247 replies to this topic

[Kulyok]

I read that no, you won't have Awakening spells and talents in Origins. It was a developer post, but I don't remember the link, alas.

[Kulyok]

Found it. Here: http://social.biowar...ex/1295371&lf=8

[Archmage Silver]

Ah, so it is. Nice find.

[Creepin]

Thanks for the link Kulyok.

I was afraid that playing DA w/o Awakening would be as pointless content-wise as playing SoA w/o ToB installed. It's apparent by now that it's not the case, but actually I'm pretty disappointed that Awakening will add totally no new content to Origins.

Edited by Creepin, 23 February 2010 - 11:56 PM.

[Cal Jones]

Well, I ordered it today, so I guess we'll see. I'm just hoping it's not buggy - I usually wait a few months before getting a game to give the devs chance to patch it.
Looking forward to this, but still very much enjoying vanilla DA.

[Archmage Silver]

World Update:
Amaranthine + Screens

[berelinde]

Another companion revealed: Mhairi, a human fighter. Got to say that I think I'm going to like this one. So, it looks like my party will be Anders, Mhairi, and possibly Oghren. The jury is still out on that, but we'll see.

[Archmage Silver]

Hm... I guess I'd go with Oghren & Sigrun for the banters, and add Mhairi to do the tanking. I guess this completes the five companions now, Oghren, Sigrun, Velanna, Anders and Mhairi?

I foresee Anders sadly accidentally cutting his head off while shaving his beard. Incidentally, with no connection whatsoever, Velanna will die when she sadly accidently cuts her head off while combing her hair.


Differences between Origins & Awakening

• Items now go up to tier 9.
  
• You will be able to craft your own runes and use them on armors.
  
• The ability to re-spec your character without losing plot decisions made in Origins through an unlimited amount of Manual of Focus being sold for 6 gold each.

Benefits from Importing an Origins Warden vs New Orlesian Warden

• If you completed Warden's Keep, and gained the 2 additional Power of Blood spells they will carry over.
  
• People of Amarantine will treat you with respect, as opposed to suspicion towards the Warden from Orlais.

Edited by Archmage Silver, 26 February 2010 - 08:01 PM.

[Kulyok]

Another female! Honestly, I think they have gone too far this time: 3 female NPCs out of six! Have they bothered to check the stats for their own Dragon Age:Origins and find out that most players have two male NPCs and one female one when they are playing?

This way I'll either have to take a female written by Sheryl Chee into my group or travel with Oghren. Gah. Grr. That woman can't write. I only hope Gaider did one of those.

Edited by Kulyok, 26 February 2010 - 10:46 PM.

[Archmage Silver]

I had two female companions - Leliana and Shale. Although I guess I'm just being technical including Shale, but she does count...

[Kulyok]

I think she does, yes - and I included her with Morrigan, too. But that's an interesting question - if Shale was a female dwarf with a female voice, would she be a still member of so many parties? I guess she's still a separate case - well, sort of.

Anyway! One more NPC to go. As one of the developers said that they had Alistair-character who's not an Alistair-character(Anders) and a Sten-character who is not really a Sten-character, my guess is that one more guy would be a Sten-character.

[Archmage Silver]

I think that point is moot, because if they had made Shale a female dwarf, it wouldn't be the same character at all. She couldn't be as old as Shale is now, basically changing the character into something else entirely right there already.

[Kulyok]

Absolutely. I guess that's what I'm saying: Shale is a female... but she isn't an actual female, like, skirt-and-long hair-and squeaky voice-female. Liked the conversation my male char had about her backside, though.

Now, I wonder why the developers would say that DLC items would be moot in Awakening, if new items only go to Tier 9? I mean, I use TIer 1 items and Tier 5 items in Origins freely, and my chars don't get killed. Why not use Starfang and Warden Commander Armor in the expansion?

[berelinde]

Well, somebody over at Petals and Thorns said they thought they saw some kind of male roguish guy in a trailer, so maybe that's the sixth joinable? It would make sense. One male and one female each of fighters, rogues, and mages? Lemme see... two dwarves, two humans, and one Dalish. Would that make a potential male elf a city elf? Blech. One elf is enough, but as long as he wasn't a human-hating Dalish, I guess it would be alright. And since they seem to be balancing alignments, more or less, and since Sigrun seems to be kind of nasty, maybe a male rogue would be nicer...

Ah, it's just speculation. As long as I can make up a party without having to play with the volume off, I don't much care. It isn't like we can romance any of them, anyway.

[Gomb]

I'm not to thrilled about Mhairi; seems like they really wanted to please people who so desperately wanted a female tank. She just seems to be the generic nice honour-bound female warrior paladin...watever. Actually I think that the templar woman in Anders' trailer looked like an interesting companion-material. At least Sigrun looks promising so far, and maybe Anders. (And I'm also one who is happy about Oghren returning, but he seems quite unpopular on these forums.) I still have hope for the last two remaning male characters, though.

[berelinde]

Two remaining males? I've got

Males: Oghren, Anders, ???
Females: Velanna, Sigrun, and Mhairi

Did you hear that it was supposed to be six new ones and one old one?

Edit: Checking the Awakenings site, I see that Anders, Velanna, and Sigrun are "revealed," but there are still five unrevealed slots. Even if Oghren and Mhairi are two of them, that still leaves three. So it looks like there's still hope for a party that doesn't suck... depending on your preferences. Judging from the poll, some peoples' favorites are others' bench-warmers.

Edited by berelinde, 27 February 2010 - 09:23 AM.

[Gomb]

Sorry, my bad. I only remembered that there would be six new ones, which would mean that we could expect two more. And seeing we already have 3 women, I presumed the remaining two would be guys, especially with that Penny Arcade comic that Bioware puts up every week on the site that starres a male rogue who is highly suspected to be another joinable npc.

[berelinde]

Right, but my point was that there were five unrevealed slots, not four. So either we're getting Dog after all or there's somebody else besides that unidentified rogue.

[Gomb]

Well I remember reading in of the recent bigger interwievs somewhere that based on your choices in DA:O, you'd either have Alistair, Wynne or secret companion returning, so maybe that reaming slot is reserved for that. Or maybe it's my memory playing tricks on me again. But I actually hope it will be a surprise.

[Kulyok]

From the developers' FAQs and interviews, there are six companions: 5+1, five new, one returning.

Anders, Velanna, Sigrun, Mhairi are new.
Oghren is returning.

Seems like there's one more new NPC left. Probably a bald human we saw.