Re: The Dragon Age Thread

[ZerebusPrime]

Crap.  Is it too late to tell them to turn the blood off?

They probably have the option to turn it off like in previous games.

Thanks. I'll.... uh... totally forget that that's actually a setting.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

http://www.twitch.tv/bioware/b/573285688

[Hanako Ikezawa]

[Rifneno]

People complained that they had to have Anders for healing on the final mission even if they wanted to execute him. Gaider's solution has been to remove all healing magic.

I cannot fathom the stupidity of the DA team.

[Eryri]

So no blood magic, or healing, even though health no longer regenerates after battle?

Mages would appear to be pretty much nerfed then.

[Guest]

My impression so far is that 'Healer' is being 'nerfed' down to a Support role. This seems to imply things like HP regen and OhShitButtons, at most, instead of spam healing. Instead, the Support Mage is more about crowd control, defensive spells, and assisting allies when necessary, instead of being a healing role that is almost always necessary.

A Tank seems pretty necessary though. So you'll have one character (PC or Party Member) do that, while the other 3 are customized as you wish (at least one of them would be good as a Mage still, but seemingly not needed).

Knight Enchanter sounds possibly tanky-ish so far ("Wrapped in protective magics and wielding blades of arcane force"), so while Mages appear nerfed in some ways, perhaps they've been 'buffed' in others.


Overall, I think DAI is aiming for a more hybrid-role design. Where even the 'Tank Warrior' may do quite a lot of damage (more often as melee), and even the 'Mage' may be able to take quite a lot of damage (more often as ranged). And Rogues may be more easily able to choose between melee and ranged specs, and have their own tricks. Guess we'll see.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

[Rifneno]

My impression so far is that 'Healer' is being 'nerfed' down to a Support role. This seems to imply things like HP regen and OhShitButtons, at most, instead of spam healing. Instead, the Support Mage is more about crowd control, defensive spells, and assisting allies when necessary, instead of being a healing role that is almost always necessary.

A Tank seems pretty necessary though. So you'll have one character (PC or Party Member) do that, while the other 3 are customized as you wish (at least one of them would be good as a Mage still, but seemingly not needed).

Knight Enchanter sounds possibly tanky-ish so far ("Wrapped in protective magics and wielding blades of arcane force"), so while Mages appear nerfed in some ways, perhaps they've been 'buffed' in others.


Overall, I think DAI is aiming for a more hybrid-role design. Where even the 'Tank Warrior' may do quite a lot of damage (more often as melee), and even the 'Mage' may be able to take quite a lot of damage (more often as ranged). And Rogues may be more easily able to choose between melee and ranged specs, and have their own tricks. Guess we'll see.

It's a good thing nobody plays Dragon Age for the gameplay because wow.

[Guest]

There's probably those ...very.. few who buy it purely to 'enjoy' Nightmare mode.

[RavenEyry]

There's probably those ...very.. few who buy it purely to 'enjoy' Nightmare mode.

Friendly fire on in a game heavily reliant on area of effect abilities isn't just fake difficulty, right? RIGHT?

[Rifneno]

There's probably those ...very.. few who buy it purely to 'enjoy' Nightmare mode.

Friendly fire on in a game heavily reliant on area of effect abilities isn't just fake difficulty, right? RIGHT?

What pisses me off most is that magic users are the only ones who suffer from friendly fire. If a warrior swings his sword in a big arc to hit everything around him, it passes harmlessly through teammates regardless of difficulty. But magic? Oh, fuck you if you want to use magic. And people defend that bullshit as "realistic."

Realistic.

[Raistlin Majere]

There's probably those ...very.. few who buy it purely to 'enjoy' Nightmare mode.

Friendly fire on in a game heavily reliant on area of effect abilities isn't just fake difficulty, right? RIGHT?

Well it is the standard for D&D Pen and Paper...but it has vastly more options in terms of spells and abilities and the ability to modify spells in various ways...like picking unaffected areas in Area of Effect spells to avoid hurting teammates.

[DSharrah]

There's probably those ...very.. few who buy it purely to 'enjoy' Nightmare mode.

Friendly fire on in a game heavily reliant on area of effect abilities isn't just fake difficulty, right? RIGHT?

Well it is the standard for D&D Pen and Paper...but it has vastly more options in terms of spells and abilities and the ability to modify spells in various ways...like picking unaffected areas in Area of Effect spells to avoid hurting teammates.

Wha's the point of playing a super powerful mage if you have to worry about whether or not your spell is going to hurt your team...I mean if you are playing stragetically and you have your tank defending a choke point, you have your ranged fighters hemming the enemy in, all so you can have your mage release hell on the bad guys...oh but wait now, that hell could kill your tank unleash the horde or your team and cause you to be overwhelmed...what was the point of all that other stragety if the game mechanics are going to punish you for following it?

Unless you are going to tell me that you have a 2nd mage whose only job is constantly buff the tank so that your mage doesn't kill them.

[Raistlin Majere]

There's probably those ...very.. few who buy it purely to 'enjoy' Nightmare mode.

Friendly fire on in a game heavily reliant on area of effect abilities isn't just fake difficulty, right? RIGHT?

Well it is the standard for D&D Pen and Paper...but it has vastly more options in terms of spells and abilities and the ability to modify spells in various ways...like picking unaffected areas in Area of Effect spells to avoid hurting teammates.

Wha's the point of playing a super powerful mage if you have to worry about whether or not your spell is going to hurt your team...I mean if you are playing stragetically and you have your tank defending a choke point, you have your ranged fighters hemming the enemy in, all so you can have your mage release hell on the bad guys...oh but wait now, that hell could kill your tank unleash the horde or your team and cause you to be overwhelmed...what was the point of all that other stragety if the game mechanics are going to punish you for following it?

Unless you are going to tell me that you have a 2nd mage whose only job is constantly buff the tank so that your mage doesn't kill them.

Aim the hell in front of the tank, so he is not caught in the blast maybe? Precision managing target zones is a thing last time I looked. Alternatively unleash hell on their ranged attackers or at the start of the encounter, slow down enemies as they approach, like with grease, pelting them with AoE until they reach the tank and then switch to precise damage spells and Crowd Control for powerful enemies? Mages usually have more options than "blow up this group of enemies." Sure it is usually the most flashy part, but it is rarely all the options they have.

That is how we do it in D&D and how I played Dragon Age: Origins with friendly fire on.

[Rifneno]

AD&D is so different from Dragon Age that if they were animals, one would be a fish and the other would be a sloth. They're wildly, vastly different games. AD&D was meticulously tuned and has incredible variety. Dragon Age, not so much. Not at all in fact. Less than nothing. Negative on both counts.

Further, I feel the need to again state the incredible bullshit it is that friendly fire only applies to mage AE's and not physical AE's by warriors or rogues.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

I always have the friendly fire turned off, so I can't really say much about it. Though I agree that things like the sweep attack should have it as well out of a sense of fairness.

[DSharrah]

AD&D is so different from Dragon Age that if they were animals, one would be a fish and the other would be a sloth.  They're wildly, vastly different games.  AD&D was meticulously tuned and has incredible variety.  Dragon Age, not so much.  Not at all in fact.  Less than nothing.  Negative on both counts.

Further, I feel the need to again state the incredible bullshit it is that friendly fire only applies to mage AE's and not physical AE's by warriors or rogues.

Yeah...cast fireball, careful you might burn your friends...but "hey, you rogue, feel free to spin like a whirling dervish with no regards to your friends in combat right next to you" - (dual wielding whirlwind attack from DA:O - best example I could think of) there isn't even a chance you'll hit them.  I think the point here is that one class is being leashed (or punished for trying to using AoE) while others are not.  If all classes were being treated equal in terms of the consequences of AoE then precision with the stragety would be a fair argument...but its not...so its not.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

[ZerebusPrime]

Drapes.

[RavenEyry]

Optional gender protagonist didn't used to be a selling point, it was there unremarked.

[ZerebusPrime]

Optional gender protagonist didn't used to be a selling point, it was there unremarked.

Blame Skyrim. In particular, I blame Skyrim: Hearthfire.

[RavenEyry]

Optional gender protagonist didn't used to be a selling point, it was there unremarked.

Blame Skyrim.  In particular, I blame Skyrim: Hearthfire.

I wonder when we can expect Skyhold to be enhanced by cross-promotional Titanfall (TM) carpets DLC?

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Optional gender protagonist didn't used to be a selling point, it was there unremarked.

A lot of the female fans wanted Bioware to advertise that so other women gamers would know you can play as a woman in this game.

I wonder when we can expect Skyhold to be enhanced by cross-promotional Titanfall (TM) carpets DLC?

If they did do a Titanfall crossover item, I would laugh if it was you got Golem guards for Skyhold that look like the titan mechs.

[Rifneno]

A lot of the female fans wanted Bioware to advertise that so other women gamers would know you can play as a woman in this game.

Probably the same ones who cried misogyny when some male gamers didn't want to play FF13 because the main character was a girl.

Though admittedly, that was a bad reason (as it is here for the women) - you should avoid FF13 because it's an awful, awful game, not because Lightning is a girl.

[ZerebusPrime]

Wait. 160 crafting materials? Guide dang it...

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