Hi all. Signed up here, cause I'm throbbing in anticipation for Ego Draconis. It's been since the Witcher that I've seen a half-decent RPG, and with three good ones set to come out in the first half of this year, you can imagine I'm anxiously awaiting the mayhem.

I'm Flemish, and actually don't live too far from Larian Studios, and of course I've played Divine Divinity. I understand the game's got some excellent ratings, especially complimentory when it was made with limited funds. As to what I've seen from Ego Draconis, Larian has done a very nice job of fixing the original games' flaws, and I hope they have managed to captivate the good things about them as well. I, for one, am eagerly anticipating the game's release, and it's good to see a local game designer give the corporate giants a run for their money. You can be sure I'll get the collector's edition (if they make one)!

Of course, questions do arise, seeing as the information we have at present received about this game (even though the developers have been very generous in shedding light upon various questions) is not very detailed.

So, I was wondering what skills the game will offer, whether there'll be good melee combat system with many different weapon combinations, whether dual-wielding will be implemented (I know I know, sorry, I love dual-wielding, Drizz't Do'Urden and all that; hate me now), whether one will be able to craft weapons and armor themselves from a smithy rather than just craft enchantments for them, whether one can play the game fully with utmost enjoyment without using much magic or alchemy, whether one can choose to be an out-of-the-shadows thief-type character with leather armour, or an unarmored swashbuckler without being killed fighting the back end of a wayward boar? Also, will there be the option of wearing cloaks and if so, will they be short and ridiculous like the Guild Wars/WoW cloaks, or will they actually be realistically warm, heavy woolen cloaks?


...so many questions, so little time

Hi swordscythe,

Quick answers:

-Dual wielding is in.
-Check out the information already released about the battle tower to discover what's possible in terms of crafting.
-It's a classless system so there are a lot of ways of developing the combat abilities of your character

But no to the cloaks I'm afraid.

Cheers

Sounds great. Thanks a lot!

Welcome to the forum, Swordscythe

Thanks

Looks like I'll be doing a lot of checking this forum out in the next few months... hehe.

It's a fun forum Lots of nice people

I'm thinking about few game mechanics so I will try to present my questions/ideas here. I hope that Lar will have some time to write few positive lines for us :-).

- Will there be some party comrades/henchmen (aside from the monster you can create)?

- Will there be some quests when you could use NPC soldiers/mages to indirectly help you? For example: you need to deceive some clan of fighters/brigands to attack your enemies. so you steal something valuable from them and convince the clan that your enemies are the thieves. Then you will see the fight between 2 strong groups and have chance to break through and get somewhere you need. Are there some quests like this - when you dont fight alone and with a little cunning you can outwit stronger opponents? (Also this should have consequences - when the clan finds out you lied to them, both groups could hunt you :-)

- How do you design the world, I mean outside areas? Could we expect mostly open terrain (standard woods, rivers, small hills, rocks) or more grim, scrubby terrain (very dense woods, swamps, big mountains and rocks with cannyons) that limits your movement (and gives stronger impression as dangerous/unexplored territory)? With more scrubby terrain you need to find a way through and be carefull to not fall into a trap or boss guarding some mountain pass.

- Also do you plan swamps - REAL swamps - when need to find a way through and be carefull to not be devoured in a mud?

- What about fight system? Will there be somewhat aimed blows (controlled by keyboard) or dodge/parry maneuvers to spice the fight up a little? I hope Larian is not aiming for simple generic system "click them to death and if they dont die, use some skill or spell". I like more tactic elements in a fight, even small ones. (Maybe I missed some info on this topic)

- How strong will be dragon fire? Do you plan to give them ability to ignire fire on larger areas and/or burn wooden buildings?

- Will there be some magic especially designed to fight the dragons? For example ice spells to freeze their wings or "net" to snarl dragons in flight?

- Will you implement sneaking abilities for the Hero to hide and sneak past opponents in night or dark areas?

What about fight system? Will there be somewhat aimed blows (controlled by keyboard) or dodge/parry maneuvers to spice the fight up a little?

Hopefully not, at least not to a micro management extent. I don't like twitch based gameplay.

In the topic News from the front, Sektor said that in terms of click rate in combat, D2:ED should be better than DD (in terms of potential for repetitive strain type problems). That's about as much as has been revealed so far, though.
Various positions on combat systems were debated in the Wishlist topic, amongst other suggestions and related discussion.

will the fighting still be relatively simple?I really hate it when I need to press 57buttons to fight, one of the main reasons i like dd, is that I just click and can focus on my skills and spells..and oh yeah, are there already indictaions on HW specs? since it's "solden" here in belgium ^^ I want to know whether I need to buy a new pc now or not, because mine is still very good but as upgraded as can be, so I will not be able to compensate any longer..please let me know..and o yeah, I can't wait!!!

Larian thank you for making these wonderfull games, without a doubt DD is my favourite all times, and Ego Draconis isn't going to be less I believe in you guys

I got the impression that combat would still be relatively simple, or at least that it didn't go the 57 button route.

Not much has been mentioned on the system specs, either, except they are targeting to have it run on Geforce 7800 video cards. Because it is being made for the XBox 360 it will not require a lot of memory (though of course more is better). They have not mentioned CPU, but anything remotely recent is usually good enough for most games.

My current system is also below the requirements, but as upgraded as it can be. I was thinking of getting a gaming laptop fairly soon, but am now leaning towards waiting until mid year (a month or so before release, whenever that is).

I think people tend to forget that it's not because you have a combat system that consists of keyboard combinations, that it's "twitch-based". There are games who bring really good, intuitive and realistic combat which is easy to control; such as Severance: Blade of Darkness (granted, it's not a good game, but it does have a good combat system)and Gothic II (better stance as you improve your weapon skill, which also means different combos, and you have to time and direct your swings)

Personally I think point-and-click games are out of date. It's sort of sad that most RPG's (and most action games, for that matter) still haven't come up with a combat system that immerses the player. It's not because you have to time it right and aim it right, that combat depends on player skill. Not at all, character skill will still be the decisive factor, but making you control the character personally will add much to the involvement and will make for a much more interesting game.

Not that the tried-and-true method doesn't work; the Infinity-type isometric view, also used for DD, is a classic and very good view and system. But all games have been 3D for quite a while now; it's time to evolve. I'm sure Larian agrees, and has put quite a bit of thought in the combat system.

Perhaps they plan to keep the system close to DD, as suggested by Raze but allowing us to enjoy the fights been played out in full 3d (poss. rotatable camera?). Depending on your class and level, I think it would be reasonable to assume that 'special moves' can be cued up much as a mage lines up spells ready to cast. Real time button mashing combat would be quite a game mechanic to implement well. If you have ever tried to play Morrowind/Oblivion in 3rd person (which only really has attack and block) you will know that it is not pretty and can be awkward. If there as as many enemies on the screen as there were at times in the first two titles then I for one would prefer to be able to pause, and plan my attacks. Maybe thats because I have terrible reactions though

The combat system may be close to DD in design concept, but not in implementation. D2:ED has no mouse cursor during combat or moving around, just when the inventory is opened. Presumably there would be some form of manual or automatic targeting system (at least for ranged attacks), rather than having to physically point your character in the right direction to attack.

There will be a pause function. Lar mentioned this in the 'News from the front' topic, but not how it will be implemented.


Welcome to the forum.

Buy zee vey, is there also any info yet on what weapons will make it into the game?

There was quite a bit of commotion on both the Oblivion and the DA:O forums, I remember, about them not including certain weapons, such as crossbows and polearms. Of course, it's not necessarily a bad thing to leave them out, because they take up quite a bit of developing time, I imagine, being that polearms are a completely different weapon type that needs different animations; and crossbows having a shorter range, but far more piercing power and a far more linear trajectory than longbows, and those pining for crossbows mostly aren't satisfied with a bow that looks like a crossbow.

Any rpg-fan would of course love these weapons to be in so as to increase the amount of choice in a game, but most of us would also not want to give up something else for them to be in. It's an easy position of criticism (kind of like being in the opposition when Larian's the government, ha! Politicians eat your heart out) but it's the guys and girls at Larian who have to make the decisions; and to be honest, it's not a vital feat to the game.

Thanks Raze. I played DD years ago and is still up there with my all time favourite ever games. Started BD but lost interest halfway through. Nowadays Im made of stronger stuff I think, so with my interest captured by the next installment on the way I've decided to try and finish it. Tell me - was a mod/development kit ever released for the first game much like the one released for Neverwinter Nights? Is it at all likely now that the 'next generation' of the game is imminent? Apologies for going off topic.

hmm.. another question. Is there an official FAQ for Divinity II? I wouldn't mind spending some time making an FAQ for the game...

I also wouldn't mind learning a bit more about Rivellon than I already know. Is there a source (preferably English, though not necessarily) in which we could get to know the lore in that world?

I suppose the most obvious place to start would be all the books littered throughout the first two games. Gathering all the info and organising it into a wiki style database would be very usefull but quite a task. Maybe Larian could help by offering up all the text from the various books in one file?

About Lore:
I assume that the game itself will present some lore of Rivellon. It should to immerse player in the world. It reminds me of Oblivion books about history of Tamriel. Elder Scrolls has strong lore, but I would prefer a little different approach. Please, Larian, TELL the stories. Not throw them into the world as books, but let the player to converse with NPCs and listen to old legends (if they want). Books are ok, but stories told by living NPCs are better. It also helps to make bonds with some NPCs.

About fights:
There is no need for micromanagement in fight, but I think that RPGs badly needs some tactical elements. We saw too many simple clickfests to be excited by it nowadays. If there will be "pause" implemented, it can be a solution - system based more on using of skills/spells in right time and maybe more. Or Larian is opting for something completely different

There has been no word on what weapons will be in the game, other than what has been shown in screenshots or videos: swords, knives, war hammers, clubs, axes, bows....

There were no mods or development kits released for DD or BD, due to the use of proprietary tools used (which could not be re-distributed) and the lack of user friendliness of some of their interfaces. There is at least the possibility that modding tools could be released for D2:ED at some point after the game itself is released.

There is some information on D2:ED on the official site, but no exhaustive FAQ. Myrthos has compiled some background and FAQs at the Locus Inn. The fansite kit (17.7MB) contains some background for DD and a novella covering most of the events between DD and BD.
The books in DD are already in one file: '..\Divine Divinity\Run\main\startup.v2\static\books.000'. It is not a straight text file, but you can open it in Wordpad (etc) and read/copy the text portions.

Ah... I've desperately been wanting to replay DD, but I've lost it, sadly, along with tons of my other classic games.... I've bought Gothic II back, but I guess I'll need to buy another copy of DD... unless it'll come with DII of course... :p