Divinity: Original Sin II - Interview: Definitive Edition

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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.

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More information.
 
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Yup, should’ve waited even longer to play this one...
 
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I'm not sure waiting for a long time is all that advantageous.

Then again, I believe we all have relatively low "pleasure/entertainment" thresholds.

As in, a game can only ever entertain us so much - and waiting for a million patches and expansions won't actually be "that much" more rewarding.

It's the same with food or sex. Once you achieve a certain level of pleasure or enjoyment - you can't really go beyond it. In fact, striving for that kind of perpetual improvement often results in something less than the peak.

We're not designed for infinitely scaling emotions - which is why the body and mind start to shut down at certain levels of pain or fear.
 
I don't mind having played a few times it was fun; and I will most certainly play again more than once after the definitive version though I will read about who changed the most before i build my party. My first main was Beast and my second was Loshe; undoubtly fan will be a main one play through and it sounds like from the small snip above Beast might be a candidate or perhaps ifan. i find the game a lot of fun but I always found the last 1/3 a bit disjoint and am glad they are rewriting a major chunk of it. Having said that it is also equally likely it will need another year of patches after the definitive version is released for those who like waiting :)
 
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There must be a clause in the agreements made for intereviews: "Any questions asked must not reference shitty level scaling of damage, armor, & hp as a way to implement progression."
 
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I already played for 200 hours, I'm not doing it again! (Well, maybe in a decade+....)
 
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Darth Tagnan said:
We're not designed for infinitely scaling emotions - which is why the body and mind start to shut down at certain levels of pain or fear.
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This happened to me when I tried to play the latest Middle Earth game.
 
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Yeah, that's the one. The sequel. Not much Middle Earth, although I didn't look for long. I think my mind shut down after killing my 100th orc by, essentially, mashing one button.
 
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Capt. Huggy Face said:
Yeah, that's the one. The sequel. Not much Middle Earth, although I didn't look for long. I think my mind shut down after killing my 100th orc by, essentially, mashing one button.
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I tried the first game for a few hours until I gave up in disgust. Aside from being decidedly anti-Tolkien in tone and treatment of the lore - the gimmick feature is apparently a big selling point for many people, but for me - it was nothing but an empty grindy battlefest with an ultra repetitive combat system.

I guess it goes without saying that I didn't feel the need to try the sequel :)

I'm still waiting for a game that's truly worthy of the incredible world Tolkien built.

LotRO came somewhat close, but is too old now.
 
I'm so confused why would one compare a D:OS-2 to a lotr game. I mean even if you repaint the lizard with an orc face your gonna have difficulty making him act like one.
 
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Darth Tagnan said:
I'm still waiting for a game that's truly worthy of the incredible world Tolkien built.
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Yes. I don't particularly want to mow down 100 orcs in 60 seconds. I'd rather dodge the Nazgul on the road to Bree.
 
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Capt. Huggy Face said:
Yes. I don't particularly want to mow down 100 orcs in 60 seconds. I'd rather dodge the Nazgul on the road to Bree.
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I would just really love to explore Middle-Earth and experience that world in a game that's built with a strong attention to detail and the lore.

I've always wanted to explore the Barrow Downs or the Mines of Moria - in that way.

LotRO did a decent job of it, but unfortunately the engine is clunky and the combat is rather boring.

Beyond that, I think it's still quite the money maker - if handled correctly.

Oh well, I guess we're already way off topic.

Sorry about that :)
 
Yeah, sorry for derailing the thread. I liked Original Sin II lots. Larian should make a turn-based LotR cRPG. :p
 
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