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[Taricus]

Well some of them have friends, they just happen to be dead or somehow inconsiquential to the story. Plus there is the fact that video game characters, esspecially in RPGs, tend to be some varrient of Mary Sue, the universe revolves around them and such.

There should be an entire game where you're a companion, and nothing you ever do matters.  You just follow the main character around who is the chosen one, saves the world, and bones three party members.  It'd be so meta that gamers would eat it up.

Only if you can raise funds with illustrations of the hero's "Conquests" 

[KaguroDraven]

Well some of them have friends, they just happen to be dead or somehow inconsiquential to the story. Plus there is the fact that video game characters, esspecially in RPGs, tend to be some varrient of Mary Sue, the universe revolves around them and such.

There should be an entire game where you're a companion, and nothing you ever do matters.  You just follow the main character around who is the chosen one, saves the world, and bones three party members.  It'd be so meta that gamers would eat it up.

The only thing you get to do, besides take a sword to the face so the hero doesn't get a scar, is make snide remarks every once an awhile and act as one of the hero's pack mules.

[Zangi]

Well some of them have friends, they just happen to be dead or somehow inconsiquential to the story. Plus there is the fact that video game characters, esspecially in RPGs, tend to be some varrient of Mary Sue, the universe revolves around them and such.

There should be an entire game where you're a companion, and nothing you ever do matters.  You just follow the main character around who is the chosen one, saves the world, and bones three party members.  It'd be so meta that gamers would eat it up.

The only thing you get to do, besides take a sword to the face so the hero doesn't get a scar, is make snide remarks every once an awhile and act as one of the hero's pack mules.

Depends on how you spin it... the 'class' of the hero... your own class and skillset...

Add in persuasion and you can manipulate the hero to do what you want.  If you have no persuasion, you'll have to deal with the hero doing whatever he/she wanted. (Preset route which can be modified by other things you can do / outcome of things.)

Its a spiral to eventual doom/shame for the hero.... and maybe you if things don't turn out right.   
Its your job to help the fool do his/her job!  Or maybe your own agenda?

[Jreengus]

Was anyone else really bugged by the lack of spears in Dragon Age? Is this really a world where no-one ever though of putting a knife on the end of a big stick? That revolutionary concept would have done more for the dwarves than a million golems ever could. The deep roads are perfect for a phalanx, a few hundred dwarves could hold the line against  any number of darkspawn since their only option would be to throw themselves onto the dwarven spears.

Not to mention that the humans could of easily fielded a massive army to fight the darkspawn once someone realised all you really need to give the militia is a spear, shield and some basic training on marching as a unit. I honestly believe that the only reason the darkspawn were a threat was due to the fact everyone seems to believe battles should be fought as a kind of series of one on one duels with swords.

[Stworca]

Ahh Dragon age. Let me quote myself from my review of the game :

"...Dragon Age is a good game, but not outstanding. Most of Biowares ideas were top notch, but they lacked polishing and testing. The game is pretty long, and every RPG fan should play through it at least once, its worth it. Even with all its flaws its one that you should try out, and one of the best RPG's released in the last few years, but not a candidate for top 10 in any competition."

Here's the link to ze whole thing, quite long. You have been warned. (gave it a 7/10)

[Sir Pseudonymous]

Wouldn't Ogres and the abundance of fireball hurling mages kind of fuck up the stability of a phalanx?

I hate that the notion of formations and the area of control around a melee fighter gets ignored in most games though. What use is a tank when, as he charges down a narrow passage or stands blocking a door, every single enemy runs past him unhindered to attack the archers or squishy wizards behind him? In NWN you had D&D's attack of opportunity system, but even that didn't really do anything because of how few one could make, and how little damage an attack did in comparison to the target's health.

The fact that mechanically masses of infantry don't fight as masses of infantry means that more realistic army weapons, like spears with shields, don't really work so well, and it would further add to the gameplay and story segregation if you had cutscenes with masses of spear toting schiltroms or shieldwalls, but then there's not a spear to be found in the game itself.

[Rakonas]

Personally I strongly liked Origins, and am going to be playing DA2 at release, hopefully enjoying it.

Well some of them have friends, they just happen to be dead or somehow inconsiquential to the story. Plus there is the fact that video game characters, esspecially in RPGs, tend to be some varrient of Mary Sue, the universe revolves around them and such.

There should be an entire game where you're a companion, and nothing you ever do matters.  You just follow the main character around who is the chosen one, saves the world, and bones three party members.  It'd be so meta that gamers would eat it up.

The only thing you get to do, besides take a sword to the face so the hero doesn't get a scar, is make snide remarks every once an awhile and act as one of the hero's pack mules.

Depends on how you spin it... the 'class' of the hero... your own class and skillset...

Add in persuasion and you can manipulate the hero to do what you want.  If you have no persuasion, you'll have to deal with the hero doing whatever he/she wanted. (Preset route which can be modified by other things you can do / outcome of things.)

Its a spiral to eventual doom/shame for the hero.... and maybe you if things don't turn out right.   
Its your job to help the fool do his/her job!  Or maybe your own agenda?

I'd play it.

[squeakyReaper]

That was meant to be a satirical comment, but now that I think of it...  being a bard, following along with the adventures of a thoroughly drunken hero (who is easily influenced) could be fun.  xD

[Jreengus]

Ogres would be dealt with by ballistae, which we see in game so dwarves do have them, and archers. Similarly the dwarves would rely on archers to kill emissaries and their natural resistance to magic would afford them some protection. Even if their ranks are broken they can kill the emissary/ogre and reform and they'd still be way more effective and suffer a lot less casualties than they would otherwise.

[Zangi]

Fools... fighting in Dragon-Age is all about individual glory!  You cannot have that when you are fighting in formation!  Also, spears are weapons used by off-screen fodder peasants.  There is no glory in poking things!


Magic resistance, technically doesn't protect against explosions and knock-back.  Mages can still kill dwarves easy enough.... if left unmolested.  Also, darkspawn are large in numbers... even with a spearwall formation and good rotation schedule for the fatigue... you still have to contend losses and what is likely to be flagging morale.
A prepared defense/patrol will do fine... but an understaffed force/patrol can be overwhelmed just as easy.

Dwarves will still lose to long-term attrition... slower, but still happening.

[Jreengus]

Slow the attrition enough though and the gains made during blights easily compensate. Anyhow they never would have lost so much to begin with, darkspawn would have never become more than a minor threat, either they would have been wiped out entirely or else they'd only really pop up in the occasional place and would quickly be put down.

[KaguroDraven]

Ogres didn't even exist until Quenari landed on the shores of the continent who's name I forget. Also, I would totally play a game where you are the Hero's 2-dimentional sidekick/companion, weither or not you can influence them.
Edit:

Fools... fighting in Dragon-Age is all about individual glory!  You cannot have that when you are fighting in formation!  Also, spears are weapons used by off-screen fodder peasants elves.  There is no glory in poking things!

Fixed, Dragon Age humans hate elves almost as much as we do.

[ductape]

Playing this now and need some advice.

I know I suck at games, "not doing it right" and all that so bear with me. I am having so much trouble with combat at times, that I continually have to replay fights until i get my tactics just perfect, to the point I am frustrated enough to not play the game as much as I would like to. It's especially bad when I forget to save often enough and have to redo several fights, and I just hate this style of play, it reminds me of 80's RPG play style.

When I first started playing I just was sloppy and let the AI handle a lot while I watched and did a little bit of stuff with my main hero. That didnt last long. At this point, I am completely micro-managing all of the characters and I find that to be quite fun actually! But I am still loosing fights and thats the not so fun part. It seems like I am just not leveled up enough for the encounters I am facing all the time. Even when I find new recruits, they are usually a level or two higher than the rest of my party, for example I just got the elf rogue assassin and he is level 10 while my party is 8 and 9.

After Lothering, I tried the mage tower and got my ass handed to me quick so I then went to Redcliffe and owned all that then headed to Denerim. I was able to zing through a bunch of the stuff there, but the Deserted Building halted me about 6 rooms in, the one with 4 mages in it was too much so I beat it back out. I did all I could in the town so decided to head out to the countryside again, where more "ass handing over" was smited upon me. It took me 3 tries to beat the elf assassin party. Im thinking of trying to go back to the Mage Tower thing now since I have leveled up some, but the need to zigzag all around and to save the boos fights for later, farming the easy part of dungeons for XP and moving on seems kinda silly.

I bet I need to just stick it out until my party gets a bit tougher and then I will have more skills and spells for crowd control and mage/archer supression but it's tough, any advice?

[squeakyReaper]

Everyone levels up on the same scale, really.  There's a little bonus experience here and there, but everyone will stay within two levels of each other.  I suggest hitting a merchant up though, as I went a good part of the game without new equipment... and after buying some new armor, the game became much more bearable.