Divinity Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition

[Gangrelrumbler]

In my opinion the game was almost unplyable without the unlocked rotation.

 

[Gord]

Strange that you would think so. I didn't encounter anything that made me think "man, I really need a freely rotatable camera".

 

[DraQ]

Strange that you would think so. I didn't encounter anything that made me think "man, I really need a freely rotatable camera".

For me the first such thing I encountered was the option to switch it on.

 

[Roguey]

I kept it off and enjoyed not having to constantly fiddle with it.

They didn't do a perfect job of designing something perfectly viewable from only one angle, but it's the best 3D attempt I've seen so far.

 

[DraQ]

I kept it off and enjoyed not having to constantly fiddle with it.

They didn't do a perfect job of designing something perfectly viewable from only one angle, but it's the best 3D attempt I've seen so far.

Most of the time it didn't look half bad from all the other angles either.

Anyway, being viewable from only one angle is a waste of perfectly good 3D, the game wouldn't take that much to work nicely from about any perspective (removal of some visual hacks mostly) and pretty much everything that looked wrong could be traced back to wow-like art direction.

 

[Roguey]

Rotating cameras are ftl because of all the fiddling that comes with them and the 3D is utilized perfectly well with those beautiful vistas.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Strange that you would think so. I didn't encounter anything that made me think "man, I really need a freely rotatable camera".

Strange. Before turning it on, I was constantly annoyed by not being able to see everything properly, especially on the battlefied.

 

[Roguey]

B is your friend for all your battlefield needs.

 

[SniperHF]

I think when they went into D:OS with the mindset of designing for a limited camera it made their 3d environments more visible as a result. So when you all the sudden enable 360, outside of the 1 sided assets you can see more and it might feel better to people but the actual difference is minimal. Compare this with say the Highpool Tunnels in Wasteland 2. That level of limited visibility is only possible when full rotation is assumed.

Future Larian games will almost certainly go in with 360 rotation enabled. Seeing how the camera behaves in those games vs D:OS will be interesting.

 

[Zeriel]

I kept it off and enjoyed not having to constantly fiddle with it.

They didn't do a perfect job of designing something perfectly viewable from only one angle, but it's the best 3D attempt I've seen so far.

Eh, Diablo 3 is a shit game, but it shows how to do this 100% perfectly.

Larian's attempt was not excruciatingly bad, but it wasn't seamless either. I'm pretty sure they didn't always know they were going to do it at a set perspective, otherwise the bits that you can't see but need to don't make much sense. If they were planning the limited perspective from day 1 and still ended up this way, that would be pretty sad.

 

[Stabbey]

Today, Larian had a Twitch stream of D:OS, basically they did the same presentation as they did at E3, followed up by a half-hour long Q&A session.

If you watched any of their E3 presentations, the first half hour is probably not interesting, so may want to skip to the Q&A portion of today’s stream. (35 minutes in)


EDIT: The same Q&A, but on Youtube.


Answers:

• Any word on an official 4-Player mode? “Not one word on 4-player mode.” They’re being coy. That’s not a yes or a no, which says to me that they’re probably trying to get it working, but can’t guarantee it.
  
• No shapeshifting.
  
• Russian Subtitles yes. It’ll be localized in French, German, Polish, Italian, Czeck, Russian, Spanish.
  
• You need to select the voices in the character selection screen. There are four male voices and three female voices.
  
• They’re still working on changes to crafting.
  
• They haven’t done many changes to the modding tools to make them more user friendly. The editor is much more stable than it was a while ago, but they seem dubious about the possibility of changes to the modding tools.
  
• Is loot randomized? There is no more savescumming for loot. Treasure is generated when you enter an area, this helps make things more balanced, because now the item generator can make sure there aren’t a billion swords and zero daggers, for instance.
  
• You cannot play splitscreen with both a controller and a keyboard.
  
• No news on a sequel. No DLC planned for D:OS.
  
• Will Zombie companions get angry if you heal them with poison? They don’t know, there’s a lot of changes.
  
• Respeccing removes skills, are there any changes in that area? They don’t know, but there are no longer unique, one-time-only skill books. You can learn every skill multiple times.
  
• Shops restock after you level up OR after 1 real-time hour.
  
• Kickstarter backers CANNOT get a copy of the EE for Console instead of PC, that’s too difficult.
  
• More character models? No new player models, only new enemy models
  
• Is there a “Capture the face” option in character creation? No.
  
• Is it easier to focus on enemies in melee? No, but controllers can select targets, and mouse and keyboard can use top-down overview to aid in that.
  
• The Sneak mode on consoles is kinda awkward-looking, having to open a menu. But there won’t be a better way, there are not enough buttons.
  
• No new companions in the EE, but improvements to existing ones.
  
• What’s changed to make more versatile hybrid builds? You could already make versatile builds, but the changes the skill system make them even more valid. You may start out as a full-on Fighter or Wizard, but at about level 12, you’ll have to decide whether to continue on as a full-on character aiming to get Master skills, or you’ll start dual-classing.
  
• No day/night cycle in the EE.
  
• New Talents to support Wands and Grenades. Other Talents have been rebalanced, but it doesn’t sound like there are fresh Talents after that.
  
• Grenades are a bit like the Master skills, in that Master skills cost a lot of AP, but have a big AoE and you need to get your guys out of the way. Grenades are powerful, but… not precision weapons.
  
• Story is not completely different, it’s just a lot more clear and well-paced. Some characters may have are been mentioned in books or diaries and then aren’t mentioned again for another 15 hours, by which time the player has forgotten. Stuff like that has been worked on.
  
• Novice, Master, Adept skills now have their own skill slots, so for one school, you can have say 9 Novice skills, 5 Adept skills, and 1 Master skill learned, instead of just 9 skills learned total for that school. (NOTE: Those are examples, I don’t know the actual values). They said a single point lets you learn 2 Novice, 0 Adept, 0 Master.
  
• Everyone can dual-wield, but if you don’t have points in the Dual Wield ability, you suffer a penalty to damage and AP cost.
  
• Is the Leech Talent fixed? Is Vampiric Touch better? All the skills got a good look at, they rebalanced and redid a lot of things, so there’s a good chance.
  
• Some skills now require a shield, but I don’t think there’s a Shield Bash.
  
• Tanks get a taunt skill
  
• Rogue “Daggers Drawn” skill was probably removed and replaced, because it was similar to the fighter’s “Flurry” (except kinda lousy). For example, there used to be three classes which could inflict Bleeding status (Witch via Bloodletting, Fighter via Draw Blood), but now the Scoundrel is the only one who can do that.
  
• Explorer mode has easier combat, and the AI refrains from using certain skills.
  
• D:OS:EE will be playable at Gamescon.
  
• There are save-or-die skills in the EE, like the Monstrous Egg. You can plant a spider egg in a target, and if the target doesn’t pass a saving throw or kill the caster, the target dies. Enemies can have skills like that too!
  
• Lava still instakills everything.
  
• Some changes seen in a sneak preview of Tactician Mode (the first fight):
  
• --- In the first battle –
  Spoiler

  The conduit is met at the start instead of a generic guy.
  – This is a story change for all versions.
  
• --- Also Tactician
  Spoiler

  spawns two new skeletons at the new fight
  .
  
• --- Tip: You should invest into perception, if only for all the traps.

 

[Alienman]

"You cannot play splitscreen with both a controller and a keyboard"

You need two controllers for splitscreen on pc?

 

[t]

Cant wait to replay this. Been thinking about it for a while, but of course won't try before the release.

 

[Roguey]

No day/night cycle in the EE.

Tanks get a taunt skill

Nice, more Dragon Aging.

There are save-or-die skills in the EE, like the Monstrous Egg. You can plant a spider egg in a target, and if the target doesn’t pass a saving throw or kill the caster, the target dies. Enemies can have skills like that too!

This sounds like it's going to be very obnoxious, unless the timers are really long.

 

[Aenra]

The more i read..considering what we do know about the EE, is a year and four months time of iteration justified for the changes advertised?
Can't help thinking it seems like way too much time for what basically amounts to re-balancing/re-pacing plus console launch.

Basic things like ease of highlighting enemies with melee characters are still missing. And are to remain so apparently.
Now again, not a trolling attempt, just honestly curious if this is how long it 'should' take for so little to get done.

Roguey while i'm with you in regard to the day & night cycle (i still bitch about it), that was a poor trolling attempt. You can do better

 

[DraQ]

Tanks get a taunt skill

Nice, more Dragon Aging.

That's just dumb.

Skills should be symmetrical, no skill should work by making the AI stupid.
The AI should go for squishy wizards and other such glass cannon builds if only given opportunity and it should be up to the player to prevent it by clever positioning.

 

[Roguey]

Skills should be symmetrical, no skill should work by making the AI stupid.

Look up stench.

 

[Excidium II]

You don't even know how it's implemented and is already crying

 

[Roguey]

I bet it's going to work like in WoW/DA except there'll be a willpower check and single-target. High willpower guys will ignore the taunt, low will get enraged and go after 'em, as it it should be.

Who knows maybe they can do the same thing to you, locking you into auto-attacking 'em for x turns.

 

[Excidium II]

Yeah, it's just a form of CC. Instead of enemy being down on the ground they wallop your tank for 1 or 2 turns, with the advantage of being able to reposition

 

[Zeriel]

Yep, given how many forms of CC are available in the game, I don't see taunt as being especially powerful or remarkable.

 

[deuxhero]

Tanks get a taunt skill

Nice, more Dragon Aging.

That's just dumb.

Skills should be symmetrical, no skill should work by making the AI stupid.
The AI should go for squishy wizards and other such glass cannon builds if only given opportunity and it should be up to the player to prevent it by clever positioning.

The best way to do aggro without mind control I've seen is penalties to attacking people aside from the "taunt"er.

 

[a Goat]

You cannot play splitscreen with both a controller and a keyboard.

I hope it'll be modded-in in some way, because that's exactly how I wanted to do it.

 

[NotAGolfer]

The more i read..considering what we do know about the EE, is a year and four months time of iteration justified for the changes advertised?
Can't help thinking it seems like way too much time for what basically amounts to re-balancing/re-pacing plus console launch.

Basic things like ease of highlighting enemies with melee characters are still missing. And are to remain so apparently.
Now again, not a trolling attempt, just honestly curious if this is how long it 'should' take for so little to get done.

Roguey while i'm with you in regard to the day & night cycle (i still bitch about it), that was a poor trolling attempt. You can do better

Rewriting big parts of the story plus voice actors plus art assets for 360° rotation plus tactician mode (yay! ... whatever that means as a paraphrase for the ultimate hardcore death march path of the damned you're so dead mofo difficulty level - will have to try it myself) takes some time. And it isn't like it's their main project atm ... at least I hope not.
Enhanced Edition for backers on PC is just the icing on the cake anyway, this is about the console port.

 

[Jimmious]

Supposedly they are also working on TWO more RPGs that use the engine of D:OS. I would give my left ball for a new-age or sci-fi or post-apoc game with this engine. Something with guns, tb combat goodness and even better co-op. Oh Swen, great master, please do