Divine Divinity: should have tried it sooner!

[Murk]

^ the dwarven inn theme i think is what it's called?

dum diggy dum diggy dum diggy diggy dum

that one is beyond awesome, it makes me want to drink everytime i hear it . yeah those cheap tactics are good for cases where you're stuck and rather than go away and level for 10 and then come back to take on the elite orc or whatever you can just use that to take 'em out. In some cases you'll come across the duke's troops fighting off orcs and they usually get royally owned, and i have a soft spot for saving NPCs that are helpless in auto-triggered combat. Cheapt tactics in those cases are handy.

Saxon, what major areas in game have you been to? The game has 3.5 major maps, the one you start off in (riverside) then there's the town of verdistis, the dark forest, and the .5 being the end area.

I remember having fun just running around exploring the game world, there's some neat encounters that are totally unrelated to the game plot or any other side quests really.

 

[Saxon1974]

^ the dwarven inn theme i think is what it's called?

dum diggy dum diggy dum diggy diggy dum

that one is beyond awesome, it makes me want to drink everytime i hear it . yeah those cheap tactics are good for cases where you're stuck and rather than go away and level for 10 and then come back to take on the elite orc or whatever you can just use that to take 'em out. In some cases you'll come across the duke's troops fighting off orcs and they usually get royally owned, and i have a soft spot for saving NPCs that are helpless in auto-triggered combat. Cheapt tactics in those cases are handy.

Saxon, what major areas in game have you been to? The game has 3.5 major maps, the one you start off in (riverside) then there's the town of verdistis, the dark forest, and the .5 being the end area.

I remember having fun just running around exploring the game world, there's some neat encounters that are totally unrelated to the game plot or any other side quests really.

On this playthrough Im currently at Riverside. I dont remember how far I got when I played it in 2003. Good to know there are more big areas to explore.


Question; Is it worth it to explore every inch of the map? Say on the road to Riverside from Aleroth I ventured into the woods and only found mostly random orc combatants. I did from the bread trail ambush spot with the orc drummer though.

If i explore all areas, are there interesting things to find other than combat?

 

[Murk]

^ On the aleroth side of the map - there isn't really anything worthy of note, on the rest of the continent (and in the dark forest) there is some stuff you'll bump into.

While i can't say explore every corner of the map, at least try to get the bulk of it - don't leave any major chunks of shroud. i know for instance you can find some quests, some neat encounters, as well as some easter egg like things. non-game-breaking spoiler below about one such encounter that could possibly lead to an entire part of the game being wiped out... heh, guess it is game-breaking...

Spoiler

in the dark forest you'll come across a sword in a stone that if you release some evil spirit is set free, and it is immortal, if you kill it it respawns. only way to finish it off is to put the sword back, and the sword is pretty sweet. normally you could walk off with the phatlewt but if you do the spirit kills EVERYONE including monsters in the dark forest thus ruining a large portion of the game

I think there's skills that increase your line of site - if you can find gear that enhances that, keep some of that around as "scouting gear".

Also on Charms - the weird chinese-name sounding orbs you find, don't be too stingy as you WILL find plenty of it, but careful about socketing your super fancy gear as you can't take 'em out once you put 'em in.

And since all loot is randomized, even named weapons, if you know you're about to open a major cache make sure to save right before you open it so you won't end up with retarded stats on the loot.

minor spoiler for one such weapon below

Spoiler

the singing blade is found in the verdistis sewers when you clear out the black market thugs (if i'm not mistaken), save before you start looting their stash. the singing blade is a pretty powerful two handed sword, i think it's a 'green' item

 

[Dhruin]

Question; Is it worth it to explore every inch of the map? Say on the road to Riverside from Aleroth I ventured into the woods and only found mostly random orc combatants. I did from the bread trail ambush spot with the orc drummer though.

If i explore all areas, are there interesting things to find other than combat?

Yes. You'll only solve some quests (and discover others) if you find all the caves and so on.

 

[SpaceKungFuMan]

Can I get a good experience out of the game without heavy exploring? I'd like to play this game in 60 hours or less. Is that plausible, and would it even be fun to play like that?

 

[Murk]

Can I get a good experience out of the game without heavy exploring? I'd like to play this game in 60 hours or less. Is that plausible, and would it even be fun to play like that?

yes - most of the exploring is for secondary quests and the sort - the main quest isn't too long but you'll probably need some grindan' to be competent in combat.

Regardless, 60 hours should be sufficient to see not only the bulk of the game but to complete the main quest.

You probably won't do the sewers, and personally, i won't blame you.

 

[SpaceKungFuMan]

Can I get a good experience out of the game without heavy exploring? I'd like to play this game in 60 hours or less. Is that plausible, and would it even be fun to play like that?

yes - most of the exploring is for secondary quests and the sort - the main quest isn't too long but you'll probably need some grindan' to be competent in combat.

Regardless, 60 hours should be sufficient to see not only the bulk of the game but to complete the main quest.

You probably won't do the sewers, and personally, i won't blame you.

Any hints on what is and is not worth exploring?

 

[Murk]

Not Really, it'll be easy enough for you to figure out what is a wild chase into the woods for something inconsequential to the game and what is actually worth a damn. Much of the game revolves around you being given quests, so you won't really be left to wander aimlessly, just make sure the enemies you're fighting aren't too much of a challenge at whatever junction you're at and you'll be fine. A lot of the minor quests don't take long to do either.

Question: why the time limit? or is it not a limit and you're just in the ball park for something light to play? You can just pick up a bunch of quests and do whichever ones you feel like, most of them don't have a time limit or any such requirement.

So do some quests in the towns and don't bother running around in the forests looking for unnamed caves.

 

[SpaceKungFuMan]

Not Really, it'll be easy enough for you to figure out what is a wild chase into the woods for something inconsequential to the game and what is actually worth a damn. Much of the game revolves around you being given quests, so you won't really be left to wander aimlessly, just make sure the enemies you're fighting aren't too much of a challenge at whatever junction you're at and you'll be fine. A lot of the minor quests don't take long to do either.

Question: why the time limit? or is it not a limit and you're just in the ball park for something light to play? You can just pick up a bunch of quests and do whichever ones you feel like, most of them don't have a time limit or any such requirement.

So do some quests in the towns and don't bother running around in the forests looking for unnamed caves.

So I'm just about to take the bar exam, after which I'll have a little over a month before starting work. In that month I want to finally finish Bloodlines (I've never played all the way through), ToEE (got paralyzed making parties), and I guess Mass Effect. The catch is I don't have my gaming PC at the moment, and will have a good 3 or 4 days where my wife is at work, and I'm home with nothing to do but game, so I was thinking of filling that time with Divine Divinity. I'm fine with playing it after those few days too, but I don't want it to keep me from Bloodlines in particular (which I doubt will run on my macbook even given its age). Mass Effect is unimportant to me, and will only be played if I have extra time to kill (and since its so short, it would fit in well at the end). 3 of those weeks I'll have tons of time to game, so I should be able to play quite a bit. But I don't want Divine Divinity to take up all my gaming time right now.

 

[Murk]

that's a very structured approach you're taking to it and one i never considered, evah, but i can dig it... kinda.

I think you'll be fine but i guess it depends on if you get into one of those "one more quest and i'll turn it off" modes.

 

[Saxon1974]

I think I read that there is really no plot related reason to explore the sewers beneath rivertown? I left after a while because I got tired of the mass lizardmen in there.

 

[Gragt]

None, just walking xp bags and loot. There is a heal skill book in there though.

 

[Saxon1974]

None, just walking xp bags and loot. There is a heal skill book in there though.

Cool thanks gonna pass on it then.

 

[Murk]

There's a secret entrance somewhere that leads to a weird encounter and into the castle if i'm not mistaken.

can't remember if it was from the verdistis sewers or the rivertown sewers though...

but yeah, they're not necessary and by far one of the biggest headaches

 

[Lemunde]

I think the only reason why I didn't try this game was because it had that neck cramped bird's eye view. I think some of the Ultima games used the same system. It just irritated the hell out of me looking at the screenshots. I might talk myself into trying it later if I see it laying around in a bargain bin somewhere.

 

[Saxon1974]

As much as I like this game, the sheer amounts of monsters in some areas is crazy.

Currently exploring the Dark Forrest. My god, how many total creatures are on that map? 200? 300? 400?

 

[Murk]

Haha, yeah, have you tackled the orc encampments yet?

the dark forest is a real bitch.

oh but do yourself a favor, when you get to the elf village, listen to the damn song there - its marvelous.

 

[Saxon1974]

Haha, yeah, have you tackled the orc encampments yet?

the dark forest is a real bitch.

oh but do yourself a favor, when you get to the elf village, listen to the damn song there - its marvelous.

Will do, I have been really enjoying all the music. So far my favorite is the Tavern song.

Hopefully I can make it through this game, but the dam hordes of enemies in some areas are making it tedious. There is so much to like about this game though so I dont want to give up on it yet.

 

[Murk]

The hack'n'slash eventually becomes easy as there is no level scaling - so once you hit a certain point of power they all die easily and you can progress along well enough.

experience in the game IS limited though, and while monster level doesn't scale experience gained does. pretty soon lower level enemies won't even be worth fighting.

also - in case you miss it, do try to do the locked garden quest that you can get from the rivertown market - talk to the merchant on the west side, the general store manager, and try to get the key from him by having high reputation.

 

[Saxon1974]

2 Questions about DD

1) Where the heck is Elrath key? He said someone stole it and I cant find it. Maybe a low spoiler hint?

2) Is it possible to get this games soundtrack to put on a CD? It really is that good. I looked through the games files and they aren't in a format I can use.

Nevermind on number 2 its downloadable from the composers web page here:

http://www.kirillpokrovsky.com/

 

[Monocause]

Influenced by the Codex I've got the game, but I was quickly stripped of enthusiasm by a couple of things. First of all, the view is hard to adjust to, I don't know why the devs have chosen such a strange perspective instead of a more diablo-esque isometric; still it's a minor issue. Second, however, it is quite annoying that no new dialogue choices appear in relation to quests you have. You can't ask anyone about helping Lanilor, nor can you ask the healers about an idea for healing gem duplication. The Lanilor thing kills the flavour - how come that in such a small community no one gives a damn about their frozen friend? You'd think they'd gather and try to help him, but no, they aren't even remotely interested ;>

I hope it'll get better later on.

 

[Saxon1974]

Influenced by the Codex I've got the game, but I was quickly stripped of enthusiasm by a couple of things. First of all, the view is hard to adjust to, I don't know why the devs have chosen such a strange perspective instead of a more diablo-esque isometric; still it's a minor issue. Second, however, it is quite annoying that no new dialogue choices appear in relation to quests you have. You can't ask anyone about helping Lanilor, nor can you ask the healers about an idea for healing gem duplication. The Lanilor thing kills the flavour - how come that in such a small community no one gives a damn about their frozen friend? You'd think they'd gather and try to help him, but no, they aren't even remotely interested ;>

I hope it'll get better later on.

I didnt really have any trouble with the 2 things you mentioned. The game does not have much C&C though.

Im at the final part of the game and I love this game. Even with the excessive click fest combat in some areas, it still such a well made game. I dont finish many games and looks like im going to finish this one, so that is saying something.

I love the 2D graphics, they create a really nice atmosphere, especially the lighting. I think this game might have the all time best music for any game. In the middle of the game there are many things to do and see and many NPC's to talk to. There are a few humorous dialogue's as well and they are pretty well done.

I think this game has climbed into my top 10 all time last, maybe not top 5, but top 10 at least. The overall package of 2D graphics, open and interactive world and exploration were great I thought.

Its definitely my favorite RPG in the last 4 or 5 years that I have played.