Divinity Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

[dragonul09]

Alright got in another fight where enemies just spawn out of thin air,is this all this game can do in act 2? Every fight starts with some bulked up trash mobs spawning out of the ground ala Drage Age 2 style,is this what people call great encounters and the best rpg since Jesus Christ role played as a bait for crows
How the hell can you prepare for this kind of shit without reloading every time,it's cheap and bad design 101.

Half of the game cannot be played the way is intended. Last night I was in Arx and ragequit during a similar fight, enemies spawning out of thin air. I thought it was stupid at first with the void monster and skeletons, but it seems to be a recurring theme.

They clearly balanced the game around act 1,I don't remember a single fight in act 1 to have enemies spawn out of thin air or just fights that puts you in a way that you need to reload immediately because you just don't know where to position yourself or at least have an idea where the enemies could be.I get it,I get ambushed once or twice but to always have the obvious bad guy in the middle of the road and as soon as you talk to him,gazzilion of trash mobs pop out out of his fucking ass.

This game has the worst encounter design I have seen in a long time

 

[Darth Roxor]

I don't remember a single fight in act 1 to have enemies spawn out of thin air

you have p. bad memory then considering that every other fight once you leave the prison is like that

 

[dragonul09]

I don't remember a single fight in act 1 to have enemies spawn out of thin air

you have p. bad memory then considering that every other fight once you leave the prison is like that

Alright you fight agaisnt some worms that crawl out of the ground which is understandable,but at least you had a damn chance agaisnt them,but not in act 2 where everyone seems to be bulked up to a Tiger 1 tank and you are the poor man's russian t-34.

The game is in a terrible state and they clearly didn't give a shit after act 1.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

This dialogue is giving me some -1 INT here this is some "if you kill your enemies they win" tier retarded.

Maybe you've spent too much time walking among the humans.

 

[Sjukob]

Well , once you get your hands on 3 source points skills the game becomes trivial , Arrow storm is basicaly "I win" button and if that's not enough I have meteor shower and hail storm .

 

[Grotesque]

This game has a soul.

 

[Roguey]

Well you can edit initiative in the same character.txt but it would be a miracle if there's just a line hidden in some of those files that would allow to painlessly change combat order. I would also piss myself laughing.

The guy who said that it's code based and can't be changed was a programmer.

 

[Lacrymas]

The guy who said that it's code based and can't be changed was a programmer.

It can't be changed by mods, because we don't have access to the source code. Larian, however, do, so I don't see why they couldn't.

 

[DeepOcean]

The guy who said that it's code based and can't be changed was a programmer.

It can't be changed by mods, because we don't have access to the source code. Larian, however, do, so I don't see why they couldn't.

Because most people are too amused with generic fantasy to care about details like good gameplay?

 

[Lahey]

If Larian changes the code to fix initiative it will be for the inevitable EE.

 

[Luckmann]

Well you can edit initiative in the same character.txt but it would be a miracle if there's just a line hidden in some of those files that would allow to painlessly change combat order. I would also piss myself laughing.

The guy who said that it's code based and can't be changed was a programmer.

Like Lacrymas said, of course it can be changed. It just can't be modded. The developer even asked specifically for feedback and ideas on the issue, and I got the feeling that they are not entirely happy about it either. I think that they are well aware of many of the issues - I just don't want to see them forget them, or think that they've suddenly hit gold and the flaws don't exist after all.

When it comes to the armor system and the round-robin turn orders, I think they partially ended up with a "sunk costs"-scenario, and partially felt that they simply had to finish the game at this point and release it.

One potentially major issue that I can see is that they may be extremely hesitant to make major changes at this point, because it often upsets the plebian masses, but the fact is that the vast majority of players have no fucking clue what's going on in the game, they're just go-with-the-flow paste-eaters. I've pointed out the round-robin turn orders to multiple people and despite the very obvious and major issues, they simply hadn't noticed. It boggles the fucking mind.

If Larian changes the code to fix initiative it will be for the inevitable EE.

I hope it's before then. I think that them changing armor would be for the eventual Enhanced Edition, because it would constitute a considerable change to the base system.

But changing from round robin to an initiative-based turn order would actually be a fairly minor - albeit critical - change, all things considered, and it can be done without fucking with other subsystems. In fact, it would take advantage of subsystems that are, as of right now, completely ignored.

And I refuse to believe that Larian does not see that. There's a lot of Initiative modifiers in the game, and it's one of the principal bonuses the already lackluster humans get (along with a bonus to criticals and - laughably - Barter). And all one out of four attributes does is +1% critical chance. They might as well remove initiative, at this point. Modifiers to it serves practically no purpose. It's a mess.

You could just as well allow players to arrange who moves first themselves, ordering party-members from 1 to 4, and go by that. At least then you wouldn't potentially be punished by increasing your Initiative (because the ONLY thing you CAN do with Initiative is manipulate the internal turn-order of the party itself, anyway).

 

[Lacrymas]

Because most people are too amused with generic fantasy to care about details like good gameplay?

They wouldn't care if Larian change the initiative then, what matters is if Larian care about good gameplay. The problem is that Swen is more stubborn than a mule, so I don't know if anyone can change his mind on anything. I guess it depends on how much he likes this retarded design.

 

[Roguey]

It can't be changed by mods, because we don't have access to the source code. Larian, however, do, so I don't see why they couldn't.

As he said, it's "an integral part of the underlying game system. Many iterations were done, as it evidently is not the same compared to DOS1, and a lot of balancing and combat design accounts for this system."

By the way, people were quick on the draw to do all the credits work for this on Moby Games which leads to same interesting info. http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/divinity-original-sin-ii/credits

Item 1: Jan Van Dosselaer was promoted to "writing director." Sarah Baylus was promoted to lead writer for D:OS 2 (naturally, since all the other writers they hired are pretty much brand new game writing).

Item 2: Nick Pechenin is the systems guy responsible for bringing the decline. Barring some coding work on D:OS:EE, this is his first game ever.

Item 3: Here are the guys solely responsible for combat and level design
Senior Combat Designer: Edouard Imbert
Combat Designer: Andrey Stoliarov
Level Designers: Jean-François Gagné, Darko Ignjatovic

Fun fact: None of them worked on D:OS, except Edouard, who was a mere scripter on the first. "What happened to the D:OS team?" Well, they either left or were promoted elsewhere. I believe these changes explain a lot.

 

[Lacrymas]

Yeah, I don't think they "designed" anything, let alone balanced it, lol. Nobody sane can look at this mess and say to himself "yeap, this is excellent and totally not illogical and gross".

 

[Raghar]

Well you can edit initiative in the same character.txt but it would be a miracle if there's just a line hidden in some of those files that would allow to painlessly change combat order. I would also piss myself laughing.

The guy who said that it's code based and can't be changed was a programmer.

Like Lacrymas said, of course it can be changed. It just can't be modded. The developer even asked specifically for feedback and ideas on the issue, and I got the feeling that they are not entirely happy about it either. I think that they are well aware of many of the issues - I just don't want to see them forget them, or think that they've suddenly hit gold and the flaws don't exist after all.

When it comes to the armor system and the round-robin turn orders, I think they partially ended up with a "sunk costs"-scenario, and partially felt that they simply had to finish the game at this point and release it.

What's wrong with turn order? These with high initiative act first and these with low would get multiple molotovs dropped on them before they can move.

 

[Jarmaro]

generic fantasy

I don't understand people who say it's generic fantasy. It's feels like some strange parody of fantasy, popular these days "modern-fantasy", such as DA: Inqusition.
This game isn't generic fantasy. It feels like shit.

 

[cvv]

Btw, I have one question about C&C in this game. Did anyone NOT do quest for paladins in Act 2?

Spoiler

In Arx, game makes you think that because of that quest, Paladins raided barracks and killed all magisters. Is that true or is it just another moment of sleight of hand?

I didn't do it coz I accidentally sold (or dropped) the owl whistle. Again, chucking quest items because of inventory bloat....

Paladins still raided the Magister barracks, wiped them out. The city is crawling with them.

 

[Jimmious]

A bit spoilery question so anyone who has finished the first "Act" (aka the Fort Joy and island) please take a look and answer:

Spoiler

Can I still do stuff in the island after I defeat Alexandar? Asking cause I didn't manage to beat that damn witch in that cave yet and was thinking to do that absolutely last if possible

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

Yes, if you don't leave/talk to malady

 

[bataille]

Is this Fort Joyless?

 

[Luckmann]

Well you can edit initiative in the same character.txt but it would be a miracle if there's just a line hidden in some of those files that would allow to painlessly change combat order. I would also piss myself laughing.

The guy who said that it's code based and can't be changed was a programmer.

Like Lacrymas said, of course it can be changed. It just can't be modded. The developer even asked specifically for feedback and ideas on the issue, and I got the feeling that they are not entirely happy about it either. I think that they are well aware of many of the issues - I just don't want to see them forget them, or think that they've suddenly hit gold and the flaws don't exist after all.

When it comes to the armor system and the round-robin turn orders, I think they partially ended up with a "sunk costs"-scenario, and partially felt that they simply had to finish the game at this point and release it.

What's wrong with turn order? These with high initiative act first and these with low would get multiple molotovs dropped on them before they can move.

Like I said, the vast majority of players have no fucking clue what's going on in the game, they're just go-with-the-flow paste-eaters. I've pointed out the round-robin turn orders to multiple people and despite the very obvious and major issues, they simply hadn't noticed. It boggles the fucking mind.

You are one of those plebian paste-eaters that are boggling my fucking mind right now, because what you describe is literally how it does not work. It's a round-robin turn order, and no matter your or the enemy's initiative, you will be alternating turns. Let's say your group of 4 has an initiative of 10, 11, 12, and 13 respectively. You are meeting 8 enemies that all have an initiative of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

You will move in this fashion, bar any special circumstance (such as summons):

You (13 Initiative)
Them (8 Initiative)
You (12 Initiative)
Them (7 Initiative)
You (11 Initiative)
Them (6 Initiative)
You (10 Initiative)
Them (5 Initiative)
Them (4 Initiative)
Them (3 Initiative)
Them (2 Initiative)
Them (1 Initiative)

Guess who has the opportunity to do set-ups or to plan ahead, or to predict how the landscape or environmental effects will evolve? Hint: It's not the first 8 people in the turn order, that's for fucking sure.

 

[Jimmious]

I'm more annoyed by this initiative system because it feels like a sloppy patchwork to fix a specific issue. It would have been much more preferable to rework the encounters and if you really want some enemies to move before the player simply give them enough Initiative/Wits. Who's stopping you from having any amount of that stat for your NPCs? Why not make the ultra boss have always maxPlayerInitiative+1 and be done with it? Why break the system like that?
It doesn't affect how much I enjoy the game to be honest but it simply feels lazy.
Same more or less with the armor system. I get why it's there but it's a lazy solution instead of inserting good resistances and so on wherever necessary. Again I still enjoy the game and really it's more busywork than anything else to get the armors down... but it's a lazy solution.

 

[Raghar]

What's wrong with turn order? These with high initiative act first and these with low would get multiple molotovs dropped on them before they can move.

Like I said, the vast majority of players have no fucking clue what's going on in the game, they're just go-with-the-flow paste-eaters. I've pointed out the round-robin turn orders to multiple people and despite the very obvious and major issues, they simply hadn't noticed. It boggles the fucking mind.

You are one of those plebian paste-eaters that are boggling my fucking mind right now, because what you describe is literally how it does not work. It's a round-robin turn order, and no matter your or the enemy's initiative, you will be alternating turns. Let's say your group of 4 has an initiative of 10, 11, 12, and 13 respectively. You are meeting 8 enemies that all have an initiative of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

You will move in this fashion, bar any special circumstance (such as summons):

You (13 Initiative)
Them (8 Initiative)
You (12 Initiative)
Them (7 Initiative)
You (11 Initiative)
Them (6 Initiative)
You (10 Initiative)
Them (5 Initiative)
Them (4 Initiative)
Them (3 Initiative)
Them (2 Initiative)
Them (1 Initiative)

Guess who has the opportunity to do set-ups or to plan ahead, or to predict how the landscape or environmental effects will evolve? Hint: It's not the first 8 people in the turn order, that's for fucking sure.

As I said one character in party goes first, and then rest of enemies drop molotovs at the grouped remaining characters who are acting last. At least that it worked when I tried it few days ago to find if it's working on my PC or not.

You could simply say interleaved turn order. So have they changed the turn order from initiative based to interleaved sort by initiative?

 

[Israfael]

It seems savegame crashes were not fixed - i started to get them in mid act-2 (well, not sure if it's mid, I seem to have entered a zone i'm not supposed to go in yet, i just skipped shrieker without really having the ability to deal with him), and once game self-closed because it ran out of RAM (all 16 gb of it)

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Just found the time to start the game now. Just wondering, am I supposed to be able to customise Fane's appearance for all races in character creation? Or is it possible at all? I just can't see any option to do so, but since I'll be spending plenty of time as various other races this is kind of annoying