|
neongrey posted:Yeah, I feel like there's no way the Inquisitor is getting through it without getting hosed in the head. All these massacres around them, these decisions, hell, you find letters from a red templar writing home to his little girl about how he has to be away from home to stop the bad mages who are hurting people, and not to worry, because the special medicine will help, and she'll be safe. I took the keep in Emprise yesterday.  The red templar at the end who's just sane enough to realize that he and everyone else at the keep were playthings of a powerful demon, and killing Fiona at Haven when I got to know her in my previous run... when you find that letter, Cole twists the knife even further.quote:Bull picked the moment after I found that letter to tell me that he and Dorian were doing it. I like to imagine he did it to try and cheer up the Inquisitor because he knew she'd be happy to hear that. They're still just flirting in my game, despite my mainstay party composition being Bull, Dorian, and Varric. On the other hand, I can definitely understand why Leliana was concerned about the Inquisitor and Josephine getting close. Especially after her romance kicked into cheesy romance novel mode. quote:Dorian, too. It doesn't take many offhand comments to get the picture that he has an actual legitimate serious drinking problem. And Sera, for that matter. Solas probably would have a genuine drinking problem if alcohol worked on him.
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 09:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 9, 2024 23:04 |
|
|
Cythereal posted:I took the keep in Emprise yesterday. Uuuugh I guess I'm taking him in there this time. I need to know how that goes.  quote:They're still just flirting in my game, despite my mainstay party composition being Bull, Dorian, and Varric. On the other hand, I can definitely understand why Leliana was concerned about the Inquisitor and Josephine getting close. Especially after her romance kicked into cheesy romance novel mode. Yeah, it took foreeeeever for me to get them going despite a good 20, 30 hours of mashing them together like a pair of Ken dolls. But I really, really wanted my final party to be a pair of couples. And it was.  quote:And Sera, for that matter. Solas probably would have a genuine drinking problem if alcohol worked on him. And Blackwall, obviously. In fact, probably everyone but Solas and Cole. Oh, I guess not Viv, either.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 09:38
|
|
|
neongrey posted:In fact, probably everyone but Solas and Cole. Oh, I guess not Viv, either. Solas implies a couple of times that alcohol simply doesn't affect him, sadly. Probably has to do with him being a god. Shame, really. I think he has a greater need for booze than the entire rest of the Inquisition combined.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 09:42
|
|
|
Yeah, he really probably does, and that's a hell of a trick given how much they must all go through.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 09:46
|
|
|
Nichael posted:Nothing really remains a secret though in today's age of video games. This fact is compounded when you consider many people play these games many times over. All you need to do to make something a secret in Dragon Age is to put it in a codex entry or something that otherwise requires players to read.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 10:01
|
|
|
Is there a good source for the various character icons? The Dragon Age wikis are terrible, and tumblr keeps giving me gifs of Morrigan lips close-ups. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 10:06
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:I make that call based on bigger issues than Bull's personal dilemma. To me, it's like how I almost always harden Alistair in DAO and wed him to Anora - because that's what's best for Ferelden, and Alistair's happiness never enters into my thinking. It's not like Cole's dilemma where the only thing at stake is what kind of person Cole becomes. Well the Venatori make an enemy of the Qunari by destroying one of their dreadnoughts so perhaps the Qunari are doing those war table operations by themselves which leads to them destroying the invasion fleet or the fleet diverts from Fereldan to the Qunari. You never hear about any of this since you said "gently caress your alliance, Qunari." SgtSteel91 fucked around with this message at 10:32 on Dec 12, 2014 |
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 10:26
|
|
|
Sweetgrass posted:This is actually a decently subtle sticking point embedded within the quest choice itself though, the game is also asking for you to stretch your empathy to include an otherwise faceless set of people you've had extremely limited contact with. Zakmonster posted:Just looking at the subsequent conversations (both paths), Bull looks a lot more comfortable, stable, and happier being with the Qun. To me, at least. I dun agree at all that Bull is happier or more content supporting the Qun. Cole has a number of comments that undercut that idea pretty heavily. Siding with the Qun, quote:Cole: Blood, crash of metal, but silent underneath. The horn didn't blow. 'That one eyed bastard; I knew he'd betray us!' Vs. siding with the Chargers. quote:Cole: 'Tamma how will I follow the Qun.' Her hands, strong but gentle. Ruffles stubs where the horns will be. 'You are strong and your mind is sharp. You will solve problems other's cannot.' She smiles, but sadly. Also, from Cole's little comments when you greet him, quote:Cole: 'The' a joke. He laughs to himself, imagining herds of cattle in fields of iron, but now he worries it fits. Vs. supporting the Chargers again, quote:Cole: Salt spray smell of Seheron, lost in smoke from a burning ship. Guilt at not feeling guiltier. Bull was never a good fit for Qunari society, and his personal quest was just that conflict coming to a head. All driving him back into the Qun does is force him deeper into stoic self denial. You can definitely make the case that saving the alliance is the right choice from a setting wide perspective, but for Bull specifically it leaves him in a pretty horrible place. Skippy McPants fucked around with this message at 11:17 on Dec 12, 2014 |
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 10:53
|
|
|
What does "Horns pointing up" means?
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 11:00
|
|
|
Skippy McPants posted:Bull was never a good fit for Qunari society, and his personal quest was just that conflict coming to a head. All driving him back into the Qun does is force him deeper into stoic self denial. You can definitely make the case that saving the alliance is the right choice from a setting wide perspective, but for Bull specifically it leaves him in a pretty horrible place. He can join my first Inquisitor's club. Hates the Chantry, doesn't believe in the Maker, hates the human institutions of government. Finds out just about everything about her Dalish identity is a lie, her gods were evil, and Solas left. Still the right choices for the big picture. Better knowledge than ignorance. Still sucks on a personal basis. Join Hawke's gang and Shepard's crew in agreeing that it can really suck to be a major character in a Bioware game.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 11:06
|
|
|
Kurtofan posted:What does "Horns pointing up" means? It's the Chargers solidarity/battle cry.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 11:15
|
|
|
Kurtofan posted:What does "Horns pointing up" means? It's a reference to earlier if you ask Krem to reveal more of his past and the Chargers.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 11:17
|
|
|
Lotish posted:What difficulty are you on? I found that Nightmare, at least until you break it with gear or a really good skill set up, requires much more attention to tactics. I'm playing on hard, haven't tried nightmare, figured more health and damage wouldn't fix my problems with the game. Are you guys who were saying 2 pages ago that you enjoy the game for its story etc. just playing through the main quest? Because my experience of the game so far has been that 80% of it is running around the hubs doing gently caress all. Very little of what you do outside of the main quest line (which is pretty short) seems to be related to the story. Its like a Bethesda game but somehow less interesting because most of the quests are given to you by journals.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 11:19
|
|
|
I swear to god if another group of enemies just suddenly spawns in, without animations or patrol routes, I'm going to completely flip my poo poo. I fought six goddamn packs of Mabari hounds, and three packs of bandits straight afterwards, because the game kept having them appear the second I'd dealt with the previous.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 11:22
|
|
|
Guest posted:I'm playing on hard, haven't tried nightmare, figured more health and damage wouldn't fix my problems with the game. There's a lot of padding, but there are some non-story questlines that are worth playing. Mostly the major ones in each new area, and there are occasionally other interesting quests. There's MMO crap like the "bring me five sheep asses" in Hinterlands but stuff like the magically frozen Tevinter ruins in Western Approach too. And if you haven't, get out of the Hinterlands. Maybe "only" 20-30 hours worth of gameplay if you just focus on the storyline quests and few standout side quests. Personally, I would have traded forty hours of filler for 10 hours of "real" main story content, but even without that there's plenty of stuff of significance.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 11:51
|
|
|
Guest posted:I'm playing on hard, haven't tried nightmare, figured more health and damage wouldn't fix my problems with the game. Depends on your view on "related" I guess. Most of the side-missions relate to the Inquisition building up their 'oomph' to be able to counter Corypheus, and performing damage control. Sure, placing flowers on that dudes wife grave in Redcliffe is pretty uninvolved, but consider Exalted Plains, which you would normally open up around the time you are about to do Winter Palace. The main storyline of the area involves freeing up the entrenced fighters for the two sides of the civil war, around the same time that you are seeking an alliance with Orlais. You could be considered to the protecting your investment there: not much point to an alliance with someone, when a good chunck of their troops are under siege by demons. The Dalish clan in that area is much smaller, but in effect that is you cementing another alliance (also gaining an agent in the process), and at least to me it implied that this clan will act as representative to the others about the Inquisition. Similar in Hissing Wastes, where you counter whatever the Venatori are up to. Yes it turns out it is breaking into The Tomb of Questionably Useful Loot, but these guys have already shown in Redcliff that they are, if not directly doing Corys works (if you pick the Templars), then at least are playing into Corypheus plans by causing more chaos. Empris de Lyon has you curtailing a major source of Red Lyrium for Corypheus, as well as clearing one of their major strongholds. In the Western Approach kicking the enemy out of a fortress leads to a series of quests to secure your holding, as well as again preventing the Venatori from digging up powerful artifacts. You can absolutely play the games with the mindset "My job is to stop Corypheus asap, nothing more", and that is pretty much the red thread of the main quest. The area stories (disregarding things like colleting shards and finding Random Farmer #23s buried chest of loot) relate to the Inquisiton as a stabilizing force, ensuring that the world is both able to work against the true threat, and undoing the chaos Corypheus campaign (and to some extent the mage/templar war) has wrought. If you prefer to not have the world burn down around you while you save it, the area quests are you going out and making sure that doesn't happen.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 11:53
|
|
|
I... kind of agree. It's a shame a lot of the other areas weren't fleshed out more, because they end up feeling more like filler content, with 'You work out what impact this has for yourself' than actual results. I don't want/need changes on the main story to occur, but if every Zone at least had a decent self-contained storyline with a few named NPC's, I'd be more inclined to do them purely to experience it. As it stands, some of them feel a little bit like WOW Zones, with 'Here's a vague justification to go get Bear Asses' more than anything. It's a shame because it makes those areas just miss greatness for me.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 12:01
|
|
|
Shockeh posted:I... kind of agree. It's a shame a lot of the other areas weren't fleshed out more, because they end up feeling more like filler content, with 'You work out what impact this has for yourself' than actual results. I don't want/need changes on the main story to occur, but if every Zone at least had a decent self-contained storyline with a few named NPC's, I'd be more inclined to do them purely to experience it. As it stands, some of them feel a little bit like WOW Zones, with 'Here's a vague justification to go get Bear Asses' more than anything. This pretty much sums up my feelings. Even if they come up with "these bandits are working for the red templars" justifications for the filler, it's still just that. It doesn't feel connected to the story in any way, it just feels like they invented crap for you to do and then hamfisted an explanation for it in there. If there were half as many zones with twice as much effort put into them, the game would have been better off for it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 12:06
|
|
|
poptart_fairy posted:I swear to god if another group of enemies just suddenly spawns in, without animations or patrol routes, I'm going to completely flip my poo poo. I fought six goddamn packs of Mabari hounds, and three packs of bandits straight afterwards, because the game kept having them appear the second I'd dealt with the previous. There seem to be spots that are like area transitions, and some enemy patrols respawn if you cross them. In particular, cave entrances are really bad about this. There's never no more spiders. I had non-stop Hyena attacks in the Forgotten Oasis, cause I think those transition points are pretty well all over. God drat, I was thinking I'd make Bull support the Qunari on my next playthrough, but that's apparently super depressing.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 12:13
|
|
|
bobtheconqueror posted:God drat, I was thinking I'd make Bull support the Qunari on my next playthrough, but that's apparently super depressing. My take on it: it's depressing, and probably the worse choice for Bull's personal happiness, but it has a much greater impact on the big picture, and I think Bull gets that. Six grunts and Bull's happiness buy the world the first true alliance between the Qunari and Thedas, Qunari ships saving Denerim from a Venatori attack, the excision of spies inside the Inquisition, and dismantlement of the Venatori intelligence network. Personally, I'd call that a good deal, albeit one that sucks to make and the presumed negative consequences of not allying with the Qunari never come up if you take that path.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 12:17
|
|
|
The Insect Court posted:There's a lot of padding, but there are some non-story questlines that are worth playing. Mostly the major ones in each new area, and there are occasionally other interesting quests. There's MMO crap like the "bring me five sheep asses" in Hinterlands but stuff like the magically frozen Tevinter ruins in Western Approach too. And if you haven't, get out of the Hinterlands. Maybe "only" 20-30 hours worth of gameplay if you just focus on the storyline quests and few standout side quests. poptart_fairy posted:I swear to god if another group of enemies just suddenly spawns in, without animations or patrol routes, I'm going to completely flip my poo poo. I fought six goddamn packs of Mabari hounds, and three packs of bandits straight afterwards, because the game kept having them appear the second I'd dealt with the previous.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 12:36
|
|
|
Why do people keep saying you have to collect animal asses? I'm a fair way through the main quest & I've not yet had to collect any.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 12:45
|
|
|
Knuc U Kinte posted:Why do people keep saying you have to collect animal asses? I'm a fair way through the main quest & I've not yet had to collect any. A couple of hinterlands quests. One wants you to collect 10 pieces of ram meat, one to collect three bear claws.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 12:50
|
|
|
Iron Bull's personal quest is cool because of the Cole stuff posted above. Solas also comments on it while out in the field. Cole generally gets a lot of interesting world-building or character-building lines that help other characters because he doesn't have too much backstory himself. I also enjoy his battle cries, especially against demons, although "YOU CAN'T HURT ME" can get a little grating. I really wish I had a reason to bring more than one rogue out on the field at a time. I guess I might give it a shot next time I wander around a lower-level area.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 12:59
|
|
|
Has anyone bought the PC version on disc? Can you actually install from the disc, or does it just redirect you to Origin? If I can do the initial install from disc that'll be a lot faster than downloading the game for me. edit: Also, does the standard edition box come with anything noteworthy at all?
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 13:07
|
|
|
VostokProgram posted:Has anyone bought the PC version on disc? Can you actually install from the disc, or does it just redirect you to Origin? If I can do the initial install from disc that'll be a lot faster than downloading the game for me. I did and you can. Though I'm in Germany, I don't know if it's different in other countries. There are 4 discs if you are curious.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 13:11
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Still the right choices for the big picture. Better knowledge than ignorance.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 13:27
|
|
|
Knuc U Kinte posted:Why do people keep saying you have to collect animal asses? I'm a fair way through the main quest & I've not yet had to collect any. It's representative of the 'do x of y' format quests that MMO's have massively propagated into RPG's more than they ever were before. 'Kill x Templars', 'find y murals', 'collect z medallions' etc. They're timegates, mechanisms to extend playtime and encourage you to fight otherwise irrelevant mobs and feel a minor rush of accomplishment. The tasks themselves are neither plot related or impact upon the game area (usually involving re spawning mobs) hence the comparison.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 13:35
|
|
|
exquisite tea posted:All you need to do to make something a secret in Dragon Age is to put it in a codex entry or something that otherwise requires players to read. Not a lie. The codex entries are just there for experience points in most of my games. Sometimes I read, like, some of the character entries, but there are so drat many that eventually my eye's just glaze over the words "codex unlocked" and move on.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 14:45
|
|
|
VostokProgram posted:Has anyone bought the PC version on disc? Can you actually install from the disc, or does it just redirect you to Origin? If I can do the initial install from disc that'll be a lot faster than downloading the game for me. You CAN but it wouldn't let me. First time I installed the disks wouldn't work at all so I had to download it. Second time it got to 10% then wouldn't go further so I had to download it. Does anyone else think that if you don't help the Templars Cole doesn't really make a lot of sense? I'm still unsure of what he did to help in Haven even though the characters told me he was useful. For me he killed a templar at the gates then suddenly was inside with the male priest. I'm sure Dorian feels the same way if you're not with the mages but it still came across as strange.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 14:52
|
|
|
Torrannor posted:I did and you can. Though I'm in Germany, I don't know if it's different in other countries. There are 4 discs if you are curious. Ha yeah I bought a copy here in Sweden, and opening it up to find 4 DVDs reminded me of the good old days of multi-disk C64 games. Insert disk 3 side 2!
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 14:53
|
|
|
Taear posted:Does anyone else think that if you don't help the Templars Cole doesn't really make a lot of sense? I'm still unsure of what he did to help in Haven even though the characters told me he was useful. For me he killed a templar at the gates then suddenly was inside with the male priest. Cole/Dorian helps people evacuate and fight the enemy present off-screen while you save people and do the trebuchet things. Or, knowing Cole, he helped Roderick work through some deep-seated emotional trauma with a variety of non-sequiturs, telepathic insight, and radishes.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 14:54
|
|
|
Magical Zero posted:Yeah, for all the jokes about DAII enemies appearing out of thin air, I've had it happen quite often in Inquisition as well. Like a group of level scaled Red Templar archers spawning during a dragon fight. Oddly, I haven't really had this happen to me in DA:I much at all. In DA2, it was intentional--like, that was their idea of how encounter design should be. If it happens in DA:I, with the exception of the times when it makes sense for there to be waves (end of Act I quest, rifts), it's probably more a product of how enemies respawn and not an intentional encounter design choice. I don't know if that makes it better or worse.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 15:09
|
|
|
Oh yeah finally a good shield for Blackwall and -oh  
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 15:20
|
|
|
In my experience, Berserk makes you take way too much damage in return for a small damage boost, and would be suicide on a tank.Cythereal posted:radishes. They remind him of home.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 15:35
|
|
|
Taear posted:Does anyone else think that if you don't help the Templars Cole doesn't really make a lot of sense? I'm still unsure of what he did to help in Haven even though the characters told me he was useful. For me he killed a templar at the gates then suddenly was inside with the male priest. Yeah, having a random spirit/demon showing up in Haven is really weird. It made a lot more sense in a templar playthrough to have a mage arrive to warn you about what was happening.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 15:35
|
|
|
Harrow posted:Oddly, I haven't really had this happen to me in DA:I much at all. Yeah, I've not run into enemies spawning on top of me or spawning ad nauseum (except for that spider cave, but I thought that was just because there were supposed to be a lot of spiders). I have, however, had situations where I hit one guy so hard that he and his friends despawned in the middle of a fight. That was funny. "I'm gonna hit you so hard it'll go back in time and hit your momma so hard she'll fall down the stairs and lose you during pregnancy!"
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 15:39
|
|
|
Kainser posted:Yeah, having a random spirit/demon showing up in Haven is really weird. It made a lot more sense in a templar playthrough to have a mage arrive to warn you about what was happening. To be fair, everything about Cole is weird. He wants to help, though, and if you ally with the templars he'll explain to Cassandra in banter why he was poking around their fortress. I'm mucking around with a third character, and good grief Sera is an rear end in a top hat to Cole. Even Vivienne treats Cole with [marginally] more respect.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 15:40
|
|
|
I could never get Sera and Cole to interact.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 15:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 9, 2024 23:04 |
|
|
Lotish posted:I could never get Sera and Cole to interact. You're not missing a whole lot from what I've seen so far. Sera absolutely loving hates Cole and refers to him as "it."
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2014 15:45
|
|