Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Beta General Feedback Thread

Haven't gotten them yet in the current build but in the previous one you could leave it on the ground and walk for a little while before it was returned to your pocket. I was able to place it at the end of the bridge in Black Cove and go all the way to the crab without it being put back into inventory.

No, I mean leave it on the ground AND use it to teleport. Leaving it on the ground and having to walk away to get to the other stone isn't so helpful.

Sorry misread what you meant. Thought you meant you can't leave it behind. But you want to leave it somewhere, teleport to your companion and then be able to teleport back with your companion.

If this alchemy book I found is any indication then they will be naming mushrooms differently. One is called friendly and another is called not-so-friendly. I had figured out their uses in an early build through trial and error crafting, but this will help a lot more.

So, just downloaded the Early Access build and played for half an hour, thought I'd pop in and give some general observations (I'm aware that some of these have been reported already, I'm repeating them so the devs can get a feel for how noticable they are):

-It's really unclear that you're creating two characters at the start. It looks much more like you're creating one character and changing their sex when you click on the different portraits.

-The right-most pane of the character creation screen's tabs are a bit weird. The tab you're viewing has its title highlighted, while the other one is flush with the actual window. I'm used to the active tab being flush with the content (ala Firefox, for example) and highlighted, so it's hard to tell which tab you're actually looking at.

-It's annoyingly difficult to click on an item if you or your partner is "in front" of it.

-When you cast a spell outside of combat there's a delay between the instruction to do so and the casting seeming to start. It makes it feel like nothing's actually happening.

-Trying to pan the camera downwards is made frustrating because it doesn't work if you push against the part of the screen used by the skill bar, which takes up about half the bottom of the screen.

-Ranged attacks that go offscreen don't show you if the target was hit or how much damage they took. Having the camera follow the projectile would make more sense to me.

Character creation should be clearer when more customization is possible. Personally, though, I thought having the camera switch focus between the two characters shown on screen was fairly obvious.

You can use WASD or the arrow keys to move the screen focus (if the mouse cursor isn't over a UI element), or Home to re-centre on your lead character.

Eh, look at games like Diablo II, where there are a half-dozen characters to choose between on the creation screen, but you're only actually creating one of them.

I honestly don't know how to make it clear that you're creating two separate characters, but the current way doesn't really do so.


Good to know, but I'm a creature of habit, and almost always pan with me mouse. :B

Maybe a second delay, or right click (etc) with the cursor at the edge of the screen could unlock the screen, so people will not be accidentally moving the screen focus, but it will still be possible to do so with the mouse regardless of the UI elements.

I'd say just add a slight (like, half-second) delay to the panning if there's a UI element there. That way the edge of the screen is still easy to hit with quick mouse movements, and accidental mouse movements won't pan the camera, but if you want to pan it it's easy to do.

I've been eagerly awaiting this game for some time now, and glad to finally get a chance at the Alpha. Any game that strives to bring back the depth of Ultima VII, I am all for.

First off...I miss the Ultima VII inventory.

But, one thing has stood out to me in my time that has been really distracting...the water physics. When you burn water off, it leaves a dry spot...but water wouldn't act that way...it would fill the void. I think it makes sense that the water doesn't rush in to put out magical fire, but once the spell does fade, the water should rush in and fill the void.

Ultimately, there is room for tightening up the UI...it feels a little stiff and mouse scrolling is off, and it feels like it's just not very smooth. But I expect that is something that continues to be improved. One thing I loved in Ultima VII was using Esc to close opened containers...little shortcuts and such would be really useful to tighten up the UI experience.

I played a good long session today, culminating in a co-op fight against the Sparkmaster 5000, which wasn't going so great until I gave in and used Winterbreath with my last surviving companion to kill the thing from half-health.

Here's a bunch more feedback/suggestions.

• There’s more to Traps then just throwing a trap down can calling it a day. Placement is the key, and it needs some work. The Scarecrow exploding trap (x:88, y:148) is good, but it is missing a key ingredient: A lure to get the adventurer within range. Some goodies should be placed at the feet of the scarecrow.
• The chest at x: 75, y: 228 has a mine in front of it, but the mine isn’t an obstacle, defeating the purpose. I suggest moving the chest back between the rocks (to x:72, y:230), and the mine as well, so that the mine is more dangerous.
• Players also get annoyed when they seemingly explode for no reason. If they step on a trap, I suggest that feedback in the form of [Trap Triggered!] pop up, in the same manner as the “Exploration XP” pop-ups and such. If they have the feedback, then they know what happened and can take steps to be more cautious in the future.
• Combat encounter at (x: 55, y: 128). This house has a bomber, a mage and an archer. The bomber will be blown up after 1-2 turns, leaving only the mage and archer inside, and the only way to approach them is from one direction. There aren’t any other options to approach them. Also, with the bomber dead, there are two ranged enemies. I suggest adding a zombie inside behind the bomber.
• Lighthouse Horror. I am glad that the boss has much higher health. I had hoped that would be enough to make the encounter a lot more challenging, but I was mistaken. I think the issue is that the horror only does two things: It buffs its minions at the start of the fight, and revives them when they die. It has no other spells, and it only seems to revive one or two of them. After that it does basically nothing in the fight. If you stand someone next to it in melee range, the boss swipes at it, but misses most of the time and does only 1 damage when it does hit. The boss could probably use an offensive spell or two so it does something.
• Some players aren’t happy with what they consider “pixel hunting” for keys in the main quest. They think the keys are too hard to see, and don’t like having to hold down Alt.
• Larian, do you think you could implement some kind of “auto-move” that you could toggle with a key to have your character automatically walk towards the cursor, so you could have them move around without having to keep clicking repeatedly? I suppose tht holding the mouse button down to move is close enough.
• A lot of the placeholder portraits show the NPC’s shoulders and upper body. That means there’s not so much room for the face. Portraits should be restricted to the head, showing too much makes it feel like I’m squinting.
• Cute Dogs fight – I triggered the Cute Dogs fight from the north side. My rogue’s first move was to walk into the bushes and enter Sneak mode, and then my Mage teleported the closest dog farther away. I moved my companions, and when the dogs turn came around again, combat ended, because I guess they could no longer see anyone to fight.
• Fire attack + Ice surface should = Water surface. Right now it just becomes fire surface.
• Ice surfaces from Ice Wall and dead Ice Elementals stay around too long. surfaces from Ice Shard work properly, becoming water after a while.
• I’d like it if you could cast buffs/heals on your teammates by selecting the spell, and then clicking it on their portrait. If they’re in range, of course.
• Something new in this patch: Daggers/Knives cost 2 AP to use… and they attack TWICE per command, effectively making them 1 AP per attack. Still not as good as getting the "Backstab with any weapon talent".
• The Fleetfooted/Rosy-Cheeked Talents currently do not stack with your Recovery AP. That seems wrong, they should stack with your Recovery AP, otherwise those Talents are rather useless. Just having them increase your Max AP and/or first turn AP isn't enough utility in my opinion.
• The enemies at the Lighthouse do not share the resistances/weaknesses of the Undead. Is this intended?
• I decided to let an Undead Bomber deliberately explode on my level 5 Rogue. It did 3 damage, reducing his health from 132 to 129. I think they might be bugged.
• When you Ctrl + mouse over your PARTY MEMBERS, you should be able to see all their stats, even without any points into Loremaster at all. There’s no good reason to hide that information, and a lot of reasons not to.
• Sometimes, it’s impossible to tell where you need to stand to get a backstab. Enemies in combat face in a direction and can kinda shift their stance a bit, making it hard to figure out where you need to stand to get a backstab. Many times I’ve thought I was standing in the right spot, but didn’t get a Backstab or Backstab failed message – I was doing a normal attack. Maybe some little chevron or directional indicator so you know where to stand to do a backstab.

What do Way of the Warrior and Way of the Ranger actually do now?

Points into Water Magic do not make Regenerate/Healing more useful.

What does Int do now? I know that Int 10 grants you a single extra ability point per level, but does it have any effect between Int 5 and Int 10?

Your Companions can put points they get from levelling up into the Charm/Intimidate/Reason abilities. Is there anything they can DO with those? If not, those should be locked for Companions. Madora should probably also not be allowed to put points into Sourcery, given how against it she is. I also question the use of Charisma to boost the reaction to Companions given how all the NPC’s – down to a waitress - only want to talk to your master.

Here’s a potential issue: You can have multiple companions, and switch them around from time to time. But there is only so much XP in the game. If you don’t use a companion for a while, could they fall behind and not be able to catch up, making them rather useless? If you don't want respawning enemies, maybe there could be some way to pay gold to train your companions up a bit?


The Scholar/Bestiary Bookworm Talents are gone from the game. One let you identify unidentified items. I’m not sure if identifying items is completely gone from the game, but the other boosted your Loremaster skill. Why was that one removed?

Suggestion: There should be a pop-up dialogue asking “Do you want to craft [Item]?” (maybe with a “do not show this message again” checkbox) when crafting, because it could be easy to accidentally craft something you weren’t intending to craft.

Maybe it could also say “(Consumes: Component 1, Component 2)” so you know if it doesn’t use one or both ingredients. Someone pointed out that combining a dagger with a branch of wood to make a spear should theoretically be combining the dagger's blade with the branch.


Suggestion: Branches of wood are used in a lot of recipes - especially for making arrows, so eventually, they should be pretty common finds in the world.

@Stabbey:

With the cute dogs fight, the combat ends not because they couldn't see you, but because the flip into zombie dogs. I filed a bug in the bug thread noting that the cute dogs probably shouldn't be engaging you at all, instead luring you in before they go zombie on you like a trap.

I've tested it a few times and every time the cute dogs engage for one turn, combat ends and they flip to zombies, then they re-engage if they see you. They also regenerate to full HP.

Concerning Tanks

I haven't played tons of the game yet, as I want to save up some excitement for the real deal. What I have focused on is trying to get some good builds up and running. I've noticed a few things that annoy me quite a bit - ability points, transparency and magic offense v defence.

There seems to me to be an unfair advantage to being a mages, 2H weilders and bow users when it comes to abilities, especially when compared to the Warriors who decide to go for a shield and a 1H weapon. Namely this - a mage can purchase just the one school and be perfectly proficient in combat by maxing out just the one skill. And it appears the same is true for Survivalists an 2H wielders. Where as shield wielders have to invest twice as many points. Either the option is far stronger simply because of the stats on weapons and shields, or there would appear to be an issue here. All I know for sure is this - hybrid 2H warr/ice mage is a great combination when fighting higher level opponents. It is also worth mentioning that Warriors need to invest into the Warrior skills, this seems unfair as Warriors right now have to pay as much as 4x (3x if you don't count Armor Specialist and 2x if you are wielding a 2H weapon) a mage in order to be proficient as a tank...

Second, when it comes to transparency, it would be nice to be able to see clearly what each point will do. Preferably to see what the next 10 points will do; if you can have that many. So I can plan my character out a little. How to display the info I think you would know better than me but whether you do show it or not, I'll get my hands on it, it will just be a real pain to use Cheat Engine or similar to inject some points and map it out.

And for the love of the seven, bring back some kind of magic resistance! It is very unrewarding to build tanky if there is no way to build towards magic resistance, it could be resistance against effects, or damage or both. I just think it would be good to have that in there.

Thanks for what promises to be a great game whether you listen to this or not, you haven't lost the touch as far as I have seen!

I just begun to play this afternoon and I did not read the entire above messages but I guess it does not harm to report the same issues more than once so here is my small contribution after one hour playing.

I will not tell you what I liked because it would be too long but here is what I hope to be constructive criticism...

- I really want to be able to zoom out more than it is possible at this moment. I think the maximum zooming out distance is too small (sorry if my english is approximative ^^).

- As alrady said above, I need to be able to put the camera downwards more easily : the skill bar blocks the downward direction of the camera and so does the dialog pane.

- When entering in the first village/city, will the music be a little more adapted later on? Because I had to listen to a sort of epic music when visiting quitely the neighborhood...

What really still annoys me id the fact that you can't highlight all pickable items. It is one of these small but INCREDIBLY annoying aspects.

When I mentioned this to Swen when we were playing over at Larian's, he said it's not their intention to highlight *everything* because the screen would be overloaded with labels, as you can interact with almost everything anyway. Also they didn't want to give away locations of items you should look for a bit, and having everything highlighted except that one weird item is also a bit of a giveaway. Or having everything highlighted except that object which is semi-hidden can be quite frustrating as well.

Still, I did have a first initial response like "hey why is not everything highlighted?", and I'm not sure what the best way is to tackle this.

I never said EVERYTHING. Refer to pages 1-2, David also mentioned that highlighting everything would be insane. The point is to have the ability to highlight ALL PICKABLE items.

I am unable to find a way to switch characters in coop without having the other player drop and then rejoin after I have selected the one I want. Character selection should persist through a reload.

If rearranged, the portraits on the left of the screen do not seem to retain their position after a reload. Perhaps the hosts controllable character could default to the top most portrait as well.

I also do not enjoy my screen being moved around during combat to center on who is currently moving/attacking, etc. I would like an option to turn this off.

During a game last night my coop friend became charmed and I was forced off of my character and onto Madora, and he was given control of my character. It would make more sense to me to have given control of Madora to the charmed player instead of shifting both of us around, or simply leaving the charmed player as is until the effects wear off.

I am enjoying the game so far, especially coop.