Game News Divinity: Original Sin Kickstarter Update #56: New Alpha Update

[Infinitron]

Tags: Divinity: Original Sin; Larian Studios

There sure is lots of Divinity: Original Sin news these days. Larian put out a Kickstarter update today describing new changes to the game's Early Access alpha.

What new features have been implemented?

We've squashed lots of bugs, made some big leaps and bounds in the area of status effects, improved the look of the Cysealian hinterlands, and amended some of our rule systems. Check out the following video in which Farhang highlights some of the more exciting changes available in the latest Early Access update. Read on for more info, or click here to see a full changelist for this update.



Cyseal: Reloaded

The most well-explored region of the game has gotten a bit more depth and style with a new tunnel leading out from the graveyard (a tunnel under a graveyard? Curious... curious indeed...).

Through the beach beyond the skelebot cave, you'll find a revamped region with lovelier scenery leading up to your favourite wizard-poet.

Furthermore, and to Arhu's tremendous relief, the city's zombie-zapping ballistas now effectively zap zombies.

Combat improvements

• Enemies now enjoy smarter target selection, meaning you'll no longer reap the benefits of what you thought was simple orcish idiocy.
• Combat now offers decreased experience points. You'll have to flex your muscles a bit more to get that next level-up! In addition, fewer ability points may mean an existential crisis (and a push to explore, fight, and quest even more) for the wizard who dreamed of being a charming, telekinetic, body-building powerhouse.
• You'll be able to plan fireball launches, winter blasts, and earthquakes with more precision now that skill previews have been implemented, meaning you'll see exactly how and where your spell will launch before you commit to it.

New (unfinished, but still very cool) music added

The hills are alive with the sound of Kirill! Our composer has leant some new music tracks for this update. Expect further improvements before launch, but these should add some new flavour to the areas you'll be exploring.

Statuses! Statuses everywhere!

Stoic heroes be damned! Now you can enjoy (or not) the thrill of being Chilled, Warm, Burning, Wet, Bleeding, Crippled, Blind, Cursed, Weak, Invisible, Slowed, Hasted, Raged, Lucky, Diseased, Infectious Disease, Fortified, Petrified, Blessed or Drunk.

Be careful! Each of these statuses will affect game play in some way. It may be fun stumbling around Cyseal as a drunken Source Hunter with increased luck, but be wary of your decreased initiative and intelligence. (Also, that buff to charm is only in your mind. Trust us on this one.)

Improvements to generic behaviours

Our in-house puppet masters have been hard at work regulating and improving the way NPCs react to you. Acts like theft, vandalism, murder, and breaking out of jail will now have more consistent consequences.​

In addition to all of that, the update says that the game's next version will open up an entire new region in Cyseal, "featuring new characters, combat, and (main) questing". Nice!

 

[MicoSelva]

Major overhaul of character system announced in the video. I think we may still be quite a way from feature complete and actual beta.

 

[Drowed]

The more I watch the updates of D:OS, the more "hype" about it I have. I think I'll stop watching these videos because I'm afraid I'm reaching a point where the game will never be as good as the impression I got from what it seems it would be.

 

[hiver]

I just got the game yesterday for the first time. Had to bug a friend to download from his fast connection. But luckily this isnt so big, only 508 mb.

 

[garren]

Not really related to the update, but when running around in Cyseal wilderness, I think there's too much rock formations blocking travel. I mean, there's nice tidy pathways leading everywhere, but that's the thing, open up the place a little, there's no need to guide players from one pathway to another all the time. There's a few places where you can run around without running into another stone wall for a while, but it's not enough imo. This has been bugging me for a while, had to say it now.

I guess I wish for more Baldur's gate style wilderness areas, where it's widely open with landmarks and few stones here and there (not all of the maps ofc). Examples:

River makes a natural barrier here:

 

[Grotesque]

I guess I wish for more Baldur's gate style wilderness areas, where it's widely open with landmarks and few stones here and there (not all of the maps ofc). Examples:

I hope the devs of Wasteland 2 hear you also.

 

[garren]

Yeah it's been an issue there too.

 

[bledcarrot]

I hope the devs of Wasteland 2 hear you also.

Second this. This is one of the worries I have for both D:OS and W2. They're missing that open world feel, all the areas seem to consist of linear pathways.

 

[Roguey]

I bet it's an engine/memory issue and there's nothing they can do about it.

 

[Grotesque]

An engine that overheats the video card more than is needed and limits map design due to memory?
That's a winner right there! And is also free!

Such perks only console game designers had to enjoy, they being limited by hardware/memory limitations in their level designs.
Fargo just had to have that!

 

[l3loodAngel]

The bottom line is that you can take game designer away from corridor shooters, but you can't take corridor shooters from a designer. If a person was playing/designing such games there's a probability he will keep doing it.

 

[Zeriel]

I bet it's an engine/memory issue and there's nothing they can do about it.

I am absolutely 100% certain it's area design more than anything else in D:OS. Memory is not a concern on PCs, and since D:OS uses a particular, mostly-locked in view, there's very little variance in FPS hits unless you're talking about billions of assets on screen (but he's just talking about a more open environment, not a more densely decorated one).

Throwing rocks and obstructions everywhere is just a common and lazy designer solution to areas looking "blank" or "unpolished". It drastically cuts down on the game area you have to make interesting. It's really easy to make a huge area that's blank and 'open', but making a huge area that's completely open but also extremely detailed in every inch of its space takes a ton of time. Even BG1 had a slew of complaints in that area, with many of the pretty areas feeling bland and empty. I like those bland and empty spaces for creating a sense of place, but I think the average consumer doesn't.

Worth mentioning that I think the most realistic environment is a compromise between the two extremes, not a wholly open space. Anyone who's actually gone hiking in wilderness areas in real life can tell you that most forests don't resemble the open pastures with dotted trees of Baldur's Gate, and undergrowth can easily be an impenetrable wall without a hatchet.