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When did I say that they would be "Better on average"?

I only said that they should be able to be better than the absolute worst items in the game.

That's part of the random aspect.

In BG3, literally all "Random" items are +0 vendor trash. From Act 1 all the way to Act 3, if you open a container and it has a randomly generated piece of equipment, it's +0.

My suggestion is to have the actual ability for items to not be completely and totally useless.

I.e. In Act 1 you can find +0 and +1 items. In Act 2 you can find +0, +1 and +2 items and Act 3 you can find +0, +1, +2 and +3 items.

This means that actually rifling through containers is actually relevant because you can find items you might actually use (But only rifling through containers that make sense. You're not finding a breastplate in a flour sack or a greatsword in a purse. You'd be looking at weapon lockers, weapon racks, armour chests etc) - These items aren't better than the handplaced uniques, they're just bog standard stat items with no fancy effects. With the idea they can help you get a full set of stat gear without having to go find full sets of uniques or buy everything from a store (Meanwhile, you can also supplement with enemy drops)


I think a major part of that is the limitations of D&D's itemization. With Larian restricting themselves to level 12 cap, they were stuck with only +3. With most items being either +1 or +2.

Meaning a lot of potential items simply got screwed over because they are +0 or +1 unique items that can literally never compete with the +2 unique items you can obtain at the same point. Even the Pact Weapons having that bonus +1 from being bound still just brings them up to par with if you were just using a +2 weapon anyway (And then you have the +3 weapons that not only are one upgrade higher than everything else in the game, since they are exclusive "Legendary" tier they also have crazy good effects... Who tf would be running around with the Dwarf specific throwing hammer they pick up in Act 3 when in the same Act, right at the start, you can grab Nyrulna which is not only +1 higher than it but also has multiple special bonuses)

To which there's a potential divisive solution to such things, in the ability to "Upgrade" uniques to higher quality levels. Meaning the unique you found in Act 1 can be upgraded to match the stats of one found in Act 2 and Act 3. Whereby the idea is that you are looking more for the perfect special effects for your build rather than ignoring everything that isn't the highest tier loot you can obtain.

This is something that Cyberpunk 2077 does and I feel it works well, every iconic weapon can be upgraded in quality to get base stats comparable with your level. Meaning that no matter when you acquire one it can be part of your final build if its special effects are worth it.

The downside of the system is it can devalue actually looking for items. If you have a full set of uniques in Act 1 and you can then upgrade them in Act 2 then you have little reason to look for any +2 items in Act 2 and you'd be simply looking for the upgrade materials instead. This is fine in CP2077 because it's loot system is utter trash (As it's very "Looter Shooter" pilled with everything being random) alongside the fact that all enemies instantly update to the newest tier thanks to adaptive leveling but could interfere with progression in a more standard RPG format.

Using AI (or ML) for production efficiency is already something of technological space race which every business has to at least at some level keep up with. It's all a matter of finding the areas where that productivity does not cost you in terms of quality.

With Larian upscaling the number of employees to over 500, every extra year the game is in production is a massive increase in cost. Streamlining the productivity is just something they have to consider, but you can streamline a lot of other areas than the creative ones, which is what Swen seems to be trying to say.

Good point.
Put it on the pile of all the "compromises" and downsides of a romance/sex focus.

Despite the enormous amount of gamer-rage flowing through me right now, I will state this as constructively as possible:) ACT III has been so incredibly frustrating, and has reached a breaking point in my battle with Dolor. Ignoring all the cheese mechanics that have shown up in this act, my problem is a culmination of BGIII's flawed turn-based system.

This is the rage loop I am stuck in: My squad kills Dolor and all but 2 of his clones during our actions. The last two Dolor clones are in a Cloud of Daggers spell. It kills them, combat ends and instantly 4 NPC's run like lemmings into the Cloud of Daggers and die a horrible death... I can't pause the game, and even if I could it wouldn't do any good because my characters are locked into a rigid turn order and the damage of my spells happens, confoundingly on the enemies turn. I literally have no means of turning off the spell until my turn, which never happens because the fight ends... I can't even quickly click back into turn based mode because the button only spawns in a few seconds after the carnage. I even tried the shortcut (shift-space) but it has no effect until the aforementioned turn based mode graphic shows up.

I am going to date myself, but I have been playing DND-based video games for a very long time (I think Curse of the Azure Bonds was my first) and I have never experienced this before. I came to BGIII straight from Solasta and there is no reason an indie game should have a more fluid gameplay system. BGIII looks amazing. The Voice work is top notch, probably the best since Mass Effect I and II, which I have been longing for. But... the turn order mechanics are the worst of any game I have played, and this is coming from someone who made it through the whole X-Com series... if you know, you know:)

The 'bureaucracy' of the system constantly steals actions and teamwork options from the player, and creates problems that don't need to exist. Do I really need to load a save so I can find someone who can throw a healing potion at the murder cultists so they survive their turn just to bypass this nonsense? ACT III has not been fun for me largely because of DM-Cheese and the janky turn-based system. For very different reasons I am having Mass Effect flashbacks where I only played III one time. It was so unsatisfying that when I eventually replayed the series I would always end with II. In this case I keep creating new characters and playing ACT I & II because, ACT III is frankly not fun from a gameplay prospective. The only thing making me slog through are the amazing performances of the voice talent and I could just save myself the headache watch those clips on YouTube.

Constructively, much of this could be easily fixed. A) Turn off concentration AOE spells when combat ends. At the very least make it an option that pops up. B) Allow a player to delay their turn or at the very least just incorporate the reaction system in DND. C) Slow down on the cheese and just make challenging baddies, particularly for the lower 'role player' difficulty levels. If I want to be forced to minmax/metagame (which I don't) I will put it on one of the higher difficulty levels.

Anyway, that's my 20 cents:)

I would LOVE to see platonic relationships get as much content as romantic relationships. I thought a lot of the friendship moments in BG3 were deeply moving (Gale's last night alive, Karlach's goodbye on the dock, Jaheira talking about her past, etc.), and I'd like to see more! Fleshed-out platonic relationships help sell the sense that your party has grown into a cohesive group all working together, and they make the world feel more real and impactful.

One big problem with making the body mesh customizable (changing size and shape) is that it can interfere with clothing/armor and with cutscenes (causing clipping issues, etc.). Some body changes can also cause issues with how the mesh is rigged, causing weird visual errors during animation.

Slider-based customization of meshes can be a huge development cost, which is worthwhile for certain genres (like The Sims, where there are hundreds of procedurally generated characters, there's genetic inheritance, and customization is the whole focus of the game), but probably much less so for a turn-based isometric RPG.

I think this might be best achieved by offering great mod support (which I'm sure Larian plans to do, but the more the better), since it's a lot easier to tolerate visual bugs when it's just a mod rather than part of the base game, and it would mean anyone could make mods to perfectly suit their own tastes.

Guys do you realize how hard is to stop playing, look over internet and find this thread, then come to post, just to tell you that this is a MUST feature, and even some people prefer this even over photo mode? (Don't get me wrong, the game is amazing) So this is just a fraction of people that really got a punch in the belly when u dropped it, can we get it back? there is no solution yet, and the file is already pinpointed (EquipmentTypes) can we get at least a confirmation it won't happen to downgrade to version 7? it means a lot to us.

First time trying out Divinity original sin 2 on the new ps5 version and when trying to start a game with friends we find ourselves stuck on a black screen. Help is very much needed cause we haven't figured out any way around it

Turn Based confirmed, joyous day for roleplaying game.

Any chance there will be a patch soon? 30 fps handheld makes no sense - even if it reduces the battery life to 10 minutes, just give us this option please. I don’t have the ability to plug my switch in to a TV. This game is several years old and should have no issues running 60 fps.

Well, I discovered the problem. It is with the opening movies it seems. I have cloud saves on and started a new game on my iPad with the character I wanted. Then I saved right after getting off of the bed. Then went to steam on my Mac and loaded the game and that works.

Personal pet peeve of mine.


The thing about quests inherently build around markers isn't merely touching the topic of accessibility. It's also one of interactive storytelling.



With Original Sin, Larian said "No" to markers from the ground up (watch the making of videos and Larian staff going: "Do these games think I'm stupid?"). BG3 tried to struck a balance here, though some of them markers made no sense, like you immediately knowing the location of the dude supposedly lost in the Underdark. However, taken to its typically AAAAA gaming extreme, you aren't even mentally engaging or interacting with the game world and characters anymore. You're sleepwalking from waypoint to waypoint until quest complete. At this point, it doesn't matter how well written a quest is. PLAYING it will always be the same boring routine.


In The Witcher 3 I almost screamed with joy when I was able to actually "solve" a quest on my own. Which wasn't often, as the game isn't designed for that. Like finding the Thief hideout in Novigrad. The intended solution was naturally just following the magic waypoints until Geralt goes "Done it!" However, I managed to find the entrance to the hideout by simply listening to dialogue and rumors on the streets...


Not only does that feel more engaging -- you are actually tasked to pay some attention and interact with the fiction. Which is a rule of storytelling also in non-interactive media: Having the audience connecting the dots for themselves rather than spelling it all out like in a children's book makes for a more engaging experience. It doesn't need to be super complicated dots to connect. Just.. anything that makes one engage at all.

My biggest hope for Divinity after BG3 and DOS2 is a more open start. I'll play the opening area over and over again trying different builds, but I fall off before getting to the mid game because I've played the opening too many times. (my own fault). But I think that is one advantage that open world RPGs have over larian's games. When you step out of that fallout vault in one playthrough and you go left and another you go right, it makes getting into a new playthrough much easier.
examples
DOS2, while there are a lot of things to do on fort Joy, you're still in the same general area with the same characters. You can just leave, but you'll be pretty underleved. imo
BG3 as well, you there are 2/3 major points to hit between the druid grove and the goblin camp you still tend to complete that story before moving onto the next area.

I want to be able to run straight to baulders gate, do some shenanigans to steal a crazy necromancer staff and then go back to some of the opening areas later. As the game stands I'll probably never play through Rivington again, because its just deep enough that my attention wont hold long enough on subsequent plays.

no idea how to make reactive story telling with this format. but I can dream

Thanks for the idea! Will do that right now Lotus!

I've been waiting for this translation to be released on PS4 for years....

I see where you are coming from, and many of the flaws you bring up are things that I agree the game could have improved upon.

But I think you are making it very simplistic when you attribute all that to the inclusion of sex and romance for appeal to other audiences. I have watched many different people play the game. I have seen people who went into the game with the mindset of playing it like a dating simulator and then watching them become fully locked in fighting Myrkul, going through all the different combinations they have at their disposal in their inventory and character sheet to figure out how to win the fight and be absolutely euphoric at the success. Or becoming so emotional when speaking to Karlach after defeating Gortash that they have to take a moment and leave the room. Saying that these people did not care or weren't invested in anything else in the game feels like gatekeeping the experience against other audiences. You find a flaw in the game and rather than looking at many different reasons why it ended up that way in the game, the disappointment is directed towards an external group - it is because of "those" people. I don't think it is as simple as that, but I share your sentiment that there were mistakes and flaws and that it could have played a part in it.

I also hope that they are sensible, and don't go overboard with making the game appeal to any specific audience, be it the people that share my preferred playstyle or any other audience.

And it should work both ways of course. If I want more diverse companions with less focus on aesthetics I shouldn't be met with an attitude of "get out my elf-dating simulator, we don't want any ugly shorties in here!"

To be honest, I have never hoped that Larian's games could be released in Chinese Mainland. Given the current game censorship mechanism in Chinese Mainland, even Baldur's Gate 3 would not pass the censorship. So the DLC rating I mentioned is not specific to China's censorship mechanism. In China, blood cannot even be red in most cases

10 Bard/ 2 another is gold for me. With 10 Bard/ 2 Warlock I would take above all Devils Sight. Wether you then take the Eldritch Blast damage boost or the push back alternative from Repelling Blast depends on your plans about the use of that cantrip.

If Divinity ends up a iso rpg it will be interesting to see if Larian goes back to the gimmick heavy build with pyramids and surface areas or continues the toned down design from BG3.

Let me just clarify: I am not arguing for removing the pause function, like I said above, the best thing would be some form of customization with different options.

Reactions:
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- I agree that sometimes you need to think, therefore, the best thing would be some kind of slow motion function that leads to auto pause if something is not selected. -> The only reason I brought the slow motion up is to increase the dynamic feel of the combat, because the auto pause can feel disruptive depending on the situation. Combat is a visual thing after all, if a paladin makes a swing, and then the swing sort of stops, so you can make a selection, you do kind of loose the "epic feel" of the move itself (just imagine a similar effect showing up in fantasy movie) . Other times, like for example with counter spell, it doesn't feel as "interruptive".




Combat in general:
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That being said, there are other ways of increasing the dynamic feel, that I was going to post about in other combat improvement posts, but since this forum is kinda dead I'll just bring it up here:
- Enemies that are on the same turn and/or are close to each other move at the same time.
- Similarly you can enable default attacks for multiple of your own characters in a round (that lets you attack with all characters at the same time). For example only attacks that are spammable, eldritch blasts, cantrips, basic weapon attacks, etc. The function is just implemented so that when you have a few low health enemies to clean up, you can smooth out the dynamic feel of the combat by making the combat feel less turn based. Even though it is still turn based.


"idle combat" animations to create the illusion of real time combat. For example: Characters in melee range could have:
- some animations where they take swings at each other, this is naturally only for a dynamic feel, and immersion, so no rolls will be made. (a good example of this would be two swords clashing, which means no damage to each combatant)
- Animations where they are analyzing their opponent and similar things

Ranged characters could have:
- reload animations.
- Animations where you see them calculating the wind direction and wind strength.
- For ranged characters like wizards could have animations that shows them preparing the cast of the next spell or looking at their spell list, etc.

Other options could be:
a few voice lines where that adds some tactical input, like for example : If the enemy flanks "They are flanking!"

Naturally, NO ROLLS are made, this is purely for immersion, very minor stuff, that would improve the feel and dynamics of the combat system.

Anyway, probably too late.

Technically, SWtoR system isn't the group talking as a whole. It's still only one person talking. It's just a dice roll to choose who, whilst allowing everyone to have their associated dialogue option side effects (Meaning their morality isn't screwed over by someone else getting to roll their preferred dialogue option)

Solasta is more of a "The group talking as a whole" as each dialogue option is voiced by a different character. Though I'm not sure how this would translate into mulitplayer (As the single player mode of the game has you create your full party and then separates the multiple options in dialogues across them)

The SWtoR system seems fairly decent for multiplayer video games. Given it provides equal opportunities and also allows preservation of personal choice.

It's a far cry from a TT game though, where everyone can say what they want to say during a conversation, rather than just 1 option randomly decided. Which is more possible because TT games don't shove in random inspiration/morality outcomes into dialogue options (Since there are no options. People just make up what they want to say and then the DM roleplays the NPC's response)

If their future games feature multiplayer, having a SWtoR style system could make sense to include. That is unless they can come up with something that works better (Such as a way to actually incorporate everyone's dialogue options)

When selecting multiple chests/boxes, only first chest shows items (unless it's empty). Afterward, the selected chest is marked as empty. But when scroll down to other chests, every other chest is shown as empty (even when there's something in it), and it's not marked as empty upon exiting. The same goes with multiple items, when selected only one can be picked, the rest don't respond to confirm button (x in this case). However, the square button (open action menu), actions works normally (eat, take...).
When single chest, item... is selected, everything works fine.

Problem solved: I turned off auto-update. After updating PS5 to latest firmware, problem's gone.

Hello, I am a little late to this discussion but I just did this part of the game for the first time last night.

Firstly, did you complete the quest for helping the cook wash dishes? I did this after over an hour of scouring the castle grounds and once I completed it, upon leaving and returning to the castle, the cat appeared in the hallway between Lela's room and the kitchen.

I don't know if this is exactly a prerequisite but its what happened in my game.

I hope this helps!

From the team that brought you Baldur’s Gate 3, critically-acclaimed role-playing game Divinity: Original Sin 2 is now available on the latest generation of consoles! Immerse yourself in the world of Rivellon, and forge your path to godhood - alone or together.

The Divine is dead. The Void approaches. And the powers lying dormant within you are soon to awaken. The battle for Divinity has begun.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 FAQ

Do I have to have played the previous games in the Divinity series to play DOS:2?
DOS:2 is a standalone game and can be experienced on its own, but we will always recommend trying out Divinity: Original Sin for the best experience!

Do I need to play Divinity: Original Sin 2 ahead of the newly announced Divinity title?
Divinity will offer a completely new story, but there's some continuity and characters for those who’ve played previous games. You might even pick up on certain things others may not!

Does Divinity: Original Sin 2 feature multiplayer?
Yes! You can play alone, in online multiplayer, or with couch co-op.

What is Divinity: Original Sin 2 about?
In a world where the Gods are dead, you play a wielder of forbidden magic, quarantined in the prison colony of Fort Joy. The Magisters of the Divine Order want to "cure" you of your powers. But the Order has secrets of its own. Secrets that threaten everyone. If the world remains godless, chaos will rule.

What races can I play?
There are five playable races to choose from, each with its own abilities and tags: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Lizard, and Undead.

Does Divinity: Original Sin 2 use the same character creation and combat system as Baldur’s Gate 3?
No, DOS:2 uses its own classless character building and combat system. You will have the freedom to completely customise your character, creating your own class, as well as stats, abilities, talents, and skills. You can also choose one of our pre-set classes to help you get the hang of things!

I already own DOS:2 on Switch, PS4, or Xbox One. How do I upgrade?
Depending on your platform, you’ll need to navigate to their game store front and search for the DOS:2 Upgrade Pack, which you’ll be able to download for free! If you would like to upgrade your copy of Divinity: Original Sin 2 from Nintendo Switch to Nintendo Switch 2 or from PS4 to PS5 and are based in Japan, the upgrade will cost ¥100.

Is DOS:2 a remaster?
It’s not a remake or a remaster; this is your way to experience the classic DOS:2 on the current generation of consoles!

Up for a more analogue gameplay experience?
Take a look at Divinity Original Sin: The Board Game in the Larian Merch Store!



Learn more about Larian’s next game, Divinity, by clicking here.

I had been a fan of Larial divinity series since their first game title "Divinity : The Sword of Lies" and was excited to see that there will be continuation with this new game, but one thing from their EN_Divinity Announcement Press Release got me worried, to be specific from those pagaragraphs :


So, does it meant that all non D:OS(1|2) divinity games will have little to no impact to the plot of this new game and we will get massive retcons outside of their main plotpoints (like Lucian's accention) or they will be attentively integrated? For example, we still haven't heard anything since the first game about vampires, dragon riders, legendary dragon set armor or artifact of unimaginable power - "Eye of cyclops"; what was the deal with the most creepy and mysterious character of Beyond Divinity, possibly the whole series, the Oracle Tree or what the fate of raanaar?

Will this game unify all this stuff, does Highlander-2 with it or something in the middle?