Larian General Discussion Thread

[gaussgunner]

1. The part of itemization where items go from single digits to triple or more is shit.
2. The part of itemization where, for example, a mace is not functionally different from a sword - likewise is shit too (got to be explicit).
   
3. The part of itemization where item is generated randomly along with a bunch of random modifiers and a name has been a good idea since its inception, solves an actual problem, and is not badly implemented in DOS2 either - for example items are now rarer.

Now, if you completely ignore 1. and 2., but fixate on whining about 3., it is a pretty clear predictor of the value of anything you have to say.

I sort of agree with the low-energy one-line shitposter. You're right about 1 and 2. But I don't care for Rogue-Nethack-Diablo style procedural item generation. It's a lazy developer tactic: give players random loot so they spend time comparing it and selling most of it, to distract them from the shallowness of the gameworld and gameplay. And occasionally give them something awesome to get them addicted to the grind. It's like slot machines. Shit.

 

[Iznaliu]

But I don't care for Rogue-Nethack-Diablo style procedural item generation

Neither Nethack nor Rogue actually had random item generation; items are (mostly) randomly seeded throughout those games, but they are chosen from a fixed list. The only element that could be described as "random" is the appearance of the unidentified item in Nethack, but that is again generated from a fixed list (to be fair, D:OS's item properties are probably too, though the list is probably much bigger). More importantly, the appearance is usually cosmetic and even if it isn't, its effects are auxiliary to the item's main purpose.

 

[LESS T_T]

If you are interested and understand Russian:

Divinity: Original Sin 2: Marketing Post Mortem - Kirill Perevozchikov, Head of Marketing, Larian Studios

(White Nights Conference Moscow 2017)

English translation can be found here: http://nevosoft.podfm.ru/my/136

The official conference website — http://wnconf.com

I can't access that translation page for whatever reason.

Obsidian programmer's PoE UI talk is not uploaded yet.

Translation: http://nevosoft.podfm.ru/my/136/file/podfm_nevosoft_my_136.mp3

They made the release trailer over two months and hired a cinematic artist for that.

He also talked about how they're are focusing only on US consumer conventions while ignoring EU ones (like EGX), because of cost and US being the major market. Apparently it costed $700K to make the booth.

 

[LESS T_T]

Apparently that's developers from all four studios.

 

[LESS T_T]

Lacrymas

Writing is something completely different than what vidya gaem writers treat it as (those that actually do want to be writers, like Larian's 7-man cuck squad), it's not simply words on a page, sometimes even forming coherent sentences, that's why I mentioned that if they get a little bit more educated they'll probably realize that they shouldn't be writers at all.

"[Codex] is a gold mine of shit" - Jim Sterling

 

[Alienman]

Yeah, okay, approaching BioWare levels quick here.

 

[imweasel]

Cucks proud of being a cucks.

:selfhate:

Yeah, okay, approaching BioWare levels quick here.

Larian will be Faggotryware 2.0 in no time.

 

[Lacrymas]

I am e-famous now!

 

[Alienman]

You just influenced Original Sin 3.

 

[Lacrymas]

I also love the fact he dug up a post that is literally 1 year old in a 76-page thread, quoted me completely out of context (they are a 7-man cuck squad, though) and didn't mention any of the other things I said. Then Jim used that to reinforce the notion that the 'Dex is a den of shitposters who have nothing substantial to say. So juicy and delicious, even hypocritical.

 

[Elex]

Lacrymas

Writing is something completely different than what vidya gaem writers treat it as (those that actually do want to be writers, like Larian's 7-man cuck squad), it's not simply words on a page, sometimes even forming coherent sentences, that's why I mentioned that if they get a little bit more educated they'll probably realize that they shouldn't be writers at all.

"[Codex] is a gold mine of shit" - Jim Sterling

[insert random videogame commentator name] is a gold mine of shit like that.

 

[groke]

Jim Sterling is a sinkhole of shit.

 

[Luckmann]

Lacrymas

Writing is something completely different than what vidya gaem writers treat it as (those that actually do want to be writers, like Larian's 7-man cuck squad), it's not simply words on a page, sometimes even forming coherent sentences, that's why I mentioned that if they get a little bit more educated they'll probably realize that they shouldn't be writers at all.

"[Codex] is a gold mine of shit" - Jim Sterling

Apparently the guy isn't joking, and is a legit idiot:


Larian really should throw out gutter trash like this.

Yeah, okay, approaching BioWare levels quick here.

Yeah, at this level, we won't be seeing an Ass Erect: Androgyna-type wreck in two-to-three games; the next one is the big one.

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[LESS T_T]

I guess that was the time when Larian was doing games for kids and work for hires, and probably started the development of Divinity 2.

You can see amazing Kirill.

 

[LESS T_T]

While I'm searching for something I found young Swen's article about AI programming on October 1998 issue of Game Developers Magazine, titled "The Orc Problem" (p.36). It was when he was working on The Lady, the Mage, and the Knight (later canceled):

http://twvideo01.ubm-us.net/o1/vault/GD_Mag_Archives/GDM_October_1998.pdf

Perhaps I got carried away with this orc story, having played WARCRAFT II again, but the problem challenging Kroxy is quite an interesting one, especially for a game developer. Let’s state Kroxy’s problem a little more formally: if you have m friendly units fighting n enemy units, how do you align the friendly units in such a way that the damage they inflict is maximal, while trying to minimize the damage they receive? If you can calculate the answer to this question quickly enough, then you’ve solved an important part of computer opponent artificial intelligence.

Unfortunately, this problem is not easy to solve. Using a brute-force approach, you would try all the fighting combinations, qualify them according to some function, and select the best out of the set. Because we want to imbue our AI with a sense of strategy, it might be wise in some cases to gang-up two units on one opposing warrior. Therefore, for each of the m friendly units, there are n attack possibilities to choose from. This means that there are nm possibilities — an exponential function. Even a modest fight, for instance eight against eight, would entail evaluating 16,777,216 combinations! Obviously, a better way of solving this problem is needed.

It goes on about 8 pages of techinal details about his approach.

The funny thing is that in December issue, a programmer at THQ called Rafael Baptista sent an email saying that he knows the better ways!:

While the article was informative, there are, in fact, well-known and better ways to solve this exact problem. This is a classic resource allocation problem that can be solved quickly and easily using a technique known as dynamic programming.

And after he goes on about one and half page of the solutions:

By day, I am the AI programmer for THQ’s upcoming excellent 3D space shooting game, EXCESSION. Our AI is very fast.

(This game called EXCESSION was released as Sinistar: Unleashed it seems.)

The magazine also printed Swen's defense, and it ends like this:

Our AI is also very fast. Maybe one day they can play with each other.

There's another programming article by Swen in June 1997 issue if you're interested (also p.36): http://twvideo01.ubm-us.net/o1/vault/GD_Mag_Archives/GDM_June_1997.pdf

 

[LESS T_T]

Some former Larian St. Petersburg developers including Senior Gameplay Scriptor Viacheslav Kozikhin formed an indie studio, and following good old Russian tradition they're making a post-apocalyptic RPG:

 

[LESS T_T]

Photogrammetry? I'm not sure they will use it for a top-down game.

 

[conan_edw]

going triple A? or maybe just using them as reference

 

[LESS T_T]

Games Workshop sending a bunch of things to Larian:



I'll not be surprised at all if GW has been nagging Larian to make a Warhammer RPG (unless they're already talking about it).

A couple more unrelated but informative Michael tweets:

 

[The Wall]

Both of the tweets related to sharing pictures of stuff sent from GW to Larian won't load up for me and when I try to open them in new tab it shows me that page doesn't exist.

Am I the only one experiencing this and if I'm not then there is no greater confirmation that Larion is working on something GW related then them immediately deleting those tweets posted presumably by their employees.

 

[Infinitron]

Yes, those tweets were deleted.

 

[Lahey]

 

[Infinitron]

You don't need to know Swen's secrets to know that there are more than two RPGs in development. O_o

 

[Mortmal]

Larian's D&D game, turn based 5th edition adapted into divinity engine, an epic campaign in the dragonlance universe.Only reason he cant be allowed to tell yet.