Allow me to ask everybody a quick question: since I constantly see people wanting a repair system to "enhance immersion and roleplay", why do I never see anybody ever asking for a system where your characters have to expel (I'll try to put it in a non-vulgar way) their "biological waste" every X minutes, and if they don't, they end up with dirty laundry with the annexed debuffs?
Why, because that'd be boring, pointless and most importantly completely annoying, of course. As much as having to repair your gear in a game like this where there are alternative, disposable weapons at every corner and spellcasters who can easily troll fighters by breaking chests open with magic spells with no damage whatsoever is, all in the name of "immersion and roleplay" (?).
Yet, you can't deny that, realistically speaking, the characters should go to the john once in a while as we all do IRL. While we're at it, why don't we put a system wherein your characters have to regularly eat and drink? And after that, another system where putting in a full suit of plate armor takes about 15 real life minutes (which it does!), followed by another system where your characters get fatigued after 10 minutes of running around in armor and weapons + something like 200 kgs of gear in their inventories and then get blisters on their feet with an AP point reduction. Does that really sound like "immersive fun" to anybody in here?
The answer is: "What the heck have you been smoking?! And most importantly, where can I find some?! Of course it's not!"
Fun Fact #1: since immersion seems to be such a huge concern, you can carry literally tons of equipment in your magical dimensional bag of an inventory, chests and barrels bigger than your character included
Fun fact #2: having to repair my weapons and armor has never done anything to enhance my immersion in the game, but if I have Lohse speak to a dwarf inside for joy, I'm given a nice lute that, when played, causes Lohse to go kinda bonkers, in an exquisitely In Character way.
THAT is the immersion I find worthwile in a game, and it made me applaud at Larian's creativity for just implementing this small little scene!
I'd rather have the guys at Larian spend their time putting more scenes like that in the game, than having them invest time and energy in more pointless scripts for an equally pointless feature. Just saying.
i.just. ok. listen. listen listen lseint
you hurt my head, your words.hurt myhead do painfulwordsphurtshurts
ok.ahem.
You are basing things on how they work poorly in Divinity, and not understanding why they exist. A system where objects can break is so that a player can feel immersed in that world where objects can break. If a bathroom system existed in a game, it would be to make a player feel immersed in a world where their character has to go to the bathroom. (The Sims, games that want to establish high levels of realism like Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy)
The focus of a role playing game is normally the combat, the characters, and the story. And in this sense Divinity is a normal RPG as those are its focuses. In most cases RPGs don't go too deeply into immersing you into a characters life, stopping at things like daily needs and minor body issues, because the game is focused on combat, story, and its characters in even amounts.
Durability is a mechanic that creates realism in a games combat, and it's purpose is immersive combat and an immersive world.
The need to use the bathroom is a mechanic that creates realism in a games characters, and it's purpose is an immersive world.
Hunger and thirst mechanics are sometimes used for balance of gameplay (such as in survival games, to stop the player from advancing too far without creating some stable form of sustenance first), and used to create realism in a games characters whether it is also being used for balance or not. It's purpose is an immersive world.
Time taken putting on armor and clothing is a mechanic that would create realism, with the purpose of immersing the player in the world. This is a deeper level of immersion, akin to needing the bathroom, and something I doubt you would ever see outside of a game made specifically for people to role play with each other, or possibly something hyper realistic like Mount & Blade. (although you can only change equipment out of combat in that game)
Stamina is a mechanic used in games to immerse the player in the world, and occasionally to balance combat (Dark Souls), though it is not common in turn based rpgs. It's purpose is immersion in both combat and the world.
Weight is a mechanic used to create realism and it's purpose is an immersive world.
I don't think I've ever seen something like blisters used as a mechanic in a game, although it might pop up in story driven Heavy Rain type games.
The thing with Lohse is just good storytelling, and any good storytelling will of course immerse the player in the world. The purpose of immersion mechanics is to back that storytelling up.
Divinity uses a lot of it's immersion mechanics poorly, because the developers also don't understand why they exist. Everyone just needs to understand why durability is ever in any game in the first place and then you can easily see the problems it has in Divinity.
