Risen 2 - Anti-Warp Mod Released

Originally Posted by tolknaz
Yeah, properly moving tree leaves have always been the true essence of PB-s games.

But a significant chunk of that essence is exploration and the shrinking/expanding flora might hurt the immersion part of it because it infuses the environments with an element of inconsistency.
Personally I had no problems with the warp (which seemed to occur less often after the first island), but since the mod does make the environments look and feel more believable (to which graphical fidelity is quite irrelevant), Iīd certainly used it if I havenīt finished the game already.

Originally Posted by Capt. Huggy Face
I was initially excited about Risen 2 but haven't gotten it yet, after getting scared off by reading voodoo was really just a quest.gimick used at predetermind points in certain quests.

Itīs not just a quest gimmick, itīs useful in combat as well - the problem is more in the vein of lackïng variety/complexity resulting in it being boring.
Iīve no idea what prompted them to fuck up the combat either, itīs a genuine wtf-were-they-thinking case .

Originally Posted by Capt. Huggy Face
I am not interested in guns, other than shooting people in dialogues.

You can get shooting ppl during the conversation skill no matter what path you take.
I've had so much fun with it.
And that's something Game of Thrones, other milking machines or any other game in fact won't have in a billion years. But to each his own, I admit I love things that are not clones.

This warping thing is blown way out of proportion (I think) because the game has so many other shortcomings.

Originally Posted by hwfanatic
This warping thing is blown way out of proportion (I think) because the game has so many other shortcomings.

Shhhh no it doesn't it's a great game.

Combat was this series and Gothic's (until 3) strong point. Now without that, nor factions, and apparently weak sauce voodoo, really losing interest in this, sadly…

Originally Posted by rune_74
Shhhh no it doesn't it's a great game.

It's not bad I will give you that much. I'll be jotting down some impressions as soon as I've finished it but so far I'm underwhelmed.

Originally Posted by tolknaz
Yeah, properly moving tree leaves have always been the true essence of PB-s games.

The essence of their games has always been the truly great atmosphere and fun exploration, and much of that is due to fantastic and interesting level design (vegetation etc). But yeah the game has many other problems that i can understand people think are more important. The fact that you can stand behind anyone and stab him and he wont even attack or notice it is quite laughable. In the previous games a NPC would even hear you if you unsheeted your sword behind him. Sad to see that they now have a much bigger budget, but their games aren't getting better because of it, rather the opposite.

Originally Posted by vurt
The fact that you can stand behind anyone and stab him and he wont even attack or notice it is quite laughable.

Aww crap is that bug still in there? PB aren't big on patches but surely they'll address that bollocks. The awareness of the NPC's is one of the best things about the previous games.

Maybe there'll be a post-console-release-patch.

Originally Posted by Capt. Huggy Face
Why is that guy's statement patently untrue? He said he has no desire.to run his own company anymore. Maybe he has a cushy, low-stress gig as a cog in a big machine that delivers a fat, steady paycheck and gets him home at 5. While I still have a job with crazy hours, maybe he has come to realize, as I have, that what is really important is waiting for him at home, not in the office.

You're right there's hardly any stability to be had in the gaming biz and if he's found a stable job he likes then more power to him. It's not safe almost anywhere in the gaming biz even at big companies or companies with glowing reputations for stability and treating their employees like human beings like at Stardock. After the fiasco that was Elemental they had to let a lot of people go, but normally they're a pretty decent company that tries to keep their employees employed.

*Waaayyyyyy off topic*
BTW, the new Elemental is looking a hundred times better than the original. The best thing they did was hire the dev for Fall From Heaven 2.
*Back on Topic*

Ironically, this was what I hated most about the game at first. After playing for a good while (had to take a break, and I started over - so I'm still only at the end of the second island) - I don't even notice it, really.

I almost didn't install this mod, but I did - and it really does work. Fantastic mod for people just starting to play and who, like me, tend to obsess over visual glitches.

I'm more bothered by the rock-texture pop-ins - but it's rather minimal in the grand scheme of things.

I think my main issue right now is that Muskets seem quite overpowered.

Is it safe to use with the Steam version? The same question goes for modifying those other values to reduce the flickering?

I wish they'd release small patches faster, rather than huge rare ones.
But Im a patient man

Originally Posted by Sin
Is it safe to use with the Steam version? The same question goes for modifying those other values to reduce the flickering?

All versions use Steam, so yes.

Originally Posted by borcanu
I wish they'd release small patches faster, rather than huge rare ones.
But Im a patient man

Risen 1 only had one minor patch that came out almost half a year after the game was released and that fixed only irrelevant little details instead of addressing any of the more substantial issues. I wouldn't get my hopes up about the post-release support of Risen 2…
That said, a Deep Silver rep spoke about the possibility of a soon-ish patch for the first time yesterday at the WoR forums. She said she couldn't make any promises but that they are currently testing a few things so it seems like a patch might be in QA at the moment.

Originally Posted by vurt
The fact that you can stand behind anyone and stab him and he wont even attack or notice it is quite laughable.

There's only a handful of places in the game where it would even benefit the player to do that. It's not as if you can do it to NPCs that are actually hostile.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Ironically, this was what I hated most about the game at first. After playing for a good while - I don't even notice it, really.

This. The foliage bothered me for all of 15 minutes, and I'm usually really anal when it comes to visuals.

A handful places is still too much, such a thing shouldnt go into a release version..

I could never get used to something like that morphing flora i think, i played through the whole demo with that and it still bothered me. It's the same with "pop-ups", they're always distracting from the experience, i've spent hundreds of hours in games that has it, and it's still distracting..

Moriendor: that's good news

Depends how you play. It's up to the player to exploit something like that. If you find it immersion breaking then simply don't do it.

I wouldn't put the morphing flora on the same level as pop-in, but that's just me. I'm glad someone came up with the patch though.

The antiwarp mod breaks the patch from May 9th, which adds dodging and fixes foliage problems.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Depends how you play. It's up to the player to exploit something like that. If you find it immersion breaking then simply don't do it.

On a semi-related note and immersion breaking stuff: Not exploiting things in Risen 2 is easier said than done sometimes. In the rare event that the retarded AI does catch you stealing (in some cases getting caught is unavoidable due to the placement of the guards and them following you around), combat might turn out to be your last resort.

In past PB games there would be pretty severe consequences if you attacked certain NPCs but in Risen 2 NPCs are like muppets. You can slap them around and make them your bitch all you like. This was especially disappointing in Caldera where the Inquisition hardliners should have you jailed and hung if you dared attack them or at least chase you out of port and cannons would be blazing if you returned anywhere near the coast. None of that in Risen 2.
You can steal from the Inquisition head honchos all you like, kick them in the balls while laughing your butt off, pull their legs and their nose hairs… you name it.

I found that to be very immersion breaking and it's like that with NPCs all over the game. NPCs with credible behavior and choice & consequence when dealing with them was -at least to me- a very integral part of what made a typical PB game a typical PB game. To no longer have that is much more painful to me than the minor or semi-major annoyances like no diving/swimming/climbing or no drinking animation etc.

Originally Posted by Alistair
The antiwarp mod breaks the patch from May 9th, which adds dodging and fixes foliage problems.

Damn, I wish I'd waited until now to play it (I finished it yesterday). Dodging was the one thing that I wanted them to add. New players are probably going to have a lot more fun with the game than us early adopters.