Game News Swen Vincke's Divinity: Original Sin 2 Presentation at the PC Gamer Weekender

[Infinitron]

Tags: Divinity: Original Sin 2; Larian Studios; Swen Vincke

Larian's Swen Vincke gave his scheduled talk about Divinity: Original Sin 2 at PC Gamer's "PC Gamer Weekender" event earlier this month. It was not streamed live, but apparently somebody from PC Gamer did record it, and yesterday they finally uploaded it to their Youtube channel. And it's a good thing that they did, because it's a great talk. See here for a detailed summary, or watch it yourself:

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After the initial ten minute introduction, Swen goes into detail about the game's core features - the character origins and the "competitive multiplayer" concept - and demonstrates with actual examples how they enable all sorts of choice & consequence-laden situations that would make Vault Dweller drool. It all sounds incredibly ambitious. If Larian can fulfill that ambition, then they truly will be ahead of the curve among RPG developers.

 

[Athelas]

From the comment section:

I'm liking the more Mature setting. I refuse to play the first because it looks so childish and immature that I can't take it seriously.

Anyway, looks good. About the only major interactive feature that seems to be missing is verticality/climbing.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Sounds very ambitious, lots of features and promises... will they actually keep them tho? They named dropped ultima a lot for the original, they had stuff like day and night cycles and schedules as features, none of that made it in and the game was nothing like ultima.

 

[Xenich]

Sounds very ambitious, lots of features and promises... will they actually keep them tho? They named dropped ultima a lot for the original, they had stuff like day and night cycles and schedules as features, none of that made it in and the game was nothing like ultima.

I was greatly disappointed with the day/night cycles not getting into the first game. I know they said the amount of work of trying to build a place for every NPC to go caused a lot of issues, but I would have rather had "cheat" solutions (ie have unimportant NPCs head into a building or area where the player can't go) to it than no day/night cycle at all. Sure, some people would throw tantrums about it not being "realistic", but better to have some feature than none at all in my opinion.

 

[Haba]

I really don't understand the obsession some people have with day & night cycles. What does it bring to the game?

I can see the point in a game that takes a simulationist/dynamic game content approach, but when we are talking about story-driven games with hand-crafted encounters it makes little sense. Sure, you can have a "cool" alternative way of solving a quest or two, but those alternative solutions could just as well be done without it. In practice it just brings unnecessary hassle as you are forced to rest to fast-forward time to trigger events/trade.

If you put day & night cycles into a game, you better design the whole game around it. As superficial addition it is just a waste.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I really don't understand the obsession some people have with day & night cycles. What does it bring to the game?

I can see the point in a game that takes a simulationist/dynamic game content approach, but when we are talking about story-driven games with hand-crafted encounters it makes little sense. Sure, you can have a "cool" alternative way of solving a quest or two, but those alternative solutions could just as well be done without it. In practice it just brings unnecessary hassle as you are forced to rest to fast-forward time to trigger events/trade.

If you put day & night cycles into a game, you better design the whole game around it. As superficial addition it is just a waste.

I don't see what's the point in walking all over the place, when you can simply Teleport to every point of interest like AoD. Goddamn features getting in the way of my RPG!

 

[Excidium II]

Day/Night cycles are cool because lighting/noise systems npc schedules monster behavior et cetera

 

[Haba]

I don't see what's the point in walking all over the place, when you can simply Teleport to every point of interest like AoD. Goddamn features getting in the way of my RPG!

Glad to see you have no convincing argument to support the feature.

Should NPCs have daily schedules instead of standing still in one place all day? Maybe one day the guy will go and see his parents, then the next day he will shop in town, after that he will be hunting in the forest...

Oh and no quest compass naturally, those are the cancer that is killing the games.

 

[Nryn]

The quest design seems mighty impressive (if they manage to pull it off) thanks to the variety of approaches on display. The video has raised my hopes that this could be the rare rpg that combines both systemic and scripted quest design across the entire game.

One thing about the Tag system that I'm not sold about is its impact on conversations. Instead of full sentence responses, it seems conversations now occur with the player response being just a summary of the player's actions. I don't think I spotted a single conversation in the video that had the player engage in a back-and-forth conversation with NPCs involving actual dialogue from the player.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Glad to see you have no convincing argument to support the feature.

Should NPCs have daily schedules instead of standing still in one place all day? Maybe one day the guy will go and see his parents, then the next day he will shop in town, after that he will be hunting in the forest...

Oh and no quest compass naturally, those are the cancer that is killing the games.

Day and night cycles bring the possibility of emergent gameplay systems like stealth, new enemy behaviors, diseases like vampirism and lycantropy, new quest design possibilities.

Npc schedules bring new life into a ln essentially still life painting that is an rpg game world, look at what they brought to the Gothic series. They also allow for gameplay elements like burglary, stealth and alternate quest solutions to be better implemented.

Rpgs don't have to be cyoa books, they can be so much more than focusing on dialogues and reactivity.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I hate having to comb scenarios twice to see if there is something specific the designer decided I should do at night or during the day. It's a pain the in the ass. Yes, the situation where something cool can happen because night is great but I don't want the burden of hunting for scenarios where someone else decided I should use night.

Now on the other hand, if the effect is ubiquitous and the lack of light works in all situations such as with Looking Glass games then OK that is cool.

 

[Xenich]

I really don't understand the obsession some people have with day & night cycles. What does it bring to the game?

I can see the point in a game that takes a simulationist/dynamic game content approach, but when we are talking about story-driven games with hand-crafted encounters it makes little sense. Sure, you can have a "cool" alternative way of solving a quest or two, but those alternative solutions could just as well be done without it. In practice it just brings unnecessary hassle as you are forced to rest to fast-forward time to trigger events/trade.

If you put day & night cycles into a game, you better design the whole game around it. As superficial addition it is just a waste.

It makes the game feel more alive. It allows for a change of scenery (ie nightime views, wildlife, etc..) and sounds that brings a certain "feel" of play.

You ever play Morrowind and feel the differences between day and night?

Anyway, add in that plus the opportunities to provide variations in quest and game play as well and you get a nice addition to the game.

Do you think such is bad? Are you trying to make the argument that a day/night cycle properly implemented brings nothing to the game?

 

[Xenich]

I don't see what's the point in walking all over the place, when you can simply Teleport to every point of interest like AoD. Goddamn features getting in the way of my RPG!

Glad to see you have no convincing argument to support the feature.

Should NPCs have daily schedules instead of standing still in one place all day? Maybe one day the guy will go and see his parents, then the next day he will shop in town, after that he will be hunting in the forest...

Oh and no quest compass naturally, those are the cancer that is killing the games.

Obviously, the more complexity to a the system, the better, but there are points where a developer has to compromise.

As for no quest compass, etc... You are damn right, all of that shit is for mainstream gamers who want to be entertained and see every aspect of game play to be an "inconvenience".

Personally, I wish all those idiots would go back to whatever they were doing before the fad of playing games became popular. I very much liked the old days when only the intelligent people were playing games while the idiots pointed and laughed at the "nerds" for their stupid games they played. Games were much better before them, well... at least you didn't have idiots complaining about "conveniences" as often.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I hate having to comb scenarios twice to see if there is something specific the designer decided I should do at night or during the day. It's a pain the in the ass. Yes, the situation where something cool can happen because night is great but I don't want the burden of hunting for scenarios where someone else decided I should use night.

Now on the other hand, if the effect is ubiquitous and the lack of light works in all situations such as with Looking Glass games then OK that is cool.

That's the same argument people use in defense of a quest compass, because it saves then time searching for the quest objective or reading the quest log.

 

[Trashos]

Ambition 10/10 by Larian.

I will be surprised if all that is really doable and converges into an overall satisfying experience.
So let's hope I will be surprised.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I hate having to comb scenarios twice to see if there is something specific the designer decided I should do at night or during the day. It's a pain the in the ass. Yes, the situation where something cool can happen because night is great but I don't want the burden of hunting for scenarios where someone else decided I should use night.

Now on the other hand, if the effect is ubiquitous and the lack of light works in all situations such as with Looking Glass games then OK that is cool.

That's the same argument people use in defense of a quest compass, because it saves then time searching for the quest objective or reading the quest log.

No I think you are misrepresenting my view, don't assign motivations to me that I am not communicating. Disliking one shitty design aspect is not an argument in favour of others.

 

[Haba]

Day and night cycles bring the possibility of emergent gameplay systems like stealth, new enemy behaviors, diseases like vampirism and lycantropy, new quest design possibilities.

Npc schedules bring new life into a ln essentially still life painting that is an rpg game world, look at what they brought to the Gothic series. They also allow for gameplay elements like burglary, stealth and alternate quest solutions to be better implemented.

Rpgs don't have to be cyoa books, they can be so much more than focusing on dialogues and reactivity.

Sure, but then you have to design your game around it. You shouldn't have day & night cycles just to have a feature in the game. Most of the time it is completely superficial in implementation. Not to mention the fact that you can have day and night maps without systematic cycles!

Your game doesn't magically become better just by adding d&n cycles, in fact you're spreading content thinner. And limiting the scope, since any new area automatically means that you'll have to add an extra layer of complexity to every combat encounter, quest and NPC.

 

[Roguey]

You ever play Morrowind and feel the differences between day and night?

No, it felt completely cosmetic, and they justified it in-lore by saying the nightmares were keeping everyone awake so shops stayed open 24/7.

 

[Xenich]

You ever play Morrowind and feel the differences between day and night?

No, it felt completely cosmetic, and they justified it in-lore by saying the nightmares were keeping everyone awake so shops stayed open 24/7.

I was talking about the "feeling" of night and day as you roamed the world. If your point is to say that night and day didn't matter and that the game would have not been any different if they removed night, well... I think you would be being dishonest in claiming so.

 

[Inveigh]

I don't see what's the point in walking all over the place, when you can simply Teleport to every point of interest like AoD. Goddamn features getting in the way of my RPG!

Glad to see you have no convincing argument to support the feature.

Should NPCs have daily schedules instead of standing still in one place all day? Maybe one day the guy will go and see his parents, then the next day he will shop in town, after that he will be hunting in the forest...

Oh and no quest compass naturally, those are the cancer that is killing the games.

Obviously, the more complexity to a the system, the better, but there are points where a developer has to compromise.

As for no quest compass, etc... You are damn right, all of that shit is for mainstream gamers who want to be entertained and see every aspect of game play to be an "inconvenience".

Personally, I wish all those idiots would go back to whatever they were doing before the fad of playing games became popular. I very much liked the old days when only the intelligent people were playing games while the idiots pointed and laughed at the "nerds" for their stupid games they played. Games were much better before them, well... at least you didn't have idiots complaining about "conveniences" as often.

I can't even wholly grasp how demented your outlook is.


OT: Larian have filled their cups with ambition. I'll be interested to see progression on the game and what features end up being in the game as a result.

 

[Roguey]

I was talking about the "feeling" of night and day as you roamed the world. If your point is to say that night and day didn't matter and that the game would have not been any different if they removed night, well... I think you would be being dishonest in claiming so.

Aside from a couple of sleepers in town, I never noticed any differences.

 

[Xenich]

I was talking about the "feeling" of night and day as you roamed the world. If your point is to say that night and day didn't matter and that the game would have not been any different if they removed night, well... I think you would be being dishonest in claiming so.

Aside from a couple of sleepers in town, I never noticed any differences.

So the sound, the low light, the feeling of night made no difference to you? Really?

If so, fine... but I think your opinion has less weight then because it is highly dismissive and generalized in appeal. That is, it is a "cant see the forest for the trees" type of position.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Some people just don't get the mood. Poor bastards

 

[GuiltyofBeingTrite]

the core difference in the day/night cycles in Morrorwind is whether or not you casted Night-Eye.

 

[Xenich]

Some people just don't get the mood. Poor bastards

Yep, it is the same thing when you are trying to point out the importance of intricate combat features to someone and them saying "Who gives a fuck, I just like to blow shit up!".