Divinity: Original Sin Interview

After posting a snippet of it earlier, the folks at Gaming Bolt have published the full interview with Divinity: Original Sin producer David Walgrave, which touches upon subjects such as the interaction with the world, the attitude and combat systems, co-op and more.

Here’s a snip:

What different weapons, item combinations and magic powers players can expect to be in the game?

At the moment, we are planning lots of different weapon types, but I don’t want to give a list, because that can still change in the course of production. Let’s just say we’re not stopping at swords, bows and axes.

Magic has six (schools) at the moment: earth, wind, fire, water, warrior and survivor. The four first schools are elemental magic schools, and those spells interact with each other and the world as you would expect. For instance, water puts out fire. So there’s a bit of a rock-paper-scissors game going on between the different spells, and you’ll be able to use that against enemies that have similar powers, and against and in combination with things in the world that are susceptible to the elements.

Item combinations, there’s dozens and dozens of different ones, and we still come up with new ones every day. It’s simple stuff such as creating your own potions (empty jar + the right ingredient), enhancing potions (healing potion + apple = detox potion), storing bottles of poison (empty jar + poisonous ingredient), enhancing weapons (weapon + poison). But also more complex and more intricate creations such as voodoo dolls, which is not just a two step process.

Weather manipulation seems to be an exciting feature. How does it work in the game? Can we bring about stuff like thunders and earthquakes in the game?

There are such spells in the magic schools, yes.

The game is confirmed to have co-operative modes included. Can you please explain how these will work in online and offline environments?

Currently, coop is only available online.

Players can roam the level freely, they don’t have to stick together, but it helps in solving puzzles and taking on enemies.

We’re also involving both main characters in dialogs. Every time the party has to make a choice, and both players are close to one another, they have to choose what to do. If they are in disagreement, the rpg system takes care of who wins the discussion. We’re also keeping track of how often they agree and disagree and use that later on in the story. It’s a feature that cannot really be explained in short, but it’s cool to see in action.