Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) General have people lost interest in BD?

i mean, i find nothing new of interest in the bd forum, aside from the occasional i hate bd/i love bd kind of posts.

it's completely different when dd first came out. the posts were very informative then, people were asking a lot of things about the game, strategy, tactics, i.e., how did you deal with josephina, with those wind riders (?), how do you defeat the lord of chaos, etc., etc., etc.

where are the interesting char builds for bd? you know, the kind of builds that will encourage you to play the game another time just to see the cool skills at play, despite having known about the story already and how it ends. the kind of builds where you do some number-crunching and debate about them with other posters in the forums. the kind of builds that will make you stay up all night till the wee hours of the morning just because you didn't notice the passing of time. i remember that when dd just came out, there were already warrior builds,mage builds and survivor builds suggestions. and there were a lot of discussions about the pros and cons in each of them.

it feels completely different in bd now. a bit empty,if i may say so...

busy playing. that will be my guess. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

I don't think BD has much of a replay value. It's incredibly linear, and the storyline is excruciatingly rigid; there is very little you can do to make a difference. (No different factions to join, no different endings, no different NPC interactions, no quest with multiple solutions that I can remember. Skillpoints can be reassigned.)

for the builds... it may be because there are too much build's tactics for BD and none really better than the others
for discussing game tactics... well i fear there is nothing to discuss there...when it is too hard to defeat a "boss" you just go to the battlefield, come back and defeat him...
for replaying issues... Winterfox remembers well.
curiously i'm not saying there that i'm not liking BD

I stil haven't got the game ... - and when, you can expect posts from me here ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />

Greetings from Potsdam near Berlin !

General discussion about the game has certainly died down of late. I noticed this myself before this thread had been opened. Discussions about Div Div however do seem to be still flowing well.

I think it was a sign of things to come when the DD2 Threads and questions started flying about so soon after BD was out. Sort of like "Well, BD's fine and all, but lets not talk about it anymore! When's the next game coming out?"

The most active threads being either the 'I hate StarForce' or 'It's not DD2, where's DD2?'

Unfortunately as well, there seems to be some sort of anti-BD pro- other club going on where any area of BD is called into question because it's not done the same way as in other. That kind of kills discussion too as say a question like 'What's the story like in BD?' Answer 'Well in other it's much better because...blah blah.'
This discourges further discussion on that topic without actually telling anyone what the story is like.

K it's vacation the sun shines. Games exist for beeing played during exams periods and stressfull school days.

Thankfully for me I didn't have full time access to consoles and didn't have a PC back when I was doing my exams - though PC games sucked back then.

If I did...I must likely be not good spuller or righter!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

Hi all! For me it has not been a lack of interest.
I have simply not had the time to play! It is summer. The children are active and must have their outside pursuits. Tending the garden, washing the car, all that good stuff. Truely, when the snow starts to fly, I will again have the time to play! I am also very interested in a build guide/walkthrough. What are your favorite characters? How did you go about making them UBER?? What are the best items/sets to be found? I realize that everything is randome, as far as items go, but, I know there has to be some that are found in the same areas. I must admit, that I did not search the forum for these info's befor posting here. For all I know, they may already be listed! (please no flames) Also, I know my sites are badly outdated! I promise I will make the time to update them when I have the chance. Also when I have something new to add! Peace All! Mslynx <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

No Need for Guides or whats best build or anything other than this--Hardcore Mode:
1.Get Alchemy "Extract" skill to level 4 ,get Gold,buy Alchemy Plants,buy about 40 HolyWater, Make about 40 Permanent Potions ( your choice,depending on yourChars) and Quaff them down--Your Chars are now Gods--Invincible--
Forget about doing any BF Dungeons,waste of time. Just run through the Main Quests that have to be done to go forward and in about 3 Days Playing time you have finished the Game.--Heh!
Why get bogged down with all the "Irrelevent" stuff? Thats wasted effort.
Besides,this Game has More *Bugs* than all 4 of My "Victory Gardens" of 1942-1945 ever had,so just "Cut-to-the-Chase" and Finish it.
Yeah,I Know, there are people who Enjoy getting Bogged down in all the fine,intricate,confounding details,and thats fine.Everyone Should Play
according to their own "Style". In Fact,If it weren't for these type of People
Most of Us would Never have made it through this Game---So,I,Personally, Wish to thank them for all their Efforts and Time Spent in Discovery,Experimenting,
Detailing and Sharing all their hard Work freely with the Player Community.

You still haven't bought the game? What happened? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/offtopic.gif" alt="" /> err... mslynx, why is your horsie ava bats his/her wings so fast it can compare speed with a humming bird? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> wow, look at it! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" /> well, somebody's excited! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />

"Lost interest" is probably the best term for me. I have a short attention span as it is. I just got bored playing this game. It's a shame because I really enjoyed Divine Divinity. Divine Divinity did take me two tries to get through. I suppose Beyond Divinity will be the same.

all valid points, everybody. each one has his or her own reason.

still, the general feeling i get is that of emptiness, of not having much to talk about, in complete contrast to dd.

i sincerely hope & wish that dd2 will bring back that feeling of wonderment, of pure joys and simple pleasures. those were the things i found in dd. as i said in a previous post a long time ago, dd was the game that snapped me out of d2 addiction. it wasn't just because it was new; it was because it was new and a lot more. i wanted a new world to explore (and in dd, it was a massive gameworld), a new skill system to develop (not that you have enough of that in d2), new items to wear and tear my enemies apart with <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" />, etc. i wanted to get the feeling of being pleasantly surprised, of turning into a corner and not knowing what evil lurks behind.

dd provided all that & more.

I must say that i LOVED DD, i also enjoyed BD, and true to my nature i have played and finished it about 3 times in hardcore mode..... I have found other really fun things to do with the game.... making it hilarious to play, like replacing the traditional books with your own story... (the first thing to go was all the recipies... they got replaced with various jokes and gossips), but i know thats really got nothing to do with the game... thats just me fooling around... and my battle field monsters now all have names of people around me.... (they werent impressed when i killed them)...

Back to the subject.....

I am agreeing with the fact that BD wasnt as much fun as DD. But here is a few suggestions on what they should use from BD and DD in DD2 (tell me if i missed something)

I liked the alchemy skill in BD... BUT what i will find brilliant.... (yes the basics of the alchemy skill stays as is (the different colour plants), I would though put back the idea of a bowl or flask... instead of right click and having the option to make health/man/etc, pick up a recipe book that tells you for health, add 1 red, 1 grey, 1 etc. then put those three in the flash and right click on the flask and SHAKE.. (or something similar) that gives you that feeling of "I MADE THIS!!!"(so in reality is a mixture of BD and DD and something new)

I liked the warior skills of bd, one handed, two handed etc... cant think of much to change... as for the rest of the skills.... i wanna say too much to include them now... will open a new thread for ideas on that...

Larian: in DD2 PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE [color:"red"] DONT [/color] include battlefields... rather give the hero a gem of teleportation that will allow the hero to teleport to and from town (lets say 5 times per gem), so the hero constantly have to search for new ones. I think MOST people started to avoid the battlefields because it was just long and boring.... rather let the town people give similar quests but in your main map. What most people did like about the BF, was the fact that if your inventory was overloaded, you could go sell. At least if all the quests are on the same map, you cover it at the same time, you dont need to dread doing the sideline quests. And also please with DD2 please make the shopkeep friendly/helpful when you completed his/her quest.

Pshycologically BD made people more depressed... the dark scenery with WAY too much grey and dull colours... i like green grass, most people feel happy in a nice forest scenery...

In BD you also lost the feeling of i am becomming a HERO, cause face it, you were taken for a ride by uncle DK... since i am only a normal person in real life... i wanna be the HERO in my games... ( a VERY important point to remember in a game, is the fact that the player must feel important and good).

I dont care about the open ended quests where you can choose your ending... although choosing to kill the pimp rather than obey him and kill the poor bugga that stole 5 minutes of mary's time to tell her something i like too... it gives you that sense of good morals...

I found that BD was too short... ok thats partly my fault, cause i avoided the BF... i dont think anyone blames me... i suppose if i did religiously finish all of them, the game would have been the same lenght... but fact it, people will rather cover a HUGE map and do everything in the same go, than jump between a couple of slightly smaller ones...

hmmm what am i missing?

AAAAH very important point to Larian again.... I like your little neutral critters running around... but PLEASE dont give them a vengeful overmind again.... if i stand on one, i will pray for forgiveness and give it a proper burial if that is required, but i DONT wanna kill the entire race just because mike und tom und joe und sam accidentally hid underneath the fire elemental when i killed it and my sword sliced right through to hit him (for those who didnt know my slang... und refers to "son of").. if you HAVE to take revenge on the poor son of a frog, then rather put a proper burial ritual in, where they will attack me until i did a proper respectful burial or something....

AS for the bugs in the game.... I didnt run into too many.... but just as a interest matter, i thought i killed all the bugs in DD with that secret area (special armor quest where i as a matter of fact saved you guys from the computer dungeon).

These are just some things i would keep/change in DD2. i am sure you guys have LOADS more ideas.... but mainly i think Larian should use BD as a test subject for DD2.... use what the people liked and go back tot he old style on things that people didnt like... or combine/change it to something fun for DD2.

Alchemy => there was a small animation if creating was done in pause mode (a book opening and closing) - pity, it didn't appear in RL mode. Yes, I liked the flashing filled flask in Div as well. What I liked about BD and alchemy was the huge variety of potions I could create (instead of combining more as in Div) - gave me a feeling of being really rich <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />. From other games I know about the alchemy lab I had to find, combine and then use => would have loved that as well.

Rep. impact on attitude of NPC/traders in general towards the char => yes, I'd like that as well. Though... how would gamers take it, if they are at disadvantage then? Lady_Rain, do you think this then would be called a restriction? And would a gamer take this if she/he not only has to pay higher prices but might be not showed special items? I'd love that myself, as I could feel more integration in-game (actions causes consequences) - but if I remember gamer reactions from those who didn't use the disguise armour in Act 1 and had no quests/skills then due to hostile NPC - hm, I think, they were not happy.


<creeping away and muttering> I like being an underdog


I had exactly this feeling at the end - would have loved to snip the boss enemy into little pieces for duping my char - and lay my hands on Asmodheus as well <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" /> - a sort of: clean-up. I was deprived of my revenge, hmph.


<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />

Skills => I would have liked it if the sub-attributes would have transported into the damage kind. Example: critical hit/deathblow etc. would apply for all 1-hand at one go, regardless of crush/slash/pierce weapons - and in order to get better from slashing to piercing weapons, I'd just need one skill point in this damage type then. Same for 2-hand, so not so many (double) skill pts were necessary to be as good with the hammer as with a sword/dagger etc. Damage value would depend on the weapon as it is now.
Mage skills => maybe a few less.

Kiya: I love the improvements to the basic ideas <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

I think i should just explain a little about the shop keep's attitude, i am referring to very similar to how it was in div.... even if it doesnt mean he hold back special items.... he can show everybody the same stuff.... i just like the fact that if i have the chat window open, he shows he is friendly... or helpfull... yea the prices are a bonus... but not essential......

I just feel that after i have spent 3 long dungeons and killed 5 dragons, and ventured throug snow and deserts to find the cure for his only sick child.... he must NOT be just neutral.... blerry hell, i just moved a mountain here!!!!! show some gratitude.... just tell me you friendly now... i am not the stranger anymore .....

It just makes the little character feel appreciated...

As for you liking the underdog way of life.... you STILL became the divine one in div... and you felt good about succeeding.... so what if you killed the beggar... :P

I like your idea about damage to all kinds of weapons....

NOw that you sparked the idea on weapons... another thing i MISS dearly of div... is the quick changing of weapons and assigning keys for them.... I used to walk around with a sword bigger than me, and as soon as i see one of those irritating "the moment you damage me i will run away and come back later" creatures, rip out the bow and let the arrows chase him...

Sigh, I'm just too greedy then - I want appreciation + advantage <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" /> - a high advantage, like special items, lower prices and maybe be shown to a secret chest to raid - as a small Thank You for my trouble, such as mana or arrow costs, decreasing durability of my equipment, potions etc. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shame.gif" alt="" /> Honour doesn't fill my pockets <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shame.gif" alt="" />


Yes, I understand - but I wouldn't kill weaker. I'd just like to kill those who annoyed me. Your idea of hexing monsters with personal names is nice <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />


Yes, a quick change would be nice - in RL mode, right? I'm the pause gamer => pause mode, open inventory, drag weapon into slot and unpause then. The icon idea in Div was nice.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" /> make NO mistake, my spacebar SMOKES when i am done playing..... its just nice to instead of open inv.... drag weapon... blah blah blah, close inv.... to press F9 and then unpause <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/idea.gif" alt="" />

I think i need to go on another hexing mission... change EVERY monster to "Andrew" (fiancee).... at least then i have the satisfaction of WINNING the fight for a change <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" />

AS for honour not filling your pockets.... likewise.... i just make sure they never find me pickpocketing and draging away chests... nah, i dont steal their items.... i just steal the stash... no negative reputation for that... once i am outa sight, i can move my items into the inv <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Hm, Arcanum had a system with traders who really were affected by your reputation and your magic/technical abilities.
You could be trown out of shops if you didn't have the appropriate rep (Example: thieves shop goes: "What are you doing here? There's nothing of interest here for you", if you're not a member of the thieves underground; or techies go "Go out of my shop, I don't want any mages in my shop").
Also civilians got mad and attacked you if they caught you stealing their items or opening their chests.
I liked it.

I still have some moral problems stealing from the poor guy who can't even pay the doctor to cure his sick daughter and makes you look for the cure.
At least then you're actually punished if you choose to do this.