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?

Something else I'd like to see:

I appreciate being able to trade with any and all NPC's, but to speed things up a bit, I wish there was a tiny icon somewhere in the UI that told me the NPC had something, or had nothing. Like a treasure chest, I like when games show through text or color when a chest is empty, so I don't have to waste time opening it. I'd like a trade version of that.

My friend saw the new images from the game and was like : Wow it does not look good compare to the previous one.

I think you can say colorful palettes bye bye...
I'm waiting to see in action, but I think we lost something there.

Oh wow. Do you think the palette is indeed murkier, or perhaps with greater detail some of that brightness isn't coming through? Bringing up Link to the Past again, I think something that's great about it is just that there's less detail, a bit blockier, so those punchy colors really shine through.

I felt D:OS was a bit blockier compared to competitors, and I liked it (plus my relatively weak laptop liked it too). I hope the next game isn't overridden with armor creases and spikes, tons of little details that overall make it fuzzier, harder to see any one thing.. All that detail can become noise.

I enjoyed the loot and the color for uniqueness of items from the first and from a few screen shots it looks like it will be easier to manage the inventories of multiple characters better. My only hope/wish is that they make rename-able and dye-able bags and containers. I had at least 2 or 3 bags per character for all the stuff I wanted to organize like arrows and books and weapons but there were times when a bag would be mixed around and I would have to open each one to find stuff. I would have loved to dye them with the dyes through the crafting system at the very least.

The crafting system was fun too, but I feel like it was underwhelming at times. Hopefully they do more to encourage more crafting. That could also include renaming (for a price) special items you use all the time.

This maybe a little off topic/backward from what was being asked by the OP but that's my two cents on this.

You should watch the videos, you'll see what I'm talking about.
Apparently they're aiming for "more mature", so less color, a little murkier indeed, there's less contrast.

See the trailer here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG6YOUXyx3Q

I actually welcome a bit murkier, also in terms of plot.

Are you seriously complaining that the color of item rarity does not match Diablo? Yes, different games use different colors, but it's just something you have to get used to. It's not a flaw.

I'm also unclear what your complaint about different item quality is. There were what, 4 flavors? White is normal, Blue is minor magic (just 1-2 modifiers), Green (2-3 modifiers), and Legendary (3-4 modifiers, which included special Legendary-only modifiers). There was also Unique (Gold) which have fixed, special modifiers.

Well "complaining" isn't the word I would use for anything I post on this thread. Isn't the point of all this to have healthy discussion? I'm perfectly happy for any and all disagreements.

I don't feel it's a flaw, but a convention, right? It's something that could be a standard to enrich.. though you're right, why stick to any convention in something like this?

I'll have to check back with a wiki. I remember there being purple and pink and.. others. I suppose really it's having purple and pink that messed with me the most.

Oh snap Rogue7 dyeable and nameable bags would be amazing! Good call good call. *thumbs up*

Cool thank you Linio, I'll check that out. Hmm, I wonder if having a more adult-like atmosphere will help in the storytelling? I suppose an environment like that would be more in line with the more adult aspects of the story (if it's anything like D:OS).. right?

Thats a good idea +1 but should only be available if you have the required level in perception or merchant/trade skill (can't remember what it was called). The idea being you are either good at perceiving wealth or you are just good at noticing things in general.

Larian could even tie it into the amount of items an npc has to trade with you. With the player character being more persuasive and all maybe npcs are more willing to part with other items.

That's a good call BlueGuy, good build good build.