Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Lair beneath the Phantom Forest

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone found the mega-dungeon yet? I have finished the game, but I couldn't find it at all. I know Larian announced they'd cut some levels (it was supposed to be 10 levels big at first), but it seems "some" = 10, or did I miss something?
On their youtube video, they call it the Lair of the Strife. On Kickstarter, it's supposed to be the Lair of the Unspeakable. Sure thing: it's different from the temple of Death.

Anyway, please tell me I've missed something but it exists...
One does not entice backers with wonders, only to remove them like a lollipop from a child...

Unfortunately, it's been confirmed that Larian did decide to drop the Mega Dungeon. Whether it was for lack of time or lack of resources, it was entirely removed, and the parts they HAD finished were used to populate two or three other smaller dungeons throughout the game world.

It's disappointing, but I suppose its understandable. But then again, it's also far from the only stretch goal or reward that was "compromised" for the sake of making the estimated release date.

Hopefully the next Kickstarter goes a little smoother.

Arf...

Well thanks for info. I expected it to have been fully removed, but that's always a disappointment.

The game is really great overall, and Larian did an amazing job with the Kickstarter campaign. I guess everything can't go right the first time...

They dropped a lot of balls and it's hard not to feel the sting of disappointment but hopefully with the game having met such success with Original Sin dominating sales charts on Steam and GOG they'll decide to deliver these things through later addons.

I love D:OS and I'm fond of the development team, but I have to admit I'm not a fan of seeing a trend starting on crowdfunding where stretch goals aren't delivered (and yet everyone says "that's ok!" as long as the game ends up being good). Because, really, we should always have an expectation for good games, and we should not have to feel like we need to start paying cash before a game is even delivered to get them. Pay for products as they exist when delivered, not broken promises.

So, while I'm willing to be nice and cut Larian slack in this area this time, I don't want other developers to look at what happened here and think they can start pulling a similar bait and switch through crowdfunding. But the more D:OS gains popularity and media attention, the more risky that becomes.

I'm not torn up about some of the losses (Day/Night/Weather Cycle was never something I had pinned my hopes and dreams on), but I will say that the lack of communication on some of the compromised stretch goals was my biggest issue. With some of them, such as the Day/Night/Weather Cycle, the Devs announced months ahead of time that they were being cut or scaled back. But with others, they ran right up to the release date before revealing they'd been trimmed or delayed, and in some cases (as with the Mega Dungeon) it was only days AFTER the release that people finally managed to badger it out of them. In fact, if I recall correctly, the Mega Dungeon being cut was only finally officially announced after a two- or three-page thread called "Larian Lied about the Mega Dungeon!" or something to that effect. If they had been up-front about that kind of thing, it probably wouldn't have left a bad taste after-the-fact (especially with the use of misleading patch notes like "trimmed a few levels" - codespeak for "completely removed and/or repurposed", apparently).

Personally, I've actually found myself shelving the game for the time being. I enjoyed playing in the beta, and I enjoyed puttering about in the post-release game for ten or twelve hours, but then I quickly realized that the game was changing on a weekly (or almost daily) basis. Several major game play elements are still being overhauled from patch to patch, and other elements are almost entirely absent (but promised "soon"). So, again PERSONALLY, I'm holding off on playing the game anymore until they've given it another month or two worth of patches.

While I completely understand, it doesn't irritate me more than undelivered promises. As developers you shouldn't promise what you can't keep. I understand time was a constraint so they had to drop several stretch goals, but to be honest, I would rather have it than not. It would suck that I'd have to wait longer, but I just feel I've been a bit robbed of certain hype.

Sad to say but I probably won't pledge to future Larian games. It's not about whether or not they'll make an entertaining game, but rather I don't like my hopes given up. If I get promised something, I expect it, if not don't make those promises. As a fellow developer, I like the way the new City Sandbox game CityBound is doing. He says, "I will go for the paid early-access way of funding the game. That will allow for an iterative development process, where you will always know what you get and where I won't have to make promises that I can't keep."