The Chronicles of Divinity is an expansion to the main campaign spanning from start to finish (and beyond) and will be released in episodes.
Many of the new zones and smaller levels will also be available in GM mode.
Basic features (Finished or In Progress):
◽ New main quests spanning over multiple acts. ◽ Dozens of new side-quests. ◽ Sail the High Seas with your own ship. ◽ One new Origin character with her own quests. ◽ Interactive "World Companions" and "World Events". ◽ Two new classes (so far), Shapeshifter and Prowler. ◽ New Source Masters, max cap of Source Points increased to 5. ◽ Minor visual tweaks and overhauls to the main campaign. ◽ Dynamic power scaling - Event and story based, following the player's level unless influenced by unique events. ◽ The Source Forge - One of Braccus Rex's many lost relics. Discover it and learn how to enhance your gear - Level it up to your level! Open up a whole new world of build opportunities. Or be lazy and find the master craftsman, if you happen to have a hefty wallet. ◽ New unique gear: Head/Neck/Ring slots sometimes offer new skills. ◽ Random world loot & enhanced loot tables. ◽ Entirely new spells, and re-balancing of existing spells. ◽ Custom atmospheres designed specifically for each zone.
Immediate future plans:
-- Start playtesting and squish bugs before launching Episode 1.
-- New Origin/Custom-specific special abilities unlocked at level 15.
As this has sort of become a hobby of mine, filling 2000 hours so far and going strong, I have a vague impression on how long it'll take me to finish the project. So the idea thus far is to finish up Fort Joy and then the zones for Driftwood and quests surrounding that, including some to help clarify some of the main story, then I can release the first episode while working on finishing up Driftwood and Nameless Isle, then release episode 2 while I work on Arx.
And keep going like that until I feel I've finished telling the story I want to tell
Hence the dynamic part. It's both out of necessity, it's literally only just me scripting at the moment and the rebalancing task for the whole campaign would be huge (!), but the way it currently works adds a whole new layer of possibilities.
Basically what this means is, enemies won't necessarily be exactly your level. I can fluidly change the level ranges of larger zones, type of monsters, or even have it change depending on in-world actions by the player. Say at some point you encounter a violent dragon. He's a world boss four levels above you. Tough! But earlier on you learned about dragons from a scholar in Driftwood, I could have that reduce the level gap between you and the dragon. This isn't actually a scenario, but a demonstration how it could be.
When will you be done? Playtesting for the first episode will start very soon. A couple of weeks after is when I hope to publish it for everyone.
Episode 1 has taken a month longer than I had expected at the very start, but natural in retrospect as there has both been tons of childhood technical issues with the engine, as well as the learning curve. Having passed that and worked through good / less good workflows of going about with things should hopefully speed things up for the rest of the story :]
Manually. I'd do splines in the future but now I just wanted to make a relatively quick video to get a post going, and save that "Woah" impact for when I am ready to show some actual gameplay and story moments. Did the preview window in the editor in a separate window, resized it to fit my screen and did Control+Shift+F11 then "DirectorMode On" along with some FoV settings to hide cursor and such, move around while recording and just scale up the window ever so slightly in Adobe Premiere to hide the editor border
Also an idea for you if you can make it will be an immense work for campaign;
Make an island that have a castle which can be accesible via boat or a ship. Like Baldur's Gate or Pillars of eternity or other this kind of game types in rpg.
You can save the castle and own it. (Maybe a story based saving ? )
You can upgrade your castle building, hire mercenaries to defend its grounds, Can collect taxes, and while you are away there can be a script counter for attack on your castle can be invoked while you can defend it by your hireable mercs & more stuff like that ?... Can be fantastic
Also an idea for you if you can make it will be an immense work for campaign;
Make an island that have a castle which can be accesible via boat or a ship. Like Baldur's Gate or Pillars of eternity or other this kind of game types in rpg.
You can save the castle and own it. (Maybe a story based saving ? )
You can upgrade your castle building, hire mercenaries to defend its grounds, Can collect taxes, and while you are away there can be a script counter for attack on your castle can be invoked while you can defend it by your hireable mercs & more stuff like that ?... Can be fantastic
Hehe, cool idea! Though not something I'd divert my time to at this time, perhaps as an addition after the main story (after you've completed the game). In fact there is an island already, for similar but not similar at all purposes. That quest line begins in Fort Joy and develops in Reaper's Coast
As for helping hands, I'd welcome it! Anything to chip down labor to increase development speed. I'll throw you a discord link when that becomes relevant
Last edited by The Composer; 11/10/1702:06 PM. Reason: Typos & Extra text
I mean ... where to start... genuinely blown away by that trailer ... jeez man, you have a trailer and everything,...
... just keep going I guess, because I NEED to see more (X_X)
Good luck from everyone here at Larian that's currently falling off his/her chair by that trailer and keep us posted on the forums as always so we can assist This is just amazing.
Damn, Kevin! That's cool to hear As far as hype to continue working goes, that goes a long way! Which leads me to an important question... When will we see the ability to add new sounds / voice / music to the editor?
I spent an hour or two quickly setting up a soundbank in Wwise with some .wem files with music of my own, added them to the soundbank and tried importing that .bnk to the editor (from inspecting the game files, that's the impression I got you're using) but it didn't see any files in my soundbank so clearly something is missing. I just couldn't figure what, if it's the file formats, encoding, something else... So I decided not to spend hours upon hours hitting my head at a wall!
... Probably still gonna try to find a loophole when I don't feel like scripting/mapping either way haha!
Thanks for all the love and encouraging words everyone, progress keeps its pace! Some of today's endeavors:
Can't really say much here without spoiling story.
Beginning of a semi-frozen running lake with waterfalls:
Fine-tuning some aspects of a quest-line starting at the initial tutorial boat (Or, can start. Otherwise it can start at a later time if people somehow miss it.)
When you have a trailer that feels like an early teaser for an actual "from the company" expansion pack ... that says a lot about what the engine is capable of.
I'll definitely be paying attention to this. It's definitely got potential.
First of all, it looks amazing! Really looking forward to see this mod published.
Originally Posted by The Composer
...I have a vague impression on how long it'll take me to finish the project. So the idea thus far is to finish up Fort Joy and then the zones for Driftwood and quests surrounding that, including some to help clarify some of the main story, then I can release the first episode while working on finishing up Driftwood and Nameless Isle, then release episode 2 while I work on Arx.
And keep going like that until I feel I've finished telling the story I want to tell
Have you thought about savegame-compatibility? I mean once the second episode is released, won't it require one to start a new game in order for it to work? Or should it more be understood as the 2 first episodes are like "open betas" and when the 3rd one is published that is when the complete version is made. I'm guessing that you have some questlines that spans over multiple episodes as well!.
What about the possibility that Larian makes an Enhanced addition and/or an expansion pack (do people still say "expansion pack"?)? Or are you more like "Nah come what might come, that's not stopping me from making this awesome campaign!".
PS. Sorry if the post is a bit gloomy, I really don't hope that any of this is going to be an issue, I just want to know your thoughts about it.
@MAHak: There's definitely quests spanning over several acts As far as DoS2: EE, if that happens, it's just great! Always new things to learn, by that time if I'd have to restart, everything's better the second attempt
I'm still working on how best to go about launching things. It's also important to me not to publish something and keep people waiting a long time in between, so it's a juggle. I don't really dare answering that with specifics as it's still only been a couple of weeks. I'd prefer not to require complete restarts every time, working at finding ways to, or waiting for a solution to add more content to a mod while mid-ways in a save.
EDIT: Oh, and also... "Nah come what might come, that's not stopping me from making this awesome campaign!"
PAL... Are you making diablo game levels beneath Fort Joy Cmon it looks cool !!!. Will monsters attack the city or not
Keep up the nice work meanwhile don' loze time on making skills or spell balance thingy as they are not compatible with each other and will take your real time and slow you down on your main project. Peeps already using their own/other balancing or skill mods for that kind of stuff. Most of Gamers need an unending expandable story to play
Just think on castle thingy and diablo thingy can be cool too lol protect the city from demon attacks known story types but classic. As classics never die...
Saw your post in my help thread, read your signature..
This looks like a mod i'd definitely play once it's done, hope you don't abandon it.
However, (personal) caveat: I see this often with modders, packing disparate or multiple aspects into one big package, which is often enough more of a disadvantage than anything else. Here for instance.. It looks like you know your way around your editor, have good ideas, can type like a proper human. Perfect, quality content incoming ^^ So why not stick to content? As in, why "dillute" that by adding changes to 'default' skills/spells, changing 'default' source points, rebalancing the base game, etc? Becomes way too subjective/convoluted at that point; would be better if you kept separate aspects.. separate really. Could always add a separate 'expansion' for your mod Again, just an opinion.
Thank you for your response, Aenra! My main goal is indeed not any major overhaul to the spells in the game, though some alterations and balances are necessary to both fit the story, and some quality of life changes such as passive Spirit Vision. My main goal is to add replayability with new stories, characters and places to explore in the main campaign.
Which also hopefully answers your question, Endarire! It is for the standard campaign, so all the origin characters are available, but it's best to start a new save when the time comes
EDIT:
Returned to the north for some further work. Pretty good progress in town.
Just want to shoutout about Skumleren who has joined in as a mapper in the project! Sadly, I don't have any screenshots of what I saw, but it was truly a great sight, and I'm not too easy to impress. It should make a significant chip away at the amount of work towards playtesting and releasing episodes!
In the meantime, I've begun streaming again and if you'd like to hang out and follow some of the streams as I work on the project then I can be found here: YouTube | Twitch | Mixer
EDIT Hold on, I 'do' have a screenshot. From the stream when we were going over what he'd made so far!
We've had quite a bit of progress since last update, I'll just write up a feature list here and include some visuals.
▶ New Areas
Fort Joy Isles Explore various islands and points of interest around Fort Joy. Several quests, secrets and treasures to be found. But as all pirates should know, where there's treasure, there's danger.
Elven Homestead (By Skumleren, Work In Progress) Can't describe this without spoiling quite a bit of story.
Big New Feature!
Roam the High Seas No teleports, no mumbo jumbo, just you and your crew taking to the high seas. Make Beast a happy Dwarf, bring him on an afternoon of pirate shenanigans and treasure hunting around Fort Joy Isles during Episode 1!
Whaat, no... Those are the most recent I found (albeit I knew there was more progress on them!). I think you showed me the more finalized version over screenshare...?
Damn, and I was wondering what you have been doing all week :) Revisiting The Wavedancer is like screenshot of some pirate movie. Ship portrait with sun in the background looks cool. Great, keep up the good work.
Thanks you two! Putting an effort to push towards playtesting for Episode 1 soon, albeit still waiting for word from Larian regarding Instance painting and when a patch will come to fix that. TL;DR is if you paint bushes/grass etc on a map, intending to use this map as a level template to be added to a main level later, the instances will not follow. I'd rather wait for a patch to fix this rather than paint land 4x size of Fort Joy with instances twice.
Meanwhile, I've been working on new areas within Fort Joy itself, hidden away with stuff to explore of which I won't say, and should also help with making a new playthrough with the mod feel like a new experience
I've published the first small collection of GM Mode Maps in a separate mod now, as I've decided to have the promised GM content in a separate mod for multiple reasons. Mostly for cleanliness and freedom of choice of what interests people.
-- Main post has been updated to credit team members, Skumleren and Milena. We recently got Milena onboard the team providing new homemade prefabs and also decorating interiors and levels.
-- Dynamic Level Scaling - Enemies around Rivellon now scale near the player's level, based on story and event influence. This should make combat rebalancing and world progression shaping a lot easier, faster and with some extra tweaking options.
Things are starting to really shape up, and that is a very reassuring and exciting feeling. I think I can speak on behalf of the team that we're super eager to open the gates for you sometime soon too! \^^/
And I think I speak on behalf of Larian if I thank you all for working so hard on this and as a community as a whole. Keep up the good work, we're all excited!
It's been a while since last update. I've had a surgery since last update, hence the quieter presence on most platforms as I've spent time recovering. Still got some work done though!
Sorting out one of the final locations for Episode 1, I will refrain from explaining context of where it fits in, but it's quite a unique location, one of the lore-heavy moments providing more depth to one of the new storylines.
Cheers, MrPillow! I'm not all too comfortable advertising things of commercial nature on someone elses intellectual property, but you're welcome to check out my YouTube and connected media to that :] I try to stream some times while working on things, not so much lately as I'm too concentrated on detail work. Or idle-work. Right now for example, I'm just waiting for Photoshop to finish saving a 16K resolution world map for Episode 1 (Fort Joy + all the new areas) since the default ingame resolution didn't really... Like expanding areas.
For example some side by side examples of before/after here:
And as I posted on twitter, things are getting quite finished now. It is quite thrilling to see things come together, to be honest! Now it's mostly making sure everything is connected from a-z and write the remaining quest entries, book strings and sort out the remainder of Kara (the new origin character) then we can start playtesting :]
I'm not a multiple play through player especislly in a game like this where there wouldn't really be many new surprises if any but when this is released ill run through again.
Maybe all the eq1 and wow running the same stuff over and over did me in.
Hi everyone! Thank you for the kind, amazing feedback thus far! I had initially planned on starting playtesting today along with PAX South but unfortunately certain engine limitations weren't solved as early as I had hoped, leaving for a lot of extra work.
Although we're almost there! Episode 1 is a few weeks away at most, playtesting even closer to that. So today is as good day as any to start collecting names for those interested in helping out with playtesting!
So if you're interested in joining in to try and break the game, find bugs and things behaving in funny ways, get on the mailing list here!
Once a version is ready and uploaded, I'll contact those who have signed up by the mail they've entered and provide links to the newest version and an invite link to a discord channel.
Some long term story have been better fleshed out as well, one as far as to the very end of the game (no spoilers, promise!) which I'm personally very hyped about and can't wait to reach. I think you'll be as intrigued as I am.
Thank you all, and look forward to getting into playtesting 😊
Hey; your mod looks really good. I can't wait to play it with my friends. I was wondering if you planned to add translations to your mod (my friends are not very good in english) ? I can translate text in french if you want.
Unfortunately I don't have any plans to do any translations besides English. But hopefully, since audio isn't moddable players will have to read anyway, and that can be done at each one's individual pace so hopefully they'll manage :]
Development is paused until further notice. I either have to figure out how to revert from the recent DOS2 hotfix, or wait for next engine patch. Why?
This is taken from a clean install on a clean Windows using a VM directly after downloading DOS2, Engine and the necessary files from Steam. Edit Fort Joy terrain in any way, and this happens:
After constant debugging since the recent hotfix, I've nearly lost hair (and undeniably lost sleep) over trying to figure out why a lot of things was misbehaving. I've come to a conclusion it's without a doubt the hotfix being the culprit, probably a version desync from data to engine, as it refuses to read / write certain lsf files which is probably again the cause of this.
So I am looking into how to revert DOS2 back to before the recent hotfix, or wait for the next engine patch.
Mod work is on pause until either of those two solutions are in place. Preferably very soon.
Thank you to those who has signed up for playtesting, I really wish to progress further as soon as possible, but I find it too risky to put in any engine work under the current circumstances. The workarounds I have made before this discovery likely won't be as nice once engine/data is back in sync again either.
After cleaning up a VM to test reverting back to last patch prior to yesterday's hotfix, everything works as expected again. I'll leave the computer on to download that past manifest over night and I can get back into continuing my work tomorrow :] I'll turn off any updates for DOS 2 in the interim between editor patches from now on.
Awesome man! Seeing this gets me pumped to start making content. I plan on finishing the campaign, currently I am just about to get to Arx. If you need playtesting help lmk! Looking forward to seeing the final product!
Apologies for being absent for a while. I had a terribly nasty flu a while back, enjoyed some PUBG as I was recovering from that (which also consequentially left me with a torn up lung, bleeding and yadda yadda). I have been in Vietnam for a while, and still find myself here while restoring my sanity and getting some life inspiration.
I'll be returning the 17th of April, carrying a covered Masterclass on writing, storytelling and more of which I'll begin to stream more frequently while applying this new inspiration, knowledge and insight to use.
Prior to all of this, I finished making the quest/storyline of obtaining the ship, and made a few minor alterations to the original DOS2 story to fit into the new narrative. Example of this being...
... Gareth is no longer to be found in his usual spot, but there may be something else to be found in his place. This is one of a few new things that will play a part in the final battle of Fort Joy.
Thank you all for being so patient. It's been a learning curve and a journey, part of me can't wait to return from Vietnam and finish the rest. The signups for playtesting is still up, I didn't get to round things up as fast as I could, as I discovered a few "holes" needing to be filled first. But I'll keep you updated.
Good to have you back (soon), Sir. I was actually wondering, a few days ago, if you'd ever get around to finish the release and that it would be a shame if all that progress was for naught. So this is indeed good news
Aye, my new inspiration and knowledge in storytelling is new fuel too, can't wait to start playing with it.
For this last stretch and future episodes, I'm looking for partnering up with willing third parties to help pitch in on the project though, so if anyone feel they have the relevant skills and interest in joining in, let me know.
For now what I could need is someone to help lowering the workload by providing icons for various skills and spells.
Exciting to see your new found inspiration and near term expectation for resuming work on it. I know the community would enjoy getting their hands on it!
DOS2 Mods: Happily Emmie After and The Noisy Crypt
Cannot wait for this to come out! By far the most exciting mod I've seen for DOS2. I hope everything is going well, and I'm super excited to see what comes of this mod/expansion!
This is looking really amazing man, Ive been looking for something like this to enhance the D:OS2 experience, and this looks perfect. I am really looking forward to playing this when it is released! Keep up the fantastic work!!
Cheers! It's tough now, as I am working fulltime as well, but I'm looking into ways to speed up the next few episodes. After all, the majority of reasons episode 1 has taken so long is learning everything I need to know how to do things, pre-planning the storylines, etc. I have a dozen pictures I really, really want to share but since it's from basically the finale of episode 1, I'll keep my cards close. In other words, no tease for you hehe.
I've been looking into little tricks to balance certain gameplay points. One of the main combat tests I'd like to keep focus on once testing starts publically is lone wolf and/or the OP builds you can have. I've tried a level 17 2-man lone wolf team against a hostile group of 4, and it was no where as cakewalk as before. Not perfect by any means, but better. Hence testing and feedback wanted
IMPORTANT: I am looking for a female voice talent (one that has an interest in voiceacting if not only for fun, anyway) to lend her voice to the project. The only real requirement I have is that you have access to relatively decent recording gear, I can do some quality touch-ups in post, but a good starting point is, well... Good! A side-note to this is that, unfortunately you will have to get some spoilers, as I need to bring you in on the story so that you can get a feeling of the character and what she's like. And you'll need to be able to keep a secret ;]
I'm also wondering if there's interest in me streaming some of the work on the next episodes? It could be a means for both hanging out, getting feedback, answering questions from you guys if there may be any. I feel mapping and storyscript writing are my main strongpoints at this point, so I could share whatever I have learned (or discover in the future) there, and share prefabs I make along the way, too.
Anyway, let me know. It's something I've been curious about getting back into.
I'm also wondering if there's interest in me streaming some of the work on the next episodes? It could be a means for both hanging out, getting feedback, answering questions from you guys if there may be any. I feel mapping and storyscript writing are my main strongpoints at this point, so I could share whatever I have learned (or discover in the future) there, and share prefabs I make along the way, too.
Anyway, let me know. It's something I've been curious about getting back into.
I'd like that. Although I got a lot of 'real life tasks' to take care of at the moment, so my time with video games is kinda sporadic and on and off like, so I can't promise I'll be a regular viewer. If I do have some time it will be in the evenings (CEST) around the time this post is made.
Thought I'd drop a mention here since it's been a while, and also to reassure everyone that development is still going.
All the work that remains for Act 1 is implementing main quests and Kara's storyline for it, although unfortunately there's currently a bug in the game engine and custom quests, but this is confirmed fixed for the next game patch
Meanwhile, I've been working on some standalone mods that pay direct relevance to Chronicles of Divinity, as they'll have addon content to add some more depth to it.
Divine Scaling - A barebones port of Chronicles of Divinity's scaling system. Chronicles' adds some variations and more fundamental story-relevant additions and changes, but at its core it's pretty similar.
Black Cat+ - Someone wrote on the Steam forums about their issues with the black cat and Sir Lora, and as soon as they mentioned their wife being sad as she missed having the little kitty following them around, I was sold and went to work. Additionally, it's directly relevant for Chronicles, although in Act 2 mind you, as there'll be other pets to befriend and adventure with.
On a sideline, I'm also working on a Sir Lora mod which adds him as an origin character, so he himself can fight to become the next Divine. This isn't really Chronicles' related, but I had already gone through the process with Kara, so adding a new one wasn't too much of a job. Also, Odinblade is working on some unique little fun skills for his origin.
Hi Composer! I created this account so that I could tell you how excited I am that you're working on this mod. I can't wait to see the finished product! It looks like you have been at this for quite some time, and I know how difficult some projects can be as they drag on. With that in mind, I just wanted to provide you with some encouragement and see if there is anything I can do to aid your effort.
I created an account just to tell you how psyched I am for what you're doing. I can't get enough of DOS:2 and I'm glad you're adding to this great game.
Question about your mod Chronicles of Divinity: GM Pack. Please tell me, is your mod for GM (Game Master mode) only, or can I use it for a regular game too - and there will be new territories and NPC? I am playing a regular game (not GM), now on Reaper's Coast and ready to go further (finished all quests).
It won't make any difference to your game, as it's only assets to be used as a dependency for other mods. It's a... "Mod for other mods" for a lack of a better way to describe it in a different way.