Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) General Trade and Repair mechanics

Hi everyone, i wasn't sure whether i should post this on here or tips/tricks section because it seemed like a more general thing to ask. If the thread needs to be moved im sorry in advance.

As a new player im having trouble with trade and repair mechanics in Divine Divinity. I've spent minutes and minutes at trade screen but really could not figure out how it works.Only thing that i understand is there's a total amount of items worth displayed at the top of my character and the person i'm trading, but i can't directly sell my stuff to that person. Clicking on my item sends it to a middle section, but then im stuck. I can't see the worth of my items individually either. Maybe i'm too used to trade mechanics like one-click an item in my inventory directly sends it to the buyer and gives me the worth in currency... I really appreciate any help on that because my invenory is currently full and because i can't figure out thr trade mechanics i can't sell my items

The second thing that im having trouble is repair mechanics. I've selected repair skill to be able to repair my items, but i can't figure out how it works. Clicking on my repair skill at "browse your skills" menu does not trigger anything and i can't seem to find how its done.
I really appreciate any suggestions about these issues. Thank you.

In the trade screen the amount to merchant (or NPC) is prepared to pay is listed under each item on your item sidebar. If the that number is in gold text it means you have it equipped at the moment. Once you have selected the items you want to sell you can either drag items you want from the trader in exchange or just ask for gold (by clicking the balance button on their side). If what you want from them is worth more than what you are selling you have to click the balance button on your side.

To repair an item you hit the skills button in the central tool bar bar then arm the repair skill by selecting it from the list now displayed bottom right of screen. Once armed you do a right click and this turns the cursor into a little hammer and anvil. With this cursor active you left click an item you want to repair, either in inventory panel or on you character equipment panel if currently equipped. To repair a second item you have to right click again to get the repair cursor back.

You may find it useful to use the hotkey system for skills and spells. When you open the skill tree panel (by hitting the skill button as I just described) you can hover your cursor over a skill you know and hit an F key. You will see that F key marked on the skill icon as a result of this. Hitting this F key will then arm that skill immediately in future. You can use exactly the same technique for selecting weapons, in this case by hitting the current weapon icon in the central toolbar to open your weapon list. And you can also do this with potions which is incredibly useful - having a heal potion assigned to an F key means you can spam-chug them whilst beating down strong enemies you couldn't otherwise defeat easily.

Thanks a lot for explaining, i've finally figured out how trade works. But when it comes to the repairing im still having trouble. When i select the repair skill and right clik it, cursor turns into a little hammer as you said, but when i click on one of my items that has been decrased in terms of durability, it just doesn't repair. It uses mana, but the item's durability does not chance. I'm a doing something wrong or might that mechanic be broken in my current save by any chance?

How many points have you got in Repair skill? You get a certain % for each point so if the item isn't "broken" enough to be beneath your current skill level's % cap trying to repair it will do nothing. Also it rounds % limits down (yeah, of course it does, lol) so if an item is say 3/7 if you got 50% repair ability it won't do jack. I would pick an item that is really broken (like zero or 1 condition left) or quality item with a lot of condition points to practice on so you know for sure you should be able to repair it some. It will work but it is a bit fernickety. I had a trouble getting it to work to start with too.

I've added two points to my repair skill yet and it seems it's not enough for now as far as i understand from your reply. Given a second thought, maybe i can collect high durability items on the way to avoid this. Thanks for explaining

And about adding hotkeys for the skills, is there a way to assign them to numbers like 1-2-3-4 on the keyboard rather than F1-F2 and so?
And i've also found skill-use mechanics quite a hassle, first i need to press Ctrl+F1 to select my healing skill to use and then right click on my mouse to perform it... during the combat... As a new player to rpg genre in general, having played games like Dragon Age: Origins and Torchlight where i just press 1-2-3-4 on the keyboard to perform different skills&spells, i've found these mechanics in Divine Divinity quite a pain the butt to be honest. I understand the fact that game is 18 years old and it has a beautiful and interesting world but every hour that i play the game i get more and more frusturated at the mechanics... Or maybe im not a really paitence rpg player in general, i dont know

Thanks a lot for your suggestions again. I appreciate it.

Level 1 of Repair should bring the durability up to 60%, rounded down to the nearest integer, and each level increases it by 10%. Level 5 is required to repair broken items with 1 durability.
Keep an eye out to equipment with a Repair bonus; I invested 2 skill points myself, and found 3 items with a Repair bonus (a Ring, boots and gloves). Pickpocket and Identify are also handy to have (though I maxed identify anyway). I used a couple chests at my base to sort out full durability equipment to be sold and stuff that needed to be repaired (to get the maximum value for them; not that gold is hard to come by after the beginning).

Tutorial-Changing F1-F12 hotkeys to different keys

Thank you to Gregorovitch and Raze for all your help. I really appreciate it.