After a great deal of hours put into Divinity: Original Sin II and extensive observation of its underlying mechanics and design elements, I've decided to create a comprehensive codex of grievances that I've collected over the course of my playtime.
I've tried codifying my issues with the game in the past in a variety of formats while throwing my two cents in on the forums here and there, but after several iterations I felt that simply recognizing and sharing my observations would be the best starting point for both promoting discussion and solidifying my own criticisms.
You can find the entire document
HERE(wordpress) or
HERE(gdoc).
I have not seen such a coherent and well thought-out criticism for ANY game before.
I read it all, and I must say that I agree 100% on every single word of what you have written (apart from some stuff in lesser flaws section not worth mentioning). Most importantly
"
Larian Studios has not opened a dialogue about or openly respected feedback and criticism.
Larian Studios came forth last year on their forums stating that they would be reading and taking into consideration all criticism and feedback, and would be incorporating it. Come release, and not only were massive complaints of the community, long-standing bugs, and other issues left unaddressed but major, sweeping changes were dropped in the release version with no public testing—People who were so excited about this game they literally paid to help test it were not consulted on out-of-the-blue gut punches like Initiative being effectively removed."
I played DoS:EE just a couple years back, and I really liked it. It was not a Baldur's Gate 2, but it had its own style, and a very interesting and fun combat system, also hybrid characters did not fail, where they most often do in many RPG's, unless you go on a solo powerplay.
I made a One-Hander Tank, Rogue, 2 Casters party for DoS:II and I kind of regret it.
- The armor system's 100% block or 100% let through thing is absolutely ridiculous, MAJOR flaw like you said. There are times I just skip the turns of my mages, because whether I cast something or not will not make any difference in the next 4 turns of the combat. I skip turns waiting for their incredibly long support skill cooldowns end.
- Terrain effects means absolutely nothing, they are way too volatile to plan and utilize, nor do I feel like leaving hazardous terrain since using that AP to break someone else's armor is much more valuable.
- Attributes promote dump statting. Attributes do nothing, you need main skill attribute and memory, and nothing else, the rest are simply dump stats. Attributes should also modify saving throw points, effect chances, AP regens, Cooldowns etc. just like you said, just like in DoS:EE.
- Tanking is also non-existent, taunt is a joke, every "class" has some sort of teleport option that you are not able to tank anyone. Well, time to respec my one hander to a 2 hander.
Anyway I could go on, but I will be pointing to exact same issues you have pointed out, and do a worse job explaning them so I will stop here.
