Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pre-Release Thread

[Bubbles]

Bad trolling, Bubbles.

Torment 2 doesn't have a day/night cycle either. If anything, the industry seems to be moving away from day/night systems.

I was just taking a jab at you because of the Wasteland 2= Codex favourite part.

Roguey

 

[undecaf]

I remember Swen saying something to the effect that day/night cycle would likely needlessly complicate their job because if they would add it (and all that comes with it by default, like NPC schedules) it'd have "big" effects on their intended reactivity systems and in addition they'd want to do something worthwhile with the feature on top of that rather than just timed lighting changes. Or something like that, I don't remember the specifics.

I remember being in mild agreement on that back then, but can't remember what's the reason for not having it done properly in DOS2 now that they're millionaires. Probably the same, but... well, meh. I can make do either way.

 

[Mazisky]

Gorion death on Baldur's Gate, the Baron quest about his son and his ghost chasing on the Witcher 3, entering the cemetery on Diablo 2 first act at night, every undead quest on every rpg and so many other examples about how nights added atmosphere in a game. Even on NON-rpg like Ufo-defense night added a lot

It's orribly weird to play an openworld in full daytime the whole game

Low budget games like battle brothers feature a full day\night cycle, they didn't waste resources for animations but they decided to make a beautiful daytime system

It's 2016, they have money. Pls, no excuses unless you are a Larian fanboy so everything u say it's pointless since beginning

 

[Alienman]

Atmosphere, like one of the most important things in a Rpg

Yeah, because having NPCs who all behave the same at noon or midnight is so atmospheric.

Well, if they do implant it I was hoping it would come with npc schedule.

 

[Zombra]

So wait, Mazisky. Do you want a simple, nonsensical visual-only day/night cycle that doesn't affect gameplay for "atmosphere", as you implied when you said it's just "lazyness" for them to not turn on their dynamic lighting system? Or do you want to double NPC dialogue, add a complex system of AI routines to dictate NPC schedules, increase busywork for players by adding timing obstacles to simple tasks such as inventory management, and enforce the "atmospheric" behavior of "Where's the 'rest for 16 hours' button?"

 

[Mazisky]

Bad trolling, Bubbles.

Torment 2 doesn't have a day/night cycle either. If anything, the industry seems to be moving away from day/night systems.

Pillars of eternity, the Witcher 3, Battle Brothers, Xcom 2 and many more recent examples do feature a day night system, games like cities skyline overexagerated and added a day\night cycle trough expansion LOL, so maybe is correct "the LAZY industry seems to be moving away from day\night cycle".

 

[Fry]

I can only think of one quest in Pillars that actually made use of day/night. Worth it? Not from a quest design perspective, but I do like the added atmosphere.

 

[Mazisky]

So wait, Mazisky. Do you want a simple, nonsensical visual-only day/night cycle that doesn't affect gameplay for "atmosphere", as you implied when you said it's just "lazyness" for them to not turn on their dynamic lighting system? Or do you want to double NPC dialogue, add a complex system of AI routines to dictate NPC schedules, increase busywork for players by adding timing obstacles to simple tasks such as inventory management, and enforce the "atmospheric" behavior of "Where's the 'rest for 16 hours' button?"

So all the rpgs developers in twenty years of gaming that featured only visual day\night cycle in their game added that feature only because they had money and time to waste i guess

 

[AwesomeButton]

I can only think of one quest in Pillars that actually made use of day/night. Worth it? Not from a quest design perspective, but I do like the added atmosphere.

I don't know many games that utilise it, which is a shame. I guess it's considered too constraining for players, I think Sawyer had brought up the "we want players to experience as much content as possible" argument somewhere when asked about quests dependent on time of day.

 

[Bubbles]

Well, we'll always have ELEX.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Swen also mentioned having to change the designs of all the towns etc, as to do it properly every person would need living quarters to return to at night, with some content to liven all these areas up too. I could see this being quite an undertaking, not impossible obviously but certainly a big time commitment to do properly.

 

[Zombra]

So wait, Mazisky. Do you want a simple, nonsensical visual-only day/night cycle that doesn't affect gameplay for "atmosphere", as you implied when you said it's just "lazyness" for them to not turn on their dynamic lighting system? Or do you want to double NPC dialogue, add a complex system of AI routines to dictate NPC schedules, increase busywork for players by adding timing obstacles to simple tasks such as inventory management, and enforce the "atmospheric" behavior of "Where's the 'rest for 16 hours' button?"

So all the rpgs developers in twenty years of gaming that featured only visual day\night cycle in their game added that feature only because they had money and time to waste i guess

Can't answer the question, huh? You don't even know what you want.

 

[Mazisky]

So wait, Mazisky. Do you want a simple, nonsensical visual-only day/night cycle that doesn't affect gameplay for "atmosphere", as you implied when you said it's just "lazyness" for them to not turn on their dynamic lighting system? Or do you want to double NPC dialogue, add a complex system of AI routines to dictate NPC schedules, increase busywork for players by adding timing obstacles to simple tasks such as inventory management, and enforce the "atmospheric" behavior of "Where's the 'rest for 16 hours' button?"

So all the rpgs developers in twenty years of gaming that featured only visual day\night cycle in their game added that feature only because they had money and time to waste i guess

Can't answer the question, huh? You don't even know what you want.

Full scheduled would be the dream, but even only visual it's still a lot of added value in terms of atmosphere and general feeling. It's not the cycle itself, it's more about having nights environments alternating to daytime for having a special feel on some locations.

For example, Pillars has only visual cycle, but places like Infested Caed Nua exterior or Dyrford crossing are 4 times better at night.

Another example in every rpg , traveling the woods at night with rain has a different feels than full daytime.

If you don't care about those things it's ok, but lot of people do, and lot of developers do aswell considering how many games have only visual cycle

 

[Zombra]

Full scheduled would be the dream, but even only visual it's still a lot of added value in terms of atmosphere and general feeling. It's not the cycle itself, it's more about having nights environments alternating to daytime for having a special feel on some locations.

Then again, if you go visual only, you have disappointed players like Alienman (and me) who would say, this is feeble, if you're going to do it at all I at expect some gameplay impact. So this isn't about some no-brainer "basic feature" like you said - there's a huge spectrum between no cycles and full-on detailed simulation. Maybe they just didn't want to do the cheapest crappiest version of day/night possible, like you seem to be suggesting.

 

[Hegel]

bg2 did that 16 years ago, what's wrong with these people?

 

[Kane]

bg2 did that 16 years ago, what's wrong with these people?

professional RPG developers

 

[Neanderthal]

I remember twenty plus years ago caching Mayor Finnegan out in his affair when I followed him at night after 9pm Fellowship meeting. Avatars were playing at Blue Boar, guards were lighting streetlamps, folk were going to bed while others caroused. Glad quarter o a century later nobody can do that anymore, less features yay, less detailed gameworlds yay. Cheer on the decline.

 

[Mazisky]

Maybe they just didn't want to do the cheapest crappiest version of day/night possible, like you seem to be suggesting.

This is the official PR version for Lazyness and as i can see, it's quite effective

 

[Bubbles]

The annual Watch/Codex match is on for next Wednesday, and the Watch still needs a champion. They tried to find one among their backers, but that didn't work out. Now they've opened up the position for anybody who's interested:

To get back to the topic at hand, who wants to play a Divinity: Original Sin 2 arena session on Wednesday 14th at 10am PST (6pm GMT, 7pm CET)?

https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1061412288

It would be absurd if a site with nearly 50,000 monthly visitors couldn't find one single person to fight mindx2, right?

 

[J_C]

The annual Watch/Codex match is on for next Wednesday, and the Watch still needs a champion. They tried to find one among their backers, but that didn't work out. Now they've opened up the position for anybody who's interested:

To get back to the topic at hand, who wants to play a Divinity: Original Sin 2 arena session on Wednesday 14th at 10am PST (6pm GMT, 7pm CET)?

https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1061412288

It would be absurd if a site with nearly 50,000 monthly visitors couldn't find one single person to fight mindx2, right?

Are you surprised? I wouldn't want to be humiliated by mind2x either. Because there is obviously no contest here about the winner.

 

[Zombra]

The annual Watch/Codex match is on for next Wednesday, and the Watch still needs a champion. They tried to find one among their backers, but that didn't work out. Now they've opened up the position for anybody who's interested

I still have an account there. Should I go in as a ringer? I'd be ideal for throwing the match since all I want to do is make my own PCs fight each other anyway.

 

[Bubbles]

It should be somebody who prefers the Watch to the Codex at the very least. Humanity has risen! maybe?

 

[Alienman]

Full scheduled would be the dream, but even only visual it's still a lot of added value in terms of atmosphere and general feeling. It's not the cycle itself, it's more about having nights environments alternating to daytime for having a special feel on some locations.

Then again, if you go visual only, you have disappointed players like Alienman (and me) who would say, this is feeble, if you're going to do it at all I at expect some gameplay impact. So this isn't about some no-brainer "basic feature" like you said - there's a huge spectrum between no cycles and full-on detailed simulation. Maybe they just didn't want to do the cheapest crappiest version of day/night possible, like you seem to be suggesting.

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.

 

[Zombra]

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.

 

[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.

Also, the instant switch was weird, like in 2 secs everything turned dark, and if u move the camera back before the "stone arch", it was bright again...kinda cheap presets