Divinity: Original Sin Beta Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO THE NEW THREAD]

[Crooked Bee]

There's nothing inaccurate about my post.

Fact: Obsidian had a hard deadline when it came to adding new content in their game.

Plz name that deadline.

As someone who knows MCA's deadline for companions (and how it evolved), I feel like having a laugh.

 

[Roguey]

There's nothing inaccurate about my post.

Fact: Obsidian had a hard deadline when it came to adding new content in their game.

Plz name that deadline.

As someone who knows MCA's deadline for companions (and how it evolved), I feel like having a laugh.

Their deadline for backer submissions was March 31st.

They're still not in beta so it's fine for them to not be content-complete internally.

 

[Crooked Bee]

They're still not in beta so it's fine for them to not be content-complete internally.

Aw

 

[Haba]

Hey,

I have no imagination, so I need help from some of you esteemed people? with input on these:

Obsidian Larian is not if they're still allowing people to submit these when it's supposed to be out in a week.

That's not even game content, only appears to the individual backer.

 

[LESS T_T]

Someone made a (maybe) spoiler-free version of the last livestream.

Edit of Larian Studios Stream to focus on the game editor, and secondarily to avoid campaign spoilers.

 

[grotsnik]

Argh. The textures just look freaking lovely even when they're being used very simply, and it looks insanely fast and simple to create and duplicate props.

It'll be interesting to see if modders have the patience to create content on the level of the main campaign, though. I mean, giving every civilian NPC bartering items? Implementing and balancing crafting as a significant part of gameplay? Pickpocketing reactivity? A lot of the kind of stuff that was an impressive surprise when it showed up in a few of the best NWN mods is kind of expected from the very beginning here. You wonder if a lot of people will half-ass it or just be scared off completely.

 

[LESS T_T]

Well, even if modders make use only SOME of its features, I think it could be more intersting than many games of the last decade.

Like, combatfag games with its tactical combat, dating sims

with its relationship stats, hell, even isometric adventure games with its reactivity!

 

[Roguey]

That's not even game content, only appears to the individual backer.

Co-op dialogue yes, item combination no.

Please describe an item combination. Describe the ingredients (item A and item B) and what item it creates when you combine these two (item C). Also describe what the use is of this resulting item. Please try not to create uses that are too elaborate. Please keep your items within the fantasy realm. Item combinations can be two items that can be picked up and combined, or one item that can be picked up and one heavy, unmovable item (like an oven). Your item combination will be in the final game for everyone to find out.

 

[Haba]

Oh god that is stupid.

 

[Angthoron]

Probably going to come out in patches. Back when gaming wasn't the stinking shithole that it is today, companies provided content like maps, and sometimes even weapons or units for free in patches.

Holy fuck how terrible that someone might be doing that now.

 

[Arkeus]

Probably going to come out in patches. Back when gaming wasn't the stinking shithole that it is today, companies provided content like maps, and sometimes even weapons or units for free in patches.

Holy fuck how terrible that someone might be doing that now.

Man, that reminds me of TA.

 

[bonescraper]

That's not even game content, only appears to the individual backer.

Co-op dialogue yes, item combination no.

Please describe an item combination. Describe the ingredients (item A and item B) and what item it creates when you combine these two (item C). Also describe what the use is of this resulting item. Please try not to create uses that are too elaborate. Please keep your items within the fantasy realm. Item combinations can be two items that can be picked up and combined, or one item that can be picked up and one heavy, unmovable item (like an oven). Your item combination will be in the final game for everyone to find out.

Oh how you like to overblow irrelevant shit like that. This could be easily labeled as stuff for content update patches, (free) dlc and shit like that. You know, the stuff some companies do all the time (CD Prokejkt, Creative Assembly, fuck even Bethesda). It's not something you can't live without. And i'm pretty sure vanilla DOS will be richer in content than PoE anyway.

 

[Roguey]

Poor management/planning apologists ITT.

 

[Zeriel]

Argh. The textures just look freaking lovely even when they're being used very simply, and it looks insanely fast and simple to create and duplicate props.

It'll be interesting to see if modders have the patience to create content on the level of the main campaign, though. I mean, giving every civilian NPC bartering items? Implementing and balancing crafting as a significant part of gameplay? Pickpocketing reactivity? A lot of the kind of stuff that was an impressive surprise when it showed up in a few of the best NWN mods is kind of expected from the very beginning here. You wonder if a lot of people will half-ass it or just be scared off completely.

I was thinking about that... and just assuming it has to be accepted that most mods won't even try. It's possible, of course, but this would be the work of years, maybe a decade. Anyone who wants stuff in the first few years is going to have to accept that modules will focus on one specific thing and try and do it well, not match Larian for scale.

 

[MicoSelva]

Well, even if modders make use only SOME of its features, I think it could be more intersting than many games of the last decade.

For me, the editor has probably too many features. I am in serious risk of getting bogged down in it, instead of making the simple story-based (a JRPG, really) game I have in mind.

 

[Zeriel]

Well, even if modders make use only SOME of its features, I think it could be more intersting than many games of the last decade.

For me, the editor has probably too many features. I am in serious risk of getting bogged down in it, instead of making the simple story-based (a JRPG, really) game I have in mind.

This is true of 3D editors in general, incidentally. If you just want to make something simple, they're kind of a waste of time compared to something like RPGMaker. The benefit is you can create some pretty great results using samey assets, if you have the time and wherewithal.

 

[garren]

Divinity: Original Sin Design An Item Combo

Please describe an item combination. Describe the ingredients (item A and item B) and what item it creates when you combine these two (item C). Also describe what the use is of this resulting item. Please try not to create uses that are too elaborate. Please keep your items within the fantasy realm. Item combinations can be two items that can be picked up and combined, or one item that can be picked up and one heavy, unmovable item (like an oven). Your item combination will be in the final game for everyone to find out.

Skull + gunpowder = flaming skull bomb

 

[Zetor]

Well, even if modders make use only SOME of its features, I think it could be more intersting than many games of the last decade.

For me, the editor has probably too many features. I am in serious risk of getting bogged down in it, instead of making the simple story-based (a JRPG, really) game I have in mind.

This is exactly why I think editors with limited audiovisual customization options are the best, because they allow the author to focus on the really important things without having to spend countless hours on extraneous assets (especially if said assets need specific talents to do right). Of course the 'proper' solution is to make a mod team instead of working solo, but that's probably too srs-bsns for most modders. Of course if the editor itself can compensate for this (e.g. by having 3D 'faux tile' templates that actually work), that can alleviate the problem.

(BTW, I consider COH's Mission Architect to be better than NWO's Foundry and SRR's editor to be better than FNV's for this reason.)

 

[Zeriel]

Well, even if modders make use only SOME of its features, I think it could be more intersting than many games of the last decade.

For me, the editor has probably too many features. I am in serious risk of getting bogged down in it, instead of making the simple story-based (a JRPG, really) game I have in mind.

This is exactly why I think editors with limited audiovisual customization options are the best, because they allow the author to focus on the really important things without having to spend countless hours on extraneous assets (especially if said assets need specific talents to do right). Of course the 'proper' solution is to make a mod team instead of working solo, but that's probably too srs-bsns for most modders. Of course if the editor itself can compensate for this (e.g. by having 3D 'faux tile' templates that actually work), that can alleviate the problem.

(BTW, I consider COH's Mission Architect to be better than NWO's Foundry and SRR's editor to be better than FNV's for this reason.)

But the end-user tends to be put off from cookie-cutter results. Witness how people really don't give a shit about Foundry missions or things of that ilk unless the game directly rewards/demands you do them. All the creativity in the world is meaningless if the results seem too samey.

(Admittedly, the problem with MMO mission editors like the Foundry is more that they lack mechanical options, not worldpainting ones.)

 

[Zetor]

Yea, I forgot to qualify that post with "from the modder's POV". The end-users obviously want all the bells and whistles.

e: and yeah, that's what I meant by COH's MA vs. the NWO Foundry. The MA is really simple from a world-building perspective, in fact it's TOO simple -- you can't even hand-place enemy spawns and objects, just specify which part of the (premade) map you want them to appear in. OTOH these limitations also apply to almost all of the game's content, and this extreme world-building simplicity means that the use of goals, triggers, and of course dialogue / pop-up / briefing text matters a lot, and it was still possible to create a crazy variety of content in the MA despite the limitations. OTOH in the Foundry you can make all sorts of fancy areas and zones, but it's not any richer than the MA on a mechanical level (aside from precise placement of objects, which is admittedly a pretty big plus) while requiring at least an order of magnitude greater time investment to achieve the same results!

 

[felipepepe]

We should host a competition similar to the RPG Maker one, but with the Divinity Editor. :3

 

[Zeriel]

We should host a competition similar to the RPG Maker one, but with the Divinity Editor. :3

24 HR Divinity modules go!

While we're on the topic, I'm actually impressed with what I've seen of the editor from a production standpoint, it looks like it has some of the neat tricks and shortcuts that the NWN editors were really missing to make complex area creation not take months. The guy at Larian was able to accomplish a serious amount of shit on that stream in a really short time period. Here's hoping it also lacks some of the "features" of the NWN2 editor, like levels becoming unstable and corrupt randomly if they were too large during saving.

 

[grotsnik]

I was thinking about that... and just assuming it has to be accepted that most mods won't even try. It's possible, of course, but this would be the work of years, maybe a decade. Anyone who wants stuff in the first few years is going to have to accept that modules will focus on one specific thing and try and do it well, not match Larian for scale.

Yeah, definitely. And I think a lot might actually depend on what the finished asset library looks like. NWN benefited from being part of that larger D & D multiverse with tons of crossover between creatures, rules, items, etc, and as a result it was easier for people to create mods set in a wide and exciting variety of settings without ever running out of available props. D:OS clearly does have your basic arsenal of generic zombies and skeletons and bandits, but quite a few of the creature models so far have a really distinctively quirky art design - assuming people aren't just dying to set their campaigns in the world of Rivellon, it's going to be a creative modder who can find a way of fitting

Spoiler

an imp with a ruff, a chirruping skull-bomb, a giant green bouncy glowing skeleton torso, a zombie in a top hat, or a robot-monster ridden by a corpse, spewing oil, with a sort of Orky banner on top

into their gritty low-level adventure.

 

[Zeriel]

I was thinking about that... and just assuming it has to be accepted that most mods won't even try. It's possible, of course, but this would be the work of years, maybe a decade. Anyone who wants stuff in the first few years is going to have to accept that modules will focus on one specific thing and try and do it well, not match Larian for scale.

Yeah, definitely. And I think a lot might actually depend on what the finished asset library looks like. NWN benefited from being part of that larger D & D multiverse with tons of crossover between creatures, rules, items, etc, and as a result it was easier for people to create mods set in a wide and exciting variety of settings without ever running out of available props. D:OS clearly does have your basic arsenal of generic zombies and skeletons and bandits, but quite a few of the creature models so far have a really distinctively quirky art design - assuming people aren't just dying to set their campaigns in the world of Rivellon, it's going to be a creative modder who can find a way of fitting

Spoiler

an imp with a ruff, a chirruping skull-bomb, a giant green bouncy glowing skeleton torso, a zombie in a top hat, or a robot-monster ridden by a corpse, spewing oil, with a sort of Orky banner on top

into their gritty low-level adventure.

NWN equally suffered from a really archaic and shitty asset import system. If D:OS has something better, we might see a lot of assets imported from... other games. Not that illegality is something to admire in mods, but whatever, might result in some decently different projects. For example, a ridiculous amount of the "original" armor mods in Skyrim that look good are ripped directly from other (usually korean, for maximum disrespect) games.

Tend to agree with the asset thing, though, that's always the biggest hurdle for anyone modding. It's part of why I haven't completely decided what I'm going to do with D:OS until I get my hands on the editor and see what is actually available to us. Ideas are limitless, but what we have to work with isn't. I'm absolutely certain we'll see some inventive stuff come out of the toolset, however, even without people importing new assets.

 

[DeepOcean]

Someone made a (maybe) spoiler-free version of the last livestream.

Edit of Larian Studios Stream to focus on the game editor, and secondarily to avoid campaign spoilers.

Do you have romances in it?

Swen: Oooo... it isn't a Bioware type of game.