Larian Studios
Maybe there's something amazing coming my way in the last 20% of Original Sin, but so far--even though I've been loving the game--it just doesn't feel like a Divinity game to me.

What made Divine Divinity an appealing setting to me was that it basically took this idea of the "Seven races" and went with it, without shoehorning any one race into a "inherently evil" role. And I just loved the Lizards and Imps--and always wanted to see more of both than the tiny windows we saw in DD.

But then came Divinity II and it was All Humans, And Only Humans.

And now Original Sin looks to be making the same error. There are only two imps in the game so far--what Orcs are in the game are uniformly hostile. There are zero Lizards. There are zero Elves. There are zero Dwarves.

So... what gives? Why the homogeneity? It makes Rivellon a far less interesting world to explore, IMHO.
I would suggest some kind of genocide, but this is a prequal. smirk
There's one elf, and at least three friendly orcs/goblins. That aside, I do agree that more diversity would have been nice.
Originally Posted by Arsene Lupin

So... what gives? Why the homogeneity? It makes Rivellon a far less interesting world to explore, IMHO.


Two words: budget constraints.
well 2 friendly orcs, i put the mayors one to sleep after grabbing johan...only to realize i also accidentally killed the lady looking for her brother...
Originally Posted by LordCrash
Originally Posted by Arsene Lupin

So... what gives? Why the homogeneity? It makes Rivellon a far less interesting world to explore, IMHO.


Two words: budget constraints.


I don't buy that for a second. They ended up having WAY more money to develop DOS than they thought they'd have, and they did find some time to create a unique creature model for Kirill.

They already have the models for Imps and Orcs in the game, they just don't use them for much of anything. An Elf model would literally require less than 1 minute of fiddling with human model geometry. Same with Dwarves--the basic human model could be repurposed very easily.

The only race that might take more than an hour to create a template for would be the Lizards.

But even then, they've still got high-quality 3D models of all 7 races working with the same engine as DOS from Dragon Commander. IT's just a matter of simplifying the geometry--and most 3D drawing tools I've seen have functions to do that automatically.

....

This isn't a matter of Larian not having the time to add diversity, or not having the budget--it's a matter of them consciously choosing NOT to have any species diversity.

Hell, they don't even bother to mention half of the races in dialog/lore.
This game deals with a very small area of the world from what I can tell - One or two major cities and a handful of towns all in the same general area. Maybe the races just don't generally enjoy living together? They didn't seem to get along that well in D:DC after all. Rivellon doesn't seem like its nations are great melting pots of social justice and equality, so I'm not really surprised by the all-human with a few other races aspect.
Spoilers below due to referring to areas in the game which are not immediately available.

I kind of agree with this. There were definitely opportunities to use other races where it would have made more sense than purely humans.

I would have kept Cyseal pretty much exactly as it is. It's a very human area.

I would have made Silverglen a relatively even mix of humans and dwarves. Dwarven miners make a lot of sense, after all. Brandon would have been a Dwarf, as would Bjorn, the smith whom you rescue if you give a Blood Stone to Alfie. Natia would still be human, however, as would Lawrence; if Lawrence ends up a potential victim of mob justice, dwarf vs human racism could come up in a different way than in the Elf-Orc Blood Feud from earlier.

This would also mean more diversity in the various cultists you fight. A good number of dwarves would be "true believers" and thus you'd see a great many in robes at various stages of the game. Same uniform as the humans, same core beliefs and fervent devotion, just a different race joining in. The geomancer from Sacred Stone might even be a dwarf herself.

In terms of elves, I'd only add one living one, but I'd refer to a bunch of dead ones. Hunter's Edge would be described as a relatively even mix of elves and humans before its downfall, with "wood elf" culture being a highlight of the town's past. Madora would view the situation romantically, as she loved the elves she lived with for their emphasis on the natural over artifice (and, to Madora, all artifice is Source-related somehow). The (formerly human) undead merchant you meet at the town gates, however, would give a less romantic assessment when queried. Then as an extra touch, instead of Paintings of a Man, sometimes you'd steal Paintings of an Elf (perhaps worth slightly more). However, since Hunter's Edge got massacred, the only additional elf you'd actually meet in the game would be the barman at the inn in Hunter's Edge, who as far as he knows is the last elf alive on the continent.

Orcs are indeed mostly antagonistic in the game, but it's explained by the lore. The All-Mother wields a huge amount of political power over the orcs, and thus the orcs have gone down a twisted path overall. This doesn't make them inherently bad (Victoria), but they're a scary race. As they should be.

I feel imps are covered in enough detail and need nothing further. Same with lizardmen; just because they're part of the setting doesn't mean we ever need to see one.
k wateva
Originally Posted by LordCrash
Originally Posted by Arsene Lupin

So... what gives? Why the homogeneity? It makes Rivellon a far less interesting world to explore, IMHO.


Two words: budget constraints.


No, that's not true seeing as you do encounter several races in the game.

Originally Posted by Arsene Lupin
Maybe there's something amazing coming my way in the last 20% of Original Sin, but so far--even though I've been loving the game--it just doesn't feel like a Divinity game to me.

What made Divine Divinity an appealing setting to me was that it basically took this idea of the "Seven races" and went with it, without shoehorning any one race into a "inherently evil" role. And I just loved the Lizards and Imps--and always wanted to see more of both than the tiny windows we saw in DD.

But then came Divinity II and it was All Humans, And Only Humans.

And now Original Sin looks to be making the same error. There are only two imps in the game so far--what Orcs are in the game are uniformly hostile. There are zero Lizards. There are zero Elves. There are zero Dwarves.

So... what gives? Why the homogeneity? It makes Rivellon a far less interesting world to explore, IMHO.


There are actually several alive Imps in the game. The rest you encounter are dead in Hiberheim and you see a few corpses of Imps also in the Lucella academy for Immaculates.

There are plenty of orcs and just like in Divine Divinity, most are hostile towards you. Original Sin actually has more friendly orcs (I think there's around three you can actually talk to) whereas DD only had two.

The goblins are back again and there is an elf you can encounter. The only races missing are the lizardmen and dwarves but I believe Divine Divinity made it clear that these three later races were already dwindling at that point. Most of the elves you meet in DD are in secluded places and there were only a few lizardmen to meet. By Divinity 2 (which is only a few centuries later), you can find a book in a cave near the starting village which explains how there were some elves who used that particular cave as their last refuge and that no one has ever seen an elf since, so much so, that the world now believes them extinct (although cut content from Divinity 2 would have featured them in some forest so based on that, it's likely that they've gone into hiding more which is why no human has seen them for centuries)

Even if the dwarves weren't dwindling, they lived in the mountains as shown in DD and you encountered very few in the human towns so not encountering them in Original Sin or Divinity 2 could easily be explained from a lore perceptive.

I highly doubt any of this is due to budget constraints seeing as Larian has made so many enemy variety. I guess they just didn't see fit to throw in an entire town dedicated to dwarves or elves just for the sake of it. These places had meaning to them in the first game.

Dragon Commander featured all the seven races though.
One word for ya : xpansions.

Like wow, one expansion per continent, in this case one expansion per each race home... You heard it here first...
We have skeletons and zombies! There's a melee skeleton, a ranged skeleton, a skeleton mage, a big skeleton, a small skeleton...
Originally Posted by fashasha
We have skeletons and zombies! There's a melee skeleton, a ranged skeleton, a skeleton mage, a big skeleton, a small skeleton...

You just revealed the combination of enemies in every encounter in the Cyseal area...

This was actually the thing that popped into my mind when I read the title; how every encounter seems to be the same.
Originally Posted by Arsene Lupin
An Elf model would literally require less than 1 minute of fiddling with human model geometry.
This is only true if you don't mind it looking like crap.
Originally Posted by Singbird
Originally Posted by fashasha
We have skeletons and zombies! There's a melee skeleton, a ranged skeleton, a skeleton mage, a big skeleton, a small skeleton...

You just revealed the combination of enemies in every encounter in the Cyseal area...

This was actually the thing that popped into my mind when I read the title; how every encounter seems to be the same.


You have humans and orcs as well, and the environment smile
Originally Posted by LordCrash
Originally Posted by Arsene Lupin

So... what gives? Why the homogeneity? It makes Rivellon a far less interesting world to explore, IMHO.


Two words: budget constraints.

This.

Just wait for the sequel to D:OS @OP, it will have a bigger budget. A much bigger budget. laugh
Originally Posted by ScrotieMcB
Originally Posted by Arsene Lupin
An Elf model would literally require less than 1 minute of fiddling with human model geometry.
This is only true if you don't mind it looking like crap.

Well, that and if you're a completely unskilled individual making uneducated assumptions about what it actually takes to do someone else's job ...
Originally Posted by Nilt
Originally Posted by ScrotieMcB
Originally Posted by Arsene Lupin
An Elf model would literally require less than 1 minute of fiddling with human model geometry.
This is only true if you don't mind it looking like crap.

Well, that and if you're a completely unskilled individual making uneducated assumptions about what it actually takes to do someone else's job ...


Lol yeah modeling is not the hard part but rigging and animation require a totally different level of work
Wait... wasn't the Elf guy still just an old dude like in Beta... I don't recall seeing any differences.

Also, there are already dozens of unique orcs to talk to in Hunter's Edge alone... (which is less than 80% in)... so... what?
The Lizards and Dwarves get mentioned, I recall reading about them ingame already. Can't recall where though...
Originally Posted by Hassat Hunter
Wait... wasn't the Elf guy still just an old dude like in Beta... I don't recall seeing any differences.

Also, there are already dozens of unique orcs to talk to in Hunter's Edge alone... (which is less than 80% in)... so... what?
The Lizards and Dwarves get mentioned, I recall reading about them ingame already. Can't recall where though...


I'm not in Hunter's Edge yet. Basing 80% by party level. I'm at level 16, people beat the game at level 20, therefore approximately 80% through.

Anyway, yeah: I forgot about that one elf.
Level 20 is the cap, you know. That's why people finish the game at level 20. :P
Originally Posted by BobTheBard
Level 20 is the cap, you know. That's why people finish the game at level 20. :P


That's not entirely accurate. It's a soft cap, but it's possible to get higher than that (others have reached 21/22 by the end), you just won't find any weapons/spells/skills that are above level 20.
Originally Posted by Arsene Lupin
Originally Posted by LordCrash
Originally Posted by Arsene Lupin

So... what gives? Why the homogeneity? It makes Rivellon a far less interesting world to explore, IMHO.


Two words: budget constraints.


I don't buy that for a second. They ended up having WAY more money to develop DOS than they thought they'd have, and they did find some time to create a unique creature model for Kirill.

They already have the models for Imps and Orcs in the game, they just don't use them for much of anything. An Elf model would literally require less than 1 minute of fiddling with human model geometry. Same with Dwarves--the basic human model could be repurposed very easily.

The only race that might take more than an hour to create a template for would be the Lizards.

But even then, they've still got high-quality 3D models of all 7 races working with the same engine as DOS from Dragon Commander. IT's just a matter of simplifying the geometry--and most 3D drawing tools I've seen have functions to do that automatically.

....

This isn't a matter of Larian not having the time to add diversity, or not having the budget--it's a matter of them consciously choosing NOT to have any species diversity.

Hell, they don't even bother to mention half of the races in dialog/lore.


Besides that everything of this is only your speculation...
I haven't seen any dwarves yet, but there is a lizard person. I was very surprised to meet him and wasn't sure at first what he was. He is in the bard camp taking requests for songs.

Or maybe that's not a lizard person. I don't know. He certainly isn't human, orc, goblin, elf, or imp.
I've entered Hunter's Edge at 15 0_o

Kiril is the composer of Divinity (hence him allowing you to pick a music track... but AFAIK that doesn't work. Sad that all Divinity games seem to be plagued with music players, pretty sure Divinity II's singer never got fixed either that it only allowed you to play a song second time if you left the area only if you listened to it completely; before; and locked for good).
I looked him up after reading your post, and that's definitely NOT a Lizard. What creature he is however, I can't say...
Originally Posted by Hassat Hunter
I've entered Hunter's Edge at 15 0_o

Kiril is the composer of Divinity (hence him allowing you to pick a music track... but AFAIK that doesn't work. Sad that all Divinity games seem to be plagued with music players, pretty sure Divinity II's singer never got fixed either that it only allowed you to play a song second time if you left the area only if you listened to it completely; before; and locked for good).
I looked him up after reading your post, and that's definitely NOT a Lizard. What creature he is however, I can't say...


No, he was never fixed in Divinity 2 either.

In Divinity 2, he could at least play music a few times before it glitched. In Original Sin, he can't even play anything. Larian needs to patch that this time round. It's the ultimate tease including Kiril in the game but not allowing us to play his music!
At first I thought he's some sort of Satyr-like creature, but when I took a closer look I noticed his three pairs of eyes. Maybe it's a unique quirk of the race, like every goblin have long shaped head and one eye. Either way I'd wager that he's from the realm of Faery.
I agree with OP in 100%. In DII it was at least somewhat explained why we see only humans, than Dragon Commander came- and all races were present (apart from orcs). Original Sin is too much of a cliche for me. Orcs- evil, imps- evil, elves and dwarves- not in game (apart from single elf) and so on. I'd honestly prefer another game in 2d- like DD- with more diversity, than 3d game, but with hundreds of constraints...
@Mixxer, I'd say the game actually points out that Orcs AREN'T evil, and neither are imps.
After all, there is a book on Orcish society, a couple townies in Cyseal talk about how they don't think Orcs are all bad, There's Victoria the Orcish librarian, you find an Orc grieving over his dead brother, and once you get to Hunter's Edge you find an Orc and a Human who have fallen in love. Worth noting that the Orcs in Hunter's Edge are no worse than the Humans in Hunter's Edge.

Imps are never described as evil, except by Jahan who thinks EVERYONE is evil.
Originally Posted by Mixxer5
imps- evil

What game did you play... couldn't have been Original Sin anyway.
Is there even a single evil-imp around?
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