Dragon Age vs. Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls, Console Version Options

[Delta]

I can't even come close to making that claim! Wow. Until now I thought that I played it alot. If the wife unit ever complains about me spending too much time playing a video game I will just hand her a copy of your post! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

My girlfriend spent about the same amount of time on Morrowind, I think...

For me, the dialog was such a huge part of Dragon Age drawing me in! The ones that made me laugh the hardest...Shale, Oghren, Zevran! I was really bummed about Morrigan leaving too.

Oh yes, most definitely. And I'll have to add Alistair to that list. Yes, he's a fool sometimes (well, most times, really (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ) but damn, I can't help it but like him. And it really broke my heart when...

[ Spoiler ]

...he spoke those last lines "It's not like I'm giving you a choice" before running off to kill the archdemon when I was so ready to sacrifice my own character for his sake.

[Bob Lord of Evil]

Don't get me wrong, I think that all of the NPC's (save for Wyn) had really good dialog.

Alistar was something of a goof, but an excellent tank! Oghren was a really good tank if you built up his sword/shield. The two-handed weapon guys seemed to do best against the really big slow opponents.

I guess the reason that I started this thread was that I felt the story and dialog of Dragon Age were great but I was really surprised by just how common the graphics came across and the very limited replay value of the game.

My hope is that they do an addon/sequel where you get to follow through with Morrigan and the...well those of you who have played through it know. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Sengir]

Hm, I just realized that my current Morrowind install just includes ~1GB of mods, textures et cetera...that used to be far more

[Delta]

I guess the reason that I started this thread was that I felt the story and dialog of Dragon Age were great but I was really surprised by just how common the graphics came across and the very limited replay value of the game.

I think the game has a lot of replay value, actually. Maybe not as much as Morrowind, sure, but honestly, I was more motivated to play through DA for a second time than I was for Oblivion. And I thought the graphics were just fine the way they were.

[Karoline]

I think the game has a lot of replay value, actually. Maybe not as much as Morrowind, sure, but honestly, I was more motivated to play through DA for a second time than I was for Oblivion. And I thought the graphics were just fine the way they were.

Really? Weird, guess it is just a person to person basis. I think I've played through Oblivion roughly three times (mage, fighter, thief) and enjoyed it all three times because I got to play three largely different games, both from how I approached problems, and from the large amount of side quest stuff. Only my thief became an assassin, only my mage got into the circle (or whatever it is called), only my fighter ran into the middle of hoards of demons and kicked their butts.

When trying to go through DA for a second time though, I didn't get very far, because even though I went from being an elf mage to a dwarf fighter, I noticed that after the intro part, the game was exactly the same. My party was still the same four types of characters, the side quests were all the same, there wasn't a whole lot to do besides the main quest like there is in Oblivion. I felt very much like I'd done everything before, in exactly the same manner. About the only difference was my dialog, but that had minimal affects on the larger scheme of things.

[Delta]

Really? Weird, guess it is just a person to person basis. I think I've played through Oblivion roughly three times (mage, fighter, thief) and enjoyed it all three times because I got to play three largely different games, both from how I approached problems, and from the large amount of side quest stuff. Only my thief became an assassin, only my mage got into the circle (or whatever it is called), only my fighter ran into the middle of hoards of demons and kicked their butts.

Well, for me, it was quite a different experience. Oblivion never got me into "roleplay" mode much, I've never identified with my character, pretty much all of the quests have an obvious "right" solution, and as Oblivion is only a shadow of the complexity that was Morrowind, it was way too easy to get pretty much most of the game done in one playthrough, at least for me. Especially, it was too easy to make a character that can do anything, from sneaking to melee to magic. So after one playthrough with that "jack of all trades, master of... all as well"-character, I didn't feel like I missed out on much.

[Thanee]

I guess there is a lot of personal preference in it.

I couldn't even manage a single playthru with either Morrowind or Oblivion, because these games felt so incredibly repetitive and bland and arbitrary.

Bye
Thanee

[toturi]

Really? Weird, guess it is just a person to person basis. I think I've played through Oblivion roughly three times (mage, fighter, thief) and enjoyed it all three times because I got to play three largely different games, both from how I approached problems, and from the large amount of side quest stuff. Only my thief became an assassin, only my mage got into the circle (or whatever it is called), only my fighter ran into the middle of hoards of demons and kicked their butts.

When trying to go through DA for a second time though, I didn't get very far, because even though I went from being an elf mage to a dwarf fighter, I noticed that after the intro part, the game was exactly the same. My party was still the same four types of characters, the side quests were all the same, there wasn't a whole lot to do besides the main quest like there is in Oblivion. I felt very much like I'd done everything before, in exactly the same manner. About the only difference was my dialog, but that had minimal affects on the larger scheme of things.

I finished the game once with my human rogue and nearing completion on the elf mage with dwarf fighter about hlafway through. And all 3 parties are different.

All parties had at least one member of the 3 classes but they all played differently. My human rogue team did not have a dedicated archer. My mage team had 2 mages (all girls - female Warden, Wynne, Leliana and Shale). My dwarf warrior team has the same party class composition as my human rogue but the rogue is an archer. All 3 teams play differently.

[Dumori]

I have tried to go full mage and a ranged rouge works wonders.

[BigPapa]

Wow. Ya'll play a bunch. I gotta go with Oblivion. Like the story and the gameplay.

[I Hate All Life]

Certainly not the worst way to spend that time...I think I put nearly as much time into modding Morrowind as I spend playing it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Isn't it fun though? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Question for those of you that played Dragon Age: is it like Oblivion, where opponents and quests scale to your level? (So if you increase in level, so does most of the game world?) This game setup makes advancement arguably an illusion, which annoys me; that's part of why I prefer the Morrowind style, where there are places you just don't go unless you're properly leveled and equipped. YMMV of course.

[Dumori]

Obvlion dosen't lvl up that much with you and lvling up in Dragon age still adds more skills to you but then you can clone the books via shop glicht and thus be even better (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[I Hate All Life]

Obvlion dosen't lvl up that much with you and lvling up in Dragon age still adds more skills to you but then you can clone the books via shop glicht and thus be even better (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I don't know about the shop glitch, but I have to disagree with you about Oblivion. I've played it extensively and yeah, most of the opposition levels right along with you. You'll still encounter things like mud crabs and wolves at high level, but the NPC opposition, monsters and daedra scale with level.

[Dumori]

IDK then maybe I modded it out... I recall aiming for a more Morrowind like game adding for GP fast travle and such. Kept the magika regen and new combat but dropped the moves in the wrong direction (in my mind) it still had free fast travel witch I didn't use unless I had to (RL time constraints ect).

[Karoline]

Isn't it fun though? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Question for those of you that played Dragon Age: is it like Oblivion, where opponents and quests scale to your level? (So if you increase in level, so does most of the game world?) This game setup makes advancement arguably an illusion, which annoys me; that's part of why I prefer the Morrowind style, where there are places you just don't go unless you're properly leveled and equipped. YMMV of course.

I don't think it does. In the mines of morria that underground dwarf place with all the darkspawn I was wading through them like no ones business as I threw a fireball and followed it up with a firestorm to roast them as they tried standing up, but I think that might of been how it was supposed to feel since there were alot of them, and I still occasionally had a hard fight on my hands, like with the mother thing for example, or the smith. So yeah, don't know if it leveled througout the game, or maybe only leveled boss encounters, or didn't level at all.

I don't think Morrigan's mother levels.

[hobgoblin]

I couldn't even manage a single playthru with either Morrowind or Oblivion, because these games felt so incredibly repetitive and bland and arbitrary.

morrowind was interesting thanks to the various designs (especially the leftover dwarf ruins, and the big mushroom-like placed the dark elves lived in) while oblivion was mostly "meh" thanks to those pesky gates and their towers...

[Dumori]

It all lvls with you. Though only on your first time entering an area.

[hobgoblin]

It all lvls with you. Though only on your first time entering an area.

i heard that about morrowind, but didnt they drop that for oblivion?

oh, and there was one niggle about morrowind, and that was how crazy any kind of powering up of ranged combat spells would go up in terms of mana cost...

[Dumori]

Thats for dragon age. Morrowind had lvld lists for loot and monsters apearing was done well enought as well an made some sense plot wise longer you took to do the game the deadlier the common monsters got likely due to the BBG's plan. Oblivion if i recall lvls every thing madly and you have to do some side quests in a sectain lvl range or there are broken/undoable.

[Bob Lord of Evil]

Thats for dragon age. Morrowind had lvld lists for loot and monsters apearing was done well enought as well an made some sense plot wise longer you took to do the game the deadlier the common monsters got likely due to the BBG's plan. Oblivion if i recall lvls every thing madly and you have to do some side quests in a sectain lvl range or there are broken/undoable.

If memory serves there were a few side quests that would become unavailable if you had done things prior to them in Oblivion. And items in Oblivion would level to keep up with you prior to getting them, they stopped once you got them though.

One of the things that I did like about Dragon Age was being able to port over my character to the next (short) installment. Something that I wish more games would do!

The ability to create stuff within both games is cool, although I certainly would like to see it done more. In Neverwinter Nights I thought the whole go mine, smith, and create items was pretty cool, but again I don't really feel that it went far enough. For me, it would be so cool to have loads of options when creating items (weapons, armor, jewelry) to tweak the magical properties of said items.

Speaking of stuff, the Oblivion weapons and armor did stand out to me as being far more aesthitically pleasing (obviously...supremely subjective view though). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Dumori]

Of course Morrowind's enchanting system kicked the shit out of Oblivion's though with enough skill and people playing it we found amazing bugs with it such as dirt cheap spells/enchantments that where permanent when they shouldn't be The power of casting soul trap at your feet ect

[Karoline]

If memory serves there were a few side quests that would become unavailable if you had done things prior to them in Oblivion. And items in Oblivion would level to keep up with you prior to getting them, they stopped once you got them though.

That's why you installed the mod that had items level with you while you had them.

Not sure about any sidequests becoming unavailable though. I mean, I know there were a few that would close if you killed the person who gave them or something, but that's about all I know for sure.

[StealthSigma]

For me, the dialog was such a huge part of Dragon Age drawing me in! The ones that made me laugh the hardest...Shale, Oghren, Zevran! I was really bummed about Morrigan leaving too.

Morrigan, Oghren, Zevran is hilarious.

I also recommend in Awakening Oghren, Sigrun, and Velanna.

--

I don't think Morrigan's mother levels.

Enemies will scale with your level, however there is a minimum and maximum on how much the enemy will scale.

For instance, if you were to run off to Orzammar right after Ostragar you would find yourself quickly outclasses as most of the enemies are at the bottom of their scale but are still too difficult for you. The fight with bounty hunters in Frostback mountains is supposed to be too difficult for a low-level party to dissuade you from continuing.

[Karoline]

Enemies will scale with your level, however there is a minimum and maximum on how much the enemy will scale.

For instance, if you were to run off to Orzammar right after Ostragar you would find yourself quickly outclasses as most of the enemies are at the bottom of their scale but are still too difficult for you. The fight with bounty hunters in Frostback mountains is supposed to be too difficult for a low-level party to dissuade you from continuing.

Ah, that could explain it. The stuff in Orzammar was likely maxed out and still too weak for me except for the bosses, since that was basically the last thing I did before going to take on the archdemon.

[Karoline]

Woo, finally got my BG disks again, and am playing through it start to hopefully finish. Level 4 mage right now, about to go wyvern hunting in the cloakwood as I think I'm a bit behind on experience at this point since I haven't done a ton of sidequests.