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Divinity: Original Sin |OT| Sandbox RPG. Co-Op friendly. Bread.

erragal

Member
I actually can give some examples.

I've never been able to make a bow in 30 hours of play. Why? I've only come across one sinew. That's it. Nobody sells it. I haven't found anymore after plundering every crate and barrel I've come across.

Now again, I can't complain too much because the bow I have equipped is fine, but.... I did save scum with one of the merchants in Cyseal (fletcher? enchantress?) and she went from selling sinew to out of stock upon leveling. Unfortunately I didn't grab any the first time, went out and leveled up, saved near the merchant and saw they had no sinew. Reloaded and still nothing. Needles were also nearly impossible to find.

I mean it's one thing if the item is supposed to be rare, but this isn't the way to do it. It doesn't make sense lore-wise - so that doesn't excuse it away. It makes my playthrough unique..... In the fact that I couldn't find utilitarian crafting items. There's no real in game economy or trade.

So the point is what?

All of this rigamarole for simple, basic things is crazy.

Because the next time you play your experience will be different. This time you encountered a paucity of sinew in your adventure leading you to rely on bows you found as treasure.

What makes it a strong design decision is that none of the randomized elements can ever prevent you from completing the game. You just feel a compulsion to have total freedom/access to every detail as you feel the impulse to do it. If you don't obsess over crafting a bow and just play the game it definitively wouldn't matter. Check the various shops after you level and remember which ones sell crafting goods.

This game doesn't reward obsessive compulsive style gameplay. It intentionally subverts those playstyles in an attempt to get you to think differently about tactics and your decisions in the game world.

In the kindest words: The game isn't broken, you're trying to play it incorrectly.
 

Valkyra

Banned
Thanks for spoilering the game. This is why we can't have nice things.

I suppose that is a spoiler, but a minor one. He's commenting on a mechanic of a skill, a skill that's explained in game the first time you even see/touch a weapon requiring it.
 

Zakalwe

Banned
In the kindest words: The game isn't broken, you're trying to play it incorrectly.

You do realise their random drop system that makes every play-through different may not be perfect?

There may be a lack of sinew that they need to address, perhaps no matter how many times you play it it won't randomly generate enough.
 

erragal

Member
I would have liked a mix of set and randomized loot here, as there is something to be said for ensuring you get something awesome when you beat a particularly tough encounter (and it would also more heavily reward facing high-level encounters early), but I look at the people who feel some burning need to reload their games till they get specific gear with specific rolls with some amusement.

There's enough tactical freedom and depth in the game that you can get by using whatever tools you have at your disposal at any given time. Holding some deep concern about what gear you're wearing or precisely where you've placed every individual skill and attribute point is really giving the game short shrift in that area. Will certain pieces of gear or skillbooks make battles easier? Of course; if they didn't, they'd be worthless. But they aren't required. Play smart and be creative and you can get by, even if it's tougher than it might otherwise be. There hasn't been a single battle yet where I've felt remotely disadvantaged based on what my party makeup was currently like - all the while building my party up with whatever the game chooses to give me - and I've been playing on Hard and consistently facing most enemies including bosses at lower levels than them.

Some players should have more faith in their own tactical abilities and whatever combination of skills they may have to get them by instead of considering it an abject failure if some combat encounters are actually lengthy and difficult. It doesn't always have to be a cakewalk. Just go with the flow; you might surprise yourself.

There actually are a few set items in the game. Anything that drops with the cream/beige color is a unique fixed item. I'd probably agree with a slight uptick in those items...but overall the heavy randomization is fundamental to the game.

I just hope this game inspires a new generation of players who really look at their games as an immersive free flowing experience rather than a series of save scumming incentives.
 

erragal

Member
You do realise their random drop system that makes every play-through different may not be perfect?

There may be a lack of sinew that they need to address, perhaps no matter how many times you play it it won't randomly generate enough.

I have plenty of sinew. I'm sure many people do. The old wow loot whargarbl adage still holds true: Random numbers are random.

It's highly entropic and imperfect. That's the purpose. Shiny flawless perfection has no character or believability and leads to a clinical experience.
 
I didn't know my friend could create a character in my game, we used Skype and he told me what to do for his character.

You need to join his game during character creation, then you can make your own character as he makes his. That's all there is too it.

Remember, though: the character you make in his game is bound to his game.

Edit: Oh. I see what you mean! Yeah, that could definitely have been better-explained.
 

VandalD

Member
Number 1 seller on GoG if that means anything.

http://www.gog.com/
Number one on GoG and still number one on Steam. I expected this game to sell slowly over a long period of time, but it seems to have absolutely exploded.
Tenebrium is poorly implemented.
I concur that it should be made available later, and that you need a TALENT to not get infected by rot, but it shouldn't be an ABILITY. It's utterly useless that way, unless you spend another 15 points into it. When I had first access to it, I was bummed out to see that adding Tenebrium to a weapon makes it lose the bonus from the associated ability of that weapon type. I had 2h +7 (base 5 +2 from gear) and Tenebrium enchant added like 30 more damage than a normal element enchant, but I lost over 200 damage since I only got a 10% boost from the point in tenebrium. It should just be another element, and NOT an own offensive weapon type. Like I said, make it a TALENT and everything would be fine.
I agree. There was also confusion for me as to
what exactly I needed tenebrium for. I thought I needed it to hurt the enemies with void aura, but so far it turns out I only needed it to destroy the void crystal. I feel like this would've been changed for the better if backers were given access to areas outside Cyseal so that they could give feedback. A talent would be a much better way of handling it.
 

erragal

Member
I suppose that is a spoiler, but a minor one. He's commenting on a mechanic of a skill, a skill that's explained in game the first time you even see/touch a weapon requiring it.

But the skill is not unlocked until a particular event in the story. I certainly didn't know it existed until I saw that. I also wasn't aware of the mechanical effects and drawbacks/lack there of.

One neat thing about this game is after you get over the initial shock of a game that has consequences you can use good logic/common sense and paranoia to stop dying randonly. Even on hard. There's an item I refused to pick up with no spoilers because I immediately distrusted it...and my instincts were correct.

Ultimately are spoiler tags really hard to utilize? They just take some patience and proper introduction of your discussion topic. Then you can be considerate of others and facilitate broad discussion threads in the same OT as various people at different points talk about their situations.
 

Zakalwe

Banned
I have plenty of sinew. I'm sure many people do. The old wow loot whargarbl adage still holds true: Random numbers are random.

It's highly entropic and imperfect. That's the purpose. Shiny flawless perfection has no character or believability and leads to a clinical experience.

If it's working, then fine. I've not seen a single one drop yet, but I'm sure I'll find one at some point. It's not important, but it would be fun exploring bow crafting for my ranger.

Still, after I've played this through a few times there's always the possibility of mods to open up any content I've not been able to experience.
 

erragal

Member
If it's working, then fine. I've not seen a single one drop yet, but I'm sure I'll find one at some point. It's not important, but it would be fun exploring bow crafting for my ranger.

Still, after I've played this through a few times there's always the possibility of mods to open up any content I've not been able to experience.

The crafting vendor in Silverglen (Sitting at the table in the southwest corner of the bar) is a good source to check when you level up. That's who I purchased multiple heavy sinew from.

Certainly randomized things can be -frustrating-. That's to be expected. What's important is to keep looking at it as a new opportunity to explore/journey forward and make the best of a bad situation. Adventurer's are supposed to be resourceful and getting into that mentality will reward you with memorable experiences unique to your playthrough.
 

Sub Zero

his body's cold as ice, but he's got a heart of gold
Question about Starstones ( near endgame spoilers)

I'm near the end of the game where a talking door forbids me from entering the source temple unless I have enough Starstones. Didn't really pay attention to them during the game but I'm pretty sure I collected many of them because they were dropping during main quests. After some googling, I read that they are used to unlock portals in the End of Time. However, only one portal (Hall of Heroes) is unlocked there which makes no sense as I collected a lot of starstones. Can anybody shed some light?
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Question about Starstones ( near endgame spoilers)

I'm near the end of the game where a talking door forbids me from entering the source temple unless I have enough Starstones. Didn't really pay attention to them during the game but I'm pretty sure I collected many of them because they were dropping during main quests. After some googling, I read that they are used to unlock portals in the End of Time. However, only one portal (Hall of Heroes) is unlocked there which makes no sense as I collected a lot of starstones. Can anybody shed some light?

Make sure you use your blood stones, they have to be turned into Inert Stones to count.
 

FtHTiny

Member
Question about Starstones ( near endgame spoilers)

I'm near the end of the game where a talking door forbids me from entering the source temple unless I have enough Starstones. Didn't really pay attention to them during the game but I'm pretty sure I collected many of them because they were dropping during main quests. After some googling, I read that they are used to unlock portals in the End of Time. However, only one portal (Hall of Heroes) is unlocked there which makes no sense as I collected a lot of starstones. Can anybody shed some light?

If you are that far in and only have one portal something definatly is wrong. I don´t think that should even be possible.
 

Monooboe

Member
As a rogue I thought I would finally be able to do a big heist.
King Boreas treasure chamber
but I'm totally lost, feels like I've missed something somewhere, been running around the whole area in search for something.o_O If I only could walk on lava.XD

On a side note, saw people praising the sound effects in this game and yeah that sound when you kill someone is so bloody satisfying!
 

Levyne

Banned
As a rogue I thought I would finally be able to do a big heist.
King Boreas treasure chamber
but I'm totally lost, feels like I've missed something somewhere, been running around the whole area in search for something.o_O If I only could walk on lava.XD

On a side note, saw people praising the sound effects in this game and yeah that sound when you kill someone is so bloody satisfying!

There's been a few places where I noticed the crunchy boot walking sounds in a cave or something. Crunch crunch crunch.
 

Noaloha

Member
On the sinew issue, and what - by lengthy extension - I think it says about the design of D:OS, this is my take on the matter,

In Pen & Paper RPGs, I like the idea of a dungeon-master who's willing to sometimes push back against a party's battle plan and to force them into uncomfortable situations.

is that too vague? I don't feel like making a lengthy post. It makes sense in my head!


On the spoiler issue recently mentioned, there've certainly been a few instances in this thread where I've looked away, probably grimacing, from some descriptions of mid-to-late game systems and areas that I didn't care to read about. That's kind of par for the course on a message board though I guess. I've also flinched several times at 'innocent' specific plot spoilers, for example, mentions of (murder mystery quest, the person responsible)
Evelyn's Lair
simply as a location. Out of context, for someone who's not even started the game, or is super early, it's probably not really a spoiler. It's too fleeting a mention and very likely won't stick in the mind once they hit the heady noise of town. I do worry though about the player reading this thread who's specifically in that part of the quest where you're narrowing four suspects down to one.
 

Sub Zero

his body's cold as ice, but he's got a heart of gold
If you are that far in and only have one portal something definatly is wrong. I don´t think that should even be possible.

Seems like I had to enter the portals first and talk to Zixzax afterwards. He is now unlocking the portals one by one. Was worried for a second, though that I was hit by a bug
 
How balanced are the classes in this game?

Very balanced, mainly because there are no classes in Divinity: Original Sin.

No matter what "package" or build you choose, you'll always have options. There are multiple solutions and approaches to all battles and quests. Plus, there are more than enough companions/henchmen to fill up the holes in your party.
 
Tenebrium is poorly implemented. I concur that it should be made available later, and that you need a TALENT to not get infected by rot, but it shouldn't be an ABILITY. It's utterly useless that way, unless you spend another 15 points into it. When I had first access to it, I was bummed out to see that adding Tenebrium to a weapon makes it lose the bonus from the associated ability of that weapon type. I had 2h +7 (base 5 +2 from gear) and Tenebrium enchant added like 30 more damage than a normal element enchant, but I lost over 200 damage since I only got a 10% boost from the point in tenebrium. It should just be another element, and NOT an own offensive weapon type. Like I said, make it a TALENT and everything would be fine.

Wait, you can't learn
Tenebrium
after the story quest? That's bullshit, I was holding on to a certain specific weapon to hire another Knight for the Phantom Forest.
 

Zukuu

Banned
Wait, you can't learn
Tenebrium
after the story quest? That's bullshit, I was holding on to a certain specific weapon to hire another Knight for the Phantom Forest.
You can. It just starts on level 1. So you'd need another 14 points to up it to level 5.
 

Sentenza

Gold Member
How balanced are the classes in this game?
I keep hearing different people claiming that different classes (builds) are "clearly overpowered and head and shoulders above the rest" so I guess it's an indirect hint that they are pretty balanced and all useful if developed wisely and used properly.

That said, my impression so far is that they have essentially different strengths:
- rogues are great in terms of mobility and utility, and they can occasionally be good damage dealers.
- casters are excellent in terms of crowd control.
- archers are very versatile thanks to their incredibly broad supply of special arrows.
- melee are unmatched damage dealers.
 

Levyne

Banned
I'm stuck in the immaculate trial dungeon.

I believe I lockpicked some doors and ended up visiting rooms out of order. I got a star stone earlier, met Loic and he poofed away, then I got Rot and finished the vase and lever trials. Now I see a locked room with a waypoint portal and a door that can't be picked :(
 

Sentenza

Gold Member
I'm stuck in the immaculate trial dungeon.

I believe I lockpicked some doors and ended up visiting rooms out of order. I got a star stone earlier, met Loic and he poofed away, then I got Rot and finished the vase and level trials. Now I see a locked room with a waypoint portal and a door that can't be picked :(
I was going to attempt a convolute explanation of how you could solve that mess, but thinking about it the best advice would be:
just reload and do it properly.
 
Just ran into a game breaking bug during the
War of the Stones
quest:
One of the orcs outside of the wizard's house becomes impossible to engage in combat making the quest impossible to complete.

Here's a fix I saw online that I'm about to try:
The orcs apparently become possible to kill if you trade something with them before starting the war. I'm going to give them each one gold and see what happens.
I'll post if this works.

This is the only progress impeding bug I've ran into in 68 hours, but man is it a bad one.
 

Noaloha

Member
I just read this post on Something Awful and it made me laugh.

ibpAUoqJvDK75n.png


This guy gets it.
 

stone128

Member
I'm stuck in the immaculate trial dungeon.

I believe I lockpicked some doors and ended up visiting rooms out of order. I got a star stone earlier, met Loic and he poofed away, then I got Rot and finished the vase and level trials. Now I see a locked room with a waypoint portal and a door that can't be picked :(

Loic is supposed to show up when you are near that door by the portal...after he went away, but I guess you've been walking over there already... hmmmm....
 

Shahadan

Member
So seriously, how do I recover from Soulsap? :lol:
This is frightening.

Edit: Hmm apparently it's a bug. It's hilarious and horrible at the same time

I guess I can't continue playing then until it's fixed...D:
 

Denton

Member
From the PCGamer interview. Swen (Dev) mentions that new A.I. personalities are coming out next week.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/07/09/d...wrong-choices-and-details-on-its-next-update/

I am so extremely happy about this.

I am reading this thread all the time because I decided not to play until AI is in - I don't want the hassle of co-op (being dependent on another person), but I want the feeling of playing with actual person, in singleplayer, so this should be perfect. So glad it is coming so soon now.
 

Levyne

Banned
The solution to my problem was pretty simple, I just needed to find another cure for the rot. Basically, I looked up a blood stone I missed (
Iron Maiden in Boreas Prison
) to cure the Rot that the stone at the end of the trial was SUPPOSED to clear, and then went to the area and Loic was there. The dialogue requires you to be healthy so that was the issue.
 

Zukuu

Banned
Is it a glitch that every item in that snow area and castle is wack as fuck and low level?
Yeah, probably. There also seems to be a problem with the loot table concerning sarongs, unless it's intended that they ALL without exception, require int.
 

ZzzZombi

Neo Member
I really want to play this game but I can't afford it right now. So a few days ago I started to download the game through various sources and then I immediately thought "Nope!" and canceled it.

So what I want is poeple telling me some stuff to ease my desire to play this game. (I know it's a bizarre way to describe it). But not bad things about the game. Things like "Wait for personalities to come out etc."

I hope I made myself clear enough.
 

Zukuu

Banned
I really want to play this game but I can't afford it right now. So a few days ago I started to download the game through various sources and then I immediately thought "Nope!" and canceled it.

So what I want is poeple telling me some stuff to ease my desire to play this game. (I know it's a bizarre way to describe it). But not bad things about the game. Things like "Wait for personalities to come out etc."

I hope I made myself clear enough.
Sorry to let you down, but GET THE GAME ASAP, it's awesome!

(maybe wait for a mod that introduces handplaced loot and/or skill books. or a basic patch that fixes the very minor bugs).
 
Awesome, it looks like Giant Bomb will finally be doing a proper Quick Look of Divinity: Original Sin.

The QL will be livestreamed tomorrow by the staff at GMT 06:00. It will be archived later in the day on GB and their youtube, most likely.

If they're doing co-op it might be entertaining to watch even if you already own the game, you never know with those jokers.

I really want to play this game but I can't afford it right now. So a few days ago I started to download the game through various sources and then I immediately thought "Nope!" and canceled it.

So what I want is poeple telling me some stuff to ease my desire to play this game. (I know it's a bizarre way to describe it). But not bad things about the game. Things like "Wait for personalities to come out etc."

I hope I made myself clear enough.

Buy it now and be a part of history... or buy it later and be a bandwagoner.

The choice, as always, is yours.
 

stone128

Member
The solution to my problem was pretty simple, I just needed to find another cure for the rot. Basically, I looked up a blood stone I missed (
Iron Maiden in Boreas Prison
) to cure the Rot that the stone at the end of the trial was SUPPOSED to clear, and then went to the area and Loic was there. The dialogue requires you to be healthy so that was the issue.

Aha, good thing :)
 

ZzzZombi

Neo Member
Buy it now and be a part of history... or buy it later and be a bandwagoner.

The choice, as always, is yours.

Yeah, you're right, that's the thing. I want to experience it as it grows and gets refined. Unfortunately I don't have a choice right now and I hate the idea of pirating, especially with this game.

I guess I'll just try to stay away from reading too much stuff here and elsewhere.
 
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