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[RandomSeed]

I was very disapointed when I did him cause he died in 3rounds so I didn't see if he had any new mechanics or whatever in Tactician.

I think I've sadly reached the "I min maxed too much and now my group is OP and everything is a snoozefest" point already. Took longer than with the old sneak backstab rogue or the lone wolf glass canon 2H flurry warrior+buff mage, but still pretty fast. Also a bunch of the tactician changes don't really affect me like fire immunity auras, which seems to be a lot of the changes. I never used barrel strats so meh. Plus I can kill the mob on the first turn if I wanted to.

This is all new to me (played up to early second area in original version), so I'm not overpowered at all. Probably underpowered...I just find the inventory, and in turn crafting, to be tedious.

So how exactly should one understand the tone of the game? Is it supposed to be a comedy? Satire? Or just light-hearted fun?

Most of the time I'm a story first gamer (love Planescape: Torment, Shadowrun games, etc), but I'm honestly just breezing through most all of the dialog and enjoying the gameplay. The humor just isn't my style.

 

[Giever]

So how exactly should one understand the tone of the game? Is it supposed to be a comedy? Satire? Or just light-hearted fun?

I don't think it tries overly hard to be humorous, and it definitely isn't a satire (even if there might be a few elements in there, like acknowledging the inability of the protagonists to step over a small rope to reach a tempting treasure chest). I'd say light-hearted is the best way to describe it. It doesn't take itself very seriously.

 

[Armitage Shanks]

I'm very late to this party, sorry, but man, this game.
I bought D:OS on Steam a while back, played an hour orso, liked it but never got back to it. Now with this enhanced edition I gave it another shot and have never been more hooked.

I was trying to explain to my SO what it was about this game and what I came up with was this: I used to LOVE, like proper addicted, dream of it LOVE the Ultima series, especially 4, 5 and 6, and then especially 6 because everything existed in the world and was interactive. But I've tried a few times replaying them - they haven't aged well.
For me D:OS is as if someone recreated Ultima, stayed true to the format and added all the mod cons we expect from modern games. It's perfect!*

THIS is what EA should have been doing with the Ultima franchise rather than kill it with F2P malarkey.

Man, this game. It's become a problem for me.


* bugs notwithstanding

 

[Baalzebup]

It's way sooner than that, about a third into the game. It's only 7stones to unlock the respec hall, you get 5 in cyseal alone, and you can get the next 2 either right away if you rush for them, or in hiberheim if you follow the normal progression after a few more hours.

Wait, what? I did that at level 13. And yeah, you keep your spells, which can be exploited by not even taking the necessary levels in a particular skill and still being able to use them (at a higher cost of course).

Thanks, I must have confused the respec room for something else. I think I may have been thinking about the Emporium.

 

[dEvAnGeL]

i was convinced the gameplay for this was like diablo, shame for me, because i really dont like this type of combat and everything else about the game looks ace

 

[Erheller]

Is 1-handed worth investing in, or is 2-handed still king?

 

[Iced_Eagle]

i was convinced the gameplay for this was like diablo, shame for me, because i really dont like this type of combat and everything else about the game looks ace

Well, now that you know what it's NOT, I'd say give it some more time. Yes, it's slower and more tactical, but the "Aha!" moments you get in combat when you think of a really clever way to beat a monster is great.

 

[Annubis]

Is 1-handed worth investing in, or is 2-handed still king?

2-handed is great if you can get the crit to back it up.
If you can't (no perception, no rage, no crit gear), I think 1-handed might be better.

Do consider that there is a skill now for 1-handed + shield to reflect damage. That's a lot of damage potential.

 

[skyhaven]

2-handed is great if you can get the crit to back it up.
If you can't (no perception, no rage, no crit gear), I think 1-handed might be better.

Do consider that there is a skill now for 1-handed + shield to reflect damage. That's a lot of damage potential.

Two-hander passive actually boosts critical damage multiplier and critical rate % by a significant amount. It is actually worthwhile to max now. That + Leadership 5 bonus takes you past 20% easily.

 

[Xeteh]

The desert is literally zero fun. Being permanently slowed is really taking the fun out of this.

 

[shmoglish]

The desert is literally zero fun. Being permanently slowed is really taking the fun out of this.

Yes...imo fighting is pretty hard there with half of the AP.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

Liberty, equality and brotherhood for all!

 

[danowat]

What are 'base kit' weapons?

 

[Orcastar]

I was thinking of using Madora and Bairdotr as my companions on my first playthrough, but Bairdotr is bloody useless with her bow at lvl 3-4. Firing takes a ton of AP and her hit rate is very low. Does she get better of should I just swap her out for Jahan? My PCs are a cleric and a wizard.

 

[superseohyun]

I was very disapointed when I did him cause he died in 3rounds so I didn't see if he had any new mechanics or whatever in Tactician.

I think I've sadly reached the "I min maxed too much and now my group is OP and everything is a snoozefest" point already. Took longer than with the old sneak backstab rogue or the lone wolf glass canon 2H flurry warrior+buff mage, but still pretty fast. Also a bunch of the tactician changes don't really affect me like fire immunity auras, which seems to be a lot of the changes. I never used barrel strats so meh. Plus I can kill the mob on the first turn if I wanted to.

same here. sad. tactcial mode should really add more enemies per encounter

 

[Leezard]

i was convinced the gameplay for this was like diablo, shame for me, because i really dont like this type of combat and everything else about the game looks ace

The old divine divinity game had Diablo like combat. As in, not the not-enhanced edition but the first game in the series.

 

[chaobreaker]

i was convinced the gameplay for this was like diablo, shame for me, because i really dont like this type of combat and everything else about the game looks ace

Ironically the previous Divinity games have more diablo-like combat than Original Sin. The developers always wanted to make a Divinity game with turn-based combat but couldn't get a publisher who could pay for one. But then Kickstarter happened and the rest is history.

 

[Xeteh]

I was thinking of using Madora and Bairdotr as my companions on my first playthrough, but Bairdotr is bloody useless with her bow at lvl 3-4. Firing takes a ton of AP and her hit rate is very low. Does she get better of should I just swap her out for Jahan? My PCs are a cleric and a wizard.

Bows start kind of slow if you aren't using a bunch of special arrows. Ideally you want to get her Ranged Precision Stance and have someone else with level 2 Leadership (1 point from a helmet is pretty easy to come by). Bless from Geomancy helps too.

What are 'base kit' weapons?

Weapons you can upgrade throughout the game, I don't know how strong they are fully upgraded but I haven't used them much.

 

[Durante]

i was convinced the gameplay for this was like diablo

Why though?

I feel like we had a billion posts laying out all the ways in which it isn't like Diablo. We even had a small fight about it in the pre-OT.

I still don't understand where people get the idea that it is like DIablo. I mean, some say it's the camera perspective, but far more isometric/pseudo-isometric games are turn-based/tactical than action oriented.

 

[Lanrutcon]

Bows start kind of slow if you aren't using a bunch of special arrows. Ideally you want to get her Ranged Precision Stance and have someone else with level 2 Leadership (1 point from a helmet is pretty easy to come by). Bless from Geomancy helps too.



Weapons you can upgrade throughout the game, I don't know how strong they are fully upgraded but I haven't used them much.

The base kit weapons are ok, the problem is that the parts are spread out. By the time you upgrade yours to be something good you've found better gear already.

Edit: Read the tactician mode hints on reddit. Pretty bad. Guy proposes two melee characters, doesn't abuse invisibility or barrels, doesn't use teleport to sequence break, doesn't use nether swap to break encounters.

 

[AndyMoogle]

Why though?

I feel like we had a billion posts laying out all the ways in which it isn't like Diablo. We even had a small fight about it in the pre-OT.

I still don't understand where people get the idea that it is like DIablo. I mean, some say it's the camera perspective, but far more isometric/pseudo-isometric games are turn-based/tactical than action oriented.

I'm guessing it's because of the console version of Diablo 3. Are there any other big console games released within the last few years other than D3 that has an isometric camera?

 

[shmoglish]

I feel so Bad right now...

Still in the second chapter, near the end I guess

Spoiler

Met archibald and his son. Lost the Argument against him. Fight starts. Teleport him to the snails and the poison. Blocked his way with my spider, Set everything on fire.killed him rrally quick. His son runs to him and yells "Daddy? Why are you Sleeping? Stand up, stand up, stand up!"

 

[Sanctuary]

Why though?

I feel like we had a billion posts laying out all the ways in which it isn't like Diablo. We even had a small fight about it in the pre-OT.

I still don't understand where people get the idea that it is like DIablo. I mean, some say it's the camera perspective, but far more isometric/pseudo-isometric games are turn-based/tactical than action oriented.

Yeah I don't get it either. It was stated over and over (by essentially every review out there as well) that it was a tactical, turn-based system. However, aesthetically, and tonally it is very much influenced by Blizzard, so I could see someone possibly being confused if all they did was look at a few screenshots. More WoW than anything though.

Edit: Read the tactician mode hints on reddit. Pretty bad. Guy proposes two melee characters, doesn't abuse invisibility or barrels, doesn't use teleport to sequence break, doesn't use nether swap to break encounters.

Didn't read it, but was he possibly just wanting to give ways to beat encounters without cheesy exploits? Just because using cheap gimmicks might technically be the "easiest" way to do something, that doesn't necessarily make it the most satisfying. Save that stuff for a second playthrough.

 

[danowat]

It's probably about as far from Diablo 3 as you can get.

 

[Pyros_Eien]

The base kit weapons are ok, the problem is that the parts are spread out. By the time you upgrade yours to be something good you've found better gear already.

Edit: Read the tactician mode hints on reddit. Pretty bad. Guy proposes two melee characters, doesn't abuse invisibility or barrels, doesn't use teleport to sequence break, doesn't use nether swap to break encounters.

Well there isn't a need to do any of that. I play 2 melee and don't do any prefight preparation(well sometimes I summon something in front to start the fight and save 8AP, if it's not script based), and I haven't had an issue with a fight since... the first fight? And that's before I restarted to take different stuff.

I guess you can go faster if you barrel stack preparations and what not, but that doesn't mean all that much, you're only saving a few mins every boss fight(not worth barreling trash packs in general). If you start abusing various stuff like that, you don't really need any other tips really.

I agree with what you said earlier, tactician should have had more mobs/buffs. Like the first zombie fight there were 2 lightning zombies on top and I thought most of the stuff was gonna be like that, would have been good. But there's rarely additional mobs, they just give one mob grenades or an aura and that's about it, and neither of these really has major impact.

 

[Lanrutcon]

Well there isn't a need to do any of that. I play 2 melee and don't do any prefight preparation(well sometimes I summon something in front to start the fight and save 8AP, if it's not script based), and I haven't had an issue with a fight since... the first fight? And that's before I restarted to take different stuff.

I guess you can go faster if you barrel stack preparations and what not, but that doesn't mean all that much, you're only saving a few mins every boss fight(not worth barreling trash packs in general). If you start abusing various stuff like that, you don't really need any other tips really.

I agree with what you said earlier, tactician should have had more mobs/buffs. Like the first zombie fight there were 2 lightning zombies on top and I thought most of the stuff was gonna be like that, would have been good. But there's rarely additional mobs, they just give one mob grenades or an aura and that's about it, and neither of these really has major impact.

Oh, well. Didn't realise Tactician was actually that tame with 2 melee. Figured spamming special arrows/spells from behind summons was the easiest way to get through, improvised explosives aside.

I'll get my normal playthrough done by the weekend, and then go full on cheese for Tactician.

 

[lionpants]

Ok, so my wife and I are playing through on Normal on PS4.

What the hell is up with the Shock Master 5000? We are using Arhu's controller in an attempt to disable the thing's weapons. But, the undead controlling it says something like "What, it's not working, re-charge!", on the thing's turn though, it just blasts us anyway.

Is the controller broken?

We tried for almost two hours trying to keep the Fab Five dudes alive (we can do it if they all die) using various cheese tactics like teleporting one of the mages behind the bend and blocking him with a party member so the lightning bolt cant be cast. We tried pressing all three switches, but cant seem to get them off in time (playing with two Lone Wolves). The NPCs just kamikaze themselves, and even if the boss doesn't lightning attack, he hits like a truck regardless even with Curse on.

Any tips?

We were level 5 and eventually gave up and went to the orc beach and killed the boss there, almost 6 now. We tried to go east to the fire church but the enemies there are too tough. Should we just clear the orc cave and then return to the shock master?

 

[Lanrutcon]

Ok, so my wife and I are playing through on Normal on PS4.

What the hell is up with the Shock Master 5000? We are using Arhu's controller in an attempt to disable the thing's weapons. But, the undead controlling it says something like "What, it's not working, re-charge!", on the thing's turn though, it just blasts us anyway.

Is the controller broken?

We tried for almost two hours trying to keep the Fab Five dudes alive (we can do it if they all die) using various cheese tactics like teleporting one of the mages behind the bend and blocking him with a party member so the lightning bolt cant be cast. We tried pressing all three switches, but cant seem to get them off in time (playing with two Lone Wolves). The NPCs just kamikaze themselves, and even if the boss doesn't lightning attack, he hits like a truck regardless even with Curse on.

Any tips?

We were level 5 and eventually gave up and went to the orc beach and killed the boss there, almost 6 now. We tried to go east to the fire church but the enemies there are too tough. Should we just clear the orc cave and then return to the shock master?

The Fab Five guys attach to one of your characters. Leave that character out of combat. Let the rest of your party fight, then just before the boss dies, let the guy you left out join the fight. Tada, all the peasants saved.

In terms of combat: stun the boss. Stun arrows work like a charm. You can use fire on the skeletons, but not the boss.

 

[lionpants]

The Fab Five guys attach to one of your characters. Leave that character out of combat. Let the rest of your party fight, then just before the boss dies, let the guy you left out join the fight. Tada, all the peasants saved.

In terms of combat: stun the boss. Stun arrows work like a charm. You can use fire on the skeletons, but not the boss.

Unfortunately, I can't solo the boss, we're playing with 2 Lone Wolves. No stun arrows, just a Knight and Geomancer/Pyro. The boss' shock attack does way too much damage even with an Air absorb shield on. And like I said, the controller seems to be non-functional - broken?

 

[Leezard]

Unfortunately, I can't solo the boss, we're playing with 2 Lone Wolves. No stun arrows, just a Knight and Geomancer/Pyro. The boss' shock attack does way too much damage even with an Air absorb shield on. And like I said, the controller seems to be non-functional - broken?

The controller should work. Maybe your controller user is not close enough to the boss?

 

[SeeNoWeevil]

Healing/resurrecting my team after combat is such an almighty chore. Go back to Cyseal, buy a scroll, trek back to revive my character. Go back to Cyseal and individually place my party members in a bed, wait for them to heal. Sheesh. Is there a better way to do this?

 

[BeeDog]

I find the increase in difficulty increase in the second major area jarring, even on the lowest difficulty level. I probably just suck at the game, but when one "minor battle" took upwards to 30 minutes with several resurrections, it induces serious fatigue.

(the battle I'm speaking of is at the spider nest to the north near some weak cultists and spider eggs; all the spider eggs hatched, and of course all the spiders have to have ranged attacks...)

 

[Lanrutcon]

Unfortunately, I can't solo the boss, we're playing with 2 Lone Wolves. No stun arrows, just a Knight and Geomancer/Pyro. The boss' shock attack does way too much damage even with an Air absorb shield on. And like I said, the controller seems to be non-functional - broken?

Oh, bugger. Then I have no clue how you save the peasants. I'd suggest then go explore more, come back later. Buy special grenades whenever you see them, as you have no ranger.

 

[danowat]

Healing/resurrecting my team after combat is such an almighty chore. Go back to Cyseal, buy a scroll, trek back to revive my character. Go back to Cyseal and individually place my party members in a bed, wait for them to heal. Sheesh. Is there a better way to do this?

Yeah for healing, either food or Jahan's heal spell.

 

[Shinjica]

The controller should work. Maybe your controller user is not close enough to the boss?

I had the same problem. Discharged is attack but still he use the lightning next turn. Probably a bug

 

[lionpants]

I had the same problem. Discharged is attack but still he use the lightning next turn. Probably a bug

Did you just let the guys die? How close do you actually have to be too use the controller? Based on the enemy's it appears to work but then does nothing.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I beat that boss on tactician without the controller. I found it a little too easy tbh. Maybe even easier than the classic version.

 

[lionpants]

I beat that boss on tactician without the controller. I found it a little too easy tbh. Maybe even easier than the classic version.

Care to share how?

 

[Deaf Spacker]

Can anybody offer any advice, my group is currently level 5 but I'm still getting hammered by the orcs on the beach and the crazy robot contraption. The quests I have yet to do involve leaving the city and getting past those enemies but I'm getting screwed every time.

Is there anywhere where I can grind to level 6 or am I not employing the correct fight strategy?

 

[Nyx]

Can anybody offer any advice, my group is currently level 5 but I'm still getting hammered by the orcs on the beach and the crazy robot contraption. The quests I have yet to do involve leaving the city and getting past those enemies but I'm getting screwed every time.

Is there anywhere where I can grind to level 6 or am I not employing the correct fight strategy?

Maybe this map helps:

http://www.macgamecast.com/sites/default/files/cysealmap.jpg

 

[Shinjica]

Did you just let the guys die? How close do you actually have to be too use the controller? Based on the enemy's it appears to work but then does nothing.

Only one guy die, the other two lived the encounter. The best way is kill/stun/incapacitate the skeleton wizard so the boss will not be charged

 

[Sanctuary]

Ok, so my wife and I are playing through on Normal on PS4.

What the hell is up with the Shock Master 5000? We are using Arhu's controller in an attempt to disable the thing's weapons. But, the undead controlling it says something like "What, it's not working, re-charge!", on the thing's turn though, it just blasts us anyway.

Is the controller broken?

Spoiler

Disabling the weapon isn't for the shock ability unfortunately. You need to use the discharge function to get rid of that, and the weapon disable is for its physical projectile attack. That does actually stay disabled too once you use the remote, but you will need to make it discharge every other turn or so.

 

[lionpants]

Spoiler

Disabling the weapon isn't for the shock ability unfortunately. You need to use the discharge function to get rid of that, and the weapon disable is for its physical projectile attack. That does actually stay disabled too once you use the remote, but you will need to make it discharge every other turn or so.

Is the discharge function using the levers?

 

[Baalzebup]

Is the discharge function using the levers?

No, it is another command from the remote.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

Care to share how?

I don't really remember the details. I think I used some crowd control, midnight oil on the spellcasters, maybe freeze on the bot itself.

 

[Lanrutcon]

I don't really remember the details. I think I used some crowd control, midnight oil on the spellcasters, maybe freeze on the bot itself.

I was a little overleveled, but I basically dropped an oil barrel at each mage, lit them up in unison using a fireballs scroll, then started chain stunning the boss with arrows and blitz scrolls until it died.

That was with 1 character and 2 npcs. My other character was herding the peasants back at the entrance.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I was a little overleveled, but I basically dropped an oil barrel at each mage, lit them up in unison using a fireballs scroll, then started chain stunning the boss with arrows and blitz scrolls until it died.

That was with 1 character and 2 npcs. My other character was herding the peasants back at the entrance.

I didn't actually care if the peasants died, but somehow none of them died lol

 

[Annubis]

I'm running double melee and my biggest cheesing is just to get my guys in a puddle of fire and smoke forcing the enemies to come fight me in melee (smoke blocks sight) and burn walking through fire whereas I stay still myself which makes my fire damage intake much lower than the AI who keep flailing around in it.

Also, speaking of fire, an interesting trick that happened to me is at the big boss under the church. The corpse of the fire enemy does 30k damage if you walk on it and if you get said corpse to be at the door, the other enemies will be forced to walk over it and die instantly (really no other way to get to you). After that, you can just throw your pyramid on the other side of the door to cross yourself.

Is the discharge function using the levers?

No, it is another command from the remote.

The 3 levers also do it too if you pull all of them.

 

[lionpants]

I'm running double melee and my biggest cheesing is just to get my guys in a puddle of fire and smoke forcing the enemies to come fight me in melee (smoke blocks sight) and burn walking through fire whereas I stay still myself which makes my fire damage intake much lower than the AI who keep flailing around in it.

How do you create smoke again? Oil on top of fire?

 

[danowat]

How do you create smoke again? Oil on top of fire?

Smoke or steam?, steam is electric on water (I think)