Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) Suggestions Glitchy Game

Hey all!

I have just started playing Beyond Divinity in the last few weeks, and I really love the game. Lots of depth, cool graphics, and I really like the music.

I do have one major complaint, though. What is up with all the "known problems" I see as I read the forums? Now I realize that many of these issues have been fixed with recent patches, but there are still glitches (I just discovered the annoying little "black fog returns to cover all of my mini-map and auto-map" problem). Granted, it's not that big of a deal, but it shouldn't happen, should it?

As I read back on some of the old forums, I see issues about skills not working, NPC's disappearing, quest items not showing up, or disappearing, game crashes, problems requiring changing computer settings halfway through the game, and so on.

So after all these patches, there are still some glitches; and I have to ask myself: What did this game look like when it first came out?!?!? Who at Larian Studios let this game out the door with all these problems? Seems to me like Larian needs to fire their QA team before they try to release their next game. I don't play tons of computer games, but when I do, I always look for the latest patches. I've seen 1.01, even as high as 1.08, but 1.47?!? And there are still glitches?!?!? Did BD just need a few more months of work? Such a great game deserved to have a bit more time in programming, I think.

I read a number of reviews on this game and all of the reviewers said that they liked the game, that it had a lot going for it, but that it had a lot of glitches. Maybe that's why I never heard of this game before seeing it on the pre-played section of my local game store. BD could have been noteworthy, had more popularity, could have been a name that people instantly recognize (think Diablo), but instead it was released seemingly only 85% finished, and only the die-hard fans know of BD, instead.

Now, I realize that I am new to this game, new to Larian games, so please, if there is something I don't know, or a situation I am not familiar with, let me know. I like BD enough, that I will probably go for Larian's new game whenever it comes out, and probably even go looking for a copy of DD, but as a new gamer to this genre, this is my first impression.

Any comments?

[color:"orange"]I don't play tons of computer games, but when I do, I always look for the latest patches. I've seen 1.01, even as high as 1.08, but 1.47?!?[/color]

I'm sure you realize there were not 47 patches (the PatchLog.txt file lists all the patches and what was fixed or changed/added). The English version of the game was released at v1.1, then came the 1.2 and 1.3 patches. The second digit was added for smaller updates that were generally released quit soon after the previous patch (the latest version could have been written 1.04.7, which doesn't look nearly as 'bad').


[color:"orange"]And there are still glitches?!?!? Did BD just need a few more months of work?[/color]

Another month or two probably would have helped (as with most games), but release dates are set based on estimations which are notoriously had to predict for large software programs. For example, the BF took more time than originally planned for, and at one point the Larians stated that the BF quests might not make it into the final game. In this case the publisher agreed to extend the release to re-do the voices and incorporate other feedback from the demo, but this didn't really add much extra time for other things.

Even with unlimited time, however, a reasonable number of beta testers can not find every problem. There is always going to be some combination of things or out of order sequence that nobody thought to try. Also, the testing is done on a limited number of computers with a limited combination of drivers and background programs, so it is impossible to find all potential conflicts and system related technical problems.


Any change has the potential to directly or indirectly cause unexpected problems somewhere else. In the case of a cosmetic problem, such as the BF fog of war sometimes being reset, the amount of work that would be required to fix the problem may not be worth the effort. The issue may require significant changes or changes to a lot of places, which would require testing. These changes may cause other problems, or break code that was not touched, which would then need to be fixed and everything tested again. Even for more serious but uncommon problems, there comes a point when the benefits of fixing the bug are outweighed by the potential to cause other critical or more widespread issues.

As always, Raze, thank you for your useful response. I oughta just begin my posts with, "Dear Raze..." lol... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for letting me see the other side of the coin, as it were. I figured that there weren't 47 patches, but I also didn't realize 1.2 & 1.3 were foreign language releases. That's makes things a bit more understandable, as does the explanation about effort/reward on the programmer's part.

Still, though, seems a few of the larger glitches I have read about ought not to have been able to get past the front door, i.e. lockpick skill not working?!? You telling me that none of the beta testers didn't think to try to pick the lock on a door or barrel? On some of the minor frustrations, I say, "ok, I understand no one thought of that, or didn't have my computer configuration", or whatever, but if you advertise a skill in the instructions, the game had best dang well have that skill up and running right out of the box when I start to play, you know?

Please don't get me wrong, as I stated before, I really like this game, these are just a few observations I have made.

No, 1.2 and 1.3 were English patches after the 1.1 version initial release. The Larians would rather release patches as things were fixed or if common problems cropped up (to help the affected people as quickly as possible), rather than try to resolve everything first and just release one patch. Of course ideally you would want to deal with all known issues before release, and just have weird glitches, exploits or balancing issues to deal with in a patch.

The Lockpick skill was known to be broken before release. In earlier versions of the game there were no locked barrels, and very few locked chests that did not have a key, so this did not pose a serious problem (except to those wanting to play a thief type character).
I can not speak for Larian and do not know what was required to finish implementing and/or fix Lockpick, but presumably they kept a list of things needing to be finished, tested or fixed before release and prioritized them to devote resources to the most important ones first. After release of the demo and game they added some stuff based on feedback. As seemingly obvious as a broken skill is, it just took awhile before Lockpick rose to the top of the list of things to do.