Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Single Player, Multiple Characters

I want to take advantage of the multiplayer, multiple points of view systems *as a single player*. I want to create four characters and make them battle each other (or work together) as appropriate. I do *not* want to have just one character who is "me" and deal with party members only as AI NPCs. I want to switch perspectives at will and pursue all four stories.

There have been some weak assurances that single-player will be just as robust as MP, but I need to be reminded and convinced again that I'll be able to take advantage of all the amazing systems without having to schedule three friends I trust to commit to a 60 hour campaign.

Pretty sure you'll be able to do exactly that. SP should be functionally identical to MP. I think most people will find it awkward to roleplay and compete against themselves, but if you want to do that, should be just as possible in SP as in MP.

I think for next update Larian should show how these systems work in single player. It would assuage a lot of concerns.

Again, they've already been showing how these systems work in single player because they work exactly the same as how they do in multiplayer, except you're controlling each character, just as in D:OS 1 you can roleplay your two different characters antagonistically. Many find self-competition awkward, but if you're willing to roleplay multiple competing characters, you'll have basically the same experience as a multiplayer game (naturally, you'll only be able to control one character at a time, so perhaps some encounters requiring more or less simultaneous action will be impossible in single player, but I'm not sure if those will exist.)

In a direct confrontation, your characters will surely become hostile to each other just as in multiplayer, and I'm sure you'll be able to set up contracts between characters just as in multiplayer (though it's still unclear how this will work exactly.) Larian's ethos seems to be that single player and multiplayer experiences should complement each other, where design for multiplayer naturally creates a robust single player experience, so I wouldn't worry too much about them neglecting single player, even if they have been emphasizing multiplayer a lot.

Will Larian develop ai for my companions so they do their own thing? That is if I don't want to roleplay multiple characters and want them to act as independent beings can we expect that?

Combat would be a tad less tactical if you didn't know what most of your party would be doing, and couldn't count on any combos or support. It would also quarter your active time in combat, increasing the time watching the computer make moves.

I was thinking for non-combat actions not combat. In combat I would expect the party to be player controlled.

So a dialogue AI like with D:OS?

Yeah ai should control dialogue and also decide if the party member needs to leave the party to carry out plans. In other words they should be pursuing their origin goals independently.

So competitive questing would be optional in multiplayer, but mandatory in single player?
If it was optional, it would be the same amount of work implementing and testing, but almost nobody would use it (party members leaving at unknown plot points, possibly taking equipment, supplies and quest items with them, and placing the relevant quests on a timer, so you have to race if you want to be able to do it the way you want).

Any game I've played where a party member leaves has triggered reloading the last save, replaying up to just before that point, and then removing all equipment, etc. Adding in quest sabotage if you don't do them fast enough wouldn't make it more fun, IMNSHO.

Don't think self-interested companions should be mandatory by any means, but perhaps they'll implement something like the AI options (self-interested to death, vocally self-interested but won't fight, cooperative, etc.) they have in D:OS where your party members will respond in dialog as they would to uphold their interests, though not sure if they ought to take on AI control for combat, nevermind leaving the party. I'm not sure basic AI for dialogwould take all that much more testing than is required anyway since the AI would just be making decisions that are already available to players anyway (they added AI for your fellow source hunter in D:OS1 in a single patch, if I recall). I think the AI for dialog (or combat) for party members would actually be more popular in D:OS2 than for D:OS1 for people who like having more of a feel of one primary character with companions rather than four primary characters with separate goals.

Yeah, any role-playing AI used in single-player should be kept pretty shallow. Like Fallout 4 shallow. I mean, sure, your companions have emotions and objectives, etc, but in the end you don't really have to worry too much about these things getting in the way of whatever you want to do.

In order to have any deep character development, you would pretty much need a linear story in order to avoid the kind of issues you've mentioned. That's near impossible when you're talking about a fully customised party.

So according to today's PCGamesN preview (http://www.pcgamesn.com/divinity-or...inal-sin-2-origin-story-pvp-arena-combat), you only get to create one PC. I can't say I'm surprised, but ... what the hell?

You didn't want to repeat Icewind Dale, didn't you?
More like Baldur's gate

Yes. I wanted a real party-based game, not "Chosen One plus companions".

If you play multiplayer, you can do this that you mention.

Personally, I don't mind one created character and existing companions, as that allows for more fleshed-out companions. Of course, that assumes that Larian will actually create said fleshed-out companions.

I would love a source on this. So far, every preview I've seen shows the player able to make one (1) character. Please link one that shows a single player making multiple characters.

Unless by playing multiplayer you mean buying four copies of the game and playing with four controllers.

They did... The companions are taken from the unique backgrounds that are available. This means the character you create can in fact be one of the available companions.

Based on the RPG Codex Gamescom interview, as a single player you are stuck with a "Chosen One plus sidekicks" model:


Silly Swen ... more than anything I was excited to pick the four Origin characters and have them battle it out with no Chosen One bias.

Instead, based on this
it looks like your main character will be the anointed hero who ends up fulfilling his story no matter what, and any characters with opposing tags are doomed to get killed off or whatever. Fuckin' weak. The whole reason I was excited about this was so that I could sincerely role-play two opposing points of view and let the dice determine who wins.