Divinity Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition

[Onholyservicebound]

Yeah it's weird, I refer to them skills too, they seem like skills, and the actual skills seem more like abilities.

But I guess it doesn't really matter, just saying I understand the confusion.(Make the renaming mod.)

 

[bonescraper]

I'm confused by this. You mean skills or abilities, exactly? Crafting, blacksmithing, 2h weapons, armor don't fall under "skills" category in this game.

Be it abilities, whatever. I mean, you could figure it out yourself, i named 5?

 

[J_C]

Does anyone know what can I use shells for? Is there a crafting receipe for them?

 

[Shadenuat]

Are crossbows any good in this game?

Bows get quick draw ability so you can do 3-4 shots per turn. Add a bow with 20% chance to stun on hit & good critical and you're all set.
It's even better than ranger skills in endgame cause skills do not use bow's unique properties.

 

[Arkeus]

Unlock - only random scrolls or can you learn the spell at some point?

Unlock scroll is very rare, only able to find 2 and they were fixed scrolls lying on tables. Never seen it dropped or sold, haven't seen it as a book too.

You can apparently scraft unlock scrolls (witchcraft school), but the school which is crafted is random, so you probably need some reloads.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I tried lots of times for unlock but no still chance

 

[Renegen]

Having that conversation with Grunker and reading a bit on other boards, I get really scared about the average gamer sometimes, I'm reminded of the forums for Paradox games like Crusader Kings 2. We are gamey and powergamey as fuck, no matter how the game design frequently goes in the opposite direction and tries to inject roleplaying or simulations, all people do is break shit. In CK2 you had a game that provided a great feudal simulator, and of course the forums were full of people recommending to totally break that and play as 1 guy owning every land. It was patched because the devs know better, but I could pop today in their forums and find the same thing.

In Divinity, I've read so far that stealing is OP so it has to be nerfed, that people always reload when a character dies, that crafting is too strong and that I must use some skill combinations that are 100% broken. This forum has mostly been empty of it, but if you follow everything that people recommend, the combat would pose no challenge at all and the roleplaying and choices would be non existent. The best RPG in 5+ years and one of the best at actually promoting roleplaying ever and people just want to play it like it's WoW or Assassin's Creed, checking off things on a list as fast as possible.

What surprised me the most about D:OS is how it tries new things and succeeds, it pushes the RPG genre forward (something that I have no hope Sawyer will accomplish). Hopefully the developers deal with the never ending BAWW that gamers will put up about everything, I'm not looking forward to being part of the community. Going back to Paradox, they are an amazing company because they know exactly when to push their vision and when to make playability improvements, it's hard. If I was a game designer, I'd probably end up developing a Gaider complex too, thinking everyone not in game dev to be an utter moron. So what I'm saying is, enjoy this because it may not last, gamers don't want quality.

 

[Grunker]

The best RPG [...] at actually promoting roleplaying ever

phan-bois.

right you are rk

people just want to play it like it's WoW or Assassin's Creed, checking off things on a list as fast as possible.

[...]

it pushes the RPG genre forward (something that I have no hope Sawyer will accomplish). Hopefully the developers deal with the never ending BAWW that gamers will put up about everything, I'm not looking forward to being part of the community. Going back to Paradox, they are an amazing company because they know exactly when to push their vision and when to make playability improvements, it's hard. If I was a game designer, I'd probably end up developing a Gaider complex too, thinking everyone not in game dev to be an utter moron.

"waaaah, people are playing the game wrong and they criticize it even though its perfect omg someone plz stop them"

 

[Gord]

You can apparently scraft unlock scrolls (witchcraft school), but the school which is crafted is random, so you probably need some reloads.

If you have two empty wc scrolls, an unlock scroll and high enough crafting you should be able to craft an empty witchcraft book and use that to create a unlock spell book to learn it

 

[Arkeus]

Well, I'm much more of an 80s/early 90s RPG fan. I like pun and easter egg overload and generally crazy settings, like Wizardry or Might and Magic's nonsensical mix of magic and sci-fi for example.

I like storyfag games as well, but if I had to choose, I'd take D:OS over any Obsidian game. It's just much more fun mechanics-wise, and funnily much more polished too. I wonder if PoE will surprise me as much in a positive way.

It's fairly interesting that D:OS might manage to be the high bar we will compare future RPG Kickstarter to, as it has a similar budget as to PoE and Not!Torment if we are to believe the 160K sold article. I did not expect that.

And i am getting higher hopes for PoE now, as all the W2 talk had kind of scared me about kickstarter projects.

Yes but at slower pace than you manage to increase them. You'll need about 12 dex to use highest level bows in game.
I'm not sure it's a good idea to split stats like that though, since INT improves all your spells.

I have heard that crafted items (at least 2H axes) go up to 14+str (because crafted items => dropped ones).

 

[Grunker]

It's fairly interesting that D:OS might manage to be the high bar we will compare future RPG Kickstarter to

Certainly seems like it so far. From what I've played, it is leagues above any other Kickstarted game yet.

This style of RPG really isn't my fave nor do I enjoy the writing style of D:OS, but those are personal objections. As far as gameplay goes and it being an honest attempt at an oldschool RPG, it exceeds all my expectations.

 

[bonescraper]

The best RPG [...] at actually promoting roleplaying ever

it pushes the RPG genre forward

 

[Renegen]

Compared to Torment the roleplaying isn't as good, but to every other game like BG, Fallout, Icewind Dale, NWN, M&M etc yes. I hope people don't seriously think D:OS is just a throwback to other isomeric games, it does everything so much better.

 

[TheLostOne]

Jesus, don't you two have your own thread already? GTFO unless you've got something new to talk about.

 

[J_C]

Having that conversation with Grunker and reading a bit on other boards, I get really scared about the average gamer sometimes, I'm reminded of the forums for Paradox games like Crusader Kings 2. We are gamey and powergamey as fuck, no matter how the game design frequently goes in the opposite direction and tries to inject roleplaying or simulations, all people do is break shit. In CK2 you had a game that provided a great feudal simulator, and of course the forums were full of people recommending to totally break that and play as 1 guy owning every land. It was patched because the devs know better, but I could pop today in their forums and find the same thing.

In Divinity, I've read so far that stealing is OP so it has to be nerfed, that people always reload when a character dies, that crafting is too strong and that I must use some skill combinations that are 100% broken. This forum has mostly been empty of it, but if you follow everything that people recommend, the combat would pose no challenge at all and the roleplaying and choices would be non existent. The best RPG in 5+ years and one of the best at actually promoting roleplaying ever and people just want to play it like it's WoW or Assassin's Creed, checking off things on a list as fast as possible.

What surprised me the most about D:OS is how it tries new things and succeeds, it pushes the RPG genre forward (something that I have no hope Sawyer will accomplish). Hopefully the developers deal with the never ending BAWW that gamers will put up about everything, I'm not looking forward to being part of the community. Going back to Paradox, they are an amazing company because they know exactly when to push their vision and when to make playability improvements, it's hard. If I was a game designer, I'd probably end up developing a Gaider complex too, thinking everyone not in game dev to be an utter moron. So what I'm saying is, enjoy this because it may not last, gamers don't want quality.

Yeah I pretty much hate when someone says that the game is broken/shit, because if you use skill x+z combo, you can steamroll over everyting. The thing is, i don't like to play like that. I won't use an overpowered skill or weapon for the entirety of the game, just because it makes the game easy. I want to use every tool a game has, even if some of them is not the most optimal. I want to experiment, if the game has diversity (and DOS has it in spades), I want to make use of that. Breaking a game is retarded, and destroys the fun. It's basicly like cheating.

 

[Arkeus]

Breaking a game is retarded, and destroys the fun. It's basicly like cheating.

OTOH, obviously broken mechanics like Leech+the talent that makes damage stop at 1 as long as you have more than 1HP combination is something that should be nerfed slightly. It's not so bad for source hunter as that skill necessitate 5Willpower (so an enormous investment), but Madora comes with it for free, so you give her leech and she is immortal to non-elemental damage (and when you have mens-at-arms 5 you get +50% to all elemental resist as another talen)t, which means gettigns all elemental damage to heal you is fairly easy.

There is a difference between 'playing with mechanics makes the game much easier' (and honestly, i have found that every single types of characters can be /very/ strong if built right, not just mages) and "you get immortal by taking one talent" like for Madora.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Why not?Every rpg aspect is good(dialog,story,c&c,graphics,combat and skill system) and some are exceeding like it's turn based,time units combat that goes away from D&D(thank god),excellent crafting system and moddability.What is the last crpg you can say that for? Fallout?

 

[Gord]

OTOH, obviously broken mechanics like Leech+the talent that makes damage stop at 1 as long as you have more than 1HP combination is something that should be nerfed slightly.

It will probably always be somewhat controversial how one should treat "broken" skills/spells/abilities.
I'm certainly with Matt here in that I think that one should rather play the character one wants to play than follow some aspie-advice at how to best break and trivialize the game (and then complain about it). Especially if there's no competitive component to it. If that means ending up with a "non-optimal" character, so be it.

Then again, even a single player game should receive some amount of balancing. Nerfing the most obvious, easy-to-get, broken skills can sometimes help the overall experience - even if it's just because using them doesn't feel like cheating anymore.

 

[bonescraper]

Compared to Torment the roleplaying isn't as good, but to every other game like BG, Fallout, Icewind Dale, NWN, M&M etc yes. I hope people don't seriously think D:OS is just a throwback to other isomeric games, it does everything so much better.

You haven't played a lot of RPGs then, even those you mentioned above it seems?

You gotta be kidding me. DoS has a few binary choices and some flavor text, that's fucking all. Nothing really impacts the game world, and every quest works in its own little vacuum. Compare that to NWN 2 (vanilla, just because). That's an example of a game where your choices matter. Your race matters, your background matters, your class matters, your alingment matters, your plot choices matter and your build matters in pretty much every part of the game. From combat to conversations (shitload of skill checks) to NPC reactions. If you're a paladin, you'll have paladin exclusive choices, if you're a drow, you can talk to/befriend a spider easily, and people will react to your race with an appropriate comment etc. There's a ton of reactivity and roleplaying choices.

In Fallout 2 you can fucking outplay 4 crime families, join or destroy the slavers (with each choice having it's own pros and cons), marry a woman and turn her into a prostitute ( ) etc.

That's roreplaying you know.

And in Divinity... Evelyn asks you to choose which of her patients to cure, just because the devs felt like forcing the player into a "tough moral choice". How ridiculous was the whole situation. "Hey, i'm the doctor's assistant! I have this healing stone, but i can't decide which of my patients i'm going to save. So why won't you - the random stranger i've never met - choose who's going to live and who's going to die? Because i don't want to, tee-hee!" And if you'll walk out the door, they''ll both die, and i'll blame it on YOU!"...

Really? Fucking seriously?

Why not?Every rpg aspect is good(dialog,story,c&c,graphics,combat and skill system) and some are exceeding like it's turn based,time units combat that goes away from D&D(thank god),excellent crafting system and moddability.What is the last crpg you can say that for? Fallout?

That just proves this game is an excellent proof of well executed craftmanship. Nothing more, nothing less. But just like i said, i'm not impressed by its story, dialogues and roleplaying aspects. I bet Wasteland 2 has better and more meaningful C&C, even if, as a whole, i consider it an enormous disappointment.

 

[Athelas]

Having 'merely' competent writing/role-playing (I don't care much for it myself either) still makes D:OS an amazing game considering it excels in most everything else it does.

 

[Shadenuat]

I bet Wasteland 2 has better and more meaningful C&C, even if, as a whole, i consider it an enormous disappointment.

Wasteland 2 starts with a same binary choice where you are asked to save only 1, but on a grander scale and it constantly reminds you that you're the only ranger group in the world and it's your fault if you let someone die.
The C&C is better of course, but I always found that sort of C&C, like in Witcher 1, Mass Effect (Ashley/Caidan) etc., not fair to player and very crude&unrealistic.

Imo best sort of C&C is a well thought through surprise that makes player understand his actions and agree with it because it follows the logic of the game (send water to vault > vault can be attacked sooner).

 

[kris]

- From what i've read so far by the end of the game you can only max out 3 skills. If that's true then it's a really dumb idea IMO. There's a lot of skills so that means you'll either max out the necessary ones (Knight for example - 2h weapons, armor and man at arms), or you'll gimp yourself wasting stuff on cool, but optional shit like crafting, blacksmithing etc. That sucks. And don't tell me to fill the blanks with item bonuses. Items are so fucking random i'm mostly using really old stuff just because it has decent stats on them. And this leads to another point...

Only matters if you are a powergamer and in that case you were already choosing the best skills. Me and most players don't care that we didn't make the optimal build, sure I did when I was 14, but that is a long time ago.

The beauty of roleplaying games to me is how you can make diverse characters and how different characters can make different things. I like all freedom to not make a character that disposes of enemies in the most effective way, just as I like the freedom to make one that does.

 

[Angthoron]

Oh, this came to mind - has anyone managed to open that Magic Lock'd door in Cyseal Storerooms without having to kill everyone? I'm trying to figure out a way to rob that place blind, but so far, it's not working out - my beta-time adventures with pyramid abuse being curbed, too, I'm a bit at a loss.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Oh, this came to mind - has anyone managed to open that Magic Lock'd door in Cyseal Storerooms without having to kill everyone? I'm trying to figure out a way to rob that place blind, but so far, it's not working out - my beta-time adventures with pyramid abuse being curbed, too, I'm a bit at a loss.

This the one at the entrance of Cyseal?
I had no problems looting it crazy in the beta with normal stealth.

 

[Angthoron]

This the one at the entrance of Cyseal?
I had no problems looting it crazy in the beta with normal stealth.

Yeah, that one. There's two rooms - I'm having an issue with the one that has the guard at it, the one with the shimmering lock. Casting out of stealth obviously alerts them.