Development Info Divinity 2 is really big + different interface for consoles

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Divinity 2

There's some info on the upcoming Divinty 2 <a href="http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=357857">posted in the Larian Studios forum</a>:
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<blockquote>We just finished a two week “get in early and play the game every morning “ review session and I think the general feeling among everybody present in those review meetings was – bloody hell, this game is bigger than we thought. We were playing in god mode, using cheat keys without engaging in combat and it still took us a really long time to play through everything.
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One thing which I think we’re getting pretty right is our dialog presentation. I’m talking about the entire voices/lip-synching/animations/cameras thing. An immense effort is being done to get all of that dialog presented to you in an entertaining way, and I’m really happy at how it turned out.
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The user interfaces are also getting more and more complete, and the difference between the PC and Xbox360 user interfaces is pretty sharp. I play games on both systems, and I was happy to see that some schizophrenic part of me could appreciate the nuances the UI guys put in for both audiences. You look at one UI and you say – yep, most definitely PC RPG. You look at the other and you have this thing of, ok – works well for an Xbox360 RPG. The underlying functionality is the same, but it’s surprising how much the look needs to fit the platform for there to be… well, call it gameplay. The same actions with a non-appealing UI on a particular platform feel a lot different than when it is appealing. Don’t ask me why, I tried explaining people in the team multiple times: “you watch, when the UI will look nice and fit, this will be fun” and they all looked at me in a disbelieving way, but now I feel vindicated. It’s a discovery we made when making Divinity - for a long time there was absolutely no item fever in the game, and then one day we got the presentation acceptable, and suddenly it was there. Magic...</blockquote>
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Of course, if consoles had better controls in the first place...
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Spotted @ <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com">GameBanshee</a>

 

[Mr. Teatime]

Game's success will depend on its translation.

However, this guy, whoever he is, can write English pretty well. That's surely a good sign.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

Eh, Bethesda said the same thing about Fallout 3.

That said, Divinity 2 looks a lot better than Divine Divinity.

 

[doctor_kaz]

"Big huge huge world" doesn't really excite me that much, since I have yet to see a developer that can fill it with quality content. Shoot for a Gothic 2 sized world. That's the optimal size.

 

[Saxon1974]

I loved the original Divine Divinity, so I have serious doubt the 3D version can measure up to creating the same atmopshere that the original did.

 

[doctor_kaz]

I think that a 3D game can do the trick, but I'm skeptical that a relatively small developer like Larian can actually design a huge gameworld and then populate it with decent non copy-and-paste content. It's a lot easier when it's 2D since the assets don't take as many resources to create.

 

[Saxon1974]

I think that a 3D game can do the trick, but I'm skeptical that a relatively small developer like Larian can actually design a huge gameworld and then populate it with decent non copy-and-paste content. It's a lot easier when it's 2D since the assets don't take as many resources to create.

Agree, which is a big factor why I think "RPG's" have sucked for the most part since the jump to 3D.

 

[Thrasher]

I think that a 3D game can do the trick, but I'm skeptical that a relatively small developer like Larian can actually design a huge gameworld and then populate it with decent non copy-and-paste content. It's a lot easier when it's 2D since the assets don't take as many resources to create.

Agree, which is a big factor why I think "RPG's" have sucked for the most part since the jump to 3D.

 

[Relayer71]

Agree, which is a big factor why I think "RPG's" have sucked for the most part since the jump to 3D.

Me and my copy of WIzardry 8 beg to differ.

 

[DefJam101]

Agree, which is a big factor why I think "RPG's" have sucked for the most part since the jump to 3D.

Me and my copy of WIzardry 8 beg to differ.

As awesome as Wiz 8's combat is, it is still severely flawed. The necessity of backing yourself into a corner becomes somewhat repetitive after the 80 millionth fight. :D

 

[Relayer71]

I think that a 3D game can do the trick, but I'm skeptical that a relatively small developer like Larian can actually design a huge gameworld and then populate it with decent non copy-and-paste content. It's a lot easier when it's 2D since the assets don't take as many resources to create.

I just hope they don't make the one mistake they made with DD: way too much combat.

The world in DD was well designed and filled with interesting characters, decent writing, humor and good quests. But the insane amount of combat dulled the sense of immersion.

 

[Saxon1974]

Agree, which is a big factor why I think "RPG's" have sucked for the most part since the jump to 3D.

Me and my copy of WIzardry 8 beg to differ.

As awesome as Wiz 8's combat is, it is still severely flawed. The necessity of backing yourself into a corner becomes somewhat repetitive after the 80 millionth fight. :D

I have to agree, and the fight well nicely done turn based combat just took far too long. I got tired of fighting 23 enemies all the time.

That being said, Wizardy 8 is probably the best 3D RPG game yet made, but its the drastic exception and not the norm.

 

[Saxon1974]

I think that a 3D game can do the trick, but I'm skeptical that a relatively small developer like Larian can actually design a huge gameworld and then populate it with decent non copy-and-paste content. It's a lot easier when it's 2D since the assets don't take as many resources to create.

I just hope they don't make the one mistake they made with DD: way too much combat.

The world in DD was well designed and filled with interesting characters, decent writing, humor and good quests. But the insane amount of combat dulled the sense of immersion.

Agree that was my biggest complaint, even if they would have cut the encounters in half and toughened up the enemies it would have been better. My money is on it being the same though, cuz newschool RPG'ers wanna kill lots of enemies and get sweet loot.

Also the beginning dungeon in DD was really the only thing I didnt like. The last are not so great, but not as bad as the beginning. The exploration around the towns and castle's was great.

 

[jundaime]

Hi, to all

has anyone played divinity 2? If you have i like to ask if you experience the same problem using the portal shrine.

everytime i face the portal and it say press (e) to use but when i press it nothing happend? I recently found out that when i face the portal i will do a quick save quit the game then load it back again using quick load now when i press the (e) on the portal shrine it now works. What is causing this? anybody please help!

 

[MetalCraze]

Wait? So Divinity 2 is a console title too?
It's kinda doomed then.

 

[sabishii]

Hi, to all

has anyone played divinity 2? If you have i like to ask if you experience the same problem using the portal shrine.

everytime i face the portal and it say press (e) to use but when i press it nothing happend? I recently found out that when i face the portal i will do a quick save quit the game then load it back again using quick load now when i press the (e) on the portal shrine it now works. What is causing this? anybody please help!

The devs say on their forum that it's due to the CD protection. As in, if you don't have the CD in it will intentionally "glitch" up.

 

[vazquez595654]

That being said, Wizardy 8 is probably the best 3D RPG game yet made, but its the drastic exception and not the norm.

The game is so fucking monotonous. I never make it out of the first dungeon because of all the fighting. Tell me, is the rest of the game just fighting over and over again? It takes like 30 seconds to kill 1 monster, now multiply that by 20 on the screen at once, and you have the longest drawn out pointless combat ever.

What is it about this game that people like? Is it fun walking 20 feet in an ugly 3D world and spending 5 minutes fighting enemies you're forced to fight, in turn-basesd, and then walking another 10 feet turning a corner and doing it over again and again.

If I were to imagine Fallout 1 with the simple change of being forced to fight every 10 feet just to get through a town or dungeon, I would hate it.

Best 3D RPG? Gosh I would rather throw out suggestions like the excellently written Betrayal at Krondor, or the open world Might and Magic 6, or even the atmosphere and novelty of Gothic 1 before something like Wizardry 8.

 

[MetalCraze]

Novelty of Gothic 1?..

What is it about this game that people like?

A true PnP RPG gameplay, although I'd have prefered the top-down camera.

 

[Elwro]

"true PnP" in the "be careful not to level up because it will fuck you up" sense, of course. (It's not a bad game, but the level scaling in the beginning is ridiculous.)

 

[vazquez595654]

A true PnP RPG

Ahh, okay. I was never into PnP games. Is that related to DnD? Games that try to translate a rule-system from PnP games to computer games is like trying to play football with basketball shoes. It's possible, and you may even enjoy it, but is sure is clumsy. Why not just develop a system designed for playing on a computer instead? That has always bugged me about DnD games, because even though I don't have an intimate knowledge of the ruleset, I can always find parts of games that seem to be included only because they are part of the ruleset, not because they enhance the game.

It's like the developer just threw everything in regardless of whether it works. Even worse when I see them trying to bend, or tweak the rules to make them work in a computer game. Why? Make your own fucking system instead.

For example, magic and resting in Neverwinter Nights. Your character sits down, a bar goes across the screen, and you sit there on your computer and wait as a progress bar fills across the screen. How retarded. Surely they could have thought of a better way to handle magic and casting, knowing players are going to need to constantly cast spells as magic users. But no, either their hands were tied, or they are just poor computer game designers.

Novelty of Gothic 1?

It's trivial now, but when I first played Gothic, games like it didn't exist. Most third person 3D games (with a realistic scale of the world) at the time were linear action games with smaller levels. As I explored Gothic, I discovered it had one big size world, leveling, questing, factions, choices and consequences, and a unique story and mythos, unlike most of the generic fantasy at the time.

 

[Rick2257]

I was thinking of buying this game. Anyone played it enough to recommend it?

 

[MetalCraze]

"true PnP" in the "be careful not to level up because it will fuck you up"

I actually loved this thing, guess I like it when the games are being harsh instead of wanking my ego off.

Games that try to translate a rule-system from PnP games to computer games is like trying to play football with basketball shoes. It's possible, and you may even enjoy it, but is sure is clumsy.

Not really - take ToEE and Realms of Arkania as other examples. RoA even had hunger and thurst (something that is usually hated in computer games) - yet they were well balanced and never intrusive.
ToEE implemented only the combat well though - non-combat part was bad but only because there was little else to do but fight in the game.

That has always bugged me about DnD games, because even though I don't have an intimate knowledge of the ruleset, I can always find parts of games that seem to be included only because they are part of the ruleset, not because they enhance the game.

If you are talking about IE and Aurora engine games (as well as other real-time first person DnD games of the past, like EoB) - the implementation of DnD wasn't really good in them, because it either wasn't full or had some things implemented poorly (2 character party in NWN is one of the more noticeable examples) as well as not meant to be played in real time. Also DnD since 3.0 is full of unneeded gimmicks and pretty much sucks.

 

[Elwro]

"true PnP" in the "be careful not to level up because it will fuck you up"

I actually loved this thing, guess I like it when the games are being harsh instead of wanking my ego off.

I also like when a game are being harsh. I don't like when it's harsh in an idiotic way. Why shouldn't I level up my characters?

 

[Thrasher]

But Skyway. you still think NWN is #1 even though it implemented some of DnD poorly? I still like it for all the user made content, not so much for it's DnD implemenation.