Divinity Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

[Tigranes]

Why actually people need debloat mods - at level 18, there are spells that hit for 10k+ at 65-70 int, and you can cast 4 of them in two turns with some creative use of Apotheosis / Skin Graft / Time warp. That's almost guaranteed to kill anything that even remotely presents threat. I literally one shotted Alexandar and his cronies with 1 button, and two shotted big robot in the temple. And later there's a lot of neatly placed corpses / spirits to refill SP

I've enjoyed not having to stress out on bugged quests or upgrading my equipment every single level & being able to speed through Arx as it's not as high quality, without subsequently being underpowered in the HP bloat index. (I was level 16 when I came across Alexander, though I didn't fight him.) I'm sure my characters arent optimised but my ranger/rogue duo go for ~3k normal attacks. That said, I might try a wizard duo with vanilla HP next time, since debloat mod can come in midway.

 

[Eyestabber]

Just gone through Mordus fight, and while it was pretty alright, it really exposed the tardation of the armour system even more to me:

Goy has 4k hp + 600/300 armerz. Hits pretty hard and whatever the hell. Zomg sounds like challenge!

Well not really. You just get that 300 magic armer to 0 and then keep him permastunned/permafrozen for the remainder of the fight because saving throws are for suckers.

bleh

But if you look around you'll find ppl that legit consider the bridge trolls to be "invincible", despite having NO shields whatsoever.

Anyway, self quote time:

I just wanna point out that this system [grey/blue shield] KILLS the entire purpose of having a gazillion different status effects. Why bother with taunt when you can knockdown instead? In the first game weaker forms of CC were balanced by either being more likely to succeed or having a wider area. In this game you just choose whatever drops the shields faster and then go for the strongest and longest CC available. Meh...

It's not going to change. The game will throw a lot of different challenges at you but the solution is always the same: chain CC until the fucker drops dead. Careful not to get chain CC'ed yourself. Rinse and repeat. Oh, some dudes are immune to knockdown which is a YUUUUUGE game changer.

Spoiler

Except not really, because you'll just use chicken instead

 

[Tigranes]

What they really needed to do is take what they have with Fortify and expand it into a robust buff/debuff system. Fortify acts as both a general buff to armour & specific status cure as well as temporary immunity to Teleport. Having a wider range of buffs that protect against CC like this, and then adding ways to strip those away, and maybe even tying them to the existing elemental chess - e.g. Fortify as an earth spell additionally protects vs. knockdown, but can be peeled away with water magic - would have made things more interesting.

 

[Jezal_k23]

So I hear the game frequently depends on enemies parachuting in on encounters. Why? I wonder what changed, since DOS:EE did this, but not too frequently.

 

[Jinn]

So I hear the game frequently depends on enemies parachuting in on encounters. Why? I wonder what changed, since DOS:EE did this, but not too frequently.

I'm about halfway through the third chapter (probably a little over half the game) and haven't really noted this more than once or twice.

 

[Tigranes]

It happens way more than that, but battlefields are big enough and the battles in this system are so mobile anyway that I don't really see it as a big deal.

 

[Jinn]

Just to clarify, do we mean enemies entering combat around the halfway point of the initial encounter? Because search as I might in my memory, I'm having a really hard time recalling when it has happened. The biggest example:

Spoiler

being the last battle on the prison island.

 

[Tigranes]

Initial. The Portal of Dreams Arena fight; the Arhu rescue fight; Fort Joy swamps fight near the frogs I can think of off the top of my head. There's others that are a bit more ambiguous, e.g. blue blobs at Arx harbour, because seems like they're potentially all there already but you can't really see them all before starting combat then they run in. The Paladin Bridgehead attack also is like that.

Also, just beat the game, and like a moron I forgot to actually turn on the debloat mod this whole time. (Obviously I couldn't tell since it was my first playthrough.) On that basis, I'd say that adjusting Character.txt for Tactician armour bloat is sufficient, and that on Classic there's no real problem. My duo could take on enemies +2 levels right up to endgame, probably because vitality bloat really doesn't matter when you solve the armour bloat.

 

[Luckmann]

So I hear the game frequently depends on enemies parachuting in on encounters. Why? I wonder what changed, since DOS:EE did this, but not too frequently.

Because of a pathological fear that degenerates that are having problems with a given encounter will "abuse" in-game mechanics and environments to do setups and potentially trivialize certain encounters.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Yet again we can easily abuse them with sneak, teleport and summons after memorizing where enemies spawn.

 

[Luckmann]

Yet again we can easily abuse them with sneak, teleport and summons after memorizing where enemies spawn.

Yup.

 

[cvv]

So I hear the game frequently depends on enemies parachuting in on encounters. Why? I wonder what changed, since DOS:EE did this, but not too frequently.

Because of a pathological fear that degenerates that are having problems with a given encounter will "abuse" in-game mechanics and environments to do setups and potentially trivialize certain encounters.

Which, of course, you do anyway because mobs pop out of the ground always in the same places and in the first round they all do the same thing.

 

[you know what time it is]

Yeah that shit annoyed me too. Half of the encounters (if not more) are ambushes it gets old really fast.

 

[Luckmann]

So I hear the game frequently depends on enemies parachuting in on encounters. Why? I wonder what changed, since DOS:EE did this, but not too frequently.

Because of a pathological fear that degenerates that are having problems with a given encounter will "abuse" in-game mechanics and environments to do setups and potentially trivialize certain encounters.

Which, of course, you do anyway because mobs pop out of the ground always in the same places and in the first round they all do the same thing.

Yup.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Finished the game, overall I liked it. Good game, can be great but has many questionable design choices.

-Armor system is shit, meh at best. You can manipulate it with a full physical damager party that have 1-2 magical CCs, like medusa head or earth quake. Make your guys wear balanced equipment for armor against 1 shot breakage.
-We use the same fucking spells %85 of the game. We can buy lvl 2 skill books at 4th lvl and after that just all there is some worthless skills or source spells.
-AI has good moments but still goofy . Especially when taunted/charmed.
-Loot system is beyond shit and power gap between levels make it even shittier. Makes the game EPİK! I guess...
-Crafting is a chore. You'll only need for resurrection scrolls (lol) or special arrows/grenades. Maybe lockpicks.
-Rushed endgame, a large portion of the pilot gets revelead in the last fight. Arx has little content, latest puzzles are absurd at best.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Sounds like I don't need to play beyond Driftwood then?

 

[cvv]

Sounds like I don't need to play beyond Driftwood then?

Nameless Isle is not bad, the diverse environments and mobs and puzzles make it entertaining. As for the last Act, afaik you don't have to do almost anything in there, you just haul your ass straight for the last fight. I seem to remember you can get there without doing a single quest in Arx but you have to temporarily sack one of your characters, recruit a disposable merc, sacrifice him and recruit your char back or some such - you'd have to read up on that. If true you should not spend more than an hour from the start of the Act 4 until entering the final "dungeon".

Tbh I'd recommend this approach if after the Nameless Isle you feel like you're just about ready to be done with this game.

 

[Sjukob]

So uh , Alice Alison tactician mode , no cheese , no overlevel . In before playing with lone wolf is massive cheese on it's own .

Spoiler

But look at this shit

Spoiler

Why the fuck this game hates mages so much ? Tactician mode adds additional resists/immunities to certain enemies and it's not like magic damage was mind blowing to get this . I don't know how magic oriented parties beat the game , especially the final battle where enemies have 80% resistances to every element + some immunity .

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Flay Skin.
Polymorph spell. reduces Resistance.

Skin Graft
Polymorph. Resets all cooldowns.

Both are lv3 IIRC.

 

[Grunker]

Nice

Spoiler

Playing lone wolf is massive cheese on its own.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Well it is.

 

[Sjukob]

Flay Skin.
Polymorph spell. reduces Resistance.

Skin Graft
Polymorph. Resets all cooldowns.

Both are lv3 IIRC.

And gets resisted by magic armor ...

 

[Payd Shell]

Finished the game, overall I liked it. Good game, can be great but has many questionable design choices.

-Armor system is shit, meh at best. You can manipulate it with a full physical damager party that have 1-2 magical CCs, like medusa head or earth quake. Make your guys wear balanced equipment for armor against 1 shot breakage.
-We use the same fucking spells %85 of the game. We can buy lvl 2 skill books at 4th lvl and after that just all there is some worthless skills or source spells.
-AI has good moments but still goofy . Especially when taunted/charmed.
-Loot system is beyond shit and power gap between levels make it even shittier. Makes the game EPİK! I guess...
-Crafting is a chore. You'll only need for resurrection scrolls (lol) or special arrows/grenades. Maybe lockpicks.
-Rushed endgame, a large portion of the pilot gets revelead in the last fight. Arx has little content, latest puzzles are absurd at best.

I'd say the level scaling was meant as a bandaid fix for the loot system. Later on every level up is essentially a soft reset. Like when a new expansion for a MMO drops because you want everyone to be able to play the new content you make sure the first few quest rewards kit players out in gear that is better than everything you could achieve in the last expansion. Even if you have shit gear in D:OS 2 the next level up is such a big powerspike that your bad luck with finding gear won't matter anymore, in the same way however good drops become irrelevant once that xp bar is filled.

 

[Luckmann]

Flay Skin.
Polymorph spell. reduces Resistance.

Skin Graft
Polymorph. Resets all cooldowns.

Both are lv3 IIRC.

Flay Skin takes Source, tho. Still worth it for some fights.

I'd say the level scaling was meant as a bandaid fix for the loot system. Later on every level up is essentially a soft reset. Like when a new expansion for a MMO drops because you want everyone to be able to play the new content you make sure the first few quest rewards kit players out in gear that is better than everything you could achieve in the last expansion. Even if you have shit gear in D:OS 2 the next level up is such a big powerspike that your bad luck with finding gear won't matter anymore, in the same way however good drops become irrelevant once that xp bar is filled.

I think there's a much easier solution to the question at hand: They simply didn't test the game and the pacing past lvl 10.

 

[Daedalos]

You m..mean perfect LARIAN made mistakes with D:OS2? No.. that simply cannot be!

Game is a 11/10 goty dorito pope 2017. Best CE AR PEE GEE evur. People are treating this shit as the second coming of crpg jesus. Disgusting.

 

[Lacrymas]

When this game is the only RPG they've ever played, then yeah, it will feel like the Second Coming in gaming. When your FPS-addled brain sees something else your neurons immediately fire all kinds of new and exciting signals. Why D:OS2 got so hip and trendy with the cool kids is a mystery, though.