Larian Studios Forums Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis (English) Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis [For developers & entire Larien staff] Impressions

It is still available online (eBay, Amazon, etc). Maybe after D2:ED is out and Larian isn't so busy, they can make a deal with a download distribution service, like they did with BD.

1st, if I lost the CD of the game but made a legalized purchase. Nothing would stop me from obtaining a copy of the game again or using a hack to run it. Though the art on the cd did look nice.

2nd, Copy protection debates go on for eternity so I won't get into it, I am 100% against copy protection.
Bottom line is this, if you want to see Divinity 3, buy Divinity 2!. So when I can, I'll be pre-ordering Ego Draconis at my video game store (they don't stock up on games like this very well, might get 5 copies when released, it's pathetic where I live.)

3rd, Yeh, it is easier to get worked up and mad to complain. You got more in it for you to either ruin someones reputation or get your money back. However to help someone, you need to go out of your way.

I read whole thread that I'd started and some useful thoughts visited my head.

I. Concerning reviews.

I can't help agreeing that people who are pleased with the game (and not just game, it includes every single thing - would it be a TV or a trip to another country) take it as normal. If they are displeased, they think they MUST tell everyone how shitty the thing/game is, they MUST warn every single person not to repeat their mistake.
Imagine that you have perfomed a trip to some amazing country (Maldives or Turkey or Hawaii - not important) and you are standing in a crowd with your friend. Whom will you tell about your adventures? For sure, you will tell a friend and advise him to visit that country, too. I even have a thought that people determine to "hide" pretty good things they've met during their lifetime and to tell only friends about them.
Now imagine that it has been the worst trip you ever took. For sure, you will try to warn everyone around you NOT TO GO THERE, NOT TO see the same shit as you have seen there.
There were 2 things that made me write my positive review:
1. I've understood that you, probably tired of that shithole called "bug reporting thread" really need some support from pleased customers, from amazed gamers. And after I looked through threads here and found almost nothing positive I decided that it's my duty to do this and I can't hide from it because I'm too thankful for the game you've brought.
2. I was too amazed by the game by contrast with all that crap I was playing for few years. I simply couldn't hold my words inside of me.

II. Some suggestions.

-I agree with the guy above that you should make option like "helm visibility on/off" because when I had put on one of the helmets I became looking like Black Ring captain and that fact made me destroy the helm.
-Modding, MODDING and modding again! I will provide any possible help just to see some new mods especially concerning
-Some class rebalancing. As I said I've finished the game two times: with ranger and dual-wielding warrior.
-I couldn't help noticing that other people on russian forums were speaking about "item load abuse" when you just have to save before a chest and then load until you get necessary item. I think it would be much better if you gave player a choice - e.g., if there is a helm inside looting bag an option will arrive to pick one designed for mage/warrior/ranger etc. It's very important issue especially concerning set items.

Please don't take my suggestions as an offence - all I can say is that I really enjoyed the game like never before and it keeps absorbing me. I'm waiting with patience for some mods, addons and patches to improve the gameplay. I hope I've made some things clearer for you and made my contribution to the game's improvement.

Best Regards,
Borden.

P.S. Sorry for some abusive language, it was used just to emphasize certain aspects of my post.
P.P.S. Sorry for the size of my post I'm looking forward to hearing an answer from Larian stuff as your comments are the most important for me and they make me think that all my posts here matter. Thank you.

I do not think there will be a add-on that

Virumor, can't wait so long, mate I've thought about that.

And, by the way, Larian guys, I have some news from Russia that may please you: most of people here estimate Divinity II at 85-90% (it's a VERY high mark)

Unless the Divinity 2 gets a side to side comparison with Divinity 1, the scoring will be super high like this. Right now the largest forum problem is Divinity 1 vs. Divinity 2.

Right now people are focused on:
Stuff that was in Divine Divinity that is not in Divinity 2

What we need more of is:
Stuff that was not in Divine Divinity that is now in Divinity 2.

Regardless, all can agree more thought went into the first 12 levels worth of content in both games then goes in full games other companies throw out there.

As for those reviews, any chance you can give Larian the URL's? Put them in your next post, they read all forum posts.

Lockey, didn't get that in mind, do you mean russian ones? And about what exactly?

Who's "most people?"
And how do they know the game?

Lynn,
There is a russian site ag.ru - the largest game-devoted site ever in Russia.
It has its own forum where people discuss games and their solutions etc.
When I was looking for solution for one quest I went there and found out that "Divinity II" thread already had 30 pages of posts. Most of them contained not only questions or solutions but also some words about how people liked the game and their own game rating (not less than 80%, usually 85-90%).
What do you mean "how do they know the game?". Here in Russia we are not white bears in strange hats carrying vodka everywhere we go. Our people make game announcements usually even faster than people in Europe. So when someone made an announcement about Divinity II some bought the game in internet shops (and were playing in on german without the knowledge of this language) and some downloaded the game and hacked the language to switch it to English.
Is it clear to you now?:)

Yes, it's clear now


LOL

I was just wondering because I know the game isn't released in Russia.



Mixed feelings when I read this

Lynn,
Well, I understand you quite well - as a developer (or at least member of Larien staff, sorry I don't know you) you can't stand people hacking your own products and using them for free. But I would advise you to think of this in another way: "They want our game so much that they are even ready to HACK it!"
Have you heard about Razor1911, Vengeance, Reloaded? These guys are the most famous game hackers all over the world. BUT - they are not wasting time on shitty games, they hack only elite ones. And I think you should be kinda proud that well-known hackers spent their time on YOUR game, because it shows the quality, the desire of people to play your game etc. This is my (gamer's, philosopher's, psychologist's) vision of the situation. No offence.

I don't think Lynn's bothered about them hacking it.
I think she's more bothered about them downloading it.
Rather than paying for the game, most who downloaded it will not buy the game even when its released officially in other territories.
Larian are loosing money when people are downloading the game.

We will loose money when many people play a pirated game. And when that’s a lot, then there won’t be a next Larian-game.



That’s the one thing I can be positive about then And that’s why I wrote “mixed feelings”.

I am speaking for myself, not for Larian Studios, but I am convinced (and hope) that most of my colleagues think this way.

Ups… I did screw up the topic

Yep.
Thats why people should be buying games.
There loosing money, Swen even said If Divinity 2 didn't do well, they won't be able to do similar projects.
Support the Game!
That is all

Back on Topic.

Nice set of impressions.
Glad to see some very positive.
September here I come.

Can't help disagreeing with both of you. But every famous game-developing company loses money.
Our talks remind me of the time when GTA IV was released. Rockstar officially stated that they had protected the game so well that it would be a pain in the ass for every hacker and they would gather the largest amount of money (from release) for at least 5 days (that was the minimum time top hackers needed to hack the game).

Well the hackers who did Div2 aren't doing a very good job cause people are reporting "bugs" that aren't even bugs but copy protection checks. If those checks fail, the game does funny stuff. It's a hacker's job to get those out as well. I've seen three or four of those fail checks on the forum already. And there's more where those came from.

But let's change the subject. We've been on and off on hacking and protecting for the last five years already. It's getting old.

I thought about it some more too, and realized that

So it seems that it might be worth it for Larian to make a Russian release of their products? Or do the majority of people in Russia speak English? Do people in Russia buy legalized games or does everyone assume to pirate over there?

From what I can guess at, most Americans buy their games. There is a computer video game stores in just about every shopping center. I have two in my area, GameStop and GameCrazy. Gamestop has very poor customer relations, I got to GameCrazy. Once Larian gives a release date I'll be able to pre-order this game. If most Americans pirated their games, I doubt these stores would be able to keep open.

It be awesome if Larian can sell their product in another large country like Russia.

I think a Russian release is planned, but I only heard it through the grapevine, so don't quote me on that. It's nothing official or certain. And I have no idea when that might happen if it would

I think hacking would be good if people who liked the game would actually buy it. And many times, that is the case, but sometimes, that is not the case. The question is, these people who download these games and don't buy it... would they buy the game if they couldn't download it? I remember the whole Napster music downloading thing, which, in spite of all the negative press, was the best thing to happen to the music industry in recent history. This is all speculation, but it seems that the game industry really hasn't suffered from hacking, but rather gotten wealthier. The only danger in it exists for small companies, who market under the radar to a niche audience and suffer from bad publishers. It appears that games sell quite a bit more now than they did, say, 15 years ago.

Anywho, the most important thing for me is to support the smaller companies who make the games we like, by buying those games. The problem is, as with music, that you don't know who's making money off of your purchase. I know artists who don't bother anymore with cd's, because they don't get any money from it. Their money is in the gigs, and their big-name record company takes pretty much all the cd profits. I don't know exactly how it is in the game industry, but I doubt that the publishers go for peanuts.