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Post by Elliot Kane on Mar 30, 2010 6:12:21 GMT
Oops - had already done Alistair's quest. Then forgot about it! ;D Still haven't found Leilana's. Starting to wonder if it's going to be a 'your girl gets kidnapped' type thing. Morrigan's is very hard, if you take the honest route. Worth it though, considering the added bonus.
***
D - bought the game, got the code, can't be bothered. If it was a straightforward download with code but without joining stuff I'd probably do it, but I try never to join anything I have no interest in.
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Post by mysterd on Mar 30, 2010 11:44:51 GMT
Oops - had already done Alistair's quest. Then forgot about it! ;D Still haven't found Leilana's. Starting to wonder if it's going to be a 'your girl gets kidnapped' type thing. Morrigan's is very hard, if you take the honest route. Worth it though, considering the added bonus. *** D - bought the game, got the code, can't be bothered. If it was a straightforward download with code but without joining stuff I'd probably do it, but I try never to join anything I have no interest in. I will say this - if it wasn't for Shale, I wouldn't have gotten through a good deal of parts of the game. He is just a beast. Hope you manage well w/out him.
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Post by Elliot Kane on Mar 30, 2010 13:26:21 GMT
Well, so far, so good, as it were
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Post by Flix on Mar 30, 2010 13:43:44 GMT
EK: Leliana's personal quest is bugged if you get her approval rating up too high or romance her before triggering it. Without spoiling too much, it involves her lying to you about her past during a conversation, then feeling bad about it later when approval is higher and telling the truth. I recommend Dialogue Tweaks. This fixes more than just Leli, because there are other bugs with Alistair (he's often king endgame regardless of what your choices were) and other chars. Just plop the folder into your override folder. This will restore the right dialouge options (worked for me, I had the same problem). If you want an in-game solution, you could break up with her or otherwise get her approval rating lower (but still above 30). Then see if you can ask her about minstrels and spies in Orlais.
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Post by Elliot Kane on Mar 30, 2010 19:10:42 GMT
Gah! Thanks, Flix. That's a REALLY annoying bug. I've been going spare trying to work out what I did wrong. The bug stalls the romance plot AND kills her personal quest? Amazing... Would have thought they'd have patched that, fast. I'll grab those dialogue tweaks, thanks. She's really easy to get high approval with, so of course I did.
EDIT: No, I won't. "You are required to log in!"
Guess I may have to dump her, then win her back again... ;D
***
In game:
Me: Alastair, I want you to marry an utterly gorgeous, highly talented, intelligent and capable woman who has strengths where you have weaknesses and vice versa. In short, your perfect match as both man and king.
Alastair: What?!? No! I hate you for ordering me to do this!
Me (Thinks): Where's the "Have you gone utterly f-ing INSANE?!?" button? ;D Or failing that, I'd settle for a slap button... ;D
***
Teryn Loghain is tough. But I'll get him...
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Post by Elliot Kane on Mar 30, 2010 20:21:40 GMT
Terrif... If I dump her, I get a whole huge mass of new dialogue options... but she stays dumped. Someone ought to slap BW for not correcting that...
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Post by Flix on Mar 30, 2010 20:29:18 GMT
OK, I figured it's time for Flix's Dragon Age mod guide: All of these mods can be found on Dragon Age Nexus. First it's recommended to read the guide to installing/uninstalling/updating DA mods. To summarize, you're either using the DA content updater for .dazip files or placing files directly into your override folder. DAModder can also handle both types of mods. Now the list! The essentials: Normally I would say the first playthrough should be vanilla and mod-free, but even the best games have bugs, glitches, and elements that could use some fixing. Annoyance Remover Sick of Rally going "boom" every two seconds? Tired of cutscenes ruined by all the shimmering, sparkling auras? This makes all sustainables have a brief casting animation and then they vanish. This improves performance a bit too. Auto Loot Now you can click on corpses and chests and loot them without the extra step of opening the loot GUI. You can also use the autoloot feature to have your party loot everything within a radius. Plus Healing Received Fix Items with the plus to healing effects received just plain doesn't work in the vanilla game. Now it does. Better SpellcastingThis mod removes the cooldown and casting time on all sustained abilities and shapeshifting abilities. Also, it allows all spells to be cast with your weapon drawn. Optionally, the mod allows multiple summons and sets the casting time for them to instant. Dog Gift Tweaks Ever think that it was pointless to have gifts for dog when his approval is fixed at 100? Now all those beef bones have a use - dog receives minor bonuses from dog gifts. Expanded Inventory Because the tiny, slowly increasing inventory was just a bad idea. Now the inventory size is maxed. Detailed Tooltips Tired of useless vague explanations of skills and talents - now you actually get information such as base damage and scaling factors, effect durations, attack/defense buffs/penalties etc. shown in ability tooltips. Camp Storage Chest - self explanatory. A storage chest shouldn't be exclusively DLC. Stamina Potions Because deep mushrooms are useless after Ostagar, you now get stamina recipes and potions so your warriors and rogues can use some talents every once in a while. Recommended:Alley of Murders Integrates with the original campaign. This adds a new area to Denerim and a few new quests. Fully voiced. Pretty cool extra content. Warden's Arena A standalone mod - huge battles, play with tons of characters like Duncan, Jowan, Anora, etc. etc. Fragments of Ferelden Another standalone mod - pretty fun adventure. Better Two Handed Talents. Improves some of the talents in the two handed weapons tree. Improved Atmosphere This mod does a LOT. From the description: "When you played Dragon Age, were you disappointed by the lack of life in towns? Were you bothered by the fact that most ambient NPC’s after Ostagar refused to move a muscle, and were instead just hopelessly standing in one place? Did you want more party banter triggers? How about more variety when it comes to your own equipment and also to that of the NPC’s? Wanted the bodies of your victims to remain after you slew them?" You get all that and more. Runes for Everything. Now all equipment has a chance to have rune sockets, not just swords. Summoning Portal for Party Members Ever notice that the party-picker GUI is arbitrarily disabled almost all the time? Now you can change up your party without having to set out for camp. Two Specialization Points for Sten - Sten is nerfed with only one specialization, now he gets two like everyone else. Interesting Boss Drops - now bosses that aren't guarding chests have better drops than some fire arrows and a pair of leather boots. Others: Some of these are purely cosmetic, others are flat out cheats. All are fun. Circles Be Gone - for the sake of immersion and less clutter, the bright circles around character's feet are removed. Extra Dog Slot - ever think that dog, with his eight skills and two equipment slots didn't deserve a precious party slot? Now he is also available as a summon, with full combat capabilities. Mabari to Wolf Model Replacer - Reskins dog to look like a wolf or a blight wolf. DLC MerchandiseThis mod adds replicas of 12 of Bioware's free promotional items to Bodahn's shop. Character respecialization: Let's face it, some of the default builds for NPC's are just bad. Other times you just want to experiment. This adds ravens to various locations which can give you respec potions and also unlock specializations for you. Gift Guide. Although this can be figured out from character codex entries, this mod lists the companion's name next to the gifts suited for them. Vibrant Colors - This adds 48 new hair & eyebrow colors, 40 new skin tones and 30 new eye colors to the Character Creator. More Hairstyles - self explanatory More Possessed Wynne - Considering Wynne undergoes some dramatic events between your first meeting at Ostagar and your second meeting at the Circle Tower, this mod now has her appearance change to look more like a vessel of the spirit. Wield Any Weapon One Handed - Very fun mod! Good for a solo run as it can overpower your char though.
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Post by Flix on Mar 30, 2010 20:31:08 GMT
Just so you know, EK, there's another bug that can work in your favor.
So, you broke up with Leli and now you can do her personal quest. After completing it, you will get another dialogue option to start a romance with her, and she will get back together with you as if you never broke up!
Also, about Alistair: you can 'harden' him via his personal quest (be tough with him) and he will later accept his kingship with authority. Coddle him and he will whine and snivel about being king.
You can also harden Leliana through her personal quest. The result of hardening them is that they won't object your morally grey decisions like they would otherwise.
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Post by Elliot Kane on Mar 30, 2010 23:19:04 GMT
Aha! Thanks, Flix! Time to break up with Leli again! ;D I definitely made a mistake not 'hardening' Alistair. I'll try that next time through. I was seriously wishing I could have recruited Anora instead of him. She might be a tad on the power hungry side (OK, a LOT on the power hungry side! ;D) but she's far more of a man than he is! I kept waiting for her to start spouting "Oh, if only I had been born a man, with a man's strength instead of a woman's weakness!" I mean, really. Alistair is whining about being given a kingdom AND a beautiful, talented and intelligent queen to go with it! It's the stuff of boyhood fantasy and he's like a big kid. "But Daddy, I don' WANNA be king! And girls SMELL!" If I wasn't an obsessive keeper of all characters, I'd have let him walk at that point. Most of the other characters are strong warriors, after all, so I really don't need him. As for the mods... I suspect the dog hater never levelled him up, or failed to find the 'Ultimate Dog War Paint', whatever it's called. He's more like a Hell Hound than a mere dog! *** I'm sure I'm still missing a character. One who collects maps. No-one likes them as gifts. They'd have to appear pretty late now, though. Not sure about some of the weird statues, either. Maybe missing two characters? Time will tell... *** Everyone... I figure it might be interesting to compare notes on who we made what, for various character classes. As I figure everyone in the thread has played the game (And you're all ahead of me by some distance, if not completed!) I figure it's safe to leave off spoiler tage. If you don't want to know what characters are recruitable, look away now... Main char: I went with the human noble warrior for the first play through. I always find it easiest to learn a new system with warrior types, as they tend to be the easiest to get to grips with. The more times I play, the more esoteric my choices become I went Champion with him because it gives you useful inspiring abilities. Still to add a second class, but it is probably going to be Templar. He's a sword & shield specialist. Sten - Still basic. I think he'd make a great Reaver and I don't have the class available, yet. Two handed weapon guy. My Dog, Fang, as noted above is maxed out. Nothing to add, except that he's one powerful beast. Wynne - No other specialisation yet. I don't think she would, and being an inveterate role-player... Not to mention she has her hands full being my main healer. The one indispensable member of my group when heading into a fight. Alistair - Still just the Templar, though I'm thinking of adding Berserker to him. He can channel his sulking usefully, that way! ;D More seriously, I want to vary the Warrior combinations, so I have a hitter for all situations. Leliana - I added Ranger to her, mainly to see what it did (Not much, honestly). She's mainly my lock picker, trap opener and peerless archer. With a certain set of armour, she's nearly immune to fire, too... Morrigan - Arcane Warrior. She already blows heck out of everything with spells, now she cuts them into little pieces, too. I figure she's already my combat mage, so we might as well make that literal. Nothing quite like watching her lightning bolt someone then splat him with her sword ;D Zevran - Wasn't sure what use he was, until I found the Duelist class. As an Assassin, he's just a very inferior warrior. As a Duelist, he can pinpoint weaknesses with his Assassin skills, then exploit them with his Duelist skills. All at high speed because he's in light armour. VERY effective, now! Duel wielder, Florentine style, as that's the only duel wield option available. Oghren is still just a Berserker. I may well add Champion or Reaver, but I'm not sure which... And I haven't found Reaver yet, anyway. Two handed weapon specialist. I make that eight recruitable chars... That I've found, so far. Sure I've missed at least one...
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Post by Elliot Kane on Mar 31, 2010 0:25:06 GMT
And finally back on track! Thanks, Flix! Couldn't have done it without you!
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Post by Flix on Mar 31, 2010 0:59:57 GMT
Well this game is my mini-obsession right now! I'll describe first my characters (currently in Lothering with my 3rd right now), then the party members, which remained largely the same throughout the different playthroughs. Player character: Elven Mage focusing in primal magic. This is my default choice for RPG's. The fire mage is basically my RPG alter ego. I love building glass cannons: characters who can't stand to be hit by enemies but can lay waste to hordes and scorch the Earth. Fireball, Inferno, Freeze, Cone of Cold. Storm of the Century. Annihilation. A bit of healing magic to keep the party alive as well. He was roleplayed as noble, compassionate, and a peaceful problem solver. Incidentally this resulted in a lot of disapproval from Sten and Morrigan. He learned shapeshifting from Morrigan but never used it, and eventually became an Arcane Warrior in the Brecilian Forest. This changed my playstyle drastically, however, and he became more of a melee character in the last half of the game. He killed Loghain himself and convinced Anora and Alistair to marry, and then set off to search for Morrigan, his love. My second character was a human noble female and a dual wielding warrior. She had an attitude and a fierce "slice first, ask questions later" style, loyal to friends, but no mercy to any foes, greedy but not evil or malicious. Berserker and Champion. She briefly romanced Leliana but then her ambition led her to marry Alistair to become Queen, after having him slaughter Loghain and having Anora imprisoned. Third character is now a pragmatic City Elf, who is bitter toward humans but kind toward all others. Not sure how else I'm going to roleplay him yet, but he's going to let Loghain live and let Anora rule alone. I've started a fourth as well, a Dwarf Commoner, who is going to be pure evil. Every mean dialogue option, no mercy, all greed, she will alienate everyone and kill any who cross her, and even those who don't, out of spite. I'm looking forward to it. I'm thinking she'll find atonement by making the 'ultimate sacrifice' as well. Morrigan (my mage's romance) took over the main spellcasting duties. She also never used her shapeshifting powers (except for insect swarm for fast travel) and I gave her spirit healer as a second specialization so she could heal more effectively. She employed mostly entropy spells, cursing, hexing, waking nightmares, life drain, death magic, etc. Second time I gave her Blood Mage as a second spec but never used it much. Alistair became a Templar and a Champion. The two specs seemed to compliment each other well. The first gave him mental resistance, the ability to dispel magic (like the dreaded curse of mortality) and the holy smite smackdown. Champion let him boost the party's attack and defense as well as that groovy knockdown war cry. Sten! Two handed indomitable juggernaut, Berserk seemed the most appropriate specialization for him. Oghren became a Sten-alternate, with the added spec of Reaver. Mathematically he was a better party member but Sten was my kadan at this point in the game - I couldn't abandon him, so Oghren mostly just chilled at the camp. My City Elf will use him. Zevran - I killed this smart-ass the first playthrough. Second playthough I let him join me, but didn't play with him, and he turned on me when his buddy Taliesin showed up to confront me. Killed him again. This third playthrough I intend to have him as my party's rogue, as a Duelist and Assassin. Leliana I avoided until my second character. She became an archer with specializations in Bard and Ranger. Wynne I used heavily with my human noble female - she specialized in spirit healing and focused on the spirit and creation trees - glyphs, buffs, etc. Dog (Bosun for first char; now dog has the skin of a blight wolf and is named Moonglum). Not much to say, powerful tank. As for the secret character who likes maps... I take it you've already called the landsmeet and confronted Loghain? Remember how Riordan steps in and suggests that instead of killing Loghain you should have him undergo the joining and become a Grey Warden? Well....
Oh, and you can check the codex entries on your party members for hints on what gifts they might like. I'm pretty sure the statues go to Alistair.
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Post by Elliot Kane on Mar 31, 2010 1:39:07 GMT
The statues do go to Alistair. As for the secret character you mention - I'd kinda guessed. I'm just not keen on the price: Alistair leaves if you accept him, so it's a swap, not a new character, exactly. I started that process by accident, then reloaded once it was clear Young Pouty was heading out in a sulk. I really hate losing characters! I even hung on to Khalid in BG, for heck's sake, and the number of times his funk got my party killed when everything came down to the wire is ridiculous! Never thought of trying to marry Anora myself. Thankfully. Bit too 'Mills & Boon'. "And he married the beautiful queen and lived happily ever after!" Doesn't fit very well with Dragon Age, really, IMO. In terms of the atmosphere, DA owes more to Gemmel than Tolkien. High Fantasy it is not. Now at The Final Battle quest. Presumably somewhat close to the end. *** While I remember, my first (And only so far!) char killed Loghain himself, of course, being a complete tank. *** Never did get the Elf's quest. Is that one bugged too, do you know?
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Post by Flix on Mar 31, 2010 1:59:33 GMT
Well, to get inside my human noble female's head a little bit: I felt she really loved Leliana, but she chose to pursue the throne out of sheer ambition and a sense that she deserved more after the loss of her family and her estate. She did not truly love Alistair (she made him have sex with Morrigan after all, without batting an eyelash!) Also, although I opted to stay in Denerim and rule with Alistair, the game also gave my queen the option to go out fighting darkspawn, to search for Morrigan, or even leave with Sten and visit Par Vallon.
Zevran doesn't have a personal quest. I'm guessing it's because of his role as your would-be assassin. The whole Antivan Crows thing comes back to haunt him and you when Taliesin finds you in Denerim. I guess the devs felt that was enough.
It's also a good thing you didn't have Alistair kill Loghain, because Anora never would have married him.
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Post by Flix on Mar 31, 2010 2:38:17 GMT
More of Flix's Screenshots: Death of the false Andraste: Battling at the Proving: My small army: Revenant Fight: A herd of cats? End-game party: Wynne: Vessel of the Spirit
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Post by Elliot Kane on Mar 31, 2010 8:32:20 GMT
Yeah, I figured getting Alistair to kill the Father of his future wife and queen was about the dumbest of all the options. At the very least she'd hate him, at the worst we have another civil war brewing. Traditionally, marrying two people with a strong claim happened a fair amount (Or getting their kids to marry) as it gives you one candidate with an unassailable claim. That's what Fereldan needs and my current char is very big on 'for the good of all', coming from a noble house that pretty obviously held that tradition very strongly.
I find it interesting that you can sort of see where a lot of the other characters would have fitted into the plot, if only you'd played them. The Dwarf noble looks especially intriguing from that POV.
It's a scary game when I'm playing it and already planning my next character. Probably get Awakenings first, though, as I understand I can continue playing my current character, who I do like.
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Post by Elliot Kane on Mar 31, 2010 12:31:04 GMT
Killed the arch-demon, got the girl. Can't say fairer than that, really. No "Marry me, Leli" option which is a little disappointing, but I guess they are going to write her out in the sequel. A shame, as I rather like happy endings. Won't stop me playing the sequel, though! ;D
Morrigan vanished, but that one is SO blatantly a set up for a sequel, I'm betting she's majorly important to Awakening. Her plan sounds fiendishly risky to me (Or perhaps demonically risky...) but I have no reason not to trust her, so... I get the impression that the story of DA has been plotted well in advance and I've just completed chapter one. I think that is a very good thing.
Group for the final fight: Morrigan (Kinda needed, all things considered, but would likely have gone anyway), Wynne (Healer! Essential!), Oghren, because even though he and Sten are about as good as each other, Oghren can have two disciplines to Sten's one, which decided the issue (Berserker/Champion, if you are curious). I was never going to take Alistair (He's far too similar to my own character and duplication is a bad idea) or Leli (She's an archer and I anticipated brutal close-in fighting. Nor was I wrong.). Zevran I didn't feel I had put the time into enough to know whether he could cope or not, so I left him out. I was simply too slow in working out his best class combinations. Fang (The dog) I could have taken, but it would mean relying on two types of healing, as he cannot use poultices in combat. The only significant weakness he has, really.
Never did find Reaver or Blood Mage. Never got around to activating Shapechanger, as I really didn't rate it. Never found Joren again, either.
I have that wonderful glow that only comes from finishing a truly great game, now. Once that's gone down a bit, I may add some more playthrough notes, including my favourite tactics for the most lethal fights (Forge and Warehouse Ambush were actually harder than the final fight, IMO...). Or I might not. Other games to play, and all that! ;D
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Post by Elliot Kane on Mar 31, 2010 18:11:39 GMT
On reflection, they are a pretty messed up bunch, aren't they? Not counting the main char, who can be whatever you play him/her as. All the recruits, though, have some serious issues: Sten is a murderer who killed the people who saved his life because they didn't know where his sword was. They didn't steal it, they just had no idea where it was. Messed up doesn't come close, for him. To be fair, though, his whole society sounds like a lunatic asylum, so he's probably normal, there...
Wynne is dead. Well, technically, she's UNdead. She'd probably be OK, if not for the whole 'being dead' part.
Alistair is a small child trapped in a man's body. He has some serious abandonment issues and flees all possibility of responsibility as soon as it appears. He makes jokes to deflect anything serious, just in case he ends up having to make a decision.
Leliana is an ex-honeytrap, spy, assassin and all round bad girl who has 'seen the light' and is now trying really hard to be a good girl.
Morrigan was raised to regard people as prey to be hunted and killed, played with or otherwise abused by a mother who intended to betray her and steal her body. Nuff said, really!
Zevran gets a thrill out of killing people and loves the feel of holding someone's life in his hands. At the very least he is borderline psychotic and I'm not all that sure about the 'borderline' part...
Oghren is a drunkard even by Dwarven standards who has been known to kill people who say his wife might be dead after several years spent in the most lethal place on the planet, so he has some pretty serious denial issues, too.
Loghain, if you ever get him, is certainly paranoid, probably delusional and definitely psychotic. He's a mass murderer on a grand scale who has nearly destroyed his own nation through civil war because of his own ego. The others would probably get on with him because he would make them feel REALLY well adjusted! ;D
Interesting bunch, really! ;D
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Post by Nero the Glorious on Mar 31, 2010 19:54:03 GMT
You forgot to mention that if you talk to Zevran as a male PC he WILL hit on you...and if you give him the Antivan Leather Gloves...yeah so its like a midget Antonio Banderas with pointy ears hitting on you.
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Post by mysterd on Mar 31, 2010 22:41:33 GMT
*******END GAME SPOILERS**************** Morrigan vanished, but that one is SO blatantly a set up for a sequel, I'm betting she's majorly important to Awakening. Her plan sounds fiendishly risky to me (Or perhaps demonically risky...) but I have no reason not to trust her, so... I get the impression that the story of DA has been plotted well in advance and I've just completed chapter one. I think that is a very good thing. I accepted her plan...and yes, she disappeared.... *******END SPOILERS********* Really guys - most boards I know have spoilers tags. Can someone who knows how to code modify this board so we can have spoiler tags that hides the spoilers until the reader clicks on the spoiler box to open it up?
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Post by Flix on Mar 31, 2010 23:00:47 GMT
We have that...EK and I even used them in a few places. It's the button on the bottom right, a black smiley face with mouth closed up.
But really, it's like 4 of us talking in this thread, and we've all beaten the game. Basically, most if not all of our posts would just be enclosed in those tags...tiny font...
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