Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Preview Divinity: Original Sin 2 PAX East Previews

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,232
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: Divinity: Original Sin 2; Larian Studios; Swen Vincke

Even though it's still the weekend, a number of sites have already published their previews of the Divinity: Original Sin 2 PvP arena at PAX East. PC Gamer have posted a video of their representative's match against Swen Vincke, along with a short interview with Swen. As far as written previews go, the one at USgamer is probably the best. I'll post both of those here:



The first Divinity: Original Sin had an excellent combat system, where elemental skills and abilities combined and clashed to interesting effect. You could rain on an opponent's parade and then cast an ice spell to freeze them in their tracks. Need a breather? Bring fire and water spells together to create a steam cloud. You could use a teleportation spell to rejigger the battlefield to your liking. Half of the fun of Divinity: Original Sin was finding the right skill combos and planning elaborate traps using them.

Larian isn't a studio to relax though, so they've expanded on the games' combat this time around. There's a new armor/magic armor system. Physical skills deplete armor, while magical attacks destroy your magic armor. Some characters have one or both, depending on where their affinities lie. The armor protects you from debilitating effects like Fear, so getting rid of your opponents' armor should be your first step.

Divinity: Original Sin II now takes height into account for spells and abilities. Your attack range is increased if you're doing so from high ground, giving you a tactical advantage. If you want to win, get up high!

Another tactical change is the ability to cast certain effects on the ground. Bless, Blessed Earth, and Nature's Curse were spells that were available in the first game, but they were target-only or aura abilities. Now, you can choose to cast them on an area instead. If those areas intersect with other fields like fire or poison, they force modified effects upon anyone who treads upon that magical ground.

I was shown the new combat system in Divinity: Original Sin II's new PVP arena. The arena is 2v2 combat: I chose a Ranger and Warrior as my pair against Larian creative director Sven Vincke. We were thrown into a relatively small arena map, with the opposing side only a few moves away.

Original Sin II's combat is all about movement and line of sight. You want the high ground to increase your attack range, but you don't want to stand out in the open too long. A Mage's Teleport or Rogue's Cloak and Dagger become important skills for getting into the right position to set up combos or get in some solid opening shots.

Original Sin II features a new Source skill system, where certain abilities only work if you've collected Source points from silver glowing pools around the battlefield. But you can't just make a beeline for the Source pools. Where you're walking is important, because a number of spells have negative ground effects that smart players can use to entrap and manage their foes.

My Ranger shot a fire arrow into a poison barrel near Vincke's Rogue, dousing the area in green, poison mist. He could've just moved out of the affected region, but instead he blessed the poison ground, turning it into a healing stream. Larian's eye for detail is apparent here: when the poison ground is blessed, plants and flowers curl up from the dirt to denote the healing properties. A lengthy PVP battle eventually becomes a game of finding the places on the map that aren't on fire, ice, or poison.

And the combos that made Original Sin great still work great in Original Sin II's PVP. Vincke blew up around barrel near me, spreading fire on the ground. He then cursed the ground to do additional damage, which I countered with my own blessing. Finally, he used an ability called Phoenix Charge to make his warrior immune to fire damage, so he could wade in and finish my hurt Ranger off. I ran away, but the previous attacks had stripped my armor, so he cast fear on my Ranger, taking him out of the battle temporarily. This back-and-forth and exploitation of weakness is a key facet of Original Sin II and the arena PVP mode.

In the end, my canny intelligence and strategy handed me the battle. (Also, I think Vincke was going easy on me.) All those fans who wanted PVP in the first Original Sin, I can tell you that it's as awesome as you imagined. Combined with the new combat changes, Original Sin II's PVP takes the tactical options of the first game and puts a human behind your opponents. It's a great mode that expands a sequel looking to outdo the magnificent original.

Additional previews are available at Tom's Hardware, Game Informer and GameSpot, and I imagine there'll be more next week.
 

Drowed

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
1,676
Location
Core City
Looks fun, but what I want to know is:

1) Will you be able to import your character in someone else's game in the campaign? Or, again, you will only be able to control some of the characters that are already there?
2) Will we have a real campaign editor, not just a map editor this time? The D:OS editor is great for making maps... But terrible for anything else. All you can do is "reskins" of the original game; too much hardcoded stuff.
3) The arena will have more modes than 2X2, I hope? 3x3, 4x4, import characters, etc?

Other than that, the game looks great as always. Even if it's just more D:OS, it will already be good for me.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
Patron
Joined
Feb 23, 2006
Messages
28,396
Location
Not Here
Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
I'm disappointed, with the progress Europe is making in regards to diversity, I'd expect Larian to be more forward thinking and rebrand their shitty game name into Diverse Diversity and feature a more wide ranging casts of colors and cultures instead of the standard white man fantasy.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
1) Will you be able to import your character in someone else's game in the campaign? Or, again, you will only be able to control some of the characters that are already there?

I don't think that's feasible, as building relationships between four characters over the course of a campaign is a major feature.
 

otsego

Cipher
Joined
Aug 22, 2012
Messages
229
I gave the demo at PAX a try. A Larian dev kicked my ass but when I tried again I got used to the new mechanics.

2ijou2x.jpg


It is hard to judge a new system when you are playing it for 10 minutes with either a complete pro or a total newbie, but I get the feeling that it will require more thought in tactics than we've previously seen. The PVP mode needs a bit of work in regards to reading what is actually happening, but it was fun to try out versus experienced players and novices alike.

I'm not completely sold on having a 'health bar' on physical and magical armor (the latter of which will mostly block status effects if magical armor is intact) but at the same time it makes you think a little more strategically than you would in DOS1.. on future attempts I attempted to remove a target's magical armor (with other abilities such as burning or grenades) first before using status effect abilities to incapacitate (blitz bolt / shocking touch / fear) . You don't just default to your stun lock abilities... you have to find a way to whittle down defenses before deploying these skills.

Overall, DOS2 is looking pretty exciting to a fan of the original, in term of gameplay mechanics.
 
Last edited:

Feyd Rautha

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
1,935
Location
Nestled atop the cliffs
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Will we have a real campaign editor, not just a map editor this time? The D:OS editor is great for making maps... But terrible for anything else. All you can do is "reskins" of the original game; too much hardcoded stuff.
Just take a look at their stretch goals will ya? They include both dedicated mod support and a game master mode. Also they have stated several times that the game will be much easier to mod than DoS1. The toolkit will be much more intuitative and things like that.
 

Drowed

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
1,676
Location
Core City
I don't think that's feasible, as building relationships between four characters over the course of a campaign is a major feature.

True, but at the same time, as far as I remember, you aren't required to recruit any of these characters - it is something optional. This way, you can play the whole game with only two characters, or maybe even solo (if you're able). If this is really true, then you wouldn't have access to these relationships anyway, then, we could insert another character without any problems.

Just take a look at their stretch goals will ya? They include both dedicated mod support and a game master mode. Also they have stated several times that the game will be much easier to mod than DoS1. The toolkit will be much more intuitative and things like that.

About that:


c4ae2d6461f5bd880584fa32af3a41bf_original.jpg


We're shipping a very powerful RPG editor with the game: the same one we are using to build the game.

It's been a very long time since anyone made an RPG editor that allows you to create multiplayer adventures. (Of course, you can also create single player games with it.)

The RPG editor features a world building tool, an item and equipment editor, a character editor, a dialog editor, and an advanced (yet simple to use) story scripting tool.

You can preview your changes immediately in the game, and import artwork as well as audio. There is support to work with multiple people on the same story.

The editor will be integrated with Steam Workshop to facilitate sharing your adventures, but you'll also be able to share your mods in other ways.

efbac866112c1d597748bbf36db6b8a2_original.jpg
The Divinity editor, a powerful piece of RPG technology that will soon be yours.

That's what they said in the first Kickstarter. You will then need excuse me if I'm not as optimistic as you about what they promise and what ends up appearing in the final product - and I'm not even talking about the day&night cycle. Don't get me wrong, I love the original game; it's one of my favorite games in the last 10 years.

But I cannot help being somewhat disappointed with what the game could be and what it is. I cannot help thinking about NWN. I'm not really a fan of D&D, but I've played various modules in it over the years. D:OS has a infinitely superior combat system (in my opinion) and way more interaction with the world: I can only imagine what the game would/could become, in the hands of good modders.

And Game Master mode is a completely different beast.
 
Weasel
Joined
Dec 14, 2012
Messages
1,865,661
I think a reason for cautious optimism when it comes to modding and the editor is that this is one area that they explicitly mentioned in the DOS2 KS as something they hadn't done well enough in DOS1 and wanted to improve... whereas day&night cycle they just said they weren't doing it. They made it a stretch goal and have more finance this time around after the success of DOS1, I think there's hope.
 

Drowed

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
1,676
Location
Core City
Well, this is one of those situations where I would love to be proven wrong. I look forward to a new RPG that can take the rusty and abandoned throne of NWN.

I really like Larian's style, and undoubtedly hope that they will achieve the greatest possible success with their new game (and all the next games too, now that Swen entered the middle-aged megalomaniac crisis and is madly expanding the company).
 
Unwanted

Manmower

Unwanted
Edgy
Joined
Apr 27, 2016
Messages
208
Location
The 14th Century
Hmm, let's see...
  • C&C featuring inter-party dynamics
  • height differentials adding to tactical combat
  • plethora of spells and abilities to make use of
  • tolerable graphical quality easy on the eyes
  • various combos hinging on ability use
  • turn-based combat
  • robust editor
Yup, gonna play it.

:kingcomrade:
 

PulsatingBrain

Huge and Ever-Growing
Patron
Joined
Nov 5, 2014
Messages
6,163
Location
The Centre of the Ultraworld
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Codex+ Now Streaming! Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath
I'm sure it will be great either way, but I'm also cautiously optimistic about the editor. I'd love to still be playing user-made campaigns years from now, since the combat is just so satisfying in DOS1, and looks even better here.

:incline:
 
Unwanted

Manmower

Unwanted
Edgy
Joined
Apr 27, 2016
Messages
208
Location
The 14th Century
Larian's one of the few active studios I have faith in. Not saying they're immune to dumb design or fuckups, but they at least seem to have their collective heads screw on straight.
 

hpstg

Savant
Joined
Nov 14, 2014
Messages
485
Wow look at that interviewer. What an unpleasant faggot.
I can imagine him after the fall of civilization, right next to the alpha male of the tribe, pressing him to kill the captured babies because he got the bloodthirst again, and he has has has has to have some of the sweet, sweet, red nectar. Aggressive beta asshole.

In other news, Larian is doing it right :)
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom