Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Dear Larian, what happened?

Hey people of Larian and the forums,

i really really like the game and i'm sure that Divinity OG 2 probably could (!) be the game that bumps the legendary Baldurs Gate 2 of its throne, but if have a lot of quarrels with it. How is it possible that the game is so immensly bug-ridden? There was early acces which basically was a 1 1/2year massive beta.

At least 1/3 of my quests don't close properly and i spent as much time tabbed out of the game to look for workarounds or walkthroughs so i don't get fucked by the crazily broken questchain mechanic. I'm bound for the nameless isle but i just couldn't play any further. SO many quests close without being completed even though i did everything that was possible on Reapers Coast.
Quest completion isn't just a thing for Completionists you know - it is what drives the player, to get closure on a followed path. It is immensly frustrating to get all your quests closed even though it's not the players fault but yours, Larian.

Also, there are gamebreaking bugs in the game and no message from you in supporttickets or anything else. I played on, even though i had to sink in 15 hours of repetition. THATS how much i like your game and it's unreasonable to punish your players for that. I'm not a student anymore that has a shitton of time at my disposal and taking up a massive RPG is a time investment for everyone out there with a fulltime-job.

I would love to recommend your game to friends because i still think it is, at its core, a great game, but i just can't.

Why did you release the game withour proper testing for everything after act 1? People could've waited but the be rewarded with a complete and working game. I'm kinda disappointed because you followed the recipe that most in the industry follow now - release, then fix mess later, fuck the players time, we already got the cash.

Please fix this.

You never played the very first Divinity right? "Divine Divinity"

That game is full of "do that quest first or you break 3 others". And it was waaaaay worse at release. Those quest-breakers that are left are at least managable. And it is 15 years old and no fixes....

So yes Larian has a reputation do do that on their games.
It still is strange that the EA did not do much good in bug-fixing, but meah it was to be expected at least.

I actually did. I think i found it okayish. At least i don't have a terrible memory about it.

the problem is that people tend to compare new just-released games to games that have been out for years and have had expansions

most games in this era of gaming have shaky releases, it's just where we're at right now. not saying it's a good thing

I don't think that my judgement is clouded by nostalgia here. BG2 was pretty decent Day1. The Witcher 3 which also is a complex game barely had any issues at launch. Planescape: Torment was okay at Day1 while its newest incarnation also was a buggy mess at launch. I stopped that game because of that.

Minor glitches i get. They tend to get overlooked and at least stop you the moment they occur, not hours and hours later. I wouldn't have an issue here if my complaint was flickering textures or cut off animations, everything technical i don't care about. But something as crucial as the actual questsystem which is the heart and soul of every RPG? This is where i get out of dodge.

If THAT is bugged and not repairable with the first hotfix, then you fucked up big time. Thats where a dev should go:"Ah shit, sorry guys, but we have to delay the release due to..." - whatever. If marketing prevents a dev from saying that they need to postpone due to bugs, then fucking lie like every PR-Team does - "server crashed and stuff got lost" or "Belgium just got eradicated by genitalia eating bobcats". I don't care...

While there are quite a few bugs and thinks that I would like to change, I'm satisfied with the progress the developers have made at release. Correct me if I'm wrong, but early access was limited to certain parts of Act 1. While it certainly is annoying to not know the correct way to close a quest, I consider this a minor fault. The game is truly massive, and I think it took me about 120 hours for my first playthrough.

A game offering that kind of content is expected to have some minor bugs and annoyances. Larian seems to be coming out with updates regularly, and I appreciate that. I haven't experienced anything game breaking, just, like I said, some minor annoyances. Until they come out with the patches, just try to look past them. But good post; I do agree, and I think Larian Studios is a company that continues to improve their content, even after release. Have fun on your journey!

I think they just ran out of money and could not keep the game in beta phase and had to release earlier than they wanted.

While I am gratefull for a functioning arena mode that is modable (according to this at least http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1162501473 ) I think it would have been better for Larian to focus on single player and game master mode,because on the later,we could have simulated some arena maps if we wanted to,until an enhanced edition launched giving us arena mode.

Overall this game is something I really looked forward to, but I am sad that the community does not give 2 cents about the competitive multiplayer experimental aspect of this game (competitive questing). Fighting someone over completing a quest, is a concept unseen in my days as a gamer and I am curious to see what kind of games could come out if this formula were to ever get improved.

Noooo

Nothing beats BG2. NOTHING.


Except BG2 + some choice mods.

Some of the quests cannot be finished at this point. There are developments in later chapters.

As there are no handholding in the game, I'm not sure if some the quests are truly bugged. Maybe you missed something.

There are a few bugged quests in chapter 2 like "A man and his dog" but that's minor. I get the experience anyway.

There are bugs in the game but it works fine 90% of the time so I won't complain that much. I managed to beat the game without any gamebreaking bugs.

Well.
Our 4-player game is now over.
My friend came yesterday and took back its TV.
During that whole 27 hours-and-then-abandoned game, I was thinking : Wow, if only I knew it would be like this, I would have recommended playing the first opus, but then again the first one wasn't really enjoyable with 4 people even with the mod.
I think I'll restart a game with only one friend because we waited a while for this one (and well, I payed for it, and some part are still kind of enjoyable), but I must admit the game is a disappointment.
Apart from the bugs, you can add "no clue on making an acceptable UI for a controller for the second opus". No thought was put in it, it was pure genius in the first opus and needed some tweaking (we still can turn on/off the headgear : Come on Larian, it's just a button to put somewhere, you had two years to do it!), ability to teleport from the map for example, no autofilling the action bar (this one is so stupid, I really don't get at any point someone thinking this could be a good idea, but this is again a proof the game was never thoroughly played on controller). The simple fact that you can't do everything you can do with K/M with a controller is just bad design.
So yeah. I did understand the critics on the first one saying it was great, I really cannot grasp the rage now.

In all honesty, despite my bitterness at Larian for having cheated players out once again of true modding possibilities, I'd say this is an unfair judgement. DOS2 is a massive game.

Okay, maybe my 2nd post was too ragey as i pretty much still like what they did a lot here. But still, i'm disappointed at how badly this game was tested in the beta-phase. Gamebreaking bugs do occur, the questing system is bugged and that is the only system which shouldn't be at any costs for a game like this.

Larian were supposed to be better than most big devs and publishers. I thought they were on the "CD Project RED"-way of fixing stuff and being supportive of the consumer.

They didn't. They shoved the game out with too much bugs for a Full-Price-Game. And thats sad.

Still Kudos for the actual game that is in there.

Sorry, but again, I have to disagree. The bugs so far (and I've started my second playthrough) are certainly not "game breaking". They're annoyances. They shouldn't distract you from all of the positive things they incorporated.

Let me clarify: If it was their main goal was bug testing, then you would have what you desire. Attempt to look at it in terms of what might have not been added to the game if a lot of time had been spent on bug testing and journal/quest updates. For example, would we might have seen a reduction in how the world treats us differently based on our choosing race? Or instead, would we have less balance for builds and tactics if that time was spent elsewhere?

What I'm trying to say is the following: Report the bugs to tech and just overlook or overcome that desire to have things completely polished and finished. You could also argue that Larian has decided to make quests tied to exploration. Take, for instance, quests that cannot be completed until the next act or area that you haven't explored.

Just have fun, man (or lady), and look at the positive aspects of your experience. Tell us, poster, what made you laugh during this game. Often I find that remembering the great things that we had dampens our negative experience. Cheers!

Are there bugs? Yes.

But honestly, I am incredibly surprised there are so few bugs in a game that offers so many options, and N+2 ways to complete quests (if not more). I've seen quality games come out that were practically unplayable Day 1, and this game? Not only playable, but pretty damn stable for the most part.

DOS2 is absolutely massive. It's startling that it has so few bugs.

I'm not sure we're playing the same game here. Yes, as i stated before, i take a deep bow before Larian for what they were trying to do and where they suceeded, it is really beautiful and great. But i had to quit playing once more because I don't know about you but i value my time and i already sank in 100h. That is great, if not at least 20 of them were repetitions due to bugs. This also is a game about consequences, is it not? If so, i really want my choices memorised correctly by the game and i really want the freedom to finish the quests as i intend them to finish and not to workaround every hour or so to get the intended result. And by result i don't mean MY result, but the result that the game was programmed to spit out. Me in a quest saying "Yes" shouldn't be a "No". It's frustrating. Plain and simple.

And, again, yes - i see what is great about this game. In fact, i love it! But there just is sooo much annoying bugs in it that it turned to a love-hate relationship. Which sucks because i really really want to recommend this game to my friends, but i can't do that enthusiasticly because of all this. Me and my friends are all working in a shitty industry that demands a lot of time from us and if i tell them "It's great, but i had to put in 20-30h of repetition due to bugs or quest being saved wrongly", they would stare at me blank. 20-30h is 2 weeks of doing nothing but gaming after work. I did it, because i took a vacation this week, send my girlfriend on a trip and, pathetic as this sounds, really just wanted to play this and unwind - vacation from reality so to speak.