Morning Discussion

Remember remember the fifth of November, with gunpowder, treason and oh my giddy aunt a free version of Unreal Engine 3! Between the Unreal Development kit and the free release of Unity, this has to be a fantastic time for bedroom developers.

The UDK is extra exciting to me. Not only is the free release of such a prolific current engine staggering, it's surely more appealing to the lovely modding community. Standalone releases are an obvious benefit and will no doubt help them find audiences, but with access to the complete framework I expect them to produce delicious fruit.

Of course, the UDK could be used for almost anything by almost anyone. We're certain to see some weird and wonderful creations from amateurs and veterans alike.

From The Chatty
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    November 5, 2009 6:14 AM

    [deleted]

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      November 5, 2009 6:18 AM

      are you a mage or something? the wilds aren't that hard

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        November 5, 2009 6:20 AM

        [deleted]

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          November 5, 2009 6:27 AM

          hmm maybe my party was just stacked because myself and alistair are shield carrying warriors

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            November 5, 2009 8:09 AM

            I think he just needs to level up more beforehand, if that is possible. My rogue had no issues.

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        November 5, 2009 7:02 AM

        i had no particular problem with the wilds as a mage, except when my mage got lured into a trap by an emissary, which was pretty awesome really

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      November 5, 2009 6:40 AM

      [deleted]

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      November 5, 2009 7:10 AM

      I can't wait to start a game on the 2nd hardest difficulty (according to a post last night, only a few devs could complete the game on the hardest? K, I'll wait after I beat it a few times) So much ass-kicking to be done, I assume there's an assassin class?

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        November 5, 2009 7:12 AM

        Likely a sub-variant of the rogue.

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          November 5, 2009 7:18 AM

          i remember it being mentioned in the character selection. you're probably right for it being under the rogue. i'm a warrior and on the character screen i can see 4 different sub classes and on allistair i can see that they unlock a new set of 4 skills. when do these unlock for my main character?

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            November 5, 2009 7:22 AM

            Assassins are poison-focused rogues. I'm going for the duel weapons one (Dual).

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              November 5, 2009 7:29 AM

              duel weapons would be a pistol for each of the 2 combatants and a glove to slap initiate the match. dual weapons would be the 2 pistols the one duelist is holding ;)

              not meant to be a criticism but you seemed openly confused :)

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              November 5, 2009 7:52 AM

              Dual-wielding assassin? Yes, please. That was my favorite BGII character, and they were always so, so lethal.

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              November 5, 2009 10:54 AM

              Not really true.. that's the "description" but the skills are all focused on crit strike damage and backstab damage. See here: http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Assassin

              You can do two specializations, so I might pick up Duelist as my second one, but the Assassin skills seem far superior to me.

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            November 5, 2009 7:23 AM

            [deleted]

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            November 5, 2009 7:27 AM

            You get a point to pick a specialization at levels 7 and 14, but you have to unlock the desired specialization by finding a teacher or manual (some party members will teach you if they like you enough). All unlocked specializations remain unlocked across characters; if you make Spirit Healer available on this run, you could start a new mage and be take Spirit Healer immediately upon hitting level 7.

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      November 5, 2009 7:23 AM

      man some people must have never played baldur's gate or something. the game is still way easier than BG1/2 even on hard for me

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        November 5, 2009 7:36 AM

        So far I haven't found it that hard either, but I can see how it could be if you're not playing carefully. For one, your NPCs tend to run to the closest enemy they see by default which is a fairly bad idea a lot of the time. So you kinda have to battle the default game behavior which is not intuitive.

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          November 5, 2009 8:54 AM

          Difficulty can be subject to your party composition. I did the Red Cliffe night attack with my Human Sword and Board Spec Warrior, Allister, Lelianna, and Morrigan. Except Morrigan had no heals yet. After 3 attempts, I BARELY scraped by on NORMAL, using every health pot and healing herb we had, and the only person left standing was my Warrior.

          Inversely, talking to my Brother over steam who is playing a Mage with decent healing abilities skated right through.

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        November 5, 2009 9:59 AM

        It's easier than BG because it lacks the kind of bullshit that 2nd edition D&D had. There's no (so far) instant kill spells and mages can take more than one or two hits.

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      November 5, 2009 7:34 AM

      So here's a question, what camera do you mainly play the game in? I prefer the over the shoulder mode until I get into thick combat and then I switch it over to the old bg style so I get a better view.

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      November 5, 2009 7:40 AM

      It's take a little tweeking and getting used to, but the tactics slots are your friend for managing chars during combat.

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      November 5, 2009 7:49 AM

      *jumps up and down* ENCHANTMENTS!! *claps hands*

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      November 5, 2009 8:28 AM

      I was pissed, I had 2 quests in the wilds that I thought I could go back and finish later but I was never able to and they just dropped from my quest log :(

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        November 5, 2009 8:28 AM

        me too. gotta save somethin for the second playthrough, i guess

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      November 5, 2009 8:36 AM

      quick question I just bought the game and on the back of the box it say's:" Include Downloadable Characters and quest a 15$ value" what is it?

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        November 5, 2009 8:43 AM

        The Shale playable character.

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          November 5, 2009 8:49 AM

          (whats a shale?)

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            November 5, 2009 8:59 AM

            He's a war golem that hates birds. He's only available via a download that is included in all new copies of the game.

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              November 5, 2009 8:59 AM

              Shale is his name.

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        November 5, 2009 8:46 AM

        Probably the Stone Prisoner quest.

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      November 5, 2009 8:51 AM

      There have been a lot of Shackposts about the game being awesome but no one's really saying why.

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        November 5, 2009 8:58 AM

        Think Baldurs Gate with a heaping helping of A Song of Ice and Fire's political intrigue and in fighting. Also no more D&D rules makes it soo much more accessible to me.

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          November 5, 2009 9:54 AM

          I never had a problem with D&D rules... were they that constraining?

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            November 5, 2009 9:55 AM

            resting as a mage for one

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              November 5, 2009 10:00 AM

              I guess that is kind of irritating

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                November 5, 2009 10:05 AM

                Also most of the spells being pretty useless, warriors and rogues having no or very few special combat abilities.

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                  November 5, 2009 10:10 AM

                  It sounds like a lot of your issues were with things being unimplementable in combat.

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            November 5, 2009 9:55 AM

            they were fine, but overcomplicated

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              November 5, 2009 10:01 AM

              I always thought it was cool because I read the AD&D guides when I was younger and then seeing the rules in action in "real time" on a computer was really interesting. IMO they actually worked really well considering how they started on paper years before

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                November 5, 2009 10:04 AM

                yeah, it was nice to have a computer doing the D&D rules/math/dice rolls etc and seeing how neat it works. i find that when you're playing pen and paper there are always modifiers that are getting forgotten and stuff like that.

                so far i'm liking DA:O's approach (particularly the magic system), but one downside is that it's less transparent. if you turned on all the messages in BG2 you could see how everything worked mathematically.

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            November 5, 2009 11:39 AM

            I suppose its just I never took the time to learn the ruleset. The approach to combat is just that much more appealing to me.

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        November 5, 2009 9:09 AM

        story, music, voice acting, graphical engine/UI, gameplay, challenge, RPG options, environments - they're all really good.

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        November 5, 2009 9:27 AM

        [deleted]

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          November 5, 2009 10:08 AM

          Also, and this is just a little clarification on something Kentor just glossed over, but the fully voiced banter between party members is incredible and varied... Get a couple party members together who don't get along well and prepare to laugh your ass off as you wander around town while they argue and mock each other.

          Another thing about party members.. It seems like in games like this in the past, only the stuff your character says makes a difference. If one of your party members has an in with a group or person you're trying to persuade, it doesn't help you because you're on your own as party members fade into the background during dialog. Not here! Plan ahead and bring the people who need to be part of the conversation from a roleplaying perspective and you will be richly rewarded as they do the talking for you and open doors that might otherwise be closed. The lack of a system like that has always been a source of frustration for me in RPGs.

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        November 5, 2009 9:53 AM

        Very engaging CHARACTERS!!!, story, challenging gameplay

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        November 5, 2009 12:08 PM

        It's a epic game with a epic everything, simple as that.

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      November 5, 2009 9:54 AM

      setting up an ambush at a doorway seems to be the best tactical scenario that's worked very well so far.

      I've got 3 melee and 1 mage.
      1 melee pulls them to the doorway (clumped)
      mage casts flaming weapon (to buff melee guys)
      mage casts flame blast when enemies are stuffed in the doorway.

      3 Melee mop up
      (you can switch one of them out for an archer if you want)

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        November 5, 2009 9:55 AM

        out in the wilds, putting bows in everyone's hands was very effective.
        With proper flanking, you could pick off 1 or 2 enemies without aggoing a whole group.

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        November 5, 2009 10:09 AM

        Yeah, indoors I'd pull with a soldier, run back and around a corner. And if there was a doorway close, I'd have the party just the other side of it, waiting to block/ambush. The key seems to be cutting off archer angles.

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        November 5, 2009 10:12 AM

        Grease is really helpful if you want to buy your mage some time.

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        November 5, 2009 10:43 AM

        Also remember that you can hit H to tell your party members to hold position (basically like the button to disable their AI in BG/BG2). You can use this to position each character for an ambush, then take control of one to pull the enemies into your trap.

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        November 5, 2009 11:02 AM

        how do you ensure that one of your party members STAYS an archer? one of my people always pulls out their sword and shield and starts meleeing :(

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        November 5, 2009 1:02 PM

        same tactic that always worked well in Baldur's Gate 2

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      November 5, 2009 11:17 AM

      [deleted]

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        November 5, 2009 11:23 AM

        this is silly, but really, is there any game where you can't do something comparable to this with a minor enemy?

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      November 5, 2009 11:35 AM

      i had better luck using a rogue to pull 1 or 2 enemies at a time from a group (using a bow) than I did wading in and fighting them all at once. I was using MMO-style pull tactics, shoot and then run back to my party. sometimes one or two would run away, or i would pull an archer and then if i charged in the rest of the group of mobs would be pulled, but once i figured out how to range those down quickly I started having a bit more success.

      there really is almost no way to handle a group of 6--8 enemies with your little party without getting gibbed.

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        November 5, 2009 12:21 PM

        Handling 6-8 guys is easy as long as you bring a mage for crowd control. Cone of cold can easily freeze 3-6 guys for awhile (and then the Mage can winters grasp to freeze another). And that's just 3 skill points worth of spells.

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        November 5, 2009 12:34 PM

        i eat 6-8 enemies for breakfast. me and alistair and my dog, Ugly, bash them all and whoever else is left might shoot arrows or fire lightning from afar.

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        November 5, 2009 12:48 PM

        My party is far too stupid for this to work - they like to run around. Only died once on normal so far, to the ogre. Got him the second time.

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        November 5, 2009 1:01 PM

        [deleted]

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