• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 |OT| Dragons & Dungeon Mastering

This game is just brilliant.

The way a play session can blossom into unexpected moments and encounters is staggering. The fact that there are no way points or aggressive pathfinding for quests is so refreshing.

The game respects your intelligence and just tells you to figure things out for yourself.

A man who was dying is now dead, so I loot his body and find a powerful card for use in a card game. Then I go back to these shady card players who had ripped me off hours earlier and hand their assess to them.

Nothing told me to do that. I just found it and decided to.

These moments are countless. The little details are astonishing.

This might be GOTY.

10/10
 

Jag

Member
Is there no way to prevent items from being auto added to my hotbar?

As others have said, only via mods. It was something requested early in the alpha. Larian had said they were going to address it and never did. The current hotbar is fine and functional, but still very old school ... and not in a good way. There was definitely an opportunity for improvement here.
 

Lorcain

Member
Damn this game for being so good and f'ng up my sleep schedule. I've already had at least 3-4 days this past week when I sat down to play around 10:30PM and end up playing until 3AM or later.

I played the first game more straightforward fighting encounters as they were designed, which a lot of times put the player at a starting positional disadvantage. I'm trying to be much more of a ruthless bastard with the combat encounters in this game. I'm drawing inspiration from 2 of my favorite movie/TV tactical bastards, William Wallace and Ragnar Lothbrok. They always scouted and prepped battlefields ahead of time, and would fight on their terms. Pulling a room encounter into a zone of death I created a room or two away is very satisfying lol. Especially satisfying right after getting stomped by the AI trying a straight up fight on their turf.

My favorite instruments of death so far are crates and barrels. Line them up to form death corridors, throw down oil or other nastiness, ranged characters waiting on high ground, and then designate one lucky puller with flight to welcome the enemy. I've even lured in key enemies, and then threw down crates to block off their exit. It's good sadistic fun.
 

Ploid 3.0

Member
So because I wanted to launder my stolen items I had to connect a controller to the game to get the sell > buy back option to merchants... and I LOVE the controller support on this game! There seem to be so many more options than the Mouse/KB UI. It's so good, and the GOG version works well with Steam Controller. I doubt I can assign mouse to the right track pad though since KB/M + Controller doesn't work at the same time.

Mouse/kb is still good for quick setups like buffing right before engaging and hurrying with an expensive attack. Pulling that off with controller without mouse track pad would be a bit slow, maybe I could set mouse emulation, nah that would emulate mouse controlling camera and not left analog's cursor.
 

Tagyhag

Member
So I loved the original's combat and variety of everything.

But I stopped playing because I didn't care for the characters or the story.

Any chance that I'll end up enjoying this one more?
 

loganclaws

Plane Escape Torment
So I loved the original's combat and variety of everything.

But I stopped playing because I didn't care for the characters or the story.

Any chance that I'll end up enjoying this one more?

The story in this one is much better and so is the writing, it reminds me of Tuesdays with Morrie.
 
So I loved the original's combat and variety of everything.

But I stopped playing because I didn't care for the characters or the story.

Any chance that I'll end up enjoying this one more?

The writing is definitely a step up from the first game. I'd say it's almost on par with the combat now.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
When i logged off last night I noticed steam shows me at 9 hours played. I have pretty much only just left Ft Joy

Is this normal or am I slowpoke.jpeg?
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
When i logged off last night I noticed steam shows me at 9 hours played. I have pretty much only just left Ft Joy

Is this normal or am I slowpoke.jpeg?

Took me 25 hours to clear act 1 and there are people here who took longer then that.
 
Kimda regret not having a ranger. They seem really powerful. Oh well.

Sebille is so OP in my game. I Tac Retreat her to high ground, and she can one-shot or two-shot almost anything.

So I loved the original's combat and variety of everything.

But I stopped playing because I didn't care for the characters or the story.

Any chance that I'll end up enjoying this one more?

As someone who enjoyed OS1's story but understood the complaints, OS2 is 100x better. This has a lot to do with no "blank slate" characters. All the preset characters can be customized fully, but they still retain their story.

The main plot is a bit barebones like in OS1, but the narrative is what makes it so much better.
 

spad3

Member
4 Player Co-Op question, how does it work?

Does 1 person hold the master save and your friend just joins your game?

Me and 3 friends are gonna pick this up because it looks genuinely awesome.

EDIT: Can your friends make their own characters and join? Or do they join as the henchman you hire?

So the way it works is whoever creates the lobby gets the master save. Your friends will create their own characters and work on from there. If your friends decide to leave the lobby, their characters become AI allies. When they join back in, they'll join as their respective character again.

The nice thing about this is that you can do multiple runs by having different saves under different friends by joining their created lobby.
 

Saganator

Member
Took me 25 hours to clear act 1 and there are people here who took longer then that.

Yup, I've been in Fort Joy for a long ass time. I've gotten to the point where I can just leave the place, but I still have some NPCs to rob blind and gotta finish up a quest or two.
 

Lorcain

Member
Sebille is so OP in my game. I Tac Retreat her to high ground, and she can one-shot or two-shot almost anything.
I have Sebille as a ranger too, and she's death from above, shredding armor and health. She had a slow ramp up very early due to not having great gear, but she's the main killer on my team now. Lord help the AI if I can get her safely to a shooting position untouched. Fortunately, the AI is smart enough most of the time to at least try and stop her to keep me on my toes.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Yup, I've been in Fort Joy for a long ass time. I've gotten to the point where I can just leave the place, but I still have some NPCs to rob blind and gotta finish up a quest or two.

I kind of want to go back and just kill every magister. They are all aggro to me at this point anyway, as I got into that fight in the
northeast area of the fort where that good guy paladin is arguing with the magister. The good guy got himself killed before I finished the fight though :(
 

Lanrutcon

Member
Getting tired of being screwed out of quest xp. Just had another quest giver die in combat I wasn't even involved in, and also had a looooong quest chain break because the npc talked to the first party member he saw, and it wasn't my main character so the dialogue options didn't include "Hey, I did that thing for you". There goes like, 2 hours of painstaking work babysitting multiple npcs.

Also a little miffed at the little one on ones you companions want with obvious boss creatures. Let Fane go chat to the thing so that it starts combat, goes first and kills a party member? or just ambush the thing and stop it pulling its tricks. This is literally not a thing I should even have to deal with.

And the encounter design is going to shit rather fast. Talk to obvious boss creature, suddenly X enemies pop out of thin air. That was ok...the first 20? odd times. Now it's just lazy. Just put the goddamn enemies there, it's not like you're fooling anyone: the named thing has "bad guy" written all over it. Combat is inevitable.
 
Act 4...WTF is this fight
after Lucians tomb with source puppets...like wtf are you supposed to do exactly. They keep respawning after you kill them or they keep getting dying and repawning from there own traps...wut? I think you're supposed to pull the levers initialed power or something but ugh this fight.

EDIT: Got it....annoying af tho lol
 
This game is set around 1200 years after the first. I never played the original and am having no trouble following the story.
That's the thing. This looks more polished and refined than the first one, but I don't want to lose any crucial story bits. If you say it's not an issue, I'll believe it.
 
Do I need to play the first one before jumping into this one? I know it's a silly question, but I'd love to know.

Nope but there is general lore/world that is spread across all their Divinity games (which is 6 of them now) which is great for long-time fans but not crucial. There is nothing that is important to understand to enjoy all the games individually. This game actually takes place just around the time of Beyond Divinity (their 2004 game) timeline-wise. For example you will see references to things like the Black Ring in the various Divinity games.
 

Lorcain

Member
I kind of want to go back and just kill every magister.
I just finished doing exactly that last night. I discovered a few different ways to leave Fort Joy, and did a little exploring outside, and then returned to go Spartacus on the magisters. There's a lot of optional content in Fort Joy, with tons of cool details and mini stories.
 
I have Sebille as a ranger too, and she's death from above, shredding armor and health. She had a slow ramp up very early due to not having great gear, but she's the main killer on my team now. Lord help the AI if I can get her safely to a shooting position untouched. Fortunately, the AI is smart enough most of the time to at least try and stop her to keep me on my toes.

She is Legolas.
 

justjim89

Member
This Radeka fight is bullshit. Going through the dialogue automatically gets my MC diseased, and cheesing it by teleporting her into the middle of my party, while effective, isn't really in keeping with roleplaying. Not to mention she still automatically summons all the bugs and zombies even when you get the drop on her. I don't even know what the fuck a blood rose is, but now I want to kill her out of spite. It's also absurd that her bugs and zombies have better range on their range attacks than my fucking hunter or mage do for their attacks at the same level.

Also, if you kill a necromancer/evil mage or whatever that summons zombies and raises dead, her summons should automatically die. I shouldn't still have to fight like 4 bugs and 4 zombies.
 

Kard8p3

Member
This Radeka fight is bullshit. Going through the dialogue automatically gets my MC diseased, and cheesing it by teleporting her into the middle of my party, while effective, isn't really in keeping with roleplaying. Not to mention she still automatically summons all the bugs and zombies even when you get the drop on her. I don't even know what the fuck a blood rose is, but now I want to kill her out of spite. It's also absurd that her bugs and zombies have better range on their range attacks than my fucking hunter or mage do for their attacks at the same level.

Also, if you kill a necromancer/evil mage or whatever that summons zombies and raises dead, her summons should automatically die. I shouldn't still have to fight like 4 bugs and 4 zombies.

Do you have a necro yourself with the 'raise bloated corpse' skill? If so, use it on the corpse she's fucking with while your MC is talking to her, she'll have one less minion. Are you moving your party around before the fight? Try to get your ranged characters up high while she's busy talking, and if you can lay down some preemptive spells
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
This Radeka fight is bullshit. Going through the dialogue automatically gets my MC diseased, and cheesing it by teleporting her into the middle of my party, while effective, isn't really in keeping with roleplaying. Not to mention she still automatically summons all the bugs and zombies even when you get the drop on her. I don't even know what the fuck a blood rose is, but now I want to kill her out of spite. It's also absurd that her bugs and zombies have better range on their range attacks than my fucking hunter or mage do for their attacks at the same level.

Also, if you kill a necromancer/evil mage or whatever that summons zombies and raises dead, her summons should automatically die. I shouldn't still have to fight like 4 bugs and 4 zombies.

This is a tip not just for that fight, but the game in general. You can switch characters while you're in dialog with an NPC and that dialog will stay going.

So any time you're fighting a tough foe that begins the fight by talking to you, take the opportunity to position your party where you want them, get your summons out, get your buffs on then immediately end the dialog and begin the fight in an advantageous position.

The fight you're talking about in particular has you starting in a kill box, doing this will make it much much easier.
 

justjim89

Member
Do you have a necro yourself with the 'raise bloated corpse' skill? If so, use it on the corpse she's fucking with while your MC is talking to her, she'll have one less minion. Are you moving your party around before the fight? Try to get your ranged characters up high while she's busy talking, and if you can lay down some preemptive spells

I've got them spaced out now. But it almost goes worse doing it that way. My primary focus is killing Radeka within the first turn so she doesn't charm one of my characters. And I don't have that spell. My party skillset is:

-MC Undead shadowblade, focusing on scoundrel and polymorph.
-Ifan, huntsman
-Lohse, aero and hydro
-Red Prince, fighter

So I've been teleporting her into the middle of my party before going through the dialogue to prevent getting diseased, then when she runs off Red Prince gets an attack of opportunity. Then my MC does the warp backstab and a regular backstab, which gets rid of the rest of her armor. Then Red Prince will get in a position to use knockdown on her, and Ifan will finish her off from afar. Lohse is just usually buffing or chipping away at the armor of the zombies, since the bugs have way too high magic armor for it to matter.

But even after taking her out, the other 7 or so enemies in the fight slowly take out my party because they all have ranged attacks with huge distances, so it doesn't matter. And I'm realizing using res scrolls mid fight is pointless because the resurrected character starts with such little health and armor that they'll always be dead before their turn comes back.

My party is at level 6 alongside the enemies, and they all have pretty good gear and skills. But it's just not working. I may just walk away from this bullshit fight, but it's emblematic of all the problem's with this game's combat. Especially with have the armor system negates all crowd control.
 

Jisgsaw

Member
You guys seriously make me consider to respect my rogue fane as a ranger :-( I guess that would definitively improve his survavibility too, in addition to his damage output.
 

Ryzaki009

Member
This Radeka fight is bullshit. Going through the dialogue automatically gets my MC diseased, and cheesing it by teleporting her into the middle of my party, while effective, isn't really in keeping with roleplaying. Not to mention she still automatically summons all the bugs and zombies even when you get the drop on her. I don't even know what the fuck a blood rose is, but now I want to kill her out of spite. It's also absurd that her bugs and zombies have better range on their range attacks than my fucking hunter or mage do for their attacks at the same level.

Also, if you kill a necromancer/evil mage or whatever that summons zombies and raises dead, her summons should automatically die. I shouldn't still have to fight like 4 bugs and 4 zombies.

You can avoid getting diseased by staying away from her and sticking to the reason you're there. Don't be remotely flirty or nice to her and she'll attack you without the ick part.
 

Taruranto

Member
This Radeka fight is bullshit. Going through the dialogue automatically gets my MC diseased, and cheesing it by teleporting her into the middle of my party, while effective, isn't really in keeping with roleplaying. Not to mention she still automatically summons all the bugs and zombies even when you get the drop on her. I don't even know what the fuck a blood rose is, but now I want to kill her out of spite. It's also absurd that her bugs and zombies have better range on their range attacks than my fucking hunter or mage do for their attacks at the same level.

Also, if you kill a necromancer/evil mage or whatever that summons zombies and raises dead, her summons should automatically die. I shouldn't still have to fight like 4 bugs and 4 zombies.

Yeah, it's even hard to re-position characters so they are not together before the fight starts. Meanwhile, the enemies are all over the room. I was one level over her and the fight still was pretty tough.
 

justjim89

Member
I just had the fight won with only my MC left. I drink a poison potion, as an undead character, and for some reason it kills me. What the fuck? This is bullshit.
 
As someone looking to avoid this, any quick tips you can give me so I don't completely mess things up in the first 5 hours?

Each character should have their own specialisations i.e. no two or more characters should each have the Summon or Hunter skills. Also don't invest too heavy into Civic abilities, try to spread the point distribution that relate to the character's class. Example, a Scoundrel character should have 1 Sneak and 2 Thievery, not just 3 Sneak or just 3 Thievery. And as I said first, try to avoid characters levelling up the same skills/points. Have at least one Wayfarer/Ranger and one Rogue/Shadowblade in your party too.
 

J4g3r

Member
I would absolutely love to be able to click the mini-map to move around.

I just had the fight won with only my MC left. I drink a poison potion, as an undead character, and for some reason it kills me. What the fuck? This is bullshit.

Decay?

Cursed Blood applies it.
 
I've got them spaced out now. But it almost goes worse doing it that way. My primary focus is killing Radeka within the first turn so she doesn't charm one of my characters.

Yea thats not a good idea.
  • Clear mind will cure charmed status.
  • That fight is pretty much designed to say "hey use this obvious choke point and the high ground".
  • Summons only die, if they were actually summons.(You'll know if this is the case, because they will attack straight after her)
  • Unless you can kill the BBEG in one turn reliably, focus on taking out the weakest adds, then the stronger ones, and then BBEG.

I just had the fight won with only my MC left. I drink a poison potion, as an undead character, and for some reason it kills me. What the fuck? This is bullshit.
Decay.
I dont understand thing != Bullshit.
 
I just had the fight won with only my MC left. I drink a poison potion, as an undead character, and for some reason it kills me. What the fuck? This is bullshit.

You were probably decayed. Healing items kill you 100% under that condition. Cursed blood surfaces will do it. I hated that battle with my Undead/Necro.

Can someone better explain how cursed surfaces work? Once I ran into the cursed blood voidwoken I started hating life. It felt like even having them onscreen would make my normal blood rain cursed and spiral everything out of control. I guess cursed surfaces spread instantly to all uncursed versions?
 

Lorcain

Member
Larian did a nice job with the AI. I was happily surprised to see enemy healers use restoration on Fane as an attack and dot. They will also use restoration on necro summons too. Bastards.
 

Instro

Member
Do I need to play the first one before jumping into this one? I know it's a silly question, but I'd love to know.

I think I've only seen 1 direct reference to the previous game so far, but on the flip side I think some of the basic concepts of the world(i.e Source, Braccus Rex, etc.) are a little glossed over in this sequel. I don't think you'll have any trouble understanding what is happening though.

Admittedly though I'm still only in the starting area of the game, so I couldn't really tell you for sure.
 
I've got them spaced out now. But it almost goes worse doing it that way. My primary focus is killing Radeka within the first turn so she doesn't charm one of my characters. And I don't have that spell. My party skillset is:

-MC Undead shadowblade, focusing on scoundrel and polymorph.
-Ifan, huntsman
-Lohse, aero and hydro
-Red Prince, fighter

So I've been teleporting her into the middle of my party before going through the dialogue to prevent getting diseased, then when she runs off Red Prince gets an attack of opportunity. Then my MC does the warp backstab and a regular backstab, which gets rid of the rest of her armor. Then Red Prince will get in a position to use knockdown on her, and Ifan will finish her off from afar. Lohse is just usually buffing or chipping away at the armor of the zombies, since the bugs have way too high magic armor for it to matter.

But even after taking her out, the other 7 or so enemies in the fight slowly take out my party because they all have ranged attacks with huge distances, so it doesn't matter. And I'm realizing using res scrolls mid fight is pointless because the resurrected character starts with such little health and armor that they'll always be dead before their turn comes back.

My party is at level 6 alongside the enemies, and they all have pretty good gear and skills. But it's just not working. I may just walk away from this bullshit fight, but it's emblematic of all the problem's with this game's combat. Especially with have the armor system negates all crowd control.

Once she is dead take the rose off her body and flee. You don't have to beat the spawns.
 
Once she is dead take the rose off her body and flee. You don't have to beat the spawns.

Or alternately beat some spawns and flee and come back when you're healed. The game is remarkably more forgiving than I thought it would be about the flee mechanic. I had to abuse it to have any chance at the Act 1 final battle.
 

AndersK

Member
My melee backstab Sebille is tearing up fools in act one by the mid-way point on classic. Her movement and skills Means she's always stabbing someone. Can't say I feel going for daggers seems underpowered compared To the alternative.

Also, lol, try talking to the angry head on a stick in act 1 with Lohse. Straight up trolling it.
 
Top Bottom