Divinity Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

[Shadenuat]

Do following mods fix it and are they worth using on the first playthrough?

https://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin2/mods/58/?
https://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin2/mods/168/?

If so, which variant of the first mod would be recommended?

Game relies on these spikes in armor and on bloating to keep at least illusion of challenge. I did 1.5 playthroughs, with and without mods, and I feel difficulty just falls apart once you try to normalise combat. It's just that broken.
I'm afraid there's just no good advice here. Try Tactician without mods first. Cheese the cheese, since it's at least entertaining.

oh yeah also if that was supposed to be the famed supatuff scarecrow fight, i can only laff

I remember during my first fight against it, I was 1-rounded without any of my characters actually taking an action due to being permastunlocked with aura in a wooden fence on something.

 

[Luckmann]

"80% means one in five, 5% means one in twenty which is more than zero!!!"

Are you taking your very first statistics course in middle school, or something

80% chance to succeed means 20% chance to fail, 20% being the one in five chance, not the 80%. The counter argument was that my examples that I already labeled as outliers are terrible over-exaggerations. Which they really aren't, hence my heavy-handed explanation.

Wait, so all that's required for me to win the lottery is to enter it enough times?! So that's where I've been going wrong!

Well, yeah. Otherwise nobody would win the lottery.

Oh my Gods, you really are retarded, aren't you?

 

[DraQ]

Do following mods fix it and are they worth using on the first playthrough?

https://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin2/mods/58/?
https://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin2/mods/168/?

If so, which variant of the first mod would be recommended?

Game relies on these spikes in armor and on bloating to keep at least illusion of challenge. I did 1.5 playthroughs, with and without mods, and I feel difficulty just falls apart once you try to normalise combat. It's just that broken.
I'm afraid there's just no good advice here. Try Tactician without mods first. Cheese the cheese, since it's at least entertaining.

I'm playing tactician, because if I understood correctly, it (and I guess honour) is the only setting that doesn't explicitly curb the AI.

Challenge is welcome, but I don't see how massive number differences helps it apart from forcing you to do encounters in particular order and reload if you ever get ambushed by something above your level.
It also is less critical for me than fixing bafflingly fundamental misdesign.

So my main question isn't whether it maintains the illusion of challenge, but whether it keeps the whatever actual part is intact (or possibly improve it) and whether it doesn't subtly break stuff.
Also, from what I have seen it might actually do good job rescuing options that are broken by the virtue of skipping a bit on XP-fuelled treadmill (like going for non-combat solution).

For the record, I am considering either DnD level inflation version or no inflation at all.

Same goes for changing the fundamentals of armor mechanics - right now I have no way to determine how it will impact the gameplay.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

the reduced bloating mod is a must. it significantly reduces the chore that is inventory tetris throughout the game.

As for the saving throwish mod, it depends as it is just a sort of bandaid. but yes the additional layer of unpredictability is fun; but definitely makes the combat easier.

 

[Sjukob]

So my main question isn't whether it maintains the illusion of challenge, but whether it keeps the whatever actual part is intact (or possibly improve it) and whether it doesn't subtly break stuff

Challenge is welcome, but I don't see how massive number differences helps it apart from forcing you to do encounters in particular order and reload if you ever get ambushed by something above your level.

Enemies having a lot of armor will make you want to stack a lot of damage to be able to apply your cc , after a certain point you will notice that you are rolling through everything , and CC only matters for 1 or 2 turns for you to not get slapped back , so it turns into classic "nuke before you get nuked" gameplay . Tactician only has much rougher start , but after you reach act 2 it doesn't matter and if you are going lone wolf it turns into easy mode on level 4 .

You will likely be going through encounters in particular order anyway , since power difference between levels is really big , even on classic .

 

[DraQ]

the reduced bloating mod is a must. it significantly reduces the chore that is inventory tetris throughout the game.

As for the saving throwish mod, it depends as it is just a sort of bandaid. but yes the additional layer of unpredictability is fun; but definitely makes the combat easier.

Which version of the bloat reduction would you recommend - D&Dish or completely flat?

As for the saving throw mod I have seen opinions that on tactician it actually makes things harder (which I wouldn't consider an issue) because you still have to strip a lot of enemy armour to have a realistic chance of getting an effect in, while enemies can apply status effects quite reliably due to the amount of damage inflicted?

 

[DraQ]

Also, credit where credit is due - I now know TWO games where developers have been lucid enough to not put mammaries on female reptilefolk.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Tigranes]

the reduced bloating mod is a must. it significantly reduces the chore that is inventory tetris throughout the game.

As for the saving throwish mod, it depends as it is just a sort of bandaid. but yes the additional layer of unpredictability is fun; but definitely makes the combat easier.

Which version of the bloat reduction would you recommend - D&Dish or completely flat?

As for the saving throw mod I have seen opinions that on tactician it actually makes things harder (which I wouldn't consider an issue) because you still have to strip a lot of enemy armour to have a realistic chance of getting an effect in, while enemies can apply status effects quite reliably due to the amount of damage inflicted?

Flat changes the game quite significantly. I'd say just play with vanilla, and then once you start encountering issues or you think you know what you want, you can introduce the D&Dish debloat - and/or play with armour bonuses in tactician via notepad which is always reversible.

The game as it stands is, "get all your toys in the first 3 hours, and then you're just looking for every level to give you a bumper in item power and health." If you want a power curve that's flatter or a curve determined by active abilities rather than bigger numbers, the game just can't provide it.

 

[DraQ]

the reduced bloating mod is a must. it significantly reduces the chore that is inventory tetris throughout the game.

As for the saving throwish mod, it depends as it is just a sort of bandaid. but yes the additional layer of unpredictability is fun; but definitely makes the combat easier.

Which version of the bloat reduction would you recommend - D&Dish or completely flat?

As for the saving throw mod I have seen opinions that on tactician it actually makes things harder (which I wouldn't consider an issue) because you still have to strip a lot of enemy armour to have a realistic chance of getting an effect in, while enemies can apply status effects quite reliably due to the amount of damage inflicted?

Flat changes the game quite significantly. I'd say just play with vanilla, and then once you start encountering issues or you think you know what you want, you can introduce the D&Dish debloat - and/or play with armour bonuses in tactician via notepad which is always reversible.

The game as it stands is, "get all your toys in the first 3 hours, and then you're just looking for every level to give you a bumper in item power and health." If you want a power curve that's flatter or a curve determined by active abilities rather than bigger numbers, the game just can't provide it.

I would like to avoid, "ok, I'm not meant to go this way yet, let's reload and seek encounter that's more suitable for my level" and also find bloat where numbers go from teens to thousands offensive in its retardation - D&Desque bloat is already quite significant in my eyes, I prefer curves where things like base damage for given type of weapon barely crosses 3x when going from garbage tier to divine artifact tier because that's meaningful without making damage a completely abstract figure - in DoS2 3x is how it looks like on logarithmic scale.


I don't need bumpers as long as the gameplay is fun, OTOH I don't want to completely flatten the curve if the game relies on situations where someone just is higher level than you and thus cannot be fought normally.

I have already encountered issues as early as lvl2 - even 1-2lvls of difference seem to indecently bloatify enemy stats.

 

[Raghar]

Also, credit where credit is due - I now know TWO games where developers have been lucid enough to not put mammaries on female reptilefolk.

And how many games did?

 

[DraQ]

Also, credit where credit is due - I now know TWO games where developers have been lucid enough to not put mammaries on female reptilefolk.

And how many games did?

How many games even have playable reptilefolk?

Wiz 8 had bewbed lizard and dragon people.
So did all TES games other than Morrowind.

So far I can only list DoS2 and Morrowind on the "lizards without bewbs" list.

 

[Raghar]

Oh yea, playable.
I think Chrono Cross, and NWN had unplayable lizardmen without boobs.

Is it just me or is Morrowind one of few rare games when Bethesda developers used brain?

 

[Tigranes]

DraQ honestly, my experience isn't that you simply can't beat dudes 1-2 levels above. Sometimes they're eminently beatable but more of a challenge. Of course I'm playing on a slightly easier tactician with reduced armour bloat and 2 lone wolves.

What I'm trying to say is that the game is built around bumps and if you just flatten them, I can imagine it's going to be a lot easier.

 

[DraQ]

DraQ honestly, my experience isn't that you simply can't beat dudes 1-2 levels above. Sometimes they're eminently beatable but more of a challenge. Of course I'm playing on a slightly easier tactician with reduced armour bloat and 2 lone wolves.

What I'm trying to say is that the game is built around bumps and if you just flatten them, I can imagine it's going to be a lot easier.

Maybe it depends on your level. On level 2 it seems to be the case without excessive cheese or having to burn through stash of rez scrolls even when you have numbers on your side.

 

[Tigranes]

You have very few skills and the effective difference between 50 hp and 80 is a lot bigger, yes.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

the reduced bloating mod is a must. it significantly reduces the chore that is inventory tetris throughout the game.

As for the saving throwish mod, it depends as it is just a sort of bandaid. but yes the additional layer of unpredictability is fun; but definitely makes the combat easier.

Which version of the bloat reduction would you recommend - D&Dish or completely flat?

As for the saving throw mod I have seen opinions that on tactician it actually makes things harder (which I wouldn't consider an issue) because you still have to strip a lot of enemy armour to have a realistic chance of getting an effect in, while enemies can apply status effects quite reliably due to the amount of damage inflicted?

I would recommend to start your first play-through with the DnDish bloat reduction mod.

The flat bloat reduction mod significantly changes the "feelz" of the gameas Tigranes mentioned. I didn;t qute enjoy the 6 hours or so fo the flat balance mod myself. Power progression didnt feel enough as the character leveled.

However, the default unmodded number-bloat is a pain in the ass once you reach beyond mid-gmae (lv 15 ish).

IMO, the reduced bloat mod (not the flat one) is a reasonable compromise and gives more of DOS1 feel in character and level progression.

As for the saving-throwish mod. Meh your milegae may vary; but it does add a layer of unpredictability to an otherwise retarded binary armor system, so...



If you play the vanilla without the reduced bloat mod, you will be sick of the encounters in Act 4 (at least; I was).

 

[DraQ]

I would recommend to start your first play-through with the DnDish bloat reduction mod.

The flat bloat reduction mod significantly changes the "feelz" of the gameas Tigranes mentioned. I didn;t qute enjoy the 6 hours or so fo the flat balance mod myself. Power progression didnt feel enough as the character leveled.

However, the default unmodded number-bloat is a pain in the ass once you reach beyond mid-gmae (lv 15 ish).

IMO, the reduced bloat mod (not the flat one) is a reasonable compromise and gives more of DOS1 feel in character and level progression.

As for the saving-throwish mod. Meh your milegae may vary; but it does add a layer of unpredictability to an otherwise retarded binary armor system, so...

If you play the vanilla without the reduced bloat mod, you will be sick of the encounters in Act 4 (at least; I was).

So DnDish + saving throws it is, I guess?

I know that in many areas (such as programming) it is possible to get so deep into something that "you forget to come up for breath" and some sort of buddy system is crucial when it comes to averting disaster,
can we get Larian to accommodate a "design consultant" from RPGCodex whose role would be to deploy squirt bottle whenever necessary to avoid such bouts of brain-dead design?

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Israfael]

Finished the game, 96 hrs clocked in total (but it includes some of the EA, not that much though, never got inside the Konzentrationslager as my GPU overheated in 15-20 mins of the game).
Overall positive impressions, but the ending was positively *frumpled*. It does not matter what you choose (apart from the fact that you artificially prolong the fight and kill potential allies if you say 'no'), it always ends the same no matter what you do or choose (maybe you can kill him with some sort of insta-kill like the one rogues have, but i'm not sure). Thanks to the erraticness of the ally AI, what happens next varies wildly - I managed both to kill him in 2 turns with no one dead, or i got 100% wipe situation in the same time doing the same stuff. What really infuriates that the yes/no decision does not matter at all, because you can just pick any option and the 'allies' who were to force you to do the thing say nothing (not that I won't wipe the floor with them, but still...).

When the fight ends, there's another 'surprise' - if your main char was dead, you'd get achievement for your choice in the dialogue, but you'll see the 'game over' screen after you are forcefully ported to the ship and party is disbanded. No chance to resurrect (and if someone else dies, he/she dies permanently).

PS Also, it's very easy to skip huge swathes of content if you behave like me on the nameless isle, so if you like to min-max, don't go inside the academy as soon as possible.

Spoiler

It seems Lucian is programmed to behave in an especially retarded manner - I even teleported him to the platform where Braccus was, and he still teleported himself downstairs(!), casted bless that somehow missed or did nothing to the fire the boss was standing in, then went back and climbed the ladder, wasting 5 or 6 ap in total. If he wasn't such a retard, he'd probably defeat Braccus on his own. This was a very exhausting and annoying fight, I enjoyed other high-power fights like Isbeil / Adramahlik / Kemm much more than this (and I had to re-do them more times than this). Cheating and ultra-cheese (aka the wyrm) is not that cool, Swen !

PPS Also, people who whine that the game is too hard - just create some mind worm grenades, they have like infinite range and are a 4-5 turn charm. The ultimate cheese after deathfog barrels / crates

 

[Iznaliu]

PPS Also, people who whine that the game is too hard - just create some mind worm grenades, they have like infinite range and are a 4-5 turn charm. The ultimate cheese after deathfog barrels / crates

Some people don't like to buy stuff from the cheese vendor, though.

 

[Black]

PPS Also, people who whine that the game is too hard

I don't think there are any of them here.

 

[unfairlight]

I uninstalled this shit game but was there any quest tied to that guy selling voidwoken fish or not? A lot of NPCs made comments about him.

 

[rado907]

Finished both of my runs - one with my brother and one solo. 142 hours clocked, the most of any Steam game I have other than DotA and a couple of PES titles.
Enjoyed every second of the game: its art&music direction, level design, pacing, and gameplay are all absolute top-notch. The hackneyed story and occasional questionably implemented mechanics detract from the whole but not that much. Both the critical and popular reviews of the game have been outstanding and deservedly so. So yeah this one's joining the ranks of Ultima VII, Fallout 2, BG2, Morrowind, and Witcher 3 in the list of classic RPG's.
Would rate the game 9+/10 or 10-/10. Not quite perfect but excellent.

Wish Larian all the best with their next project. Hoping for another good game.

 

[Payd Shell]

Oh my Gods, you really are retarded, aren't you?

Takes one to know one chief