Divinity: Original Sin 2 Early Access Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Roguey]

Aren't most of the bugs ironed out? The game's been in Early Access forever.

Look at how often they patched Original Sin before it was enhanced.

1.0.252.0 Jan 30, 2015
1.0.219 Oct 30, 2014
1.0.177 Minor Sept 29, 2014
1.0.177 Sept 19, 2014
1.0.169 Sept 15, 2014
1.0.132 Aug 22, 2014
1.0.130 Aug 21, 2014
1.0.107 Hotfix Aug 11, 2014
1.0.107 Aug 8, 2014
1.0.81 Jul 17, 2014
1.0.78 Jul 16, 2014
1.0.72 Jul 15, 2014
1.0.67 Jul 11, 2014
1.0.63 Jul 10, 2014
1.0.57 Jul 7, 2014
1.0.53 Jul 4, 2014
1.0.51 Jul 3, 2014
1.0.47 Jul 2, 2014
1.0.41 Jul 1, 2014

 

[Infinitron]

Ah yes, the Larian daily patching parade. I remember people thought it was pretty cool that they had the balls to do that while inXile took forever to release patches for the Wasteland 2 Early Access because QA and shit.

D:OS 2 seems more controlled so far though.

 

[Roguey]

Looking back, it's pretty amazing they did that without breaking things for a lot of people like Cleve did. Guess a single 'thal can't measure up to dozens of Belgians.

 

[Black]

No, really, is this a joke? What is that? A companion? A caricature?

 

[Lacrymas]

Yes, it's supposed to be a (human) woman.

 

[FreshCorpse]

Couldn't get into the first one at all but just finished the Alpha and loved it.

I think the balance is wrong though, especially very early on. When you're level 1-3 it's just impossible to take on anyone who is even one level above you and there seemed to be a real shortage of ways to get XP so it ultimately turned into a case of searching to find the weakest possible group on the map and then fight them and repeat. Later on, once you've got a few abilities (especially healing, teleport, etc) it starts to get more more reasonable. I mean, I'm playing on easy for christ's sake, I shouldn't be having that many wipes.

Ran into a couple of things that surprised/confused me. I didn't realise there was permadeath and managed to let one of the four available companions die before he joined my party meaning I had to go through the entire alpha with a party of only 3. Some enemies can't climb ladders and have only melee attacks (such as dogs) so if you teleport them up ladders they are stuck unless someone moves them back. I'm still not completely clear on whether there is anything special about your character compared to the others with origin stories? If you decided to wanted to make Lohse the main character halfway through would that be possible? How does stealth work, for example? - seems like there are a lot of abilities designed to support pre-battle tactical positioning of rogues.

I also wish the world map was better. Often I lost important NPCs - maybe that's because I was expecting quest markers though.

I wish there was a list of all available skills so you'd have some idea of what putting a point in geomancer gets you, for example. In any event since there are no hints as to which NPCs sell which skill (and forgot/couldn't be bothered to check all NPCs) I never found any geomancer skillbooks anyway.

Also some of the status effects are baffling. Decaying for example, I just thought it was poison and tried to heal it away like poison but it seems to invert things. Also I only discovered by accident that you can bless burning characters to make holy fire.

Anyway, deep game. Like XCOM but with far more interesting abilties and enemies.

 

[Kem0sabe]

You guys getting it on steam or gog?

 

[Roguey]

When you're level 1-3 it's just impossible to take on anyone who is even one level above you and there seemed to be a real shortage of ways to get XP so it ultimately turned into a case of searching to find the weakest possible group on the map and then fight them and repeat.

This is how Divinity 2 and D:OS went, it's Working as Designed. Level is the most important stat.

 

[FreshCorpse]

When you're level 1-3 it's just impossible to take on anyone who is even one level above you and there seemed to be a real shortage of ways to get XP so it ultimately turned into a case of searching to find the weakest possible group on the map and then fight them and repeat.

This is how Divinity 2 and D:OS went, it's Working as Designed. Level is the most important stat.

What is the point of that though? It's not particularly interesting as a game mechanic and it totally disappears once you get proper armor and abilities

 

[Roguey]

What is the point of that though? It's not particularly interesting as a game mechanic and it totally disappears once you get proper armor and abilities

Provides illusion of nonlinearity while forcing you to play things in the right order, allows you to stomp on lower level opponents if you leave a few.

 

[Lacrymas]

It's mostly to cover up badly designed leveling curves and the soul-crushing linearity.

 

[Black]

You guys getting it on steam or gog?

Gog has the demo version.

 

[Sentinel]

You guys getting it on steam or gog?

"gog"

 

[Sentinel]

I think the balance is wrong though, especially very early on. When you're level 1-3 it's just impossible to take on anyone who is even one level above you and there seemed to be a real shortage of ways to get XP so it ultimately turned into a case of searching to find the weakest possible group on the map and then fight them and repeat. Later on, once you've got a few abilities (especially healing, teleport, etc) it starts to get more more reasonable. I mean, I'm playing on easy for christ's sake, I shouldn't be having that many wipes.

This really irked me actually. I'm not sure if I'm missing a completely obvious way to do things, but early game is kind of suicide to go into battle the first time you're playing through the game. Anyway, I'm gonna call starving players early on for exp and forcing higher level content shit design.

 

[GrainWetski]

Yeah, I wish you could go anywhere whenever you wanted. They could like scale enemies to your level or something.

 

[Roguey]

Yeah, I wish you could go anywhere whenever you wanted. They could like scale enemies to your level or something.

The way it tended to happen in the old days: the first one or two level ups were quick, then it'd slow down and you'd have multiple areas tuned for the same level.

 

[Black]

Infinitron are you upset that some didn't really like what they saw of DOS2 and would rather try before buy?

 

[KateMicucci]

Maybe future RPGs will finally get rid of this levelling nonsense.

 

[Lambach]

This is how Divinity 2 and D:OS went, it's Working as Designed. Level is the most important stat.

I wouldn't say that's how it was with D:OS. Taking on a (smaller) group of higher-level enemies was quite possible in the early game too, you just had to be more creative with the terrain, you had to abuse the shit out of barrels filled with oil and water (early areas have so many of those, while later ones next to nil) and you had to pick the optimal early-game spells, like the spider summon thingy, teleportation etc.

 

[KateMicucci]

Swen said that in OS2 thr most deadly EA encounter was Migo. That's a single level 4 enemy with a permanent Weakened debuff for -50% damage. Most player probably fought him around level 2. If your positioning is bad he can easily kill one or two guys on turn one.

 

[Alienman]

I have a tiny hope that local coop will make use of two-monitor setup. And I mean a very tiny hope - just would be a nice surprise if it did.

 

[FreshCorpse]

Swen said that in OS2 thr most deadly EA encounter was Migo. That's a single level 4 enemy with a permanent Weakened debuff for -50% damage. Most player probably fought him around level 2. If your positioning is bad he can easily kill one or two guys on turn one.

Yeah he fucking mashed me. He's really easy to find as well, right on the way to the beaches that some early quest encourages you to find. IIRC I was looking for some lizard NPC at the time. I took a few wipes at level 2 or something before I said "nevermind" and decided to go walk somewhere else.

Then when I came back I mashed him very easily without having to do much work. Anyway I don't want to emphasise this too much because once I hit level 4 or 5 or so this silliness just stopped completely battles started to be determined by my play instead of just my level.

 

[Grunker]

It seems from the EA that the Origins are fully customizable character creation-wise, is that correct? The origin is basically just cosmetic if you want it to be?

 

[Sentinel]

Yeah you can change everything about them aside from the background.

 

[Mojomancer]

You guys getting it on steam or gog?

I stupidly picked the Steam code when Kickstarter backer emails went out.

This is how Divinity 2 and D:OS went, it's Working as Designed. Level is the most important stat.

I wouldn't say that's how it was with D:OS. Taking on a (smaller) group of higher-level enemies was quite possible in the early game too, you just had to be more creative with the terrain, you had to abuse the shit out of barrels filled with oil and water (early areas have so many of those, while later ones next to nil) and you had to pick the optimal early-game spells, like the spider summon thingy, teleportation etc.

Being able to use all sorts of things from the environment in combat in the early game areas made for some hilarious fights.