Beginner's Thread of Wisdom

[Sarah_Larian]

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a single and multiplayer top-down RPG based in the world of Rivellon. Here is a bit of information to get you started!

First, you should know that what you are playing right now is Early Access. That means that some of the features mentioned below will not be available or in their final form. Early Access includes Act 1 of the game and is still being updated via patches. There will be one more patch before release. The full game comes out for PC on September 14th!

Do I need to play DOS1 first?
While it certainly enhances the experience and helps you understand the lore, you will be meeting and entirely new cast of characters in DOS2, so you do not have to play the first one to play. However, that first one DID win a lot of awards and was considered pretty great, so consider it!

Do I have to play multiplayer?
You do not have to play with others if you do not want to! One of our main tenants as a company is that we want players to experience the freedom to play the way THEY want. So we've built in a ton of features that give you this freedom. Play with friends! Play against friends! Play with strangers! Or don't play with anyone else. The choice is yours! But be warned: your friends will sometimes have different goals than your own. Will the completion of their goals interfere with your own? Possibly. There is both a PvP Arena mode and 4 player co-op.

So what's the plot?
In a world where the Gods are dead, you play a wielder of forbidden magic, quarantined in the prison colony of Fort Joy. The Magisters of the Divine Order want to "cure" you of your powers. But the Order has secrets of its own. Secrets that threaten everyone. If the world remains godless, chaos will rule. It's time for a new Divinity.

What races can I play?
There are five races to choose from, each with their own abilities and tags: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Lizard and Undead.

What are Origin Stories or Origin Characters?
We have six Origin Characters, each with their own stories that will expand and evolve through the main campaign. They are The Red Prince, Sebille, Lohse, Ifan and two others. You can choose to play as these characters and tell their story, or you can play as a character you create, with a backstory created entirely by you. You will still run in to the Origin Characters even if you do not choose one of them to play.

What do you mean by a classless system?
Many RPGs (including ours), give you the opportunity to choose a class to play. However, DOS2 gives you the freedom to completely customize your character, creating your own class.
You can fully customize stats, abilities, talents, and skills. You can also choose one of our pre-set classes for ease of use!

You said something about tags?
The people you run into in Rivellon will react to your character based on who they are. For example, some characters may fear elves, while others think nobles are snooty. You can customize the tags for your character, unlocking dialog options and NPC reactions based on gender, race, profession & origin story.

How much choice is in this game and what does it affect?
You can kill anyone, talk to anyone, trade with anyone, heck even animals aren't off-limits if you choose the Pet Pal skill. You can complete a quest through sneaky finesse, or come in swords and spells blazing. You can use your wit to solve a difficult battle or fight it out the old fashioned way. There is no one, nor even two ways to play any encounter, get any treasure or beat any boss.

Do you have any tips?
Yes! You should explore a lot, but if you find that enemies are all too hard to beat, you've probably wandered somewhere too soon. Return to Fort Joy and talk to NPCs to get quests and to level up. Another tip is that sneaking and thievery and teleportation can all be very good friends to a player.

What is Game Master Mode?
Game Master Mode allows you to play a tabletop role-playing session using our system! Watch it in action with Matt Mercer DMing for Dodger, Jesse Cox, Strippin and Bikeman: https://youtu.be/SNxDMZhiGtU

Computery business?
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 7 SP1 64-bit or Windows 8.1 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i5 or equivalent
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 550 or ATI™ Radeon™ HD 6XXX or higher
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 25 GB available space
Additional Notes: Minimum requirements may change during development.

RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 7 SP1 64-bit or Windows 8.1 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i7 or equivalent
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 or AMD R9 280
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 25 GB available space
Additional Notes: Recommended requirements may change during development.

[Chmeva]

I think it's important to note that not all these features are available as of right now in the early access (e.g. DM mode, dwarf origin, undead playable race), but will be available at release.

[Silames]

Originally posted by Chmeva:

I think it's important to note that not all these features are available as of right now in the early access (e.g. DM mode, dwarf origin, undead playable race), but will be available at release.

+1

[Sarah_Larian]

Originally posted by Chmeva:

I think it's important to note that not all these features are available as of right now in the early access (e.g. DM mode, dwarf origin, undead playable race), but will be available at release.

Thanks I'll make that update!!

[Frankedreng]

When the game is fully released, will I be able to continue my gameplay from the early access? or will I need to restart the game from the beginning?

[kcnik]

From the FAQ:

Will Early Access saves be compatible after the full release?

No. Major updates during Early Access will not maintain save compatibility (due to the nature of the changes and additions being made), and that will very likely be the case with the full release, as well.

However, saves are not removed when there is an update, and there are beta branches set up in Steam to revert to a previous game version, to be able to continue an existing playthrough when there is an update.
To do so, in the Steam library, right click on Divinity: Original Sin 2 and select Properties, then switch to the Betas tab and select 'ea_version_X' from the dropdown list (the highest value of X will be the most recent previous version. When you are done that playthrough, you can repeat the process and opt out of the beta to get the current version.

After the full release, all updates will maintain backward compatibility with release saves.

[Teyloune]

Very Helpfull, thank you. <3

[Sohamkar]

I am enjoying the new Divinity Game very much. I have been simultaneously playing Divinity Original Sin EE and Divinity Original Sin 2.
Story Elements and interesting background of DOS 2 always attracts me but vibrant world, great character models and well balanced combat system of DOS1 kept me hinged.
While playing I have noticed that the current version of DOS 2 lacks in several areas likewise:

1) character animation and character model; which the devs have promised to be worked on before final release
2) Elemental Effects. It is omipresent and too much overpowering. It interuppts flow of the game. It need to be balanced a little. DOS EE was fine.
3) Armor system. It has been great idea and it will add more strategic depth in the combat. But in the early game the Armor system is poorly balanced. Whereas the player has max. 10 to 20 Armor irrespective of type, Most of the enemies has Armor ranging from 50 to 100. I agree that the warfare and aerothuge skill trees are providing counter actions for the armors. But in early game it has not been enough. So some debuffing is certainly warranted here.

[Sorceress]

When is next update coming?

[kcnik]

The next kickstarter update will be next thursday (August 31th).
There wont be a game update until release though.

[Sorceress]

Thanks

[Sorceress]

Quick question - does my main char need pet pal or could Ifan do the talking...

[Raze_Larian]

You can use a companion for Pet Pal.

[Sohamkar]

But I have noticed if the companion character has pet pal and the main character does not have this talent, some objectives can never be fulfilled in normal way resulting low exp gain. I suggest the main character should have pet pal and persuasion for max exp gain.

I also have to admit there are many alternative ways to solve a quest resulting different amount of exp gain. The number of choices provided in this game is astounding.

[Sohamkar]

Can anyone confirm the file size to be downloaded after final release?

[Raze_Larian]

The current development build is twice the install size of the current EA release (so 27GB). I don't know if there is much more to be added, or still some optimization to be done with the package sizes.
Check again Sept 13th. ;)