Divinity: Original Sin Pre-Release Thread

[Volrath]

I understand that a day/night cycle with npc schedules is supposed to be integrated into quests as well, e.g. rob some house when NPCs are sleeping or away, or something like Pattersons affair the player could discover in Ultima 7.

Reminds me of Gothic 2 as well.

Reminds me of Oblivion. Didn't make a good game either...

 

[ForkTong]

We don't have auto-resolve. Dozens of AI indeed makes for long battles. At one point, we had several AI chars execute their moves almost simultaneously, if their turns were next to each other, but that didn't work for obvious reasons. Hand placed combat at the moment never involves so many characters, it only happens when you piss off an entire village or when 2 TB battles join (e.g. I started a fight, other char still in RT, other char also starts fight, both battlefields get too close to each other, 2 TB combats merge).

 

[ForkTong]

We're still constantly changing rules if we see something doesn't work. Up to this point, we haven't really had fights that involved so many chars that it became tedious.

Onlookers can't join unless check: but they can shoot arrows/magic at the guys that are in combat?

 

[Western]

Onlookers can't join unless check: but they can shoot arrows/magic at the guys that are in combat?

Would be terrible, no?

Since if you shoot back at them I guess they will join it by default making it that much more boring.

I suppose a fast-turn base mode could be implemented like in Arcanum, that can be toggled to skip some animations, don't know how impractical that would be.

 

[uaciaut]

Well based on the updates the guys have provided i'd say they managed to do a pretty great job at integrating environmental effects (rain, objects, etc) into the game/combat and making it meaningful in a way, which seems (to me at least) a pretty great and refreshing experience.

Based on that i would be able to give them the benefit of the doubt and think they'd be capable of making NPC schedule and day/night cycle also a MEANINGFUL feature through the way it affects the word and interacts with the player. Because at the end of the day those same features made only for realism's sake and with no real implications are just a big waste of money, regardless of what game you associate them with (gothic 2, skyrim, etc).

 

[Western]

@the captain

 

[Commissar Draco]

Yes I prefare to not waste my time looking for shop keepers and quest givers under the map too...

Well, this may not be the game for you then. No overhead exclamation marks for quest givers (or gold purses for shopkeepers) are planned, as far as I know. Heck, I'm not even sure if there'll be modern-style "quest givers" here, or if You just learn about quests from coversations and/or interactions with environment.

besides Game doesn't even have day and night cycle implemented.

Day/night cycle is part of the $1M stretch goal.

Por favor'; There were no exclamation marks in games like Morrowind nor NPCs with shedule. Unless there're special night time only maps, quests and game mechanics implemented like being tastefully robbed in night or arrested by city watch for wagranting or attacked by goblins/wolves in the forests there is no reason to waste devs time and jewgold for LARPING. Not to mentions the missing NPCs who fall under the game world and additional scripting errors.

 

[Arkeus]

. Unless there're special night time only maps, quests and game mechanics implemented like being tastefully robbed in night or arrested by city watch for wagranting or attacked by goblins/wolves in the forests there is no reason to waste devs time and jewgold for LARPING. Not to mentions the missing NPCs who fall under the game world and additional scripting errors.

I want to be tastefully robbed now

 

[ForkTong]

Confused though..Why don't the tiers >$65 get the Dragon Commander also?

We did include DC as a reward, but in a tier that was limited. We did that on purpose of course, for the following reasons:

We are independent, but not without investors and loans. We are not going to use the KS money to pay off loans and to please investors, we are going to put it in dev.
Add to that: we have distributors in various regions, and online, and we also have contracts with them. If we put DC on KS, they think "what if everyone who wants DC heads over to KS?!"
DC presale still has to start, and again, there are agreements about DC and pricing and such with these different parties.

You try explaining to distributors and investors that you're going to Kickstarter with your project...

 

[Zep Zepo]

I pulled the trigger...$25 -> $100. Would be awesome to see them hit 1 mil...I love that last stretch goal.

Zep--

Well...shit. I think I'm gonna have to bump up some more to $150. ALPHA access + Boxed copy + digital, cloth map. Pet/undead naming is a useless novelty, but wth, I'll name the damn things

Zep--

 

[Jashiin]

So 65 dollar tier = 2x original sin + DC. I might have a friend chip in and upgrade...

Also any news on shipping cost from the US to Europe ? Will that change or are the boxes printed in the States ?

 

[ForkTong]

Oh come on. I want silly undead names in there. Or serious names. Either way, if undead have names instead of "Skeleton" and the lot, it's fun.

Frank hits you for 6 damage.
Archibald hits you for 7 damage. Archibald poisons you.
Gertrude explodes!

 

[ForkTong]

Also any news on shipping cost from the US to Europe ? Will that change or are the boxes printed in the States ?

We are still talking to Euro distributors about that.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Oh come on. I want silly undead names in there. Or serious names. Either way, if undead have names instead of "Skeleton" and the lot, it's fun.

Frank hits you for 6 damage.
Archibald hits you for 7 damage. Archibald poisons you.
Gertrude explodes!

Well..wait a second. I thought we only see the names in our copy of the game, no one else gets to see them is how I understand the description.

Zep--

 

[ForkTong]

We made some changes to that, but once the KS is running, reward texts cannot be updated. See:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin/posts/443345

Name the undead ($125 and up)
The "Name the undead" reward, which is available from $125 onward, will no longer simply be an undead in your personal copy. We will gather names from all supporters that pledged $125 and more, and put them in one big pool. Several undead creatures in the final game (ghosts, skeletons, zombies in all their glorious variations) will pick a random name from this pool.
Design a henchman ($250 and up)
The "Design a henchman" reward, available from $250 onward, has also been upgraded to being included in the final game, and not just your personal copy. That means everybody who plays the game might encounter your henchman.

 

[yaster]

NPC schedules made exploring Korinis in Gothic 2 so much more interesting. Not only you had to explore space but also time. There is a locked guard tower that requires a key to open, the key is in the pocket of the guard siting whole day in that very tower. It's so awesome to find out that you can steal it from him during night when he sleeps in baracks.

To say that NPC schedules are useless to gameplay is just like saying that nonlinearity in map design is useless. Sure it can be done badly and have no real meaning but it's not a problem of system design but of a level design - just like with nonlinear maps (except a bit harder to do).

 

[Zep Zepo]

We made some changes to that, but once the KS is running, reward texts cannot be updated. See:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin/posts/443345

KS needs to come up with a better solution than what they have currently. Once you're 20 updates in and tiers changing and so on, it's hard to piece together what you are actually going to get for your pledge.

It could be as simple as you can only add more text to a tier as long as the added text does not specify something above is being removed, you can only add rewards, not take away.

Zep--

 

[made]

What the hell, day/night cycle and NPC schedules only at 1mil? That's dismal. :S Even if it does makes sense to make it a stretch goal as that stuff requires considerable additional work compared to "LOL so we heard you like to throw money at MCA xD".

Pledge more, motherfuckers.

 

[ForkTong]

Zep: there's more "annoyances" on KS than just that... Here's ONE example. I will not go into detail about how user-friendly "composing" an update is.

 

[SCO]

"nice website"

 

[Zep Zepo]

Wow...yeah. You'd think a cancel funding button would be on its own page you'd have to navigate to. The Exit button is too close for comfort more so than Save.

That's one jumping cat on a keyboard away from disaster.

Zep--

 

[evdk]

Zep: there's more "annoyances" on KS than just that... Here's ONE example. I will not go into detail about how user-friendly "composing" an update is.

Wouldn't clicking that logically prompt you with some "Are you sure you want to fuck up everything?" dialog?

 

[MicoSelva]

New article on pcgmedia.com.

 

[Kz3r0]

Wow...yeah. You'd think a cancel funding button would be on its own page you'd have to navigate to. The Exit button is too close for comfort more so than Save.

That's one jumping cat on a keyboard away from disaster.

Zep--

I hope you have to confirm every action.

 

[Zep Zepo]

I would suggest he try it...NO DON'T!

Zep--