Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Qn to writers: How do you all intend to tie in...

He didn't say why he left, but I speculate that it is because they cut 50% of his writing for PoE. He only wrote Durance and Grieving Mother and most of his content for them was cut. They were still better than everything else in the game even while unfinished. This isn't the first time he leaves a company.

He's got 9 lives

EDIT:
I also call hogwash on above's post.

EDIT2:
Also the hatred for MP has nothing, again, NOTHING at all to do with 'consolidation'. It has to do with pulling away resources from SP to create a crappy MP to shoehorn in. Worst offender: Mass Effect 3. And D:OS is obviously also proof that you can't simply make a MP-game SP; a LOT of people had/have serious issues with things like the split-personality discussions with yourself or doing the RPS-minigame for SP. It really depended on how well you could put yourself over that, or, like me, you even liked having 2 people to merge to your own will (now if only choices didn't alter stats, but that's another discussion).

As already stated upon, D:OS2 will also *heavily* do this with it's PvP and potential DM-modes. That's not something you want money and time wasted to if you're backing a single-player centred game.

Well, I have to disagree: I would say his companions were the more tiresome party members. We know this kind of characters since PT, but it's still sad to read, even if it was for the better.


@Hassat Hunter

I disagree, the SP worked quite well, but the game gained a lot of depth, when you played it in MP. Because every new game I started with another player felt different, even when I knew the game in and out. The mechanics are still the same, so I would say Larian isn't weakening the SP, they just put extrawork in the MP, that isn't necessary but appreciated.


@Octu

You forgot Dragon Commander.

Yes it is a bit confusing, but they wanted to create big sprawling worlds and games like Ultima .

But seriously: If you take a look at the history of the company it kind of explains why they did, what they did. Dragon Commander and Original Sin were created to found Divinity 3, until Original Sin became a big project. Beyond Divinity was only developed to rescue Larian from shutting down (that's why it's not Divinity 2), after they got no money from Divine Divinity. It's quite an interesting lecture if you read the developers diary in the Developers Cut.

Why? Because they were actual people with flaws and personalities? *Any* writing isn't made for you to "like" or not. Art isn't Facebook. Durance and Grieving Mother exist and are well-written regardless of my/your personal feelings towards them.

No, because they were one-note characters, that only muttered one phrase all the time. Durance was the godhating, rude, jerk of the group, who hated everyone and Grieving Mother is the overspaced, drugged person, who talks in flowery prose and uses some of Kreias tricks from Kotor 2.

If you combine them you would get Kreia, who was an actual complex person. You didn't like her, but she had some good points and you knew that she wanted only the best in her own, cynical, stubborn ways. And since the relationship between her and the Exile is something of an Mother/Child-Relationship, the Exile may also learned to love her or at least feeling at least pity for Kreia in her more vulnerable moments.

She was always Chris Avellones Masterpiece but Durance and Grieving Mothers are just a shadow of this and they get on your nerves, because you already know, that they will have a very dark secret and do some questionable thing and neither of them gets real character development. They are and always will be the group members nobody likes ... without the complexity of Kreia.

On the one hand, Chris Avellone deserve to be known as a good game writer. Even though, PoE rather weak in part of companions.
Really don't know, is he responsible for that? No one will know, because it is matter of professional ethic. I think, it is not very good, to discuss the subject.
Any way, everybody has ups and downs.

On the other, He can influence too much on new writer due to huge authority. It will be good, if he brings some sort of challenge for them, like: "Oh, good, I have chance to write really good stuff and kick Chris ass!" And it will be bad, if they will try to blindly follow him.

By the way, Divinity series has... think of words... has its own unique language.
My native language is not english, but I think I know it rather well (for russian) and try to play games in english. For me, to understand text in Divinity: Original sin was harder than in PoE, Wasteland 2, BG and even in Planescape Torment. DOS has more vivid and artistic text. Hope, Larian manage to remain it.

In any case, Chris has already brought to kickstarter couple hundreds of dollars =)



I agree, Larian manage to keep SP interesting. I've played only SP - have no friends who like normal rpg =D
Many games have MP or coop functions. RPG stay bihind in that plan, but it will change obviously. The thing is How it will be made?

I hope, Larian will bring live to scheme 4 player coop + Dungeon Master and it will become some sort of industry standart.
Besides it'll bring new game expirience to players, it also can be interesting on streams. Viewer can vout for DM actions =)

By the way, some people could like to be a DM and to provide interesting quests. It can become a sort of hobby for someone. And even more. Now some people can make money for streams, producing game videos and etc. Maybe in future besides of Broadcasters, streamers, videomakers there will be new sort of people - Virtual Dangeon Masters?



When Larian named Dragon commander, The Lord of Chaos was on vacation =)
But they always can make game like "Divinity: Dragon Commander: Genesis: Enhanced Edition: Director's cut" and place it between "Beyond Beyound Divinity" and "Divinity: Original Sin 2 presequel" =D
After that, Swen Vincke will meet Zandalor and they start to gather Council of Seven =)

But seriously: C'est la via =)

I'm comparing Durance and GM to the rest of the NPCs in PoE, not to all writing ever. They felt shallow because they cut 50% out of their content and they STILL were the best written *in PoE*. You are confusing consistent with "one-note" which is a misnomer.

@Octu

Yes, Larian has fun with the english language, that's why everyone has a high vocabular and it's part of the fun^^.


@Lacrymas

Maybe we could continue this discussion over PM, so the discussion doesn't drift to much away from the initial topic ?

@HassatHunter

While I agree with you on the roleplaying two character bits I think that Larian managed to fix that with the personalities for your second char later on. That way you could play DOS very much like a SP experience. Only the seperated gold stash was really annoying imo.