127 réponses à ce sujet

[caradoc2000]

JeffZero wrote...

Speaking of Joinings, those happened. Quibble: melancholy Vigil's Keep music continuing to play in the background for so momentous an occasion seems... awkward. Well, it wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the sad passing of Republic officer Ser Traska Ulgoa.

Specialist Traynor you mean, same VA.

[JeffZero]

Got acquainted with the seneschal and a bunch of other blokes. The important NPCs of Awakening lined up to greet me, and then some nobles did too. And there's a plot to off Aedan! Whoddathunkit. Gonna meet up with the Dark Wolf later to tackle this. Maybe.

Cleared a level in the dungeons too. I am assuming this dwarf fellow is the one whose cutscene I missed. It... seems that way anyway. Then I ran into a kitten. A kitten! ^____^ This kitten is... in my inventory. A gift. Hrm. Uh. Here, Anders -- WHOA A CUTSCENE YES WITH THE KITTEN D'AWW LET'S CALL HIM GARRUS TOO OH OKAY FINE SER POUNCE-A-LOT WORKS TOO.

...the folds of your robes? Really? Doesn't that seem... dangerous? I go very bad places, Anders...

Hey look, it's the Odd Couple again. Mrrruff, Waaaade can't staaaand this turnip keep.

Slowly being introduced to some of Awakenings' new features. Was stunned by how many new skills and talents there are, but then again, this *was* $39.99 at launch, wasn't it? Heh. Well anyway. They all seem quite promising. And leveling up is definitely occurring at a much faster rate. Looking things up, apparently the cap was raised from 25 to 35. Makes sense. Aedan was... 22, I think, at the end of Origins. I wonder if it's possible to reach the limit on a fresh file?

Wii would like to enchant with U! Introducing the Nintendo Runecraft. Share the wonders of crafting runes with your fellow companions. Then customize your shield with purchasable heraldries! Look fashionable plunging fakespawn back into the fakedepths of the Fake Roads. Just drink your paint (!?) and behold!

Meanwhile, Nathanial Howe.

Oooohhh, how I was tempted to see this guy dead. But he seemed genuinely unaware of daddy dearest's dark dealings. Gotta rebuild the order... Gotta rebuild the order... This guy took down four highly skilled men and women... Gotta rebuild... Ahhhh... CONSCRIPT THIS MAN.

Howe I could bring myself to this point, I do not know.

Heh. Heh. Get it? Get it? Yeah, yeah, BioWare writing would never make so obvious a jok -- HA, LOOK AT ANDERS DOING IT TOO.

Before long I was checking out the sights in the next big Assassin's Creed city, Amaranthine, and that's where I stopped for now. Seems an appropriately big place and a side quest hub and such. There's some army-related management in Awakening, huh? Intriguing.

[JeffZero]

caradoc2000 wrote...

JeffZero wrote...

Speaking of Joinings, those happened. Quibble: melancholy Vigil's Keep music continuing to play in the background for so momentous an occasion seems... awkward. Well, it wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the sad passing of Republic officer Ser Traska Ulgoa.

Specialist Traynor you mean, same VA.

Well that too, but I need to prolong the joke about BioWare prologue party members who die in the very beginning and thank the Maker Sam isn't one of them.

[Jaison1986]

Howe is pretty easy to recruit even as an Cousland. Why blame him for the deeds of an father he didn' met for years? He might be the son of an monster, but he is no monster himself. That's the mindset I follow anyway.

The companion I have a hard time recruiting is an certain lady you meet later on. You should know it when you see it.

[JeffZero]

Oh yeah, as a player my mind ran through all that. I like to pepper Aedan with the sort of passionate reactions I know that I myself would likely be victim to in certain extreme circumstances though. There'd be some boiling blood at least briefly at the meeting of the son of the man who murdered my former life, basically. Heheh.

[caradoc2000]

JeffZero wrote...

And leveling up is definitely occurring at a much faster
rate. Looking things up, apparently the cap was raised from 25 to 35.
Makes sense. Aedan was... 22, I think, at the end of Origins. I wonder
if it's possible to reach the limit on a fresh file?

If you start Awakening from scratch, you will start with a level 18 Orlesian warden.

Jaison1986 wrote...

Howe is pretty easy to recruit even as an Cousland. Why blame him for the deeds of an father he didn' met for years?

"Sins of the Fathers", you know. And my Cousland specifically told Howe he would kill his children.

Modifié par caradoc2000, 17 février 2014 - 07:43 .

[JeffZero]

^ Ha, damn.

[Jaison1986]

One thing! Do not do the quest for the city guard! That will block an companion quest from triggering later on. You must do the companion quest first.

[JeffZero]

Noted!

Took a break from the gaming side of Thedas to wrap things up with The Stolen Throne last night. Only had about an hour to myself so I figured I'd conclude that tale.

Pretty good book indeed. Especially enjoyed Loghain and Katriel. Had some issues here and there but this probably isn't the best place to dive into endgame spoilers and the like.

I'm starting on The Calling sometime in the next few days. Young Duncan!

[JeffZero]

Schoolwork blitz, had about an hour to invest last night. Another tiny midweek update to keep me ahead of the posting game.

Cleared out a couple of sidequests in what was left of Turnoble Estate and that... other place, with the funny criminals who mostly ran when I roared. (Speaking of roaring, if you want authentic fear, have Nathanial "sing" Song of Valor. I thought Leliana was terrifying at it...)

Decided to follow up on the Wending Wood lead first. Meaning this "how to not be naked at Silverite Mine" glitch awareness guide is going to come in handy shortly. For now I've explored the area... I like this place's layout. More open and atmospheric than a lot of other areas. Kind of reminds me of Brecilian Forest... go figure, right?

The optional sequence with the Avvar stone brothers was kind of awesome. Probably my favorite "randomly bumping into something" event in Dragon Age. I talked hate into simmering down. Were these guys really what they claimed to be? I noticed that was a dialogue option. I guess the only other thing they could be are spirits. Well either way it was charming.

Ran into that elven troublemaker. Curious to follow up on that. Looking up glitch avoidances has informed me she can join the party, so no worries spoiling that for me. I do know a few assorted things now because of that page, mostly just names though.

Something I want to address: party banter seems more frequent in Awakening. Pound for pound, wandering for wandering. Am I imagining this? Or just getting lucky or something? Either way I like it.

[Corker]

I think banter early > banter later for both. When I replay Origins, I'm always surprised at how Alistair and Morrigan seem to be unable to shut up in Lothering. Right now, everyone in your party is full of untriggered dialogues that are firing off as you hit trigger points. As you go on, especially if you mostly keep the same party, they'll run out of things to say.

[JeffZero]

Ah, snap.

It seems there may be some hierarchy in these things as well. Anders and Oghren had a lot to say to one-another for several hours and then finally they went quiet, but immediately thereafter, Oghren began chatting up Nathanial like crazy. (Weird hearing about Fergus Cousland as Aedan stands right next to them. These are the best moments for minimal auto-dialogue to trigger. ME3 Shepard would have blurted out a "hey, I know that guy.")

Something I wanted to address. I feel like the Wending Wood really hammers down my point so I'll bring it up now. Now do recall I was singing its praises as far as BioWare levels go yesterday. And I still mean it! But there's something odd, almost ghoulish, I've noticed as I've played through Origins and now Awakening. There are so many bloodied and beheaded corpses in so many locations splashed about like a PaintShop Pro entry-level end-of-unit exam that the effect becomes remarkably diminished on me. To be fair, it may also have something to do with the decreased resolution and fidelity on PS3 as opposed to the crisp capabilities of PC, but seriously, even all the gore clusters in the Circle Tower didn't faze me. Contrasting this would be something like Metal Gear, a series well-known for its plot absurdities and fastball political history ethos but brimming with surprisingly solid representations of the horrors of war. Apples and oranges but I do find it all rather funny. Too much smoke and death in too primitive a graphics engine too relatively devoid of artistic uniqueness leads to a most peculiar desensitization. It's like at times I have to remember all the corpses are supposed to bother my characters.

So that's why I let Velanna live. >_>

Nah. It was a somewhat tough decision. If this were Origins things might have been different. Aedan keeps recalling all the assorted flavors of the Grey Wardens throughout history though. And despair has a funny effect on people. And the darkspawn pulled off this ruse with aplomb. And Final Fantasy XII Awakening needed a Fran, I guess. Lord knows this Fenris fellow Gideon Emery apparently voiced in DA2 is Balthier; Emery basically has one voice effort ever.

So Velanna temporarily kicked Nathanial out of the party, which is probably just as well because the Silverite Mine very quickly turned into Escape from Camp Darkspawn.

Funny aside time: I just started reading The Calling yesterday. Not 30 pages into the book a darkspawn emissary starts talking. And I'm thinking, "is this a retcon? Or is their intellect just not well known? Otherwise why is everyone at Vigil's Keep making such a fuss?" And then the emissary introduces itself as "the Architect" and I'm like "OH." Obviously I have no idea how The Calling is going to conclude and I'm likely to finish Awakening ahead of finding out but it's interesting that Gaider partly wrote a prologue to an expansion in this fashion. Reminds me of "Redemption" and "Invasion" a la Mass Effect 2 and 3. Except better.

By the way, the Architect loses this war and I'm giving him 50/50 odds for appearing on a Maynard James Keenan music video circa 20:01 Digital.

These schmucks stole our stuff so we shucked their shanks and shelled their shivers. A real rock-and-tumbler. Their do-wags were waggled and the ball was flooring. My brothers, it was glorious.

Sorry, I've also been rereading A Clockwork Orange lately.

Ran into Thedas' most apathetic man along the way. Keenan's legs were crushed, which, yeah, sucks, but I think the voice director forgot to allude to the VA that his character was not long from this world, because man, he sounded fine to me. Let us clear the way and then come grab you! Maker's sakes, how is this not an option? Oh, OK, fine, I'll take your ring to your sweet devoted wife. You can just go ahead and... die now, I guess. Yep, he's dead.

Avenged him, then took down two dragon thralls. Velanna wants her sister back. I think elves see the world in greyscale or something. Those growths on your sister's face and the death in her eyes... that doesn't look healthy, hon. The Architect was all "WHAT A SHAME". Yeah, what a shame you DROPPED DRAGONS ON OUR HEADS. He'd better have good reason for that. Damn Mouths of Sauron, you can never trust a word they spray.

Velanna then joined -- shock, she lived! Gotta say it'd be weird if she didn't. Then I did some favars for da pore swete Blit Orfanz who wat to thenk da Muthr and nede pigh and the joke here is that these are actually a bunch of basement-dwelling gamers or something, right? Some conservative in the writing room penned this, didn't they?

Oh yeah, and I delivered the ring. Shocker: his wife was unfaithful. I would be too if every time I told my husband I loved him his response was "NO DO NOT I WILL ONLY SLOW YOU DOWN."

[Jaison1986]

Eh, I recruited Velanna. But, there is this option later on to let her die, and I took it. Of course, I won't spoil you when that happens. The nice thing about her is that you can be as rude as you want without feeling bad about it. So I aways took snarky dialogue options with her. She is that poisonous of an character.

[JeffZero]

She's come around slowly, well, as slowly as anything ever happens given Awakening's progression style, but she's certainly more overtly "poisonous" than anyone who's traveled alongside Aedan before, yeah. Heh.

Big update coming later today -- I did both Kal'Hirol and the Blackmarsh over the past sixteen hours. I guess my original warning about this being a slow-going journal has officially eaten crow. I mean I know I'm still a snail compared with *some* players, but by my own personal standards I've really taken off like a bullet train since beginning this topic.

[JeffZero]

Oh hey, just so doesn't get lost in the rubble with all the other stuff I'll inevitably end up saying when I get to updating, important question:

Have I hit some kind of glitch with Oghren's personal quest? I've spoken with him once since it was initiated, immediately following Felspi storming out of the Keep, but it didn't seal the deal. Now the quest log is still referring to him maybe opening up again in a bit but apparently I'm on the shores of the endgame, so...

It wouldn't be the first time I've been hit with an odd bug my very loose combing of the glitches page hadn't prepared me for -- apparently there's still a Wraith roaming the halls of the basement levels despite my having offed the possessed ogre and closed off the tunnels, for one thing -- but I'm not concerned with power-leveling and the like, mostly just getting as much characterization bang for my playtime buck.

[Jaison1986]

you need to get Oghren approval over 75. Talking to him after that will cause him to talk about Felsi and the baby and thus ending his personal quest.

[caradoc2000]

JeffZero wrote...

Have I hit some kind of glitch with Oghren's personal quest? I've spoken with him once since it was initiated, immediately following Felspi storming out of the Keep, but it didn't seal the deal. Now the quest log is still referring to him maybe opening up again in a bit but apparently I'm on the shores of the endgame, so...

Quite likely, companion quests in Awakening are glitchy, especially Oghren's and Velanna's. Congrats if you manage to get the latter triggered.

[mousestalker]

You may want to give serious thought to melting his liver with alcohol. I can get through Origins without ever giving him anything, which is nice because I always wind up throwing booze at him in Awakening (the gifts actually carry through!)

[JeffZero]

Drat, that'd be why. Goodness sake, but I already did too much liver damage to him in Origins. Who'd have thought the lone encore performance would be the toughest cookie to crack? Ah well, I'm close. I think I have him ~72 right now after that lovely toy horse. If I can scrounge up 3 more I'm good to go. Still got a few lingering sidequests and stuff and surely there'll be some dialogue choices?

Modifié par JeffZero, 21 février 2014 - 07:41 .

[JeffZero]

Returning to Vigil's Keep, I was treated to the pilot episode for Law and Order: Medieval Arling Unit. When will Dick Wolfe finally accept the 1990s love for his once-cherished franchise is gone for good? Alas, all I could do was watch... and participate. I upheld the land agreement with the woman but gently persuaded the man I would make it up to him. I left the murderer dude to rot in prison during my very long investigation. I know there was one more instance, but the troubles of whole nations do stir the mind toward forgetfulness. I'm sure it was nothing.

Or maybe I agreed to help the darkspawn find the sixth Old God, who knows.

Amaranthine's Wolf figure gave me the location of the conspirators' clandestine meetings, so like a boss I waltzed over there posthaste. I sort of anticipated dialogue, but instead the fools attacked me like I was some common deep stalker. Oh right, they had a few Crows with them as well. Well whoopsie-doo, make that a deep stalker alpha. I left their corpses unburied, a reminder to the old Howe sympathizers that if the merciless slaughter he was known for is their big turn-on, their new arl can supply them in spades.

Then we journeyed to Knotwood Hill, a charming little... whoa, what happened here? Sheesh. With a name so cozy I was expecting bunny rabbits. Anders didn't help, either, what with his line about trees everywhere. Crazy bloke must in the Fade, this place has seen better days.

Sigrun is a spunky little dwarf, ain't she? Cute as a button in a uniquely... Legion of the Dead... sort of way. I liked her straight away, so when given the option not to take her into my main party for Kal'Hirol, I scoffed. Immediately I set about removing Nathanial and Velanna, because I needed a section with both dwarves to see if my estimates on how often Oghren would hit on her would hold true.

Expectations...exceeded.

We delved deeper and deeper into the earth, as we so troublingly often have, and over time a clearer picture of the once-bustling city came into focus. The ghost sequences of Kal'Hirol were great fun. I like Dragon Age's dwarf lore a lot. I'm no high fantasy guru by any means, typically preferring the space opera side of genre entertainment, but these are some of the better dwarves I've encountered. Oh yeah, and Legend of Zelda-ing the golem for our own purposes was fun too.

Eventually we crushed a broodymama and I convinced Sigrun life and death are not more fun with the Wardens. But before she could down that special brew, a peasant revolt threatened to tear the arling asunder, so I put on my diplomacy cap and... OH FINE BIOWARE I WILL JUST SLAY THEM INSTEAD.

Then she drank dat crunk.

More to come.

[caradoc2000]

JeffZero wrote...

Sigrun is a spunky little dwarf, ain't she? Cute as a button in a uniquely... Legion of the Dead... sort of way.

You did recognize her VA, didn't you? Morinth, that is.

[Jaison1986]

I allowed the guy to keep lands and told the noble lady to f*** off. She was lucky she wasn't hanged for working with an traitor. I also had the noble murderer executed. What if someone releases him in the future when I'm not looking? We can't have that.

You didn't do the city guard quest did you? Because if you did you just blocked Sigrun personal quest from happening.

Ah, the peasant revolution. It's an complicated quest. Look at the wiki page to see if you had the right requiriments. Otherwise the persuasion check will not work.

[JeffZero]

Almost forgot to mention the creepy '80s deathpunk scene at the end of the previous mission with the cackling monstrosity "Mother" standing in for whoever they were planning to cast for this eighth Hellraiser movie gone horribly wrong. So this is quite a set of villains we've got going on here in Awakening, isn't it? Wow.

It was about that time that Oghren baby mama swing dem doors all open and be like, "boo, you ain't even pay child support," and Oghren be like, "nug mama, Grey Warden playas don't pay no child support, 'cause like, nug mama, we support yo child by endin' Blights, nahmean," and she had done snap her dwarf digits and had done be like said, "mmmmhm, since when you is a Grey Warden, nug daddy, you always be like, in da army, ain't no place up in hurr," and then she had done been like snappin' and twirlin' and departin' and Oghren be all... drunk, nahmean?

And then he asked me for a pony and I took a screenshot and turned it into my phone's latest wallpaper.

The next day, we were off for Blackmarsh, reportedly haunted and if the name "Knotwood Hill" ending up reserved for a wasteland had anything to say about it, this place would probably be a paradise on Thedas.

...OK, this time the name seems well-founded.

Literally a sign at the entrance warning that the place is haunted. Charming. Unfazed, Aedan and his companion choices of Anders, Nathanial and Sigrun (letting Oghren sleep it off) stepped into the darkness. It wasn't long before the pieces began to come together. This place fell to a crazy Orlesian lady's odd whims long ago. Oh yeah, and here's Kristoff's... oh, corpse. And here's another talking darkspawn, this one being the First, this one serving the Mother. Well, that's charming. I'mma kill it -- oh, OK, we're going to get sent to the Fade instead... ah! Ha! You're here too! Yes, an option to get smart with the -- and it's off. Well, screw you, pal.

This place wasn't nearly as daunting as Origins' Fade. In general Awakening seems snappier, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, but the relative rapidity of its dungeon sections is largely welcome. I do think Origins tended to drag a bit overmuch here and there, but I'm just not the kind of hardcore video game player who dedicates enormous amounts of time to playing... at least not very often. At any rate, a little bit later I was in Fade!Blackmarsh, and I learned that these villagers had all been trapped here for who knows how long. Ouch. And this guy's see-through and talks like an Arthurian, so that's special.

He's a benevolent spirit. Oh. Well of course he is! Hello there, buddy! (I'm on to you, though. I know it's you, Loghain. This is your Fade Dream -- uniting people against any and all Orlesians, thereafter manifested as deranged despots, all of them. I can keep a secret though.)

The baroness was all "POWER! UNLIMITED POWER!" and then we fought her thralls, including the darkspawn who is being on her side and will be defeating the Mother after he has been destroying us. That's nice, dear, now go clean your room.

And then we tripped him up, and she was all "POWER! UNLIMITED POWER!" and sacrificed him, and then we all awoke back in the real world and Loghain Mac Justice took over Kristoff's corpse by accident, and let me tell you, when I fiddled around with his tactics and gave him a few Self: any mode activators, something popped up that makes him see-through in the real world too, and not in a pretty way. Now, being a corpse, Kristoff is already fairly hideous, but I see his eyeballs and the inside of his mouth and precious little else in cutscenes, so that's... uhh... anyway.

Killed us a Pride Demon and finished scouring the area for assorted memoirs. Hopefully those townsfolk have reached that place beyond the Fade, whatever it is.

[JeffZero]

caradoc2000 wrote...

JeffZero wrote...

Sigrun is a spunky little dwarf, ain't she? Cute as a button in a uniquely... Legion of the Dead... sort of way.

You did recognize her VA, didn't you? Morinth, that is.

It sounded familiar. Ha, that's almost too creepy, then.

[JeffZero]

Jaison1986 wrote...

You didn't do the city guard quest did you? Because if you did you just blocked Sigrun personal quest from happening.

Ah, the peasant revolution. It's an complicated quest. Look at the wiki page to see if you had the right requiriments. Otherwise the persuasion check will not work.

Nope, I'm in the clear as far as the city guard thing is concerned. That's a relief. Someone (probably you) warned me about this a page or so ago.

Sounds like I was missing a key component re: the peasants. Oh well. I'll look it up once I've completed the expansion, since I seem to be nearing its conclusion if typical BioWare plot progression is anything to go by.

Modifié par JeffZero, 21 février 2014 - 09:00 .