Divinity Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

[Volken]

Sure, we wait for eachother and we listen in on eachother's conversations, we read important books up loud to eachother, and we send eachother items when needed (because fuck having a shared inventory, apparently), but it's not the same.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I know I already bitched about this a dozen times if we are going to include the first game, but for the love of anything good on this world I can't understand how Swen and other people at Larian can play this game and think "Yeah, itemization is absolutely fine here, randomized loot is for the best and stat inflation isn't really an issue at all".

This game is good, even fucking great at times, but I swear it could be a timeless classic if they ever addressed this shit.

 

[Doktor Best]

Sure, we wait for eachother and we listen in on eachother's conversations, we read important books up loud to eachother, and we send eachother items when needed (because fuck having a shared inventory, apparently), but it's not the same.

Whats wrong with that?

Luckmann:

Maybe there should have been a more resolved dialogue interaction system in coop, but for the love of god, please dont advocate for the return of stone paper scissors. That crap was awkward as fuck.

I would have liked to see for example stat and skillchecks for those interactions to determine who gets to talk or interrupt.

 

[Sjukob]

This game is good, even fucking great at times, but I swear it could be a timeless classic if they ever addressed this shit

Yeah ... not really , I thought so myself till I played it enough to understand issues better . The game is a mess , it's fun to play , but nothing about it really works or makes sense .

 

[Darth Roxor]

We're constantly forced into choosing who takes point, who wins, who picks up the reward(s), and so on.

otoh, we've decided to just fuck that shit long ago and go with the flow

if someone missed something, well tough luck, especially as in my experience it's hardly even worth it to, ho-hum, 'min max' conversations in this way

in the end someone ends up murdered anyway, we shrug and move on

i'm p. sure its a much more healthy approach

 

[Mark Richard]

It would be nice if you could change who is talking in the middle of the conversation if everyone in the party is within range. There are a number of times when the game auto starts a conversation and... its not the face of the party.

D:OS2 has up to four characters with the ability to operate independently and pursue their own personal goals, which may conflict with the goals of another player character. There's a competitive aspect to it. Preventing players from switching between characters during conversations appears to be a leftover component from the multiplayer design. Bit of a pain considering we can switch between characters while shopping in single-player.

 

[Lacrymas]

Is there a point to "being competitive"? Does the game even allow you to take different sides in one situation?

 

[Darth Roxor]

if anything, the removal of rock-paper-scissors/arguments between player characters has made the game much less 'competitive' than it used to be

because nope, you can't take different sides now at all, all 'choices' are resolved by first come, first served (or first spotted, first talked, as it may be)

 

[Luckmann]

Luckmann:

Maybe there should have been a more resolved dialogue interaction system in coop, but for the love of god, please dont advocate for the return of stone paper scissors. That crap was awkward as fuck.

I would have liked to see for example stat and skillchecks for those interactions to determine who gets to talk or interrupt.

Yeah, Stone-Paper-Scissors was silly and awkward, especially since you couldn't lose on purpose, but still better than the alternative. Would probably have preferred a simple dice-toss modified by the skills, or something. What annoyed me the most about how it worked in D:OS1 was actually how you couldn't lose on purpose, in case you were convinced by the other's argument or something.

It would be nice if you could change who is talking in the middle of the conversation if everyone in the party is within range. There are a number of times when the game auto starts a conversation and... its not the face of the party.

D:OS2 has up to four characters with the ability to operate independently and pursue their own personal goals, which may conflict with the goals of another player character. There's a competitive aspect to it. Preventing players from switching between characters during conversations appears to be a leftover component from the multiplayer design. Bit of a pain considering we can switch between characters while shopping in single-player.

The thing is, though, who the fuck actually cares about the competitive aspect of it? While I'm sure that some people get a kick out of screwing eachother over for an hour or so, or fuck around in the theme-part independent of eachother until someone gets into a fight made to be met with 4 people, missing like 90% of the narrative, running into confusion situations that make no sense without context, I sincerely doubt that more than a fraction of a fraction of the multiplayer player base plays it as anything other than co-op in at least a somewhat sincere fashion.

If they're doing co-op, they should make the game with the assumption that the players actually want to cooperate, and build to the strengths of that. Not try to make some kind of co-op-but-not-really experience. They were on the right track with D:OS1, but D:OS2 deviates from that, even if it superior in other aspects.

I wish Larian would stop trying to re-invent the wheel with every game.

Sure, we wait for eachother and we listen in on eachother's conversations, we read important books up loud to eachother, and we send eachother items when needed (because fuck having a shared inventory, apparently), but it's not the same.

Yeah? We sit in the same room, and while we could send the books and papers and shit around to eachother, sitting in silence as we read them, and then send it back, why would we? It would just be doing shit twice. Most of the time we just summarize and paraphrase stuff, though. "Bla bla bla Lone Wolves bla bla bla, well apparently X fucked Y", to make sure that we're both on the same page. There's actually a lot less reading in D:OS2 than in D:OS1, for some reason - most books are considerably shorter, I find, and a couple of paragraphs at most, and very rarely multiple pages. And rando books can safely be ignored, too, like practically every "book" that just unlocks crafting recipes that I 9 times out of 10 have already unlocked anyway.

Is there a point to "being competitive"? Does the game even allow you to take different sides in one situation?

No, not really. It's come-first, first-served, and if someone resolves something, well, tough shit for everyone else. There's a great example just outside Fort Joy that bummed my GF a bit because she got stuck in another conversation and forgot to listen in.

Spoiler

I interacted with the Statue of Amadia at the Sanctuary, and she threw out healing and shit - and then when my GF interacts with it, she's just getting generic stuff, and the priestess was all about "You're chosen of Amadia" to me, while just generic to my GF. Funnily enough, when I then spoke to the priestess again, she was talking to me as if we talked for the first time ever, because it operates on the assumption that you talk to her first, and then talk to the statue/head of Amadia, and then again with the priestess - but I couldn't speak to the priestess, so I touched the head, thinking it was just another Waypoint, specifically because my GF was talking to the priestess.

 

[Lacrymas]

So, what was the point of this style of co-op if it's first come, first served? Isn't it just trivial window-dressing that you don't have any reason to do now?

 

[AwesomeButton]

Why does the camera need to rotate 360deg? I don't see how this enhances my experience in any way. Sure, it makes it easier for the area designers, but what does the player gain?

Full camera control in a game is good. It's better to have too much control than to have gimped and limited camera control which pisses you off that your view is blocked off.

"Better to have too much control than to have gimped and limited..." - so, like the zoom control?

Q&E for rotation is a good idea. I was just thinking of annoying things in the UI that make playing feel laborous for me.

 

[Volken]

Luckmann:

Sure, we wait for eachother and we listen in on eachother's conversations, we read important books up loud to eachother, and we send eachother items when needed (because fuck having a shared inventory, apparently), but it's not the same.

Yeah? We sit in the same room, and while we could send the books and papers and shit around to eachother, sitting in silence as we read them, and then send it back, why would we? It would just be doing shit twice. Most of the time we just summarize and paraphrase stuff, though. "Bla bla bla Lone Wolves bla bla bla, well apparently X fucked Y", to make sure that we're both on the same page. There's actually a lot less reading in D:OS2 than in D:OS1, for some reason - most books are considerably shorter, I find, and a couple of paragraphs at most, and very rarely multiple pages. And rando books can safely be ignored, too, like practically every "book" that just unlocks crafting recipes that I 9 times out of 10 have already unlocked anyway.

I just thought the lore is so lame it's not really worth to read about it, especially loud to your buddies. :D

 

[Lacrymas]

There's lore? lol.

 

[Sjukob]

Welp , finaly got to this point as Red Prince . If you say to her that you don't want to , she goes: "REEEEEE ! BUT MAH PROPHECY ! YOU MUST DIE !" . May be that's because I denied her at Driftwood , but whatever she's just a vicious twat anyway . Also somehow got achievment for becoming the father of dragons , guess Red Prince is secretly a hermaphrodite .

Spoiler

 

[Luckmann]

Why does the camera need to rotate 360deg? I don't see how this enhances my experience in any way. Sure, it makes it easier for the area designers, but what does the player gain?

Full camera control in a game is good. It's better to have too much control than to have gimped and limited camera control which pisses you off that your view is blocked off.

I agree. I'm actually kinda annoyed that in D:OS2, you can't tilt the camera at all. I prefer to have some leeway when it comes to looking up/down. It also feels like you're forced to be more zoomed in than I'd like. I'll probably start running a CheatEngine or something to allow further zoom in/out.

I know I already bitched about this a dozen times if we are going to include the first game, but for the love of anything good on this world I can't understand how Swen and other people at Larian can play this game and think "Yeah, itemization is absolutely fine here, randomized loot is for the best and stat inflation isn't really an issue at all".

This game is good, even fucking great at times, but I swear it could be a timeless classic if they ever addressed this shit.

Yeah, D:OS2 is so fucking close, I feel, so fucking close, but no cigar. I want to love it, but it needs to stop fighting me.

I just thought the lore is so lame it's not really worth to read about it, especially loud to your buddies. :D

It's not really the lore - there's actually very little lore in the books - but more like letters and shit that gives context to what's going on, revealing names and places so we can keep them in mind. If it was books like in TES, I have no doubt it would all be shit.

 

[Lacrymas]

You misquoted me again there, Luckmann :p

 

[Luckmann]

You misquoted me again there, Luckmann :p

I swear to the gods I have no idea why that keeps happening.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Also somehow got achievment for becoming the father of dragons

I got both achievements about that dragon thingy without having Red Prince in my party. Bugs galore.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Even after the big patch; Arx is in alpha, rest of the game in beta.

 

[Alienman]

What is Arx, a city or just a big map?

 

[Tigranes]

City with a lot less content that you can explore or speed past in an hour as you prefer

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[cannondwarf]

I actually liked Arx after the patch, it's not as good as Reaper's Coast but it's better than Fort Joy and Nameless Isle. Nameless Isle is probably my least favorite act so far, it just feels pointless.

 

[Iznaliu]

I know I already bitched about this a dozen times if we are going to include the first game, but for the love of anything good on this world I can't understand how Swen and other people at Larian can play this game and think "Yeah, itemization is absolutely fine here, randomized loot is for the best and stat inflation isn't really an issue at all".

That is probably since seeing the same items get boring if you play the game for 2000 hours.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Gotta agree with luckmann so far. The game is fun to play, but systematically broken so far.

The biggest problen is larian didnt recognize all the complaints stretching back from DOS 1 to be a problem, and even make it worse here.