Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Beta Feedback after playing Beta 1.0.288

- Said it before, but oh wow Repair is really completely terrible. I can't believe you thought that was in any way a good idea. I tried repairing my weapon. It cost 600 gold and reduced the durability. I then damaged it again and went to repair it again and I was told that it would cost another 600 gold and REDUCE THE MAX DURABILITY MORE. Seriously the dumbest idea in the game.

- The Sparkmaster is ridiculously vulnerable to being frozen. I used Ice Shard 1, which only is supposed to do Chilled and it froze him. If nothing else, this makes for a boring fight as you wait for it to wear off, because hitting him with physical is a waste of weapon durability.

- I sent the sailors looking for work to the Fabulous Five, but I didn’t see them in the sparkmaster cave, just the regular lot. If I can send them to work for the Fab 5, shouldn’t that have an impact?


- Hey, Remember that long list of Orc Facts?

Clearly, they are not correct. Napkin calculations using those Orc facts say that if you take a random sampling group of 100 orcs, the number of female orcs should be between 4/100 and 8/100.

20 male orcs will die to protect a female orc. And yet female orcs apparently took part in the battle on the beach - a LOT of them, too. I've found almost half a dozen female orc corpses between the beach, the black cove and the black cult lair. That's WAY too many for the 4-8% thing to be true.

Also, Victoria suggests that the reason she was found floating in a basket is that she was cast out by her tribe. That makes no sense if orc females are rare, and as an orc (who would be curious about her origin) and as a librarian she should know.

Well, Victoria is assuming she was cast out by her tribe because she was found floating down a river in a wicker basket.

But (according to the elf Eglandaer, who would know better since he was responsible for all of that and Victoria was a baby at the time) that's not what actually happened. The orc tribe knew Eglandaer was coming to wipe them out, so they sent Victoria off in that basket to save her (because she was their future queen).

That's the sad irony of the whole story. I'm sure she's completely aware of how prized orc females are in the orc society, so the fact that the orcs (in her mind) tried to flush her into the sea despite that must make her feel like even more of an unwanted outcast. And it adds credibility to why she's sticking around with the humans.

It's all very sad, actually. Poor Victoria.

On that note, can we please get Eglandaer's model to look like an elf instead of a bald human? If all the elves and dwarves we run into end up looking like humans, that will be disappointing.

Is he standing in water? As that makes someone immediately freeze. Also, rain.
Honesty, I've stunlocked pretty much every boss so far with ice shard. The Giant Orc never had any opportunity to attack me being either
1) electric water stunned
2) Once my own troops entered the water, 100% ice shard petrified

Another spell for the OP-spell discussion.

It doesn't rain inside caves. I think he may have been standing in oil. Maybe he was standing in water.

I have to say Lone Wolf is a great additional trait that I was looking for. For a two main character game, kinda wanted to have 1 "champion like" character and a normal regular. I kinda wanted to avoid having companions too, but having them could be useful as meatshields and healing. Lone would gives me a good excuse to forego a companion and getting a champion for main character. Works out good for me.

On the other hand I miss a few traits that look to be taken out? say like Warlord? (good melee trait?) I thought that was a fair trait because it wasnt a "direct" bonus to stats too. The newly added additional traits I think are good in general. In terms of funniess and usefulness or simply play style. That stinky one is hilarious, I gave it to Jahan, demon hunters should learn to bath right? :p . I kinda hope more traits like that are still yet to be added. for personal flavor. Will we also get any defensive abilities/skills for warriors ? Say to spend AP on a defensive stances or maneuvers?

I think the tutorial dungeon is a good idea, but its pretty easy to miss, need to make it more clearer to a player that hasn't played it before. The repair is kinda a little too extreme at the moment. What pissed me off alot about Dead island, was my weapon kept constantly breaking fast, Its annoying having to repair and repair. I dont want to have to bring a wardrobe of weapons with me. Repair should be tied into blacksmithing. Repair being a secondary feature of the skill. So it shouldnt be use all that alot but yet still exists to be used over time.

Well I'll leave it at that for now. Thats pretty much some feed back from me. I kinda want to see alot done with this game and well it scares hearing that it will be finished in a month. Because I think this game would turn out great with a little more time.

"edit"
Oh and I have to add, I really like the new way diplomacy is handled. Rock paper scissors? Having more points over the other person gives you a bigger score dice? I think thats nice and interesting. But it would be better if we could choose what to play

I hate the horn blowing animation when using way of the shadows, I hope it's just a placeholder animation.

agreed. does not fit in any way or shape!

It is hilarious. "Okay now I'll just sneak up behind him and turn invisible." *horns loud enough to wake the dead* "I'm so stealthy!"

But I assume it's placeholder.

I just tested how Guerilla, Sneaking, and Invisibility stack with Backstabs.

Weapon: 35-58 Piercing damage poinard
Target: Charred Bone Idol (perhaps not the best target)

All attacks were backstabs.

From behind, no sneaking: 40 * 2 (Absorbed: 8?)
From behind, while invisible, no sneaking: 48 * 2 (Absorbed: 8?)
From behind, while sneaking: 140 * 2 (Absorbed: 30)
From behind, while sneaking, while invisible: 150 * 2 (Absorbed: 30)

I'll do some more tests, hopefully finding a squishier target.

Sorry guys if I'm not telling anything new here, but I'm in a rush and I can't read the whole topic.
I really enjoyed the beta, but I wanna point out some (not so minor) issues.

Balance: still need love, LOTS of love. Arrow Spray it's a fuckin nuke, for instance, and on the other hand, a melee rogue it's not an interesting option (maybe it is viable, but still uninteresting). Once you learn the healing spell you don't need healing potions anymore (outside of combat), etc.
Interface: I want more numbers, and more stats. I want to know what difference makes having 7 in intelligence instead of 6 in intelligence. I want to know if a weapon is strength based or dexterity based. I want to know the % to hit/succeed of any skill, etc.
Delayed turns: I appreciated the addition of this option, but - seriously - why the game is forcing me to delay till the end of the round? I should be able to choose my position in the initiative queue. Delayed/interrupt actions would be appreciated too.

A minor issue: environmental text is too fast to disappear for my taste.

I agree with Stabbey; the repair system needs work. I understand that from a certain standpoint it makes sense for an item to be less durable as it is repaired over and over again, but I don't think it will work well within the framework of the game (as it is now). Of course, I'm not even very far in the beta, so it's possible that as better weapons become available they will offer much higher durability.

- So I very nearly ran into a issue that almost forced a reload. at the Withered Gardens:

I was playing co-op, but that wasn't terribly relevant, except that it made the timing easier.

There is a treasure chest in the southeast corner, blocked off by barrels and crates. My rogue moved the wrong barrel and released a fire trap, killing him basically instantly, and setting all the other barrels and crates in the area on fire, and revealing a second trap.

The Witch tried resurrecting the Rogue, but he just died before being able to move.

Rain didn't help. Madora tried tossing a crate on one of the traps, but because it was only one trap, it just burned and broke. There were no crates in the garden up top. There were some crates on the stairs leading up to the garden.

I figured I'd have to place crates on both traps at once to shut them off, but Madora was unable to move some of the crates or barrels from their starting location - it kept thinking there was no place to put them. Because of that I was unable to get any crates or barrels upstairs.

It looked like we were totally stuck. I was unable to move, Jahan could not teleport my corpse off of the burning patch, we had nothing around to put on the traps, rain didn't work. Finally my partner realized Jahan had the Ice Elemental, who knew Ice Wall. Even that was a pain. The timing of Jahan's Elemental's Ice Wall, the Witch's Resurrect, and my moving the hell away took several attempts before I got out of the fire zone.

And to top the whole thing off, the *&#$ing chest was just an illusion.


Even though I got out of that, it was still more of a pain than it should have been:

• There was no chance to escape from the fire trap before I died. I don't mind the death so much, it's the not being able to retrieve the body that was annoying.
• The fire destroyed all the crates, and there were no others in the area.
• I was unable to move the crates and barrels from down the stairs up the stairs for no logical reason, it just wouldn't let me.
• Even so, those items were just as flammable, and there were no non-flammable items that I could move.
• Even resurrecting to full health didn't help.
• Getting stunlocked by the fire killed me repeatedly.
• Rain didn't work because it was trap fire.
• There was no way to Teleport my corpse. That would have been extremely useful. You should be able to teleport the corpses of party members.
• Even with the Ice Wall, the timing was so tight that it took several tries before I barely made it out.

EDIT: ... apparently you can use the Homestead button to teleport a corpse to there and then resurrect. We didn't think of that.


- Speaking of the Withered Gardens, the transition between sunny day and foggy night is far too abrupt. You're outside in the sun and literally as soon as you reach the top of a short set of stairs, it's night and foggy. Smooth it out please, with it getting overcast and darker as you get close to the villa.

- When sneaking, it's hard to see the edge of damaging surfaces, which is an issue in the burning area, for example.

- It would be nice if the game had some items which are moveable, but indestructible (at least by fire) so you could use them to block fire projectiles or place on burning traps. The trap house and withered gardens could really use things like that. Reward clever thinking. The only objects you can move are all destructible, and makes it frustrating because they burn, break, and you can't block anymore. Maybe some small moveable statues?

Another thing to try; Moving crate to your inventory, and then from inventory place on traps

Also, as for the chest... I'm pretty sure I recall looting it, and it only dissapeared after that 0_o

Ah, that homestead button could be useful for me (now I just reloaded and have to do the battle over again). Oh well, noted for next time.

In the quest with switches that spawn 'mysterious foes', the south eastern one didn't drop an amulet.
Was it because I'd lured him up the steps away from his spawn point?

I am playing a Rogue, and while Lockpicking is theoretically one of the skills I'm supposed to be using, I'm basically ignoring it. It's not just because Lockpicking is bugged in this version and is harder to use.

It's not just because there are essentially ZERO lockpicks in the game after the Tutorial dungeon. It's because it seems like everything in the world which is locked has a key somewhere, usually nearby.

When I come across a locked thing I can't open, my instinct is not "I should lockpick this", it's "The key must be nearby". Because of this, even if I do ever come across chests or doors that actually need to be lockpicked, I'll probably ignore trying to lockpick them, and keep on thinking that there's a key I must have missed. If Lockpicking is to have any value at all, there has to be enough stuff around that is locked and has no key to pick up.


Spoiler-ridden feedback for the Church area quests:

Additional spoiler-ridden feedback for the Church area quests:



- I think the smoke cloud from Tactical retreat might be too powerful if it makes enemies take no actions at all.

- Will the Homestead have some place to put the Star Stones, or can I give them to Zixzax or something? If feels a bit wrong to leave them sitting in my inventory or to just shove them in a chest in the homestead.

- I'll make a separate post on it later, but the XP/level spread in the beta still seems to be too much if you go everywhere. The final boss of the beta is level 8, but I was already at level 9 - and I even skipped doing the Black Cove entirely. That boss fight should be tougher.

- Arguably, all areas of the Cyseal map are part of the main quest, either because of the Star Stones, or bosses. There are side quests sure, but pretty much all parts are tied to the main story. There's no areas that feel optional.

In case you didn't read my edit, it turns out I was blind and missing the church key in plain sight.

In the Blacksmith's basement, there's a pressure plate you can step on to trigger some fire traps. There's also a lever you can use to shut off the traps, and a nearby oil barrel. That gave me an idea: I placed the oil barrel on the pressure plate. That gave the click indicating it was triggered. Then I went to shut off the traps, and I figured that since the plate was already depressed, stepping on it again shouldn't do anything, and the traps should stay off.

Unfortunately, that is not the case, and even though the plate was held down and the traps were off, stepping on the plate again just started them up. I'd really like it if that worked. It's one of those clever thinking things.

Hmm, I'd be more inclined to think, if something is triggered indefinitely, it would just keep going when the lever is used, instead of being disabled...

Different train of thought here?

Some of the traps trigger when the pressure-plate is released rather than when it's pressed, so in some cases it's safe to leave something stood on it.

Pressure plates in this game are weight-based, so enough weight on them triggers them

Placing the oil barrel on is the trigger depresses it, enough to set the trap off. You can (and are indeed supposed to) go pull the lever to turn it off. At that point, the trap turns off, even though the barrel is still keeping the plate flat.

Maybe a different train of thought is at work, but something is possibly amiss here. If having weight on them is supposed to make the trap trigger continuously, then pulling the lever shouldn't have shut it off at all. If the plate is already fully depressed, because say, a big honking barrel is on it, stepping on it again shouldn't do anything because there's nowhere for the plate to move to trigger anything.