Larian Studios Forums Divinity General Discussion What races are planned for Divinity and party size? Expecting more or less?

Saying TDU has nothing to do with an evil route is a bit of a stretch, isn't it?

Agreed that their story is not exclusive to the evil route. But the marketing campaign presented this playstyle as a way to do despicable things, most violent thoughts come true basically.

This was a known premise and a first and most important choice towards building the evilest of playthroughs.

Let's back my words up a little since we don't want to be throwing general statements out there, right?

Feel free to revisit Pannel from Hell reveal stream, more precisely around 4:28:00 mark.

Edit: Though on a second thought TDU is more about evil exposition other than evil choices. So I would more likely agree with you I think.

Taril, no, ARPG took time before becoming popular. Diablo was controversial within the RPG genre as it didn't feature any roleplay element except playing a class and choosing some skills. Dragon Commander's mechanics were never popular, you have almost no games like that. Anyway, your argument isn't good, ARPG sells more than TB games, people will most likely play a RDR2, TW3, TES... than a TB game. No, they have decided to follow the standardized route like Bethesda did many years ago, like CD Projekt is doing, Ubisoft... which leads to less creativity overall, and less risks taken.
I've never heard of sex being a taboo in video games, that's a first in 45 years of gaming I have... That some countries don't want it, yes, and it's pretty easy to filter it, but they included it because it sells. No wonder BG3 is one of the most sold TB game (if not the most), it includes something the market wants, sex, and kinks.
Other D&D games are relevant to make a comparison. That's the purpose of bringing them. Anyway, you bring another argument in favor of less creativity and more standardization based on what sells, which is the opposite route of creativity and taking risks.

Yes... But Diablo 1 released in 1997. But by the time Divine Divinity came out in 2002, Diablo 2 had come out and took the world by storm in 2000.

When Larian released their game, ARPG was THE biggest thing because of D2.


What on Earth are you going on about?

They made ARPG games back when ARPG games were popular because they wanted to make money.

After they made their money, they started making TB games, the games they wanted to make.

They're following a route of making games they like. Which is what CDPR does too, they like to make story driven games so that's what they make.

This is different to Bethesda/Ubislop who are banking on selling the same game ad infinitum just with a different coat of paint. Which is plainly evident in how games have changed over time.

Larian and CDPR have been refining their games. Making mechanics better and more polished. Bethesda/Ubislop are making the same games with no improvements besides some graphical updates.


Then you must have been living under the worlds largest rock.

There have been numerous controversies in regards to nudity and sex in video games and continual decisions to never include nudity even during sex scenes used in video games (Which still caused some media outcry for being too raunchy just because 2 characters in their undies rub against each other)

Like, there's a reason why we have plenty of violent video games that are rated 12+ or 15+ but any nudity instantly makes a game 17+. With it only being in very specific cases of extreme violence such as Manhunt or Calisto Protocol where violence is given an 18+ or AO rating.


Yes. I never denied that it is popular among consumers.

Taboos are a societal thing, not an individual thing.

Sex is very frowned upon by society. Which is why current governments are going so hard against pornographic sites on the internet because "Won't somebody think about the children!" meanwhile violence is shown all over the place, including actual real world violence like the viral videos of Alex Pretti's execution.

It's also why age ratings are much harsher on sex than anything else (Even profanity and drugs can still get 12+ or at worst 15+ ratings. Nudity is the ONLY thing that instantly makes media 17+) and is the most prominent reason for Watershed in TV scheduling.


But they are literally irrelevant.

They have nothing to do with how Larian produces games. They are not evidence of Larian producing games, as Larian didn't make them. Nor are they evidence of what Larian uses for inspiration because they have nothing to do with Larian or their interests.

It's like if I started talking about CoD as a representation of how Larian makes games. CoD only features humans (Except the newest one which went off the deep end) thus Larian only makes games with humans in and will only make games with only humans in.

It's asinine because it has no tangible relation to them.


You might want to get your eyes checked, because that's not what I said at all.

I merely pointed out that non-standard characters they have made have been popular. Thus there is more evidence to show that taking a risk will pay off.

Had these non-standard characters not been popular, then there would be less chance of taking a creative approach or making risks because it would be shown that doing so isn't likely to pay off.

Just because something has shown to not be a mistake doesn't automatically mean "Less creativity and more standardization". It simply means it's more tenable for similar actions to be used again.

I hope they take still notice of this and don't cater to a loud mini-minority or their own ambitions too much. I don't want a game which plenty of uncommon possibilities if that resulted in lacking polishing all over it.

If they have so many resources and so much time to make it huge and perfect in any way, ok. If not, they should prioritize wisely.

I have some similar concerns.

They do say that this game will have more "Breadth and depth" of which the breadth would indicate having a lot of possibilities.

Though, whether this will translate into "Uncommon/unpopolar" possibilities that end up being underdeveloped or if it will manifest as simply alternate paths along the more popular route will be a key distinction.

Personally, I'd much rather get one route that is fleshed out with lots of (Meaningful) choices, than a bunch of routes that are mostly shallow and uninteresting.

Even more so considering Larian's view on what an "Evil" path entails (I.e. Murderhobo). The lack of nuance and understanding of what "Evil" is just isn't to my taste. Unlike other studios such as Owlcat who do provide some actually convincing "Evil" routes that make sense and aren't just you murdering everyone for the sake of murdering everyone (Like, yes, bunches of people die if you become a Lich in PotR... But the key part of it is that you get incredibly powerful Lich abilities to help you get through the game. You sacrifice these lives and also push away several companions to get personal power)

Even as a Githyanki Tav, you still get (or at least got until Patch 6-ish) lectured by Lae'zel about Githyanki language and culture and you're somehow supposed to know everything about Faerûn, like you're some cauliflower-eared istik. It's important news to the player (and possibly some companions), but there is (or was) no option to say you grew up in a Crèche as well. It was just one hole in an otherwise really wonderful fabric, but during some stretches, especially in Act 3, I almost felt forced to take a rare Githyanki dialogue option, because I felt I wasn't doing them enough. So, while it would have been nice to have more context/background for a Githyanki Tav, I wouldn't drop a thousand gold pieces to pick up two copper pieces. My actual peeves are not being able to give Karlach a Gondian heart with infernal ice-cooling and getting Omeluum to sling the stone. Adrenaline aside, this was one of the reasons we got into that metal bathtub in the first place!

"Prioritizing wisely" however often translates to "prioritizing my preferences". Which is why I think prioritizing their own ideas and stories will lead to a better and more cohesive final product, since as people have previously pointed out, listening to the fanbase tends to prioritize those who shout the loudest.