special item that you would go out of your way or face down a hard boss to get. Only on the odd occasion would you get something that when equipped looked any different from a cheap sword from a bandit.

In BG2 when you picked up a special item you could see it clearly on your charachter, whether by colour or by its effect. You felt an attachment to that item and for example in another run of the game you would go out of your way (even completing a complicated side quest chain) to get this item again.

To be honest if I played through DAO again there are only 1 or 2 items I could even remember where I found let alone want to bother trying to get a second time around.

Did anyone else get this sense? I felt that the basics of it and intention were there but a different name and stats are not enough. For an example what weapon could you compare in DAO to say the Flail of the Ages?
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Old 04-06-2010, 05:37 AM   #2
ElfBane
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Default Re: Dragon Age Detail

The game has several weaknesses, IMO, as follows;

1. The Fatigue factor. If the game maker wants you to not be able to use your abilities, then just increase cooldown. No need to have 3 or 4 factors influenceing whether or not you can use an ability.--Digression...there are mods that introduce decent stamina potions.
2. Magic is underpowered. The "friendly fire" penalty makes many spells undesirable to use, so the game kinda forces you into the "crowd control" magics.--Digression...BioWare obviously disagrees with me, since their patches have done much to nerf magic even more.
3. Enchanted weapons and armors. My only real gripe is there don't seem to be enough runes in the game to use them in all the weapons that can take them.--Digression...there are mods that introduce more runes into the game, AND there is a mod that improves Boss drops.
4. Cut scenes ruining party setup. That seems to be just part of the game,,,I don't know if could be modded away.

Well, those are my gripes. I might find more on my second playthrough.
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Old 04-06-2010, 11:28 AM   #3
SpiritWarrior
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Default Re: Dragon Age Detail

I agree with most of your points. Most definately, increase cooldowns rather than have to pop pots to simply perform your characters defining abilities. There's nothing more annoying than seeing your coolest skills greyed out most of the time due to lack of stamina. It's like a mage popping mana potions every 3 mins in WoW just to grind. There seems to be an imbalance in this game as far as the stam/ability ratio goes. Needs some tweaking to bridge the gap between fun and balance. At the moment, if you maxxed stam to a point where you could perform your skills as needed, you'd have little else left to put into damage or crit or con. So it kinda defeats itself.

Friendly fire does indeed turn me off the mage class. It makes magic a very tricky business, and takes the fun out of hurtling spells. But then, there are mods which can turn friendly fire off which then makes magic incredibly overpowered, as you just cast firestorm around your party + blizzard + various bomb-like aoes and watch everything die. There needs to be a middle rode. Perhaps a 30% chance of friendly fire when party is caught in an aoe effect - or something like this.

Cutscenes have always annoyed me as you will see in my previous posts.
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Old 04-06-2010, 12:14 PM   #4
CrimsonLion
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Default Re: Dragon Age Detail

Don't get me wrong there were some good things to like about the game too and tbh it kept me busy for a couple of weeks on and off but maybe its just that its been so long since a really good rpg that now an only average effort gets rave reviews?
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Old 04-06-2010, 12:22 PM   #5
Luvian
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Default Re: Dragon Age Detail

My favorite character is a mage and friendly fire never stopped me from using Area of effects. I send my tank in the fray so he gather the enemies around him and then cast cone of cold/fire/electricity on them. Sure he gets hurt, but he always survives. Same for the big area of effect zone spells. I send the tank in and then start spamming those. All you have to do is avoid casting on your squishies.

And the cones aren't hard to aim in melee either. By moving my mage around I can usually hit 2-3 enemies without hitting my allies. And it's not like Morigan for example can't survive 2-3 spells, so if I really have to I don't mind hitting an ally every once in a while.
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Old 04-06-2010, 01:17 PM   #6
SpiritWarrior
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Oh I still use AOE's and suffer through the friendly fire - it just bugs me that my group is half dead by the time it's over. I wouldn't even mind a spell that you have to maintain which decreases the chance of a party member being hit by your mage's spells. I would gladly pay the stamina price for maintaining it.
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Old 04-07-2010, 07:45 AM   #7
Kakero
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Default Re: Dragon Age Detail

If friendly fire bother you guys so much, play at the easiest difficulty. In this way your mages can cast aoe spells such as "Storm of the Century" without any repercussion.

Speaking of mages, do you all notice that mages don't have much choice in term of equipment compare to melee or bow/crossbow classes? While my warrior (sword and shield tank) changes his equipment every now and then. At the end of the game, Wrynn and Morigan basically still use almost the same starting equipment when you recruit them?

Last edited by Kakero; 04-07-2010 at 07:47 AM.
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Old 04-07-2010, 08:15 AM   #8
CrimsonLion
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakero View Post
If friendly fire bother you guys so much, play at the easiest difficulty. In this way your mages can cast aoe spells such as "Storm of the Century" without any repercussion.

Speaking of mages, do you all notice that mages don't have much choice in term of equipment compare to melee or bow/crossbow classes? While my warrior (sword and shield tank) changes his equipment every now and then. At the end of the game, Wrynn and Morigan basically still use almost the same starting equipment when you recruit them?
I found that a major issue throughout the game. Whereas especially melee fighters ended up with multiple sets of special armour or weapons (albiet they still seemed pretty generic to me), most new gear I found for mages along the way were still lvl 1/2 staffs or some budget cloth armor!

There was I think a half decent staff at some point along the game but that was maybe 3/4 through the playthrough and even then it wasnt anything special. Made me glad I ended up going Arcane Warrior tbh since then I had some decent armor to use.
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Old 04-07-2010, 11:12 PM   #9
Luvian
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Default Re: Dragon Age Detail

Yeah there's only about 3 staff worth it. I did find a couple of decent robes at the arcane shop in Denerim after I had completed 3 main quests. Reaper's Robes or something like that.
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Old 04-08-2010, 01:35 PM   #10
CrimsonLion
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Originally Posted by Luvian View Post
Yeah there's only about 3 staff worth it. I did find a couple of decent robes at the arcane shop in Denerim after I had completed 3 main quests. Reaper's Robes or something like that.
And even then it felt like it was more getting lucky finding something to buy that you could barely afford. I remember having to pass up on a lot of new items simply because they were only for sale at steep prices that cost too much.
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