Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Free respec is gamebreaking, casual and bad design

Why, though? In an MMO, sure; but a single player game?
If someone wants to abuse the feature for their own single-player experience .. let them. It's their game, it's their experience.

~ NuttiKrust

because someone isnt happy if they cant ruin other people's experiences that have no relevance of their own, thats what we call A Troll

It makes sense for it to be free really. If respeccing your character was a big investment then you are punished for not making the right choices while making your character or while levelling up. Players who are most adept at manipulating the economy (making affording the respec easier) are also likely to be the most informed about the game in general (making good build choices) and less likely to need to use it. If getting a respec is significantly challenging then people will go out of their way not to have to do it, diminishing its usefulness.

If respecs still have a cost but its cheap or negligible then you may as well just make it free. You can say "oh why not a balanced cost" but again, what is reasonable will be different for those with system mastery and those learning as they go.

Most importantly, there are so many cool and fun skills and skill interactions in this game, being able to try out fun new moves that you see enemies or your friends use is hella good.

Oh of course, I'm a troll for suggesting fixes to an abuseable game mechanic. Rotating your characters civic abilities to rob traders dry is obviously a great experience and not a flawed system.
Why let players only pickpocket once per characters in the first place then? This one system is in direct conflict with another system, so that's flawed game design, why keep it?
Singleplayer games need balance, why do you think they rebalanced tons of stuff with the EE of the first game?
What Overlordgod said would be a perfectly valid option to fix a system the devs obviously didn't intend.

And is your only rebuttal to posts you don't like to attack the poster himself?
You are the most toxic person in this thread, but what can I expect from someone called "Cyka"




I never once said a thing against respecing combat skills, it's the loophole around civic skills I find so glaring.

My two cents.

I think the respec feature makes perfect sense with however you are role-playing. No matter how you build your team, all of the playable characters are Godwoken. Beings that posses Godlike power. At the
end of act 1, we control a ship that has a magical mirror that allows us to respec our characters free of charge. Maybe these mirrors react to us in such a way, because of who we are, and we can completely change ourselves at a whim through the use of our Godwoken powers.

I just made that up at the top of my head, but my point is that there is nothing wrong with how it is now. I feel that it is balanced, considering you have to work to get that feature. If it were at the beginning of the game, the argument against it would have some merit.

It's good, keep it and do the same for whatever game comes after that.

This exactly. If you think it's unbalanced, don't use it. You can play the game by your own rules.

So I assume if Larian had a patch come out that made all pyro skills ignore magic armor everyone would just "choose not to use" the pyro skills. Instead of looking to fix it. Just because it's in the game doesn't mean it has to be balanced after all!

"If you don't like it, don't use it" goes against the whole concept of improving the game. I want the game to improve, unless the devs state that abusing the stat redistribution is what they intended then it's a bug not a feature.

Looking at the thread, apparently games aren't supposed to be challenging or balanced anymore unless they are competetive multiplayer games.
Guess it's my fault for not pretending

If something is overpowered, just dont use it, it's not the developers who should set the boundaries but obviously the player. If summoners are OP just gimp yourself and play something else

I think it would help if you provided a better analogy since the two are apples and oranges; but ultimately, if that's the way it was designed, that's how I would deal with it.

In my case, this and the previous game are turn-based isometric only, both of which are unwelcome relics from another age as far as I'm concerned and seem rather archaic, but I love the games in spite of those features and haven't campaigned for them to be removed. Because that's the way they were designed, so I deal with it.

I think I've more important things to worry about than whether the game is too accessible to "casuals" or whatever seems to be the underlying reason for this sort of disgruntlement.

It's not though, it's game feature to game feature. Comparing two aspects of the same game.



That's how I am dealing with it. By voicing concern that it should be designed differently, that is if this was the design intention at all.



You're not asking the devs to literally change the entire genre of the game, therefore you shouldn't ask the devs to look into an exploit. Right.

Poor analogy.
Pyro ignoring MA can be conclusively proven to imbalance the game, whereas having a free respec cannot.


Only when something can be proven to be damaging to the game.
Opinions of an imagined imbalance don't count, for obvious reasons.


We all do.


Tell yourself whatever you like, we're all entitled to our opinions.


~ NuttiKrust

So in what way is the respec as it stands adversely affecting your gameplay experience? I'd love to know.

I dunno, maybe it should be removed from tactician or honour modes and left there for everyone else; you'd think that would be an acceptable solution but I've even seen people complain that explorer should be much harder even though they don't use it themselves (or they claim not to) which seems to just be sheer bloody-mindedness.

@ OP

This is a singleplayer experience. If someone wants to respec, let them. It does not affect your game what so ever. Honestly this kind of one sided thinking is from the same minority who tried to say the same thing about Skyrim on release. This game has Online Co-op, where you need to make a new character to even participate. So someone who would use the re-spec mirror couldn't even port their character over to multiplayer to otherwise "ruin your game experience." The only person you ruin it for is yourself if you decide to abuse it.

Do not call it bad game design if you yourself plan to use said "bad game design" in the first place. You must've used the mirror at some point or another or else you wouldn't be here complaining about it. Something must've gone wrong in your game, so you're under the mentality of "Stop liking the thing that I no longer like." Not everyone feels this adamant about it. Being able to respec in an RPG. (Role-Playing Game) is vital for players as it let's us approach the game from different viewpoints.

If you don't like it, then that's too bad. Nobody is forcing you to use the Mirror. Stop being pessimistic over a system that you clearly aren't forced to use and trying to bring the roof down upon everyone else simply because you're not happy with it. If you want a real hardcore experience, go play Honour Mode and come back to us since the game is too "casual". As a matter of fact.

Idea Proposal: Respec Mirror is removed in Tactician Mode/Honour Mode.

For you elitist types out there.

-Pyro ignoring MA can be conclusively proven to imbalance the game, whereas having a free respec cannot.

Rotating your characters civic abilities to rob traders dry imbalances the game.

-I dunno, maybe it should be removed from tactician or honour modes and left there for everyone else

An actual suggestion. Excellent, I'd be behind that.

-Stop liking the thing that I no longer like

Calling me elistist because I want an exploit removing is... well it's comical to be honest. Saying don't use something major in vanilla game that is NOT a bug or glitch is pointless. An exploit should be fixed unless it's what the devs intended - the rotation of civic abilites to gain wealth.

If the devs intended it then, whilst very sad, I have no more to add. I do not believe this is a feature, I believe this should be patched out. There are other ways and means, but claiming there is no problem when there clearly is baffles me.

As an add-on, statements such as:
"Why, though? In an MMO, sure; but a single player game?
If someone wants to abuse the feature for their own single-player experience .. let them. It's their game, it's their experience. "

Is why mods/console commands exist.

Here's an idea; stop using the feature.
Even better idea: Install a mod that removes it.

Because if it's not being used, it's not allegedly imbalancing anything.

Seriously, you and OP remind me of the "Fast travel ruins Skyrim, take it out now!" crowd.

Edit:
I don't mean that in a condescending, or rude way.
I mean it like; there's a built in and usable feature; it's not a bug, the intention is clear - and how you use it is up to you.
You are free to never see it, touch it, use it or otherwise experience it in any way. It doesn't impact your game. It doesn't intrude upon your gameplay yet instead of ignoring it .. you call for the developer to change the game mechanic to how YOU want it.

Yeah, I saw the same in Oblivion. In my opinion they were right, I found the game was much better paced if I didn't fast travel and I also found I "needed" to install a mod to disable it to get myself out of the habit (though really that was a bit of a lazy approach as I could've just not used it: and in fact not being able to use it at all got tedious with the likes of Fighters Guild quests being seemingly deliberately inconveniently placed) but I would've hated to impose my idea of what improved the game on other people.

Another example was installing the FCOM meta-mod which totally changed loot and enemy scaling and more, and actually made things quite a lot more difficult. Although part of me thought "this is what it should've been like to begin with" I had to consider that some people actually liked the way the game was out of the box, however much that surprised me.

Balance should never be a priority in non-competitive games. FUN should be.
Respec-ing is fun for some people and it's good to have the option.

So you'd be fine with a spell that did 300 direct vitality damage. Because: Here's an idea; stop using the feature. Because if it's not being used, it's not allegedly imbalancing anything.

A mod to remove an exploit is your solution. Instead of... the devs? This isn't an easter egg, this is core aspect of the vanilla game that I think should be fixed.