Divinity - Original Sin

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ManusDei
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Divinity - Original Sin

Post by ManusDei »

First a small movie
http://www.divinityoriginalsin.com/movies.php

And a not so small article
http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article?ar ... f=0&id=499

It's really tempting :twisted:

Main features :
  • Isometric top-down view
  • Turn based combat
  • Main inspirations : Ultima VII and Fallout
  • Possible to play up to 4 in co-op (two main heroes and "mercenaries")
  • No class
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blatherbeard
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by blatherbeard »

Never played any of the others but this sounds very kick ass.
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by quasimodo »

This looks good. I liked the original Divine Divinity a lot, even though I'm not a fan of diablo style combat. I didn't play Div2 because they switched to OTS view with WASD movement controls.

Isometric view with TB combat and a party is by far my favorite game style and is hard to find these days...So I'm very interested.
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sirdilznik
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by sirdilznik »

I really liked Divine Divinity and sort of liked Beyond Divinity, Divinity 2 not so much. This sounds different than all of them and really interesting.
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sirdilznik
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by sirdilznik »

So, it seems they went the Kickstarter route for this game. I have to say, the game looks and sounds really good. Turn-based? Thumbs up. Drop in and drop out seamless co-op? Thumbs up.

I really like the disagreement system they have for players making conflicting decisions, I could see that leading to some interesting co-op exchanges. Also, it's cool how different spells and effects augment each other in combat. I was almost certainly going to buy this game when it came out anyway, so I'll likely "pre-order" now.

Also, Mac and Linux versions confirmed, but not simultaneously released with the Windows version.
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by quasimodo »

It looks very good to me. I'm in for a boxed copy with manual.
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sirdilznik
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by sirdilznik »

Here's a good article on the game from Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

It's great how they're making the world so it can be broken, augmented, messed with, etc. allowing you to approach things in a creative way, or just cause chaos and spread mischief. Hopefully this Kickstarter is very successful so they can push this concept as far as possible.
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by Wraith_Magus »

Especially as someone who plays games like Dwarf Fortress or Mount and Blade, which very purposefully have no plots, and instead just have mechanics to simulate actions and reactions, I find it a little funny to see it called "breaking" a game to do something that wasn't scripted just to see how the game reacts.

In any event, I've never had much patience for Diablo-style games, so I never even looked at the original Divine Divinity, but that review put the game on my radar for the right reasons, so thanks for pointing it out.

I don't suppose there's a link to somewhere that details how, exactly, the character actions are translated into ongoing character personalities, though? That's the sort of thing I've been looking for and talking about in games for years, and had only tiny scraps of mechanics to show for it, so I'm quite interested.
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by sirdilznik »

Wraith_Magus wrote:Especially as someone who plays games like Dwarf Fortress or Mount and Blade, which very purposefully have no plots, and instead just have mechanics to simulate actions and reactions, I find it a little funny to see it called "breaking" a game to do something that wasn't scripted just to see how the game reacts.

In any event, I've never had much patience for Diablo-style games, so I never even looked at the original Divine Divinity, but that review put the game on my radar for the right reasons, so thanks for pointing it out.

I don't suppose there's a link to somewhere that details how, exactly, the character actions are translated into ongoing character personalities, though? That's the sort of thing I've been looking for and talking about in games for years, and had only tiny scraps of mechanics to show for it, so I'm quite interested.
I'm curious about this as well. What exactly do those stats do? Do they augment NPCs reactions to you? Are they completely meaningless except for the stat sheet? Do they control how the character acts if you set him or her into AI-mode when playing single player?

Still, the way pretty much anything that's picked up can be used, even if it's not really intended for said purpose, the environment can be exploited and augmented, and the way the game gives you the freedom to experiment (this may not have desirable effects, but if your really want to try, knock yourself out) is quite admirable. I can recall many times in my gaming past thinking "hmm, I wonder if I can do..." and the few times I actually could, regardless of whether it produced the desired effect or blew up in my face, I wound up with a big geeky smile on my face.
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by Wraith_Magus »

sirdilznik wrote:I'm curious about this as well. What exactly do those stats do? Do they augment NPCs reactions to you? Are they completely meaningless except for the stat sheet? Do they control how the character acts if you set him or her into AI-mode when playing single player?
I've actually only seen one game series really try something like this, and it's an extremely obscure Japanese tactical RPG somewhat similar mechanically to Dragon Age. (It's name is Growlanzer if you want to look it up.)

In that game, though, you had about a half-dozen different player-character-only metrics that are based essentially entirely upon your choices in dialogue in response to either plotline scenes or reactions to players, with a BioWare-like emphasis on talking to and eventually dating your party.

Much of the time, however, choices didn't have gameplay impact, but instead just a character personality score impact. For example, in one scene, you chase a monster out of a cave, and the monster shoots a laser at the boulders over the cave entrance, and you get a dialogue box that pops up and gives you choices of either warning your party members, just screaming "AAAAAH BOULDER AAAAH!" and running for it, or giving the silent treatment and trying to side-step the boulder while assuming your party will just, y'know, deal with it on their own.

Part of what made it work was that you needed to build up a certain number of personality points for some options to actually be possible to choose. For example, when you first meet a major female character, you have an option to deliver a cheesy, "Do those legs go ALL the way up?" line if you've acquired enough "Womanizer" points by that point in the plot.

You got rated on being on a sliding scale of hot-headed versus cold, (basically, do you charge into battle and respond to villain taunts or do you not give a shit and always take your sweet time,) being "stupid" versus "smart" (this related to how the party would find clues as to what to do next, and then ask you what they should do - pick a stupid answer, and the responsible party members will slap you and tell you what to do, while picking the right answer makes them "ooooh!" at your proper guess,) whether you are optimistic or pessimistic, a few others I can't quite remember that depended on which game in the series you were in, and also a "Likes Men" stat that basically measures if you were flirting with the other boys, (and to my eternal regret for not flirting with boys, includes options to do things like talk about how FAAAAABULOUS the leather jackets of enemy assassins sent to kill you are,) and, of course, the "womanizer" stat that you get for being a jackass who kind of wants to slap HIMSELF after hearing what just came out of his mouth.

Another part was that the games usually had some skill that was tied to the personality alignment you had - a hot-headed character gained access to a once-per-battle skill that was basically "Hit them REAAAALLY hard", while the cold character gets a skill that can be used once-per-battle to give themselves another use of some other skill that was already used up.

It was ultimately unfortunately not a central part of the game series - the games generally had a largely linear plot that just breaks off into a dozen or so different endings at the last moment based mostly around who in your party you're dating, but some of the games have personality type requirements before you can date different party members.
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sirdilznik
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by sirdilznik »

Woohoo, they just reached their initial funding goal, just under halfway through the campaign. Onward to stretch goals.
8)
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by IJBall »

sirdilznik wrote:Woohoo, they just reached their initial funding goal, just under halfway through the campaign. Onward to stretch goals.
8)
Grrrr... they don't promise Mac/Linux versions, and it's disappointing that Mac/Linux versions aren't included in the 'stretch' goals... :roll:
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sirdilznik
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by sirdilznik »

IJBall wrote:
sirdilznik wrote:Woohoo, they just reached their initial funding goal, just under halfway through the campaign. Onward to stretch goals.
8)
Grrrr... they don't promise Mac/Linux versions, and it's disappointing that Mac/Linux versions aren't included in the 'stretch' goals... :roll:
Methinks you need to read a bit more carefully:
Confirmed: Coming to Linux & Mac!

It's about time, but we are extremely happy to announce that Divinity: Original Sin will now definitely be coming to Mac & Linux. We will do everything we can to ensure that the release dates are going to coincide with the Windows PC release, but if that doesn't happen, it will be shortly after.
:wink:
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by IJBall »

sirdilznik wrote:
IJBall wrote:
sirdilznik wrote:Woohoo, they just reached their initial funding goal, just under halfway through the campaign. Onward to stretch goals.
8)
Grrrr... they don't promise Mac/Linux versions, and it's disappointing that Mac/Linux versions aren't included in the 'stretch' goals... :roll:
Methinks you need to read a bit more carefully:
Confirmed: Coming to Linux & Mac!

It's about time, but we are extremely happy to announce that Divinity: Original Sin will now definitely be coming to Mac & Linux. We will do everything we can to ensure that the release dates are going to coincide with the Windows PC release, but if that doesn't happen, it will be shortly after.
:wink:
That's really odd - is this at their Kickstarter page? or their main game website? Because I literally did a 'word search' for "Mac" at the Kickstarter page to look for something like this, and the "Mac" word search didn't find any announcement.
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sirdilznik
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Re: Divinity - Original Sin

Post by sirdilznik »

IJBall wrote: That's really odd - is this at their Kickstarter page? or their main game website? Because I literally did a 'word search' for "Mac" at the Kickstarter page to look for something like this, and the "Mac" word search didn't find any announcement.
They originally mentioned Mac & Linux in the FAQ. This latest quote is from Update 10.
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