Divinity: Original Sin Pre-Release Thread

[Chaotic_Heretic]

felipepepe
Yeah i mean the editor itself. Swen recently had a blog post/update bout editor in alpha.

main Reason me being excited over a Real Editor si because I dabbled a bit with SRR...and it was a complete clusterfuck.

 

[LeJosh]

I hope we get some VLPs ASAP since I don't trust any impressions from someone dedicated enough to Larian to pay so much extra for alpha access. Since the release date is a non-negotiable February 28, that means the gold master has to be finished by late-January/early-Feb, giving them about two more months for tweaking and polishing. If it's extraordinarily bad that wouldn't be enough time to turn it around.

Hopefully, Roguey is not the only intellectually honest person on the kodex...

 

[Roguey]

I hope we get some VLPs ASAP since I don't trust any impressions from someone dedicated enough to Larian to pay so much extra for alpha access. Since the release date is a non-negotiable February 28, that means the gold master has to be finished by late-January/early-Feb, giving them about two more months for tweaking and polishing. If it's extraordinarily bad that wouldn't be enough time to turn it around.

So we should dismiss anything you say about PE when it comes out, right?

I'm dedicated to ideas, not a company, title, or specific person.

 

[abnaxus]

Itz coming!

https://twitter.com/LarAtLarian/status/401385335533600768
https://twitter.com/LarAtLarian/status/402413659265433600

Visitors from LA? Who could this be?

From Los Angeles?

 

[Rake]

I hope we get some VLPs ASAP since I don't trust any impressions from someone dedicated enough to Larian to pay so much extra for alpha access. Since the release date is a non-negotiable February 28, that means the gold master has to be finished by late-January/early-Feb, giving them about two more months for tweaking and polishing. If it's extraordinarily bad that wouldn't be enough time to turn it around.

So we should dismiss anything you say about PE when it comes out, right?

I'm dedicated to ideas, not a company, title, or specific person.

You could have fooled me.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

I hope we get some VLPs ASAP since I don't trust any impressions from someone dedicated enough to Larian to pay so much extra for alpha access. Since the release date is a non-negotiable February 28, that means the gold master has to be finished by late-January/early-Feb, giving them about two more months for tweaking and polishing. If it's extraordinarily bad that wouldn't be enough time to turn it around.

So we should dismiss anything you say about PE when it comes out, right?

I'm dedicated to ideas, not a company, title, or specific person.

You could have fooled me.

Josh is an idea. Don't treat him like a real person with faults and stuff.

 

[hiver]

Go back you demons! Back ! Back to the pit whence you came out of! :whip crack:

 

[DraQ]

I hope we get some VLPs ASAP since I don't trust any impressions from someone dedicated enough to Larian to pay so much extra for alpha access. Since the release date is a non-negotiable February 28, that means the gold master has to be finished by late-January/early-Feb, giving them about two more months for tweaking and polishing. If it's extraordinarily bad that wouldn't be enough time to turn it around.

So we should dismiss anything you say about PE when it comes out, right?

I'm dedicated to ideas, not a company, title, or specific person.

Dedication to ideas is the shortest path to dismissing reality.

 

[Roguey]

Reality is that most games past and present are bad because Americans (and Europeans who blindly copy Americans) have an obsession with simulating reality even though it makes for unfun gameplay. The Japanese have the right idea when it comes to abstraction, though I don't particularly care for the execution of many of their ideas.

 

[aleph]

Reality is that most games past and present are bad because Americans (and Europeans who blindly copy Americans) have an obsession with simulating reality even though it makes for unfun gameplay. The Japanese have the right idea when it comes to abstraction, though I don't particularly care for the execution of many of their ideas.

It is a mystery why you haven't got a dumbfuck tag yet.

 

[Roguey]

It is a mystery why you haven't got a dumbfuck tag yet.

I've written two front page-approved articles, got Gragt a chance to visit Larian by acting obnoxious enough to get Vincke's attention, and broke the news about Brian Fargo owning the Torment trademark, among other things.

 

[Mastermind]

Roguey's social justice shit is shit but her ideas on games are pretty well thought out even when I don't agree and in no way deserves a dumbfuck for them. I would dock with her.

 

[Zed]

I like Roguey. She's blunt and and to the point. She challenges ideas (perhaps not her own) and doesn't walk away from a discussion (which usually ends in butthurt from the other people involved). A+ poster.

Larian are too focused on components. Individual quests, ideas, system functions. This approach may end up creating good tools and the occasional fun quest, but will probably result in a poor over-arching plot, generic characters, and plenty of tiresome CRPG tropes.
At best, I think this game will be a fun game. Maybe a great game. But not a timeless masterpiece, not an engaging drama for the ages or something people will return to when there are sequels out.
Partly because of what I've already written, but also because Larian are too silly and random and lack the creative writing of a US studio.
Also they keep insisting on using their super-generic "who the fuck cares" fantasy world in all their games.

Toolset makes me very excited though.

 

[Tigranes]

Larian have the right attitude to things but I've always felt they lack a certain spark in their writing, world design, etc. They put time and thought into things, write things in, design things, but there's not a lot that feels particularly funny, memorable, smart. What I'm looking forward to is some good character and combat systems and a fun world to play around in, i.e. Divine Divinity with better combat/character systems.

 

[Murk]

Really? It seems that to me it's the opposite; the game has plenty of wit, funny, memorable moments but often it fails at other more mundane things like combat.

 

[Tigranes]

I don't know, I know some find, say, Dragon Commander funny but I thought it was awful. And I can hardly remember any character or scene from Divine Divinity despite finishing it twice, except that Zandalor for instance is a terrible 13 year old Gandalf clone. Divinity 2 had some funny little gags like the men turned into fruit, but the main plot writing was again bleurgh.

It's like... imagine Obsidian's writing quality across all its games was at the level of Dungeon Siege 3, rather than MOTB.

 

[Murk]

Man, the sword in the stone, the cowardly knight, the fact that the necromancer regretted becoming undead and begged for release, the alchemist selling you a cure for being drunk and convincing you that you could use it if you got drunk at a bar but needed to take your carriage back (avoiding a DUI in the US), the dwarf and human consistently arguing over their accident every time you walked by and eventually resolving over mutual love of booze, the idiot Orc representative outsmarting everyone else and playing dead to avoid the massacre, Jon the dragon knight bitching about not being respected in his evil organization, Jake rising to attack you if you put flowers from his wife's grave on his grave, and that fucking dwarf inn music.

Donno, DD had plenty of memorable moments. Then again, personal taste and all that.

I have not yet played Dragon Commander despite owning it; I think I'll be needing a new desktop before that. Ugh.

 

[Tigranes]

I'm sure it's a taste thing. I don't know - I feel like again Larian have a lot of good ideas, but somehow it doesn't come through powerfully. I'm really not sure why. I mean, I backed D:OS, I like what they do, I just wonder why.

 

[Zeriel]

Partly because of what I've already written, but also because Larian are too silly and random and lack the creative writing of a US studio.
Also they keep insisting on using their super-generic "who the fuck cares" fantasy world in all their games.

Toolset makes me very excited though.

I think people's opinions have changed over the years. It's natural for people to grow up and reject whimsical things that in their youth they enjoyed. That doesn't make those whimsical things bad though. While many people may hold up a PS:T or MotB style of writing around here as optimal, it's just a matter of tastes. Larian has always been straightforward about their influences with D:OS, primarily Ultima 7. And I can see that influence very clearly in their writing, too. In the 90's there was this certain type of written-by-adults whimsical fantasy that you saw in games like Ultima, Heroes of Might and Magic. D:OS is a pretty clear inheritor of that lineage. You can dislike that, but I don't think it's fair to call it inferior or unprofessional.

 

[MicoSelva]

There is a lot (and I mean a lot) of great ideas and memorable moments in Larian games. What their games lack is a coherent overarching design for the narrative that would emphasize the good stuff and create a memorable story. Take Dragon Commander villains for example. Each of them was interesting enough that I wanted to know much more about them and making them more prominent would improve the game a lot (IMO). But no, they are barely mentioned, with dark silhouettes on screen for 5 seconds, and then turn into red or yellow color on the map. It's hard to be excited to fight against a color.

I barely remember any story from Divine Divinity, but let's assume that is because I played it a long time ago. Not the case with Divinity 2, though. You are a dragon hunter turned dragon knight, suddenly being hunted by other fellow hunters. Also, You can read minds. Good ideas, with great story potential there. But they never really do anything with that. The story is rather simple and the mind-reading ability just a gimmick. Yeah, I know (now) it was added late in development and there wasn't enough time to make it count more. Maybe it shouldn't have been added, then? That is the lack of overarching narrative design I mentioned earlier, causing feature creep at its worst.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

What MicroSilva said. But the main reason I am going is, it's Editor. Imagine all the sweet NWN custom modules made in a TB engine.

 

[Durante]

The mind reading might be a gimmick, but it was an incredibly entertaining gimmick. The game would have been much less fun were it not included.

Maybe I'm just easily amused, but I've always enjoyed the writing in Larian games (well, minus Beyond Divinity, but let's not talk about that). It's rarely completely serious, and as you say their setting isn't particularly novel or inventive, but at least they have more hits than misses in terms of humor and always include some memorable characters.

 

[Murk]

It also gave you ways to solve quests, get loot, and in some cases get permanent skill/stat points. It didn't harm anything but I agree that it could have been better.

Really, after seeing the videos they posted, I'm most upset about the combat. Initially it seemed to have been more Gothic 1-2 like and holy crap would I be down for that.

 

[Gord]

My only gripe with the Mindread ability was that using it was a non-issue.
Due to the exp-system of Divinity 2, there was no reason not to mind-read everyone you came across. The expansion pretty much expected you to do that.
Somehow it might have been more interesting mechanics-wise if you would have needed to actually think about whether it would be worth using - although I guess people would just have looked up a table on the internets to get the best results...

Really, after seeing the videos they posted, I'm most upset about the combat. Initially it seemed to have been more Gothic 1-2 like and holy crap would I be down for that.

Why Gothic 1/2? I never got the intention that they were going for something like Gothic, combat-wise (or in most other parts of the game design).

 

[Commissar Draco]

If it was Gothic 1/2 Combat I would drop the pledge there's enough games with hackamole combat as it is. Turn Based or GTFO.