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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Kish
The dialogues you can have with...certain of your companions, especially your sibling, will be different depending on the chapter you do the DLC in.
Be aware that there are two potential party members who can be good healers--no more. One is Hawke. The other is Anders. Bethany is a passable healer...But past Act One, expect the game to be really hard if you aren't a healer and don't have Anders in your party.
I don't think it's about healers. Health potions appear like candy (unless you plan on selling them all the time), and you rarely need more than that. I feel like the support tree's major attractions are Valiant Aura (SO MANY FREE STATS) and Haste (ALL OF THE DAMAGES)
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
I played without a healer and when I had problems with fights, it was rarely because I couldn't heal with potions fast enough.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Arbitrarity
I don't think it's about healers. Health potions appear like candy (unless you plan on selling them all the time), and you rarely need more than that. I feel like the support tree's major attractions are Valiant Aura (SO MANY FREE STATS) and Haste (ALL OF THE DAMAGES)
Health potions only appear commonly until you have a certain number of them in stock, and that number isn't very high if memory serves, plus their cooldown time will become a big problem. Unless you're playing on normal difficulty or below, a healer is highly recommended.
Zevox
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
I played on Hard, and actually it got easier when I started to get Merrill instead of Anders. It's all about the cross class combos, and keeping your squishier units constantly on the run. That way, one needs much less healing, and potions easily keep that front covered.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Zevox
Health potions only appear commonly until you have a certain number of them in stock, and that number isn't very high if memory serves, plus their cooldown time will become a big problem. Unless you're playing on normal difficulty or below, a healer is highly recommended.
Zevox
I play on nightmare (and have never tried any other difficulty). You get 4 health potions, 3 of everything else. If you use them, they appear like candy, and you shouldn't need more than one in most fights, unless it's very difficult (Nexus Golem) or you haven't managed it properly. (i.e. hitting your rogue with Aveline's Scatter. Oops, there goes 90% of your health) I end up selling off my inventory of potions every chance I get, just for the extra 50 silver. I bought an Elfroot and Restoration potion for emergencies, and haven't used them throughout all of Act 1.
Since I actually have Anders along most of the time, instead of drinking a potion, I get a heal from him in many fights. But functionally, they're pretty similar, and until I get Vengeance (which you get free from one of his quests, and obviously I'm referring to Swift Justice and Martyr) it's not like his cooldown is shorter than potion cooldown.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Dralnu
I was wondering if there was a "good" time to do the DLCs? Should I wait until I'm higher level or just do them right away?
It kinda depends on what you want. If you're strictly interested in the gear that both provide, then do the DLCs later. But if you're interested in extra dialogue and such, here's a few considerations:
1) Who you bring along is almost as important as when you do the DLCs. Varric, Anders and your sibling get extra dialogue in Legacy. Though each of your companions get a special item by completing Mark of the Assassin (except Merrill, oddly enough), Aveline and Isabela get special quests.
2) Certain pieces of dialogue will change upon which Act you do it in. If you try Mark of the Assassin in Act 3, for instance, there will be a few references to your title as the Champion of Kirkwall.
3) She's not my cup of tea, but if you want to "romance" Tallis from MotA, then you have to do it before you get into a romance with your party members.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
I got all the DLCs, and am currently replaying as a male mage Hawke. Was gonna do something else, but raining down literal fire and destruction is just too much fun. Just recruited Sebastian ... lovely voice, but while we started off on a good note ... I can tell this is not the start of a beautiful friendship. I'm in Act 2, and thinking of doing Legacy now. Although maybe I ought to have done it with Carver back in Act 1.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
ImperiousLeader
I got all the DLCs, and am currently replaying as a male mage Hawke. Was gonna do something else, but raining down literal fire and destruction is just too much fun. Just recruited Sebastian ... lovely voice, but while we started off on a good note ... I can tell this is not the start of a beautiful friendship. I'm in Act 2, and thinking of doing Legacy now. Although maybe I ought to have done it with Carver back in Act 1.
Is Carver still alive? Then you can still recruit him for Legacy.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
Top 5 Things Skyrim Should Learn From Dragon Age II (and Vice Versa)
Venture Beat's Rob LeFebvre has put together an editorial titled "Top 5 things Skyrim should learn from Dragon Age II (and vice versa), and given the title there's really no need to explain the content. Some of the points make sense, but the games are vastly different in scope and cater to two entirely different audiences.
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While I like them both, I would really like one giant mashed-up uber-game, if you will. Sky Age, perhaps. Or Dragon Rim. No, scratch that last one. Ew, just ew. Hell, let’s just begin with a look at what Skyrim really should improve upon, using Dragon Age II’s example.
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Better combat animation
Look, I like Skyrim’s combat a lot better than Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’s, but no one is using the word “visceral” to describe the battle system here. Fighting still feels like controlling a marionette with rigid strings, and even the dragon skirmishes are more about toddling around in circles until they land and then shouting at them to death.
Frequent weapon changes are encouraged, but the lag between choosing a new weapon and actually getting to use one is, well, laggy. I can’t count the number of times I switched to the Axe of Whiterun only to be stabbed to death by a dead Nord in the time it took to do so.
Dragon Age II, while more of a button-mashing fun-fest, is responsive and quick when choosing tactics, selecting spells, or even switching weapon sets.
More variety to colors/environments
Oh man, Skyrim designers, I get it. Skyrim is a cold, brown, and gray place. Even the underground is brown and gray. And cold. The monsters there are brown. And gray. The dragons, for the most part, are a variety of grayish-brown.
Please, Skyrim, can I have some color? Just a little? The northern lights at night are pretty, but they are not enough to counteract all the…wait for it…brown.
And repetition? It’s like they got the same guy with the bad Nordic accent to design all the inns. Every. Single. Inn. Has the Exact. Same. Layout. And some minor variation of an annoying bard whom I continue to want to shoot in the head.
Dragon Age II, with all its maze-y back channels and Deep Roads and such, at least has some variety in color and in environment.
Not everything’s perfect in the world of Dragon Age, though. What can DA2 learn from Skyrim?
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Allow for unscripted encounters
There’s got to be a way to bring in Skyrim’s powerful (and sometimes hilarious) dynamically generated goodness into a heavily scripted game like Dragon Age II, right?
After playing Dragon Age II for a while, I start to long for interactions with characters that will complain about their knee injuries or their brother in the army without having to slam through a dialogue tree to do so. Even the “random” fights in the bad parts of town feel fairly planned and obligatory.
I sure would like to skip some of the dialogue as well, especially the fourth or fifth time around. In one egregious example, no matter what I choose to say to that jerk of a Templar, he still cuts the throat of the Qunari and then has his followers try and kill us all. Sure would be fun to try and flatter him a bit and get out without having to fight the whole flock, right?
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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And repetition? It’s like they got the same guy with the bad Nordic accent to design all the inns. Every. Single. Inn. Has the Exact. Same. Layout. And some minor variation of an annoying bard whom I continue to want to shoot in the head.
Wait wait wait, Skyrim could learn from Dragon Age II not to re-use the same assets?
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Craft (Cheese)
Wait wait wait, Skyrim could learn from Dragon Age II not to re-use the same assets?
Well, DA2 DLC has some fresh assets... but also, DA has a lot more varied voicework. Skyrim probably has something like 10 voices. And Skyrim is a lot longer/larger, so seeing the exact same thane hall/inn in every single town feels a bit more painful than going to the Hanged Man a dozen times.
Reusing the area (Wounded Coast, Hanged Man, etc) feels reasonable. Having identical building designs for dozens of places scattered across Skyrim feels a bit less immersive.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
VanBuren
Top 5 Things Skyrim Should Learn From Dragon Age II (and Vice Versa)
[...] Some of the points make sense, but the games are vastly different in scope and cater to two entirely different audiences.
And boy, if I'm not living proof of that. Love DA2, won't touch Skyrim. And I can easily think of things someone else might suggest DA2 take from Skyrim that I would not want it to at all. For instance, if they suggested making it a sandbox-style game...
...and yeah, "more expansive environments" is the first thing they listed on that one. Figures. Fortunately for me Bioware has shown no signs of wanting to try that style of game design. With any luck it'll remain that way.
Zevox
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
VanBuren
Some of the points make sense, but the games are vastly different in scope and cater to two entirely different audiences.
I think the single best example of this in the article is the final point he makes. That DA2 lacks 'world-spanning intensity' is pretty much the point of the game, after all, given that Hawke is essentially a 'normal' (if somewhat exceptional) person who basically stumbles/is pushed into a position of influence, rather than a chosen-one/saviour of the world type character. I suspect a lot of the negative reaction DA2 got was because this isn't what many people expected or wanted.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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In one egregious example, no matter what I choose to say to that jerk of a Templar, he still cuts the throat of the Qunari and then has his followers try and kill us all. Sure would be fun to try and flatter him a bit and get out without having to fight the whole flock, right?
He does know that there is another way out of that scenario, right? It's not pretty (you have to be Aggressive Hawke), but it exists.
This is a major pet peeve of mine, and it's not limited to criticizing DA2, it applies to everything. If you're going to bring up a moment as a criticism, make sure it actually applies.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Mr.Silver
I suspect a lot of the negative reaction DA2 got was because this isn't what many people expected or wanted.
My observations seem to correspond with this as well. I've seen a lot of people who were very disappointed because they expected DA2 to be like every other Bioware game in it's plot or that they, despite seing evidence to the contratry, reasoned that "It's a Bioware game so I'll probably like it".
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Mr.Silver
I think the single best example of this in the article is the final point he makes. That DA2 lacks 'world-spanning intensity' is pretty much the point of the game, after all, given that Hawke is essentially a 'normal' (if somewhat exceptional) person who basically stumbles/is pushed into a position of influence, rather than a chosen-one/saviour of the world type character. I suspect a lot of the negative reaction DA2 got was because this isn't what many people expected or wanted.
Yes and no. The game had a lot of problems on it's own. The game restricted the characters you could bring along in rather odd ways (only 1 mage with healing? Really?), many of those characters were fairly weak and one-note compared to DAO's or they were just stupid. It repeated the same maps even when it didn't make sense, and they didn't develop at all over the course of 10 years making the promise of a developing city pretty much lies. Most of the fights were highly repetitive, and the waves were completely predictable, and rather dull. Also, and yes Zevox I know you disagree, the lack of choice obliterated player agency, which is part of the reason I enjoy Bioware games more than other rpgs.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Dienekes
The game restricted the characters you could bring along in rather odd ways (only 1 mage with healing? Really?)
I don't wish to sound crass but that's all about your tactics. The game is very playable even on Hard without a healer. Generally agreeing with your other points, though.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Dienekes
Yes and no. The game had a lot of problems on it's own.
I would actually argue that DA2's main problems are as a sequel rather than as a game itself. Despite all the shared mechanical, DA2 does not feel all that similar to DAO - and definitely doesn't feel like a continuation of it. Anyone who rated DAO particularly highly was probably going to be disappointed by it.
The thing is, a lot of these are fairly minor complaints in and of themselves (characters aside, but that's incredibly subjective). Take re-using maps; The Witcher also re-used dungeon maps but this is very rarely mentioned in any discussion of the game. The reason being is because it honestly doesn't have much of an impact on the gameplay - and this is true of DA2 as well. The main reason why it's brought up as often as it is comes down to the fact that it's an obvious target and quite a lot of people already disliked DA2 for other reasons, most of them tied to it not being a good sequel.
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they didn't develop at all over the course of 10 years
I agree that it could have done with more work, in much the same way as DAO could have done with making the origins actually matter.
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Most of the fights were highly repetitive, and the waves were completely predictable, and rather dull.
Again, I'd agree here. Combat has been something of a problem with Bioware for a while now, particularly in Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
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Also, and yes Zevox I know you disagree, the lack of choice obliterated player agency, which is part of the reason I enjoy Bioware games more than other rpgs.
That was my point. That Hawke's decisions have fairly little impact on the world is something of a theme in DA2 because Hawke is pretty consistently shown to be a relatively 'normal' person who's stuck trying deal with various crises that a single person can't be expected to deal with. This is really not typical for Bioware protagonists who usually come from the chosen-one/world-saviour mould such as The Warden who could and did topple governments. So for a lot of bioware fans, and fans of DAO in particular, this was something they neither expected nor wanted.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Mr.Silver
I would actually argue that DA2's main problems are as a sequel rather than as a game itself. Despite all the shared mechanical, DA2 does not feel all that similar to DAO - and definitely doesn't feel like a continuation of it. Anyone who rated DAO particularly highly was probably going to be disappointed by it.
The thing is, a lot of these are fairly minor complaints in and of themselves (characters aside, but that's incredibly subjective). Take re-using maps; The Witcher also re-used dungeon maps but this is very rarely mentioned in any discussion of the game. The reason being is because it honestly doesn't have much of an impact on the gameplay - and this is true of DA2 as well. The main reason why it's brought up as often as it is comes down to the fact that it's an obvious target and quite a lot of people already disliked DA2 for other reasons, most of them tied to it not being a good sequel.
There's at times repeating maps and repeating maps at every possible opportunity. For instance SWTOR is a rather huge game, and repeats a few maps here and there, but besides one or two it's not all that noticeable, and the scale that each map has makes it a forgivable offense. Then there are games like the original Mass Effect where every single colony was designed the exact same way. This was a distracting re-use of maps. In my opinion DA2 was the latter. It becomes even more of a problem when you notice that the game doesn't have that large a span to begin with. ME at least had the excuse of vastly different planets, Witcher, I'm informed, is a huge game in it's own right. DA2 is all about 1 town. So that 1 town needs to be completely fleshed out or the game starts to run together, which DA2 is guilty of.
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I agree that it could have done with more work, in much the same way as DAO could have done with making the origins actually matter.
Yeah more in depth origins would have been cooler. DAO was not a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination, I just think it was a better game than it's sequel.
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Again, I'd agree here. Combat has been something of a problem with Bioware for a while now, particularly in Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
I actually think DA2's combat design is pretty engaging. Powers and cross-class combo's work damn well to keep the game moving. It's encounter design. This game sucks at encounter design.
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That was my point. That Hawke's decisions have fairly little impact on the world is something of a theme in DA2 because Hawke is pretty consistently shown to be a relatively 'normal' person who's stuck trying deal with various crises that a single person can't be expected to deal with. This is really not typical for Bioware protagonists who usually come from the chosen-one/world-saviour mould such as The Warden who could and did topple governments. So for a lot of bioware fans, and fans of DAO in particular, this was something they neither expected nor wanted.
I actually have no problem that some things cannot be changed. Anders for instance, and the mom. It's most everything else that makes it seem half-finished. Take the Qunari magi. Every possible way to play that mission ends the same. The whole feel makes it seem like your character does not serve any purpose. Down to even the dialogue. There are some fights that really do seem you should be able to talk your way out of, but then the opposition takes offense over something and oh well fight is on. Compare with the child taken over by a demon in DAO. Even assuming that all roads end at the same point (the retrieving the Arl and free the city) there are a half a dozen options at least to complete said mission with varying death count. Now I know that I'm only taking two probably uneven examples from the game, but I don't think there is a single mission in DA2 that gave me half the options that the demon-child mission did. So to me, the demon child is a mission done incredibly well and memorable. Most of DA2? Not as much.
In fact there was a poster awhile back that put up a reasonable argument that Hawke in fact did nothing all game and everything would have turned out pretty much exactly as it would have if Hawke had died in a ditch somewhere. Now I think this does carry it too far, but for a lot of the game, yeah. Hawke is just this guy, you know?
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Mr.Silver
The thing is, a lot of these are fairly minor complaints in and of themselves (characters aside, but that's incredibly subjective). Take re-using maps; The Witcher also re-used dungeon maps but this is very rarely mentioned in any discussion of the game. The reason being is because it honestly doesn't have much of an impact on the gameplay - and this is true of DA2 as well.
The problem is that DA2 has virtually a handfull of maps - every interior type has about 2-3 versions reused on and on and on. IIRC, The Witcher had far more of those. The DA2 situation gets a bit more annoying due to the fact, that they didn't hide the inaccessible parts of the dungeons on the minimap - how hard would be to mask those parts?
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That was my point. That Hawke's decisions have fairly little impact on the world is something of a theme in DA2 because Hawke is pretty consistently shown to be a relatively 'normal' person who's stuck trying deal with various crises that a single person can't be expected to deal with. This is really not typical for Bioware protagonists who usually come from the chosen-one/world-saviour mould such as The Warden who could and did topple governments. So for a lot of bioware fans, and fans of DAO in particular, this was something they neither expected nor wanted.
Having a normal guy who can't change anything major isn't that bad, but it doesn't work in a game advertised with slogans such as "Determine your rise to power from a destitute refugee to the revered champion of the land." and "Become a legend: shape the destiny the of Dragon Age II world itself as Hawke". When you give people the exact opposite of what was advertised, they do tend to get annoyed and angry ;)
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
The solution is to ignore advertising, since advertising always lies.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
Well, as long as the basic setup of the plot goes, even advertisements tend to be true - not so much in this case... And obviously, trusting them with anything else is complete madness.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
Well, apparently there was another expansion planned for DA2, but it's been cancelled to move resources to, presumably, DA3.
Personally I can't get too disappointed over losing an expansion that I never knew existed (I honestly thought that they'd stopped making expansions quietly already), but the DLC's had shown pretty consistent improvement over the base game and I would've liked to have seen more.
On the other hand, though, it looks like we're getting a third game.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Cristo Meyers
Well, apparently there was another expansion planned for DA2,
but it's been cancelled to move resources to, presumably, DA3.
Personally I can't get too disappointed over losing an expansion that I never knew existed (I honestly thought that they'd stopped making expansions quietly already), but the DLC's had shown pretty consistent improvement over the base game and I would've liked to have seen more.
On the other hand, though, it looks like we're getting a third game.
As I posted in the ME3 ending thread, I'm disappointed. It sucks to learn that they were planning such an expansion only because it got canceled.
As for a third game, that was inevitable anyway, so I'm not surprised in the least about that. I suppose maybe this means we'll get DA3 sooner though. That'd be about the only plus side to something like this.
Zevox
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Cristo Meyers
On the other hand, though, it looks like we're getting a third game.
Anyone else hoping it is more like DARPG, or is that just me?
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
ZeltArruin
Anyone else hoping it is more like DARPG, or is that just me?
Why would you want it to resemble the Indian Department of Administrative Reform and Public Grievances? :smalltongue:
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
The charm of the pen and paper game is it's simplicity. A computer makes all the rolls for you, so you can get as crazy with effects as you like. And the game is pretty much a streamlined version of DA1 without introducing any new concepts.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Yora
And the game is pretty much a streamlined version of DA1 without introducing any new concepts.
Except for cross-class combos. And a whole lot of new non-weapon-centric skills. And two-handed weapons doing AoE damage. And new specializations. And allies having custom specializations. And armor runes.
Zevox
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
I guess it was going to be called "Exalted March." They had T-shirts and everything.
I'm slightly bummed over the news, but I also realize that an expansion was probably a bad idea. Awakening just barely did well enough to be called a success, and given the broken base for DA2, it probably wouldn't have done very well.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
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Originally Posted by
Zevox
Except for cross-class combos. And a whole lot of new non-weapon-centric skills. And two-handed weapons doing AoE damage. And new specializations. And allies having custom specializations. And armor runes.
Zevox
I think Yora was referring to the PnP game, not DA2. DA2 has this bizarre stat system that involves opaque formulae that get converted into percentages for your convenience. Probably to make stat inflation look reasonable.