Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) General The Official Beyond Divinity Strategy Guide

Once upon a time, not too long ago, there were four individuals who wanted to create something special. They went with their idea to Lar, who offered every help possible in assisting them in making their idea come to live.
Their idea was to create a strategy guide for Beyond Divinity. A strategy guide made with support from Larian Studios, a guide that could carry the name: “Official Strategy Guide”.

And so things started out with playing and playing and even more playing and in the spare time left there was again, more playing. From alpha versions, to beta versions, via release candidates to the released version and from patch to patch a guide was constructed.

As they had many tales to tell and many songs to sing, the words they wanted to spread were many. After 500 pages they lost count, bedazzled by all the text and the beautiful artwork that Marian added to the guide.

When the pen was finally put to rest and the guide was finished it was unfortunately too late to turn the 500+ pages into a book, so instead another plan was made during the summer. The guide would be made available for free.

First it will be carried on the CD/DVD of some magazines out there and after a while it will be available as a download from The Locus Inn (any other download offered before that is illegal).

The guide could not have been made without Lar allowing it to happen. Nothing would have been put into writing if it wasn’t for Lynn who never ceased in offering us every help and assistance we needed.
Life would have been harder as it was without the technical assistance of Forktong and without the feedback from Yann and Stormrider.
Some parts of the guide wouldn’t have been checked for grammatical errors if it wasn’t for forum member Grim giving some assistance
And the guide wouldn’t have looked as good as it looked now without Marian offering his help.

But most of all none of this would have been possible if Kiya, Raze and Barnabus wouldn’t have been crazy enough in joining me in this adventure in creating the guide and giving up more of their spare time and social life then I would ever have dared to ask for.

The first one to carry the guide is the Czech magazine Level which is currently out on the streets, which will be followed by the UK magazines PC Gamer (28-10), PC Zone (8-11) and PC Format (11-11).
There might be other magazines, but none of them have been confirmed at the moment.
The download will still take a while before it is online, but you can image with 500+ pages (with a lot of artwork) it will not be a small download, so if you don’t have the resources or can not wait, you might want to consider getting one of the magazines.

Here is an image of the cover of the guide. It is made by Marian.

And the link to the full image

Enjoy!

Myrthos, this is brilliant! When will it hit North America? Is there a place from which we can download it? Thankyou thankyou thankyou all!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

Well I promised the magazines some room in making their offering a bit unique. So there won't be any official download for atleast one month. Anything you can download before that it is available on The Locus Inn is per definition illegal.

Thanks, Myrthos! A month, eh? Well, I can be patient << no i can't >>... I can try to be patient.

I already knew about the Strategy Guide because Marian talks about it in his Web Site and he gives the cover picture.
I am very curious to see the guide. But i will wait one month. I am patient.
500 pages <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />
Is there in the guide any information that the forum members do not know like easter-eggs for exemple ?

Barta

Barta, Easter Eggs are included within the acts. We did not make an extra list, as 500 pages was a huge enterprise already.

I'm glad it is not a paper+print book but a download, as changes can be added this way - if LocusInn consents, of course. We all know there's going to be a 1.46 patch sometime <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
Kiya

What I like most about this guide are the wonderful pics - Marian's pics - so the art of BD comes across in a beautiful way.

Oh, dear, then I won't need "my" "Easter Egg Community List" anymore ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />


Apart from that : It's a great idea ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

dang!! just when i though of converting kiya's fanpage to PDA-friendly version (via JPluck plus some manual editting, & with permission of course) so people can refer for help without Alt+Tab & make a mess out of their windows.

what about other artistes? is marian the only one who contributed in the artwork? *thinking that maybe larian can release an artbook concerning Divinity universe*

Janggut
We are only two being interested by Divinity artwork, YOU and ME ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

Barta

wow 500 pages – that’s an amazing effort. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" /> isn't that waaay longer than most books and strategy guides?

and isn’t it just a tad late though - who will read such a huge work when it comes out? hasn’t the buzz about BD already come and gone now? it was ok in parts, but i can’t imagine wanting to play it again.

but i guess it's mostly made for the die hard fans to enjoy <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> so congrats on finishing such a mighty labour of love. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

if it was all in pictures with the words in little speech balloons, then maybe i'd be able to read it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" /> well maybe not 500 pages <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

...and JaggedJim makes three! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />

500 pages... awsome work you guys.

Great work, as usual!

Marian was the only artist directly involved with the guide.

The original plan was to have the guide out shortly after the game was released. In part due to changes in the game made up to and after release, that didn't happen (the game pretty much needs to be replayed after significant changes for the guide to stay accurate). Also, right about when the game went gold I had a string of monitor and other problems, effectively cutting the work force by 25%.

Sounds very impressive. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> A heck of a lot of work too.

Any chance that anybody might be inspired to do something similar for DD2? Perhaps a fair bit smaller and not quite so ambitious, so that it could come out roughly when the game does, and when most of the interest will peak?

Sorry if that sounds a bit under-enthusiastic, but three or four months ago something like this would have helped round out the game and maybe add some depth to the enjoyment of playing, but now BD is what I played several games ago, and my interest has moved on. Judging by the turnover at this forum now, that might apply to quite a few others too.

Perhaps it will help draw in a few new fans though? Hope so. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Cool we are three !
Maybe the Larian artists will make an artbook specially for us.

Larian made a CD with Kirill's music, why not an artbook ?

Barta

The guide was finished in July and is accurate for version 1.45.
That was too late for a book to be made about it. In my opinion having a guide in printed form of a version shortly after release, would have been useless, due to the many changes.

Then again, July was too late to create a printed version, especially with everybody on hollidays. So in late august, Lynn contacted the parties that might be interested in the guide and the only thing that could be done was giving it to the magazines too put on their CD/DVD.
That is what is happening now.

i guess i have to download it then when it's available online. mags cost a bomb here at my place with most content are ads & very little articles.

myrthos, who decides what magazine will have the priviledge of releasing the guide? i would be nice if local mag can release it as well. local as in malaysian mag for malaysian, HK for HK, thai for thailand, etc.

just a thought.

@ barta -> *salutes* loyalty to the president till the end. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

[color:"orange"]who decides what magazine will have the priviledge of releasing the guide?[/color]

Lynn contacted the 'usual suspects' to see if they would like to publish the guide on their CDs. If you know of any magazines that would likely want to do so as well, you can PM/email her. Since the guide is in English, I don't think she contacted a lot of non-English magazines.
For any new magazines to carry the guide, it is too late for the November issue, so with the download likely available in late November, they would not be getting an exclusive.

The magazines here in Australia seem to finalise their CD contents well before the release date of the magazines. So I imagine that if it's not already been arranged I don't think we'd see it until next year sometime.

Has anybody mentioned doing one for DD2 - specifically aimed at downloads?

Most FAQs are done this way - so that they can be available early, when they're most wanted - and are then updated as often as the authors feel it's worthwhile. Seems like a good system. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Barta, I hope Marian will show his artwork on his fanpage - or LocusInn will - right now, it would be illegal IMO.


I can understand your request and emotions, but you wouldn't have been happy with the original guide, believe me. Language localisations changed game content in parts - and the 1.4er patch versions would've made the guide pretty useless. English version came out in June, right? And remember how many patches were made since then? Skill systems, values, trader skills, maps (for German release already), taken out quests etc. => what would you do with a guide that's of no use?

@Kris => a download with a quick possibility to change is a good idea. But if DD2 is going to be as complex as BD => this work will have to be done by people that need no sleep, don't go to work and can concentrate on it fully. As nice and important as this XP was for me => I took my annual vacation off for this (4 weeks) and it was not enough time. This guide is as the game (nearly) is supposed to be by playing in variations and checking localisation differences instead of working with EXCEL sheets and docs.
Kiya

PS: As for me => 1 guide is enough for my whole life - so, no DD2 for me, not guidewise. And if the MP part is larger than the single mode, not as a game for me either.