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Divinity: Original Sin II - All News

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Sunday - September 19, 2021

Divinity: Original Sin II - Review by Ye Old Entertainment

by Redglyph, 14:36

Ye Old Entertainment reviews Divinity: Original Sin 2 in his series "Our Road to Baldur's Gate 3".

Divinity Original Sin 2 review: An RPG by the creators of Baldur's Gate 3. Worth playing in 2021?

Welcome to our Divinity Original Sin II Review, a game by the creators of Baldur's Gate III: Larian Studios. Divinity Original Sin 2 builds and overall gameplay revolutionized the world of RPGs. It's not perfect though and CRPG fans have some conflicting opinions, but herein lies ours.

Disclaimer: This is a computer RPG review, it's not meant to comment on Divinity Original Sin 2 builds or serve as guide, nor are the videos on these series meant to serve as comment on the the D&D ruleset or on how well the game implemented it in its mechanics. This review is for a non RPG specialized gamer who got hyped about Baldur's Gate III after watching the trailers and footage of BG3, someone who has maybe played Larian Studio's Divinity Original Sin II and wants more.

[...]

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Monday - July 23, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - The Zelda of Roleplaying Games

by Myrthos, 12:10

Techquila is stating that Divinity: Original Sin II is to Western RPGs what Zelda is to JRPGs and then describes why the author feels it is one of the best RPGs.

The Legend of Zelda is often hailed as one of the best Japanese games (if not the best game) of this generation. While it may be one of the finest  Eastern adventure games, I don’t quite believe that there aren’t any Western RPGs out there that don’t have anything better to offer. In my opinion, one such game is Larian studios’ Divinity Original Sin II.

JRPGs have a niche but vocal audience, many of whom tend to be reviewers and critics. The reason for the relatively smaller fan-base of JRPGs can be attributed to multiple reasons. Firstly, being limited to only one or two consoles (for Zelda that would be the Nintendos). Secondly, having childish, cliched settings and lastly, the absence of a localized English version for some.

Gamers tend to have varied tastes which makes it even harder to rate games. Most RPG fans prefer games with darker themes like Dragon Age and The Witcher 3, while the rest opt for JRPGs having colorful visuals and light-hearted stories. In this post, seeing as it’s coming to current-gen consoles in the coming days, I would like to discuss Divinity Original Sin II and why it’s one of the best RPGs ever.

Sunday - July 22, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - Interview with Michael Douse

by Silver, 10:20

Metro interviewed Larian's director of publishing Michael Douse about Divinity: Original Sin II and the marketing angle is explored also.

GC: It is always about the marketing. I’m a big fan of turn-based strategy games, especially XCOM – which your combat has something in common with, and I foolishly imagined it was going to be a big mainstream hit when they got it working so well on consoles. But of course it was a mild hit at best. But it seems with your games they should be much more successful than they are too, much better known…

MD: We’ve done a lot of data crunching, so we know what our market cap is on each console and PC. I think we’re about halfway through our market cap on PC, we can get another one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half million players I think on PC. But it’s true. And these kind of challenges, on how to communicate the game on many, many different levels, and dealing with the fact that people think it’s a CRPG when it’s really a co-op board game. All of these kind of things are a challenge.

And we’re growing, we’re successful, we’re not desperate. So working these things out with this kind of safe level of iteration, and growing as a publishing team and growing as a developer, it’s really a privileged place to be in. Because we’re not scrambling, we’re just listening and we’re watching and sort of growing. So I completely agree.

An interesting point about XCOM compared to CRPGs is we actually have more people who are XCOM players than we do that are Pillars Of Eternity players. So those parallels are really there, the data shows us that those parallels are there. But the most difficult thing, and I’ll tell you this, is trying to explain to publishing people why the game is such a success. It’s not the players.

The players, if you put it in their hands they have a great time, but people who look at this and go, ‘Well, why is this a success?’ They can’t work it out, and they don’t realise that it’s closer to a game like XCOM than it is Pillars and all of these kinds of things. So these are the greatest challenges. It’s more on the business side than it is on the community side.

The community really have our back. It’s really, really fun to work with everyone on that.

[...]

Wednesday - July 18, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - Sir Lora & Quercus Video

by Silver, 09:29

A new video that introduces Sir Lora and Quercus which will feature in Divinity: Original Sin II: Definitive Edition.

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Meet Sir Lora, a squirrel fleeing the Knights of Drey - an apocalyptic order of furry knights who believe in the coming of the Great Acorn. He’ll join you in Fort Joy (along with Quercus - his undead cat mount) and follow you through your adventure, sharing his wit, wisdom, apocalyptic warnings, and even some skill-crafting secrets.

Monday - July 09, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - Interview: Definitive Edition

by Silver, 14:16

RPGsite interviewed Michael Douse about Divinity: Original Sin II: Definitive Edition.

RPG Site: One of my few personal hangups was that I felt that game, especially later on, had so many overlapping spell effects and battlefields would end up 'swampy' with fields and fire and smoke here and ice there. Is this something that's been addressed at all?

Michael Douse: We didn't specifically target that issue, but we did go through every encounter in the game to try to rebalance the fights based on how players actually played each of the game's battles. We have a 'heat map' of sorts that shows us how players ended up playing the maps, and we made tweaks to every encounter to adjust for this instead of the assumptions we made about how the battles would be played.

RPG Site: Original Sin I eventually saw the inclusion of new party members and the like, but in II, the party works a little bit differently. Will the Definitive Edition have any sort of content-like additions in a similar manner?

Michael Douse: Not characters, but the major changes are things like Arx (a location found late in the game) which has been completely remade. We've also recorded 40,000 words of new story moments for different arcs late in the game. For instance, we didn't add new characters, but existing characters like Beast will have new story arcs, and we also have a brand new Epilogue to help wrap up everything at the end of the game.

[...]

Thursday - June 21, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - About the Definitive Edition

by Myrthos, 17:23

Larian Studios brings us more news about the Definitive Edition of Divinity: Original Sin II, some of which is provided by means of a video.

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When we decided to bring Divinity: Original Sin 2 to console, we knew we didn't want to just repackage the same game and put it on a store shelf. We wanted to take the opportunity to improve it and craft an even better experience than what we delivered in 2017. Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition, available in August will come with 1000s of changes that take into account all the feedback we've received. Check out our latest Kickstarter update to see Swen quiz the team about what some of these changes are.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition will be completely free to everyone who owns Original Sin 2! Without the support of everyone who bought the game already, and without all the feedback we’ve received from you, we couldn’t have made this new and improved edition of Divinity: Original Sin 2. As a little "thank you" to you all, we’re ensuring you'll get to enjoy all of the improvements without spending a cent more! Because we know some of our will want to still play the original version, both versions will remain available on PC and you'll be able to select which one you want to play. 

What follows in the update is an incomplete overview of changes, including this one about the changes made for console support.

We didn't make any significant graphical, UI, gameplay or story changes for the PS4 or Xbox One but the one thing we didn't manage to port to console is the Game Master mode. This will come as a disappointment to some of you but will probably be no surprise to those who've played with it. The number of menus present in Game Master mode and the speed with which a GM needs to be react to the antics of a party made it impossible to make a port that would be fun to play with. All other online modes are available however and playing in split-screen with two controllers is a blast! We've also included a new hot-seat arena mode which is loads of fun!

Tuesday - June 12, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - E3 Trailer

by Silver, 13:36

Divinity: Original Sin II Definitive Edition will launch for Xbox One and Playstation 4 August 31st.

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Experience one of the most immersive RPGs of all time when Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition arrives on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on August 31st, 2018!

Monday - May 14, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - Definitive Edition

by Hiddenx, 20:56

The Definitive Edition of Divinity: Original Sin II for consoles will enhance the PC version as well:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 Spotlight | Meet Feedback Billy

Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition is coming to Xbox Game Preview May 16. Meet Feedback Billy, our way of gathering feedback about your experience, that will help us tune the console experience for release in August on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Thousands of tweaks and changes are coming in the Definitive Edition, and those changes will also be available to PC players!

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Thanks Xian!

Tuesday - April 10, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - Console and Other Stuff

by Myrthos, 22:40

We already knew that a console version of Divinity: Original Sin 2 will be coming to us, so that is not the actual news in this posting, but we can't miss the opportunity of Swen telling us this. Next to that this update and video also shows what they are plannig to change to the journal and inventory. And there is news about PAX and the vinyl soundtrack, we already knew about, so I don't know if it counts as news.

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And for completness, this is the official announcement trailer.

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And if you don't want to watch the videos, here is some text:

Journal

Your feedback has always been invaluable to us, and we’re still listening! Its safe to say that your number one request in Divinity: Original Sin 2 was for a better journal, so we’ve been hard at work on just that. Our new and improved journal still won't hold you by the hand, but it will be a more direct and useful tool.  

  • We’ve shortened the text to make it clear what you are supposed to do.  
  • We’ve split multiple paths within the same quest into subdivisions.  
  • When the journal gives you map markers, you can now jump straight from that journal entry to the specific marker on the map screen.  

Inventory

The second biggest request we’ve received is for better inventory management. While we began by looking for ways to tweak the system, we ultimately decided the best idea was to redo it from the ground up. 

You’ll soon be able to see your whole party's inventory at-a-glance, and we’ve also added multi-selecting. This will make it easier to bulk-select items to add to your wares or hand over to your teammates.

Friday - April 06, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - PS4 & Xbox One this August

by Silver, 13:29

@Gamerant Divinity: Original Sin II will be getting a console release for Playstation 4 and Xbox One this August.

Divinity Original Sin 2, which has received just as much critical acclaim as its predecessor, originally released on the PC in September of last year. At the time, there was no confirmation on a console release, though many assumed it may get it, as the first game was ported over to consoles. A trailer released today confirmed it will be heading to PS4 and Xbox One this August.

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[...]

Monday - March 26, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - Soundtrack on Vinyl

by Myrthos, 16:00

The soundtrack of Divinity: Original Sin 2 is now available in vinyl and comes with a discount on the game, in case you did not have that one yet. If you visit Pax East, you can also score one there and get it signed as well.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 vinyl soundtrack to release in cooperation with Black Screen Records. Available at PAX East and online.

To celebrate the launch of the soundtrack, Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition players will receive a 25% discount coupon for Divinity: Original Sin 2 on Steam

GHENT, Belgium - Larian Studios and German music distributor Black Screen Records have worked in cooperation to produce three versions of the soundtrack to Divinity: Original Sin 2, composed by Borislav Slavov, on a limited pressing.​

Each version is pressed on high-quality 180-gram vinyl, produced in Germany by Optimal Media, and mastered for the format by Christian Bethge at RAMA Tonstudio. 

Music aficionados will enjoy three versions:
  • Remastered Original Soundtrack Audiophile Edition 180g - a traditional black vinyl for people who still believe color kills sound quality.
  • Remastered Original Soundtrack Ltd. Edition 180g Gold Vinyl - a non-traditional gold vinyl for people who believe everything is better in gold.
  • Remastered Original Soundtrack Ltd. Edition Red/Black Starburst Vinyl - a demon-enriched nietzschean foray into madness and chaos.   
Each vinyl comes with a free download code for the full digital album. 
Also included is a piano score of the Main Theme, for anyone itching to get their inner-Bard on.

Each version will be available in April, with pre-orders open on the Black Screen Records website. Anyone lucky enough to be attending PAX East in Boston will be able to purchase the record directly from Larian Studios themselves, who will be happy to sign as many of them as they can, along with other merchandise available at the show.

Wednesday - March 07, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - Patch 3.0.180.158 is live!

by Silver, 20:10

A new patch for Divinity: Original Sin II adds some improvments and fixes many bugs.

Hi everyone,

We've just released a new patch for you.

With this patch we have delivered some minor tweaks and changes to the game. We've added localization modding support, something a lot of you have asked for. Also, certain characters that were overreacting before, will give you fair warning when reacting to criminal behaviour.

Last but not least, we have added the Game Master Journal feature that will allow the GM to plan a campaign with notes and descriptions of events (visible only to the GM).

For more details about what's in the patch, please check out the patch notes below, and enjoy the game!

    Changes and improvements
  • Crippling blow no longer hits allies
  • Can now force formation when entering combat (formation UI)
  • Listening in on another player's dialogue now autoscrolls
  • Made puzzle maze portals interactable so that you can click both them and the gargoyle
  • Improved physics on pipes and cogs in imp level in COS
  • Improved a JumpToTurn story call so it doesn't cause loss of turns in combat
  • Improved sound fx on sand storm
  • Teleporting party characters outside of combat unchains them
  • Certain characters that used to overreact to stealing will now first warn you
  • Without pet pal, animals now animate and play sound fx when talked to
  • When a character triggers a "stop stealing" dialog, another character can no longer rob the NPC blind without a reaction
  • Followers and summons can now use the toggle actions button to perform certain actions

[...]

          UI Fixes
  • Fixed the memorised skills interface not updating immediately upon learning new skills
  • Fixed an issue related to skills not showing up on the second skillbar depending the used resolution
  • Fixed items being added to the skillbar twice when moving them between containers inside the inventory
  • Fixed error messages regarding innate skills when pressing the Reset All button in the skills screen
  • Fixed overlapping text in the Runes screen for certain items
  • Fixed selection of items that have Rune slots when using a controller
  • Fixed being able to see items from several players in the Crafting panel under certain conditions
  • Fixed an issue related to unequipping two-handed weapons via context menu when using a controller. You can now immediately equip other weapons after doing this
  • Added player feedback when trying to start an arena game with only one active team
  • The skill bar lock is automatically unlocked when opening the skills panel
  • Fixed summons being able to interact with crafting screen, allowing them to use, equip or pickup items
  • Fixed sorting functionality in pickpocket interface when using a controller
  • Fixed being able to drag other player's portraits around
  • Fixed dialog options overlapping in some cases
  • Fixed missing recipes after leaving party

Divinity: Original Sin II - RPG Codex Review

by Silver, 02:55

The RPG Codex have reviewed Divinity: Original Sin II.

The man with very few cheeses

The character system in DOS1 was one of the more often criticised parts of the game. It had clear problems when it came to the relative usefulness of various statistics, and it just wasn't very interesting or deep. Let us see how DOS2 compares.

Character creation is very basic. You get to create a single character (or a party up to 4 if you're playing in coop with other folks), assign a bunch of stats, pick a talent and three starting skills. Selecting your background is probably the biggest choice, because there's a total of 14 to choose from. 4 of them are basic races (human, dwarf, elf, lizardman), then there are 4 "undead" versions of the basic ones, and finally there are 6 pre-made "origin" characters, with their own additional in-game stories and quirks. Each background also varies in terms of two unique racial abilities. The last thing to choose are your two character "tags" - such as "noble", "scholar", "soldier", etc. - that you can use to further flesh out your protagonist. The tags are primarily used to unlock new dialogue options, but they have a few other uses as well. Tags for origin backgrounds are pre-set and can't be changed.

A word on origin characters - their implementation is a neat idea. Being able to adjust their stats at the start while keeping the potential quest and story benefits given by their pre-written backgrounds is the best of both worlds. It encourages you to dive in for the additional content they may bring without scaring you away with badly-made or unappealing stat profiles. Also, even though you only create one character (if playing solo), you will still be able to add three more to your party, and the odds of them being origin characters are high, since you get them before you are able to create new custom ones. Their builds can be tweaked to your liking even at the point when they are recruited, which lets you adjust your party profile as you see fit, without making story-related concessions.

This is roughly where the positives end when it comes to the character system.

Sadly, Larian's response to criticism regarding character building was making the system even more shallow and uninteresting than it was in the first game. Almost everything in DOS2, every attribute and ability, has been degraded to 5% damage bonuses and hardly anything else.

To start with attributes - there are six of them: Strength, Finesse, Intelligence, Constitution, Memory and Wits. Strength gives +5% melee damage per point and increases weight carrying capacity. Finesse gives +5% ranged damage per point. Intelligence gives +5% magic damage per point. Constitution grants +7% max health per point! How amazing. Memory at least is something different, because it increases your skill memorisation cap - the higher your Memory, the more skills you will be able to use at once without swapping them out of combat. Last we have Wits, which increases crit chance by 1% and initiative by 1 per point. Looks fairly important, but you have no idea how wrong you are, though I will come back to this in the combat chapter.

And that's it. You might be asking yourself, "hey, where's my chance to evade hits? Movement range? Action points? Damage reduction? Saving throws? Hello?" The answer is "just forget them", because they either do not exist at all, or are attached to specific "class" abilities (like Scoundrel) and increase by 1% per point.

[...]

 

Tuesday - February 13, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - Designing Drama

by Silver, 14:19

Gamasutra talked to the Systems Designer behind Divinity: Original Sin II's combat system.

The trouble with armor

DOS2’s combat design is a close evolution from 2014’s Divinity: Original Sin, but Larian Studios knew the original had some issues. The team liked the depth of its combat, but felt that it tipped the balance too far towards chaos. The problem was with its armor system.

Armor had the chance of blocking status effects, meaning that if you planned to knock a bunch of enemies out with a stun attack, you didn’t know for sure it’d work in every case. “The good part about this was that every encounter felt different, so when you started a fight it felt fresh. Things went wrong and right in very different ways,” says Pechenin. “But at the same time it really prevented long-term planning, because you didn’t know how many people you’d stun, so you couldn’t predict what you’d do next turn, and because of this you just wouldn’t think about the next turn.”

So one of the big changes to DOS2’s combat design was to its armor system. Rather than absorbing a proportion of incoming damage, armor completely negates it. There are two armor types: physical and magic, which negates any magical attack, including negative status effects. But as these values take damage they’re whittled down, and once gone, the character is left open to losing HP and vulnerable to status effects.

So far, so deterministic, but Larian wanted attacks to retain a ‘spicy’ feeling. The solution was a small variability in incoming damage which may entirely knock armor out, or it may not. “So there’s still some RNG there and you don’t know exactly how things will turn out, but you have a high chance that things will go as you want them to,” says Pechenin. “But at other times the game will throw a curve ball at you and make you scramble to find a new plan.”

[...]

Monday - February 12, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - Review @ GiN

by Hiddenx, 20:15

GiN has reviewed Divinity: Original Sin II:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is Best PC RPG in Years

I realize that I am really late with this review, given that Larian Studios released Divinity: Original Sin 2 in late September. I have an excuse, though it’s a poor one. I started with this series playing the original Divinity title, and was very underwhelmed. With that one, the first town was extremely confusing as to which direction you were supposed to travel, with certain death and overpowered monsters in every other direction. Plus, the characters were flat, and the story was forgettable. So when I started playing Obsidian Entertainment’s Pillars of Eternity, it was so good that I forgot to go back and give Original Sin 2 a try.

Only, here is the thing, as good as Pillars of Eternity is, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is so much better. In fact, having dived deeply into the main campaign, I can confidently say that I know how I’m voting for RPG game of the year. Divinity: Original Sin 2 captures the magic of PC RPG gaming in a fantastic way. The world is gorgeous. The combat is balanced and extremely tactical. And the storyline is interesting, with engaging main characters and even a great supporting cast.

[...]

Score: 5/5

Thursday - February 01, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - Patch v3.0.168.526

by Silver, 21:16

Divinity: Original Sin II has received a large patch that makes over 500 changes and improvements.

Hi everyone,

We've just released a new patch, and it's a big one!

How big? Well, patch 3.0.168.526 is bursting at the seams with over 500 changes and improvements, including massive modifications to skill balancing, on-demand teleportation to waypoints on the map, a new screenshot-friendly mode, and fixes for several achievements.

So check out the patch notes, check out the game, and let us know what you think!

Changes and improvements

  • Added fast waypoint travel via the main map. Clicking waypoints now lets you travel to that location directly
  • Added map markers for sub-region entrances and exits
  • Added a "Toggle Screenshot Mode" button to hide the UI (default: F10)
  • Added range value to ranged skill and ranged skill book tooltips
  • Added sorting to the trade window
  • Added "Sell all wares" option to the controller trade window
  • Added highlighting of new recipes to the crafting window
  • Improved selection of NPCs that have items right behind them. This should prevent accidentally triggering theft behavior
  • GM mode: GM can now set XP gained from monsters
  • Updated and fixed several journal entries

[...]

Wednesday - January 31, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - Divinity: Into The Abyss

by Silver, 20:31

@DSOGaming A new mod has been announced by Abyss Team for Divinity: Original Sin II called Divinity: Into The Abyss. This mod is based upon the events of the main game and may contain spoilers.

The Abyss Team has just detailed a new ambitious mod for Divinity: Original Sin 2, called Divinity: Into The Abyss. Divinity: Into The Abyss is a new campaign that will take the player to a whole new land, add some new systems to the game, improved and customized AI and above all a new R.T.S.(Real Time Strategy) mode where the player gets to create a faction and lead it across the new and some old maps.

[...]

Sunday - January 14, 2018

Divinity: Original Sin II - Some Mods

by Hiddenx, 18:24

PC Gamer made a list of Divinity: Original Sin II mods:

The best Divinity: Original Sin 2 mods

The modding community has just gotten started, but there are already some useful tweaks and add-ons.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an exceptional RPG, but that doesn’t mean mods can’t make it even better. With its robust editing tools and intuitive Game Master mode, expect to see lots of tweaks, new features and entire campaigns in the  future. We’ll be updating this list over time, but we’ve already found plenty of helpful mods. Here are the best Divinity: Original Sin 2 mods so far.

  • Free pet pal
  • Expanded party size
  • Infinite spirit vision
  • Origin and racial skill books
  • Artificer and Bard skills
  • Tempest skills
  • Chronicles of Divinity map collection
  • Void Knight
  • Crafting overhaul

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Wednesday - December 27, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Modding Tutorial

by Silver, 22:07

A new tutorial on exporting and importing models for Divinity Original Sin II.

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- Maya exporter setup: https://docs.larian.game/Setup:_Maya_...
- Maya exporter wiki: https://docs.larian.game/Modding:_May...
- Character Modeling explanation/examples: https://docs.larian.game/My_first:_Ch...
- Item Modeling explanation/examples: https://docs.larian.game/My_first:_Item
- Larian Forums: The Modding Dungeon: http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.p...

Thursday - December 14, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Game of the Year 2017 @ PC Gamer

by Hiddenx, 20:24

Divinity: Original Sin II is PC Gamer's Game of the Year 2017:

Game of the Year 2017: Divinity: Original Sin 2

Larian's massive, liberating RPG is a gift to fans of the genre.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is PC Gamer's overall Game of the Year for 2017, as voted for by our global editorial team. The following commentary comes from the game's biggest supporters on staff. Look out for the rest of our awards and staff personal picks at our GOTY hub as we head towards the end of December.

Phil Savage: Was there ever any doubt? Divinity: Original Sin 2 was the obvious Game of the Year choice. It's a massive, sprawling RPG for one thing. But more than that, it embraces the chaotic, player-driven nature of all of PC Gamer's GOTY picks for the last few years. Original Sin 2's element-focused combat system is a revelation, giving you scope for wildly inventive, unpredictable solutions. Its fights are a test of wit, and often result in bewildering chain reactions. Whether you're electrifying someone's blood, or combining spells to kill a boss by doing an absurd amount of damage to yourself, experimentation is not only allowed, but rewarded.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Tuesday - December 05, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Top of the Mods!

by Silver, 21:30

The latest update for Divinity: Original Sin II focuses on the newest patch and other news.

Welcome to Kickstarter Update #45!  

Welcome to our very first post-release Kickstarter Update! What a crazy ride it has been. We just hit the million units sold milestone last week, and we simply could not have done that without this awesome community.  

We were floored by the response to Divinity: Original Sin 2. Watching everyone play, discover our little surprises and share their feedback over the past three weeks has been an experience like no other.  

Thank you so much to everyone who played our game, to everyone who streamed the game and to everyone who took the time to review the game. And, of course, the biggest thank you of all to you, our backers!  

Here are some of the games stats since we released DOS2:  

  • 93% rating on Metacritic  
  • 94% User Rating on Steam 
  • 4.5 out of 5 on GOG 
  • At one point 92,000 people were playing concurrently (RIP Servers!) 
  • Average play time: 55.5 hours 
  • Median play time: 35.5 hours 
  • Review scores such as a 10/10 from GameSpot, 9.75/10 from Game Informer and 9.6/10 from IGN 

But we’re not finished yet! We have a Patch and other news to share. Here’s Swen to tell you all about it:

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Vote for Us! 

We are nominated for Best RPG in The Game Awards! We’re truly honored by this nomination, and darn it: we want to win!!! So please consider voting for us, either through the official The Game Awards site or by Googling “The Game Awards”. This second method is great if you don’t have a Facebook account. You can vote daily until Wednesday, December 6th!

Patch 5 is Ready to Go!  

On the fifth day of Christmas, Larian Studios gave to thee: Patch number five… whoopee? Sorry, that was harder to rhyme than we anticipated.  

We’ve been hard at work creating this latest DOS2 patch which includes a host of new usability features as well as fixes for some of the rarer bugs. For example, if you are playing with a controller, you now have an easier time selecting doors. If you are playing Game Master Mode, characters can be re-rolled. Lucky Charm now works no matter which party member checks the barrel. And much more!  

Check the Patch Notes here for all the delicious details this latest patch brings!

It’s Modding Time!  

One of our favorite joys about being a game developer is seeing the creativity of our players. We released our first Modding Tutorial Video to help you create your own mods to DOS2!  

We currently have close to 900 unique mods, including class mods, GMM campaigns and story campaigns.  

A quick list of some of our favorites:  

  • Change party size - Play with all of the companions at once. Swen hates it! 
  • Crafting overhaul - Everything in Rivellon now has a recipe! 
  • Class mods - Play as a Void Knight, Dragon Knight, Druid, Tempest or Bard Class.
  • Divinity Ball - We’re now a sports game! 
  • Arena Challenges - A new story campaign for those looking for more challenges. 
  • Chronicles of Divinity - A big campaign that looks to add content within the story and post story of DOS2. In the meantime, the creator is currently releasing the maps he creates as GMM maps! 
  • Noisy Crypt - Fun story campaign created by Windemere and Nimue 
  • An Ultima Style Mod - Includes character creation in which you must talk to a gypsy to create your character

[...]

Tuesday - November 28, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - One Million Copies sold

by Hiddenx, 20:22

One million copies of Divinity: Original Sin II have been sold - Congratulations!

ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY SELL A MILLION COPIES...

... at least, not without the best fans in the world! In just a couple of months we've roared past this huge landmark, and it's all down to you!

Thursday - November 09, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Review @ PC PowerPlay

by Hiddenx, 20:48

PC PowerPlay reviewed Divinity: Original Sin II:

Review: Divinity: Original Sin 2

Yet another game of the year contender arrives!

WILDGOOSE: I took your advice, Wilks. When I levelled up I took the Pet Pal talent. You said it would let me speak to animals and I’d reveal a bunch of new quests I couldn’t otherwise access. I knew I’d regret this choice as soon as I met the baby bear. I’d just met its mother moments earlier, you see, and I knew I’d have to tell its child what had happened. Tears welled in the baby bear’s eyes. It sobbed. I didn’t kill the mother - it was those cruel Magisters, and I made them pay, believe me - but I had now made a baby bear cry. And it’s all your fault.

WILKS: I couldn’t be the only miserable one. For every crying bear though, there’s a very good dog, an overly officious fire slug, a crab that thinks he’s the greatest sourcerer (the whole kludging of source into words does grate a bit) in the land or a rat that wants you to come back and visit often so you can tell it the stories of your adventures and it can co-opt them as its own stories. It’s these little moments that make Original Sin 2 for me. The overall plot is a bit naff but the moment to moment events and the characters you interact or travel with make it constantly engrossing and often very funny.

[...]

Verdict:

Old-school charm with modern mechanics makes for one of the best RPG experiences in ages.

Score: 10/10

Thursday - October 26, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Patch v3.0.150.188

by Hiddenx, 20:32

Larian fixed a lot of bugs and made some enhancements for Divinity: Original Sin II:

Patch Notes v3.0.150.188 - The demon's in the details...

Hi everybody!

Our latest update is filled to the brim with updates and fixes reported to us by the community. We want to stress how much we appreciate your feedback. We are doing our best to get as many fixes out you as we possibly can.

We’ve updated the story to include Tarquin’s questline update for existing savegames, and we’ve added many journal updates for the more creative solutions some of you have found. It never ceases to amaze us what some of you can accomplish with system mechanics and a dash of creativity.

Next to a long list of bug fixes, several issues that you reported via our support channels and feedback tool have been fixed.

We’ve also included updates to gameplay, balancing, modding, GM mode, and the Editor (your handy dandy modding tool).

Keep reading for a full list of changes to the game, and follow this link[larian.com] to see what’s new in the Editor.

Some of the highlights for this patch include:

  • A “Pick up and send to wares” and “Steal and add to wares” option in the context menu of world items.
  • Several journal entries have been made clearer to the player when the quest is automatically ended for whatever reason.
  • Added several items and related journal updates to improve links between certain NPCs and story lines.
  • A bunch of new effects to ensure certain important dialog options stand out more.
  • You can now examine an enemy, even when it’s not your turn!
  • Multi-region levels now supported in the GM mode.

The Larian Team

[...]

Monday - October 23, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Compared with Ultima 7

by Hiddenx, 19:54

Richard Cobbett compares Divinity Original Sin 2 with Ultima 7 on PC Gamer:

RPGs may never top Ultima 7, but Divinity: Original Sin 2 comes close

Ultima 7 bears a heavy crown as the king of computer RPGs. Original Sin 2 proves Larian may have what it takes to usurp the throne.

It’s no secret that from the start, the Divinity series has had its sights set on respectfully dethroning Ultima 7. "Everything out there after Ultima 7 never did it as good as Ultima 7," Larian founder Swen Vincke once said. It's for RPGs what The Secret Of Monkey Island is to adventures, what Doom is to shooters, and what Shakespeare is to English literature, and not just because it's the last time a game was able to get away with 'thou', 'doth' and the rest of ye olde English without the world justifiably taking yonder piss with a catheter.

It hasn't been an easy road. The first Divinity game suffered from trying to do Ultima 7 without the lessons of first making Ultima 1-6. The passion was there, but the time wasn't right. Similarly, later games soon set a trend of having phenomenal ideas—psychic powers, turning into a dragon, being soul-bonded with a death knight and so on—but without the budget or RPG foundations to really make them sing.
[...]

Tuesday - October 10, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Post Release Interview

by Silver, 01:30

PCGamer interview Swen Vincke on the future of Divinity: Original Sin 2.

I met the developer's founder Swen Vincke at this year's Gamescom and, with just two weeks to go before launch, he seemed calm. I caught up with him again last week, three weeks following Divinity: Original Sin 2's launch, to see how he feels the game is doing, what he wants from its flourishing mod scene, and what it's got planned into the future.
Swen Vincke

Swen Vincke is the founder of Larian Studios, whose back catalogue includes the likes of Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity, Divinity 2: Ego Draconis, Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga, and Divinity: Dragon Commander. We scored Divinity: Original Sin a healthy 87 back in 2014, and its follow-up Divinty: Original Sin 2 92 last month.

PC Gamer: How are things at Larian Studios at the moment?

Swen Vincke: Quiet. Most people are on their holidays and [patch 3] is a big one. We're start working on patch four next and slowly people will start returning from their holidays and we're gearing up for our next things.

I presume these were well-deserved holidays.

Absolutely. They gave their everything to make the game as good as they could.

When we met at Gamescom you seemed pretty chilled out for someone who was on the cusp of releasing a game. Were you as calm inside as you appeared outside?

[Laughs] Not really. I actually wasn't planning on being at Gamescom and then a couple of things happened that got me to be there. And then I was there for a day and a half. The madness was at its peak at this point and at that particular time we were focused on bug fixing. Given how large the game is we were trying to get as many players through it as possible.

According to SteamSpy, you sold somewhere in the region of 700,000 sales in less than three weeks.

I think we're over 700,000 now.

That's not bad going.

No, it's not. We could definitely do worse. I mean, we had the early access players before that too. Lifetime total units: 748,000 on Steam, and then you have to add the pre-release ones on there. Wow, that's higher than I thought, that's really good.

[...]

Monday - October 09, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Review @ GameBanshee

by Hiddenx, 21:21

GameBanshee has reviewed Divinity: Original Sin II:

Divinity: Original Sin II Review

Introduction
Divinity is a long-running series of video games created by Belgian developer Larian Studios that began in 2002 with the original Divine Divinity. Over the years, it went through multiple changes and even switched genres a couple of times, until it finally grew its beard, so to speak, in Divinity: Original Sin. With the debut of Original Sin, the series went squarely down the turn-based RPG path, including a focus on cooperation and a high degree of freedom. And now, after a successful Kickstarter campaign and a year in Early Access, the latest chapter in the long-running series, Divinity: Original Sin II, has officially been released.

[...]

Conclusion
They said it couldn't be done. They said it was just nostalgia talking. They said we were just easily impressionable kids and/or grognards, and that was why we enjoyed those old RPGs so much. And before Divinity: Original Sin II, there was some truth to these faceless nay-saying claims. Even when I enjoyed RPGs in recent years, I always had to admit that they could never quite reach that bar set by the games that came out 15-20 years ago. But not anymore.

Original Sin II is not a perfect game, not by a long shot. But even with those imperfections, it's still a shining example of what a modern RPG should be.

Yes, there are some bugs, some quests are janky and rough around the edges, and some of the mechanics make little sense. But a classic like Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura has all those things, too. And you know what? None of that has stopped Arcanum from becoming one of my favorite games of all time, and as a result, I can't help but proclaim Larian Studios' Divinity: Original Sin II one of the finest RPGs of all time, as well.

As I write this, I'm thinking of starting a new play-through, co-op perhaps, seeing what else the game has to offer, trying new things, and once again immersing myself in the magical world of Rivellon. And that, in my mind, is the mark of a great RPG.

Friday - October 06, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Patch 3 Released

by Silver, 14:41

Divinity: Original Sin 2 has just received a rather large patch. Patch notes may contain spoilers.

Patch 3 is live! And it's a huge one!

Like said it´s big. But big is good because this update should address the most important issues you've been flagging. In addition to the obligatory bug fixes and balancing changes, this patch contains a number of content changes that should make your journal clearer and your journey through Arx smoother.

Check it out and remember to leave more feedback for us in the forums!

The Larian Team

[...]

Tuesday - October 03, 2017

RPGWatch Feature - Divinity: Original Sin II Review

by Myrthos, 14:54

While many of are still going through Divinity: Original Sin II the first time, Maylander played it twice already and penned down a review for us to share his opinions on the game.

The overall writing is excellent, and the companions are a very good example of that. Larian did something unique when writing companions: They essentially wrote six characters, each with their own personalities, their own quests and their own backgrounds, and then they let you play one of them, and recruit up to three out of five of the others. The origin stories that you can choose during character creation are actually one of the cast, and you get to step into his or her role, in addition to the role as the leader. You can also choose to customize a character, or recruit customized companions, but that means missing out on quite a lot of interesting dialogue and side quests.

The only problem with this approach is that the characters are so involved in what's going on that you could end up ruining a quest for one character by doing another quest for someone else, such as killing characters that one of the companions need to talk to. The only way to avoid this is to be careful whenever a quest leads to someone seemingly important dying, and to make progress on the companion quests as soon as possible.

Divinity: Original Sin II - Modding Tutorial Video

by Silver, 08:44

@DSOGaming Divinity: Original Sin 2 is beginning to develop a modding scene and now there is a video on how to mod the game.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 – New modding tutorial video shows how you can create your first level

Larian Studios has shared a new modding tutorial video in which the developers show how you can create your first level and place it into your GM campaign or onto Steam Workshop. As you may have guessed, Divinity: Original Sin 2 fully supports mods and according to the team, there are currently over 500 mods for it on Steam Workshop.

[...]

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Friday - September 29, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Review @ RPG Site

by Hiddenx, 12:05

RPG Site likes Divinity: Original Sin II, too:

Divinity: Original Sin II Review

When Divinity: Original Sin launched in 2014, it quickly became Larian's fastest selling and highest rated game in its long-running but understated Divinity series. With unique and detailed writing, a deep and engaging battle system, and tons of content, we eventually awarded it as our 2014 Overall Game of the Year. Since then, other isometric computer-style RPGs have arrived such as Pillars of Eternity and Torment: Tides of Numenara, though arguably none could reach the combined level of quality and charm of Original Sin's surprise success. With the game's sequel, Larian gets their own chance to unseat Original Sin, and they could not have succeeded more thoroughly. In a year packed with landmark RPGs, Divinity: Original Sin II is one that demands to be recognized as one of the best games in the entire genre.

[...]

Divinity: Original Sin II has such a wide scope and is such a dense, feature-rich game that it's easy to lose track of time and get completely immersed in its writing, characters, and raw inventiveness. There's a never-ending draw to see one more quest to completion, to try out one new ability or tactic in one more encounter, or to explore just one more location. Divinity: Original Sin II will relentlessly test your own creativity, demand your attention, prove your abilities, force you to question your own decisions, and overall keep giving reasons to continue playing and never lets go.

Score: 9/10

Divinity: Original Sin II - Best Mods

by Hiddenx, 11:47

PC Gamer checked out some mods for Divinity: Original Sin II:

The best Divinity: Original Sin 2 mods

The modding community has just gotten started, but there are already some useful tweaks and add-ons.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an exceptional RPG, but that doesn’t mean mods can’t make it even better. With its robust editing tools and intuitive Game Master mode, expect to see lots of tweaks, new features and entire campaigns in the near future. It’s still early days, and we’ll be updating this list over time, but we’ve already found plenty of helpful mods. Here are the best Divinity: Original Sin 2 mods so far.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Thursday - September 28, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Best Tabletop Game

by Hiddenx, 08:39

Henriquejr spotted an article about the Game Master mode of Divinity: Original Sin II:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is the best tabletop RPG that doesn’t require a table

The Game Master mode shouldn't be overlooked.

Tabletop roleplaying is one of my favourite things that I almost never get to do. I struggle to even find the time to play through a single-player RPG outside of work, so arranging an evening of dice rolling and goblin slaying with equally busy people can be a bit of a nightmare. Divinity: Original Sin 2, then, is a blessing. With its co-op and Game Master modes, it’s not just a convenient alternative to a tabletop RPG, it’s occasionally an improvement.

Co-op is straightforward, on the surface. You can play the entirety of the campaign with up to three other people and the rules are exactly the same as they are in single-player. But that means there are hardly any rules at all. Chaos and player agency reigns, with each individual choosing how to engage with the game. As I said in my review, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is the type of Game Master that lets you attempt almost anything.
[...]

Tuesday - September 26, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Review

by Hiddenx, 09:33

Capsule Computers reviewed Divinity: Original Sin II:

Divinity: Original Sin II Review

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Overview

After the success of Divinity: Original Sin, Larian Studios turned to Kickstarter once again to bring a sequel to their highly regarded RPG to life. After over a year in Steam Early Access, Divinity: Original Sin II is out on Windows PC. The game boasts an even larger world that before and new features like four player co-op, split-screen multiplayer, and a Game Master mode for unlimited adventures.

[...]

Overall

Divinity: Original Sin II deserves a game of the year win. After years reviewing video games, it is rare for me to find a game I want to keep playing the moment after I finish reviewing it due to the intense nature of playing games critically for extended periods of time. To my great surprise, I feel a real sadness as I type out these final words of my review, knowing that another game for review will soon come to take away me away from Divinity: Original Sin II. The game is so close to perfect with its excellent writing, solid gameplay, beautiful visuals, and amazing audio that I just want to keep playing. Divinity: Original Sin II is a shining example of why it’s great to be a PC gamer in the golden age of PlayStation and Xbox.

Score: 9.5/10

Divinity: Original Sin II - Build Guide

by Silver, 08:39

PCGamer provide a build guide to help you optimise your characters in Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Hydrosophist

Effect: Increases all water damage you deal, and any vitality healing or magic armor restoration you cause.
Class presets it's included in: Cleric, Enchanter
Primary attribute: Intelligence
Primary damage type: Magic (water), healing

Water, ice, and healing are the Hydrosophist's tools. Use it to remove status effects, heal vitality, restore magic armor, freeze enemies, and negate fire attacks. Later on, you'll unlock abilities like Global Cooling, which chills all enemies around you while dealing water damage.

Pairs well with: Aerotheurge, Huntsman, Warfare, Necromancer, Summoning

The obvious pairing, which is the default pairing in the Enchanter class, is Aerotheurge, which deals in air and lightning attacks. Focus on both, and your Rain spell can both freeze chilled characters or stun electrified characters. That obvious synergy aside, putting points into Hydrosophist will increase any vitality healing skill, including the Huntsman's First Aid, so consider dropping a point or two in if you're healing a lot (or using healing abilities to target the undead). And if you're going to be blasting enemies with ice from a distance, gaining the high ground damage bonus from Huntsman isn't a bad deal, either.

As I mention under Warfare, Hydrosophist can be used in a fighter-healer combo who strikes a balance between physical and magic damage. For a more complicated combo, if your Hydrosophist or another character in your party has one point in both Geomancer and Polymorph, they can learn Turn to Oil, which turns water surfaces into oil. Combined with Rain, you can have all the oil you want for your pyro character to play with. 

Alternatively, or at the same time, a point in Hydrosophist and Necromancer will let you learn Raining Blood—roughly the same as rain, but with blood, which Turn to Oil also affects. Blood can be absorbed for vitality with the Necromancer's Blood Sucker ability, too, and can be frozen. So if you want to make the ultimate healer, with magic and physical damage—this is the default Cleric class—consider a bit of a contradiction with Hydrosophist's gentle healing and Necromancer's gory life stealing.

[...]

Sunday - September 24, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - More Reviews

by Hiddenx, 19:11

COG and Windows Central have reviewed Divinity: Original Sin II:

COG:

With an absolutely gorgeous setting, deeply rich and complex character development, intelligent and tactical combat that is still user-friendly, and literally hundreds of ways to play through the game, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an absolute must-have for fans of fantasy RPGs. While there is much to see and do, this is a game about being methodical, taking it slow and exploring every possibility before moving forward. Anyone looking to get lost in a fantasy world of new and exciting mythos will find themselves quite happy here.

Score: 89/100

Windows Central:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 review: Conclusion

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a polished, well-designed RPG, and through its phenomenal mechanics, astounding art, sound design and fantastic writing, it is sure to revolutionize the modern RPG genre.

Score: 5/5 - Materpiece

Pros:

  • Tactical, strategic combat system.
  • Excellent diversity of gameplay through classes and species.
  • Improved multiplayer mode, as well as map editor.
  • Beautifully crafted dynamic world.
  • Stellar music and voice acting.

Cons:

  • Occasional frame rate hiccups.

Friday - September 22, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Review Roundup #3

by Hiddenx, 00:58

Divinity: Original Sin II gets more praise:

IGN:

With an amazing range of important choices, Divinity: Original Sin 2 will be remembered as one of the great RPGs.

Score 9.6 Amazing

Rock Paper Shotgun:

It’s no surprise that a construction as vast and complex as this would have some balance issues, and even though I found my interest in the story waning toward the end, I’m already planning to restart a game I’ve just spent sixty hours playing. Maybe next time I’ll actually feel like a hero come the final curtain. Whatever the case, the destination doesn’t really matter – it’s about the journey, and all those little stories that happen along the way. From its origin stories to its brief emergent narratives, few games let you take part in better tales than this one.

PC Gamer:

And it’s that intimidating, ambitious scope, that dedication to player freedom, that makes Divinity: Original Sin 2 so impressive. There isn’t another RPG that lets you do so much. Larian promised a lot, and it has absolutely followed through, crafting a singular game that juggles a bounty of complex, immersive systems, and never drops them.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a sprawling, inventive adventure and one of the best RPGs ever made.

Score: 92

Thursday - September 21, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Review @ GRS

by Hiddenx, 10:06

Gamingrespawn has reviewed Divinity: Original Sin II:

Divinity: Original Sin II Review

Divinity: Original Sin II is the sequel to Larian Studio’s 2014 RPG hit. Having been funded by an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign and reaching its initial goal in a matter of hours, the game has now emerged from Steam Early Access for a full release. Much like its predecessor, Original Sin II is a classic-style RPG featuring an isometric viewpoint, turn-based combat, and party quests. Can it deliver on the hype surrounding its development and build on the original game? Let’s take a look.

[...]

No doubt about it, this is a fantastic game. The established lore of the series has been built on to create a detailed, immersive world with a dynamic combat system and the possibility to approach the game in many different ways. This is all underpinned by fabulous voice acting, appealing characters, and, most importantly of all, a well-written and engaging story with plenty of replay value. Larian Studios have set an example on how to crowdfund a game and how to make the most of Early Access. With Divinity: Original Sin II, they have set a potentially genre-defining example of how to make an RPG.

Score: 9.5/10 - Amazing

Good

  • Immersive, well-written story
  • Engaging cast of characters
  • Impressive range of choice for quests and interactions
  • Fantastic voice acting
  • Great replay value

Bad

  • Need to rotate camera takes a little getting used to
  • Lack of character animation during some dialogue exchanges

Wednesday - September 20, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Review Roundup #2

by Myrthos, 16:54

Some new reviews are in for Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Hardcore Gamer, 5/5

Divinity: Original Sin II pulled off the impressive task of taking the kitchen sink approach to game design by cramming as much into it as possible yet somehow making it all work, making it a fantastic title for solo or multiplayer gaming. Playing the Divinity: Original Sin is not required to enjoy this title or its story, though having played the first game will make the experience more rewarding. Everything about Divinity: Original Sin II is of the highest quality and any negatives that could be said are basically nitpicking, such as the camera angles might obscure characters one percent of the time or the inventory set up isn’t as nice as you’ve seen in some other games. No game is perfect, but this one comes closer than most.

PCGamesN,9/10

Divinity: Original Sin 2 stands as a remarkable example of three genres: the classic roleplaying game, the online arena battler, and the tabletop-style adventure enabler. If its campaign fails to shake off some of Larian’s unfriendlier habits, those flaws are mitigated by the ways in which the studio have shaped a genre moulded by nostalgia into genuinely new forms - changing more than just the keyboard shortcuts for the better.

Trusted Reviews, 4/5

This is a great game for RPG fans to get their teeth into: over 20 hours in, you’ll notice the story only just starts gaining traction, and you may only just start getting familiar with the game’s myriad systems. The game is unforgiving, often mercilessly so, but if you have the patience to penetrate the density and crack open the core gameplay, there’s such a wealth of well-written RPG content, it’s impossible not to recommend.

Divinity: Original Sin II - Mac Release More Likely

by Silver, 04:31

@RockPaperShotgun Divinity: Original Sin 2 has been doing well enough that a Mac version is now looking more likely.

Larian started work on Original Sin 2 using the engine that ran the Enhanced Edition of its predecessor, and that version was ported to consoles as well as Mac, Linux and Windows. It always seemed likely that similar support would arrive for the sequel at some point, but perhaps due to delays to the Linux version of the original game, no firm promises have been made this time around. But in response to a question about whether the sales success made ports more likely, Vincke told me:

"Yes. We deliberately focused on the gameplay of the Windows PC version first because it was such a complicated game to make and we didn't want to lose time on the inevitable additional hassle cross-platform development brings with it."

[...]

Tuesday - September 19, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Reviews

by Myrthos, 13:17

Here are three reviews for Original Sin 2 I could dig up. Not a large amount of reviews, but there are a number of reviews as work in progress to be found, which I have not added to this list.

GameInformer, 9.75

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is one of the greatest PC RPGs of all time, and Larian’s continued dedication to creating incredible freeform adventures inspired by tabletop lineage is inspiring and commendable. A few bugs and frustrating encounters are small prices to pay for a lavish ensemble of the genre’s best and a one-of-a-kind experience.

Gameskinny, 9

I've been trying to think of things I legitimately don't like about the game and can only come up with minor quibbles, like the fact that some of the standard key bindings don't quite make sense to me. Why does the G button bring up the crafting screen instead of the C button? Why does tab switch to combat instead of highlighting the stuff on the ground? 

Other than that, and my distaste for comic relief, there's really nothing about Divinity: Original Sin 2 that doesn't scream "RPG of the year!" It's got everything an RPG fanatic could want: crafting, 10 types of skill categories to choose from, different build foci, robust combat, interesting characters and quests, and plenty more. Basically, if you love anything cRPG related from the Infinity Engine forward, you need to buy this game

Multiplayer.it, 9.4
No idea what they are saying, as it is in Italian, but given the rating, I'm sure it's something positive.

Divinity: Original Sin II - Game Master Tutorial

by Silver, 02:57

This video shows you how to use Game Master Mode for Divinity: Original Sin 2.

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Our combat designer and in-house Game Master Edouard guides us through the basics of the Game Master Mode. You'll learn about setting up your first campaign using the campaign maps and using the tools at hand to create your story. We can't wait to see what you'll come up with!

Sunday - September 17, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Breaks CRPG records

by Silver, 15:20

PCGamesN reports that Divinity: Original Sin 2 is breaking genre records for the most concurrent players on Steam.

It seems that records are being broken all over the world of PC gaming as of late, and no industry analyst could have predicted who'd be breaking them. Today's trailblazers are Larian Studios - the independent and crowdfunded Belgian crew - who have every reason to celebrate this weekend as Divinity: Original Sin 2 saw one of the strongest launches of any classic RPG on Steam.

While sales figures from SteamSpy are always to be taken with a liberal pinch of seasoning, it's safe enough to say that approximately 300,000 people own the game on Steam, although many (43k, give or take) are Kickstarter backers. What is a more relevant metric of launch success is concurrent players, and the game clocked in at just over 75,000 players last night. While dwarfed by competitive juggernauts such as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, that still placed it as the 4th most active game on Steam at the time.

[...]

Divinity: Original Sin II - Starter Guide

by Hiddenx, 09:47

PC Gamer has some tips for Divinity: Original Sin II beginners:

10 things I wish I knew before playing Divinity: Original Sin 2

How to make the first 20 hours go smoothly.

I’m taking a quick break from my adventures in Divinity: Original Sin 2—I keep telling everyone I’m undead, which I shouldn’t, but I’ve also made lots of animal chums, so it’s not all bad—to fling some of my (questionable) wisdom at those of you planning on starting your own. Follow these tips and bits of advice and your first hours in Rivellon will be like a holiday. In prison. 

Minor spoilers ahead for the first several hours, of course. We'll have a review up next week.

[...]

Saturday - September 16, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Modding & Workshop Live

by Silver, 09:13

Larian have released their modding tools for Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Setup: Editor Steam

1. Enable DLC

The editor needs some extra data. For this you need to enable a DLC for DOS2 on steam called 'Divinity Engine 2 Data'.
Go to your steam library, right click Divinity: Original Sin 2 and select properties.
[...]

Friday - September 15, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Preview

by Hiddenx, 09:11

PCGamesN has previewed Divinity: Original Sin II:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a great RPG... and the best strategy game since XCOM

Hi. My name’s Jeremy, and I can’t stop unsheathing my weapon in public. 

Listen: I can explain.

By pressing the tab key in Divinity: Original Sin 2, you command your character to pull out their blade and brandish it menacingly, allowing it to rest in their palm for a few seconds. That’s what I’ve been doing, about once every 30 minutes, since starting the game.

The practical applications of this little animation flourish are limited. It can make screenshots look more dynamic, if you’re so inclined. Or it can be used to test the limits of Larian’s simulation. Certainly, every time I take out my sword - usually in an inappropriate place, like a crowded camp or at the foot of a shrine to a dead god - the AI around me tend to react in horror, shouting warnings and ultimatums. Understandably. Who does that?

[...]

It’s my fervent hope that the elegant design on show here isn’t buried beneath discussion of the campaign, as XCOM’s multiplayer has been. It’s rare for a classic RPG to attempt full-fledged competitive adaptation. To do such a good job of it is frankly unheard of.

Perhaps bravest of all is Divinity 2’s Game Master mode - a powerful tool kit and asymmetrical multiplayer game that, in our early sessions with it, appeared to capture much of what tends to get left on the tabletop when D&D is synthesised for the PC. Expect our detailed thoughts on its implementation as soon as we’ve had time to play with the possibilities.

Even with that quest-giver question mark hovering above its head, however, Divinity: Original Sin 2 stands as a remarkable example of at least two genres: the classic roleplaying game and the online arena battler. If its campaign fails to shake off some of Larian’s unfriendlier habits, those flaws are mitigated by the ways in which the studio have shaped a genre moulded by nostalgia into genuinely new forms - changing more than just the keyboard shortcuts for the better.

Thursday - September 14, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Released in English Only

by Myrthos, 16:58

Divinity: Original Sin 2 will be released in English only today. They did not manage to get the translations to German French and Russian done in time, so those are delayed with an extra week. Also there was a power outage today. Here is Swen:

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Wednesday - September 13, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Feature Trailer

by Silver, 22:27

The latest trailer for Divinity: Original Sin 2 shows off its features.

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The eagerly anticipated sequel to the award-winning RPG. Gather your party. Master deep, tactical combat. Join up to 3 other players - but know that only one of you will have the chance to become a God.

Divinity: Original Sin II - Fane Introduction

by Silver, 04:16

And here is the introduction of the Divinity: Original Sin II immortal Fane.

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Tuesday - September 12, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Ifan Introduction

by Myrthos, 22:50

And here is the introduction of the Divinity: Original Sin II mercenary Ifan.

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Monday - September 11, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Sebille Introduction

by Myrthos, 22:42

The next video of one of your potential party members in Divinity: Original Sin 2 is Sebille.

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Sunday - September 10, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Beast Introduction

by Silver, 02:00

The Divinity Original Sin II character creator comes with story segments to introduce the set characters. This video introduces us to Beast.

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Play as rabble-rousing Beast or have him join your party in Divinity: Original Sin 2! Listen to his shanty!

Saturday - September 09, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Lohse Introduction

by Silver, 13:08

The Divinity Original Sin II character creator comes with story segments to introduce the set characters. This video introduces us to Lohse.

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Friday - September 08, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Combat Spotlight

by Silver, 13:31

Divinity: Original Sin II combat can change challenging conundrums cannily.

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So just how creative can you get with Combat in Divinity: Original Sin 2? Watch and learn, apprentice. Watch and learn.

Thursday - September 07, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Red Prince Origin

by Silver, 11:01

The Divinity Original Sin II character creator comes with origin story segments to introduce the set characters. This video explains the origin of the Red Prince.

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Play as the infamous Red Prince or have him join your party as a companion in DOS2! Discover his origin here!

Thursday - August 31, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Welcome to the Undead

by Myrthos, 17:54

Larian have updated their Kickstarter page for Divinity Original Sin 2 with the latest novelty in the game: The Undead.

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The dead are finally here! You can customize your Undead in the character selection screen. You can give yours a beard, some cool jewels or even change the color of their bones. Which is cool, but also kind of weird. Just the way we like things! You can play an Undead of any race or gender your heart desires. Will you be an Undead Lizard? Undead Dwarf? Dare we say, an Undead Elf? It’s all up to you!

In addition to their good looks, the Undead have some very unique game mechanics in the world of DOS2. For example, they have the skill “Play Dead” in which they can pretend to be a corpse - a great way to get out of combat or avoid attention from patrolling guards. We can’t take all the credit for that one: the skill was inspired by community suggestions! Another racial ability they have is that they don’t need lockpicks to pick locks. They just use ye olde bones!  

The Undead also heal via poison and are poisoned by healing potions. So, while your Undead can stroll through poison fog, they’re going to have a devil of a time fighting an AI smart enough to throw healing at it. (Sorry again about unleashing AI 2.0 on you guys because it is TOTALLY smart enough to do this.) You can also use the Zaikk’s Talon, a unique item found in the Hollow Marshes, to turn health potions into poison. Which is rude but hey, do what you like!  

A very important thing to remember while playing an Undead is that you cannot just traipse about with your bony face free to the world. You’re a monster. A hideous, frightening monster! So cover your face. Or, consider ripping the face off of a nearby corpse to disguise yourself as someone of that race! The Mask of the Shapeshifter will allow you to take on the appearance of any mortal race you would like.  

For example, you can shift to a Dwarf for better prices from a Dwarven merchant, or shift to an Elf to dine on a corpse and learn their memories with the Elven racial ability Corpse Eater. Multiple masks can be made, and they can even be used by other living characters to disguise themselves as other races, allowing them to approach situations in new ways.

RPGWatch @ Gamescom - Divinity: Original Sin II

by Myrthos, 17:07

It has been talked about some time, but finally at Gamescom we were shown the Undead in Divinity Original Sin II.

During character creation you can, next to the already known characters, also select an undead named Fane. Like the other characters, Fane also has its own origin story. Fane is an eternal being and has slumbered in a tomb for a very long time, in which he was thrown by his own fault as he didn't get along with the undead king. Recently an expedition located his tomb and freed Fane and to thank them, Fane killed them all, in order to regain some of his powers. Given the time he has been away from the world he doesn't really connect to it anymore and sees strange creatures walking around, some of them he shares some similarities with (skeletons), but they are much weaker than he is. Fane is a scholar and his mission is to find out what is going on in the world and find his own people again.

Monday - August 28, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - New Trailer

by Myrthos, 23:49

A new trailer for Divinity: Original Sin 2 was just released today, showing the current state of the game.

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Saturday - August 26, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Let there be Voice

by Hiddenx, 07:56

Divinity: Original Sin II is now fully voiced:

Welcome to Kickstarter Update #42! 

Okay, so remember an age ago when we said we couldn’t do voiceovers for Divinity: Original Sin 2? Well, we changed our mind! We changed our mind and we aren’t sorry! Muahaha! 

Well. 

Sort of. 

About halfway through production, we realized just how big this game was getting. We thought there would be no way, either time or budget-wise, to voice it all. So we started small, hoping to improve the soundscape by voicing some one-liners and voice barks. But it just didn’t feel right. We wanted to hear our beloved characters talk. Really talk. So we crunched some numbers, poured some coffee and decided:

Oh heck, why not. Let's fully voice Divinity: Original Sin 2!

Here’s Swen hanging out in the sound dungeon for the full scoop.

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Friday - August 25, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - The Power of Paintings

by Silver, 13:59

Backer paintings are going into Divinity: Original Sin 2.

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Wednesday - August 23, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Co-op Spotlight

by Hiddenx, 19:08

Co-op can be fun in Divinity: Original Sin II:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Co-op Spotlight

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There are many ways to tackle situations in Divinity: Original Sin 2 and working together in co-op is just one of them. You don’t have to be like Apostol. But you can, if you want.

Divinity: Original Sin II - Gamescom Reveal

by Silver, 01:15

Swen Vincke presented at Gamescom Divinity: Original Sin 2 and showed never seen before gameplay.

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Thursday - August 03, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Voice Acting Confirmed

by Silver, 12:08

Larian tweeted this tidbit recently. Voice acting is a go for Divinity Original Sin II.

 

Tuesday - August 01, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Split Screen and Skill Crafting

by Hiddenx, 19:55

In Kickstarter update #41 for Divinity: Original Sin II we learn more about playing in split screen, crafting skills and spirit talking:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Update #41: Talk to ghosts! Craft new skills! Play in split screen!

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We’re excited to show you a few things we’ve been working on, some that we’ve mentioned already and some that we have not! In this update we’re talking crafting, spirit talk, controllers, split screens and more!

Monday - July 24, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Insane Dialogue Branching

by Silver, 21:44

Swen Vincke tweeted about Divinity Original Sin II's insane dialogue branching.

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I walked into the office on a rainy afternoon and spotted one of our awesome scripters making the type of branching dialog that makes d:os 2 such a complex game to make. I should probably follow up with a video from the writer's face when she sees it :)

Thursday - June 22, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Swen Vincke Interview

by Hiddenx, 20:24

Jarl Frank of the RPG Codex interviewed Swen Vincke about Divinity: Original Sin 2:

Jarl interviews Swen Vincke; Questions about Original Sin 2 and other things are answered.

The concept of plane tickets, bitch! has a long tradition on the Codex. In the good old days, it was often issued as a challenge when arguments between two posters got heated. Insults were traded, the other's taste in RPGs was derided, and finally one poster would challenge the other to a real-life duel, offering to pay for plane tickets to make it possible. Regrettably, none of these challenges were ever accepted. In the end, someone always pussied out - either the one being offered the tickets or the one offering.

While this time the context was different, we can finally claim that a plane tickets, bitch! challenge has been accepted and enacted, even though regrettably no physical violence has taken place. The challenge was issued by Larian, and since no-one else was available, I chose to represent the Codex and fly over to Dublin, where Swen would subject himself to a bunch of Codex Community Cwestions and I got to play a D&D adventure with some of the devs from Larian. Yes, a D&D adventure - using Divinity Original Sin 2's Gamemaster Mode as its platform.

Since the results of this were several hours of voice recordings, and I'm both a busy and a lazy man, it's going to take a while until all of those are transcribed. Also, these recordings offer enough material for multiple Codex Content posts that I decided to split this event into three articles: the interview with Swen, Edward's detailed explanation of how the Gamemaster Mode works, and a relation of the actual game that took place between me and the guys from Larian (which was loads of fun and played out pretty much exactly like a pen and paper session, except that we used screen and keyboard as our utensils).

First of these articles shall be the interview I conducted with Swen, where I made sure to ask most of the questions posted by the community in the forum thread - yes, even the embarrassing ones. It was quite a fruitful interview, even though I could've gone for more follow-up questions. Enjoy the inteview!

(Note: if you have posted a question in the thread and don't see it asked here, feel free to complain. I'll make sure to give your complaint the proper attention by not caring at all.)

==================

We got a whole bunch of community questions. Some of them are really stupid but I’m going to ask them all, anyway.

Sure, go ahead.

[...]

Felipepepe wants to know if you have changed anything about your design philosophy FUME that you have talked about five years ago.

I think it’s still there, because it’s based on my favourite game, Ultima. Freedom is the first letter of FUME, that’s still there, a universe in which you can develop your character is super important, so we spend a lot of time on developing it. When you see the lorebook that’s shipping with the collector’s edition you’ll find out exactly how much time and effort we’re putting in there. Then, giving you motivation to continue… we’ve spent a lot of effort on the narrative this time, much more than we did in the past. Hopefully we’re succeeding in that. And then we’re giving you interesting enemies, that’s everything related to our combat system, so that’s still all in there. Yeah, I think that’s still all there… you know, freedom also means systemics, right? Rather than scripting everything, like do this then do that, we’re giving you systemics and say here, there’s problems, now solve them. That’s still very much in line with what FUME was.

He also wants to know if things have become better audience-wise, because when you pitched Original Sin you said you had issues making people understand the game, as complex RPGs had been out of style for years. Has that changed now in your opinion after so many other RPGs have been released, that the audience is now ready for such complex games?

I don’t think Original Sin is a complex game. It certainly gives you lots of options and that makes it look complex because you see everything that you can do, but I don’t think it’s a complex game. I see that a lot, right? Original Sin has been very popular and we get a lot of people who never played an RPG before, and they pick it up and play and have fun with it. So in terms of audience acceptance, I think it’s actually harder – because there are so many types of RPGs coming out it’s hard to say to the audience, well I’m that type, and they might not necessarily know that, so that might be a bit of a problem. But in general, the biggest driver of sales is word of mouth. It’s not journalists, it’s not youtubers, it’s just what people tell each other, like hey, try this game out. If you have a game that’s fun regardless of what the genre is, and it’s something that interests you, then people are gonna pick it up. I think that’s the most important thing. You try to make your game good, and if it’s good and it’s fun then people are gonna talk about it and it’s going to sell.

Wednesday - May 24, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - New Patch and Release Date

by Myrthos, 18:53

A new patch will be made available for Original Sin II. Unfortunately it is not compatible with previous save games, so if you play it in Early Access, you would need to restart again. There are a number of additions and changes to the game, which are explained by Swen in the video below, but the most important date is that it is going to be released on September 14. One of the changes is that your home base is not going to be the Hall of Echoes anymore, but a ship.

What is better than a warship? Nothing! That’s why we created The Lady Vengeance, a beautiful and daring ship to be your home base as you journey on your quest . That's a change from what we originally planned (the hall of echoes as a home base) but while playing you'll quickly understand why we went for the Lady Vengeance in the end. All the home base functionality that was planned for the halls is there but more importantly - the Lady Vengeance requires no level switching which means you can split the party between home base and another piece of the map. That's much more convenient than having to gather your party and loading a new level. It's also a much better setting for some of the relationship building that we added to the game.  

In case you are wondering, the Hall of Echoes is still part of the game - you actually visit it in in act 1 already - we just moved the home base functionality away from it.

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Saturday - May 20, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Game Master Mode

by Hiddenx, 08:47

Here's the Divinity: Original Sin II Game Master Mode session with Matt Mercer that was streamed on Twitch TV earlier this month:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 Game Master Mode hosted by Matt Mercer

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Tuesday - May 09, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Game Master Mode

by Myrthos, 17:19

The Kickstarter page for Original Sin II has been updated with information about the new Game Master mode.

Hello, and welcome to Kickstarter Upda- Wait is that Matt Mercer?

Why yes, it is! You see, we promised you a bunch of stretch goals, and while we've enjoyed sharing the progress we've made on most of them, there's one that we've been very quiet about. The big one. The $2 million question, so to speak: What about Game Master Mode?

Well, we've spent the last two years building, tweaking, polishing, and testing it, and we're finally ready to show you what it can do. And who better to put it through its paces than Matt Mercer, Jesse Cox, Dodger, Strippin and Bikeman

Matt (of Critical Role and voice acting fame) will lead some of our favorite streamers in his very own custom adventure, and you’ll be able to see it live TODAY! We’re absolutely thrilled to be streaming it on our Twitch channel later today (9th May) at 4pm PT. So tune in and see what Game Master Mode can do in the hands of a story-telling virtuoso!

Of course, we needed more people to test our new drag and drop tabletop, so Swen swung by some friends in Seattle. This is what happened:

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RPGWatch Feature - Divinity: Original Sin II Game Master Mode

by Myrthos, 17:04

I visited larian Studios to check out their new Game Master mode in Original Sin II, which was a Kickstarter stretch goal.

The Game Master mode is integrated into Original Sin II and makes use of the available functionality and game mechanics as offered by the game engine. Up to four persons can play together with one game master. For this you join one of the available campaigns that have been prepared by the game master after which you can create your character.

Character creation is the same as in Original Sin II, which means a classless system where you are free to use one of the predefined characters and tweak it or create a character from scratch. Joining me in the game were, next to the game master, 3 persons from Larian Studios. We ended up with an elven wizard, a lizard rogue, a human dumbwitted farm-boy fighter and a human rich brat pretending to be a battlemage, which was my character.

After creation of the characters we rolled for gold with the 20-sided dice. The amount we rolled would be multiplied by 10. As I was a descendent from rich parents I got to roll twice, but apparently I kind of lost money on my way here as I ended up with just 50 gold. Strangely enough the thief in our party ended up with a lot of gold...

Saturday - April 01, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - C64 Support!

by Hiddenx, 18:16

Larian is never running out of ideas - Divinity: Original Sin II will be supported on the C64 plattform.

Friday - March 31, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - EGX: Origin Stories

by Silver, 11:15

On Twitch, Swen attended a developer session at EGX and talked about origin stories in Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Origin stories are a new feature in Divinity: Original Sin 2 that enrich the co-op and single-player experience by giving characters compelling - and sometimes competing - motivations to fulfil their own destiny. Swen Vincke's (Larian Studios founder) panel will address the challenges of building fully-fledged narratives that play nice inside the main story when the characters themselves don't, all while leaving room for players to create their own experiences from scratch.

Wednesday - March 29, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Summoning and Polymorphing

by Hiddenx, 00:58

Here's Kickstarter #35 for Divinity: Original Sin II:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Update 35: Summoning and Polymorphing

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We’re launching a major patch to Early Access (which is available now on Steam and GOG)! Praise the Divine! Swen has more information about our latest additions and, in an effort to help explain the new concepts, has invented an entirely new technique for sharing the changes. We’re calling it: Cooking with Sourcery. By we I mean just two of us in the office.

Friday - March 17, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Partying with Polymorphs

by Silver, 09:52

Take a look at the Polymorph school for Divinity: Original Sin II.

The "Polymorph" school consolidates diverse practices focused on reshaping the body of the caster or his or her enemies in strategic, creative combat. Polymorphs draw inspiration from nature, mimicking powerful beasts, growing new and useful body parts, changing their appearance to confuse and overwhelm their opponents, etc.

Although it is impossible to know the true range of abilities within this creative skill, there have been confirmed sightings of polymorphs growing horns to impale enemies, turning foes into harmless chickens, and even morphing their hand into a terrifying tentacle to slap enemies at range and disarm them. Unconfirmed reported sightings include tales of turtle shell defense, polymorphs disappearing completely and of individuals growing wings and flying from battle.

Should you encounter a polymorph, your best bet is to fight creativity with creativity. Or to run.

Thursday - March 16, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Seeking Summoners

by Silver, 12:02

Take a look at a new class for Divinity: Original Sin II called Summoners.

Seeking Summoners

The "Summoning" school revolves around summoning a personal Incarnate and infusing that Incarnate with elements and powers. Summoners also use strategically placed and totems to turn the tide of battle.

The Summoner's Incarnate resembles a small, hairy devil, and can be a flexible and efficient partner in combat. They seem to absorb the elemental powers of the surface they are summoned on. Some tales tell of Summoners who call upon Familiars or Inner Demons instead of Incarnates.

Like Incarnates, totems also utilize powers that reflect the surface on which they are summoned, and cast automatic attacks and other nasty effects.

The elemental powers of the totems and Incarnates, as well as the added strategy of dealing with multiple and potentially unpredictable foes cause Summoners to be fearful opponents indeed.

It is also said that at full power, Summoners can create portals, form storms and utterly dominate the minds of their enemies. So be sure the nearest Summoner is on your side before your next adventure.

Wednesday - March 08, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Lizards

by Hiddenx, 00:42

You can take a look at the Lizards of Divinity: Original Sin II here:

Meet the Lzards

The Ancient Empire is the oldest, continuously existing empire in Rivellon. Ruled by the ever-proud and often imperious lizards, the empire rests its foundations on a rich, if rigid cultural framework honed in millennia-old traditions. Centuries pass, wars are waged, catastrophes wreak havoc, but the lizards' walls still stand untoppled. Their palaces face the ages undaunted. Incense wafts from eternal flames in elaborately carved temples. It has always been like so, and no single lizard doubts that is how it will always remain.

Three households, all alike in dignity

Lizard society revolves around the three axes of power that are the great houses: The House of War, the House of Law and the House of Dreams.

The most powerful and influential house is the House of War. Within this intricate construct of noble families, all lizard emperors are born. Their main seat is the imposing Forbidden City: a vast complex of palaces and fortresses that lies at the heart of the empire's capital. From here they dominate a continent's worth of empire and direct campaigns of war against any enemy foolish enough to challenge lizard rule. They are also the only house that uses, imports and sells slaves, a practice that began with the conquering of foreign enemies centuries ago, and is very much frowned upon by the rest of Rivellon's peoples (and to some extent the other Houses).

The only force to temper their lofty ambitions is the House of Law, which outranks the House of War on paper, though not quite in practice. Nevertheless, the Assembly of Thousand is in never-ending session at the capital's court, ever passing and amending laws, and judging over every conceivable infraction, no matter how minute, committed anywhere in the empire. It is also the Assembly in its entirety that has to give permission for the House of War to actually to go to war. If it weren't for these more level-headed, and more politically and diplomatically inclined judges, the Ancient Empire might be in a permanent state of war.

The least prominent, but probably most respected house, is the House of Dreams, a semi-religious institution made up of Dreamers: mystics that can travel the dream world at will. It is in this strange realm that they chance upon prophecy, and many prominent Dreamers serve in myriad roadside temples as oracles of fortune. It is said some of them even brave the boundaries of sleep and venture into the dark of nightmares. Such a journey is extremely dangerous and will most likely result in madness or death, but the boons -some claim- can be quite literally otherworldly.

Lastly, there are ever fearful whispers of the clandestine House of Shadows, but these rumours are never substantiated and no one within the Ancient Empire acknowledges the existence of any such organisation.

Wednesday - February 22, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Larian needs you!

by Hiddenx, 23:36

Larian wants your Divinity: Original Sin II test data:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 Needs YOU!

Oh sure, it's easy to look at a video game and think "this came together really well because of the programmers, or the artists, or the very, very attractive and humble writers," but it's a little more complicated than that.

The fact is, any game that we make is a draft before it goes through testing. A well-tested game is a well-polished game, and that's part of the joy of early access! Every single person that sits down to play Divinity: Original Sin 2 generates testing data, but it's only useful if we get to see it.

How do we get to see it? Well, once you close the game you click the friendly little box that appears asking if you’d like to share the game data with us. It really is that quick and that easy.

Sure, but does it really matter?

Yes! VERY yes! It's easy to think "all this data just goes in a big bucket, I'm sure they have plenty - they don't need mine", but the amount of data isn't half as important as the variation. We can catch game-breaking bugs or exploits because one person thought outside the box and did something we didn't expect, or which 99% of players missed. It's these outliers - these individuals - that help give us the fine layer of polish that we're aiming for in Divinity: Original Sin 2. So please, don't ever think that your contribution will be ignored, or isn't worth much. Every piece of data is sacred, and we need each bit we can get.

So what exactly do we track?

If it’s in the game, then we want to know about it! We want to work together with you to produce the best game possible, and that means giving you the chance to share as much game data as you can. But what exactly are we interested in? Here's a summary of the data you can send us.

Position:
There are a bunch of ways out of Fort Joy, and we need to check which routes are used most often (and therefore might be too easy) or which are barely used at all (and may need to be tweaked or balanced.) The same is true of treasure that might be too easy/difficult to find, fights that people are missing, or characters and quests that aren't getting the attention we expected because people just don't spend enough time hanging out in shady alleyways or exploring caves.

We use this data to create a heatmap, which tells us the most common paths people take and which areas they explore. This is also very handy for spotting and fixing mistakes like "I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be able to walk through that wall" or letting us add a chest to reward you for walking through that Sourcerer's cunning wall illusion!

Primary Stats:
STR, FIN, INT, WIS, etc. are the beautiful three-letter building blocks of any character, so it's important we track what builds you're working on and spot any inconsistencies in the system. What stats are picked more than others, and does that change as you level? Does that indicate that any of them are over/underpowered?

Secondary Stats:
In regards secondary stats, the experience points you gain and the speed you gain them at is essential for the pacing of the game. We also need to know how quickly you move and what resistances you're working on so we make sure the levels ahead are balanced and well-paced.

Items and Inventory:
Making sure you have the right equipment as you go is vital, so we check how much you're picking up along the way, and what sort of armour you’re using. This lets us know if there’s too much or too little, and if it's the right level.

Tags:
Tags are a foundational part of Divinity: Original Sin 2, so being able to track the origins, race, and profession tags used is as important as anything else. Also, some tags are dynamic, and are added or removed as you play, which will have to be tracked and carefully balanced to make sure they work well in the final game.

Abilities and Talents:
As the nuts-and-bolts of combat and exploration, making sure abilities and talents work is core to making sure the game plays well. We need to find out what's popular. What ain't? How many of you are picking PetPal? What weapons specialisations do you love? What spells are being used in every battle, and what needs to be buffed up a little?

Gold:
How are you making your gold? Is most of it looted directly or does it come from selling items? Do you have enough gold? Are you doing okay? Can you afford rent and still spend the occasional night at the tavern?

[...]

Wednesday - February 08, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - What's coming next?

by Hiddenx, 21:53

Swen talks about the next steps to develop Divinity: Original Sin II:

Hi all!

Thx for all your feedback & for playing! We're taking early access as an opportunity for trying out new things but we obviously also don't want to frustrate you when we err on the wrong side which is why you can expect an update soon that takes care of some of the most pressing issues, specifically the economy, the longevity of certain surfaces and the removal of some cc from the early enemies.

As we're getting closer to finishing the game and more and more game systems start being activated (we still have a lot of work but for the first time we can actually see the light), you can expect a few more drastic changes. Several of these have to do with the overall experience throughout the entire campaign and the removal of Source surfaces in the early game is related to that. Things like source vampirism, source vision and cursing surfaces are gradually introduced over the main campaign and in the first parts, Source is meant to be something that's hard to get.

One other pretty big change will be the introduction of the level 1 content, which comes before the area where you are now starting (which is supposed to be a level 2 area). That's why the encounter frequency in the beginning is what it is. That said, we may change it if we still see it as a problem after we added the level 1 content.

Regarding the starting classes - those too will be changing over the next couple of months as more and more skills (including those of other schools) get completed and talents get finished. Speaking of talents, lone wolf aka one man army will be available at level 1. We just deactivated it for now cause there's some issues with it.

This was also the first deployment of AI 2.0 and over the coming months we'll continue to work on it. We didn't go over all of the encounters yet to ensure they'd take advantage of it so all you've basically seen so far is AI 2.0 using the skills that were assigned to the enemies under AI 1.0 scripting. Once AI 2.0 is more evolved, we'll start modifying the encounters to balance them for fun. That's also when we'll start handicapping/powering it up to work differently at different difficulty levels.

I also would like to repeat that we're aware of many of your requests and that a lot of them are on our lists and being discussed. Since it's a long list however, some things may take time to materialise but I did want to make a point of posting here to thank you and to ensure you that the effort you put in posting here is worth a lot to us. It's making the game a lot better, even if from time to time we may screw up as we try out a couple of things.

Thanks for your patience!

Swen

Thursday - February 02, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - AI Update

by Myrthos, 17:38

The AI of Divinity: Original Sin 2 will be updated in an upcoming patch of the game, currently in Early Access.

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AI 2.0 won’t just blow up barrels: it will manipulate existing surfaces to make combat much more challenging, it will use your statuses against you, it will use spells and abilities in ways that even we never imagined, and- frankly if we’re not careful, it may be well on its way to world domination.

The way this AI has been using our combat system has already caused us to take a step back and have another look at how some of the unintended uses our skills and spells can have. Because it considers every possible outcome, we’ve seen AI 2.0 take advantage of things that we thought were relatively insignificant and using them deviously to fit the situation they happened to be in at the time (such as healing people on full health because the want the “Well Rested” status that the First Aid skill gives you, or passing up the opportunity to do a small amount of damage in order to create an oil surface to slow you down and remove your “Haste” status.)

AI 2.0 has proven so devious that we’ll probably have to disable it in the easier game modes, but those of you that want to take it on will have to step it up a notch to survive. However, if you do learn how to defeat our new, ruthless AI then you'll be equipped with an impressive set of combat skills. And of course if the campaign isn’t providing enough of a challenge, then you can always step into the arena for a pure combat experience. And speaking of the arena...

Besides that there are also other improvements, like new arena's, combat improvements and more (apparently 100 more).

Wednesday - January 04, 2017

Divinity: Original Sin II - Arena Battles

by Hiddenx, 17:42

PCGamesN checked out the arena battles of Divinity: Original Sin II:

Turning the tables and setting them on fire in Divinity: Original Sin 2 multiplayer - a battle report

Christmas is a time for gift-giving, especially if that gift is turn-based murder. It’s one of our favourite winter activities here at PCGamesN, with past Yuletide periods having seen us do battle in XCOM. We’re trading aliens for swords and sorcery this year, though, as we try out Divinity: Original Sin 2’s PvP arena mode.

 

Larian’s new and unexpectedly great deathmatch mode is already available in Early Access, and after a couple of wild matches we knew we had to share it with you. That’s why we’ve pitted Jeremy and Matt against each other for an epic battle report. Larian call the game an RPG; we call it a table-turning simulator.

[...]

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Thanks Farflame!

Thursday - December 01, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - The New Stats System

by Silver, 19:07

Divinity Original Sin 2 has been updated with a new stats system. Go to the latest kickstarter update for further details. Get the full patch notes here.

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As Swen discussed in the video, this patch has seen some major changes to how attribute points work. We wanted a system where you felt every point that you put into an attribute like strength, intelligence, or wits, so we tore down what was there before, tried a bunch of different prototypes, and rebuilt the whole thing from scratch. Now your attributes will be a much stronger influence on how you build your character, and how you play the game.

Every time you put a point into an attribute, we want you to be able to able to feel your character getting stronger/tougher/faster/smarter, so we've tied the attributes more closely to the gameplay. You'll have to consider how your stats will affect the damage you do, how well you dodge, what armour bonuses you'll get, how much vitality you have, how it'll affect your memory slots, and how you'll perform in combat.

Your primary attributes now form the foundation upon which your character will grow and develop throughout the game, rather than something you spend 2 minutes on and then forget about. We think the system is a big improvement on what was there before and we can't wait to hear what you think in our forums.

Of course that's just the start of what we've been doing! We've also refined the arena lobbies to streamline your experience, we've improved combat visuals, we've balanced the fights better, we're changed weapons, changed talents, changed combat abilities, and so, so much more.

If you'd like to see the complete list of all 150-something improvements, additions and fixes, just click here.

Friday - October 28, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Now Available at GOG

by Silver, 13:12

Divinity Original Sin II has been released on GOG as part of its Games in Development program. If you have been waiting for the GOG version to be available now is the time.

The genre-divining sequel is here!
Divinity: Original Sin 2, the sequel to one of the most beloved RPGs in recent years, is available now, DRM-free on GOG.com.
Many years have passed since the events of the first Original Sin, and the world is now a darker, godless place. Shape your character by choosing from five diverse races and carefully defining their origin stories before you unleash them upon a world, that treats the magic that is your birthright, with fear and distrust. Hunted by the Magisters of the Divine Order, you must first escape the camp in which you've been imprisoned and then join the fight to push back the spreading Void.
Larian Studios are not ones to rest on their laurels, so they're improving and expanding upon the original's celebrated features in meaningful and highly ambitious ways. This ‘In Development' version already contains the first Act of the campaign, the PvP Arena mode, and plenty of the intended features, but Larian is constantly polishing and updating the game, thanks in part to the invaluable community feedback. Aside from the newly introduced origin stories and the rich character creation options, expect ever more engaging turn-based combat, four-player co-op, smarter NPC AI, and more player freedom than ever.

Role-play your way through an epic adventure that constantly reacts to your decisions and playstyle in Divinity: Original Sin 2, DRM-free on GOG.com.

Note: This game is currently in development. See the FAQ to learn more about games in development, and check out the forums to find more information and to stay in touch with the community.

Sunday - October 23, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Q&A Monday

by Aubrielle, 20:41

On Monday, the dev team at Larian are making themselves available for an "ask me anything" Q&A session on GOG. If you've been wanting to ask Swen & co. any questions about Divinity: Original Sin II, now's your chance.

Let's take turns, asking all the right questions!

Divinity: Original Sin 2, the sequel to one of the most beloved RPGs in recent years, is coming soon, DRM-free on GOG.com! The good people of Larian Studios will be joining us in person to celebrate the occasion, and they've agreed to answer your most Sin-ful questions regarding the long-awaited epic.

The first Divinity: Original Sin sure made a big splash in the RPG community, with its inventive use of turn-based tactics and impressive attention to detail. Two years later, its sequel is about to raise the bar even further, as Larian Studios are committed to improving and expanding all of the original's celebrated features in meaningful and highly ambitious ways. Aside from the complex origin stories and the rich character creation options, expect even more engaging turn-based combat, smarter NPC A.I., and extended player freedom. And of course, get ready to meet Eithne, the enigmatic, scroll-selling NPC that the GOG community helped design back in April!

Do you want to know more about Divinity: Original Sin 2 and its fast-approaching entry into our Games in Development program? Now is the time to ask! Post your questions below until Monday, October 24th, and Larian Studios will answer the most intriguing ones alongside the game's arrival, coming soon on GOG.com.

Source: GOG

Wednesday - October 19, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Major Update

by Hiddenx, 21:31

Divinity: Original Sin II got a major patch:

Hello everyone!

Thank you for sending us so much feedback! We're happy to release our first major update with plenty of new features and fixes.

This new version is not compatible with old savegames. However, if you want to continue playing with your old savegames, we have made the old build available on a different Steam branch: ea_version_1.

To switch to this old build, simply follow these steps:

  1. In your Steam library, right click the game Divinity: Original Sin 2 and select Properties
  2. In the Properties screen, click on the tab BETAS
  3. In BETAS, click the arrow to open the dropdown
  4. From the dropdown, select branch "ea_version_1 - For saves with version 2.0.165.341" and then click Close

If you're interested in more behind the scenes footage, check out our Kickstarter update:

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And here's the list of all changes. It's a whopper!

[...very big list...]

Monday - October 17, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Preview @ The Escapist

by Hiddenx, 22:24

The Escapist has previewed Divinity: Original Sin II:

Divinity Original Sin 2 Preview - A World You'll Lose Yourself In

Larian Studios' Divinity: Original Sin came out in 2014, but I only started playing last year when it released on Xbox One. I almost hated it. I almost abandoned it. One of my least favorite things in games is trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing, and that seemed to be the only thing there was to do in DOS. There are a lot of gamers out there that want no hand-holding whatsoever, and Larian apparently really wanted to make them happy. So, after about 50 hours of wandering around, talking to every single NPC over and over again, something finally clicked, and I started making progress at last. It's the only game in my life that I've been willing to put in that many hours, just to figure the damn thing out. I'm so glad I did, though, and based on the limited preview build, DOS2 could be the perfect follow-up.

[...]

It seems someone learned how to play RPGs ... :)

Monday - October 10, 2016

Divinity: OS II - Game Length, Improvements

by Aubrielle, 16:23

Eurogamer talks to Swen Vincke about Divinity: Original Sin II's length, improvements added to early access, and more.

The characters and their origin stories are very important to the bigger picture. They are the characters you'll choose from to play as and who you'll surround yourself with, and their origin stories should completely change your experience of the game. There's the corpse-eating elf Sebille, who's on a Kill Bill-style quest for vengeance against people who wronged her when she was a slave. She tattoos the names of her targets on her body, so has names to cross off. There's the Red Prince, exiled royalty who wants to restore his kingdom. There's Ifan, a murderous gang member who finds out he's not as alone in the world as he thought he was. And there's Lohse, a lady whose mind hosts demons. They all have things to do, and further down the line Vincke says there will be cutscenes at the start of the game explaining each of them.

Four of the planned six origin characters are in the game now. Those remaining are the undead origin character and the dwarf, says Vincke. In addition there will be default racial origin stories for people who make their own character from scratch, so however you play you'll have an origin story to pursue - as of course will the people playing with you in multiplayer, or the AI companions playing with you in single-player. And these are stories that weave far into the game.

...

"You're playing Act One but you're not seeing the full end of Act One," he says, "so the full end of Act One is quite spectacular and that's not in there. And it ends there, where you fully comprehend what your central concept is going to be and what you need to go do through Act Two."

And Act Two, he says, "is vastly bigger".

"If you want to quantify it: Act One is going to be 20 to 25 per cent; Act Two is going to be 50 per cent most likely; and Act Three is going to be the last 25 per cent. Three acts," he says, "but that doesn't mean three maps."

Source: EuroGamer

Wednesday - October 05, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Important Stuff Coming

by Silver, 13:33

@Eurogamer they look at the upcoming features of Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Turns out I didn't quite understand - both about competing party members and about other things that either aren't working properly yet, or aren't implemented, in the Divinity: Original Sin 2 Early Access build. I find that out when I speak with the founder and creative director of Larian Studios, Swen Vincke, after my Early Access playthrough. He puts me straight in the hope I can put you straight, too.

"There is something that is missing in Early Access and that is why you're confused," he tells me. "It's party relations and it's scripting for the companions. Currently what you're doing is you're controlling your party members as if you were to control them all in multiplayer - and that will not be the case when you're playing single-player."

Instead, he says, think of them as companions in Dragon Age: Origins or Baldur's Gate; companions with minds of their own.

"Your companions will have their opinions and you will have to influence them," he says. "You will still be able to walk around in the world as [the character] Red Prince if you, for instance, started as Sebille; what you will not be able to do is affect Red Prince's origin's quest. You will also not be able to affect his relationships."

It's an important clarification because it means you won't give the order for conflict in your party, which was the bit I was struggling to understand. The conflict will happen around you in characters with motivations of their own, and it will be up to you to try and manage them. They are designed to clash, and if you handle them badly they may leave and even attack you. But without the party dialogues at the moment, or a relationship gauge affected by it, it's only really half there.

Wednesday - September 28, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Evolves in Early Access

by Hiddenx, 21:50

PC Gamer asked Swen Vincke how Divinity: Original Sin II will be improved with the help of Early Access players:

How Divinity: Original Sin 2 will evolve in Early Access

Combat balance and system tweaks galore, Game Master mode, and more are on the way.

Something always goes wrong when you launch a game, says Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke. You wouldn’t know it by looking at Divinity: Original Sin 2’s Steam page a week after it launched in Early Access, where it’s sitting at 96 percent positive reviews. But something did go wrong when Larian released Original Sin 2 on September 15: they all forgot to press the launch button.

“For some reason we forgot to push the button, literally,” Vincke said, laughing over Skype. “That’s no joke. In the past you had to ask Steam to release it and they’d release it for you at the appointed time. Now they have a system where you put in the date and time, and so we thought it would just release automatically. But apparently you have to still type in that you want to release. So we were waiting there, together with everybody, waiting for it to release, and nothing was happening. We felt really stupid. [laughs] Goes to show, you should always read the fucking manual!”

[...]

How Larian collects feedback

PC Gamer: Let’s start with things that you already had in mind that might need to change, and the feedback that’s influencing you in one direction or another.

Swen Vincke: There’s two parts to the question: What feedback are we looking at, and what do we do with it?

We obviously have the channels like forums and Twitter that we’re reading. Everybody’s reading a lot of it. We’re filtering things that we think are useful out of that. On one side that’s bug reports. Things are going wrong, there’s so much you can do in the game. On the other side there’s opinions and suggestions. Lots of good suggestions. Those go in a database and we go through it and say, ‘that makes sense, that’s actually better than we were planning.’

At the same time we’re also doing qualitative analysis. We have a little tool that’s shipping with the game, so people that want to can send data back to us. The data contains, ‘Where did you go in the game, what skills did you pick, what tags did you select, which dialogue options did you do?’ So it gives us more analytical data about what people are doing in the game away from the subjectivity of an opinion. That is dominantly being used for balancing, so we can see that if nobody’s managing a certain fight, then we probably overdid it on that fight. But also, if nobody is using a certain skill, it means we probably should do something about that skill.

[...]

Saturday - September 24, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Preview @ MMORPG

by Hiddenx, 12:09

MMORPG likes the Early Access version of Divinity: Original Sin II already:

The RPG Files: Divinity: Original Sin 2 is Off to a Promising Start

The first time I met the Red Prince, I tried to shove him into the ocean. Even though I had guessed he was to be my first companion, I wanted to test the system. Would Divinity: Original Sin 2 really let me go off the rails so quickly? The Prince threw me to the ground and cut my face. As I lay bleeding, I was given the option: do I make nice and admit I was wrong or do I demand blood for blood? Of course, I chose blood.

If this were another other video game, the Prince would balked and made some excuse to avoid fighting me. But Divinity is not any other video game. With a surprising amount of ease, the Red Prince became a smear of meat and gore on his rock over the ocean, already changing the course of the game. After taking his meager possessions as my own, I reloaded and went the opposite route, using humor to defuse the situation, and adopting him as my very own bright red lizard-tank.

[...]

Saturday - September 17, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - First Impressions

by Hiddenx, 20:35

PC Gamer checked out the Early Access version of Divinity: Original Sin II:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 improves on the original

[...]

It makes for good roleplay, at least from what I could tell in the mere nine or so hours of story available in Early Access. The opening hours lack the punch and purpose of the first Divinity: Original Sin, but the details benefit from more attention than before. You can create a custom human, elf, or lizard hero with a blank slate as you wish (or a dwarf with a deplorable beard selection), but I found it's so much more fun to follow one of the four preset origin stories with their plentiful customized dialog options. You can recruit the three heroes you didn't choose later, and they often aren't so chummy. It hints at great replay value, as does a new system of ‘tags’ such as ‘scholar’ or ‘noble’ that affect conversation choices.

[...]

It wouldn't exactly be wasted. Original Sin 2 looks better than ever. The visual details here often impress, regardless of whether it's the refracted sunlight on the waters surrounding a shipwreck-prone island, or in the candlelit corridors of a menacing keep. The music, subtle but strong, comes with a nifty option to choose which instrument dominates the rest.

Great stuff. But for my money (and yours), I recommend giving it time, unless you feel compelled to support Larian's work in spite of your own enjoyment. Grand RPGs tend to work best when they're fully featured and served in full. This is a rough draft—a fine one, but a draft nonetheless.

Thanks henriquejr!

Thursday - September 15, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - First Look

by Hiddenx, 09:21

DawnforgedCast checked out the Early Access version of Divinity:Original Sin II:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 - First Look

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Divinity: Original Sin was one of my favorite games of the last couple years. I had an incredibly enjoyable time playing through it co-op. The high level of character involvement in the story, the highly tactical and interactable combats, the rich world and lore. To say that I'm excited for the sequel would be understating it.

Wednesday - September 14, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Available on EA Now!!

by Myrthos, 22:18

The Kickstarter backers and those who backed via RPGWatch (and sent in their account info on time) can play Divinity: Original Sin 2 in Early Access right now!

That's right, as of RIGHT THIS SECOND, a day before it goes into Early Access, you can play Divinity: Original Sin 2! To get your Steam key, just follow the instructions below.

Warning: This is your key for Early Access AND the full game. If you give this key to anyone else, then they'll get the full game at release.  

Warning: The game is currently available on Steam only. If you claim a Steam key now you can NOT swap it for a GOG key later. We expect the game will be available on GOG in October.

To get your Steam key, please:

1. Create an account at/log in to https://www.larianvault.com

2. Once logged in, click on the D:OS2 Kickstarter link in the top menu. If you haven’t linked Larian Vault to your Kickstarter account, you’ll be prompted to do so. 

3. Once your accounts are linked, click on the menu item "Your Choices & Input". In the list of rewards, look for the item "Divinity: Original Sin 2 Digital Download" (for some tiers, this reward will be called "Divinity: Original Sin 2 Digital Collector's Edition Download"). 

4. Select Steam. Click OK. Then click the link "Available! Claim now!". This will generate your Steam key. 

5. Once you have your key, activate it on Steam as you would any other game (Click "Games" in the toolbar, click "Activate a product on Steam", and follow the instructions given) 

6. Wait patiently for the game to download. (Note: Patience optional.)

 

And if you want to share the good news with your non-backer friends, you can always send them to Steam, where they can add Divinity: Original Sin 2 to their wishlists and purchase the game when it goes live tomorrow!

And here is Swen talking about it.

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Friday - September 09, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Kickstarter Update

by Hiddenx, 17:22

Larian talks about Pax West, Divinity: Original Sin II Early Access, sales and more:

[...]

Hi, welcome to Kickstarter Update #27!  

It's been a pretty crazy week for us, and it's only going to get crazier. Check out what we've been doing at Pax West, and what's coming up.

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Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Update 27: How did PAX West go?

[...]

 

Sunday - September 04, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Hands-On Preview @ IGN

by Hiddenx, 13:56

IGN has checked out the upcoming Divinity: Original Sin II:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 Hands-On - Doubling Down on Deep Roleplaying

Racial traits, origin stories and more.

The fear I always have with huge, almost impenetrably deep RPGs like Divinity: Original Sin is that their developer will start making the assumption that they’d sell more copies if they just made their game simpler. Larian Studios’ amazing take on the Baldur’s Gate formula was one complex beast, and I would have bet the farm that they’d "streamline" Divinity: Original Sin 2 to make it more palatable to a broader audience.

I would have lost a lot of money.

In what seems like a bold, even brazen move, Larian has doubled down with Original Sin 2, providing more ways to mold your character, more ways to get into trouble, and more ways to fight your way out of it.

[...]

 

Divinity: Original Sin II - Interview with David Walgrave

by Silver, 04:28

GameWatcher has an interview with the producer of Divinity: Original Sin II David Walgrave They ask him how the development of the game went and about some of its features.

GameWatcher: One of the more interesting additions to the first Original Sin game was the RPG editor. Will it be returning in this game?

David Walgrave: Yes, it will return. We are doing everything we can to make it more user-friendly. We also want to see what people want to use it for, so that the most requested features are more intuitive. Because in the end, this is our own editor. It's a developer's tool, and a complex one at that, but it's the right tool for us to create a game as ambitious as this.

GameWatcher: Speaking of the RPG Editor, did you guys ever see some of your fans' creations? What did you think of their work?

David Walgrave: We are always looking at the efforts of our community. Feedback is really important for us, and we are also interested in the ways how people interact with certain features. We even contacted one of the modders because of his exceptional skills, but unfortunately, he was not able to relocate.

GameWatcher: What do you think makes this game stand out, compared to other games in the genre?

David Walgrave: I'm usually not very into graphics, but I do think our engine (built in-house) is doing extremely well. It's fully 3D, supports an insane amount of interactive items, and has all sorts of fancy, state-of-the-art things going on. For instance, in our new engine, we use PBR and we have cloth simulation; everything looks so detailed and sharp from up close and any angle. I think our programming team deserves a huge ovation for a change!

Other than that, I love our combat system; it's easy to understand, but it has so many different possibilities, abilities, skills, and talents. It becomes more complex, chaotic, and fun the deeper into it that you go.

I also think a Divinity game stands out because of our design philosophies: Everything can be moved, used, and destroyed if you like. You can talk to anyone, trade with them, kill them. Systemic reactivity forces us to design the world in such a way that it really comes to life. This world that we've created is full of memorable experiences that are really going to get people talking.

Monday - August 22, 2016

RPGWatch @ Gamescom - Divinity: Original Sin 2

by Myrthos, 22:13

We had this Gamescom news post before, but it went into limbo. The article is back, so we also have a news post for it. Here is the Gamescom article for Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Friday - May 06, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Swen Vincke Interview

by Hiddenx, 18:40

PCGamesN has interviewed Swen Vincke about Divinity: Original Sin II:

Why being able to poison your friends creates a better story in Divinity: Original Sin 2

[...]

“One of the biggest complaints about Original Sin was that it was sometimes too obtuse. The mechanics came in front of everything that was there in terms of story,” Vincke admits. “Also, we were a very small studio working on lots of things at the same time, so we didn’t have enough time to finish all the systems in the way they should have been finished. We have more time and more people now.”

The success of the first game, along with its definitive Enhanced Edition released a year later, gave Larian the breathing room to expand their team, open new offices in Ireland and Canada, and spend more time on a sequel. A second Kickstarter success to the tune of $2 million for Original Sin 2 certainly helped, too. Still, the Larian team is incredibly small in comparison to other studios developing RPGs on the scale they’re reaching for and when Vincke discusses their storytelling ambitions for the follow-up, the undertaking sounds near-implausible.

The phrase Vincke uses to describe the approach is “narrative competitive multiplayer”. It sounds like a fancy but ultimately vacuous slogan reserved for a Steam page bullet point, but once you start to pry into its meaning you see the storytelling aspirations for Original Sin 2 are monumental. Pen-and-paper RPGS are the go-to reference point once again, but Vincke talks about crafting a story that is not only better told but also gives players more opportunities to influence. There’s greater focus on your characters and their interactions with fellow party members.

[...]

Saturday - April 30, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Mechanics Explained

by Silver, 00:40

Swen delivers an in-depth explanation of the new mechanics and there is a new kickstarter update #24 for Divinity: Original Sin 2.

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What the PAXers saw:
New combat mechanics, including ultra-powerful Source skills powered by Source Points-- which you can obtain through fair or truly foul means.
Height gameplay, including added damage and range bonuses when attacking from on high (flying Margaret, anyone?).
New surface interactions in which you can Bless and Curse existing surfaces in order to help or hurt your fellow combatants.
A brand new armor system featuring Magical and Physical armor.
mechanics explained pax east 2016

Pick a skill tree: We have a winner!

You guys voted, and the results are in: Divinity: Original Sin 2 will feature a Summoning Master skill tree! These skills will allow you to call to convene help-- mundane and otherworldly-- in battle. 

Here are the results: 

- Summoning Master - 1709 votes 
- Bard - 1285 votes
- Alchemist - 557 votes
- Unarmed Combatant - 433 votes
- Guardian - 413 votes
- Juggernaut - 408 votes
- Trap Master - 197 votes

Sunday - April 24, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Full PvP Match

by Silver, 13:54

Swen Vincke and Tom Marks face off in a PvP match in Divinity Original Sin 2.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: Larian was kind enough to let us record a full match from the latest pre-alpha build of Divinity: Original Sin 2 to show off some of the game's new combat mechanics like height and blessed/cursed surfaces. However, the game's audio is still in development, and as a result most of the sounds in this build of the game are missing.

This a full match between Tom Marks of PC Gamer and Swen Vincke, CEO of Larian Studios, recorded from Tom's point of view.

You can also find out more about the Tom and Swen's rivalry here: www.pcgamer.com/divinity-original-sin-2-­showdown-pc-gamer-vs-larian-studios

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Saturday - April 23, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Larian@PAX East

by Silver, 12:51

A new kickstarter update from Larian who are currently at PAX East.

What's new?
The demo showcases some of Divinity: Original Sin 2's new features, including new skills, elemental interactions, and art. Use your Source powers to bless or curse surfaces, and make use of vertical combat to pick off enemies from a vantage point.

demo PAX East
In Divinity: Original Sin 2, you can use ladders, ledges, and floors to your advantage in combat.

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Not going to PAX?
Never fear! Some great channels will be hosting live-streams and videos of the game. Check out the line-up below:

Friday, April 22- HotPapperGaming (YouTube)

Saturday, April 23- Eat My Diction (YouTube)

Friday, Saturday, Sunday (April 22-24) - Bikeman (Twitch, 3 p.m. EST)

Divinity Original Sin is currently 50% off on gog. Also you can vote on the gog hero.

Friday - April 08, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Evolving CRPGs

by Hiddenx, 20:11

Swen explains the game systems of Divinity: Original Sin II at EGX Rezzed 2016:

Rock, Paper, Shotgun presents:
Evolving CRPGs - Divinity: Original Sin 2

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Swen Vincke, Creative Director & Founder of Larian Studios explains how the team plans to overcome the challenges of giving multiple players pen-&-paper like freedom in a story-driven RPG.

Thursday - March 31, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - About VR, Modding and Development

by Myrthos, 16:27

Larian Studios jumps on the VR bandwagon and adds support for it into Original Sin 2. A very preliminary version of it is build into Original Sin Enhanced Edition.

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Now, we cordially invite you to JOIN US in testing out our first attempt at VR gaming. 

Who? PC players of Divinity: Original Sin- Enhanced Edition

What? Larian’s first in-game VR mode. You do NOT need a VR headset to try it.

Where? In your own living room/ dungeon/ Void

When? Right now!

How?
- Fire up Steam or GOG and download the most recent update for Divinity: Original Sin- Enhanced Edition.
- Start a new game. (The new mode won’t work in older saved games.)
- Conduct a little treasure hunt around the starting area of the game (VR-goggle engineering imps are known to hide loot along walls and behind crates) and you'll find a very special bag with everything you need to try the new mode.

Let us know what you think at the Larian forums.

Also the Enhanced Edition is now available for Mac owners and the Enhanced Edition editor is available.

We are also happy to announce that the editor we used to make Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition is now available on PC and Mac. This is a very powerful tool that can be bent and twisted to your will. Make simple mods to the game, or craft new adventures all your own.

Join our Editor community to learn more, watch tutorials, or share your own tips and tricks.

If you want to meet the Larian team, they are present at Pax East and EGX Rezzed in London.

 

Thursday - March 17, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - PC Gamer Weekender

by Hiddenx, 20:04

There's a lot of information to find in this Divinity: Original Sin II PC Gamer weekender:

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Larian discuss their upcoming RPG sequel onstage at the PC Gamer Weekender.

Wednesday - February 10, 2016

Divinity: Original Sin II - Here is Bobby!

by Hiddenx, 19:42

Swen introduces Borislav "Bobby" Slavov - Larian's new music director:

Music to your Ears 

Last year we lost Kirill Pokrovsky, a brilliant composer and dear friend. While Kirill will be a part of every game we make, the time has come to pass the mantle to another musical genius. Since our ambitions for the music in Divinity:Original Sin 2 are very high, it took a while but today we're happy to report that we found the perfect fit for the job.

Today, we would proudly like to introduce you to Borislav “Bobby” Slavov!

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Edit by Gorath: Borislav has been an active part of the RPGWatch community for a whole decade. Congratulations to Borislav and Larian Studios for a cooperation which looks like a perfect fit.

Saturday - December 19, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Holiday Update

by Aubrielle, 04:14

Larian Studios has prepared another update for Divinity: Original Sin II, in which they tell us how we can continue to help them shape the upcoming RPG masterpiece. Thanks again, Couch!

Seasons greetings to our favourite 42,713 people! As 2015 is winding down, production on D:OS2 is winding up and nearly the entire team is going full force creating our next adventure.

See what the *rest* of the team (including our porting gurus) has been up to in the mean time, and find out how to claim your right to some very important design input in the following video:

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We put together a retrospective of the wild ride that was the Kickstarter campaign, from the first $100,000 (in only 1 hour!), to PAX and TwitchCon, to the final $2,000,000. Check out the campaign's highs, lows, and bloopers below.

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Source: Kickstarter

Sunday - October 11, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Inside a multi-million dollar Kickstarter @ PCGamesN

by Hiddenx, 01:04

Great article by Fraser Brown about Larian, crowdfunding, backers and developers and their relationship:

Inside a multi-million dollar Kickstarter with the team behind Divinity: Original Sin 2

Divinity: Original Sin 2 became Larian’s second successfully funded Kickstarter project last week, as well as its most lucrative. For the final days of the campaign, I was in their studio in Ghent, Belgium, watching as the team continued to work ceaselessly, despite having long-smashed their original goal.

Larian Studios have been making games since 1996, cementing their name as an RPG studio with 2002’s excellent Divine Divinity, and its follow up Beyond Divinity. Since then, the Divinity series has been the studio’s bread and butter, and has included third-person RPGs where you can transform into a dragon, and the experimental Dragon Commander, which merged tabletop empire building with RTS battles.

Some of the games reviewed well, some sold well, but with Original Sin they made a game that did both, and had the benefit of a community that grew around one of the first big RPG Kickstarters. 

Given the success of that first campaign, it was not a surprise to find out that Larian was heading back to the realm of crowdfunding for the sequel. But Kickstarter’s changed since they first used it, and attitudes toward crowdfunding have turned sour. 

Larian had enough money to finance a sequel themselves, but if they wanted to outdo their previous game, they’d need help from Kickstarter. “It allows us to make bigger and better RPGs,” CEO and creative director Swen Vincke explains. 

On the morning before I headed to the studio, I quickly checked the Kickstarter page. Only two stretch goals were left. I thought that, perhaps, this would be a relief for Larian, that as they approached the last straight they’d be able to take a load off. The opposite was true.

Part of the team, including Vincke, were returning from TwitchCon after a long month of promotion and development. Exhausted, light on sleep and cursed with jet lag, they returned to work. For some, that meant heading back to the bullpen to continue work on Divinity: Original Sin 2 and the Enhanced Edition of the original game, and for others it meant spending time with the big community that has grown around the series. 

As I fought and chatted my way through Original Sin 2’s demo, Larian were setting up a livestream that would run, mostly uninterrupted, for the rest of the campaign, the next 24 hours, and then continue even after the close of the Kickstarter. You wouldn’t know that it had been a tiring month for Vincke and his team as they entertained backers and fans by going through the history of the studio, showing old games, and answering an endless raft of questions.

[...]

Tuesday - October 06, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - PvP could be the Game's unexpected Masterstroke

by Hiddenx, 19:24

PCGamesN: PvP combat in Divinity: Original Sin 2 is great fun already:

Divinity: Original Sin 2's PvP could be the game's unexpected masterstroke

Divinity: Original Sin 2, along with letting you fight hordes of monsters, villains and innocent NPCs, will allow you to get in brawls with your own dear allies. The brand of co-op here has a competitive streak running through it, inspiring betrayal and the murder of one-time companions.

Unexpectedly, after two days of hands-on time with the game, I found that I’d been in more PvP battles than any other kind, not because there’s so much PvP – that really depends on who you’re playing with – but because I kept being drawn back to the arena.

Allies can transform into enemies anywhere, even in the middle of another battle, but in the town that Larian had created for the demo there was also a tournament organiser – a gateway to a more curated PvP battlefield, an arena designed specifically for players to duke it out inside. 

I spent a lot of time in that dark, crumbling structure, surrounded by monolithic rocks and skeletons. It, like the rest of the demo, is a prototype, and perhaps even more experimental, as Larian weren’t sure if this kind of PvP would work at first. Yet it does, even in its barebones state. 

The foundation, the combat itself, is likely the main reason. Aside from the graphics upgrade and new spell effects, it’s the change in action points that currently separates the combat in the first Original Sin and the upcoming Enhanced Edition. They’ve been reduced to four, while the action point cost of moving, attacking and using items has been likewise simplified. 

Rather than streamline combat, in the pejorative sense, it makes turn-based fighting faster paced without sacrificing tactical complexity. Important decisions are still a dime a dozen, and with the addition of skill crafting, which allows you to combine spells to make new ones, like horrible invisible spiders or a gruesome downpour of blood there’s a hard-to-fathom number ways to approach a fight.

CEO and creative director Swen Vincke explained that, through spells and skills, they’ve been trying to open up more ways for players to manipulate the pen-and-paper-style ruleset. The team is putting together new spells and, perhaps more importantly, more spell combinations so that players will be able to employ them, both in and out of combat, to leverage more control over the environment. 

I confess that, and I must apologise to my fellow PCGN writers, I did not leave many battles as the victor. I let us all down. I wish I could come up with some excuse, maybe even blame it on using a controller. Lamentably that was fine, and the game works surprisingly well even with the more condensed control scheme. I only have myself to blame.

With each defeat, I dusted myself off and dragged myself back in. Every fight, despite involving the same four characters in the same arena, managed to inspire memorable duels, unexpected comebacks and their fair share of surprises. They all felt improbably different.

The spells are what lets the PvP to conjure up so much variety, especially when used a bit creatively. In one tense duel, my character’s health became tethered to its foe’s. The spell meant that any damage she took, my Dwarf took as well. That was unfortunate, as he was only one fireball away from killing her. That’s when the random nature of the arena took over.  [...]

 

Thursday - October 01, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Hands On @ PCGamesN

by Hiddenx, 08:12

Fraser Brown (PCGamesN) with some early impressions on Divinity:Original Sin II :

Divinity: Original Sin 2’s Kickstarter, by the time you read this, has just ended. It’s made more than double from pledges than its predecessor and unlocked every stretch goal, making the already extremely ambitious RPG even more expansive. 

For a day, as Larian staff ran around organising streams and PvP tournaments, on top of working on the soon-to-be-released Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition and, of course, Original Sin 2 itself, I sat on an absurdly comfortable bean bag and played through the entirety of the sequel’s demo. 

It’s good. Damn, is it good. 

 

You may have seen some of the demo on a livestream – Larian’s been keen to show it off – but you probably won’t get to play it. The demo has been tailored for previews, a proof of concept that contains everything that’s ready so far, with quests, characters and locations that probably won’t make it into the finished game.

So it’s a container full of Larian’s big ideas and fascinating features. And I dunked my head right into it and drank in as much as I could.

I fought, over and over again, with one of Larian’s writers, from the Dublin studio, in surprisingly compelling PvP matches where the entire arena was nothing but corpses and blood and toxic goo. I tried to comfort a suicidal cow who had presented herself to a seemingly disinterested dragon for dinner. I murdered a woman to solve her attempted murder. I was racist to a Dwarf.

There’s a lot going on in the demo, clearly. At its core, though, and this I am told will be at the heart of the finished game, is this story of hunted men and women, the game’s protagonists, and the strange powers they have. 

Origins count for a lot in Original Sin 2. Who your character was before the game informs how people will interact with them and their pre-existing relationships. Their race and social standing matter just as much. My party of four included two humans, a Dwarf and an Elf, and their experiences differed greatly, with even throwaway conversations taking very different forms depending on which character I used. 

Entering the main city, for instance, was a doddle for my upper class human. She was mistrusted because of her use of Source magic, which is illegal and in the process of being eradicated, and her mother was in jail, accused of the attempted murder of the mayor, but the guards still let her pass. The Dwarf, on the other hand, was given a hard time and ultimately was denied access to the city, necessitating a new mission: find a secret way into the city.

[...]

Wednesday - September 30, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - All's Well That Ends Well

by Myrthos, 23:00

Today the Kickstarter campaign for Larian Studios Divinity: Original Sin 2 came to an end and in their most recent Kickstarter update they thank us all for bringing them over the $2 million mark.

After 35 days, 42,713 backers, over 19,000 comments, and a whopping final total of $2,032,434 (plus an estimated $43,000 from Paypal), the Kickstarter campaign for Divinity: Original Sin 2 has come to an end! 

All of us at Larian Studios have been truly overwhelmed by the level of support that we have received — not only in terms of pledges, but also feedback and involvement. Right from the beginning, it was our aim to use the campaign as a means to bring our community of fans into the heart of the development process. In every regard, you have exceeded our wildest expectations, and we would like to extend our everlasting gratitude to you all.

And of course, all of the stretch goals have been unlocked! The combined pledges from Kickstarter and Paypal mean that we’ve broken through the $2 million mark, and all of our stretch goals have now been achieved! Get ready for Game Master mode, the Hall of Echoes, Skill Trees and much more! 

What's Next?

Of course, this is only the end of the beginning — there’s still a game to finish! The updates and community involvement will continue for every step of the way; there’s plenty of stuff that we haven’t even gotten around to showing you yet, and we can’t wait to bring you the latest developments. As for now, everyone across Larian’s four bases in Ghent, St. Petersburg, Dublin and Quebec will be raising a glass (or two, or eight) to celebrate the end of the campaign and to salute the best community of fans that any developer could possibly hope for!

Divinity: Original Sin II - Who is the #GOGHero? You Decide!

by Silver, 06:35

After buying the 10k design a npc tier GOG has decided to open up the designing of said npc to all people who participate in the thread over here.

Calling all gamers!

Have you heard the word?

The word is that we get the chance to work with Larian Studios to design an NPC character in their about-to-win-kickstarter sequel, Divinity: Original Sin 2 - a unique in-game character, the #GOGHero, complete with a backstory and private motivations to intertwine with the players' fates.

Well. YOU get to design them.

Because the more is always the merrier, we're handing the #GOGHero over to you, the gamers, and everyone is welcome to pitch in with their ideas! The entire gaming community is invited to a massive brainstorming session with Larian Studios & GOG.com, and to submit their own ideas for the upcoming character.
For a touch of authenticity, Larian is providing official guidelines to work with - just like the ones they use during development. Fun, but optional:

--Each character has 3 major traits: Vanity, aggression, pride, self-confidence, racist towards dwarves/elves/humans/orcs/sourcerers...
--1 Quirk or Eccentricity: A predilection for dogs in leather boots, refuses to face north for religious reasons, in denial about his singing.
--One Fear/Loss/Block/Wound: Something traumatic in their background for which they are compensating in some way, or which drives them to do something normal people don't. His wife was killed in a tragic accident and now he's a kamikaze detective with a death wish. His parents were murdered by a criminal so now he's a vigilante crime-fighter. He's terrified of intimacy so treats women terribly. That kind of thing.
--Race: Human, dwarf, elf, lizard, undead.
--Background: Gender, age, job function, loyalties.
Throughout the brainstorm, the team from Larian, including creative director Swen Vincke among others, will be joining in us to browse, weigh in, and search for inspiration! Finally, when the time comes, they'll design three final characters combining the awesomest ideas, complete with official concept art and backstory. Once again, the #GOGHero will be placed in your hands with an official vote to chose the favorite champion from the three proposals. The winning character will go on to become the community-made, full-featured NPC in Divinity 2: Original Sin.

Tuesday - September 29, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Final 24 Hours

by Myrthos, 12:56

The final 24 hours for Larian Studios' Kickstarter for Divinity: Original Sin 2 starts in a few hours from now and can be followed on Twitch.

Here is the schedule:

15:00 CEST

Best of Divinity: The best moments from previous Divinity games ~ featuring Swen, David, Jan.

17:00 CEST

Editor & Modding Devline: A peek at what to expect from members of our design team ~ featuring Swen, Jeff, Jan, Bert.

18:00 CEST

Let's Play Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition. Mixed with discussion with members of the team about their favourite things in the Enhanced Edition ~ featuring David.

20:00 CEST !!!!!!!!!!!

Watch the titans battle! RPG Codex versus RPG Watch send their finest gladiators into battle for the glory of the title screen.

22:00 CEST

Devstorm 1! Live devline to brainstorm various ideas that have come in from user voice and our forums for improving the game while we play the prototype. With special guests in different disciplines from across the team discussing various aspects ~ featuring Jeff, Joa, Slava, Jan & more.

24:00 CEST

Special Guest - TBD

9:00 CEST

Strategist Mode: Showcase of Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition tactician mode with the men who know more about it than anyone else on earth ~ featuring Edouard & Nick.

11:00 CEST

Pre-Battle Hype Stream with Q&A ~ featuring all of our offices.

12:00 CEST

The Grand Inter-Larian Battle! Champions from each of the four Larian offices battle it out for bragging rights and first dibs on the cheese platter at the Christmas Party ~ featuring Nick, Matt, and TBD Dublin and St. Petersburg champions.

14:00 CEST

Devstorm 2! A second round to get to any questions and ideas we didn't catch the first time round as we count down to the big moment ~ featuring EVERYONE!

Obviously most of this are just filler streams for the main part of this event, that takes place tonight at 20:00 CEST: The battle between RPGWatch and RPGCodex.
Our champion HiddenX is preparing himself right now, by being at work and doing work related stuff, after which he prepares some more, by consuming a few beers, before combatting the champion of the Codex.
So, we have everything covered from our side and left no stone unturned to optimally prepare ourselves for this event.

Watch it all, but be sure to especially tune in tonight at 20:00 CEST (for most of the Europeans), 14:00 EDT (New York time) or 11:00 PDT (San Francisco time) at the Larian Studios Twitch channel.

Monday - September 28, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - The Last Days

by Myrthos, 22:18

With less than two days left in the Kickstarter for Divinity: Original Sin 2 we are brought information from Twitchcon, the stretch goals that are reached (dedicated editor support and relationships) and what else is coming in these final days.

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The last 24 hours, there will be a continuous Twitch stream and part of that stream will be a contest between RPGWatch and RPG Codex.

The last 24 hours is a busy time for any Kickstarter campaign, and we’re definitely not making it easy for ourselves! We’re going to be delivering hours of content, streamed live on Twitch to give you an unprecedented level of access to our offices, our devs, and our plans for the game. Our Twitch marathon will include a range of DevLines that will discuss Strategist Mode, the editor that the game will ship with, the Enhanced Edition and what it’s development brings to D:OS 2, and will even include a DevStorm: where we brainstorm your Uservoice ideas and see which will be best to implement in the game. (So if you’ve not had a chance to look at our Uservoice forum yet, get over there and get voting for whips, character customisation, and whatever else you want to see in the game!)

Of course, fun, informative talks are all well and good, but when it comes to entertainment value, nothing really tops blood sports. That’s why we’re hosting a series of Arena Battles for your viewing pleasure! Twitch Streamers will duke it out, RPG Watch and RPG Codex fight for the honour of who gets the most prominent place when their names are shown at the start of D:OS 2, and then we’ll finish it all off with a Larian civil war, as the Gent, St. Petersburg, Dublin, and Quebec teams face off in a vicious four-way contest to see who is the most Divine of them all.

We’ll also be hosting a “Best of Divinity” retrospective on the whole series, to remind you of the story so far. 

To see what’s going down and when you can catch it all, head to our Twitch page for the full schedule!

 

Friday - September 25, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - MCA Teams Up with Larian

by Myrthos, 16:34

Today we learn that Chris Avellone will join the Larian team to bring some of the characters in Original Sin 2 to life.

He’s a legend among RPG fans, with some of the most impressive credentials in the world of games writing… and now he’s agreed to help us bring the characters of D:OS2 to life!

Chris Avellone (Planescape: Torment; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout: New Vegas) has agreed develop and write at least one of the playable origin stories in the game, meaning fans of his work will get to play through Divinity: Original Sin 2, Avellone-style. 

Check out the video below, in which Swen and Chris seal the deal:

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There is also some information about Twitchcon, where they are now.

Tuesday - September 22, 2015

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

by Myrthos, 23:13

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.

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Friday - September 18, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - CD Projekt Red to design a character

by Silver, 13:30

For backing at the 10k level CD Projekt Red gets to design a character. According to the 10k tier this involves

Become a high-ranking Divine Magister, Black Ring Sorcerer or Ancient Empire Officer. We will work with you to develop a memorable character whose decisions, backstory, and private motivations will intertwine with - or confound - the players.

PcGamesN also picked up on some twitter cross promotion.

The folks at @GOGcom became a $10,000 backer, so they get to design a character! Should we start working on the Guardian of Game? xD

.@larianstudios We're getting our robe and wizard hat. Let the brainstorming begin! #GOGHero

Divinity: Original Sin II - Hall of Echoes Stretch Goal Unlocked

by Myrthos, 11:12

While we are waiting for the next update, the Hall of Echoes stretch goal for Larian Studios' Original Sin 2 Kickstarter has been reached.

Dedicated mod support in which Larian Studios will assign a dedicated team on this, will be the next stretch goal at $1,65M.

Thursday - September 17, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Meet The Writers

by Myrthos, 12:43

While the Kickstarter campaign for Divinity: Original Sin 2 is slowly getting closer to its $1.5M stretch goal, a new update informs us of the 7 person writing team, why you should be afraid of Bishop Alexandar and purging, that GOG is one of the $10K backers and that there will be a reddit AMA next week tuesday.

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And don't forget you can support the game also via our fundraiser and even get the locked tiers as a reward and perhaps your name in the game.

Monday - September 14, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Day of the Dwarves

by Myrthos, 22:13

Larian Studios and King Art Games are having a virtual fight via twitter about dwarves. You can side with either party by tweeting @LarianStudios or @KingArtGames with the hashtag #dwarf_off. Check out the battle here.

In the meantime Larian Studios also have updated their Kickstarter page with an update on the dwarves in Original Sin 2.

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The dwarves are natural born empire-builders. They are organised, cunning, pragmatic, and if need be, brutal. Indeed, it's not unheard of for them to wipe out an entire city to set an example for others. Next time, they won't be late paying their taxes...

The dwarves are religious, but very practical about it. They tend to favour personal house gods over the pantheon of the Seven, and these house gods are often revered ancestors that have become family tales of legend.

They highly favour 'decorum' in public to the point of prudishness, but what goes on behind closed (bedroom) doors is another matter entirely. Public and private expectations often differ wildly, which makes it hard for outsiders to gauge dwarven motivations, let alone become part of their society through friendship or courtship.

The dwarven empire being what it is, it's hard to imagine the loosely affiliated group of clans that once was. These clans suffered the humiliation of being conquered and forced to serve their overlords. Subjugation united the dwarves, however, and under the leadership of the tenacious and tactically astute Tenax, they managed to overcome their enemies and emerge from their thraldom a veritable empire. Never, so Tenax vowed, would the dwarves be humiliated again. And never again would they be disunited.

Tenax has long since become the most revered of all dwarves: the father of their nation, and the first of many just and noble emperors of his line.

Thursday - September 10, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - More Stretch Goals

by Myrthos, 23:59

As we mentioned earlier today, the $1.35M stretch goal of Divinity: Original Sin 2 has been reached. The next stretch goal will be reached at $1.5M, a home in the Hall of Echoes, for which they are thinking of the following:

We have many ambitions for the Hall of Echoes and have been discussing ideas of what players might be able to find there. Nothing is set in stone and we'd love to hear your ideas so please do let us know what you think would be cool additions. 

Here's a few of the ideas we came up with:  

  • An arena in which you can test your mettle against your companions (or a variety of creatures) 
  • A campfire for waiting companions
  • Powerful figures - attracted by your presence, who make you all kinds of offers
  • Characters you killed in the world may appear here, haunting you or begging you for deliverance - those who follow the path of the Void will even be able to coerce these poor souls into doing their bidding
  • A spectral anvil on which you can craft unique equipment
  • A magical artefact that allows you to craft special skills 
  • A bridge to the Void - an eerie, surreal and VERY dangerous place where special loot/spells/dark Source secrets can be found
  • A bridge to the Gods, where you can visit avatars of the Seven
  • The doorway to the Forge- what could happen if you step through the door?
  • Spirits with special requests, and special rewards...
  • Black mirrors that show you visions of other planes
  • Undead creatures that can be convinced to do dark deeds for you

And then there are the new stretch goals.

$1,650,000 - Dedicated mod tool support!

We'll hire a team that will be dedicated to making the editor as intuitive as possible, and who will help the community build all kinds of new awesomeness.  

$1,750,000 - Love/Hate!

We'll dedicate more scripters and writers to expand on the dynamic relationship system we're building. Intense rivalry! Friendship and enmity! And... as so many of you have been asking for it... romance! 

$1,850,000 - Metamorphosis... Mask of the Shapeshifter!

Imagine you get a mask that lets you change your shape. One moment you're a lizard, the next an ordinary human, with completely different dialog options (and visuals of course). By expanding on our tag system, we'll let you  assume different roles in the game with the same character. This will open completely different play styles. Don't want any competition? Don't want companions? Become a lone wolf with a very special mask...  

$2,000,000 - Dungeon Master Mode!

Building on the work of the mod team, we'll make an in-game version of the editor that allows dungeon-masters to unleash their fantasies on budding adventurers, adjusting and controlling the dungeon while the other players are playing!

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Divinity: Original Sin II - Devline Q&A With Swen and Sarah

by Myrthos, 12:32

Swen Vincke and Sarah Baylus are answering questions about Divinity Original Sin II in the devline they had on their Twitch channel yesterday, while playing the game.

Divinity: Original Sin II - Second Skill Tree Stretch Goal Reached

by Myrthos, 12:25

The stretch goal for the second skill tree that you can pick has been reached in the Kickstarter for Divinity: Original Sin II, so we can now move onwards to the, in my opinion, more interesting stretch goal "The Hall of Echoes". Besides that it is probably time to announce some new stretch goals.

Here is the "Hall of Echoes" one:

Some Rivellonians live in fear of it; some write songs of it; others still are sent there far before their time. When we reach $1,500,000, we'll send you to the Hall of Echoes, land of the dead.

You, unique among the living, will be able to travel to and from this spirit world, where you'll uncover mysteries never before discovered by mortal eyes. You'll gain access to occult wonders, and you'll come face to face with those you've lost-- and those you've dispatched.

The best part - you'll be able to make this your home base!

You can always pledge at our fundraiser with the same rewards as the tiers at the Original Sin 2 Kickstarter, but in contrast to theirs, you can still get the locked tiers when you donate to our fundraiser and get us to a total of 10K. So you can get things with a lower cost from us.

 

Wednesday - September 09, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - More PAX News

by Myrthos, 13:04

MMORPG have looked at Divinity: Original Sin 2 at PAX and feel it was the best demo at PAX.

Of all the games I played at Pax Prime this year, Divinity: Original Sin 2 was hands-down the best. Don't get me wrong, I played a lot of amazing things, but playing alongside Swen Vincke, founder of Larian Studios, things couldn't have gone more wrong in our demo. And I am so glad they did. Role-playing video games, especially those influenced by Dungeons and Dragons, have always fallen short of capturing the magic of a tabletop experience. But as Swen and I went through a generous portion of Original Sin 2, there were times where I felt like we might as well have been sitting down at a table, pouring over character sheets before making our next decision.

ShackNews interviewed Swen at PAX

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And this video is not striclty about Originsl Sins 2, bu it shows Swen who joined a PAX panel, talking about classic RPGs, together with Adam Heine (inXile), Josh Sawyer (Obsidian), Mitch Gitelman (Harebrained Schemes) and Annie Vandermeer Mitsoda (DoubleBear Productions).
It is just audio no video, so you get to watch a still during the talk.

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Thanks Couch for the video links.

Tuesday - September 08, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Level Design, Add-Ons and Ask the Team

by Myrthos, 21:57

In Kickstarter update #6 of Divinity: Original Sin 2, we are infomed about the level design with a video and some screens.

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You can talk to the devs:

If you’ve ever experienced a Larian DevLine, you know they’re a great chance to ask the team your most burning gaming questions. Tune in on Wednesday, September 9 at 12 p.m. PST/ Los Angeles (3 p.m. ET/ New York, 21h CEST/ Brussels, 22h Moscow) for Larian DevLine, where we will stand by to answer your questions about Kickstarter, the development of Divinity: Original Sin 2, and more!

Keep your eye on our Twitch channel to join in on the fun.

And there are add-ons you can purchase on top of your pledge:

$20.00 Cloth Map
$25.00  Hard cover Lore Book
$25.00  Hard cover Art Book
$25.00  Larian T-shirt
$25.00 Copy of Divinity: Original Sin- Enhanced Edition
$26.00 Copy of Divinity: Original Sin 2
$75.00  Divine Hoodie

Note that you can also support Larian through our fundraiser and get the game, add-ons and other stuff.

Divinity: Original Sin II - Kickstarter FAQ

by Hiddenx, 13:43

Frequently asked questions and answers for Divinity: Original Sin II:

  • When is Divinity: Original Sin 2 going to be released?
    We plan to release Divinity: Original Sin 2 in late 2016. Of course, this date may be changed as our plans evolve! Any delays to the game will be announced in a timely manner, but late 2016 is the deadline we're aiming for. We're currently about a year into development, having started work on it right after the release of Divinity: Original Sin.
  • For which platforms will Divinity: Original Sin 2 be available?
    Right now, we're focusing on Windows only. Additional platforms may be announced in the future. Believe us, it's not that we're not interested in producing a version for Mac/Linux/Console, it's just that we want to get the gameplay and world fleshed out in all the detail that it needs first. Once we have the game fully worked out, we'll start looking at porting it to other platforms. That's not something that'll happen during the Kickstarter or indeed this year. But - and it's an important but - we do have most things in place to support several other platforms, since we are starting work from the Divinity: Original Sin- Enhanced Edition engine. We just don't want to make any promises yet.
  • In which languages will Divinity: Original Sin 2 be available?
    We plan to release in English, with French, German, and Russian subtitles. We may be announcing extra languages later in the development process.
  • Will Divinity: Original Sin 2 support controllers?
    Yes, the game will support a wide range of PC-compatible controllers, including Xbox One and PS4 controllers.
  • Will Divinity: Original Sin 2 have couch co-op and split screen support?
    Yes, the game will work seamlessly with two players in split screen. In addition, the game will support online play via Steam and GOG Galaxy, as well as LAN play.
  • Will Divinity: Original Sin 2 have full voiceover?
    It's unlikely that DOS2 will be fully voiced. While we'd like to voice everything, this is a game with exponentially more dialogue options than Divinity: Original Sin (the recording of which took seven straight months!), and we don't think there's any way we can voice it all with the resources we expect to have. We've tripled the size of our writing team, so we're looking at at least three times more content to record.
  • Will Divinity: Original Sin 2 have a day & night cycle?
    No, we have no plans to introduce a day and night cycle. What we're trying to do at the narrative & scripting level is really complicated, so to even contemplate adding yet another extra dimension of complexity to that gives us a headache. The impact of the player origins combined with a higher level of freedom than the already insane amount of freedom you had in Divinity: Original Sin, added to the options required for multiplayer mode already means that our development is going to be hugely complex. Until we tame all of that, we won't add an extra layer. Perhaps for another game, but definitely not for this one.
  • How will character creation work in Divinity: Original Sin 2?
    Character creation is still something of a work in progress, but essentially you will choose your origin story, and then build your character based on that. You'll be able to choose your race, appearance, stats, and more! The number of available characters from which you'll be able to choose is still under discussion, but we're hoping to give you a wide range of origin stories to work with, so that each journey through the game will be very different, depending on your choice of characters for your party, and the choices you then make within the game.
  • Considering the work that is being put into co-operative play, how will this affect the single-player experience?
    At the start of a single-player game, you pick one character and determine your starting stats, race, and origin story. You'll also be able to choose up to three companions, each of whom is just as detailed as the character you're playing, with their own origin story and motivations. In terms of the narrative development for the companions, in single-player that will depend on the actions of the main character. In multi-player, the other players decide that.
    We've found that the emphasis on competitive questing in Divinity: Original Sin 2 makes the single-player experience much better than its predecessor. We're focusing on making the narrative even more engaging - and that translates directly into a really fantastic single-player experience. You might not spend your time stabbing your friends in the back, but all of the content and freedom that makes the multiplayer experience so strong is still present when you're playing on your own.
  • Do you plan to release a physical copy of Divinity: Original Sin 2?
    No, all versions of the game available in Kickstarter will be digital, and the finished version should be the same. We're trying to avoid physical DVDs, as it makes patching the game an awful lot harder. Not shipping a physical disc means that we can update the game easily, which means more developer time spent on features, allowing us to make a better game.
  • If we back the Original Sin Pack, do we have to wait until December 2016 to get a key for Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition?
    No. Don't worry, if you back the Original Sin Pack, (or any pack that includes a copy of Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition) you'll get your key for the Enhanced Edition as soon as it's released, which is planned for October of this year.
  • What is the difference between the original Divinity: Original Sin and the new Enhanced Edition?
    The Enhanced Edition refers to an imminent new version of Divinity: Original Sin (which was originally released in 2014). You can read more on it here: http://www.divinityoriginalsin.com/blog.php...
  • If I back Divinity: Original Sin 2 and I want to get my copy on GOG, will I still have Alpha/Beta access?
    You'll definitely be able to access the Alpha/Beta through Steam (and hopefully through GOG too, but we're working on that at the moment and it's not 100% certain). However, the Alpha/Beta access that you choose won't affect which version of the game you get when it ships. So, you can access the Alpha/Beta through Steam and then get the final game on GOG.com if you want.
  • Will there be add-ons?
    This is currently under consideration, but we don't have any more details at this point in time.
  • Are you hiring?
    We're always on the lookout for new talent! See here for more: http://larian.com/jobs/

Friday - September 04, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Life after death, unlocked!

by Hiddenx, 19:39

The stretch goal 'Undead Origins' has been achieved and Swen gives some more info about the undead of Rivellon in Kickstarter update #5:

It's celebration time, so grab a glass of hemlock tea and hie yourself to the nearest graveyard. You smashed through the next stretch goal, and now it's official: the Undead will be featured as a playable race in D:OS2.

In this video, we learn a bit more about what's in store for the Undead in Rivellon from our lead writer Jan and concept artist Tania, and Swen gives us another peak into Larian's adventures at PAX.

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Thursday - September 03, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - How Larian is branching out the modern RPG @ Eurogamer

by Hiddenx, 20:44

Richard Cobbet talks about Kickstarter, RPGs, Larian, Divinity: Original Sin II and more options for gamers:

[...]"We have Original Sin 2. It's funded," Vincke states. "There's no doubt about that. Original Sin was a success, and we're putting everything from that into Original Sin 2. We don't need publishers, we don't need investors. But, what defines a great RPG is freedom of choice - and choice means options, and options mean features and features obviously translate into budget. So, what are the options that Kickstarter let us increase? We can increase the number of origin stories. Every one is going to be a lot of work, with a lot of choices to make. We can have more races, each with custom armour models and animations and voice, and since there's no point if characters aren't reacting to that choice, that's a whole lot more writing to be done. Then we have skills. We already have a lot in there, but there's a lot of skill trees people would like to see and we just can't do all of them. Same goes for systems. There's a lot of systems we could add... If people give us the room to do all this extra stuff, then we'll happily do all that, because we like our RPGs! We're also offering people the game at a lower price, and with Kickstarter, if you back it, you know that your money is going into the game rather than just into someone's coffers. We're not doing this to grab money. It's all going into the game."

Despite this, Larian wasn't always going to return to Kickstarter. Last year, Vincke's opinion was that while it had worked well, and the company wanted to harness its community again in future games, Kickstarter specifically was a one-time thing. "Yeah. For a long time, it was a much debated issue. Originally I wasn't a big fan of the idea, but then I had a big argument with Brian Fargo, of all people, who convinced me. My argument was that Kickstarter is there to start something, not to continue something. He said that wasn't true. He pointed out that big Kickstarters are necessary in the current ecosystem, and he's right." As just one example of that, "When we do an update on Kickstarter, people see that immediately and then they get involved." Also, "A large project on Kickstarter is not necessarily a negative for the others on there." [...]

Wednesday - September 02, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Lizards and Racial Skills

by Myrthos, 22:15

In update number 4 for the Divinity: Original Sin 2 Kickstarter we re told more about the lizards, one of the playable races in the game.

Lizards are proud: proud to form the world's eldest empire, the world's grandest culture. An imperial dwarf might scoff when reading such grandiose descriptions, but deep down he'd know there is something undeniable about them.

Legend has it that the Lizards were once even mightier still: descendants of dragons, with dragon blood running through their veins. Most don't buy these stories though, saying that the Lizards are simply trying to increase their already sensational reputation for political and military reasons.

Be that as it may, the Lizards and their empire are a force to be reckoned with, even by the rapidly expanding Divine Order, to the latter’s great frustration...

There is also more about the Lizard lore in the update. Furthermore they ask for your input on what kind of racial skills should e in the game. Here are a few of them:

Thanks to your unlocking of the Racial Skills stretch goals, all playable species will now get unique skills. Today we're talking about the Lizards, so what unique skills could they have? If you have a good idea, do share it with us in the comments section! Nothing is set in stone yet on the Racial Skills and we'd love to hear from you.

Here's a couple of ideas to get you going. But don't hold back on us now!

Health Regeneration (Passive)
Bask in the sun and recharge those battle-damaged batteries.

Resist Poison (Passive)
Not only a lizard's speech is riddled with acid, its blood is too. Good luck trying to knock one out with something as crude as cyanide.

10% chance to fall asleep when chilled (Passive)
Cold-bloods get sleepy in low temperatures. We see it happen at Larian all the time...

Automatically hastened when warm/hot (Passive)
Hand them a cup of coffee on the other hand...

+1 Intelligence Bonus (Passive)
No Larian tie-in here, but them lizards though! They're *real* smart!

And finally they mention that new tiers will be made available. One of them providing the opportunity to have your name in the game.

Tuesday - September 01, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - More Previews

by Myrthos, 17:59

Can't get enough of Divinity: Original Sin? Here are some more previews.

Tom's Hardware:

Both players now have a plan of attack, but there's also room to derail the other half of your team. With the new skill crafting ability, you can create poison with red food coloring to mimic a potent, yet deadly healing potion. If that doesn't help, there's always thievery. With guards keeping a close watch on dwarfs, random searches occur frequently in the area. The party can easily send items to each other, so the human can take a large set of stolen trading supplies. The dwarf, completely unaware of the switch, will willingly submit to a search, but won't know about the placed items in the inventory. Obviously, anyone caught with stolen merchandise will be immediately sent to jail. The number of missions means that you can continue to screw up your friends' mission progress, or you can be a nice person and help them advance throughout the story.

PwnPow (spotted by Couch):

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Divinity: Original Sin II - Crowdfunding Ethics

by Myrthos, 17:29

Cliqist asks the question about the Original Sin 2 Kickstarter, if it is ethical for a developer to go to Kickstarter for a sequel of a game that sold well and answers the question themselves.

One could look at the campaign and ask an uncomfortable question though: “Why is this on Kickstarter? Didn’t the original sell well?” Well, to answer the question, yes the game did do well. While I don’t have exact figures on how many units of Divinity: Original Sin were sold, Larian Studios Creative Director Swen Vincke has indicated that the studio already has the budget in place to make the game based on the success of original.

And to answer that with:

At the end of the day, Larian Studios asking fans of the original to pitch in a few bucks to help make Divinity: Original Sin 2 grander isn’t entirely wrong.

Somewhow I feel they could have made more of this article, but it is what it is.

Thanks Couch.

Monday - August 31, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Twitch TV @ PAX Prime 2015

Sunday - August 30, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Previews

by Myrthos, 22:15

Here are a few previews of Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Game Revolution

The rest of the demo looked familiar to the first game in the series, and for good reason. Larian crafted a fantastic combat system, and the company doesn't want to change it too much. There are some important tweaks in that area, though, namely the redistribution of action points. Characters have fewer action points in Original Sin 2, but skills typically only cost one point. This allows players to move around and experiment on a more consistent basis, which is when Divinity truly shines. The sequel also introduces skill crafting, which can result in some unusual but powerful abilities.

The Escapist

With this much complexity and depth to a game, one has to wonder how the game will stay together at all. If there is no GM to bring the party back together, wouldn't the game deteriorate into chaos? Swen assured me that Larian invested heavily in the writing team, folks with both screenwriting and tabletop experience, to act as a virtual GM of sorts. There will be missions that naturally bring the party back together as well as difficult consequences when things go too awry. A game of such complexity is ambitious for sure, and, if successful, could really make waves in the RPG genre.

Polygon

Despite launching a second Kickstarter campaign, Vincke is aware that Larian Studios is in a much different place than it was with the first Divinity: Original Sin. For example, despite turning to crowdfunding, the studio already has the money they need to make this sequel.

"The game is funded because of the original's success," Vincke says. "We can already do a lot of things. But we'd like to expand from here. We'd like to create more origin stories. Each origin story means basically hiring an extra writer because of how far they go in affecting the game. We also want to expand the skills and spell systems. An extra race would be cool."

In other words, this will be a crowdfunding game based almost entirely around raising money for stretch goals. The sequel is happening. The pre-alpha build is already running. The game will come out, regardless of whether it reaches its Kickstarter goal. But Larian Studios wants the opportunity to make it bigger and even more ambitious, which is something that the extra funding can make room for.

A video interview/preview on Gamespot.


Divinity: Original Sin II - Kickstarter Update #3

by Myrthos, 22:03

The third Kickstarter update for Divinity: Original Sin 2 is here with not a lot of new information, but we get a few words on them crossing the $1M mark, racial skills and a fun video from PAX.

Crossing the seven figure mark means that we will now be introducing Racial Skills to each Origin! Choosing a lizard over a dwarf will no longer be an aesthetic choice: now it will come with a range of skills, talents, and abilities that will reflect each race’s background, strengths, and place in the world. The history of your race will now directly affect how you fight, converse, and move through Rivellon. It’ll change how you deal with NPCs and friends alike, and will add a brand new layer of complexity and tactics to combat and your experience, letting you shape and mould your characters into the people (or lizards) that you want them to be.
Next stop: Undead Origins!

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Saturday - August 29, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Kickstarter funding surpassed Divinity: Original Sin

by Hiddenx, 17:21

The current Kickstarter funding for Divinty: Original Sin II just surpassed the final funding for the first game. Now the 1 million stretch goal: Racial Skills is in reach.

To support Divinity: Original Sin II you can take part in the RPGWatch Fundraiser.

Friday - August 28, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Hands-On Session @ Angry Joe

by Myrthos, 22:52

Here is Angry Joe's hands-on sessions for Divinity: Original Sin 2

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Divinity: Original Sin II - Stretch Goals, New Tiers and PR Tour

by Myrthos, 17:05

The stretch goals for Original Sin 2 have been announced. The new tiers we already knew are discussed and there is a video of the PR Tour.

$700,000 Stretch Goal: Strategist Mode

Akin to Divinity: Original Sin- Enhanced Edition's Tactician Mode, Original Sin 2 will feature a brand new difficulty called Strategist Mode. Rest assured this difficulty tier will consist of much more than a simple numbers game. Yes, your enemies will hit harder, but that is far from all! Each and every fight in the game will be redesigned for Strategist Mode so that enemies are smarter, often come in greater numbers and use a host of skills and tactics they won't use in lower difficulty modes. If we reach this stretch goal, the fights in Original Sin 2 will receive this epic treatment from the get-go. 

$850,000 Stretch Goal: Pick a Skill Tree, I

Divinity: Original Sin is rife with spectacular skills, and besides the many new ones we've already planned for Original Sin 2, we want to add even more unique skills to the repertoire. We have quite a list and will let our the backers pick a brand new skill tree, featuring at least 16 skills each, from among a host of new proposals when the campaign ends. New proposals, you say! Such as?

$1,000,000 Stretch Goal: Racial Skills

In Divinity: Original Sin 2, your unique origins will radically change the way you experience the world around you. Of course, since combat is one of the central ways in which you’ll engage with this world, it’s only sensible that your origins and your skillset should intertwine.

When we reach the $1M mark, we’ll develop a set of race-specific skills, abilities, and talents reflective of each race’s background and strengths.

Imagine: a Wood Elf able to summon an army of shambling trees; a Lizard recalling the devastating powers of his draconic ancestors; a Dwarf with the authority of the Empress; a human so good at pickpocketing, he can even catch his own party mates unawares...

$1,200,000 Stretch Goal: Undead Origins

In Original Sin 2, no longer will you have to be human all too human alone. You can be a dwarf too, an elf, yes even a proud lizard! But if we reach this stretchgoal, you'll be able to tell the tales of the dead with undead origins! That's right: at this point we will add the undead as a playable race, complete with origin stories.

$1,350,000 Stretch Goal: Pick a Skill Tree, II

With all the fantastic skills we've dreamt up, we'll need plenty of manpower to implement them. At this mark, we'll again open up a vote to let the backers decide which other of the skill trees listed at the $700,000 tier you would like to see in the game. Voting will be done by backers after the campaign ends.

$1,500,000 Stretch Goal; The Hall of Echoes

Some Rivellonians live in fear of it; some write songs of it; others still are sent there far before their time. When we reach $1,500,000, we'll send you to the Hall of Echoes, land of the dead.

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Thursday - August 27, 2015

RPGWatch Feature - Divinity: Original Sin 2 Interview

by Myrthos, 18:25

In the second part of our two part article series on Divinity: Original Sin 2, we bring you the results of an interview we did with the game writers Sarah and Kieron with a bit of Char in it as well.

I've mentioned that playing with four people and everybody going off to play their own game and only occasionally meet because it is needed, is something that is a concern to me. Kieron replied that the set-up of the prototype is such that it is designed to give you a feeling of what it is like to play as four individuals. The actual end game will have individual tasks and goals and personal drives for each character, but there will be a common goal and there will be points in the game where you will have to work together as some of the puzzles or combat will be next to impossible to solve by yourself.
It is now pushed, especially for the prototype, in the direction of getting the feeling of having a co-op where you are separately playing with each other, just to see the PvP elements. The prototype is also constructed in such a way that you cannot get all four people to succeed in leaving the island.
What they are really aiming for in the final game is that the party will move together, but there will be this feeling that you will not entirely trust the others. If someone talks to a NPC and you're doing something else, how do you know what the other character said? Can you trust the other one? The motivations of the characters will differ, but you still need to work together to reach your goal. The game simply can't be completed on your own. The story will help as it will be written in such a way that the plot will bring the characters together in a way that feels natural for them to move forward.

Divinity: Original Sin II - Funded!

by Hiddenx, 07:16

After less than 12 hours Divinity: Original Sin II is funded and the Larian crew is surprised:

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The Larians don't have the stretch goals ready yet, but they will be announced tomorrow.

Wednesday - August 26, 2015

RPGWatch Feature - Divinity: Original Sin II Preview

by Myrthos, 15:09

Last week I was in the offices of Larian Studios to learn more about Divinity: Oiginal Sin 2 and play the game as well. See the results of this part of the visit here.

Before we venture on, there is an important change in the game to pay attention to. From a 2 player co-op the game is now turned into a 4-player co-op game. However, unlike other games you can not only play cooperatively, but also competitively. You can, for example, prevent your fellow players from reaching their goals and even kill each other if you would like to do that, although that might not be very efficient. The story is made such that you need to cooperate in order to advance, but there will be plenty of room left to compete. Each playable character in the game will have a different origins story and because of that also different motivations and aspirations that might even be conflicting with each other. However they need each other, as they are all sorcerers on the run and Larian has made it such that you will not be able to do everything on your own.

Swen mentioned an example, which is not in the game, to clarify this. Suppose we need to go to the north to meet a general. One character wants to kill the general, the other wants the general to recognize him as his son, the third needs his help to defeat a legion of orcs and the fourth wants something else from him. We all need to go to the north, so we help each other to get there, but we do so for different reasons and sometimes conflicting reasons. You can't all get what you want in the end, so you need to compromise, or they just fight over it.

Divinity: Original Sin II Fundraiser - It is Over!

by Myrthos, 15:07

It's a Wrap

We have finsihed the fundraiser for Divinity Original Sin 2 and reached just over $11K. Thanks to all who have donated for making this possible.

So what is next?
I will transfer the funds to Larian Studios and will contact the donors for whom it is not clear what exactly they want in the coming time.
I do not have a clue what will be made available when by Larian Studios and I doubt they will have more clues at the moment, but when we find out we will let you know.

We will also fins out in the coming period what of the two options as listed below we are going for, so stay tuned.

 

The fundraiser

Like for Original Sin, we are also running a fundraiser for Divinity Original Sin 2.

The current status of the fundraiser is: $11,002,19 (net amount, includes deduction of fees)

  $0:        $2,500

  $2,500  $5,000

  $5,000  $7,500

  $7,500  $10,000

$10,000  $12,500

Note that this is manually updated, so it might take some time for your donations to become visible here.

Our goal is to reach $10,000 to get our name on the starting screen of the game. On top of that we also get to select one of the following extras for RPGWatch (still to be decided by those who participate in the fundraiser:

  1. The top 10 donors in our fundraiser will be included within the game as Guards, perhaps even part of the same special unit / regiment. In fact they already have a City Watch, with a Captain of the Watch we could name.
    In addition, all those who have donated at least $10 will be listed in a ledger of wanted or convicted criminals that the Watch have been investigating. Depending on the amount of people, there might be even two ledgers.
  2. You find someone's old watch, and when you open it, the owner's spirit appears (named by the the RPGWatch Community). Talking to the spirit is the beginning of a unique side quest that will nod to RPGWatch and its community.

More details can be found here.

 

Divinity: Original Sin II - Kickstarter is Here

by Myrthos, 15:03

The Kickstarter for Divinity Original Sin 2 just went active.

Thank you for taking the time to check out Divinity: Original Sin 2, our biggest and most ambitious RPG to date!

A couple of quick facts about the game:

  • Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a single- and multiplayer top-down, party-based role-playing game with pen & paper RPG-like levels of freedom.It features turn-based combat, a strong focus on systematic gameplay and a well-grounded narrative
  • Divinity: Original Sin 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Divinity: Original Sin, winner of over 150 Game of the Year awards and nominations. Winner of GameSpot’s “PC Game of The Year 2014”.
  • Divinity: Original Sin 2 is currently in development for PC in English. Subtitles will be available in German, French, and Russian. Other platforms and languages may be announced at a later stage, once development is more advanced.

Thursday - August 13, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - 8 Do's and Don'ts @ The Escapist

by Hiddenx, 07:42

The Escapist has put together 8 suggestions for the upcoming Kickstarter RPG
Divinity: Original Sin II:

8 Do's and Don'ts for Divinity: Original Sin II

Without question, Divinity: Original Sin was one of the best RPGs of 2014. Developed by Larian Studios, the Kickstarter-backed game launched in late June, and was soon receiving solid reviews from around the internet. This morning, Larian announced a sequel, and although the first game was quite good, we do have a few suggestions for them on how to make the second game even better.

  1. DO: Add a Little More Guidance
  2. DON'T: Lose the challenge
  3. DO: Get Rid of the Rock-Paper Scissors Conversation Game
  4. DON'T: Abandon the humor
  5. DO: Make the quest journal clearer
  6. DON'T: Be Afraid to Take Risks
  7. DO: Fix the Inventory System
  8. DO: Keep the mod tools

Wednesday - August 12, 2015

Divinity: Original Sin II - Kickstarter Starts Aug 26th

by Gorath, 15:01

Larian officially announces Divinity: Original Sin II and a Kickstarter campaign for it.

Divinity: Original Sin II Coming to Kickstarter

Vote for Your Favorite Rewards

Prototype Playable at PAX Prime


Larian Studios today announced its most ambitious RPG ever - Divinity:Original Sin II, the sequel to “Gamespot’s PC Game of the Year,” Divinity:Original Sin.

Eager to involve the RPG community as early as possible, Larian Studios will be returning to Kickstarter on August 26th.

Fans can now suggest which rewards they would like to see offered during the Kickstarter campaign by voting and offering feedback on www.divinityoriginalsin2.com.

A prototype of Divinity: Original Sin II will also be playable at PAX Prime, highlighting some of the game’s unique features!

In addition to being among the first to go hands-on with Larian Studio's upcoming RPG, attendees will have the chance to meet the developers and win (some very cool) prizes.

Come meet us at PAX Prime in Booth #6011.

More information on Divinity:Original Sin II will be unveiled on August 26th!

Vote for Kickstarter Rewards and Sign up for Updates Here
http://divinityoriginalsin2.com/

Edit: In his blog Swen had something to say about the new game as well.

I’m so glad I can finally talk to you about this! It was getting hard to talk about what we’re doing without actually saying what we were doing, so I’m really relieved that it’s finally in the open and that I can share my excitement for this.

In case you missed it, I’m of course referring to our recent announcement that we’ll be returning to Kickstarter with Divinity: Original Sin 2; our biggest and most ambitious RPG to date — one that will either sink us, or go on to be remembered as our best game ever!

 

Information about

Divinity: Original Sin II

Developer: Larian Studios

SP/MP: Single + MP
Setting: Fantasy
Genre: RPG
Combat: Turn-based
Play-time: Unknown
Voice-acting: Full

Regions & platforms
World
· Homepage
· Platform: PC
· Released: 2017-09-14
· Publisher: Larian Studios