Divinity: Original Sin

[Darji]

 

 Turn based combat to begin with.

I suddenly remembered a PvP game I used to play (it's very hard and has a steep learning curve, that's why I dropped it) - it has the best turn-based combat in the history of video games, in my opinion - Banner Saga: Factions. its combat system is brilliant

 

Only played the SP of this game. And yeah Banner Saga was pretty nice. It reminded me of a western Final Fantasy tactics. But for me the things you could do were very limited.  One of the best Turn Based system in my opinion beside Divinity has Jagged Alliance 2. Man this game was or is a blast^^

[Volourn]

"Difficulty curve in game is high"

 

No. No, it isn't.  Only for dumdums.

 

 

"I would say that combat is very entertaining, writing is decent enough to read through, exploring is enjoyable thing to do and there is quite nice rewards for doing so,"

 

Agreed.

[Elerond]

"Difficulty curve in game is high"

 

No. No, it isn't.  Only for dumdums.

 

That is what most of reviews (and AngryJoe seemed to get himself killed constantly in his streams of the game) say, so I rolled with it as I am not good judge on how difficulty games are.

[Bryy]

So, screw the final boss.

 

Most poorly designed boos fight ever.

[Humanoid]

Got my CE boxed copy in the mail today, two weeks to Australia isn't bad so no complaints there. No T-shirts yet though, so much for saving on postage.

 

On the other hand, I'd requested my boxed copy come with a non-Steam DVD, but have been sent a Steam copy (which is also a Duo copy, which means I think I've got one more copy than I'm technically entitled to). Slightly confused now. I mean I've got a GOG copy as well so the DRM-free disc isn't critical, but it'd have been nice, since a Steam DVD is by definition worthless for archival purposes.

 

 

P.S. The cloth map is one of those ones with no actual game utility whatsoever, and honestly, kind of sucks in general. Ah well.

[Enoch]

Okay, I bought this yesterday.  Spent an hour or so mucking about with character creation, and settled on a Witch (with air magic instead of the default point in a saving throw category) and a Rogue (with the backstabby stuff subbed out bow skills).  Hopefully I'll be able to find a meatshield hireling or two for them before my spider gets too overmatched. 

 

Anyhow, I played the tutorial dungeon and the orc encounter outside the town before calling it a night.  It was getting late, and I wanted to make my level-up decisions without being pressed for time.

 

UI headaches:

 

Is there a way to just remove the chat window?  Rather annoying how it keeps popping up even when I'm playing single-player. 

 

Also, is the camera-pan speed adjustable at all?  It's manageable if I use WASD, but mousing to the edge of the screen causes my view to practically leap to the edge of the map. 

 

Can you pause the game outside of combat?  I chased a rat halfway across the dungeon before I was able to successfully click on it for a conversation.  (In hindsight, I suppse I should've zoomed in a bit.)  

 

 

Edit:  Need I mention how difficult it was to resist giving both my characters giant platinum-blonde afros? 

Edited July 14, 2014 by Enoch

[Enoch]

One other addendum (post-edit-deadline on the above):

 

This game's consistent use of the term "dialog" to mean "dialogue" is infuriating.

[bonarbill]

One other addendum (post-edit-deadline on the above):

 

This game's consistent use of the term "dialog" to mean "dialogue" is infuriating.

 

Infuriating?  Really?  They have the exact same meaning in all instances. 

[Valmy]

I have to say it is almost kind of a rush to play a RPG where I have to pay attention and think about what I have to do next.  Crazy.  I could get used to this.

[Darji]

Okay, I bought this yesterday.  Spent an hour or so mucking about with character creation, and settled on a Witch (with air magic instead of the default point in a saving throw category) and a Rogue (with the backstabby stuff subbed out bow skills).  Hopefully I'll be able to find a meatshield hireling or two for them before my spider gets too overmatched. 

 

Anyhow, I played the tutorial dungeon and the orc encounter outside the town before calling it a night.  It was getting late, and I wanted to make my level-up decisions without being pressed for time.

 

UI headaches:

 

Is there a way to just remove the chat window?  Rather annoying how it keeps popping up even when I'm playing single-player. 

 

Also, is the camera-pan speed adjustable at all?  It's manageable if I use WASD, but mousing to the edge of the screen causes my view to practically leap to the edge of the map. 

 

Can you pause the game outside of combat?  I chased a rat halfway across the dungeon before I was able to successfully click on it for a conversation.  (In hindsight, I suppse I should've zoomed in a bit.)  

 

 

Edit:  Need I mention how difficult it was to resist giving both my characters giant platinum-blonde afros? 

You can remove the chat completely. In the bottom right corner should be a symbol.

 

The pan speed as far as I know is not adjustable but maybe through mods later? 

 

Also you can not pause you game during real time. That is one of the reason my people sometimes die because of burning or poison in the beginning^^

[Tigranes]

For rats, they run away if you are too close, so click on them from a good distance away and your charcter should chase them and initiate dialog

 

ue

[ShadySands]

 

One other addendum (post-edit-deadline on the above):

 

This game's consistent use of the term "dialog" to mean "dialogue" is infuriating.

 

Infuriating?  Really?  They have the exact same meaning in all instances. 

 

 

I always thought it was more of a country/regional difference (though most technical writing I've seen goes with dialog). Regardless, I've seen it both ways with many dictionaries using log instead of logue as an acceptable, and often American, alternate spelling. Like how we drop the U in a lot words that end in our (honour, valour, armour, colour) or switch theatre into theater, drop the double L in travel(l)ed and cancel(l)ed, and change some S's to Z's like criticize and patronize

 

But I'm no English major or even that good with even the most basic English so please feel free to disregard or correct me

 

 

Back on topic, I've found my ranger/rogue type has been outshining my mage in battles lately with 3 or 4 backstab or bow attacks compared to the 1 or 2 spells I can get off per turn

[Gorgon]

 

Worst gripes for me are character design, inventory (why 4 inventories for one player, that's insane, one inventory PER player please)

 

and UI (only space for 10 skills in the action bar, no option to customise)

 

You do get 3 action bars and you can put whatever you want in them. You can't see all action bars at the same time, though.

 

That was what I meant and as already pointed out you can't do something useful with it like the scroll button but have to try and hit a tiny pixel concentration every time which might be several times per turn for each character at higher levels. They could have taken a page from ToB or was it NWN2 where you could drag the action bar out and have as many slots as your resolution would allow. 

[Darji]

Also, is the camera-pan speed adjustable at all?  It's manageable if I use WASD, but mousing to the edge of the screen causes my view to practically leap to the edge of the map. 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok correction: You can adjust the speed. Under Game options^^

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

Back on topic, I've found my ranger/rogue type has been outshining my mage in battles lately with 3 or 4 backstab or bow attacks compared to the 1 or 2 spells I can get off per turn

 

 

Yeah, rangers are really awesome in this game. Using special arrows, they can outmage the mage, and on top of that, they have their own incredibly useful abilities, too (Mute jumps to mind immediately).

[Enoch]

 

 

One other addendum (post-edit-deadline on the above):

 

This game's consistent use of the term "dialog" to mean "dialogue" is infuriating.

 

Infuriating?  Really?  They have the exact same meaning in all instances. 

 

 

I always thought it was more of a country/regional difference (though most technical writing I've seen goes with dialog). Regardless, I've seen it both ways with many dictionaries using log instead of logue as an acceptable, and often American, alternate spelling. Like how we drop the U in a lot words that end in our (honour, valour, armour, colour) or switch theatre into theater, drop the double L in travel(l)ed and cancel(l)ed, and change some S's to Z's like criticize and patronize

 

But I'm no English major or even that good with even the most basic English so please feel free to disregard or correct me

 

The way I've always understood it is that "dialogue" is a conversation between two human beings, while "dialog" is something that pops up in a GUI to inform the user about system status. 

[sorophx]

the only times I see the word "dialog" is when I read on ways to develop interfaces for Win '95 and/or Arma

[ShadySands]

I always lump it in with catalog(ue), monolog(ue), epilog(ue) but as I've said before, and is mostly obvious, my command of the English language is questionable

 

I've heard it both ways 

 

 

 

but seriously 2 AP to backstab and 3 for a shot with a bow compared to like 6 for spell

[Elerond]

 

 

 

One other addendum (post-edit-deadline on the above):

 

This game's consistent use of the term "dialog" to mean "dialogue" is infuriating.

 

Infuriating?  Really?  They have the exact same meaning in all instances. 

 

 

I always thought it was more of a country/regional difference (though most technical writing I've seen goes with dialog). Regardless, I've seen it both ways with many dictionaries using log instead of logue as an acceptable, and often American, alternate spelling. Like how we drop the U in a lot words that end in our (honour, valour, armour, colour) or switch theatre into theater, drop the double L in travel(l)ed and cancel(l)ed, and change some S's to Z's like criticize and patronize

 

But I'm no English major or even that good with even the most basic English so please feel free to disregard or correct me

 

The way I've always understood it is that "dialogue" is a conversation between two human beings, while "dialog" is something that pops up in a GUI to inform the user about system status. 

 

 

dialog is spelling of dialogue that appears in american English, and that form of its spelling show in software world (most often used to reference pop up windows that need user interaction like for example clicking 'OK', 'Yes'/'No', 'Save'/'Load'/'Cancel' -button, reference comes [in my understanding] from idea that this windows are dialog/dialogue between user and program) because it is heavily influenced by american companies.

Edited July 14, 2014 by Elerond

[Hassat Hunter]

Much talk, very much nonsense too... oh my...

what's strange to me is people who are putting down ToEE are at the same time praising this turd. I am speechless

Probably because it's leagues better than ToEE? Sorry that your favorite TBS is apparently overclassed by something... actually, I'm not.

The main thing I wish was in the game was more physical character customization.  I hate having my male characters look like bluto sized football jocks with jaw lines shaped like rocks.

You can thank the graphical revolution. Since making new character meshes means also having to make new models for all gear they can use, they don't allow this.

The price we have to pay for having more graphical fluff... :/

 

Sorox' list of "wtf?"

1. I dunno, maybe it's because I always play fully zoomed out (as all games) rather than dab-in-face, but it looks Baldur's Gatey to me... actually I would expect PoE to look somewhat like this, maybe a little less pretty though. Actually, I kinda fear PoE might not be able to overclass this (gameplay and graphicswise)...

I hope so, but I'm not counting on it.

 

2. Remember BG2? The white text floating over things when looking at stuff, random people said random things.

Yup, it's EXACTLY the same as BG2 here. So, what?

 

3. Can't say I like floaty UI's (but I already spend plenty of pages on PoE talking about this)... but as for floaty stuff D:OS doesn't do bad. Of course solid UI's still pawn them to kingdomcome, of course. But hear the outcry of people wanting floaties for PoE. The rot's within here too :/

 

4. the first area is rather linear

10000 gamers who have trouble figuring out what to do with Cyseal without getting killed disagree with you.

make it easily navigated through so new players don't get lost instead of making it intuitive.

MHUHAHAHA. Seriously, you have no clue or you wouldn't say such redicilous stuff. People get lost in ****ing Cyseal itself, even with the navigational arrows. Seriously, how much did you see? Really only the tutorial?

 

5. good design of locations, characters, UI, underlying systems (abilities, equipment etc.), good pacing. how does OS fare in all of these categories?

Good, pretty good (unless you want super-serious, this isn't "DARK" Dragon Age stuff), could be better but I have no major gripes, probably the best ever, pacings rather slow for modern gamers ("get on with it, I want to go faster through everything")... for old-school players like me who don't like the rushing of modern games, it's just great. I don't need to explore an entire city in 10 minutes and then get on with mindless killing, thank you very much.

So yeah, it does... seriously good; in all of them.

That ****ing teleportation pyramid. Seriously, now I've got a swarm of town guards on my ass because I couldn't unlock the door and they never clarified I should drop the first pyramid before using it. Teleporting back to the first one is useless when you're carrying the first one in your pocket. Which is currently adorning you in the same room as the destination pyramid. With an angry naked woman calling for town guards when you try to escape through the supposedly always-passable door. Despite passing the speech/reason/charisma/whatever check. YEAH THANKS LARIAN.

I've no idea what you've done. The process is;

* Use teleporter

* Roll (hard one, you usually fail, if not big XP boost)

* Proceed.

 

How did you manage to mess up this process? Seriously, what HAVE you done?

(They don't clarify since you don't need to)

 

It's basically a very (very!) easy puzzle, and introduction to the teleport mechanics. Nothing at all difficult, and so by design. Again; HOW DID YOU MESS THAT UP? I'm dumbfounded.

and *the* most important thing for me: combat and how your party composition and equipment plays into it - combat in D:OS is crap, as far as I can tell (it's very hard to get TB combat right, though, for example I don't like combat in Fallout and Fallout 2, it could be better). even though in Infinity engine games combat is flaky, I'd still take it over badly designed TB combat

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Seriously. SERIOUSLY? D:OS combat is bad. It's like... well, better than any other TBS game to date. You have to place your characters carefully (and not limited to a grid to make it easier), you can fully use the environment. Where your people are is vital to succeeding or failing.

Really, no TBS has come near it... and you say it's "crap"... either completely ignorant, or intentionally trolling here.

 

@ Enoch

As stated, there's a button at the topbottom left to turn off the chat screen completely. There's also at the right for the combat/dialogue etc. log but personally I wouldn't want that turned off ever.

 

No; you cannot pause.

 

For rats, they run away if you are too close, so click on them from a good distance away and your charcter should chase them and initiate dialog

Alternatives;

 

* Approach just with the "Pet Pal" character, and the rat wont run away.

* Lure the rat with food.

 

Yes, you get a LOT of options for talking with rats... if that's not any indication what's up with this game, I don't know what is... but as I said before, if people really want to miss it because of unbased bias and YouTube vids of exactly what I don't know, they seriously miss out... "Their loss"... I can only hope PoE is as good as this game. Make it happen OE!

Edited July 14, 2014 by Hassat Hunter

[sorophx]

holy crap, I know quoting is messed up on these boards, but there has to be some kind of an award for messing it up like you did. I can't even tell which sentences belong to me in there

[Hassat Hunter]

I've fixed it before you posted your post...

[sorophx]

darn, I should've made a screenshot for preservation's sake

 

EDIT: as for D;OS's combat being the best turn-based combat ever, man, go play Banner Saga: Factions, it's free on Steam. it will blow your mind with its complexity and its smart implementation

Edited July 14, 2014 by sorophx

[Hassat Hunter]

Sadly for you, yes, D:OS combat *is* better than Banner Saga.

If you actually played some of it (post Cyseal) or looked at proper YouTube vids, you wouldn't be able to deny it yourself either...

[Gfted1]

There's nav arrows? Go on...