Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Ed. Thoughts?

[MentalAcetylide]

I'm currently playing this game and so far I've stumbled my way through & out of Fort Joy, Lady Vengeance ship, and got to Reaper's Coast. Currently I'm asking myself WTF were the game developers thinking?

Every time you have one of those special events involving the main character being separated from the main party, the inventories of the other characters gets scrambled/reset so you end up having to sort everything again. In a case like this, I would simply have the main character hold everything, but there's a limit to how much each individual character can carry without being slowed or unable to move. In a game like this, especially if its your first play through, you have to be a pack rat since there are occasions where you never know when you'll need a specific item.
Combat, while interesting in some ways, tends to be a shit streak you want to wash out. imo, the camera view/controls for the game are not properly implemented to coincide with how the combat system is set up. I've encountered too many instances where the camera does not zoom out far enough so moving characters towards enemies or targeting them is a pain in the balls. To make matters worse, you can damage(or outright kill) allies & characters in your own party if they are in your line of fire or happen to fall within an area of effect. Makes it rather difficult for any kind of precision with respect to aiming area of effect spells. I'm not even going to go into how there always seems to be some kind of crap on the ground(poison, oil, fire, or ice) throughout the game.

heh, I'm basically a teleport whore in the game. Enemy wants to take the high ground? I teleport their asses back down. Want to come up to me on the high ground? I teleport their asses back down. Want to shoot or cast spells from afar? I teleport their asses to the front of my feet and stomp their butts into the ground. I'm finding that without using this strategy in some cases, your party will get shredded since the AI seems to favor height. The only drawback with "Teleport" is it will damage your characters, so you pretty much have to rely on one of the Scoundrel or Hunter skills if you want to teleport to an enemy without wrecking your characters in the process. I'm still not sure if I'm building my characters right, but they seem to "work" for now. Worse comes to worse, I can always respec them, but I think there are limits to that since gold is very limited, even when stealing it. I also noticed that when you steal items, they get labelled with something like "x Stolen" in their description. Not sure what that's about, but I would guess that I probably won't be able to sell it or would get attacked if I equipped it and went near the NPC that I lifted it from.

I've played Baldur's Gate II in the past and I don't recall having as much trouble with the combat system or the cameras. I think the pathing was more of an issue than anything in that game.

 

[defaultluser]

Yeah I got frustrated with combat and gave up on it

There are so many other turn-based strategic combat games out there that do such a better job (Disgaea, and Tales are just two I've discovered recently that are really outstanding)

 

[AsRock]

Never had the inventories of any char\AI to do any thing weird, and only have two issue's witht he game one being magic users spells being moved about very Fcking annoying.

The other is that the AI seem to cheat and do not go by the same rule book like having more kick ass spells than you possibly can have.

Ok i guess there is a third um and a forth ha, coop is a bit of a pain as it seems to forget the order that you were last playing. And for the forth that frigging cheese guy drove me so crazy i poisoned everyone ( not sure if you can do it still though i think i remember them removing the way i did it from the game.

DOS2 my wife took one of those towns out and decided it was all so a bad idea haha.

Those state points you get everyone is important as the first one. Was more fun the second play though.

Never had a issue with the camera either.

 

[Toothless]

A lot of these issues sound PEBCAK. Played multiple campaigns, solo and coop. Never had issues like these.

 

[MentalAcetylide]

A lot of these issues sound PEBCAK. Played multiple campaigns, solo and coop. Never had issues like these.

Well I'm all ears. If you have any ideas regarding how to remedy some of these issues, do enlighten us. I know for a fact that every time your main character is moved to the cavern where the divine ghosts(or whatever they're called) are located, the inventories of the other characters end up getting re-sorted. This also happens whenever any non-main character who has temporarily left the party rejoins it. So if I have weapons, armor, scrolls, etc., sorted horizontally with an open line above/below them to allow room for future items of the same type, the game will just bring everything together so that there's no open slots between them & mixes everything up.
Maybe you're just use to playing games like this or are using a camera mod, but like I said, the camera setup they implemented does not zoom out far enough and there's no way to change it in the game settings. There should be a way to adjust the camera x,y,z coordinates within a given area that your character is located without moving the target character so you can better view & evaluate the battle.

 

[Mussels]

The games designed for four player coop, when you remember that, the inventory shenanigans make sense
Once you reach the end, it becomes very veeeeery clear why they need to be seperate inventories

Sounds like you watched one of the cheese videos on YT where they abuse teleport and telekinesis - the combats turn based so its super easy to rotate and move the camera, and half (or more) of the combat in the game is the synergy between the environment and the spells

 

[MentalAcetylide]

Never had the inventories of any char\AI to do any thing weird, and only have two issue's witht he game one being magic users spells being moved about very Fcking annoying.

The other is that the AI seem to cheat and do not go by the same rule book like having more kick ass spells than you possibly can have.

Ok i guess there is a third um and a forth ha, coop is a bit of a pain as it seems to forget the order that you were last playing. And for the forth that frigging cheese guy drove me so crazy i poisoned everyone ( not sure if you can do it still though i think i remember them removing the way i did it from the game.

DOS2 my wife took one of those towns out and decided it was all so a bad idea haha.

Those state points you get everyone is important as the first one. Was more fun the second play though.

Never had a issue with the camera either.

Yeah, I would guess the NPCs can probably use scrolls just like anything else, and I know some of them carry a few of those grenades. However, I do believe they are still bound to the same rules when it comes to spell cooldowns and such since I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary, but yeah, they ALL enjoy casting spells at your characters.

The games designed for four player coop, when you remember that, the inventory shenanigans make sense
Once you reach the end, it becomes very veeeeery clear why they need to be seperate inventories

Sounds like you watched one of the cheese videos on YT where they abuse teleport and telekinesis - the combats turn based so its super easy to rotate and move the camera, and half (or more) of the combat in the game is the synergy between the environment and the spells

I have no problem with each character having separate inventories and prefer that. The problem is the game will undo my preferred item sorting of the other three characters at certain points in the game and just cluster the stuff together. Anymore I just keep most of the stuff on my main so I don't have as much to reorganize every time it happens. Its still a pain in the ass though.

 

[Toothless]

Well I'm all ears. If you have any ideas regarding how to remedy some of these issues, do enlighten us. I know for a fact that every time your main character is moved to the cavern where the divine ghosts(or whatever they're called) are located, the inventories of the other characters end up getting re-sorted. This also happens whenever any non-main character who has temporarily left the party rejoins it. So if I have weapons, armor, scrolls, etc., sorted horizontally with an open line above/below them to allow room for future items of the same type, the game will just bring everything together so that there's no open slots between them & mixes everything up.
Maybe you're just use to playing games like this or are using a camera mod, but like I said, the camera setup they implemented does not zoom out far enough and there's no way to change it in the game settings. There should be a way to adjust the camera x,y,z coordinates within a given area that your character is located without moving the target character so you can better view & evaluate the battle.

Ever chain characters together? Because that keeps inventories together minus the very rare times you're stuck soloing.

As for the camera, that's a personal control thing. I typically have it in the open area for less adjusting.

 

[MentalAcetylide]

Ever chain characters together? Because that keeps inventories together minus the very rare times you're stuck soloing.

As for the camera, that's a personal control thing. I typically have it in the open area for less adjusting.

I'm not understanding. Yes, unless I need to split them up or move them individually. Other than that, I keep them chained since its much easier to move them as a group in most areas. If unchaining them is suppose to solve the problem, I'm not sure it would be helpful since it requires knowing ahead of time when those kinds of events will occur.

I don't know what you mean by "open area", like I said, I don't think the camera zooms out far enough. There have been times where an enemy NPC will be up on high ground and the most I'll be able to see of them is part of their foot or sometimes not at all during a battle until one of my characters moves close enough in that direction and is high enough. The "O"(overhead) view gives you a much better view from the top down position, but it tends to be even more restrictive in regards to the area you're able to see.

 

[phanbuey]

This is one of my favorite games. I don't remember having any camera or inventory issues either - been a while since I played.

I usually run two lone wolves for solo playthroughs.

 

[MentalAcetylide]

For fu**s sake, you guys could've just told me that I could pan the camera around with the WASD keys. At least now the zoom-out distance isn't much of an issue like it was before. I found this out when I was trying to use a wand and thinking to attack using the "A" key.

 

[Mussels]

Nooooooow it makes sense

 

[MentalAcetylide]

The games designed for four player coop, when you remember that, the inventory shenanigans make sense
Once you reach the end, it becomes very veeeeery clear why they need to be seperate inventories

Sounds like you watched one of the cheese videos on YT where they abuse teleport and telekinesis - the combats turn based so its super easy to rotate and move the camera, and half (or more) of the combat in the game is the synergy between the environment and the spells

I'm not sure how you could abuse teleport since they have a cool down period and the character needs Aero 2 to learn the skill(and its not like teleport scrolls are common). I've had battles where NPCs do the same thing to my characters. You do what you have to do to win because the AI will do the same based on what I've been experiencing so far.

I just did the Driftwood Arena at lvl 10, blindfolded and then fought Murga and her pet. I think Murga was more difficult than the blindfold fight. She seems to have a LOT of AP & hits you at least 4 times(all crits) right at the beginning. I think the only reason I managed to kill her so quickly and win is because she went for my tank first and I was able to get my thief behind her and use all kinds of nasty Scoundril skills on her backside.

 

[Vayra86]

A lot of these issues sound PEBCAK. Played multiple campaigns, solo and coop. Never had issues like these.

This.

You have to appreciate that D OS and its sequel are not your standard isometric RPG. There are many systems in the games that have their very own dynamic to them. You either respect those mechanics, or you find yourself living the hard life.

- Targeting & camera... never had an issue, the camera can be manipulated afaik. The game can be paused. You have as much time as you need to set things up.
- 'There is shit on the ground'... no shit sherlock. Its half the game: interaction with the environment, using elemental damage to your advantage, and making stuff react with one another. Make things wet and apply thunder. Burn oil pools. Blow things up. Teleport a dude into that sea of fire. Etc.

- Its true, you do whatever you have to, to win. There are some pretty interesting combo's to make and min-max characters with. I won't spoil any. But you have to think more along the lines of the game mechanics than what you might be used to playing party based RPGs. Every single character can be configured in ways to make it an absolute powerhouse, except perhaps the archer type, because ranged physical combat is just weak. The key point is almost always to combine two or three things together; skill or environment-wise.

Also, quite a few fights in the game work out differently depending on how you solve quests leading up to them.
Additionally, many fights can be started by launching some sort of attack out of combat, and provide a significant headstart.

This is one of my favorite games. I don't remember having any camera or inventory issues either - been a while since I played.

I usually run two lone wolves for solo playthroughs.

Oh yes. This is absolute glory.

 

[dgianstefani]

For fu**s sake, you guys could've just told me that I could pan the camera around with the WASD keys. At least now the zoom-out distance isn't much of an issue like it was before. I found this out when I was trying to use a wand and thinking to attack using the "A" key.

Did you consider looking at the "controls" part of the menu

 

[MentalAcetylide]

Did you consider looking at the "controls" part of the menu

I did and could not find anything under the camera settings at all that indicated to me that this or that specific set of keys moved the camera. Its fine now and I don't have a problem with the camera view since I figured out how to pan it all over the map. I was indeed railing on the game's camera view since I didn't know how to move it and thought I was stuck with a limited static view range where I could only rotate the camera along 2 axis with limited zoom. I can guarantee you Fort Joy is going to turn into Fort Slaughter in my next play through. I got my ass handed to me a number of times there because of bad moves & "mis-spellfires" related to piss-poor camera use.
Right now I'm trying to learn the various counters for effects that NPCs like to hit you with. There's quite a few of them and nothing sucks more than when you have a character missing turns because they fall on their asses from ice, can't use a skill, or have some other effect eating away at their armor.

This.

You have to appreciate that D OS and its sequel are not your standard isometric RPG. There are many systems in the games that have their very own dynamic to them. You either respect those mechanics, or you find yourself living the hard life.

- Targeting & camera... never had an issue, the camera can be manipulated afaik. The game can be paused. You have as much time as you need to set things up.
- 'There is shit on the ground'... no shit sherlock. Its half the game: interaction with the environment, using elemental damage to your advantage, and making stuff react with one another. Make things wet and apply thunder. Burn oil pools. Blow things up. Teleport a dude into that sea of fire. Etc.

- Its true, you do whatever you have to, to win. There are some pretty interesting combo's to make and min-max characters with. I won't spoil any. But you have to think more along the lines of the game mechanics than what you might be used to playing party based RPGs. Every single character can be configured in ways to make it an absolute powerhouse, except perhaps the archer type, because ranged physical combat is just weak. The key point is almost always to combine two or three things together; skill or environment-wise.

Also, quite a few fights in the game work out differently depending on how you solve quests leading up to them.
Additionally, many fights can be started by launching some sort of attack out of combat, and provide a significant headstart.


Oh yes. This is absolute glory.

What level can you go up to? I'm only level 11 right now, and just got done killing the lich guy after he spawned his loot chest somewhere not far north of Driftwood. Very nasty fight since he charms one of your characters and has four red "bloody buddies" helping him. My thief(main) is mostly Dual Wield, Scoundrel, with a point in Pyro for the Haste skill, and I'm starting to put points into Warfare. The Red Prince I have set up as a tank type mostly Two-Handed, Warfare, and 2 points in Geo. The Onslaught skill just destroys physical armor and takes out a good chunk of HPs with it. He hits for around 550 dmg with what he has currently equipped.
The other two characters are spellcasters. The dwarf is mainly Summoning(at 6 right now), Aero, some Pyro, and Sebille is mostly Hydro with a couple of points in Necro & Polymorph. Early on I tried having the dwarf dual wielding wands, but the damage from it is underwhelming.

 

[tussinman]

Every single character can be configured in ways to make it an absolute powerhouse, except perhaps the archer type, because ranged physical combat is just weak.

I agree with everything you said except this. Archer is one of the easiest to powerhouse (max only finesse on the main attributes and then warfare/huntman combo on the secondary attributes).

It being so easy to powerhouse is part of the reasons why it's one of the most popular options for lonewolf runs (spam those attributes and you can pretty much kill anyone in a single turn, especially with the highground bonus)

 

[Vayra86]

I agree with everything you said except this. Archer is one of the easiest to powerhouse (max only finesse on the main attributes and then warfare/huntman combo on the secondary attributes).

It being so easy to powerhouse is part of the reasons why it's one of the most popular options for lonewolf runs (spam those attributes and you can pretty much kill anyone in a single turn, especially with the highground bonus)

Hm! I guess I didn't quite find the 'thing' with archers then Nice.

 

[MentalAcetylide]

I agree with everything you said except this. Archer is one of the easiest to powerhouse (max only finesse on the main attributes and then warfare/huntman combo on the secondary attributes).

It being so easy to powerhouse is part of the reasons why it's one of the most popular options for lonewolf runs (spam those attributes and you can pretty much kill anyone in a single turn, especially with the highground bonus)

How would you lone wolf with something like that? I know you get quite a boost to your stats when going that route, but still, its going to be a pain in the ass fighting 4+ NPCs at the same time; especially if they can backstab or do some other nasty stuff that makes you miss a turn.
I'm still debating on wtf to do about this troll on the bridge. He's got over 5,000 HP, strength of oh around 48 & he hits for around 1000+ damage. I forgot to mention, you can't teleport his fat butt at all. I probably need to gain a half dozen levels before I have a chance of killing him without one or more of my party members getting flattened. The best I was able to do was, iirc, at level 10 I was able to get his health down to about half before he finished killing off my party. I think the fight lasted for 4 turns. The Incredible Troll.

 

[Mussels]

I'm not sure how you could abuse teleport since they have a cool down period and the character needs Aero 2 to learn the skill(and its not like teleport scrolls are common). I've had battles where NPCs do the same thing to my characters. You do what you have to do to win because the AI will do the same based on what I've been experiencing so far.

I just did the Driftwood Arena at lvl 10, blindfolded and then fought Murga and her pet. I think Murga was more difficult than the blindfold fight. She seems to have a LOT of AP & hits you at least 4 times(all crits) right at the beginning. I think the only reason I managed to kill her so quickly and win is because she went for my tank first and I was able to get my thief behind her and use all kinds of nasty Scoundril skills on her backside.

You should see the videos. It's possible to beat the game with nothing but teleport and telekinesis.


The game has a lot of cheese, and a lot of overpowered ways to play - but it also has methods available that are pure shit and make you hate the game.

 

[Vayra86]

How would you lone wolf with something like that? I know you get quite a boost to your stats when going that route, but still, its going to be a pain in the ass fighting 4+ NPCs at the same time; especially if they can backstab or do some other nasty stuff that makes you miss a turn.
I'm still debating on wtf to do about this troll on the bridge. He's got over 5,000 HP, strength of oh around 48 & he hits for around 1000+ damage. I forgot to mention, you can't teleport his fat butt at all. I probably need to gain a half dozen levels before I have a chance of killing him without one or more of my party members getting flattened. The best I was able to do was, iirc, at level 10 I was able to get his health down to about half before he finished killing off my party. I think the fight lasted for 4 turns. The Incredible Troll.

The real question is, do you need to fight an impossible enemy

That said everything is possible given a good enough party composition, but if fights are 'too much' most often there are other ways to go forward.

As for lone wolf; those stats bring lone wolves to levels that a regular character cannot reach. Plus 1 is a major advantage because your rolls have better outcomes. Also you get additional action points if I recall right, which enables many tactical advantages.

 

[tussinman]

How would you lone wolf with something like that? I know you get quite a boost to your stats when going that route, but still, its going to be a pain in the ass fighting 4+ NPCs at the same time; especially if they can backstab or do some other nasty stuff that makes you miss a turn.

Huntsman and warfare which is what you grind on the second attribute bar for lone Wolf archer allows tactical retreat and phoneix dive. That's 2 out of every 4 turns you can dramatically move away from enemies. Pair that with gloves of teleportion which you find early game (allows you to learn it without having to spend attribute points on aero) you now can get away from close enemies three out of every four turns which is all you should need

The battles that are really tough then you can start really cheesing by adding things like invisibility potions or Charmeleon cloak.

I'm still debating on wtf to do about this troll on the bridge. He's got over 5,000 HP, strength of oh around 48 & he hits for around 1000+ damage. I forgot to mention, you can't teleport his fat butt at all. I probably need to gain a half dozen levels before I have a chance of killing him without one or more of my party members getting flattened. The best I was able to do was, iirc, at level 10 I was able to get his health down to about half before he finished killing off my party. I think the fight lasted for 4 turns. The Incredible Troll.

Act Two is incredibly long so if you want to kill it you just do it later. I was level 16 when I fully completed act 2. I think by level 13 or 14 I could easily kill the troll

 

[neatfeatguy]

I love DOS:2

I like how you can play through multiple times and after talking with the same characters/NPCs in different playthroughs you can conversations go a different direction.

Take the Red Prince for example, after the ship is ripped apart and you're navigating the starting area, when you approach the Red Prince and start talking with him, based on your initial conversation on the boat with him and certain conversation choices on the beach, it will cause him to fight you. I came across this after my 3rd or 4th start of the game


It's been a good year or more since I last played the game and I don't recall inventory issues.....except when I enabled that add on that lets you use the inventory bags. That was an absolute clusterfuck and gave me a headache of how complicated and impractical those bags were.

Camera was never an issue, at least not for me.

I played through the start of the game many times and it wasn't until one of my last play throughs that I found out you can get the Nebora collar removed from your main character pretty early and then you have at least one character that can use their source skill for fights.

How would you lone wolf with something like that? I know you get quite a boost to your stats when going that route, but still, its going to be a pain in the ass fighting 4+ NPCs at the same time; especially if they can backstab or do some other nasty stuff that makes you miss a turn.
I'm still debating on wtf to do about this troll on the bridge. He's got over 5,000 HP, strength of oh around 48 & he hits for around 1000+ damage. I forgot to mention, you can't teleport his fat butt at all. I probably need to gain a half dozen levels before I have a chance of killing him without one or more of my party members getting flattened. The best I was able to do was, iirc, at level 10 I was able to get his health down to about half before he finished killing off my party. I think the fight lasted for 4 turns. The Incredible Troll.

It's been a while since I played, but that troll can be ignored completely (go a different route) or you can fight him.
There is a way to remove the blood lust (or whatever the troll health regen spell/skill he uses) on him so he doesn't regen health. Fire and poison, if I remember correctly, work wonders on him, but he's too hard to beat if he's got his regen spell/ability active.
Last option, as you said, is to wait until you're higher level.

I do have to say that once I had multiple characters able to use the teleport spell, I had a blast taking enemies and dropping them in the most random places they can't easily get out of (or at all), thus almost completely eliminating them from the fight until the very end.

I might have to go back and play the game some more and try another class/build I haven't used before.

 

[Mussels]

There was also some quest optional thingy you could do to weaken or remove the troll, iirc

 

[dirtyferret]

the combats turn based so its super easy to rotate and move the camera,

i used to spin the camera so much so I could see every "hidden" enemy, element, barrel, etc., I would make my head dizzy

I usually run two lone wolves for solo playthroughs.

I was meaning to go back and try this as a rogue & ranger combo, how was it?

There is shit on the ground'... no shit sherlock. Its half the game: interaction with the environment,

oil gets set on fire, wood gets set on fire, water gets set on fire, I remember the battle by the oil well my whole screen was just on fire

Every single character can be configured in ways to make it an absolute powerhouse, except perhaps the archer type, because ranged physical combat is just weak.

I agree with the start of the game the range melee is weak but it does become better once you get a few good spells plus you can turn the range melee into a buffer & healer hybrid. FYI, in Baldurs Gate III when I played the ranger in early access, it seemed Larian turned that class into more of a powerhouse.