Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) Suggestions Small features that will make the game much better

and Lar announced already that they have or will put it in the final game <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

I was going to let this pass without comment but it just doesn't make sense to me. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Why is it a problem to move the hero and DK potraits over? Your argument about summoning dolls makes it worse - it will be harder to remember which summon is which when there's six chars to control. Show the icons in the correct order and it's obvious at a glance. BD will attract a lot of criticism if it can't get simple and obvious interface elements right.



I'm not silly enough to think that some repositioning won't be required but with the current system my weaker wizard often arrives at an enemy first, meaning nearly every battle needs to be micro-managed. While BD has a more "strategic" approach than DD, the system is still a real-time action-based system at heart so the combat should be reasonably streamlined. If I'm meant to micro-manage every battle, a turn-based system should have been used. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

[color:"orange"]Why is it a problem to move the hero and DK potraits over?[/color]

When dealing with the hero, for example, it is better to always click on (or drag-and-drop to) the top right corner, than to usually do so, but sometimes it is over one slot, or two slots, or whatever. Especially in the heat of battle (when most likely to use summoning dolls), you do not want to be moving interface elements around.


[color:"orange"]Your argument about summoning dolls makes it worse - it will be harder to remember which summon is which when there's six chars to control.[/color]

How does the display order help tell the difference between summoning dolls? Presumably by the time you have found 4 summoning dolls, you should be familiar with their portraits and body types (I doubt they would all be identical). You would summon them in a specific order, when using more than one, and should just know that the first one summoned becomes character 3, etc. Even if you had to count the portraits every time you wanted to use a hotkey to select a character, counting to 6 right to left isn't significantly harder than doing so left to right.


[color:"orange"]Show the icons in the correct order and it's obvious at a glance. BD will attract a lot of criticism if it can't get simple and obvious interface elements right.[/color]

So left to right is the one-and-only 'correct' order?
I am used to changing reference systems to whatever is appropriate to the situation.

Well, Hebrew and arabic languages are read right from left, some asian languages are read horizonatly.
Let's made everyone happy by forcing Larian making several interface types...

Don't you think it's a little silly to critisize a game because of the portrait order? Me, for example, I like them right to left...

Looks like Lynn will have to change her sig to "Don't judge a game by portrait order"...

Hitting TAB and right-clicking on SELECT ALL is something of a pain.



What if the party is spread far over the place? Right now, double-pressing F1/F2 or double-clicking on the protrait will center the camera on the respective character. Actually, it is good it is doule-pressing/click, or else when you switch to other character, you have to scroll _all the way_ to other character to bring them together. This way it is easier to scout.




Try this - select the character who you wants to be the leader. An orange box will appear around the protrait. Then select all. Now the secondary character will follow the leader and will attack automatically. However, if you are playing a mage, you have to manually switch to that character to make him cast spell.

Of course, the next thing is to make the characters use their primary skills instead automatically, or switch to the secondary skill at times. Maybe in an expanison?

Yup. Keeping Hebrew players happy was my whole point.

I'm not criticising the whole game; I'm criticising some poor interface elements. The portraits are not a major issue by any means - I was simply responding to comments on my original post.

The BD demo has been poorly received in many places and I hope Larian is able to improve on a number of issues, hence my feedback. If that's "silly", *shrug*.

I agree if all party members copy your offensive actions then this be alot eisier to control and cut out constant use of the pause key. Also (idont know if this has been said) when you pick up and equip armour it should perfectly resemble the armours look and not just look like the type of armour on your character. ie breast plate armour all looks the same in divine divinity. this goes for weapons too. Also when you pick up armour i dont like it when it auto equips, its anoying.

In Divinity, characters were 2D, so each different type of equipment required its own set of animations. Since the characters in Beyond Divinity are 3D, there can be much more variety in animations, and different equipment can be modeled with lower file sizes. This has been discussed a bit in various interviews (see the Announcements forum / Beyond Divinity FAQ).
The only auto-equip that annoys me is equipping shields when you are using a two handed weapon.

Some form of Zone of Control will be nice. I am simply tired of enemies running past my tanker to my archer, then my archer will have to do some lap running around the table while my tanker runs after the enemies. Happens all the time in big group.

Some ways which hopefully will not involve too much programming:

~ Attacking a moving character who is not currently in combat gains a percentage to the to-hit%

- Make characters 'block' more space, so that it is harder to run through them.

- Characters running passing an enemy's ZOC must engage in at least one round of combat, before automatically moving on.

I'd agree with that. Foes that run past you receive a free Critical Hit if targetted. Although, that would work both ways. You wouldn't be able to run past them to get to their mage either.

One trick I found to help the mage is to put a lot into their Agility. If your character is never hit, you don't even need health points!