Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Real-time combat

Ok, I honestly never played a game of turn-based combat, I think that only the GBA Pokemons. : D

But in this case, I will give my vote of confidence, and so far, all titles that launched are great!

For example, consider Divine Divinity amused me more than Diablo 2.

And Divine 2 is one of the best 3D ARPG games I've played.

So for me, I'll buy Dragon Commander and Original Sin.

I realized that Larian Studios develops its thinking about the fun games, so hopefully I surprised, and they say, out there do me a fan of turn-based RPG hehe

Well, BG should be played as saga, starting with BG1. And with the latest mods you are able to use the technology of BG2 for BG1 (or you can use the EE but I'm not that convinced yet...)

I am very sure there are no bears anywhere in that chapter

If it wasn't a level created just for the demo, maybe that fight was from a different game demo. I do specifically remember the start of the BG 2 demo, though (freeing Minsc), and was put off IE games until comments in a few topics here convinced me to get Planescape: Torment. After playing that I was willing to give BG another try, but never got around to it.


It most likely takes some getting used to if you come from games like Divine Divinity that don't have any notion of a "party" but imho it is well worth the effort.

I had played lots of party based RPGs before then, just not ones (AFAIR) where different groups could be fighting far enough apart that you couldn't see both at the same time, and where (by default) characters would stand around without any kind of notice after defeating one opponent while their party members were fighting for their lives.

The combat in DivDiv and Div DKS was repetitive and boring.. I'm glad they're changing it up this time around.

Yeah, the melee combat in Divine Divinity really was not very good. Just remembering the final act of the game is enough to keep me from playing with another melee character again.

In comparison, I liked Divinity 2's combat because it was faster paced and there was at least more than one attack animation.

Try a Battle or Mage or Ranger Priest build, that's Never boring !
On the contrary, it's a very addictive combat playground ! ;-)

Just me, loving DKS
A freaking funny fantastic fruit fiesta ....
Apples & Pears ...
Oranges & Bananas !!!

Well, you should check the manual. You can give your team mates custom behaviours in BG(2). You can order them to attack on sight for example. Then they will attack every enemy they see and they will never just stand around while other teammates are killed. The point is that in BG you have to take care about that sort of micromanagement. And you shouldn't be involved in different fights at different places at the same time. Keeping your group together and well placed (fighters in front to block enemies, mages, rangers and priests behind them for ranged attacks and support) is a key strategy in BG to survive difficult fights. If your party is spread over the map you've done it wrong. I haven't thought that you would give up on such a masterpiece as the BG saga just after playing it for some minutes(?) and without at least getting used to the gameplay and learning the core game and combat mechanics....

But yes, 50% of your time with BG will be micromanamgent of your party. That's part of the game.....

And as a small note: combat in BG 2 is far better than in Planescape: Torment....

50% of your time with BG will be micromanamgent of your party.

So I should have checked the manual to find out the default settings could be configured to drop the micromanagement all the way down to 50%? Gee, if I had know i could get it that low I would have bought it at full price rather than wait for a GOG D&D promo sale.

The combat in PS:T wasn't great, but it didn't require any micromanagement (only the occasional tough fight required characters being directed individually).

Well, BG is a turn-based type of game in a real-time engine. So yes, you have (or should) do everything on your own with every character and every few seconds (or ingame turns). You can give them behaviours but they are not the ideal way of playing the game in every aspect (like positioning). But it's clearly helpful if mages cast some spells on their own (like armour spells for themselves at the beginning of a fight) or priests can heal on their own. There will still be much micromanagement but of course less than in a situation in which you have to do everything on your own (like in a real turn-based game....)

In the end, there can't be more micromanagement in a real-time game than in a turn-based game (almost by definition).......

That doesn't even make sense, PS:T en BG2 are both AD&D games using the exact same game engine with a slightly different UI (PS:T has by far the worse UI of the two imnsho), I can only assume that BG2's combat actually requires more tactics than PS:T's (I'm still playing that game, not even near finished yet), there also supposedly is a lot more of it in BG2.


While you can have them do that I think it tends to end up being counter productive, you don't want to use your shield spells on an easy fight only to find you're in an area where you can't safely rest...

And as I mentioned (or at least implied), I played them years apart. I may have been in a different mood / mindset when I tried PS:T, or maybe I had played enough other games since the BG 2 demo that I had gotten used to dealing with issues like those which put me off originally. At the very least I paid for PS:T, so quitting, if I had wanted to, would have meant wasting $10, or so; it cost me nothing but a little time uninstalling the BG 2 demo.

The beginning of PS:T was much, much more interesting to me than the start of BG2 (for example, I wasn't a fan of the cliché Minsc appeared to be, or his reaction to how you get him out of the cell, while Mort and the Nameless One were intriguing). A strong story can make up for other issues, and as I mentioned earlier, I didn't find anything in the BG 2 demo worth giving the combat a second shot.

PLAY BG2, Raze! That's an order!

Just kidding, but turning BG2 down because you didn't like the beginning that much is not very clever. You've probably only seen lees than 1% of the whole game and there is much more to come than just the first view dialogues lines from Minsc. If you don't like him you can just leave him or throw him out of your party btw....

BG is in my backlog of games to play, along with a bunch of others. Now that I have a new computer, I'll probably start in on some of the newer games first.

Haha, no offense meant Raze. It's just that BG2 is still pretty much the best RPG I've played to date (personal opinion, of course). (as an OT aside: I'd probably put Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines on the 2nd spot)

It's probably the time difference though, I have a hard time really getting into PS:T now as well for some reason though when I start playing I keep going...

Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines

I added Redemption to my first purchase on GOG (for Divine Divinity), because at the time I thought it was silly to charge a credit card for only $6 (a bunch of bundles and $1 purchases later and I'm ok with that now). Anyway, it is also still in my backlog, so I haven't actively looked for Bloodlines.

I may start with newer games, but I was also actually thinking of going through the Ultima series in the not too distant future. I'm not sure I'll be able to handle the graphics/UI in the early ones, though. I still have a folder with the manual and a couple world maps and walkthroughs I printed off for the complete Ultima VII re-release that I got in 1995. I also have the retail version of 8 (thankfully from a bargain bin), but after a lot of tweaking to get the sound and a couple other things working properly, I didn't get very far in the game. From a video review, I think 9 may be so bad that it is good.

I just started Baldur's Gate (the original) for the first time. I'm fine with RTwP combat in general, but I'm finding the combat in BG pretty frustrating, even though I've modded it to use the BG2 engine. Part of the problem is that I've never played D&D, so I don't really understand how the combat works (in terms of mechanics) or what half the stats mean. (Also, I hate to say this, but the voice acting in this game is just plain bad. If I hear Jaheira call me 'omnipresent authority figure' one more time, I'm going to kick her all the way back to Candlekeep.)

I don't know, maybe I just need to take more time to get used to it? Or maybe I should try BG2 instead?

I just want to warn you/point out that Redemption is *nothing at all* like Bloodlines. The only similarity is the setting (even the stories aren't related in any way). I didn't like Redemption one bit, *loved* Bloodlines though. Since the stories aren't related don't feel bad about dropping Redemption and charging into Bloodlines if you don't like the former.

Also, just some advice, don't start a first Bloodlines playthrough as a Malkavian, you'll get MUCH more out of playing a Malkavian if you've finished the game before (not to mention that understanding what *you* are saying is bleedin' hard if you have no familiarity with the Clan at all).
Second bit of advice, *do* play the game a second time as Malkavian if you enjoyed your first playthrough.

I'd advise starting with BG2 and then playing BG1. BG2 is a lot more forgiving than BG1 (and imho just all around a better game) and if you enjoy the second you can always go back to the first game, but you'll be *much* better prepared. (I played 2 before 1 and I don't feel as if I've majorly missed out by doing so)

I'm currently most the way through Baldur's gate 1. Honestly, I like DnD as a PnP game, but not so much as a computer game (even without the social aspects). There's a lot of names for status and terminology in DnD and item stats are confusing sometimes due to descriptions. If you have the Enhanced Edition I'd suggest not trying to meta-game for a saving play-through since it'll probably be fairly easy. Apparently you can mod the game though.

Just started BG2 yesterday, and you're right: I like it much better. Acting is better, dialogue is better, combat is less frustrating, and the story so far seems more interesting. There are still a few things that irk me, like the crappy pathfinding, but overall I'm enjoying this a whole lot more than the first game. Perhaps I'll go back and play BG1 later.