Dragon Age 3: Inquisition announced

[Mem]

Killed my next dragon so only got one left to do,btw you know those shards you collect all over the areas well pretty sure I've them all and

Spoiler

unlocked all the cold and fire doors, but can't get the last spirit door opened says missing some ie six short ,anybody unlocked all doors?

 

[bystander36]

Killed my next dragon so only got one left to do,btw you know those shards you collect all over the areas well pretty sure I've them all and

Spoiler

unlocked all the cold and fire doors, but can't get the last spirit door opened says missing some ie six short ,anybody unlocked all doors?

I've finished two resist types to the end (3 doors each I believe), but I never collected all the shards. I always get bored before then.

 

[Carfax83]

If you access the Western Approach, you can have Leliana farm it for you on the war table missions. That's an easy way, without having to battle, if you are lower-level. Otherwise I found it mostly in Emerald Graves or Emprise Du Lion.

OK I'll try that. I'm at the Western Approach right now, but I haven't run across any Everite as of yet.

But man, this map is even better looking than the Emerald Graves! I know I've said it many times before, but using FB3 engine for DAI was the best decision Bioware ever made! :biggrin:

Frostbite 3 is pumping out some impressive draw distances, although to be honest, even though the Western Approach looks beautiful, it's kind of barren:

 

[NoSoup4You]

Emprise Du Lion was my favorite map as far as graphics are concerned. But they all look fantastic.

I'm still disappointed at the complete lack of challenge on Hard mode. I almost solo'ed a lvl21 dragon at Emprise Du Lion with my lvl 20 sword/board Inquisitor, despite accidentally stumbling upon the dragon with only 2 healing potions left and no resistance tonics. Got the bastard to 15% health before his seemingly endless stream of dragonlings whittled my health down to zero. My Inquisitor is min/max'ed for max dps and knockdowns, so it's not like I was just turtling the whole fight... I do have a master dragon slaying rune though, which helped.

Anyway, 130 hours in and there's been almost no challenging fights. I'll have to start a new character after I finish and play on Nightmare to see if that's more fun.

 

[bystander36]

Emprise Du Lion was my favorite map as far as graphics are concerned. But they all look fantastic.

I'm still disappointed at the complete lack of challenge on Hard mode. I almost solo'ed a lvl21 dragon at Emprise Du Lion with my lvl 20 sword/board Inquisitor, despite accidentally stumbling upon the dragon with only 2 healing potions left and no resistance tonics. Got the bastard to 15% health before his seemingly endless stream of dragonlings whittled my health down to zero. My Inquisitor is min/max'ed for max dps and knockdowns, so it's not like I was just turtling the whole fight... I do have a master dragon slaying rune though, which helped.

Anyway, 130 hours in and there's been almost no challenging fights. I'll have to start a new character after I finish and play on Nightmare to see if that's more fun.

Tanks are definitely tanks. Without healing, a tank has to be capable of doing that, though at a VERY slow pace, and only if you control it. Nightmare is similar, but you almost always have to take some control of the tank, or you won't survive.

 

[zinfamous]

Killed my next dragon so only got one left to do,btw you know those shards you collect all over the areas well pretty sure I've them all and

Spoiler

unlocked all the cold and fire doors, but can't get the last spirit door opened says missing some ie six short ,anybody unlocked all doors?

Yes, I collected them all and opened all the doors.

Spoiler

not really worth it, imo--probably go for the spirit and fire doors first, if you want to choose

If you open your quest log and search each map (I do like how this is organized), you can check if the shard quest in each map is complete or not. Not all maps will have shards, btw. I found the most annoying to be Hissing Wastes. While there are a small number--something like 15 total shards--a few of those occulus will only reveal 2, or even 1 shard at a time. SO you spend way too much time looking for those dumb skulls, in a map that doesn't make it easy to find such things.

 

[Mem]

Yes, I collected them all and opened all the doors.

Spoiler

not really worth it, imo--probably go for the spirit and fire doors first, if you want to choose

If you open your quest log and search each map (I do like how this is organized), you can check if the shard quest in each map is complete or not. Not all maps will have shards, btw. I found the most annoying to be Hissing Wastes. While there are a small number--something like 15 total shards--a few of those occulus will only reveal 2, or even 1 shard at a time. SO you spend way too much time looking for those dumb skulls, in a map that doesn't make it easy to find such things.

Ok thanks,not too bothered about the shards,btw think I fixed my CTD and GSOD issue(grey screen of death) like this pic from the net

Every time I was fighting the last boss dragon would get either CTD or GSOD after 15 minutes or so,well I reduced my factory overclocked default setting by 5Mhz on my 280X,went through the whole boss fight with dragon(almost an hour) without any issues,was an intense battle.

 

[bystander36]

Ok thanks,not too bothered about the shards,btw think I fixed my CTD and GSOD issue(grey screen of death) like this pic from the net

Every time I was fighting the last boss dragon would get either CTD or GSOD after 15 minutes or so,well I reduced my factory overclocked default setting by 5Mhz on my 280X,went through the whole boss fight with dragon(almost an hour) without any issues,was an intense battle.

Does that happen often? I remember the 5000 series had a lot of issues with that. I think it was most often caused from overheating VRMs.

 

[Mem]

Does that happen often? I remember the 5000 series had a lot of issues with that. I think it was most often caused from overheating VRMs.

Since underclock none so far very stable,before underclock in DA:I happened twice(always with boss dragon) and twice in Crysis 2,those were the only two games so far out of all the games I played.

My case has got good cooling,4 case fans,smallest is 120mm(outdoor weather temp is only 4C at moment).

Weird since with Furmark GPU stress test it passed on the toughest setting.

So I was thinking either driver issue or overclock in certain games.

I also played Divinity Sin,ME3,Wasteland 2 etc and they had no issues,so appears to be only those games above before I did the 5Mhz underclock.

 

[bystander36]

Since underclock none so far very stable,before underclock in DA:I happened twice(always with boss dragon) and twice in Crysis 2,those were the only two games so far out of all the games I played.

My case has got good cooling,4 case fans,smallest is 120mm(outdoor weather temp is only 4C at moment).

Weird since with Furmark GPU stress test it passed on the toughest setting.

So I was thinking either driver issue or overclock in certain games.

I believe AMD and Nvidia drivers prevent Furmark from pushing GPU's too far, due to how much problems they used to cause.

But good case cooling won't fix over heating VRM's on the GPU board very well. What can fix the problem is adding heat sinks to the VRM's in some aftermarket kits.

If it has only happened in DAI and underclocking it a little fixes it, that is probably all I'd do, but if it was persistent, it is something to consider.

 

[Mem]

I believe AMD and Nvidia drivers prevent Furmark from pushing GPU's too far, due to how much problems they used to cause.

But good case cooling won't fix over heating VRM's on the GPU board very well. What can fix the problem is adding heat sinks to the VRM's in some aftermarket kits.

If it has only happened in DAI and underclocking it a little fixes it, that is probably all I'd do, but if it was persistent, it is something to consider.

I've one of these(OC version)

I got it cheap anyway so will keep any eye on it, but in general been stable,only DA:I and Crysis have shown any crash issues.


Only has to last until R9 380/390s appear,then will be upgrading again to Nvidia or AMD.

 

[bystander36]

Anyways, many of those aftermarket cooling setups do nothing to cool the VRM's. Some are actually worse than the reference cards, but most don't know due to that not being measured by the software.

I did a search and it appears the 280x's have had a lot of VRM overheating issues. Not specifically the Dual X, but from all brands. Here is one such link: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...m-over-heating-and-throttling-problem.196972/

 

[QuantumPion]

I'm continually blown away by the level design of this game. I just did the Chataeu d'Onterre area in Emerald Graves. The mansion, like every other area of this game, is just fantastic eye candy all around. And it blows my mind that they put together that whole zone just for a little 10 minute sidequest. Quite the change from DA2!

I think my favorite aesthetic change in DA:I is simply the dark cave and ruin areas. I really like how claustrophobic and scary they are and how your view distance really is quite short. IMO the entire Deep Roads area of DA:O should have been like this, instead of the bright cartoony design which reminded me more of Molten Core in WoW.

 

[Carfax83]

Yeah level design is great. The only thing that bugs me is the lack of complete seamlessness on maps, but that decision was likely brought about by last gen console support rather than an actual engine limitation.

LoD is actually REALLY good as well, with detail being very high for most objects at long distances. I wouldn't mind seeing how Frostbite 3 stacks up against Ubisoft's AnvilNext engine in terms of LoD capability and seamlessness, but AC Unity is rendering a whole lot more than DAI, so it's not a fair comparison.

I'd also love to see how Frostbite 3 handles a game with much greater density and scale. Perhaps when the next Mass Effect game comes out, we'll see the engine pushed to it's limits if last gen support is dropped.

On another note, how can I get more ability points? I just turned level 14, and after reconfiguring, I only have one ability point for use in my specialization tree!

I need moar!

 

[Mem]

Anyways, many of those aftermarket cooling setups do nothing to cool the VRM's. Some are actually worse than the reference cards, but most don't know due to that not being measured by the software.

I did a search and it appears the 280x's have had a lot of VRM overheating issues. Not specifically the Dual X, but from all brands. Here is one such link: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...m-over-heating-and-throttling-problem.196972/

Still no issues,btw found all the shards now ,btw I did increase the power limit settings in AMD overdrive as well by 1%,will continue tweaking it.


I did read this,

This "power" control option, doesn't tweak the voltage. It just increases the limit of power from the PSU that the GPU can accept. Which means if the card needs to draw more power for a demanding game, it will be possible to do so if you increase the power limit from this setting. This is totally independent from voltage tweak/ overclocking. It helps your gpu perform better though.

So far stability is solid,I'm using Corsair TX 850W(Seasonic version).

 

[Red Hawk]

The "Power control" setting on AMD cards is indeed not the same as voltage tweaking. Like you said, it changes the amount of power the GPU will accept from the PSU. Some games and applications (particularly Furmark...) can be so computationally demanding that they cause a graphics card to exceed its TDP and overheat even at stock clock settings, causing crashes or even damaging your graphics card and system in general. Modern GPUs are designed to detect this excessive power draw and overheating and automatically downclock to prevent it. This downclocking, of course, hurts actual graphics performance. By raising the "Power Control" setting, you are raising the power draw/temperature level at which the downclocking kicks in. For games that don't push your graphics card like that, you won't see much benefit, but some games, like Crysis, I believe, will see a performance benefit. DAI may be one of the games that benefits. As long as your PC and graphics card have decent cooling, I don't think there's much risk to it. Just don't push the power control setting to max and run Furmark.

At least, that's my understanding of the whole thing.

 

[escrow4]

That is precisely why I don't OC anymore. One day, one app will cause the whole thing to fart and fall over. The end. You may never find out why and it may only be that app but pfffft. Stock is stock. It will work.

 

[Carfax83]

Here are some 1440p screenshots showing the awesome graphics in this game, focusing on the draw distance, shadows and ambient occlusion. Really great to be sure. And the engine is very efficient with resources using around 3GB of VRAM and 3GB of RAM.

I really wonder how AC Unity would have looked like if Ubisoft had used the Frostbite 3 engine for it.. Would the LoD issues get better or worse? Better if DAI is any indication, but as I said before, even DAI isn't rendering as much detail as AC Unity..

Spoiler

 

[Mem]

The "Power control" setting on AMD cards is indeed not the same as voltage tweaking. Like you said, it changes the amount of power the GPU will accept from the PSU. Some games and applications (particularly Furmark...) can be so computationally demanding that they cause a graphics card to exceed its TDP and overheat even at stock clock settings, causing crashes or even damaging your graphics card and system in general. Modern GPUs are designed to detect this excessive power draw and overheating and automatically downclock to prevent it. This downclocking, of course, hurts actual graphics performance. By raising the "Power Control" setting, you are raising the power draw/temperature level at which the downclocking kicks in. For games that don't push your graphics card like that, you won't see much benefit, but some games, like Crysis, I believe, will see a performance benefit. DAI may be one of the games that benefits. As long as your PC and graphics card have decent cooling, I don't think there's much risk to it. Just don't push the power control setting to max and run Furmark.

At least, that's my understanding of the whole thing.

Only set at 1% as I stated,my my card is pretty good cooling wise getting around 70c max with Furmark stress GPU intensive test(still no crashes overclocked).


I was playing all last night,had no issues in DA:I apart from one stupid quest "notes on the wastes"(can't find them) got 6 of 8,last two no idea where they are at.

Update found the last two but not worth the time or hassle.

 

[cbrunny]

I'm surprised at some of this praise because I'm having some reasonably large pop-in issues. Mostly textures and landscape pop-in, but it's very surprising to say the least. Close up this game looks great, and after everything has loaded it looks great, but pop-in definitely exists in a bad way for me. (4790k, 7970CF, 840 EVO, 8 GB ram).

 

[ControlD]

I'm surprised at some of this praise because I'm having some reasonably large pop-in issues. Mostly textures and landscape pop-in, but it's very surprising to say the least. Close up this game looks great, and after everything has loaded it looks great, but pop-in definitely exists in a bad way for me. (4790k, 7970CF, 840 EVO, 8 GB ram).

From what I have been reading, the texture issues are mainly crossfire / SLI related. I ran the game with a single GTX 970 and didn't have any texture pop-in that I noticed.

 

[bystander36]

Only set at 1% as I stated,my my card is pretty good cooling wise getting around 70c max with Furmark stress GPU intensive test(still no crashes overclocked).

Your problem was not the GPU temperature. That screen you got is a result of VRM temperatures, which likely are near 100C, and when you got those screens, probably were near 110-120C. VRM's typically can handle more heat than the GPU itself.

 

[Mem]

Your problem was not the GPU temperature. That screen you got is a result of VRM temperatures, which likely are near 100C, and when you got those screens, probably were near 110-120C. VRM's typically can handle more heat than the GPU itself.

Still rock stable after many hours all day,I just found the most annoying thing in the game,the well of sorrows puzzle,why don't my companions stay still when I tell them to,it's very frustrating because the puzzle is not that hard but your companions that keep moving making it virtually impossible,I'm about to give up if they don't keep still,hold button is crap.

Update:Finally did that part,anyway on to the next part .

 

[KeithTalent]

About 20 hours in now and the game is starting to grow on me as I get into the story. Still not sure I love the whole War Room thing. Mem you were 100% right, I should not have gone with a mage, it's a shell of what it used to be.

I also hate that I screwed up the look of my character and have no way to change it. The graphics are weird so my character looks very different than when I created her, she also seems like she is just sort of overlayed onto the world unlike in previous games.

Overall I am enjoying it though and would like to just go home and play more right now, but it's definitely my least favourite of the series so far.

KT

 

[Mem]

About 20 hours in now and the game is starting to grow on me as I get into the story. Still not sure I love the whole War Room thing. Mem you were 100% right, I should not have gone with a mage, it's a shell of what it used to be.

I also hate that I screwed up the look of my character and have no way to change it. The graphics are weird so my character looks very different than when I created her, she also seems like she is just sort of overlayed onto the world unlike in previous games.

Overall I am enjoying it though and would like to just go home and play more right now, but it's definitely my least favourite of the series so far.

KT

At least you can replay it later fully patched up with a rogue maybe?...Personally they should of kept DA as DA,they got too ambitious and started changing/stripping too many things.

Story keeps it together but DA:I could of been so much better in many ways.


Regardless should be interesting to see how DA4 pans out ,do they dumb down or consolized it even more or go back to the old ways with improvements,we shall see.