Divinity Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition

[Sacred82]

So years after picking this up I finally sat down for a proper go. Combat is decent, even though so far this is 'status effect: the game' which, turns out, gets a bit irritating if you base your entire game around it.

Magic and ranged rule, unfortunately. I've been trying to get melee up to scratch but it doesn't get close with all the friendly fire AoE's and surfaces. I'll try using more single target spells next time, but the main problem still is that
melee is super equipment dependent while magic and archers rock right out of the gate.

Otherwise the progression at the beginning seems machine-tooled to the point where it feels like the game has level scaling, even though it doesn't (does it?). My primary issue.

Areas are heavily gated on Tactician difficulty. Really put me off in the beginning until I started to think of it as arena matches centred around a hub. Kodex has to give credits for those hand crafted encounters though, no sitting on consumables here. You just throw enough shit at the enemy to win and hope the payoff is worth it.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

2Hander melees are unstoppable meatgrinders by the late game.
They can tank and deal a shitton of damage, both on single target and AOE.

In fact they are arguably the best single target damage dealers in the game.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Yeah, ranged physical is beast at early game but 2 handers dominate late game by far.

 

[cruel]

Is there any way to get rid of permanent -2 constitution debuff after interacting with Tir Cendelius altar? The game was nice enough to do it without any notification, I noticed this after 5h of playing. Respec at the mirror does not work, so I guess that I will need to live with that?

Also - for people hating the armor system (I was one of them), party likes this makes it much less annoying: 2h fighter, archer, rogue, necro / summoner. Physical damage is the main source for all of those, you have a lot of variety, and if necessary you can switch to magical using skills. To be honest, after I started playing properly (160h right now), I'm much LESS annoyed by the whole system than I expected.

And one more thing - I don't remember a game having a Summoner class so satisfying to play. Having Summoning 12, conjure incarnate, Adrenaline, warp + ranged + shadow + farsight infusion --> very nice to watch the effects of that.

 

[Alpan]

Physical damage is the main source for all of those, you have a lot of variety, and if necessary you can switch to magical using skills. To be honest, after I started playing properly (160h right now), I'm much LESS annoyed by the whole system than I expected.

This is more or less why the system is hated. Simply choosing a damage type is enough to make it irrelevant for the vast majority of the game.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

This is more or less why the system is hated. Simply choosing a damage type is enough to make it irrelevant for the vast majority of the game.

Yup. The trick "choose either physical or magical damage for the whole party" was already known and if anything it's a big part of why the system is generally hated.

 

[cruel]

Yeah, no denying that. Even Sven admitted that the system sucks and they regret putting it in. This is more like a workaround to play the game without getting annoyed.

Damage split physical vs magic is one thing, but it's even worse if you add the fact that many enemies have very high resists to elements. I think I saw only one enemy with any kind of physical resistance, and it was low.

 

[anvi]

The armor system is idiotic. You win by going all physical or all magic. It just makes the battles one dimensional. But the main reason it is idiotic is because it makes control magic completely pointless. You can't use any control spells when they have even a tiny bit of magic armor. So you have to blast down all their magic armor first, and at that point you may as well just blast them down a bit more and they are dead. They took the one bit of actual RPG scope the game had and ruined it. They want you to just blow up shit and they succeeded in dumbing it down to nothing but that.

Also less AP means less scope for tactics in battles. There is a lot about this game that annoyed me.

 

[pakoito]

Is there any mod to fix it, for those like me who have potato laptops and will play in 2022?

 

[anvi]

Yes there is a mod that removes all the armor and buffs the enemy HP to compensate. Not sure how well that balances out though.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

The armor system is idiotic. You win by going all physical or all magic. It just makes the battles one dimensional. But the main reason it is idiotic is because it makes control magic completely pointless. You can't use any control spells when they have even a tiny bit of magic armor. So you have to blast down all their magic armor first, and at that point you may as well just blast them down a bit more and they are dead. They took the one bit of actual RPG scope the game had and ruined it. They want you to just blow up shit and they succeeded in dumbing it down to nothing but that.

Also less AP means less scope for tactics in battles. There is a lot about this game that annoyed me.

Frankly there's still a lot of this game that makes it feel like a tremendously well crafted product. Close to be an instant classic. But then there's also a bunch of incredibly questionable (if not downright stupid) design decisions that felt almost purposefully designed to ruin it as much as possible.
Above anything else: the stupid armor system, the atrocious randomized itemization, the terrible progression curve.

What's baffling to me is that we aren't even talking of wishful thinking that would have required ten times as much commitment to work (i.e. stupid shit like "If only every single NPC was a companion with a backstory!") but just things that could have been done differently with the same amount of effort or even less.

 

[Perkel]

Is there any mod to fix it, for those like me who have potato laptops and will play in 2022?

Nope but there are few ways to mitigate it.

scale back hp and damage done. There is mod that makes difference between levels small and you can easily use lvl 1 gear on lvl 10 enemies. Couple that with chance based status effects and it is pretty fun to play.

removal of both magic and armor with additional hp but this does not cover status which now will always work, i don't think status chance mod is compatible with it as it uses % depending on amount of armor/magic you lost.

Imho first one is the best. First it makes your unique/interesting gear much more valuable because you don't need to change it ever 2-3 levels and removes that retarded hp bloat.

 

[Cat Dude]

I reloaded a lot of time to craft hail attack scrolls.

 

[catfood]

Is it worth picking up the five-star diner talent in the EE? Can you craft some decent food? Or should I just stick to potions and regular buffs?

 

[Sacred82]

2Hander melees are unstoppable meatgrinders by the late game.

that's any build ever that made it to late game though


I've been wondering lately if there's some layer to the plot - even gameplay - you won't get to see unless you're LARPing instead of powergaming the fuck out of the game. Lots of conspicuous things and things that don't make sense without a deeper layer.

Why is it possible to pick the city gate and sneak right past Arhu with a lvl 1 character? Why did they make the whole pyramid/ End of Time thing optional? Why, if you snuck past Arhu and lifted the key from the guard outside the murder scene, does Arhu still approach you and says you're meeting "again"? Why am I controlling two chars that seem clearly distinct and yet performing the exact same role?

Why is there a clear lack of respect from the locals and you're treated more like a curiousity? Why would e.g. Aureus address you with disdain even if you get his attitude up to 100? Why does everybody in Cyseal recognize you as a Source Hunter even though you neversaid so and are literally running around in your undies? Are the different locations in Cyseal actually different factions? What's the Source Hunter Academy all about? Is it a witch hunting inquisitorial order or just trying to keep Source exclusive, because my SH's are actually using Source? Why are only Witchcraft spells ever referred to as Source?

And what, on fucking Earth, is a Source Hunter anyway?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

2Hander melees are unstoppable meatgrinders by the late game.

that's any build ever that made it to late game though


I've been wondering lately if there's some layer to the plot - even gameplay - you won't get to see unless you're LARPing instead of powergaming the fuck out of the game. Lots of conspicuous things and things that don't make sense without a deeper layer.

Why is it possible to pick the city gate and sneak right past Arhu with a lvl 1 character? Why did they make the whole pyramid/ End of Time thing optional? Why, if you snuck past Arhu and lifted the key from the guard outside the murder scene, does Arhu still approach you and says you're meeting "again"? Why am I controlling two chars that seem clearly distinct and yet performing the exact same role?

Why is there a clear lack of respect from the locals and you're treated more like a curiousity? Why would e.g. Aureus address you with disdain even if you get his attitude up to 100? Why does everybody in Cyseal recognize you as a Source Hunter even though you neversaid so and are literally running around in your undies? Are the different locations in Cyseal actually different factions? What's the Source Hunter Academy all about? Is it a witch hunting inquisitorial order or just trying to keep Source exclusive, because my SH's are actually using Source? Why are only Witchcraft spells ever referred to as Source?

And what, on fucking Earth, is a Source Hunter anyway?

You're overthinking it, the game is 99% about combat

 

[Sacred82]

You're overthinking it, the game is 99% about combat

that's what I used to think too, but it's actually obviously not true. Too much C&C and way too fucking much low level, low powered crafting for that. Also the huge interactivity with mundane, combat irrelevant objects

 

[Lacrymas]

You're overthinking it, the game is 99% about combat

For all the simulationist babble this game and the sequel have garnered, this is the truth deep down.

 

[anvi]

You're overthinking it, the game is 99% about combat

For all the simulationist babble this game and the sequel have garnered, this is the truth deep down.

Yes, and combat focused RPGs is what I am all about, yet even I was disappointed. The combat just isn't that good, and the big battles were too easy too. The final boss battle especially. I even preferred the first game which is shameful, not being able to improve on a game with a sequel is

 

[rusty_shackleford]

You're overthinking it, the game is 99% about combat

For all the simulationist babble this game and the sequel have garnered, this is the truth deep down.

Sequel is much more focused on the story. It even reconciled the two games with the plot of Divinity 2.

 

[Strange Fellow]

It still sucks, though.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

And what, on fucking Earth, is a Source Hunter anyway

Copyright specialist

 

[Lacrymas]

Sequel is much more focused on the story. It even reconciled the two games with the plot of Divinity 2.

I was mostly saying this in in the context of the thing you quoted, i.e. the game doesn't take into account out of order things or its own mechanics (100 disposition, yet the NPC treats you like shit).

 

[Cat Dude]

Lets see...halibut....sheeps cheese..tomatoes..

 

[anvi]

I wish there were some more mods for this game that I would want.