Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) Suggestions Riftrunner Suggestions 9/2/03

it never really left your mind, eh jurak? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

oh no....... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

i'd probably gain 50 lbs owning that chair! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

That chair would increase your humour and your haemorrhoids too. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />
They say you shall be sitting on the woofers.
Drums, drums ... give me a break. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

can only imagine jurak with his haemorrhoids......

JUMPING HAEMORRHOIDS!! jurak screamed & winced as the woofer booms the tunnel. dang that ball resonating woofer & haemorroids! but it hurts so good..... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif" alt="" />

I agree, autosave was also available in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" />.



Sounds good for me aswell, and I guess it will be in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/riftrunner.gif" alt="" /> aswell!



That's licensing question I guess, but why not? But not all players own a creative soundcard.



100% agree. I'm for a clothmap, not a map like it was in Morrowind the case. But that's probably a publisher question, if there will be a map or not.



That's already confirmed by Larian.



I'm normally also for notes in journals, but the journal in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> was that great that there was no need for personal notes.
What do you mean about the minimap? I don't get. Do you want be able to put notes on that aswell? Or what do you mean with record?



Such kind of things are there to improve the game's atmosphere a lot. So I'm also for it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />



You mean, like in Silent Hill 2 for example, that you can choose the cutscenes, which you have already seen, in the main menu of the game again and again?



That's also confirmed to my knowledge. There's also a proof in the newest screenshots.



Unfortunately this feature won't be in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/riftrunner.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />
But maybe in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" />² <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />



That's also a nice idea. NPC schedules <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />



Normally I would agree, but we have no knowledge about the combat system yet. If this feature wouldn't fit to this new system I couldn't agree. Let's wait and see <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />



I agree completly, very nice suggestion. That also improves the re-playability a lot.



Yeah, you played too much, like myself, Ultima Online eh? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Doing my job. Maybe I'll expain it later.

Yeah, btw, I noticed you composed some music. If I had a better connection I'd download some to hear...
Still I am puzzled by your idea of having a playable instrument in the game: there are less people who know how to play stuff than those who do.

The instrument could tie into certain skills. But if the game has a heavy combat component, pulling out a lute in combat is going to look very strange.

Of course not in combat HandEFood, however IIRC in Zelda Legend, the hero used a magical musical instrument to teleport him to different places depending on the tune. Naturally the consol player only selected a destination then the avatar would pull out the instrument to summon his magical transportation.

That could be good, music in magic. My first thought was Charm, but it doesn't work practically in combat. It could also be quest related (eg. rain dance).

You also have the Harry-Potter sleeping beast tune effect.
It is a concept in which the entrance to a quest location is guarded by an invincible beast that would let you in only if you play for him music from a certain magical instrument that you must acquire first.

It seems musical instruments will only work as quest items. Could there be any common place uses?

Hi HandEFood,
Yes, musical instruments are very good for being enchanted items not only as a target to acquire but to use.
Music is used for summoning creatures when used at a specific place and time with a secret tune and from a very special instrument, so it is not that easy for anyone to use them.
Musical instruments could also work magically on the mind of a seer to enable the seer to enter the mood of remote viewing.
It may work to charm beasts.
Also I remember the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who could drag hordes of rats and mice after his music and off a cliff and when he was not paid he charmed the children and hid them in a mountain cave.

I remember that music had been used very creatively in many stories and it would be very interesting to find some of such concepts in an RPG.

Kindest regards.

So we can summon rats to follow us and fill up a chasm so we can cross? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

It still only has uses in specific locations in the game. But I suppose the same can be technically said for Lock Pick and Pickpocket and Alchemy. So a Musician skill would provide alternate means to progress through certain areas. Could be good.

I like the out-of-body idea. I'm just imagining something like the posession ability in Abe's Odessey. You can possess enemies (where you can get away with it) and move around the map starting from their location (which may be unreachable) and using their abilities (which can include flying and weapons). In Divine Divinity 2, if you need to get past an army of Orcs, but don't have the ability, you can posess one of them and carry the poison barrels over to the army and break them, killing them all. You'd get away with it because you have the perfect disguise.

getting 5 million xp?

or like a cinematic, where it shows you going then them dieing, then 9/10 of the way, your discuise brakes and they charge you,


with about 500,000 xp

You'd have to share it with the Orc, but yeah, why not. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

How about picking out a spot in a market square, and playing for spare change. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
You have to run if the musician's guild catches you doing so without a license, though. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

"11: Rideable creatures ie: Horses
This question was ansered twice with a 'no'."


this would be useful if the gameworld could be expanded to iwd or fallout2 sizes (with a fallout2 type "travelling" interface for riding across expanses) - in fact if a pack mule could be used exactly the way the car was in fallout2 that would be FANTASTIC (random encounters with campers, hunters, roving bands of thieves and the occasional special encounter) - of course the idea could be expanded upon with different kinds of rides (standard horse with small pack advantage, mule with great carrying capacity and possibly a trailer wagon for camping outdoors, a royal steed which would cause more random encounters with thieves... blahblahblah... the possibilities are endless - but then i'm not a programmer and i don't have to work under time restraints :P)...


idunno... i just loved fallout2 and it's openended gameplay and such (i STILL play that game occasionally...)... just seeing fallout2 mentioned in this forum (albeit elsewhere) gives me a big silly grin...

fall out 2 had a huge flaw in its car design even the latest patches could never fix.

When you park your car for battle or arrived at location, you do lose the ability of getting back in the car, and only can touch the boot. For what i was told program forgets where the car is (computers forget?), programming error which they couldn't completely fix. i use to as us australians call it "bush bash" around the landscape having a fun time but always brought problems when issues parking.

any way with my high teq skills on explaining things, the horse program with the same system with f2 would not work, the transport will be different in rr for i believe it be likely to be more bauldar gate style which will clash. (note, ever cheated and gave your characters haste boots and they still travel slow?)

Personally i normally have a drop of area, any thing i didn't want or had too much of, i go to a place easily reached and unloaded it all (ie single player diablo). Personally i would prefer a vault or bank style, classic. Put money, loot in one town, different town and different vault but same stuff (idea stolen from everquest and before that daggerfall lol).

this is my opinon and i could be totaly wrong.

"Personally i would prefer a vault or bank style, classic."

actually the best idea is still divdiv's implementation of houses and barrels/boxes/chests :P the pack horse (even with trailer/trailer wagon) would merely be used to carry some loot/essential armaments/foodstuffs in between points while travelling like an extended version of the player's backpack...

if this idea is to be considered at all (probably for divdiv2 rather than riftrunner) then one could also consider the intelligent use of the horse in combat - say you find an encounter where there is no option to ride quickly away or you simply decide to attack, a character using a ranged weapon/attack may or may not need to get off it's horse but the drawback to that would be that the horse will be targeted for attacks as well as the player (acceptable if you're riding a feeble donkey and the party of raiders you've stumbled upon has a powerful black stallion (and you're sure you'd win the combat)... them having a horse would mean that after engaging in battle/attracting their attention there would be NO way to run away back into the travelling interface... if they have more than one horse and you're all by yourself you'd be forced to send unchosen rides running free into the wild)... thus the horse really won't add much of a tactical advantage during combat unless one adds some sort of weapon based, single-use-per-encounter "charge" attack (which would require a target be a certain distance away) for special rides (or possibly attack bonuses for ranged weapons/attacks for certain randomly encountered rare rides... - i envision attacking with nonranged weapons while on special steeds as a possibility but with negative attack bonuses (and no special move other than the distance-restricted charge attack) unless one learns some kind of "rider" skill which would negate the negative bonus... the horse could be used as somewhat of a damage sponge in that case (although still be prone to powerful chance attacks which could kill it entirely and cause travels to take weeks or months rather than days) and would also be able to run for extended periods of time without needing to slow to a trod or stop and wait for a stamina recovery...)...

just another idea i hope the divdiv team considers for any future title :P the idea of the travelling interface (for travelling in between far off cities or special locations) would mean the gamer would percieve a grand, gigantic, expansive (AND interactive - more so than instant travel teleporters) gaming world so i hope the divdiv team will see it as a viable option (it really wouldn't change the gameplay much but would add an extra layer to the game)...


EDIT: something else to consider would be the possibility of the horse kicking off it's sniping rider if ranged enemies keep hitting it from afar (and it loses 95% of it's health)... the horse would run a short distance away and the player would be able to mount it after nearby enemies are neutralized... if the player attempts to mount the horse while still being attacked the horse just MIGHT go berserk and run off into the wild (the effect could be negated by a horse tamer/rider skill - such a skill would be learned from npcs as a result of finishing a miniquest, effectively conversing, as a result of a "trick" (think the lockpick "quest" in the thieves' guild), by paying a fee or reading books)... the player must then track the horse (in travelling interface at foot speed) to get it back... that last small detail just enhances the realism and could affect gameplay by affecting quests that require traveling across long distances within a time limit...

Great thoughts, but too much! Too much! Action games become a lot less interesting as they become more complicated. I say, if there are horses, you can ride them. If you buy the Horse-Riding skill, your combat penalty reduces and eventually becomes a bonus. It could also help to control the creatures if they panic.

I don't like the idea of a travelling interface for some reason. I think the maps in Divine Divinity were a very good size. You could travel between places without it feeling like a drudge (mostly because of the beautiful scenery), and for really long distances, you have the Teleporter Pads. I do agree that you should be able to select a destination by clicking on the map, though. The travelling just happens in the main game screen.