KS: Divinity: Original Sin by Larian Studios LLC

[Necuno]

..Saw this over at Torment: Tides of Numenera's comment section:



KS: Divinity: Original Sin by Larian Studios LLC

Original sin in a nutshell

"Picture a modern version of a world not unlike that of Ultima VII, that can be explored either alone or with a friend, that sees you engage adversaries in tactical turn-based combat reminiscent of the great turn-based RPGs of the past. A world that is filled to the brim with choice and consequence situations, reactive NPCs, and a considerable amount of surprises. A world that captures the feeling of playing pen and paper RPGs with our friends. Then add the new stuff..." - Vision statement for Divinity: Original Sin

When making large-scale epic RPGs it often helps to summarise what you are trying to make in a couple of lines, just to ensure you don't lose focus during development. You can spend a lot of time trying to come up with these vision statements, but when we started making Divinity: Original Sin, it didn't take us long to come up with the one above. It's simply what we've always wanted to do. The only reason we haven't made this game before was that the following list never made it past the marketing departments of many a known publisher. Now that we are self-funding and self-publishing, we can get away with features like the following.

• Divinity:Original Sin is an Isometric cRPG.
• You can play in single player mode but also in cooperative multiplayer mode
• It's a real epic CRPG so even in multiplayer, you're engaging in much more than just combat and item fever. A nifty cooperative dialog system, a highly reactive world, a deep character development system and plenty of choice and consequence situations see to that.
• You can create your own RPG adventures with our powerful RPG editor and share or play them with friends
• Combat is very tactical. It is turn-based and features things like skill and spell combos, attacks of opportunity, action points and much more.
• Exploration is greatly rewarded.
• You can develop your character(s) to fit your playstyle using our classless skill and stats system.
• There are countless item interactions and item combinations waiting to be discovered.
• No Divinity game is complete without music composed by the brilliant Kirill Pokrovsky.

At the end of 2010, in no small part thanks to the success of the previous Divinity games, we finally earned sufficient money to start working on our brainchild on our own, and we decided to become a self-publishing studio.

Fast-forward two years (big RPGs take time to make). Today we are nearing the end of our development cycle and when we look at what we've created so far, we think that we have in our hands the best RPG Larian Studios has ever created. But, we also have the feeling that our job isn't done yet. The game systems we put in place have a lot of potential and because it took us quite some time to create them, we haven't been able to use them to their fullest yet.

That's why we're looking to increase the size of our development team. And because our budget is finite, we decided to come to Kickstarter to ask for your help.

#Update 10 [link]
Saldy I missed the steam sale... However I'd be adding this to my pledge***


Divinity Anthology – add $20

For a mere pittance, you can now get a digital version of the Divinity Anthology included in your pledge. Ten years in the making, the Divinity Anthology collects all games set in the acclaimed Divinity universe: Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity and the complete Divinity 2 (including the expansion). Experience the remastered versions of these epic fantasy RPGs; enjoy the many unique extras that come with this exclusive edition and celebrate a decade of Divinity!


***Add-ons

We now support adding extras to your pledge and give you one or more add-ons for it. How? Well, after you pledge, you can add one (or more) of the following amounts to your pledge. Keep your selected reward tier. If this Kickstarter is successful, we will contact you so that you can specify what add-on(s) you wish to receive for the extra you have pledged.

Digital add-ons require a base pledge of $25. Physical add-ons require a physical tier (starting at $65).

KS @ http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin


## Extra !! Extra !! Extra !!
══════════════=====>
LIKE @ https://www.facebook.com/LarianStudios
Up your pledge with $6 and get a WOOS™
Spread the word about Divinity: Original Sin

KS @ http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin

══════════════=====>

Well, here's your chance: Join the Weresheep of Original Sin (WOOS), a bunch of die-hard fans of Divinity fans in the KS comment section!

How to become a member? It's quite simple: Upgrade your pledge by 6 $ and you're in. Yes, it's really that simple. You don't have to pass a test, you don't have to choose a specific tier. The cult of the Weresheep of Original Sin is open to everyone as long as s/he adds this small fee of 6 $. If you've done so simply expand your Kickstarter-Username with "- Weresheep of Sin" or "WOOS" and start commenting on Kickstarter. Proudly demonstrate your membership to this very special cult of the most devoted Divinity fans and help spreading the word about our movement among all backers of Original Sin and other projects on KS!

 

[Lycanthrope]

I'm crazy about Larian's RPGs.

I'd love to support them but I broke the bank with Torment. If they waited just one more month, it would've been fine but nooooo... They just HAD to run a Kickstarter concurrently with the one game I HAD to have.

 

[Necuno]

I'm crazy about Larian's RPGs.

I'd love to support them but I broke the bank with Torment. If they waited just one more month, it would've been fine but nooooo... They just HAD to run a Kickstarter concurrently with the one game I HAD to have.

Only torment !? But then again.... those amounts you pledged

Good news I suppose for me is that the KS for Divinity ends just after pay day

 

[Lycanthrope]

Only torment !? But then again.... those amounts you pledged

Good news I suppose for me is that the KS for Divinity ends just after pay day

Well, while you're at it, Divinity: Dragon Commander looks like it's going to be quite fun as well.

Fortunately that releases on the 2nd of July.

Should be a nice take on the strategy genre

Turning into a dragon mid-battlefield, PWNING YOUR FOES!

I could do with some of that

 

[Necuno]

##Update 11

Kirill’s Surprise

In this video, Swen has a short interview with Kirill Pokrovsky, our composer. At the end, he even has a surprise for everybody! Mark the date - thursday, april 18th!

[video=youtube;aWz2lD4Zb7I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aWz2lD4Zb7I[/video]

Character Stats
People have been asking about character customization. We will post information about equipment and skills later on. This update will focus on character stats only. Before you read on, please realize that these things tend to change a lot during the process of building the game. We tweak the formulas and the balancing constantly, and the way we programmed and organized this, allows us to make big changes. (Data driven and relative values are the keywords here.) So what follows is the current implementation.

But so yeah, stats. That’s actually a long story. Just so you know, we don’t come up with "a stat system" overnight. At first, we started out with something very, very similar to Divine Divinity. Without implementing it, we realized it wouldn’t work well in a turn-based combat game. We considered the Beyond Divinity stat system, because Beyond Divinity started out as a turn-based game (the publisher decided against that back in the day). Breaking that down, we again had to let go of that idea because it had been changed too much to reflect the real-time combat system Beyond Divinity ended up with.

So this quickly became the tale of how a programmer, a designer, a producer and a CEO set out to each make their own stat proposal. Hearing them one by one, you could feel where each of them was coming from: the mathematical background, the creative approach, the realistic/empirical method...

One of us actually wrote a four-page study about how "realistic fighting" actually works. Part of it looked like this:

When I try to hit someone:

• the more skilful I am with my weapon, the more chance I have to hit
• the more skilful I am with my weapon, the more damage I will do
• strength can determine the damage of some weapons (e.g. a crossbow does not benefit from strength, but a having a bigger draw weight has an effect on a normal bow)
• strength can determine the range of some weapons (e.g. the stronger you are, the higher the draw weight of your bow can be, which means that your arrow can go a greater distance)
• strength can determine the chance of a normal bow hitting the target because the bowman can draw longer and hold steady longer for better aim
• the better my motor skills, the more chance I have to hit and the more damage I can inflict (e.g. having a good aim is having efficient motor skills)
• if I am wearing a shield, I am often less free to do with my weapon what I want (even a simple one handed sword benefits from the freedom of not carrying a shield and having a second free hand)
• ...

And it went on like that, and we started to wonder what this guy does during the weekend... But it became clear that being too realistic would make it a very complex system. Not only to balance it, but also towards the player. And this proposal also only took into account that you were going to fight, and that’s a very limited stat system for a game where a lot more is going on than just fighting.

On the other hand, this breakdown wasn’t that bad of a read because we all agreed that a stat and combat system have to make sense, and be logical.

Sitting together and talking about all of our ideas, we learned where everyone was coming from. So, still on paper, the first stat system we came up with was called SPAM, which was an acronym for Strength, Presence, Accuracy and Mind. After trying it out (still not in game, we were actually building characters on paper, and rolling dice when fighting monsters, persuading characters, picking locks...), we noticed everyone was putting a lot of points in the Presence stat, because that stat was really carrying too much weight. And back to the drawing board we went. A couple of times.

Through trial and error, and discussion, we ended up with the following character stats, and we implemented them in such a way that it is easy to change the values, the rules and the formulas. We have already changed it often, and even added stats, simply by reading our forum (and other forums) and by playing the game.

We know there are nuts here (on Kickstarter, on internet, and at Larian Studios) that love stat discussions, so don’t hold back! (The names of these stats are programmer names, and may still change. Well, anything is open for discussion and balancing, really.)

Also take into account that skills play a big role as well. We’ll tell you more about those later. And hopefully we'll also make the 650K stretch goal, because then we'll be able to add talents and personal traits to the system, which will make it pretty cool.

The NPCs have the same stats and formulas as the player. One level makes a big difference: they have more hitpoints, do more damage, and are generally harder to hit. But it’s still doable if you know what you’re doing.

As the hero, you start the game with 5 points in every stat, and you get 5 statpoints for customizing your character. Per level-up, you currently get 1 statpoint. But 1 statpoint makes a difference.

Items that have an impact on stats, have their positive and negative effects, so there are trade-offs that help building a character. There are items that support different types of character builds. We'll talk about items in a future update.

Stats are also used for saving throws against different effects. For instance, a high dexterity lowers your chance of falling down when walking over ice, and strength gives you a saving throw against being caught in a wall of ice (you can break through).

It doesn't take a genius to see that this guy's speed stat will be low. And that his armor will absorb a lot of damage. And to wield such an axe, he must be very strong. Other than the lack of speed, what will his weak spots be?

Level

• is a multiplier for your hitpoint bonus from constitution
• is a multiplier for your mana bonus from intelligence
• Primary stats

Strength

• gives damage bonuses to attacks with melee weapons
• defines how much weight you can carry
• defines what items you can lift
• defines how far you can throw items, depending on their weight
• gives you a bonus to intimidation

Dexterity

• gives damage bonuses to attacks with ranged weapons
• gives you a higher chance of successfully picking locks and picking pockets
• affects the "ideal range" of ranged weapons
• lower chance of triggering traps, higher chance of disarming traps
• better at repairing

Intelligence

• determines your amount of mana
• gives bonuses to magic (depending on the spell: damage, range, width of a cone, duration, how easy or hard the saving throw is...)
• gives you a bonus to reasoning
• helps you figure out NPC stats and resistances
• helps you to identify unknown items
• gives bonuses to mind resistance

Constitution

• determines your amount of hitpoints
• gives you higher resistance against poison
• gives you a bonus to charming

 

[Necuno]

...continued

Speed

• determines the distance you can walk with one action point
• defines how good you are at dodging or evading attacks (defense rating)
• gives bonuses to initiative
• spend less action points when changing equipment or using items in combat

Perception

• determines how much chance you have of successfully hitting an enemy (offense rating)
• defines your sight and hearing which helps your enemy awareness (e.g. on the mini map)
• helps with discovering traps and finding treasures and secrets

This fire demon is a formidable foe. He has a very high resistance to fire. So high even, that fire damage actually heals him. He can create lava surfaces from a distance. Even though his speed stat is pretty low, he is known to sometimes fly over the battlefield. When he runs out of mana, he has to come close to drive his claws through his enemies, dealing piercing damage, or uses his tail to sweep multiple enemies in one attack, dealing crushing damage with a chance of knockdown.

Secondary stats

Offense and defense
These are determined by your primary stat perception and speed. They can be boosted by magical equipment. When you attack someone, your offense rating is compared to your enemy’s defense rating. This determines how much chance you have of actually hitting him.

Damage
This stat is determined by your weapon or your spell, and gets a bonus from one of your primary stats. This can be boosted by well-made or magical equipment.

Critical chance and critical damage
These stats are determined by your weapon. They can be boosted by well-made or magical equipment.

Armor
When a hit is successful, armor absorbs part of the damage that was dealt. For instance, if you’re hit with 8 damage and you have armor 3, you only take 5 damage. If your armor rating is very high, it is possible to completely absorb all the damage that is dealt by a weak enemy. This stat is determined by your equipment and can be boosted with well-made or magical items.

Blocking chance
This is determined by the shield you are wearing, if you are wearing a shield. When a hit is successful, the shield gives you a chance of actually fully blocking the attack. Different shields obviously have different blocking chances.

Hitpoints
This stat is determined by your constitution stat, and can be boosted with magical items. Hitpoints do not regenerate automatically, and can only be regained by healing, eating or resting.

Mana
This stat is determined by your intelligence stat, and can be boosted with magical items. Magic spells cost mana. Mana does not automatically regenerate and can only be regained by drinking potions, eating certain types of food, or resting.

Sight and hearing
These secondary stats are determined by your perception stat. They can be boosted by special or magical equipment. They define how far you can see (we have a shroud, and fog of war system), and how well your hearing is (so you can hear and even identify an NPC without being able to see him).

Initiative
This stat is determined by your speed stat, and can be boosted with special or magical items. It gives you bonuses when combat starts and initiative is rolled.

Persuasion
This is determined by equipment bonuses only. Persuasion gives you bonuses when trying to intimidate, charm or reason with your party members or NPCs.

Walk speed
This stat is determined by your speed stat, and can be boosted with special or magical items. It determines how far you can walk with one action point in turn-based combat.

Luck
This stat can only be boosted with magical items. It’s the X factor of the game...

Poison resistance
Determined by your constitution stat. Poison resistance will absorb the damage poison would do every turn.

Fire, Water, Earth and Air resistances
Determined by magical items you are wearing. These absorb elemental damage.

Mind resistance
Determined by your intelligence stat, and magical items you are wearing. This helps against mind attacks (for instance fear).

Piercing, Slashing, Crushing resistances
Determined by the equipment you are wearing. These resistances absorb damage from physical attacks.


Which games influenced Divinity:Original Sin?
Our Russian friends at Gamebox.ru suggested that we post this video in one of our updates, because it clearly shows where we're getting some of our inspiration from. They asked Swen to give a rundown of his five most favourite games ever. There’s a couple of surprises in there. What's also surprising is how awake he looks in the video!

Dragon Commander livestream!
Today we did our first twitch.tv livestream ever together with the good folk at GOG.com and while we initially had some issues (you should skip the first 10 mins or so), it was a pretty cool experience because we could interact directly with the audience. If you pledged for the 65$ tier, you might want to check this out. If you didn't and are just thinking about it, definitely check it out, because Dragon Commander is the type of game that will take everybody by surprise.

http://www.twitch.tv/larianstudios/b/389054545

Before you bombard us with messages, yes, we're going to be adding a Dragon Commander add-on option here. We wanted to do it today even but that didn't happen. Most likely it'll be the case tomorrow.

Fan day dated
In yesterday's update, we announced a new add-on which allows you to get a fan day ticket. We neglected to mention the date though So the Fan day will be on August 9th 2013 in Gent, Belgium, and start at 10:00 am in the morning, lasting the entire day and evening for those who want.

In Closing
If anybody wants to contribute to the stats, talents or personal traits discussion - go to our forums and drop us a message there. You are free to drop a note in the Kickstarter comments section, but there's a lot of traffic there and your suggestions might be lost.

You are btw only 300 likes away from having an extra Bellegar encounter in the game. See our previous update for more details, but for every 1000 likes above 1061 likes, we will add an extra Bellegar encounter to the game. We'll start preparing some rhymes

 

[Necuno]

The paypal pledge option is also available on the main page. Then there is the update song:


[video=youtube;hBzvF7duw9s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hBzvF7duw9s[/video]

 

[copacetic]

Looks awesome, loved Divine Divinity!

 

[Necuno]

Looks awesome, loved Divine Divinity!

Yep, but the good news is that you can start playing this at fall of 2013 while you wait for Torment:TN, Shroud of the avatar or StarCitizen. From the $40 tiers onwards you get 2x D:OS with the $65 including Dragon Commander. Even if you just take the $40 or $50 and add the Anthology to it... you get 6x games for just $60-$70

 

[Necuno]

...Started to play Divine Divinity and I'm actually enjoying it

 

[Lycanthrope]

...Started to play Divine Divinity and I'm actually enjoying it

Are you surprised? It's a very good game

Glad you're enjoying it. Now send me a few thousand dollars and we can get this party started

 

[Necuno]

Are you surprised? It's a very good game

Glad you're enjoying it. Now send me a few thousand dollars and we can get this party started

Surprised that I didn't try this sooner. Good news is that I'm playing it now... 1st time

 

[Lycanthrope]

Surprised that I didn't try this sooner. Good news is that I'm playing it now... 1st time

Woohoo!

Beyond Divinity is also enjoyable but having to take care of two characters (if either one does, so do you) can become very frustrating at some points but the game remains solid.

And if you haven't played Ego Draconis/Dragon Knight Saga then there's a game that's hard to top. SO much fun to play, great story, great depth, fun combat and the dragon mechanic is awesomesauce

It's also nice that even in the latter games they still make mention of characters/scenes from Divine Divinity.

So... HAS FUNS!

 

[Necuno]

View attachment 46985

Weresheep are now live

The Weresheep of Original Sin
We are the Weresheep of Original Sin. This page is WIP, and currently mostly a collection of (very interesting!) links that are relevant to Divinity Original Sin and its kickstarter campaign. Logo by Stabbey & LordCrash. Banner by Spice.
By the way, we are a guild now. We also have a community on Steam. If you're interested in contributing to this wiki, create your account and drop me a note, or patiently wait until I see your request.

 

[Necuno]

Help from an unexpected source

With only 8 days left on the clock and some distance to cover still until our next stretch goal, our Kickstarter campaign received endorsement from an unexpected source today!

[video=youtube;5JB-lJ7zc44]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5JB-lJ7zc44[/video]

More at Kickstarter...

 

[Necuno]

The composer of all Divinity had a small live concerto via twitch:

Recording starts at 4:15 - http://www.twitch.tv/larianstudios/b/392533281

That dude has skillz. Love the update song.

 

[Necuno]

Overview of add-ons and reward tiers

Update #20
No new content in this update. Instead a handy list of add-ons and rewards, as requested by the Weresheep Of Original Sin.

Shipping physical goods

• All physical goods ship free if you are in the US or Europe. If you live in Europe, you need to select US shipping when you pledge. We'll know from your address that you're in Europe, so don't worry.
• If you already added an extra amount to your pledge to cover the shipping cost and live in Europe, you can remove the shipping cost by using the "manage your pledge" button.

Dragon Commander inclusion

• Every tier above 95$ as well as the 95$ digital tier receive a copy of Divinity: Dragon Commander. The physical 95$ tier does not get a copy of Divinity: Dragon Commander.
• Lower tiers can get a copy Divinity: Dragon Commander by adding 40$.

Divinity: Original Sin Add-ons
Digital add-ons (Require base tier pledge of $25):

• Divine Divinity Digital Version (HD): add $5
• Weresheep Forum Badge, In the Credits as a Weresheep, a hint: add $6
• THE Hint concerning the Weresheep: add $666
• Digital Artbook featuring the Art of Divinity Original Sin: add $8
• Digital Map of the World of Divinity Original Sin: add $8
• Digital Soundtrack of Divinity Original Sin: add $10
• Extra Digital Copy of Divinity Original Sin: add $20
• Beta Access for Divinity Original Sin: add $20
• Alpha Access for Divinity Original Sin: add $50 (includes beta access)
• Fanday Ticket: add $150
• Divinity Anthology (digital): add $20
• Divinity Dragon Commander (digital): add $40

Physical add-ons (Require physical tier at $65 or higher):

• Cloth Map: add $25
• Signed Poster: add $25
• T-Shirt Weresheep Logo: add $25
• T-Shirt Divinity Original Sin: add $25

For those wondering how to get add-on(s) on Kickstarter, you must add the amount over your base tier selection. Select your tier - or leave your current tier selected - and then change the amount in the top box that is your total 'Pledge Amount' to cover the cost of the add-on(s)

Tier overview
For those wondering which add-on(s) come with which tiers, you can re-check your tier rewards here:
Rewards Matrix Physical
Rewards Digital Physical

In closing
This video is not getting enough views. Nor is this one.

...Update Digest
[video=youtube;MsVR8n1Js4M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MsVR8n1Js4M[/video]

 

[Necuno]

Force: Check Out - Divinity Original Sin (Pre-Alpha)

[video=youtube;mKZT7R1TRmg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mKZT7R1TRmg[/video]

 

[Necuno]

View attachment 47642

YouTube Videos

You won't regret browsing the Larian YouTube channel, but there's more! The list below has interviews, demos, previews, etc. that you may not miss.

• NEW Ohmwrecker - The Masked Gamer plays D:OS with David (producer @ Larian) - Part 1
• NEW Force: Gaming News and Commentary plays D:OS
• NEW Let's Play Games with Quill18! plays D:OS with David (producer @ Larian)
• Gamers Dissent plays D:OS with David (producer @ Larian)
• Demo with GameSpot “We catch up with Larian Studios' David Walgrave at Gamescom 2012 and get a demo of Divinity: Original Sin”
• Demo with GameSpot #2 “Maxwell makes it rain in this extended demo for Divinity: Original Sin”
• co-optimus interviews Swen Vincke “We sat down with Swen Vinke, founder of Larian Studios, last week to talk a little more about these features and what we can expect from the co-op portion of the game”
• Matt chat with Swen Vincke “In this one-hour interview with Swen Vincke of Larian Studios, we chat about the team's Kickstarter project for Divinity: Original Sin. Unlike the previous, publisher-pleasing action-based RPGs, the new game will be just like Swen wanted all of them to be–turn-based tactical PC-centric awesomeness. They've also done some important innovations here to accommodate the drop in/drop out co-op mode. Even if you haven't played the other Divinity games and have no idea who these people are, go watch their KS video. This is some really impressive stuff.”
• Totalbiscuit interviews Swen Vincke “Totalbiscuit interviews Sven Vincke, head of Larian Studios on the topic of their two latest games unveiled at E3: Divinity - Dragon Commander, an RTS and Divinity - Original Sin, an RPG.”
• E3 2012 - Gameplay and Interview with David Walgrave “Manny had a chance to sit down with David Walgrave of Larian Studios to check out the latest installment of the Divinity story, Divinity: Original Sin”
• LThan3 Interview with David Walgrave “Dave talks to David from Larian Studios about upcoming traditional computer RPG Divinity: Original Sin.”

 

[Necuno]

Here we go a link summery:

Social / Other:
●▶ Facebook page: http://to.ly/l5Vy
●▶ Kirill recording: http://to.ly/l8UY
●▶ Update song: http://to.ly/l8qp
●▶ Join the steam group: http://to.ly/l5VA
●▶ Weresheep home: http://to.ly/l9J7
●▶ Weresheep lore: http://to.ly/l5WC

Pledging / Tiers:
●▶ Kickstarter: http://to.ly/l8Rt
●▶ Paypal: http://to.ly/l5VB
●▶ Digital tiers: http://to.ly/l8q9
●▶ Physical tiers: http://to.ly/l8qb
●▶ Questions answered: http://to.ly/l8Of

Preview Playthroughs:
●▶ AngryJoe's with Swen: http://to.ly/l9IZ
●▶ Ohmwrecker's with David: Part 1: http://to.ly/l9J0 Part 2: http://to.ly/l9J1
●▶ Jesse Cox with Swen: http://to.ly/l9J2