Divinity Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition

[Prime Junta]

Oh in that case, he really ought to go hostile if you attack people around him. I only used the dialogue trick to maneuver party members into better positions and getting the first attack in, which would make him go hostile against everybody.

Well he didn't. Could be Pontius is a special case though as I didn't technically perform any attack actions, only interactions with objects.

 

[Darth Roxor]

that's a bug i'm pretty sure

i remember we did the same with the boner baron in the EE, while it was impossible to do in the base game

 

[Prime Junta]

Yep also works for Didrik.

 

[Iznaliu]

This isn't a bad game. It's worse: it's mediocre

Why do you think the Codex likes it then?

 

[YES!]

Just FYI to anyone who likes good combat - the mod Epic Encounters makes the combat in this game topnotch. It also significantly improves the chardev. If this game was too easy and boring to hold your attention for long, as it was for me, this mod definitely fixes that.

 

[Prime Junta]

Why do you think the Codex likes it then?

:mystery:

This is in fact the main reason I'm so salty about the game ITT. It's a Codex favourite. It's supposed to be really good, not just something that ticks all the boxes, colours inside the lines, and has good combat. Fucking expectations -- if it had been some obscure bottom-drawer thing I would probably have liked it.

 

[Iznaliu]

This is in fact the main reason I'm so salty about the game ITT. It's a Codex favourite. It's supposed to be really good, not just something that ticks all the boxes, colours inside the lines, and has good combat. Fucking expectations -- if it had been some obscure bottom-drawer thing I would probably have liked it.

I personally think it's because it at least does something different. This is the same reason why people hate PoE; it's too similar to the IE games. You've got to understand that many people here haver replayed BG2 dozens of times.

 

[Prime Junta]

I personally think it's because it at least does something different. This is the same reason why people hate PoE; it's too similar to the IE games. You've got to understand that many people here haver replayed BG2 dozens of times.

People on the Codex don't hate Pillars for its similarities to the IE games. They hate it for its differences.

 

[Valky]

Preferring RTWP decline over Swen's incline?

 

[Prime Junta]

Preferring RTWP decline over Swen's incline?

I don't have a strong preference for either TB or RTwP. If executed well, both can be fun. And in any case, the combat is clearly the best part of D:OS. It's very good by any standards.

 

[Iznaliu]

People on the Codex don't hate Pillars for its similarities to the IE games. They hate it for its differences.

That's what they say to justify the hate, but what causes the hate is different.

 

[Prime Junta]

That's what they say to justify the hate, but what causes the hate is different.

True. I suspect a lot of it has little to do with the game actually.

 

[Darth Roxor]

 

[Prime Junta]

Walp, following Grunker's advice, I went for a second playthrough. Different party: Wolfgraff, Madora, Knight, Wizard this time.

It's... not better. It's less tedious because I remember where the switches and mines are, more or less, and also I pumped the bejeezus out of Wolfgraff's PER to see more secrets. But, it's also more boring because the fights went from easy to really easy, now that I know what I'm doing more or less. The different party plays almost the same as the previous one, despite the ostensible differences. I can't see what point there would be to do further play-throughs.

The combat mechanics are wearing thin. There's really not much depth to them, and the challenge in lots of fights hinges on chaining status effects, and thereby initiative. I.e. any fight where I get the drop on them is trivial, and in the "fair" ones I just have to have one character with really high initiative and some CC ability to start the status effect chain, at which point it's over. Which leaves the set pieces where the enemy gets a free turn in the start. Trouble with those is that -- again because of the mechanics -- they're all too easy to cheese.

For example,

Spoiler

The Leandra fight in the endgame. That is pretty challenging if you play it fair, because they're casting Void Aura on each other every couple of turns which makes them invulnerable. Played that way, it becomes a grind though: you keep CCing the summons and chewing down each of the major characters if and when their Void Aura drops, until eventually either they get a few lucky hits through and CC you, or you grind them down. Or you can just bypass the whole thing: I had Wolfgraff shoot a smokescreen arrow on Leandra when she was still in dialogue, which means she didn't go into combat mode after the dialogue ended because she couldn't see us, so I just dropped a Hailstorm on her, which froze her, and then murdered her at my leisure.

Most of the bossfights can be similarly cheesed. I did similar things to Braccus Rex and Attenberah at least, possibly others. Other "tactics" like offering a sacrificial lamb -- perhaps with Invulnerability on, in the late game -- are just variants of the same cheese.

Basically, a combat system that's as swingy as this one -- so heavily reliant on hard status effects (knocked down, petrified, frozen, stunned, blind) -- is ultimately pretty shallow. Tactics just become a matter of figuring out how to apply them first.

I.e., sorry Grunker, it didn't become okay the second time around, just mediocre and dull in a different way. The biggest enjoyment I've gotten out of it has come from bitching about it here. That near-consensus high score it got on the Codex poll was a shock -- I honestly thought this place has higher standards for games than this, that tick-all-the-boxes turn-based retro alone wouldn't be sufficient to become that highly regarded here. It's a shame Cleve didn't release Grimoire in July; I would've been playing that instead and I'm sure it would've been time much better spent. As it is, that'll have to wait as I'm kind of all gamed out for now.

 

[Roguey]

The duality of the hard counter.

 

[Grunker]

O_o dude, my second playthrough was better because I got rid of the annoying co-op and I liked the base game, not because I forced myself to replay it mere days after finishing the whole damn thing and not liking it

 

[Prime Junta]

The duality of the hard counter.

Hard counters are like salt. Hard to cook without it, but too much will spoil the broth.

 

[Prime Junta]

O_o dude, my second playthrough was better because I got rid of the annoying co-op and I liked the base game, not because I forced myself to replay it mere days after finishing the whole damn thing and not liking it

It's all your fault.

 

[Lahey]

Retrospective review when?

 

[Iznaliu]

I don't think Prime Junta suggested that at all.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

O_o dude, my second playthrough was better because I got rid of the annoying co-op and I liked the base game, not because I forced myself to replay it mere days after finishing the whole damn thing and not liking it

It's all your fault.

Look, you still need to play it five more times to confirm you don't like it. Get moving.

 

[Iznaliu]

Look, you still need to play it five more times to confirm you don't like it. Get moving.

You mean 500 more times, right?

 

[Roguey]

Look, you still need to play it five more times to confirm you don't like it. Get moving.

You mean 500 more times, right?

The "seven times" meme came about because infamous crank skyway once confessed to having completed Knights of the Old Republic seven times.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Look, you still need to play it five more times to confirm you don't like it. Get moving.

You mean 500 more times, right?

Damnable newfags, fucking up even the basic shit.

 

[Iznaliu]

Damnable newfags, fucking up even the basic shit.

How do I upgrade to advanced shit?