Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Beta Smaller additions and adjustments

Just a thread where i will list various smaller things that could be changed or added or adjusted, that would make the whole a bit better.



Character portraits:

Currently the selection is very constrained, better for Roderick, much worse for Scarlet.

The problem gets created because there is so many options about the looks in character creation that then dont get represented even closely by actual in game portraits.

Since actually drawing all those different portraits would be too much and practically impossible - due to all different combinations that can be made - i think a simple solution is possible.
One that most players would accept gladly.

Just make hundreds of screenshots from character creation section, and upload those as possible character portraits.
If the game could do that itself, automatically - all the better.

Nobody will actually mind it. And the portraits that we have now can stay. Its fine. Its all good.




A peaceful, quiet fireplace for cooking:

The one spot in the Legion camp is right next to those two bloody legionnaires that do not stop banging on each other. Its too loud and too annoying to spend any longer time there.

Especially doing something as peaceful and relaxing as cooking.
Please move that fireplace or create another in some quieter part of Cysael city. Somewhere around the area with the performers in the east, or next to the river, just behind that ruined house where that NPC who listened to the advice of statues is - would be perfect.

I hear that the smiths big oven can be used to make some mean pizzas too but, still...




Quartermaster:

Is hidden in the "cooks house". Being hidden isnt that big of an issue but it just looks unnecessary. And more importantly - the game and Cysael herself could use one decent, straight up recognizable, appropriate vendor and trader of weapons.

Please take her out of the "cooks house" upper floor and put her there among those nice Legion tents. Where the quartemaster should be. If she ever gets hungry - she will just order one of the soldiers to go fetch.




Loot:

With new adjustments of the loot system, there is a bit less loot around, although not too little, overall.

Esmeralda house is still overflowing with it, too much even for a trader. (im not sure she should be a trader at all but...)

As well as mayor Cecil home, which should not have all that stuff it has. It should be filled with more books and inconsequential stuff, like soaps. And other funny or quirky items that would better reflect their owner character. (some money - sure, but not all those weapons and armors)

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I noticed that some well hidden or hard to get loot places now give the most ordinary, low grade loot.

Like the strongest man in the game reward. That should be some higher level reward, surely? While the contest should be in moving heavy objects across some distance. Not in just smashing that weird blue ball - which is done by weapon damage, not actual strength of the character.

Or the chests we find by going through underground tunnels in the city. Which now give the most ordinary, very low quality stuff.

The blacksmiths abandoned house should have more thematic loot there, more smithing recipe books, maybe a nice armor, plus more tools and related types of ingredients.

While other, less special places should have lousier loot.

There is a fire by the NW gate, if you supply the cooking pot (don't recall if it is peaceful, but its a lot quieter than near the duelling guards). You can also use the oven in the cook's house.

Thats right, yes. Next to the guards. I always figured its theirs, so... didnt consider it. Besides, its not really a private place.

I would still like a fire a bit somewhere aside. Peaceful. Quiet like. All my own. With nobody around. I dont need some snooping guardsmen stealing my recipes and ogling me cooking.

There is one nice fire up north west too, but i have to kill some poor "bandits" for it, and then i have to cook in pools of blood up to my knees and their bodies lying all around. Not hygienic really. To say the least.


Of course this is not any kind of demand. Im just thinking out loud. I figured, one little small fire.. how hard could it be?

It would be nice to be able to have the game load custom portraits if the player provides them. I imagine these would be very small in size and transferring the data at the start of a multiplayer session would require very little time/bandwith. Isn't this something we'll need with the editor anyway?

Or, just let players pose their character during creation (we can already do this) and then let them press a prompt that creates a portrait from a screenshot.

It certainly couldn't hurt to have a campsite somewhere scenic.

One other poster mentioned on the chat he would like to maybe make his own fireplaces for cooking.
But, i doubt that the devs would really want to enable what that kid was actually thinking about ...

But, theoretically, what would you need for a smaller, more acceptable version of that? Some logs and an accidental flick of a flare? And wooosh! A cooking fireplace.
Of course that would be more of a mod material.

I would love better portraits! or perhaps 3-5 generic portraits that take on the color pallet of the skin and hair color used.

Or as suggested the character face snap shot for the pic.

I disagree on the loot in town being lessened, but agree with the rest of Hiver's suggestions. Divinity is a loot acquisition series. There should be tons of loot everywhere. I'd rather have more loot, but be able to sell it for less than the other way around. As someone who works for a living, I may not get outside of Cyseal for a week or more, so not having good loot in town is very discouraging.

I did not say or want there to be no loot in the city.
I just suggested it to be more appropriately placed and that there isnt so much of it in a few specific places i mentioned - while other places would have better, relatively higher level loot then they do now. Depending on how "hard" it is to get it.

Maybe i just got some bad rolls this time but i think that, for example, that hard to get chest near the bridge should give a bit better loot, seeing how you have to go through the tunnels under the city to get it.

Not something too powerful but just better then lowest level loot.

Individual experiences are going to differ here because of RNG, even from one game to the next. You can go through all of the town of Cyseal and turn over every leaf and stone and find very little, or very little that is useful. Or, you can go through just a small section of the town and find several upgrades and significantly more money. I've had games with hauls followed by games where it felt like all the loot had been removed. Part of the problem with randomness.

I love Loot as muck as Brick loves his lamp. It fits in fine to with this type of game style, perhaps a few QOL UI tweaks to manage it better.

Headless quest

Quest with the head can be done in one single way only. by taking two specific steps and they have to be done in specific order. talking to Lilian and then convincing the crier to start working for the other guy.

I cant take the head in any other way, cant steal it, cant lift it, cant teleport it - and cannot take it even if all things are done correctly with the hired crier - if i didnt talk to Lilian in the BC first.
In fact, if i do the competition quest first and talk the hired crier into working for the other guy before talking to Lilian - the quest becomes unsolvable. Because in that case i cannot interact with the head in any way anymore.

That should be fixed so i dont have to do these two steps in that specific order - and there should be other ways to complete it. Atleast by stealing the head (sneak, teleport, invisibility, freezing the "owner" etc) - without talking to Lilian first.





Robert the mortician raw deal

Why do i have to force him to give over the money? Thats the only option i have once he mentions it during confession of what was his actual role.

Its not like he actually did anything to get it or to lose the body.

I should have the option of telling him to keep it.

If i choose the option of arguing he should give it so i can give it to Berthia for her sheep... (which doesnt make much sense unless sheep are extremely expensive in Cysael) - i can go and talk to Berthia but there is no option to tell her or to give her that money - and she runs to Aureus to get Robert arrested anyway.

There are actually several ways this can be handled in the game currently (and you always have the option of simply not confronting Robert about the issue of the money if you really want him to keep it).

When you deliver the news to Bertia about the sheep, she will take off before you can tell here about the money. Once you visit Aureus's office and witness the encounter between he and Bertia, Bertia will head back to her sheep-stand. Once she gets back there, you can speak with her again and (at that point) choose whether or not to return the gold.

I agree with Hiver, an option to let say "On second thought, you can keep the money" would be appreciated.

I'd also like Bertia's end reworked so you have the option to give her the money before telling on Roberts, or keep the money and just tell her who stole the sheep. If you pay her off before, she does NOT tell Aureus, if you just tell her who stole the sheep but don't pay her, then she runs off, and you lose the chance to pay her. Make it a case of greed versus doing the right thing. I assumed that there was no way to pay Bertia off because she always ran off to Aureus. It was NOT intuitive to think that you had to return to her afterwards.

The big draw of the Divinity series in general is their questing, and they often have multiple ways to solve them. Only having one way things can go is less than ideal. I wonder if the later game quests will have the same problems.

Yeah, that works. Gives players an opportunity to back out of the dialogue path after peeking inside.


That I don't like. Above we're giving players a way of backing out of the decision to inquire about the money. But with this change we're locking players into consequences because they arbitrarily chose one option from a list of things to say before the other.

If I see this in the dialogue box:

1) "Who are you?"
2) "About your sheep.."
3) "About the money.."
4) "Later, gator."

..and I happen to choose 2 before 3 because I'm being orderly, I don't want to suddenly lose out on the option to return the money because the game made the mistake of assuming I'm being greedy.

Honestly, I thought her running off in a huff was pretty natural for her personality. In my head I was like "Wait! There's mor.. oh fine, I'll tell you later..". I just thought that was neat as it caught me off guard.

This. Her leaving when she does fits and is predictable. You can pay her later, so the "have to finish the quest" part is OK.

Not having the option to avoid her running off, by just paying her first; that's what's missing.

All right, fine. I would at least like the options of giving her the money first so she doesn't run off, and ideally being able to back out from there too if you're greedy. Oh look, here's a place where you can put in another one of those Trait dialogue things! *sigh* Oh. I never actually did get around to going back to her after seeing Aureus.

No, giving her the money right away should be the option - since you have chosen that specific angle and quest path between other options.

There should be an option not to take the money and just leave Roberts alone. He didnt actually do anything wrong anyway.
There could be the option of taking all of it, or just taking a cut and letting him slide.

But if you do, you should have an option to play RPS with her about going to Aureus, or just getting her to give up on accusing Roberts because she got more then a fair price for the sheep. (or there could be a RPS on how much you give her)


Basically - yes. Exactly.

The situation like it is now doesnt really make sense and is very constrained for no reason.

No amount of inventing badly written dialogue sentences or imagining things that are actually not presented in the game can change that.


I trust that Larian would not write those replies in such a laughably bad way, btw.



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When im identifying items in my inventory, i have to right-click on the glass every single time for every item. while when trading i click on "identify" only once and then proceed to identify all items with changed pointer.

It should work like that in my inventory too. Just one right-click on the identifying glass to change the pointer, which would remain like that for as long as i want, until right clicking to change it back to normal.

That underline part is actually already in there, your characters can have a debate over it. Bring Madora along when you do it for an extra post-greed berating.

Argh. Another screwup. I never did get back to talking to her again after the scene in Aureus's office. Well, that's good news, anyway.




There's no call for that kind of attitude. It's just an example for reference. Yes, Larian could certainly write it better, but there's no need to be rude about it