Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Positive Feedback to all of Larian

Looking at the forum there are a lot of topics where people complain about a lot of new things in the Alpha so far.

Let me start with my experience with the franchise. Even though I didn't play any of the games by Larian before D:OS, I have spent 65 hours playing the original Original Sin, 22 playing the Enhanced Edition and I loved it.

Now as the Alpha arrived in September I have already played it through two times (Solo and Multiplayer) and I have to say that those were my best 25hours spent on a video game. All those changes are pure genius. Let me start counting all those things I liked or disliked in D:OS1 and how Larian approached the sequel:

Dialogs:
A lot of people on the forums are bashing Larian for the changes in dialog system. People call it clunky and counter-intuitive.
In D:OS1 we controlled two main characters when not in coop. In my opinion this caused a lot of clumsiness since you had to argue with yourself. For me playing a dialog on both sides was silly and felt like playing chess by myself.
In D:OS2 you only play one main role and others are more or less insignificant to your personal Origin Story. This is a great improvement to the first game since it creates a much more immersive experience.

When playing in coop on the other hand there was a lot to read in D:OS because of the style of the dialogs which lead to one person reading them quickly and waiting for others to finish reading.
Now there is less reading with all those *say that..* dialogs. This helps to make playing cooperatively easier.

And there was this problem with translations. I've played D:OS with different people in English, Polish and German. Sometimes I felt like I've engaged into fights purely because something got lost in translation. Some dialog options seemed harmless or fun in other languages and the tone of the message was slightly different.
I can't imagine this taking place in D:OS2 since the dialog options are much more clear.

Overall the new dialog options help to make the game more complex, immersive and playable in coop.


Combat Progression Systems
In D:OS1 the combat system was outstanding and shined to me like a gem. I am a huge fan of tactical play and I loved all of the old school RPG back then (NWN, BG, IWD) But it had its downsides, like the RNG. To me it felt like all the charming arrows were purely random and in order to make them at least a little bit reliable and consistent I had to save the game and load it after each unsuccessful use.
Now with Magic and Physical Armour introduced in Original Sin 2 there isn't only a new deeper tactical aspect of the game. There is also more consistency with crowd control skills and items.

All the classes in D:OS were, at least for me and people I've played with, poorly designed. You had to always customize things before playing the game on a descent level.
In D:OS2 most of the classes feel like they're synergizing with eachother more and there is no need to customize them, which is nice when introducing friends into the game.

I know that the progression system is gonna get changed in next patches. So far I really liked it the way it is. It feels a lot simpler to me and because of that it is easier to explain how it works if you're playing with a new player.


Conclusion
You guys are doing a lot of great job there at Larian Studios. Don't try to satisfy everyone - it's not possible. People tend to complain more than to praise. Don't bow under the pressure of the mass and please, don't change into a mainstream company. Your individuality makes you the company you are.

I have seen a video with Sven one day where he said that he once had an idea of a really cool turn based combat system, but no publisher liked it. So they changed it into a real time combat, which then didn't work that well.

I believe it's the same case with D:OS2. Don't be afraid of doing changes not everyone may like.

I agree. Only good changes so far. +1.

The only thing I have to say is that you don't address the main concern with the dialogue system, which is that the options feel, to others, as if they are detached, impersonal and clunky.

Although, I agree. I feel much more immersed with the new dialogue options.

Very nice post! This game is heading in an epic direction. Keep it up Larian!

Yeah I just love that positive feedback. I swear your post was physically painful for me to read.
I can imagine the next logical step here:

1) I praise Larian for having removed dialogue altogether because I'll always have to wait for the idiot who I am playing a long story driven cooperative RPG with for half a minute until he's done reading because I'm such an impatient asshole of a douchebag.

2) I Praise Larian for removing skills and character building because it makes it simpler to play for my stupid friends who are not into RPGs to begin with but wanted a nice casual break from our hardcore game sims3

3) I Praise Larian for the brave decision to make this a multiplayer FPS because it makes things much easier to get into if you already know counterstrike and who doesn't know counterstrike

How exactly any of the changes simplify the game?

People were crying that the dialogue is "hard to read" and that the armor system breaks their OLD tactics from the first game...

This argument is ridiculous anyways since one side is trying to make it so that they keep the current systems and the other is trying to make it so they bring back the old ones, so you can't really come to a conclusion here...

I'm sorry @Lightzy...
I am so sorry that Larian studios has PERSONALLY violated and harrassed you to the point where you have to go to their forums and constantly have a negative attitude about absolutely everything, swearing like a teenager that just learned several new words.
This is a post about the positiv feedback, what people actually like that's been changed or that stayed in the game. If you don't like anything, don't get involved, make your own thread and give us your godlike hardcore opinion in full force.

Apart from that, and because I want to stay on topic, that's a really interesting take or positive attribute you gave to the dialog system nommier, because as a european I can actually see how useful the third-person dialog can be for multiple languages. and I'm also quite thankful that they got rid of having 2 main characters, because, while the bickering with my partner when playing multiplayer was fun with the rock paper scissors minigame, it became really weird to "roleplay" when playing alone.
Overall I absolutely agree with you on the changes for dialog, it's a fresh feel to everything and with the tag and origin system I'm REALLY looking forward to actually have multiple playthroughs because usually in RPGs I can only get myself to play them once and then be done because I don't put much value in having to play through everything again for the second possible ending that's marginally different. Having played a custom Character, then played as Ifan and now playing as the red prince the differences can really be huge and I hope they keep this up throughout the game.