Divinity Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition

[Aenra]

Trust in Roguey for derailing a thread, lol (even unwittingly)

 

[Roguey]

In hindsight, I would have excised the final sentence. Everything else about that paragraph applies to D:OS.

 

[Zanzoken]

I can't really think of any RPGs where the armor mechanics felt completely right. They are popamole as fuck in D:OS along with its itemization in general.

I'm curious to hear Sawyer's take on it. I haven't played PoE but seems like I remember seeing a post where the drawback of armor was longer delays between actions, which seemed like a pretty elegant way to handle it. How does armor benefit though if not % DR? It seems like he is not a fan of that approach based on the quote above.

 

[a Goat]

It should be based on physical calculations but our cocksuckers of game devs still think that we should use simplified p&p models where we have several TFLOPS of computing power in almost every computer that runs their games.

 

[prodigydancer]

How does armor benefit though if not % DR?

In PoE armor DR is an integer and it doesn't depend on your or enemy level. No percentages. Some weapons can partially bypass DR (bypass amount is also an integer). Both approaches are broken but there's a slight difference. In DO:S you wear armor for stats, not for protection. In PoE you wear armor in early game when survivability is a priority. In late game everyone except tanks and warrirors uses cloth with 0 (base) DR.

 

[Roguey]

I can't really think of any RPGs where the armor mechanics felt completely right. They are popamole as fuck in D:OS along with its itemization in general.

I'm curious to hear Sawyer's take on it. I haven't played PoE but seems like I remember seeing a post where the drawback of armor was longer delays between actions, which seemed like a pretty elegant way to handle it. How does armor benefit though if not % DR? It seems like he is not a fan of that approach based on the quote above.

Flat thresholds. If armor has a rating of 12, it subtracts 12 damage, though at least 20% always goes through.

Quite a few people are not fans of armor design in Pillars for various reasons and want their precious Armor Class back.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Flat thresholds. If armor has a rating of 12, it subtracts 12 damage, though at least 20% always goes through.

Quite a few people are not fans of armor design in Pillars for various reasons and want their precious Armor Class back.

Sounds like Gothic.

 

[Zetor]

Difficulty seems to take a nosedive after Cyseal, at least on Tactician. The Hiberheim boss was more annoying than dangerous, and all other major encounters since then were fairly by-the-book. The toughest fight was actually a trash encounter of those teleporting poison-vomiting spiders somewhere in the Luculla desert, and that was more due to the perma-slow effect than anything else.

Armor - and itemization in general - is kinda messed up, though I guess you can expect that from a game with Diablo-ish origins. I've just started phantom forest (post-amulet), and my leader is still using a green level 2 ring because it has +1 int and +1 perception; Madora is still using a blue level 6 helm because it has +1 constitution and +2 initiative. Any gear that doesn't have at least two relevant stats/skills on it goes into the "situational" (aka junk) pile. I suppose I could build alternate item sets for crafting/bartering/charisma/exploration and manually switch them every time, but... yeah, no. Haven't seen the need for building resist gear yet, either.

 

[Aenra]

Same shit, different mouths.

Must really count the posts using the phrase 'nosedive after Cyseal' at some point. Difficulty is non-existent, so it cannot really nosedive, that would imply it existed in the first place; and it doesn't. Even in Cyseal. You can 'roflstomp' (purposefuly using the term, it connotates just fine with the overall graphical tone) through each and every area, sans pots, foods, or scrolls. Yes, in Tactician mode.
Anyone having any difficulty issues whatsoever is either mentally challenged, overly stubborn (refusing to commit to this program learn the ropes) or just inexperienced with the game's mechanics. Which is like saying mentally challenged, took me less than a couple of days to get the grasp of them, and i'm far worse than most of you in such aspects.

In regard to honour mode? It's Tact mode all over, albeit sans the saving. That is not harder, that is just borderline OCD, because we have RNG factors. Yet another moronic legacy of 'oldschool' done wrong, but nevermind that, different topic.
This lack of challenge, communicated in a convincing, organic way is one of the game's true flaws, ie the ones worth mentioning. Got a lot of love for Swen, but this "we'll never do MMOs, they are dumbed down"? Well, i do not see the opposite principle in D:OS, combat redesign notwithstanding.

 

[Roguey]

Anyone having any difficulty issues whatsoever is either mentally challenged, overly stubborn (refusing to commit to this program learn the ropes) or just inexperienced with the game's mechanics.

Wrong.

 

[cvv]

Difficulty curve is smoother than in vanilla, you still arent under any serious threat after Cyseal but its not a complete faceroll. In some fights you do have to pay attention, Maradino or Troll King come to mind.

.As for what I want for DOS2 - my first and foremost wish is: Please please please Larian do away with the VO. Oh god please no more of this. I have to play with all sounds off since Cyseal because NPCs spouting the same annoying barks over and over and over and over was just driving me up the ceiling. Where is my pepper, did it sprout legs and ran away?

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Must really count the posts using the phrase 'nosedive after Cyseal' at some point. Difficulty is non-existent, so it cannot really nosedive, that would imply it existed in the first place; and it doesn't. Even in Cyseal. You can 'roflstomp' (purposefuly using the term, it connotates just fine with the overall graphical tone) through each and every area, sans pots, foods, or scrolls. Yes, in Tactician mode.
Anyone having any difficulty issues whatsoever is either mentally challenged, overly stubborn (refusing to commit to this program learn the ropes) or just inexperienced with the game's mechanics. Which is like saying mentally challenged, took me less than a couple of days to get the grasp of them, and i'm far worse than most of you in such aspects.

Non-existent difficulty means you grasp the ropes immediately, not in a couple days.

 

[Zetor]

Difficulty curve is smoother than in vanilla, you still arent under any serious threat after Cyseal but its not a complete faceroll. In some fights you do have to pay attention, Maradino or Troll King come to mind.

Hmm, I haven't fought the troll king (didn't need to, got enough tenebrium in the mine), but Maradino wasn't too tough. Sure, he has tons of hp and some decent offense, but it's still 4 party members + summons against 1, and he isn't immune to crowd control and debuffs. By that point Madora had three different knockdowns she could use on the same turn if needed, Bairdotr had a crapload of freeze/stun/knockdown/charm arrows, and my two casters both had an assortment of low-cost freeze / stun / petrify spells, able to use 3+ of them in a single turn, with some emergency control options via grenades if needed. The resurrected units are inconsequential and easily ignored or controlled.

As for what I want for DOS2 - my first and foremost wish is: Please please please Larian do away with the VO. Oh god please no more of this. I have to play with all sounds off since Cyseal because NPCs spouting the same annoying barks over and over and over and over was just driving me up the ceiling. Where is my pepper, did it sprout legs and ran away?

No kidding. I actually disabled all voice in that Luculla cathedral encounter with the 4 citizens are about to be sacrificed... all 4 of them kept screaming 2-3 variations of "oh no, don't kill me" every few seconds. Good times!

 

[Ninjerk]

Wrong.

Retard found, everyone back to work

 

[cvv]

Hmm, I haven't fought the troll king (didn't need to, got enough tenebrium in the mine), but Maradino wasn't too tough. Sure, he has tons of hp and some decent offense, but it's still 4 party members + summons against 1, and he isn't immune to crowd control and debuffs.

Ofc it always depends on the level of your chars when they go into the fight. But if you go do Maradino right after coming to Luculla, around lvl 11/12 as I had, he is very tough. I beat him only because I randomly found the Sword of the Holy Fire five minutes before that, in a bizzarely random tree stump.

 

[Jimmious]

Yeah I'd say it all depends on what level you are and how well equipped you are before each fight. Braccus for example can be very hard if you go unprepared but pretty easy if you know what's up. Also some battles have some gimmicks that we know having played the game already but otherwise make them pretty hard.
Braccus and Sparkmaster in Cyseal come to mind early on. First time there its hard to avoid dying

 

[Grunker]

I think I sold a magical unlock scroll by mistake and now I can't find it

EDIT: You can still craft them using blank witchcraft scrolls (which can be crafted as well) and magic ink and quill. Phew.

 

[cvv]

I think I sold a magical unlock scroll by mistake and now I can't find it

EDIT: You can still craft them using blank witchcraft scrolls (which can be crafted as well) and magic ink and quill. Phew.

What a pain savescumming that though.

There are three that I know of, one in Arhu's office, one buried in the Cathedral crypt and one in Zandalor house.

 

[Roguey]

Retard found, everyone back to work

I'm pretty good at completing RPGs.

 

[Zanzoken]

I am pretty sure you only need two levels in Crafting to make a Magical Unlock, so unequipping your +Crafting gear to lower your skill should increase the chance to get the right drop.

I can't imagine it would've been that hard to implement a pop-up menu to ask which scroll you wanted to create, but maybe they are saving that for the GOTY Special Director's Cut Edition.

 

[Grunker]

I am pretty sure you only need two levels in Crafting to make a Magical Unlock, so unequipping your +Crafting gear to lower your skill should increase the chance to get the right drop.

Y, I can confirm this is still how it works. Had to use a main companion to craft it instead of my AFK crafting one.

 

[Aenra]

Non-existent difficulty means you grasp the ropes immediately, not in a couple days.

Not when you got people to take care of, a pet, a demanding job and all the responsibilities most adults have on top. No dear, not in the slightest.
You sit down, fight yawns, phone rigning or texting, the odd call, yell or yelp and try and focus for the slightest amount of time possible prior to either postponing on your own volition or getting forcefully drawn back into reality. Sorry to break the news to you
I could almost envy the foundation/existence underlying your beliefs. Almost.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Non-existent difficulty means you grasp the ropes immediately, no matter what your life circumstances are or how tired you are. Stop with your lame excuses.

 

[Aenra]

Monkeyfinger As i said, i almost envy the basis of your thinking, so here's a brofist. Come back to me in a decade or two, see where you are then ^^

Anyway,

/*ta daaa* sound effect, best played in Roland

After quite some time having elapsed, lol.. Turns out the DOS EE executable does not allow for sweetfx and related injections, hence my issues. But trust in ye odd modder to come up with a solution god bless him..
http://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin/download/200/?

I'd strongly advise to disregard his own settings. It's the .exe you care about, delete everything else. Once run, you can then make your own setup. Or have a configurator do it for you.

Spoiler

you can get that here: http://sweetfx.thelazy.net/?p=137

Just being able to cut down on that obscenely emphasised brightness permeating everything in the game is oh so satisfying. Way too much 'shiny' factor.. Am currently blind-grasping tweaking the rest of the settings, really want me my 'retro mode'
I suppose that, should another patch come out, you'd probably have to re-run the above 'fix' in order for it to work again. Minor hassle, your settings will have remain saved.

 

[cvv]

Done and done, over 100 hours played, Tactician.

Mechanically it's a good game, great even. I enjoyed the EE slightly more than vanilla, smoother, more polished. Basic problems are still lthere tho. First and foremost, it's way too goofy for its own good and the VO made it even worse, what with all the sqeaky Disney chipmunk voices. I mean shit like Baldur's Gate is ultimately a goofy high-fantasy yarn too but at least it tries to act all mature. D:OS has a weird split personality - nickelodeon infantile on the outside and hardcore as fuck (jesus christ some of the puzzles and pixel hunts) on the inside.

Second biggest problem is the difficulty curve. For 2/3 of the game it's fine but just like in vanilla, from the Phantom Forest on it's just a faceroll fest. For EE they certainly didn't help it with buffing spells like Meteor Strike and Hail Attack which are now hysterically OP and render almost all enemies irrelevant. And I bet they nerfed the final boss fight to all fucks too, to acommodate the console crowd, at least I remember it was pretty intense in vanilla. Here it was over almost instantly, my Rogue soloed the dragon in like 3 turns.

Some smaller hitches worth mentioning - animation speed is still annoying, has Swen actually tried to play the game from start to finish, for 100+ hours straight? A simple summoning spell takes like 10 seconds and you use it all the time. Loot seems better but still weird. Finished the game at level 22 with some of my chars still sporting lvl 7 gear. It's especially painful to find bracers and necklaces with relevant stats. Most of them have Blacksmithing and reflect damage for some reason. Also I found the only unique 2hander in the game (best sword ever, kept using it since lvl 12 to lvl 19) in a random tree stump in Luculla. Placing key weapons in random containers is just terrible design.

All in all D:OS comes across as a typial German product - not very impressive artistically but the mechanics, attention to detail and unrivalled inventiveness makes up for it. For D:OS2 they should focus on what they excel at and and leave the art and writing to the frogs or potatoes.