Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pre-Release Thread

[Alienman]

I'm kinda in between. I would of course prefer full simulation like the Gothic, Risen and so on, but if that can't be done just basic night and day cycles would be enough, just for the flavor. They could always just remove merchants and such when it turns to night. I find it a lot better than permanent rain and night like outside the first town in Original Sin.

Yeah, and I get why that would be more atmospheric, but then again this is a classic "expense of gameplay" solution. I want to sell these extra suits of chainmail I looted from those hobgoblins, but the merchants just went home for the evening. Now I have to either find an inn to pass the night, or (if I'm lucky) I can activate the "wait here for 16 hours" button. So it's either meaningless trudging or - even worse - throwing roleplay completely out the window. Both "solutions" do more to take me out of the game than a darker palette does to suck me in.

Yeah, true. Oh well. As it seems we won't get neither hehe.

 

[Neanderthal]

I'm kinda in between. I would of course prefer full simulation like the Gothic, Risen and so on, but if that can't be done just basic night and day cycles would be enough, just for the flavor. They could always just remove merchants and such when it turns to night. I find it a lot better than permanent rain and night like outside the first town in Original Sin.

Yeah, and I get why that would be more atmospheric, but then again this is a classic "expense of gameplay" solution. I want to sell these extra suits of chainmail I looted from those hobgoblins, but the merchants just went home for the evening. Now I have to either find an inn to pass the night, or (if I'm lucky) I can activate the "wait here for 16 hours" button. So it's either meaningless trudging or - even worse - throwing roleplay completely out the window. Both "solutions" do more to take me out of the game than a darker palette does to suck me in.

Erm whats wrong wi sleeping at night? An why would you go to a shop when you know its closed?

Too much handholdin an accessibility in games as it is, shunt have more for sake o player convenience. No wonder players are becoming spoiled babbys who want games to play emsens.

 

[Zombra]

Erm whats wrong wi sleeping at night? An why would you go to a shop when you know its closed?

lol. REALISM > ALL

 

[Mazisky]

I'm kinda in between. I would of course prefer full simulation like the Gothic, Risen and so on, but if that can't be done just basic night and day cycles would be enough, just for the flavor. They could always just remove merchants and such when it turns to night. I find it a lot better than permanent rain and night like outside the first town in Original Sin.

Yeah, and I get why that would be more atmospheric, but then again this is a classic "expense of gameplay" solution. I want to sell these extra suits of chainmail I looted from those hobgoblins, but the merchants just went home for the evening. Now I have to either find an inn to pass the night, or (if I'm lucky) I can activate the "wait here for 16 hours" button. So it's either meaningless trudging or - even worse - throwing roleplay completely out the window. Both "solutions" do more to take me out of the game than a darker palette does to suck me in.

So what about all those classic awarded rpgs (almost all, LOL) that featured a day\night cycle? poor solutions? it was a bad feature for you? most of them showed the cycle as a game (good) feature on the boxes\websites...

why even indie devs (battle Brothers, antharion) do feature that?

 

[Neanderthal]

Erm whats wrong wi sleeping at night? An why would you go to a shop when you know its closed?

lol. REALISM > ALL

Nah i'd say solid intertwined gameplay backin up better simulated worlds trumps all. Well better than askin for less an less features, cos thats not worked great for RPGs over last few decades.

 

[Bubbles]

So what about all those classic awarded rpgs (almost all, LOL) that featured a day\night cycle? poor solutions? it was a bad feature for you? most of them showed the cycle as a game (good) feature on the boxes\websites...

Old games were forced to have day/night cycles due to technical limitations.

 

[Zombra]

So what about all those classic awarded rpgs (almost all, LOL) that featured a day\night cycle? poor solutions? it was a bad feature for you?

I remember being pissed off by it sometimes, yes. That's why I gave examples of how it can be bad for gameplay.

most of them showed the cycle as a game (good) feature on the boxes\websites...

So every feature bullet point listed on boxes is automatically good? I bet the Codex could find one or two counterexamples to that if it really tried.

Nah i'd say solid intertwined gameplay backin up better simulated worlds trumps all.

So when I point that NPC schedules can be bad for gameplay, your response is what?

 

[Neanderthal]

Nah i'd say solid intertwined gameplay backin up better simulated worlds trumps all.

So when I point that NPC schedules can be bad for gameplay, your response is what?

You're wrong. NPC schedules is bad for player convenience, which theres too much on anyway. RPGs need less handholding an less babying, an more customers demanding more not excusing less.

Fact i'd say a better simulated world should add more gameplay options not takeaway, make night and day seperate an worth exploring: Nights for sleeping, dreaming, meeting up, drinking, feasting, rumour mongering, meeting shady characters, thieving, breaking an entering, infiltrating etc.

Anyway off to work, good argument, hope it continues.

 

[Mazisky]

So what about all those classic awarded rpgs (almost all, LOL) that featured a day\night cycle? poor solutions? it was a bad feature for you?

I remember being pissed off by it sometimes, yes. That's why I gave examples of how it can be bad for gameplay.

This is a personal taste, but i'm ready to bet there are very few folks who think full day\night cycle with schedule is a bad feature in a Rpg and should be removed.

I never heard by anyone complains about that feature in games like Baldur's Gate, PsT, Gothic, Elders scrolls series, Witcher and many others.

it seems more to justify Larian for lacking a feature that almost every rpg dev made. (Also, Larian itself had day\night cycle for divine divnity back in the days, that's kinda weird)

Is there any classic rpg codex (or not) review who put cycle in cons?

 

[Roguey]

It's a "hardly anyone cares" at best and "mild annoyance" at worst.

 

[HoboForEternity]

i can see it now.

day 1 DLC: day/night cycle! for only $2.99!
buy the season pass for NPC schedule and cycle altogether! only $7.99!

 

[Bubbles]

The Watch are busily preparing their bail-out strategy on our match:

 

[Zombra]

The Watch are busily preparing their bail-out strategy on our match

The two sweetest words in the English language!

DE! FAULT! DE! FAULT!

 

[AwesomeButton]

Lol, "staff editor and columnist". Pussy casuals

I think it's normal if you have a day/night cycle that some content (most shopkeeps) is only available in the daytime, but there should also be content that's nighttime exclusive, otherwise the player would be more prone to skip nighttime. Also there should be some sort of "tired" state for players and party members which makes resting desireble. But not a half-assed one like in PoE.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

Lol, "staff editor and columnist". Pussy casuals

I think it's normal if you have a day/night cycle that some content (most shopkeeps) is only available in the daytime, but there should also be content that's nighttime exclusive, otherwise the player would be more prone to skip nighttime. Also there should be some sort of "tired" state for players and party members which makes resting desireble. But not a half-assed one like in PoE.

The issue with Divinity: 2 Original 2 Sin is that it's primarily a multiplayer co-op game. 'sleeping' or requiring rest of some sort isn't a good idea when you've got 4 people playing at the same time.

 

[Bubbles]

Yeah, if it wouldn't work well in co-op, don't expect it to be in the game.

 

[Alienman]

Works in Minecraft and Terraria. Just hire a room in a inn like a true adventure party, can't get any more roleplay than that

 

[SniperHF]

The issue with Divinity: 2 Original 2 Sin is that it's primarily a multiplayer co-op game. 'sleeping' or requiring rest of some sort isn't a good idea when you've got 4 people playing at the same time.

Yeah, if it wouldn't work well in co-op, don't expect it to be in the game.

I never expected D:OS 1's cycle to actually have a sleeping mechanic for the player in such a way as it was required. Though it's hard to say what Larian had in mind exactly since it clearly never got much off the ground floor. They cut it/backburnered it pretty soon after the kickstarter by every indication I've ever seen.

When I was working on my mod that has a rudimentary day/night cycle and scheduling my idea for vendors and such was to have a day shift and a night shift with different characters that could perform those functions. It's a bit gamey but I think a reasonable middle ground solution to the "rest until morning" problem.

 

[Alienman]

When I was working on my mod that has a rudimentary day/night cycle and scheduling my idea for vendors and such was to have a day shift and a night shift with different characters that could perform those functions. It's a bit gamey but I think a reasonable middle ground solution to the "rest until morning" problem.

Could always go with the classic. Contraband vendor in the sewers

 

[Roguey]

Works in Minecraft and Terraria. Just hire a room in a inn like a true adventure party, can't get any more roleplay than that

How do they handle "one person wants to advance time while players elsewhere are doing their own thing"

 

[Mazisky]

Works in Minecraft and Terraria. Just hire a room in a inn like a true adventure party, can't get any more roleplay than that

How do they handle "one person wants to advance time while players elsewhere are doing their own thing"

By not doing co-op crap at all and focusing on single player like any other classic did

 

[Jimmious]

Co-op is not crap in D:OS , it's fucking awesome. Hands off

 

[Mazisky]

Co-op is not crap in D:OS , it's fucking awesome. Hands off

It is not crap itself, it's crap when they discarded basic features like full scheduled day\night cycles cause of it

I prefere a more believable world rather than "playing with friends" in a always sunnny-time-doesn't even-exist world

 

[Mazisky]

Also, quotes from Swen:

"My main regret for D:OS is that we didn’t manage to do the day/night cycles. Killing your darlings never is fun, but it is an inevitable part of production. I guess we always figured that, if anything, this would be the one we’d cut. Up until not-so-long ago however, I did have some hope that we were still going to be able to make it happen."

"As I’m writing this, I don’t know how backers will react to our dropping day/night cycles. It unsettles me very much to possibly disappoint our backers because they made the extended development on Divinity: Original Sin possible. But there are limits to what time and budget permit and sometimes it’s necessary to make a choice when you discover something is more work than you anticipated. In this case we chose to go for stability, balancing and polish.

One alternative would’ve been to put in a day/night cycle without a lot of reactivity from the npcs, just for the sake of being able to say that we’ve done it, but that’s something we didn’t want to do. The vision driving Divinity:Original Sin has been that every feature which is in there has real gameplay value and isn’t a gimmick.

Perhaps those who are disappointed may take comfort from the engine & toolkit supporting pretty much everything that’s necessary for schedules, up to having NPCs sleep in their beds, so it’s not impossible that somewhere down the line a mod or a derivative game is released that uses these features."

In other words, they could do, engine already support all of that but they had no time\budget.

How can this happen with dos2? didn't have time and budget again? i guess DOS 1 had poor sales

Again, LAZINESS

 

[Neanderthal]

I wunt say laziness, they're probably workin their tis off, i'd say its just wrong attitude thats an industry wide problem. An in fairness Larian have brought back a fuckton o features gone way o Dodo, compared to most other firms they're leading way.