Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Beta The loss of Day & Night Schedules.

Where can I read about the loss of day and night schedules? I've skimmed the Kickstarter updates and must have missed it, or is there somewhere else they post dev news?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin/posts/792142

"Due to time and budgetary constraints, we have chosen not to implement day/night cycles for the launch of Divinity: Original Sin.

This was no easy decision, but in the end, resources had to be allocated toward stability and bugfixing in order to release a content-heavy, technically smooth game (almost) on time.

We realize our fans and backers will be understandably bummed by this news, but we hope to make it up to you with a game that we are proud to release and you will feel proud to have supported.

If you'd like to read more about the reasoning behind the decision to forego day/night cycles, head over to Swen's blog for a more thorough explanation(http://www.lar.net/2014/03/28/here-we-go/)"

i agree. a cosmetic-only day/night cycle is better than none at all.

@larian: give us day and night, please ;-)

also dynamic rain

I just want to make sure you know I didn't ignore your post (as you obviously spent a lot of time typing it out). But I don't agree with your analysis of either game, which is undermining everything else that is being said. We're going to have to agree to disagree on this one.


When the beta patch notes said "- Added environment/weather system", I really thought we were getting dynamic weather. Now I'm confused and wondering what they meant by that change/addition that wasn't in the game already.

I've completed the very first alpha and now the current beta release of Divinity: Original Sin, so I think I can pretty much see the "delta" changes which have been done during these two versions of the game.
I have to admit, that I've tested most of the time only singleplayer, maybe like 2-3 hours the coop multiplayer.
Steam shows a total of 39 hours I've spent to the game, so I must clearly seem to love it

Why all the statistics/numbers?

The feedback I now give about the topic of lacking NPC schedules / realistic world simulation should not sound like a simple troll post: it's based on my long time expierence with the game (series) or RPGs in general. As some of you might know, I'm a huge classic Ultima series geek.

Back to the Original Sin.
I came to my own end-result that the world really doesn't seem to be realistic at all, if you spent a couple of hours into it. The NPCs are (obvious) "placed" into the world like "puppets". Assuredly, they have excellent dialoges and their stories / backgrounds feel like they're part of that simulated world. Except from "combat" stuff they don't react much to you. Do Cyseal's guards react if're you're busting doors in the city? Do they react if you cast rain on them? No. Yes, they do react on pickpocketing / stealing. And all this behaviour really depends on the npc(s) which is near the location you're acting (obvious). I wish this kind of stuff, which hasn't to do much which schedules should be fine-tuned till release.

What about their current behaviour towards the world? Let's look on one of the more complex ncps: the mayor (Minor spoiler warning!). The mayor moves from left (a book shelf) to the right (his desk). You can talk to him about the library, which is on the upper floor. He can show it to you and moves left (to the stairs) and "beams" to the upper floor. After you talked to him on the upper floor he moves back. He also reacts if you kill Victoria in the library and will walk to the place of her death. (On a side note: if you resurrect Victoria after killing her the mayor still reacts like she's dead). Why this is example?

This is currently the maximum we get. Most of the other npcs simple stand, the whole time, on one position and do nothing or patrolling from spot A to B.

Outside of the town, 95% of npcs you meet in the wildness are enemies. No traveling merchants for example, no (dynamic) "side-events".

The King Crab Tavern doesn't feel like a tavern for me. Nobody is eating / drinking / talking / sitting together. There should be also some kind of traditional bard, making music or telling stories. I mean basic roleplaying / adventure "stuff" which makes you to feel the world more realistic. Nitpicking? Maybe.

Another one: at one spot you can meet the npc Eglandaer. If you talk to him he asks you to meet him at the tavern. If you follow him to a special point he "beams" away, but you'll find him in his room later on the upper floor. Btw if you finish his quest he will also leave the floor and suddenly disappears.

The weather system, if I can call it like that, is there yes. But it doesn't work as I think it should work. For example if it's raining (non-casted) the rain should kill all the flames / fire. Snow (not in beta) for example should ice water / sea to a special point. And so on...

To (finally) come to the point: yes, I'll really miss the promised, 1 million stretch goal NPC schedules or a "working" simulated world feeling. And yes, I would be happy if Larian will delay the game again to implement this feature (because I highly doubt the editor will be able to allow us, the community such deep scripting, because this topic isn't on focus). Should fixing bugs on priority? Absolutely yes, but for me it feels only as an excuse to get the game early out of the door (to obviously save "some" money). Maybe it was an error to announce that stretch goal? But how many have backed because of that stretch goal? Hard to tell now. Personally I think it's not "clever" to handle the backers like that.

Larian, right now you have a rough, angularly, non-sharped diamond, with the NPC schedules + other simulated features (proper weather system for example) it would be a Cullinan diamond. Peace.

Thank you! No wonder I missed that, they really snuck it in there...

And, if this would have been a new Baldur's Gate, as the Press seems to position the game, then I guess that's not a big deal...

But since Larian themselves said that this was going to be a new Ultima 7, it's one hell of a big deal, so I thought that it at least would get its own headline.

Let's hope the sales will be good so there will be a Original Sin 2.0 that puts the cycles and schedules back in.

(PS. I'm not in favor of cosmetic day/night cycle if it doesn't have any impact on the gameplay.)

EDIT: Ah, it's mentioned in the video too. Well, fingers crossed for a version 2.0, because without it, it's simply not a spiritual sequel to Ultima 7, imo (which is what sold me on it).

PPS. Do the NPCs at least open and shut windows when it begins to rain?

+1, definitely
Just another RPG. So close to a great one :-(

First: I'm really enjoying D:OS. I love Larian's transparent and honest communication with players, and I completely understand they're working on an extremely tight budget/timeframe (considering the scope of the project and the size of their team).

Now that that's out of the way, I also have to admit I'm pretty disappointed in the lack of realism/interactivity with the world, especially for a game branding itself as the Next Ultima 7 over twenty years later. I'm not only talking about NPC schedules here. I mean some of the little things Nemisis Dragon mentioned (there's no bard or people sitting/eating/drinking in the tavern, quest NPCs simply disappear/walk through objects and walls when leaving the scene, etc.). NPCs in general have no reaction to the weather (or what limited weather there is), to you smashing or fireballing doors and containers right next to them (as long as the targets aren't marked as "owned"), to you sneaking about six inches behind their back (even with no points in the Sneaking ability) and robbing them blind as your party loiters a few feet away... you get the idea.

Unless some major changes are made before the release - and they almost definitely won't be, as we're already in beta - I guess we'll have to settle for a fun little game with good turn-based combat, with a fairly well-developed elemental system the only method of truly interacting with the game world. Again, I really like Larian, and I'm enjoying D:OS, but a true spiritual sequel to Ultima 7 it's not.

Anyway, back to Cyseal - got some more skulls to bash.