44 replies to this topic

[Archmage Silver]

New DLC Announced by BioWare: Darkspawn Chronicles

• Release Date: May 18th
  
• Price Tag: 400 Points = 5$

Trailer: Flash HD (43MB) / Flash SD (13MB)

Description: You now fight as the Darkspawn! The city of Denerim, jewel of Ferelden, girds itself for war. As a hurlock vanguard, you alone hold the power to make thralls of your fellow darkspawn and drive them into the heat of battle. Heed the archdemon's call--Denerim must burn!

• A look at an alternate history: what if your character had died in the Joining ceremony, and the Grey Wardens marched under Alistair's command instead?
  
• A standalone adventure in which you command genlocks, hurlocks, shrieks, and even the mighty ogres.
  
• Complete the module and unlock an epic Darkspawn item in DA:O and Awakening.

Edited by Archmage Silver, 17 June 2010 - 04:15 AM.

[Vicen]

Good to hear some new DLC is coming I wonder if its for Origins or Awakening...Or will they even do DLC for expansions? And lets hope it lasts for more then an hour too heh!

[Archmage Silver]

I guess we'll know soon enough:

http://majornelson.c...may-4-2010.aspx

Hmm... look at that. Here we are revealing things tomorrow and Nelson hints early. Curse his hint-dropping hide!

[Kulyok]

Thank you for the news. 400 points means it's pretty small, right? I just fear it's some books or a new shop or a new encounter.

Sigh. I wish they fixed random encounters in DA:O. I tried the console recently and I found so much amazing new stuff! I do wish they fixed it.

[Qwinn]

Sigh. I wish they fixed random encounters in DA:O. I tried the console recently and I found so much amazing new stuff! I do wish they fixed it.

Can you be more specific? Perhaps point me to wiki pages about encounters that don't show up on the PC?

[Kulyok]

"Doesn't show at all" = Jowan's intention encounter.

I have problems with others, however, simply because they don't show in my games often - or ever. I'm not sure how to tweak that, but I wish I could see them at least after ~20 "empty" travels, instead of that merchant.
"Doesn't show in 99,9% of my games" = encounter with an axe(whoever pulls it out is going to be the king of Thedas),
"Doesn't show in 90,0% of my games" = encounter with werewolves; encounter with talking0(EDIT: sorry, walking) trees.

Edited by Kulyok, 05 May 2010 - 06:31 AM.

[Qwinn]

Thanks! I already plan on restoring Jowan's Intention for my next release (not sure I *can* yet, but I plan on digging). The other two are totally new to me, I haven't ever seen them in game either, so yup, I'll keep an eye out. I have a pretty good idea where the code that triggers them is set up, so good chance I can do something about it.

Qwinn

[Archmage Silver]

I've updated the first post. Also... SAY WHAT??!

[Kulyok]

Hoho! Kill Alistair? Son of a deadbeat dead and a snouty "GTFO, I'm king now!" and "I don't care about my sister and her five starving kids" bastard? I'm all for it!

[berelinde]

Interesting, but for $5, what are they going to give you, exactly? RtO hack/slash?

Maybe this is why they were advertising for stand-alone modules: they're turning fan-made material into DLC. If so, I hope they're planning on sharing the profits with the modder.

[Archmage Silver]

Interesting, but for $5, what are they going to give you, exactly? RtO hack/slash?

Maybe this is why they were advertising for stand-alone modules: they're turning fan-made material into DLC. If so, I hope they're planning on sharing the profits with the modder.

I find that very unlikely. It probably says in the DA EULA that everything created using the Toolset is BioWare's property.

[Crazee]

Oh good. Another DLC I won't be buying. I'd rather they spend more time on making longer DLC than releasing all these short ones. Ah, well.

I do like the premise, by the way. It'd make a good fanfic. But it won't have enough meat on it (story-wise) to be worth it.

[Cal Jones]

Gimmicky. Can't say I'm at all interested in this.

[Vicen]

Well like Archmage Silver said...I am completionist as well so regardless of how good or bad it will be im going to grab it none the less.

[Solar's Harper]

• A look at an alternate history: what if your character had died in the Joining ceremony, and the Grey Wardens marched under Alistair's command instead?
  
• A standalone adventure in which you command genlocks, hurlocks, shrieks, and even the mighty ogres.
  
• Complete the module and unlock an epic Darkspawn item in DA:O and Awakening.

Well now that's strange, first point of that being wouldn't Duncan and Alistair *burn* your body should the ritual fail? After all, what point is it leaving your husk there, awaiting eventual rebirth as one of the fugly genlocks, or if you're lucky, the DA:O equivlant of the King/Queen of Blades?
(Yes I had to throw that one in. )
Morality? Pfft, say that to the person who doesn't kill scared candidates, heck the ME2 planet mining makes more logical sense than that, and it makes none for use of military craft instead of specialized equipment and crew - civilian reproduced replica maybe, but still a warship nonetheless.

Still the opportunity to act like a mini Sauron does insert some amount of glee to its name - although didn't we already have something like that?
I must admit a slight amount of pessimism involving this, apart from the fact I tend to be highly critical of all "YOU MUST PAY FOR DLCs (Shush)!" in particular, but it just doesn't sound thought out any more so than cosmetic surgery.

That and the whole use of "unlock an epic item" thing really doesn't do a favour, if we're all slugging through for an item, what's the point other than completion? We already know the blasted ending reward!! Thinking about that reminds me the trailers of DA:O pretty much gave away over 80% of the actual game plot before they even released it. Way to go guys.

Edit: Decided to tone down with bold letters instead.

Edited by Solar's Harper, 05 May 2010 - 09:13 PM.

[Choo Choo]

I must admit a slight amount of pessimism involving this

You're pessimistic about almost everything.

But I, uh, kind of have to agree. Goodness knows I love DA, but I won't be buying this anytime soon.

[Eleima]

Still the opportunity to act like a mini Sauron does insert some amount of glee to its name - although didn't we already have something like that?

Aye, and you even forgot that we already had this before, too.

My reaction to this announcement was pretty much "meh"... I just can't seem to get excited about it... Don't think I'll get it right now. Maybe later this year, but right now... Bleh, I just can't seem to get excited about it. I don't really want to play from the other side, I don't want to run through the streets of Denerim, killing innocent civilians and burning houses to the ground... I'm a healer, not a killer!

After all, what point is it leaving your husk there, awaiting eventual rebirth as one of the fugly genlocks, or if you're lucky, the DA:O equivlant of the King/Queen of Blades?

Ha! Yeah, I think that one was pretty much inevitable...

Edited by Eleima, 05 May 2010 - 10:49 PM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Ho, ho, ho.

Bioware totally stole my idea!

[Archmage Silver]

If you want a conspiracy theory, why do you think Chris Priestly asked for fan module recommendations?

Edit: And the first mod suggested in that thread is the same fan module you linked to: Emissary.

The plot thickens.

Edited by Archmage Silver, 06 May 2010 - 09:49 AM.

[Archmage Silver]

We are pleased to announce the next Dragon Age: Origins downloadable content pack - The Darkspawn Chronicles.

You now fight as the Darkspawn! The city of Denerim, jewel of Ferelden, girds itself for war. As a hurlock vanguard, you alone hold the power to make thralls of your fellow darkspawn and drive them into the heat of battle. Heed the archdemon's call--Denerim must burn!

You can read more about teh Darkspawn Chronicles and see screenshots here: http://dragonage.bioware.com/addon/. There will be a video added to the page tomorrow after it goes live on Gamespot later today. Make sure you check out Gamespot around 5pm PST today for your first look.

Think of this adventure as your adventure, but YOU were never around to take part. Dragon Age: Origins was always the tale of the Grey Warden you created and how he or she became the mightiest of Grey Wardens and stopped the Blight. This adventure takes place as if your Grey Warden had never existed.

You play as a hurlock vanguard and use your new "Enthrall" ability to recruit your fellow darkspawn as allies. Partner with shrieks, genlocks, ogres and more. You will encounter characters from Dragon Age: Origins both party members like Alistair or Morrigan (for example) and NPCs who try to defend Denerim and stop the Darkspawn without your Grey Warden to guide them. As the darkspawn, you will have to defeat them to destroy Denerim.

If you choose to play Darkspawn Chronicles you can unlock 3 new achievements and, if you complete the story, you unlock the powerful new BlightBlood sword that you can use in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Origins Awakening.

The Darkspawn Chronicles costs 400 BioWare or Microsoft points and will be available on May 18 for the PC and Xbox 360 and on the Playstation 3 with date to be announced shortly.