Divinity Original Sin 2

[Lorgar Aurelian]

so i manged to get the blue dragon on fort joy fight Alexander. it was rather underwhelming sadly slane just got swarmed and got his head ripped off.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

The way I've been doing that fight is by starting the fight with one character and running back to the top of the stairs or the room on the right with 3 shrikers. That way you won’t have to fight the archer nor the chick with wings right away.

Well I beat the fight easily it was more for experimentation wanted to see what slane would do in the fight. Apparently it's just die.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

friendly NPC's during fights are always more problematic then helpful, I had to reload a bunch of times to figure out a way to save that dumb ass Paladin from getting himself killed in the fort…

Well slane wasn't quite friendly, me and my friend are doing a kill every thing run to see how we can break the game like we did in original sin 1. We pulled slane up and then hid and let them fight it out we were really hoping he could take them but he got comptly blown away.

[Deleted]

So after restarting with some combinations my current party stand and is now in reapers cost. Hell there was some rich merchant in the inn - I calculated for some seconds how much worth he would be in the next area and then slaughtered him and his bodyguards. I got so much gold... the gear scales so much harder than in DOS1, it makes it really worth.

[Cosmic Janitor]

So after restarting with some combinations my current party stand and is now in reapers cost. Hell there was some rich merchant in the inn - I calculated for some seconds how much worth he would be in the next area and then slaughtered him and his bodyguards. I got so much gold... the gear scales so much harder than in DOS1, it makes it really worth.

I take it you didn't have Ifan with you and you also haven't progressed the main story yet, eh ? ^^

[WarpedAcorn]

I don't think I could leave my casters behind. . . too much fun setting everything on FIRE.

Yeah, I'm thinking about restarting for the 4th time and play with a full Magic party. I do miss the spell effects! I've been having fun with the Physical team, but it does seem a little bit less exciting.

- - - Updated - - -

I already said it and i'll say it again... thievery, max that shit out with one of the characters and make sure you save every slot of gear with extra points in it, by the 3 act you'll have multiple stacks of max gold. I'm doing my first run without lone wolf, I got one character with thievery, another with bartering, one with lucky charm and the last one with persuasion, at level 3 I was walking around with purple items already.

I haven't tried the life of crime yet. Do you just need points in Thievery or do you need Sneak as well?

[tikcol]

Incredibly boring combat

[Deleted]

I take it you didn't have Ifan with you and you also haven't progressed the main story yet, eh ? ^^

Ifan? That soldier guy that got bullied by his former underling on the ship to fort joy? Nah. And main story? What's that? My conquest to become the most powerful sourcerer and then find Grief to ally and become the true Conduit of the void? Or was I supposed that weak demon serious that pops out now and then - I thought of him the same as the thing Lohse has attached to her. Good for power now and will get rid of it later. I need all power I can have to end Astarte once and for all, these meddling demons, half-demons and little fingers cannot even fathom the horror they help to grow!

I already said it and i'll say it again... thievery, max that shit out with one of the characters and make sure you save every slot of gear with extra points in it, by the 3 act you'll have multiple stacks of max gold. I'm doing my first run without lone wolf, I got one character with thievery, another with bartering, one with lucky charm and the last one with persuasion, at level 3 I was walking around with purple items already.

I have that. But that's damn annoying to do. And I was in a situation with most characters at lvl11 wearing lvl4-8 stuff. My Necro/Hydro priest still wears the complete Braccus Rex set because to change it I have to replace the whole set at once. I felt like in D:OS1 I had no gold problems after 2nd act either - so /shrug over one merchants or two. I felt the same pleasure as when I returned a certain cat to it's rightful owner. That's what makes this game great!

I did the same play style in PoE - haha that merchant mafia family house was just purged when their lackeys first threatened me. When you need gold just raid something!

[Deleted]

I finally reached the ship after ca 20 hours played. I love the combat and don't think its boring at all, it's strategic and fun to think out combos and positioning etc. A nice switch up from the frantic twitch gameplay almost all devs seem to go after these days.

I cheesed Alexandar too, basically I think of it as a clever use of game mechanics. I started the combat by teleporting him to me and my group right in the gateway by the 2 shriekers and just walloped him with everything all my party members had. He died first and the worm second, by that time I had 3 party members alive and all the other magisters were alive too so I just ran up the stairs with everyone and used the flee combat ability. Then the remaining 4 or 5 magisters reset and I could res my last party member and heal up, then wallop the rest of them.

Just a tip for anyone having trouble with it.

[pateuvasiliu]

So after restarting with some combinations my current party stand and is now in reapers cost. Hell there was some rich merchant in the inn - I calculated for some seconds how much worth he would be in the next area and then slaughtered him and his bodyguards. I got so much gold... the gear scales so much harder than in DOS1, it makes it really worth.

There is a vendor in Act II called Fletcher Corbin ( Lone Wolf camp, you can recruit him to your ship ) who will level up all the gear you sell to him when you get to Act IV. So if you have anything you want to level up sell it to him and pick it up in Arx.

[tikcol]

You have tons of hack & slash RPGs out there, take your pick…

I did, it doesn't change the fact that divinity has got incredibly dull combat

[WarpedAcorn]

I did, it doesn't change the fact that divinity has got incredibly dull combat

I'm curious, is it dull to you in comparison to other turn-based RPG combat or is that style of combat unappealing to you?

Personally, I like the turn-based system used in games like Divinity, Shadowrun, or XCOM. I think the combat is very interesting, and choosing your positions is great. I DO wish there was a way to "ready" an action or that you could Delay your turn to a specific point and not wait until the end. But there are TONS of ways to play with battlefield control and area of denials that it makes the strategy of a fight really fun.

One of my big combat criticisms in this game (and the previous title) is that some fights are REALLY not tuned for you to walk up to them without prior knowledge of what is going to happen. I think its completely unfair for a game to have an enemy that can kill characters before they have a chance to act, especially when that enemy is level-appropriate. There were several fights like this in Divinity 1, and some in this one too, where it pays to have your "Tank" walk up to initiate (separate from the group) and then have the group walk in later after the main enemy goes before the end of the first round.

[Jastall]

I did, it doesn't change the fact that divinity has got incredibly dull combat

I think I also found it dull because I played XCOM 2 with War of the Chosen not too long before and that game's combat is far more exciting and fun despite both being turn based.

For me, it's the same with every Larian game; I go through Act 1, get to level 10-ish, then stop playing. Literally the story of my time played with Divinity 2, Dragon Commander, and both Original Sins. I think it's also because I have 0 investment in the setting which I find so utterly boring, and while Original Sin 2 has decent characters they don't manage to carry the story on their shoulders. And while I appreciate good combat and game mechanics, RPGs for me are about setting and story first and foremost.

[tyrlaan]

I did, it doesn't change the fact that divinity has got incredibly dull combat

To each their own mate. Personally I'm loving the combat (and the rest of the game).

Sorry it's not fun for you.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I did, it doesn't change the fact that divinity has got incredibly dull combat

What would you prefer. I’d say it has better combat then any other game on the market from the sheer amount of freedom you have.

[WarpedAcorn]

I think I also found it dull because I played XCOM 2 with War of the Chosen not too long before and that game's combat is far more exciting and fun despite both being turn based.

I think XCOM has more exciting combat because if a squadmate dies then he dies. So there is this inherent risk that comes with playing each mission that builds tensions and is followed by relief when the mission is successful. In Divinity, you just use a Scroll of Ressurection. So XCOM has this double feeling when you lose a squadmate, one is that the mission is not going to be harder to complete and everyone else is at risk, and two that the character that died is not ever coming back. Imagine if you Game Overed whenever you died in Divinity.

Also, XCOM has a very cinematic style for movement and attacking. That COULD be something that could improve upon the Divinity combat experience. Imagine choosing to use Fire Whip and the camera moves over the shoulder of the character on the attack and zooms out dramatically with any explosions in the area. That could be pretty cool.

[Jastall]

I think XCOM has more exciting combat because if a squadmate dies then he dies. So there is this inherent risk that comes with playing each mission that builds tensions and is followed by relief when the mission is successful. In Divinity, you just use a Scroll of Ressurection. So XCOM has this double feeling when you lose a squadmate, one is that the mission is not going to be harder to complete and everyone else is at risk, and two that the character that died is not ever coming back. Imagine if you Game Overed whenever you died in Divinity.

Also, XCOM has a very cinematic style for movement and attacking. That COULD be something that could improve upon the Divinity combat experience. Imagine choosing to use Fire Whip and the camera moves over the shoulder of the character on the attack and zooms out dramatically with any explosions in the area. That could be pretty cool.

There are several reasons really. First, as you said it's very cinematic and tense. Landing that climatic 50% sniper shot that kills a Sectoid mind controlling your Ranger is so incredibly satisfying. Sure you can get fucked by the RNG sometimes, but you the player can easily take steps to mitigate the worst of it. To be fair you can choose the Ironman mode in Original Sin but there's no way I'd ever play that in a long ass RPG. Even if you get a Code Black in XCOM it's just one squad, your save is probably salvageable.

Second is that you very rarely get into a situation that you cannot win. The game provides you with the tools you need to face every obstacle, and I never felt that a fight was beyond me just because the AI was overwhelming, or that I needed to cheese. Whereas Divinity has ample opportunities for cheesing, and seems to even sort of encourage it with bullshit stuff like that worm that pops out against Alexandar and quasi one shots nearby party members. Like the game expects you to save and reload after getting rekt by something you couldn't foresee. Or having these level 4 enemies walk around when you're level 2 and are in no position to kill them because the scaling is just out of control in that game. I disliked that in Baldur's Gate, I dislike it here.

Third is that there are few instances where you're in cruise control. Maybe if you reach the lategame and have full upgrades + War of the Chosen bonuses, then yeah things become a bit too easy. But before that there's always a fairly even difficulty curve that doesn't let up. Whereas in Divinity (and most RPGs really) the difficulty is schizophrenic. You might stomp the last 10 encounters effortlessly, but here's a boss/big group of enemies that will massacre you. It's fine to a degree, bosses should be harder, but I find the disparity to be even more blatant in Larian games for some reason.

I mean, the combat isn't bad by any standard, but I don't love it, and the rest of the game just doesn't make up for it. I feel no compulsion to continue playing.

[tikcol]

Fixed that for you ~ no need to thank me.

The question is, why did you assume I was talking for anyone else ? It goes without saying that it's my opinion

[Gaidax]

*snip*

That's pretty much a consistent issue with both Xcom and D:OS, by the endgame your team/party grow so strong that you basically end up stomping endgame.

It's like that example with 50% sniper shot... reality is that even if you would miss you would have backup options anyway if you do it right, as a whole the rule is: don't take 50% shots in Xcom unless you have fallback plan, that's just asking for trouble.

[Jastall]

That's pretty much a consistent issue with both Xcom and D:OS, by the endgame your team/party grow so strong that you basically end up stomping endgame.

It's like that example with 50% sniper shot... reality is that even if you would miss you would have backup options anyway if you do it right, as a whole the rule is: don't take 50% shots in Xcom unless you have fallback plan, that's just asking for trouble.

Oh sure, ideally I'd agree with you. But RNG is a cruel mistress, so when your Grenadier misses a 91% point blank critical shot, it's up to your sniper to pick up the slack. The 50% was basically my last option as this was early game and I used up all my flashbangs. Obviously had this happened later in the game you have tons of better ways to stop the mind control; but then again at that point you aren't fighting Sectoids anymore.

And a point in favor of XCOM is that permadeath and random events can delay the point where you're godlike quite significantly. You can suffer great setbacks if you're playing Legend Ironman. Albeit I kinda wish the Avatar project was a bit more dangerous, with the new stuff added by War of the Chosen you basically have to try to let it finish.

Anyway this isn't an XCOM thread. My point was that I preferred the combat in that game, that's all.