Initial feedback - 18/01/17 03:50 AM
Hello everyone. I'm relatively new to the Divinity: Original Sin world. I first played DOS1 a few months ago and have now run through DOS2 a couple times in the last few weeks. I've started reading through other peoples' feedback and discussions, but there's a lot of it, so apologies in advance if I repeat something that has already been said over and over.
I'm definitely an Exploration Mode player. I don't mind having some tough battles, but my priority is much more on immersion in the characters and the story than it is on min/maxing and planning every skill point out. Most of this feedback is going to be about feel and flow rather than power balance or bugs.
1) In character creation, Origin characters should have a default class to match what it would be when you recruit them in the game. My first game, I created Lohse as a rogue and then was annoyed to find that of the three charaters that I could recruit, one was a rogue and none were heavy magic users. I would have liked if, when selecting her in character creation, it started with her as an aero/hydro caster (possibly with "default" next to the class). A player should still be able to change an origin character's class/skills during character creation, but a clear "default to this if this is your first time playing and you just want to go have fun and not have to think about it too much" would be great.
2) I don't think you should be able to respec other characters when you recruit them. I know it's not this way now, but I've seen this possibility mentioned. Once I enter the world, I want to encounter fleshed-out characters, not blank slates. It feels wrong to meet someone, wipe their brain, and then tell them what they're going to be. If you want to spec your entire party, that should be an option during character creation.
3) In general, I'm liking the story. In particular, I really enjoy how each origin character gets personal quests and sees different reaction options in dialogs. I'm curious how conflicting quest goals will resolve in multi-player games.
4) I like the scarcity while you're in Fort Joy - I don't think you should be able to get decked out with armor and skills early in the game. What I don't like is that you can get around that scarcity by selling all of the candles and barrels and bowls for 1 gold each. There's no reason that any of the vendors would pay you for those things - they're everywhere. Ditto for the paintings. If you -can- collect and sell those things, some people are going to feel like they have to and that gets really grindy and boring. Better to make them unsellable, determine how much money should be available to the player, and have that amount sitting around as gold (or as something you can earn through small quests).
5) Adding more combat points in a category after the first doesn't feel as meaningful as maybe it should. I'd like to see skills in a category become more effective as you invest more points in it. They do a little bit, but I'd like to see more e.g. Ricochet bounces scale with Huntsman points or if you shoot a fireball at a group of enemies and allies, the allies will take less damage the higher your pyro skill is.
6) The earth magic skills don't feel very cohesive to me (it didn't in DOS1, either). Is it about poison or rocks/dirt (or oil)? They don't seem like they should belong to the same category, particularly given that they are separate damage types. Right now, the category feels poison-heavy. I'd like to see some cool rock/mountain/wall skills.
7) In battle, the volume ground/cloud elemental effects is way over the top. About half of the battles that I'm in end up causing blazing infernoes all over the battlefield. I like the way the elements interact, but I tend to like to be a little more surgical with my attacks. I'd attribute the issue to a few causes:
-There are just too many ground effects to start with. The world starts out full of leaky oil/ooze/water barrels. Having a few of these is fine, but I think it should be reined in a bit.
-Too many actions create new ground effects or create them in to large/uncontrolled an area. I have no idea why e.g. all of the earth skills other than Fortify have to cover the ground in oil or poison, in addition to their primary effect.
-Once the ground is covered in elements, it's too easy to accidentally set them off. Non-AOE attacks should either be directed at a target or at the ground. If I shoot a poisoned arrow at a target, the result should be that the target gets poisoned; it should not be that he gets poisoned, and a cloud of poison forms around him and then explodes because some other guy is a few feet away and on fire. If you shoot a fire arrow at a pool of oil, it should definitely explode, but I don't think it should if you shoot it at a guy standing near a pool of oil.
8) The all-or-nothing of status effects getting through physical/magical armor feels wrong. I think it should be a little more probability-based. For example, if I zap you with lightning, whether or not you get stunned should be determined by a die roll. This could be modified by:
-my aerothurge level (another reason to boost it up past level 1)
-my int (or appropriate attribute for the skill in question)
-your current magical armor
-your resistance to that particular element (if applicable)
-if you have a status that makes you conducive to stunning (wet)
So, even if you have high magical armor, there's still a chance that I could stun you. And even if your magical armor is totally gone, there's a chance that my stun will fail.
9) If I'm trying to pick a bunch of things up, having to wait for the animation to complete before I can click the next thing is really annoying. I know the right-click trick, but that's not much of an improvement. Something that you have to do lots and lots of throughout the course of the game should be easy and fast.
10) Sorting equipment in inventory would be really nice; especially being able to sort by item type or most-recent. Several times, an NPC would tell me that they gave me something and I had no idea what they gave me.
I'm definitely an Exploration Mode player. I don't mind having some tough battles, but my priority is much more on immersion in the characters and the story than it is on min/maxing and planning every skill point out. Most of this feedback is going to be about feel and flow rather than power balance or bugs.
1) In character creation, Origin characters should have a default class to match what it would be when you recruit them in the game. My first game, I created Lohse as a rogue and then was annoyed to find that of the three charaters that I could recruit, one was a rogue and none were heavy magic users. I would have liked if, when selecting her in character creation, it started with her as an aero/hydro caster (possibly with "default" next to the class). A player should still be able to change an origin character's class/skills during character creation, but a clear "default to this if this is your first time playing and you just want to go have fun and not have to think about it too much" would be great.
2) I don't think you should be able to respec other characters when you recruit them. I know it's not this way now, but I've seen this possibility mentioned. Once I enter the world, I want to encounter fleshed-out characters, not blank slates. It feels wrong to meet someone, wipe their brain, and then tell them what they're going to be. If you want to spec your entire party, that should be an option during character creation.
3) In general, I'm liking the story. In particular, I really enjoy how each origin character gets personal quests and sees different reaction options in dialogs. I'm curious how conflicting quest goals will resolve in multi-player games.
4) I like the scarcity while you're in Fort Joy - I don't think you should be able to get decked out with armor and skills early in the game. What I don't like is that you can get around that scarcity by selling all of the candles and barrels and bowls for 1 gold each. There's no reason that any of the vendors would pay you for those things - they're everywhere. Ditto for the paintings. If you -can- collect and sell those things, some people are going to feel like they have to and that gets really grindy and boring. Better to make them unsellable, determine how much money should be available to the player, and have that amount sitting around as gold (or as something you can earn through small quests).
5) Adding more combat points in a category after the first doesn't feel as meaningful as maybe it should. I'd like to see skills in a category become more effective as you invest more points in it. They do a little bit, but I'd like to see more e.g. Ricochet bounces scale with Huntsman points or if you shoot a fireball at a group of enemies and allies, the allies will take less damage the higher your pyro skill is.
6) The earth magic skills don't feel very cohesive to me (it didn't in DOS1, either). Is it about poison or rocks/dirt (or oil)? They don't seem like they should belong to the same category, particularly given that they are separate damage types. Right now, the category feels poison-heavy. I'd like to see some cool rock/mountain/wall skills.
7) In battle, the volume ground/cloud elemental effects is way over the top. About half of the battles that I'm in end up causing blazing infernoes all over the battlefield. I like the way the elements interact, but I tend to like to be a little more surgical with my attacks. I'd attribute the issue to a few causes:
-There are just too many ground effects to start with. The world starts out full of leaky oil/ooze/water barrels. Having a few of these is fine, but I think it should be reined in a bit.
-Too many actions create new ground effects or create them in to large/uncontrolled an area. I have no idea why e.g. all of the earth skills other than Fortify have to cover the ground in oil or poison, in addition to their primary effect.
-Once the ground is covered in elements, it's too easy to accidentally set them off. Non-AOE attacks should either be directed at a target or at the ground. If I shoot a poisoned arrow at a target, the result should be that the target gets poisoned; it should not be that he gets poisoned, and a cloud of poison forms around him and then explodes because some other guy is a few feet away and on fire. If you shoot a fire arrow at a pool of oil, it should definitely explode, but I don't think it should if you shoot it at a guy standing near a pool of oil.
8) The all-or-nothing of status effects getting through physical/magical armor feels wrong. I think it should be a little more probability-based. For example, if I zap you with lightning, whether or not you get stunned should be determined by a die roll. This could be modified by:
-my aerothurge level (another reason to boost it up past level 1)
-my int (or appropriate attribute for the skill in question)
-your current magical armor
-your resistance to that particular element (if applicable)
-if you have a status that makes you conducive to stunning (wet)
So, even if you have high magical armor, there's still a chance that I could stun you. And even if your magical armor is totally gone, there's a chance that my stun will fail.
9) If I'm trying to pick a bunch of things up, having to wait for the animation to complete before I can click the next thing is really annoying. I know the right-click trick, but that's not much of an improvement. Something that you have to do lots and lots of throughout the course of the game should be easy and fast.
10) Sorting equipment in inventory would be really nice; especially being able to sort by item type or most-recent. Several times, an NPC would tell me that they gave me something and I had no idea what they gave me.