Divinity: Original Sin II - Single Player Info, the Quebec Team and More

[Myrthos]

Today's update for Divinity: Original Sin 2, brings us information on the Quebec Team, a Reddit AMA that is going on right now, their presence on TwitchCon and playing the game in single player.

Since we've launched the campaign, one of the biggest questions that we've been getting is "will the single-player experience will be as in-depth and interesting as multiplayer?". The answer is - of course

We know it can be hard to get four friends together to regularly play through something as long and in-depth as a Divinity game. So, while we've been spending a lot of time talking about the multiplayer experience, we haven’t forgotten that it's important that the single player game is just as engaging and fun.

The secret we discovered with Divinity: Original Sin 1 is that allowing for cooperative multiplayer in the manner we do it enriches the single player experience tremendously.

Every time we try to wrap our heads around the different possibilities of a quest designed for multiplayer, we're able to go and feed all of that extra content back into the world, which means it's all right there for you when you walk up with a single player party.

It also adds a huge amount of roleplaying to the world. Thanks to the multiplayer effort, each of your companions can interact with the world as if they were your main character with dialog options that correspond with their origin story. So if you have an elf in your party, it might be more interesting to interact with an elven ancestor tree using your elf rather than your dwarven warrior. But if you interact with your dwarven warrior, you will get different reactions.

While this is all very cool, we did make sure that your main character still remains special. If the advanced relationship system gets in, then you’ll be able to roleplay the relationship options from the viewpoint of your main character, but not from the viewpoint of your companions. That ensures your relationship decisions feel weighty and that you can’t manipulate your companions.

The same goes for persuasion. Persuasion dialogs pop up whenever members of the party have different opinions. We obviously have a large range of persuasion options available in multiplayer and each party member will have its say. In single player however these options will not appear. Instead, the companions will state what they they think is the right course of action depending on their own beliefs and perhaps also the relationship with the main character.

With regards to competitive questing, it’s not so that your companions will go off on their own. There’s a number of PVP things that will be limited to multiplayer and that won’t pop up in single player. However, the fact that we have competitive questing ensures that there’s a broad spectrum of options available to your party in single player, more so than would ordinarily be the case.

More information.

 

[Silver]

Interesting update, that love-hate stretch goal is a must for single-player.

 

[HiddenX]

Crazy Belgians meet crazy Canadians... the game will be good

 

[LordCrash]

Interesting update, that love-hate stretch goal is a must for single-player.

I agree. Would be a real shame if that stretch goal wasn't met.

 

[Silver]

That reddit AMA is a treasure trove of info.

 

[wiretripped]

Interesting update, that love-hate stretch goal is a must for single-player.

I totally agree. 150k to go.

 

[wiretripped]

Some snippets from the reddit AMA:

Q: Do your friends also create characters (or bring their own), or do they assume control over characters that you have created/recruited?
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A: In D:OS 2 - each player creates one character at startup and when you meet, you can decide to join the party. If you started playing in single player, then other players can take over your companions.

That's new! That was something that was up in the air before, nice that they made it customizable for more than one player.

Q: Would you plan a remake of the first games (Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity) using the engine of D:OS / D:OS2 ?
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A: I thought about that but in the end decided we're better off doing new things. Life is too short as is.

Sadness.

Q: One of my main gripes with the D:OS was with the random loot generation. I'm not totally against random loot, but in my opinion it doesn't work well unless your really do it all the way…for instance Diablo/Titan Quest/etc. There just wasn't enough modifiers, unique attributes, and while initially serviceable as I played the loot became less and less exciting.

Are you guys doing anything to address this? Personally I would rather see a system tailored towards more hand crafted/unique items since I think it fits the turn-based/party/story nature of the game.
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A: Personally I'm a fan of a mixed system & that's always been the intention but time/lack of people dedicated typically foiled that plan. Hopefully this time it'll work out

One of the advantages of working on top of the D:OS EE framework btw means that we already have a wide selection of modifiers to work from and we'll be adding a lot of them, meaning a wider range of items.

Vague answer. Probably won't be much different from D:OS 1.

Q: One question for Original Sin 2: What mechanic will replace the paper&stone&scissors game if me and the others have an argument about a decision?
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A: We have a new system in place that lets each party member express his thoughts. The initiator then gets a chance to change his mind, knowing full well that he may upset the others. This affects the relationship and can lead to conflict (if party member express that something is really important to them)

Nothing specific on what this "conflict" might entail.

Q: Is the rivalry-love stretch goal gonna be a 'dynamic' system like the Rock Paper Scissor responses system of the first game or is it gonna be actual narrative content (ie, actual side-stories, so to call them)? The description in the KS is really vague.
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A: It will be both! Firstly, there will be actual narrative content with each companion. Then, within the narrative, the player must make dynamic choices that will determine the next stage of that relationship. If we hit the stretch goal, we will provide more detail in an update. I should also add that we are still prototyping things on this front, so nothing is set in stone at this stage..

Sounds good. And also:

Q: My question here is, if lets say me and [my companion] were to think completely opposite of a certain quest in 2, could the fallout be bigger than just an argument and no longer working together? If they do decide to do that, would we have to be in the same zone, or could we go anywhere independently? Could it result in killing each other? If so, would they become undead? Have to reload? Etc.

Also, how is the romance option for npc's panning out. Not going to lie, that part of, for example, in Bioware games, was one of my favorite parts. So I was just curious how in depth it could go. If we get that stretch goal of course.
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A: We are planning a huge range of options within relationships - from love to hate and everything in between! So, indeed, you could stop working together, you could become bitter enemies, you could kill him (and/or resurrect him).

We were actually working on varieties of relationship charts today - figuring out exactly how different characters could relate to each other and the various options for them. So, we are considering romance to be one part of a WIDE relationship world, one that takes into account many variables as you interact with other player characters and/or NPCs. I can't say too much more on the details at the moment, but hopefully we'll make the stretch goal and be able to do a whole update on relationships