Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General What I appreciated in D:OS and hope to see in II:

Hello Larian Studios and all the fine forum folk:

After seeing the Early Access announcement today, I've decided to join the forum, make my first EA purchase ever, and commit to helping any way I can to make D:OS II the best it can be. I'm doing this because I feel I owe Larian Studios that much.

I'm going to start by saying a bit about what I appreciated from D:OS EE and hope to see in D:OS II. The, I'm going to write a bit about some changes I'd like to see. Anyone else out there, feel free to add your own thoughts. What you appreciated and what you hope to see different.

(Side note: I'm doing this with fairly little research done on D:OS II. Hopefully there will be value in seeing some guy's thoughts coming in fresh and, again, with little research done (so please don't go crazy if I'm making many mistakes in the posts to come. I'm sure there will be many).

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I'll try to be brief:
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The color palette.

You guys made excellent choices with the color palette. It makes me think of classics like Zelda Link to the Past.. WoW.. The bright colorful palettes will keep games like this fresh for years into the future. From the few screenshots I've seen, it looks like much of that palette is staying. Thank you for that.

Of course the amazing soundtrack.

One that I like is I feel it doesn't take itself or the fantasy genre TOO SERIOUSLY. It's like the difference between Marvel and DC. (You guys being Marvel. Nice). The energy and lightness could be heard in Kirill Pokrovsky's music immediately. I found the airiness and interesting use of instrument actually unsettling at first, because I was so used to DC-like menacing forcefulness from other RPG's. In no time at all though, I felt connected to music that was.. the least forced-feeling video game OST I may have ever heard.

Certainly big shoes to fill.. Kirill Pokrovsky was an amazing talent, and I immensely appreciated seeing you dedicate D:OS EE to him (I absolutely lost it with tears and such when I saw his name first appear on the credits). It was probably the moment I connected with the game and Larian Studios the most, and knew I had to write a post such as this. I'm sure Borislav Slavov is up to the task. I do hope that he both makes his own mark, injects his own style, but that it sill maintains a lightness and airiness; not sounding forced or too dark for darkness's sake.

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I also thought I would add some problems I saw. Most (all?) of which I'm sure have been seen already, but wanted to throw it out there:
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Color of item rarity.

I've grown up playing the Diablo series. So, as a base, a bare minimum, I absolutely 100% expect the basic item color structure to match. It's embedded way too deep in me to allow any change. Green HAS to be of low rarity/value. Blue HAS to be more valuable than that, and Gold HAS to be unique. I hope item colors can match the basic Diablo structure in D:OS II, and then expand on it in however way you wish.

Too many different levels of item rarity.

If there are too many different levels of item rarity, the items rarity levels start to BLEED INTO EACH OTHER. It was VERY hard for me in D:OS EE to tell which item was actually more valuable than another at times. If I'm looking at a purple or a pink or green or blue.. Sometimes the differences were minimal enough that they barely registered for me.

That's the value in having fewer tiers. The jump may feel slightly more drastic, but it is a CLEAR jump.. one you can feel. It feels GOOD to get that jump.

Or, if it makes it better, have fewer tiers but have much greater variance of item value within each tier. I know that's disruptive to the gaming experience in its own way.. but at least you won't feel dissonance in your brain if you like an item for your character and think it's best, but it actually technically is of a lower tiered color then other options you have. It's frustrating if an item is actually better but is in a lower colored tier. You notice it. It's uncomfortable. More so than noticing a wider variance of items in a specific color tier.

I think that's all for excitement and apprehension on my end for now. What do you all think? What do you hope will be continued or dropped from D:OS to D:OS II?