Dragon Age: Origins Forum Activity
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Category: News ArchiveHits: 1313
Chris Priestly on weapon quickslots:
...you will have the weapon quickslot which will let you switch between 2 sets of weapons. This can be a sword and shield (one set) and a bow with ice arrows (second set). Or a staff (one set) and two daggers (second set). Or one two-handed maul (one set) and a different two-handed maul (second set). What you put in the weapons slots is up to you. You change the items in this slot by switching the items in your inventory screen.
The idea is to allow players (and party NPCs as well) the choice between two types of offensae. So if you are playing a ranged archer but someone gets too close, you can switch on the fly to a sword & shield without needing to pause the game and go into the inventory screen. You still can do so if you wish, this just prepares something so you can keep going if you choose.
There are other items, like spells, grenades, potions, etc that can be stored in the quick bar (which is slightly different than the weapons slot, but works the same way), but you do not put "clothing" (armor, rings, belts, etc) in the quickbar.
Chris Priestly on mage weapons:
Mages can use any weapon they wish (as long as they meet the requirements, like strength for example).
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Different staffs do have bonuses to the characters (spell power, defense, etc).
Even out of mana, a mage can always use their staff to fire off a basic arcane bolt. I am not thinking of the damage staffs do. Certainly there are weapons that, if they can be wielded, can do more damage than a basic arcane bolt. I would just suggest equipping the mage with a staff and use the weapon quickslot to equip some other weapon as well. Then you can choose to use a bow or sword or whatever if you choose, but always have the staff to fall back on.
Still, each player has their own vision for their character. It's up to the individual and if Sylvus wants to have a word in one slot and a bow in the other and shun staffs all together, that's up to him.
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You cannot dual wield staffs.
You can run around in circles as much as you want. However, the enemy AI is far too intelligent to keep following you while you attack/kill them. They may start following the "runner" but they will break off when it makes sense to do so.
Chris Priestly on health gains and regeneration:
When you level up you get increased max heath. The total amount of health increases (say from 20 to 30).
Since your heath regenerates when you are not in combat, it will be unlikely for you not to be at full heath when you level up. If you are hurt, once you have leveled up, you will rapidly regenerate until you reach your new 30 health.
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You do not level up in combat, so the point is moot.
If you get the needed points to go from lvl 3 to lvl 4, you level up, get new skills, more hp, etc after combat is completed.
Chris Priestly on dual-wielding two-handed swords:
No. You cannot dual-wield 2 handed weapons. Sorry.
Chris Priestly on dragon intelligence:
We keep saying this, but they are not intelligent magic-wielding prismatic creatures ala D&D. They are massively powerful giant lizards who will kill you if you annoy them and occasionally breath fire across the landscape ala Dragon Age.
Calling dragons "old gods" is similar to how ancient man believed thunder and lightning was caused by the gods. When mankind failed to understand something, it would attribute it to the magical or sacred. Basically this is the same in DAO. Imagine being a caveman-type back in Thedas. You barely know how to make fire and a stone knife and here are these huge beasts that fly and breathe fire. Hence, gods.
Ross Gardner on multiple monitor support:
DAO fully supports running in windowed mode as well as Alt-Tab and Alt-Enter to switch between that and fullscreen. Obviously something like in-game gamma settings will not work in windowed mode, but it is totally possible to run in the "fullscreen window" mentioned above.
Actually, on the 7000 series Nvidia cards it runs slightly better in windowed mode due to an obscure bug in their drivers combined with the way our renderer works.
