Codex Interview Jarl interviews Swen Vincke; Questions about Original Sin 2 and other things are answered.

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Valky]

A pleasure as always, Swen.

 

[Zeriel]

It is very fun to start a new game of Morrowind and go get a nice weapon or piece of armor you know exactly where to find, dealing with whatever may stand in between you and said item, especially if you are low level.

Yeah, that's my feeling too. Back when it first came out, I replayed BG2 a number of times, and there was a certain enjoyment in figuring out when you were going to beeline for certain items. And I never replayed D:OS, so from that point of view the "random items because it makes for fresh replays" argument holds even less weight.

 

[JasonNH]

It is very fun to start a new game of Morrowind and go get a nice weapon or piece of armor you know exactly where to find, dealing with whatever may stand in between you and said item, especially if you are low level.

The magic axe in Ultima 5.

 

[MRY]

Luckmann wants to know whether the game will have console functionality this time around. It’s often critical ...

There is a console functionality – two console functionalities, actually.

XBox and PS4?

Spoiler

 

[YES!]

Nigger, your idea of an RPG revolves around the number of party members and the camera mode.

I honestly doubt you even grasp what true roleplaying is all about. If you did, you wouldn't have made half the dumbass comments you've made thus far.
(and i'm not talking about D:OS/D:OS II here, end of the day, you're welcome to dislike it as much as you want; am talking about your comments in general)

Such as? I guess we can't all be enlightened young adults/tall children and know everything. Us actual adults sometimes need a reminder of the outrageous things we have said and forgotten.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Swen should embrace his dead hairline and fully shave his head imo

 

[himmy]

rpg codex > (laughs uncomfortably) I read the Codex

 

[vortex]

Swen should embrace his dead hairline and fully shave his head imo

You know that story of Samson? If he would shave his head he would loose his positive attitude. His hair makes him energetic.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

Thank you for the interview. I have a feeling that interviews actually help out the developers sort out their shit.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

I thought he said one time that there were 3 games at various stages of development at that point. I guess there are other projects that were in very early concept stage and everyone has temporarily switched to grind for D:OS 2 now.

Great interview, looking forward to the other articles

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

I thought he said one time that there were 3 games at various stages of development at that point. I guess there are other projects that were in very early concept stage and everyone has temporarily switched to grind for D:OS 2 now.

Great interview, looking forward to the other articles

Well, they're being worked on by different studios, iirc.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

From the article -

And how do you manage juggling 4 studios working on the same game… or are they (chuckles)?

They are.

It’s all Original Sin 2 then now?

Uh-huh. ...

Or are you referring to non-Larian studios?

 

[santino27]

Appreciate the interview, Jarl! Didn't change my opinion on any of the major pieces (still don't care about multi-player, let alone competitive, and still don't like random itemization), but Swen's a good dude.

Also, can't believe we wasted a question on boob armor. If only you'd known there'd be lizard-man fan porn for D:OS2 ahead of time, these questions could have been so much better.

 

[otsego]

Swen hypes me up on his games just because he is so genuine in his interviews (with the community at least). Man is it nice to not have to parse through lines and lines of PR speak and non-answers, when he gives either proper answers or just straight-up 'Nope you know I ain't gonna answer that' responses.

 

[Notorious]

I don’t think Original Sin is a complex game. It certainly gives you lots of options and that makes it look complex because you see everything that you can do, but I don’t think it’s a complex game.

Finally someone who can differentiate between the two. There are almost no complex games, just ones who give you lots of options labled by absolute retards as complex. I whish more developers whould see that and not treat their customers like they're too stupid to handle options.

 

[Harry Easter]

I thought he said one time that there were 3 games at various stages of development at that point. I guess there are other projects that were in very early concept stage and everyone has temporarily switched to grind for D:OS 2 now.

Great interview, looking forward to the other articles

Weren't two of them the Enhanced Editions of Divinity: Original Sin? On the other hand: maybe they stopped other projects, until they finished D:OS 2? Or some of the concept artist and designers are working on concepts, but have nothing to tell at the moment?

 

[HeatEXTEND]

JEJ

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Weren't two of them the Enhanced Editions of Divinity: Original Sin? On the other hand: maybe they stopped other projects, until they finished D:OS 2? Or some of the concept artist and designers are working on concepts, but have nothing to tell at the moment?

I had taken it to mean that they were all seperate, new projects but now I'm not sure what to think. They've got to have made some sort of start on the next game though. Even if it is just early concept

 

[Ismaul]

Is Avellone still writing the Undead? The interview made it seem like he was writing a character but not the undead storyline...

 

[Roguey]

Is Avellone still writing the Undead? The interview made it seem like he was writing a character but not the undead storyline...

Origin stories that are not used by the player character become companions in the game world, so he's writing both. imo this kinda disincentives taking an origin at all unless you metagame which companion you don't want to take.

 

[Heretic]

Who is this pussy Apan and what does he have against boob armor?

 

[thesheeep]

Who is this pussy Apan and what does he have against boob armor?

Some things are just hard to take serious...
And afaik, they will go for a less silly tone this time around. But we'll see.

 

[Quillon]

He also wants to know if you think the turn based system used in the Original Sin series in an exception in today’s industry, or if you think that the notion that it’s too slow for modern audiences is just a myth.

That’s another one of those things, you know. X-Com would deny that, or Civilization, obviously, two hugely successful games. It’s the same thing again, it’s that focus on this has to be exactly like that, it doesn’t matter, people just want to have fun. These are methods of bringing fun to people, these are interesting combat systems, but you also have interesting real time combat systems. It really is just one selection out of many possible, which I happen to personally like a lot. So turn based is, for me, the most fun combat system because it doesn’t force me to be paying attention all the time, it allows me to think, and it allows me to do things I wouldn’t be able to do in real time due to the fact that I’m slow.

At last an honest answer. "TB is more tactical" my ass.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Good TB is way faster than RealTime with pause.
In TB you see the situation and give appropriate order. You character does what you won't him to do and thats it. You probably know the result of your order as soon as you give them, so you don't have to sit through animation + developers can allow themselves to make animations fasts.
In real time you pause the game, give everyone orders. After 1 milisecond the combat situation changes, so you have to pause the game again and redo all the order. Then the combat situation changes again and you have to redo all the orders.
Unless the combat is designed for braindead monkeys and your actions doesn't matter, thats how you play real-time game with pause. They are literally impossible to play.