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Divinity: Original Sin Kickstarter by Larian Studios [Complete, ~$1 million funded]

Hrothgar

Member
On one side it's ofcourse a risk to delay the release by ~4 months and spending more resources on development, but it will also avoid the packed Christmas season, which for smaller titles such as this should be a good thing. It would get drowned between all the AAA games, while in the dry period of Q1 it will be easier to notice.
 
Watching the update video, I love that feature that makes part of the scenery disappear in front of the character and then fill back in as he moves away.

3 months is nothing - this game is going to be amazing.
 

FACE

Banned
Stabbey from Something Awful transcribed their twitch stream:

How many Weather types?
Right now just rain, no rain, and day and night, and that’s already quite a lot of work, because of all the interactivity they want. No rain of frogs yet.

(New!) There is now a pool of blood surface that you can get from killing enemies (more if it’s a kill done in an especially gory way) that you can use in combination with magic, probably similar to or identical to the water surface.


Are there systems that encourage roleplaying? Are there mechanics that will guide players to make smart in-character decisions?


Yes, every quest has multiple solutions and different solutions, not just your regular solution via a different method. At least one will be dependent on which character you’re playing. The Charm/Reason/Intimidation options will help determine which way you’re going to go – if you haven’t got the stats to intimidate somebody, then that’s not going to work.

There is no difference in dialogue options if you put character A’s intelligence high, and character B’s intelligence low, they both get the same stuff.


When will Kickstarter backers of certain tiers get to give their input on designing X and Y?

First, make sure that you create an account on theLarian Vault and link it to your Kickstarter account. They’ll automatically know what rewards and such you are entitled to, and you can fill in the design X and Y things. There are some things you can fill in, there are other things that Larian still needs to get the parameters of from their design team.

Seen from the outside, will it be possible to make houses that are several stories high (7, 11, 16), depending on the whim of the level editor, or are there only models for certain heights (2,3,4 stories) and no others?

He thinks that you can chain as much as you want, but there’s going to be a problem with the roofs. It’s not that you can build an apartment building in Original Sin, but there are multiple stories. They still have an issue with the roofs that they haven’t solved yet. He’ll have to ask the artists.

How similar are the modding tools to those of other games like Shadowrun Returns, for example?

Original Sin’s modding tool is pretty free in that you can import stuff and attach all kinds of properties to it. You can script pretty much anything you can think of. There are Item scripts that allow for procedures on items.


How concentrated are you towards ease of combat/ What is the game’s complexity level?

David and Farhang are going over several varieties of the same combat situations over and over trying different things, seeing if different party combinations and tactics can survive. They’re going more for the RPG player that can think about it, look at the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy, and plan carefully. If you do that, it should take you only one or two tries to survive.

The stats and systems have been redesigned so you can design many different characters. At the start it’s overwhelming, but Fallout fans won’t be overwhelmed, it will seem more familiar to them. It takes about 5 minutes to comprehend. For the next 5 months David and Farghang will be going over every single combat encounter in the game. Yikes! There are 4 pages of stats, including the primary stats.


How deep is the combination of elemental magic in battle?

Quite deep, but he’s not telling anyone yet.


Are there polymorph spell and items?

Polymorph abilities are present in the game, and you can make scripts in the editor to polymorph people in the game. They’re not telling if there are skills or spells yet. (But the answer basically gives away that it’s a yes).


Do you need at least one other party member?

You always have at least two characters, if you want to survive you will have to get companions. It will probably be harder to play with only the primary two, but more will make it easier.


How will elemental magic affect other schools of magic (summoning, necromancy, divine, temporal)?

They don’t have that many schools of magic. They do have summoning and magic that could be called Divine magic, but no temporal magic. The system is inspired by Fallout, what Fallout calls skills, Larian calls Abilities you can put points into things like Fire Magic, Leadership, Pickpocketing, Crafting, Sneaking, and those stats are used when you’re using certain abilities in the game. Lots of stuff. This propagates through every single spell or special action or warrior move, etcetera.

Sneak system and some other things will be shown off next week at the Russian equivalent of E3.


How does pausing work in co-op?

We don’t have pausing. If I pause my game, his character will be standing still, the other guy will roam around freely. Combat is turn-based, so you can leave and come back later, still in combat. This isn’t a game you play with strangers.


The game will be on Linux.

Porting work is in progress.


Will finishing the game unlock higher difficulty levels, like Diablo?

No, this is really not like a Diablo game.


Vampires, werewolves, and other Fantasy monsters, like Zombie Jake?

Zombie Jake is Master Jake and you’re coming to Cyseal because of something Master Jake wants.


Companions – how chatty will they be in the game? Will they occasionally have something to say for certain quests unrelated to them, will they comment on certain events you stumble into wandering the world?

Right now, your main partner doesn’t shut up. Your companions will be slightly less chatty, but not by a lot. They’ll talk a lot.


Will the Linux/Mac release be simultaneous with the PC release?

It depends on if they’re ready or not. They are being developed in sync with the PC development.


What is the Main story/ side quest length?

Don’t know, the game isn’t finished yet. They used to say 20, 30, 40 hour game, not now. It depends on how long you play the game and want to do everything. They’ll only know once it’s done.


What is the density of the world?

Very dense. Every couple of screens you’ll find something to do.


Will elevation do something in combat?

Maybe Yes, they’re talking to the programmers.


Will add-ons be possible via the Larian Vault?

They’ll have to have an internal discussion. They’re swamped with work atm.


Can individual spells and skills be combined with other individuals spells and skills?

There’s party-based dialogue, party-based combat, party-based questing. There’s a bunch of things you can do to help each other depending on what skill you have and what the other guy has. Fire spell combining with the sword of your partner? Possibly, they want to make sure it can be done before they announce it.


Potion brewing?

Yes, that’s one of the crafting mechanics. You can make your own food and the types will have different effects.


Can you re-make other games using the editor?

Other than the real-time combat, it is possible to remake Sacred in the editor.


Will there be Minion spawning boss types?

Probably.


Will there be an in-game bug reporter in Original Sin?

Yes, even though they didn’t have it in Dragon Commander. They actually had it for Divine Divinity. They’ll also have to improve their bug tracking systems.

Will all combos and crafting take place just in the inventory, or can you also interact with things in the world to craft/combo?

You can combine things from your inventory to things in the world, it’s not just all in-inventory combination.

Will crafting cost money?

No, it won’t cost money. Most of the time it’s better to craft something yourself, you can get things better than what you can buy/find, and you can sell other neat things.

What’s the maximum party size?

The max size of the party will be larger than the number of companions you can have at one time because sometimes the story will dump other characters onto you who automatically join, or you might have summoned creatures, and such, so your max size you can put in is 4, but you can have up to 7 guys or so in a party at the same time.


Will the dialogue be the same for all gender combinations?

Gender recognition is in, certain dialogues are different. Quests are mostly the same, there are some quests that have gender recognition.


Does experience get shared between party members?

Currently, yes. If you are fighting a group of enemies who have a total of 1000 XP, a party of 2 fighting will get 500 XP each after it ends, and a party of 4 would get 250 XP each.


Will you see Bellegar in D:OS?

Yes, you’ll even see the Bellegarettes. There are multiple Bellegar Encounters because of Facebook likes.


Is D:OS a roguelike?

No, although you’ll die probably a comparable amount of times to a roguelike.


Will companions react to other companions?

He doesn’t want to answer that. The idea is yes, but that’s not implemented so they aren’t sure if that’ll be in, it is complex.


Have you done object overload tests?

Yes, and discovered that in one area wouldn’t work on Windows XP systems because it exceeded 3GB of stuff in total. Everything you see in the game is an object in itself and has an object reference. This includes the walls and other things are counted as objects, but the programmers are considered combining all the non0interactive stuff like that into one big object. This is not optimized yet, though.


Has Kirill started recording with his orchestra?

Not yet. They’ll update us later.


What sort of character build options will there be besides magic?

You can specialize in certain weapon types, you can specialize in armour.


Is there some way to pause or accelerate time?

You can pause to move time forward while the party sleeps, but the entire party has to be together. If one party member is on the other side of the world, you can’t sleep.


Are all the original races from Divinity 1 present?

No, not all the races from Divine Divinity are in the game.


If you buy one version of the game, will you get access the versions of the other platforms?

Yes, If you bought a version for one platform (windows, Linux, Mac), it’s for all versions.


Will Maxos, Zandalor and/or Bellegar be in the game?

No, yes, yes.


How are physics playing a role? Will there be puzzles implementing those behavious?

Yes. Not only puzzles, but the physics are also becoming interesting in combat.


Without a lot of scripting experience, can you script in the game?

You’ll have to learn, obviously. You’ll need to learn the language and such (which isn’t that hard). The scripting is very powerful, but it’s complex, so it’ll help to know how to script before.


Will there be another game like Divinity 2?

Third person and such, real time combat? Honestly, they’ll finish D:OS and figure it out next.


Importing custom 3D models?

It’s planned.


Will there be an in-game store?

You can barter in the game, like Divine Divinity. If you mean microtransactions, then no.


What are your favorite, most exciting parts of the game?

David: Discovering the new things that have been added over the last two months.
Swen: He’s looking extremely forward to playing the game with his girlfriend, the world has the density he always wanted in an RPG.


Will there be an organized way to post mods and new adventures

They’re still working on the logistics of that, but yes.


Will you lose equipment if you die?

Not forever. If you die (not the entire party), they’re adding a mechanic that if party dies you go to shelter plane at end of time and go back to last waypoint.


Can you create a temporaral paradox and kill Janus?

… no comment.


What’s the save system like?

You can save at any time, probably even in combat.


Will it be possible to make a mod for permadeath for party members that deletes them from the game after death?

Probably not, modding only goes so far. They’d have to check.


Can I change equipment quickly or slowly?

Changing equipment in combat will cost action points. More AP for larger things, like changing a breastplate instead of a sword for a dagger.


How much animal variety is there?

There is, but they haven’t been added yet, even though a lot of the animations are done.


Do monsters give fixed XP, or does it scale based on your level?

XP is fixed, no scaling.


Can you customize the mouse cursor?

The cursor changes , but you can’t customize it.


What determines the level of a summoned creature?

A summoned creatures level depends on the level of your summoning skill. They don’t level. A level 10 character that can summon level 1 creatures will only be level 1.


Will there be Dragons in Original Sin?

Who said there would be?


Can you change the portraits for your party members?

Yes, but that’s not in yet.


Can you steal a chair and put it in your home?

Yes you can do that. But there are reactions to make theft a complicated thing.


Will there be pop culture references in Original Sin?

Yes, but you’ll have to figure out what they are for yourself.

Will there be destructible terrain?

No.


Can you sheathe your weapon?

Yes, and characters will react to the fact that you have it drawn or not.


Will there be a brothel somewhere in the D:OS world?

There was one, but they’re redesigning part of the world and it’s gone for the moment, he had to make room for something else. A church, in fact.


Can you write your own journals?

Books that rewrite themselves during the game are implemented.


Can mods be released as a commercial product?

Maybe. There will be come kind of agreement that will let you sell your game if you want to, but details are still up in the air. They’ll be finalized before the editor is shipped.

Is the HUD scalable or moveable without modding?

Yes? They’ll see, not yet.

Why aren’t there all the races?

The game world can’t include all the races because it’s not big enough


Do you need to be careful when you sleep in certain places?

No, Swen is not a fan of surprise encounters in the night. Probably not, but you could mod it in.


Will there be a Collectors Edition?

I guess so.


Will it be possible to troll friends by having characters fall in love against the will of another person?
Yes, and no. That kind of trolling is possible… in a mod, but not in the main storyline. You can also force guys to do things against your will .


Can you customize your lair?

You can redesign parts of the shelter plane at the end of time. There’s quite a lot you can do.


There are similarities between the Engineer, Original Sin’s Engineer and Dragon Commander’s Architect. Would it be wrong to assume that all these Engineers and Architects are related somehow?
No it would not be wrong, you will be discovering some relation.


Is there a good/evil system that changes the outcome of the game
?
There are a lot of situations where you can change things, you have a lot of permutations, including total Armageddon, although the ending is pretty much fixed, because a thing needs to happen.


Have you shown new content to the Youtube guys?

Not yet, but they will be showing youtube guys things closer to the alpha period.


Can you rotate objects?

You can’t yet. But you will be able to.

Are weresheep part of the main story line

Weresheep not part of the main storyline, but have a protoyped quest and such.

Are there any DLC’s planned for Original Sin?

No DLC’s are planned, at least not paid stuff – unless that’s the only way to keep the company afloat. There won’t be any microtransaction-like things, certainly not paid. But there might be expansions with loads of content.


Have you worked out the Charm/Intimidate/Reason changes?

If there’s a disagreement, there’s now a fourth choice. There are three options (charm/intimidate/reason) to try and get your own way, and now a fourth choice to change your mind and agree with your companion. (StabbeyNote: I’m quite glad for that fourth option.)

It used to be Intimidate was derived from your Strength attribute, Charm was derived from Constitution, and Reason was derived from Intelligence, but now they are their own skills, not tied to those attributes.


Can you miss quests and locations depending on your choices?

Yes. There are spots where your choices can cut yourself off from content, the only place that’s guaranteed to not be cut off from is the main quest.


Can we use images in the messages in the woods?

Messages in the woods will be text only, no images. There’s a lot of things to put on that tree.

Can you play with someone else via IP address?

Yes.

Which schools of magic will there be?
They have 4 schools of magic, the elemental schools, and each school has the same types of spells, ranged damage, ranged AoE, surface creating spell, shielding spell, healing spells. They also have other skills that are not magic. You won’t have a neat classified list of spell this, spell that. You’ll discover spells as you explore the game world.


Will be there a Thieves Guild?

There are no guilds in the game (at least, none that you can join).


Is there a hardcore mode?

There will be an extremely casual mode where you can kill things with one click.

Stats and Skills:

VAOUEmS.png


En7I3UZ.png


w2ITaFz.png
 

Serandur

Member
Damnit, I just found out about this game's existence searching for the Dragon Commander thread. I ended up looking at the KS website first, being disappointed it didn't seem to reach $1M, then read the thread and damn that was amazingly close. I'm sorry I didn't get to add to the kickstarter. Oh well, I'll be buying it, looks fantastic.
 

epmode

Member
Man, when I saw "A big surprise!" in my inbox, I thought I'd have a link to the alpha right now. Too bad we'll have to wait until next week.

I wonder how much credit they'll give to those who backed at alpha level. It's not like I can spend it on anything in the Larian Vault considering I already own all of their games.

In other news, Swen's blog is incredible. Larian is one of my favorite companies around and I feel like they're always on the verge of a big break. Maybe Original Sin will be the one.
 

FACE

Banned
Man, when I saw "A big surprise!" in my inbox, I thought I'd have a link to the alpha right now. Too bad we'll have to wait until next week.

I wonder how much credit they'll give to those who backed at alpha level. It's not like I can spend it on anything in the Larian Vault considering I already own all of their games.

In other news, Swen's blog is incredible. Larian is one of my favorite companies around and I feel like they're always on the verge of a big break. Maybe Original Sin will be the one.

If it's as good as it looks then I can only hope you are right.
 

FACE

Banned
Jesse Cox and that girl in the kickstarter update video talked a bit about the game here(8 minutes in): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rww5yn-4h1U They seemed to have liked the game, but man the feedback they gave was horrible. Marking points of interest in areas once you've discovered them? Get the fuck outta here with that bullshit.
 

epmode

Member
Probably deserves its own thread rather than dying in Community. Unfortunately, I'm leaving for work so it'll be a bit before I can write something.

Isn't the beta launching soon? I can't find any specific dates.
 

FACE

Banned
Probably deserves its own thread rather than dying in Community. Unfortunately, I'm leaving for work so it'll be a bit before I can write something.

Isn't the beta launching soon? I can't find any specific dates.

They're hoping to release the alpha before chrismas, beta will probably come out in January.

I've created a thread, hopefully it'll be more popular than my Age of Wonders threads: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=93183367#post93183367
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
This thread is invisible to searches. I'm subscribing so when people play the early access, they can let us all know how much is there.

Because you love us and want us to be happy.
 

Hrothgar

Member
Early Access trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF3_HG9Vwdw

•Standard Edition: 39.99 EUR/USD – Gets you the Early Access game and the final game (this is the same price as the final version)
•Co-op Edition: 59.99 EUR/USD – Includes two (2) copies of Divinity: Original Sin for cooperative play, and a double pack of Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity.

And there is also a new update on Kickstarter: Update #53

EDIT: Welp, didn't know this thread was sentenced to the Community forum before release :O
 

guit3457

Member
I'm interested. I passed on this while it was on kickstarter but looking at it now I think I'd really enjoy it. Have you had any takers?

I'm from Spain so I can't buy the game in dollars. I searching for someone to host a 2 pack. I can send the money by Paypal.
 
How's the stability and quality of this game? Saw it pop up on Early Access...definitely want to get it at some point but was wondering if its worth the 40$ now for the Alpha access.
 

Eusis

Member
How's the stability and quality of this game? Saw it pop up on Early Access...definitely want to get it at some point but was wondering if its worth the 40$ now for the Alpha access.
It's very much Alpha access, though in a better state than when it opened up to those of us who Kickstarted. Still, I've had issues like music overlapping, and they very explicitly warn against playing unless you want a polished experience.
 

garath

Member
I opened the game up (took about 10 min lol), Created a character, walked around for a little bit and stopped playing.

I've decided I don't want to ruin the experience for myself in an alpha state. I want to enjoy the game in its full release glory. So I'll be waiting.
 

Perkel

Banned
first update to early acces version on steam:

Alpha Update V 1.0.93 - January 21st 2014
20:46
Hi everybody,

We just released an update for Divinity:Original Sin on Steam Early Access that solves the hottest issues that were flagged.

Here is the changelist:

- Fixed item disappearing when loading a savegame

- Messagebox will prompt when saving has failed (this will help us track if there are any more savegame issues)

- Changed armor calculations so damage is absorbed correctly (it wa wrong which is why melee and ranger characters were so weak)
 

FACE

Banned
Update 54: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin/posts/734581

Patch notes:

- Fixed startup problems for 32bit operating systems
- Performance improvements in general
- A lot of minor stablity fixes
- Added Network connectivity UI
- Added Network connectivity state and UI to minimap
- Added multiplayer options to main menu
- Added camera interpolation during dialogs
- Speakers in dialogs will correctly face the player now
- Burning/poison will do more than 1 damage now
- Greatly reduced memory usage of the gameclient
- Gold will correctly stack now
- Changed generation algorithm for treasure
- Fixed wrong assignments in dialogs
- Added more information to tooltips
- Fixed overwrite of savegames
- Removed door icons from worldmap
- Worldmap will zoom out more now
- Disabled quicksave for clients joining a MP game
- Characters can sit on chairs and sleep in beds now
- Party characters will auto-join combat in a smaller distance now
- Closing and opening of dialog UI is better handled now
- Disabled camera movement when a dialog is active
- Added more information to skillbook tooltips
- Fixed AP use count when stances were enabled
- Fixed pressure plates
- Fixed serious savegame problems
- Added intelligence modifier to AP cost
- Fixed tornado effect
- Fixed save button sometimes not working
- Fixed weapon visuals after ressurect
- Fixed crash when loading while standing in a surface
- Fixed electrified water visual
- Added feedback when crafting fails
- Item hits reduce weapon durability
- Save/load now works during dialogs
- Fixed crash concerning overhead texts
- Fixed charm skill
- Added BlackRock resistance
- Changed Armor and Shield abilities
- Added sounds to projectiles
- Fixed crash when deleting particles
- Fixed issues when saving statusses on characters
- Fixed crash during item pickup
- Character will not rotate while picking up items
- Improved forking of projectiles
- Fixed multiple music tracks playing at the same time
- Fixed scale problem for high DPI screen settings
- Camera can be scrolled now when the mouse if over a UI element
- Fixed ownership problems for companions
- Terrain performance enhancement by greatly reducing polygon count in flat areas
- Balancing weapons, armor, items, gold, treasure, damage, armor rating...
- Way of the warrior and way of the ranger give advantages per point
- New skills
- Balancing skills
- Fixed names and descriptions for weapons and other items
- Item combo fixes
- New character presets and starting equipment and starting skills
- Requirements are now STR, DEX and INT based
- Skillbook requirements are on elemental specialization
- Extra visuals for dagger type weapons
- Extra visuals for armor
- Added some herbs and chests to Cyseal
- Fixed weapon boosts that were not working
- Fixed some combat balancing and scripts
- Killing summons and party members doesn't give XP
- Lots of small changes (like ice elementals cannot slip on ice, you cannot freeze a fire elemental)
- Skills now level up for a while as long as you have points in INT and Specializations, but you'll need to find or buy skillbooks to keep your spellbook up to date
- Arhu sometimes turns into a cat
- Dialog fixes
- Fixed traps
- Questlog fixes
- Staircase fixes
- Boatfire fix
- Watcher statues dialog fix
- Prison guard drops key now
- Rats will not block quests anymore
- Teleporting NPCs can now trigger combat
- Egleandaer quest fixes
- Fixed stealing issues
- Changed title for skill tree
 

nonadventurer

Neo Member
As you may have noticed, characters are now capable of sitting and lying down on benches, chairs, and beds. This seemingly minor feature causes more computational chaos than a Source-addled technomancer, so we hope this little bit of realism adds some spice to your experience. And if you get bored, you can always use telekinesis to pull a chair out from under Mayor Cecil.

Wow. Best feature ever.
 

valeo

Member
I didn't know anything about this game but it looks pretty sweet - might be interested in the co-op with my brother.

Can someone answer me if the co-op is kinda similar to the old Baldurs Gate style? How is it handled at the mo?
 
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