Qwinn´s Ultimate DAO Fixpack v3 (no longer beta!)

[sialivi]

Regarding the rare loot drops:

 

While I don't feel strongly about this one way or the other, it does seem out of place in DAO. Had the items in question been some kind of Easter egg items that would drop as a joke it might have made sense for them to be random drops - but for these particular items? It just doesn't seem to be any reason for them to be different from the norm.

 

If you decide to change it but expect some people to object, you could always preempt it by providing a separate loose override file with the vanilla behavior for that particular fix as an optional download.

 

Personally I'm fine with whatever decision is made.

[firepanda]

Ok, finished my playthrough (female dwarf commoner rogue, making liberal use of runscript killallhostiles). :happy: Didn't encounter anything game-breaking or obviously out of place, although I wasn't searching super hard for bugs.

 

 

 

I actually have never had to look into how joinable henchmen get their stats assigned. Both the archer and soldier that can join you have a "Soldier's Helm", but apparently only one of 'em gets the 20 strength.

 

This page details how attributes are set for companions. Basically, every companion is assigned a GDA containing the auto-level defaults, which in turn determine their stats when you recruit them. (If the player is a low level, the henchmen will be low level as well, and will have lower strength, possibly not enough to wear their armor.)

 

IIRC, the Soldier is set to ALWarrior, but the Tower Guard is set to ALScapper (or something like that) and thus gets less strength per level. You could set the Tower Guard to ALWarrior as well, or create an entirely new auto-level setup. Or you could give him a lighter helmet.

 

 

Are there really *no* rare item drops in Dragon Age 2? Not even theoretical mistakes?

 

I've already said my piece, but thought I'd elaborate on the loot system in the sequels, if that's something you're taking into account.

 

In DA2, the loot system was expanded so that generic treasure has randomly-generated stats and small, random bonuses. That said, these are distinct from the (much better) unique, named items, which are still fixed drops like in DA:O. To my knowledge, there are no 'rare drops' at all in DA2 (a search on the wiki also turns up nothing).

 

DA:I is a completely different ballgame, since the best items are crafted, not found. That said, 'found items' come in different tiers -- common, rare and unique. Common and rare items drop randomly, similar to the generic treasure in DA:O and DA2. Unique items do not -- generally they are found in set locations (exceptions: trial rewards and items sold by shopkeepers, but those still aren't really 'random drops' in the MMORPG sense).

 

 

Light Armor Changes (IF008, IF009, IF010, IF011)

Ok, I do see an issue with these changes. Simply put, the item quality of unique equipment never varies with the player's level (in the base game at least).

 

This becomes clear when you scan through the list of unique equipment, taking note of the item qualities. (That list omits some weaker unique items, but the principle holds if you look at any other item list on the wiki.) Basically, an item's quality will vary only if (1) it is generic, weak equipment that drops randomly (e.g. Darkspawn Sword) or (2) it's obtained in DLC (e.g. Warden Commander Armor).

 

The changes are not unwarranted, but they are inconsistent with the way the base game handles unique items.

 

(And to add onto dmg22's point, the items are useful to warriors as well if you go straight to Redcliffe from Lothering. If for some reason you do Redcliffe last, they're kind of a joke though.)

 

 

If Owen sees value in making items of terrible materials so rogues can use them, why is his whole store made of tier 6 and 7 items?

 

Hm, is this right? I thought the generic items sold in his store scaled to the player's level, like any other merchant. Redcliffe is reasonably early-game, so it seems odd he would always sell dragonbone items.

 

EDIT: Just checked an early save. He sells good ol' veridium for me.

 

On a related note, IF013 seems unnecessary (especially since item quality for staves only affects the base auto-attack). There are other unique mid-game staves with low item quality (e.g. Lightning Rod, Wilhelm's Magus Staff are both grey iron).

Edited July 9, 2017 by firepanda

[Qwinn]

The changes are not unwarranted, but they are inconsistent with the way the base game handles unique items.

You make a decent case, but I still think I can make a decent case as well going the other way.

 

Here's three more base game unique shields that scale to the player's level: Knight-Commander's Shield, Redcliffe Shield, Bloodstained Shield. Yes, they all suck with no special stats, but they are all unique both in terms of availability and they are grouped with all of the other unique shields in the toolset, and as such are relevant to the question of intent.

 

The very nice unique waraxe Bloodline also scales, for the record.

 

You can make a stronger case with the armor pieces - chest pieces and helms (although the Templar Helm dropped by the Possessed Templar in Broken Circle is also set to scale from tier 1 to tier 7, despite the Wiki claiming it is Steel only) - but:

 

First, if you eliminate all of the armor pieces which are part of item sets as a special category (it's clear why *those* need to be a fixed material, otherwise you get a set with a grey iron helm and a dragonbone chest), and further eliminate the unique items found only in Origin stories (several of these ARE set to scale, but since you'll always be low level, it never actually happens), and ones that drop only in the Final Battle (at which point scaling is pointless), you're left with very very few items to draw any conclusions about intent from.

 

Further, the items I fix I think really belong in their own special category: quest rewards tied to main plots. Broken Circle gives no quest reward. Nature of the Beast gives a couple but only if Zathrian survives, one is a staff (none of which CAN scale even if set to do so, due to what I lean toward thinking is a bug but one that might be dangerous to fix) and one is a set item, so no answers there. No item quest rewards for Urn of Sacred Ashes. That leaves only the Paragon of Her Kind rewards as a basis to draw intent from, and only one thing can be drawn from the way they were implemented: NO attempt whatsoever was made to balance them prior to the game's release. And that is the only real data point we have for comparison to the Redcliffe's also-unbalanced rewards: no evidence that Bioware even reviewed them prior to release.

 

Finally, I don't really see why the way DLC items are handled should be ignored in terms of intent. The DLC were all done after the base game came out, and thus represent the designer's most recent intent. If anything, it says to me, "Not scaling was a mistake, let's do it from now on."

 

Hm, is this right? I thought the generic items sold in his store scaled to the player's level, like any other merchant. Redcliffe is reasonably early-game, so it seems odd he would always sell dragonbone items.

EDIT: Just checked an early save. He sells good ol' veridium for me.

*nod* Sorry, I should have been clearer (in my case, I did Redcliffe after only Broken Circle and Nature of the Beast - about halfway through the middle game, I hadn't even visited Denerim yet - and I got silverite/dragonbone). Each merchant adds a modifier to the scale of the items they sell. As far as I've found, Owen has the best modifier, he can add up to two material levels to his stock, which is more than any other merchant I've found. I'm surprised he can generate as low as veridium - that must be doing Redcliffe first after Lothering?

 

Actually, I just checked, and I think only Owen's upgraded store gets that huge modifier (after rescuing his daughter), which may explain why you're getting veridium. Can you confirm if it's his base store vs. upgraded store that you're seeing that in?

 

Oh - and one last point: If you're really doing Redcliffe so early that Owen's store makes them veridium, then the items I fix shouldn't be scaled above veridium either. Isn't that appropriate?

 

At any rate, does no one agree that having Oghren say "Oooh, that Shielded Dwarven Armor made of tier 3 steel is AWESOME, can I wear that plzzzzz?" when he could easily already be wearing dragonbone is fourth-wall breakingly silly? Ditto a steel helm with crappy bonuses as the reward from a noble for one of the most difficult challenges of the game? Or a tier 2 grey iron helm called "Remasterwork"? Or a tier 3 steel enchanter's staff repeatedly described as supremely "powerful" in Isolde and Eamon's dialogue, when Wynne comes equipped with a similar staff when you can first meet her at level 6-7?

 

EDIT: Oh, and actually! In terms of Isolde's staff reward, the item she gives you IS set to scale, it only doesn't due to that issue I mentioned earlier, where mage staves do not scale even if set to do so.

 

I'm not as invested in defending the Pyromancer's Brand fix... it just struck me as weird seeing a tier 1 iron staff grouped with all silverite and dragonbone items... but I suppose Owen couldn't have made such an item himself and is only reselling it, so, yeah, if this causes controversy I can reverse it.

Edited July 9, 2017 by Qwinn

[MaciejSiemienski]

Hey Qwinn, are you also fixing broken spells/abilities?

[sialivi]

Hey Qwinn, are you also fixing broken spells/abilities?

No.

[Qwinn]

Nope, those are combat mechanics.

[MaciejSiemienski]

Good. Wouldn't want to wait for even more fixes. :D

[Qwinn]

• I was able to give the grimoire to Morrigan through the dialogue option, and it worked very nicely. However, the little animation where you hand it over is missing.

Fixed in MO013, thanks.

• If you examine Deygan’s equipment the option to heal him is dissapears. You have to exit conversation and click on him again to get it back.

Fixed in BF026, thanks.

• If you say “I have come to kill you. The hermit wants you dead.” upon meeting the Grand Oak Tree and then “Not unless you give me a better reason not to.” the option “What’s this about an acorn?” will appear, even though nobody has mentioned the acorn yet. It should probably be replaced with “What's this boon you mentioned?”, like earlier in the conversation.

Just found soooo many bugs in the Grand Oak's dialogue in addition to that one. The conditions are all over the place and make little sense. Gonna spend some time getting this right.

• Also, both Alistair and Zevran had a problem regarding their gifts: I gave them the dalish gloves and the broken amulet before they mentioned them. Later when I asked them questions that led to them mentioning the gifts, they acted like I never gave them to them. There’s a different line for if you’ve already given them the gifts, but for some reason those didn’t trigger for me.

Will work on this when done with the Grand Oak.

[darthbdaman]

I think the rare drops are definitely a bug. If BioWare had intended to use the equipped flag in that manner to increase rarity, and if they only wanted to do it in these 2 instances, I feel like they would have been more careful with other items, especially once they got into DLC. I doubt mistakes like the Warden Tower Shield would have happened if BioWare was intentionally creating rare drops. Considering everything else in the game, I believe they are clearly unintentional

[firepanda]

Oops, yeah you're quite right about the scaling items. Mea culpa.

 

Generally, I agree with you that the low quality of the items is odd. I'm just not sure I would call then bugs per se (more of a gameplay/story disconnect). It's a semantic difference though.

 

Actually, what is up with the staff scaling bug? You only ever find iron staves in the wild (including Isolde's reward) and I think shopkeeper staves only goes up to red steel. It doesn't matter that much, but it's very odd.