Divinity: Original Sin

[LordCrash]

 

They told you exactly where to go.  Find the White Witch.

 

Yes of course that was the main quest. And I tried to find her but ending up in Hunters Edge fighting Level 16 enemies with level 11^^

 

 

Hmmmm, actually it's pretty well described where to find the White Witch. You would actually never end up in Hunter's Edge if you play with care and concentration.

[Darji]

 

I'm lvl 8 now but I don't get all the praise for this game.

The story is meh, the character system is pretty unbalanced and the manual is close to useless.

 

I've started both characters with the lone wolf perk because it sounded fun, choose one as an archer and one as a swordsman. Without elemental magic, you can't really use the elemental fields everywhere and the elemental arrows are quite limited in quantity. At the same time, the game is balanced around flinging elemantal stuff all the time, making mages far superior. I'm not complaining that its hard this way, I'm complaining that there was not enough information available at any time to make better choices.

 

I also find the talents structure to be lacking. Why do some skills unlock a talent on lvl 5 and other not? And given the way your gear needs attributes, you really can only specialize in archer, warrior or mage archtypes with minor modifications.

 

It is enjoyable if you figure stuff out, but PoE will be superior for me just because it has transparent game design.

 

To figure stuff out is part of the fun. Learn and improve.

 

And no, mages are not far superior (it only seems that way at the very beginning of the game). A well balanced party is far superior to anything else. In late game melees and archers are VERY important.

 

Yeah. Right now  am playing with a friend and talents like Leech for a tank or meele are really overpowered.  And when hit he actually gets more healed than actually hit. It is kind of crazy right now. In the beginning my mages were far superior but the lack of good Mage talents is balancing the thing quite nicely. 

[HoonDing]

I don't really get why especially my German countrymen have so many difficulties/complaints with the game. That's really beyond me. It really should be the other way round. We Germans should appreciate a game like that and praise it. Or have we all become filthy casuals? I blame consoles... 

 

I suggest make one of those Untergang/Hitler spoof videos. Always a riot.

[Volourn]

Exactly. And, when you get to 2nd map you pretty much  a guy who specifically tells you where to go next to find WW. there is some freedom but you simply can't miss where to go.  The foolishness of telling you what level your enemies are is lame and also is a hint of what to do. if you encounter enemies 3+ levels above you you probably are meant to go elsewhere. This sin't BG2 where 'weak' and 'tough' monsters are mixed. ala  You have a situation where you'll find something like Firkragg's lair where the enemy power levels are mixed. Plus, Firkragg's lair is completely optional while most areas in DOS are  required to some degree.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Volourn

[Hurlshort]

I'm lvl 8 now but I don't get all the praise for this game.

The story is meh, the character system is pretty unbalanced and the manual is close to useless.

 

I've started both characters with the lone wolf perk because*

 

Let me stop you there.  

[Doppelschwert]

 

I'm lvl 8 now but I don't get all the praise for this game.

The story is meh, the character system is pretty unbalanced and the manual is close to useless.

 

I've started both characters with the lone wolf perk because it sounded fun, choose one as an archer and one as a swordsman. Without elemental magic, you can't really use the elemental fields everywhere and the elemental arrows are quite limited in quantity. At the same time, the game is balanced around flinging elemantal stuff all the time, making mages far superior. I'm not complaining that its hard this way, I'm complaining that there was not enough information available at any time to make better choices.

 

I also find the talents structure to be lacking. Why do some skills unlock a talent on lvl 5 and other not? And given the way your gear needs attributes, you really can only specialize in archer, warrior or mage archtypes with minor modifications.

 

It is enjoyable if you figure stuff out, but PoE will be superior for me just because it has transparent game design.

 

To figure stuff out is part of the fun. Learn and improve. Also the basic systems are pretty transparent if you take the time to read and study. This game needs time and dedication and that's actually a good thing imo.

 

And no, mages are not far superior (it only seems that way at the very beginning of the game). A well balanced party is far superior to anything else. In late game melees and archers are VERY important.

 

I don't really get why especially my German countrymen have so many difficulties/complaints with the game. That's really beyond me. It really should be the other way round. We Germans should appreciate a game like that and praise it. Or have we all become filthy casuals? I blame consoles... 

 

 

I don't see what that has to do with nationality. Figuring stuff out is fine as well, but you need proper feedback for this to work and I find the presentation of the game lacking.

For example, the game tells me that I get a bonus on skills if the corresponding attribute is high. So I look at the teleport spell the archer has, which lets me teleport 15m for 4 AP. Then I increase dexterity and now it says I get a 5% bonus on top of the skill, because I have high dexterity. Turns out the skill still costs 4 AP and teleports me 15m. I can conclude that MAYBE it doesn't work on the skill or MAYBE it only has influence on the AP cost and is not considered because 5% of 6 is not an integer. However, for the haste skill of the rogue class, the attribute influences the chance of getting the haste status in the first place, which brings me to the conclusion that it probably wont affect the teleport skill at all. Which leads to the question why there is a hint that I get a bonus from my attribute.

There are a lot of such mixed signals in this game and IMHO this is just plain intransparent and bad design. There is also other stuff that you just don't get told like what you get at lvl up and inconsistent stuff like not getting any talent for having 5 lvls as a witch.

I didn't even consider crafting given that I have no skills in it.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm able to workaround this stuff but the game just feels random at parts due to such reasons. However, stuff like cutting the magic resistance of warriors by half in the latest patch is not helping the transparency of the game either - if I had known this, I may have skilled differently instead of rushing Man at Arms 5 ASAP.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Doppelschwert

[Doppelschwert]

 

I'm lvl 8 now but I don't get all the praise for this game.

The story is meh, the character system is pretty unbalanced and the manual is close to useless.

 

I've started both characters with the lone wolf perk because*

 

Let me stop you there.  

 

 

If the game gives me this option, I expect the trade off to be balanced. I didn't like the companions when I started a trial run before the main run so it seemed like a good choice. I don't think I should have to play through the whole game before I can take some options presented at the start without screwing up.

[Tigranes]

What you quickly figure out is that the mages are most powerful and fun at the get go, but near the end of the game arguably fighters are the most powerful, and that every 'type' - fighter, scoundrel, mage, marksman, or some mixture - can actually do a lot of powerful and interesting things. i.e. most elemental effects can be replicated easily by the marksman, sometimes more conveniently than spells (e.g. no cooldowns if you have several arrows, no need to invest in multiple elemental skill trees), or that the man at arms skills can actually do crowd control sometimes more efficiently than mages (e.g. battering ram across 5-6 enemies knocking them all down). 

 

If you wanted to know all of that up front in the manual, well, I can't say that's 'wrong', but I'd much prefer to figure things out as I play and stumble across various combinations, or start with what I think are 'suboptimal' characters and then make them work. The game is built so that that is very possible, and you're not 'gimped' power- or fun-wise for picking the 'wrong' stuff. So I don't know what your characters are but you don't need to feel cheated or that you're missing out, necessarily, there are plenty of ways you can make them work.

 

For the more detailed information about, say, how stats impact spells, I agree that stuff should be in the manual. I didn't even know, though. Who reads the manual these days? That information you can find in 8 seconds on google, so why not go there if you wanted to know? Why would you deliberately deny yourself?

[Bryy]

God, my new character is so OP.

 

Thank you, based-Teller of Secrets.

 

A new Attribute and new Stat every level.

[Tigranes]

New patch = no more replenishing Teller books, no?

[LordCrash]

 

 

I'm lvl 8 now but I don't get all the praise for this game.

The story is meh, the character system is pretty unbalanced and the manual is close to useless.

 

I've started both characters with the lone wolf perk because it sounded fun, choose one as an archer and one as a swordsman. Without elemental magic, you can't really use the elemental fields everywhere and the elemental arrows are quite limited in quantity. At the same time, the game is balanced around flinging elemantal stuff all the time, making mages far superior. I'm not complaining that its hard this way, I'm complaining that there was not enough information available at any time to make better choices.

 

I also find the talents structure to be lacking. Why do some skills unlock a talent on lvl 5 and other not? And given the way your gear needs attributes, you really can only specialize in archer, warrior or mage archtypes with minor modifications.

 

It is enjoyable if you figure stuff out, but PoE will be superior for me just because it has transparent game design.

 

To figure stuff out is part of the fun. Learn and improve. Also the basic systems are pretty transparent if you take the time to read and study. This game needs time and dedication and that's actually a good thing imo.

 

And no, mages are not far superior (it only seems that way at the very beginning of the game). A well balanced party is far superior to anything else. In late game melees and archers are VERY important.

 

I don't really get why especially my German countrymen have so many difficulties/complaints with the game. That's really beyond me. It really should be the other way round. We Germans should appreciate a game like that and praise it. Or have we all become filthy casuals? I blame consoles... 

 

 

I don't see what that has to do with nationality. Figuring stuff out is fine as well, but you need proper feedback for this to work and I find the presentation of the game lacking.

For example, the game tells me that I get a bonus on skills if the corresponding attribute is high. So I look at the teleport spell the archer has, which lets me teleport 15m for 4 AP. Then I increase dexterity and now it says I get a 5% bonus on top of the skill, because I have high dexterity. Turns out the skill still costs 4 AP and teleports me 15m. I can conclude that MAYBE it doesn't work on the skill or MAYBE it only has influence on the AP cost and is not considered because 5% of 6 is not an integer. However, for the haste skill of the rogue class, the attribute influences the chance of getting the haste status in the first place, which brings me to the conclusion that it probably wont affect the teleport skill at all. Which leads to the question why there is a hint that I get a bonus from my attribute.

There are a lot of such mixed signals in this game and IMHO this is just plain intransparent and bad design. There is also other stuff that you just don't get told like what you get at lvl up and inconsistent stuff like not getting any talent for having 5 lvls as a witch.

I didn't even consider crafting given that I have no skills in it.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm able to workaround this stuff but the game just feels random at parts due to such reasons. However, stuff like cutting the magic resistance of warriors by half in the latest patch is not helping the transparency of the game either - if I had known this, I may have skilled differently instead of rushing Man at Arms 5 ASAP.

 

 

Well, let's call it an observation: it's just the German gamers and reviews which seem to dislike the game most.

 

And I personally don't really care that much about systems. In fact I don't care about them at all. They should just work and they work in D:OS. I think many of your arguments are just fussy but maybe you like playing with numbers, I don't. Maybe that's the reason why many Germans have problems with the game: numbers. We are the country of engineers and mathematicans who like these old number-based RPGs and PnP games, even more than everyone else. I don't think the game was made for these people. It was made for people who just want to enjoy the game for what it is and not for its "meta levels" and systems at the core...

 

The resistancies of warriors were cut for a reason: to improve balancing. Without that warriors just got overpowered in the end game with resistancies over 100% (=invulnerable) against every single element. It's actually pretty good that Larian still tweaks the game. No worry, you can still easily win/end the game with cut resistancies for warriors (it's maybe your biggest failure that you don't do crafting....).

[LordCrash]

New patch = no more replenishing Teller books, no?

 

Seems like it only works for new games. Maybe it's not working like it should alltogether. But yes, story

 

But even without the teller of secrets books you are OP in the endgame. I only bought two books from the teller of secrets in the whole game...

[Doppelschwert]

 

Well, let's call it an observation: it's just the German gamers and reviews which seem to dislike the game most.

 

And I personally don't really care that much about systems. In fact I don't care about them at all. They should just work and they work in D:OS. I think many of your arguments are just fussy but maybe you like playing with numbers, I don't. Maybe that's the reason why many Germans have problems with the game: numbers. We are the country of engineers and mathematicans who like these old number-based RPGs and PnP games, even more than everyone else. I don't think the game was made for these people. It was made for people who just want to enjoy the game for what it is and not for its "meta levels" and systems at the core...

 

The resistancies of warriors were cut for a reason: to improve balancing. Without that warriors just got overpowered in the end game with resistancies over 100% (=invulnerable) against every single element. It's actually pretty good that Larian still tweaks the game. No worry, you can still easily win/end the game with cut resistancies for warriors (it's maybe your biggest failure that you don't do crafting....).

 

 

I'm a mathematician, so you're probably right about your observation. It's also fine by me to decrease the bonus of the skill, I just would've skilled differently if I had known this.

 

Again, don't get me wrong: I have fun playing the game, I don't regret buying it, and I'm sure that its getting easier/more fun the longer I can play and skill my characters. Most of the observations people told me here I have already made myself as well while playing the game, so its not that I didn't invest time in it.

However, for me this is not the perfect RPG that it seems to be for most people here. It's good, but I'd prefer a more transparent experience, which I'll probably get from PoE.

 

I personally dislike crafting because it often feels generic, but maybe I'll look into it later, if everyone is recommending it.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Doppelschwert

[Volourn]

"New patch = no more replenishing Teller books, no?|

 

Don't download new patch, no?

 

Not worth the risk. The game is working reasonably fine as is. A patch could  add new bugs. No thanks.

 

Besdies, it's evil that all the people who are finished the game aslready got to enjoy this 'feature' but us 'latecomers' would get nerfed. L0L

 

I know the claim that it wasn't intentional to have them  respawn those books every level but I don't buy that because it's common practice in the game for all (or almost all) shopkeepers to spawn new items to sell.

 

To me this is just them hearing about people whining about it and them changing it after the fact. ie. People bragging about the awesome MR of man at arms at level 5 but that's also been nerfed. LMAO

 

You'd think they'd know this stuff with their pre release play testing. Patching should be fixing actual bugs not changing the game.

 

 

That said, not like you need the books since if have an IQ of 50 the combat shouldn't be hard.

[LordCrash]

 

 

Well, let's call it an observation: it's just the German gamers and reviews which seem to dislike the game most.

 

And I personally don't really care that much about systems. In fact I don't care about them at all. They should just work and they work in D:OS. I think many of your arguments are just fussy but maybe you like playing with numbers, I don't. Maybe that's the reason why many Germans have problems with the game: numbers. We are the country of engineers and mathematicans who like these old number-based RPGs and PnP games, even more than everyone else. I don't think the game was made for these people. It was made for people who just want to enjoy the game for what it is and not for its "meta levels" and systems at the core...

 

The resistancies of warriors were cut for a reason: to improve balancing. Without that warriors just got overpowered in the end game with resistancies over 100% (=invulnerable) against every single element. It's actually pretty good that Larian still tweaks the game. No worry, you can still easily win/end the game with cut resistancies for warriors (it's maybe your biggest failure that you don't do crafting....).

 

 

I'm a mathematician, so you're probably right about your observation. It's also fine by me to decrease the bonus of the skill, I just would've skilled differently if I had known this.

 

Again, don't get me wrong: I have fun playing the game, I don't regret buying it, and I'm sure that its getting easier/more fun the longer I can play and skill my characters. Most of the observations people told me here I have already made myself as well while playing the game, so its not that I didn't invest time in it.

However, for me this is not the perfect RPG that it seems to be for most people here. It's good, but I'd prefer a more transparent experience, which I'll probably get from PoE.

 

I personally dislike crafting because it often feels generic, but maybe I'll look into it later, if everyone is recommending it.

 

 

Well, I tried to explain to you why many people really like this game. It's because they don't care that much about systems and numbers. You obviously care about them so that's the reason why you might praise the game less than they do.

 

Crafting is just a great way to improve your chars and party. I don't recomend it because it's the greatest mechanic ever. I recommend it because it's valuable from a balancing perspective.

 

 

"New patch = no more replenishing Teller books, no?|

 

Don't download new patch, no?

 

Not worth the risk. The game is working reasonably fine as is. A patch could  add new bugs. No thanks.

 

Besdies, it's evil that all the people who are finished the game aslready got to enjoy this 'feature' but us 'latecomers' would get nerfed. L0L

 

I know the claim that it wasn't intentional to have them  respawn those books every level but I don't buy that because it's common practice in the game for all (or almost all) shopkeepers to spawn new items to sell.

 

To me this is just them hearing about people whining about it and them changing it after the fact. ie. People bragging about the awesome MR of man at arms at level 5 but that's also been nerfed. LMAO

 

You'd think they'd know this stuff with their pre release play testing. Patching should be fixing actual bugs not changing the game.

 

 

That said, not like you need the books since if have an IQ of 50 the combat shouldn't be hard.

 

Ahem, you could also say the opposite: all the early buyers had to test the game and you late gamers can now enjoy the even better balanced version. Because that's exactly what it is. Larian just nerfed overpowered mechanics which is a good thing for ALL gamers.

 

And they don't change the game after all. They changed a few minor things based on gamer feedback. That's actually what I expect from a good development studio. Of course there was playtesting before release, but only limited one. Early Access were only about early game and not late game. Only after release the late game was available to a huge crowd of people who observed different stuff like overpowered chars in the endgame.

 

Sorry, but the whole tone of your post is needlessly offensive and snarky and I don't think you really want the game to offer the best possible experience which is imo quite sad. You don't offer any argument why endless skill and stat books from the teller of secrets should stay in the game but at the same time you call people who actually gave reasonable feedback "whiners" and stuff. I don't know if you want to be taken seriously but in the case, that's not the right way to achieve that...

Edited July 18, 2014 by LordCrash

[Tigranes]

It's not the perfect RPG by any means. Rubbish story, not a memorable setting, etc. I do find the gameplay very very strong.

[LordCrash]

It's not the perfect RPG by any means. Rubbish story, not a memorable setting, etc. I do find the gameplay very very strong.

 

Indeed. But which game is perfect? All that matters is whether a game is fun or not and it can be fun for a lot of different reasons...

[Hassat Hunter]

Just block Volourn... most of us have.

 

As for the boni, I think some are not working as intended, -40% penalty summon is the exact same as +40% bonus summon. Doesn't sound like that's supposed to be the way. Especially since summons are so extremely powerful, and I only have 2 of my chars use them. If I get all 4 a summon. Well, death upon all who faces me...

 

And Witchcraft (and Scoundrel) where added pretty late in Early Arrival, that's why there's no talents for them (and they were clumped together to one vendor in Cyseal, or dumped with other vendors in the Homestead).

[Volourn]

"Sorry, but the whole tone of your post is needlessly offensive and snarky and I don't think you really want the game to offer the best possible experience which is imo quite sad. You don't offer any argument why endless skill and stat books from the teller of secrets should stay in the game but at the same time you call people who actually gave reasonable feedback "whiners" and stuff. I don't know if you want to be taken seriously but in the case, that's not the right way to achieve that..."
 

I find your post offensive.  All that spam and you said nothing about 8why* the stat books are overpowered.

 

Youw ant overpowered? All the teleport type spells. All the summons. All the damaging spells. All the weapons. Almsot all the talents. All the equipment. All the elemtns. That stuff is overpowered and makes the game easier.

 

Seriously, people are bragging how they just get their resistances up over 100% and get healed by the enemy. How is that balanced? That was lame in BG2 it is lame DOS.

 

btw, I like the game, but the fanboys defending it no matter what are  laughable.

 

But, hey, this 'oldskool' RPG allows me to have over 1000 hit points before level 10. LMAO And, look it has cooldowns just like any MMO and DA which people her elike to bash for having cooldowns. And, let's not forget the 'old skool' stopable of playing RPS for dialogues. L0L

 

 But, so fanboys don't pout too much. There is good stuff in the game. The combat is fun. Balanced, unbalanced, easy, ahrd, it is simply fun. And, while the main story like Tigranes says is rubbish the little side stories can be pretty good. Character building is so much fun. So much so i wish you could just throw the two dumb joinables out and make 4 of your own characters.

 

LONG LIVE DOS! DOWN WITH DOS FANBOYS!

[Llyranor]

So in my current session, we finally obtain featherfall (teleport without damage). So, the first thing we do is commit cold-blooded murder on the cheese vendor by dragging him into an isolated area. No remorse. Oh yeah, and the 'halibut. sheep's cheese. tomatoes' lady too.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Llyranor

[Volourn]

Why?

[Tigranes]

Every time I hear "I'm a DUKE, you potato-eating peasant", I hear "I'm a Jew"...

[Majek]

It's not the perfect RPG by any means. Rubbish story, not a memorable setting, etc. I do find the gameplay very very strong.

Well it's the Larian setting, so anyone expecting some grand story and setting must really be some weirdo that just crawled from under a rock.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Majek

[Llyranor]

Halibut. Sheep's cheese. Tomatoes.

 

No one has as many friends as the man with many cheeses!

 

Halibut. Sheep's cheese. Tomatoes.

 

Be the big cheese on your block with a wheel of the good stuff!

 

HALIBUT. SHEEP'S CHEESE. TOMATOES!!!!!!

 

---

 

NO MORE, you little turds!

Edited July 19, 2014 by Llyranor

[BruceVC]

 

Halibut. Sheep's cheese. Tomatoes.

 

No one has as many friends as the man with many cheeses!

 

Halibut. Sheep's cheese. Tomatoes.

 

Be the big cheese on your block with a wheel of the good stuff!

 

HALIBUT. SHEEP'S CHEESE. TOMATOES!!!!!!

 

---

 

NO MORE, you little turds!

 

 

I love cheese, I have 3 different cookbooks on using cheese in various meals