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2012-03-21, 06:05 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
At the cost of spell combos.
And a whole lot of new non-weapon-centric skills.
And new specializations.
And two-handed weapons doing AoE damage. And allies having custom specializations.
And armor runes.
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2012-03-21, 06:32 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2009
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- Germany
Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
Damn, I still have not finished the game. I once got to the "WTF, Anders?!" moment but decided to load my last save since I want the armor from the dragon. Havn't continued since.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2012-03-21, 03:10 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2008
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- Lost in the Hinterlands
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
I'm not missing them. Aside from the Cone of Cold+Smash combo, I hardly ever used them. On the whole, mages needed to be de-powered from DAO to DA2.
Originally Posted by karpik777
Originally Posted by karpik777Last edited by Giggling Ghast; 2012-03-21 at 03:32 PM.
A father taken by time, a brother dead by my own hand.
With this work behold my grief, in Stone and shifting sand.
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2012-03-21, 04:43 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2006
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- Washington, D.C.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
Runecrafting was an abomination, mostly because of the loading screens; I made the mistake of making another character the runecrafter.
So, to make a rune, I had to go to Vigil's Keep (loading screen), go into the throne room (loading screen), go to the merchant (shop menu), buy the runes and recipes, go out of the throne room (loading screen) and finally create a rune (crafting menu).
Heaven help me if I screwed up and bought too few blank runes, because I'd have to go back into the throne room (loading screen), go to the merchant (shop menu), buy the proper things AGAIN, go out of the throne room (loading screen) and create the rune again. =P
So, yes, very, truly, not a fan =P At the end, none of my weapons and armor were fully runed because I couldn't stand having to do that much loading. I won anyway =PLast edited by Joran; 2012-03-21 at 04:44 PM.
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2012-03-21, 05:59 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2011
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
For those disappointed by Exalted March being cancelled, apparently, its plot elements are being incorporated into DAIII.
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2012-03-21, 07:18 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2007
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- Hastings, MN
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
"Reach down into your heart and you'll find many reasons to fight. Survival. Honor. Glory. But what about those who feel it's their duty to protect the innocent? There you'll find a warrior savage enough to match any dragon, and in the end, they'll retain what the others won't. Their humanity."
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2012-03-21, 10:55 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2008
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
No loss. As Candle Jack said, the only one of those worth using was freeze + stonefist/crushing prison. Which the new brittle + other class' skills mimics nicely.
Yes, I meant talents. Simple terminology error.
You can still customize their armor. They get rune slots after all. Which actually provides more meaningful customization than DA:O ever did, since there were just a few clear "best" armor sets in the game there, and prior to getting those everything was just generic armor and you equipped the highest-tier version you had of whichever style was appropriate for the character.
Ah, forgot about that. They still weren't in Origins, though.
ZevoxToph Pony avatar by Dirtytabs. Thanks!
"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C.S. Lewis
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2012-03-22, 01:01 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2011
Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
The overall tone of DA2 was a lot darker, but some people like that. I didn't like Game of Thrones because bad things always happened to the characters (providing no suspense since I knew they were all going to get screwed), and the bad things always outweighed the good things (Leaving me apathetic. Why should I care about a character if I know they are going to die anyway?). I just think that some of the things felt to contrived.
Sometimes I didn't feel like I had any choice.
Ex.
SpoilerWhy can't I just kill that one priestess? She betrays me like 3 freaking times and the best I can do is give her a stern talking too? This reeked of railroading.
Sometimes I felt like my choices didn't matter.
Ex.
SpoilerYou can quit Anders' endgame quest at several points during it or you can complete it, but no matter your decision, he always blows up the chantry.
So I didn't feel like I had enough choices/choices that mattered. I seem to recall 'choice' being one of the main draws of playing RPGs in the first place.
My second complaint is that the 3 act structure broke up the plot too much. There didn't seem to me enough time to develop the story in each of the three plots, making them seem unnecessarily fast-paced and contrived. I think if they had dedicated a whole game to each act, that the story would flow more naturally and allow for more buildup of tension.
Those are my big complaints, the rest are just nitpicks.
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2012-03-22, 03:00 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2006
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- Washington, D.C.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
I felt similarly about the Priestess. I wanted to murder her so badly after the first time she tricked me. Anders had to happen just because that was a crucial point of the plot; it could have been handled better, but I wasn't bothered by the railroad necessary for that to happen. I also agree that the Acts jumping between years was jarring.
My main complaint was about the lack of a compelling reason for my Hawke to stay in Kirkwall. Literally in Act 2 and Act 3, I thought to myself, "Why am I still here? This place brings me nothing but misery."
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2012-03-22, 03:23 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2004
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- Rochester, NY
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
My second complaint is that the 3 act structure broke up the plot too much. There didn't seem to me enough time to develop the story in each of the three plots, making them seem unnecessarily fast-paced and contrived. I think if they had dedicated a whole game to each act, that the story would flow more naturally and allow for more buildup of tension."Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire." - Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved with a suitable application of high explosives.
"Time to throw the dice." - Mat Cauthon, Wheel of Time
"Nothing good can ever come from staying with normal people."
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2012-03-22, 03:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2011
Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
Yeah, Kirkwall is a terrible place to live. I think the codex explains that since a whole bunch of slaves died there way back when, it made the veil to the Fade weak, causing an increasing number of blood mages and insanity. I read this and I was like:
Also, some railroading is necessary since it's a videogame, but they could have handled it better. What they do is just rip choice away from you. I felt like someone was reading me a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' book, and was allowing me to tell them my choices. I would tell my choice, but it turns out they were reading a regular old linear story.
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2012-03-22, 03:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2007
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- Hastings, MN
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
"Reach down into your heart and you'll find many reasons to fight. Survival. Honor. Glory. But what about those who feel it's their duty to protect the innocent? There you'll find a warrior savage enough to match any dragon, and in the end, they'll retain what the others won't. Their humanity."
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2012-03-22, 03:49 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2009
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- Stockholm, Sweden
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
I'm sort of getting the impression that nowhere in Thedas is that much better. The core of the Tevinter Imperium probably have the same problems, and it's borders are instead dead wastelands since the first blight (you know... 1,2 thousand years ago).
Anderfels is almost completely a dead wasteland filled with dour people and it's political landscape is torn between the king and the wardens. Rivain is a mess after the qunari landed. In Antiva the political climate is entirely controlled by the one currently hiring the most crows. Half of Orlais is the Dales and the other half was burned to the ground several times over by the Dalish before the Orlesians pushed them back. There's also apparently more or less kilometer wide chasms gaping down into the deep roads that the darkspawn makes picnic trips from.
Nevarra is gearing for war with just about everyone. Ferelden has it's own problems after the last blight.
Considering that all it takes to sunder the veil is the spilling of a lot of blood. I don't think there's many better places about. Life in Thedas is actually kind of dark...
Besides... as we've clearly seen... the dwarves, Zathrian's tribe and the werewolves, Loghain and the bannorn had at least as much infighting and animosity as we saw in Kirkwall... so the supernatural affect on it all is probably a bit exaggerated.
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2012-03-22, 04:00 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2008
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- Lost in the Hinterlands
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
A father taken by time, a brother dead by my own hand.
With this work behold my grief, in Stone and shifting sand.
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2012-03-22, 04:00 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2004
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- Rochester, NY
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
My main complaint was about the lack of a compelling reason for my Hawke to stay in Kirkwall. Literally in Act 2 and Act 3, I thought to myself, "Why am I still here? This place brings me nothing but misery.""Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire." - Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved with a suitable application of high explosives.
"Time to throw the dice." - Mat Cauthon, Wheel of Time
"Nothing good can ever come from staying with normal people."
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2012-03-22, 04:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2011
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
You know, I'm seriously wondering which is worse: The Seven Kingdoms, or Thedas.
On one hand, you have near-constant war, rape, incest and everyone being huge jerks, but on the other you have blood mages, demons, and Orlais.
Discuss.Last edited by Mukora; 2012-03-22 at 04:08 PM.
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2012-03-22, 04:16 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2009
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- Stockholm, Sweden
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
Considering that the former inspired the latter? Probably about the same...
That said though... I think both places are considerably better places to live in than they seem to be. We sort of see them at their very worst, but most people live long and relatively happy lives. All in all, it's probably comparable to ours.
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2012-03-22, 06:32 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
I sold my copy of DA2 soon after I played it, so I didn't play the DLC, I read about it. When I read about the Legacy DLC, I was glad I didn't buy it; the story of the DLC seems to have the same problems that I had with the main game. Namely that no matter what choices you make, the bad guys win/the story ends in failure.
Now I know some of you will say that it's a 'darker' story, but it's also a roleplaying game, and as such I expect my choices to have some impact on the plot. No, I don't expect to turn the world into rainbows and sunshine, but if my choices in the game can't make a the world just a little better before the game's end, then I don't see the point of getting to make choices in the first place.
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2012-03-26, 07:23 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2006
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- Washington, D.C.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
I think the only place that I'd think of Hawke wanting to go is probably Denerim. Sure, it's still rebuilding from the Blight, but otherwise it seemed like a nice place the last time the Warden was there. Sadly, Alistair didn't survive Dragon Age 1, so I didn't get to meet King Alistair.
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2012-03-26, 04:03 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2009
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- Stockholm, Sweden
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
It was a nice enough place at it's prime as a respected (despite everyone's insistance of the contrary) grey warden with the full backing of Ferelden's second most powerful man.
As a rootless refugee (who may or may not be an apostate) from the southern country with no money or possessions to speak of and an apostate sister to care for while the ruined city is desperately scrounging to rebuild and the devestated political factions are rebuilding their powerbases, I assure you, Denerim is going to be far from the "nice place" it was for the Grey warden.
And unlike Kirkwall... your name will not carry weight and you'll have no property to speak of. Not even family to help protect you (even if Gamlen did a mess out of it... he did protect you).
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2012-03-26, 04:12 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2006
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- Washington, D.C.
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
Screw the rules I have money! I mean, after Act 2, in the middle of Act 3 of DA2, my Hawke is pretty wealthy, has a house that could be sold, and few ties to Kirkwall, outside of a few close friends.
Spoiler
I epic failed my family with Carver dying in the intro, Bethany dying in the Deep Roads, and mother dying at the hands of the serial killer. I also romanced Merril and then slaughtered her entire tribe. Everything that Hawke has ever loved has been destroyed and blood mages are appearing on every corner. If I was Hawke, I would have sold the house and gotten the ever-loving heck out of Kirkwall.
Also, the Champion of Kirkwall's renown is well-known, even in Fereldan. I don't doubt Hawke could find some kind of backer or employment in Fereldan, with the king or queen, especially if it happens to be King Alistair.
Last edited by Joran; 2012-03-26 at 04:14 PM.
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2012-03-26, 08:50 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2007
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Skyrim is the Wrong Place to Look for Dragon Age III Inspiration
It's been a few months since BioWare's Ray Muzyka suggested that Skyrim was a basis of inspiration for Dragon Age III, but it wasn't until today that Kotaku addressed that notion, as well as some of what the company has been revealing about their future Dragon Age plans, in a new community-driven "Speak Up" editorial. In short, the author doesn't think that chasing "the hottest new thing on the block" is in BioWare's best interest:
On their forums they've confirmed that the dreaded dialogue wheel, and the even more dreaded paraphrasing system, will return, along with a voiced main character. Now, I won't spend too much time ranting about the dialogue wheel, because we all have experienced it enough to know it's pro's and con's (namely that it automatically highlights the "Good" and the "Bad" options in dialogue and reduces the amount of meaningful decision making), and we all know why the paraphrasing system is bad.
Of course, BioWare remains entirely unapologetic in this regard, insisting that there is no chance of a full text dialogue system because of problems involved when having a voiced character. They also, of course, state that a voiced character is all but guaranteed and that arguing against it is pointless because they've "weighed" the choices.
Now, there's something to be said about the voiced character. The biggest thing that comes to mind is: How are they going to voice a main character and allow different races/origins? One of the fairly large complaints weighed against DAII before and after release (And with BioWare insisting before release that they knew best and that we should trust them, glad that one worked out) was that being forced into the role of "Hawke" was not Dragon Age, and abandoned one of the coolest features of DAO.
Other things to note is that they are, by their own word, looking at Skyrim for inspiration. Yea.... So, I'll preface this one by saying I love Skyrim, because I do. But here's the thing: Skyrim is the last place they should look for inspiration for a Dragon Age title. Hell, Skyrim is in the exact opposite direction. When we have dozens of tactical RPG's over the years to look at, why in god's name would they look at an Action RPG with an open world? More action is the direction DAII went, and we all know DAII did much worse commercially than DAO, and did worse critically than DAO. But, instead of looking at the classics like they should, BioWare is looking at the hottest new thing on the block trying to capitalize on its success.
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2012-03-26, 11:17 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2006
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- Washington, USA
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
Eh, I'm not going to play DA3 anyway, on account that it will be Origin only and Bioware has done enough to turn me away.
Still, I'm curious what they mean exactly by taking inspiration from Skyrim. A setting based on vikings? First person? A system of perks instead of classes? There are so many things that could mean.
I agree with the article, though. Bioware shouldn't be trying to jump on the closest bandwagon.
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2012-03-27, 01:26 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2004
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
I'm getting the impression that the guy that wrote that didn't like DAII and is worried that DAIII will be more like II than I. Well, that's fine with me. I don't know about the Skyrim thing, but I guess all the people like myself that thought DAII was vastly superior can just sit here laughing at this bozo and eagerly awaiting III.
On their forums they've confirmed that the dreaded dialogue wheel, and the even more dreaded paraphrasing system, will return, along with a voiced main character. Now, I won't spend too much time ranting about the dialogue wheel, because we all have experienced it enough to know it's pro's and con's (namely that it automatically highlights the "Good" and the "Bad" options in dialogue and reduces the amount of meaningful decision making), and we all know why the paraphrasing system is bad.
One of the fairly large complaints weighed against DAII before and after release (And with BioWare insisting before release that they knew best and that we should trust them, glad that one worked out) was that being forced into the role of "Hawke" was not Dragon Age, and abandoned one of the coolest features of DAO."Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire." - Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved with a suitable application of high explosives.
"Time to throw the dice." - Mat Cauthon, Wheel of Time
"Nothing good can ever come from staying with normal people."
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2012-03-27, 02:20 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2006
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- Beyond the Helms of Death
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
Storm of the Century. Grease Fire. Shockwave. Entropic Death. Improved Drain. Plus all-around a wider selection of spells offering far more tactical options, especially with superior range and battlefield control.
Now, it was totally and insanely unbalanced (especially Storm of the Century) , and nice that they tried their best to balance classes better in DA2 as well as improving cross-class cooperation, but for all its over-poweredness, the magic in DA1 was still way more complex and fun, and really made you feel like you had a large-scale, long-range effect in fights.You are a Rose, You are a blade
I'm Down on my knees in the dark and fiery reign
-David Defeis, Virgin Steele
The Official Pharaoh Pimp - Power Metal at its finest!
Spoiler
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2012-03-27, 05:07 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2006
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
Eh, DA2 is pretty much the same there. Some things were toned down (forcefield) but... large AOE disrupts are pretty much the same (cone of cold is MASSIVE) if not stronger (force staggers aren't common in DA:O; see Firestorm). There's a bit of a problem on nightmare, since DA2's number scaling is idiotic (any friendly fire at all is pretty much certain death, only alleviated by hardcapping FF at 90% health in one hit). Force Mage is amazing for AOE control, for example.
Sure, there's no Storm of the Century, but that power was DUMB. It was completely unusable in 90% of situations, impractical in another 9%, and only vaguely useful in the remaining 1%. (Drains entire mana pool, aoe increases enormously and somewhat unpredictably, slaughters party members) Unless you're playing on some easy difficulty without friendly fire.
Or maybe you miss the amazing cheapness that was Mana Clash? Nah, probably not. DA2 even has Blood Wound, so I can't think of any more particularly ridiculous spells from DA:O that weren't translated over.
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2012-03-27, 07:14 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2008
Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
You see this part of the guy's post I can agree with. DAO's gimmick was multiple origins, and while I really enjoy the multiple origins (come now, how many rpg's do you know where you wish you could just skip the origin? This game at least allows variety), I agree after the beginning they weren't really of use. However to me that means the goal should be: How can we improve these origins to better create diversity, not let's scrap them. I really enjoyed playing a dwarf noble with a very different motivation than a city elf, and would like to see that happen again.
Last edited by Dienekes; 2012-03-27 at 07:14 AM.
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2012-03-27, 09:26 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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- Land of Stone and Stars
Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
I'd be torn on DAIII. DAII's gameplay was a LOT more fun, I think. In DAI I played an arcane warrior (modded the game to be a Dalish mage), and it was fun in its own way - storm of the century and other spell combos were cool, though a lot of them were gimmicky and not worth the setup required. DAII, however, managed to make all three classes fun to play, including both variations of the mundane classes.
My biggest problems were the incomprehensibly wave-based encounters (it's rather hard to build any functional tactics when the next enemy can spawn in the corner behind you) and the general futility of the whole game. The only victories Hawke ever is allowed to have are Pyrrhic victory, and even the most glowing successes are only obtained after roughly half the people involved are dead.
If DAIII could refine the active combat style further, I wouldn't mind, but they still have to fix the wave mechanic and get whoever writes their stories these days some Prozac. Not even Kefka Palazzo was as nihilistic is this guy,
But it's all pretty moot. Until Bioware cops to the obvious mistake they made in ME3's ending (even if it'd been planned against, they obviously underestimated the fan response) and does something to fix it, I am never going to buy another game from them blindly. If I hear enough good word from the gaming community (not the reviewing community, I want to know the quality of the game, not the quality of the kickback), maybe I'll buy the game used. If Bioware does man up and show some integrity, though, I'd probably buy it, though probably not the collector's edition or pre-order.
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2012-03-27, 09:29 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
My Warden spammed SotC in every fight. Even if you run out of mana, you get it all back when combat ends, so no reason not to.
Plague Doctor by Crimmy
Ext. Sig (Handbooks/Creations)
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2012-03-27, 09:49 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2010
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- Virginia
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Re: Dragon Age II, Part 2: The Qun is pretty deep, you wouldn't understand it.
~ZA