Unofficial Dragon Age: Origins Fixpack v1.1 Released

Those of you familiar with Qwinn’s excellent Planescape: Torment Tweak Pack will be happy to learn that he’s now set his sights on Dragon Age: Origins. His new unofficial Dragon Age: Origins fixpack seeks to address a number of bugs that plague the RPG since the release of the v1.03 patch. Here’s the full changelog, though you should keep in mind that it’s full of spoilers:

A. General fixes:

1. The Stealing and Dog Fetching bugs introduced in patch 1.03 (where they could not generate random items) are fixed. As of v1.1 this is implemented as a “core” fix and should also fix stealing in Awakening. This is the *only* fix currently in the Fixpack that affects anything outside of the single player Origins game. Thanks to Nukenin for his advice on how to best implement this patch.

B. Origin related fixes:

1. “Human Noble”: At the beginning of the main hall battle, it was briefly possible to initiate dialogue with Ser Gilmore and prematurely trigger his post-combat dialogue. Doing so would make the exit never open, forcing a game restart/reload. Now, if you talk to him during that brief interval, he just shouts one of several combat barks instead.

2. “Mage”: During the Harrowing, if you have acquired your staff and you talk to Bear Mouse, he would prematurely shout, out of context, “And there is a spirit of rage”. Then, when you actually got near the spirit of rage, he’d initiate a casual conversation, again quite out of context.

C. Companion Quests and Dialogue

1. Infinite approval exploit in Sten’s second camp dialogue fixed. Can no longer repeatedly ask “Why do the Qunari care about the Blight?” which led to a +4 approval option.

2. “The Sword of the Beresaad”: It was possible to go directly from the scavenger in Lake Calahad to Dwyn, skipping Faryn completely, leading to odd and confusing dialogue.

3. If Lothering was destroyed and you never even talked to Sten, you were still getting a codex entry about his death that implied you had met him.

4. “Oghren’s Old Flame”: Removed infinite loop approval exploit in conversation where Oghren gives his personal quest (“Oh, Maker, we don’t have time for this.” can only be picked once now.)

D. Ostagar:

1. “The Hungry Prisoner”: This quest will no longer close with an erroneous entry if you leave Ostagar having acquired the key by feeding the prisoner but without using it on the chest. The quest will remain open, just as it does if you got the key by killing the prisoner. Note that you have an opportunity to use the key during the Return To Ostagar DLC, though I have not been able to verify yet if that will properly close the Hungry Prisoner quest. Let me know if it does/doesn’t and I’ll update this entry!

2. Dwarves can now hear the tale of Luthias Dwarfson. They actually even have dialogue specific to them during the story.

E. Lothering:

1. Ancient Elven Boots will now appear in the Lothering Chantry cabinet. This was only bugged in the PC version of the game.

2. “Traps are a Girl’s Best Friend”: This quest will no longer reset to the beginning after completion.

3. “The Qunari Prisoner”: Removed exploit to get maximum Morrigan approval in Lothering by repeatedly failing to intimidate the grand cleric.

4. “Bandits on the Road”: If you intimidated the bandits as a mage, and then “practiced your spells” (attacked), one of the bandits would run away in terror. If you then killed the rest off, the quest became uncompletable because that last bandit couldn’t be killed. Fixed by removing that fleeing bandit from the bandit team before he runs away.

F. Denerim:

1. “Honor Bound”: Unimplemented XP reward for persuading Ser Landry that Wardens would never ally with Darkspawn restored. That this was intended is supported by a comment attached to that reply: “ACTION: The PC should get a good xp bonus for this because he’s put doubt in a staunch opponent of the Grey Wardens. It should at least equal the XP for killing him in a duel.” A line matching that description already existed in rewards.2da, so I just activated the reward that what was already there.

2. “Crime Wave”, subquest “The Lady’s Maid”: Completing this quest would put a permanent quest marker on Slim Couldry that overwrote all subsequent quest markers. The quest flag on Slim Couldry will now accurately inform the player when he has a new quest available.

3. “Crime Wave”, subquest “Steal Ser Nancine’s Sword”: As an exploit, you could get the sword from her in dialogue, and then use the Stealing skill to pickpocket a second copy off of her. Also, in various dialog paths, you could get Nancine to indicate she was giving you 5 silver or 2 gold, but you didn’t actually receive any money in either case. Now you will.

4. “Crime Wave”, subquest “Stealing the Teyrn’s Crown”: This quest has been *completely* reworked. Many of the options that were clearly intended as valid ways to bypass the guards did not actually work when you tried them (the guards would spot and attack you even if they were drunk/unconscious/etc.). They now work as they were intended to. This quest now has five entirely different fully functional methods of being solved (previously, only two of them worked: intimidate or very very high stealth). Also, similar to Ser Nancine, you can no longer get the crown via dialogue and then a second copy via stealing. Many thanks to Spellhold Studios poster Darziak for his help with reorganizing the seneshal’s sound files.

5. “Crime Wave”, subquest “Steal Master Tilver’s Key”: Talking to the messenger boy during this quest would (possibly very prematurely) initiate the “Trial of Crows” quest line, even before meeting Zevran or talking to Ignacio. This caused all kinds of havoc with that quest chain.

6. “Crime Wave”, subquest “Tears of Andraste”: The guards *are* coded to react to your poisoning the drinks table, but due to a scripting error it just wasn’t firing properly. I made it fire and I also move them a little during that sequence so they don’t fall through the walls quite so much. Now if you find it surprising that a sleeping draught can make someone bleed, hey, me too, but that’s apparently as was intended, and the blood does fade away after a few seconds.

7. “Crime Wave”: When the entire quest chain was complete, Slim Couldry was supposed to exit the area but did not do so, and would talk about an already completed quest when clicked on.

G. Circle Tower:

1. Bel’s Cache will no longer get reactivated as an openable empty container every time you re-enter the Circle Tower second level.

H. Redcliffe:

1. “Arl of Redcliffe”: You could break the game by talking to Ser Perth at the very beginning of the fight with Bann Teagan (assuming you entered the castle with Ser Perth, of course). Doing so would repeat the dialogue you are only meant to have with him at the gate, before you actually enter the castle, with game breaking effects. Now he responds to dialogue attempts during that brief interval with one of his combat barks instead.

2. “Arl of Redcliffe”: If you allowed Isolde and/or Connor to die, their codex entries would say that they lived, and vice versa.

3. “Arl of Redcliffe”: Infinite XP exploit, where after completing the quest the vault door in Redcliffe Castle would be locked every time the area loaded and could be picked again and again for 50xp, fixed.

I. Brecilian Forest:

1. “Lost to the Curse”: Under the following conditions, you would get neither XP nor Athras’ Pendant when telling Athras of his wife’s fate: 1) He actually promised you the amulet when you took the quest, 2) You choose the specific reply “She died, Athras. But not before she sent her love.”, and 3) neither Leilana nor Morrigan are present at the time.

2. “Nature of the Beast”: The Mad Hermit explicitly requires only one werewolf pelt from you, but if you have a stack you give him all of them. Fixed.

J. Orzamaar / Deep Roads:

1. “Precious Metals”: Tons of bugs in this quest fixed. A) Godwin will no longer vanish after talking to him once the Circle quest is completed, which unnecessarily forced you to leave the area and return to talk to him again. B) The reply option “Why do you need all that lyrium?” was nonsensically appearing the very first time you talked to him with Rogek’s quest in your journal. It wasn’t meant to appear until after you’d either sold the lyrium to Godwin or denied it to him. That could cause events to play well out of order. C) You could threaten Godwin that you would turn him in to Greagoir, but you couldn’t actually do it. Now you can.

2. “A Paragon of her Kind”, subquests “Vartag Gavorn” and “Dulin Forender”: If you initially talk to Dulin and/or Vartag but end the conversations before accepting either of their first quests, then talk to the Steward and ask what you can do to help break the stalemate, you would get permanent quest markers for these two quests stuck over Dulin and/or Vartag (whichever you’d spoken to) for the rest of the game.

3. “A Paragon of her Kind”, subquest “A Lord’s Favor: The Second Task”: If you were publicly working for Harrowmont but planted the papers in Jarvia’s chest for Bhelen, when you reported to Harrowmont that you had killed Jarvia, a journal entry for this quest would remain stuck open and you’d lose out on the rather hefty experience reward for dealing with her.

4. “A Paragon of Her Kind”: If you sided with Bhelen before going into the deep roads (whether openly or as double agent) such that you had his version of the “A Paragon of Her Kind” quest open in your journal (Harrowmont has his own version, and you can have both if a double agent), and then you chose Harrowmont as king, the quest would remain open in your journal forever telling you to go back to the assembly to crown a king.

5. “The Shaper’s Life”: This codex miniquest will now give the player one of the 3 previously unobtainable Shaperate’s Blessing weapons, dependent on the player’s class.

6. “Thief in the House of Learning”: You can sell the tome to a fence for 2.3 gold and 150 XP or return it to the Shaperate for nothing at all. Comments in the Shaperate questgiver’s dialogue indicate that returning it should give a “moderate” xp reward, as compared to a “minor” xp reward for selling it. Returning the tome now gives a 250 xp reward.

7. “The Golem Registry”: The Shaper tells you “Warden, I hope this artifact from our archives will suffice as a reward.”, but if you have recruited Shale, you get nothing. The following comments exist in the script: “// If Shale is Recruited, give player a special golem crystal; otherwise he gets a generic magical item as a reward.” The “otherwise” actually works, without Shale recruited you get a Master Hale rune. No golem crystal is given out if you have Shale, however. Going with Small Flawless Spirit Crystal.

8. “An Unlikely Scholar”: Removed the quest marker over Janar’s head once the quest is completed. It was previously permanent once the quest was initiated.

9. “Asunder”: Fixed exploit where, by placing all party members near the altar, pausing, and then having each one spam-click the altar, you could spawn the beast multiple times, receiving his reward as many as ten times over. You cannot get more than one beast now.

10. “A Mother’s Hope”: If Filda learns that Ruck is alive, the dialogue, graphics, quest journal and comments all indicate that she leaves immediately for the Deep Roads to look for him, but she’d actually stay where she was, still praying but facing the street instead of the stone. She’ll actually leave now.

11. “A Mother’s Hope”: If you asked Ruck to trade after completing Filda’s quest, it would put a permanent quest marker on Filda, but it would remain impossible to talk with her.

12. The unique crossbow Nugbane can now be stolen from the Mines Commander in Orzammar. He has it in the vanilla game, and the “Stealable” flag is clearly checked, but it could not be stolen due to being equipped. As there is no other reasonable explanation for his having it in his inventory (his graphics displays his battleaxe, not the crossbow), it being equipped is almost certainly a bug.

13. “Of Noble Birth”: This quest is only available for male noble dwarves, but *everyone* got a closed failed journal entry for it after the coronation in “A Paragon of her Kind”. No longer.

14. “Of Noble Birth”: A number of dialogue errors fixed. In particular, it should be a lot less common to get “If X becomes king, he’ll take care of you” reply options after the king has been crowned, and you will no longer get Mardy giving her mid-quest dialogue in the castle after the quest is completed.

15. The greatsword “Ageless” will now drop with rune slots enabled, no more need to workaround by selling to a DLC merchant and repurchasing to activate them.

K. Haven/Ruined Temple/Gauntlet (Urn of Sacred Ashes):

1. “Urn of the Sacred Ashes”: After you find the Urn, zoning from the Gauntlet to Mountaintop gives you 750xp. Go back into the gauntlet and exit again, another 750xp. Repeat ad nauseum and hit the level cap quite quickly. Exploit fixed.

L. Landsmeet/Alienage/Epilogue

1. City Elves only: Cyrion will no longer appear during the coronation if the player allowed Caladrius to kill or enslave him.

2. “Rescue the Queen”: You can get into a fight with Ser Cauthrien, “kill” her, and loot her sword. If you are then killed/captured by the rest of her group, you will meet her again just before the Landsmeet. That has not been changed: it’s quite possibly intentional that she was revived in the same way your own party members revive after being “killed” if your party doesn’t actually lose a battle. However, if you looted her sword during that first fight, she will now no longer have a second copy of that unique sword when you meet her again, she will instead have a normal red steel greatsword.

3. Ser Cauthrien would show up at the funeral *only* if you killed her just before the Landsmeet. Obviously an error. She will now only appear at the funeral if you did *not* kill her just before the Landsmeet or during “Rescue the Queen” (meaning, you didn’t wipe out her entire group). (working properly as of v1.1)

4. In the conversation with Ser Cauthrien just before the Landsmeet, what was meant to be a high Persuade check was actually checking for high skill with Poison.

5. “Something Wicked”: Clicking twice on the same clue, or asking the beggar about “Bad Men” twice in one conversation, could screw up the quest journal updates.

6. “Something Wicked”: Telling Otto about the beggar wasn’t registering as a “clue” if you told him about that one first. He’d then refer to your “both your clues” when you had to give him 3.

7. Dog can now be interacted with during the post-coronation sequence, but don’t expect much from this. It’s mainly here just to reassure the player that, yes, Dog *did* survive. It was hard to be sure previously.

8. “Change in Leadership” (Final Blackstone Irregulars Quest): You will no longer meet Taoran in a random encounter before talking to Raelnor in Denerim. That you could do so was definitely a bug, and could easily make this quest uncompletable.

M. Sidequests/Other

1. The following plot items will now actually be removed from inventory when they are given to someone or their associated quest completed: Scroll of Banastor (“The Scrolls of Banastor”), Corpse Gall (“Skin Deep”), Topsider’s Hilt, Pommel and Blade (“An Admirable Topsider”), Grey Warden Documents (given to Riordan during or after “Rescue the Queen”), Worn Amulet (“Hearing Voices”), Feldspar Ring (“Have You Seen Me?”), Rigby’s Last Will and Testament IF lockbox given to Jetta (“Last Will and Testament”), A Letter (“Friends of Red Jenny”), and Bundled Testimonies (“Defending the Collective”). In addition, accepting the Blackstone Irregulars quest “Notices of Death” now gives the PC 4 letters of condolences, not 5, as there were only 4 widows this would leave an extra letter in the PC’s inventory at quest end.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t done the same for Awakening… yet.

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