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[Basileus777]

Are those choices somehow balanced or made to support only one "correct" option ?

No. They only affect each races favorability rating. And taking the more "liberal" option often hurts your ratings with more races than it helps. The design in that regard is fine, the only way it is biased is in having these questions appear at all. I think too many decisions are based off of modern politics, and would have liked to see more variety, but I don't think they've done anything controversial.

 

[Durante]

That is Earth 2150. Awesome RTS

I know, it was way ahead of its time.

WAY ahead. I mean, I'd say it's still ahead of lots of contemporary RTS in terms of mechanics (and also of its sequels).

These screenshots actually make me think he has a point, and I didn't even think about the graphics while playing it. I definitely think the units could be more easily recognizable at least.

I agree with this actually, but it's a different argument from saying it doesn't look good. The units are somewhat low-poly, but considering that you can have hundreds of them that's an expected tradeoff.

When you strategize you usually only look at the zoomed out version with icons anyway, so I didn't find the relative lack of easy recognizability (which is a valid concern) to be a huge issue.

No. They only affect each races favorability rating.

Actually, they also potentially affect things like income or research. Switching to ecologic warfare cost me dearly

And taking the more "liberal" option often hurts your ratings with more races than it helps. The design in that regard is fine, the only way it is biased is in having these questions appear at all.

I agree that the design is fine, but how is having these questions appear being biased?

 

[Basileus777]

I agree with this actually, but it's a different argument from saying it doesn't look good.

And when you strategize you usually only look at the zoomed out version with icons anyway, so I didn't find it to be a huge issue.

It's not a huge issue, I didn't even really think about it while playing. But I'm used to playing low budget or older strategy games.

Actually, they also potentially affect things like income or research. Switching to ecologic warfare cost me dearly

True, but there are tradeoffs involved there and I don't think the benefits are swaying towards a particular political agenda.

I agree that the design is fine, but how is having these questions appear being biased?

Perhaps biased isn't the right word, but I don't think a game developed by someone with a conservative agenda would have presented the options in the same way. But maybe I'm just showing off my own biases here.

 

[Durante]

Perhaps biased isn't the right word, but I don't think a game developed by someone with a conservative agenda would have presented the options in the same way. But maybe I'm just showing off my own biases here.

Ok, I can see what you mean now. In that way, having the questions appear at all probably reflects Larian's stance to some extent.

 

[patapuf]

I've almost finished the first act and i must say i enjoy it a lot.

The Politics/Story portion is hilarious.

The RTS part is very fast paced, but it's fun once you learn the controls. I barely use the dragon form though.

The Strategy map has been very simple so far, but i'm sure that's going to become more complex later.

 

[Durante]

I just realized that I didn't even mention the fact that there's waifus in the OP. Would probably have sold 3 more copies!

I've almost finished the first act and i must say i enjoy it a lot.

The Politics/Story portion is hilarious.

The RTS part is very fast paced, but it's fun once you learn the controls. I barely use the dragon form though.

The Strategy map has been very simple so far, but i'm sure that's going to become more complex later.

You should use the dragon. It's quite effective, but more importantly than that, it's extremely fun and satisfying once you get a few abilities and learn to use the jetpack well. Darting in over half the map, laying down an AoE spell and darting back out again before the 500 missiles hit you feels great.

 

[patapuf]

You should use the dragon. It's quite effective, but more importantly than that, it's extremely fun and satisfying once you get a few abilities and learn to use the jetpack well. Darting in over half the map, laying down an AoE spell and darting back out again before the 500 missiles hit you feels great.

I will try to. I just haven't got the hang of microing my troops while in dragon form. They always die while i lay waste to the enemy.

There's also all these units and upgrades to spend the research points on...

 

[Moff]

Perhaps biased isn't the right word, but I don't think a game developed by someone with a conservative agenda would have presented the options in the same way. But maybe I'm just showing off my own biases here.

Probably, yes, maybe I am biased, too, because I usually take the liberal choice, but I agree that I cant imagine people picking the conservative answer in some of the issues.

but anyway, these mirrored political issues are pretty much what excited me the most in the game, I'm glad they did it, its really fun, although the whole political part of the game is probably even more shallow than the others, but its fun.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

Perhaps biased isn't the right word, but I don't think a game developed by someone with a conservative agenda would have presented the options in the same way. But maybe I'm just showing off my own biases here.

I agree, Scarlett's story arc as the prime example.

BTW random waifu question, do they each go through costume changes depending on you influence them? Finished Lohannah's and she swapped to a more regal elven looking gown when all was said and done.

 

[Tanolen]

Just finished it, it was pretty great. Act 3 got pretty crazy, the hard part for me was the strategy map, the RTS battles were very easy even at 0 percent chance to win. The strategy map would have been easier if you could RTS every battle instead of only being able to fight one battle and having to auto resolve all the others and the computer is invading up to 4 places at the same time with more units than it should probably have and like every mercenary card available.

Shamans are without a doubt the best unit, and its not even close. In order to win any battle all I would do is mass shamans. I noticed that the AI would only do one of two things every map and that is if the map is large, he would never attack me straight away which would give me enough time to spawn the dragon and then auto win the map.

If the map is small the computer would blitz you, but if you have a mass of shamans you can just charm all his big units and stomp him until you could spawn the dragon to clean up. Also with mass shamans all their heals stack so the dragon becomes unkillable with like 50 shamans under it, and the AI auto targets you in dragon form, ignoring your army of healers.

Also after you kill all the computer's starting units it always seemed to go through a progression of lower tier units until it goes to the higher tiers, so once you killed its initial wave you could just run into all the bases with the dragon and wipe out nothing but defenseless tier 1 units and then his recruitment centers to win the map in just a couple of minutes.

 

[Barack Lesnar]

I backed Original Sin, and i will definitely be grabbing Dragon Commander sometime in the future. It actually looks a lot like Starcraft 2 single-player campaign, but with even more depth.

After looking that up, I'm a day one'r: http://www.divinityoriginalsin.com/index.php

I bought DKS for 6 bucks off Amazon years ago and only played the first hour or so. Not sure why I stopped playing, probably because I only 6 bucks for it so I didn't value it greatly in my mind. Hate when that happens

 

[Durante]

I agree, Scarlett's story arc as the prime example.

BTW random waifu question, do they each go through costume changes depending on you influence them? Finished Lohannah's and she swapped to a more regal elven looking gown when all was said and done.

Wait, waifu costume changes? I need to play more.

 

[Spirit of Jazz]

With TI having just finished I was finally able to start up on this game. However I'm having some huge issues with the frame-rate on the strategic map, combat runs at 60fps but for some reason the map blow up and runs at 20-40 fps on my HD7850. Anybody else having this problem?

 

[Zukuu]

Has there been an indicator how well the game fares?

 

[Sir Garbageman]

Wait, waifu costume changes? I need to play more.

Appears that depending on how you influence each waifu they have different ending states. I don't know if each one has a corresponding costume change but it appears that way for Lohannah. The docs and concept art that came with the Imperial edition are interesting and also very spoilerly. I was checking them out when I beat the game. For example:

Spoiler

In my game I pushed Lohannah to stick with her elven ways, apparently each decision you make during her arc either pushes her to be more spirtual or pragmatic. In the end of my campaign she ended up in an elven gown thing and she mentioned how happy she was that she was able to maintain balance on the Raven and stay true to her roots. I'm curious as to how the practical conversation would play out and similarly if all the other waifus go through similar costume swaps.

I know from various youtube vids that Ophelia for example can end up human, a robot, a frankenstein bride and I think a vampire or something depending on how things play out. Don't know about the other two.

 

[Zukuu]

Appears that depending on how you influence each waifu they have different ending states. I don't know if each one has a corresponding costume change but it appears that way for Lohannah. The docs and concept art that came with the Imperial edition are interesting and also very spoilerly. I was checking them out when I beat the game. For example:

Spoiler

In my game I pushed Lohannah to stick with her elven ways, apparently each decision you make during her arc either pushes her to be more spirtual or pragmatic. In the end of my campaign she ended up in an elven gown thing and she mentioned how happy she was that she was able to maintain balance on the Raven and stay true to her roots. I'm curious as to how the practical conversation would play out and similarly if all the other waifus go through similar costume swaps.

I know from various youtube vids that Ophelia for example can end up human, a robot, a frankenstein bride and I think a vampire or something depending on how things play out. Don't know about the other two.

In my game, she ended up

Spoiler

open minded and is so glad that I let her experience the world beyond stupid, stoic elvish rules.

And she likes wine. A lot.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

In my game, she ended up

Spoiler

open minded and is so glad that I let her experience the world beyond stupid, stoic elvish rules.

And she likes wine. A lot.

Barely a spoiler but just in case:

Spoiler

Does she end up in a green gown dress with like a wooden tiara? The concept art has a version of her in a pink punk rocker-esque outfit with dark hair. I'm curious if that ended up the game.

 

[Zukuu]

Barely a spoiler but just in case:

Spoiler

Does she end up in a green gown like dress with like a wooden tiara? The concept art has a version of her in a pink punk rocker-esque outfit with dark hair. I'm curious if that ended up the game.

Spoiler

She wore some kind of trousers which looked funny to me.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

Spoiler

She wore some kind of trousers which looked funny to me.

Got it, thanks. I'm pretty sure theres a concept art for that too.

Spoiler

With the pink dress thing concept art I was wondering if she went too against her traditions she would go full on party girl / Paris Hilton mode.

 

[Durante]

The docs and concept art that came with the Imperial edition are interesting and also very spoilerly.

Yeah, I had a quick look at those when I got my imperial edition content and my first thought was "awesome", followed only seconds later by "SPOILERS".

I'll have a closer look at those and the spoilers in the thread after I've at least completed the single-player campaign once.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

Has there been an indicator how well the game fares?

Curious about this as well. Lack of media coverage and buzz hurts, hopefully the game sells well enough to warrant an expansion pack and eventual sequel. It's rough around the edges and not perfectly balanced but despite that I thoroughly enjoyed the game from start to finish. The genre mashing, great writing / voicework, plus all the real world political stuff all just works imo.

Probably will kick off a customer campaign to play with the systems a little more.

 

[Basileus777]

How is it even possible to be spoilery for this game? Other than the obvious

Spoiler

Corvus turning out to be an enemy,

there's nothing really going on that could be spoiled.

 

[Durante]

Well, for one, there's the character story for each potential queen, and for each of the generals.

 

[BigWeather]

I pledged to Original Sin at $150 (physical) so I think I get a digital copy of this? If so, anyone know how I go about getting it? Haven't gotten any mail yet.

 

[FACE]

I pledged to Original Sin at $150 (physical) so I think I get a digital copy of this? If so, anyone know how I go about getting it? Haven't gotten any mail yet.

Yes, you do. Check the Larian Vault:

Go to https://www.larianvault.com

Log in with your existing Larian Vault account or create a new one
Once logged in, click the Kickstarter logo in the menu
Fill in the email address that you use to log in on Kickstarter OR that you use to log in on Paypal
Click the "Look up and link" button
Check your email and click the link
That's it!

 

[Sir Garbageman]

How is it even possible to be spoilery for this game? Other than the obvious

Spoiler

Corvus turning out to be an enemy,

there's nothing really going on that could be spoiled.

Obviously everyone's spoiler senstivity is different but I suspect the majority of people in the thread would prefer to not be spoiled as to how the various general and princess story arcs resolve themselves, especially considering you can influence them one way or another.

I pledged to Original Sin at $150 (physical) so I think I get a digital copy of this? If so, anyone know how I go about getting it? Haven't gotten any mail yet.

I think it might've been emailed out? If not sign into the Larian Vault with your Kickstarter info and your download codes should be there as well.

 

[BigWeather]

Yes, you do. Check the Larian Vault:

Awesome, thank you very much! I totally forgot about the Larian Vault thingee, as I mainly just deal with GOG/Steam.

Edit: Thanks to Sir Garbageman too.

 

[Gvaz]

This honestly makes me wonder if you ever played a "first generation polygon based RTS game". I did, and I remember them looking like this:

Not like this:

I actually think it looks great -- I was positively surprised when I first entered a battle in the beta, particularly by the lighting and atmospheric effects.

You missed the point. He's talking about the unit models then you post a whole damn screenshot

the specific unit models are ugly as fuck

 

[Perkel]

I know, it was way ahead of its time.

WAY ahead. I mean, I'd say it's still ahead of lots of contemporary RTS in terms of mechanics (and also of its sequels).

Yup. Unit customization as in Warzone 2100, Campaign being actual campaign where you work for actual goal. Main base as in Warzone 2100 where you build units, research, and pick up deploy to missions (and care for your experienced units). Good graphic at that time + day&night cycle + weather.

And nothing looks more awesome than EU Tank with 6 lasers.

I had high hopes for E2160 to be upgraded E2150 but.. yeah.

 

[Durante]

Yup. Unit customization as in Warzone 2100, Campaign being actual campaign where you work for actual goal. Main base as in Warzone 2100 where you build units, research, and pick up deploy to missions (and care for your experienced units). Good graphic at that time + day&night cycle + weather.

And nothing looks more awesome than EU Tank with 6 lasers.

I had high hopes for E2160 to be upgraded E2150 but.. yeah.

All of that, and actual meaningful terrain deformation! And it was released just 2 years after Starcraft.

I wish RTS had taken more after Earth 2150 -- at the very least its own sequel.

 

[famousmortimer]

As a social liberal I've gone extremely far to the left on social issues and it's hurt my war machine pretty badly. Which makes sense and is what i expected. The people are happy but my gold is down and the religious right and the fiscal right (undead and dwarves) have me at 0%.


I love this game.

 

[Casimir]

So I've played a bit more of Act 2. Overall it has been pleasant, but I've noticed a few things:

First, Larian needs to patch the in game text for the descriptions of abilities and units. A few of them are missing the numbers and/or segments of descriptive text. I don't know if it is just my copy of the game files, though.

Secondly, normal difficulty is too easy. The dragon, and to a lesser extent your Generals, are supposed to give you a needed edge against a somewhat equal enemy force and AI. But the resource distribution/unit cost and map needs an overhaul. As it is, I can simply out manufacture my opponents to such a high degree that I have yet had the need to stray from the auto-resolve function. I hope Act 3 has a much needed bump in difficulty.

Finally, the political and personal choice system continues to be enjoyable. (Edmund is of course, highly amusing.) If I had to level one criticism, it would be that the decisions lack the nuance found in real life, as every choice is forced into a dyadic split between the two extremes. If Larian, ever makes a sequel, I hope they add more options outside of forced contrasts to the political aspect.

 

[Durante]

One of my few real issues with the game (and it's not really a large one) is actually the cost of using your Generals. They have this really awesome story and decisions for each of them which makes them more powerful, but the actual advantage/cost ratio of all the Generals is so out of whack that it doesn't really have a large impact on the strategic gameplay.

When you fully proceed through a General's story they will cost like 30 gold to use, and still only change the outcome of a single battle by a few percentage points. They either need to be cheaper to use or more impactful.

 

[Perkel]

All of that, and actual meaningful terrain deformation! And it was released just 2 years after Starcraft.

I wish RTS had taken more after Earth 2150 -- at the very least its own sequel.

Yeah and above all you could dig tunnels, each different weapon had different effect on unit (like for lasers heat). Also 3 different factions play-style was completely different like completely meaning for example EU had normal RTS like resource management, UCS build factories on resources and LC just dropped everything from space.

/offtop

Fuck i heard each waifu can have different endings ! More than 2 actually.

 

[Durante]

Yeah and above all you could dig tunnels, each different weapon had different effect on unit (like for lasers heat). Also 3 different factions play-style was completely different like completely meaning for example EU had normal RTS like resource management, UCS build factories on resources and LC just dropped everything from space.

Such a great game! I'm always sad to see how few people actually played it, especially outside Europe. But yeah, quite offtopic.

Fuck i heard each waifu can have different endings ! More than 2 actually.

If you have the Imperial edition, part of the additional content are flowcharts for each princess.
Pretty awesome (downscaled to be spoiler-free):

 

[Perkel]

Such a great game! I'm always sad to see how few people actually played it, especially outside Europe. But yeah, quite offtopic.



If you have the Imperial edition, part of the additional content are flowcharts for each princess.
Pretty awesome (downscaled to be spoiler-free):

That is only natural Earth 2150 wasn't even sold outside of Europe i think and there is like only 1 or 2 US reviews.



Shit. I have no time to play everything i want.

Prophecy of Pendor (Warband mod)
X-Tended (X3 mod)

or Dragon Commander... sheeeet.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

New patch is live:

Hello everybody,

The following changes are now live on Steam. We are propagating the changes to the other digital platforms, so expect them to be there hopefully by tomorrow.

- custom campaign now has advanced game options
- custom campaign on Planet Earth should no longer crash
- custom campaign strategy maps are different from multiplayer maps on the same level (neutral units)
- custom campaign savegames fixed
- saving & loading of advanced game options fixed in custom campaign
- "it's impossible commander" audio spam and related FPS drop fixed
- UPNP fix should stop people from getting stuck on black screen when clicking multiplayer
- Fix for difficulty level not being taken correctly from game options without restarting game or loading savegame

The roll out of this update was slowed down because of the farfetching impact of a new feature we added that lets you change the game rules in the custom story campaign. This caused some complications but they are now fixed. By playing with these options you can literally turn Dragon Commander into a another game and we encourage you to experiment with all the settings. Also, let us know which ones you prefer. If enough of you concur on specific settings, we might turn them into a game mode.

It's worth pointing out that the story situations you encounter in this mode are completely randomized and are drawn from a larger pool of situations, We've also added different scenarios for you to play on. It's the perfect way to explore different choices and experience their consequences. In custom story campaign mode you can immediately select which princess you marry first, skipping the beginning of the game.

We are currently working on a larger update which contains a number of other improvements and also further boosts the AI's, taking into account the suggestions you've been making. We expect this update to be out in the not to distant future i.e. it's actually ready but we still need to test it.

If you are interested in helping us out with testing the updates, please send a mail to supportdc@larian.com with "DragonTester" in the subject line. We'll then send you a code with which you can access the beta updates once they are available. Please note that you can only test these updates via Steam i.e. you need to have the game in your Steam library to access the beta updates i.e. if you don't have Dragon Commander in your Steam library (purchased), you won't be able to try out the beta updates though you will get them once they go live.

Have fun!

 

[PFD]

I just learned about this game via angry joe's review. The dialogue was hysterical, and the game looked like tons of fun. This deserves to sell well, I really hope it does.

dragon commander looks almost as bad as the 13 years old force commander, the units look enrecognisable bad, which is probably why the get icons after a short distance. it doesnt look steampunky at all, it looks like a first generation, polygon based RTS game. its completely unpolished, this part of the game has a terribly low production value.

Really? You think it looks like this?

 

[Durante]

I just reached Act III. Took me 15 hours, but now I may be a bit overprepared (with 300 gold in the bank, everything researched, and 35 cards on hand).

Oh, and I just nationalized all industry. Feels good man.
It's actually amazingly profitable --

Spoiler

20% lower unit costs for 10 gold per turn

is a great deal once your income gets high enough.

 

[Casimir]

I just reached Act III. Took me 15 hours, but now I may be a bit overprepared (with 300 gold in the bank, everything researched, and 35 cards on hand).

Oh, and I just nationalized all industry. Feels good man.
It's actually amazingly profitable --

Spoiler

20% lower unit costs for 10 gold per turn

is a great deal once your income gets high enough.

Conscription has a similar effect.

Spoiler

20% cost reduction of ground units, 10% reduction for both air and sea units. The only negative is a small 4% reduction in motivation.

But I'm not sure exactly how motivation figures into the mechanics of the game. Is it explained in some documentation provided by Larian? That and an explanation of how the Luck modifier affects the rest of the game would really be helpful.

 

[Pooya]

I didn't know anything about this game, only saw some screens online recently from characters having requests and possible answers and writing in those sounds hilarious. Those character close ups also look very very nice, are those static 2D images or actually fully 3D rendered? they look very good like that one shot in the OP.

gotta check some gameplay vids.

 

[Casimir]

I didn't know anything about this game, only saw some screens online recently from characters having requests and possible answers and writing in those sounds hilarious. Those character close ups also look very very nice, are those static 2D images or actually fully 3D rendered? they look very good like that one shot in the OP.

gotta check some gameplay vids.

All the characters are full 3D models not 2D images.

 

[PFD]

All the characters are full 3D models not 2D images.

Yeah the graphics in those starcraft2-style-in-between-missions segments look really amazing.

 

[CatPee]

Is it just me, or did that ~3.8MB patch create significantly more stuttering?

 

[Durante]

I didn't know anything about this game, only saw some screens online recently from characters having requests and possible answers and writing in those sounds hilarious. Those character close ups also look very very nice, are those static 2D images or actually fully 3D rendered? they look very good like that one shot in the OP.

gotta check some gameplay vids.

The character rendering on the Raven (that's your airship) is really good:

And yes, the dialogue is hilarious, as usual for Larian games.

Is it just me, or did that ~3.8MB patch create significantly more stuttering?

I didn't notice a framerate difference one way or the other.

 

[Slackbladder]

Is there a fix for the game not starting? I keep getting Not Responding every time. Tried starting in widowed mode but no help. Turned off anti-virus, no help. Currently validating files. After that will try the 'delete appcache' approach. But after that I'll be out of options.

 

[Durante]

Is there a fix for the game not starting? I keep getting Not Responding every time. Tried starting in widowed mode but no help. Turned off anti-virus, no help. Currently validating files. After that will try the 'delete appcache' approach. But after that I'll be out of options.

Did you have a look in the official tech support forum? If none of the solutions posted in the FAQ help, you'll probably have to file a bug report.

 

[CatPee]

Bah, found out the framerate/stutter issues I had during gameplay and conversation stemmed from that "Limit Framerate to 60fps" option in the menus being toggled on while having D3DOverrider active. Buttery smooth now that it's off.

 

[Joeku]

So, how viable is it to play this without ever actually doing the RTS part and still have a challenge? I mean, specifically, does the simulating with different commanders seem to be effective for that part of the game?

Cause I realize that looking at media for the game that I really want a Medieval Fantasy Political Policy Simulator with a little bit of grand strategy, but adding in the more active RTS elements is something I'm not really up for right now.

 

[famousmortimer]

Just finished it. GOTY candidate to be sure... but

Spoiler

The third act was the weakest IMO. It felt tacked on and didn't add anything new to the gameplay - it was just "the demon controlling everything makes them overpowered" so you have to mass more troops and your dragon dies quicker. I made my way through the map rather slowly because I needed a million troops for the major battles. I didn't hate it... as the act of playing the game is fun... but it was a bit of a letdown.


Also the lack of ending was disappointing. I knew all of the social decisions I made were for research points vs luck vs population vs race happiness vs etc.... but I hoped that it would have some affect on the ending. Like even just a generic "your new liberal empire that doesn't discriminate and has national health care prospers into blah blah blah." But nary a mention of anything political. Quite odd considering how many endings they gave to each queen storyline.

Minor complaints aside it was

Spoiler

23

hours of awesomeness and I'm going to start a custom campaign tomorrow.