Original Sin - Post-Funding Update #54

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Larian Studios has posted the next post-funding update for Divinity: Original Sin. It's a large update that has news on the game delay, and Alpha changes.

Happy Friday, friends!

We're pleased to offer a new update on Steam for Divinity: Original Sin. Assuming you enjoy improved stability; massively improved rule systems for classes, spells, stats, and items; fixed bugs and new features (including one that could help your weary and deserving heroes take the occasional break from hunting Source and making pizza), this update will certainly please you.

In the following video, Swen discusses the update, explains how your contributions on the forum have helped us, and offers some encouraging news for Mac users eager to get their hands dirty hunting Source in Rivellon.

Also, did someone say something about the release date?


(Hint - In case you skip the video the game is delayed to spring)


Larian also has a second video with more informaion on the Alpha.



What about balancing?

Enjoy a world of better-balanced weapons, armour ratings, damage, resistances, saving throws, statuses, gold, and treasure distribution and generation.

Balancing is, of course, an ongoing process and while this update offers much improvement, you'll find that we've still got our share of tweaking to do.

How has stability been improved?

Causes for certain frequent crashes have been identified and fixed, and performance has been improved and stabilised for Windows 32 machines. Also, co-op campaigners can breathe easy: Multiplayer has been secured, and strangers will no longer be able to pop into your game at random.

Check out the complete change log for more thorough information about updated game elements.

Do you actually pay attention to feedback from the forums?

Absolutely! Many of the bugs and areas for improvement we focus on come directly from the Larian forums. Any likes, dislikes, frustrations, bugs, or suggestions Early Access players provide filter directly to the programmers and designers currently working on the game world. Your feedback is absolutely crucial to this process, and we are deeply grateful to everyone who contributes.
More information.
 
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Delayed to spring?

I don't know about that I have a feeling I'll be giving out my extra KS copies as Christmas presents.
 
Larian says spring is the target now which means March, April, or May. I wont count out a possible Christmas release though as delays happen to all kickstarters.^^
 
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Going from alpha to final in 4-5 months? Maybe, but it sure seems like it needs a whole lot of polishing before then...
 
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Sven is my Willy Wonka of videogames.

By the way, that little tune they always play at the beginning of their videos... is that something they made? Was wondering if there is a 'full version' of that tune somewhere.
 
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Sven is my Willy Wonka of videogames.

By the way, that little tune they always play at the beginning of their videos… is that something they made? Was wondering if there is a 'full version' of that tune somewhere.


I love that tune. The in game music is composed by Kirill Pokrovsky. I presume the Kickstarter theme is by him as well. If you sponsored the KS at 35$ or more you get a download of the soundtrack and I hope that tune is on it as well. Not sure if you can buy the soundtrack separately, but I bet you will be able to. One of the successful stretch goals is a full orchestra, but right now the Alpha has placeholder music in it (also by Kirill.) Generally I don't care about game music or getting the soundtrack, but I'm looking forward to this one.
 
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Kirill is amazing, I remember listening to the original Divinity menu music lots of times, I thought it must be a beautiful female singing, but it was his own voice(I hope i'm right about this).
beside it being a beautiful piece of course.
 
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It is interesting to see the additional tweaks and changes they add with each new iteration…but also frustrating because it still seems quite far from done. The load times remain abysmal - although that maybe because they have compiled in debug mode (?I surmise?) and not optimized any of the loading code. Still don't like the camera constraints with limited rotation- I hope they remove that eventually, unless there is a compelling reason not. I see they have beefed up the first encounter (the only one I have tried - don't want to do too much ;-) - which is good. Sometime spells seem counter intuitive in their effects - like that magic fire bolt. Seems it can hit anyone if they are two close? Unless that is a bug. In the original alphas there was this frost blast spell, which it turns out, is a line along the ground so I blasted all my allies. This was not clear from the description. Dialiogs are also a bit clunky with all conversation topics remaining even if they have been discussed. The game needs a lot of polishing and tweaking yet.
 
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I love that tune. The in game music is composed by Kirill Pokrovsky. I presume the Kickstarter theme is by him as well. If you sponsored the KS at 35$ or more you get a download of the soundtrack and I hope that tune is on it as well. Not sure if you can buy the soundtrack separately, but I bet you will be able to. One of the successful stretch goals is a full orchestra, but right now the Alpha has placeholder music in it (also by Kirill.) Generally I don't care about game music or getting the soundtrack, but I'm looking forward to this one.

Quite some time ago, Larian shared the "update" song on their YouTube channel. It's a fantastically catchy song. And the lyrics are cute as well :)

 
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Kirill is amazing, I remember listening to the original Divinity menu music lots of times, I thought it must be a beautiful female singing, but it was his own voice(I hope i'm right about this).
beside it being a beautiful piece of course.
Are you sure it isn't his kicking in at 1:45? The opening voice sounds like a boy. It's definitely a good song whatever the case!

P.S. They have GOT to get that update music into the game somewhere - maybe as a song in a tavern.
 
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Quite some time ago, Larian shared the "update" song on their YouTube channel. It's a fantastically catchy song. And the lyrics are cute as well :)

The "Update Song"

Awesome! Thank you for that link!
 
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The game information states that the game can be played in 20 hours. $40.00 for 20 hours seems a little expensive to me.
 
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The game information states that the game can be played in 20 hours. $40.00 for 20 hours seems a little expensive to me.

That doesn't sound right. According to Sven's comment on the Steam Early Access version:
The game is available for Early Access on Steam! Grab two copies if you'd like to experience cooperative gameplay and dialogue with a friend. You'll get the first region of the game now (roughly 10-15 hours of gameplay) and the full version upon release.

Maybe I'm just guessing here but I would expect the full version to be around 40 hours at least. Anybody know how many acts or regions there are?
 
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The game information states that the game can be played in 20 hours. $40.00 for 20 hours seems a little expensive to me.

Can you link where you read that? Seems wrong (not attacking you or saying you're wrong)...
 
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Click on the game information on this website and the next page will say:

Information about
Divinity: Original Sin

Developer: Larian Studios

SP/MP: Single + MP
Setting: Fantasy
Genre: RPG
Combat: Turn-based
Play-time: 20-40 hours
Voice-acting: Partially voiced

I think someone of their game forum said that it could be done in 15 hours depending on gameplay
 
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Play-time: 20-40 hours
I based the play time on a quote from the games FAQ. Rest assured you can play longer if you choose to. Anyway here is the quote if your curious.
How big is the game? How long does it take to finish it?

This is always a tough question. Depends onwho's playing: are you any good at combat? Do you read everything you see, leave no stone unturned? Do you want to see every pixel on the map? Do you want to try out different dialogue options and quicksave and reload after trying different things? We think we are making a game that should take on average 40 hours to finish. We also thought this of Divine Divinity, and certain people can finish that in 20 hours, while others spend more than 100 hours in one playthrough…
 
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The game information states that the game can be played in 20 hours. $40.00 for 20 hours seems a little expensive to me.

It will be much longer for me.

Even if it wasn't though $2/hour for entertainment is pretty cheap.
 
are you any good at combat?
Depends… If it's clickfest, then no. If it needs some thinking, then noone can beat me. :D

Do you read everything you see,
No. I start reading everything but if it's crappy, I stop reading. Yea, I suck. On the other hand, some games had so good writing I replayed just because I wanted to reread the whole story once again!

leave no stone unturned?
I leave no stone unturned. Unless turning a stone causes a bug. And I hate when that happens.

Do you want to see every pixel on the map?
Not really. Just those that matter. Useless stuff please leave for multiplayer mode.

Do you want to try out different dialogue options and quicksave and reload after trying different things?
Nah, that's what's replay for. However if there (and usually) is a bugged sequence in the dialogue, I like to have a quicksave prepared.

I'd say I'm in that 100 hours group, right?
 
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I spent probably 50 to 60 hours with Divine Divinity. If some people got thought that game in 20 hours then they probably missed out on a good deal of content. If the game plays as long as DD I'll be a happy camper. If it plays longer, it's all bonus from there.
 
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Some info from Raze, who is closely affiliated with Larian, on the Kickstarter update page regarding game size.

There are 4 or 5 maps in the game. Three are a little larger than the Cyseal map, and one is smaller. During the kickstarter Larian said they were thinking of combining Cyseal and the smaller map, to eliminate the loading screen between those 2 locations.

I think there will be a significant amount of content :)
 
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