Divinity Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

[Luckmann]

PoE didn't actually really change anything in the pre-existing game, or revise any content - it's what I kept hoping for all along - and while the added content in itself is good, it's exactly that kind of "tacked-on" shit that I hate.

I didn't notice this earlier. There is an explanation to this, even if it's a stupid one - Josh doesn't want to change the narrative in any way, including editing or corrections. His justification is that it might somehow "change the perception of the story people have", he's willing to change the mechanics however times it takes to fix it, but he won't touch the story.

But that's fucking stupid.

The explanation is that changing around game content, especially the kind of changes Luckmann is always hoping for, requires significantly more resources than altering mechanics. It's a naive thing to expect. When's the last time you saw any game significantly rework its writing, characters, quests, etc? As opposed to simply adding more of them in an expansion.

Most of what I wanted was minor, though - a reactivity pass, with only a few quests being altered. I never expected it, though.

 

[Fenix]

Am I the only chump who bought the artbook? Couldn't see people talk about that.

I heard it is quite good actually.

i am getting so tired of the initiative and turn order.

Get used to it already.

I noticed another funny effect related to the queue system - I was winning a fight, only one or two enemies left, everything under control. One of my summons despawned (in a natural way - it's turn count reached 0 and it disappeared when it was its turn to act), and the queue reshuffled in a very strange way - this enemy NPC, which was next in the queue after the despawned bone spider, somehow got three turns in a row. Thankfully it was a simple mob, and not the decay dragon (or whatever its name was) or something equally dangerous, or i'd be wiped out in a fight I already won.

Maybe it was intentional, to force you to put at least some efforts while playing summoner?

Man, the average gamer doesn't know the difference between a fanfic and a good book, most are completely and exclusively immersed on pop culture garbage to know better. On the past, I believed gaming story lines sucked because most players didn't give a fuck about story but it is worse, most players don't know the difference of bad storytelling to good storytelling and when you ask them why they liked or disliked something, they aren't even capable to form phrases that have arguments and logic on them, they are literally pop culture zombies after food and any food will do.

I suspect that game developers come from the same backgrounds, cucks, political correct, inoffensive, avoiding quality judgements and gorging themselves on low quality pop culture themselves we have a situation where the job interviewer is as retarded as the interviewed at least on quality writer hiring. Things are made worse because incompetent programmers and artists can bring a project down while bad writing doesn't have the same effects (The public or doesn't care or are too dumb to notice) so developers are allowed to exercise retardation with zero punishment.

You post rarely, but when you post you deliever. I wish I could brofist you with a power of thousands suns.

2 lone wolves = the way it was meant to be played in my mind

No, it is whidely acknowledged that Two Lone Wolfes are OP as fuck - one Lone Wolf that is not a summoner is the way to go.

Really kills my immersion in the gameworld and "lol its all in ur head" is a piss poor excuse against this.

DOS2 is mostly a collection of various fights with pazzles and unfunny jokes, dunno who will want to look for immershun there.

And that's trash. Garbage. Filth. That's poor design. A lot of this game is poor design.

Then why so many people enjoyed it, even completely new to RPG or TB combat? I reading some imageboard and see many posts like that.

They removed the Cheese vendor in DOS1 EE.

Wait, what? I think I saw him, or am I on drugs/false memory/squirrel attention span thing?

 

[Jimmious]

They removed the audio that he was repeating, not the actual vendor :p

 

[Murk]

Instead we got to be treated to how the essence of an elemental would put some vim in our etc.

 

[Roguey]

The problem is that I don't think Larian/Swen are as anal about the combat system as Josh is. And that's a huge fucking problem in general, one that I'm afraid they won't surmount.

The nerfs made to D:OS through patches and the EE were far harsher than any Josh would ever make i.e. they came down so hard on certain things that they made them useless/not worth taking.

Though sure, an overhaul of the armor/shield system was always a pipe dream.

 

[Iznaliu]

It's surprisingly solid. Their algorithm or whatever it's called has improved by leaps and bounds.

It works better for major languages than it does for minor ones.

 

[pomenitul]

It's surprisingly solid. Their algorithm or whatever it's called has improved by leaps and bounds.

It works better for major languages than it does for minor ones.

My mother tongue is a minor European language and a cursory test reveals that Google is quite competent at translating newspaper articles into English. That said, I assume things get dicier when it processes lesser-known Turkic or East Asian languages, for example.

 

[Tigranes]

Poisoned Food, I guess you can't plant them on people and make them eat it or something, it's just for undead?

 

[Quillon]

French interview with Swen, they're thinking about not so small additional content: https://www.warlegend.net/divinity-...terview-swen-vincke-fondateur-larian-studios/

Divinity: Original Sin 2: the development of all challenges
By reading our test and playing Divinity: Original Sin 2, you will realize one thing very quickly: the title is incredibly complete. One element in particular caught our attention: the quality of writing and narration. It turns out that its complexity was the most difficult part for Vincke:

The most difficult part is also the one I am most proud of: it is the complexity of the narrative. It was the most complicated thing I did in my life because we had so many lines of quests. You chose the historical protagonists and custom protagonists that you could play or take as companions, and these had 6 specialized quests in addition to the main story and this could work in multiplayer with up to 4 players. And I must say that all these permutations were a bit difficult. [...] Scripting was very complicated, it took a lot of time. But I am very proud of it because it is something that has never been done before and it now shows an enormous freedom, you always feel that the world reacts in a fluid and natural way,​

When we emphasize moreover that "the system of label also adds interactions with the world and the different histories of the historical personages have more points of contact ..." he answers in a laugh: "Yes that was the horror total for the writer. " You surprise me.

Pure waste of resources and from the sound of it, a big chunk of it. 6 origin stories and all of which are better enjoyed with origin characters as companions. If they are MC, they don't say most of their lines/backgrounds etc. You are learning more about them/their culture and potentially care for them through interacting with them if they are companions. Purely for co-op and somehow welcomed as incline here and I thought codex was mostly about single player RPG enthusiasts.

And all this at the expense of inter-party interactions.

 

[Shadenuat]

I wonder if people realise that there's not a lot of reactivity that is actually logical or matters in the game. There are a few strange examples that stand out, one being Scholar tag that is the only tag in the game that has real quests locked behind it (other tags are mostly "Speak a line leading to same outcome: I have this tag!"), but for the most part, even clearing maps of all and any sentient life doesn't affect your game very much. The glowing button near you map seems more like a lie, and neither regional or personal reputation exist or express themselves during the game. For example, if you kill Saheila in 1st act you have a chance to tell about it in 2d act and aggro elven camp on yourself, but you may also not, and still go through generally same Lone Wolfs slaughterhouse (although having Ifan in party delays the inevitable). That's how you can also have both Hero and Villain tags at the same time - do all quests, and then kill everyone on the map

I think one of best examples of companions reacting is the quest about lich in a cellar. You can follow it through until lich basically eats a baby in front of you with all companions being utterly disgusted, say "this is fine", take reward from him and leave him alone. That's it, you're all great and free XP. Companions don't even activate a disapproval penalty.

In one and a half playthroughs, I found it hard to get anything meaningful out of my choices, as everything interesting is inevitably delayed until Act 4.

And don't make me start on Witch in Act 1, or Ryker in Act 2, or Lone Wolf leader there, and all the others, who end up trying to kill you regardless of your actions.

 

[Sjukob]

Well that was easier than I thought , killed him in 3 turns , poor fella was only able to act once , after that he got CCed to death . The witch fight was harder , at least enemies there were able to break my armor and even brought prince to 50% of hp . Also it's hilarious how you can knock a dragon down with sucker punch .

Spoiler

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[AwesomeButton]

French interview with Swen, they're thinking about not so small additional content: https://www.warlegend.net/divinity-...terview-swen-vincke-fondateur-larian-studios/

Divinity: Original Sin 2: the development of all challenges
By reading our test and playing Divinity: Original Sin 2, you will realize one thing very quickly: the title is incredibly complete. One element in particular caught our attention: the quality of writing and narration. It turns out that its complexity was the most difficult part for Vincke:

The most difficult part is also the one I am most proud of: it is the complexity of the narrative. It was the most complicated thing I did in my life because we had so many lines of quests. You chose the historical protagonists and custom protagonists that you could play or take as companions, and these had 6 specialized quests in addition to the main story and this could work in multiplayer with up to 4 players. And I must say that all these permutations were a bit difficult. [...] Scripting was very complicated, it took a lot of time. But I am very proud of it because it is something that has never been done before and it now shows an enormous freedom, you always feel that the world reacts in a fluid and natural way,​

When we emphasize moreover that "the system of label also adds interactions with the world and the different histories of the historical personages have more points of contact ..." he answers in a laugh: "Yes that was the horror total for the writer. " You surprise me.

Pure waste of resources and from the sound of it, a big chunk of it. 6 origin stories and all of which are better enjoyed with origin characters as companions. If they are MC, they don't say most of their lines/backgrounds etc. You are learning more about them/their culture and potentially care for them through interacting with them if they are companions. Purely for co-op and somehow welcomed as incline here and I thought codex was mostly about single player RPG enthusiasts.

And all this at the expense of inter-party interactions.

Reactivity is now a pure waste of resources. Welcome to RPG Edgedex.

The game has enough legitimate issues to be criticized for, do you have to suck more from your thumbs?

 

[Quillon]

Reactivity is now a pure waste of resources. Welcome to RPG Edgedex.

The game has enough legitimate issues to be criticized for, do you have to suck more from your thumbs?

How is it "reactivity" to you? They made playing as 6 companions possible at the expense of reactivity.

If it were just a custom PC and companions were just companions, they'd have more resources to add dat reactivity, dialogues between companions etc. Instead there is just isolated responses to certain events on the companion reactivity front.

 

[AwesomeButton]

If you pretend to need reactivity explained to you, I don't have the time to play along.

If you don't understand reactivity and need it explained to you, you have to be lost here or something.

 

[Quillon]

Whatever dude.

Their story is better when they are companions, playing as one of them has no pros over them being companions, except its handy for co-op I guess. So wasted resources in my eyes that could have better spent elsewhere in a purely single player standpoint.

 

[Freakydemon]

or Ryker in Act 2, or Lone Wolf leader there, and all the others, who end up trying to kill you regardless of your actions.

Well let's be fair,

Spoiler

the Sallowman doesn't fuck around with people who fail him.

Also the Lone Wolves get their contract or die trying.

 

[Black]

Remember the guy who gives you the teleportation gloves quest in fort joy area? If you clear the whole map, the fort itself, beaches and swamps, of all dangers, enemies and traps, the guy runs to a certain spot on the swamp and just drops dead.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Remember the guy who gives you the teleportation gloves in fort joy area? If you clear the whole map, the fort itself, beaches and swamps, of all dangers, enemies and traps, the guy runs to a certain spot on the swamp and just drops dead.

And good fucking riddance at that. Filthy Traitor. My PC killed him myself for revenge. Not because I was lacking a bit of xp for lv5. Not at all.

 

[Luckmann]

Spoiler

Remember the guy who gives you the teleportation gloves in fort joy area? If you clear the whole map, the fort itself, beaches and swamps, of all dangers, enemies and traps, the guy runs to a certain spot on the swamp and just drops dead.

Spoiler

Probably a fucked trigger. I didn't get the teleportation gloves from anyone - I found them on the beach, after some poor sod (likely the guy you refer to) had gotten eaten by the alligators. Since I had killed Griff and his crew, that's likely the trigger. Also, fuck you for not spoiler-tagging that shit, since I had no idea those gloves weren't always at the beach. Would've made for a nice surprise for my next playthrough, where I had planned to go straight to the beach and pick them up. Fag.

 

[Salvo]

Spoiler

Remember the guy who gives you the teleportation gloves in fort joy area? If you clear the whole map, the fort itself, beaches and swamps, of all dangers, enemies and traps, the guy runs to a certain spot on the swamp and just drops dead.

Spoiler

Probably a fucked trigger. I didn't get the teleportation gloves from anyone - I found them on the beach, after some poor sod (likely the guy you refer to) had gotten eaten by the alligators. Since I had killed Griff and his crew, that's likely the trigger. Also, fuck you for not spoiler-tagging that shit, since I had no idea those gloves weren't always at the beach. Would've made for a nice surprise for my next playthrough, where I had planned to go straight to the beach and pick them up. Fag.

Spoiler

I think you're giving the game too much credit. The gloves are /always/ found as a drop after defeating the Alligators, and the guy he's talking about is Gawin, an Aeromancer who already has the Teleportation spell, but needs your help to get out of the Joy.

It's also not a bugged trigger. I tried keep Gawin alive myself, and he's technically supposed to die against either the Magisters on the docks or the Voidwoken Deep-Dweller in the Swamp, but if you kill them all he'll just drop dead where the swamp ambush is supposed to happen. They literally didn't think about the fact that some people would have tried to keep him alive, which is a big misstep.

 

[Grunker]

Is there a way to craft white/base items with magic properties? You get a lot of good bases in the game it seems.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

As Far as I know anything you craft has no magic bonus. Check out the expanded crafting mod. maybe it has something you are looking for Grunker

 

[Grunker]

Thanks. Not looking to use mods though. Just thought there might be a way.

 

[Luckmann]

Spoiler

Remember the guy who gives you the teleportation gloves in fort joy area? If you clear the whole map, the fort itself, beaches and swamps, of all dangers, enemies and traps, the guy runs to a certain spot on the swamp and just drops dead.

Spoiler

Probably a fucked trigger. I didn't get the teleportation gloves from anyone - I found them on the beach, after some poor sod (likely the guy you refer to) had gotten eaten by the alligators. Since I had killed Griff and his crew, that's likely the trigger. Also, fuck you for not spoiler-tagging that shit, since I had no idea those gloves weren't always at the beach. Would've made for a nice surprise for my next playthrough, where I had planned to go straight to the beach and pick them up. Fag.

Spoiler

I think you're giving the game too much credit. The gloves are /always/ found as a drop after defeating the Alligators, and the guy he's talking about is Gawin, an Aeromancer who already has the Teleportation spell, but needs your help to get out of the Joy.

It's also not a bugged trigger. I tried keep Gawin alive myself, and he's technically supposed to die against either the Magisters on the docks or the Voidwoken Deep-Dweller in the Swamp, but if you kill them all he'll just drop dead where the swamp ambush is supposed to happen. They literally didn't think about the fact that some people would have tried to keep him alive, which is a big misstep.

Well TIL. That's pretty fucking sad design, tbh.