Larian Studios Forums Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis (English) Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis Loot/Drops -- Issues

I think the real-time aspect of combat is fairly fundamental to the design, so it would be unlikely to change dramatically. However, there is going to be the ability to pause the game, and some kind of 'bullet time' like function (Lar mentions this in the topic News from the front and a follow-up post, but there have not been a lot of details on the combat system released yet).


Welcome to the forum.

Interested in trying out Divinity 2: Ego Draconis?
Very unlikely to change if they have a playable form of the engine. Just pointing out the potential flaws of real time.
'Tales of the World (psp) & 'Dungeon Siege' (pc, http://www.gaspowered.com/ds1/content.php?loc=requirements ) were good for me, in terms of controlling the party. Dungeon Siege 2 (pc, http://www.gaspowered.com/ds2/minspec.php), Neverwinter Nights 1&2, Summoner 1 & 2, Persona 3, Ephemeral Phantasia, Dragon Quest VIII (monster arena), .hack//:infection, PSU: Ambition of the Illuminus for PS2, the party AI controls caused far more trouble. (in spite of better hardware requirements ). Often other party members will execute the current command at most, & then return to AI based incompetence. Manual control FTW.

I do agree with the original poster, for loot balancing. Just posting here, because topic mentioned party's.

Nevererwinter 1 &2 are PC (poor with mods), others are PS2 unless stated otherwise.

The original Neverwinter Nights was never a party-based game, and it was fan-tas-tic. One of the best RPG's ever, IMHO. NWN2, however, was a let-down. Dungeon Siege was ok, but in that game, the annoying thing was just that the party AI was so good. If you played it right, at some point your player character didn't need to do anything anymore except run somewhere and let his/her party do its job. That was boring. And to be honest, it wasn't really a sign that it was good, it was just that that game was so simple that there was never really any other choice. If you got a mage, it was always the same spell, got a healer, always the same spell, and everyone always had more than enough potions (whether it was mana or health) from autoloot to keep going forever. It was just dull. In fact, in the sequel they tried their best to avoid just that, because it had been the biggest complaint from their fanbase.

If you think Dungeon Siege was a good Party-based game and the NWN's aren't, then you just have to realize that you don't like party-based games. in Dungeon Siege, the party was a non-issue. It's only in games where parties start to matter, like the Baldur's Gate series and NWN2, that you can really enjoy them. (even though I didn't like NWN2 that much, but that was not because of the party, I loved that aspect of it)

PS:T is the greatest of all party-based CRPGs. And arguably the best CRPG full stop.

Arguably. It is up there. Personally I favor Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.

I'm not an all-round RPG-fan, though. Games like Diablo and Titan Quest lie in my closet collecting dust. Not much RPG in them I fear, and if it's not RPG, it has to be 3rd person or I can never enjoy it. Even my RPG's I mostly love in third person. Gothic II, anyone?

Yes, Gothic 2 is a good game.


I just wanted to post a short remark about loot in the game :

I think it would be a good idea to make those items "lootable", which the enemies actually bear.

I also think it would be a good idea to let enemies have only items for looting which are reasonable for them to carry.

An Orc with a beautiful flower would be ... odd. But it could also be used as a kind of teasing towards the players who cling too much on clichés in terms of loot.

hey, the beautiful flower would be great... like, you kill an orc, and he drops a rose and a love note to Zahira, you ask around town about Zahira, find her living in some swamp, look for the pigface, and deliver the note (of course lying to her about the circumstances of the orc's death)... and it just so happens the letter told her about the location of... (continue quest series).

But yeah, I don't want to see every clothing item of every foe fall when you kill him, like in TES, but it would definitely be cool if the loot foes dropped could be mostly usable stuff (like currency or crafting materials), and the 'bosses' or the more difficult foes drop their own special armor, or weapon. It's kind of annoying when you're playing this game, and you see an enemy and say "wow, I wish I could get that weapon", turns out it's only for such-and-such foe. No killing an ice mage and looting a fiery sword of Axe Mastery! Oh, Guild Wars.

When characters not under direct control go to a door to draw my attention to enemies behind it, & get hit by a trap in front of it (NWN 2). Even the tiefling thief. This is ok, but a party that fights effectively, & only splits up if you want them to, is bad?
I like some party based games. What I don't like is bad controls. With most AI controlled characters fighting like morons (although disarming traps can also suffer - not just combat), the quality of the few that don't is probably enhanced in comparison. Summoner 1 has an optional fight with golems. Not much room to manoeuvre, but at their speed 1 survivor? Who ever you aren't controlling doesn't even try to hit from range/ behind.

I've never found it a problem, using commands and common sense. the pathfinding of party members in NWN 2 is something that always bothered me, and there are obvious interaction bugs that still haven't been taken care of, but it's still infinitely better than dungeon siege, why? Because the things causing all those problems are the things dungeon siege doesn't have... the indoor questing and pathfinding, the traps, the interaction between party members... In fact, nothing about NWN's party system really bugged me at all, it was mostly the graphics, colors, a few bugs and animations that annoyed me.

I have to say, I don't mind taking a few more hits due to bad AI and I don't mind having my party members walk into a trap or two, if it's a trade off for an infinitely more interesting and profound gaming experience.

If you want a party based game where your party members' AI is the best, play Demon Stone. You'll usually be the weaker link in your party, whichever one you're playing. It doesn't make the game more fun... in fact, it makes it less fun.

But don't put Dungeon Siege in the same league as NWN. It would be an affront to RPG's.