Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Stabbey's General comments and criticism

STORY / WORLD GENERAL

16) The Source Hunters are written as stupid
I get the normal "stupid protagonist" thing, which is used to explain the rules of the world to the player, but something which occurs quite frequently in dialogue is that the Source Hunters ask a question which is often phrased in a way to make them seem stupid - and this is no coincidence, because the person they're talking to tends to reply with "what are you, an idiot?"

In other words, even the writer knows that the question was a stupid question. My question is: so why couldn't the writer write that exchange in a way so that it doesn't seem like the player characters are mouth-breathing morons?

It's quite odd, and I don't really recall this dialogue problem happening quite this much in previous Divinity games.


STORY / WORLD CYSEAL

17) Poison gargoyles pools should spread constantly
A small thing, but the poison gargoyles in Cyseal should spread the poison slowly until it fills up the area again. Now you just clear it once and it only creates localized puddles. Also, the southernmost gargoyle does not produce a puddle.


STORY / WORLD LUCULLA

18) Inconsistency: Main plot Advancement direction muddled
The pacing of Act 2 seems a bit odd. You arrive in Luculla forest at about level 9 or 10, and are immediately accosted by a fleeing Immaculate who tells you Silverglen has been taken over by his evil cult. Straight ahead, you see a trail of blood, which leads you to find the stranded blacksmith who needs to get to Silverglen. He says he needs the Immaculates help. That also points you to Silverglen.

In Silverglen, the game directs you towards joining the Immaculates. But after you pass your pop quiz, you are directed to an area with level 13-14 enemies (and an environmental penalty) and the guards suggest you wander elsewhere first. The game ACTUALLY seems to expect you to go in the opposite direction of Silverglen to advance, and you have to do almost an entire different map before continuing on with the Silverglen plot.

To me, it feels odd to be directed towards the "join the initiates" questline at the start of Luculla, and then have to stop almost before you start.


19) Inconsistency: "An A-mount of Healing Magic" quest solution has a flaw
By the way, after learning that the Immaculates use Blood stones to heal, I tried to use the one I got from the Black Cove to heal the blacksmiths mount by clicking "Use" when standing right next to the mount, but it just healed the Source Hunters and seemed to do nothing for the mount.

This is the kind of in-world thinking that sounds like it should work as a solution, but it does not.

It took me a while to figure out that you can only use it by having a blood stone in the inventory of someone talking to the mount.

The annoying thing is that it is used in the exact same manner as the "Use" button on it in the inventory: It drops to the ground at the Source Hunter's feet, and heals the entire Source Hunter party and Alfie. The problem is that it doesn't make any sense - it only heals Alfie if used through dialogue with him.

Suggestion: If you attempt to use a blood stone when standing within 10 meters or so of the mount, it should produce the exact same result as talking to the mount through dialogue (including the dual dialogue debate).



20) Inconsistency: Are the Source Hunters recognized or not?

It also seems wildly inconsistent whether the Immaculates recognize you as a Source Hunter or not. The one who meets you at the start of Luculla, and the one guarding the way to the White Witch know you are Source Hunters, but generally, the rest do not seem to notice. I am pretty sure Loki would not be keen on having Source Hunters join the ranks, but he does not recognize the party as Source Hunters, nor do the Immaculates in Hiberheim. The inconsistency is confusing and distracting.


21) Inconsistency: Schrodingers Orcs
In Luculla, you can come across Garkulda and another orc, facing away from you. There appear to be no other orcs in the area. If you are spotted, though, and Garkulda shouts a warning, orcs appear all around suddenly. If you kill Garkulda before she can shout - and I will give Larian credit for thinking logically, and not having the shout be scripted even if she is stunned or knocked down - those other orcs do not exist and never have.

That is wrong. Those orcs should always be there, but sleeping, like the goblins are later on. This will make their appearance less of a trap for the player, because they can see the orcs, it will let the player plan ahead for how they want to approach the combat, and those orcs will still be there even if you kill Garkulda (air quotes) 'silently', instead of never existing.


22) Useful invisibility spell!
Hooray, the invisibility spell, when properly timed, can be used to sneak past goblins. Plus the goblins have some "I thought I just saw something nah it was nothing" dialogue for if you almost get caught. I managed to make it to the end without a fight. This is good stuff. Not a complaint!


23) Alternate path to mines blocked?
One peculiarity was that there was a spiked barricade partway along, which led to a trap-filled corridor. It seems like that was supposed to be an alternate way to reach the mine, instead of fighting/sneaking past all the goblins but there is no way to open it. Perhaps I have missed something. Right now, it looks like all that is in there is a random treasure chest.

EDIT: Oh, I see, I guess you can use fire/explosives to destroy them? That seemed a little loud on a stealth mission. Still though, it seems odd to have that barricaded instead of letting the player just freely be able to choose which way to go.

EDIT 2: Oh, it collapses from just a couple blows from anything. I guess that's fine.


STORY / WORLD HIBERHEIM

24) Inconsistency: Immaculates guarding the Forge attack on sight
In Hiberheim, you can encounter parties of Immaculates. If you pass a conversation check, you can be on friendly terms with them and trade. However in the northern part, before the entrance to the forge, there is a large party of Immaculates who immediately go hostile on sight. It does not feel consistent. I think they should challenge you verbally first even if they then fight you regardless of what you say. It feels inconsistent to be able to talk to all these other ones, and suddenly these ones attack immediately.


25) Alternate routes to enter prison don't exist?
This one may just be my imagination, I have not reloaded to try different approaches.

I talked to several people into Hiberheim and asked about how to get into the prison. Various people suggested like three or four ways I could do so. (A hidden hatch near a skull, jumping across gaps, getting a key from an Immaculate, joining the Conduit is guards).

But it seemed that there was only ONE into the prison. Only the hatch went to the prison. Jumping the gaps led to a backdoor to the castle, but not into the prison. I am not sure if I was looking in the right spot for the other two. NOTE: I should check and see if there is a key, but I do not think it is possible to become one of the Conduits guards.


26) Idea: Magic Monster Identifying Lenses

Not a complaint so much as a note and a suggestion: Some bosses essentially require 5 points into Loremaster so you can spot their weaknesses.

The Guardian is one - it has a 90 percent or higher resistance to everything. King Boreas is another one. It is got 150 elemental resistance to everything, and significant resistances to everything but crushing damage.

You can only see how screwed you are if you have 5 Loremaster. Okay that is not hard, because even I did it, but here is a thought.

Those magnifying glasses that let you ID things? You only need one to ID every item you find forever, but what if they had a second use use them on a monster and the glass is consumed, but it identifies all their stats for everyone in the party. (Maybe it inflicts an infinite-duration "identified" status effect?) It identifies only that one specific enemy, though, not all enemies, not other enemies in the fight, not other enemies of the same type"



28) Boreas fight - destroying statues doesn't have a big enough effect
Boreas is healed by all elemental damage unless you destroy the statue things in his room. If you have any mages in your party (basically guaranteed), destroying them is essentially required. It's a LONG process, traipsing from one corner of the room to another and to another, but for all that time you need to take, you don't seem to get nearly enough benefit from it.

I noticed that Boreas can still create room-filling elemental surfaces even if you destroy the elemental statue. I think that is kinda lame. If you destroy the fire, air, and earth statues, it should remove his ability to create fire, lightning, and poison surfaces. Ice is his domain, and so it is fine if he can still create ice surfaces even if the water statue is gone (destroying it is useless anyway because he is still healed by water).

I don't think he should be totally nerfed: He has the staff containing the other spirits, so he still should be able to summon elementals/shards of any type. I just think that there should be more of a benefit for taking out the statues.



STORY / WORLD LUCULLA MINES

29) Mandatory stealth section overly punishing
I like sneaking around. I like sneaky FPS's, I like sneaking in RPG's, I'm a sneaky guy. I liked sneaking past the goblins to reach the mine in D:OS. But I think the mine section is flawed.

My first encounter with the Death Knights happened as I walked about three feet north of the prison and was suddenly in combat with an Invulnerable enemy. So how is that supposed to work?

I tried releasing the goblin prisoners, but that did not distract it, instead the prisoners ignored it, the death knight ignored them, and all of them chased us as well.

Boy I am glad that I did not have the "Courageous" talent, because then I would have a dead party member there for ages. Getting caught in combat by a death knight is basically a mandatory reload, although I suppose that doesn't matter much, since by now people should have learned to save often.

But I am not a fan of the Death Knight mandatory stealth section, mostly because they can see so far that characters without Sneak are screwed over. The Death Knights have huge sight radii. It is almost a full screen long at maximum zoom-out. There is a zero percent chance that that ALL of your characters have high Sneak, never mind high sneak AND Speedcreeper. By the time you see them coming, it is practically too late to turn around. There is not enough warning. This section is a lot of trial and error, and repetitive trial and error.

You can move your non-sneakers one at a time around, but that can take a long time. The only real way to move characters around is to send your sole Sneak guy ahead to move barrels and blow open cave-ins, and find the waypoints so the non-sneaky characters can move past safely.


30) Mikan the Magically Dead Miner
While I get the story reason behind why it happened, I did NOT give Mikan the hiding miner bad advice the path back was full of goblins that I left alive. Going that way was suicide. It is also kinda bullshit that he died, because I only left him alone for the time it took to talk to the goblins and walk back. Nothing went past me from deeper into the mine, so what exactly killed him? Am I supposed to believe that I chose wrong, and if I had told him to run, he would live?


31) Not enough warning that fast-travel does not work in the mines
The Rift Travel button should flash RED (in the way it flashes green when you unlock a new area in the shelter plane) once you enter the mines to warn you about the travel limitation. Fun fact, the game actually assumes you know about the travel limitation when you talk to the imp in the goblin's cell, even though it was news to me.



STORY / WORLD LUCULLA NORTH

I have only just arrived here recently so I have little to say yet. I think I'm done here for now though, and so next time I'll start exploring the High Plains.


32) Luculla North nicely designed
I really like the design of this part. It is all lush and green, a very pretty forest. It is quiet and peaceful with no enemies around and all around you see human corpses lying. So near to the Immaculates village, this paints an excellent picture. This is storytelling through the environment and it works wonderfully.


33) "Oh, you're a Source Hunter in our Blood Cult, huh?"
Do Immaculates not care about Source Hunters at all? A prisoner from Hunters Edge in the Sacred Stone jail recognized us as Source Hunters, but that was the only one. It is really strange to be recognized by some people and others in this blood cult do not.


34) Where the hell is Bellegar?
I freed him from his prison mid-Cyseal, and I have not seen him since. I thought there were supposed to be six encounters or so? It feels overdue.