Stolen Pixels #149: Approval Ratings

[UAProxy]

Sten is the best tank and is quite amusing

BLASPHEMY!

A Maxed-out Alistair with the Champion specialization is the best tank, and you know it!

Anyway, does anyone know if there is party limit mod out there?

I know that if you have the PC version and crack into a couple .ini files to enable the developer console, there's a code that disables the limit altogether. There's also one that makes your character never die no matter how much damage she takes, which besides being a godmode in and of itself makes blood mages absolute terrors.

Anyhow, I'm a fan of Morrigan and Zev myself. It's particularly fun to make Morrigan love you, then piss her off by bringing it up and listening to her rant on about how love is a nonexistent thing and a weakness and you shouldn't have anything to do with it and oh screw it get in my tent you fool.

More recently I've been going to everything alone, though. The above console commands let me cheat and watch as entire legions of soldiers simply stop in their tracks and take serious DoT. And then I stab them. Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage FTW.

 

[UAProxy]

Question- How much is Morrigan like Qara? Because I couldn't stand to take her along more than I needed to in NWN 2.

Nothing at all like her. Qara is a *****. Morrigan is a sadistic tomboy with an actual sense of wit. She's more like a more aggressive version of Neeshka. Not entirely, but still a bit of a closer match.

EDIT: Aaaand I DP'd. Sorry, folks, got sidetracked!

 

[Noone From Nowhere]

The lack of a Morality Meter is compensated for by the love interest characters, with Morrigan and Zevran being the 'Dark Side' (or deep grey, as it were)and Leliana and Alistair being the Light Side choices.

Bioware could have been a touch more subtle, though. A Swamp Witch and a son-of-a-whore Assassin who loves his job contrasting a what is essentially a Nun and a Templar? Seriously.

I had no problems getting along with Morrigan playing an Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage. Trying to avoid having to kill Leliana was more of a concern. It's more of an issue than you'd think!

 

[The3rdEye]

"... doesn't actually care about survival of the fittest or anything like that. Her actual drive is just a desire to go through life and grief people for amusement or profit. She's a griefer, and enjoys seeing people unhappy."

I did a spit take when I read this. Surely someone isn't claiming, on the Escapist, an online magazine (?) whose constituents include: an angry Aussie yob swearing into a headset mic for 5 minutes about how shitty a game is despite how incredibly enjoyable or well made, a pair of commentators whose entire "bit" is to heckle every possible nuance of a cut scene, and which has a large amount of it's content provided by monkeys who have haphazardly discovered the ability to pound keys in a sequence comparative to coherent thought in between sessions of beating their chests in threat displays and throwing their excrement at each other, surely someone from such a site isn't referring, implying or inferring the trait of "griefer" upon anything else in all of creation... right?

I know, out of context, blah blah blah. I've had the inkling to write a similar post for a while and that paragraph was too inviting an invitation to resist, regardless of where I found it. Now that chest beating is out of my system, I need to go decorate my living room fecal brown.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

You expected something else from a character named after one of the more more psychotic war goddesses?

 

[sartezalb]

I think an interesting moment is when you first meet Wynne in the Circle tower...Morrigan rants about how the mages "deserve to be destroyed," but when you tell her off and say she could have been in the same situation under different circumstances, she actually does a double take and offers a response that essentially says "Okaaaaay...maybe I didn't quite think that through."

Maybe Bioware was trying to create a character who's been raised one way but slowly (really slowly) realizes she can't just take all of those "childhood lessons" at face value as she actually interacts with the world she was "prepared" for (they *do* seem rather proud of Morrigan as their pet creation)...

Or they tried too hard to make her "complex" and ended up with a very bad case of multiple personality disorder. These writer types tend to do one thing or the other.

 

[Woem]

I had her with me for the entire game, and she definatly quietens down later. Also I didn't have her running around with side boob showing, mostly because the thought of her in chantry robes amused me somehow.

You know, this happens with a lot of characters made by Bioware. Viconia in Baldur's Gate II also softens up if you romance with her (she even stops insulting you, imagine that), Aerie grows some balls (as substitute wings) if you stick up with her whining long enough, ... This is actually a good thing of course: it adds depth to these characters instead of having stereotyping them.

 

[Osloq]

God Shamus, your observations are so in line with my observations of games it's scary. Guess we should make out or something.

 

[Otterpoet]

Alistair and Ohgren is better.

The whole conversation about polishing their weapons is absolutely hilarious.

Am I the only one who got off with Leliana instead?

Actually, I prefer Leliana and have found that I sway toward her no matter what Origin I'm playing. I think the song sequence did it for me. Although Alistair's gift certainly melted the heart of my young mage - he's such a whiner that she wanted nothing to do with him XD

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

I had her with me for the entire game, and she definatly quietens down later. Also I didn't have her running around with side boob showing, mostly because the thought of her in chantry robes amused me somehow.

Putting Morrigan in Chantry robes!

Truly devious. I salute you.

I didn't actually think of that myself but as it turns out,

Spoiler: I didn't have to.

The game did it for me! When/if (not sure if it's avoidable or not) you get captured towards the end-game, you get to select two characters who will doubtless show up to rescue you. I picked Leliana and Morrigan, and lo and behold they showed up in Chantry robes, going for the whole "pretend to be offering last rites" shtick to get into the jail. Leliana of course could pull it off while sounding authentic, but it was genuinely hilarious to watch Morrigan pretending to be a pious Chantry member (her prayers boiled down to asking the Maker not to inflict all sorts of boils on the soldiers for not letting them in, heh).

Even though it's ridiculously easy to romance Morrigan, I inevitably go after Leliana, who is actually nothing at all like the nun she initially appears to be (Alistair is every bit as straight-laced as he seems to be though).

 

[lordswift1]

Yeah i loved Morrigan. I just didnt like the other choices. ok i disagreed with some of her decisions but i took that as a way to teach her right way to do things. RP way.
Maybe i have a think for dark ladies i dont know, but i made sure i had my way with her whenever i could.
Oh one thing you have to do is kiss Morrigan infront of Alistair. Its so funny.

Spoiler

Also because in her sorta way that allows her to show that she cared for me. Before the final battle she offered herself to me. But she admitted that it was to perform a dark ritual that would allow me to survive the slaying off the dragon (Forget its name). Morrigan gets knocked up and leaves right after the battle to never be seen again. I have a feeling if we can carry on our saves like on mass effect 2 then thats going to bite me on the ass. Since my child will be some sorta God apparently

 

[Chipperz]

Am I the only one who got off with Leliana instead?

Nope, I got off with Leliana. She was awesome.

I could not stand Leliana, a religious nutcase...

Yeah... Play through her storyline and get back to us on that one.

EDIT - For crimes including disagreeing with me and wanting to make everyone die when I was playing a good guy, I specced Morrigan out as my Healer and referred to her as Healbitch for the entire game. It was far more satisfying than I could have hoped!

 

[Jaranja]

Am I the only one who got off with Leliana instead?

Nope, I got off with Leliana. She was awesome.

I loved her storyline, she's been around.

 

[Aptus]

Am I the only one who got off with Leliana instead?

Nope, I got off with Leliana. She was awesome.

I could not stand Leliana, a religious nutcase...

Yeah... Play through her storyline and get back to us on that one.

EDIT - For crimes including disagreeing with me and wanting to make everyone die when I was playing a good guy, I specced Morrigan out as my Healer and referred to her as Healbitch for the entire game. It was far more satisfying than I could have hoped!

I did not, but I saw a friend that did, soo...

Spoiler

We have a religious nutcase convert that is also a hypocritical thief/murderer and insecure. Oh yes much better.

 

[Chipperz]

Am I the only one who got off with Leliana instead?

Nope, I got off with Leliana. She was awesome.

I could not stand Leliana, a religious nutcase...

Yeah... Play through her storyline and get back to us on that one.

EDIT - For crimes including disagreeing with me and wanting to make everyone die when I was playing a good guy, I specced Morrigan out as my Healer and referred to her as Healbitch for the entire game. It was far more satisfying than I could have hoped!

I did not, but I saw a friend that did, soo...

Spoiler

We have a religious nutcase convert that is also a hypocritical thief/murderer and insecure. Oh yes much better.

Spoiler

Your mate's just wrong. She lied about the Maker so she could join your party to get away from the Chantry, who thought she was just as bad as Majorlaine(? Gah I've forgotten her name) did. Practically the only thing she doesn't lie about is her personal belief in the Maker and her commitment to your quest.

She's far more thought-through and fleshed out than Morrigan.

 

[Desert Tiger]

Am I the only one who got off with Leliana instead?

I could not stand Leliana, a religious nutcase (amongst other things the discussion between her and Frank Horrigan about the nature of the world comes to mind) brrrr... I am also assuming they wanted her dialogue to sound french but it sounded more like she had a couple too many blows to the head, every time she opened her mouth I wanted to turn the sound off.

The reason they did that is because she's from Orlay, who all sound like French people. However, she's been living in Ferelden for a while, who all speak like generic English piss poor peasant people. So she's all half and half.

 

[Allo-Allo-Allo]

Am I the only one who got off with Leliana instead?

I could not stand Leliana, a religious nutcase (amongst other things the discussion between her and Frank Horrigan about the nature of the world comes to mind) brrrr... I am also assuming they wanted her dialogue to sound french but it sounded more like she had a couple too many blows to the head, every time she opened her mouth I wanted to turn the sound off.

The reason they did that is because she's from Orlay, who all sound like French people. However, she's been living in Ferelden for a while, who all speak like generic English piss poor peasant people. So she's all half and half.

lol, Leilana was voiced by a French actress

and alisters eventual possible repalcement is far better than alister