Valmy's ADHD Dragon Age playthrough

[viper37]

I think DA:I is still on special, 35$.  If you haven't bought it yet, don't take the special edition (or whatever it's called), it's not worth 15$, it gives you a set of armor for your character only and a weapon.  Both of these are outdated within 2hrs of game time.

Also, the DLC Jaws of Hakkon is about 2hrs gameplay for 15$, unrelated to the main story.  Make of that you will.

So. Go and buy it, I want to read you AAR!

If you do all quests, it's about 120hrs of gameplay.  There's a lot of fetch quests ("requisitions") they are called wich gives you power, but every action in the game gives you power, so you don't really need to do them unless you really want to advance quickly to the next story mission (wich I don't recommend until you level up sufficiently).

[Valmy]

I already bought Inquisition awhile ago sadly. How was I supposed to know it would take me so long to play DA2?

Oh my play time for DAII was 140 hours. I have no idea how I am racking up times like that. I know I am a completionist who takes his time but that is ridiculous. I think all the times I have to pause and look to my family day after day really adds up.

If you do all quests, it's about 120hrs of gameplay.  There's a lot of fetch quests ("requisitions") they are called wich gives you power, but every action in the game gives you power, so you don't really need to do them unless you really want to advance quickly to the next story mission (wich I don't recommend until you level up sufficiently).

Wait...so don't do quests? Am I capable of doing such a thing?  Are these generic in someway? I would hate to leave quests staring at me in my journal silently judging me 

I do not really want to advance the story until I am ready. Huh that will be a challenge.

[viper37]

I really enjoyed Dragon Age II. The combat was a big improvement on Dragon Age Origins in a lot of ways. The boss fights were much more sophisticated, the numerous adds that joined the fights made things more challenging and exciting, and the companions each had their own talent tree which was a great idea which I hope carries on to Inquisition.

Once they added the 2 DLCs and gave us all these free items, I quite liked it
The 1st time around, I was more 'meh'.

The lack of a tactical camera was a huge problem.

Yes.

The characters were great though I felt like something was missing a bit. You kept hearing about how they were getting together to play Wicked Grace and drink and do things like that but you rarely saw them do it. I feel like some scenes from time to time where everybody is together and discussing what is going on and their thoughts on what to do next might have really helped further connect you to the team. I mean these people were together for six years and you got the sense they were all great friends, or at least all great friends with Varric, but you the player were not involved somehow.

yeah, round corners&all.

The companions all had their own armor like in Mass Effect 2 and eh I am ok with it. I suppose it is too much to ask to be able to control what everybody is wearing.

In DA:I, you have control over that

Taking place in the same location over a long period of time without a big world ending big bad were all huge gambles. It only kind of worked. There were a lot of possibilities to have each act be radically different depending on the choices made in the previous acts and really give you the ability to shape how things went in the city but that never really happened. You never really felt like you were in control of the action driving it forward as an active participant. Rather the game would throw events at you and you had to react to them. That bit was by far the most frustrating part of how this story was told. Like it was playing you instead of you playing it. Like this story had to unfold a certain way and you were not allowed to interfere.

I liked the concept.  Like you, not how it was done.
See, I like that you are essentially playing a nobody, and even when you rise through the ranks, you can't change things by yourself.  Everyone is set on their paths, and you try your best, and you want to do good (or not ), but no matter what you do, you are powerless.  You can only react to what is going on, not prevent tragedy, only live with the outcome.  It could have been way better.

I am sure it was not very coherent and I apologize.

Well, having played 3 times, no, I don't think there was a lack of coherence.  Can't vouch for those who haven't played.

The outfits are crazy, the weapons are silly looking, the melodrama was high, the angst and brooding were turned up.

DA:I has kept some of it, like the silly oversized weapons.  Jesus, at some point, there is a cutscene (wich may not appear depending on your choices) where your character is weilding a sword.  My last playthrough was a female elf dual rogue.  That darn sword was bigger and taller than my girl!  How can she waves that around with one hand??

Anybody still reading I hope you enjoyed it. I only see Viper commenting now but there are still views so that's nice

that's only me coming back for more

What I know about Dragon Age Inquistion: It tries to incorporate more open world elements and is more console friendly. That is basically it. It did not seem to generate the controversy DAII did so maybe that means it is a better game.

Duel wielding rogue because some of us prefer to fight like gentlemen.

There is a tac cam in DA:I, it is activated with T.  You will need it, but... it does not play very well with it, it does not zom out enough and it is a little confusing on how stuff goes on there, and you don't get the full view of the environment.

So, here is what I suggest, because I now see you have started!

When you are entering a fight, a big fight with lots of creatures, or super large ones like dragons, pause the game, go to tactical camera, make your moves, go back to normal mode.  Do this as often as you need.

Sometimes you will need to position your characters some place fixed, and naturally, you press "H" and see the little hand symbol over your characters, meaning they are holding their stance.  So that way, an archer would stay out of fucking trouble and shoot targets at a distance, not run through a sea of fire and engage single-handedly that freaky big Templar.  No, it doesn't work that way [sigh].  If you want your characters to go to a specific path and/or hold their stance, use the tactical camera to position them.  You can also use the Tac cam to target specific body parts for dragons (it is called Dragon Age, it should be no surprise to you by this point ) and other very large creatures.

Once you finish the prologue, you will be back in Haven, and you will discover the table mission.
You will have, over the course of your game, various missions to execute.  These missions are automatically carried out by your agents with varying outcome.  Some are spanning over the course of multiple missions like that, some end up with a real world mission (there should be more of these).  You have 3 agents: a diplomat, a psy and a warrior.  Each missions gives best results with one particular agent, and you have to guess it by reading the briefing and what each of your agent proposes. Two essential missions that should be done asap when they become available:
[spoiler]
- you have a mission to recruit specialists.  These guys are there to help your character develop a speciality in his chosen field (rogue, warrior, mage)
- You will also get a mission "recruit the arcanist", do it asap.[/spoiler]

You can also recruit people in the inquisition.  And you gain "perks" over time, wich adds bonus to your inquisition.
I'm not gonna tell you wich ones to pick, unless you ask me, but I'll tell the generality: inventory is worthless now because you have a chest later on in the game.  Anything that proposes schematics or resources is worthless.  Anything related to horses is worthless, because this is not Skyrim and horses don't have much use.  Discounts ain't that great either, you should craft your weapons and armor, it's nearly always the best solution.

Your main game objective is to close breaches in the sky, like the 1st one of the prologue.  The best way to do it:
[spoiler]
Since you use a rogue, get the 2 points in stealth, stealth on approach as soon as the demons spawn.  Engage the first demon and kill it, send your teammates to the others demons to occupy them.  Use your mark to disrupt the rift.  Kill demons, wait for the 2nd spawn, repeat first steps, close the rift[/spoiler]

How I would build my rogue:
[spoiler]
When specialisations unlock, take "Assassin".  When there's a special ability to be picked, choose "Thousand Cuts"[/spoiler]

You will also notice during combat that your archers have a tendancy to close in on their targets.  I mean, really close in, as if they would engage them with their daggers, only thing is they don't carry daggers   So, you will need to pay attention to these people.

Also, there's a lot of fetch quests, or requisitions as they call it.  These are repeatable ad infinitum.  They give you power, wich you don't really need because just closing rifts gives you power, so unless you're not a completionists, you don't need that.  But some of them will also give you influence, wich will bring those perks I was talking about earlier.  And these usually don't appear until you've completed the first requisition... (wich is usually "geoligical survey of...").

So, that's all my advice for now I don't think I spoiled the game, and I don't want to spoil it to you.  I did like the game, though I felt it could have been way better, especially with the \*## controls.

[viper37]

Wait...so don't do quests? Am I capable of doing such a thing?  Are these generic in someway? I would hate to leave quests staring at me in my journal silently judging me 

good boy   I play just like you

See my next message, hopefully it's clearer.  They are repeatable quests.  Say, you get "Geoligical survey of the Hinterlands".  It asks you to bring back two different sets of stones.  You do that, then you get power and another random quest, maybe Ferelden locks, where it asks you specific items to build locks.  Do that and then you get a new request: ""Geoligical survey of the Hinterlands". (or sometimes something else).  It will always bring back either an exclamation point over your requisition officer in each area and if you talk to her, a new mission.  They are infinite and repeat themselves.  Do as you wish, but I got tired really quickly   I did 2-3 per maps, no more.

I do not really want to advance the story until I am ready. Huh that will be a challenge.

It's ok.  The missions are on the war maps, with a glowing green above them, it will tell you the required level.  Some people like to skip secondary quests and do them as soon as possible.  It will be a lesser challenge if you do them in the upper levels (let's say the first one says "recommended level 5-7" and you do it at level 7), but to vanquish without peril is to avoid troubles

Some of these critical missions will lock out quests for you, so since you are a completionists like me, I'd do most of the quests, until I reach the required upper level for the mission.  And clean the war table missions before doing one of them.  They don't disapear over time, even when they say it's an emergency , but they might disapear after one of the main missions is done

[Valmy]

My current rig has a hard time running Inquisition which caught me off guard. It is not a slideshow or anything but it is pretty weak.

AMD A8-6500 3.5 Ghz Quad Core processor

AMD Radeon HD 8570D

16 GB RAM

I think it is the graphics card because I am aware it is pretty shit by today's standards. Maybe I can just replace it and get on with my business.

[viper37]

my older card (7950) is way better than that, maybe it would work for you.  Does your system support Mantle?  It might improve performance if you enable it in your preferences.

But I got to tell you, the CPU is pretty weak for gaming.  Don't expect to crank up the resolution to maximum.

[Valmy]

This computer has just under one month of life left before it is retired for gaming purposes.

I guess it works well enough on low settings and since my most modern game I have played since coming out of retirement was Skyrim it looks great to me and my antiquated gaming tastes.

So game on I say!

Dragon Age Inquisition



'Lalalala here we go for a peaceful conclave lalalala'



'Aaaaaaaah!'

Yeah so the Divine calls a conclave to end the long war between Mages and Templars that Meredith...AND NOBODY ELSE...started. Just a rehash all the Circles have grouped together under Alistair's mom Grand Enchanter Fiona. Two entire circles were exterminated before this happened. The Chantry tried to take a mage apologist stance so the Templars seceded along with, it seems, the Seekers and all their other military arms. Leliana and Cassandra are leading the people who stayed loyal to the Chantry and it seems exhaustion with the struggle has set in and this Conclave is being held at the Temple of the Sacred Ashes near that crazy town Haven. Remember when I said we would never return to Haven again because it was an obscure crazy place? Well color me a prophet.

Then the Conclave blew up. Yep it blew up. So isn't that special?

Here is Lord Lothar Trevelyan



He doesn't look too inbred. Go me. His hair looks like play-doh though.

[viper37]

btw, Bioware made a "fix" to prevent an exploit in one of their patches.  The exploit was that if you found a chest or a creature containing an amulet of power (wich gives you one ability), if you picked only one item of the container exited the map, came back, then you could have the item respawn infinately, namely that amulet of power.  So they removed all amulets of power from the game.

If you want them back, there's a mod for that: "amulet of power fix unfixed"

[Valmy]

So I thought Viper was joking about Anders being the villain of DA: Inquisition but really it makes perfect sense. The Chantry trying to bring mages and Templars together and find a middle ground...if Anders didn't blow it up he wishes he would have.

So Lothar's family are devoted Chantry types and he has many relatives in the Chantry and Templars. So he was sent to join his relatives at the conclave. Then it blew up and he appears in a cave of some kind. He looks up and sees a glowing figure with a weird shaped head.



'What is that hideous monster?'

So he runs towards it being chased by spiders, like you do. He reaches out for its hand...



'Save me weird glowing woman with the strange head!'

And BOOM. He awakes in prison.

The hand he touched the glowing being with is now glowing green. Cassandra walks in ( she's back!) with Leliana and things go great.



'Wait is this game going to be me telling you all about the crazy adventure that led to this moment?'

Oh I guess they are only going to do that once. She asks why he has the green glowing hand and he says he doesn't remember only that he was running to some woman.



'Oh yes all my dreams come true! Oh you don't mean in that way? R-right the blowing up conclave thing'

Yeah what the heck do you need Lothar for?



'Rift? What rift?'

And sweet! Cassandra is going to be a companion in this game isn't she?

So Cassandra leads him outside and wow that was some explosion.



'OMG it is the Burning Legion!'

Seriously it looks like something out of WoW. A giant green fire? Did fade rifts look like this before?



Oh I guess they kind of did

Nevermind I am not sure why my mind went there.

The breach or rift or veil tear or whatever pulses a bit and Lothar collapses into agony.



'Well I guess I know my motivation now'

So he agrees to come with Cassandra to the breach. They walk through Haven where the people look about as friendly as they did when Lorcan arrived there so many years before. But this time it is because they think Lothar blew up the Conclave so I guess that is fair.

So they are rushing up from Haven to the Temple of Sacred Ashes and a bolt of um...fade holeness blows up the bridge they are on sending them sliding onto the frozen river below.

So the...erm...breach? Rift? Whatever. The hole in the world into the fade is dropping fade monsters including green people called wraiths I do not recall meeting before. I mean there were ash wraiths and rock wraiths but I do not recall green wraiths. So a new Dragon Age monster! Rejoice!

Lothar sees two daggers laying near him coincidentally. He picks them up and helps Cassandra fight. Afterwards she commands Lothar to drop his weapons and he does. Then she changes her mind and tells him to come along and fight demons.



'The list of things I would not do willingly for you is short...ok stop crushing on Cassandra...seriously'

Combat seems tricky in this game. I have to keep Lothar facing the foe in melee range while I click on the monster to attack which feels a bit like rubbing my belly and patting my head at the same time. Also they moved pause to ctrl from space and made space on jump. So for awhile I was jumping up and down whenever I wanted to pause. Yes I know I can change key bindings but I got the hang of it.

Still very happy to get my tactical menu back. Controling the companions is sort of like it was before. The way you set up the AI is different but I am sure I will get the hang of it later.

So after a few more fights they make it to a little rift where a bunch of other good guys are fighting the demons. After the fight an elf mage just grabs Lothar's hand and sticks it into the rift.



'Well you have not tried to kill Lothar so that puts you above most of the other elf companions in Dragon Age'

It seems he just thought it might close the rift and it did.



'More like you wild assed guessed'

What was the theory based on? It is green, Lothar's make is green? Anyway lucky guess. His name is Solas and he is kind of a weird bird. Super serious and clearly not a Dalish Elf. I guess he is a Circle Mage working for the Chantry but he has a codex entry I haven't read yet. With him is:



'Varric! I can't wait to learn a whole new load of nicknames'

He calls Solas 'chuckles' which is awesome. That is also what he said he was going to call Urien when he requested Varric give him a nickname in DAII. So now I have a whole crew. And not one chest I needed a rogue to open...typical.

So on to more rifts!



'Taste my green rays of JUSTICE! Wait how does it go? Let those who worship evil's might behold my green lantern's light?'

So with that we catch up to Leliana and company at the forward camp. There the crusty police chief/dean of Dragon Age Inquisition, Grand Chancellor Roderick, is there telling Leliana and Cassandra to do things by the book and turn in their guns and badges. And they are all 'no we are doing things my way now old man'.



'It is never hopeless so long as the HEROS are here'

I find his strategy of just leaving the demon barfing rifts alone to barf out demons for all time an intriguing plan. The man is Napoleon reborn.

Leliana and Cassandra have their wild reckless plans of either launching a direct assault with the military or taking a side route through the mountains and using the army as a diversion. For some strange reason they want Lothar to decide.



'You cannot agree? You literally just suggested these two options a second ago.'

Well the indirect approach is the proper way to do this, not charge forward blindly like some peasant. So up to the Temple of Sacred Ashes they go...



'I feel a 2009 Dragon Age: Origins trailer coming on'

They climb up some ladders to a small ruin and defeat some demons before finding another rift with a small squad of soldiers trying to keep the demons under control. In a bit of great timing for the suicidal soldiers Lothar and company charge in and defeat the demons and seal the rift.



'Thanks Solas. I am growing ever more skilled at pointing my hand at them.'

So they get to the blasted ruins of the Temple of Sacred Ashes. I guess it is just that part after the High Dragon because it looks a bit smaller. It looks really grim.



'Damn did somebody drag Meredith here?'

Actually all the dead kind of look like Meredith. And sure enough Red Lyrium is all over.



'Whatever you do don't make an idol out of it'

So they get close to the rift and we get a vision of what happened in the fade earlier. It is Divine Justinia V, aka Mother Dorothea, and she is being interrogated or tortured from some glowy eyed guy with a deep voice. He doesn't sound like Anders but I am not ruling it out. She tells Lothar to run and warn the others and the guy who is possibly Anders tells his minions to kill him. Well Lothar didn't remember any of that. Anyway once again Mother Dorothea saves the day. She is the guardian angel of my characters in Dragon Age (well she and Flemeth). Or was I don't think she is getting out of this one.

But man what is up with those horrible hats the Chantry Clerics are wearing now? Dear Maker people.

At the point the big rift spits out a Pride Demon and the battle is on. From time to time Lothar has to seal the rift and that weakens it a bit. This is kind of a rough thing for a dagger rogue to do since I have to be watching the rift which is hard to do while fighting so up close. Also I discover I can bring fallen companions back with Lothar's mark on his hand. That is useful...one might even say handy...but that would be a terrible pun so I won't.



'A game that challenges you to fight evil through epileptic symptoms.'

Eventually the rift gets sealed enough to finish it off.



'Must...point....hand...at....thing'

Then it blows up and knocks Lothar out. He wakes up in a house with a groveling elf boy servant who rushes off to find Cassandra to tell her Lothar is awake. Lothar is to go to the Chantry and meet her. In the house there is a chest with some nice stuff including some snazzy new threads. He walks outside and everybody is bowing and scraping like he is a big damn hero.



'That is his lordship the most divine Herald of Andraste! Wait what does that even mean?'

So he walks through his adoring fans to the Chantry where Grand Chancellor Roderick is not so much a fan.



'Dragon Age: Inquisition is going to be a court room drama! Hang on to your dockets folks!'

But no instead it is just going to be a normal RPG. Leliana and Cassandra announce their intention to find who was responsible for the explosion and all the rifts and everything and restore order. To do this they bring out a holy writ and let me tell you this writ is a freaking door stop. Justinia V was very wordy.



'Roll credits!'

So I guess they just seceded from the Chantry as well. The Inquistion originally I guess delt with the chaos after the Tevinter Imperium executed Andraste and then became the Templars. Well that's wild. Lothar says he is with them. Then Leliana sends out ravens announcing this development to the Templars and the Mages. Now the Inquisition is on its own and needs to get down to business. Lothar gets introduced to the other officers.



'Cullen ! It is so good to see...er....nice to meet you Cullen. Man I have never met before.'

I guess things did not go well for him as the new commander of Kirkwall's Templars. The other officer is Josephine Montilyet, another fancy pants aristocrat like Lothar, who is the diplomat. Now it seems the rift is only stabilized and closed but not disappeared. We need more power to do that. Leliana and Cassandra suggests recruiting the mages to get the mojo necessary to increase the power of Lothar's mark. Cullen wants us to fetch his old buds.



'Going insane and trying to take over the world?'

But seriously I think he has a point here. Templars are all about closing off the fade from the real world and isn't that what we are trying to do? Don't mages do the opposite which is what we are not trying to do? Besides it sounds like Lothar would naturally favor them anyway.

However both will shun the Inquisition now because the Chantry has already condemned the inquisition as heretics and it is all Lothar's fault.



'Stupid theologians and their search for truth'

I find it rather funny that like I did in my playthrough of Leliana's Song Mother Dorothea is being confused with Andraste. Anyway there is one important cleric who wants to talk to Lothar and can perhaps start getting them some support. Her name is Mother Giselle and she is tending to refugees from the war in the Hinterlands. In case you forgot the Hinterlands is the area between Lothering and Ostagar. Urien and Lorcan both crossed it and I thought the Darkspawn had completely destroyed it. But it looks like Lothar will be going there soon. Now on to the war table.



'Wait I get to go to Orlais?! Yes! Venetian mask wearing Frenchmen!'

Anyway the first thing to do is scout out the Hinterlands and see how messed up things are. The report comes back:



'Levels of messed-upness: very'

So should be fun. Nutty apostates and crazy Templars fighting each other is something I have not seen since the entirety of Dragon Age II. I squeed a bit when I saw Leliana's seal was a Nightingale.

Ok now I have to pick out table missions. There are a few. One to find some bastard encroaching on Varric's copyrights.

I am thinking send Cullen and the soldiers to guard caravans to get some financial resources.

Send Josephine to stop Lothar's relatives from trying to use his position in the Inquisition to settle personal scores.

Send Leliana to divert some refugees from some whiny noble's lands.

But will the other missions be there to do later? Does it matter which ones I pick when? Huh.

And wait is Lothar in charge already? Just because he has a mark on his hand? I just don't think a woman passing out demonic marks is a good basis for a system of government.

So I guess I will make my decision on the table missions, explore Haven and look for secret dragon cults still lurking around, and then leave for the Hinterlands to find Mother Giselle.

[Valmy]

my older card (7950) is way better than that, maybe it would work for you. Does your system support Mantle?  It might improve performance if you enable it in your preferences.

Most cards would probably be much better than that

Mantle? What is Mantle? Um maybe.

I hope the graphics don't look too bad to you. They work for me but I never saw the game at full graphical glory.

btw, Bioware made a "fix" to prevent an exploit in one of their patches.  The exploit was that if you found a chest or a creature containing an amulet of power (wich gives you one ability), if you picked only one item of the container exited the map, came back, then you could have the item respawn infinately, namely that amulet of power.  So they removed all amulets of power from the game.

If you want them back, there's a mod for that: "amulet of power fix unfixed"

That is a very heavy handed way to fix a simple exploit. I guess it broke the multi-player component? Alright I will do that.

[Valmy]

Huh. How do I apply the mod? It has a weird .diamod type.

I thought there would just be some file to overwrite.

[viper37]

But will the other missions be there to do later? Does it matter which ones I pick when? Huh.

Table missions never disapear.  Most of the missions are unrelated to one another, but a few of them are linked, in that the outcome of your missions, whom you selected to do it will have an impact later on a related mission.

And wait is Lothar in charge already? Just because he has a mark on his hand? I just don't think a woman passing out demonic marks is a good basis for a system of government.

He's the Herald of Andraste!  He's like Jesus walking among us.  Everyone believes in him!
But don't worry, Cassandra and Leliana will keep a close look on you

So I guess I will make my decision on the table missions, explore Haven and look for secret dragon cults still lurking around, and then leave for the Hinterlands to find Mother Giselle.

In Haven's basement, there are jail cells that only a rogue can open


Oh, btw, re: Darkspawn in the Hinterlands.  It's been... 6-7 years since the blight.

Also, veil tear and fade rift are similar, but not identical.  I can not reveal exactly their differences, because you will sorta discover it by yourself later

One more thing: This ain't DA2   Your companions and people around you have a lot to say.  So do not hesitate to speak to them on a regular basis.

Combat wise, rogue strikes from behind.  Always.  You get a bonus for flanking your ennemy, and in this game, flanking = attacking from the rear.  Don't stay in front.

Cassandra is like Aveline on steroids.  If Aveline was a woman shaped battering ram, I have no idea what this girl is! 
She may seem a little squishy at first, but as soon as you can craft her good armor and a good shield, damn, she can take some punishment!

[viper37]

Huh. How do I apply the mod? It has a weird .diamod type.

I thought there would just be some file to overwrite.

It's complicated

You need DAI mod manager:
http://daitools.freeforums.org/post6441.html#p6441
take v.52 alpha.

After that, follow the instructions. You need to configure your mods and game directory, then put the dai file in that mod directory, select it and compile the patch.  DAI is not mod friendly.

[viper37]

Mantle? What is Mantle? Um maybe.

Mantle is an API, like DirectX, but only for AMD video cards.  It's better than DX11 because it "talks directly to the hardware".

I hope the graphics don't look too bad to you. They work for me but I never saw the game at full graphical glory.

It's ok, I just finished my 2nd playthrough, much easier than the first, now that I know what I'm doing!

[Valmy]

Varric's nicknames:

Anders - Blondie
Fenris - Broody
Sebastian - Choir Boy
Bethany - Sunshine
Merrill - Daisy
Isabela - Rivaini
Solas - Chuckles
Josephine - Ruffles

He never thought of a good one for Aveline.