Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Constructive Criticism Thread

Post and discuss things that you think need improving here.

I'll start.

I have finished the EA version (Classic Mode) and these are some of my thoughts about gameplay in general.

Itemization. I am very disappointed to see that Larian has not (yet) made any attempts to improve the itemization of equipment in D:OS 2, the level scaled weapons and armor is by far the single worst aspect of D:OS. D:OS 2 is supposed to be an RPG and not a Diablo clone, right?

Dialog system. I strongly dislike this new system. It is very awkward to have NPCs talking directly to my PC, yet all of my dialog options are indirect. Some indirect dialog options are ok (e.g. stare him down and say nothing) but having every single dialog option written in an indirect manner is just overdoing it.
Please also drop the fugly asterisks. Use quotation marks where required and/or a different type of font or font color.

Camera. The zoom-out level is way too low. There is also quite often too much stuff obstructing the view unless I am literally hovering above the heads of my party.

Cannibalistic Elves. This seems a bit odd to me... wouldn't that be a better trait for the undead? Or maybe just limit it to one elf people, e.g. Dark Elves eat flesh, but Wood Elves etc. do not?

Environment Effects. These are excessive and need to be toned down.

Combat and pacing. EA lacks combat and the pacing needs to be improved.

There are a lot of threads like this already, with a lot of freedback. We really need a moderator who could create official subforums maybe for a different areas of feedback?

I'm just worried that a lot of good feedback will be missed out by the devs cause there are too many new threads like this.

Yeah, near every people did their post about their thoughts, many tried to do a big post regrouping all the opinions, it always failed because people will keep opening their own thread.

We need to be sure Larian is looking to all of this

Not liking cannibal elves.
Plebian taste!

This has been an association specifically with wood elves coming from the original myth of the Fair Folk, in fantasy settings its quite prominent in warhammer and elderscrolls so id say its not a deviation from mainstream fantasy.

Gotta say not a big fan of the indirect speech either tho i must say its not as bad as i thought.
In general the writing has improved. However it ofthen feels a bit on the nose with the drama.
There is only so much desperation you can pack into one place, fort joys stories are a bit overkill in that direction.

On the other hand id have liked to maybe even add a little more horror. A basement full of blood is a bit... again on the nose.

Elves in previous Divinity games also didn't look like they were literally tree people and they didn't have horns. It's like Larian goes out of its way to deliberately wipe their minds out of all previous continuity between games.

Just pretend that these are Dryads which are calling themselves Elves.

Raze will be back imminently, I'm sure he'll oblige.

I can't create subforums myself, which is probably as well as chaos would ensue.

The hell?
I would say it contains too much combat, there needs to be more questing and talking compared to combat... combat is pretty much everywhere now, and the amount of quests is meager.

Red Prince needs gold badly!
Seriously, there's pretty much no gold to be had anywhere. When I do find skill sellers, I can't afford to buy anything more than 50 gold without breaking my bank. I've roamed around stealing everything I can find in the Magister fort and all the weapons and gear I've found sell for pathetically small amounts, not even approaching 10 gold.




I'll say that it needs at least one more "Level 1" and one more "Level 2" combat encounter. At the moment it seems like you need to do just about every single prison quest to go from level 2 to level 3. Even then that's probably just enough scrape over the line. I don't think that there ARE any level 1 combat encounters except the viscous voidlings at the start or any level 2 combat encounters except the Turtles in the hidden alcove, everything else is level 3.

Even doing most of the quests I could find, I still needed to beat two level 3 combat encounters to advance to level 3.

Also the so-called "Level 3" encounter with "Charged Frogs" hidden in a cave is really a much higher difficulty than the frogs "Level 3" indicates. In fairness it's totally optional, and you need to clear a barrier and ignore many warning signs before blundering into it, but it still seems excessively difficult.

My personal theory is that these Elves are just a specific group of elves with their own culture and history.

Which for a fantasy setting is unheard of (ALL races that aren't human typically have ONE culture)

@Stabbey
The vendors aren't really that hard to find, here is a list I've been compiling of npcs. http://divinity.wikia.com/wiki/Characters_in_Divinity:_Original_Sin_2

The gold also isn't really that difficult to find, steal portraits from the fort and sell them.

Also during a quest on the island you can find a room with a bunch of piles of gold and it'll give you like 3k, I can't remember the quest name at this moment though.

The frogs probably aren't really meant to be fought too early, they are quite strong, perhaps with some grenades or arrows it'd be easier.

I love the cannibal elves...

I kind of wish the Elves would reflect this a bit more.

They are an entire species who gain the memories of the people they eat as IF they were their own...

And they all partake in that.

-Game depiction-

They are a serious minded folk who like to dress up in fanciful plant styled armor... that is kind of it. (It is kind of weird. Like someone who dresses like a Matador is actually a serious doctor)

Ohh except Sebille who is a total psychopath.

Not that every elf needs to be psychotic, but this sort of thing needs to affect you no matter what.

We don't particularly need encounters (As I said, I think we got too many already) just a few little quests giving XP would do. There were quite a lot of quests to do inside Cyseal (do I remember it correct?) that pretty much made you level 3-4 before leaving the town. Here we got... well... nothing really.

Also I got my money selling 2 very valuable paintings... which are 150 in weight each for some reason.

I would like another combat encounter before the escape. Maybe if you help the elf woman when you enter the first town you can fight against the 2 guys harrasing her?

Huh? You can fight those guys. I did.




I can agree with some more quests, certainly. However, being forced into doing quests as the only practical way to get from level 2 to level 3 without any combat in between gets tiring. Sometimes I'd like a break from questing to kill things.




If Larian's whole "money balancing plan" reads, in full: "Steal all the paintings and sell them", then Larian needs a better plan. That was a bad plan in D:OS 1 and it's a bad plan in D:OS 2.

It also actually doesn't make much sense. What good are paintings to the prisoners in the prison economy? Are they going to hang them on the canvas walls of their stitched-together tents? What the prisoners need is food, water, medicine, weapons, armor. Maybe small, concealable valuables. 8-foot tall paintings, not so much.

This could in fact solve two birds with one stone: Accept a quest to steal supplies from the magisters fort. You return a bunch of prison-useful supplies to someone and can sell the remainder. You get quest experience and some cash to spend.




Knowing where vendors are is not as helpful as you might think when the loot you have sells for under 5 gold a piece.



Fantastic! Not terribly helpful for the early game. The early game combat can get repetitive because you're stuck with only the level 1 options for ages.




Yes, clearly they're not meant to be fought too early, and yet they're tagged with the same difficulty marker "Level 3" as the crocodiles.

Well, if you want fights, the option is there, there are fights literally everywhere... throw a bucket around, hit another fight.

Quests on the other hand not so much. Cyseal has quite a few but I have yet to actually finish a quest that doesn't complete on the spot (like killing those 2 guys at the start harassing the elf yeah). Meanwhile I'm level 5 and have murdered about 50% of the population in the fort (without even using force attack).

This game definitely needs itemization I hate having to search through my entire inventory to find one item. I hope to see a sort button to sort everything.

As far as the dialog I like some thing but don't like when everyone is forced to chime in and there is like 2 options for everyone. Like... Oh we're going into battle nice knowing ya.... Yea I'm glad we get to die together.... cheers mates..... wait who said anything about dieing?... end dialog. I just think there could be some improvement but overall I don't mind it.

I wish drop rates would be improved. I had one playthrough that I was getting nothing but garbage and simple shirts the entire time through. Then another that I picked up like 50 gold in the first 30 second on the beach and they both had the same luck. Either way if I'm playing a fighter I should be able to find heavier armor easier without having to buy everything from someone.

I do wish there was maybe one or two more small quests before you leave the fort if you really want to fight someone fight Griff and then you pretty much end up fighting the whole town. I'd wait until you're level 3 though.

I know it's alpha and they will have more origins coming but I really wish there were more companions to take with you at the get go. A dwarf would be nice. Every party needs a dwarf.

The camera has a lot of trouble in the jungle or areas with high rocks that are above you causing you to turn around and have to rotate your camera around to get through. I just think it needs a little tweaking.

those are just a few of my thoughts but overall I do like the game it is fun and I'm looking forward to seeing what is to come.

I do like the game. I hate that now that I've escaped prison, basically every magister/patrolman now wants to kill me. Maybe a disguise or something to avoid their wrath and still be able to wander into "town"?

If ONLY you could steal their armor and clothing... But alas that would be impossible as it is fused to their skin :P