What happened? This is nothing like early access.

[RattyRyan]

Played the game every few months for the past 2 years or early access.

Finally get to play release and the character creation has completely changed, there are strange options to change identity separate from your gender, the male and female symbols are gone, now replaced by the more inclusive 1 and 2... and 3... and 4??? Not only that but it seems the game has gone full porn sim with full on nudity, and a relishing choice of half a dozen genitals on offer... is there actually animated porn or what, and more importantly why is this option on by default, I would expect it to be the other way around with some kind of parental control.

Anyway, beyond this moral concern the character creator seems a lot less intuitive that before. You used to have the usual attribute and skill bonuses based on race choice, but now everyone gets the same choice of +2/+1 to any attribute they want? I guess that helps you just pick exactly what you want and still have the best optimisation for your class, but that also defeats the whole point of race selection. A strong point in favour of racial bonuses is that it lets you know what certain races are more proficient in or what kind of build/class they lean towards, and you can then chose to go with the norm, or do your own outlier character. Now that feeling is gone, I can't play a high intelligence race barbarian weirdo now because all the races have been homogenised... it's good for min maxing, it's terrible for role play... in my role playing game...

For some reason skills appear to be bugged too, with it being impossible for me to uncheck skills, bonus skills not appearing, and extra skill proficiency for humans just selecting randomly and remaining locked. Again, none of this was an issue in early access.

For the final straw, the character creation really lacks a lot of depth. No body size slider or genuinely diverse body types. For the worst offender, look no further than the random generator, because that thing will literally shuffle everything, which unfortunately includes the vast array of hair colour and hair highlights, which turns the randomiser into a "press this for clown show" button.

I honestly don't know what happened. Don't get me started on the split screen coop being unplayable. It was a great idea to delay the release and testing for that feature which anyone who played DOS2 couch coop was salivating in anticipation for. The wife and I have waited 2 years for this release, just to be told we have to wait for a few months until a patch fixes the split screen merging and we can actually play comfortably.

I genuinely thought throwing money at Larian for their incredible game track record was a safe bet. Turns out even they will perform a last minute rug pull, completely altering the game you have spent 2 years giving feedback on and supporting... Very disappointed.

[Kyutaru]

I spent all of 10 minutes in the character creator, and about 100 hours in the campaign.

If that's your definition of completely altering the game last minute, you need to rethink your position.

[pneal533]

I would guess Kyutaru has never played a Forgotten Realms game either. I agree with you Ratty for the same reasons plus, the full install game won't even load for me and Larian is too busy to care at the moment.

[RattyRyan]

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

I spent all of 10 minutes in the character creator, and about 100 hours in the campaign.

If that's your definition of completely altering the game last minute, you need to rethink your position.

If you spend 10 minutes in character creation then you probably chose a pre-made character, clearly don't care about any of the issues I have highlighted and this discussion shouldn't matter to you.

And yes, radically changing character creation in an RPG is what I would consider completely altering the game, in a small way perhaps, but a serious one nonetheless. At least it is important to me.

[['w']]

Drtl

[RattyRyan]

Originally posted by pneal533:

I would guess Kyutaru has never played a Forgotten Realms game either. I agree with you Ratty for the same reasons plus, the full install game won't even load for me and Larian is too busy to care at the moment.

I had some issues solved for me when I deleted the game files and reinstalled. Installing the game over the early access version can cause some issues apparently.

[Kyutaru]

Originally posted by pneal533:

I would guess Kyutaru has never played a Forgotten Realms game either. I agree with you Ratty for the same reasons plus, the full install game won't even load for me and Larian is too busy to care at the moment.

Own and played the full Gold Box collection. The Forgotten Realms is my favorite setting, Dragonlance the next, but you had to resort to ad hominem to make your point about something unrelated to mine.

If he thinks changes to character creation equate to completely altering the game, I don't think his premise is sound.

Originally posted by RattyRyan:

If you spend 10 minutes in character creation then you probably chose a pre-made character, clearly don't care about any of the issues I have highlighted and this discussion shouldn't matter to you.

And yes, radically changing character creation in an RPG is what I would consider completely altering the game, in a small way perhaps, but a serious one nonetheless. At least it is important to me.

If I chose a pre-made character, it would have been 10 seconds in character creation as all I would need to add is a name. Don't try to twist things just to suit your dismissal.

Oh so now the game is radically altered in a SMALL way. Better.

[IRON FIST SOUND DOLPHIN]

There is very, very poorly animated porn, the whole genital selection for nothin.

[Lord Adorable]

Originally posted by RattyRyan:

Played the game every few months for the past 2 years or early access.

Finally get to play release and the character creation has completely changed, there are strange options to change identity separate from your gender, the male and female symbols are gone, now replaced by the more inclusive 1 and 2... and 3... and 4??? Not only that but it seems the game has gone full porn sim with full on nudity, and a relishing choice of half a dozen genitals on offer... is there actually animated porn or what, and more importantly why is this option on by default, I would expect it to be the other way around with some kind of parental control.

Anyway, beyond this moral concern

What freaking 'moral' concern? And the game is NOT for kids in the first place.

[cold pastes and unguents]

scared of a few gnome wieners op?

[RattyRyan]

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

Oh so now the game is radically altered in a SMALL way. Better.

Oh please. Now you're misquoting me. I said the character creator was radically altered, not the game. I said the game was completely altered in a small way, because if you change the starting point of any RPG, you will inevitably alter the general experience all the way through, at least if it's an RPG where choices matter.

So yes. The character creator is radically altered, which affects the entirety of the game, in a small way, but one which I personally do care about.

[Kyutaru]

Originally posted by RattyRyan:

So yes. The character creator is radically altered, which affects the entirety of the game, in a small way, but one which I personally do care about.

You making this thread really speaks to the fact that you don't care about it. I'm convinced and fully believe you now. It's almost like I actually read your post.

Originally posted by RattyRyan:

I genuinely thought throwing money at Larian for their incredible game track record was a safe bet. Turns out even they will perform a last minute rug pull, completely altering the game you have spent 2 years giving feedback on and supporting... Very disappointed.

[RattyRyan]

Originally posted by as shrimple as that:

scared of a few gnome wieners op?

Personally, not really. I've not shied away from "interesting" mods for other RPGs in the past, so I don't dislike this change in principle, although I would have expected a pop up prompt before character creation at least. No, I was simply very surprised by it, and more importantly how sudden this change seems to have been and the way it affects the entire tone of the game as a result.

[RattyRyan]

Originally posted by IRON FIST SOUND DOLPHIN:

There is very, very poorly animated porn, the whole genital selection for nothin.

Well... that's almost a shame now...

[RattyRyan]

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

Originally posted by RattyRyan:

So yes. The character creator is radically altered, which affects the entirety of the game, in a small way, but one which I personally do care about.

You making this thread really speaks to the fact that you don't care about it. I'm convinced and fully believe you now. It's almost like I actually read your post.

Originally posted by RattyRyan:

I genuinely thought throwing money at Larian for their incredible game track record was a safe bet. Turns out even they will perform a last minute rug pull, completely altering the game you have spent 2 years giving feedback on and supporting... Very disappointed.

Why are you even commenting at this point. You don't care about the points I made, which I care about, and instead try to catch me in some verbal mistake. Fine, you win, and nobody cares. Go troll another discussion.

[Dailao]

Originally posted by RattyRyan:

What happened? This is nothing like early access.

True, it's much better now.. they took a lot of feedback to heart.

There is so much to enjoy, don't waste it by focusing on little things that can be avoided or don't matter in the long run.