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[KaguroDraven]

No offence but I don't see why people say makeing it one set backround is 'makeing it like mass effect'. Almost every computer/concole RPG EVER, even some of the best ever made like Baldurs Gate, have one set backround. Yes in some of them you can make some changes, but they are tiny and they are rarely, if ever, touched upon in game. Hell even Origins just had 6 tutorials, then mentioning said tutorial every once and awhile. Only three of them effect the story in any way, Dwarf noble, Mage, and Human Noble. City elf barly gets anything in the real game besides generic 'you r an elf' stuff, Dalish gets it worse except for that single encounter at camp and the dalish camp not being complete asshats, and Dwarf commoner gets shit basic. They are just flavor, and while fun little storys they don't mean anything and barly effect the main game except for how some codex entries read. Most RPGs have the single set character, becouse it's easier to handle and write a GOOD story around, rather than something more generic that all of the different origins would need a reason to get involved in. I for one think its a good thing, other stuff? We'll have to see.

[squeakyReaper]

That's one thing that irritated me about Origins.  The back stories matter so much, along with the lore, yes?  Well, why am I a Dwarf in the Fade.  It says many, many times I cannot go into the Fade due to my inability to use magic...

[KaguroDraven]

That's one thing that irritated me about Origins.  The back stories matter so much, along with the lore, yes?  Well, why am I a Dwarf in the Fade.  It says many, many times I cannot go into the Fade due to my inability to use magic...

Other way around, can't do magic becouse you can't go into the Fade. But your point is still valid.
Normal people go into the fade when the sleep, for dreams, mages can go in aware of their surroundings, it's what makes demons like them. Dwarves don't have dreams becouse they can't enter the Fade.

[HLBeta]

Friendly fire. It's what gave positioning in combat meaning. Now it's gone, you just throw area effects carelessly. It is greatly dumbed down by this alone.

For me, friendly fire meant that I simply didn't use a great many of the game's spells because I wasn't willing to micromanage the entire party and couldn't trust the game's combat AI to avoid setting my party on fire. I tend to end up with a single mage in the party who is dedicated to healing with a skillset entirely devoted to neutralizing targets with spells like mana clash and paralysis. Being able to cut loose with combat magic in DA2 is a welcome change for me, since I can take greater advantage of the game's content without having to significantly alter my playstyle.

This may be best handled as a simple toggle in the gameplay options, but I suppose there'll mods for it if you're dedicated.

But that's exactly what tactics are about - micromanagement. Myth or Dark Omen would be boring and simplistic if you could just throw the most powerful attacks right at your melee units without penalty.

And the problem with modding friendly fire back in is that the AI would probably be oblivious to this and you probably couldn't stop it from doing stupid shit.

I'm not saying that removing friendly fire from non-nightmare difficulties is necessarily a sound gameplay decision, just that it works to the benefit of relatively lazy individuals like myself. I am personally glad that I'll be able to make freer use of the game's skillset this time around without having to worry too much about the AI party members hauling off immolating the party.

As for the AI handing friendly fire, it'll be just like Origins. None of the AI characters in Origins displayed even the roughest understanding of the mechanic. In my most recent playthrough this led to an easy victory over Sloth's arcane horror form when he froze himself solid with a blizzard spell. Good times.

That's one thing that irritated me about Origins.  The back stories matter so much, along with the lore, yes?  Well, why am I a Dwarf in the Fade.  It says many, many times I cannot go into the Fade due to my inability to use magic...

My understanding of this is that dwarves are not capable of naturally entering the fade via dreams or projection, but can still be enter the fade if forced there by powerful magic. Dwarves only have near-immunity to lyrium poisoning which suggests that they still have some degree of connection to the fade, albeit to a far lesser degree than other races (except possibly the darkspawn, depending on if you take the "soulless" thing seriously or not). If true, than it is conceivable that magic intended to forcibly activate and maintain a connection to the fade could still work on them although it would probably require some extra effort.

[Krelian]

Yeah, I think dwarves are like demons, as both cant travel the veil naturally, but can do it if something helps them, and the veil is weakened.

Anyways, my PC is a noble dwarf and I wondered the same thing both times you go into the fade. I assumed it was something like that the explanation.

[Shadowlord]

For me, friendly fire meant that I simply didn't use a great many of the game's spells because I wasn't willing to micromanage the entire party and couldn't trust the game's combat AI to avoid setting my party on fire. I tend to end up with a single mage in the party who is dedicated to healing with a skillset entirely devoted to neutralizing targets with spells like mana clash and paralysis. Being able to cut loose with combat magic in DA2 is a welcome change for me, since I can take greater advantage of the game's content without having to significantly alter my playstyle.

For me, friendly fire meant "Brew lots of healing potions (which are generally for boss battles, anyways). Walk into the middle of a ton of enemies, and cast Death Cloud on self while having automatic life-draining abilities (from living enemies or from corpses) active. Have Wynne on healing duty. Watch the enemies all die and myself survive relatively unharmed." I didn't have Morrigan in my party 90% of the time - the only mages were me and Wynne, and none of us used blood magic. With Wynne's protective spells and healing we didn't have any problem with AOE spells, as long as nobody used fire - and none of us learned any fire magic, so we were all good.

[Psyco Jelly]

I really liked the first game, it had pretty good storytelling (not as good as Bioware's other stuff, I would say), but by far the best part was the tactics required to do any good at it. I went Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage and had some real fun. It's sort of an in-joke that Alistar goes down like a chump all the time while the mage standing next to him is invincible. Seriously, Alistar just seems to have glass bones or something. No matter what I do he can't stand any kind of focus fire.

[Shadowlord]

I more or less went "*manipulate* *manipulate* Oh my gods, Alistair, you're FIRED. Oghren's taking your job. *some time later* Let's go see your sister. *manipulate* Also, go marry Anora. You know you want to be King, and I think you'll enjoy the perks, hint hint. Oh yeah, and we're recruiting Loghain. Don't get upset, I'll probably have him stab the Archdemon for me."

Turns out I stabbed the Archdemon out of pure chance - Loghain was meleeing it and doing a TERRIBLE job, while I blasted it with spells, when the game-ending archdemon-killing sword-stabbing animation took over my guy. I survived the utterly unintended (and against my will) attack on the Archdemon, however. I was a little surprised, because I had sent Morrigan away after spending that last night with her, and was not expecting to survive due to lack of proximity to her when the Archdemon was killed.

[umiman]

You might want to put that in spoilers.