Original Sin - Update #3, FAQ

Myrthos

Cave Canem
Administrator
Joined
August 30, 2006
Messages
11,223
The first part of the FAQ for Divinity Original Sin has been made available on their Kickstarter page, which explains amongst others these:
Can I back this with PayPal?
We are working on this. It's not difficult to do, but we want to wait a bit because the pledges through PayPal do not count in our Kickstarter total. And we need to figure out the more logistic way of handling the rewards done through PayPal.
Shipping outside US? I thought you were from Belgium? That's Europe!
Yes, but we're on the US Kickstarter, and the only options we have, are "No Shipping", "US Shipping", and "Non-US Shipping". We are looking into a solution for this. If we can organize shipping within Europe, and the costs are lowered, we will change that.
Do monsters level up or become stronger the bigger your party is?
No. Monsters do not scale to your level. If you are level 1 and you see a level 10 monster: run. If you are trying to take on 10 monsters all by yourself while the rest of your party is somewhere else: good luck. Combat is balanced against a party.
If you want to try it with one party member, and succeed, you'll get all the XP. (Total XP is shared over the party.)
More information.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
11,223
I love this FAQ!

The entire list reads as: "No, we will not cater to what you have come to expect from simplistic RPGs in the past ten years."
 
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
5,978
Location
Florida, USA
Everything I read from Larian seems so unfiltered, genuine and sincere (almost rough) that I can't help but wonder what their in-game writing is like.
 
Joined
Aug 17, 2008
Messages
1,718
Location
Dear Green Place
I was sold on Day 1. But I must say I really appreciate the frequency of updates Larian is throwing out.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
803
Location
Singapore
I'm really looking forward to this game. But this did surprise me:

We focused on reactivity instead of simulation. We are hoping that the Kickstarter campaign will be successful so we can actually add schedules via a stretch goal.

I sort of assumed there would be NPC schedules given that the game is supposedly influenced by Ultima VII. Hope they can make a stretch goal to include this and if so I hope it will be implemented in a meaningful way and not feel tacked-on. If not I hope I can get my NPC Schedule 'fix' from Shroud of the Avatar.

We cannot do full voice with the budget we have. At the moment, we only plan to do "important characters" with unique lines.

I'm actually glad they're not doing voice overs. There is the possibility of so much more depth, storytelling, and choice-consequence when the developers are free to write without the hassle of getting every permutation recorded - which seems to always result in much less of all of the above.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
Everything I read from Larian seems so unfiltered, genuine and sincere (almost rough) that I can't help but w. der what their in-game writing is like.

This is true. I always enjoy reading their thoughts, particularly the blogs by Lars that have often been pointed out here at The Watch. In game, it's a bit silly at times and serious when it needs to be. The humor might not have you rolling on the floor, but you just might chuckle a few times…and you'll never have to whince.

Try out The Dragon Knight Saga sometime. The combat is a bit arcadey for my taste, but everything else about it has a kind of old RPG feel. I've seen it on sale at Steam pretty cheap a few times, I think.
 
Joined
Sep 16, 2010
Messages
4,813
Yeah, I would recommend Dragon Knight Saga as well. I find it amazing that Larian has dabbled in several different game styles. They developed isometric action RPGs (Divine Divinity + Beyond Divinity), a third person action RPG (Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga), RTS (Dragon Commander) and now a turn-based action RPG (Original Sin).

I cannot even imagine what they'll think of next. Maybe a completely new genre altogether :D
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
803
Location
Singapore
I cannot even imagine what they'll think of next. Maybe a completely new genre altogether :D

With Dragon Commander, they already sorta did that, I'd say.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
3,508
From the FAQ: "What's wrong with talking to yourself?! You can roleplay both characters!"

I consider pre-orders to be highly dubious and Kickstarters to be borderline economic insanity but when they say things like this I find it very hard to keep my sanity! How often do game designers talk about actual role playing at all, never mind role playing TWO characters at once??
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
Pledged $150 for alpha access. This is my 5th kickstarter and I've spent much more than I would have if I just bought 5 regular games. Seems to be paying off though as it seems bigger developers are starting to see there's a market for these kind of games.

Probably going to need to take a break until some of my games start releasing though.
 
Pledged $150 for alpha access. This is my 5th kickstarter and I've spent much more than I would have if I just bought 5 regular games. Seems to be paying off though as it seems bigger developers are starting to see there's a market for these kind of games.

Probably going to need to take a break until some of my games start releasing though.

Hmm, I'm not to keen on alpha access to games like this...aren't you worried about ruining the final experience?
 
Joined
Apr 17, 2007
Messages
5,749
Hmm, I'm not to keen on alpha access to games like this…aren't you worried about ruining the final experience?

No, this is the kind of game I usually restart several times. So I'll use this time to test game mechanics and early character builds.

Hopefully with alpha and beta time I'll be ready to just jump in to the game upon release.

That's my hope anyway, haven't done a lot of alpha or beta testing so I guess I'll find out.
 
With Dragon Commander, they already sorta did that, I'd say.

Hmmm, interesting point. I always considered it a hybrid RPG/RTS with more emphasis on the latter. But it really is a unique blend when you consider the dragon flying aspect as well.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
803
Location
Singapore
@TheMadGamer - I find it disappointing that they're claiming to need stretch goal money to add NPC schedules. I would have thought that would be automatic.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,129
Location
Florida, US
I really hope they make it, and that the game is as awesome as it seems. Already pledged.
 
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
1,957
Location
Sweden
@TheMadGamer - I find it disappointing that they're claiming to need stretch goal money to add NPC schedules. I would have thought that would be automatic.

They do have behavioral loops as you can see, with the guards training, cooks cooking etc.. Real schedules in a day and night cycle are a considerable effort and anything but "automatic" - which is why even AAA games often don't have them, e.g. Dragon Age. For a mid sized independent developer like Larian it's always a question where to put their resources.
It is interesting, though not surprising, that it seems to hurt their campaign that they have so much to show already - dreams are easier to sell than the real thing.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
3,508
They do have behavioral loops as you can see, with the guards training, cooks cooking etc..

Ah ok. I must admit I haven't watched any of the more recent videos. I'm fine with those sorts of things, but I guess more complex schedules would be a nice bonus as well. Either way, this game is high on my list.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,129
Location
Florida, US
Hmm, I'm not to keen on alpha access to games like this…aren't you worried about ruining the final experience?

I agree with you Rune, there's a fine line between wanting to try out a game as soon as possible and ruining the final experience. I've stopped playing betas for games like these. In some strategy titles, a beta is more about balance and ironing out bugs, then it feels fine.
 
Joined
Dec 20, 2010
Messages
3,216
Location
Sweden
They do have behavioral loops as you can see, with the guards training, cooks cooking etc.. Real schedules in a day and night cycle are a considerable effort and anything but "automatic"

When I wrote, 'automatic' I didn't mean to imply that there is some sort of NPC Scheduling fairy that easily and effortlessly creates NPC schedule code with a wave of her wand.

What I meant was that I just sort of assumed that NPC schedules would be in the game given that the developer cites U7 as an inspiration for the game. And as those of us who love our Ultimas know, NPC schedules are a hallmark feature of those games (well, most of them anyway).

I still think OS is shaping up to be a great game. It's just that I made this assumption which I shouldn't have. The behavior loops are better than nothing but full blown schedules would be better in my opinion of course.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
@TheMadGamer - I find it disappointing that they're claiming to need stretch goal money to add NPC schedules. I would have thought that would be automatic.

Given how far along they are with this project, I'm almost thinking that at this point, perhaps they should just drop this as even a consideration. If they reach some currently undefined stretch goal to include this, I fear the NPC schedules might feel tacked on and just for show without at least some noticeable integration with quests and plot and so on.

With my admittedly limited knowledge and experience with the whole crowd-funding concept, so far it seems like stretch goals are better suited to self-contained things like adding an area, adding additional monsters and things like that. But NPC schedules seems to be the kind of feature that would need to be green-lighted early on and inter-woven into the game as it is developed.

I thought G1 and G2 sort of raised the bar over U7 in this area and what I'm looking for is raising the bar from G1/G2. I don't know if that can happen now since they are so far down the development pipeline. I fear perhaps the best result they could achieve, since much of their game world is already developed, is NPC schedules similar to Skyrim where NPCs sort of mosey about to one or two different locations depending on the time of day but other than that there is not much to it.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
Back
Top Bottom