1721

Oh dear, I did not realize that and have pumped almost everything into Dex and STR (going off my 360 build). Damnit, maybe for what I want I should just go ahead and replay the 1.5 hours or so with my warrior and not worry about it. I guess the good thing about the warrior, after looking at the Wiki a bunch more, is that he could be proficient as a damage dealer (dual wield and 2-hander), tank (shield) or archer…which is pretty nice flexibility.

I think my hesitation all along has been that you get so many freaking warrior types for your party that it seems totally redundant, but if what I really want to do is swing two swords with massive armor, then it kind of makes sense.

I guess in the expansion I could always play a mage and satisfy that itch.

1722

Search the DA forums for a STR dual wield rogue build. There is plenty of discussion I’m sure. A lot of people went through the same decision process. There is a skill to replace your strength stat with cunning but you’ll need some minimum to wield the weapons. Go find out exactly what’s going on though.

1723

I just finished Leliana’s Song. Which is a weird thing to write because, you see, I also just started Leliana’s Song this same evening. It’s basically Leliana’s origin story which fits nicely with the Origins theme of the game, but that’s all it is and if anything it’s even shorter than the ones that came with the original game. Like most Dragon Age DLC it’s not bad but overpriced even at the low cost it sells for.

edit: More precisely, it was all of four hours. That’s on PC Normal difficulty, with holding down the Tab key throughout, fussing over every piece of equipment, smelling every flower, reading every quest and codex entry, and reloading after lost battles several times. This DLC is seriously short – take that into account if you consider buying it.

1724

Thanks for the impressions Chris.

My plan to wait for a GOTY or Gold edition of the PC version looks better and better. (I played through a rented console version of the game, so I still have Shale to look forward to for the PC version as well).

1725

I forgot to tell you guys I ended up with a dual wield STR warrior build that I really love, but my play time just got SERIOUSLY curtailed with a new baby in the house! Loving the game on PC though…

1726

You haven’t bought much DLC, have you? Because 4 hours is actually pretty good for DA DLC and is about average for what people reported for the Fallout 3 DLC. So I don’t know what you were expecting for $7.

DLC is never going to match the cost per hour that you get from the full game it is derived from. And that’s why developers/publisher love it and why gamers need to be realistic about their expectations for it.

1727

No, but neither is the value always as terrible as with those Bioware and Bethesda releases. I avoided all the previous DA DLC, other than the ones I got for free with the original game, because I had heard they were pretty lackluster. But I did like Awakenings and found it good value, so I thought I’d give Leliana’s Song a try. Figures that the only DA expansion that’s worth its price is the one that also comes in a retail box…

1728

That’s because Awakening is a full scale expansion, not a DLC. And I’m trying to figure out what Bioware DLCs - not expansions - have better value then four or so hours of content.

1729

I do think Awakenings was available as DLC as well. And your “because” is kind of silly – there’s no law of nature demanding that products called “expansions” must have better value than products called “DLC”. The publisher could quite easily maintain the same price/content relationship across all distribution formats.

And I’m trying to figure out what Bioware DLCs - not expansions - have better value then four or so hours of content.

None? That was my point.

1730

There’s no “law of nature,” but it’s pretty clear there is a distinction between an expansion, which is well defined as being a product worthy of a higher price and retail presence (i.e. the traditional pre-digital delivery expansion), and a DLC, which has no such size or price limitation but is almost always very short and costs very little in comparison to the original game. Delivery is irrelevant to the discussion. Awakening was $40 when it first came out while the DA DLC has been priced between $5 and $7. That’s a clear distinction by Bioware as to what expectations should be. On top of that, we are all quite aware of the pricing strategy used for DLC and there isn’t a publisher out there that is giving you the same price/content relationship in low-price DLC as you got in the original game. So expecting Leliana’s Song to give you the same value as Awakening seems like a pretty strange view for you to have had given that none of the previous four DLCs had set that expectation.

1731

I had already said that I had not in fact played any of the previous (pure) DLC, except the ones that came with the original game, so I didn’t really have any concrete expectations. And if those expectations are that such DLC is generally overpriced despite its low price, then we should definitely keep complaining about this sad fact rather than meekly accepting it. Maybe that will at least save more people from being ripped off, and perhaps change pricing policy in the long run.

1732

Hah! I just popped into this thread to see if anyone had any reactions to Leliana’s Song. I liked her as a character, had enough points to get the DLC, and just finished it last night.

4 hours is definitely milking the content. I thought it was short, and I’m generally the most inefficient player I know. I had more fun with Warden’s Keep than Leliana’s Song. WK felt more developed, but perhaps part of the issue is that LS had to explain how Leliana became who she is at the point we first meet her in Dragon Age: Origins. Unfortunately, while it’s possible to choose the dialogue path, the ending has to be such that it sets up the character her appearance in DAO. As a result, the episode felt much more on the rails than, say, Warden’s Keep.

I thought there’d be more content, but when I started the move toward the final confrontation, I remember thinking, “gosh! This is a pretty big buildup! I sure hope that I have enough supplies to make it through, and then I hope I get a chance to resupply.” A minute later, I realized I was being swept into the final confrontation, at which point I wondered if this were really all there was to it.

It turned out that it really was.

If you have the points in your account, sure, get it, but I felt that Leliana’s Song was a bit truncated.

1733

Hey, there’s another patch coming out! Release notes for 1.04:

General Fixes
• Daggers will now properly assign the dexterity-based damage bonus
• Achievement images and messages will now display properly.
• Resolved some authorization issues with downloadable content.
• Blood talents from the Grey Warden Base premium downloadable content will now work properly in Awakening.
• Fixed an issue where installing new downloadable content would occasionally leave the “Other Campaigns” selection greyed-out without a restart of the game.
• Multiple transitions in and out of Fade areas will no longer multiply the number of visual effects running and slow down gameplay.
• Floating numbers no longer appears over players’ heads.
• Damage statistics will now be updated properly on the Inventory screen when weapons were unequipped.
• Importing a character to a new module from a savegame that did not have the hero in the party caused the game to crash.
• If a character is imported into Dragon Age: Awakening and is stripped of their incompatible gear from DLC, they will be equipped with default equipment.
• Names with accents and special characters will now show up correctly in the Story So Far load hints.
• Switching between Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Awakening will no longer reset options to default settings.
• Fixed a number of memory leaks that were increasing the number of crashes
• Audio drivers were causing a number of audio-related crashes. As such, audio drivers have been updated.
• Fixed issues that were preventing portraits from being uploaded to the BioWare social site.
• Game saves on Xbox 360 were being corrupted if you sold too many items to the same merchant. Saves will no longer be corrupted if you do this.
• Screenshots are no longer automatically uploaded on the PC by default on new installations.
• Fixed pick-pocketing. Characters were successfully stealing, but not receiving any items.

Dragon Age: Origins Fixes
• Fixed an issue that would cause incorrect characters to occasionally appear in Morrigan’s ritual.
• Players who rescued their party members in the Fade of the Broken Circle plot were still forced to fight the sloth demon alone. This has been resolved.
• It is no longer possible for the player to get blocked during gameplay by pursuing both candidates’ quests in the Orzammar plot line.

Dragon Age: Awakening Fixes
• A variety of bugs were preventing personal quests from triggering and causing issues with party member approval have been fixed.
• Lillith will no longer repeatedly thank the player at Vigil’s Keep after being rescued.
• During the Assault on Amaranthine, a bug would occasionally make some enemies invincible, which impeded game progress. This no longer happens.
• Imported rogue characters will now properly detect traps.
• The message, “Legacy tattoo asset do not use!” will no longer appear on the faces of imported characters.
• Masterpiece and paragon silverite runes are now weapon runes instead of armor runes.
• The masterpiece slow rune is now available for purchase from merchant stores.
• Players may now receive notes of appreciation from their Origins love interests.

Known Issues

While we have fixed the party member approval/personal quest issues, it is important to note that players may not experience the results of this fix until starting a new game.

Because of the nature of the bug and the fix implemented, while it is possible that it will still affect party members that are not yet in the player’s group, in general existing game saves may still not see proper approval results.

(Awakening) Silverite Mine Issues
Some players have experienced a situation where it is possible to enter the Silverite Mine in the Wending Wood early by picking the lock to the door (despite the lock initially appearing to be impossible to pick) prior to completing the quest with Velanna. Due to technical limitations, we will be unable to patch this issue and as such we wish to communicate to players to avoid this situation.

Entering the Silverite Mine early may result in loss of some inventory as well as broken plot flags due to prior quests not being completed properly. Normally, the door will unlock after fully resolving the encounter with Velanna and the player should not attempt to enter the Silverite Mine before then.

(Origins) Arl of Denerim’s Estate, Basement (immediately post-Riordan rescue) Issues
Some characters that have an area-of-effect aura, such as Miasma, enabled may cause the guards on the other side of the door in the basement of the Arl of Denerim’s estate to attack the party prior to the party having had their encounter with them.

Due to technical limitations similar to the Silverite Mine issues, we will also be unable to patch this issue. Unfortunately, if this happens then the player’s party is stuck in a state where they are unable to remove the guard’s disguise they had earlier donned.

The only way to fix this issue after it has occurred is to re-load an earlier save and ensure that any area-of-effect auras are disabled prior to getting the party too close to the door. Normally, upon opening the door the party will have an encounter with the guards where the disguises will be dropped and the party’s equipment will be restored. So immediately after rescuing Riordan and taking the stairs to the basement, ensure that the party disables any aggressive area-of-effect auras and refrains from casting any area-of-effect spells prior to opening the door in the basement so the guard cutscene triggers properly. It’s safe to resume those effects after the guard encounter.

(Awakening) Armor sets: Sentinel Armor & Vigilance Sword (Xbox 360 and PS3), Blackblade Armor (All platforms)
Unfortunately, we are unable to fix the issues concerning these armor sets and the Vigilance Sword. Due to various limitations surrounding what we can and cannot patch concerning DLC content, very strict limits in the size of console title updates, and the state of some of the assets we attempted to implement, we regret to inform you that these items will not be fixed at this time.

There is a workaround for the appearance of the Sentinel Armor and the Vigilance Sword on consoles, and that is to not have the Soldier’s Peak/Grey Warden Base DLC installed. We realize this is not by any means an ideal solution, but regrettably we will be unable to fix this properly and for that we apologize.

Note concerning Silverite Mine, Arl of Denerim’s Estate, and Item issues: Please accept our apologies. While we wish we could have fixed these issues to the community’s satisfaction, we are unable to do so at this time. As indicated, we realize that none of these workarounds are ideal in any way but regrettably have no other course of action as we have very strict limitations with what we are able and not able to patch, on consoles especially. We have taken into account the root issues related to the implementation of these areas/pieces and will carry it forward in an effort to avoid things like this happening in the future.

Note on Installing Awakening to a version of DA:O already patched to 1.04 [PC only]
If you install the 1.04 patch prior to installing Awakening, you must run the 1.04 patch installer again after the Awakening install is complete.

There are Awakening specific resources and other assets that will not be patched in properly unless the 1.04 installer detects that Awakening is present and as such will not install those additional resources. In addition, the pre-1.04 installer that comes with Awakening may revert some 1.04 files back - this would result in a game that is apparently missing many of the fixes included with 1.04, while the game config tool still reports it as the 1.04 version.

In short, if you plan to re-install DAO and Awakening at some point in the future, we recommend installing DAO, then Awakening, then latest patch. If you plan to add Awakening to your DAO install, we recommend installing Awakening, then always re-apply the latest patch.

1734

• Fixed an issue that would cause incorrect characters to occasionally appear in Morrigan’s ritual.

Enchantment?

1735

I played Leliana’s Song yesterday. I enjoyed it more than any of the DLCs or Awakenings. I liked the character, so getting her origin story certainly added to my enjoyment. I thought the story was good, the dialogue was sharp, and the voice acting sold it all well. Thinking back on it, there are a number of throw-away lines that were more important than they seemed at the time. Leliana’s companions were much more engaging than the ones in Awakenings. And unlike Awakenings, this DLC had a real ending.

1736

I don’t recall a company ever saying they couldn’t patch something due to technical issues in the patch notes. Just unusual to see. Otherwise, the patch looks good and it’s also nice to know they finally have the last of the dexterity fix officially applied (the dagger damage,that is).

I wonder if this is going to cause issues with any mods (such as the extra dog slot).

1737

• Daggers will now properly assign the dexterity-based damage bonus

Jesus christ, that took long enough.

1738

That one surprised me, I thought they had fixed the dagger/DEX issue a long time ago.

1739

I’ve finally gotten around to replaying DA as a mage character. As it was the only origin I never fully played through, there was some new stuff there, plus I’m using Shale and Sten a lot more for this one and pursuing the Morrigan romance instead. For whatever reasons, this playthrough is clicking a lot more then my previous attempts and I’m well into the Orzammar section already. Playing as a mage, while not my usual preference, changes things up enough to make the game fresh.

1740

So I’ve decided to slog through this to the end finally. I just got to the landsmeet thingy section tonight and I gotta say I love the political manuvering stuff. While all my complaints about gameplay and presentation still stand, I’m really enjoying this part of the game.

Definately some of the most interesting writing for a game I have ever seen. So good, in fact, that I am less botherd by the “game” aspects that I dislike.