Discussing DA:O

[ell46]

I can relate to a lot of what you say and I've never ever played a game more than once, but wait until you get into this one you might be very surprised, the more you play the more you learn and improve your fighting skills.

 

I only use mods for aesthetic purposes, I don't like what I consider cheats eg. jacked up weapons and armour.

 

Couldn't agree more on the elves, the ones in this game are not my idea of elves which is more along the lines of Tolkien and I think in the film Lord of the Rings they captured them perfectly. Playing a human over and over you might find will get boring at least I found it so after I have gone through all the various weapon choices, which was more of a personal challenge to master them all.

 

I would strongly recommend you eventually try the various races as their story lines will change drastically the way you view some of the other NPCs and next time you meet them :verymad: which will change the game.

 

One thing I would suggest, if you abandon a game, which could happen for various reasons (trying not to spoil anything here) don't delete the save, eventually you might decide to go back and finish it. My first game something happened that came as a complete shock and I just stopped playing for a few weeks. Then I started a new game, I couldn't bring myself to finish the first one, months later for no apparent reason I did load it up and I'm glad I decided to play it through to the end.

 

DAO is like no other game I've ever played.

[00bruin11]

Greetings:

 

More then what is in the game is how you play the game. Weapons? They get better as you do, unless you cheat. I like the Starmetal Longsword, and the Portable Bulwick Shield. (The sword requires high strength and the shield is expensive.) I could go on.. Doesn't matter. If you play the game through as intended from Bioware, you use the best available weaps, armor and enchantments. If you cheat... Sky's the limit. You really don't have to cheat. You can download new and better content from the site but there still could be requirenments.

 

What's important to me about the game are the choices and the options of storyline (assumed), and how you play it. I suggest you go through the first time not setting up the Development Console nor installing any add-ons. It's a tough game. Play all the different origins, there are what 5(?) different endings. Enjoy!!

 

Note Here: Always have a back up of the OVERRIDE file before installing new content. There can be bad things happen

[dunvi]

Not really important, but as a girl with long hair, I thoroughly approve of the lack of long hair styles. Exhibit A: forgetting to tie it back with five hair ties (think Jasmine in Disney's Aladin), going into a moshpit, and getting my hair tangled between several random stranger's sweaty arms and being pulled along by it. Ew. Long hair in any fight situation is just asking to get your scalp (literally) torn off.

[Trucidation]

I only use mods for aesthetic purposes, I don't like what I consider cheats eg. jacked up weapons and armour.

Yeah, that gets old real fast.

 

Couldn't agree more on the elves, the ones in this game are not my idea of elves which is more along the lines of Tolkien and I think in the film Lord of the Rings they captured them perfectly.

I beg to differ. I practically grew up with AD&D 2nd Ed - thing is, I found myself criticizing non-AD&D games (often for little reason other than their background didn't "conform" with AD&D lore) until I realised I had turned into a boring narrow-minded rules lawyer min-maxing kind of player who only cared about cold hard stats. How can I enjoy a good story if I'm unable to look beyond my prejudices? Plus, it's not like the game's elves are radically different from what arbitrary standard Tolkien seemed to have set. It'd get boring fast if all games used the same tired elvish stereotype.

 

Having cleared all 6 possible Origin Stories, I too run some mods now. However, like you guys, I mostly run bugfix mods and some class mods; the only "aesthetic" type mods I have are Morrigan's Restoration Patch and the more hairstyles/colours thing (because the default face generator is so lacking in variety). I added the new dungeons though, as those actually add good content. I don't care about crap like better textures, nicer bodies, or other meaningless eyecandy.

[RustyBlade]

Not really important, but as a girl with long hair, I thoroughly approve of the lack of long hair styles. Exhibit A: forgetting to tie it back with five hair ties (think Jasmine in Disney's Aladin), going into a moshpit, and getting my hair tangled between several random stranger's sweaty arms and being pulled along by it. Ew. Long hair in any fight situation is just asking to get your scalp (literally) torn off.

 

There are mods that add long hair to the game for both men and women :whistling: You just need to get yourself a standard issue DA helmet or mage hoodie, put it on and your hair just magically hides itself and is protected from all those sweaty armpits :yucky: :laugh:

[dragon awakened]

I'm still watching some of the Walkthroughs (currently watching a female dwarven noble rogue) and seeing quite a few "vanilla" weapons and shields I like. I liked the look of the sword Duncan used, very good design. A few follow up questions though.

 

How does the War Axe as a weapon rate? Saw a few on Wiki but skinwise only two looked any good.

 

If playing a fighter/warrior could you get by with medium armor (chain mail) or is it best to just go for the strongest you can get? I prefer a bit of mobility.

 

I am reading all that is said and taking all advice to heart. I'm likely to pick DA:O up within the next couple of weeks.

 

Once again, thanks all for the chat.

Edited November 23, 2010 by dragon awakened

[ell46]

 

 

If playing a fighter/warrior could you get by with medium armor (chain mail) or is it best to just go for the strongest you can get? I prefer a bit of mobility.

 

I am reading all that is said and taking all advice to heart. I'm likely to pick DA:O up within the next couple of weeks.

 

Once again, thanks all for the chat.

 

I can't be bothered working out how stats, metal and armour all work, I just want to play the game but being female I won't wear anything I think looks hideous, I play warrior mostly and wear what takes my fancy at the time and I can't say I've noticed it made any noticeable difference to my games, apart from having something that is too heavy reduces how much stamina you have to spare for using talents.

 

As for enchantments what ever you use the enemy is so varied you can guarantee that half of them won't be appropriate and I can't be bothered to load a previous save so I can match enchantments to what I know is coming, to me that's just cheating, but I do make sure I keep all the ones that affect DS for the end battle through Denerim.

 

Not sure what you mean by mobility, the characters move the same what ever you put them in, must be all the clipping :laugh:

[dragon awakened]

Sorry to bump this but I thought it would be better to do this rather than littering the board with endless questions that pretty much go along the same lines.

 

While my question about war axes were not answered my armor question was. As you may know I have been watching a couple of walk throughs (those damned rogues are popular :) ) The only warrior walk through i found the player skipped nearly everything as far as combat and standard dialogue but loved going into the cut scenes.

 

My new questions are not based on a right or wrong theory rather pure curiosity.

 

1) What is your play style? Meaning are you super aggressive using the most belligerent answers as possible, do you always kill when a cutscene allows you the chance to show mercy? (one player killed Zevran (the elf rogue?) rather than accept him as a potential ally later.) Just wondering.

 

2) Who do you use in your party? Just curious to see who you use. Obviously this is not a game you can complete on your own (as far as I can tell.), I've seen a few interesting parties then again I've seen a few that left me scratching my head (damned militant fleas :P )

 

Hoping I'm not bugging anybody just a very curious person when it comes to games.

[RustyBlade]

I usually play a good character although I will sometimes go with confused and conflicted. Occasionally I will take a pragmatic warden approach but never take a life unless it furthers the cause or is attacking me. I killed Zevran only once and that was in my pre-alpha test of my kids mod (before I had disabled the romance.)

 

I bring every available character I can into the party but usually only bring them along when I want to listen to the banter or the game forces me to. I play solo most of the time now, you can find the evidence in this thread: http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/266954-more-than-ten-million-damage-points/

[Thandal]

@Dragon; Buy the game. PLAY THE GAME. :laugh:

 

Almost all the answers to your questions that various folk have provided might be prefaced by "Well, depending on what [origin] [class] [style] [earlier choices] you decided on, then [this] [that] [the other] leads to...

 

DA is so complicated, and every single person has a slightly different perspective and experience. In fact, I think a large part of the (or at least my own) enjoyment is just how "situationally dependent" on the player's decisions the process of playing the game is, even though it all occurs within a tightly bounded plot-structure.

 

So what we're telling you is only a small sample of what's possible, and none of it will be all that close to what you'll discover on your own. Which will be "ridiculously awesome!" :thumbsup: