Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Sharing Money in Co-op

Recently a few friends and I started up a 4 player co-op campaign. Naturally everyone picked a different role to fill. We have a thief, loremaster (me), barterer/lucky charm, and something else that eludes me. Most of these civil skills don't stop anyone from doing what they normally do in single player as an individual character. Even lucky charm is shared party wide. Bartering is not however which gives reason to have someone manage all of the loot and money of the party.

Currently the member of my party with that ability does that. Any money/junk we have he insists we give to him so he can maximize our profits at the market. Since only one person(and thief) can look at a shopkeeper's inventory at a time we have to wait for everyone to decide what they want then have our thief steal whatever he can and finally have our barterer purchase anything else we need. This leads to 20-30 minutes spent simply shopping for items. I'm last to pick what I need and after waiting so long I usually don't even bother mentioning it.

While the time spent is irritating its the inability to shop on my own or have any money to myself that crosses the line. I enjoy having the freedom to buy whatever I want when I want to, especially when it takes as long as it does. I'm already so limited in the things I can do both in combat and out that I just can't give up the ability to buy/sell my own stuff. It drains the fun and really ruins the immersion for me. Micromanaging to that extent is just to much of a hassle in a multiplayer game.
I do end up giving most of my money and junk but I like to keep a small chunk for myself just in case I get fed up with waiting or don't want to bother anyone every time I want to get something. They can see the little extra I keep for myself and the one managing it all gets very annoyed by it. He doesn't like the idea of me having any extra gold on me. Anytime he notices he and another member will call me out and keep insisting I give them everything.
If I had the ability I would've removed the barter skill altogether. It's a pain to work with in this game and feels pretty lame when you already have +100,-100 affliction function.

What do you guys think? Are you fine with someone managing all your money/junk or do you prefer to do it on your own? Do think it lessens the gameplay or do it not faze you? Do any of you who give all your money/junk to one person take as long when you're shopping? Do you like the way the barter system works or would you rather see it changed? And am I in the wrong to disagree with doing it so much even though it's more efficient?

Way I see it, all of these issues stem not so much from the game but rather the play group. Still, Original Sin 2 can be finicky in terms of inventory management and gear optimization for the classes. It will take some experience with the game to be quick with it.

When I solo games like these, although Original Sin 2 is different in this regard, I notice that I put more focus on the frontline in terms of equipment simply because they end up bearing the brunt of the damage. Personally, I have no issues being undergeared in a team-oriented game so long as my role is not compromised, at which point I will bring it up with the group. That said, OS2 is not quite that type of game because melee engagement means nothing, bar attacks of opportunity, and mobility skills are abound and aplenty. However, if your group tries to be fair and equal in distribution of equipment levels, you may end up being mediocre across the board for some important engagements. There simply isn't enough resources in the game to keep everybody optimally equipped at all levels except for when you approach the very end. If I were you I'd propose to the group to personally stay on the side and engage later in combat so as to avoid as much of the damage as possible. In retrospection that could get your group to think about your gear more. Furthermore, you can argue that the best gear should always scout ahead and that you contribute to the game by staying undergeared. Also, you can respec your build to be survival-of-yourself optimal and focus on utility spells and loremastery for the group.

Just a couple of cents. It's about having fun in the end.

The Civil Abilities as a whole just don't work at all if you ask me. As it stands I'm making a mod that removes/replaces them among many other things - Feeling forced to only talk to people with one character, only trade with one character, or loot with one character (Last one was fixed luckily) just seems wrong in single player, and the effect is amplified in multiplayer.

Making every civil ability apply to all the characters in your party alleviates the issue but then just raises the question of why not just make the civil abilities automatic on level up, which then raises the question of why should they should even exist in the first place.

Being over/under equipped isn't the issue. We're only classic anyways so it's not like there is a real challenge. It's that my teammates insists on keeping all the gold since he has the barter skill. I find that doing so ruins the experience. I'm just curious if anyone has gone through the same thing and feels the same a bout it.

It depends on the skill. I'm fine with not being able to steal or use loremaster on a certain character but things like barter and persuasion definitely take away from the experience. It really ruins the multiplayer for me. Also they apparently haven't fixed that looting issue for multiplayer games. Only characters that you're directly controlling will share lucky charm.

You could argue to share all the gold equally...you're a team after all .

Well that wouldn't make sense as the argument is that one person specs the barter skill so to make the most use out of it they should be the one buying and selling stuff. Plus everyone else is fine doing it that way so I doubt that will change. I just don't like doing it despite it being more efficient and was wondering if anyone else felt the same.

We had the same issue with our 3-man (+NPC) playthrough: the barterer hogs all the cash and "does his thing", while us other two stand around picking our noses, with no oversight or chance of input. Too bad our barterer, as we found out after checking the safe file he passed us in case we wanted to play on after our post-Christmas LAN's end, is also what some would call a min-maxing powergamer with an egotistical streak - not the greatest asset in what is supposed to be a team effort. While my mate and I are equipped mostly in slightly out-leveled greens and the odd blue, Mr. Moneysack just happened to be decked out in pretty much all up-do-date purple, with (of course...) all the skills learned he could ever hope to need. Yeah, great teamwork, that...

In multiplayer, you're at the mercy of the barterer's honesty and integrity - or lack thereof. Suffice to say we have not played with him since. We've started our own two-man game and keep it honest, but the fact that he can't see what I'm doing in that there trade window is still pretty annoying.

That you can't see equipment of your teammates was alredy a bother in the first game and because of competativability, they are pretty unlikely to ever address it sadly.

Just put a check box to share equipment like you can share your journal would be enough.

I have tried a different tack.

One of my two characters has bartering

Start by selling an expensive item to the vendor and NOT charge any gold for it. It instantly raises his attitude towards you to a 100.

That helps a lot.

Neither of my wife's two characters have bartering as a learned skill, but she has items that helps.

And we both sell and buy. My better prices is an option. Not a fixed rule of the game. I can imagine my wife if I told her, that she couldn't do buying or selling...
I'm sure she would make it a point to sell at crap prices all the time, until I found a common ground.
(Usually easy enough. I like sex. She likes to be right).

And to OP...
If you are frustrated by the way it is done in your game at the moment.
Change it. Play as you feel right.
Your joy should not be ruined because of a price difference of a few gold pieces.

Seems one of your players have way more power over your gameplay than is nessessary.

Fortunately my scenario isn't that bad. We're friends and he does communicate. He is a min/maxer though so it is quite aggravating when I have to sit there for ages waiting to tell him what I want because he insists on buying everything.

Yeah it's an absolute pain that you can't do that. Hell I'd be fine just being able to look in the shop at the same time as him. They really need to work on the multiplayer.

That's what it should be, an option. It feels oppressive to dictate what someone can and can't do. I'm fine giving my most expensive things to sell and I don't mind forwarding a share of my gold but it's bothering when my friends get angry that I do keep some to myself. I wish I could just play they way I wanted too but I'm afraid that if I do I'll get retribution for it. They see it as incredibly selfish and stupid and I can easily imagine them hoarding all the loot from me or incapacitating me in and out of combat if I did. I'll probably never hear the end of it either. Whether I find it fun doing it one way or another means absolutely nothing to them. And unfortunately I don't have sex as a bargaining chip.

Eh, it is a bit of a problem with multiplayer. I found that this only becomes annoying in 3+ players. With 2, I never had a problem with it. It's easy to do, and I sell all of my friends items, and she can buy whatever she feels like. Then again, we just pass treasure back and forth constantly.

In the first one for instance, she was the shop person, but I did crafting, so she would go into town and shop and buy stuff that she thought would be good for me, and I crafted items that she would like to use, or we could sell to make even more money back. We were rolling in cash. Of course, we would always spot the other person some money if they REALLY wanted something with no thoughts on getting it back.

I do agree though that Civil skills can be a bit of a pain though. Especially Persuasion. It's annoying in a RPG. I feel like your persuade should be equal to the people that you are traveling with.

Make money sharing (only money collected from loot, not money from trading) to be an option.
The host can decided whether to enable it or not.

It would be fair to use it on MP, when some players are new to the game and some players already know all the locations of the loots.