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I loved the ending (don't get me wrong. lol. It made me feel angry and all, but I loved the sick twist!.).

A year ago or so, I bought an activation key from the Larian Vault for flames of vengeance, and I was foolish enough not to download it instantly. Due to my procrastination, here I am, a year and a half later, not sure what to do.

I want the original Ego Draconis to remain what it is (I don't wanna deal with the changes right now. I want to preserve the tradition Ego Draconis programming for now.)

Will downloading flames of vengeance automatically update everything in my original game?



Thanks for whatever reply.


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I don't think so. I downloaded FoV and was able to continue my game unmolested; it wasn't until I downloaded the patch to update the whole ensemble to DKS that I had to restart from the beginning, though I think the difficulty of DKS was better balanced overall.


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I liked the ending of D2:ED, as well.

Installing FoV will apply some of the graphics and engine updates to the D2:ED part of the game. I'm not sure exactly if or what that may change in terms of content or gameplay, though. Most people were interested in what was not added with the add-on, rather than what was, to decide if they wanted to get FoV (and then maybe the conversion patch) or DKS.

You can download FoV, though, and not install it until you are ready to continue with a character into the add-on, or want to see the changes in D2:ED.


From D2:ED + FoV vs DKS?:

Originally Posted by Lar_q
Flames of Vengeance retroactively applies many changes which are introduced in DKS also to Ego Draconis. Most engine changes for instance are immediately present in Ego Draconis. To maintain compatibility with existing savegames however, there are a number of things which aren't changed when you install FOV. These are:

Enemy placement and balancing (massive overhaul)
Loot and set-items (complete overhaul)
Story and scripting changes (e.g. in DKS flying fortress gameplay is very different to ED)
Art changes in Ego Draconis (though you do get the advantage of better lighting & shading)

In general, if you played or finished Ego Draconis and don't want to start over again, get FOV.

If you don't mind starting over again, get DKS, in which the total gameplay experience is in my opinion much more stream-lined.

There's no big differences between the FOV content in DKS and the FOV content applied to ED.

Originally Posted by Lar_q
Ok, let's me try again - it's pretty clear when you play it but somehow I find it very hard to write it down:

The Dragon Knight Saga has been approached as if it were an entire new game from the point of view of the core item-fever & hack and slash parts of the gameplay as well as getting rid of those areas that we considered to be "boring" in Ego Draconis. We've upgraded the engine, upgrade the graphics, upgraded the audio, changed the levels, changed the balancing, modified several features and where possible applied those changes to both Ego Draconis and Flames Of Vengeance. Additionally, on the 360, we changed almost the entire interface, modified the levels and gameplay to increase performance, changed the camera system/controls, and made sure the 360 has its a different balancing than the PC version as both platforms play differently. If on PC it plays more "streamlined", on 360 it's almost as if it's a different (and better) game.

Since its a pretty big redesign of several parts of Ego Draconis, it's impossible to convert Ego Draconis in The Dragon Knight Saga with just a patch - for that there are too many changes - but those areas of the game that we can change, without affecting the existing savegames, we've tried to change through the upcoming patch. For instance, if you install FOV, you get a better-looking Ego Draconis, and also the engine improvements. A patch which would bring ED to DKS would consist of replacing almost every single file, and it's guarnateed that you wouldn't be able to play any of your previous saves.

So D2:ED + FoV (which includes patch) does not equal DKS, but it's as close as we can get it without destroying the save-games.

For people who don't buy FOV, we'll provide a D2:ED patch, but I need to add that it's up to the various publishers to release it.

The intended audience of DKS consists primarily of people who didn't buy D2:ED, but in the same breath I have to say that I think that all the changes done make the entire experience more fun and I wished we could've launched DKS as ED.

I hope you can still follow and this makes sense to you wink

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Originally Posted by Raze


You can download FoV, though, and not install it until you are ready to continue with a character into the add-on, or want to see the changes in D2:ED.





This sounds cool. But let me just clarify please, if you don't mind.

Does this mean I can download Flames of Vengeance and keep it in my computer, and then install it AFTERWARDS (even if I don't have internet access) to truly see the changes?


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I'm not sure if FoV needs to be activated, or not. DRM was removed from DKS, but contractual issues prevented the removal from D2:ED. You can check with support@larian.com; if you are also installing the conversion patch and then the DKS DRM free patch after installing FoV you would not need internet access.

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Currently FoV still needs to be activated online, and if you log into your Larian Vault account you can find the key. When Securom was removed from DKS there were publisher issues which prevented FoV from being updated, but that is no longer the case. I'm not sure about a timeline, but you may want to hold off downloading the add-on for awhile, if you're not going to install it right away.

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Originally Posted by Raze

Currently FoV still needs to be activated online, and if you log into your Larian Vault account you can find the key. When Securom was removed from DKS there were publisher issues which prevented FoV from being updated, but that is no longer the case. I'm not sure about a timeline, but you may want to hold off downloading the add-on for awhile, if you're not going to install it right away.




Thank you, but it's okay. I'm too impatient. lol. I've played enough of Ego Draconis.



My Drrragon vants revenge!!


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Originally Posted by Vometia
I don't think so. I downloaded FoV and was able to continue my game unmolested; it wasn't until I downloaded the patch to update the whole ensemble to DKS that I had to restart from the beginning, though I think the difficulty of DKS was better balanced overall.




Better balanced as in it's easier or harder?


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Overall DKS is a little easier, but a harder difficulty level was added to compensate.

In D2:ED there was a strong character level effect to combat, so opponents more than a few levels above you were impossible, and more than a few below could not hurt you (making for boring combat). In DKS the effect was reduced, so that higher level opponents were tough but not invulnerable, and groups of weak opponents could still be a bit of a threat.

There were some changes made to quest experience in DKS to make levelling a little easier at the start of the game (to address the difficulty spike when getting access to the full Broken Valley) and opponents at the start of the fjords were changed and the experience increased to help with the difficulty increase then (though not nearly as many people had trouble there), etc.
In D2:ED, for example, I got access to the full Broken Valley on level 6 (after doing everything I could), and a couple of the opponents in the dragon sequence brought me up to level 7; In DKS I got to level 7 just after the dragon sequence, but with lots of quests left to turn in.

There were additional sets and lots of unique equipment added in DKS, which can make the game a little easier. Playing a ranger, once I got the first unique bow available I never saw random loot that came close to being a replacement. Some of the ranger skills were made less effective, though (not sure how overpowered they were in D2:ED, since I played a warrior).

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Originally Posted by Raze

Overall DKS is a little easier, but a harder difficulty level was added to compensate.

In D2:ED there was a strong character level effect to combat, so opponents more than a few levels above you were impossible, and more than a few below could not hurt you (making for boring combat). In DKS the effect was reduced, so that higher level opponents were tough but not invulnerable, and groups of weak opponents could still be a bit of a threat.

There were some changes made to quest experience in DKS to make levelling a little easier at the start of the game (to address the difficulty spike when getting access to the full Broken Valley) and opponents at the start of the fjords were changed and the experience increased to help with the difficulty increase then (though not nearly as many people had trouble there), etc.
In D2:ED, for example, I got access to the full Broken Valley on level 6 (after doing everything I could), and a couple of the opponents in the dragon sequence brought me up to level 7; In DKS I got to level 7 just after the dragon sequence, but with lots of quests left to turn in.

There were additional sets and lots of unique equipment added in DKS, which can make the game a little easier. Playing a ranger, once I got the first unique bow available I never saw random loot that came close to being a replacement. Some of the ranger skills were made less effective, though (not sure how overpowered they were in D2:ED, since I played a warrior).




Thank you always for the informative replies!


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Originally Posted by Raze
There were additional sets and lots of unique equipment added in DKS, which can make the game a little easier. Playing a ranger, once I got the first unique bow available I never saw random loot that came close to being a replacement. Some of the ranger skills were made less effective, though (not sure how overpowered they were in D2:ED, since I played a warrior).

I have a distant memory of some of the ranger skills being overpowered, but it's too long ago for me to remember clearly.

One thing I did notice with DKS is that there's a slightly unexpected difficulty curve in the 20s I think, so it's a lot easier to get going and make some major headway, but for a time I had a bit of a headache with the forts, not helped by the new arrangements resulting in me being mobbed when I was on foot! I have to say I did enjoy DKS more than ED: although my first play-throughs were sometimes quite satisfying when I managed to overcome a challenge, they were often very frustrating. I don't think I've ever died quite as often in a video game as I did in Ego Draconis.


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Originally Posted by Vometia
[quote=Raze] I don't think I've ever died quite as often in a video game as I did in Ego Draconis.




What an extremely honest statement! I feel your pain. Sometimes I just charge in to a group of impossible mobs and let myself die so that I'd know what their strategy is. So intense.


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In Ego Draconis, there was a big difficulty spike right after meeting Talana, and in DKS, that's changed and there's a lesser spike around level 10 or so

The difficulty spikes in DKS are mostly when fighting Black Ring, which makes sense, they're an organized army so it's fitting that they're harder than other enemies at the same level.

In DKS there's another big difficulty spike for the Flying Fortresses at about level 26, again because of Black Ring.


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