Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) Suggestions Death

yes, knives, lots of knives. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" />

I think that if the player can be resurected, then the player must also have a more strict save system, like Diablo II. If you can resurect, then you need to take out the backup that is loading a saved game.

Quite honestly: Who would use this resurrection system if it is actually a pain in the [nocando]?

I mean losing attribute points is not a good idea, I'd rather reload. Or searching for one of five shrines... great! I already hated looking for the teleporters in DivDiv and there were more than five. And now, I am supposed to look for shrines after dying? Thanx, but I'd reload. Fighting my way back to life? Again a nice idea... people who are not that good in fighting and thus die should fight again if they want to come back to life. I'd rather reload.

Don't get me wrong, of course it's a nice idea to implement such cool features like resurrection but you always have to ask: Who will use/need such a thing? I am not sure if many people would do...

no, ur ghost.

oh yeah, u r right. but how do the ghosts like in the wastleands, and in the elven barrial grounds, how do they fight???

No, I meant it rethorically. This actually is exactly how it's done in UO. In fact, you're description couldn't be more accurate. Just to prove my point, here's a quote from the official UO guide:



Now just replace healer with monk, and there you go.

I think he was meaning that if you can't fight to save your life, you probably shouldn't be given the chance to fight against your death (by trying to find a shrine).

When I talk about the possiblity of death, does it have to be this elaborate? After all, near the end of the game, when I fought members of the Black Ring such as Josephina, they never really died. Once their hitpoints went down to zero, they just told the Divine One something along the lines of "you may have won this battle, but you have not won the war against evil." If members of the Black Ring can't be killed no matter how hard you hit them with physical force or magical spells, shouldn't it be the same for the Divine One? Maybe, we can create a contingency spell where once you go down a certain number of hitpoints, you're teleported to an area where you can rest and heal yourself...That would be interesting...Hey...My point is that if you're the Divine One, it shouldn't be so easy for you to die just because you lose a certain number of hitpoints. Another alternative: I'd be interested in seeing your character's vitality rise back completely after their hitpoints go down to zero. So, here's the monster jumping around thinking he's killed you and then to his utter surprise and dismay, divine intervention takes over. Your dead body is hit with a flash of brilliant light as your hit points are restored completely and you find yourself whole and complete with no loss in experience or attributes. This will makes the game more like a can't lose proposition but since many players use save games to offset their character's death, it might not be a big deal to include this feature. It would seem frustrating if for some reason a player works hard in creating a level 52 character and then dies without saving. Then, he'd have to start from scratch. Is it possible to create a game where a player doesn't have to create save games in case his/her character dies?...Ideas? Comments?

one comment, ur not the divine one. ur a helper of his church. but u fight all of the black ring members twice. once to get the members of the coucil, and 2ce and the end to 2 kill 'em. but how come there r just 5 humans in on the black ring??? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> i would think it woud be like darkfriends in WOT, there's tons of 'em.

but, i don't like the idea of losing attirbutes, but there should be a spell, called, divine invincibility, and it is passive, and it has 10 parts. for in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/riftrunner.gif" alt="" /> ui go to level 100. (the normal ending is like 90 in this (lets say)45-50 in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" />, i'm making it up) but every 10 levels u can learn it. at level 1 it gives u 10% of ur vitality back, and no mana left. at level 2 u get 15% of ur vitality, and u keep 5% of ur mana. and then at level 10 u get 75% vitality, and half of how ever much mana u had left. that would work good. but then, u can only use the spell, every 10 minutes (real time, not game time <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />). thats a good suggestion.

How about a "quest" where you befriend a group of monks and they bestow a resurection spell on you? So maybe if you die the monks come and get you, perform a ceremony (hocus pocus) and your character lives again with no detriment to skill or level points at all? That would be neat I think.

yes, but thats what I like about my idea, is that, with this, u r invinsible, u never die. unless, u have to have like half ur mana left with u when u die, and then use the spell.

yes, but u guys don't get it, that makes u invinsible, u never die!!! ain't fun <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

Hi Lewtherin,

You are still the Divine One in Riftrunner. Did you look at the Avault interview with Lar? As for the question of whether the game is fun or not if your character is invincible, it'd be interested to know how many players create savegames in case a character dies. If you use savegames a lot, then in a way, you have made your character invincible already.

In Dungeon Keeper, when a characters hit points reached zero, that character fell unconsious. You then had a few minutes to get your Imps to drag the body back to it's bed to heal -- or to a prison cell to rot -- or they would die. Perhaps in RiftRunner, the Divine One pulls you out of combat at the last moment before your death and dumps you in the city (with 5 hit-points remaining).



Of course you should! Your hit-points are you total life-span. I see what you're saying though: that it shouldn't be so black and white. Perhaps the inclusion of injury penalties should be included. Once you reach 25% health, your character cannot run, loses some Offence and Defence, and your maximum weight is reduced to the Encumbered level (as opposed to Overweight).



So what would be the point of hit-points then?



Yes, Diablo II. I can only see a few solutions here:

1. When you die, you're dead. You can re-load.
2. When you die, you're dead. You can go back to the last continue-point with everything the same as when you got there (ie. lose all experience and items since the continue-point). The continue-point could be a shrine or temple or fountain or other key feature in a town or safe-haven. You can touch it as often and frequently as you want.
3. When you die, you're resurected. You are penalised in some way to make death have meaning and to make players want to not die.

Death needs to be meaningful and something worth avoiding. Death is a big deal, hence the game urges you to not die, just as you would urge yourself in real life (I hope!).

yes, I'll post it here.


Monday, June 23, 2003 - 9:29 am CT
First Riftrunner Interview
Reported by: David Laprad

Larian Studios' Swen Vincke gives us the scoop on Riftrunner - the Belgium developer's follow-up to Divine Divinity. Exclusive screenshots cap our discussion:

It's good to hear Divinity did well enough to warrant a follow-up. How will Riftrunner's story expand the Divinity universe?

Riftrunner fills the gap between Divinity 1 and Divinity 2. That's a strange thing to say since Divinity 2 isn't out yet - but that's what it does. Riftrunner takes place 20 years after Divine Divinity. The Divine One has erected the Order of the Divine in order to eradicate evil from the streets. The player - a member of that order - is dragged away into a demonic universe during an intense battle with a necromancer. That's where the adventure starts. Players will discover an entirely new world - but also learn more about Divine Divinity's cast. For instance: They'll encounter the imp historian again - the one that stole their teleporter pyramids in Divinity 1 - and they'll figure out what happened to the baby they saw at the end of that game. There's a very big universe you have just started uncovering.

In what ways has the Divinity engine been graphically enhanced for Riftrunner?

We've ported it to DirectX 9 - which eliminated some incompatibility problems. We've also included real-time 3D characters and added a lot of glitter to the magic effects while allowing for higher resolutions and including the ability to zoom in. Nothing too groundbreaking - but good enough to make the game hold its own.

Tell us more about the random quest generator.

There are special areas in the game we call The Battlefields. They're accessed through special portals that can take on many forms. Once you're through those portals you'll find yourself in areas that are totally computer-generated and where all quests are random. You'll usually visit The Battlefields to boost your character and either gain an item or learn a rare skill. The Battlefields add a lot of replay value to the game. The nice thing is we can offer players a lot of content with relatively little developer effort. There are different levels of difficulty in The Battlefields - so players will always find something to do there. We'll be talking a lot more about this feature in the next couple of months - so check out our site from time to time.

Explain the new character development system.

We're preparing a special feature around that - so I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise by explaining it all here. Some parts of it are pretty different from Divinity 1 - but there are good reasons for that. I'm quite sure most people will like it a lot.

In what ways are the environments more interactive?

You'll get more or less get the same level of interactivity - but it was already pretty high. There are many new objects with which to fool around - and some of the object functions people got used to have changed. For example: Bedrolls are now a normal thing to have rather than something you could acquire only by fooling around with haystacks.

The Riftrunner website says the game will offer total party control. Tell us more.

Divinity 1 players just had followers in the form of summoned creatures. Riftrunner allows players to micromanage their party if need be. The two dominant party members are you and your unwilling soul mate - a death knight that gets soul-forged to you. The other party members are either summoned creatures or people you recruit along the way.

How will the new reputation system affect the gameplay?

It won't have too high an impact on the main story line - but it will have quite an effect on the computer-generated gameplay and on some of the subquests. Don't worry: We won't let reputation interfere with the receiving of pre-scripted quests since we got a lot of negative feedback about that in Divinity 1. It's a different situation with the generated ones. Don't expect to be given an assignment in a kindergarten if you kill everyone all the time.

Divinity would've benefited from a more balanced equipment and trading system. Can fans hope for this in Riftrunner?

Absolutely. That's one of the first things we addressed when this project started. We learned a lot about balancing in Divinity 1. Our in-house systems for doing it is a lot better now.

What are some of your favorite new items?

I believe those would be the Rhanaar gloves. They're a kind of long claw with which the indigenous population of the Riftrunner world used to massacre their kinsmen. Very nice pieces of equipment. I'm also particularly fond of the shadow and ghost armor sets. They look pretty cool.

What's this we hear about summoning dolls?

The introduction of the summoning dolls is one of the coolest things about Riftrunner. They're very rare - but also incredibly valuable - so you'll go through a lot of trouble to collect them. You use them to summoned creatures to assist you. The creatures are unlike those you get when you cast a normal summoning spell - as they can be dressed up. That means all the cool equipment you find in the world and which you would normally sell - with pain in your heart - can now be used to dress up creatures you summon. For instance: Your ordinary summoned skeleton could now have a sword+5 and be full of charms that boost his resistances. Summoning dolls can be upgraded and embedded with many properties - all of which the player will have to discover throughout his or her journeys. They also make combat very strategic - plus you can make them do whatever you want since they act as party members once you summon them. There's an upkeep cost - so you'll want to use them sparingly.

The website lists five acts. Tell us more about how Riftrunner will be structured.

The first act is focused on escaping the citadel of the demon Samuel. He's the demon who dragged you with him into his universe and forged your soul to that of a death knight. We'll release more information about the other acts over the next couple of months.

Tell us something about Divinity II to whet our appetites!

It'll be big - VERY big. It has a very good 3D engine. It's multiplayer. And it contains a lot of cool features.





look again
a membewr of the order, not the divine one.

Hi Johnson,

Isn't being able to reload no matter how many times a character dies a form of invincibility for the player? You're already unstoppable because you can do this. Lewtherin, the Divine One is still the Divine One. Of course he is a member of the Divine Order. He/she created it! Just because the Divine One is a member of the Order does not mean he/she is not the Divine One.

yes, but saving is better then being invinsible, for saving u have to go back, unles every sec u hit the quick save key (mine is switched to F12). u r not invinsibble with saves 'cause u got to rload. wait, I'll do a poll.

yeah, good point johnson. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/exclamation.gif" alt="" /> hey, how come zandalor and arhu r invulnerable??? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/exclamation.gif" alt="" />

and they r invinsible to poison cloud, don't know about if u brought orcs over to asttackt hem.

dang. and u won't get xp anyway.