A short update on the game. It's still not anything like Divine Divinity but as I evaluate the game on it's own merits there are some features that make it playable (for me).

There are shades of Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones style play in that you jump and climb on rocks and stuff and climb up ladders. (I'm not comparing it to Tomb Raider just using that to point style of play)

You can pause by hitting the enter key and you can set the game to pause when your hit points get down to a certain per cent allowing you to either take a potion or run away.

I have decided that this is a separate entity and am mentally thinking of it as Ego Draconis and not Divinity II therefore mentally blocking out the comparison between this and Divine Divinity thus rendering my judgement more favorable.

All in all I don't rate it up there with games like Witcher Morrowind, Sacred and Divine Divinity but it is becoming playable and rather enjoyable and though I still resent not having side quest markers I have found a pretty good walkthrough that shows the location of all the quests making it a little easier.

I haven't obtained the ability to turn into a dragon yet but I did get to a dream part where you fly as a dragon and blast away enemies so it may be cool........or not.

For Nanjoan you can toggle between run and walk by hitting the caps lock key. You can also program another key in the options section. (I always do this because on my keyboard caps lock tends to disrupt things.)

Oldman, I'm glad that when you consider it as a stand alone game, it has it's good points.

The storyline kind of does make an attempt at continuing but it is really a continuation of Beyond Divinity.

On the subject of Divine Divinity the original, which I am currently playing, can anyone remember how to separate stacks of items in inventory? I'm at the point where I have too many scorpion traps and can't carry them all around. I'd like to stash some of them, but I can't for the life of me remember how to separate stacks, and I haven't been able to find any information on this anywhere. Do any of you Divine Divinity fans remember?

Hagatha I think you drop them and then right click on them and you will get an option of how many to pick up.

Many thanks for the tip oldman, I appreciate it, I am sure I have used that before but the brain isn't functioning properly...LOL

Nanjoan

Well I have officially given up on this game and it's a shame because I so looked forward to it for so long. Maybe for some people it's playable but it's not for me and it's no longer any fun and if it ain't fun why play it?

I've gotten to the part where you get your battle tower and can (and must in some cases) turn into a dragon. You have to become a dragon to travel to locations in this area and.......
(1) I can't figure out how to get to the locations I need to
(2) Every time I become a dragon I have to fight aerial fights (which are similar to airplane dogfights)
(3) I end up dying every time I get into one of those dragon fights.

Therefore my long awaited sequel to Divine Divinity will hit my trade list.

Oh well..........Stuff happens

Oh, dear !!

I was really looking forward to it too

Guess it will be sitting on the shelf a while then

Ahhhh Oldman, I'm sorry. It's always a huge disappointment when a much anticipated game isn't what we were hoping for.

The jumping thing killed it for me. I am a notoriously horrible jumper. My children made fun of me when I played Mario Bros. I try to use the mouse or gamepad to help the character jump pulling it out of the machine sometimes

Debra, I jump and move and lean with my controllers on the consoles all the time. I also yell at the avatar "Jump!" It never helps though :santa12:

I'm glad I'm not the only one!!

I DL'd the demo and actually like it, however it seems as though there is no way to save the game in the demo. If I stay in the game, it autosaves for me however if I close the game and try to go back to it later there is no option to reload my last save. I'm forced to start a "new" game which is getting redundant.

Also the game doesn't seem to be optimized very well. I don't have a great comp, but am forced to turn down a lot of the graphical options to get it to run at a decent frame rate. It's kind of odd to that some parts of the game look fantastic, and others almost look like a game made in the mid 90's.

Is the full game better optimized, because there are some pretty unique gameplay elements and I've enjoyed what I've played thus far.

Thanks.

Olgeezer, you just mentioned a lot of known gripes that other gamers have also had regarding the game and the demo. It is sadly true that you cannot save in the demo; however, you can save anywhere you like in the game itself.

Regarding the graphics, a lot of people have had to turn their HDR off in order to get anti-aliasing. Luckily I can run my game with all the options turned on, using a 9-series Nvidia card, and lots of RAM. (Nvidia GeForce9800GTX)

Otherwise, setting shadows off might also help, but a big thing to improve performance, is to check that your timeslicing options (for animations and shadows) must be enabled.

(Emphasis because I'd gotten it mixed up at first, and thought I should disable these for better performance)

Checking to see if those options improves things for you in the demo, might just give you an idea of what you can do in the main game; but I'd never tried the demo before I got the game myself, so I wouldn't know to what extent the demo differs from the actual game. I do know that many people have achieved a better graphic and performance experience in the actual game just by adjusting their settings a bit.

What are your system specs?

I've just reached the point where you get your battle tower, and I've been having a lot of fun so far. It is true that the graphics vary from place to place, but all in all the game has given me a lot of eye-candy and some rollicking good times up to now.

Thanks for the tip about the HDR and especially the timeslicing. I thought that was some fancy thing that would take away performance. Game is playing much more smoothly.

It really is an interesting idea. The mindreading thing seems like it could be a lot of fun, although I have no idea if it really comes in handy or not later in the game. I think with the graphics, it's more the NPC's looking kind of plain. Otherwise a nice looking game.

This isn't out in the US is it?

Thanks again.

The game was released in the US yesterday.

Yes, I'd also thought the same as you about timeslicing initially, which is why I highlighted it.

Actually I did play for a while with it off, and it does look rather nice with the moving shadows - which is what the difference is when you take the option off. But of course, your system has to be pretty snappy to handle that without grunting a bit under the strain.

The mindreading is one of those things that you need to judge well, since some people just think about supper, while others can give you important quest clues. So I wouldn't just read a generic NPC's mind, and in any case I quicksave before reading minds, just in case I get a "What I had for breakfast" thought.

I'm supposed to be getting my game tomorrow. It's going to be a very long day today.

Hi-

I downloaded the Demo to see how it would play, I was very dissappointed, it was not a point and click. So I took the Demo off and I will not be buying it, had hoped to since I have the first one, what a bummer.

maggie

The post here http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1060991619&postcount=59

by a member of the development team, holds some promise for a fix for the saving problem in the demo, as well as a patch for the other performance and graphics problems some gamers have been experiencing.

I just got this game yesterday and enjoyed what little I've played so far. However, the big concern is that laptop has shut down suddenly twice after short game sessions due to overheating. Is there anything I can do about this? I am using a laptop cooler.

Rowan, are you using a heat sink underneath your laptop?

Looney, I am using a Belkin laptop cooler. I'm assuming a heat sink is something similar?

It is indeed! Hmmmmmm, have you turned off all unnecessary processes?

If so, then you are beyond me. The smart folks over in Glitches would have more ideas, I'll bet.

Like Moondancer said, I turned off HDR and turned on timeslicing. Is there anything else that will help?

Sorry to hear about that, Rowan.

Because all the parts in a laptop are smaller and closer together, sadly overheating tends to be a problem with laptops, especially with activities as hectic as gaming.

A colder ambient temperature will help to some extent. (Put the laptop in the fridge and pull up a chair for yourself. Just joking).

No, seriously though, anything like an external fan or airconditioning, and also trying to improve the ventilation and airflow around the laptop itself - maybe if you place it on a grid-like structure of some sort?

You can also set shadows off completely in the game, that might also help to some extent.

Because of the high demands of next-gen games, have you considered moving to a desktop for your gaming sometime in the future? ...or would that prove to be too inconvenient for your circumstances?