Fragments of Ferelden Release Notes & FAQ (1.0.1)
Jye Nicolson (Mengtzu) 16-Jan-2010



NOTE: Use your health potions! You get herbalism for free, there is unlimited Elfroot and flasks, the game is balanced around health pot spam. You will probably want to save as many level 2+ pots as possible for the final battle, but otherwise eat up.


Installation:

1. Go to your Dragon Age install folder.
2. Go into the bin_ship directory
3. Open daupdater.exe
4. Click "Select DAZIPs"
5. Browse to fof.dazip (wherever you unzipped this package) and click Open
6. Click on fof.dazip in the Content Updater window.
7. Click "Install Selected"
8. Let it do its thing, then go into Dragon Age and have fun



Choosing a character for Fragments of Ferelden:

- The module does not refer to background, so choose any you like. In-character, this is your bloodline, but you are still Tower-born. Out-of-character, I haven't figured out a way around the main game's backgrounds yet :) Any race is appropriate, though human, mage, city elf and dwarf noble make the most sense purely due to lack of facial tattoos.

- Any class is fine. After a century in the Labyrinth, the Templars have a very different role and are happy for their knights to use sword, dagger or spell as their talents dictate.

- Because there are no companions, the module is tuned around a more self-sufficient PC. As a result after the prologue you are granted two extra talent points, two skill points and Herbalism 1 for free. You will get an additional skill point if you already had Herbalism.

- Talents very specifically useful for group support (including threat) have limited value in this module. Likewise Combat Tactics is totally useless since you'll always be controlling your character. You can expect these to become useful in add-ins, but that's probably worth worrying about when you actually play them rather than during your first 10 levels.

- There is generally little benefit to raising skills past 2 (with some exceptions such as Combat Training). Lots of side quests give bonus XP for having certain skills, but all of them should be doable with 1-2 ranks at the level you encounter them. I haven't included any 3rd level or higher recipes in the base module.

- You should expect to reach level 7 and your specialisation at about the time you reach the second combat area. However there are no trainers or manuals in the module, you'll be limited to the specialisations you've already unlocked in the main game.

- Persuade/Intimidate is pretty good!



Known Issues:

- Some players with combat-altering mods report compatibility issues. Fragments of Ferelden is an extremely conservative module with no alterations to combat, abilities etc, so I expect these combat mods will have trouble with any standalone module. I strongly suggest disabling them from the Downloadable Content menu in-game while you're playing Fragments of Ferelden, then re-enable them afterwards.

- Some players report the Memory Ring and other DLC items duplicating every time they change areas. They should not appear in the module at all. If you have them in your inventory in the dream sequence (and especially if you have two when you wake up in your room), you should start over, as this seems to fix it.

- Members of Jheden's squad sometimes get better after being decapitated. This is because I don't know how to prevent special kill animations. I guess healing poultices really are miraculous!



FAQ:

1. What's up with the Labyrinth? Why are there D&D races there?

If you're wondering why the Labyrinth sounds like someone's dorky D&D setting, that's because it is. I happened to be running a tabletop game that gave me an excuse to mash in random bits of stuff from wherever I felt like, so when I needed an excuse to re-use the existing level layouts I took the lazy option ;)

Basically the Labyrinth is a planar cross-over setting, where random bits of planes have been shoved in caverns and stuck together in a maze-like prison. This makes things difficult and terrifying for the people in those caverns, particularly as there's orcs, kobolds, demons, dragons, Darkspawn etc. in there with them. Nobody in the Labyrinth knows why they're there or who's responsible for it. It's all very mysterious!

I added a book to the PC's starting room to help explain this.


2. Why is my mage a Templar?

In this setting the Templars who were in the Tower when it was taken into the Labyrinth have transitioned to a more open, benevolent purpose (their old job being obsolete). They are happy to take any heroic type.

This gives a reason why the PC has to run around solving problems (you're a questing knight, everyone expects you to), and gives me a word to refer to the PC without checking their gender, which is a pain in the DA toolset. On that note, bless you Ser Cauthrien for proving that honorific is gender-neutral :)


3. Why don't the dwarves in the crossing help me fight those bloody ogres?

They were ordered not to engage the Darkspawn unless directly attacked, even if it meant ignoring the plight of allies. Coorta will say as much if you speak to her again after the fight.


4. Is Caitlyn supposed to have a boy's head?

Caitlyn isn't the prettiest girl, and Grainne teases her mercilessly about it. You just had to go add to her self-image problems!


5. Is this supposed to be so hard as a 2H warrior?

2H appears to be quite gear-dependent. There's a really nice suit of armour and a named 2H mace early in the final dungeon that should help the cause.



Version History:

1.0.1 (16-Jan-2010)

- Fixed a bug preventing the player from returning to the Dwarven Caverns from the Alpha Lair.


1.0 (6-Jan-2010)

- Initial public release.




Beta Testers:

doctorofdarkness
mythSSK
Brawndo
Callagan111
Vanillmilchannahmestelle
El-Destructo (big thanks for multiple playthroughs & iterative feedback)
FalloutBoy
supercampeon
Rewiindeddd
Kracken2020
Daddydib
Stygiannocturne (oh, yeah...sound :)
nilbernatorking
William S. Hillard
meb2183_1